Fallout: The Puget Wasteland Chapter 1: Atom Bomb Baby, a fallout fanfic

This story is a co-op writing between CharminSnabber and Nitroflak.

Chapter 1: Atom Bomb Baby

War, war never changes...

7:41 AM

The record player kept skipping repeatedly, the same final lines of the song were playing on an endless loop waiting for someone to release them.

I just want to start a flame in your heart...

The room was claustrophobically cramped. A thick speaker was held in place with steel bolts, into the steel wall, next to the steel door. The room was as cold visually as it was tangibly. A tiny eight foot steel cube with only the most basic of necessities and a few creature comforts. A small bed piled with dirty clothes and musty blankets was tucked in the corner under a worn metal cupboard and beside a cracked dresser.

The speaker crackled harshly, with an insistent buzzing sound as a nasally voice called out into the room. "Mordecai! Mordecai you dumb son of a bitch, I told you to be down stairs half an hour ago!" A groan escaped from the pile on the bed. It crackled. "Mordecai, get the fuck down here!" The blankets and the clothes on the bed were suddenly sent flying, and a young man swung his feet over the side and planted them on the floor. He narrowed his dark blue eyes as he shouted back at the speaker, "God. Fucking. DAMMIT! I'm on my way down!" His voice sounded tired, like it always did. He ruffled his silver brown hair before stretching his arms above his head, knocking them on the ceiling. He mumbled to himself, "Can't even goddamn relax."

He was wearing his standard issue, blue Vault-109 jumpsuit. Yellow stripes snaked around his waist crawling up his chest. The snakes curved and met around his collar. Grabbing his military green Pip-boy, he hastily latched it around his wrist. Oops, backwards. He then unlatched it and flipped it around before relatching it. Right side up this time, he tapped the screen twice and the bright green "Vault Boy" flickered to life, giving him a thumbs up. Lines upon lines of text, numbers, and other symbols flew up the screen as the Vault Boy faded away and the Pip-boy finished booting up. He scrolled to the "Radio" tab on the top right of his screen, and selected "Galaxy News Radio".

His work boots which were on the side of his bed were quickly put on, heavily stained with dirt and oil smeared on the bottoms and sides. As he walked towards his door, he took the needle off the record, setting it to the side. After doing so he pressed the small button on the box next to his door. The door, of course slid open with a metallic hiss. He rushed out of the room quickly, pressing the button again as he walked out, it hissed closed behind him. Quickly turning to the right, he followed the green line painted on the floor. He waved to a few of the people he passed. If he wasn't in such a rush, he would have stopped to chat for a while, perhaps had a cup of coffee. But since his engineer master Lou was such a fucking asshole, well. There goes that idea.

He arrived in the green room. Plants. Fucking Plants. Everywhere.

"Where's the parts?" Lou ask. He seemed at the end of his patience.

"Wh-what?" Said Mordecai

"The FUCKING parts for the greenhouse!"

"What fucking parts for the greenhouse?!" Mordecai asked as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes

"The parts we need to fucking fix the greenhouse, you dumbass!"

"We don't have any fucking parts! I didn't even know we needed to fix the greenhouse!"

"You stupid FUCKING idiot! We need to fix this greenhouse now!" The veins in Lou's head throbbed furiously.

"Check if the fucking Overseer has them, you fucking asswipe."

Lou stormed across the room to his speaker and slammed his fist against the button. "Overseer's office. It's important."

A robotic whirring came out of the speaker before it began to ring. The overseer picked up almost immediately.

"Mr. McCale, is there a problem?"

"Yeah, this shithead said we were out of parts, and I can't find any of them anywhere."

A heavy thud echoed from the speaker, followed by the sound of rustling paper. "The ledger here says we have... let me see. Shit."
Lou leaned closer to the speaker. "What sir?"

"We have... jack shit left for parts apparently." The Overseer's voice was overall calm, with only the occasional burst of rage scratching through his voice to the surface.

Mordecai let out a loud sigh, shaking his head, "Jack shit left for parts? Oh that's just fuckin' lovely. We don't even have a way to get more I bet."

The Overseer paused for a moment before his voice crackled through the speakers, "Well, we might actually end up having a way."

"How can we get more parts? We don't have any in the Vault. Not to mention, no-one can make them."

"That's why it seems we'll have to send someone out into that horrid Wasteland." The overseer's voice shuddered.

"Oh, of course. Figured it'd be something along those lin-."

The Overseer coughed and began to speak "It'll have to be you."

Lou stifled a laugh.

"..Ex-fucking-cuse me? You want someone like me to go out there? I can't go out there, you damn well know I wasn't trained well enough. No, no I wasn't trained at all."

"Please do make your way up to my office at once, Mr Remington."

Mordecai groaned before sluggishly making his way to the door. A wrench went flying past his head and he immediately ducked for cover. He turned to see Lou laughing maniacally

"You heard the man, at once. Now get your ass moving before I throw a blowtorch!"

"I'm going to make you have a floor to brain connection after I'm done with this shit!" he yelled as he flipped off his sadistic teacher and rushed out the door. He slammed his hand on the button as he walked out. The door hissed behind him as he began to follow the purple line to The Overseer's office. As he approached the door it automatically opened for him. He walked up to the front desk looking down at him as he sat across from the man.

He looked around the room. It was easily three times the size of his own private quarters. Its walls were adorned with rusted picture frames containing black and white photographs of smiling faces long dead, and large buildings that would, by now, have been reduced to nothing but a pile of rubble.

The Overseer himself seemed as ancient as the pictures themselves. His elbows were rested on the sleek veneer of his desk. His hands folded together, with a pen stuffed between them. The man was easily in his late sixties with wrinkles evident on his face. His snow white hair was combed over to one side. his brown eyes stared across at Mordecai with intent.

"Ah yes! Welcome to my office, you already know why you're here. But don't worry. The moment you get the parts you'll be welcome back here, with open arms."

Opening a drawer, he reached in and fumbled around for a moment. He produced a 10mm pistol in a holster and a small box of ammunition. He set them both down gently on the wooden desk.

"This'll keep you filled on ammo for the time it should take you to get the parts needed for the green room. You'll be leaving tomorrow morning. Continue on with your day, gather what else you need, and make sure to rest early tonight."

With a sigh, he reached his hand forward grabbing ahold of the gun and the box of ammo. He slipped the holstered gun onto his belt and stuffed the bullets into his pocket as he turned to leave. Following the yellow line towards the living quarters. The bullets jingled in his pocket as he made his way to his room. The door made the familiar hissing noise as it slid open. He walked into the room and placed the holster with the gun on the cracked dresser, and the bullets safely under a pile of socks in the dresser drawer.

Walking towards his bed, he grabbed his Vault lab coat and slipped it on, leaving the two top buttons undone. The lab coat itself had a single breast pocket, two deep pockets on its lower sides, and a large, bold "109" stenciled on the back. Under where his lab coat had been, were two black gloves. He grabbed them and slipped them on. He opened and closed his hands a few times while he walked back towards the door and exited. He didn't even bother to close it as he walked out. He followed the orange line, it lead him to a staircase with the words "REACTOR LEVEL" printed above the doorway.

The reactor level held four large transformers. Lightning sparked and hissed from the giant metal machines. Even striking at the cage surrounding it, like a wild animal locked in a zoo. Next to the giant bulking machines was the room that connected it to the main staircase. He came down, and to the left there was a massive control panel. Buttons, tuning knobs, flashing lights, energy meters. All of it was on the surface of the white panel, and that, is where he worked at. Down here, at least.

"What a fun job this was." He said aloud as he ran his hands over the panel, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

But, he wasn't here to work today. He had to find something more useful to him than a jumpsuit and a shitty handgun. The reactor wasn't the only thing on this floor. There were also rooms used as med-bays, morgues, and general storage. The med-bay was a good place to start gathering supplies. He could "borrow" some Stimpacks, Rad-away, Rad-X, and anything else he might need. Because after all, The Overseer did say to gather what he needed.

He continued walking past the panel and followed the redline on the floor to a doorway with a thick white curtain pulled across it. He quietly pulled the curtain to the side and peered into the dimly lit room. No one was here, perfect. He made his way over to a dusty, metal shelf and grabbed a plastic case. He opened it and saw there were a couple Stimpacks, and even a bottle of Rad-X. Talk about a lucky find. Placing the bottle and Stimpacks in his coat pockets, he quickly walked out of the medical room. He reached into his pocket pretending to pull out an imaginary shopping list.

"Ste-.. borrow shit from the med-bay. Check. Next on the list; take me some fucking tools." He said chuckling to himself. "Man, I am a dick."

He continued down the hallway. The red line ended as a black line took its place. The black line lead him to the Mechanic's Shop. There should be some tools he could use here. Extra Pip-boy parts, repair parts for guns, the works.

Machines. Fucking Machines. Everywhere.

This was honestly quite a fascinating place. He wished he had been assigned to work here instead of being some greasy-haired asshole's lackie. He took a step forward and his right foot went flying out from underneath of him "Whoa, shit!" He barely managed to catch his balance. "Fucking oil spills. Who cleans this place?" He wiped his shoes off and examined the concrete room. Mister Handies, both being broken down for parts, and being repaired, were hung on large metal hooks on the wall. Even a Protectron. Well, some of a Protectron. It was missing a head and all of its limbs, with wires hanging limply out of it. Poor guy.

Even in "death" he had a use to Mordecai. Right next to it was a trolley, filled with the Protectron's own robotic insides, and the tools used to remove those insides. Well, outsides now. A rusted hacksaw sat next to a small set of screwdrivers and a metal file. He grabbed the screwdrivers and the file, then opened the drawer on the side of the trolley. A few lone dry-cell batteries rolled towards him. He quickly snatched those up as well, placing the newly found tools in his pocket next to the Stimpacks, and the batteries in his breast pocket.

Heading out of the Mechanic's Shop, then quickly through the reactor room, then back up the stairs to the residential floor. He then went back towards his room, hitting the button to shut the door behind him as he entered. He turned a grey knob on the door to the right, and the lights on the metal box faded from bright green to a deep red. The words "Do not disturb" flashed on a small monitor on the door. As he reached his bed he seemed to brush all of his work clothes off his body. He sat down on the edge of his bed, he looked at the 10mm pistol on his desk.

A heavy sigh came from Mordecai as he reached out to his drawer, pulling it open he looked at a small stack of vinyl records. He grabbed a record with the word "Dot" in rainbow lettering. He took the current record off the player and gently set it in the drawer. He put the new record on the player. Moving the needle over the it, he softly placed it on the edge of the dusty black disc. The song began to play:

Got a doll baby, I love her so...

Nothing else like her anywhere you go...

Man she's anything but calm...

A regular pint-sized atom bomb...

Mordecai snapped his fingers and quietly hummed along to the song.

Snap.
"Bum... yadda."

Mordecai couldn't fight back a small smile from creeping across his face. He opened the drawer again and grabbed a few Holotapes out of it and tossed them on top of his pile of laundry. Laying back on his bed, he placed his hands behind his head, nodding to the beat of the music. Slowly his eyes slid shut and he drifted off to sleep. The record kept going soon enough hitting its end as it began to skip repeatedly.

She's just the way I want her to be...

A million times hotter than TNT...

A million times hotter than TNT..

This is both me and Nitroflak's first fanfiction we've ever wrote, so please do rate and review if you'd like, it'd be great to see what we could both do to build and improve this story, thank you all for reading.

The song used at the end of the Chapter is Atom Bomb Baby, by the Five Stars