Vault Shadows
Chapter 1: Did She?
Rain slips from the clouds and trickles down onto the makeshift tin roof the young adult has made for himself weeks ago, resembling more of an unfinished building rather than opposed to a common shanty hut any other "homeless" individual in the wastes. A drop from the freshly formed storm finds its way through a hole in the tin roof above the slumbering man, landing just under his eye mimicking a tear as it rolling down his cheek. The Man slowly wakes the cracking sound of distant thunder while wiping away the rain drop, thinking he was crying in his sleep. He lets out a light yawn as he reaches into his rugged backpack, not for food, but for his detached Pip Boy 3000. "Good Morning Mr. Kel Merrick, Advisory: Reattach Pip Boy For Better Read Out On Bio-metrics" scrolls along the bottom of the screen. Staring at the device and scars on his left arm cause his brain to go back to a time when he did not fully understand the full value of the safety in the life he had as an O'Brian in vault 101, but all he could think about was wanting out. Lightning flashes.
An arc of electricity jumps from the arc scaring the young Kel O'Brian who had just sneaked into the reactor room to be alone, away from the pressure of his father and away from those Tunnel Snakes, luckily today they weren't looking to bully Kel and they were out for a girl named Alex and the Overseer's daughter Amata, as they usually are. Kel picks himself up and begins to wander the lower level near James' and Jonas' work space.
"Jonas, come here. I have to ask you something." James calls his longtime friend over to him.
"Sure thing James, what is it you need?" Jonas begins to inquire
"I've been looking into finding a way back out there, and I need to know if you would help me manage that? It's important that this stays between us." James continues
"James, are you sure that is a sma-"
"I need to continue my work on Project: Purity and I can't get anything else done here Jonas, but there is still hope for the world out there. You don't have to come out, I just need you to simulate a power surge in order to keep the alarm from going off when I open the vault door..."
Before Kel hears the rest, a light goes off in his mind on how to get out of this giant coffin. Having spent so much of his alone time around the reactor, he knows a certain way to cause a blackout at a certain time. He's made up his mind, he'll escape tonight before the G.O.A.T. the next day. Before he has a job and anyone misses him, he thinks to himself.
That night, Kel set up his timer on the reactor and found a spare key to the overseer's office, which he knows there is a secret way out of the vault under the desk. "The blackout should last 5 minutes giving me more than enough time" he says to himself under his breath to give him that boost of confidence to go through with his great escape. He pulls out a detonator for an explosive that he had modified to disrupt the reactor for only 5 minutes, he kisses it right before he pushes the button. All the light power down after he presses it signifying it worked and as quick as he can operate the door manually, he gets it open just enough for him to get out and close it while making the least amount of noise as possible. The first thing he feels is the warm night breeze filled with a familiar tingle of radiation, no more than the reactor room he was so fond of. Adrenaline pumping, his mind racing, 'what should I do next? Pip Boy needs to come off'. Kel grabs a combat knife he had taken from the armory while raiding it for the detonator. He breathes out heavily trying to focus and to not mess up and cut himself. The combat knife as if wanting to affirm Kel of his worries and slips right off the cuff and into his arm gashing it open. Prepared for the worst, he pulls out one of his stimpak he had nicked from the lab and sits it near his forearm for easy access once he separates from the Pip Boy. Wiping his blood off the blade he goes back to breaking the clip off to fully free himself, and with a loud crack the Pip Boy springs free and he immediately injects himself with the stimpak, repairing the gash and leaving a fresh scar across his wrist, white as snow after the stimpak made quick work of the deep wound.
A bright, white flash of lightning crashes into a nearby skeleton of what was once a thriving tree before the Great War. Kel breathes heavy and shakes off the memories of what once was and pulls himself to reality by starting his daily rituals, maintaining what hygiene he can while listening to a radio station a ghoul was talking about in the nearby settlement, Megaton.
The dulcet toned DJ begins his session the same everyday with minor changes from day-to-day, and today Kel could hear that the DJ had some interesting news just off the springiness in his words "Hello Capital Wasteland! It's Three Dog awoooo! And you're listening to Galaxy News Radio, the only radio station in the Wasteland that isn't Enclave propaganda bullshit! Now, to me, the weather report; raining bullets, with a chance of decapitation!" Other than how the Enclave went about their cruel ways, Kel didn't really have a solid opinion like Three Dog; however, he did love the dark humor the DJ had.
"Now listen up Children; remember our old pal James? Well turns out he's not the only one that crawled out of Vault 101. We had a second one come out, and, get this, she's his fucking daughter! Crazy, I know; but there's no way I could make this shit up myself!" Kel's Facial features lightened at the prospect of another vault dweller getting out, but then his expression sank slowly at the thought of who had escaped, "Alex, oh no" he had thought to himself afraid that she would be snatched by raiders due to unfamiliarity with what the world has become and now any ape with a radio and listens to GNR knows there is fresh meat running around asking anyone for help.
"Now we had some people that spotted her making her way out of the Vault. She disappeared for a while after that, but then she resurfaced in Megaton. I don't know where she went off to for so long, or what happened to her, but listen. The kid's likely gone through a lot, and there's no doubt in my mind that she's looking for her dad."
"I don't know much about her, or what she looks like, but you'll recognize a vault dweller when you see one. If you see her, try to help her out. The kid needs to find her dad; and James if you're listening, your kid needs you..."
Kel's heart feels to have fell from his ribs right into his stomach at the thought of what could've happened to her while she went missing. The thought of having not been there for her ate at his conscious and then it hits him. She had been the new girl that everyone around Megaton had been speaking about a few days back, he had missed her, she was already there and off somewhere else. He cursed himself for not being more vigilant in the area and for removing the Pip Boy so that maybe someone could have directed her to him, thinking maybe Kel was someone who knew where her dad could've gone.
He shook the thoughts, of what could have been, from his head and zipped his main piece of his wardrobe, a self-made, makeshift stealth suit complete with a grey eye visor that tinted his vision a slight red; however, only retaining vision in his right eye. The young adult swept his lengthy, disheveled hair back while slipping his near wetsuitesque mask on his head before covering his wetsuit and himself with a rugged and worn cowl and robe.
While the irradiated rain storm passes he collects himself and his two weapons of choice after slinging his small bag of supplies on his back but under his rugged cape-like robe. Typically maintaining a fair distance from any confrontations, choosing to end one before it begins, his primary choice is a rifle he found through some of his journey's through the wastes in a shack overlooking the Rockbreaker's Last Gas station, he found a note describing it as the Victory Rifle and the name stuck since it has yet to let him down, and for backup just in case someone gets too close for his comfort he keeps a silenced 10 mm pistol holstered to his right thigh.
The seemingly military armed man, as soon as the storm passes, tears down the lean-to he was asleep under the past night. Kel looks at a nearby group of raiders off to the East and before he can make his moves away from the group, Kel notices two of the raiders point at him and the group of five start for the man. Without hesitation, once he knew he was spotted, he aims down his scope while he still out-ranged the raiders, shoots and takes down one the less armored raiders in a dark pink mist, then starts running to the west into a scrapyard where he knew of a couple and their dog had lived, he had hoped they would manage to hide or defend themselves from the now four-man group raiders.
Bullets zip and ricochet through the scrapyard, Kel looks over at the dog matching his speed "DOGMEAT, HIDE!" Kel yells at the animal he had grown fond of in his visits to the scrapyard. Listening as if Kel was his owner, bolts to his actual owner's house; unfortunately, providing an unwanted distraction for the young adult as the group that had grown from the four that the man had originally been chased by to now eight who had followed the dog's path after one raider yells "Hey, this dog might lead us to him!". Not even splitting up and following blindly the eight raiders found their way to the shack that Dogmeat and his two owners had made their home. A loud scream from the home had stopped the man in his tracks, causing him to miss details of a person running into the scrapyard either to join in the massacre or to their deaths. A tear falls from his cheek and hits his eye visor and snaps him out of his trance of thought, there is nothing you can do now, you are one man, if you fought every fight you'd end up dead... alone. Run, Live, Find Her. The young man tells himself to start for Paradise Falls, but first he set his sights on a safe place to the south, Agatha's House.
Kel looks at the rickety bridge, I fucking hate this bridge, he thinks to himself as he crosses the old bridge that hasn't been fixed since Agatha's husband passed. Once he gets to the door, the young man knocks his 'secret' knock that he uses at places he deems safe for him. knock knockity knock knock knock. "It's me" the man says as he attaches his rifle to his bag while simultaneously removing his mask and visor.
"Come in, dear!" The old woman says aloud as if greeting a grandson or old friend "I haven't seen you in a while," she states as Kel enters her little shack, "What have you been up to, staying out of trouble?" her tone genuine and relaxing to the ear.
"You know me, poking my head where it doesn't belong," he says chuckling and pointing at the three jagged scars running from the right of his chin across his face to the back of the left side of his head, the cause for his unseeing, white eye. "The usual, have the caravans stopped by yet?"
Agatha sends a look to Kel as if scolding him for his light joking about his scars "I really wish you listened when I said to stay away from those Devil Lizards out by that grotto, and as a matter of fact they haven't." she says handing him a bag of caps that was just enough to give to the caravan for her usual shipment "mind going and collecting it for me? these bones aren't getting any younger." she gives a dusty laugh as she begins to head for the kitchen to get her usual meal for the man who used to frequent her and her husband, a Nuka-Cola Quantum Kel kept there to keep cool in the fridge and a medium sized mirelurk cake.
The man smiles and sets the bag of caps near the H.A.M. radio, "This shipment is on me, and when are you going to let me fix that bridge? It scares the caravans from getting closer."
"Never. You do understand that it scares raiders away too? It looks like too much work just to kill an old lady. So, I'll tell you when to repair and how much to repair when need be." she scold him as if they had this conversation once before.
He puts his hands up in defeat "You win. I'm gonna shut up and get those supplies." Kel, smiles for once, one of the rarest commodities in this world he has come to know, as he makes his way back across the bridge with his bag of caps that was a little heavier than the one Agatha had handed him. For their years of kindness, hopefully to encourage further years of kindness. Kel waves at the oncoming caravan lead by the merchant Crazy Wolfgang.
"It's nice what you do for this old lady, kid." the middle-aged man says to the younger male; however, looking at them you'd think the younger was the more experienced of the two. "Not a lot of kindness out here these days, I'm glad to see there is still some humanity out there."
"Without you guys, there wouldn't be an old lady here for help," Kel states while trading the caps for the common shipment of goods, "Be sure to share what extra is in there with the others, let them know just how much what you guys do means not only for Agatha, but for me." Kel smiles, a memory of how Agatha and he met, a few years back when Kel had fallen ill to rad poisoning and the elderly couple taking him in and nursing him back to health. "Oh, and keep an eye out for me in case you see a lady around my age, with black hair, and the greenest eyes you'll ever see. The vault dweller that Three Dog just announced as turning back up."
The Older merchant gives an assuming look "Sure I'll keep my eyes peeled for your little crush, but if I find out anything it'll have to cost you, remember our saying 'nothing is free, except death and radiation'."
Kel rolls his eyes and smirks "You know I'm good, Wolf," he says as he starts back over the bridge, waving without looking back at the merchant and the guards. As he enters the house, Alex fresh on his mind, "Agatha, have you, by chance, heard any rumors about that vault girl before she went missing?" He asks with a glimmer of hope that this lady in constant contact with caravans may know something, some clue.
Agatha gives her young guest a somber look as she lifts her gaze from her tea cup, "Your little friend, that vault dweller, before she turned up again, was last seen being dragged by some raiders to the Springvale School..." the words seemed to burn Kel's heart, a feeling he would not soon forget, at the thought of one of the only people he could possibly befriend. Agatha continues to add gas to the fire burning his heart "When she did turn back up, they said, she looked worse for ware, changed, not innocent like you'd imagine." Kel's mind races fueled by rage and concern, Did She?