The Mojave Shadow
Prologue: The Fall
"Ahem... Is this recording? It is? Okay. This is Samuel Hurtzs of Vault 27. I-I don't know how to explain whats going on right now, but it's not good. My girlfriend, Emma, and I have planned that if -Or more so, WHEN- another of these violent scuffles happen again, that we'd have to find a way to get out of the Vault. We've managed to evade the fighting and got into the Overseer's office. It's here that I managed to hack his computer terminal and found out that we aren't the only ones that were escaping the vault; few other people tried too, but were captured at the Vault Door and killed a few months back. I also found some maps that show cities nearby and I have picked out what seems like a suitable place to hide out. If any of you wish to follow us go to these coordinates: X:18.95.10, Y:12.63.53, but if you are going to follow us, uh... This is kinda brutal to say, but make sure the Overseer is dead before you decide to follow us. We can't have any of the Overseer's cronies tailing us, not that they have the balls to follow us out of the Vault anyways. To whoever gets this Holotape, I wish you the best of luck. This is Samuel Hurtzs and if you're listening to this, know there is an entire world outside this cage, look for it and find your freedom."
I took the holotape out of my Pipboy and threw it out of the Overseer's broken Atrium window into the warring crowd. I looked at Emma, she had such terror in her eyes. She was nearly petrified. I placed my forehead gently against hers and whispered, "We have to get out of here, okay?" I desperately wanted her to say something. But I had no time for any kind of reply from her, I grabbed my crowbar I took from the maintenance office and hit the commands into the Overseer's terminal for the tunnel to the Vault Door to open. As it was opening, the door opened up and Overseer Dwight came in with his pistol aimed at me. He screamed at me, demanding to know what the hell I was doing. "There are too many people in this Vault Dwight! I know whats really going on with this 'Vault Protection' shit!" I yelled at him as I walked up to him, close enough that he put the gun down, and looked at him face to face. "This is no safe house! It's a FUCKING SCIENCE EXPERIMENT!" I yelled at him as loud as my voice could reach. He yelled in return, "I thought you of ALL people would understand Sam! You're a High School Chemistry Teacher! I hoped you'd think that this experiment would benefit us in some way!", I continued to yell at him, "NO! The Vaults were NEVER MEANT TO SAVE ANYONE! Tha'ts just it! We were doomed from the moment our parents stepped into this God For-Fuck-saken Vault! We're OUT OF HERE!" By then, the tunnel entrance was open and Emma and I were about to step into the tunnel. Dwight stepped close enough for arm's length and pointed the gun at my face. I slid the crowbar behind my back and held it tight. "I didn't want it to come to this Samuel Hurtzs!" His finger started to squeeze the trigger, "Neither did I, Dwight." I said calmly as I swung the crowbar from behind me with all the force I could. The crowbar made contact with his head, the sound of a wet crackle filled my ears, and the Overseer's body fell into the entrance with us as the tunnel entrance closed shut. There was a delayed reaction in the corpse's hand, it took a good 3 seconds for the hand to let go of the 10mm Pistol.
I threw the body from me and picked up the weapon. I searched the body and found two more magazines for the pistol, they were full while the one already in the gun was missing 3 rounds. Simple math added up the total rounds I could use, "27... 27 bullets left. And I'm leaving Vault 27." I muttered to myself realizing the irony in the numbers I had calculated. I holstered the gun and turned to look at Emma, the terror in her eyes only escalated when she saw what I had just done. I held her close and told her to look away. Its was the only command she obeyed. I knew that there would be much more death to follow in our lives. I walked up to the Overseer's body and grabbed the crowbar that was still in his head. I gave it a swift pull and it lodged out of his head. Blood began pooling out of the fatal gaping wound.
"Its time to go, Emm." I whispered and held out my hand. She took my hand and lifted herself up. She continued to say nothing as we made our way to the Vault Door. I looked at my Pip-Boy to see what time it was, "9:42AM", displayed on the screen. "The sun would be out... I just hoped that our eyes will be able to adjust to the light." I muttered. We opened a manual door and got to where the Vault door was. It was a massive cog, just big and heavy enough for it to not budge out-of-place. I browsed around the room looking for something that would open the massive door. "There." Emma said and pointed slightly to my right. We walked up to the locking mechanism. I held Emma's hand as I flipped off the safety switches and calibrated the energy needed to make the door open. After a few seconds of flipping switches and pressing buttons, a warning light lit up and began to spin. The last thing to do was pull the lever...
I put my hand on the lever, took a deep breath and felt Emma's hand tighten around mine. We both pulled down the lever. A siren screamed to life and a giant arm lowered itself down and screwed into the Vault door. An ear bleeding screech came from the door as it was being pulled out-of-place from the entrance. Emma and I covered our ears as quickly as we could, but even with our ears plugged it was still as loud as a bunch as Banshees. The door slid out of its resting place, rolled to the right and secured into place. I hesitated... We both hesitated. But there wasn't time to think if we really wanted this. I took the first step out of the Vault and Emma followed as well, we began walking down the tunnel that would lead us to our new lives.
This time the 'Light at the end of the tunnel' was real. It was getting brighter, I turned to Emma and told her to close her eyes for the moment. She then covered her eyes, and I helped her out of the tunnel. I however didn't close mine. Upon stepping out of the tunnel, I was nearly blinded, it took a moment for my eyes to adjust and then I saw what awaited us. There was... Nothing. Everything was destroyed. The city that was within walking distance was gone. Nothing left but some of the exteriors of the buildings.
"Emm, I want you to open your eyes slowly. Okay?" I asked of her. When her eyes opened, she was devastated. She looked at me and pleaded to know why this was happening to us. "I'll tell you when we have time." She accepted that answer, "Just remember, whatever happens I'll be there with you. Okay?" She nodded and said quietly, "I love you." When she said that it made my heart skip, I told her that I loved her too. That's when I knew we'd make a good life here, in this unforgiving world we would now live in...