Disclaimer: I do not own FallOut 3.
As the minutes melted into hours, Tabitha slowly began to go insane.
"I have to get out of here," she muttered, blue eyes wildly searching every inch of the Preservation Shelter walls. "I have to get out of here!"
"Shut the hell up!" Bryan Wilks shouted from his spot on the floor. "Its only been a couple of hours so chill out!"
"You chill out! I'm too young to die!" The redhead wailed. "I haven't even had my first kiss yet! And that one time with Mac doesn't count damnit! Amata dared me to do it!"
"Your love life is fascinating but I don't see how it's going to help us."
"I should've screwed Butch's brains out when I had the chance!" Bryan's eye twitched.
"You're pathetic. Why I thought you could save my father was a mistake." Tabitha whirled around and shoved a finger into the young boy's chest.
"Oh, yeah? Let's see you take on nine of those Fire Ants! I dare you!" Bryan pushed her finger away.
"I'm an eight year old kid, lady. What the hell do you expect from me?"
"How about a little respect? I outta bend you over my knee right now and spank you!"
"I'd like to see you try!" Tabitha leapt at the boy and the two wrestled in the small space for several seconds before they both landed in a tangle of limbs on the floor.
"Get of me!" Bryan cried out. "You're too heavy!" Tabitha let the comment slide, but only because he had his foot dangerously close to her face and began the delicate process of extracting herself from the boy. If he were a couple of years older… Yeah, like a decade you pervert.
When they were finally free of each other Tabitha was a bit red in the face while Bryan just looked irritated.
"You're right," Tabitha whispered. "I am pathetic. I can't do anything right. Hell, I can't even find my own father so what the fuck made me think I could help you find yours?" She wiped at the tears gathering in her eyes and threw a forced smile at Bryan. "I'm sorry. Really."
"Its okay," he replied softly and shuffled a bit closer to lay a hesitant hand on her shoulder. "To be honest I-I don't think my dad's still alive. No," he said as Tabitha opened her mouth to protest. "I think I knew even before I left Grayditch, I could see it when my dad told me to run that he was saving me instead of himself. It was selfish of me to ask you to help me, even though you only did it for the money." He grinned at that. "I don't blame you. You probably already knew he wasn't alive when I asked. Only fair to get something in return."
"Rule number one in the Wastes: Don't do anything for free." The little boy nodded in agreement.
"So," he said after several seconds of silence. "You're looking for your dad too?"
Tabitha sighed. "Yeah."
"What happened?"
"It's a bit of a long story."
Bryan shrugged. "Not like we don't got time."
"Alright but, remember, you asked for it." Clearing her throat, she started from the beginning and left almost nothing out. She explained that her mother had died giving birth to her and that her father had to raise her alone while juggling his job as a doctor at the same time. She went through her childhood in explicit detail, talked about how she always felt like she was never fully accepted with her peers.
"Amata was different, though, she saw something that she liked in me and never let it go. Even though her father disapproved and he was the freaking Overseer. No one ever went up against him except for me a couple of times. I'll always remember the day my father and Jonas gave me an air rifle." Tabitha giggled. "I shot an eraser right at the Overseer's ass. Got clean up duty for a week, but man it was worth it!" Her cheerful smile melted away into a hateful sneer. "Should've beaten him with the stick he always had shoved up his ass. After what he did to Jonas…" She stared through the grimy walls of the Preservation Shelter and into a past memory. "I never knew how insane the Overseer was for power until the day my father escaped the Vault and Jonas was beaten to death for information that he took to the grave." It was then that Tabitha's tale took a turn for the unimaginable worst.
Reliving the nightmare of Amata waking her from sleep with the news of Jonas' death and her father's escape still haunted her dreams. "I had to avoid the Overseer's security and Radroaches that had infested the Vault's walkways. A man and his girlfriend were gunned down right in front of me when they did nothing but walk through a doorway. I can still here the woman's screams…" Then she had run into Amata being interrogated by her own father. Tabitha could still see the look of shock on Amata's face as one of his goons slammed a baton across her jaw as her father stood by with indifference.
The redhead's control had snapped at the absolute hurt in Amata's eyes and she had rushed in with no other thought than to get her best friend out of there. "I pressed the nose of the gun against the Overseer's temple and demanded that Amata be released and that I be able to leave the Vault. He refused both until I shot him in the foot, yeah," she grinned at Bryan's shocked look. "Amata wasn't too happy about that, but it distracted him enough that Amata and I were able to escape. He's not too creative with his passwords either, it was a piece of cake to hack into his office computer and find the Vault exit."
She paused a moment to stare in silence at her hands. She wouldn't tell Brian that she had almost given up when Amata told her she wouldn't follow her into the Wastes. Tabitha had begged and cried, but the stubborn little brunette wouldn't budge.
"This Vault needs me. My father needs me," Amata had said, her dark brown eyes desperately searching her friend's face. "Don't ask me to abandon them. Please."
"So you'd rather abandon your best friend?" The look of betrayal on her friend's face had Tabitha swearing, but she wouldn't take the words back. "Fine, whatever, have a nice life Amata." She had left Vault 101 and never looked back.
Bryan's voice broke through her memory. "So you just left?"
"Yeah, I just left."
"It must've been rough," Bryan sighed. "To come from somewhere like that and then suddenly have to survive out here."
Tabitha grinned. "Especially when eight year old kids pop up, screaming their head off, and demanding help."
"And look how great that turned out. I'da probably had more help from a blond."
"Hey! I bet a lot of guys would trade their mothers to be in your situation." Bryan threw her a look. "Well, maybe not your exact situation, but you know what I mean."
"Once again lady, I'm only eight, and right now all I wanna do is leave this place before my ninth birthday."
"You're right. Enough sitting on our asses swapping sob stories. Its time to get down to business."