Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognize. Fallout and the characters belongs to the respective owners.

Chapter 01

Adelaide

Life out in the wastes was hard. I had figured that out within an hour of stepping into the blinding sun and searing heat. Nothing could have prepared me for the transition from Vault 101 to the Capital Wasteland.

Oh, yes. Let me introduce myself. I'm Kadence Gearhart, recent Vault escapee and amateur wasteland wanderer. My father, James Gearhart, was the doctor for Vault 101, where I grew up. However, when I was 19, my father up and left without an explanation of any sort, and because of that I had to fight my way out as well, lest I end up rotting after the Overseer had me killed.

To my surprise, I had actually wandered to this monstrosity of a town, Megaton. I mean, really, who builds a community around a bomb? But, whatever makes them happy, I guess.

I'm sitting in a dirty bar, Moriarty's. I've been in town for about a week, getting stocked up on supplies and just trying to find information about my Dad. I'm still not sure how I feel towards him at this moment. I'm angry with him leaving me in the Vault. I'm angry that he didn't clue me in. I'm angry that, because he left, the stupid guards came after me and I ended up having to kill my best friend's father to get away.

I'm also worried, though. He must have had a good reason to leave everything we've had. Colin Moriarty, an Irish bastard of an entrepreneur, told me we are not originally from the Vault. I'm worried that everything I know is a lie.

I sigh and almost hit my head off the filthy bar. The barkeep, a sweet Ghoul by the name of Gob, stopped wiping the glasses and made his way to me. "Something wrong, kid?"

I look up with a watery smile. "Nah, Gob. Just, still kind of overwhelmed, that's all. I'm really dreading having to go back out there, but I'm also dreading what will happen to my Dad if I don't."

He sighed and after giving a quick look for Moriarty, ruffled my hair. "I don't know much about traveling, kid. Hell, the last time I was out of this rat hole was when Moriarty bought me off the slavers. Not that this is much better. But, when you do head out, if you run into Underworld, tell Carol I said hello."

A noise sounded from the back and Gob jumped nervously, rushing to get back to wiping the dirty glasses. Frowning I stood and up and gave a quick wave to my only friend and walked out the door.

Out of the bar, I leaned on the rusty railing, looking out over Megaton. I was ready to go, and the sun was still high in the sky, but I still couldn't bring myself to walk towards the gate. I had wasted as much time as I could, fixing the leaking water pipes around town and then severely irradiating myself for Moira's stupid book. Well, at least radiation healed me now. Though, I wasn't sure if that was a good thing.

I knew my Dad needed me. I just had that god awful feeling in my gut that something had happened. Moriarty said Dad was heading towards Galaxy News Radio, so I should be headed in that direction.

I didn't even realize that while I was thinking, I had walked towards and was standing in front of the gate, just staring at it. "Hey, kid!" I turn around to see the town sheriff, Lucas Simms, striding towards me. "Heading out?"

I nod and take another deep breath. "I don't want to, I mean, not really. I want to see my dad and all, but I don't want to go back out there alone."

The sheriff gave my a sympathetic smile. "Kid, life is full of things we don't want to do. You have to take control of the situation. If you think your old man needs you, then you need to go. But you can't do it half-assed. If you do, something out there will tear you apart and eat you for breakfast."

I gave him a wry look. "I know." I gave him a slight smile before pushing open the gates. Here goes nothing.

"This fucking sucks!" I shot another feral ghoul between the eyes, gagging when the poor thing's head exploded and covered me in gore. "Oh, I think I'm gonna be sick."

No one had explained to me that to get to DC and Galaxy Radio, you had to go through miles and miles of metro tunnels. And in those metro tunnels were feral ghouls. Lots of them.

The raiders didn't bother me. They were less than human, high on Jet and Psycho, and fuck knows what else. But, feral ghouls, they were people once. People that were stuck in radiation, people that had lost their humanity when the rads rotted through the brain. That made me sad.

I was almost there. According to my wonderful Pip-Boy, I was almost at Friendship Station, and from there I was hoping to make it above ground. These tunnels gave me the creeps. I jumped at every sound, and most of the time it was a stupid Radroach. Fuckers.

Finally, I see the station up ahead, but groan when I here the tell-tale yelling and arguing of raiders. I took a determined step but stilled when I felt a cold piece of metal on the back of my neck. A stench washed over me and I tried not to vomit. "Well, well. What do we have here? A little girl is in our midst boys!" He pushed me forward until we reached the station and threw me on the ground. "And she's a pretty piece of ass, too!"

How had I not heard him? Hell, how did I not smell him? Shit. I look up and took a quick glance. My captor had a sort of tri-hawk and was covered in filth and blood. He was wearing Blastmaster armor minus the helmet. He grinned down at me and I noticed that a few of his teeth were missing. Figures.

There was a woman whose head was shaved except for two stupid looking pigtails on her her head and dark skin. She would have a pretty face if it wasn't covered in blood and she basically was advertising herself in the armor she wore, which left little to the imagination. She grabbed my hair and... what the fuck? She sniffed me. "She's fresh, Tomlin! What a pretty little face, no scars! We could get a pretty cap for her."

"I vote we try her out, first." The owner to the new voice was built. Very built. His dirty blonde hair was cut close to the scalp and he had a scruffy beard. He had black markings going down his arm and deep set eyes. "She's got a hot body. And look at that hair! You don't often see gingers out here in the wastes." He reached down and his hands ghosted over my chest before straightening again and grinning.

The woman leaned over and started playing with the straps on my leather armor. Now I'm even more glad I traded my vault suit for the leather, even if it was less comfortable to the jumpsuit. Who knows what they would do to me if they knew I was new to the wastes.

The one called Tomlin stood back and started pacing. " We could use her for a couple days. It would take a day or two at least to get to Paradise Falls." He leaned down and got right in my face. I closed my eyes and turned away from him and he chuckled. "Come one, baby, don't close those pretty green eyes." He grabbed my face and forced me to look at him. In a moment of bravery, I spit in his face.

His eyes darkened in rage and he punched me, knocking me on the ground. "Stupid cunt! You'll be regretting that!" He got ready to kick me, but the woman stopped him.

"No! If you break her, we'll get less caps! Less caps equals less chems, fucktard!"

"Fuck off, Violet!" He pushed her away and stooped down to meet my face again. "I'm going to fuck you so hard I'm going to snap you in half!" Right then, I saw my escape. A knife was strapped to his ribcage, and in reaching distance.

I slowly reached up to him, as if to embrace him, and he got a perverted grin on his face. That was, until I grabbed the night and slit his sternum open.

He gasped and I jumped into action, grabbing the bitch and using her as a human shield with the knife to her throat. The other male took his Chinese assault rifle and started shooting, apparently not caring if he shot his companions, as he got her three times before she slumped to the ground.

I dove behind the makeshift wall of sandbags and found old pistol laying there. It was rusty from not being repaired, but it would have to make due. "Come one, sweetheart. Come out of there and let old Andy play with you. I promise to play nice!" The only raider left was apparently still thinking with his dick, but I knew I couldn't use that to my advantage. Not twice.

I made sure the safety off on the pistol, then charged, firing. Two of my bullets caught him in the chest, and he shot as he fell to the floor, catching me in the hip. I cried out but kept limping, shooting him in the throat as he finally died.

I fell to the floor next to his body and weeped. This fucking sucked.

A/N: This the first chapter. I know, it's kind of all over the place and short, but this is my first attempt at a Fallout fanfiction. Or a fanfiction at all, really. I've been working on my own novel-thing for so long, it's hard to get back in the habit of writing anything else. You'll learn more about Kadence in time, and for those of you who will catch it, I was heavily influenced by my obsession with Anberlin with her. Hence the name "Cadence" and the title, "A Whisper & A Clamor".

Well, I hope you like it! Constructive criticism is always welcome.