For the purposes of the story, I have taken liberties with certain details, and it may not appear to reflect canon Fallout at times. For the most part I use as my guide, the Fallout Wiki. Hope you enjoy the story.
It was like a nightmare, it was unimaginable. This was the first of many thoughts that surged to his mind, as he rushed down to the lower levels of the oil rig. He reached the officers' level. As he stepped out of the elevator, he bumped into a scientist knocking the crate of holotapes he was carrying to the floor. "Hey Autumn, I know you are the head scientist and all, but watch…" The man could not finish his sentence as Augustus Autumn, head scientist of the Enclave, brushed him aside and continued along. His family, he had to get them out of here. He reached his apartment and opened the door. "Mary, we have to go, where is Junior?" "He is in his crib, but what's wrong?" "Mary…, we have to leave NOW." Grabbing his wife by her shoulders and looking at her in the eyes, he understood that at least, she would need a basic explanation. "Mary, the president is dead and the nuclear reactor's cooling systems have been disabled." Mary Autumn gasped and started panicking. "Oh God, no this can't be happening!" she said as she paced about the room. Autumn with desperate worry said "Mary, pull yourself together! Get Junior and the bare essentials." Realizing that her child's life was at stake, she rushed to his room, grabbed a duffel bag and threw stuff in. She carried it the foyer and went back for her child. She momentarily looked at him, nearly in tears, wracked by the recent events, and on his gentle sleeping face, she saw so much of his father, she remembered the day of his birth, and that memory in turn, brought back the memory of the night of lovemaking that had conceived him originally. "I love you so… much, it feels as though I am burning in your embrace" he had told her. She had just smiled then, and held him tighter and he burned more for her. Discarding her thoughts, she bundled him and carried him to the foyer. Her husband had already packed things for her and was carrying two duffel bags on his shoulders. Nodding at her they left, the apartment where their old life was left.
Augustus, rushed to the elevator, and held it for his wife and child. As the doors closed an officer and his family, were also making for the elevator. Autumn, driven to extremes, was repeatedly and insistently pressing the button to make the elevator ascend. The doors were starting to close but his wife intervened. "Mary, we are almost out of time!" he told her. She looked at him, making him understand, that although she was driven by the same desperation, she had not given up her morals. Officer Sullivan and his wife and two children huddled inside. "Thank you for holding the elevator, Chief Science Officer Autumn, I was afraid I wouldn't make it." Officer Sullivan said as the elevator began its rapid ascent to the vertibird bay.
Autumn looked at the time, right about now the reactor's monitoring systems should alert the general population to one of the crises occurring in the oil rig. True to his estimate, the PA system engaged. "Attention Enclave personnel, a failure in the nuclear reactor has occurred, please begin evacuation procedures in an orderly fashion. This is not a drill. This message repeats…" "Orderly fashion my ass" said Major Sullivan. He was referring to the fact that although the evacuation drills that were exercised bi-annually were almost always executed perfectly, it was known that if a real situation happened, most people would turn into a panicked mob that would push and shove to and get stuck. Foreseeing a problem, the Congress along with President Richardson Senior, decided that there was a marked importance of some individuals, to ensure the Enclave's survival. Congress, military leaders, the president, and heads of departments were outfitted with a biometrically-sealed bracelet that pinged and flashed in an emergency, before those deemed not critical to the Enclave's mission were made aware of any situation. Augustus Autumn, as head of the science department, was presented with a bracelet of his own. Autumn grew angry at the thought that he would have to leave his family. Against his orders he went for them. He consoled himself, in the fact that he was not the only one. Major Sullivan was an example. Autumn could easily imagine, the panic of the Major as his bracelet, alerted him. Perhaps, he had wrestled with his conscience, putting his family and his duty on the balance. He was military, unlike Autumn, whose position was civilian but in the role of aiding the military. Duty was more important to him than to Autumn. The sound of the elevator settling as they arrived cleared his mind.
There was a crowd. Although not yet violent, it had the potential to become so. Autumn and his wife and child followed Sullivan and his own family, through the crowd. The vertibirds were fenced off and a checkpoint had been established. After an obese senator passed with his mistress, Sullivan stepped up to the gate officer. "Name, rank or position, priority clearance code if any, and names of guests." He questioned impatiently. "Sullivan, R., major in the Enclave High Command. Priority clearance Echo Foxtrot 495. This is my family accompanying me". The checkpoint officer knew full well, that family members were non-critical, but knowing full well that he had let a senator through with his girlfriend, at the threat of a decreased pay-grade or discharge, he let them through. Augustus stepped up. "Autumn Augustus, Chief Science Officer of the Enclave, this is my family." The guard looked at a monitor on the panel to his right, and after examining it he said: "You may pass, but your wife and child must wait, until all critical personnel, have been secured." The officer only allowed Sullivan's family to pass through because of his priority clearance, but this scientist, did not possess a priority code, so he wished to abide by the rules as much as possible in this situation. Autumn wasn't going to leave his family behind so without causing too much of a commotion he turned to leave. "Wait, I authorize Autumn's guests, Priority clearance Delta Zulu 109" a familiar voice spoke behind Autumn. Augustus turned around and past the security point, looking at him from behind the fence was his long-time friend, Charles Curling, head of the military's Chemical Corps.
"Charles, what's the meaning of this?" Autumn asked. "I understand how important your family is to you, now hurry and go." Curling replied. Feeling pressed for time, but still desiring an explanation, Autumn hurried his family through the gate. I'll meet you on the other side he said to his wife. Autumn now turned to face Charles. "I am sure you can go with us, so what's the matter?" "I cannot explain it completely myself, but I realized something after meeting the intruder personally." Charles said in a melancholy tone. "The intruder?" Autumn asked, vaguely remembering the security report detailing a subhuman wastelander infiltrating the oil rig, and most likely setting off the events that were transpiring as they spoke. "You met it?" Autumn asked. "Yes, I met Him." Curling replied seemingly bothered by Autumn's choice of words. Charles continued, "I was in my laboratory when troops came from a side door and told me to take cover. Moments later, the main entrance was blown open and a grenade was thrown in. The men and I were knocked down and as they stood up, they were hit by energy weapons, until one by one they went down. I was so afraid, for my life, I thought I would die. As the smoke cleared he walked through. I at point I was cowering on the floor with my head between my arms, expecting the end at any moment. I heard his steps approach me and stop. To my surprise, I was tapped on the shoulder and told to stand up. He was wearing our power armor variant, and he had a gauss rifle on his back and a laser rifle in his hands. I stood up and he removed his helmet. He was like others from the waste: scarred face and piercing, staring eyes, dirty and dusty. He asked me how to stop the FEV. I admit I still had the old mentality and told him that I would never yield to a filthy mutant as he. He was quiet for a few moments before he asked, if I had family. I couldn't help myself and remembered Gladys, how we met, how happy we were, how we made up after little fights, how happy she was when she was expecting the baby, and… how she and the baby died at childbirth. I was upset and I told him that the whole point of the FEV operation was to pave the way to a future safe for our families. He said that some of the subjects we were experimenting on were his family, and the reason why he was here was to save them. I told him he and other wastelanders suffered and that their lives were miserable. He told me that was true, but he could live on if he had those near to his heart, and that the wish of all men was to live. I realized he spoke the truth. We were going to do the same thing; killing people, not mutants, because we felt that was what needed to be done so that we could live. I felt mad at the façade that was my life, the president, and the Enclave. I inoculated him against the virus and the test subjects. I even offered to release the virus on the oil rig, that's how insane I was at the moment! But, he said that wasn't reasonable, and that the other people on the oil rig were people too. He said that though he killed people who actively opposed him and that he was going to overload the nuclear reactor, we still had a chance to live if everyone abandoned the plan. I told him it was unlikely that the citizens of the oil rig would never accept mutants. He must have understood for he left after sighing with pity."
Augustus listened to it, but he could not believe it. "Surely, you're kidding", he said with disbelief. "Come with us you are not in your right mind." At that moment a large, chaotic mass of people emerged from the main access to the heliport and rushed to the vertibirds. "Go." Curling told Autumn. "What about you?" Autumn asked. "Just go, and remember my friend that they're people too." Curling said before running into and vanishing into the mob. He entered the checkpoint just before it was sealed and guards held weapons ready. He rushed to the vertibird with his family and got on. The hatches sealed and it began to rise. Looking through the window, Autumn could see that the guards had been overwhelmed and the throng was making for the last vertibirds; the ones designated for Congress. It had not departed as some members were still absent.
They crowded and protested, trying to get onboard but there was not nearly enough space to take them aboard. As Autumn watched the situation grew worse; shots were fired, and people screamed. It seemed like it was an ending to everything their lives had ever known; order and protocol. The people left on the rig were behaving like animals, screaming and yelling, fighting and dying; in their final moments, their human monsters had seethed to the surface. And yet, there remained those who sat in the distance, weeping and embracing with their loved ones. This landscape of human drama, growing ever further away, was observed by Augustus Autumn through a small window in the vertibird.
Then after the Enclave oil rig had become a point in the distance it happened. A blinding light, all encompassing, grew larger than everything until it seemed night was day to the occupants of the vertibirds. This was followed by a sound so powerful it shook the aircraft. Mary screamed, "Our home, it's gone! Everything is gone!" The baby was crying, and it was having an effect on the rest of the people onboard. Autumn tried to calm his wife with words to no avail, and she kept struggling in his arms. He opened his coat and pulled a syringe filled with a relaxant and injected her with it. She grew limp in his arms, and fell unconscious. After putting her in a comfortable position, he reached for his child, and wordlessly calmed him down. He fell asleep after a while. After Augustus put him in his crib, he sat in his chair, put his hands on his face, and cried bitter tears quietly. Their lives had permanently changed, and were bound to change more once they arrived at Navarro.