After The Bombs Fell

I was fourteen when I first left the Vault I call home. Within this Vault was a community of about 30 people. The Vaults are actually bunkers that were built a hundred years ago by the American government. It was at the height of what my father called the "Cold War." My father was a smart man; he would always be reading all sorts of books from the library in the Vault. He told me the people of the old government wanted someplace to hide for when the other countries decided to attack. Nobody knows who fired the first missile. The War started and ended on November 24, 1961 and lasted about two hours. The world fell into darkness, and those that survived hid until they could safely come out again. Our Vault remained untouched by the outside world until the winter of 2040 when the first party of scavengers armed with only revolvers and rifles went out to gather food and water to add to their dwindling supply. It created a new tradition for the surviving Vault dwellers. The able-bodied adults would go outside of the Vault in parties of three to scavenge for supplies. Two men from the Vault, James and Charles, as well as my father were chosen to go on the next journey into the Wasteland. Their destination was a nearby abandoned town by the name of Fort Smith. My father decided to take me so that he could teach me how to fend for myself.

My first steps outside the Vault were overwhelming. I had never seen the sun, nor had I expected it to be bright enough to blind me.

My dad said. "You'll get used to it eventually honey". Once my eyes finally adjusted, I couldn't believe what I saw. The outside world was nothing like the pictures I saw in my books. It was nothing but a sea of grey and brown. On the horizon I saw a large city with damaged buildings that managed to stay standing.

My father looked down upon me and pointed over to the city I saw. "That over there is where we're headed." "Here take this. Only use it during an emergency and remember to stay close to us." he said as he handed my very first revolver.

We walked for what seemed like an hour when we finally reached the outskirts of Fort Smith. "Remember fellas, stay within shouting distance of each other" my father reminded the group.

We walked down the streets and I noticed many doors had different colored X's painted on them. Charles and James entered two different buildings, one with a blue X and one with no X.

"Hey dad? What's with all the X's on the doors and walls?"

"Hmm? Oh. You see once we clear out a building of all of the useful things we find, we put a big red X on it. If we have searched the house but haven't finished searching it we put a small blue X on it. After we finish searching we put a red X over it." We entered a building that had a blue X on it. We had to step over rubble that had fallen from the ceiling all around the floor near the door.

"If someone really wanted to hide from us, couldn't they just shack up in a house that we marked with a red X?" I asked.

He opened the pantries and replied "Well Mattie, that's their business, not ours. It's best to keep to your own community and not get into any unnecessary trouble."

BANG! That was the first gunshot I had ever heard.

"Dammit" my father muttered. "Who shot?" He yelled out a window to the houses across the street.

Charles yelled back "It wasn't me, it must have been James!"

"Dammit James! Use your machete unless you want to grab unwanted attention! James? James! Answer me James!"

We heard an unfamiliar raspy voice yell out "Sorry, but your boy James here is no more and unless you want to get shot up, I suggest you come out unarmed and just hand over all the loot you've managed to find, and maybe, just maybe. I'll let you live. Unless you think you can stand your own against the Fiends"

My dad's face turned pale. "What the hell are you raiders doing so far out?" he muttered to himself. "Alright I'm coming out!" he yelled out the window. He quickly turned to me and grabbed my shoulder and said "Listen here Mattie, I need you to stay in here and just hide until this is all over. You got that?"

"No dad! I've got a gun. I can help you take them down. I know I can."

"Do you understand me Mattie? Just hide."

The Fiend down in the street yelled out "Time's a wastin' old man!" I ran upstairs and ran to the window and made sure that I could not be seen. I saw my father throw down his backpack and his rifle and put his hands up in the air. I could not leave the fate of my father up to chance with these raiders. I readied the revolver my father gave me.

"That's it old man, nice and slow." I heard the raspy voice say as I saw eight men exit the building and approach my father. One was carrying James over his shoulder and I recognized him as the raspy voiced man as he asked my father "Where are the others?"

"There are no others" my dad calmly replied.

The raspy voiced man angrily shouted "Do you think I'm stupid?! Now unless you want to end up dead like Jamesy here, then tell me where the others are."

I knew and my father knew that the raiders were not ready to let him leave alive. My dad reached for his hidden pistol and shot four rounds and killed two Fiends and shot the raspy voiced Fiend in the arm. Before he could fire another round, the Fiends shot him in the head. I saw my father collapse in the middle of the street. I took my revolver and yelled out "You monsters!" I shot a round, but I don't know if I actually hit anything. The recoil from the large gun sent me reeling back a few feet.

"Well boys looks like we've got ourselves a lady friend waiting for us up in that building."

Charles burst open the door from where he was hiding and fired a round to try to scare them. I collected myself and jumped out the window on the other side of the room and hurt my legs, but didn't break any bones. I heard Charles fire more rounds and yell "Run Mattie! Just keep—"His words were silenced by another shot.

I ran as fast as I could. I knew I could not risk the raiders following me back home so I just ran further into the wasteland. After hours of running and looking for some sort of civilization, my body finally gave out. I collapsed in the middle of nowhere; I couldn't make out any plants or buildings. I wished that I could have brought along some of the supplies my father had collected. My father. All the adrenaline from running was the only thing that kept me going. It kept me from breaking down from what I had witnessed. My father was dead. His body was lying in the middle of a street until the raiders decided to do whatever they did with it. I never did get to say goodbye. I knew that I had to make those raiders pay but I had no weapons to get my revenge. I didn't even have the energy to get up from where I decided to rest. In my weakened state, the harsh sun became too much for me to bear and I passed out

I don't know how long I was unconscious for, but I awoke to a strange man searching through my jacket pockets. I jumped up and reached for my gun which I just couldn't find when I heard the hammer of my revolver being cocked.

The man had jumped back and said "Hold it right there little missy. Whaddya think you're doin'?"

"What are YOU doing? That's my gun!" I replied

He laughed and said "Sorry but not anymore. This here gun and all this ammo? It's mine now. I've got all your bullets and your gun, buy I've got no use for you little girl."

I sat down calmly with my arms crossed and looked the man dead in the eye. "Alright look. My father and a group of men left me here to rest while they went to scavenge. They are all armed with repeater rifles. Unless you want to end up as a bloody mess in the middle of nowhere, I suggest you just give me my things back before you get hurt."

His face was now filled with worry "I ain't fallin' for none of your tricks!" He raised the gun up at my head and I heard a loud bang.

The man fell down with a hole in his head.

I heard someone yell "Hey are you okay?!" and I looked around and saw a group of three men and a cattle walking towards me. As they approached I saw that two of the men were clad in leather armor and were each wielding very large rifles. The other man was wearing a large jacket and goggles and was guiding the cattle with a mountain of boxes stacked on its back.

The goggled man walked up to me and asked "You deaf? I said are you okay? What did you do that scavenger to make him pull a gun on you?"

I sat up and replied "That's my gun. I passed out and he tried to take all my things."

"Well then I guess you're mighty lucky that we came when we did. My name is Chet. If you want, you can tag along with us for a while. We're headed to the nearby town of Roland."

I pondered his proposition and walked over to the dead man. Looking at his body was unsettling, but I got my belongings from him. I looked back to Chet and said "Sure I have nowhere else to go. A bunch of Fiends killed my father and I don't know how to get back home. Are you a group of scavengers?"

Chet put his goggles up on his head. He handed me a flask of water and said "I'm sorry to hear that little lady. Those Fiends have been out of control lately. They usually stay around their vault, but lately they have been all over the place. And we aren't scavengers. We're a trading caravan. We visit towns with our goods to make a living."

We started walking towards our destination and I said "Wait, you mean to tell me that the Fiends have their own vault?"

"Correct you are. Their leader Motor-Runner usually keeps them under control, but something must have happened to him if the Fiends are as bold as they are now." Here let me move some stuff on the cattle so you can get some rest."

"No, I want to keep walking, I can handle it." Anger was started to boil inside of me. My Vault housed 30 people and still had plenty of room for more. I could only imagine how many Fiends could fit inside a Vault. I won't be able to avenge my father if I end up getting myself killed. I walked in silence for the rest of the journey. Chet didn't seem to mind my silence.

Roland was not what I expected it to be. I expected to see a bustling town living in concrete buildings. There were a large number of small shacks made from metal sheets and wood. There were many people dressed in rags and others were dressed in makeshift armor. In the center of town there was a large military tent. I parted ways with Chet and decided to check out the tent. If anyone could help me take on the fiends, I'm sure they'd be in there.

I walked in the tent and immediately regretted my decision. The tent was an infirmary and inside there were many people with various injuries. Many looked as though they would not survive for much longer. I walked out and bumped into a woman. "Oh excuse me, but do you know where I can find someone willing to help me fight Fiends?"

The woman laughed and said "Well if they aren't in a hole in the cemetery then you will find such a fool in the bar over there." She pointed to a large wooden building and walked away.

I made my way to the building and walked over to a man serving drinks behind a counter. He looked at me and said "Your money better be good or else you can go on ahead and walk out from the way you came in."

I gave him a dirty look and said "I'm not here for a drink. I need to find someone who will help me kill a Fiend."

He poured more drinks and said "Just about everyone in here wants to kill a Fiend for some reason or another. If you want someone that will actually do something about it, you'll want to see one of the sheriffs named Rooster Cogburn."

I sat up on the stool by the counter and calmly asked "Where can I find this Rooster?"

The man started to wipe the counter with a dirty rag and pointed across the room. "You'll find Rooster asleep in the corner over there."

I walked on over to the fat eye-patch wearing sheriff and nudged the sleeping man.

The man rolled to his side and yelled "Touch me again and I'll shoot you for assaulting a man of the law."

I backed up a little and said "Sheriff Cogburn I need your help."

He slowly looked around and without looking at me said "Yeah? So does everyone else in this town."

"I need your help killing the man who killed my father. He's a raspy voiced Fiend that seems to hold some sort of authority within the gang."

He sat up and looked me with his one good eye and said "What do you know about Cook-Cook?"

"Cook-Cook?" I asked.

Rooster leaned in close and said "Cook-Cook the raspy-voiced fella you're after. He got his name from his craving for flesh. He cooks up his victims and eats them. It ain't true. Cook-Cook loves to set everything and anyone on fire, but he's never eaten anybody. I went after him once. Me and my friend LaBeouf tried to get rid of the nuisance but LaBeouf ended up a charred corpse, and I lost my eye. I swore I would avenge him but things got tough around here and I've had to stay around the town."

I placed my revolver on the table and said "This is the revolver that is going to kill Cook-Cook. You can either help me or let a little girl die against a band of raiders."

He reached for my gun and said "Where did you get that revolver?"

I tried to reach for my gun, but he kept it out of reach "My father gave it to me"

"Well then your father was a thief"

"How dare you speak ill of my dead father!" I was ready to hit the man that just insulted my deceased father.

"There are only two of these revolvers that are known to have survived the war. I've got one here and my friend LaBeouf had the other."

"My father gave it to me. He probably got it from the Vault we lived in."

"Oh so you're a Vault-dweller? Why don't you go on back to your Vault and let me just take this revolver."

I snatched the revolver from his hand and told the drunken man "How about you help me kill my father's killer and you can have this revolver."

Rooster sat there thinking with his arms crossed and finally said "If I were to help you, my services would not come cheap. That revolver alone would not be enough to cover the expenses."

I began to have hope that the fat man would accompany me on my journey. "Well how much more would I need? I could take you to my Vault after we kill Cook-Cook and let you take a few valuables."

Rooster shook his head "No. I'd need the payment up front in case you go off and die during our manhunt."

I had to think of a way to get him to agree so I said "I can take care of myself! I know a good trader in town. I could have him pay you. I will pay you after Cook-Cook is dead. If I die then the trader can still pay you. I can't have you using up all your pay on booze before the manhunt even starts."

Rooster shrugged and said "Well little Ms. Vault-dweller, lead the way to this trader of yours and you've got yourself a deal."

"Deal." My journey to avenge my father had just begun.