The Wasteland, a barren, deserted landscape, scorched by the eternal fire of the atomic bombs. In this world, dried and irradiated, two figures travelled. A pregnant woman, and a man in a lab coat. The woman was of balanced stature, brunette, brown eyes, short hair down to her shoulders, wearing a lab coat like the man. The man had greying hair, hazel eyes, and a skinny build. "James? How much longer until we reach the vault?" The pregnant woman asked. "Now now, Catherine. We'll be there soo-" The man stopped dead in his tracks. "Do you hear that?" he said, indicating a noise over the hill. It sounded like an infant, crying "I do, let's go see what it is." "C-Catherine! No, don't. It could be dangerous." She gave him a look We can't just leave it "*sigh* If it makes you feel any better I'll go look." he replied resignedly, wanting nothing more than to protect his wife and future child. James climbed the hill to see a shack, further exploration revealed it to be empty besides a baby carriage, which was in its intended use. James and Catherine approached the child. They attempted to soothe the child and calm it down, all the while silently bickering what to do with it. The baby began to giggle at the sight of the couple. The baby seemed relatively young, definitely born within the past month. "Would you like to come with us, little guy?" James asked, the baby cooed in response. James picked the baby up in his arms, Catherine next to him, "We'll name you…"
The couple had reached the vault, a pre-war underground bunker, and just in time too. Within a day of being at vault 101, Catherine's water broke, and she went into labour soon bearing a child, but losing her own life not too Long after. James would have grieved for a long time, but he now had two children to take care of, leaving no time for mourning.
One year later
"Come here kiddos." Two babies walked towards James into a play pen. A girl named Carly, and a boy named Isaac. Isaac looked Hispanic with brown hair, While Carly was Caucasian with blonde hair. "There you go, my goodness! Just a year old and already walking like pros!" James walked around the two toddlers and closed them in the pen, "I know you two don't like it when I leave, but Daddy needs to get some things from his office, I'll only be a minute." He left the room, closing the door behind him. The babies made an escape attempt almost instantly, opening the gate and exiting the pen. The two looked at a small children's book, named "You're SPECIAL!" The children looked at the pictures, entertained. James opened the door to find the toddlers messing with the book, "Ha ha ha! You two are are quite the partners in crime, aren't you? Serves me right for trying to pen you in. Come here, I want to show you two something." James moved towards a framed passage, indicating it. "See that? It was your mother's favorite passage. It's from the Bible, Revelation 21:6. 'I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.' She always loved that… Alright come on, Let's go see if your friend Amata wants to play." The toddlers stumbled over each other, following their father down the hall.
Nine years later
""Surprise!"" several individuals shouted at once. "Stanley, you turned on the lights too fast, you blinded the poor kids!" The two children, Isaac and Carly, looked around the room, filled with happy faces, surrounded by friends and their father. "Can you believe it? They're growing up so fast." said Old Lady Palmer, sitting in a red booth. Everyone was in the vault diner, or what they assumed resembled one. "Happy birthday, kids! I can't believe You're already 10. I'm so proud of you two." said James praising his own two children. "If only your mother…" James mumbled to himself, too quiet for anyone to hear. The two siblings were awestruck at the room, decorated with balloons and "Happy birthday" streamers. Everyone's barrage of comments made it hard to focus on what was happening. "Congratulations, young ones! I don't have to tell you how special this day is, do I?" The overseer asked, "Down here in vault 101, when you turn 10, well, You're ready to take on your first official Vault responsibilities. So here you are. As Overseer, I hereby present to you your very own Pip-boy 3000s! Get used to them." The children took their new wrist-mounted computers quickly. "You'll be getting your first work assignment tomorrow. Ha ha ha ha ha! Isaac and Carly looked bitterly at the man, hearing those last few words. James turned to them, "Enjoy your party! You're only ten once, so have fun!" The children perked up at the sight of Amata, their friend since infant-hood, approaching them. "Happy birthday!" she said "Ha ha. Your dad was afraid you were onto us. But I told him not to worry. You two are so easy to fool." Isaac answered first, "Great party, Amata! Thanks for doing this for me." he said in an energetic voice. Carly just nodded to say "thanks" as she was hiding behind Isaac, mainly because she was shy, and would only talk around James, Amata, and Isaac, not feeling too comfortable with the many others in the room. She was a tomboy, as were most other girls, but her shyness overshadowed it. "You're welcome. But really, Your dad did most of it. I just helped with the decorations and stuff. Hey, I bet you can't guess what I got you for your birthday. Go on guess!" Isaac looked to his sister for her guess, Do you know? His eyes said, Carly shrugged her shoulders. "We have no idea." Isaac responded to Amata, earning a smile from her. "Ha! I knew I'd surprise you two. Who's your favorite barbarian? That's right, Grognak! Issue 14, and with no missing pages! I found this in a box of my father's old things, believe it or not. Imagine him reading comic books. I guess everyone was ten once. Well, I'd better let you get back to 'mingling' with your guests. We'll talk later, okay? Happy birthday guys."
As Amata began to walk away, Carly messed with her pip-boy, and Isaac sat with her. After a few minutes or so, they decided to begin interacting with people. Old Lady Palmer handed them a sweetroll to share, not too long after Andy, the mister handy, destroyed the cake by accident. Resulting in Butch, a bully, getting annoyed, "I'm hungry, and that stupid robot destroyed the cake. Give me that sweet roll that you got from Old Lady Palmer." Isaac looked at Carly still hiding behind him. Carly looked at him, she wanted that sweet roll, and Butch didn't intend on sharing. "Sorry Butch, but we already ate it." Isaac lied, trying to avoid a fight, he could've won, but vault security were there for downtime. "Fine, no point in beating you up, I'm too hungry anyway." Amata walked up to the duo. "What's Butch's problem anyway? I can't believe he tried to start a fight at your guys' birthday party. What a jerk." "He tried to steal our sweet roll." Isaac calmly responded. "God He really is a butt head. Oh well. You can always count on him to make an ass of himself. Get it? Ha ha ha." Amata giggled and walked away. Isaac walked to Officer Gomez, who was sitting near the door, leaning against the table. "I hope Butch didn't hurt you. Do you Want to tell me what that was all about?" Officer Gomez said to Isaac. "It was nothing. Just boys being boys." Isaac responded coolly, "That's fine, son. I'm glad to see you're not letting Butch bully you. He's going to be a handful in a few years if his mother doesn't take him in hand. How's Carly, by the way? Still as shy as always?" In response, Carly hid a little bit further behind Isaac. "Well, no harm done then. Why don't you get back to enjoying you and your sister's party."
The intercom rang by the door, hardly audible in the hustle and bustle in the vault diner, but James heard it just fine. As he walked over he caught the attention of Isaac and Carly. James answered the intercom. "Hey doc, we're all set down here." Jonas' voice emerged from the intercom. "Great I'll send them right down." James turned to Isaac and Carly, already standing next to him during his brief conversation. "Hey that was Jonas on the intercom. He and I have been cooking up a little surprise present. Jonas is waiting for you downstairs on the Reactor Level. Go ahead, I don't think anyone will mind if you slip out for a few minutes." The two children nod, heading out the door. The two run into Beatrice, engaged the two in conversation. "Happy birthday, dearies! I hope I didn't miss the party!" "Please stop calling us that, we're not five." responded Isaac, earning a nod from Carly. "Of course you're not five! You're big ten-year-old "adults" with your own Pip-Boys! And I wrote you a poem, just for the occasion!" "Thank you miss Beatrice." said Isaac, wanting the confrontation to be over already, along with Carly. The two continued down some stairs to be met with Jonas at the bottom, with a less-than-pleased expression on his face. "What are you doing down here, kids arent allowed on the Reactor Level." "We aren't kids." Isaac says. The expression immediately leaves Jonas' face, "You sure aren't, Pip-Boys and everything, wait for your dad, he'll want to show you." With that, James rounded the corner on the Reactor Level. "Are you ready for the Surprise?" he asked, the children nodded vigorously, their heads looking almost as though they were bobble heads. James handed them each a BB gun. Isaac was wide-eyed, while Carly smiled happily. "Your very own BB guns! I hope you like it, it took three months to get it to work correctly. Now, let me show you where to shoot it." The four opened a door on the side of the room to reveal a makeshift firing range. "What do you think? You can come down here and shoot anytime you want." Isaac was happy beyond words. So the two nodded once more. Isaac immediately over to shoot the targets, hitting fairly well on each shot, "Careful, that's a Radroach." James said, Carly leapt into action and fired several shots at the body, hitting three or four before the arthropod died. James, Isaac, and Jonas were impressed at her action. When she noticed them staring at her, she blushed and sheepishly said, "I don't like bugs." The boys shared a chuckle at her comment as Isaac patted her back. "Let's get a picture together. Capture the moment." The three lined up, Isaac on the left, James in the middle, kneeling with one arm each draped around both children, and Carly on the right. With a dead Radroach way off in the background, it's dead body still twitching.
A.N. I hope you enjoyed this, it took me several months to write, while working on other projects which are soon to come out!As always, Later my dragons!-Minedragon