"Hold on Jonas, I need to record this first."
James sat in front of a small recorder on top of his desk. Jonas quietly continued to pack James' luggage while he made a final message for his son, Aaron. James had decided that his son should stay in the vault due to his inexperience with the world outside. He was leaving due to a final impulse to finish his life's work, left unfinished when he entered Vault 101 with his son over eighteen years ago. James quickly formulated his message for Aaron. Leaning towards the mic, he began recording.
"I..." He hesitated, contemplating bringing his son along. "I don't really know how to tell you this. I hope you'll understand, but I know you might be angry. I thought about it for a long time, but in the end I decided it was best for you not to know. So many things could have gone wrong and there's really no telling how the overseer will react when he finds out. It's best if he can blame everything on me. Obviously you already know that I'm gone. It was something I needed to do. You're an adult now. You're ready to be on your own. Maybe someday things will change and we can see each other again. I can't tell you why I left or where I'm going. I don't want you to follow me. God knows life in the vault isn't perfect, but at least you'll be safe. Just knowing that will be enough to keep me going." James wanted to continue, giving his son every second of tape to listen to his possibly last words ever, but Jonas cut him off before he could continue.
"Don't mean to rush you, Doc, but I'd feel better if we got this over with."
James quickly glanced over at Jonas, waiting patiently for him to finish up. "Okay." James said at last. "Go ahead." Jonas rushed off to complete his task, and James turned his attention to the old photo of him and his son together on Aaron's tenth birthday. "Goodbye. I love you." Pressing the stop button, James sat at his desk and absorbed the room around him. Miniscule details were intensified now. The dent in the ceiling from when Andy's thruster had malfunctioned. The x-ray of Grandma Taylor's hipbones and spine, which looked unnaturally similar to a phallus. The bobblehead at the corner of his desk smiling at him, as if daring him to get away. As James got up to leave, he took the picture with him as a momento of the life he was leaving behind.
Moving swiftly through the vault's empty corridors, James and Jonas made their way to the vault door, navigating the hallways with ease. With no opposition they quietly reached the final room, the entrance of the giant fallout shelter. A giant gear shaped door, four feet thick of grade-A steel, was all that protected Vault 101 from the outside world. Jonas moved over to the controls for the door; a small console with a keypad and a small handle. Jonas waited for James to walk over to the door, then pulled down the handle. A large mechanism swung into the door, screwing itself into the threaded hole provided. As the door was pulled back, Jonas had to cover his ears as to not be overcome by the deafening screech of metal rubbing against metal. James had recovered quicker than his accomplice, and walked through the open space into the tunnel beyond. Making one final look back at Jonas and the vault, James shouted one final question.
"Can you take care of Aaron for me, Jonas?"
"As if he was my own son, James!" Jonas replied. Content that his child would be fine, James turned back down the path. The familiar screech of the door closing rang throughout the tunnel, soon eclipsed by silence once more. Stepping carefully round the skeletons crowded around the entrance, James continued to the end of the tunnel. Stopping at the old wooden door, he looked back at the door, the faded '101' etched into his memory. He sighed, knowing he would probably never return, but continued anyway, driven by purpose. Turning the rusty knob, James stepped back into the Capital Wasteland.