Anna woke up how she would most days; groggily and lazily. She twisted her legs around the bed as her eyes peeled open to the blinding light piercing her thin curtains, a quick grimace masking her features. She just lay there, for a short while, until she could finally open her eyes without squinting, before finally pushing her blanket lazily off of herself and standing, leaving the bed to remain a mess.
Tiredly, the woman drags her feet across the carpeted floor of her bedroom and on to the cold wood of her hallway. She carries herself to her bathroom, flicks the light and and closes the door, before slinking inside and approaching the sink, raising her eyes to face the mirror.
She stared at the mirror for a small amount of time, soaking in her own exhausted features. Her brown eyes were beset by bags of purple sleeplessness, a heavy stain upon her otherwise tan skin. Her lips, as of now, were dry, but that was nothing a drink couldn't fix. Her brown hair, untied, was an utter mess, and Anna didn't make it any better by shaking her head, yawning at her reflection. Anna quickly got to work on fixing herself up - starting with brushing her teeth, before moving on to washing her face, brushing her hair and tying it up, before finally leaving the bathroom and heading back in to her bedroom, chucking on a shirt and some trousers before slipping on her usual shoes.
Once dressed, and feeling marginally less tired, Anna yanks her blanket back across her bed in a lazy attempt before her eyes fall the dim lights of her alarm clock: "09:42". Her eyes carry from the clock and up towards the calendar, making a note of the date: October 23rd.
Anna spent the next five minutes carrying on with her life; turning on the coffee machine, flicking the TV on, giving the occasional glance out towards Sanctuary Hills - she was lucky. She lived in the house at the edge of the cul-de-sac.
Anna didn't get any time to soak in the view of her neighborhood. Whilst staring out, towards the tree in the center of the circular road, Anna's entire body is subjected to an unnerving chill, and her ears are suddenly hyper-focused on the words coming from her television.
"...-we do have coming in, uh- uhm, confirmed reports, I repeat, confirmed reports of, uh- of nuclear detonations in New York and Pennsylvania. Oh, my god.".
The tone to the anchor's voice just causes Anna's body to tense further - this wasn't like the other drills. She was frozen in place, eyes moving towards the television which was no holding no image pardon a "PLEASE STAND BY" message in the center of the screen.
Only once the sirens began to sound did Anna's fight or flight reflexes kick in. She was still exhausted - barely on the recovering end of waking up after an incredibly late night. With fear and shock building in her chest, she didn't have time to grab anything. She had to make it to the vault, and she had to get there now.
Anna tore her door open and ran as fast as her tired feet could carry her - and she wasn't the only one. Her neighbors had abandoned their homes, leaving their doors wide open, and they'd began their dead-set sprint towards the vault with their families.
It didn't take her long to reach the bridge that crosses the stream around back of the neighborhood, but she didn't stop there - not even to help the couple struggling with their luggage. She sprints ahead and pushes past a man in a long, tan coat - rushing to the front of the line. People are shouting, begging for entry, but there's a man in full green fatigues denying them - pointing to the clipboard in his hands. Behind him two towering, monstrous figures looming - holding guns half the size of Anna herself.
"Ma'am- you need to stay back, only permitted members of the vault may enter!", the soldier barks towards Anna as she pushes through to the front of the queue.
"No- I'm on the list, I am! Anna- Anna Aitana Noboa! I was qualified for entry two months ago!", Anna's quick to retort. The soldier's eyes scan over her lazily dressed form before carrying down to the clipboard he'd been holding on to.
"One adult, Hispanic female.", the soldier said, giving a soft, quick nod, and motions behind himself - making a small amount of room for Anna to pass, which she is very quick to take advantage of. She slips by and begins a quick walk along the path, guided by a few gestures from Vault-Tec employees clad in security gear. She makes it on to the platform, and not long behind her is a small family; mother, father, and child. They begin speaking to one another, and Anna lets them have their moment - eyes twisting to the horizon before it's decimated in a violent burst of vicious, bright light.
A large, booming mushroom cloud of smoke, ash, fire and rubble is flown up and in to the sky, after what could have only been a nuclear detonation decimates the land. Screams and shouts echo from pedestrians, soldiers, and Vault-Tec employees alike - but almost nothing was audible to Anna pardon the echoing, heavy blast of the bomb's detonation.
Anna began sinking. While she was sure it was her legs giving way beneath her - it wasn't. The door to the vault began to slowly fall, taking the few people on it down and below ground, as a wave of heat, dust, and dry dirt booms over the gap created by the door's descent. Everyone's eyes glue to the hole they'd descended from as they drop, watching the sand fly past.
Anna had hardly been awake for thirty minutes, and the world had already ended.