Hi guys! So I loved my original story so much that I've decided to show you the 'directors cut', as it were. This is just going to be a collection of drabbles detailing missing moments from Bulletproof Heart. I hope you all enjoy!
VERONICA - Exiting Vault 111
Tears stung at my eyes as the brilliantly white light of day struck my face and I had to shield myself from the rays. I didn't feel like I'd been underground for that long, but the sun was harsh on my pupils and it took several minutes before I could properly prise my lids open to face the world. Slowly, the haze began to pass and my vision cleared, revealing what I had expected but still hadn't been prepared for.
Destruction. Complete and utter destruction.
I blinked a couple of times, holding back choked sobs, and spun around on the spot to take in my desolate surroundings. Where once mighty trees had stood, were the remnants of decaying bark and lifeless shrubbery. The dirt around the Vault entrance was dry and untouched, the slight breeze in the air allowed tiny particles of dust and pebbles to roll along its surface. Everything was a depressing shade of brown. But worse than all that was the sight of my street. I shouldn't have been able to see it from here, if it weren't for the lack of greenery. I squinted down at the sorry state before me, at all the rotted houses that had been knocked from their foundations, and I fell to my knees.
I couldn't take anymore. I silently prayed to God that he would stop testing me now. My mind drifted to the last image of my husband, cold and preserved in ghastly neat condition within the chamber opposite mine. Was it a warning? Shoot him in the head, then keep his body on ice to scare me off? I asked God what the meaning of it all was. Then, angrily, I cursed his name out loud. What kind of God would do this? I checked the items that I'd picked up on my way out of the Vault – a security baton, a pistol, a pack of 10mm bullets and a box of Sugarbombs. It wasn't much at all. I'd known going down into the Vault that the world would be dead if I ever came back up again, so I'd grabbed as much as I could salvage. My legs still felt weak from the cryogenic chamber and I couldn't help but feel tired. Only one thing helped me to get up off my knees and begin the descent back towards my home.
Shaun.
Someone out there had taken my baby and it was going to take more than an apocalypse to stop me from hunting them down. They may have killed Nate – sweet, innocent Nate – but they couldn't kill my vengeance.
I crossed the rickety bridge over the lake behind my house. The water was an odd shade of sickly green. I shuddered at the thought of the nuclear fallout that I must've been walking through. I had to step over the skeleton of what was most likely one of my neighbours in order to make it to the other side. Stopping in my tracks, I stared down at the remains, with more tears trickling down my face. I wanted to pay my respects, but I had to keep going. I had to keep walking or else the guilt of surviving would destroy me completely. I ignored the corpse and tried to keep my mind on Shaun.
Questions swirled around in my mind. Why take a baby? Why not kill me too? What would I find out here? Would there be any survivors from the bombs?
I would do everything in my power to find the answers to these questions.
No matter what the cost.