The end of the world was upon us…or so it was said, but in those days people were stuck in their own little worlds.
It wasn't so different with me and Nate; he was in the army and I…I was in school…too cowardly to join him in the battlefield…too soft, he'll say with a smile. The nerve of that guy…but I loved him all the same. And he was right. I was too soft for my own good…still, I—no we—preserved.
Even so, life was going to hell. Shortages, power struggles, you name it…everything was going to hell. Still, it wasn't all bad…most of the time.
People would try to get along despite the chaos…despite the war…despite the death…it was nice.
But life had other plans that day…
We had barely turned our life around for the better…Nate retired and I was ready to begin my career…and our son…our little boy…he would have a better life…and then…
It was too late for us…and I didn't even see it coming—all those warnings…all those threats…all those…
It was already too late for us…too late to make a family…too late to make plans…too late to live our lives…
The moment the bombs fell…I knew my life was over…
We were all prepared for the future…but not for what came after…
'Make friends, not enemies', was my teacher's motto. Too bad the rest of the world didn't listen.
Chapter 1: Out of Time, Out of Place
The burning in her chest was almost unbearable; it didn't help much when she hit the floor. She let out a loud groan that came out as a cough instead as she felt the cold concrete. A coughing fit soon ensued and she tried very hard not to throw up.
Everything hurt.
The light burned her eyes, the air was cold and miserable and her coughing fit was making her sick. Her body was a numbing mess and she hated it. Not only that but she was rather damp and wondered why in the world she felt the need to take a cold shower. The last time she had had a cold shower was years ago when she was just starting college and the jerk of a professor decided to give them a surprise test—it had been a bad idea all the same. She passed the test but ended up sick with hypothermia.
Her husband almost chewed her head off when he heard about it.
(He was sweet that way; he would remind her that for all her intellect, she was bad at planning and decision-making and yet she married him. Not that either of them complained. And she'll never regret her decision ever since.)
She only hoped she wasn't getting sick with all this cold about. The last thing she wanted was to catch hypothermia a second time without knowing what was going on...if anything was. She couldn't really remember and she'll probably not find out anytime soon.
She tried to get up, barely succeeding before she tripped and fell, arms stretched in front of her to avoid hitting her face against the metal. She leaned against a strange machine. It was cold to the touch. Had she not been distracted with her pain and balance, she would have noticed similar contraptions nearby, even one behind her that lay open and inviting as if arguing her to come back in.
But she ignored them all as she was busy catching her breath to care or notice.
Her memories were still fuzzy and she couldn't remember where she was or why it was so damned cold. She closed her eyes and leaned closer to the cold machine. She breath in and out and tried to relax. She needed to think and remember; what had she been doing?
She finally looked up and found to her amazement that she could see inside the machine; a small window showed a chair and a strange man inside of it. He was young but not too old and wore a blue jumpsuit—similar to hers—she also noticed a bit of red near his neck but she didn't think to much about it. He looked odd too, with white dust all over him. But he looked so peaceful, she noticed. His head was to the side, eyes closed and uncaring to the woman that was watching him.
For some reason, the man was so familiar but she couldn't quite put her finger on it.
There was something about him...something that was missing...something that...
She closed her eyes again and began to think once more.
Questions. Answers.
She had none; but her body was feeling better now and the fog inside her head was almost gone and—
And then it happened.
The memories came not in pieces as before but in chunks.
Nate. Shaun. The bombs. The vault. Those...those people...!
"No...no...no...no!"
She was hysterical now. She punched against the glass in an effort to break it and when that didn't work, she tried to find an opening.
She needed to get her husband out of there! He was hurt! He needed medical attention!
(She remembered everything now...the bombs...how they had fallen...how they had ran towards this vault...and just minutes later those people came and stole her son as they shot her husband...)
He couldn't be dead! He just couldn't be!
But she could see the blood now, frozen in place, finally noticing how it coated most of that blue suit.
She could try crying all she wanted but she knew in the bottom of her heart that Nate was gone. He was dead, killed by a bullet from a stranger as her child was taken by—no...no...no...!
The woman turned to call for help and then stopped. She finally noticed the row of machines, finally remembered how they were asked to step inside. She could see the people now. They all looked like they had gone to sleep but no, that was all wrong. They looked like frozen meat.
They all looked dead.
"...oh...my...god...what...what is happening...? What...?" she turned to the machine Nate was trapped in and tried to find an opening. Anything. "I gotta get him out! I gotta get him out! Oh god! This isn't happening! Please! Just let me get him out!" But she couldn't. She had punched and pushed every button she could find on that god-forsaken metal cocoon but nothing worked.
She felt the cold again and collapsed to her knees as she leaned against the machine.
Nate was trapped.
He was trapped and gone.
Everyone was gone but her.
Just her.
"No...no...this...this is not...happening...oh god...no..."
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She didn't know how long she sat there crying.
Her mind replayed the scene in her head over and over again; her husband was dead and her child had been taken. Her little Shaun, stripped from Father's arms while Mama watched. How sad. She had tried to help but she vaguely remember a laugh and then silence. The next thing she knew she had fallen down and now this.
She knew she had to get herself under control. She needed to stop crying sometime soon and find the bastard that killed her husband and took her child...but where to start?
She knew she couldn't call the proper authorities...they were all gone as far as she could recall. The bombs had seen to that. And the vault seemed to be empty from the exception of the dead but they couldn't help her anymore.
Her son was gone and the only clue she had was her own damn memories...days could have passed by now, maybe months and still she wouldn't be able to put two and two together and find her son.
She didn't even know if time still existed outside this vault (or why it was so empty and so dead).
She wasn't sure about anything.
She didn't know why everything had frozen over and why everyone was gone; she only knew her child had been taken and that her husband was dead. Dead and gone and she was cold.
No one had come when she had cried out. And she knew they wouldn't.
Yet, a part of her told her to move. She couldn't stay in the cold any longer than she had to. She needed to find Shaun. She needed to—
A hissing sound echoed around the cold room making the woman look up. She jumped when she noticed the strange creature that had hissed and backed away.
She couldn't believe her eyes...was that...a giant cockroach!? How...!? Why!? WHAT?
Noticing her for the first time, the giant bug jumped towards her. The woman let out a frightened yelped and moved out of the way as the bug slammed against the pod that held Nate. It let out another hiss and turned its small head towards the woman who was on her back and slowly backing away. It jumped again but the woman was quicker this time and managed to kick the thing right before it could do anything.
She was up and running past the thing towards the exit.
She knew she shouldn't leave Nate behind but she didn't have much of a choice now. She was scared and her son was gone and Nate...Nate was dead. And now giant cockroaches were out to get her.
This had to be a dream...right? A terrible nightmare...
...But no. Nate was still dead and Shaun was still missing and that freaking thing was real and it had friends. A lot of friends.
Oh…Taylor…what have you gotten yourself into…
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She didn't know what was worse; the cockroaches or the skeletons.
Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that those freaking bugs were out to get her. She had been bitten once too many by the little buggers. And the hissing sounds had not been comforting. She was getting used to them now even if she didn't want to. At least Taylor could take some comfort in the fact that they went down just as easily as the ones she was used to seeing...these bigger ones just required a metal bar on their tiny heads to finish the job.
So no, the cockroaches weren't the worst but she couldn't say she liked looking at skeletons either.
Maybe she should feel a bit sorry for the poor bastards but she wasn't.
She knew now what they had done and that made her blood boil just thinking about it; an experiment, huh! How nice...oh! it didn't go your way!? Well, fuck everything! The food is almost gone! That asshole of an overseer won't have his way! Oh, just leave the poor bastards behind while we run to get irradiated. No freaking deal! But what about her family!? What about her neighbors and all those people they lied to!? They were dead, gone!
No...she didn't feel sorry for them at all.
Coming here had been a mistake and it took too long for Taylor to realize it. But why would she? That salesman had made it seemed so...safe...her family would be safe...even if the whole world went through her but at least they could rebuild their lives again. But no. They had been tricked and played with and now everyone was dead and her son was gone.
They were supposed to be safe here but Taylor just sighed as she stepped over another skeleton and muttered under her breath, "Most sophisticated vault my ass..."
Despite it all, the remains of the bastards had told Taylor a few things. For one, she knew her time in the vault had been more than a few days. Maybe a few months or years, she wasn't quite sure but she knew from reading all those books back in college that a body doesn't just decompose from one day to the next. A complicated process takes place for all the pieces to come together and reveal the bones underneath the skin and from the looks of things, these skeletons had been here for a while. If any skin had remained it had been scrubbed cleaned by those giant cockroaches.
Still it wasn't much of a good thing.
She still didn't how long it had been since that pair of killers took Shaun. The bodies had probably been here for years and even knowing that wasn't enough to tell her anything. For all she knew, years had passed since Shaun was taken (but she tried not to think too much about that).
She needed to get out of this vault.
She needed to find her son and...and kill that son of a bitch that had killed her husband.
Taylor knew it was wrong but she didn't care, she was going to get her son back all the same.
A/N: Edit 11/18