I do not own Fallout or any of it's charicters.
As always, thank you to Rex Greene, my uncle, good friend and happily willing beta reader!
Also, to my friend, Kayla, who came in after Rex to take a secont look.
And to my friend, Gomez, for his feedback and support.
Thank you, guys!
"... the story of a little boy. A ... named Bryan Wilks. ... from Grayditch, a small settlement that was recently overrun ... Giant Ants. Bryan, ... sole survivor. That's where the kid from Vault 101 ... gets even worse. You see, ... 101 may have stopped the Ant problem, but she couldn't be bothered to help poor little Bryan. ... Three Dog? Where's Bryan Wilks now? I'll tell you ... is stuck in a fucking box, that's where! Good God, 101, have you no ... to rot in that fallout shelter. I have witnesses! So for the love of God, if someone is in the vicinity ... you please give the kid a Nuka-Cola, a Salisbury steak, something?..."
She sneered in disgust. "Fucking vault bitch," she mumbled, continuing to wiggle the antenna on the radio. "If I ever meet that little..." she trailed off.
Ever since the lone wanderer crawled out of vault 101, Rae had been paying for her mess, when she wasn't cleaning them up that is. Isn't there enough violence with the raiders and radiated, vicious animals running around the wasteland, She thought, giving up and turning the radio off.
Springvale had always been a mess. Everything out there was. But ever since Megaton was blown off the map, everything looked much more hazy and morbid. Everyone had vault girl to thank for that. Right after the town's disappearance, all Rae ever heard about was her. It had marked the beginning of the end for Rae for sure. Silver had to be buried a short time after and Rae had been the only one there to do it. She had been her only friend out there in the middle of hell and nothingness. It seemed like everywhere vault girl went she left death and destruction behind her. Just another little girl with parenting issues, Rae thought.
Silver had been constantly shooting up with Psycho, making her company much less than perfect. But who could blame her with her past and all? She may not have been the most intelligent person in the wastes, but she had been nice to Rae, making her lonely, empty feeling considerably smaller.
When Silver stopped coming to visit, Rae had walked over to check on her, hoping she hadn't O... She hadn't.. Her house had been raided and there she was, laying on the floor in her bedroom, blood splattered on the wall and acumilating a crimson pool beneath her body.
Sure, raiders could have done it. It was possible, but Rae knew better. Something told her this wasn't raiders. Maybe it was the fact that, had it been raiders, her house would have been invaded as well. No, Rae knew it was little miss 101..
There had been a rumer that the lone wanderer wasn't real. Just something Three Dog had been making up for kicks. Rae would have understood, had that been true. It was boring out there. But she knew the vault kid was real. She saw her the day she walked out of the vault. Blue 101 jumpsuit, cleaner than anything the wasteland had seen in a long time. Light skin untouched by the sun, stretched over her body and the hand holding a police baton, hair clean, blond and cut short.
Rae had been scavenging and watched in interest as the young girl blindly stumbled over rocks as she headed in the direction of Megaton. Other than the sight being so odd, Rae hadn't thought much of it. Police baton considered, she pretty much assumed the kid was gonna be killed before being picked over by hungry creatures of the wastes. But no, it turned out that unfortunately, she had been much tougher than that. Too bad, Rae thought. She had been really pretty.. The crazy ones usually are.
Rae gave a deep sigh and flopped back in her old, ruined bed. She wasn't much to look at. Blue eyes were hiding behind glasses, held together with excessive amounts of wonder glue. Her red hair was pulled back and her skin was tan from the hot sun that beat down on the wastes. She was scrawny and not at all as threatening-looking as she really was. She was quick on the draw, to say the least, though she kept to herself mostly, hardly ever making enemies and just generally trying to survive just like any logical person would.
Usually, Rae would have stayed away from Grayditch. Not knowing there had been someone stuck there for some time, the fire ants weren't that tough but getting singed was definitely something she felt she should avoid. But, assuming Three Dog's Information was correct, the ants would be gone, and to Rae's delight they were.. Well, they were dead, anyway.. giant ant bodies were everywhere, and the smell of something burning was unescapable.
The small fallout shelter's "occupied" sign almost looked like a beacon in the dark of the night, flashing and glowing brightly. Not very safe had a raiderbeen walking through, she thought.
The mettle tube gave an odd hallow sound when she knocked on it, just a light, non-threatening tap.
"...He-hello?"
"Hey," Rae replied in a kind voice. "Bryan?"
"Maybe.."
The kid sounded scared and tired. He may have been sleeping before Rae had knocked. She wondered if he was small enough to curl up on the cold metal floor. He would have to be really small, she thought. This thing is so narrow.
"Are you hungry?"
"Yes."
"I have some food for you. Why don't you come out?"
There was silence. Bryan was afraid for his life, no doubt, and the thought of a warm, juicy Brahmin steak may not have been enough for him to risk it.
"Who are you?"
"My name is Rae. I just want to help you. I promise not to hurt you... Aren't you cold in there?"
"I am..."
"Then come out, sweetie. I have a warm meal here for you."
Slowly, the shelter door slid open. Not all the way, just enough for him to peek through. Wide, brown eyes shined in the light of the moon. "I can't really see you... Are you carrying a weapon?"
"Of course I am."
"Please, put it down?"
"Um.." Rae thought for a moment. Being vulnerable was never a good idea out there. But Bryan Wilks was more than vulnerable at this point. Assuming it would be enough for him to trust her, Rae took the rifle off her back and set it in the dirt.
The door slid open a little more. Even in the dark, he looked like a mess, cloths torn, dirty skin covered a scrawny, unfed body. He shivered in the cold box as he looked up at her. "Do you really have food... for me?"
Rae nodded, pulling a large, cooked cut of meat from her bag and a bottle of purified water to hand to the little boy.
She sat cross-legged in the dirt, watching him take large bites and almost forgetting to chew once or twice. The meat was unseasoned and a little over done, but to a child who hadn't really eaten in days, it must have tasted amazing. Rae hoped he didn't choke.
"Why are you still in this fallout shelter? Don't you have a home?"
"Yes," Bryan answered between bites. "But she told me I would be safer here."
"Who?"
"The lady who got rid of the ants."
Rae felt her fists clench at the thought of her; The Wasteland Destroyer.
"Sure was nice of her to help me out."
"But she didn't," Rae retorted, a little less sweet this time.
"She did." Bryan swallowed a rather large bite. "The ants are gone, right?"
"It would appear so..." Rae tried hard not to sound annoyed. She couldn't imagine why such a bitch would stop to help and then somehow keep things just as bad. Probably just target practice. "But she left you in here.. Wouldn't you be happier in your home?"
"Not if it isn't safe... But I'm safe in here."
"You would be safe at home too." Rae watched as he chewed the last of the steak. "No one ever comes through here. There all afraid of the ants. And the people who have been through here don't have a reason to come back."
Bryan thought about this for a minute or two while he drank his water. The nights out in the wastes were cold and the days were hot. Being in that mettle tube magnified the already extreme temperatures, making it almost to overwhelming. The only thing keeping him in there was the fear of a slow and painful death, which was slowly sounding more and more inviting to him. It would be better than living his whole life in there, sleeping in odd, uncomfortable positions with nothing to cushion the hard floor. He would starve to death eventually, which would be slow and painful anyway. "But what if there's something in the house," he asked thoughtfully. "I haven't been in there in a long time.. forever, it seems like now. Could you.. Maybe.. check it for me?"
"You didn't go home after the ants were killed? Even once?"
"No.. I was going to but I was to afraid.. Could you, please..."
"I suppose I could." The sun was rising now, cutting through the chill of the night air and making it easier to see. Rae stood up, lifting her weapon out of the dirt before having a quick glance around at the seemingly-empty houses. She really didn't expect to find anything at a "Which one's yours?"
If the smell of Grayditch had been bad before, it was nothing compared to the Wilks' house. There was the burnt smell of course, all the same smells as outside.. But there was something else as well. It smelt of death and rotting meat.
Rae wrinkled her nose in disgust as she opened the door wide, attempting to ventilate the house. She found herself standing in a sort of entrance room, a rotting ant corpse to her right. But that wasn't the smell disturbing her most. She wasn't sure what it was exactly until she entered the next room.
There, on the living room floor was a body. Not an ant body this time, but a man. His clothes were singed in random spots, one side of his face burnt. He looked a lot like Bryan. She wandered if this was Bryan's father and if he knew his dad had died.
Rae was glad Bryan hadn't seen this. It would have been nightmare-inducing if nothing else.
She sat at a chair in the middle of all the mess, trying to decide what to do. The body's would have to go for sure. She knew that. And Mr. Wilks would have to be buried with respect, as opposed to the ant bodies that Rae planed to burry all at once in one place. All of this had occured to her. What she couldn't decide was what she was going to do with Bryan.
Being in a big house all alone seemed almost as bad as being in that little tinny bomb shelter. He was scared, she knew that. How could he not be? But being alone for a long time was always scary. How could being alone in a house be different?
Rae forced herself to push her emotions aside and stood up to take care of the mess. She never said she would, only that she would check to see that the house was safe. But by promising that, she felt that she had promised more then to just quickly scan through the house. And what kind of person would I be if I let him see his home this way?
Rae got to work, dragging the lifeless, giant bugs through the front door, around to the back of the house and throwing them into a pile. She never found a shovel, so she used her hands to dig. She felt like a dog burying her treasures, except that they weren't. They were rotting and falling apart. She hoped that Mr. Wilks hadn't started to decompose just yet, though in the back of her mind she knew that he had. Of course he had. But she would have to ignore it to finish the job.
Once she had finished digging, deciding the two holes were deep enough, she had broken all of her nails. Many of them had bent backwards, snapping in half under the stress. It had taken hours without a shovel and she was sweating quite a bit.
"And now for the easy part," she announced out loud to herself, pushing the corpse into the large ditch before throwing the dirt back in, on top of the ants.
Rae collapsed on her back on top of it all, taking deep breaths and dreading what she knew had to come next. Just the thought turned her stomach. She felt grateful that she had at least thought of digging both holes at once, instead of dragging him out there and smelling his rotten form while she tried and finished her work. All that was left now was to bury him and she had dug out a nice, dignified spot, away from the ants but still in the back "yard," or what was left of it.
Rae didn't want to get up, though she was cooking out in the sun. Part of her felt that she would rather run off than go drag a dead body through the house. Sure, she dealt with dead bodies before. but none that had been dead longer than an hour or so. This was different.
Finally, feeling that if she put it off any longer, she may not do it at all, Rae stood up and walked slowly into the house. The smell wasn't near as bad as before, but still, the stench of a rotting man clung to the floor and ceiling. She tried not to breath from her nose, but the air even tasted horrible.
Grabbing Mr. Wilks by the ankles, she dragged him through the room, out the door, and into the freshly, hand-dug grave. Was that a squishing sound when he hit the bottom? Rae shook her head, trying to clear it and keep the contents of her stomach on the inside at the same time.
"Um.." Rae stood there, awkwardly for a moment, trying not to look at him. "I'm sure you were a good man and.. meant only the best for your son and... well... everything else.. You won't have to worry anymore because.. Well, because I'm here to help.." She felt a little silly doing this but it only seemed right to her. "And I... I promise your boy will be safe now.. Um... Rest in peace?.." Rae rolled her eyes at herself and pushed the dug out dirt back in and over Mr. Wilks.
Once she was all finished, It didn't seem like enough. She knew she had done so much for the boy all ready; dealing with all the dead bodies so that he wouldn't have to. But the house still smelt horrible. She didn't feel right just sending him in with it like that.
"I bet there's some Abraxo Cleaner somewhere in the house..." Rae went back in, still breathing through her mouth, searching through cabinets and drawers. Then she found what she was looking for. The smell of Abraxo never seemed so cleansing.
Rae scrubbed everything down stairs, making sure not to miss a single amount of body fluid; be it blood or.. she didn't want to think about what else could have possibly been on the floor and walls after everything that had happened. She felt like the murderer in a scene from one of the books she had scavenged, cleaning up the bloody mess before the authorities arrived. She never thought she would ever have to do something like this. It was very tedious and tiring work. She imagined that if she knew she would have to do this after a homicide, it would make the murder much less worth it.
"Your back!"
Rae wiped her forehead, trying to look less exhausted than she was. "Yes, I am. The house is safe."
"What took so long?"
"I... Uh..."
"Did you bury my pa?" The boy hung his head a little. Rae wasn't going to lie to him.
"I did."
"Thank you.."
"Your welcome.. How did you know he was..."
"That woman told me.. Said she found him in the house."
"Aw.. Well, like I said, it's safe.. so, I'll just be going.."
"You're leaving?" Bryan looked up at her, disappointment and sadness in his eyes. "But.. you're the only person who showed me any kindness since my pa.."
Rae didn't know what to say. She knew what it was like to feel abandoned by her parents. Being alone at such a young age was hard. And she never really wanted to leave Bryan alone in the house anyway.
Rae stared at him for a minute or two and he just stared back, waiting for her to go. "What then?" Rae asked, feeling bad for telling him she was leaving. "What do you want me to do?"
"I... I don't know.. You're the adult!" Bryan sounded mad and looked up at her angrily. But Rae knew he was just confused and sad, but most of all, he was lonely.
Rae bent down so that they were eye-level. "Do you want me to stay?"
Bryan said nothing. He just continued to look at her.
"If there are two beds in your house, then I will stay, if that's what you want."
"Forever?"
Rae almost felt like her heart was going to break. All of this was so sad. She wanted to say something but her throat was tight, so she just nodded.