Rick sat there outside the vault staring at the numbers for what felt like an eternity. He was in a state of shock and was hoping by some slim chance the warning siren would go off, and the hydraulics would whistle to life. He was tearing himself apart inside-out, thinking of just why? Why would he want to go out there? Why leave? Why now did he decide to do this now? This was supposed to be just a normal day where he would wake up, go to work, and maybe develop some balls to tell Amata how he truly felt. Maybe stand up to Butch. But now he stood all alone outside of the door, standing with just a 10mm handgun with only two clips, a bag with his emergency supplies he dumped and a picture of his father.
He turned around trying to pretend the skeletons were not real. He took his time walking up to the wooden gate that shielded him from the outside world. He reached out to it and froze trying to find a reason or another way out. Some way to avoid this situation, some way to press the reset button, just some way.
"Fuck, what the hell do I do!" he screamed with an echo bouncing in reply. "Dad, I can't do this alone there's no way in hell I can step out there! I just want things to go back to how they were," sobbing the last words out. Rick continued to sob, struggling inside to find another answer.
"NO! Come on! Pull yourself together! If Dad went out, so can you! Crying now isn't going to solve anything! Just do it!" With the help of his speech, he opened the door, waiting for the worst.
Walking outside his first reflex was to cover his eyes wondering what the hell could be that strong. Opening his eyes his jaw dropped seeing the outside world for the first time. He learned about the topside world through class but actually seeing it was exhilarating. The sun, the vast expanse of land that went on for miles upon end. Rick felt uneasy without the vault walls holding him down.
For the first time, he felt a new wave of energy by how much there could be out there. Somewhat quivering from his recent sob he started walking down the hill walking with a wave of curiousness over this new world. He walked slowly taking in the buildings and surroundings, noticing a large cluster of metal off to his right.
While distracted he ended up bumping an old shopping cart by chance and stopped to stare at it. Whatever it was used in the past life, its use-fullness was certainly been expired being utterly rusted into the ground. Still amused he kicked it and watched it slide down the hill on its cage until it was stopped by a mailbox.
Thats when he heard the ominous tone of whistling tune and his first instinct was to crouch down and take cover by the fence which in turn fell over by the mere touch of another human. A small robot floated by leaving a small gas trail of an acidic vapor a bit of carbon monoxide flowing in the wind, the same kind Andy would expel. It did not seem to mind anything that had happened with the mailbox, the shopping cart or the fact a human was out here at all and continued on its way.
"Hey," Rick called out. The robot turned around and circled the other way without any indication that the man had said a word.
Fuck me, maybe this isn't as terrible as everyone made this out to be. Overseer said this place was a death sentence.
He hopped the gate walking through the ruined house he started looking around. There was a couple of dead skeletons, what looked to be a cabinet with just a couple of empty tin cans and a broken whiskey bottle. With one last look, he walked out the front door looking toward the Nuka Cola station but found something else in return.
Standing in front of him were two men with scars and a foul stench with patched metal and cloth, and one female with a lime green mohawk, a band that barely offered any modesty on the chest, and a man made skirt out of what looked to be old curtains. Now he didn't know shit about this world, but Rick had a terrible feeling of what could come out of this. He felt a little wet behind the ears with just a blue vault suit that was still majorly clean, and a neat high fade going on in his head.
"Holy shit, well what do we have here?" the first male said. "Its one of them fucking vaultie's! Me and Klint were arguing about this shit the other day. I can't fuckin believe it! That guy owes me two lines now!" the slimmer one croaked with glee.
"Klint? He really bet on another vaultie coming out? You guys are fuckin retards betting on stupid shit like that! I call bullshit!" the female replied with a heavy accent that Rick could not recognize. The slimmer one proceeded to pull out a large crow bar out of the back humming a tune as he walked closer to Rick.
Warning sirens were going off in Rick's head like crazy. "Hey guys, I don't want any trouble." He backed away slowly, shaking as the adrenaline was slipping into his system. Without warning the slimmer one stepped sideways and swung the crowbar into Ricks lower right forearm, the one that was wrapped around the pistol's grip. The female laughed with glee and the larger one turned with a look of boredom and started searching the Nuka Cola machine.
Rick slammed into the side of the building with a cry of pain holding on to his forearm and adrenaline kicking off. The gun fell to the ground with a dull metal clank, and the female picked it up laughing more as she inspected the new toy.
"Damn! This shit looks brand new! This is the finest piece I've ever seen! Okay I call dibs. Hope you don't mind." she declared openly pointing back and forth between them. "Rigs, hurry up we need to head back soon. I don't see why you find so much pleasure in this. We're really too close to Megaton."
"Fine ill make it quick. Pussies, I swear!" She slid into Rick's side and violently kicked his forearm in a fluid motion, and seemed to get a thrill out of the crack she had imposed. Without warning, she straddled on top of him and slammed a knee into his his pelvic, then into his already distorted forearm. Rick gasped from the pain until she pulled the pistol right up to his jaw and got down ear level with him.
"I've killed four people, and you're going to be number five. The more you scream, the more of a high I get out of it!. Ah, this fucking kid is crying! Hahaha he's fucking crying!" She pulled out a knife laughing as Rick began to weep. Rick scrambled back and forth as she screamed out a wicked laugh and pressured the knife at the base of his juggler.
Thats when a small whistle was heard, and the girl became extremely heavy. Rick opened his eyes and found the girl was collapsed on top of him with her head on his shoulder with torso was becoming increasingly warm and wet.
"Goddamn! Did I not tell her?! Get back to the school-"
He then heard another whistle and the large one seemed to have tripped slamming into the mailbox gripping his shoulder. The man screamed in pain trying to get up but dropped like a doll after a third whistle. Rick rolled the girl off with his one good arm, grabbing the pistol and sprinting with the new found energy that flooded his veins. Tears rolling in his eyes with visible blood dripping through his jumpsuit he was going numb from everything that had just happened.
Rick scrambled up the hill holding his injured arm, until seeing two men running over in his direction. With a look of shock, Rick turned around and slammed into a wooden stake in his rush. He franticly tried to get back up with his injured arm but howled in pain and slammed back down squeezing it, vision becoming more and more blurry as the pain escalated to new heights.
With a particularly soothing and calm voice, the man with a spiffy looking hat ran up and grabbed his shoulder saying, "Hey! Calm down, just calm down. Take it easy, you're hurt and just almost got unlucky with a trio of raiders. Whats your name?" The man next to him started talking, but Rick couldn't understand anything beyond what the first man had said.
"Rick, my names Rick," he gasped as he squeezed his forearm. Ricks breath became rapider, eventually gasping for air. The two men looked at eachother in a panic as Rick collapsed back onto his arm, detaching himself from his first hour in the Capital Wasteland.
Author's notes: This is my first story ever posted. The idea wouldn't leave my brain of how the lone wonderer was able to do all of this shit. I mean one doesn't just go out and become a badass at day one so i tried my best to keep it realistic. It's going to get dark phycological, and gory. Don't know what route ill end up taking but I'm basically just rolling with the flow. Please Review, good, bad or suggestions. I'm open to anything to help me get better. Thank you for the time to read my story! :) hopefully its enough to keep you wanting to read more.