He had no idea where he was. After the overseer sent him out of the vault for the third and last time he was lost not physically but mentally lost what was he supposed to do with himself out here? Go to one of the city's and start over?
He couldn't do that, he might have helped some of them with their issues but he can't call any of those places home. Going to the brotherhood wasn't a choice he wanted the military life wasn't for him.
So at the end of the day he stayed close to home. For the past four days he never went far from the mountains hiding the vault, he kept his equipment the stuff he kept instead of selling or breaking in a cave a good two hours away from home.
He knew how to live out here but he wasn't sure if he even wanted that. In the vault his parents and friends were inside, and out here the only friends he made were dead. What was the point now? He was lost. No direction, no mission, just nothing.
XxX
He woke up with air smelling so clean he was surprised no downright shocked it smelled even better then the air inside the vault he didn't couldn't believe it. And when he opened his eyes he was surrounded by green.
Green grass, leaves on thick strong trees and a sky so blue he would swore it was fake if he didn't see it himself. It was beautiful. Like pre-war times in the books the vault had. And when he stared out past the trees he saw great green pastures that looked as if it went on for miles.
I must be dead. But why did I end up in heaven? I should be in hell.
But really he couldn't care any less he was… not happy but content. Did god see his actions against the master and decide to send him here? Had to be the only reason why.
Life after death. The only question he had was how did he died? He remember sleeping in the cave and then he was here in this little group of trees. Now that he thought about it he didn't really care the only thing now to do was move, but what direction should he go?
He nearly checked his pip-boy before he lowered his arm again realizing it weren't work in heaven. He stood there for a good few minutes just taking in the air and cool breeze hitting him instead of the skin burning sun of California, here it nearly felt cold.
He just picked a random direction and walked what was the rush? There wasn't he took his time one step at a time past the amazing trees the grass covered with dew and he still couldn't believe it right now. Him in heaven. But where was everyone else? All he could do was walk forward praying for any sign of civilization. Humans build no matter where they ended up after all.
The sun was high in the sky so he knew without even looking at his pip-boy it was noon. He had a good couple of hours to find some kind of shelter it wasn't a very important thing he had water and food and knew how to ration make sure it lasted for days if need be, but experience taught him that the worst of creatures come out in the dark so it was either walking all night or sleeping in this great plain.
Neither were good choices to him but he would rather walk in the dark then sleep in the open. Heaven or not he wasn't going to keep his guard down. The risk wasn't worth it.
Staring straight ahead he wondered once more what his friends and parents were thinking. He knew for a fact Albert has every intention of leaving the vault his parents he hoped would stay inside they were too old to leave the vault and make a new life in the wasteland.
He didn't want them to suffer the burning heat of the sun, eyes twitching violently never seeing the giant star in the sky, lack of clean food. Dangers at what felt like in every direction around him. He was never safe unless Ian and Dogmeat were with him.
But look at where they are now. He didn't deserver to be here.
So now he wondered if Albert got his wish in the end. If he did he cursed himself for dying on them, he and whoever followed Albert were doomed they wouldn't know a thing about how to survive in the wasteland. Unless they all made it to shady sands he hoped the mayor would accept them with open arms after everything he did for the man.
But in the end that pain in his stomach would never leave him alone, and all he could pray for he wouldn't see any of them for a long time no matter how lonely it got here. He didn't want them to die for he can have some company after all. Still heaven seems to be pretty empty, not a thing for what felt like days now.
Maybe he went in the wrong direction looking for… well something, be it a village a great city that put pre-war civilization to shame or even a twist that he wasn't even in heaven but was in fact walking in hell. Maybe this was hell forever living in solitude until his mind and will was broken. He really hoped not though.
Taking a sip from his canteen he sees a rock formation partly hidden among some trees a good distance away while it might not have been late it was better to rest and never find shelter for who knows how long. Turning his feet in the direction that he bet all his caps was a cave. He couldn't help but snap his fingers seeing that he was right about it being a cave. Nice.
Before heading inside he turned his flashlight on that's built into his helmet, he didn't had a pip-boy 3000 after all. Walking inside it looked like an old regular cave, but after getting in deeper he realized something was wrong with the place.
It wasn't getting dark, not because his flashlight was super bright but because everything was dim, low light really but it was still easier to see with a flashlight so he kept it on.
Before he can really set up a temporary camp here he wanted to clear the place out, whether it was animals or hidden raiders he didn't care the cave needed to be cleared before he can feel safe here. Flicking the safety off on his AK-112 he held the rifle pointing it down the cave passage ready for anything that came to meet him.
For what felt like hours he just kept walking down the passage with nothing meeting him he wondered how big was this cave? It shouldn't be this huge unless he was going down deeper without noticing a damn thing. Which he felt was ridiculous.
In the time he was walking he switch his AK for the City-Killer deciding it was the better weapon for such close quarter's. It wasn't until he believed the sun and moon has passed that something came out of the darkness.
It was far from scary. Ghouls gave him nightmares this thing was in his dreams. The thing had to be only three feet tall with a very bat like appearance but the teeth were smaller and fangs longer then should be possible. It could have passed as some mutant animal but the thing was too… cute and cuddly to pose any danger to anyone. The thing stared at him, he stared back.
The thing looking as if it was done with the staring contest flew at the vault dweller, his reflexes kicking in he shouldered and pulled the trigger of the shotgun blowing apart the bat in… hexagon shapes? Heaven was weird. But he understood the place couldn't have blood ruining everything. But still. Really?
Whatever.
Hearing the sound of wings flapping he looked backed up and dozens of those bats coming right at him. Not intimidated in the slightest he pulled the trigger of the Killer until nothing was left in the passage. It might have been weird with the way the bats died it at least kept the place from stinking out the was with rotting corpse at least. Pulling the magazine out from the Killer he switched it out with a new one.
With how big this cave was he starting to think it was the better choice too just turn back and make traps around his camp at the entrance of the cave instead of wasting time with this nonsense. Actually he did just that.
Turning back around he walked back to the entrance until he heard something loud and big running behind him. A Supermutant. Had to be the only thing running in this cave. But how?
Spinning back around he opened fire on the green abomination until a purple hand slapped the Killer out of his hands before tackling him to the ground harshly knocking the wind from his lungs. Before he could recover the monster started to beat him in the chest with sloppy hits that lacked finesse, but made up for that with its strength.
He buckled the surprising light monster off of him he rolled away rocks and dust getting thrown in the air he a grabbed a handful of rocks and throw it all in the face of the short monster, hearing the pained grunts as dirt and rocks got into its eye, he lunged for his Killer grabbing it he aimed at the monster and fired until the shotgun clicked empty.
Breathing slowly he stood back up and stared at the mutant wannabe. Just like those bats from before it fell apart into glowing hexagon shapes. The thing before it just dispersed into the air looked strange, kind of like a man but at same time it wasn't. It looked warped. Loose skin hanged from its frame and it was skinny with blue eyes. It's nose was ridiculously small though. It was in the middle ground of being funny and disgusting.
Noticing something else he moved over to where it lay, he picked up a single claw from the ground. He pocketed it thinking he sell or trade it later somewhere else. If he finds somewhere else. He was honestly starting to think maybe this was hell.
A tame one, not the all burning fire and demons in it. He wouldn't have lasted five minutes if it was.
He shook his head and walked back to the entrance he just make a trap with string and grenades to keep himself safe. Better then nothing after all.
XxX
Opening his eyes he was met with an unfamiliar cave rocks, different shapes then he was used too seeing. Checking his pip-boy he saw it was only four in the morning. Packing up his sleeping roll and traps he had a small breakfast of two sips of water and a bite of fruit. Amazing breakfast.
Finally leaving this god forsaken cave he took a random direction and walked, the night sky like he thought was different from earth, the star formations were unrecognizable taking shapes he knew nothing about. But the moon looked pretty much the same strangely enough. Why?
Tricks of the mind to fake him out? Maybe Satan was watching him walk around without a clue of what to do. He just decide to stop thinking of the unimportant things and walk. Sooner or later he's going to find a village and he didn't want to walk past it because his head was in the clouds.
He stopped. Right there in front of him was a pre-war deer. Deer. Like in the books. He watched it and saw it had large antlers that would look really nice on a wall. But he just walked past it. He didn't want to be weighted down by such a large beast if he could help it, no matter how tempting it was to eat it.
Not until hours later have passed did the vault dweller finally found signs of human life that he let the tension in his body go. Ahead of him was a village a nice looking one with bricks for buildings, some of the houses are even two story's tall with fewer that were three when he got a closer look.
This place had bricks for building material, no they knew how to make bricks to build with. Was this only with small villages like this? No this one in particular must be well off to have been using brick he was sure other places would make do with wood.
Looking off to the side he sees large fields of crops he didn't know, and the people working on it from before sun rises to sun down. When he got closer he notices the men and women were shorter then he was used to seeing. A good two feet shorter no less.
Not really letting such a fact bother him he just kept on walking until he reaches the village, right outside the entrance of it was two men, taller then the rest of the people here by a only a good six or seven inches. It made sense keep raiders away with the strongest people for guard duty. But the weapons were strange, both carried rifles he didn't recognize.
When he finally reached them one stepped forward with a hand raise and said.
"Hi. Who are you big guy?" The guard said in a friendly tone if a bit wary, of the giant of a man decked in armor head to toe. The guard didn't know what kind of armor the man wore but it wasn't like he was an expert in Leanbox when it came to what the military were issued with. If the man was part of the military.
The vault dweller could only stare at the man in confusion. The exile could only place the language as probably being Japanese since the vault did have holotapes of different languages, more for entertainment then actually learning the language. Or it could be French for all he knew.
The guard said a few more things to the vault dweller and even started to make hand motions trying to get his point across, at the end of it the man groaned and slumped.
The dweller decided to try and help the two by talking like he should have.
"I'm sorry but I don't understand a thing you said." A pause and then the vault dweller placed his hand on his chest and said "I'm Maxwell." Max said to the guard in a language he was barely familiar with, if he thought about it was spoken by the rich of Leanbox. He understood Maxwell is the giants name, but not much else.
Nonetheless he smiled seeing that the progress that they were making was pretty quick. Taking a look at his partner he signaled for her move forward, the male guard reply backed "I'm Jin." The other guard "Aina." Her voice was cold.
Max only smiled to himself seeing this progress but what to do now was the question. The male guard motioned for Max to follow him and he just nodded and walked with the man to where ever they were going. Maybe to someone that spoke English like himself?
Max wasn't sure but he hopes it was the case, he didn't want to follow the man to a trap but what choice did he have? And if he was walking to a trap then he burn half the village and make a run for it in the chaos.
Looking around the place he noticed the buildings were not only built with bricks but were very well maintained, everything looked so new up close. Where was he in this part of the village? Might just be the homes since they all look the same.
Max really wished he understood what the man was saying, the guard was probably giving him a tour of the place, but he just couldn't understand a word he was saying. Maybe the man was giving Max an explanation on why their was animal people walking around in heaven. If he didn't see ghouls and supermutants before this he would have openly stared at them. Now they were just a weird sideshow. You're aware of them but it wasn't that interesting. Though a few people were staring at him.
Finally walking past the homes, the market district, they both stopped in front of a house that was three stories tall outside of it Max noticed the flag pole outside of it.
A U.S. flag with the middle star replaced with a upper case E.
Did America claim heaven? Not a chance must be a pre-war American running this village. Max couldn't help the rising excitement in his chest. Was he going to meet a pre-war living member of society before the bombs ever dropped? He's never been curious about it reading from the books, but coming out of someone's very own mouth? He be paying rapt attention. But the E was a strange addition.
The guard knocked on the door calling something out maybe the guard captain? Or the mayor? Maybe the former.
When the door opened, stepped out a old man in his seventies only his face and hair showing his age but physically he looked top form. He was nearly as tall as Max is. He must be the head guard.
The head guard looked at the shorter man and opened his mouth before he took a glance at Max and froze. He looked at Max with surprise before his eyes went to his pip-boy, which had barely controlled disgust. The head guard looked at Jin and with a few words sent him on his way.
The man looked at Max, his face devoid of emotion before he said in plain English "Come inside vault boy. You have some questions I guess." The man said and walked backed in. Max followed him inside and the place looked like any pre-war home he saw in his books, living room off to the side was a kitchen, stairs on one side and other things seen in a pre-war home.
The man made a motion to a chair while the man himself sat on a couch. The seat was comfortable.
"So first things first boy, my name's Orion Moreno. What's yours?" The man said plainly.
Max looked at him and replied back "Maxwell Stone."
"Ok so before I start answering questions you have answer some of mine, in order. First know anything about the Enclave, what year is it when you came here current events and the vault you crawl out of." Moreno said in a cold tone of voice wanting to hear the happenings of the wasteland.
Max gave him the answers to his questions first he didn't know anything about the Enclave the year was 2161 and a mutant known as only the Master has been killed leaving his army scattered without leadership, and Max himself came out of vault thirteen. Other then that their wasn't much of interest going on as much as Max knew, settlements rise and fall, raiders went around stealing and monsters roamed the wasteland.
"That's. Different from what I was excepting to hear. But could have been worse. Before the NCR. Ok boy ask you're questions I got some answers, time for you get your own." Moreno said his face impasse, thinking about the information he was given.
Max asked the very important question he s been wanting to ask since he woke up, but knew since he killed that monster in the cave he knew was wrong. "Is this heaven?" Max asked his voice hopeful.
Moreno laughed at him but he couldn't do it for to long, after all even he thought it was heaven too.
"No it's not son, but funny enough the closest thing to it is far above are heads. Where those goddesses came from. So what's you're other questions?" Max blinked at that. Goddesses. Plural. More then one.
What?
"I can tell from that look on you're face I threw a wrench in the gears of you're head. I tell you everything you need know about the place to help you out then you ask you're questions."
Max could only nod. And Moreno told him what he needed to know, he wasn't on earth but Gamindustri. With only four nations Planeptune, Lastation, Lowee, and Leanbox. The nation he was in now was Leanbox. Known for its great green pastures. And it's amazing hills. For some reason Moreno chuckled at that. The goddess here was called Lady Green Heart. It's been a few years since their last disaster, something Moreno didn't know to much about it himself, just some bitch trying to takeover the world or destroy it or something. Though for the last few months Leanbox has been in a, while not a state of emergency, has been watching its borders closely with a number of villages just coming off the map, numbers that have not been disclosed to the public. And an ambitious military figure trying to increase Leanbox military might against the wishes of lady green heart. Their was more going on but most of it just went over Max's head.
"So what you think of the place?" Moreno asked a smirk on his face.
"It's very strange. But much nicer then the wasteland." Honestly any place was better then the wasteland. Max was just glad he was out of there. What did he have to worry about now? Nothing.
"So what's your plan now?" Moreno asked the vault dweller.
Max just shrugged his shoulders, he didn't have a plan and wasn't going to make one to soon. Just explore the land and anything beyond it.
"I can tell you're a man who wanders. So I want to offer you a job." Max gave Moreno his full attention. Max wasn't going to refuses a job offer since now he knows his caps were worthless.
"You see boy I been here for a long time, to the point I gotten soft, not as strong as I used to be. So I'm going to send you out to kill some bandits for me. The pay is a fifty thousand credits. Oh one more thing. Especially kill the guy named Brute the leader. He's new to the area but he s been harassing the traders for too long and even with that prick in the military trying push their numbers up he's not doing it fast enough, to fix every bandit or monster problem."
Maxwell looked at the map he was going and saw the village marked down, with were the bandits were hold out showing there position marked in red. Has to be a few hours away. Less if Max takes a constant pace.
"One thing I don't like about this place is everyone's problem with not killing anyone that's a bandit. All these city's have so much crime its ridiculous, if the Enclave was here were be leaving stacks of corpses, instead putting them behind bars. So much money and resources keeping animals safe and comfortable." Moreno said disgust on how the Goddesses run the nation's. Max didn't really care. He didn't exist to fix this world after all. He lived for himself now.
Max rolled up the map and stuffed it in his pocket and thanked Moreno for the job and left without another word. Moreno couldn't stop thinking about the vault he raided in his younger years. Thirteen. A number hated and feared in the wasteland. He wondered if he was talking to a living myth. But then again one man couldn't have stopped the Master could they? Then again Moreno thought bitterly to himself it took one prisoner to destroy the oil rig. He needed his whiskey right now.
Outside Max left the village and remembering the map went to the woods for these bandits. Max uncaring of the future continued his walk in a forest on a different planet, far away from home. Far away from an unfulfilled fate.
Xxx
Ok I lied this isn't as long as lost son. But I wanted to write something with a fallout one character for a few weeks now, so I did this. Never done before I tell you on that I didn't lie. I think. Oh well. Leave likes, dislikes, love or hate.