Chapter One: Growing Up
"They just grow up so fast!"
When the girl came out, she cried at the sheer horror of being there, in the world. More specifically, a brightly lit room with medical equipment. She saw a man lean other her, wearing a white coat. The man said something about being her father. She was told that her name would be Kate, after her mother. A small screen was pushed towards her, showing an image of a pretty woman, with her auburn hair in a ponytail. Arms scooped her up from under, showing her to the woman laying on the table. Her face was covered in sweat and she looked like she had gone through a major ordeal. The woman commented on the girls resemblance to her father. The arms put the girl back on the table.
The medical equipment started to buzz and beep worriedly, as if something was happening. The woman on the table started to breathe heavily, as if it was difficult to fill her lungs. The man yelled for the woman to be helped. The baby girl stopped crying, wondering what was taking place. The man told another doctor to puts the baby girl out of the room and it all disappeared.
ONE YEAR LATER
The girl opened her eyes and was greeted by a hazy white light. "Careful. the light is just another thing to get used to down here," A familiar voice consoled her. Her vision cleared and she saw the man, wearing his usual white lab coat, this time on top of a blue coverall jumpsuit. The man bent down, "Come on, walk to daddy!" His hands were receptively placed towards the ground. The girl complied, using her two small legs to propel her to the man. She walked into the man's arms and he scooped her up. "Look at that! Only a year old and already walking like a pro!" The man swung her around slightly, continuing his small speech. "Your mother would be so proud," the man then placed her on the ground. "I'm sorry to do this, but it is only for a little while," The man said as he shut the gate on her small enclosure. The man left the room, the sound of a shutting door followed.
Now alone, the girl began to look around, seeing her toybox just outside of the enclosure. She made quick work of the gate, using her small hands to fiddle with the latch. She pushed it open and walked right out. The girl looked in the box, seeing her favorite stuffed bear. She grabbed it, and clutched it for wanting to hold it. Left just outside of the box was a book that the man had recently read to her, called 'You're Special'. She decided to ignore it and continue making her bear dance. Soon, the sound of the door opening came again and the girl looked up to see the man smiling at her.
"You're quite the little explorer, aren't you? Serves me right for trying to pen you in. I want to show you something," the man said, advancing toward a framed passage on a table near her toybox. "It's a passage from the Bible. 'Revelation 21:6 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely'. It was your mother's favorite verse," the man bent his head down reverently and then began to lead the girl out of the room. "C'mon, lets go see if your little friend Amata wants to play,"
NINE YEARS LATER
"Surprise!"
"Jeez, Stanley, you turned on the lights to fast. You blinded the poor kid!"
"Happy birthday, Kate! I can't believe you're already ten. Your mother would be so proud!" Kate's vision cleared, revealing a scene in the cafeteria of the vault. Everyone had gathered to celebrate her tenth birthday. Her father stood in front of her, in his usual white lab coat. Behind him stood Amata, Kate's best friend, and the daughter of the vault's Overseer. The Overseer stepped up to Kate.
"Well, now that you're ten, that means you are ready for your first vault responsibilities! That means you get your very own Pip-boy," the man said to her. He handed her a rather bulky looking wrist appliance. The girl looked around and saw that many of the adults and older children wore their own. She took it from the Overseer and slid it on her right wrist. It fit comfortably.
Amata walked to Kate, " Happy birthday! I bet you can't guess what I got you for your present. Go on, guess!" Amata pestered.
"... I really don't know, Amata. What is it?" Kate resigned.
Amata smiled at her own cleverness. "Who's your favorite barbarian? That's right, Grognak! Issue 14. And with no missing pages!"
Kate knew it was weird but, hell, she liked comic books. "Wow, thanks Amata! Where did you get it?
"I found it in a box of my dad's old things. Weird, imagine him reading comics, right?" Amata said. She then allowed Kate to mingle with some of other guests. Kate walked towards to counter, stopping by the booth at which Mrs. Palmer was sitting.
Mrs. Palmer turned to her, "I can't believe you're already ten! It seems that it was only yesterday that you and your father... Nevermind me, I'm sure you just want your present, right?" Kate tried not to look sheepish as she nodded. "Well, here you go! A nice sweet roll, baked fresh this morning. And since it's your birthday, you don't have to share it with anyone!" Kate mumbled a thanks as she took the rather large roll. It was still warm and smelled nice. She held it as she continued to the bar. Sitting at the far end was Stanley, the nice guy who performed maintenance on the vault.
Kate suspected that he found her Pipboy and fixed it up. She walked over to him. "How do like the Pipboy?" He asked.
"It's great. Did you fix it up for me?"
"As a matter of fact, I did. Everyone thinks that the 3000 series is outdated, but I've always preferred them for their reliability," Kate didn't really know what he was talking about, but she nodded. "Anyway, you probably didn't come to hear me ramble. I have something else for you. Here, I was digging around and found this," he produced a red baseball cap and handed it to her. She thanked him and went to the counter. Andy, the Mr. Handy robot that Vault 101 had, produced a circular cake.
He called everyone around, his call mostly ignored, so he could cut the cake. Andy powered up his circular saw. Behind the noise, Kate could here a few protests as Andy brought down the saw. The cake was eviscerated on contact. Andy laughed nervously and a few others signed and said things like "Andy..."
From one of the booths, Butch shouted. Kate turned to look at the slightly older boy. "I'm hungry, and the idiot robot destroyed the cake! Give me that sweet roll Old Lady Palmer gave to you!"
Kate tried to take the high road, "Well Mrs. Palmer said that I didn't have to share with anyone..."
Butch mimicked her voice shrilly and continued to ask for it angrily. Kate's temper got the better of her. She had a way of pissing some people off when it wasn't convenient. "Go soak your head, Butch, I'm not giving you the roll," she said calmly. She then proceeded to stuff it in her mouth.
"That's it!" Butch slapped the table and stood up. He put up his fists. Kate did the same, pissed off at his audacity. Butch was about to throw the first punch when Officer Gomez stepped in. Gomez is the father of a boy, Freddie, who was Kate's age. Kate liked him. He grabbed the boy's arms.
"Butch, what are doing? Hitting a girl? And on her birthday!" He questioned. Kate made her way back to Amata.
Amata stared at Butch, with obvious distaste. "God, the nerve of that kid,"
"He tried to take my sweet roll!" Kate said.
"Wow, I mean on your birthday and everything,"
"I was a little my fault, he pissed me off, so I told him to go 'soak his head'," Amata smiled and giggled, "Anyway, can't you talk to your dad about him and his stupid little gang?"
Amata darkened a little, "You know how he gets," a finger tapped Kate on the shoulder. She turned to see her dad.
"That was Jonas on the intercom. He and I have been cooking up a little surprise for you. I don't think anyone would notice if you slipped out and met him in the reactor level. Go on," he smiled. Kate nodded and waved at Amata. She walked into the fluorescently lit hallway. Another woman was walking there and stopped to wish Kate a happy birthday. Kate walked away a bit later with a birthday poem. She'd read it later. Kate followed the signs on the ceiling to find the stairs leading to a lower level. She entered the reacted floor and was greeted by Jonas, a friend of her and her dad.
"What are you doing doing here, little girl?" He asked sarcastically.
"I'm not a kid anymore, Jonas! I'm ten now," Kate said, slightly indignant.
Jonas quickly replied, "I know. Your dad and I have been working on something, but I'd suspect he wants to give it to you himself. Let's just wait a second for the old man to catch up," Jonas adjusted his glasses. A second later, Kate's dad entered the reactor floor.
"Ready for your surprise?"
"What kind of surprise?" Kate asked.
Her dad looked at her, "Well, the Overseer thinks that you're old enough for a Pip-boy, I'd say you're old enough for this," he produced a BB gun from behind his back. He handed it to an awed Kate, as well as some BBs. "It took Jonas and I a while to find all the parts to fix it up with, but eventually we got it working. Do you know how hard it is to find a spring small enough to fit it?" He smiled. "Good thing Butch 'misplaced' that switchblade of his," he added and winked at Kate.
"Thanks dad! A-and You too, Jonas," Kate said, "but, where do we shoot with it? Certainly not here, right?"
Jonas and her father laughed, "Certainly not here, you're right. Unless we wanted the Overseer to beat down our door. Jonas and I also solved that, too. Follow me," her father said.
He lead them through a side door into a large, empty storage room. Towards the back, a few boxes were stacked and behind those, were a few targets. Her father spoke up, "You can shoot here. And best of all, you can come here whenever you want. Why don't you try it out?" he stepped aside, allowing Kate to proceed to the boxes.
Her dad showed her how to load the BB gun, and she loaded it. She shouldered it, and pulled the trigger at the middle target. The BB struck the circle and it spun around a few times. She shot another and hit it. Soon, a rather large cockroach wandered its way into the range. Her father warned her, "Careful honey, that's a radroach. You think you can deal with it?" Kate nodded and re-shouldered the gun and aimed at the roaches head. The insect paused and Kate took the advantage to pull the trigger.
The creature's head exploded, splattering the floor with a yellowish liquid. Kate looked disgustedly at it and then turned. "Jonas, get a picture of me and the big game hunter," her father smiled at Kate.
Jonas produced a camera, "Smile!" Jonas snapped the picture and the bright flash went off.
SIX YEARS LATER
Kate's father turned off his light. "As far as I can tell, you are a perfectly healthy sixteen year-old girl, so, yes, you do have to take the G.O.A.T test," Her father sat in his chair.
Kate resigned. "Ok. Is there anything I should know about the test?"
"Just answer it as honestly as possible, it judge your career in the future," he said.
Kate thanked her father and started to walk out. She passed Jonas on her way out to the classroom. They greeted in passing. Stepping out the door, she noticed Butch and his little gang, standing around Amata. Kate walked up and said to the ringleader, "What's going on here?"
Butch just said, "None of your business," and continued pestering Amata.
"You know, it would kind of suck if the Overseer came down on your little tunnel gang," I smiled and continued, having fun, "I might just want to go talk to him right now,"
Butch stared at her, glaring, "Well, thats bullshit," and again turned to Amata. He continued to ignore Kate. Amata looked at her, pleading. Kate got close and push Butch, hard, into the wall. He turned to her. 'Hey, I tried to take the high road' Kate though. He held up her hands in defence. The leader threw a punch toward her gut. Kate dodged to the left, punching at Butch's armpit. He stepped back, wincing, as Wally Mack, another member, stepped up to the plate. He threw a punch in towards her left shoulder, causing Kate to jump right slightly. She allowed her fist to connect Wally's abdomen. He doubled over and coughed. Butch piped up, "C'mon guys, these bitches aren't worth our time," and they walked into the classroom.
Kate turned to Amata. "Thanks for getting rid of them. Assholes," Amata said.
"Why were they bothering you?" Kate asked.
Amata looked at her, "I don't know, they won't leave me alone! They keep calling me a 'daddy's girl' and making fun of me for being the Overseer's daughter," she replied.
"Why don't you talk to your dad about them?" Kate asked.
Amata answered, "I don't think he would do anything about them," she shrugged and continued into the classroom. Kate followed, to be greeted by the teacher, Mr Brotch. Kate liked him well enough, he was pretty nice, just a little overbearing sometimes. Kate said, "Hello," and continued to her seat, at the front of the room.
Mr. Brotch greeted the rest of the class, "Now that all of you seemed to find the classroom alright, we can get started,"
He looked at his paper, "Question 1: You are approached by a frenzied Vault scientist, who yells,'I'm going to put my quantum harmonizer in your photonic resonation chamber!' What's your response?" Kate looked at her paper. The answers ranged from responses like: "Yeah, up yours too, buddy!" to just 'Slipping away before the madman could continue his rant,' Kate circled answer 1: "But doctor, wouldn't that cause a parabolic destabilization of the fission singularity?" Kate didn't really know what else to say.
She looked up. Brotch continued, "Question 2: While working as an intern in the Clinic, a patient with a strange infection on his foot stumbles through the door. The infection is spreading at an alarming rate, but the doctor has stepped out for a while. What do you do?" The answers this time were:
Amputate the foot before the infection spreads
Scream for help
Medicate the infected area to the best of your abilities
Restrain the patient, and merely observe as the infection spreads
Thinking of her dad, she selected the 'Medicate' option. Mr. Brotch started Question 3 "You discover a young boy lost in the lower levels of the Vault. He's hungry and frightened, but also appears to be in possession of stolen property. What do you do?" The 'Lead the boy to safety and then turn him into the Overseer' looked to be the best.
"Question 4: Congratulations! You made one of the Vault 101 baseball teams! Which position do you prefer?" Kate always like tossing the baseball to her father, so she picked 'Pitcher'.
"Question 5: Your grandmother invites you to tea, but you're surprised when she gives you a pistol and orders you to kill another Vault resident. What do you do?" This was an odd question. She never liked killing people, so Kate opted for the answer 'Offer your most prized possession for the resident's life'.
Brotch was on a roll, "Old Mr. Abernathy has locked himself in his quarters again, and you've been ordered to get him out. How do you proceed?" The answers were:
Use a bobby pin to pick the lock on the door
Trade a Vault hoodlum for his cherry bomb and blow open the lock.
Go to the armory, retrieve a laser pistol, and blow the lock off.
Walk away, and let the old coot rot.
None of these seemed like great answers, so she 'picked the lock'.
"Question 7: Oh, no! You've been exposed to radiation, and a mutated hand has grown out of your stomach! What's the best course of treatment?" 'Oh no!' Kate thought sarcastically. She penciled in 'Large doses of anti-mutagen agent'.
"Question 8: A fellow Vault 101 resident is in possession of a Grognak the Barbarian comic book, issue number 1. You want it. What's the best way to obtain it?" God this was getting repetitive. Kate answered with 'Slip some knock out drops into the resident's Nuka-Cola, and take the comic book when he's unconscious'.
"Question 9: You decide it would be fun to play a prank on your father. You enter his private restroom when no one is looking, and..." 'Ok, this is getting stupid,' Kate thought. All of the answers sounded dangerous, so she circled 'Loosen some bolts on some pipes. When the sink is turned on, the room will flood'. That sounded the least dangerous.
Finally, the last question! "Last question, folks! Question 10: Who is indisputably the most important person in Vault 101: He who shelters us from the harshness of the atomic wasteland, and to whom we owe everything we have, including our lives?" Brotch said that dully, as if it was unneeded. Every answer was 'The Overseer'.
Brotch finished with, "That's it, folks! The infamous goat! Hand in your test and then take the rest of the day off, to celebrate, or to pray, heh heh," Kate stood up. Advancing toward Brotch's desk, she gave him her test results. He pulled out a pen and looked over the test, marking a little as he went. "Interesting. 'Clinical Test Subject'... sounds like something you should excel at. I guess you and your dad will be working together," he gave back the test and it had 'Medicine', 'Science', and 'Repair' written on it. Kate shrugged, thinking that this wasn't the worst result and exited the classroom.