Okay, time for a little re-introduction. Hello, everyone, I am Relks the Disturbed. I've been writing for awhile, but this if my first major work in a few years. If anyone recognizes me, I was formerly the author of the Devil May Cry fanfic Devils Among Humanity. It was politely pointed out by a pair of reviewers that my character was too gary stu-ish, and that it was making the story uninteresting and predictable. So I took a step back, and have spent the last while getting better at "imperfecting" my main protagonists. So, if you spot any such problems with my new work, please by all means point it out to me. I'm striving to be the best I can be and horrible characters limit that exponentially. Anyways, now that that's out of the way, enjoy!
P.S. I have a mad love of making references, which will be sometimes be obvious, and sometimes subtle. I hereby challenge you to find as many as you can. ^_^
Disclaimer: I do not own the Fallout series, or any other referenced content, it is the property of Bethesda Softworks
2274...
"But, Dad, do I have to?" The sixteen-year-old whined as his father finished the final part of his physical in the clinic of Vault 101. He tried to appear sick, he really did, but to no avail. His dark blue eyes met his father's own brown ones as they stared each other down. Isaac Stark, for that was the young boy's name, tried to hold his father's gaze, but eventually faltered. He dropped his gaze in defeat, and his father reached out a hand to ruffle his messy dark brown hair.
"Yes, son, you have to take the G.O.A.T.. I had to take it, and so did everyone else in the Vault, so you do too," Jame said, giving his son an encouraging smile. 'Already sixteen... it seems like yesterday he was sneaking out of his playpen as a baby,' James thought to himself as his son hopped down from the examination table. Isaac wasn't the biggest kid for his age, standing only at 5' 5", but he was pretty sturdy for his size. Be that as it may, it didn't prevent James from worrying about him, not with those Tunnel Snake boys running around.
"Just be careful on your way to class, son," James told him. He remembered back to Isaac's tenth birthday, when Butch DeLoria had actually gotten into a fight with Isaac. Officer Gomez had broken it up before it got too bad, but not before Isaac had gotten a black eye. After that, Officer Gomez had offered to teach Isaac a little boxing, if not just to protect himself until he could find a security officer, and James had reluctantly agreed.
"Don't worry, Dad. I'm not afraid of that asshole, Butch," Isaac said with a confident smile, before James gave him a look.
"Language, young man," James said, looking stern.
"Sorry, Dad," Isaac said, grinning sheepishly.
"It's okay, son, just try not to let it happen around me again. Now you better get going, don't want to be late for the big test," James said, shooing him out of the office.
Isaac smiled at Jonas as he left the clinic, and then proceeded to take a right and head down the hallway towards his classroom. He frowned as he saw Amata Almodovar, his lifelong friend, being harassed by the Tunnel Snakes. Butch DeLoria, the self-proclaimed leader, Wally Mack, the know-it-all who thinks he's in charge, and Paul Hannon Jr., who -in Isaac's opinion- seemed like a nice enough guy when Butch and Wally weren't around, were the only three members of Vault 101's resident gang. Isaac approached cautiously, keeping his anger in check as he saw them slowly surrounding Amata.
"Leave me alone, you stupid Tunnel Snakes!" Amata yelled as she tried to move past them only to be blocked by Paul.
"Come with me after the test, and I'll show you a real 'tunnel snake'," Butch grinned lecherously from where he leaned on the wall, blocking the way to the classroom from Amata.
"Having fun?" Isaac said, stepping forward between Paul and Butch. Amata's eyes lit up with relief when she saw him, only to be replaced by worry as all three Tunnel Snakes glared at their fellow teen.
"None of your business, kid. Mess with the Tunnel Snakes, you're gonna get hurt, got me?" Butch said as he stood straight, the other Tunnel Snakes bucking up for a fight.
"I'm making it my business, Butch. Leave her alone, or else," Isaac said, glaring back at Butch.
"Oh, yeah, pipsqueak?" Butch growled as he got in Isaac's face, staring his down. While Isaac was 5' 5", Butch was closer to 5' 7", "Or else what?"
"Or else this!" Isaac growled back, jumping slightly as he snapped his head forward and slammed his forehead into Butch's nose. Paul swung at him with a left hook, and Isaac ducked as the past six years of boxing practice took hold. Isaac side-stepped Paul's clumsy hook and returned with two left jabs to the chin, followed by a right cross. The classic combo dropped Paul quickly, and Isaac turned just in time to catch Butch's right fist in the nose.
Isaac groaned at the pain as his head snapped back, and his brought up his arms to protect his face as Butch tried to punch him more with clumsy left-right combinations. Wally Mack tried to get involved as well, and Isaac found himself dodging and blocking more than fighting back. He took his chance when Wally stepped in front of Butch to try and get in the finishing punch. The Tunnel Snake threw a flashy right straight that Isaac saw coming a mile away. Isaac bobbed his head to the left to dodge the punch, and laid in several a series of hard punches to Wally's stomach.
Isaac managed to hit Wally's liver a couple times, and the pain of the repeated hits convinced Wally that Isaac was more trouble than he was worth. Isaac turned to Butch as Wally picked up Paul and ran off towards the classroom, and motioned for him to attack. Butch looked back and forth between his retreating fellow gang and Isaac. Apparently he thought differently than his friends, and attacked Isaac again.
Isaac dodged the first right straight that Butch threw, grinning at the Tunnel Snake. Butch saw this and was only angered further, throwing a series of quick left and right punches. Isaac dodged the first few, but then got two left hooks to his side. He grunted in pain and stopped moving, and Butch took advantage. Butch began hitting him repeatedly, Isaac's grunts of pain as he tried to protect his head raising Butch's spirits.
Isaac's sides soon hurt too much to move with his previous agility, and the fight broke down into a slugging match. Butch would catch him in his body, and Isaac would return by slugging him back. After they traded a few punches, Isaac made a mistake and caught a left hook to the jaw that left him reeling. His vision blurred for a moment, but he managed to see Butch's next punch and block it. Then he struck out with a big, hard right straight. Butch wasn't fast enough and caught the punch full in the face, knocking him out cold.
Isaac panted for a minute and wiped a bit of blood from his busted lip, then smiled at Amata, "You okay?"
Amata shook her head at her friend's actions, "I should be asking you that. Thanks for getting rid of them. Assholes."
"My pleasure," Isaac grinned, as he tried to shake off the soreness from the recent fight.
"Well, we should get going," Amata said, smiling at Isaac before she walked into the classroom. Isaac followed behind her, and after a snide remark from Mr. Brotch, they began the dreaded G.O.A.T. exam. Isaac swallowed a lump in his throat, wishing he was still fighting the Tunnel Snakes as the test began.
15 Minutes Later...
Isaac shifted nervously from foot to foot as Mr. Brotch looked over his exam. His anxiety only increased as Mr. Brotch's eyebrows raised at his result. 'Not plumbing...not plumbing... please oh please..." he thought to himself anxiously. It was relieved a bit when Mr. Brotch smiled at him.
"I'm surprised, Mr. Stark. Seems you're aptitude is for the engineering track. Congratulations," Mr. Brotch smiled, before sending Isaac on his way. Isaac sighed in relief as he left the classroom. Amata was waiting for him, and the two headed off towards the cafeteria for a well expected lunch.
-3 Years Later-
Isaac sat outside the huge door of Vault 101, staring at the large yellow "101" painted in the center of the massive gear shaped door. A few hours ago he had just been Isaac Stark, a member of the engineering crew for Vault 101, a happy-go-lucky kid with a tangent for smart remarks and a mean left hook. He stared down at the bloodstains on his Vault 101 jumpsuit, felt the weight of the looted items in the satchel strapped to his back, the cold of the metal 10mm pistol he still held in his right hand. In the past few hours, the kid in him died...
It all started with Amata waking him, biting back sobs as she explained what happened. Dad left the Vault, and as the Vault was unsealed, so too was Overseer Alphonse Almodovar's rage. Jonas, kind, happy Jonas, had been beaten to death by Vault Security for helping his father. In a cruel twist of fate, just as his father had left, the worst radroach attack they'd ever experienced occurred. In the resulting panic, the Overseer abused his power in full. Vault Security was told to apprehend Isaac, dead or alive.
After Amata had caught him up on the horror of it all, they had agreed that he could no longer stay in the Vault. He had to follow his dad, to the world outside. As they had grown up, Amata and Isaac had tossed around ideas of the world outside, of seeing it together someday. Neither of them wanted to get to see it like this.
Amata had offered him her father's 10mm pistol, but Isaac refused it. He wanted to resolve this with as little death as possible. With that, Amata had left his family's "apartment", and told him that she'd meet him at the Vault door. He gathered a few of his things in a satchel-bag Officer Gomez had given him for his seventeenth birthday, and began stuffing items in it. He emptied the family first aid kit, packed a few spare Vault suits, and grabbed his baseball bat. He wanted to leave without violence if possible, but at the very least he had to protect himself from radroaches.
He'd set out from his room, intent on trying to sneak to the Overseer's office and to get through the secret exit with as little attention as possible. That changed when he saw Officer Kendall being swarmed by four radroaches. A small voice in the back of his head said to leave the security officer, that the radroaches would be a good distraction while he escaped, and Isaac quickly subdued that voice. Wielding his baseball bat, Isaac jumped into the fray to help Officer Kendall, smashing 'roaches as hard as he could.
"Are you okay, sir?" he had asked when the roaches were gone, only to see Officer Kendall turn to him with the police baton raised.
"He's over here!" the security officer yelled. "Got you now!" he yelled at Isaac, swinging the baton at Isaac's face. The young man barely got the bat up in time to block the attack, and the small bulb at the end of the baton's shaft left a dent in the wood of the bat. Isaac looked at the dent in his bat for a split second, and saw Kendall pulling back for another swing. The officer swung again, and Isaac again tried to block. However he misjudged the distance this time, and the metal rod smacked hard across his upper left arm.
'He's gonna kill me...' Isaac realized with terror. Kendall swung once more, uttering curses as he attacked the young man. Isaac opted to dodge instead of block the next hit, and before he knew what he was doing he swung back. Officer Kendall had over extended himself with his last attack, and Isaac's bat smacked into the side of the officer's head with a loud crack.
Kendall's security helmet protected him from most of the damage, and he recovered quickly. He raised his arm high over his head and swung it straight down hard and fast. Isaac raised the bat and his arms, blocking the hit with the fat hitting end of the bat. The boxing strategy Isaac had been learning for almost ten years converted easily to melee with weapons: Block or dodge, look for a gap in your opponent's attacks, return fire. Isaac did just that when Kendall pulled back, slamming the bat hard into Kendall's right forearm where the padding of the security armor was thin. A sickening crunch complimented the impact, and Kendall cried out in pain and dropped his police baton. Isaac's next actions would torture him in the coming hours, as he acted purely on instinct and began repeatedly hitting Kendall with the bat, seeing what he was doing but moving without thought, his body in total control with his mind given the backseat.
When Isaac finally regained control of himself and his mind cleared, he looked down to see the corpse of the man who had once been Officer Kendall of the Vault 101 Security Force. The visor of Kendall's helmet had shattered after five or six downward hits, and Kendall's face was almost too crushed and broken to recognize. Isaac dropped the bat to the floor, the wooden weapon bouncing with a staccato of small bangs before it settled to the ground. He fell to his knees as he realized what he'd done, and tears ran freely down his face.
"I killed him," he had muttered, more to himself than to anyone else, as he stared at the body. He sat there for almost ten minutes, staring at the body before the small voice from before came back.
'You defended yourself! If you hadn't killed him he would of killed you. You saw the look on his face, he was high on bloodlust and would've killed you even if you had surrendered peacefully!' the voice said. Some abstract part of Isaac told him that voice was his logic working, the scientific, no-nonsense security that had come from years of studying medicine with his dad and dealing with the various mechanical problems the two hundred year old Vault experienced. It was a cold, emotionless little voice, that told him exactly what he knew the best solution was, regardless of what he actually might feel about that solution. He seldom did exactly what it said, but he knew that, as far as his brain could come up with solutions, it was always right.
'Now get up! You have to get moving! If nothing else, the less time you stay in one place the less likely you'll have to kill anyone else!' Isaac did as the little voice, which he now dubbed his "survivalist voice", told him to. But instead of heading towards the exit like he was supposed to, he found himself running into one of the restrooms situated just outside his apartment. He threw a stall door open, and as the image of Kendall's broken and bloodied face flashed in his mind, he vomited.
He managed to stop puking five minutes later, coughing as he slowly tried to embrace the idea of survival. Yes, he killed a man. Yes, he felt horrible for it and part of him died when he did. Would he do it again, if it meant staying alive long enough to escape the Vault and find his dad? ...Yes.
He flushed the toilet as the realization dawned on him, and the sound of one of the doors to the restroom opening reached his ears. He quickly spun around, registering almost as an afterthought that he was now holding the police baton that had once belonged to Officer Kendall. Standing there in the doorway, looking terrified beyond all belief, was Butch DeLoria. The boy's skin was almost two shades paler than normal, even more livid than Isaac's own pale skin, and his breathing was ragged.
"You've gotta help me!" he said, his eyes darting back the way he'd came before looking back at Isaac, "My mom's trapped in there with the Radroaches."
The sheer unlikelihood of the situation gave Isaac pause, and if not for the recent murder he'd just committed, he might of laughed, "Butch... asking me for help. If only you understood what the word "Irony" meant..." he said to the Tunnel Snake.
"Yeah, I'm asking you. So What. Look, I'm sorry for the way I've always treated you, okay? You know I never really meant any of it, right?" Butch said, actually looking a bit sorry, much to Isaac's surprise. Isaac however, still didn't seem very convinced. How convenient that when Butch needed his help, and near impossibility on its own, that he was also suddenly sorry for bullying him almost his entire life. Though, in the past three years the Tunnel Snakes had learned that not only was Isaac probably one of the biggest nerds in their age group, he also had gotten very good at boxing.
"Please, man, it's my mom. You can't leave her there with the Radroaches," Butch begged. Suddenly, all the bravado of the tough guy in leather vanished, and Isaac saw what Butch really was: A sad kid with an alcoholic mother, who just wanted to feel like he might actually be worth something. He had just gone about making himself feel better the wrong way.
"All right, Butch. I'll help," Isaac relented, standing and adjusting his satchel on his back as Butch's face lit up. "But I'm doing this for your mom, not for you. A couple 'I'm sorry's doesn't make up for all the shit you've done to me and Amata," he added, giving Butch a hard look for a moment.
"S-sure, I don't care why. Just please get her out of there!" Butch said, before turning and starting back the way he'd came. Isaac followed Butch all the way back to the DeLoria "apartment", and ran inside after him. In the room adjacent to the main living area, Isaac could hear the squealing chirps of Radroaches and Ellen DeLoria's cries for her son. Isaac rushed in, the 19-year-old goody-two shoes replacing the cynic in a heartbeat as he saw Ellen being attacked by the insects. He squashed them with little effort, using the police baton and his work boots. After a couple hard swings of the baton, and a few harsh stomps from his boots, Ellen DeLoria was safe. She was curled up in a small ball crying, but she was safe.
As soon as the 'roaches were dead, Butch rushed in the room, a smile lighting up his face as he saw his mom was safe, "We did it! My mom's gonna be okay!"
"I did it," Isaac cut it, looking at Butch with disapproval. "Next time someone you love is in danger, don't let a fear of a few overgrown roaches stop you from saving them. What if I hadn't been here, huh? What if Officer Kendall he killed me or I was already long gone when you came looking!?" he lectured, as Ellen slowly started rocking back and forth, sobbing to herself.
"I- I couldn't... the roaches," Butch tried feebly, only to be cut off by Isaac again.
"Couldn't what!? Save your mom's life!?" Isaac said, angry at Butch now. Isaac had never known his mother, and Butch had been fortunate enough to know both his parents before his father passed and his mom started drinking. Seeing Butch almost letting his mother die enraged him. "Man the fuck up! You're a Tunnel Snake, or so you call yourself! You have a knife, you have a leather jacket, and you're more than three times their fucking size!"
"I- I-... you're right," Butch said, downcast. Isaac watched as a look of guilt settled on Butch's face, as he knelt down and hugged his mother, repeatedly whispering that he was sorry.
"Butch," Isaac said, touching the other teen's shoulder. Butch looked up to see Isaac pulling a stimpak from his satchel. It was a syringe with a small gauge at the top that that showed the internal pressure. Isaac reached over and took Ellen's arm, pulling the sleeve back and finding a vein near her elbow. He stuck her with the needle of the stimpak, and injected the full dose into her system.
"It's a complex blend of painkillers, antibiotics, and enzymes that encourage faster healing," Isaac explained to Butch, who looked confused. Most people in the Vault had never needed to use stimpaks while Isaac's father was around, so it wasn't surprising that Butch didn't know how they worked. "It had some long, really complicated name, but eventually someone just started calling them stimpaks," he told the gang member. As Butch watched, he saw the many small bites from the radroaches begin to stop bleeding and scab over.
"Thanks," Butch said, looking at Isaac with newfound awe. "You know, you're the best friend I've ever had, man," he said.
"Maybe you should've been a nicer guy and you would've had better friends," Isaac said, getting a nod from Butch.
"Yeah, you're probably right," Butch agreed. "Here, I know it isn't much, but I want you to have my Tunnel Snakes jacket," he told Isaac, taking off the leather coat with the ornate snake on the back and handing it to Isaac. "You're leaving, right? From what they taught us in class it can get pretty cold out there, and that jacket's surprisingly warm," he added with a small smile.
"Thanks, Butch," Isaac said with a bit of a smile himself, taking the jacket and putting it in his satchel. "I appreciate it."
With that, Isaac left the DeLoria "apartment" and told them to lock the door so no more roaches could get in. He then headed left and proceeded down the all that let to the other parts of the Vault. He passed the cafeteria or "diner" as they had recently taken to calling it, and bit his lip in sadness as he saw the radroaches eating away at a dead Grandma Taylor. She had been nice to him, even giving him and Amata cookies from time to time out of her own food rations. He said a small prayer for her, one of the many his father had taught him growing up, and continued on.
He took the staircase leading to the Atrium and the clinic, and stopped as he heard a voice yell, "Dammit! More roaches!", followed by the pronouced "whoosh" of Andy the Mr. Handy robot's flamethrower. He turned the corner to see Officer Gomez and Andy battling a decent sized group of the nasty pests. Part of him wanted to run past, leave it be, but the rest of him disagreed. Officer Gomez had been nice to him for years, had taught him the boxing drills that had ended his being bullied, and had been almost like an uncle to him. Isaac drew the police baton and ran forward, swinging and stomping as he helped them destroy the roaches.
When the immediate threat was gone, Officer Gomez looked at Isaac and let out a sigh of relief, "You're lucky it was me who found you, the others won't be so forgiving. You okay?"
"No... not really," Isaac said, glad to be around friendly faces again for a moment as he saw Stanley wave from inside the clinic, "Officer Kendall tried to kill me."
"How did you get away?" Officer Gomez asked, worried but not shocked to hear how the rest of the Security force was acting.
"I didn't... Officer Kendall is dead," Isaac said, not making eye-contact with Officer Gomez.
"I... I see. I'm sorry you had to do that," Officer Gomez said. "Look, Isaac, get the hell out of here. This place is becoming a madhouse. I still can't believe what they did to Jonas... Officer Mack is out of control."
"Thanks, Officer Gomez, I always liked you," Isaac smiled, though it quickly vanished at the mention of Jonas's death.
"You were pretty high up on my favorite people list too," Gomez said, before looking around a bit. "Now get going, and I'll pretend I never saw you," he urged.
"Right, I just have to get something real quick," Isaac agreed, before he ran into the clinic. He went into his dad's office after only saying a passing hello to Stanley, and saw what he was looking for. There, sitting in the corner away from the scattered debris of the rest of his father's office, was a Vault-Tec Bobblehead. He had played with it when he was younger whenever he was in his father's office, and just seeing it brought him a small sense of security. With a quick check around the room, he grabbed the bobblehead and ran back out of the clinic.
"Goodbye, Mr. Gomez, and thanks," Isaac said, as he started away from the clinic.
"Goodbye, Isaac. Go find your dad, if you can," Gomez said, before heading down a hallway to the sound of more roaches getting in.
Isaac kept moving and made it into the Atrium, heading down the hallway into the main room, just in time to see Mary and Tom Holden try and make a run past the security guards. Isaac watched in mute horror as the guards simply gunned down the two, not even giving them a warning. Isaac ducked behind one of the metal support pillars and looked around the main room, trying to think of a plan.
An idea struck him as he saw one of the plastic chairs sitting against the wall. It would be risky, and he'd probably end up shot, but it was worth a try. He crept over to the wall, being as quiet as he could. As soon as he was near the row of chairs against the wall, he grabbed one in each hand. While not heavy, and definitely not dense enough to use to block bullets, they would distract the two officers long enough for Isaac to get close. Swallowing down the lump in his throat, he prepared to go into action.
Both chairs were thrown around the corner down the hallway as hard as Isaac could and he ran right after them. He caught the two guards raising their guns to shoot at the chairs, and dove. The year he spent on one of the Vault 101 baseball teams payed off, as he slid on his stomach under the two flying chairs that were pelted with bullets, and came to a semi-stop at the feet of the left side guard. Moving quick, Isaac yanked the man's ankles out from under him.
The sudden confusion of the flying chairs, combined with being unexpectedly thrown off his feet made the guard freeze for just a moment as he hit the ground, and Isaac capitalized. He slammed his left fist into the man's groin, making him drop the 10mm handgun he was holding. Hands scrambled to grab the gun as the second officer realized what was going on, and Isaac managed to get the gun first. He pushed the barrel under the man's chin and pulled the trigger, and the top of the back of the man's head and his security helmet flew off in a spray of gore.
Officer O'Brian, Isaac thought, remembering the now-dead officer's name. Unfortunately, the second officer had gotten over his initial shock from seeing his comrade's head ventilated, and now aimed at Isaac. Isaac saw the barrel pointed at him and reacted in desperation, forcefully pulling the dead weight of the deceased Officer O'Brian over himself. He felt the bullets thud into the Kevlar vest O'Brian wore, and then felt the sting as a bullet passed through O'Brian's leg and grazed his own. He let out a cry of pain, to which he heard the second officer laugh.
"Like that, punk?" the officer called, moving in on Isaac. "Don't worry, I'll pay you back for what you did to O'Brian, and then if you're still alive I'll take you to the Overseer." Isaac bit back against the pain as he defiantly tossed the body away with his left arm, the 10mm pistol in his right hand. The second security officer had a look of surprise on his face, only seeing a bit of blood on Isaac's leg, before Isaac emptied the handgun's clip into his visor and head. The first four bullets went wild, hitting the man's bulletproof vest and the top of his helmet, tearing the headgear away. The next four, however, found their mark. Before Isaac pulled the trigger for that fifth bullet, he realized the officer's name: Richards.
When Richards's body slumped to the floor, missing at good portion of the upper half of the head, Isaac slowly crawled out away from the two dead officers and rested his back against the wall. He looked down at the spot where the bullet had grazed his leg, whimpering to himself as he forced his hands to peel back the fabric of his jumpsuit and the tattered skin to examine the wound. It was shallow, having barely even scraped into the muscle, but it hurt,
Isaac swung his satchel around his torso, wincing at the unexpected pain to his leg the movement caused, and dug for a stimpak. He found one quickly enough, having shoved all the medical supplies into one padded section inside the satchel, and injected it close to the wound on his leg. He dumped the full dose and sat still for a moment, willing the drugs and healing properties to kick in. Soon, relief washed over the wound and the blood flow slowed to a trickle, barely more than a paper-cut, and a sharp itching began. Isaac reached into his bag again and produced some bandages. He wrapped his leg carefully, making sure to keep the circulation in his leg but still properly bandage the wound.
"Okay, time to see if Dad was right about me being a good assistant," he muttered to himself as he went to stand, and pain shot through the damaged muscle in his leg like a flaming lance. "Fuck!" he howled, sinking back to the ground and sitting there. He had managed to move far enough away from the corpses that the expanding pools of blood didn't reach him, but he felt no joy in this. After a few more minutes, he tried again. The pain was a bit less, down to a sharp ache, and Isaac made his way over to the corpse of Officer Richards. He knelt down, being careful of his leg, and wrenched the gun out of the corpse's hand. He then swiped the extra two magazines of ammo for the gun off Richards's corpse, and repeated the process with the corpse of O'Brian.
Isaac had learned a little about guns from Officer Gomez, back when he and the officer's son Freddie had entertained the idea of being on the security force together, so he knew how to check the parts. Luckily, both guns only required a small screwdriver -something no mechanical engineer would be caught dead without- and he was able to disassemble them back in the main room of the Atrium. He looked over the parts and saw a few damaged pieces on the pistol that had belonged to Richards, but had better quality of the same pieces in O'Brian's handgun. After several minutes of comparing parts, Isaac discarded the more degraded parts and reassembled the remaining pieces back into one, slightly better, handgun.
"Okay, moment of truth," Isaac muttered to himself as he saw a radroach scurry into the room from the staircase that led to the second level. He aimed carefully at the small creature, praying the gun didn't explode in his hand. He squeezed the trigger, and the loud bang of the handgun was followed immediately after by the radroach exploding into pieces. Isaac smiled grimly to himself, glad he could at least repair a weapon in the outside world, if he made it that far.
After almost half an hour since he'd given himself the stimpak injection, he rose up to his feet again. His leg felt much better now, the pain now down to the dull throbbing ache, and he went back to the corpses in the hallway. Feeling horrible while doing it, he stole one of the holsters for the pistol off the dead Richards's body, and carefully strapped it to his right thigh above his leg wound. The gun felt okay in the holster, and he proceeded up the stairs to the second floor of the Atrium. He skirted around whatever radroaches he saw, not wanting to waste ammo on them, and proceeded across the catwalk of the second floor.
"You! This is all your fault! You and that stupid dad of yours! You had to go and mess everything up!" A man yelled as he slammed a fist against his window, glaring at Isaac. Isaac responded simply by flipping him off and continuing. The next room he entered was filled with the computers that helped process and monitor everything in the Vault, and Isaac frowned as he saw a dead man on the ground, wearing one of the utility jumpsuits giving to the engineer crew. He was pulled out of somber observation as yet another security guard entered the room.
"Security Chief Hannon," Isaac said, immedately recognizing the man. After all, the man's son had bullied him for years alongside the rest of the Tunnel Snakes.
The Security Chief didn't say a word, simply drawing his police baton. He rushed at Isaac, but the youth was too tired to fight fair. Isaac snapped up his handgun, and squeezed off three rounds at Hannon's face. The first two rounds shattered his visor, and the third killed him. Isaac moved past him without stopping.
He came up on the detention area that served as the security force's HQ, and he could hear voices coming inside. He stopped at the edge of the window and peered inside...
"I told you, I don't know anything!" Amata said from where she sat in a chair, her father, Overseer Alphonse Almodovar, and Officer Mack -the son of a bitch that killed Jonas- both standing over her.
"Be reasonable, Amata. I don't like doing this anywhere near as much as Officer Mack. I just need you to tell me where your little friend is hiding," the Overseer's voice half-echoed through the glass.
"He's my friend, I was worried about him. What does he have to do with this anyway?" Amata pleaded, tears in her eyes. Isaac felt his rage start to boil as he saw she had a black eye.
"Probably nothing, which is why I need you to tell me where he is so I can talk to him," Alphonse said, Officer Mack moving in with his police baton. Suddenly, Amata jumped back from her seat, pulling the 10mm pistol Isaac had refused before.
"Watch it, sir! She's got a gun!" Officer Mack called, pushing Alphonse back.
"Where did she even get a gun!?" Alphonse demanded.
"Stay away from me! I don't want to shoot you, but I will if I have to. I will, I swear I will!" Amata yelled, backing in between the computer desk in the room and a locker, her gun going back and forth between the Overseer and Officer Mack.
The Overseer bristled at the threat, crossing his arms, "How dare you threaten me! And with my own gun! I'm your father, and you will start treating me with respect! Officer Mack, don't just stand there!"
Officer Mack moved in on Amata, waving his police baton back and forth far to eagerly to want to settle things peacefully, "Don't make me take that gun away from you, girlie. Just hand it over, nice and easy. Now."
"No, get away from me! Get away!" Amata yelled, shooting the gun in fear. Officer Mack crumpled as one of Amata's shots hit his leg, and the next caught him in his throat.
"Oh my god, Amata! What... what have you done..." Alphonse said, raising his hands in helplessness as he backed away from his daughter. Amata ignored him and pushed past, running out the door. She spared Isaac a quick, pleading glance when she caught the murderous look in his eye, before she vanished into the Almodovar "apartment."
Isaac went into the room, and glared down the Overseer. The older man tried to look imposing, crossing his arms and looking down his nose at Isaac. These efforts were all in vain. Isaac was far to angry to ever be scared by this man again.
"I'm hope you're here to turn yourself in, young man. You in a lot of trouble as it is. Don't make things worse for yourself," he told Isaac.
"If you ever, ever, lay a hand on Amata again, I'm make you regret it..." Isaac growled, keeping his voice barely above a whisper to keep from screaming.
"I place the good of the Vault above everything, even my own paternal feelings. We mustn't allow sentiment to cloud our judgement!" The Overseer recited, like those few words justified everything. "But I admire your protective instincts. Very well, I promise Amata shall not suffer further because of your actions," he said.
"MY ACTIONS!?" Isaac roared.
"Yes, your actions. If you had any sense, you'd see how dangerous what your father did was. If you really care about Amata, turn over your weapons and surrender," The Overseer demanded.
"My father is no traitor. You're a murderer and a thug," Isaac said, forcing his voice back down.
"Let's let history be the judge of that. If you'd paid attention in Mr. Brotch's class, you'd know that history is invariably decided by the victor," Alphonse said, sounding quite sure of himself. "And I intend to be the victor! You won't survive the night! Guards! Help me!"
"You're precious guards are dead," Isaac said, moving in on Alphonse. "I killed them, every one I've come across. And now, I'm going to kill you," he said, punching Alphonse hard in the face. Even with his leg wound, Isaac was still much more fit than Alphonse Almodovar, and it wasn't much of a fight. Isaac knocked the man down with a strong uppercut, and got on top of him. He began punching the Overseer over and over in the face, intent on beating him mercilessly to death the same way they did Jonas.
But then, a small memory flickered in his head, the memory of Amata at her tenth birthday party, wrapping her arms around her father and telling him she loved him. Amata loved her father, even if he was a twisted, sick man. Isaac slowly got up off of Alphonse, who had already lost consciousness. He walked over to the lockers of the Security HQ and looted the lockers. He stuffed a Kevlar vest into his bag, along with a few extra stimpaks, some extra magazines of 10mm ammo, and a few bottles of purified water.
"I'm not like you, I'm a better person than you," Isaac said, giving Alphonse one last good kick. He left the Security HQ, walking to Amata's apartment. On the way there he saw Jonas's body, and he stopped and said a prayer for his fallen friend. He saw a holotape with a note meant for him, left by his father, in Jonas's hand. He pocketed the note and the holotape, then continued into Amata's apartment. She looked up from the living room table, tears streaming down her face. The gun she had used on Officer Mack sat on the table, and Amata was shivering.
"Did you..."she tried to ask, unable to finish the question.
"No, he's alive," Isaac shook his head. Amata jumped up and wrapped her arms around him, ignoring the blood that splattered both of their jumpsuits from the violence that had occured in the past two hours. He hugged her back, letting her cry into his shoulder for a moment before standing back from her. The look on his face was serious, but full of sadness.
"I have to go," he said. "Do you know the password to your dad's terminal?"
"Ye-yeah," Amata nodded. "Thank you, really. I saw the look on your face and I thought you were gonna kill him," she said, reaching into one of her pockets and giving him the key to the Overseer's office. "The password to the terminal is my name."
"Thanks... and I was going to kill him, untill I remembered that you love him, and you don't deserve losing your father," Isaac said, leaving the apartment as Amata thought on the meaning of his words.
Isaac passed over Jonas's body and went into the Overseer's office. He put the holotap into the small port in his Pip-Boy 3000, and listened to the recording his father left behind. His father apologized for not telling him, figuring Isaac would understand but knowing he might be angry. He said that he had thought long and hard about it, but had decided it would be best for Isaac not to know, to live out a safe life in the Vault. The final words of the recording were "Goodbye, I love you".
Isaac saved the recording to his Pip-boy, and then went to the Overseer's terminal. When asked for a password, he typed in Amata's name. What he found both surprised, and appalled him. The Vault had been opened before, and the Overseer and those before him had been manipulating them all to keep them under their control like little mice. Isaac angrily opened the secret tunnel, and then left the computer.
He proceeded down the tunnels, avoiding the two radroaches that were there. Eventually he found himself in a room with a small panel on the opposite wall. He went to said panel and pushed the "open" button, and the wall next to the panel slid down to reveal the main entrance to the Vault. Isaac entered the room and approached the main panel that controlled the massive door. It took him a moment to figure out how to disable the restrictions on opening the door, and pulled the level.
A mechanical arm descended from the ceiling and attached itself to the giant gear, pulling it back and slowly rotating it away from its frame. A whoosh of outside air came into the room, the smells unfamiliar and somehow enticing. Isaac felt a strange sense of freedom come over him as he watched the door revolve open.
"Oh my god, you actually did it! You opened the Vault!" Isaac spun quickly to see Amata standing there, looking on in awe.
"I couldn't of done it without you," Isaac said, trying to give her a small smile.
"No, you could have. If anyone can survive out there, it's you," Amata said, wiping fresh tears from her eyes.
"Come with me, like we used to talk about when we were kids," Isaac said, praying she would say yes.
"I want to... but I can't. My place is here. The Vault needs me more than you do. I'm the only one who can talk some sense into my father," Amata said, a sad smile on her face. "Listen, if you catch up with your dad. Tell him I'm sorry. For Jonas, my father, everything," she said.
Amata then did the one thing Isaac never expect, she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him, breaking apart after just a few seconds, "Goodbye," she said with somber tears in her eyes.
"Goodbye," Isaac said, backing away from her. It was then that the door to their left opened, and a pair of security guards ran at them.
"Amata, go back," Isaac said, drawing his handgun."GO!" She looked at him for a moment before running back the way she'd came, going back through the Overseer's tunnel.
Isaac turned to face the security guards. Again he was shocked that so few of the security guards actually had fire arms, but decided he should try to let these guys live. He ran for the exit, jumping over the giant gear treads and landing. The two security guards stopped at the door and turned back, yelling about how it was crazy to head outside. They ran back to the control panel and flipped the switch to close the door. Isaac watched with melancholy as the huge door rolled shut and closed, the Vault sealing in front of him.
Isaac had spent the past hour staring at the wall, contemplating all that had happened. Part of him had died in that Vault. The innocence that he had lived with up to that point, of happy day after happy day, was shattered. The small voice of reason in the back of his mind wasn't so small anymore, because now it would probably be keeping him alive. He was not the kid he was yesterday, anymore. Now, he was a murderer, a looter, a tactician and a heartbroken fool.
He turned to see sunlight coming through the gaps in the boards that had once been the sturdy door out of the tunnel. He walked up the slope of the tunnel that led to that door, and set his hand upon the ancient nob. He wasn't Isaac Stark the Engineer anymore, now he was just Isaac Stark. The wastes were before him on the other side of this door, wastes he would be forced to wander, alone.
But, he had a mission. He had to find his dad. If that required he went on the long journey before him, so be it. He turned the knob and smiled to himself. His past was behind him, his journey ahead, and in this tunnel between past and future, he had nowhere to go but forward...
Okay! That's Chapter One, people! Tell me how I did. I appreciate all non-flame criticism. Did you like it? Hate it?...love it, maybe? I dunno. Leave me a review, please and thank you.
Your lovable, demented host, Relks The Disturbed
NOW RE-EDITED TO FIX SPELLING AND GRAMMAR ERRORS.