To bright! My mind screamed. I tried to shield my eyes from the glaring sun as I emerged from the large underground vault. My other senses took over as a result of my temporary blindness. The smell of smoke and sulfur flooded my nose. My stomach lurched at the odors that swirled around in the open air. Among the foul smells was a scent I couldn't place. It smelled like... Freedom. In all my years locked in that cramped vault, I had never experienced the smells of the vast wasteland. My eyes finally began to adjust to the sunlight, and that's when I saw it. Off in the distance, looming like bones from a old graveyard, rose the ruins of Washington DC. Tendrils of smoke rose from the city like spirits rising from a grave. All around me, everything was bare. Dust and ash danced in the wind, and black piles of soot lay where houses once stood. Any trees left standing were grey and dead. It was as if all color had been wiped from the earth. All that was once green and lush was now grey and black. The world was dead. I looked back at the vault door, desperately wanting to go back inside. But I knew there was no going back. Not after what I had done. I glanced down at my hands and noticed for the first time they were covered in blood. My stomach twisted as I tried to wipe the blood onto my pants. My mind began to replay the final moment in the vault. The shouting, the gunfire, and the screams echoed in my head. My head began to spin as I thought of the look on Amata's face as she held her bloodied father in her arms. I couldn't take it anymore. I doubled over and vomited. All the pain, fear, and guilt flooded out of my body with every lurch. I finally collapsed into a heap on the dusty ground. How long I stayed there, I do not know. Time seemed to slow. What had I done? And what was I going to do now?