Chapter 2

escape from the vault

8-17-2277

Richard's eyes shot open. Why on earth was he dreaming about the freaking G.O.A.T.? He lifted his left arm and pressed a button his pipboy, lighting up it's screen. It was 6 in the goddamn morning. He sighed, he still had another 3 hours to go before he had to report to work... a job that even 3 years later he still had no idea as to why the vault needed such a frivolous job such as a tattoo artist... but oh well. He had a few more hours to sleep before he had to go in for a 9 to 12 shift, so grinning he rolled over and pulled his blanket over his head.

His bedroom door hissed open, letting in an unholy cacophony of klaxon like noises...probably another damn radroach infestation... Then they hissed shut again. He sighed, it was probably his father checking in on him before heading off to work, even though he didn't start till 7, he still liked to head over early and drink his coffee with his legs crossed on his desk. Unusually though he was shaken violently as a frantic woman's voice hissed. "Wake up! Come one! You've got to get up!" opening an eye he saw it was his, now girlfriend, Amata.

He rolled over and stared right into her eye with the ire of the just awoken. "Leave me alone. I'm sleeping. I have work in a few hours." he then rolled back over and firmly pulled his blanket back over his head.

"NO!" she hissed, frustration in her voice now. "you have to get up! Right now!" she shook him again. "If my father catches you here... I don't know what will happen!"

That got his attention, and he sat up, and scratched the back of his head, and mid yawn managed out,. "why would he be after me? Amata, I haven't done anything wrong in a couple years... hell I think the last time I did something overly bad was breaking Butch's nose the day of our G.O.A.T." which he had paid for, he had to clean the bathrooms for a month after that. Even the one old Mr. Abernathy used, and, remembering that, shuddered slightly.

"This isn't about you!" she stuttered and blushed remembering that night. "Your dad left the vault somehow, and my father has gone crazy... J-Jonas is dead."

"What? Jonas?" Richard felt it hit him, and with that, the last clutches of sleep evaporated from him, he had always been fond of the poor harried looking black man, and his clear, blue eyes focused. "Right, im listening. What happened."

"I'm sorry... I knew you two were friends... the-" her voice hitched. "they beat him... they just wouldn't stop, no matter how many times he insisted he didn't know, or I begged my dad to stop... my FATHER ordered them to do it."

He put his arm around her, and blinked back some tears of his own. "we need to get out of here Hun."

"Yeah... You need to follow your dad. Escape the vault." She looked right into his eyes. "You have to do it now. While everyone is confused."

"Your right, theres really nowhere to hide... The cameras are everywhere."

"I know its none of my business but..." She hesitated, looking down.

"Say it."

"You seem just as surprised as me to learn your dad left... Didn't he tell you?"

He dropped his arms, and began pulling on his vault suit. "No. I had no idea he intended to do this. To leave me. Didn't even say goodbye."

"Oh... I'm sorry... I'm sure he had his reasons..." She stared at the ground. "Maybe Jonas was supposed to explain it to you?"

"Maybe, Or my dad just up and left."

"But that doesn't matter at the moment, I have a plan!"

"... No. Not another of your plans Amata." He scowled. "Remember when you got us locked in utility closet 15? Or that time we got lost in the ventilation system for 3 days? Or that time we got locked in the garbage incinerator and would have been reduced to ashes if Stanley hadn't thought to check first?"

She gave him a long indignant look, then continued undaunted. "I have no time to explain the entire plan," She said a little haughtier than normal. "So trust me and listen. Theres a tunnel that runs directly from my dad's office to the vault door. And you'll have to hack into his office computer to open it."

"And how exactly do you suppose I get into his office. It's always locked."

"Uhm..." She thought, then reached into her pocket and produced a small box of bobby pins and a screwdriver. "remember when we broke into the medical lab to find out who was stealing the med-x and stimpacks?"

He rolled his eyes and pocketed them "It turned out it was Paul on a dare from butch... OK. What makes you think this conveniently placed tunnel will be unguarded?"

Amata let out an exasperated sigh. "Look. We don't have time for this. Just trust me for once. Security doesn't even know about this. Only my father and me..." She reached into her other pocket and pulled out a pistol.

Richard hissed. "Amata... where on earth did you get that?"

"I... I stole it from my father's room." She looked down at it and handed it out to him. "I hope it makes you feel safer."

"Thanks Amata... I'll only use it as a last resort. I promise." And he clipped the gun, and it's holster, to his belt.

"I'll meet you at the vault door. Watch out for security, and don't wait for me if I cant make it," and after pressing her lips to his cheek, slipped out the door and into the hall.

Richard stepped out of his room. In one hand he held his baseball bat, and strapped across his back was a b.b. Gun strapped perpendicular to the strap of a bag that he had stuffed with a couple pairs of clothes and some stimpacks he had stolen from the medical aid box on his bedroom wall.

Almost immediately he ran into one of the vault security. It was an officer whose name he had never really cared to learn. Before the officer could call out to the other guards to alert them he had found the "dangerous fugitive", a group of radroaches overwhelmed him, and while the guards attention was on the little buggers, Richard slipped into the bathroom and out the other door, completely circumventing the guard. Amidst the gloom and flashing alarm lights, a figure moved towards him rather fast. He hefted his bat when...

"You gotta help me!" A familiar unwanted voice called. "My moms trapped with the roaches!"

Richard just stared at the bully, who, had made his life a literal hell since he was about 4 and butch stole his favorite ball. "Butch" He said after a seconds pause. "Your asking me, of all the people in the vault, let alone on earth, for help. If only you could understand, or even comprehend the meaning of the word irony"

"Yea, im asking you... S-so what? Look.. I'm sorry about all the crap I've put you through over the years. You know I never meant any of it, right?"

"Sure. Why not," He narrowed his eyes.

"It's my mom man... You cant just leave her with the roaches"

"Why don't you go in and help her"

"Er... Cos I cant"

"Why not?"

"Cos im... Cos im scared of roaches, now come on! We don't have time for this!"

Richard sighed and gestured in the direction of Butch's room door "alright Butch." then, when Butch smiled, added. "I'm doing this for your mom. Not for you."

"Alright, I don't care! Just please help her!" He punched the door to his apartment and the door slid open "She's locked in the bedroom"

Richard nodded and darted into the room and crossed to the only other door in the room, through which he could hear Ms. Deloria's terrified screams. He rushed in.

Ms. Deloria was standing on her bed, a broom in one hand, a bottle of vodka cradled to her bosom like a baby. She was whacking at the giant cockroaches in a largely unsuccessful campaign to kill the insectile monsters.

Richard rushed in and swept the roaches aside, ordered Butch's mom out of the room, an order she was too happy to oblige. He bashed the roaches with his bat, but they put up a fight and did manage to bite him once, but all in all he made quick work of them. He smirked to himself slightly pleased. "Nothing like the smell of freaking roach guts and vodka," He looked around in mild disgust at the bottles scattered around. "Oh, and I think vomit." He walked into the other room escaped the fumes.

Upon walking into the living area, an annoyingly happy butch rushed up and pulled him into a tight hug. Much to Richard's extreme annoyance. "We- I mean YOU did it! My moms going to be OK! Man your the best friend I ever had!"

"... Sure"

Just then there was a rap on his door, and after a quick peek out the window, Butch turned back and gestured to Richard to hide, he did so. Butch opened the door and talked briefly with security. They asked if he knew where Richard was, them wanting to ask him a few 'questions', and Richard's eyes widened, surely Butch was going to tell him he was there. Butch hated him... just because he saved his mom doesn't mean that ALL of his hatred was going to dissipate...

But he didn't tell them. He told them that he had run by, that he hadn't seem him for a couple of days, and when the guards asked to look around in his apartment, got angry, and shot out an angry stream that just had the guards shaking their heads and walking away.

"You'd better leave," Butch sighed. "Knowing these assholes, they'll be back. And I'm probably gonna spend a week or so in the cells..."

"Why? Cos you yelled at them?"

"No. 'Cos I'm going to make a slight distraction for you. Your dad was always good to the vault, and you don't deserve this manhunt. And I think Mr. 'all powerful' Overseer needs severe a reality check" He cracked his knuckles and shot a feral grin at the other man.

"Butch you cant do that... They killed Jonas just to get information about my dad, They could do the same to you."

"Its a risk im willing to take." He shrugged out of his leather jacket. "Take this."

"No... I cant butch... Thats your tunnel snake jacket..."

"Consider yourself an honorary member. You probably need it more than me right now" And shooting Richard a quick two finger salute, he ran off down the hall.

H moved slowly through the halls of the vault, ducking from shadow to shadow and avoiding the cameras to the best of his ability. He only ran into one officer after he left Butch's apartment, and that was Officer Gomez, who had always been kind to his dad, and to him. Something not many of the other vault dwellers had it in them to do. He too refused to turn Richard in.

The halls were filled with radroaches, so much so that even the normally calm Andy was forced to fight them, literally cooking them from the inside out with his flamethrowers, and slicing them with his buzz saw, Richard gave the robot a wide berth as he snuck by, not much liking, or trusting him... Much for petty reasons, but reasons nonetheless. He left as a bleeding from the head Stanley emerged from the locked med lab and began to perform quick repairs on the robot, who proceeded to insult him mercilessly.

Arriving at the central atrium of the vault he felt a small moment of pride at making half-way. The atrium was a spot where parties and games were played when more room than was normally offered in the diner was needed. Still sticking to the shadows, he observed the freshly married Holden couple whispering about escaping the vault.

They didn't make it past the entrance guards. As soon as the couple entered the small hallway, they were gunned down, their bodies falling limply with a thud to the floor. Richard, sickened beyond belief, darted past the doorway while the security guards finished them off, and ran up a stairwell, dispatching yet more of the stupid radroaches, up to the vault's heart, it's administration level.

The communication room was badly damaged. The large computer towers, which stored so much important information where all out of place and a corpse of a nameless engineer, of whom Richard couldn't even recognize anymore was laying in a puddle of blood, his face half eaten and his glasses broken, scattered away from him.

Reaching up to press the button to release the door saw, through a small window, saw the chief of security doing the same. His heart skipped a beat and he ducked next to the door, and hefted his bat. As Hannon walked into the room, he swung the bat, catching the chief of security in his jaw, sending him down hard.

"I told you! I don't know anything! Let me go!" Amata, who had a large cut on her forehead, which was bleeding badly, screeched at her father, who stood over the chair she was tied into.

"Be reasonable Amata" The Overseer, a tall gray haired Hispanic man said, reason dripping from his voice like venom. "Officer Mack may enjoy this, but I don't"

The door opened and Officer Mack turned, hand on his pistol's holster, then relaxed slightly when the security chief walked in, and, shooting him a delighted little sneer, turned back to Amata.

"We just want to see your little friend. Ask him some questions..." Mack sneered.

"He...He's my friend!" Amata sobbed, looking from her father, to Mack, to the chief, on whom her gaze stuck. "I... was worried about him! What does he have to do with this anyway?"

"Probably nothing" A sickening, yet sad expression ran over his face. "You need to tell me where he is. Now. So we can talk to him"

"No." Amata said defiance burning in her voice.

"...Very well." The Overseer said dryly and as he turned away. "Go ahead Officer Mack."

At that, Mack's ugly face split into a horrible grin as he pulled a large knife from his belt, he knelt in front of her and brought the knife to her cheek, drawing a few drops of blood.

"Its going to be a shame to scar your pretty little face." He spat in her face. "But that wont stop m-"

And he was cut off by the loud 'pop' of a gun ringing out. The Overseer and him turned and stared as the security chief pulled off his helmet and revealed a very angry looking

Richard, who's hair was plastered to his face from sweat from wearing the helmet He shot again and hit Mack in the chest, and, with a jerk, he crumpled to the ground, not moving.

"Amata. Get out of here." He ordered, and as fast as she could, she scurried out of the room.

Storming over, Richard grabbed the front of The Overseer's vault suit, and slammed him against a wall. "If you ever lay a hand on her again, You'll regret it. I swear." Richard growled through gritted teeth. "How could you? Her own FATHER?"

"I place the good of the vault above everything. Even my own paternal feelings!" He stated proudly. "We must not allow sentiment to cloud our judgment!"

Pressing his pistol to the overseer's head, Richard narrowed his eyes, and the older man froze stiff. "If not out of 'paternal feeling' which frankly, I doubt you have even an iota of, how 'bout to save your own life?"

"V-very well... I admire your protective instincts... and give you my word that Amata will not suffer further because of your foolish actions!"

"MY actions?" Richard roared. "All the deaths today have been because of you!"

"No. If you truly cared for Amata, you'd see how truly dangerous your father's actions were, and hand over your weapons, end this dangerous situation... There's no need to join your father as a traitor to the vault!"

"My father was no traitor, and only an idiot would believe you wouldn't just kill me once I gave you my gun." He jammed the pistol under the overseer's chin. "You are a murderer. And a thug."

The Overseer glared at Richard, a look of sheer and utter hatred painting itself across his face in a way that Richard found very pleasing. "Let's let history be the judge of that. If you paid attention to Mr. Brotch instead of staring into space, you'd understand history is invariably written by the victor. And I intend to be the victor. You won't survive this night!"

At that Richard had had enough and simply cracked him over his head with the butt of the gun, effectively knocking him out. muttered "Goodnight you piece of shit." and went through his pockets, taking his office keys and the key card to his computer, then standing, "Unlike you, I don't kill for petty reasons."

Just inside the hallway, leading to the overseer's suite, was Jonas' body. Unceremoniously dumped in front of the chute to the incinerator. Crouching down, Richard shut the frail man's eyes. "poor bastard..." he sighed. "You didn't deserve this..."

In his hand, Jonas clutched a holo-disk, Richard slowly eased it out of his hand, and noted that it had his name on it, in his dad's handwriting. He stared at it for a while, then shoved it into Butch's jacket, which he pulled on over the security body armor he had taken from The unconscious security chief, first things first. Escape.

Eventually he came to Amata's room and looked inside. Amata was sitting at her family table. Covering her head with her hands.

"Are you OK Hun...?" Richard asked, gingerly touching his fingers to her head wound.

"I'm... I'm fine..." she said, wincing at his touch "Did you..."

"No, I left your father alive, although I bet he'll have a serious headache when he gets up," he frowned.

"Thank you..." She let out a breath. "I told you he wasn't himself... Who knows what they might have done if you hadn't come along..."

"Let's not think about that..." He laughed uneasy.

"You'd... better get out of here, I'll try to meet you at the vault door. If I don't..." She kissed him long and hard. "well... good luck."

He stood in the overseer's office, the heart of the heart of the vault. The nucleolus in the nucleus of the cell. He stared at the wooden circle desk, gleaming in the flashes of light from the emergency lights and crossed to the wall of computers. Inserting the password, he sent the command for the secret door to open.

Movement behind him and he whirled, one hand on his baseball bat's handle, the other at his pistol, only to see the desk rising, revealing a stairway leading down into an inky blackness.

Sighing, Richard flipped on his pipboy light, and pulling the bat from his belt, continued down into the darkness. And fought his way through a couple more little radroaches, until ultimately the small path came to an end at a wall, and after a brief pause, during which he simply scowled at the wall, he noticed a button just to the right of a lighter colored section of wall, and pushed it. After being forced to wait while the secret hatch descended.

He emerged in a small control center with a window facing the gigantic steel and lead door of the vault. The controls for the door were not in the small control center, which made Richard wonder it's purpose, but were at the top of the stairs leading down to the door. Shrugging he pulled the door's automatic release.

Suddenly the room was filled with a loud klaxon and a prerecorded voice to 'stand back' as the gigantic steel door to the vault slowly slid out of place, and to the side, revealing a long tunnel with a rickety door at the end, through which light dimly filtered through.

"YOU DID IT!" Amata exclaimed behind him, Causing Richard to jump and nearly piss himself, letting out a shout. "I didn't think it was possible..." she breathed.

"y-yeah..." he said. "I could never have done it without your help though..."

"no..." She shook her head and smiled. "you didn't need me. If anyone can survive out there, it's you."

"You can... you know... come with me" He suggested, but as he took a step down the stairs, guards started banging at the door, shouting.

Looking at the door Amata sighed. "My place is here. The vault needs me. More than you do right now. I'm the only one who has a chance to talk some sense into my dad... listen..." She started and her voice hitched in a sob. "If you find your dad... tell him... tell him I'm sorry for... everything. Jonas... my father... everything."

"Amata..." Richard began, opening his arms to hug her,, but she pushed him away as the door heaved.

"Go Richard. I... Goodbye..."

He turned and ran down the stairs and out into the cave, and with one last look into the vault, saw Amata push the door close button and run back into the secret tunnel. With an apprehensive gulp, he turned and opened the rickety wooden door, and stepped into the light...

please read and review

I hope that this chapter was a wee bit better than the first, and to those of you who liked them, know I'm working on a third.

NEXT TIME ON

Nuclear Wonderland:

First Impressions Are Usually Bad

Even in the post apocalyptic wasteland. You're never truly alone.