"War. War Never Changes."
- Narrator, Fallout.
Yemon left the Matron's office almost in a daze. He had understood the problem and what had to be done, but he hadn't quite realized yet what it all meant.
Go outside, and, um, look for that thing I guess.
When he entered the quarters he shared with his parents, he was surprised to see both of them there, his father sitting on his wheelchair and his mother standing next to him, with a hand on his shoulder. His father should have been down at the engineering level, and his mother at the infirmary.
"Mom? Dad? Why are you..."
He stopped talking before finishing the question, because their faces had answered it without a need for words. His father had a hard look on his face, his mother was on the verge of tears.
"Grandma told us already," his father said. He looked down at his crippled legs, and shook his head in an angry gesture. "Dammit, it should be me going out there, not you."
"Dad..."
"I ended up in this damn chair because of the accident, and the same accident burn most of our goddamn spare equipment. Damn it all!"
"Dad!" Yemon interrupted, "it's okay."
A sob interrupted both of them, and Yemon looked up to see his mother turning around to hide her face. His father reached up and took the hand she had placed on his shoulder with his.
"I'm sorry Seiji," she mumbled.
"Come on Kimiko, this is no way to see our son out," he said with a half grin, and pushed himself on his chair to the large table, "come on son, take a look."
Yemon followed, and saw there was a large assortment of items on the table, next to a single-strap backpack. Quite a few things he recognized too. Kimiko followed them, holding on to both men, as if unwilling to let either of them go.
"I got you some stuff from Engineering. Here's a portable water filter, hand-pumped and uses membrane filtering, so don't let it dry up, and there's a three liter canteen. When you're on the road, ration the water well."
"Okay."
"Here's my old Leatherman too. And..."
"Hey, that's..."
"Yes," he answered, "that's a revolver. Nambu M60, standard issue for the old Japan law enforcement. Only firearm in the Vault."
"Wow, really? Where did it come from?"
"Oh, from the time the Vault first closed, where else?"
"But... How old is this thing? It looks brand new!"
"Your father..." Kimiko struggled, but finally regained her voice, "your father rebuilt it for you."
"I'm an engineer, son. I got you some ammo too. Remember that it's a deadly weapon, you use it when you positively have to kill some son of a bitch that wants to kill you, hear me? Once you pull it out, you don't hesitate."
Yemon gulped. His out-of-the-vault adventure seemed more real with the weight of that gun in his hand. Yet he found it strangely comforting.
"You're not leaving until you learn to clean it and care for it properly. Out there nothing will be more important that this gun here. And if you can get a bigger one, so much the better."
"Why? I mean... Well, we don't really know what's out there, do we?"
"We know what's out there, son. War. War never changes."
Yemon looked at the gun once more before leaving it on the table. Then he noticed something else.
"Dad, what the heck is this?"
It was an oversized wrist accessory with a screen and several dials and gauges.
"That's a Pip-boy."
"Pip-boy?"
"Yeah. Come on, put it on."
Yemon managed to fit it on his left forearm, and it was so bulky that he had to readjust the chain of the Quincy pendant he was carrying. His parents exchanged a glance when they saw it, but Yemon missed it.
"What's this supposed to do?"
"First off, you turn it on here," Seiji answered, flicking a switch, and making the green light of the screen came to life, "it's got an automapper, clock, calendar, geiger and spiripar counter, health monitor, it can interface with computers, this boy can do everything. Heck, you can use it as a light if you want."
"Seriously?" He started flicking through the menus like a boy with a new Christmas toy. "Wow, this is so cool, it's like the terminals in the computer lab but on my wrist!"
"Well, you can play with it to see what it can do, but the most important," Seiji got his son's attention by grabbing the Pip-boy and forcing it to his face. He pointed at the geiger counter meter, "up there. If that thing goes tickity-tick, get your ass out of wherever you are."
"Uh, okay. I thought I wouldn't be able to avoid the spirit particles anyway, what's with that?"
"Don't know about that, I'm more worried about radiation."
Yemon lowered his arm and looked at his father.
"You think that's what happened?"
"Son, I don't doubt what Grandma says, and I believe that these spirit particles aren't just another type of radiation that's got a fancy name," he smirked knowingly, and Yemon smiled at the parody of his teacher that Seiji had just made, "but fact is, for what I see from the air we filter, at some point up there someone broke out the nukes, and I'm sure everything went to hell that day. But it's been a hundred years, and it's probably not too bad in most places, but be careful and keep your eyes on that counter. We don't know for sure how bad it'll be."
"Okay."
"I made you a first aid kit," Kimiko said, following his son's gaze, "everything you may need, lots bandages, antiseptic, wound closures, plaster, stitches... And that," she pointed at the plastic jar Yemon had taken from the pack, "that's the most potent broad spectrum antibiotic we have, you have enough for 300 doses in there."
"Wow," he said, putting everything back in the first aid kit, and looked at the spread on the table, "you know, this is great. I had no idea what I wanted to take with me, but looks like you've thought of everything already."
"That's your mother," Seiji grinned, "did you see that yet?"
Yemon looked at the cloth bag his father was pointing at, next to several packs of dried food. When he opened it, a smell of ginger and honey wafted from it.
"You've baked cookies?" He asked surprised.
"Those are hard biscuits. Old recipe for seamen, they'll last a long time. I know you prefer chocolate, but..."
"It's okay mom. Thanks!"
"Got you a change of clothes too, a light blanket, and some soap, and..."
"And that's all I'm letting her put in the pack," Seiji said, and laughed out loud, "you'd be dragging half the vault with you if I let her!"
Yemon was a fast learner, and it wasn't long before he could disassemble the revolver and put it together again without trouble. A small can of oil and a cloth was all he needed. Nonetheless, they both meticulously reviewed everything at a slow pace for the sake of sharing another moment with Kimiko. When they were finally done, and Yemon had packed everything, he looked at her in the eye and smiled.
"Mom, stop worrying, okay? I'll be back. I have to be back with the chip, remember?"
They made another stop before taking the lift to the Vault entrance.
"You're taking a bokken with you?" Seiji asked, surprised.
"Sure! You said not to pull the gun unless things got bad, and I don't have that much ammo, so I may as well take something else, and I know how to use these at least."
Yemon placed the bokken inside the folds of his sash, and adjusted the strap going across his chest and holding the pack on his back. On the opposite direction was the strap of the canteen, and under his clothes was the holstered revolver. When the door of the lift opened, they found that Karin was waiting for them in front of the vault door.
Meanwhile, the rest of the Vault were continuing their lives as if nothing was wrong.
"Yoshida-chan, please read your assignment to the class."
"Yes sensei," Maya replied.
She stood up and looked around. Yemon's desk was empty, she hadn't seen him since he went to speak with the Matron in the morning.
Well, maybe it's for the best. But I'd have loved to see everyone's faces when he read that assignment of his.
"Yoshida-chan..."
"Ah, yes! Sorry sensei!"
They were interrupted by the sound of a distant alarm. It was an unfamiliar one, with slow up-pitching whines that seemed to serve more as a warning than as an alarm. A few moments later, there was a very disagreeable metallic grinding noise, and a slight tremor that could be felt through the whole vault.
"What the... Everyone, stay here, I'll go find out what's going- Yoshida!"
Maya ignored the teacher and rushed out of the classroom. Her heart was beating hard in her chest, and she had a dreadful, cold feeling in her stomach.
I have a bad feeling... Kurosaki-kun...
The lift was too slow. She rushed up the stairs as fast as her legs would carry her, cursing her own slowness. Halfway through her rush, the trembling stopped, which only spurred her with a new shot of energy. She rushed past the surprised guard at the Vault entrance room, and arrived in time to see the giant inner door of the vault start closing.
Yemon was standing on the other side. The wrong side.
"Kurosaki-kun!" She shouted.
Everyone turned at her in surprise. Yemon looked at her while the door continued to close, then smiled, and raised his hand to wave farewell to her. He may have spoken, but she couldn't hear anything under the infernal grind of the giant multi-ton metallic door.
She ran towards it. It was too late, she knew it was too late, but she couldn't help it. The door slammed shut, grinding into place before she could reach it, and she pounded fruitlessly at it with her closed fists.
"Kurosaki-kun!"
The door remained unsympathetically silent. Maya turned towards the others, and fixed her eyes on Karin. She looked so maddeningly serene, as if nothing was wrong. As if she hadn't sent Yemon out of the vault. She felt a rush of anger and adrenalin overcome her, and ran towards the frail old woman, grabbing her rather roughly by her clothes.
"What the hell!"
Karin raised her hand slightly to stop the others from coming to her aid.
"What the hell! What have you... Why... What's going on here? Where is Kurosaki-kun going! What's going on!"
She felt a hand on her shoulder, and turned around to end face to face with Kimiko. She was smiling slightly, but her eyes weren't. For a moment they just looked at each other. Then, without prompt, Kimiko embraced the girl.
"It's okay, Maya-chan. He'll be back. It's okay..."
Yemon felt the air of the space between the two Vault doors moving as the filters started to push air to the outside, equalizing the pressure. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
Here we go.
A few seconds of rumbling and the outside door opened. He was surprised to see it was really dark on the other side, the vault was apparently at the end of a cave of some sort. He pushed the goggles he was wearing up to his forehead, and let his eyes get used to the darkness first. After almost a minute, he took the first hesitant step out. A few more steps, and the vault door started closing behind him, blocking the only light source.
Okay, there's some light at the end of the cave that way. I think.
He realized he had been holding his breath all that time when his chest started to struggle to keep the used air in. He let air slowly, and breathed in.
The air was moist and stale, with a slight smell of decay in the background.
Well, what was I expecting? To choke or something?
He flicked the Pip-boy on and checked the counter. Radiation levels were the same as background levels at the Vault. Unsurprising, even down at the Vault there was always some background, either the Radon from the concrete or the several radioactive sources from Engineering, which always leaked some no matter how careful they were.
Spirit particle levels, on the other hand, were higher than the vault. Yemon couldn't quite tell how much higher, the needle had been a solid zero down in the Vault, now it was above that, but low on the gauge.
His musings were interrupted by some scrapes around him. He flicked a switch on the Pip-boy and used the dim light to explore around.
There were several large rodents close to him, peering warily. He casually placed his right hand on his bokken.
Bloody hell, look at the size of those rats! They must be a meter each!
