Chapter 2: The Wasteland
Light. So much light. Light was all I could see. A Blanket of white covered my vision. I could still feel a breeze on my skin and I felt the presence of Rick by my side. Once my eyes had adjusted to the bright sunlight, I looked around me.
The Wasteland was just as they said. A Harsh, empty, deserted.. Well.. Wasteland. I could smell something foul in the air and the soil under my feet felt weak. We were standing on a small hill. In the distance I saw mountains and around us, cliffs sheltered the entrance to the Vault. Those cliffs had probably been what had hidden the vault entrence so well. Far in the distance by the mountains, I could see the outlines of some ruins. I Looked at Rick.
''It's... Not as bad as you expected is it?'' I asked.
''It's Exactly What I expected!'' He exclaimed back, obviously scared out of his mind.
''Rick.. I know.. I know you're scared.. But I.. We.. We have to find Karen'' I whimpered. I knew how Rick felt, and getting right to the point seemed like the best way to find out if he'd come along for the rest of the trip or not.
I wasn't sure if I could even call it that – A Trip. We didn't even know where we were going. We were pretty sure Karen had left the Vault and we needed to find her, but the Wasteland was vast, and with no real means of knowing where she went, we were on our own. It could take months before we'd find her.. And by then chances are she'd be dead.
''I.. Know, Thor. I know we do'' Was all Rick said. He was obviously still debating with himself whether or not he should come along, but there wasn't much time left to decide. I could hear the sounds of some of the other vault dwellers calling out to us, much closer than before.
''Come on, Rick!'' I exclaimed and grabbed his arm, pulling him down the small trail on the hill. I ran through the little canyon and into the open wasteland. We couldn't see the wooden door anymore. It looked like Rick had made his choice.
''Where do we go?'' He asked. I smiled.
''Those ruins seem like our best bet'' I guessed, pointing at the ruins in the distance. Rick sighed and looked over at the ruins before looking back at me.
''Alright.. Let's go'' He whispered.
We didn't say much on the way. We didn't see anything either. The Wasteland stretched on for miles with nothing alive in sight. The ruins were a good half-hour walk away. I had never had reason – Nor the room to walk such a long way. Both Rick and I were exhausted by the time we got to the edge of the Ruins. Now we could see that the ruins we had stumbled upon were of a small town. It didn't take long to find it's name. On a large, corroded green sign by the road leading into town we could read the name 'Mitchellville'.
''You suppose anyone lives here?'' I asked.
''Lives here?'' Rick replied. ''I don't think anyone's Lived here since the war!''.
''But.. There must be.. Survivors.. right?'' I asked.
''I don't think anyone could survive a war like the one we had.. Or the Nuclear winter that followed'' Rick sighed.
He was right. The chances of someone surviving something like that were microscopic. It frightened me. It got me thinking about radiation and how much of it we could be exposed to before getting terminal cancer or something like that. It also made me think about how little hope we had of finding Karen. It made me depressed and it showed. Looking around the town revealed so much destruction, I had never seen anything like it. Buildings were completely obliterated, the walls torn to pieces, entire neighborhoods blown apart and house upon house blasted to kingdom come.
We stopped in front of a huge square building that was largely intact. We weren't sure what it had been used for judging by the sign on the wall, but we guessed it must have been some sort of Religeous institute. The sign read: ''Wal-Mart''. We stepped up to the clear glass doors and stood there for a minute, half expecting them to open up on their own, much like the doors back home in the Vault. After a solid moment of silence, we realised the doors probably wouldn't work like that out here in the wasteland. Upon further inspection it appeared the doors had been automatic at one point, but they had long since stopped working. Rick and I had to work at getting them open by brute force. Once we got the door open, we instantly regretted it. We heard loud noises. Bangs and Booms. We had no idea what was going on.
''What's happening?'' Rick whimpered.
''I don't know!'' I exclaimed, looking around.
The giant hall we found ourselves in was full of shelves, stocked with all sorts of things. We didn't know what half of those were, we hadn't ever seen anything we could compare them to, but I assumed they were offerings. Presumably to the God depicted on banners and posters around the hall. There were images of a Large, yellow smiley face. I assumed this was a god of some sort. Judging by the shape and color, I guessed that it was the God of The Sun or something like that. Right about now I wish we had been tought more about the Pre-war world back in the Vault. I guess nobody thought we'd ever need to know that much about this place. We were still hearing bangs and booms. In the distance we heard cursing and saw bright flashes of light. Gunfire.
''Oh Crap!'' Rick exclaimed and dove behind a shelf. I did the same when a bullet whizzed right by my ear.
''See? I Told you there were people here!'' I exclaimed.
''You're going to spend your last moments saying 'I Told you so'?'' Rick complained.
''N- No'' I whimpered, knowing full-well the seriousness of what was going on here.
''Then think of something more fitting to say!'' Rick whimpered.
''We had a very short run?'' I Shrugged, but realised I wasn't taking this seriously again.
Bullets whizzed all over the place. We heard yelling. We looked over the shelves and were quite startled by what we saw. A Teenage girl, about our age, sprinting straight for us. At first, I thought it was Karen. This girl looked like her. She had long, flowing, dark blonde hair, and she had an attractive figure. In the blurr of motion, they looked very much alike, only this girl was wearing something dark and heavy. Karen always wore nice things. Things that made me smile. On top of her Vault 94 Jumpsuit, of course.
''Get your heads down if you don't want them blown off!'' The girl exclaimed, jumping behind the shelves with us. We backed away from her, terrified.
I could clearly see now that this girl was Not Karen. Her eyes were deep blue like mine and not Dark brown like Karen's. Her nose was thinner and her skin was pale. She looked like she ate very little compared to us. She was wearing some roughly stitched leather clothing with shoulder pads. In her hand was a 10mm Sub-machine gun. Now is perhaps the time to mention that I always had an active interest in firearms. Firearms and science. Those were the two things I had researched the most about the time before the war.
''Who are you?'' Rick whimpered.
''My name is Raquel'' The Girl introduced herself as bullets flew by.
She rose above the shelves and sent a hail of bullets in the direction of whoever had been shooting at us before coming back down to reload her weapon and talk to me and Rick.
''Who's shooting at us?'' Rick asked in the same high-pitched voice as before. The Girl now known to us only as Raquel sighed.
''Raiders'' She answered cryptically and unleashed more bullets at our unknown enemy.
''Are we going to die?'' Rick asked. Again with the voice.
''Not if I can help it!'' Raquel stated confidently. She sneaked past us slowly hiding behind the shelves. ''C'mon if you have any interest in not dying a horribly violent death today'' She whispered.
Rick and I looked at each other confused, but we followed her. We sneaked over to the other side of the room, hurrying from cover to cover until we got to a door labeled ''Security Offices''.
''This seems like as good a place as any to hide until those Raiders are gone..'' Raquel whispered and sneaked with us through the door.
The room was sort of dark, but the sunlight coming in through some small windows on the wall across from us made it so that we could see where we were going. In front of us, I could see what looked like a break room with doors on the left wall leading into some deserted offices. In the corner however was where I saw the most interesting thing I had seen in a while: A ProtectoPod.
In case you're wondering, a ProtectoPod is a steel Pod with a glass door that contains a Robot. But not just any kind of Robot: A RobCo Protectron. As their name suggests, the Protectron series of robot was devised primarily for protection and security operations, though their secondary programming is very modular and they can do many things from being greeters, ticket collectors and bartenders. From the looks of it, This particular Pod seemed to contain a working unit. I was amazed at how little damage it had sustained over the years it must have been standing in that pod. Beside the pod was a terminal and when I saw it, I got an idea.
''Hey..'' I began, looking at Raquel. ''If.. If I can get that Robot up and running, he would probably chase away the Raiders for us..'' I suggested. Raquel looked at the Robot.
''Are you sure that hunk of metal is up to it?'' She asked.
''That's what those guys were made for! Protecting! I'm sure he'll be able to chase away some bandits!'' I exclaimed.
Apparently my assumption that the Raiders were just a bunch of bandits was correct as Raquel didn't object any further. I took that as my que to get to work. I stepped up to the Terminal. Outside, I could hear the people who had been shooting at us begin to search for our corpses, assuming they had killed us.
The Terminal was locked with a primative Password system. It didn't take long to crack the code and figure out the Admin password – Independence. Once I entered the password, I got a list of three commands: Activate Protectron Unit XK-76, Deactivate Protectron Unit XK-76 and Open ProtectoPod. It didn't seem like there was much choice involved here, so I unlocked the Pod and Activated the Robot.
Instantly, The glass door on the Pod slid open and the Robot inside beeped to life. His sensor module lit up and he slowly and clumsily stepped out of the pod, his old gears clattering together inside the steel chassis. He took a few steps forward before taking a good look around.
''Good Day'' The Robot said in an emotionless, digital voice. ''I am a RobCo Protectron. Model Number: Sec-GNDN. Serial Code: XK-76. My last internal Checkup was on October 22, 2077. The Current Date is November 13, 2277. The System Checkup is aproximately 200 years and 23 days overdue''.
The Robot's boot-up greeting baffled me. 200 years. It had been 200 years since someone last used this Robot. Something struck me about the date. October 22, 2077. The Great War had begun on October 23, 2077. To think, the world had been so normal, and then a day later, everything was gone. There were no humans left to perform the Systems check.. And this protectron had been sitting here idle for all this time.
''Initiating Patrol route'' The Robot stated and slowly trudged out the door.
We waited in agonizing angst as we heard the Robot trudge past the Raiders and one of them made the mistake of shooting at it.
''Unauthorized use of Fireams detected'' The Robot's blank voice stated without emotion. ''Target has taken hostile action against Protectron Unit. Unit is authorized to use Deadly force'' He continued and then we heard nothing but silence for a second or two. Then, a loud ''Pew! Pew!'' As the Robot discharged the Plasma Pistols that were built into it's arm.
''This is an authorized use of deadly force. Please direct all complaints to your local law enforcement office'' The Robot Said politely to the Raiders he was attacking.
The Raiders began to shoot back, but it was too late. The Robot had already gotten in a few good hits on each of them and they stood little chance now. After a moment of Gunfire and Laser Discharges, the battle ceased. We dared to come out of hiding after another minute of waiting.
''You supposed they're dead now then?'' Rick asked.
''They must be'' I replied. Raquel stood up.
''Well, then come on..'' She whispered and headed out the door without waiting for me or Rick. We just looked at each other and hurried to keep up.
Sure enough, in the middle of the large room we saw earlier, we came upon the corpses of two men. They looked to be in their late 20's. They were wearing armor that looked a lot like Raquel's and in their hands they each clutched a 9mm Pistol.
''Well, Look at that. How convenient'' Raquel smiled, pointing at the guns in their hands. ''Two of them. Just enough for you two to arm yourselves'' She smiled.
''Arm ourselves?'' Rick asked, but he decided not to ask any more, as he knew it would be a good idea to at least be armed out here, seeing as this was our first day and we'd already come across two people who wanted to kill us. I picked up one of the Pistols and Rick the other. The Raiders were carrying 16 clips of ammo, each containing 6 rounds. We gathered them up and decided to let Raquel carry them, seeing as she was the only one with a backpack.
''Well then Gentlemen! I believe this is where we part ways!'' Raquel announced and began to walk off.
''Wait!'' Rick exclaimed. Raquel looked back at us and raised an eyebrow.
''We.. We need your help'' Rick whispered.
''My help?'' Raquel looked confused.
After explaining everything to Raquel, she smiled at us understandingly.
''Vault-dwellers, eh? I should have known'' She whispered.
''Will you help us find Karen?'' I asked. Raquel seemed to think about it for a moment.
''I'm going to a town called Greyditch'' She began. ''Since you don't know where to start looking, you might as well come along'' She proposed.
Rick and I looked at each other happily. We had found a friend. Someone who knew what she was doing out here in the Wasteland, And We had our heading: Greyditch.