Adventure in the Wastes- Chapter 2
Again, I do not own either Fallout or Adventure time, they are owned by Bethesda Game studios and Cartoon network respectively.
Dave felt strange- as with any occasion in which you loose consciousness, you feel strange but he felt, stranger than before or more specifically, he couldn't feel at all- his senses where inactive as he thought, having only memories and thought processes to him, he tried desperately to remember what happened to bring him to this occasion.
Eventually after what felt like an eternity he heard a voice, a broad american accent spoke as if from inside his head with a tone that commanded control. "Hello and good Mourning/Afternoon/evening to you and welcome to Vault 277- Here at Vault-tech we specialise in the protection of life and here we are proud to announce that you have been admitted into one of many unique vaults and in this vault, you will be given the extremely luck experience of a new technology designed for the long-term storage of human life and here at Vault-tech we pride ourselves on this, our greatest technology for the preservation of people, a mixture of VR simulation and Cryonics to give you a significantly extended lifespan as you wait with us here in the safety of the Vault."
Dave thought this strange- "How come this was never advertised? Do the other vaults have the same features? In which case how come the adverts often stated an active life in the vault?"
Dave suffered another headache and was blinded by a light- all his sense had returned to him all at once, suddenly he could see, breathe, feel his arms, his legs, his skin everything.
As Dave recovered from the flood of neurological information, he promptly forgot about the vault, the bombs, even going to the university where he studied- he felt like a 16 year old boy at the start of his Summer break- he felt free.
He looked around to see a golden haze over a small town, he could see people wandering around, minding their own business and enjoying the pleasant sun that beamed down on them. He felt strangely out of place though, as a British boy in America, he felt as though this was wrong, inaccurate or just outright false but he tried not to fight it for long, he was happy here. He could live here.
What happened to Dave could be described as a unique kind of miracle- his SAS gear was taken and moved to a safe location where they would be stored for long-term and kept safe by Mr handy robots and they continued to maintain the facility and themselves for as long as they could.
Dave specifically was hooked up to a VR simulator that also Cryonically froze him, reducing his rate of cell respiration and effectively extending his life and the many cables and tubes that now sprung out from his cold body where all responsible for maintaining his physical health and metal well-being as he remained semi-conscious during this ordeal- in a dream state that was linked to all others in the pods.
As the years passed by Dave became more and more suspicious of his surroundings, he tried to remember his previous life but only remembered that he had forgotten something... Soon years felt like minutes and to his rate of respiration and physiological function, it was a matter of years turn to minutes.
Dave suspected something was wrong, he was sceptical at things like that, much like his... father! He mentally snapped his fingers in a eureka moment as he realised that his father was not present- he began to spot flaws in the simulation- of course others simply ignored him, believing he was being childish (after all he did appear to be a 16 year old boy trying to kill the time).
As the simulation felt like it had gone on for about a year now- the now 17 year old boy was more suspicious than ever, he tried to remember, he had been for years but now he could remember the voice at the start of the simulation- it spoke of cryonics- the science of cryogenically freezing something or someone to preserve them. He noticed this might actually be real as he theorised that some of the cryonic coolers must have malfunctioned because suddenly random people where functioning faster and slower than before- some people outright froze and stopped- signals from their brains having ceased- they had died.
Dave became extremely concerned with his well-being after this, he sought a way out, an escape route but found nothing...
Until he noticed that there was a young man of about 20 years old always stood in the middle of the cul-de-sac, he never noticed him before, like his brain simply refused to acknowledge him as being relevant- he approached him and the man in the middle was shocked to see someone notice him, surprised. He looked around nervously but many thought and memories had returned to Dave in this time, he remembered how to psychologically asses someone through a conversation and body language- he could read some people like a book.
When he reached the young man Dave simply said "Al-right Boss?"
To this the young man simply responded "W-w-who...m-me?" Stammering with his speech but Dave refused to think this was a genuine illness of his, he was nervous- afraid and why would a 20 year old man be afraid of a 17 year old boy asking "al right boss?"
"You heard me... Boss..."
Dave struck a nerve that caused the young looking man to have a slight breakdown- He had not talked to anyone in a 'year' and this sudden confrontation was not only unexpected but he was unwell- psychologically speaking.
"I-I-I Don't kn-know what you are t-t-talking about"
More stammering, if he could just get him to trip up in some way there would be no problem getting him to open up-to give Dave an answer he liked.
"You know damn right you do- now speak or things will get ugly really fast- you don't want to be uncovered and i have evidence to break your cover- explain how I get out... NOW"
"Okay damn it- you obviously know about the simulation- if you want out then you had better know this- you may already know that time has been flowing oddly here- it has flowed consistently and, well, you may not like what you see out there".
The stammering stopped and he spoke with command and confidence- he knew he wasn't lying- "I don't care- how do I get out of this pile of shit?"
"I can disengage the simulation but all participants will be removed as a result and we are supposed to keep the simulation going for about 1500 years, we did warn you of this being a long-term stay. But if you want out after just 1000, I can't stop you."
"okay then but you still haven't told me HOW to get out"
"They key is me, I will open it up, and shut it down again immediately after you get up- this may keep the others in the simulation for the extra time period but it may reset and we could be either for another 1500 years. Are you sure you can get up and just leave like that?"
"I'm positive"
And with these words, the Overseer vanished from the simulation as did all the other characters before the world around him began to de materialise- he was falling away and eventually, he awoke.
Dave was overwhelmed by the stimuli of the vault environment- he struggled to move, he had not moved in a millennium- his hair had grown long but he could shave later- his skin was still just as supple but all 1000 years onf the memories can back to him all at once- flooding his mind with a slow-mo view of nothing- crowding his head and giving him a tremendous migraine.
Dave struggled to crawl out of the pod but was suspended by his cables, still holding him down. His weak arms pulled a large pipe that went down his trachea and oesophagus, feeding him air and food and as he pulled it out- he could finally breathe normally (relatively speaking) but was still suspended by his back cables, now slowly peeling off, he felt his many stab wounds from the initiation all retract at once, dropping him to the cold, dusty floor.
He lay there for a few minutes, resting his eyes and recovering his thoughts but before long, minutes turned to hours.
Dave woke up as if awakening from a bad dream- gasping for air and feeling the driest neck he ever had was agony- he remembered the intro announcer saying his stuff was moved to a recollection area where it too would be preserved. He dragged himself to the nearest signs to point out where he should go. He noticed all the other pods open and close behind him as he stumbled away, now on his feet but barely.
As he found his cache of SAS gear- he proceeded to open up the tightly packed bag to retrieve the canteen inside- he downed it, feeling his stomach stretch and move as the liquid contents filled him. After another nap, Dave felt refreshed and ready to go, having recovered a large amount of his strength. He proceeded to put on the SAS gear, gas mask and all- there was no telling if the air was still toxic and rich in carcinogens and he did not need lung cancer to start up.
Dave noticed how his body had changed since going into the pod- his hair had grown massively since and he decided to have an attempt at shaving- he took the bayonet from his HK G53 and 870MCS to find them heavier than he remembered- he proceeded to the vault door and entered a code that was scarred on onto the wall next to the door- he assumed that it was a security officer that had to loose out on his pod, he felt sorry for him.
Dave then remembered his father- he decided he would bring justice and good to the wastes in the name of his father and after entering the code, he checked his gear and found that while the water was good- the food rations did not fare so well and had deteriorated into a mushy goo by various colours of mould. He knew that as he stepped through the vault main door, he would have to scavenge for his dinner- as the klaxon making a loud beeping nose stopped, the vault door was about to open- it let out a deafening screech before rolling to the right.
It was at this point that he noticed his wrist watch given to him by his father on his 18th birthday was missing and replaced by a wrist mounted computer labelled 'pip-boy 3000 model A'. While Dave was very annoyed at his missing watch he was also excited to have a new computer to work with- he also remembered a few commercials that depicted some of it's many functions and noticed it had not only taken all of the stock in his backpack but had also a few extra vault-tech grade medical supplies and drugs such as med-x, rad-away, about 7 stimpacks and some other drugs such as mentats, cat eye, psycho etc... although not is such high supply- confused as to where the extra stock came from he selected one for the stimpacks and it materialised in the palm of his gauntlet- he pressed another button and it de-materialised into the pip-boy. excited by this, he proceeded to try and de materialise his 870MCS to save his back from giving way and found it to completely de materialise. Dave was not so upset about the wrist watch now.
As Dave was bout to step out of the vault door, he decided to take a photograph of the code on the wall just in case- and with the surprisingly his res picture, he stepped out into the small tunnel with gas mask on and G53 ready to fire at the first sign of danger he left the vault- the door screaming shut behind him- presumably a safety measure to ensure security in the vault.
Outside of the cave, Dave saw that the entire horizon was strewn with nothing but desert- empty.
Dave began his trek out as he knew, he would need food and shelter and while there were ruins dotted about the landscape, Dave knew his father died very close to here- a lone tear dripped from his eye but he decided there is not point in crying over something that happened 1000 years ago... Still surprised about where he was and how the geology had changed so much.
"To think I used to live here, to work here and sleep here but now I can barely notice any of it"
After a few hours of hiking through the desert he decided he should travel north in an attempt to escape the killer heat and while his pip-boy displayed a standard level of background radiation- he was not going to take any chances.
Eventually he found grasslands with rolling hills and a wide array of fauna and some animals that had somehow escaped the nuclear horrors of the war. Surprised at how not only did the animals not appear harmed but also not particularly afraid of him- strange...
Dave then decided to take his pip-boy out and search for food in nearby vaults- the pip-boy glowed and showed off 3 vaults within a 5 mile radius- Dave took this opportunity to move now while the sun was up.
After about an hour Dave checked the time on the pip-boy and was surprised to see it was almost 3pm- "I must've been lucky to get out just as the sun rises- I have had half the day to do this much, a load of nothing but I have covered ground and now I am noting a desert. At least I have that".
Having noticed that the small mammal he had encountered appeared fine with eating the small shrubs and grass, he thought it would be a good time to take of the hot and sweaty gas mask but was stopped at the last moment by a noise from behind- he ducked quickly, dropping his backpack and getting his G53 ready for action.
Looking down the 4X ACOG scope he had attached and the bi-pod, he could see a couple of figures walking in the distance- one appeared to be a young boy and the other, a dog but it was too far to tell reliably using this scope. He reached into his bag and pulled out a target finder- a key piece of kit for a sniper but he liked to have one for the sake of being ready for anything.
Through the 40X ballistic optical scope he could see many fine details he would have missed- The boy was wearing a green backpack, had a strange white-bear-hat-thing and blue shirt and shorts. The dog, was blonde, like a golden retriever but had the build of a dog he had never seen before- the face of a bull dog and the body of a slightly longer, less chubby dog with surprisingly long legs.
Dave chose to observe them, the boy was talking to the dog so Dave drew the conclusion that the boy was lonely or alone- neither of them looked particularly mutated and so he assumed there would be a village nearby. Taking his backpack,he decided to do a little experiment where he would de-materialise most of his bag to reduce weight and then try to de materialise the whole bag itself but was stopped after the pip-boy simply read out the words "MEMORY FULL". The backpack would stay on his back but he had far less to carry now.
Proceeding to follow them he could not quite hear them but could see that the boy had a band of grass around his right wrist, a little confused, he followed on regardless and eventually found that the duo had arrived at a cave after about 2 hours. Taking a mental note that they would enter the cave, he took out his G53 and did some final checks before confronting the boy.
Noticing a small pinkish wooden house in the cave, he was confused further, it had lights and was painted nicely- this world confused him significantly. With that thought he was grabbed from behind and picked up before being thrown over to the boy and dog out of sheer shock he passed out mid-flight and didn't acknowledge his landing.
Between brief lapses of consciousness before slipping back away he could pick up a few things, firstly that there where 3 voices- 2 men and a girl, all sounding slightly immature or at least late teens.
After finally regaining consciousness he could only draw a few conclusions:
1- The the oldest sounding man had left and the dog was allowed to sit on furniture.
2- The Boy and dog there where the same boy and dog he followed.
3- He was no inside the house and was tied to a chair with his bag and gun on the floor between him and the group.
4- There was a third character now, a 19 year old girl that had a very greyish skin tone and wore mostly back clothes with a pair of knee-length red boots and a very long head of black hair.
5- He now noticed that the group was noticing him noticing them.
6-He began to panic because the 19 year old girl was floating towards him before the other two, the boy and the dog (who was now standing on two legs) where holding her back.
7- Dave realised he may be hallucinating and then his hearing came back, only just noticing the lack of a ringing in his ears.
"Did I just die and go to hell or something because this makes literally no sense"
"Excuse me, Who are you two?" Dave said, hoping to get their attention, also noting that they never took his helmet and gas mask off.
The Dog was the first to speak "Excuse me, are you missing out on me on purpose? I bet he's a cat person anyway". This left Dave even more confused than before. "Did that dog just talk?" He said, voicing his mind as he obviously wasn't going anywhere without them letting him go... "Unless... I can use the pip-boy materialiser glove to give myself my bayonet to cut the roe and escape!" and Dave's escape plan was already about to go into motion when he noticed that the people already untied him.
"What if he is an assassin, here to kill you Finn?"
At this point, Dave realised they where just as confused and scared as he was. "Well I am not an assassin, I am... er... a.. wonderer! That's it, I am a wanderer and I was wondering... if.. you could explain where I could scavenge some food... I have not eaten..in a very VERY long time..."
"There you go!" The young boy said, "Now he can show us his adventuring skills!
When Dave said this, he was offered by the girl to have some apples or strawberries from the fridge. To which Dave replied with a definitive yes.
Just as the plate came to him, he took off his helmet and gas mask to reveal his face to the group who initially stood there in awe with their mouths practically hitting the floor. Dropping the food on the floor, Dave was not hungry enough to dive for the food just yet.
"What?" Dave said, with no idea what would happen to him in the coming days...
OKAY! The foreshadowing is horrible I know, but if you like it then please review my storey so far and feel free to make points on what should happen further on down the line. Thanks for reading it so far!