Chapter Two- Vault 111
When Elliot opened her eyes again, they were met with the darkness that had consumed herself and the others around her. The estranged cries of her neighbors seemed unfamiliar as they panicked while the platform they stood on made its' ever slow descent into the one thing that would keep them alive and safe. However, those people didn't matter to her at the time. Nor did the people who were left on the surface matter anymore. The only thing that did matter to her at the time, was her family.
She forced herself to squeeze the waist of her husband, more an acknowledgment for herself that he was still right next to her and not doomed to whatever fate was left aboveground. He was there and he was breathing, still holding firmly to their infant son with a grip that was gentle, but not gentle enough that anyone could rip the baby from him. Elliot found herself able to smile against the hell they had just went through.
She had her family there with her and that was all that mattered to her now. Though she was concerned as she tilt her head back and stared up at the never-ending blackness that now was the entrance to the vault itself. She wondered desperately if there would be any light. The blast had come so quickly, probably a lot more soon than anyone had thought. A lot of good people were left behind on the surface and Elliot shuddered, left with her vivid imagination of what became of her friends.
"Sh.. It's alright. We're safe now." Elliot's husband spoke quietly to her, and only her.
He knew more than anyone else how much Elliot's imagination was a blessing, but also a curse. While it was an endless spout for her creativity, it also left room for nightmares during the night and terrors during the day. It was a double-edged sword, if you asked Nate. He often wished that she could overcome such vivid ailments but her imagination left no room for fight.
So when she went rigid against him, Nate knew exactly why. She was left to her minds' sick and cruel reality, no doubt forcing her to imagine herself what happened on the surface. Nate was assured that's exactly what was going through her mind as, finally, the faintest of light broke the darkness that seemed to never let up.
Elliot seemed to sigh in relief, coming back to the world now that a new light filtered in. She stared up at her husband a moment before she hesitantly turned around. He held firmly to her shoulder with one hand while the other held their son close to his chest. The other three that had made it to the platform with Elliot's family, all seemed to stand stock-still, as they watched with uncertainty, the scenery unfolding before them.
The platform steadily groaned to an end, the gears slowing as they came to a complete stop. A strong light now shed on them, revealing their paled faces. Almost immediately, the small group were met with two men donned in white lab coats and Elliot quickly hoped that they were doctors. She felt like she needed her head examined to make sure that she had not gone insane.
"I know this is difficult for all of you, but please, make your way off the platform and follow me." One of the men had said as he and his partner turned, gently urging the group to follow.
Elliot hesitated. "What about everyone on the surface?" As soon as she spoke, she knew it was stupid question.
As stupid as it was, the man ahead of them turned his head slightly to look back at her, his expression unreadable, "There's nothing more we can do for them. Please, follow us so we can get you ready for the vault."
Was all he had said in response before leading them ahead on a grated walkway. Ahead of them, to Elliot's surprise, were a steady line of people, all standing and waiting while a couple more people in white had started handing out the familiar blue and yellow uniforms, neatly folded and airlocked in a sealed bag. Soldiers were spread out among the crowd, surely to keep everyone in check. The thought made her skin crawl.
Underneath the Earth's surface, it was a surefire way to stir up more panic to have armed forces handling civilians rather than someone to atone for their grief. Several of the doctors had taken a keen interest in Elliot and her family, she noticed, and for a split second, she felt protective of her baby boy. She leaned in against Nate as it came their turn to retrieve the new uniforms.
"Standard Issue Vault 111 jumpsuits. One for each of you. Please, follow ahead for safety precautions and change into your new outfits as soon as possible." Said the woman who was readily handing out the plastic-covered uniforms.
"Suits? Why can't we keep our own clothes?" Elliot felt herself blurt out, whether it was for her own attempt to keep herself calm or the simple fact that she didn't want to give up the only other thing she had that was left of their home.
"I'm sorry, ma'am, it's precautions. We don't want any sort of contamination in the vault. Surely you understand? We wish to keep all our patrons as healthy as possible." Contamination? Elliot's thoughts whirled once more until she sighed with resignation. Radiation, is probably what they were referring to. That, or something else entirely that the eggheads weren't saying.
Elliot nodded then as she took a suit for herself and then one for her husband. Nate pressed his lips softly to his wife's cheek and assured her in a whisper, that everything was going to be alright. He gently urged her forward, following another woman in white. When they stopped at a chamber fitted with airlock doors, she waved her head before them, giving a slight nod.
"If you would step through here, please and take off your clothes and change into the Vaultsuit." She had said and Elliot sighed.
It wasn't that she wasn't used to stripping down in front of Nate, but the scenery. The reason why she had to change was what bothered her. She and Nate followed the direction into the chamber and as the door sealed shut, both husband and wife exchanged turns to slip out of their normal attire into what they would wear for the rest of their lives. Elliot blushed as she looked at her husband and smirked, the suit well-defining every natural curve of his body. Even holding Shaun showed the toned muscles in his arms and within moments, they felt a light pressure in the air as every particle of whatever was removed from their bodies.
"Huh. That wasn't so bad." Elliot voiced, shrugging at her husband nonchalantly as she tried to hide the real fear she felt.
Nate turned down her fears with a smile and grinned as he placed his hand to her back as the opposite doors opened with a hiss, revealing a long hallway and another doctor standing in wait. Elliot could have groaned. She was tired already of seeing so many doctors in one place. It reminded her of a hospital and she hated hospitals with a burning passion.
"Just this way." The man had said and without making sure they were following, he started down the hallways in silence.
"So... The vaults.. They're well-equipped, right? The man who.. Who signed us up said that there was enough equipment for the common household dwelling." Elliot forced herself to speak, trying to clear her head now.
There was a moment of silence before the doctor ahead of them spoke. Clearly trying to choose his words correctly. "Yes... All the Vaults scattered throughout Boston are heavily equipped for long-living and sustain a perfect amount of resources. So there's no worries."
Somehow Elliot doubted that as she looked around the hall they were walking down. Already they passed a few sliding doors that obviously held rooms and they even passed a mess hall, only to pass even more rooms that were all eerily empty. She turned her sky-blue gaze on the man in front of them then before she glanced up at Nate. He seemed to be deep in thought himself as they walked. Something didn't feel right about all of this, and she felt that it wasn't just the fact that they barely escaped the end of the world.
That's when Elliot took the chance to look at the man who guided them down the halls. He was middle-aged, short brown hair and wore a long white coat that reminded her of either a scientists' lab coat or a doctors wears. He wore thick, black-rimmed glasses that were pushed up against his nose and held by a little string that wrapped around the back of his neck. He wasn't ruggishly handsome and he definitely wasn't hard to look at, but something about the way he wore his blank expression worried her and set her on edge.
When they came down a hallway that had six other unique doors, she stopped and stared at him hard, almost willing to pick his brain telepathically. She sighed, it was worth a try when he stood in front of a keycoded lock and pressed in a sequence of numbers before the airlock doors hissed and maneuvered out of their sight, only to reveal a large room filled with strangely shaped containers.
The room was filled with other people and on either side in the dead center of the room, lay eight containers perfectly parallel to one another. Once again, Elliot's skin crawled and she hesitantly followed the doctor inside and down the steps leading to the eery rows of machinery. There were already doctors and soldiers standing among a few other inhabitants as they helped men and women alike into the oblong machines.
"Wait, wait, wait. We're not going in those, are we? Where are the beds? The rooms that-"
"All in due time, ma'am. This is just a precaution until we can get everyone accounted for. We don't want anybody getting hurt in case someone can't... Adjust to this new lifestyle." The doctor had interrupted her with his cool voice as he stopped in front of two more containers, both extremely identical in every way.
Elliot definitely didn't like the idea of the world ending, and she definitely didn't like the idea of being separated from her family. What finally drove her off the edge was that she hated the idea of being locked away in some sort of chamber instead of the bedrooms they were promised! She shook her head then, her black hair falling about in front of her piercing blue eyes. She had quickly thought of a nasty comment and opened her mouth when Nate spared the man before them, resting a hand upon her shoulder carefully.
"Hon. It won't be for very long. He has a point. Our family is important. Whatever we gotta do to make it easier for ourselves.. For our son.. We should comply." He said in his smooth voice as he watched her with those gray eyes of his.
With a sigh, Elliot resigned and jerked her head in the form of a nod before she stepped up to Nate, softly kissing the top of her sons' head. "It's alright, Shaun. Your father's got you. We'll see each other again, very soon."
Taking that as a moment of opportunity, the first soldier backed up the man in white that had led them down the halls and helped Elliot into her own chamber. It was surprisingly warm and comfortable and she settled into the seat, oddly relaxing, as she watched her son and her husband opposite of her, enter into their own.
She couldn't help but to still feel like something was amiss but she dared not say another word as the door swung down, ever so gently, and the locking mechanism shuttered before sticking to place. She watched as the same had corresponded with her familys' and she pressed her hand to the glass when a sudden chill came over her after the soldier held up his hand in the air and made a circular maneuver. Elliot hadn't a single moment to think as the cryochamber chilled her body to such a degree, freezing her in time with the palm of her hand pressed to the glass, her thoughts on her family.
...Manual override initiate.
It was cold. So cold. Elliot strained to blink her eyes as the frost left her body. She stared ahead, shivering frantically, as her husband started to move. Defrosting himself and their baby boy. She could faintly hear the echos of Shaun's cry and she struggled as she raised a fisted hand and pounded at the frosted glass.
Again and again, she pounded on it but quickly gave up, gasping softly as the cold never left her body. That was when she heard the voices. They weren't very clear but she heard them and she strained to move herself so that she could see better. Down the rampway came a woman dressed in an entire wonky getup that took Elliot completely by surprise. Had something gone wrong? She found herself asking as she watched the woman stop in front of Nate and Shaun's chamber as the airlock doors released and the door swung open on its arch.
Shaun's cries became even louder then and Elliot couldn't help but to cry. She desperately wanted to comfort her baby boy during this time and she was angry at how powerless she was. Perhaps, she was next to be let out. Perhaps the strange full-body suit was just another precaution? Though, no matter what excuse Elliot tried to come up with, she knew that that was not the case.
"I've got him." She heard Nate then and her attention snapped back to him as the woman tried to take their baby from her husbands' arms. "I'm not going to give you Shaun!"
He yelled and Elliot's heart lurched as movement out of the corner of her eye caught her attention. She fixed her gaze on the man to her left, dressed in an outfit, weirder than even his counterpart. He wore a leather black jacket, ruffled, and a severely worn pair of jeans. That wasn't what was the weirdest thing on him. What took her attention was the strange ornaments that wrapped around his left arm. They looked kinda like robotic part. Machinery. Who their right mind would wear something so gawdy as that?
Her eyes widened when he slowly held up an odd-looking pistol in his hands, aiming it straight at her husband. "Let him go." Was all he had to say that made Elliot's skin crawl in fear.
She stared at her husband as she started to beat on the glass again, willing him to hear her and for the glass to give way. She gasped and everything seemed to grow quiet when a loud bang reverberated off the walls. Elliot screamed as a bulletwound had found it's way in between her husbands eyes. Tears streamed down her face unchecked, as she pounded defiantly on the glass as the woman took her baby into her arms.
"Too bad." Came the icily calm voice of the man who had just murdered her husband in cold blood.
Elliot felt sick.
The woman already started down the ramp when the oddly dressed man had begun to follow her, only to come to a stop in front of Elliot's chamber. "At lease we still have the spare." He said as he leaned in and stared harshly at Elliot's writhing body.
It was in that moment that something deep inside of her welled up and she met the man's eyes, cold and what seemed to be a flash of uncertainty. It was at that moment that she condemned his face to her memory as anger boiled inside of her. A longing of which she had never felt before. She wanted so desperately to destroy the glass before her and to slaughter the man who had killed her husband and stolen away her son.
She was left with the feeling of hunger for revenge as she watched the man walk away from her view and her breathing became harsh and shallow as she stared ahead, her husbands' broken body the last thing she saw before the chilling cold overcame her once more.
Cryosleep override. Remaining participants, please evacuate immediately.
Elliot's eyes squeezed shut as a coughing fit overcame her entire body. She gasped and shivered from the cold and the familiar release of airlocked doors forced her to open her eyes. She blinked, willing away the sheer cold she felt as the door swung open on rusted hinges. A sound that she would remember for a long time. Still pressed up against the glass, she let out a soft yell as she fell to the floor with a thud.
She groaned. Not much for a welcome. She thought as she sat up, wincing at her now skidded knees. The frost was only just leaving her limbs as she brought her arms about her and rubbed down her arms. She was disoriented at first, not truly remember where she was until it hit her.
"Nate!" She called out in a voice that she didn't recognize as her own as she whipped her head around to the chamber directly in front of her own. What she desperately hoped for to be a dream, suddenly became a twisted and cruel reality as her husbands' body remained enclosed in his frozen sleep. "Oh, Nate..." She whimpered as she grunted and forced herself to her feet.
It took a moment for her to get her bearings and she stumbled over to the frozen pod that encased who once was the love of her life. She fumbled around the chamber before her fingers grazed the button to release his own lock and she fell back in surprise as the familiar hiss rang in her ears. She watched through pained eyes as the door lifted away to reveal her husband. Still with the bulletwound in between his eyes and her now missing son.
How long has it been? She wondered as she stared with despair at her husband. Carefully, Elliot stood back up and lightly brushed Nate's frozen cheek, choking on her own bile as it rose in her throat. She backed away slowly, with a vengeance to find their missing child, slapping her hand on the controls that shut the door once again to his deathbed.
Elliot's sky-blue eyes scanned the darkness around her. Occasionally, a flash of red light would illuminate the darkness, but only for a split second before she was enclosed once again. The entire room sent chills down her spine and it wasn't from her recent sleeping experience. The room she had left in right after the bombs fell were pristine. Well-swept and well-lit. What she was staring at now was nothing short of... Old. Decayed. The lighting that hung on ceiling now had been long broken away and hanging barely on their hinges. Broken glass scattered everywhere and she could have sworn she saw what was the remnants of blood on the floor but she dared not stare anymore before she willed herself to move and keep going.
The first thing she knew she needed to do was find something that she could defend herself. Whether whatever, or whoever, she found was human or not, surely there would be no need for friendly greets. Steadily, she made her way up the familiar rampway and up the stairs to the door that she and her family had just walked through it seemed. The door was heavily rusted and she frowned. She was definitely out much longer than what she had hoped for. If she knew one thing, it was that metal didn't look like this in just a few short weeks. It took years for something to resort to this level of decay.
She looked around and found a metal crowbar. An interesting trinket to say the least being down in the vault. She shrugged it off as she picked it up and jammed the tip against the door where it met its' frame. She grunted and pushed and pulled with all her might until finally, the door gave way and slid open. She signed softly as she slowly peered her head out, her heart racing frantically in her chest.
She squeaked and quickly sat back as a shadow cast itself along the far wall and disappeared just as soon as it had appeared. She was not alone. Shaking, Elliot gripped the end of the crowbar tightly in her hands as she took a cautious step out of the chamber room and into the dimly lit halls. She listened intently as whatever had given that shadow was now further into the vault than she was. Clattering around whatever was in the other rooms. Her shoulders slumped slightly as she knew that whatever it was, it stood between her and the way out.
Ever so cautiously, Elliot made her way down the halls, slipping past a few doors, and she had eventually come across a terminal that was somehow still active. Beneath the desk, she had found the body of one of the doctors who had helped escort them inside the vault. However, the only thing that remained of them was their skeleton and torn garments and nametag. Elliot cringed, knowing that even now, she was out for a very long time. For a body to become nothing but bones and dust? She was out for decades as far as she was concerned.
She knelt down then, anger rising within her as she stared at the broken body before her, kicking it over in her frustration. Underneath it, was a strange looking device. It looked to be some sort of portable computer. The screen was black and it had several knobs and buttons that confused her to no end. She picked it up, though and carefully rest her wrist inside of it, clamping down the rest of the band so that it wouldn't fall off.
Elliot turned her wrist over, this way and that, getting a feel for the strange device. She poked at the screen and nothing happened. Pursing her lips, she started prodding at the buttons and the screen suddenly came to life, showing her the vital signs that were clearly her own as her heart slowly started to decrease in its' frantic beating. She watched it a moment, her eyes adjusting to the harsh light until she managed to find the settings on it, and dimmed the light, changing it's color to something just a little more comforting to her.
A soft silver color now illuminated the darkness now permanently as she stood to her feet and she strode over to the terminal. A soft green character flashed off and on consistently and she pressed her fingers to the dusty board, sneezing as dust had found its' way into her nose. She sniffled as she wiped away the remaining dust and surfed through the different folders, finding one that had given her the option to unlock the main door.
Without a second thought, she quickly pressed down a little too hard on the key and to her right, the door had unlocked itself and opened, revealing the all-too-familiar way to freedom. She grinned and almost shout when suddenly the shadow came on display again and she shrieked, slipping underneath the desk with a now sizzling computer terminal.
She whined quietly as she pressed herself low to the ground and peered underneath the desk, looking for a better view as to what was in the other room. She gaped then as what crawled before her was the biggest cockroach she had ever seen. Not even her regular bug spray would kill something that big and she gripped the handle to her weapon even tighter now.
Of course that thing would be in her way. She sighed ruefully as she willed all the courage she could muster and forced herself away from the desk and shuffled over as quietly as she could to the doorway. Her skin crawled the closer to came to the door and the little, not so little, bug milling about on the wall. She grit her teeth as she carefully shimmied herself against the opposite wall. It hadn't heard or seen her yet and she hoped that she would be able to keep it that way so she could find a better vantage point.
She turned her gaze hesitantly to her left and gasped quietly as her eyes lay on a 10mm pistol with ammo sitting beside it, just begging to be grabbed. She carefully slipped the crowbar onto her belt and slowly shuffled her way to the gun, occasionally keeping an eye on the bug as it still stayed on the wall opposite her.
Just a few more inches and she'd have the gun. When her foot kicked an empty bottle of glass, she groaned inwardly and snapped her attention to the bug which now was staring at her. She could feel it staring at her. Within a manner of seconds, the bug sprang from it's perch and she screamed as she fumbled for the gun and snatched it up along with its' ammo. Swiftly, she kicked away from the bench it sat on and the roach missed her by a hair. With shaking hands, she unloaded her clip and slammed bullet after bullet into the cartridge before she slapped the clip back and cocked the barrel, aiming it not a moment too soon and fired the trigger.
The deafening ring surprised her as the bullet hit its' mark and the roach instantly met its death. She hadn't accounted for the remnants of the insect and she found herself covered in its slime as she wore the biggest frown she ever made and stood wearily to her feet. She looked herself over, its' green goo oozing from her chest as she wiped at it without success. She desperately wanted a bath.
Elliot found herself laughing though. She had never held a gun in her life. Being who she was, she was fascinated by the concept of weapons and found them useful to the heros in her comics but she never thought she, herself, would touch one. She did, however, and she managed herself a heros escape and she shook her head at the roach at her feet now, still freshly oozing its' intestines. She shuddered and kicked it from her, immediately regretting the action as she stepped away and headed down the familiar ramp that led to the entrance of Vault 111.
Relief flooded over her as she had run into no more of the unnecessarily large bugs. When she came to a gated platform with a cracked computer screen, she stared it over until she glanced to the elevator that she had taken to escape the explosion of the bombs. Biting her lip, she felt around her newly acquired computer, the PipBoy, and toggled off the light. She made her way down the stairs and onto the platform which had no longer kept up it's beautiful blues and yellows, retaining to all of its' other counterparts of rust and old.
With a heavy sigh, Elliot took one last glance around the vault she had taken shelter to and knew what she had to do. She slammed her hand down on the red button for the elevator, turning her head to the ceiling above her. If anything else, she would tear what remained of the world apart to find her son.