Chapter Three: The Beginning Again
I couldn't breathe. I blinked my eyes open in a furious panic to see the familiar window of the decontamination pod, but for some ungodly reason it was suddenly frozen over with ice. It dawned on me then that I was also covered in a thin layer of frost, and I was beyond freezing cold. But most importantly, I still couldn't breathe. Figuring something was very wrong, I tried to shout in panic but the painfully thin oxygen in the pod wouldn't let me get out more than a gasping squeak. My hands flew to the door in front of me, the metal so cold that it felt like it was actually burning my fingers. The pod gave a shuddering shake at the same time a loud and familiar buzzer went off somewhere on the outside.
Critical failure in Cryogenic Array. All Vault residents must vacate immediately.
A hiss followed the female automated voice as the door of my pod jerked, the pressure inside releasing as the door lifted towards the sky. I felt a warm breeze of air rush in from the gap at the bottom and fell forward eagerly, nearly smacking my head on the raising door as I did. I was weaker than I thought, hitting the ground hard as my arms gave out when I tried to catch myself. My cheek smacked painfully onto smooth concrete, but the pain barely registered in my head as I sucked in greedy breaths. Unfortunately, the air in the Vault wasn't much better than the air inside the pod, and my lungs flew into a spasm that drove me into a coughing fit.
I coughed so hard that I nearly threw up, but a few empty wretches quickly let me know that I didn't have anything to bring up. Reflexive tears blurred my eyes, tracing burning hot tracks down my cheeks. I grounded my face against the concrete, nails scratching at the floor as I tried to find the strength and purchase to push myself up right. It took me a few moments before I realized that I wasn't the only one lying on the ground struggling to find air. I pulled my head up to look to my right where a similar hacking to my own was drawing my attention. Kiefer was on his hands and knees, in the middle of vomiting as his long hair fell in front of his eyes.
"Kie." I croaked, but the word was hardly audible over his gags so I tried again. "Kie."
He looked at me that time, breathing hard and eyes watering profusely. Relief filled his hazel orbs as he saw me. He reached a hand out towards me before immediately dropping it as he nearly unbalanced himself and fell into the puddled mess underneath him.
"Are y-you okay-y?" He stammered, words distorted from how hard he was shivering.
"Yeah." I confirmed shortly. "I th-ink."
He nodded before abruptly freezing as a second noise besides our ragged breathing met our ears. Simultaneously, we turned towards the only other filled pod on our row whose door hadn't opened. The ice covering the observation window made it nearly impossible to see, but we could just barely make out the movement of a fist banging weakly on the glass. It took me only a second to realize who that fist belonged to. Pain and weakness left me in a flash, replaced with blind panic and a rush of adrenaline. Kiefer and I scrambled to our feet, nearly slipping as the frost having melted off of us formed puddles on the slick stone ground. Kiefer was closest to the controls of the pod and started pushing buttons, pulling levers, anything to try and open it.
I grabbed onto the pods smooth metal frame, fingers searching for a seam to try and wrench it open but finding none. My heart was beating rapidly in my chest as I gave up and stood on tiptoe to look into the pod, wiping away condensation with the heel of my hand. Killian's face appeared, muted by the latticing of ice, but still visible enough for me to see the horror in his eyes and the blue tint his face was taking as he slouched in his seat, no longer banging on the door as unconsciousness loomed over him.
"Kie, open the door!" I demanded frantically, smacking the pod helplessly.
"I'm trying!" He snapped back, flipping a large red lever numerous times to no effect.
Malfunction in Cryopod manual release override. Please contact your supervisor –
"Shit!" Kiefer croaked. "It isn't working. Is he okay?"
"No, he's not." I informed shakily, falling back to my flat feet and stepping out of the way as Kiefer stumbled over to try and pry it open like I had failed to do before banging fruitlessly on the glass.
I spun in a circle, looking for something to pry it open when I caught sight of a bright red fire extinguisher on the wall nearby. My breath caught in my throat as I darted towards the piece of equipment, slipping and falling heavy against the wall beside it. My hands fumbled in unhooking it from the wall holster, but when I did I almost ended up dropping the damn thing as its weight fell into my hands. Grunting, I lifted the red cylinder and headed back to my brothers.
"Kie!" I snapped, gaining his attention.
His eyes brightened when he saw what I had and my plan, darting the few feet that separated us and snatching it from me. Returning to Killian's pod, he peered into the window and yelled as loud as he could.
"Cover your head!"
I didn't know if Killian could hear him or if he had done as our older brother had asked, but Kiefer didn't waste but another second before hauling the fire extinguisher over his head and heaving it downwards with all of his strength at the window. The sound of shattering glass was eclipsed by Killian's gasping breaths as he found the oxygen his lungs had been so desperately searching for this whole time. Kiefer peered into the pod carefully before using the extinguisher to knock out the jagged glass still clinging to the hole where the window used to be. By the time I got over there, Killian was half draped over Kiefer as the older boy tried dragging him out. I scurried over and threw Killian's free arm over my shoulder, helping Kiefer haul our youngest sibling from the pod.
All three of us fell to the ground as gravity and weak muscles collided, Kiefer and I just barely managing to cushion Killian's fall with our bodies before his head hit the ground. I struggled to slide out from under him, pushing him onto his back on the ground and wincing as his head lolled about without resistance. He was shivering violently, more than Kiefer and I had been, and I looked at my older brother as he crouched beside me. What in the hell was going on? Where was everyone? Why were we…
"I'm gonna go find a blanket." Kiefer told me, standing up and spinning around. "Maybe find someone who-,"
"You can't leave." I hissed, grabbing his wrist and halting him in his tracks. "We don't know what's happening, but something is definitely fucking wrong. We need to stay together."
"I'm not going far." He promised, prying me off of him. "We need to find out what's going on. Just stay here with him, alright?"
"Kie – Kie!" I whisper-shouted, but he backed away and disappeared around the corner of the line of pods.
I cursed under my breath, shaking my head and returning my attention back to Killian. He was still shivering fiercely, but he looked like he'd passed out. The blue tint to his face was gone, but he was pale…so, so pale.
"Hey, Kill. Open your eyes." I ordered with as much strength as I had, shaking him gently at first before increasing the motion when he didn't rouse. "C'mon, man."
I started gently slapping his cheek, but he still didn't give me much reaction, so I hit him harder. At the sting of my fingers on his face, he peeled his eyes apart and sucked in an unsteady breath as he tried to focus on me with much difficulty. Still, just that sent a wave of relief through me. My shoulder slumped, some of the tension slipping away.
"Hey." I greeted, falling onto my butt beside him and grabbing his arms to haul his upper body off of the ground and prop him up in my lap, off of the cold floor. "Do me a favor and stay awake for me, alright?"
"What-," He broke into a coughing fit just like Kiefer and I had before, and I helped him half-roll onto his side just in case he managed to throw up like Kiefer had.
I waited until he calmed down again before talking, answering the question he hadn't gotten to finish.
"I don't know." I answered honestly. "But we're gonna figure it out. Just try and focus on breathing, alright?"
"Kie?"
"He went to find a blanket." I said. "And to see if anyone knows what the hell happened here."
The seconds turned into minutes of Killian and I huddled together on the floor, shivering and listening to the painful silence of the decontamination room. Every so often, there would be a bleat of a horn followed by the robotic intercom voice informing us again about cryogenic malfunctions and what not. I took the opportunity to look around. Everything was nothing like I remembered it being before we got in the pods. It looked like every pipe and vent, every piece of metal or pane of glass, had aged decades. Grime and dust coated everything, water dripped and leaked from busted piping. It didn't make any sense. Nothing did. Kiefer had been gone a long time, and I was starting to worry when I finally heard the sound of someone approaching. Footsteps hurried our way and I looked over my shoulder to see Kiefer holding what looked like an old white lab coat. He barely met my eyes before shrugging at my look, shaking it out and watching as a dust cloud emanated from the fabric.
"It's all I could find in the area." He explained, helping me haul Killian into a sitting position so he could drape the coat over the shivering boy's shoulders.
I secured the lab coat in front of Killian, wrapping my arms around him and trying my best to warm him up while also trying to get some warmth for myself. I'd never been so cold before in my life. It felt like my very bones were trying to thaw out, my organs and muscles burning in a way I've never felt them before. I turned toward Kie, about to tell him to scooch over beside me so that I could lean into him as well. But then I saw the look on his face and my spine went rigid. His eyes had been bloodshot and his face pale when he went to find something to warm Killian, but the look of pure horror and sickness was something that he hadn't had when he'd left. Another wave of cold rushed through me.
"What?" I asked softly, hesitantly.
He didn't answer me right away, dropping from his crouch to fall on his butt beside Killian and I. He opened his mouth to try and say something, but his voice caught in his throat and he ended up smacking his hand across his lips to muffle the strangled cry. That had me thoroughly worried. Kiefer never cried, not even a little bit. Looking down, he composed himself the best he could before meeting my eyes.
"It's them."
It took me a moment to understand what he was getting at.
"Them? Mom and Dad?" I asked softly, eyes darting in the direction Kiefer had gone in search of the blanket.
I don't – can't comprehend how I somehow forgot about the fact that my parents were also down here with us. Looking back on it now, years later, I blame the lapse in memory on adrenaline and fear and the need to make sure my brothers beside me were okay. Our parents' pods had been separated from ours just by chance and therefore not in direct sight…ergo, not in direct interest.
"M-Mom and Dad?" Killian echoed weakly, looking between Kiefer and I as he struggled to keep up with the conversation. "What ab-about Mom and Da-ad? Are they-,"
"Somethings wrong, Kit." Kiefer said, grabbing onto my shoulder tightly to impress the severity of what he was saying, holding my gaze intently. "Something is very, very wrong here."
"What are you talking about?"
"I checked the master terminal." Kiefer said slowly, like he himself was still trying to piece together everything. "We weren't in decontamination pods. We were in Cryo pods. This wasn't a place to be safe. We were just part of a giant science experiment. They – Vault-Tec – were testing the effects of…the terminal said something about long-term suspended animation."
I let that settle in. I was speechless. Killian was even more flabbergasted than I was, still hung up about halfway through Kiefer's explanation.
"Like – like cryogenic sleep shit?" Killian demanded clarification. "Like the bull that happens in movies and books?"
"I…I think so." Kiefer nodded, swallowing thickly. "It doesn't make sense, but at the same time it does – look at us. We look like human popsicles. I just…I don't know why? Why would they…just for science? Just to see what would happen?"
"Was that all on the terminals?" I asked, breath shuttering in my lungs. "Was there more?"
"Life support status." He answered. "For all of the pods. Our three…we were the only live ones. The life support system started failing one by one, and then something happened. All the terminal is saying is that there were catastrophic malfunctions. I guess…since we were the last pods, it was just…luck or some…some shit – I don't know. This is all so fucked."
"Mom and Dad." Killian jumped back to our parents.
"Their p-pods didn't open." Kiefer informed, the catch in his voice from emotion rather than cold.
We all stared at one another, eyes flicking from one sibling to the next. I had started to try and rise to my feet, but Kiefer grabbed my arm before I could slither out from underneath Killian. His hazel eyes met my blue ones, his grip like iron and refusing to let me go.
"Opening them won't…it isn't…it won't help, Kit." He said in a soft and meaningful voice, words dropping even lower as went on to say, "Their status is deceased, like everybody else in here."
"So, they…you mean that…" Killian trembled, eyes wide.
He looked so much younger than seventeen as he sat there looking between Kiefer and I, and I felt like I was emotionally right there with him as I bored my eyes into Kie's. I waited for the punchline, for him to say it was all a joke. They weren't dead. They couldn't be dead. My brother wouldn't lie, though, and definitely not about something like this. Could he be wrong? The terminals could have malfunctioned as well, couldn't they have? Why not?
"Did you see them?" I demanded. "Do you know for sure? For real? Are you sure they're-,"
"Dead?" Killian rasped, sounding like he was in a daze.
Kiefer didn't respond, but he didn't deny it either. A silence enveloped the three of us as we sat on the wet concrete floor. Seconds passed in numb silence before a pain like I never knew existed struck my chest, stealing the breath I had just been given back. I was going to be sick. Mom and Dad…Mom and Dad, oh my God, what…what were we going to do without them? Before I knew it, I was sobbing uncontrollably on that cold concrete floor, loud ugly cries that shook my whole body. I managed to raise a hand to my mouth and try to muffle the sounds, but it wasn't even slightly enough. I was barely coherent but I did notice when Killian's crying joined mine at the same intensity, head buried in my lap and shoulders shaking. Kiefer managed to just barely keep his cool, throwing an arm around me and placing his other hand on Killian's back.