The door was shut behind us. The screeching of steel ceased and gave way to the chilling howls of the wind. I remember the wind sounded so deafening, like ghostly whispers flooding our ears. The night was pitch black too, the moon was hidden behind dense clouds. With each breath of wind, my skin tingled and my cheeks felt like they were being pricked. I was frozen; scared stiff. Peering into the darkness, I tried to make out anything recognizable, something that could reconnect me with reality, but all I could see was a dark void, and I dared not move, fearing that the void may swallow me whole.
"Nate. We have to go," Sarah finally said as she turned on her Pip-Boy's light. "The settlement is south of here right? So we have to go that way," she said looking up from her Pip-Boy and pointing back towards the vault. My eyes started to adjust to the darkness and I could somewhat make out our surroundings. We were on top of a hill, and in front of us was the slim river that separated Manhattan from Yonkers. To our left was a bridge crossing the Hudson river, and to the right was the ruins of a neighborhood. Sarah's voice brought me back to reality, and when I took her hand, I found the strength in my legs to get moving. But as soon as we were about to circle around the hill, we heard something coming from the direction of the bridge.
We froze again and listened closely, trying to figure out if it was only the wind. But this howling was different; it wasn't as subtle like the ghostly whispers. It sounded like an animal as we could hear growling, but then we heard it scream like a human, then we realized it was more than one, and they were coming towards us. I tightened my grip on Sarah's hand and we bolted. We circled around the hill to where we were nearest to the buildings. The hill got much steeper and we were forced to descend towards the buildings. We could still hear them with their ungodly roars and we could hear them tumble down the hill. There was another hill directly south of the one we came separated from the other by a single road and a few buildings. We ran towards it but were stopped in our tracks when we could hear the same howls coming from those buildings. Sarah started to lead the way, pulling me back towards the neighborhood. I could hear the two groups behind us form into one. Their many feet slapping against the pavement as they chased us. "In there!" Sarah said pointing to the nearest building. It was a dilapidated three stories with each floor slowly falling on the one below it. But the doors were missing so it was easy to get into.
Trusting her judgement, I followed her in. We bounded up the steps by the door until we couldn't go any higher. We could hear them below us crashing into each other as they all tried to fit through the doorway. Then we could hear them slamming into the walls as they pushed each other up the stairs. Sarah ran to the nearest room with its door open and I followed behind her. When we passed through, we both tripped on a pile of rubble in front of the door. If it hadn't been for that rubble though, we would've fallen back to the bottom of the building. There was only about a third of that room left standing. The rest had collapsed along with most of the ceiling. I quickly got up from the rubble to shut the door but I could only move it so much because one of the hinges was broken and rubble sat in the way. I tried with all my might to shut it all the way but Sarah pulled me away from the door just as they were coming up the last flight of stairs. We scurried back behind a taller pile of rubble near the edge of the floor. Our feet dangled over the edge as we pressed our bodies to the rubble. I could hear them, they reached our floor and were dispersing to search every room. I pulled out my pistol just as one of them barged through the door. It wasn't as lucky as us, tripping over the rubble so hard that it fell through the floor.
There was still one more, one who entered the room slowly. It looked around what remained of the room and stood there for a few minutes unmoving. Sarah and I held our breath and clung tightly to each other. I didn't even want to blink out of fear that the slightest movement would turn it on to us. Finally, it left. The howls and the banging of the others as they ransacked the building stopped. An eerie silence fell over the night, and it stayed that way. We were still too afraid to move from that spot behind the rubble. All night, we laid there shaking and pouting, trying our best to comfort the other, even though we were just as scared. We didn't sleep at all; every time our eyes grew heavy or we started to relax, a noise from somewhere in the building would set us back to square one.
Morning finally came. I looked up for the first time and cast my eyes over the ruined neighborhood around us. As far as the eye could see, there was nothing but burnt out and dilapidated buildings made all the more depressing by the sulking bluish hue of the early morning light. I don't know if it was because my eyes burned from being tired, or maybe it was that shocking to see, because tears streamed down my face, but I didn't weep. I looked down at Sarah, whose eyes still stared widely down at the rubble. "Sarah," I whispered, "we have to go." She didn't respond. "Come on Sarah, we just have to get up that hill," I said pointing over to it. "It's not far. We just have to be quiet." I then looked down to the street for any of those creatures and saw nothing there. Whatever chased us the night before didn't seem to like being out during the day. "Please Sarah, we can't stay here, and I can't do this without you. You have to get up."
She finally looked up at me, "I'm so scared Nate."
"I am too. But we have to go. I'll be right here with you," I said reaching for her hand. She took it and I helped her up. As carefully as possible, we climbed back over the pile of rubble. When we got to the door, I first gave a listen for anything nearby before sticking my head out to check the hallway. I didn't see anything, so we moved stealthily to the stairs and made our way down. When we got down to the second floor, we froze. In one of the rooms near the stairs, we could hear them. At least two of them were having some kind of back and forth growling at each other. When we heard them start to fight, we used the noise to keep moving down. We reached the bottom floor where we could hear more of them. They must not have left since last night. We could hear growls coming from the basement below us and down the hall. The door was right in front of us, but I feared crossing the hall to get to it. I took out the pistol again and motioned for Sarah to back up from me. I took a deep breath, then peered down the hallway. I could see them; humanoid figures shuffling around in the dark at the other end of the hall. They didn't notice me at all so I grabbed Sarah's hand and we hurried through the door.
As much as we were in a hurry to get out of there, we didn't run to the hill, out of fear of being heard. We walked at a brisk pace, but once we got there, we scrambled up that steep slope. It was difficult because so much of the hill was made of loose dirt and soil. A few dead trees were dotted here and there. We used them like checkpoints, exerting our energy to push off the dirt till we could grab hold of a root or the trunk. Every now and then we'd look back to see if any of those things had emerged from the buildings. It was a tough climb, but we made it to the top.
Sarah scrambled up and looked at the surrounding area before turning back to give me a hand up. Before us was an empty parking lot and on the other side was the sparse remains of what looked to be some kind of stone building. Like in the pictures of ancient Greek and Roman ruins from our old history books, all that remained of the structure were scattered stones giving a vague impression of where the walls use to be and some piles of rubble. But more importantly to us was what stood past the ruins on top of a gentle ridge; an imposing ragged wall made of random material, metal sheets, chain fencing, wooden boards and including the stone from that very ruin.
"That's it," I said grabbing Sarah by the hand. "That must be the settlement." We ran towards the wall with great relief.
"Halt!" shouted someone from atop the wall. "Don't step any closer!"
It was hard to see them as their guard post blended in so well with the wall, but after scanning the top of the fortification, I could see a man standing in the shadow of a metal canopy pointing his rifle down at us. "Please sir. We don't mean any trouble. We were told this was a safe place to come."
"There's things out here chasing us," Sarah added.
He lowered his rifle and stared at us for a moment. "Your jumpsuits… Are you from the vault?" We nodded. He gestured to his right. "Go around to the front. They'll sort you out."
We thanked him and hurried around the settlement. As we went, I kept my eye on the top of the wall where I could see people looking down at us. There was a paved path to the front side that brought us under a stone bridge. The bridge connected the imposing junk fortress to an actual stone fort reinforced with more junk. A metal wall with gun ports cut in lined the side of the bridge. We could see more observers watching from the ports.
When we made it to the front gate, the reception was even more cautious than before. Several people had their guns trained on us. "Your packs and your weapons on the ground," a buff bald man ordered. We obeyed. "Alright, hands high for us all to see. Make one move and you're dead, understand? What are you doing here?"
"Can't you tell we're from the vault?" I said. "We came here to get away from… those things." As if on que, a roar came out from the ruins far behind us. "Please, they'll kill us."
"Relax, they ain't gonna get ya." Then the gate opened up and more guards came out. They walked towards us with their guns up and started patting us down. "Besides the suits, how else can you prove to us that you're from the vault?"
"Are you serious? Who else would we be?"
"Raiders," he answered curtly. "For all we know, you could've killed the real vault dwellers and taken those suits from them. Or maybe someone sold them to you."
One of the guards started going through our packs. "Hey! That's our stuff!" I shouted at him. That made the others nervous; they put their guns into their shoulders and put their fingers to the trigger. I froze in terror of what may come next.
"Easy guys," the bald man said. "Anything of interest in those?" he asked the guard rifling through our bags.
"I got a knife in this one," he said pulling the combat knife from Sarah's pack. "That's it."
"Oh would you knock it off you idiots!" Suddenly a tough looking woman with dark red hair appeared next to the bald man.
He was noticeably surprised and even nervous of her. "Cherry!? I—uh—you're not even on guard duty—"
"For Christ's sake Vigo, anyone with half a brain can tell they're the real deal. Just look at them. Only vault dwellers look as clean as they do. Not even to mention they look wide eyed and scared shitless like a fish out of water. Lower your guns and let them through."
Just like that, the guards backed off and gave us back our stuff. They even let us keep our weapons. We walked with them through the gates, and as it closed behind us, we could see that woman standing confidently with a welcoming smile waiting for us. She stretched her arms out proudly to show off the town around us.
Behind her was the open center of the settlement where a bonfire pit lay surrounded by tables and benches. Behind that, closer to the wall was a small garden. All along the walls of the settlement were shacks of different shapes and sizes made of all manner of scrap material just like the wall. Not only did they line the walls, but they were also built on top of each other, stacking all the way to the brim of the fortifications. Walkways, staircases and ladders connected them to one another and made the harder to reach places accessible. Interspersed between some shacks were gutted out vehicles and trailers with curtains that must have also served as housing too. Most impressively, near the brim of this bowl like town to our right was a whole school bus. In one corner of the settlement sat a crane truck; that must've been how they were able to achieve such structures. Electrical wires and lights were hung up everywhere, stapled to the walls and raised up by poles; they were connected to a hulking groaning generator near the gate as well as makeshift wind turbines on the tops of the highest shacks. Crudely made signs were posted in front of certain shacks to signify that they were a clinic, general store, mechanic, inn, or bar.
Sarah and I's heads swiveled at this rough patch marvel of engineering that surrounded us, our mouths agape in amazement. The woman beamed with pride as she approached. "Pretty cool isn't it." She stretched her arms out again like a showman revealing some grand act. "Welcome to Hell's Gate!"
