Fallout: Deep in the heart of radiation

by Songb1rd

Hop into the jumpsuit of Blake. A young boy that lives a double life in the mysterious Vault 58; one of the hundreds of bomb shelters that preserved pre-war humanity from America's devastating atomic war with China over 200 years ago. Blake, being the top student in his class, faces conflict when his underworld connection with the vault's organized crime catches up to him.

10. Chapter 10

A/N: No matter how long it is, keep reading. I think I'll find most of my readers enthralled once they get to the end…

Let's call this… the end of a sort of season 1.

Either way, I put about 3 months of hard thinking and writing into these two chapters. So do me a favor and read. And PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW!

This chapter brings the true meaning of "War never changes." to meaning…

Chapter 10: The Uprising (Part 2) (Finale)

As I peered over the smoldering remains of the mall, the question hit me, how long was I out?

Is this really the uprising we've been waiting for? The spark that would finally ignite the flame of a revolution?

And what did the Overseer mean by "something I started."? Blade was the clear mastermind behind everything. Why would the Overseer kidnap me and not him?

My head was pounding with questions.

Turning around, I was met with two spotlights: one on me, and one on the chair.

I looked around trying to identify the source of the voice, "H-hey! Where are you anyway!?"

No answer.

"Hey! Answer me!"

"… my condolences my child, I found myself caught up with-"

"Whatever, forget it!" I interrupted.

"Very well… have you observed the sight you set for yourself long enough?" it asked.

"I didn't set anything for myself! Now turn the light off! I don't wanna… I don't wanna see it anymore…"

"As you wish child." And the spotlight by the window shut off, leaving only one on me and the chair.

I covered my face with my palms, pacing back and forth to the chair.

"Please my child, don't weep."

"I'm not weeping. I just… need to take it all in…"

"Whatever you need son."

I sat down crouched over myself, still covering my face.

"Stop calling me that…"

"What, child?"

"Child, son, all of that. I'm none of those things to you."

"But who cared for you? Bathed you, fed you? Have I not done any of those things?"

"No! you haven't!" I spat back.

"Then who child?" it asked.

"Two Mr. Handy models that looked nothing like me!" I screamed while uncovering my face.

The voice retreated for a moment, awaiting what I had to say next. In the distance, I could hear and feel more vibrations from the war below.

"In a few pre-war catalogs…" I started, "Vault-Tec had a special interview…"

"Hm?" the voice said.

"And they said… every vault would issued a person. But not any kind of person, a person with great qualities and leadership skills. That person would be called the Overseer."

"I've read that catalog." it replied, "do I… fit that description?" it asked.

"Well, that's just the thing. I'm not going to judge your leadership skills or your… qualities. But the average overseer is supposed to be a person… are you a person?"

"Of course I am… I sound like a person don't I?"

"Anything can sound like a person, my parents sure did. So go ahead, turn the lights on so I can see you."

"I-"

"No! if you're a person, go ahead and show me that your standing in front of me."

"*sigh* fine… I only hope you're not disappointed with my long awaited appearance."

"Don't worry, I wont judge…"

Then suddenly, the sound over twenty heavy switches clanked throughout the room, giving section by section of the room light. I looked around frantically, preparing to see the Overseer; was he human, or a droid? If human, I'd be surprised. If some sort of robot… it'd just be another day.

He seemed to want to please me in any way possible to gain his trust, but I'm not buying. But to actually reveal himself out of the illusiveness? That's just strange…

To my surprise, the room was empty… big and empty… behind me was a locked door to which I assumed was the one I came in through. And directly on the other side was an elevator… that could be my escape…

"Are you happy now child?" it asked.

I looked around, "well… where are you? I don't see-"

"Poor child. You misunderstand."

"What do I misunderstand!? If you aren't here, you must be hiding behind something! All that's here is a standard metal room!"

"Which means I have nothing to hide behind…"

I started to pace and ruffle my gold hair, "then…where are you!? How do you talk-"

"Shhhh. It's all fine. I am not hiding, I promise you. In fact, I am directly in front of you; I'm behind you, under you, beside you, and atop you…"

My paranoia was at a peak now, what did he mean?

"I can hear you, see you, feel you and more… I make sure you're safe young one…"

"Pfft! Right, like the time you sent Sentry Bots after me and my friends!"

"I directed them towards your associates specifically my child… they have been tainted by that rebel group… and I couldn't bare to see you fall with them."

"Well if you haven't noticed, it's a bit too late for saving me pal."

The voice sighed in sadness. Just what did he like about me so much? My denial tp his words really killed him, I could tell.

"Just tell me who you are okay?" I asked frustrated.

"… I'm afraid that all I can tell you is that I'm your Overseer my son. I cannot seem to find the words to exactly explain it to you, I don't know why…"

I slumped back down, "ugh! Great."

This was my only chance to get answers. Nobody, not even Blade could get this close to the Overseer, and with this information, I could actually be fully respected.

This room is so plain compared to regular vault rooms though; it was bright and flat, almost like an empty gymnasium…

"Oh dear… you're displeased. Please do not fret my son, I have an alternative source on it's way to explain things in your terms." it assured in a worried tone.

"God, for an Overseer, you ain't so bright compared to other residents in this can." I admitted.

"I come from a different line of learning child, even that is hard to explain…"

As he finished, the elevator on the other side of the room began to rumble. I stood up, hand on my waist, ready to confront whatever was to come out. Due to the weight in my pocket, it's clear the Securitron didn't take my gun."

"Oh! Here he is now!" exclaimed the Overseer.

"Who's here? You? I've yet to meet you yet your highness!" I said sarcastically.

The elevator ceased to rumble.

"Son, you've met me before."

"NO I HAVEN'T!"

"Yes… you have…"

I looked ahead of me to identify the source of the new voice. Two figures shadowed inside the now open elevator, one clearly a Securitron, and one a much taller boy…

I unsheathed the police pistol and held it to my side threateningly.

"Is that you Overseer?" I asked squinting my eyes.

Then, the figure reached in it's pocket to pull out a pack of smokes and lighter. It lifted the smoke to it's mouth and slowly lit it, puffing out a few rings of smoke.

I noticed something as he lit it… his face…

A pretty thick goatee, scruffy blonde hair, and a pair of blue eyes…

"Wh-what?"

"Gee Tiger, the man already said he's the Overseer."

Oh no…

As the man walked out of the elevator along with his robot, everyone was at a standstill.

He hasn't changed a bit, only longer hair…

"What the fuck is this…?"

The voice sounded, "Cornelius my son, my child Dexter happens to know someone that considers you a friend… I couldn't invite any of your affiliates because well, you know. But luckily, Dexter informed me that you had an encounter with Sal. And luckily, he was the only one that qualified as your lifeline!"

Sal held his cig and chuckled as if a funny just been thrown. The sad Securitron looked ashamed.

"This was an awful mistake…" it muttered to itself, "simply awful…"

"Ahahahah-ah-ah!" Sal chuckled.

I was speechless… this Overseer, Sal… I thought… I would never see him again… I was scared…

"I'm so pleased to have my son understa-"

"Yo Blake- haha." Sal laughed.

I looked up at him.

"He is the vault dude, Ahahaha!"

"Wh-what..?

He pointed, "see those walls? That floor? That ceiling? Like, right there man AHAHAHAHA!" he finished taking a swig.

"now, now, I don't like to consider myself "the" vault but-"

"Don't listen to him Blake, I was barking up that tree for weeks til' I found his terminal. I'm only surprised he let someone else explain it dor him." Sal explained.

"E- explain what…?" I managed to ask.

"Well…" he took a smoke, "thanks to smart ol' Sal here, I hacked this chatterbox's terminal and found out the stationed Overseer wasn't actually stationed…"

"No…"

"Yup! Vault-Tec's "Project Safehouse" had 50% of Vault 58's population populated with Robco sponsored products. A.K.A. robots…"

I wanted to faint…

"Oh, and it gets better! To add the cherry on top, they had the one man supposed to be in charge replaced with the largest A.I. Vault-Tec has ever constructed!

OHHH! But here's the real kicker…"

"SAL!" yelled the Overseer, "don't you see the distress in your brother's face!? Tone it down…"

"Aghhh fine! Besides, you'll find that out on your own…"

I could only make out half of what Sal was saying, but it was enough to understand. Especially the part with the Overseer…

Everything was so vividly clear now… artificial intelligence… and no wonder the Overseer had so much data on us, his A.I. is the vault! That means every device is something he was always connected to!

The Overseer… he's the vault… Vault 58 is a living, breathing vault.

"But why…?" I asked.

"Why what?" started Sal, "I just explained why. Vault-Tec-"

"No!" I interrupted. For some odd reason, this truth about the Overseer overcame my fear of Sal. He was clearly the greater threat.

"I mean why as in… if you could see, and hear everything going on… why would you let ALL of this happen? The war, the treason, the riot I started?"

"Ohhh child… my intentions are very complex… you see… as the soul guardian of this vault, I have absolutely no place to interfere with the affairs of my children… your lives are purely your choices…"

"So… you had the power to end all of this, and you didn't…"

"Its not in his programming Blake, he's only a monitor so to speak." Sal filled in.

Gripping the pistol, I diverted my energy to Sal, "So you're here huh? You here to finish the job?"

He tossed the smoke and stomped it, "perhaps…"

I cringed, "well you better make the choice now, because I need to know if I need to shoot or not."

Sal giggled, "ohhhh kid, I shouldn't be the one you wanna waste those bullets on-"

"Please master, shouldn't we avoid all confrontations here? This should be a safe pla-"

"Shut it Dexter!" Sal spat at his bot, making him flitch.

"He's right you know." added the Overseer.

Sal pulled out another cigarette, feeling ganged up on, "and you can shut up too Overseer! All Dexter can do is talk me down. All you do is talk, so zip it before I shut your whole A.I. down!"

The Overseer couldn't reply.

"Why shouldn't I cap you then Sal? Clearly everything's been explained to me, so why won't you go?" I asked gripping the gun tighter.

"Ohhh kid…" he smoked, "this right here… most kids can bear the Overseer being fake, but there's one thing the man keeps under wraps more than anything. Too bad he wont let me say, he'll have me kicked out in the crossfire downstairs."

Raising an eyebrow I said, "I've heard enough secrets today thank you. So if you'd be ever so nice as to letting me into that elevator there, that would be great…"

Sal stepped closer.

"Please master, let us resolve this peacefully…" warned Dexter.

Ignoring him, Sal said, "I ain't here to explain things to you sonny, I actually am here to hurt you in a way…"

"Then come at me, I'm right here." I urged with gritted teeth.

"Hahahaha!" Sal laughed tossing his cig, "that's funny, real funny. But on the real kid, I do have a jon-"

BAM!

"Oh shit!"

"Dexter! What have you done my child!?"

With a loud clanking thud, the Securitron was gone…

A clear bullet hole shattered the Securitron's monitor in an instant. Smoke simmered from it's remains. No doubt about it, that bot was NOT coming back…

Sal's jaw dropped open wide as he saw the smoking remains of his robotic partner, and the end of my smoking barrel.

"You think I'm fucking around!? You got another thing coming asshole!" I screamed directing the gat towards Sal.

Damn, Sal looked like a knife struck his heart… good.

"You… you fuck-"

"Shut the fuck up when you want to say something smart again!"

Sal threw his hands up by his shoulders in surrender. For once, Sal was at my whim… and I loved it. I wasn't the unsuspecting ten year old I was anymore, and for the first time, Sal was scared shitless.

"Do you know what you have done child!?" yelled the Overseer.

"Shut up or your next!" I replied looking in all directions.

I placed both hands on the pistol and redirected my aim towards a now, sweating Sal…

"Who… sent you?" I asked seriously.

I cocked it, "answer now…"

Glancing over to his now dead partner, Sal muttered, "Blade…"

"Huh? Speak up!"

"Bl-Blade, Blade sent me on the D.L. man, he wanted to see if you snitched man!"

Sal had some fast-running tears flowing down his face, little girl was halfway in shock. So was I.

"What do you mean Blade sent you? Blade hates you!"

"He… he didn't want you squealin'. So we… we made a mutual bond. Just for a moment."

"To do what…?" I asked sarcastically.

"To… to you know man, get rid of yo-"

BOOM!

"AHHHHHHH! FUCK! AHHHHH!"

"Child, no!"

Almost following his counterpart, Sal dropped to the hard floor with a clear hole in his leg.

"Ohh shit! AHHHH!"

I began to walk at ease now, almost a swagger in my step. I walked by Sal and finished with, "that's all I needed to know…"

"Child…"

I stopped.

"I cannot condone your actions down below. But I just want you to know… there's something that remains restricted in Vault 58, something I cannot even explain… but all that I can say is, I've met you before… many times…"

Shrugging, I couldn't care less, "whatever. Just tell the vault police force that a grown 25 year old man got plugged by a 16 year old."

"GAHHHH!" Sal wailed grabbing his bloodied leg, "Fuck you Blake! You dirty piece of shit! ARHHHGH!"

"Stay still my child, help is on the way!" assured the Overseer.

"I'll-k-k-kill you…."

I tapped the elevator button, closing the steel door instantly with a hard slam. I could ride a little bit easier now knowing that Sal won't be a problem anymore, or the Overseer. I still couldn't deny a little heaviness in my heart for the loss of his Securitron… he seemed nice, but I had to make an example that I wasn't messing around, or I'd still be up there…

The Overseer isn't who I expected to be. On the intercom, he seemed more like an angry dictator rather than… that.

I could go so far to saying that he was nice… for an A.I. who would have guessed he was so accepting. Either way, he wont be an obstacle now. If it's one thing he was right about, it was that I have my own choice, and he won't step in my way.

Personally, none of those little vault secrets mattered to me. Once Sal gave me an excuse to take out Blade, that was my objective. After that, leaving the vault… I need to find Jeremiah, he could probably help me.

But Blade… he crossed the line on this one. Actually working with Sal just to kill me? Sal knew the Overseer wouldn't spread anything I said, yet he'd still kill me… he's lucky I only popped his leg.

Blade may think I'm gone by now, or that he has a nice little revolution going on here, but now, this was MY revolution! Blade has screwed me over for the last time…

The monstrous roar of the revolution literally vibrated every corner of the vault. It was even hard for me to find balance in the elevator. As I got lower and lower, the sounds got louder; thousands of kids and young adults fighting for an escape.

The occasional explosion would rock them off their feet only to stand back up and resume.

The battle cries were bloodcurdling.

"I constructed that signal Cornelius…" muttered the Overseer through the elevator intercom.

"What?" I replied annoyed.

"You were not chosen out of random child. I used the generators in the sub-terminal level to increase your Pip-Boy's sensitivity in order for you to enjoy the music from the outside. It's a shame it was used for all the wrong reasons."

I stared up at the intercom, "you did that… ? Bu- but why?"

"I… I cannot function any other reason other than the one I told you… because personally, I wouldn't let such atrocities happen." he replied.

"Ah, must not be in your programming."

"As you would say." he agreed.

The meter above the door indicated I was beginning to drop from floor 10...9...8-

The metal elevator jerked with halting force, I was tossed around like a rag doll on all four corners, desperately reaching for my gun. Someone had stopped it manually, my destination was toward the robot graveyard…

When I slammed to the floor, I quickly scrambled for the black pistol, stood up, and aimed for the steel door. I heard a few beings mumbling amongst the fighting behind them, preparing to meet, or kill whoever was inside.

A knock clanked the door, "identify yourself! There is a shoot-on-sight order and we are NOT afraid to use it!" yelled a deeper voice.

They banged on the door one more time, "last chance buddy!"

I was hesitating to answer because I couldn't separate their voices from Securitrons. My gun was aimed, I prepared for a fight…

When the door opened, I was met with two bulkily-armored guards, both pointing assault rifles at me; clearly Good Fighter forces.

"let me through!" I demanded.

They laid down their arms at ease, "Fang?"

I walked in between them paying no attention to their presence. They looked at each other in confusion, "Fang…? Master Fang?" one of them asked again.

I stopped, "…yes…?"

They looked and began to follow me down the ,metal corridor with both guns at side. By the way they were tailing me, I could tell they have been looking for me.

"Uhh sir, are you okay?" one of them asked.

"Yeah never better." I replied continuing to walk.

"Um sir, its been several hours since the siege began. The Boss had a full-throttle search for you before anything could begin, unfortunately, some rookies couldn't handle the suspense and began without you. We had no choice but to start early."

"Ah." I began, "so the posers couldn't wait to bust out eh? Their loss if they get hurt."

Another boom rocked our balance in the hall. When we stood, we continued to walk.

"Agh! Please Master Fang, the board has been worried sick about you since yesterday!"

I sarcastically smiled, "oh that's nice, that was probably before blade decided to have me killed to save his reputation."

The guards stopped and looked at each other again.

Catching back up, one of them asked, "sir, speaking freely, may I ask what in the world you are talking about?"

I stopped, "ugh. Listen, just screw Blade for a moment; you know where I can find Jeremiah?"

"Jeremiah brother of Bishop?"

"Yes."

"He'll be on the 8th floor here sir." he saluted.

"Thank you…" I finished while beginning to run off into the darkness, but I stopped and turned around, "hey…"

They looked at me.

"This conversation never happened okay?" I asked.

The two nodded in agreement, letting me run with a little more ease…

Making a few tight turns down the now, darkened hallway, I could see how fast and how efficiently the Good Fighters were pushing the Overseer's line of defense.

A brief hint of nostalgia hit me when I crossed paths with a familiar location: the Luxury Hall…

I still heard the awful grinding sound when I turned the shopkeeper's own weapon against him, all to save Jeremiah.

To this day, I still don't know why he decided to clam up at such a crucial moment.

Now, the Luxury Hall had been completely vandalized; windows shattered, fires burned, merchandise stolen, and cybernetic corpses littered. I kind of missed the Luxury Hall sadly.

Passing by that brief memory, the sounds of war neared as I made my way to the 8th floor shopping center, directly at the end of the Luxury Hall. I didn't dare go in my room, I knew it had been worked over, and I didn't have the time to get mad at that.

Now, the rumbling got sp close, the current battle was sure to be held behind the door. Making sure my pistol was fully loaded, I tapped the activation button and stood before Vault 58's shopping center.

My eyes widened in shock; never in my life would I think the shopping center would be so… overrun like this. I stood on it's second story and walked over to the metal balcony, merely observing the war below.

The Protectron police officers and Mr. Handy shopkeepers did their best to hold back the kids at the shopping center entrance, but our numbers simply overwhelmed them.

You could literally see the crossfire between the two sides; within a five second gap, a bot would get dropped. They had no idea how armed to the teeth we were.

The Good Fighter forces remained safe under cover behind walls, crates, or something hard enough to avoid the bot's distorted fire.

A Protectron screamed, "requesting backup, requesting backup-" before getting shot in the head by a fatal bullet.

"Throwing grenade get down!" yelled an older boy before throwing the tiny device behind enemy lines.

Each Good Fighter either ducked their heads or covered their ears as the grenade made a few quick bounces toward a cluster of robots. I did too, I know how loud explosives can be in such an enclosed area.

I could already tell that the group of bots had hardly any energy in their systems to make a getaway from the grenade in time. As slow as Protectrons are, they had no hope, but a Mr. Handy shopkeeper cursed, "we were only trying to protect you damn rabble-rouser-"

It exploded. Sending robotic parts and scrap metal everywhere in all directions. This caused the few remaining bots to scatter, looking for any remaining cover of some kind. To their sad surprise, they realized their shops had already been burned to cinders…

They had no choice but to make a stand in the center of the large room; completely sitting ducks. There was only about four of them though: three shopkeepers and a Protectron, while there were about thirty Good Fighters.

I looked for a casualty on our side, but everyone was there. Nobody injured.

"Please… stand down…" warned the Protectron.

"Or what!?" replied a Good Fighter.

"…or…" it started, "I will have no choice… but to use deadly force…"

With that threat, each Good Fighter stood up with their guns cocked, realizing there was no major threat.

The older boy in the front lines stood up with a victorious smile on his face. He wore typical guard armor and held a long assault rifle, "see that…?" he pointed at the sea of bullet-riddled robots, "ya' buddies there, are sleeping with the fishes now, all because they couldn't cooperate with us."

The Protectron scanned the area.

"Now… you and yer' three boys there can join them if ya' want. Be my guest, we got plenty of ammo."

The soldiers behind him backed his statement with a wave of cheers and gunfire in the air. The Mr. Handys literally shivered in fear.

"Now…" the boy continued to ramble and threat the adults that stood.

"Hey!" a voice interrupted beside me.

I turned my head while leaning over the balcony, breaking my focus on the conflict.

It was just the person I was looking for, Jeremiah! I was starting to get worried whether he made it or not, but the only signs of battle on his face were grime and a few scratches.

I stood up and smiled, knowing that my old friend was okay. Although, his face had an opposite expression, "…oh my God, is the Jet getting to me?' he asked rubbing his eyes.

He walked a tad closer, blinking uncontrollably, "h-how, how!? Do you know how long we've been looking for you!?" he grabbed my shoulders and shook me, "we all thought that you died man!"

I giggled at his half-sober reaction as he shook me like a rag doll. Taking his hands off, I assured, "I'm just fine Jeremy. Don't freak out."

"But… you got taken in by the Overseers secret police. Rumor has it, you got changed into some mindless zombie, made to serve the Overseer!"

"I'm fine dude, I'll-I'll tell you about it later okay? Just tell me what's going on here." I asked.

Jeremiah glanced over at the situation below and turned back to me, "I'll try and keep it as short and sweet as I can: ummm, after you disappeared, the Boss had a big ass search party for you-"

"Yeah I know that much."

"Oh ok, well long story short, the kids got so mad at the adults, a giant riot broke out in the Security Sector of the vault that spread all the way to the shopping mall! The weaponry from the police was taken by us and we… well they shot up the entire mall!

Oh! And after that, they burned the whole place down!"

"Oh yeah… I saw that… at least the aftermath."

"Brutal right? But anyway, from the shopping mall, we all advanced from the seventh floor and made our way to the level 8 shopping center, that's what you see here." Jeremy explained.

We both looked down the edge and noticed the boy was still preaching to the robots.

"Listen here ya' tin can, if you don't do what we say, ya' wont be seeing yer' families anytime soon. that's a promise!"

"Please…stand down…" replied the Protectron.

"Ughhhh" Jeremy sighed in frustration.

"What?"

"Its been like this for hours. The posers are getting so uppity its ridiculous. I swear, it's gonna get someone killed how slow it's going on."

"That's also a question I wanna ask, have there been any casualties at all?"

He leaned over the bar again, "nah, the first set of bots we fought didn't want to fight back because you know, we're kids."

"Ah."

"But that was the 7th floor. When word got around that we were armed and dangerous, the police announced they wouldn't hold back. Pfft, like that was gonna stop us. This is the only time they decided to shoot back so you came at the right time."

"Damn, it doesn't look like they did a good job. Like, at all." I said.

"Nah, that's cause we've only had M. Handys and Protectrons thrown at us. None of the major players like the Sentries or the Securitrons showed up yet."

I rubbed my chin, "That's odd."

"Yeah, and that's what I'm afraid of. The Vault 58 security force probably has them saved up for the final stretch; so if we push too far…"

"They'll use the big guys as a last resort…" I finished for him.

"Right…" "And it's going to take more than .32 rounds and assault rifles to take those heavy hitters down. And even if we had the weaponry to take them down, it's not going to be free, it's going to cost lives."

"Damn, that's not going to be pretty… say, what's the objective in here anyway?"

Jeremy stood back up and paced, "well, through this shopping center, there's an industrial-sized elevator that takes you up to the 9th level, the floor before the top. And even though there's other ways to get there, this is the fastest."

"Then what the Hells the holdup?"

"Because that poser doesn't know how to be a leader."

"Then he needs to hurry up."

Suddenly, a pair of footsteps and a familiar voice grabbed my attention, "No, you need to hurry them up!"

Before I could make out who it was, a jet-black rifle was tossed my way. I caught it and looked ahead of me; it was Carl.

He wore a pre-war striped shirt and jeans, something I'd never imagine him in, accounting how big of a formal fan he was.

"C-Carl?" I asked.

"I made sure to save your rifle before your floor was obliterated. Just assert yourself before these kids get themselves killed!"

There was no need to reply, I cocked the gun and leaned over the balcony.

The crowd of Good Fighters ducked in panic as I unleashed a full clip of rounds upon the four remaining robots. Before their sensors could even pick up the projectiles, they fell in under five seconds as a hail of bullets fell upon them.

Afterwards, I made my way down the steps of the upstairs portion of the shopping center. Seeing me walk down those steps must've been like seeing a ghost for those misguided brats, each one of them gazed in awe.

The older boy that appointed himself leader of the advancement stood up looking puzzled, "heeey, what's the big idea?" he asked.

"What's the big idea?" I asked back, "I'm the big idea, who the Hell are you?"

The boy looked back at the battalion of kids and looked back at me, "I'm Henry The Crow ya' bastad', you should already know. Now identify yourself before you end up like one of these adults here!" he said smiling.

No wonder, this kid did look unique compared to the others. His hair was greased back, jet black, and his neck had a clear tattoo of aq talon on it.

"Ohhh…" I slowly walked further down the stairs, "so you're the mysterious Henry The Crow I've been hearing about. You the guy that put the hit out on Choppy the barber?"

"Yeah." he replied.

I didn't say anything more because all of his troops began muttering amongst themselves. Clearly they all knew of me other than Henry.

He looked back again, worry on his face. He noticed how out of nowhere the children laid down their arms and saluted to me.

"H-hey you! What? What are you doing!?" Henry protested.

Beside him I noticed Jacob, the one that took out Choppy, saluting as well. "S-stop ya' hear!? Stop! I run this!"

"No you don't, not anymore at least. I'm a member of the inner circle and you are going to do what I say, got it?" I demanded.

He looked around again, confirming that he wasn't a beacon of power and authority anymore. This one clearly hasn't done his research…

With gritted teeth, he looked me in the eye, "…fine dammit!"

"Thank you for being so cooperative." I said with ease.

"Yeah whateva', I don't know who you are, but you're crampin' my style boy. I was doing just fine until you came along; you're lucky you got these little bastards with their peashooters and pig-stickers backing you up!"

Jeremiah walked past me and deliberately invaded Henry's personal space, practically towering the boy, "hey if you have a problem with who's in charge, you can stay here and get shot or captured. Or, you can fall in with the rest of the grunts and follow orders from a board member."

He scowled at my friend but slowly paced backward into the crowd. As he slunk in, I walked a few feet ahead of the robots I put down so I could face the entire crowd.

Noticing everyone was till saluting, I ordered, "at ease everyone." and they returned to their original positions, some stood, some sat down, and some grabbed a smoke.

"Everyone, eyes up here!"

They followed and fell silent.

"So far I've been filled in on the battle strategies and how we wanna get this done. And I'm a little too late."

"Nah, it's fine boss!" a kid in the crowd yelled, followed by a few testifies.

I smirked knowing I was on their side. Surprisingly, they weren't as brainwashed and poser-like as I thought; they listened and stayed at ease as they were told, like real soldiers.

I chuckled a bit to their agreements, but then I put on a serious look, "before we advance any further, can anyone tell me where the rest of the board is located?"

The armored kids murmured to each other, trying to find the most updated answer. As I looked around, a shorter girl stood up; I raised a brow, ready to receive her answer.

"Before the riot broke out, Master Blade stated that he would be meeting us towards the 9th floor with the rest of the board through a secret passage of some sort while we fight our way there. He said that he, and the rest of the inner circle would take up leadership from there, taking us all to the vault door." she informed properly.

"Thank you." I replied.

Now that I knew where Blade was, I wanted to waste no time, "okay everybody, listen up. I want to make sure everybody gets this the first time I tell them…"

The group diverted themselves from anything minor they were doing to pay full attention to my words. Carl and Jeremiah took a knee as well.

"Look here. If you heard my opinion on Blade and the rest of the board, you would all be confused. So I'm going to skip that part and worry about what's happening in the present moment. I'm flattered that you all had this reaction to me being gone, I really am, but now because of that, we have a full-scale assault and I personally think it shouldn't have started out like that."

The group looked ashamed.

"But! Putting that mess aside, I've discovered how ready we've been for this; lengthy battles so far, but not one casualty or injury-"

"WOOOHH!" yelled a prideful troop, triggering a chain reaction.

"Okay okay, lets not get carried way. We still have two more floors to clear before we can even think about freedom. In fact, I was just talking about that with my partner Jeremiah. It sounds to me that so far, the Overseer has been sending in some lightweights to eat the bullets for him. Little do we know, he has the heavy hitters all packed away on the last two floors to hold us back.

I don't know what in the hell Blade, Bishop, Barker and Marlowe are doing up there, but fighting isn't one of those things. In other words, don't let them have you eat the bullets for them while they find an easy escape from all your hard work!"

Speaking like this left me out of breath. From now on, I had a different view of these kids. They aren't just some mindless children following the hip new norm, I forgot how educated they were. Well, most of them. When they made this risky choice, they knew exactly what they were getting themselves into…

As they soaked in my speech, a boy in a white lab coat and circular glasses stood up pointing at his flashing Pip-boy , "uhhmm Mr. Fang sir, I hate to interrupt, but I'm getting a foreign transmission on my Pip-boy…"

All eyes directed their way to the wrist device.

"Let it through." I accepted.

"Yes sir." he responded while tapping a few buttons on the Pip-boy, stopping the flashing.

It's almost as if the intercoms across the shopping center opened up for the first time. All so clear, all so high definition.

I held my rifle in case of this being some sort of ambush attack. But the voice of the speaker put me at ease as I knew who it was…

"My children…" the voice said, "let me be the first to assure you that I am not the commander behind the troops that attacked you. My powers of being the Overseer are far separate than the ones of the vault security force. We are two separate minds I'm afraid…"

"Ughhh!" I cursed at the ceiling, "will you leave me alone for once!?"

The battalion of troops bobbed their heads around like a flock of confused pigeons; they aren't as familiar with the Overseer as me, or the inner circle's.

"Stay calm everyone, he can't get to you!" I assured to them.

"Putting your current threat aside, you have no reason to leave. The harshness of the wasteland will make you regret the murder of your kinfolk that raised and cared for yo-"

"Cut it!" I ordered.

The kid tapped his Pip-Boy causing the smooth connection to end.

I signaled them all to stand back up and grab their weapons.

"Lock and load everyone. I want us all in that elevator at once so we can burst out to the 9th floor with the strongest force we can! Lets go!" I yelled sprinting over to the large elevator door.

Carl and Jeremiah joined me at my side as we led the troops to the industrial sized door. We didn't know how we were going to solve this security problem, but sitting here wasn't going to help.

"Blake…" Carl said panting, "where exactly were you anyway/'

"I'll explain later, I have a lot of things to explain. I'll make sure to spill it at the 10th floor, when all this has passed over I promise. For now-"

I was cut short on my promise when I noticed something wrong. As the unusually large elevator door opened, I stopped in my tracks, ceasing Carl, Jeremiah, and the group to run as well.

"What is it Blake?" Jeremiah asked.

"Yeah, why'd we stop?" Carl added.

But my attention was only focused on the rising door. Something or someone was already in it; however; there were no feet, but it didn't hover. All I could make out was a large black wheel balancing on the floor…

"Blake…?"

"Uhhh Master Fang?" a trooper asked worried.

I wasn't so certain until the door was about halfway up… that's when it started to make out two bulky arms and a chest full of flashing red buttons.

"Oh noo…"

"What? What is it Blake?"

The elevator was almost 100% open now, and the mysterious being ended up to be a Securitron… but not any old Securitron, the kind with extra layers of armor over it; the kind I met at the baseball game when I was ten….

"Oh my God… get back, get bac-"

Before I could get the word to the rest of the kids, the armored Securitron raised it's arm and unleashed the loudest burst of scattered pellets across the center.

The kids screamed in fear as the heavy robot quickly rolled it's way out of the elevator; both arms raised at the crowd, "run! All of you! Get back to your cover now!" I screamed to them, and they didn't need me to tell them twice.

Each kid fell back as fast as they could as the robot unleashed more rounds of pellets. I remained ducked with both hands over my head not more than ten feet away from it alongside Jeremy.

"Lay down your arms! You are all under the suspicion of murder!" it warned with it's animated soldier on it's monitor.

"Screw you!" Henry The Crow cursed while rising from his cover inside a burning shop.

"Henry, no!"

The boy only wielded a 10mm pistol in which he thought was enough, but the Securitron's advanced sensors caught the boy in under a second.

Henry didn't like loosing I could already tell; he unleashed four rounds on the hulking monster… upon impact they didn't even spark…

"Agh, you idiot!" I spat while ducking my head and running to the rest of the group. Jeremiah and Carl followed without looking back at the danger behind them.

Before getting another ten feet away from it, another piercing *POP* came from the opening in it's hand; looking up, I witnessed another cluster of steaming pellets headed strait for Henry.

"Henry get down!" I screamed. But sadly the sound of my voice wasn't as fast as the projectiles. Before Henry could notice, the entire cluster critically nailed him in the chest, causing Henry to launch back into the burning rubble behind him.

"Henry!" "Oh no!" "Shit!" yowled a few troops in agony.

"Blake don't go back there, it's a death trap!" Carl shouted to me running.

"Wha- why?"

"Because, everybody is just sitting ducks back there! That thing has rockets!"

"Shit!"

Now without any other option, I dashed to the left into a war-torn pawn shop. Jeremiah and Carl did the same while the rest of the kids remained behind their original covers near the entrance.

"Hostiles detected!" it wailed while two bulky sets of metal boxes rose over it's shoulders. "Everybody, heads down!" Carl yelled.

The kids did what they were told, but knew very little about the real power stored in Vault 58 advanced security. Some screamed in anticipation of the barrage, the rest covered their ears.

All me and the other two could do was hug the corner of the entrance with our guns ready to fire.

But after that break of silence, the Securitron warned once more, "engaging multiple targets!" and released one-by-one the packed rockets onto the crowd of Good Fighters.

At first it sounded something of a hot spring erupting from the ground; but the after-effect sure turned that around. Large, fiery explosions shook the ground with enough force to rupture an eardrum.

I know it had an effect on me, because during the fiery barrage, a loud, piercing ringing took over all sounds.

This felt like it was going on forever until the temporary ringing stopped. I looked over to Carl and Jeremy which were okay. Shaken up, but okay.

I dared not look back at the rest, they were securely covered last time I saw them, but those missiles were equally as powerful.

"You guys!" Jeremiah called out.

We looked at him, "aim for the wheel! Before the second wave comes!"

Quickly, I leaned over my thin line of cover and opened fire on the large black wheel that kept the metal beast standing. As the gun popped *Bam-Bam-Bam-Bam-Bam!* the Securitron didn't even flinch, and the rounds did nothing to the thick wheel.

"Screw it, screw it, get back down!" Carl yelled out again.

We did as we were told and hid again; this time the robot heeded no warning and simply unloaded the rest of it's rockets at us.

*Shfft, Shfft, Shfft BOOM!*

This time, I could hear a wail here and there from the troopers, but I assumed it was out of fear and less of pain.

After about three more explosions, I felt a tap on my shoulder, "dude, we need to make a break for the door, at this rate-" *BOOM!* "… at this rate we won't even punch a dent in that thing.."

Carl was right. Ironically, this odd series of Securitron was meant for such a situation.

"What about everyone else?" I asked.

"They're just going to have to break for it and hope for the best!" *Shfft BOOM!*

Carl covered his ears and returned to me, he almost had to scream in my ear to get the word across. It sounded like an officer trying to give orders under heavy fire like in the old war movies.

"There's no passage between the stores I'm afraid. So they need to just sprint through the center of this place and hopefully not get hit-" *Shfft BOOM!*

"-Because this thing has a virtual armory inside it!"

"Damn…"

I nodded to Carl and waited for the last two *Shhhh BOOMS* and leaned over my cover to face the rest of the freedom fighters.

"Okay, listen up! Before that thing fires on you guys again-"

"Master Fang!" they all interrupted in unison.

I looked back at the impending danger and re-took cover as another stream of pellets projected toward me.

"Thanks! Ughhh-shit! Can you all still hear me?" I asked.

"Yes sir!" they all replied together.

"Ok good!" there was a pause as I was thinking, "alright, between each wave of fire, I want you all to sprint into each shop and take cover while it opens fire! And between each reload, sprint to the next shop, then the next one and so on until you reach the elevator, got it?"

It wasn't much, but it was the best idea I had for a situation like this, because that Securitron was going nowhere. When they all agreed once more, I warned, "good then, and I'll tell you this once, we are not keeping that elevator open forever, so you all better hurry!"

With that said, I looked back at Carl and Jeremy and semi-whispered, "go, go, go!" and without looking at the Securitron, we ran as tactically as we could to the elevator doors. The bulked up monster didn't mind us because of the larger threat in front of him; before the doors could close, I tapped the "remain open" button and ordered, "okay guys go!"

The remaining Good Fighters nearly tripped on themselves as fast as they were running.

Hard clanks of armor hit the walls of the shopping center and the Securitron ceased from shooting. It was easy to tell it was having trouble keeping up.

"When do we go?" a kid asked.

"Hold up."

The bot looked around, "no hostiles detected."

"Okay. Go, go, go!"

The fighters quickly darted out of their cover, grabbing the Securitron's attention, "multiple hostiles detected!"

These kids wanted to make a leap of faith on this one; this time, they attempted to run past the Securitron, believing they would all make it in time.

Reaching in my pocket, I clutched the hilt of my powerful police pistol and drove three rounds into the Securitron's back. Of course it did nothing, but it bought time for me and the group to have a distraction.

"Hostiles advancing from behind!" it wailed as it slowly turned it's wheel around. "Get in, get in now!"

Floods of students piled in the large transport causing the three of us to slam backwards on the hard wall. Jeremiah nearly had to fend for himself because of all the heavy armor. Nobody seemed to get near me because of my "military" standing, in fear of pissing me off. I'm usually never like this, but how sudden things are happening, I had no choice but to take charge. All I wanted to do was go to prom for five minutes and sleep the night away; too bad the Overseer had to pull off that stunt and set a premature fire in the vault.

On top of that, Blade literally conspired with one of the most hated beings in the organization to put me down! that's seriously something that's been eating away at my gut since this whole thing started.

The elevator door made a steady but quick close, earning a sigh from each one of us…

Anyway, as far as I know, Sal was out of the Good Fighters. Blade had any defectors demonized to the bone to the pint where they were hiding… like Sal…

I see. Make a temporary pact with the one guy that has access to more than 90% of the vault, take me out and return to being enemies. My question was what drives a man such as Sal to return to the Good Fighters even for a second? He must've been paid.

*Ding… ding…ding…*

I looked up and took a deep breath; the last line of security was setting up shop on the 9th floor. I proved a little more vulnerable due to my lack of armor, I still wore the nice black suit with the bright red tie for prom.

Cant look like the weakest link though, these people have been through every floor but this one and the 10th. "Everyone good on ammo?" I asked.

"Yessir'!" most of them assured.

'So… what's the status on Henry The Crow?"

"Critically hit, but it was the base of his chest plate, he may not be up for hours."

"Hm."

Another sudden flashing Pip-Boy made us jump in surprise, it came from the center of the group.

"Shit, its Blade!"

"Shhh-shh-sh!"

"Show Fang!"

"Yeah show Fang!" they all whispered as if I couldn't hear.

The idea of showing me caused a chain of, "yeah, show Fang!" "Hurry, hurry!"

I didn't say a word and waited for the trooper to move his way through the crowd. He turned out to be a boy my height, everyone holding his arm in the air to present his flashing Pip-Boy.

The poor boy gulped when he saw me; it's as if he was looking Dean Domino in the eyes or something.

"Its Blade." someone whispered to me.

I grabbed the kid's arm and lowered it back to him, "here, I want you to talk to him." I said, "I don't want him to know I'm here."

He nodded and proceeded to press the Pip-Boy, he answered, "y-y-yes sir?"

"Shh-sh-shhh." cautioned the rest, and the elevator remained silent. There was some minor rustling on Blade's end, but we heard him clear his throat, ready to speak.

"I don't hear any gunshots, is everybody fine?" the conniving leader asked.

The boy looked around, "uhm, y-yes-yes, all but one pulled through sir."

"I can tell… Henry didn't pick up his Pip-Boy after I called him a dozen times…. FUCK!"

Blade's angry screech hurt all of our ears, the boy rubbed his.

I could faintly make out the chattering of the last three board members in the background, calming Blade down.

'Okay, okay, alright! I'm calm…" he responded.

He sighed, "…okay, good man for being truthful, cant trust too many of these pricks nowadays."

This was a bit awkward, the boy broke it though, "uhhh, would you like a status report sir?" he asked.

"Sure, yeah yeah, just tell me where you guys are."

"We're currently in the elevator in the shopping center sector of floor 8."

"Ahh, good good, there's few more squadrons moving in already on floor 9. But be ready, I think there's especially more hostiles in your area."

"Ask him where he is." I mouthed to him.

"Sir, may I ask your current location?" he asked as professionally as he could.

"I've advanced to the 10th floor I'm afraid, we worked our way through the crevices of the 9th, but we got chased out by the Overseer's men and had no choice but to keep moving upwards. The other board members are helping in the fight downstairs while I'm trying to unlock the doors here. The Overseer is trying to hold us back any way he can. So fight as hard as you guys can and pull through to meet me upstairs. I'm sorry, but I cant have you guys going the way I went; I need all those clankers destroyed, we can't risk any survivors following us!"

After Blade finished, the boy looked around to see everyone's reaction, "umm, yes sir'! we'll make sure to leave no survivors, you can count on us!"

"Good man! You'll have the other squadrons and the inner circle standing by you! And by the time you guys finish up, I'll have the vault door ready for you guys to see open before your eyes…"

"Wooohhhh!

Yeahhh!

Freedom!" every soldier cried out in victory.

Blade giggled, "hahaha! that's the spirit! I'll see you guys topside, don't worry, I won't peek outside! Hahaha!"

At last, Blade hung up and I had my answers. "Tenth floor, good." I said determined.

Jeremiah folded his arms and looked at the elevator controls, "this elevator has one more button on it, looks like you can find that stealing bastard after all."

"I hate to leave you guys like this, you sure don't want to come with?" I asked sounding concerned.

Jeremiah sighed, "I would Blake, but I have to help out my brother in any way I can. Sorry…"

Carl frowned in agreement to Jeremy's statement as well, "yeah, I can't come too dude, I'm already picturing the wounds I have to treat up there. And with those Securitrons and Sentries, there's no telling how many field medics we're going to need."

"I understand. I just… don't want anything to happen to you guys."

Jeremy put a comforting hand on my shoulder, "it's okay Blake, this isn't exactly your fight…"

"Yeah." Carl agreed, "all you wanted to do was go to school and move on with your life here. I mean, it is true that something devious was going on here, but the Good Fighters went about it the wrong way, and eventually pulled you in the conflict. It's not your fault Blake, you did what you were told and Blade still saw you as a pawn, so I can see why you're after him…"

"But I don't want to kill anybody! Really, I don't. I was taught differently, that each life was valuable; but after the way he toyed with me, and then nearly had my life taken twice… I feel like have no choice…'

Jeremiah narrowed his gaze to mine, "we all were Blake. So at this point, lets consider it…. Self defense…"

I pondered on that for a moment… then I nodded in agreement.

Jeremiah removed his hand and nodded back, "that's it, show him that nobody toys with you."

The elevator door made a halting clanking sound, signaling that we have reached our destination.

Carl held the "shut doors" button and looked towards the crowd, "everyone ready?" he asked.

Assorted nods and gestures answered right back from the fighters.

"Alright…" Carl confirmed.

"Remember to bail out quick, Fang here needs to take care of some business upstairs."

"Yes sir!" they agreed.

I backed up and aimed my rifle toward the door like everyone else. Those bots were waiting for us, and as soon as the door opened, fire would coat both opposing walls…

"Okay now…" Carl warned with his fingers loosening on the button , "1...2..." my sights were locked.

"….3!"

The industrial doors slid open. The industrial doors predicted, more than four jet-black Sentry bots were waiting for our arrival.

Without warning, me, and every Good Fighter opened fire before any of them could rev up their Gatling guns.

It sure hurt my ears but it was worth it. A large wave of fiery yellow streaks rained upon the robots . "Taking fire, taking fire!" one of them shouted in it's deep animatronic voice.

Getting my sights just perfectly, I opened a small burst of fire directly in it's cage-like faceplate, going inside of it. And to my pleasure, said faceplate burst into flames, sending the bot haywire.

"Error, error!" it screamed while rolling aimlessly around the room. "In need of immediate maintenance! In need of-"

*BOOM!* chunks of what used to be the robot's head scattered everywhere like a freshly detonated grenade, giving a window of opportunity for the Good Fighters to get the jump on them.

"Go!Go!Go!" yelled Jeremiah, and instantly, the troopers let out a piercing battle cry and sprinted to the nearest cover, ready to attack the remaining Sentry bots.

I retreated to the back of elevator and saw my two good friends join the fight….

"There's gonna be more of them!" someone yelled.

"We just got to wait for the rest of the squadrons. Until then, hold back as many as you can!"

Before Carl and Jeremy piled out, I held my hand out in a halting position, "hey…."

They looked back, "be careful…"

"We will." Carl assured, pressing the 10th floor button.

"You be careful too man. We'll be seeing you at the vault door…" replied Jeremy.

Carl gave a final thumbs up before jumping ot and letting the elevator door close. Hearing the gunshots and screams fade away, I could now assure that I was on my way to the top floor…

This time, I was alone….

I took a very deep breath; for once I was about to see the illustrious 10th floor; the floor I, or anyone has ever visited. My assault rifle remained strapped to my chest so I could wield my powerful police pistol.

All I heard about this floor was that it was used for spare maintenance and the vault door. But other times, people tell me that its some sort of old prison complex that they put Good Fighters in when arrested. Never believed that one, but who knows, maybe it'll be nothing special after all…

And boy was I wrong.

When the elevator came to another clanking stop, I cocked the pistol, ready for action.

Taking another deep breath, I stood up strait and pointed the cannon at the door just in case someone was waiting for me.

*Shhooft* the door flew open, and to my surprise, the tenth floor was nothing I could have imagined. Nothing I could have EVER imagined.

This wasn't just some floor with a flat platform ready for me to walk. I was met with a thin staircase that went directly down into a… into a… some sort of stadium.

The odd room was very large, just like a stadium I guess. But instead of a giant 100 yard field, it was just a simple walkway with another staircase taking you up into another door.

Blade was standing at that door… bent over trying to pick it.

But Blade wasn't the main attraction here. Oh no, he was far from it.

What really caught my attention was what filled the seats in this odd stadium.

Lined up in rows side-by-side, stood these pods. These white, big, glowing pods.

My God these things looked like something out of a alien movie.

And I could tell the pods were chilled because of the steam-like smoke irradiating from them. Kind of like cylinder-shaped see-through refrigerators.

When I stepped out of the elevator my teeth started to chatter. This room felt like a freezer.

Despite this weird new discovery, I had to keep my eyes on the target. Blade was still fully oblivious to my presence.

All I saw was his back-turned trench coat and hat. He was far too eager to leave the vault to be pondering on this odd room.

I took a step or two forward so I could line up my sight on the platform in front stairs, parallel to Blade's platform.

I didn't want to cheap shot him though, I wanted him to know it was me.

"Hey!" I yelled in a deep, gravely voice.

The dirty little rat nearly stumbled down the steps to the sound of my voice. He turned around with his eyes wide and dropped the hairpin and screwdriver.

The room was bright enough for me to finally see Blade's face behind his shady new hat.

And by God did he look scared; I sure looked happy to see him.

My gat remained pointed at my former boss', triggering his hands to reach for the sky.

I said nothing at first; all he did was back himself up to the locket door behind him and keep has body stiff.

Blade looked like scared rabbit with his pupils being so dilated. I wouldn't be surprised is he fainted.

I tried not to enjoy this, because the prideful sensation of having such a powerful figure at my mercy was almost overwhelming.

"Say something Blade." I asked, "have a last minute explanation? An excuse? Something?"

His lip began to quiver.

"Oh don't worry, Sal told me everything: the ambush, the unexpected visit, the fact that you set it all up."

Blade clutched the wall, hopefully finding a sort of escape.

"Go ahead, say something. Sal tells me it was to stop me from snitching. That's darkly understandable, but would you have that happen if it where Barker or Bishop? Nah, "lets have a little search party for the guy. If he don't turn up, we'll just send his good friend Sal to shoot a hole in him probably after torturing the fellah'!" awww that's just the perfect plan for a guy that busted his ass for me starting a riot, leading a raid to the most valuable area in the vault, and nearly having his face impaled by an enraged baseball player! That sounds fair as fuck!"

Wow, going over things really made those memories the most powerful. A very small tear to roll down my face.

Being backstabbed that many times would open up your floodgates at some point too.

"So say something!" I demanded.

He looked to either side of him, he hesitated but managed to quiver, "I-I-I-I…"

"I what!?"

"I-I-I- pl- please."

"That's what I'm here for! I'm here to please but never satisfy! What do you have to say in defense?"

He put his hands in front of him, gesturing me to stop, "p- please Blake, put the gun down…"

"Nah, I think I'm going to keep it here until you tell me something. So go ahead, speak!"

"I-I… didn't mean anything by it I swear! I thought you went to prom!" he begged.

I raised an eyebrow, "no, you had that bastard and his robot get the jump on me before I could even leave my room."

"O-oh man, I'm sorry! I really am! I-I only told Sal to find you if the Overseer got you got you first! I swear! I thought you went to prom!"

This is the last time I wanted to hear about the subject, so I asked, "speaking of prom, what in the hell about it has you, and the rest of the inner circle halfway pissing your pants? How come I wasn't let in on that little subject?"

Suddenly, Blade's entire facial expression switched from scared to surprised. His mouth gaped open, and he stood as if I hadn't pointed a gun.

"What?" I asked confused.

"Oh kid… to be honest, I thought you had it figured out on the down-low. I'm sorry man I really am, I kept it away from you because it would keep you from gettin' scared when I sent you on jobs."

I looked surprised as well, "well I don't know a damn thing about it, so go ahead and tell me now!"

Blade backed up a little more, closed his eyes and let out a calming breath.

"You ready for this kid?"

"Shut up and tell me! You're wasting time!" I retorted.

"Okay, okay. But it ain't pretty…"

"Try me, lets just see how ugly the truth is."

Blade calmed down and stopped quivering, "alright… well you know why I started the good Fighters right?"

"Yeah… I showed you the strange signal on my Pip-Boy and you heard Jackson talking about fighting the good fight…" I answered correctly.

"Heh." Blade chuckled, "good. But that's all you, and everyone outside the inner circle knows…. But nobody starts some bullcrap revolution just because he heard some truth on the radio. I started the Good Fighters because of prom."

"Wh-what?"

"*sigh* When me and Sal were still pals, we used to hack little terminals day by days and learn a little more about the vault. Believe it or not, we used to be the top kid in our class. Kinda' like you, we were all into science and shit, history and all that." he reveled.

"Uh-huh…."

"Yeah well, me and him where the toasts of the town you know, we had the vault eatin' out the palms of our hands. Both always had a girl around our arms. And when it was tine for senior year to end, me and him took our girls to prom…"

"Go on…"

"I'd tell you the details since you missed it and all, but prom ain't a place where you wanna go…"

"And why's that Blade?" I asked suspiciously.

"Oh, you wanna stay. The lights, the dancing, the live music… but while I was taking a break from dancing so much, Sal came up to me all worried, talkin' about the chaperones and teachers not letting him leave until the prom was over…. My well, dumb ass didn't lisen to him and just told him not to worry about it."

Never heard Blade speak so deeply before. And by the way he talked, I've never heard him so emotional about this. He was never one to show that.

I found myself intrigued.

"Sal was always a bit ahead of me. He argued with the Mr. Handy at the ballroom door with his girl and didn't give up the argument….. I walked towards him with Julia to see if I could come up with a sort of resolution. But something happened; something wrong. Before I was even close to them, the lights cut to black. All I heard was people screamin', shoutin'. I knew Sal was ahead of me so I grabbed Julia and ran with him…

I couldn't see him but I heard him scuffling with that Mr. Handy. I grabbed his arm to find a way out. I dunno what was happening; dozens of robots and teachers trying to grab hold of me. It was too much…. But Sal led me to a door he found behind the stage. And well, the rest is history…."

This was a shocker, even from Blade. Looking back at his moment made him want to cry as well. His head drooped low; I can see this pained him for awhile.

'So, they attacked you… why?"

Blade sniffled, "I didn't know. But after hiding from the cops after two strait weeks, Sal had plenty of time o study deeper into the history of Vault 58... My heart was damn near broken when turned out that every registered student was scheduled to be kidnapped every prom night…"

"Wh-what!? that's the big secret? B-but why?" I asked baffled.

"We didn't figure that out til' later, and that's only part of the tragedy…..

After some more research and a trip to the scrap yard. Sal made one fuxked up discovery."

"Let's hear it."

"*sigh*….. Get this. So when Vault-Tec made the vaults, they put a dark side to all the happy that they advertised; some vaults worse than the other, something for government study or something."

"Yeah well, I know that now…"

"Yeah, but you only know about the 50% robot 50% human ratio. You see, even though this vault was sponsored by Robco industries, Vault-Tec didn't stop there….. *sigh*….. Look, what I'm saying is that if you're caught in prom, they put you in… those…"

He pointed at the countless rows of freezing pods….

I looked around at the pods frantically, "wh-what? No! n- no way!"

"Mhmmm, that's why I wanted you to get out as soon as you got in…."

I covered my eyes trying to cope with all this. This must've been what the Overseer halted Sal from speaking of. I didn't know what to think of Blade now, we all just thought of him as an older douche bag in-over his head when it turned out, he was emotionally driven by this.

Still, I held the pistol at him in the distance. No matter how he felt about this, he'll always be a snake in the grass.

"What… what's the point of all this? What's to study?" I asked quivering as well.

"There was something the Overseer told Sal when he first snuck into his room… "you've been here before.""

Then, those words rang through my head, "you've been here before…"

It sounded exactly like what the Overseer told me as I looked at the burning remains of the shopping mall,

"I don't see why you're surprised. This isn't the first time you've done this…"

His words echoed…

"That's right Blake…. You, me, Sal, Jeremy, Bishop, Carl, and every damn biological piece of life lived here over two hundred timed over!"

"Wh- wha…" I asked baffled with my voice getting higher in disbelief.

"We may not remember it, but it happened! Literally more than two hundred times! And it's all because of Vault-Tec and our fucking Overseer! So what's to study!? How the human race can survive in different roles, in different environments! And why did I choose you? Because thanks to me and Sal's research, we discovered that you, Teddy Hunter, managed to set a revolutionary fire in every single rebirth!"

My gun dropped, leaving it to fall down every step. Was I shot? No….

But something certainly pounded through my head. Teddy… Teddy Hunter…

My eyes were wider than Blade's now. In fact, I was in shock. Pure shock.

I didn't even bother that there was an enemy in front of me. I mean, Blade's blurry figure already began to trek towards me…

Who was Teddy? Was he me? No, I'm Blake… I have to be Blake. No! Corneal, my government name! No… Teddy goes even further than that name.

Was he an old friend of mine? How old? Can't be that long ago, I'm only sixteen…

I heard Blade's hard steel-tipped boots head up my flight of stairs; still, I couldn't move…

"Do something!" I thought, "do something!" but I couldn't.

Blade had his original smirk plastered on his face as he finished climbing the metal stairs.

When he reached my platform, the man's chin scruff was all that I could see due to his towering height to mine. He noticed my quickening breaths and narrowing eyes. He knew I still wanted to hit him.

Blade grinned and scuffled my blond hair, "thank you. You've been a valuable asset to the cause since experiment one. Not once have you died, been captured, or broken loyalty. I dunno what it is about hearing your first, real name in over two hundred years… I reacted the same exact way."

My nose shot out more hot air and my teeth literally grinded. There he was, toying with me again.

"Turns out Blade was my more acceptable name back before the war. Of course it wasn't my government name, but when you're born into a gang of thugs that rule east Austin, what are you gonna do?"

To show a bit more respect, he kneeled down to my level and looked me in the eye, "now… I will admit I haven't been the most trustworthy boss, and I'm sorry for sleeping with your girl Bonnie okay? Can we put that behind us?"

I cringed.

"Alright good. So while you're in this… stasis…" he reached in his trench coat to reveal a 9mm pistol.

"I'm going to-"

I lightly chattered my teeth and began to sweat.

"Shh-shhh-shhh, listen, listen…"

My eyes fixated on the black gat.

"Now if you want me to help you, you gotta help me." he raised the pistol to the air,

"So like I said, I'm going to pump one little round in your… foot. Yeah your foot, that works. It's nothing personal I promise; you just still have hostilities for me which is completely understandable. It will most likely knock you out, giving me and the boys enough time to get out of here. Hahaha, don't worry, I'll leave an easy path for you to reach the vault door. All the doors will be unlocked…"

I knew it… Blade was a snake in the grass…

Blade remained knelt and pointed the somewhat short pistol at my left dress shoe. I just closed my eyes….

"I guess you can call this payback for talking all that shit when I gave you everything you wanted, I dunno. Oh, and be sure to look us up in the wasteland; we'd sure like to have you back after you've calmed down…."

Blade cocked the gun.

"Blake, kill that motherfucker!"

He held back on the gun, looked up and saw my eyes literally burning into his. Whoever just spoke on the intercom just saved me…

Fully in control of my body again, Blade would have never seen this happen in the hundred lifetimes we've lived.

Literally springing from the floor, both my hands wrapped around the man's throat before launching us both from the stairs.

All he could utter was an out of breath, "AGHT!" as we fell down the hard vault steps, just about all of them digging into his spine.

No more holding back, the disrespect and backstabbing stopped here.

The horror in Blade's eyes could only explain part of the reason I kept going. I wanted every ounce of his being to scream in pain.

We continued to roll down the steps, most of the edges scraping his back through the coat.

When we reached the bottom, my smaller hands constricted on his neck, while my two thumbs dove into his windpipe . "Aghh-huu! AHHHGHH!" he wailed in pain. He lost most energy through the stinging in his back, giving me an advantage.

He attempted to push my face to somehow get me off. my thumbs only dug deeper into the little prick's throat.

I never knew how animalistic I could be; and I wasn't mad. Blade deserved this.

Suddenly, I was greeted with a sick amount of pride and a small amount of relief. Blade's throat quickly turned purple earning a wild roar out of me, pushing with all my arms could hold.

His brown eyes seemed to bulge out of their sockets when that happened; "you're…. mine…." I threatened through closed teeth.

This gave Blade the realization he ever so needed. Getting killed by a sixteen year old? Like this? Not on my watch.

So with the last balled up pack of energy his now, exhausted body could spare, he pried my hands off of his throat, and then used that opportunity to throw me off of him.

I still had no worries; scrambling back up wasn't a hassle for me. Blade on the other hand, held his purpled throat and picked up his dropped 9mm. Almost in a combat stance, we prepared for our next moves. The gun slowly lifted to me again in which I swiftly kicked out of his hand.

"Ahh!"

My fist automatically balled up and struck his stomach, almost making him blow chunks. But I didn't stop there; after throwing a few more critical punches, a powerful kick nailed him in the ribs, making him shriek in pain.

Blade was now forced to lean on the wall to stand. I stood ready, ready to cause him more pain, ready to not to let him off easy.

More punches and kicks struck his injured ribcage; but this time, the weakened leader managed to grab my foot during a kick and throw me back. Blade felt a window of hope and started to make a break for the stairs I found him originally on.

On his way, he noticed my dropped police pistol and lifted it struggling.

Hoping, Blade unloaded three powerful shots in which I dodged by leaping to the side.

While doing so, the 24 year old climbed as fast as he could and reached the locked door.

I frantically searched for the 9mm and saw it near my tossed assault rifle. Picking it up, I aimed it upstairs and unloaded three rounds as well, unfortunately missing.

I was much quicker and easily charged upstairs. When Blade heard me, he took a chance and shot the locked door's control panel, making it open forcibly.

He sprinted through the opening despite his injuries, shooting backwards to hopefully hold me back.

He didn't.

Through the door revealed another stadium-like room with pods on each side; except this time, we ran on a balcony that overlooked them other than it's original layout from the last room with the two staircases.

So many kids in there, so many I've never met.

Sprinting never felt so good; I shot a few at Blade as he did the same to me, but we missed due to our physical states.

Just ahead was a dark room that led into dim-lit hallways. After running over a few more cryo-rooms, Blade couldn't have been more happy at the moment. He entered the enclosed room about ten seconds before I did; but it was no problem, only about three halls appeared in front of me in the room.

I listened for footsteps. Yet I heard nothing. I raised my gun up in front of me and looked at the metal arrow indicated that it held multiple elevators, "that must be where the Good Fighters will be getting through." I thought to myself.

Directly ahead of me, the arrow quoted, "maintenance", I shook my head and said, "nothing there."

Turning to the left, the darkest room, the arrow quoted, "vault entrance." and my questions were answered….

I cocked the 9mm and carefully walked in….

Damn, here it was. I actually smiled this time.

To the right of me was an old control panel with a red, flashing light. But in front of me was like visiting a long awaited landmark for the first time.

The red light from the panel would brighten the darkness of the room and reveal it's pre-war prowess to me.

The vault door….

Something that was only spoken about in folk-lore, now in front of me…

I thought to myself, "it's like a gear… a big, fat, beautiful gear."

Freedom was so close I could smell it.

My guard wasn't let down though, my sights were completely cognizant of my visible surroundings. This room was so… dirty, so dusty and gravely. I loved it. Its something like the outside world, something I wanted to be a part of. I sure wish Carl and Jeremiah were here…

The distant rocks and explosions that echoed through the hall let me know that they were at least on their way. Hopefully they pulled through unscathed…

Even though this was a special moment for more than me, I decided to head for the panel and open it myself. Our studies show that each vault entrance had a long tunnel running through it before you could reach the door that led to the wasteland….

Unfortunately, after taking my first steps into the shadowy corridor, a large pair of arms wrapped around my entire neck. Almost like a hug, but making me gasp for breath.

"GAHHHCK!" I coughed.

The arms were of Blade; he must have rested or shot himself full of chems to regain this amount of strength.

I writhed around in pain as his grip tightened my airways from behind, "you-" I kicked, "dirty fuck!" he cursed at me.

"Ach!" I gusped.

"We… could've… expanded."

"GAHHH!" I screamed.

"Could've- left, your- bullshit- behind!"

Now, I was the one turning purple, but this fight wasn't over, not by a long shot; I quickly began to elbow the deviant, making him periodically let out, "oof!"

"Think… that's gonna- stop me- AHHHH!"

Cutting him off, a lucky and powerful elbow struck him just below the chest. Right into his already injured ribcage…

I couldn't tell if Blade was either going to throw up, or cry. Either way, he let me go, easily face planting me on the hard industrialized floor.

Somewhat being lucky, my face was numb from struggling; I flipped back over and gasped for breath. Blade didn't even come for me with as much pain as he was experiencing….

All he did was stumble amongst himself like a drunk. His head slumped, and he held the area I repeatedly struck.

Anatomy wasn't my strong suit compared to my other classes but, I believe I just broke one of his ribs… bad.

Blade's breathing sounded as if he wore a hazmat suit and his cheeks seemed full. Drawing breaths for him sounded like a skipping record, "hick… hick… hick…" was all he could muster.

Mine wasn't far from sounding like that, but my airways slowly regained it's original pattern. I felt my face and observed what stuck to my hand; it was blood, bit I didn't fret. I just witnessed my former boss wallowing in his own agony… in which he deserved.

Reality seemed to hit him when he stumbled over to the flashing control panel.

The almost-blacked out man cranked the lever that controlled the opening and closing of the vault door, but nothing happened.

"C…c'mon…*hick*!"

Nothing but his disappointment made a sound, Blade was loosing hope by the gallon…

"No, No! *hack*!

Blood splashed from his mouth now, and all I did was watch.

"Ghaaack! AHHH!" more blood flooded out and he stumbled to his knee, weak from the searing pain.

As if things couldn't get any odder, the announcement bell rang. Blade looked up at the metal ceiling.

"Hahahaha!" the voice laughed in pleasure, "really Blade? Really?"

"*cough* *hack* wh- what?" he asked confused.

"Blake- no sorry, I mean "Teddy" here sure snapped on you didn't he?"

More blood flooded from his bloated moth, "pfft! pff!" he blew, "fuck… fuck you Sal… ughhh…"

Sal? Sal saved me? He called out my name to break the shock?

"Go ahead Blade, type in the password. It's "Lone Star.""

Blade gasped and pushed himself to his feet again, leaning on the panel for support. But while typing "Lone" I heard a pair of footsteps scampering down the hallway.

"Uh-oh Blade, you got company, better type faster! Hahahahaha!" Sal sickly chuckled.

Blade's eyes were in slits now. Looking for the final letters for "Star."

"*Cough* no… I didn't come this far to…."

Like a phantom, the shadowy figure stood by the beginning of the vault entrance hall. Whoever it was wielded my black assault rifle I left behind.

"Ahaha! Too late Blade!"

When the sound of the gun clicking echoed through the hallway, I ducked and covered my head. Blade on the other hand didn't…

With his broken and beaten body still trying to stand and frantically type the code through his blurred vision, two loud shots from the assault rifle rang out…

I turned my head in time to see both bullets make impact on his jacketed back, creating two light kicks of smoke rise from it.

"ARRR!" painfully screamed Blade as he was now fully slumped over the panel.

My dark blue eyes widened in horror seeing the large figure slide off of the panel, hitting the cold floor, his back facing me.

"Blake!" screamed a voice that put me at ease. It was the friendly face that of Jeremiah's

He pointed his gun at the seemingly lifeless corpse of Blade just to make sure and turned to me. "Oh my God Blake…. Your nose."

I remained silent, still trying to collect myself; he strapped the gun to his side and offered a hand to help me up. I was too weak to help, so Jeremy pulled with all his might to lift me up.

"Urrrmph!" he grunted as I stumbled myself.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" he advised, "is fine dude, you're okay… right?"

And with my bleeding nose and mouth, I nodded.

He drew a small, white handkerchief from his shirt and offered it to me; I grabbed it with trembling hands and slowly wiped my face, instantly coating the white with red.

Jeremy cringed at the sight and looked over at the bloody remains of our former leader. He walked over to him, smoke still lightly rising from the bullet holes in his back…

Standing over him, Jeremiah shrugged, "well, that's the end of him…."

But out of nowhere, he spat a wadded cluster of saliva on his body and angrily cursed, "s'what you get motherfucker!" before kicking his back.

Afterwards, he came back to me to see what the damage was. Looking at my face he explained, "looks like you got slammed pretty hard huh?"

I nodded, still wiping my face.

"Just take deep breaths dude, you look like you'll pull through…"

He noticed the bloodied rag and cringed again, "uhhh, you can toss it…" and I did.

I muttered, "wh- wh- where's Carl…? Where's everyone else?"

"Ahhh, bad shits happening down there…"

"H-how so?"

"Let's just put it this way: more of those steroid Securitrons showed up at once and people got hurt… a lot of people.."

"Sh-shit…"

"Carl probably stopped a lot of dying down there, and if it wasn't for Bishop, I wouldn't be here right now…"

"But… why are you only here?" I asked.

He sighed, "Carl sorda' knew on the down-low that things wouldn't turn out as we planned, so while Bishop and the few hundred of us that were left kept on fighting, Carl told me to fall back to tell me the bad news. He said it would be awhile until the last five hundred of the reinforcements came along, and situations here would only get worse. So he said to go back in the elevator and help you out."

"Oh….."

"Yeah. Carl had to stay because you know, it's his duty to help the injured in combat. But I'm telling' ya' man we gotta move, like now!"

My head shot up, "what? Why!?"

"Because if Bishop finds out about this, he'll kill us both! Well, you specifically. But on top of that, if we're caught next to Blade like this, the Good Fighters will tear us both apart! Some worship the guy for goodness sakes!"

"What!? We can't leave Carl like that!" I protested.

"It's okay, he said he'll find us, he said not to worry about him!"

"….. Ahgh…" I pondered, "agh! Dammit fine!"

"Good! So lets split before its too late; we cant take on a thousand armored guys just to get to Carl. And while I'm talking about that subject, we better move as far away from this place when we move out in the wasteland as well. Bishop is most likely going to be the one taking charge, and he WILL be looking for us; and with a thousand or so guys on his side, we better find a good hiding spot." he spoke.

"Understood." I assured.

Walking back over to the panel, he was cut off, "okay, let's get this show on the road-" when he noticed the bloodied body of Blade was missing, "what the-"

"Look! Over there!" I pointed.

Blade was squabbling on the floor, crawling to the vault door in desperation.

"F- f- freedom…" he muttered under his breath.

Jeremy picked up the rifle and took aim, "stop!" I halted, and he did.

When Blade crawled his way to the vault door, he began to scratch it as if he were a dog, begging to be let out.

"I… *cough* didn't… come… this far… to not see… the outside…"

"Jeremiah." I asked.

"He looked over to me, "type the word "Star" in the control panel.

Jeremy obeyed and proceeded to punch the word Blade could not. "now pull the lever."

"Yeah." he responded while pulling the small handle on the control panel.

Suddenly, an even brighter red light flashed on the ceiling of the room, and a screeching alarm rang.

"What in the-"

Nothing seemed to happen at first; the room remained still and the warnings became annoying.

Even a victorious smile grew on Blade's face as he waited for this moment to come.

… then a sudden "*SCREEEEEEEEE!*" made us both cover our ears. Some giant mechanical arm connected to the door like a magnet and pulled it from it's gear-like socket.

Then, it stopped.

And like a wheel, the vault door rolled to the side ever so slowly, and stopped.

Something was off though. There was no tunnel, no passageway, just a door. An old grey door.

"What!?" yelled Jeremy.

"Hold on." I assured.

We looked at each other before heading down the few steps and standing before the open vault.

Blade didn't make a sound and curled into a ball silently. About now, he was dead…

"You do the honors." Jeremy told me.

Shrugging, I reached out my hand and applied a little pressure on the door. Nothing.

I pushed a little harder and still, nothing.

Gesturing Jeremy to do the honors instead, he gladly kicked open the door, causing dust to spew at out faces.

We instantly started coughing and wheezing, but we waved our hands around to clear it.

And what where we met with? Another staircase going up! Though, this one was darker, and made out of some kind of stone…

Jeremy decided to take point accounting my current physical standing. But within first two steps forward, he leapt back in fear as a charred skeleton propped on the other side of the door fell over.

"Shit…" he said with wide eyes.

The skeleton held a long floor duster in it's hand when it fell; whatever happened to it wasn't pretty, but Jeremiah kicked it to the side and signaled me to follow him.

I did as I was told and began walking up the hard stair steps.

With his gun aimed high, it wasn't long ti'l we found another door at the end of the case when we finished climbing upwards. This time the door opened up easily, revealing some hopeful light.

Jeremy halted me and leaned past the doorway, pointing his gun at all angles.

"Its… its some sort of building…" he confirmed.

"Let me see."

Stepping out, I feasted my eyes on something no vault dweller has seen… a- a building. But not any building. A learning complex…

We lowered our arms and even holstered them. Jeremy closed the door behind us and looked around; it's brick walls and polished-tile flooring gave it away.

A school… a place I would have loved to learn other than that shiny metal box I would in the past.

Observing, I noticed large amounts of internal damage on the complex; dozens of assorted papers and debris congested the place as a light breeze dusted them every minute or so.

We stood in what looked like the main hallway of the school due to the massive double doors abort thirty feet away from us.

Jeremiah saw me immersed in the atmosphere but tapped my back, telling me to move, so I did. Though, on my way out, I couldn't help but notice the posters on the wall. They weren't educational, or motivational. They were… wanted posters of some sort, no, missing posters….

Pacing ahead behind Jeremiah, I noticed a few faces, "no… it couldn't be!" I though.

Jeremiah didn't mind, he just kept walking.

On the far left, I noticed the face of… Henry The Crow…. The sign read: "Have you seen me?" on the top, and in the middle, the description read:

"Jonathan McCarthy.

Age: 12

Height: 4'6

Last seen in Austin National Library."

A bead of sweat rolled down my head.

Another poster depicted the picture of what looked like Jacob:

"Name: Marlin Gray

Age: 6

Height: 3'9

Last seen in playground."

"Jeremy, are you seein' this?" I asked.

"What? Its just some posters…"

I grabbed his arm, "no, no, no! look!"

He stopped and noticed I was pointing at a poster plastered on the wall.

"See that one?" I asked.

"Yeah, so what? Its just some little blonde kid-"

He stopped.

Looking with him I read:

"Have you seen me?

Name: Teddy Hunter

Age: 10

Height: 4'4

Last seen in 1st floor study hall with Butch Kelly & Larry Anthony (also missing.)"

We paused for a moment, "the fuck…?" uttered Jeremy.

We headed for the outside, trying to avoid any more revealing twists. I wish I hadn't told him anything, the boy's mind probably wasn't ready for this. I know I wasn't.

Now, the beauty of the school began to fade due to the vault's mysteries still shrouding this place.

I just wanted to start anew…..

"Whoa…" "My God…" my friend and I reacted in awe to the sight we were about to see.

We stopped in our tracks.

Have you ever seen a night sky?

Stars, the moon, the sound crickets? Maybe a light cloud or two…?

I felt a long awaited dream come true; thank God it wasn't daytime, our eyes would be blurred for hours.

Based on the pre-war ads and shows, I was in the entrance of the school directly in front of the parking lot, which housed the remains of long burned cars before the war….

We couldn't speak. We may have seen the old movies, but nothing beat the real thing. Jeremiah walked up to one of two pillars and held himself up on it…. The realization of being outside caught up with him as he looked over the parking lot.

Beyond that though, was a desert that appeared to have no end. But I knew that wasn't true; there was a world out there, ready to be explored….

Falling to my knees, I felt tired. Felt like passing out after fighting so long….

But when I thought there could be no more vault surprises, I was dead wrong….

A man spoke. A man with a deeper voice than ours, but not too deep; sounded sort of like Cary Grant.

"CONGRATULATIONS VAULT DWELLERS!"

Jeremiah broke the hypnotic spell of the wasteland and grabbed his gun. I stood up and joined his side.

Each time the man spoke, a light above the over-shade lit.

"The hell is this Blake?"

"I dunno."

The voice spoke again, "you are the first registered Vault 58 candidates to successfully exit the premises! Since vault construction in 2074, the year is now…"

A Protectron took over the man's voice, "2283..."

The man returned, "Vault-Tec wishes to thank you for your support and participation! And don't worry, your progress has been recorded in our secure system!"

I sat down, trying to take it all in.

"In the unfortunate event of a nuclear attack, you may be asking yourself what in the world to do now. Haha, do not fret; Vault-Tec has you covered!"

I crawled out of the way, as an automatic hatch slid out of the steps, rising from the ground. Presented in front of us was a load of items.

"Whoa…" Jeremy said in surprise.

"In this box, you'll find a variety of supplies ranging from fresh purified water, to M. .' that help feed our boys and girls overseas in Alaska, to police standard issue Colt .45's and five clips of ammo each! But don't go playing cowboys and Indians like you did down in the vault, there are real."

Jeremiah walked past me and observed these items. I just waited for the next announcement. I wasn't much of a gun-buff as he was.

"With those supplies, you'll have no problem dealing with hunger or thirst; and with those weapons, post-nuclear nuisance will be a thing of the past!

Still worried and confused? No problem! The nearest habitable location from your vault is…."

"Twenty… miles… away…." the Protectron filled in.

"Be sure to tell fellow Wastelanders about your vault exploits! Now run along you little rascals! Be clean, be efficient, and most of all, be safe! Your location has been marked on your Pip-Boys. Thanks for participating, and prepare for the future!"

It finished with a sudden cut to static. Standing up, I looked at my friend and he looked back. Again, no words were spoken. We only looked out into the desert; everything for once being peaceful…. I wanted to stay here.

We both leaned on the pillar that held up the outer ceiling of the school and let out a relieved sigh as we looked out on the moonlit sands….

… And out of the intercom the automated man spoke from, a calming song played that managed to put our current worries at ease:

"Them that's got shall have

Them that's not shall loose

So the bible says and it still is news

Mama may have, Papa may have

But God bless the child that's got his own, that's got his own…"

This must have picked up from Galaxy news Radio. The radio that I heard from the very start!

Never have I heard it so clear…

Carl, Bessie, Bonnie, even Sal and Blade…. All those fond memories came back for a second; letting me know that it was time to move on, time to start again….

In whatever this place had to offer, I was ready. Heck, I didn't even fret about the kids in the cryo-pods, I knew Bishop and the fighters would grant them the gift of life…. A real life….

With his eyes closed, Jeremy turned his head, "hey Blake…."

I did the same, "Yeah…?"

"Shouldn't we get moving?"

I blew air out of my nose, "nah, nah….lets find ourselves a shady spot out here in front of the school and….head out tomorrow…"

He grinned, "alright, sounds fair enough."

As the song played, Jeremy and I headed down the steps in search for a safe place in the parking lot, observing the destroyed Corvegas as we passed…..

"Yes the strong get smart

While the weak ones fade

Empty pockets don't ever make the grade

Mama may have, Papa may have

But God bless the child that's got his own

that's got his own….."