February 25, 2078

I blinked open my eyes, the sky was a pale gray reminiscent of the Vault. For a moment I was at peace, forgetful about my quest, then I remembered that I was still stuck out here in the Wasteland, trying to get that replacement part. Then I remembered something else.

"Tatiana!" I yelled out. I got up and looked around; there she was lying by a large boulder. I walked slowly over to her because my legs felt like crap. It was obviously a side effect from the Buffout; it didn't fully work for me. At least I didn't get an addiction.

I finally got over to her and shook her to see if she was sleeping. She didn't wake up, I started to panic.

"Tatiana wake up!" I said panicking. She didn't move.

"TATIANA!" I yelled. I removed my helmet and placed my head against her chest. Her heart beat was faint but there. She was still alive. I raised the helmet above my head to put it back on when something of a brown color fluttered down from my face. I picked it up, it looked like skin. With a dawning horror I placed my hand on my face and felt it, my fingers went to my right cheek, it felt rough.

"Oh no, no no!"

I looked around and found a puddle of irradiated water. I looked through out and I saw my face.

With a piece of skin missing in my cheek.

"Oh fuck, no no. NO!" I yelled. I didn't care if something heard me, life was now officially hell.

My attention went back to Tatiana after a few minutes of feeling my cheek. I didn't want to believe it but there was no denying it: just like Tatiana and Jack, my skin was falling off. I was turning like them.

But how? I didn't know how it could have happened to me…unless the radiation! I've been having too much exposure to it (I quickly put the helmet back on) and there was also the time that Jack scratched me in the cheek and that's where my skin was falling off! I cursed Jack a thousand times under my breath.

I had to put the frightening thought aside of me changing into…that. I couldn't be ruled by fear, especially not out here in the Wasteland.

I concentrated on what was happening right now. The Corvega was destroyed, Tatiana was in a coma, we were off road in what used to be the fields of Tennessee, I was slowly turning into a…hmm need to come up with a term for that, and we had no shelter.

I tried to see the good: Tatiana and I were still alive, we had all of our supplies with us and there were no enemies to be found.

My muscles felt better so I walked over to Tatiana to drag her somewhere safe. I looked around. A short walk away was the ranch that I had tried to get us to yesterday night during the storm. I pulled Tatiana up and slowly walked on over to the ranch.

The door to the ranch was locked and I felt too weak to knock the door down. The windows were boarded up and I wondered who could have had time to do that in an apocalypse since it was obvious that the only other people out here are those… skin fallen people. I looked around the house but all of it was boarded up. There was only one way to get inside.

I pulled out my pistol from its holster, it was no longer the clean thing it was back in the Vault. It was covered in dirt and grime, and some of its features had been worn out. Things had definitely changed. Carrying Tatiana on my other arm I lifted up the pistol and took aim at the doorknob and fired once.

BANG

The doorknob fell smartly to the porch and I pushed the door open. I was greeted by dust covered furniture and a small television. I quickly went forward and placed her on a couch and I collapsed on another.

Somewhere out there, people in Vault 69 were slowly dying from poisoning. Anita might be dead already and here I was sitting on a couch, my companion in a coma, in the middle of nowhere.

Fuck the Wasteland.

After resting my eyes for a little I got back up and checked on Tatiana. Her pulse was still there, her temperature normal but she was badly covered in burns. I sat by her and stroked her hair for a little before getting up and checking around the place.

There were boxes of food in the kitchen cabinets, 3 bottles of clean water in a cabinet below the stove and some Stimpaks and Rad Away in a medical box in the bathroom.

Due to my medical history, I had some knowledge of how to treat a burn but not one so severe but I did what I could. I found a large red towel and used 5 bottles of my precious water to get it wet. I went towards her and placed the cloth on the couch.

I grabbed her shirt and pulled it slowly over her head. It had holes burnt into it and I made myself a mental note to get her a new shirt. I faced down towards her. She had severe burns across her whole chest so I wrapped the towel around her. I was sure that the burns continued on to her breasts but I didn't take off her bra. It felt wrong.

I then went on to relieve some of the pain she might be experiencing. I had some Med-X in my bag and applied 2 to her chest and arm. I didn't use any more because like so many chems in the world, Med-X had a chance of addiction and taking more than 15 shots of Med-X is enough to kill a man.

That was all I could do unfortunately. Someone with a higher knowledge of burns could probably fix her up but I was not that person. All I could do now was wait and hope she got better.

I walked over to an empty chair and collapsed on it. I recalled a conversation I had with Tatiana the other day.

"If I were to die, what would you do?" she asked.

"Please don't ask that, I can't bear to think something like that," I told her.

"But it could happen at any moment," she said.

"I know, and that's why I hope it never happens." I told her in a small voice.

We kept on talking about death after that. She told me that if she died, she'd want her remains to be cremated. I wasn't such a big fan of that. Sure being cremated sounds better than being buried under 6 feet of dirt in a wooden box but to me it being cremated sounded so sad because when I die I want to be remembered for my deeds. Not to be trapped in a jar forever.

Will I be remembered for my deeds? When people look at my remains will they be wowed by my efforts to save the Vault or just shrug me off as another casualty from atomic fire?

My stomach grumbled and I went to the kitchen to fix myself something. I took out a box of Blanco Mac and Cheese. I wished that microwaves were still around so that I wouldn't have to eat it cold. There was a stove to the left of me, I reached out to turn it on. I knew that there was no electricity in the Wasteland so it wouldn't turn on at all. I flicked the switch, nothing happened. Figures.

I was about to turn it off when a flicker of flame came from one of the plates. I dropped the box. How was that possible? I flicked another switch and a small flame came from all of the stove plates. There was no fucking way that there was power out here so that shouldn't be happening.

I ran to the television in front of the furniture and instinctively turned it on. The screen flickered with light and a message came on screen.

PLEASE STAND BY

I flipped through the channels but the same message was on every single one of them. I paced the room and I heard the floorboards creak beneath me. The floorboards were creaking!

I crouched on the floor and tore them apart. I kept on ripping off the boards until I saw a large dark room underneath and a stairway leading to it. I glanced towards where Tatiana was, she was still on the couch. I turned on the Pip-Boy light and headed down.

The room was empty and I thought it was a waste of time coming down until I felt a doorknob. There was a door down here! I opened the door. It led to a long tunnel. I held the Pip-Boy in front of me and had my pistol drawn. I followed the tunnel until I ran into something large and metallic. I raised the Pip-Boy above my head to illuminate it.

It was a large door shaped like a gear and the number 27 was printed in large yellow numbers in the middle of the door.

"Son of a bitch," I whispered. I had found one! I found a Vault! There would be people, beds, and-and maybe even spare parts!

I banged on the door and yelled loudly.

"Open up! I need to get inside!"

The Vault door stayed closed.

"I need to speak to the people inside this Vault!" I yelled.

Nothing happened. A fear started to dawn on me and I banged on the door harder.

"I need to see people! Please open, I'm-I'm- I'm from a Vault too! I'm from Vault 69 and we're in trouble, they sent me to find a chip to fix the reactor, it's-it's killing people in my Vault! I have loved ones in there, please help me! Please…" I fell to the floor sobbing.

Dust fell from the ceiling and I heard a large creaking noise. I looked up to see the Vault door opening.