Carefully checking his possessions, which consisted of nothing but his Blue-
and Yellow suit, which had been the standard way of clothing from where he
had just emerged, a small pistol, a small computer from the pre-war time,
where he could insert important information, which would be able to help
him, some ammunition, along with some medical equipment, mainly consisting
of an injection syringe with a healing drug (which was most often referred
to as "stimpack", due to its ability to stimulate the users body-system to
heal faster, but one drawback was the aftereffects, where the
aforementioned user would become heavily fatigued and might experience some
lesser dizziness).
Once again surveying his surroundings, he noticed with irritation that he could not see more than just a few meters ahead of him, making him even more so jumpy, and at times he nearly jumped out of his own skin because of the shadows the sometimes strangely angled parts of the rough cavern walls around.
He did not really know in which direction he was supposed to be going. All he had to go after was a roughly, hastily drawn map, which had to have been dug up from the pre-war times, back at the times when the vaults were constructed, in the old archives, and he was not very sure as to whether or not the surroundings had changed.
So he picked a random direction, and started moving into one of the caverns on his right side, but had not come far, before he found himself being attacked by something which was about the size of his leg, and before he could react, he felt a stinging pain in his right calf.
He quickly kicked away, but the substance clinging to the leg wouldn't give away, and his only option was to try and remove it by sheer force.
Clenching his teeth and stretching down, he caught a handful of fur, which he savagely ripped away, and at this he heard a yelp as the form was torn away, and flung into a wall, where it crashed into the wall with a sickening crunch, and slid down to the floor slowly, dead.
His leg aching, he stumbled forward, to try to examine what it had been closer, and he was terrified, not to say surprised, to see it had been a rat, its red eyes now staring at nothing, the jaw slightly open to reveal sharp teeth, and its backbone broken.
Animals was not supposed to be this big, at least according to the vault archives, which he had taken a good look into before his departure.
If this had happened to rats, then how would other things in the world as he knew it, have changed?
Using one of the small bandages he had brought along, he quickly wrapped it around the wound at the calf, and hoped it would not slow him too much.
Exiting the small cavern back to the "main" passage, he much more carefully executed his route now, and several times being close to passing right into lairs of the small beasts, but fortunately, most of the rats did not scent or see him, probably because of their own smell, he thought, a bit amused.
By now, he had a vague direction as to where he was going, and after a while he had also learned to recognize the side-caverns which were nothing more than lairs, mostly by the build of them, since they seemed to be more roughly cut out, and might have occurred due to natural causes, instead of the main passage, which seemed to be much more cut out in the mountain, almost as a road.
Wandering for hours, constantly on his watch against whatever could hide in the shadows, he was growing even more tired, but luckily, his leg was not aching as much anymore, now whether this was a bad thing or not, he did not know.
He had started to near exhaustion, when he thought he smelled something in the dank air. Something that smelled cleaner, or perhaps more fresh, but it was, however tinged with something that could only be described as "stuffy", as when something is very hot, like it had been when they had had problems with the air-conditioners back in the Vault.
Quickly pushing away the thoughts of his friends and what was behind, the quickened up his pace, and noticed that almost any side-passages were absent now.
He hardly got any warning at all, so sharp was the turn. All the time he had been underground, his eyes had become very sensitive, and when he rounded the sharp-cut corner, he was hit fully by the light of the outside, and became afraid he had been blinded when the sight did not return for fully a few minutes.
When he could once again see, what he saw filled him with awe, Up above him, the roof of the cavern had opened up for at least fully 5 meters, and also, the passage had widened to at least five meters to each side, leaving him in the middle of the opening, and this was indeed an opening.
An opening, from where the outer world could enter the relative safety. It could probably be well described as a staging area, since all around him, strange machines and vehicles, all covered by a layer of dust and sand.
His clinical part of the mind figured this had to be from where they had transported everything deeper, and there were even some carts and crates, both shattered and unharmed, scattered around on the sand-covered concrete floor.
But he himself was not aware of any of this, since he kept gazing upon the outer world, the outside world he had heard so much about. He could see nothing but sand, sand as far as the eye could see, and some desert weed in places, and by now he found himself lucky he had been only temporarily blinded by the light, since he now saw the light as it was. Dusk was setting over the wasteland.
Once again surveying his surroundings, he noticed with irritation that he could not see more than just a few meters ahead of him, making him even more so jumpy, and at times he nearly jumped out of his own skin because of the shadows the sometimes strangely angled parts of the rough cavern walls around.
He did not really know in which direction he was supposed to be going. All he had to go after was a roughly, hastily drawn map, which had to have been dug up from the pre-war times, back at the times when the vaults were constructed, in the old archives, and he was not very sure as to whether or not the surroundings had changed.
So he picked a random direction, and started moving into one of the caverns on his right side, but had not come far, before he found himself being attacked by something which was about the size of his leg, and before he could react, he felt a stinging pain in his right calf.
He quickly kicked away, but the substance clinging to the leg wouldn't give away, and his only option was to try and remove it by sheer force.
Clenching his teeth and stretching down, he caught a handful of fur, which he savagely ripped away, and at this he heard a yelp as the form was torn away, and flung into a wall, where it crashed into the wall with a sickening crunch, and slid down to the floor slowly, dead.
His leg aching, he stumbled forward, to try to examine what it had been closer, and he was terrified, not to say surprised, to see it had been a rat, its red eyes now staring at nothing, the jaw slightly open to reveal sharp teeth, and its backbone broken.
Animals was not supposed to be this big, at least according to the vault archives, which he had taken a good look into before his departure.
If this had happened to rats, then how would other things in the world as he knew it, have changed?
Using one of the small bandages he had brought along, he quickly wrapped it around the wound at the calf, and hoped it would not slow him too much.
Exiting the small cavern back to the "main" passage, he much more carefully executed his route now, and several times being close to passing right into lairs of the small beasts, but fortunately, most of the rats did not scent or see him, probably because of their own smell, he thought, a bit amused.
By now, he had a vague direction as to where he was going, and after a while he had also learned to recognize the side-caverns which were nothing more than lairs, mostly by the build of them, since they seemed to be more roughly cut out, and might have occurred due to natural causes, instead of the main passage, which seemed to be much more cut out in the mountain, almost as a road.
Wandering for hours, constantly on his watch against whatever could hide in the shadows, he was growing even more tired, but luckily, his leg was not aching as much anymore, now whether this was a bad thing or not, he did not know.
He had started to near exhaustion, when he thought he smelled something in the dank air. Something that smelled cleaner, or perhaps more fresh, but it was, however tinged with something that could only be described as "stuffy", as when something is very hot, like it had been when they had had problems with the air-conditioners back in the Vault.
Quickly pushing away the thoughts of his friends and what was behind, the quickened up his pace, and noticed that almost any side-passages were absent now.
He hardly got any warning at all, so sharp was the turn. All the time he had been underground, his eyes had become very sensitive, and when he rounded the sharp-cut corner, he was hit fully by the light of the outside, and became afraid he had been blinded when the sight did not return for fully a few minutes.
When he could once again see, what he saw filled him with awe, Up above him, the roof of the cavern had opened up for at least fully 5 meters, and also, the passage had widened to at least five meters to each side, leaving him in the middle of the opening, and this was indeed an opening.
An opening, from where the outer world could enter the relative safety. It could probably be well described as a staging area, since all around him, strange machines and vehicles, all covered by a layer of dust and sand.
His clinical part of the mind figured this had to be from where they had transported everything deeper, and there were even some carts and crates, both shattered and unharmed, scattered around on the sand-covered concrete floor.
But he himself was not aware of any of this, since he kept gazing upon the outer world, the outside world he had heard so much about. He could see nothing but sand, sand as far as the eye could see, and some desert weed in places, and by now he found himself lucky he had been only temporarily blinded by the light, since he now saw the light as it was. Dusk was setting over the wasteland.
