Chapter 3: Loss
"I'm thinking the Overseer sent those messages. He was trying to keep the experiment from failing, so the only way to do it was by eugenics; breeding out the family line and using the Vault's experiment as a cover if shit got hairy."
"Wait a minute," Ariel had a look that stated something had occurred to her, "then you're saying the reason Mitch proposed…"
"Was to make sure I didn't," Rep completed, "Yeah. I wouldn't be surprised Mitch is in on this considering he's in training to be Overseer himself." The engineer put his glasses back on and shook his head.
"Lee, for what it's worth," she let out a sigh as she looked up at him, her amber-colored eyes showing sympathy, "I never hated you for doing what you did. You did what you always did when you were hurt."
Rep stood up and faced the doorway into her quarters. He knew exactly what she referred to. He sighed through his nose and closed his eyes, "Not like that…"
Rep was 29 years old. Him and Ariel had been dating for a short time, in part because over the last 4 years she was in large need of some kind of guidance. She at one time looked to both Rep's father and Rep himself for help, most of everyone else in the Vault being afraid of her.
Some time after Ariel's parents passed away in the Diner fire it was almost as though she was a pariah; it was becoming a point that anyone that interacted with her ended up in an accident which either killed someone, or injured them to the point of no return. She had been studying to become a school teacher, but after the accidents started happening no one wanted her near their children; she was forced out of her Post-G.O.A.T. classes.
Rep was in love with her and had defended her on multiple instances. Hearing his father's story about his youth he knew he couldn't let the same thing happen to him let alone her. He had had it milling over in his head repeatedly on what to do and what to say. He wanted to do it right; he loved her too much.
It was game night in the Diner. Rep sat with three other people while engaging in a table top role playing game. There was Sid - a 25 year old terminal technician with short black hair that was a Gronak the Barbarian nerd; Mickey - an 18 year old Post-G.O.A.T. student studying Nuclear Fusion Micrology that has yet to master combing his unruly light brown hair; finally, there was Mitch - Son of the Overseer, he had a medium build and long black hair he kept at shoulder length. He had the game book they used for the campaign acting as a privacy screen for his rolls; he was the game's acting Game Master.
Bottles of Nuka Cola and bags of potato crisps littered the table along with game sheets and a map. Between plays and map changes, there was a plethora of conversations that took place, from philosophical to hypothetical, but tonight was different, "Guys," Rep started, "I'm thinking of proposing to Ariel."
The table had gone silent. Mickey had half a hand full of crisps in his mouth, but stopped to look at the man with his mouth hanging open. The three looked at him like he just spoke in an alien language, "What? Why are you looking at me like that?"
Sid started first, "Accident-Prone Ariel? You're still dating that broad?" "Hey!" Rep took offense to that, "Don't call her a broad, and DON'T call her accident-prone!"
Sid raspberries, "Everyone else does. That's because nothing happened to you yet."
"I heard she learned how to cast hexes on people," Mickey finally cleared the crisps from his mouth, crumbs getting all over his Vault Suit as he talked, "Heard the first people she tested it on was her parents. That's why the Diner here caught fire."
"I've known her for a very long time," Rep intruppeted, "nothing has happened to me, what does that say?"
"Didn't your eyesight dull after being exposed to radioactive steam rescuing her as a kid?" asked Sid.
"Well," Rep was hesitant, "yeah, but…"
"Then she's already left her mark."
"That's not her fault," Rep was getting angry, "She would have died had I not saved her. If I had to do it over, I'd do it the same as before, eyesight be damned!"
"I'd rather you have good eyesight; everyone else would live."
That did it.
Rep reached across the table and grabbed Sid by his suit, dragging him over, and knocking everything to the floor. Rep was about to choke the man when Mitch stepped in between them and pushed the assistant Vault Engineer out the door.
The Overseer's office was dark. The door slid open letting the hallway light in as two figures walked in. Mitch hit the light switch turning on all the office lights. Rep was pacing the room, still upset with Sid's words. Mitch closed the door and proceeded toward the circular desk to lean against it, "Okay," he started, "we're in the most sound-proof room in the Vault. No one can hear us except each other. What the fuck is wrong with you?"
"You know damn well, 'what,' Mitch!" the man was turning red as he paced, "And even then, it's not me, it's everyone in this goddamn Vault! They act like she's got VooDoo powers, or some such shit!" He turned to the Overseer-In-Training, "You've been friends with her almost as long as the two of us. Hell, we're practically family. You know what Sid and the others are saying is horseshit!"
"Then why are you going through with it?"
"Aww, shit, Mitch," Rep threw his hands up into the air and started pacing again, "Not you, too?"
Mitch was calm in his demeanor. He had always been like that for as long as Rep knew him. Being a slightly older man of 32 Mitch had been working side-by-side with his father getting him ready for the day he was to become Overseer. Even then, Mitch had acted like the older brother Rep never had. In times of conflict, especially after saving Ariel - an act that damaged his eyesight and caused him to wear glasses for the rest of his life - Mitch stepped in and protected him from teasing up to physical confrontations. Most people backed down not because they couldn't take him; being the Overseer's son did have an advantage.
Mitch responded calmly knowing what his younger friend's anger-flare was about, "That's not what I mean, dude. If this is the kind of thing you're gonna have to deal with, why do it?"
"It's not about me, man," he stopped and turned to the man at the desk again, "That poor woman has had a hard life and has been left all alone. We have 900 something people in this place and damn near all of them treat her like a ghost. She doesn't deserve that. Me and Pop have tried to help her where we could, and I've grown to love her resilience. She deserves better."
"If you're doing this because you feel sorry for her…"
"No!" Rep interjected firmly, "I've known her little over twenty years; there isn't anything we don't know about each other already."
"Nothing?"
"Nothing." Mitch saw that Rep had calmed down quite a bit, and he saw the man had a very stern and serious expression that told infinite levels of truth.
Mitch nodded, "You have a ring?" Rep performed a single nod, reached into his pocket, and pulled out a small red velvet-covered box. He threw it toward the other man who caught it and opened it to find a white gold ring with a small cut emerald fit into the placement, "Oh, shit…"
"It's been in my family since 1956; almost two hundred and thirty years old. No matter how bad things got in this family that ring stayed in it because it was a sign of love never broken. Mitch? Mitch, what's wrong?"
Mitch had a look of thought and pain in his face. Looking at him, it was as though guilt riddled his face, like something inside him was hurting him.
"MITCH!" He snapped out of his small trance to see the heavy-set man before him with an eyebrow raised, "You alright?"
"Yeah," Mitch averted his eyes and closed the box to hand back to Rep. As he stood straighter, pushing off the desk he approached Rep and put his hand on the man's shoulder, "It's obvious you thought about it," he placed the velvet box in the engineer's hand, "Quite a bit to do something this special. I still have to ask anyway: Are you absolutely sure about this?"
A smirk appeared on the man's face, eyes gleaming from behind his glasses, "I'm so sure of this I want you to be my Best Man." Mitch's mouth hung open in total surprise. He pulled Rep into a hug very quickly and just as quickly let go when he realized his reaction, "Sorry, I got excited."
Rep was a bit stunned by the spontaneity of the man's reaction; his eyes were wide with surprise. He never knew Mitch to be that energetic in response to something. The surprise carried into his response, "Uh, that's okay?"
Mitch gave an awkward pat onto Rep's arm then headed to the office door. Just as the door slid open, he stepped back to look at the engineer, "Don't let people like Sid get you down. I doubt Ari has a curse on her or something. People get hurt here all the time. Part and parcel of living in this Vault."
His words annoyed Rep, but there was an air of truth to it. Other Vaults had their casualties, he was sure. Impossible to avoid accidents all the time. Still…
"Come on, it's getting late," the Overseer-In-Training began ushering him out of the office, "Your dad has that Reactor sensor replacement job in the morning and I'm sure my dad doesn't want him tired because someone woke him up in the middle of the night."
Rep looked at this Pip-Boy and saw it was 0100 in the morning. "Yeah, and I gotta go in after him if the job runs long," he lowered the device-clad arm and sighed as he started for the door, "I haven't seen much of Pop since your dad put us on this polar schedule." The both of them walked out of the office as Mitch added, "Yeah, but we can't put all our best guys on one shift. Oh!" he snapped his fingers and stopped, "I gotta get something for my dad while I'm here. I'll catch up with you later."
Rep stopped and turned, "Alright. Hey, I'm sorry about the game tonight."
"It's alright," the dark haired man stated, "There's always next week."
"True. Alright, I'll see ya tomorrow." Rep turned back to the hall and raised a hand signaling his goodbye. Mitch stood in his father's office doorway as his best friend made his way to his living quarters just beyond. When he was far enough out of sight, the slightly older man walked back into the office.
Walking behind his father's desk he sat down at the terminal, then backed the chair away from the desk. While still in the chair Mitch bent down under the desktop and reached under to pull out a holotape recorder. It was still recording until Mitch pressed the stop button. He ejected the tape and placed the recorder back under the desk. He stared at the tape with a look of uncertainty then looked back in the direction his friend walked. It was almost the look he had when he looked at Rep's family ring. Mitch - Son of the Overseer - had a decision to make.
It was 1000. Rep had snuck into his quarters and crawled on the couch to sleep, too emotionally drained from earlier in the morning to take off his suit and shoes and slip into his PJs. His father had already left to work on the Reactor level and perform his sensor repairs.
Rep opened his eyes to a general haze - as is normal for him - to the smell of CRAM and eggs still vaguely lingering in the quarters. Getting up for a moment he found a skillet on a cold hotplate with a towel. Covering it was a note. Rep picked up the note, but couldn't read it lacking his eyewear.
There was a low rumble then a huge violent shake that almost knocked Rep off his Sneaker-Clad feet. He steadied himself and looked around in suprise, "What the fuck was that?" That was when the alarms went off and a voice piped into the P.A. System, "Radiation Alert. Radiation Spike Detected On Reactor Level. All Citizens, Report To Common Area. All Security and Engineering Personnel To The Reactor Level." The message repeated as Rep realized what that meant, "Oh no! Pop!" he put the note in his pocket, grabbed his glasses, and bolted out the door of his quarters as he screamed, "Engineer! Make a hole!" People heard him yelling as he was barreling through the hall and quickly stepped out of the way.
He rounded the corner toward the stairwell when he spotted Ariel stepping out of her quarters. "Lee!" she called, "What's going on?" He slowed just enough to explain quickly, "Pop's in the Reactor! I gotta go!" He disappeared into the stairwell. As others approached to head up, Ariel put a hand over her mouth holding back a gasp. After another moment she had realized something else, "Oh, shit, not again!" She started running to the stairwell, but she didn't follow anyone to the safety areas; she followed Rep downstairs.
The hallway leading to the next stairway had 6-8 security guards standing in the middle of it slowly waving the other Vault Engineers and Technicians through. Just beyond that was the Auxiliary Decon station with several medical techs checking over the other hurt people from the Reactor level. As Rep approached the checkpoint he yelled out, "Engineer! Out of the way!" The guards parted the way knowing Rep was the Assistant to his father. He came to a stop at the Decon station as he looked to one of the other Engineers currently being bandaged up for radiation burns, "Chet! Chet, what happened?"
His face was blistering and his one eye was swollen closed. He looked up with his one good eye, clearly still in a daze, "I was sitting in the control room, a-and suddenly the control rod withdrawal signal activated, all on it's own."
"What? What do you mean, 'On its own'?"
The man before him started whimpering, "It just… did it on it's own!"
Rep was trying to process what was happening, he put his hands on the man's shoulders, parts of his suit torn from what seemed like an explosion, "Chet, I need you to answer me: Where's Pop?" the man didn't answer, "What happened to Pop?" when he didn't get an answer again he shook the man angrily, raising his voice, "What happened to my father, goddamnit?!"
"He's still down there." He turned to the voice ro find one of his father's support team leaning against the wall. He was a black man in his mid 40's with a beard and a balding head. He was gripping his arm, blood oozing from between his fingers. Rep let go of the operator and stood before the man, "Leon, what happened?"
"Like the kid there said," he nodded toward Chet, "the control rods started backing out when we had the vessel apart. Your father ordered us out as he ran toward the Auxiliary SCRAM control. It didn't engage. He started tearing the panel off. We ran out of Master Decon and past control when the reactor went prompt critical. Master Decontamination didn't close the way it should have; was still closing as the system went critical."
"Oh my God!" Rep put his hands to the sides of his head. The terror was beginning to creep up his spine.
"After half the Reactor water flashed, the steam shot out Master Decon, burned a good number of us, the whole reactor level's hot as hell. We got everyone else out, but…" Leon trailed off as he tried to find words. He shook his head as he was starting to pale; like he saw something he shouldn't have.
"Leon, is Pop still alive? Did you see him?"
"Yeah, but…" that was all Rep needed. He grabbed a radiation suit from off the floor and bolted down the hall, Leon calling after him, "Lee! Lee! You don't wanna see it! LEE!"
"Miss, this whole hallway's contaminated! Return to the common area for your own safety!" Leon turned around to find Ariel being held back by security. She wrestled with one of the guards holding her as she yelled, "No! You have to let me go! Let me go!" "Sorry, Miss, Maintenance and Security only!" Leon saw the girl start crying as her legs gave out on her, the security officer catching her and beginning to pull her away. Leon looked back to where his boss's son ran, "What are you going to do?" he asked one of the guards, still looking in the main hallway's direction.
"We have a security team loading up with radiation suits now. They'll be down there in three minutes." Leon looked on. He shook his head as she spoke to himself, "Robby, thank you. Lee…" he closed his eyes. "I'm sorry."
Radiation levels were at 10+ count. Rep donned the suit and got everything in place. He clasped his Pip-Boy over the suit sleeve and took another count reading. Down to 2+. He was just outside the control room; just beyond that, Master Decontamination. He started calling out, "Pop! Pop, are you in here?" There was a lot of smoke coming from the control panels; some of them were blown outward explaining some of the injuries at Auxiliary Decon. There were blood splatters on the walls and floors, "Mary Mother of God. Pop!"
THUD! Rep jumped as he looked toward Master Decon where the sound came from. Rep saw the lights had been blown out in the hallway leading to the Decon chamber. He activated his Pip-Boy's overbright mode and started making his way to the decon prep area. There were several radiation suits on the wall with boots, gloves, and filter packs on the shelves. The door leading out of the decon chamber into the prep room was closed, but the door leading into the containment area was open; the glass inside the chamber was fogged up with steam being generated by the reactor.
Rep approached the door and activated the intercom, "Pop?" He heard a hiss and growl. "Pop?" From behind the steamed up glass a figure ran fast and body-slammed the window leading out of decon causing Rep to scream in horror and jump away from the chamber. Whoever was behind the glass cleared the steam from it to show a large man wearing a Vault Suit covered in a lab coat. Their skin looked dried and shriveled; their eyes whited out. Whoever they were, they looked like a zombie from those late-night horror movies Rep watched as a kid. It was terrifying him.
That was when he realized, "Oh my fucking God… Pop, is… no, it can't!" he walked back to the intercom and pressed it again, "Pop! Is that you?" The creature looked back to the door and cocked it's head to the side as it… recognized him? It walked closer to the glass as Rep spoke again, "Pop, it's me. It's Lee."
"Le...roy?" he said in a gruff voice. The creature put his hand to the glass "Son?" Rep looked at the man's withered hand and saw the wedding band on his finger. It had his mother's name, "Stella" inscribed on it. Rep placed his gloved hand on the glass over his father's, "My God, Pop, what happened?"
"Ac...ci...dent…" he croaked out, "Was… no… ac...ci...dent…"
Suddenly the door between containment and decontamination slid shut as two sets of arms grabbed Rep from behind and started dragging him away from the chamber. Emergency lighting activated as a team of Vault Security guards dressed in radiation suits walked past the Control room, passed the Vault Engineer being dragged, and to the Decon chamber door.
The door to the chamber was opened by way of crowbar. After the hydraulic pistons on the door popped and the door opened, the guards grabbed Rep's mutated father and knocked him to his knees. He hissed and growled as he tried to stand only to get shot in the legs. "Stop!" Rep screamed, the speaker on his radiation suit crackled, "Let go of me you assholes! That's my father!" One of the guards took the butt of his plasma rifle and buried it into Rep's stomach, locking the wind out of him.
The leader of the security team walked toward the mutated man who was restrained by the other two guards, "Lee, he's not your father anymore. I'm sorry, but for the safety of the Vault…" the guard pulled out his 10mm pistol and pressed it against Robert's head. Rep looked up and caught his father's whited out eyes one last time. That was when the other guards dragged the engineer out of the room. Still trying to regain his breath, before his father was lost from his line on sight behind the control room's biological shield, Rep saw a single tear fall from the mutated man's eye. As he was dragged around the corner he regained his breath…
"NOOO!"
BOOM!
All that could be heard after was a bullet casing hitting the floor, and the thud of a human body following after.