Jack Parsons and the Post-Nuclear Journey
AN: You may not hear it from anyone else but I, for one, LOVE reviews.
And so, on that day, Jack Parsons found himself in a variety of uncomfortable positions.
Refusing nuclear annihilation contingency from some shyster. Being frozen up in a cryogenic pod that he thought was meant to give him a nice shower. Squinting from daylight after so much time spent underground. And oh, the retching. Let's not forget about that.
Jack had woke up that day afraid of a speech he was supposed to give. As a soldier in the United State military, his specialty was shooting individuals from a long distance, and walking a long distance in semi robotic armor. His specialty was definitely not public oratory in front of large groups of people. His wife, Nora, however, was convinced that he was going to knock the speech out of the park. She was the easygoing, carefree one. Jack was the care full, hardgoing one. He originally joined the military because he was so concerned about the various affairs of the geopolitical climate that he had to go and see for himself. That, and he was pretty sure that if he did well enough, then the military would pay off. Naturally, he chose to be a sniper, so that he could stay as far away from the enemy as possible.
After giving himself an impeccable shave, and a small pep talk to boot, he had begun to eat breakfast and watch the news. Life was good. He had a wife, a son, a house, a robot butler, and even his own atomic car. Though resettling into civilian life had proven challenging at first, the future looked bright. Of course, he had no idea just how bright it was about to become out there in the Boston suburbs. Incidentally, at that moment came a knock on the door from a man looking to sell some kind of insurance against nuclear war.
Nora asked if Jack could get the door, so he got up and swung it open, only to reveal a pasty white man in the ugliest shade of yellow. The man was incredibly concerned about whether or not Mr. Parsons would accept a place in a Vault. Apparently the Vault-Tec corporation thought the Parsons family would be an asset in Post-War America. Now, a Vault was the place you would go to run, hide, and then stick it out once the bombs dropped. Jack had spent enough time in the army, and seen enough of the "Real World," to come to the full belief that the grandiose ideas of Vaults actually being a benefit to humanity were full of shit. Besides, to him the threat of total nuclear annihilation seemed unlikely, the way that the war was going. Add the concept of Mutually Assured Destruction, which could be grasped even by the manchildren at the highest echelons of world government, Jack would very much like not to accept a spot in the local Vault, thankyouverymuch.
The representative insisted on explaining the advantages to Vault life to Jack Parsons. Jack Parsons insisted on slamming the door in the man's face and returning to his coffee and waffles. Though his mind was made up, he still felt a twinge of social remorse for the way he treated the guy. But then again, a door in the face is the only answer some of those sales types understand, he told himself.
He felt pretty foolish, however, when the man on the news on the television got all pale and began telling his viewers that the end of the world was, in fact, nigh.
The next few moments would go on to become blurry in Jack's memory, but he does recall that he did, in fact, attend to run, hide, and stick it out in Vault 111 just before the bombs dropped. After what seemed like the world's longest and noisiest elevator ride, he was down in a shadowy room full of guards and lab coat technicians. And they were guiding him along. Parsons paid little attention to what they were actually saying, still reeling in shock and trying to make sure that his wife and newborn son were alright. He caught a snippet from a scientist who looked friendly enough that the giant pod he was about to get into was for sanitation. He thought that seemed odd, but he was having an odd kind of day in the first place. So, he climbed up and got in.
Words can hardly grasp the nightmare he witnessed thereafter. In the pod, he fell asleep and dreamt that a mercenary type, accompanied by a scientist in a radiation suit, killed his wife and kidnapped his son from the pod across the way. He woke up both five minutes and two hundred years later, when the pod seemed to open up automatically.
He ascertained that the nightmare had just become a reality, and he had been cryogenically frozen for an indefinite amount of time and had indeed seen his wife killed and son taken. He stumbled toward the entrance of the vault in a half daze, still too much in shock for feelings of grief, rage, and fear to take their hold. He remembered that he had to kill a few giant cockroaches and wondered what that was all about before reaching the elevator, pistol in hand, but he made it.
He found that he could make the doors open and elevator work using a fancy electronic watch he found on a generous skeleton. If he had more presence of mind, he would realize that he had seen a similar device before, during his years of service. It was a Pip-Boy, personal computing device. Before a couple of minutes had past, Jack Parsons found himself on an elevator, ascending back to the Boston suburb to figure out just what the hell was going on.
The sun nearly blinded him. He threw up an arm to block the rays. It seems like it was brighter than it ever had before. Once he could make it by squinting, he set his eyes on what he would later learn was called the Commonwealth now. And it was a devastated wasteland.
A growing sense of urgency had Jack running down the hill toward his old house, albeit without falling down and breaking his crown.
When he got to his old house, he noticed a few things in no apparent order. His car was broken down and rusted to hell. The windows were broken and the door was hanging on its hinges. The entire down seemed to be dead. The streets had definitely not been maintained in a really long time. The grass outside his house was dead, and was apparently still being tended by Jack's robot butler.
The robot expressed shock, surprise, and joy at seeing his old master. The bot said something about how he didn't see Jack's wife or son anywhere, and that's when Jack just couldn't take it anymore.
He fell to his hands and knees, and began to retch.