Chapter 2
Location: Vault 24
Whenever I was at a party, I was always on time. It was a sort of standard for me, to always be on time, if not early, to anything I needed to attend. Whether it be lunch, class, or any other event.
Well today, I was regretting that standard as I was rushing through the halls, feeling guilty all the while. I was going to leave at an appropriate time, but I suddenly got an order a few hours before the party to assist in repairs near the front entrance to the surface. I wasn't even sure why that any of the systems their needed to be repaired, after all we're not going up there any time soon.
Anyway, I got into Chris's room, where were holding the party, just before it started. After a few heavy breaths, I looked up and realised that the entire room was staring at me, with looks of surprise and amusement on their faces.
"Well, I'm here, so who's ready to party?" I said, with a grin on my face. This lead to the entire room letting off a huge cheer, with John yelling "Let's party!"
2 Hours later
As we continued on into the party, we started to exchange stories about our jobs, whether it be how fun it could be at times, or unique experiences. Of course, I, John and Alice kept the whole armory story to ourselves, since we figured it would be more trouble to tell them to keep it a secret.
However, during a story about when Nat was dissecting a radroach, another friend of our's, Lucy, comes bursting in. "Hey Lucy, I thought you were too busy to attend the party." John quips. Lucy gave John a quick glare before she addresses the rest of the group. "Guys, we have a problem, the overseer has issued a search of everyone's rooms and is supposedly cracking down on 'rebels'" she says seriously. Lucy was the kind of girl who could find just about anything while being stealthy, so it didn't surprise me that she found out about this.
What did surprise me though was the crack down. I was wondering why the overseer was doing this, but then I remembered that he's always paranoid and that John broke into the armory yesterday. "So...how does this affect us?" Chris said. "It affects us because he's already listing off 'suspects' who he thinks are rebels." Lucy said. This shocked us into silence, partly at the fact that the overseer is accusing people of being rebels, and partily in thought of who it could be.
John eventually broke the silence by asking "Well, who's on the list?" This lead to Lucy telling us about who was being listed as suspect. In all, 74 of the Vault's 521 residents were suspects, including me, Alice, and Dusk and our families.
"Wh-what do we do?" Alice said, stammering and shaking with nervousness. I looked up and asked Lucy "When does the search start?"
"It already has, they're going to be searching level by level. At the moment, they've already searched residential levels ten through seven, and they should be working on six at the moment." She said, a look of anticipation on her face.
I was quickly trying to piece up a plan and after a minute, I had one together, or at least the first steps of one. "Alright guys, listen up." I said, getting everyone's attention. "Everyone lives on levels two through four, correct?" Everyone nodded. "Good, I want you all to get to your rooms and pack anything you need, meet me at my room in twenty minutes, alright?" More nods, now more hopeful and determined. "Good, let's get going!"
As everyone started to walk away, I went over to John and whispered "Make sure you get the gear you stole from the armory. Use a wheeled cart if you have to."
John nodded as ran out the door, after everyone else, except for Chris and Dusk, who was helping Chris pack up. "I'll see you soon." I said. As I left, I saw a look of indecision on Dusk's face before she finally says "I'll see you, and be safe." With a nod, I turn around and head toward my room, leaving them behind.
