Chapter 3: Escape!
I followed it until it opened up into a large room with a giant blinding light in the middle of it. I covered my eyes with my hand until my eyes adjusted to it. The light bulb was bigger than I thought; I couldn't see the wall it was put on. I was too busy focusing on the light that I didn't notice people were watching me. Someone smacked me in the back of the head and I fell over. I looked up and three men were staring at me and were wearing weird clothing and carrying weapons. One jumped on top of me and pulled out a knife and held it up to my neck.
"A vault dweller, huh? Chain would sure like this one" I recognized that name and I needed answers right then and there.
"Where's Chain?" I demanded.
"You're in no position to demand things, my friend. The only thing you should demand is for a quick death... and some fighting skills. You kind of suck at this." The raider raised his hand and brought it down. I grabbed his wrist as he pushed the knife lower and lower. I grunted as the knife slowly approached my neck. The raider clearly had an advantage in strength. The tip of the knife touched my neck and started to stab my strained, veiny neck. My muscles were in agonizing pain in my hopeless attempt to keep the raider at bay. My arms were about to give out when a raider behind him was shot. I pushed him off of me and took out my pistol and shot him until all the bullets left the gun, leaving it empty. The other Raider took out a gun and aimed it at me. I thought he was going to kill me when a woman came out from behind me and punched him so hard he flew into a wall. She had long brown hair and dusty clothes; she looked around my age, but acted very mature. I aimed my gun at her.
"I don't know if you've noticed, but we just saved your life." She said as she crossed her arms.
"We?"I was confused. At that moment I felt something jab at my back.
"Yes. We." A man said.
"S-Stay away from me. Both of you." I ordered.
"Nah." The male told me from behind.
"I don't like having a gun in my kidneys." I said.
"Well if you like, I'll put it up your ass, whatever you prefer." The man said back.
"You're planning on shooting him in the ass?" The woman asked her partner.
"Yeah. That ought to hurt."
"How would you like it if you were shot in the ass?" She asked him.
"Listen, if I get shot in the ass, I want our friend here to take the bullet out for me." He motioned as he poked my back with his rifle.
"Alright, let's just chill. We'll lower our weapons if you lower yours." The woman assured. I looked down to see her weapon, but she didn't have one, just a gauntlet on her hand. After seeing what she did to the raider, I didn't want to try her. I lowered my gun and so did the man. He walked from behind me and stood next to the woman. He was wearing a stained red cloth wrapped around his head with dirty beige clothes and a satchel with a rough, brown beard and unkempt hair.
"You see? We're friendly." The woman nodded.
"Who are you people?" I asked.
"This is Joe, and I'm Victoria. We're from Megaton." She pointed to the horizon and I spotted a black figure.
"He doesn't know what that is, haven't you noticed? He's a vault dweller." Joe said, pointing at my jumpsuit.
"You don't know where you are, huh? Well, welcome to The Capital Wasteland!" Victoria shouted, raising her arms up in the air.
"This place sucks." I sighed as I looked around the dusty room.
"So, there's people living in there, I thought they all died, all the people in the other vaults did." Joe had an amazed look on his face.
"We thought the same thing about people out here. Well, most did." I said, looking back at the tunnel.
"So, why are you going out here, then?" Victoria inquired.
"We're running out of supplies." I responded.
"And they only sent you?"
"Yes."
"Well it's official, our friend here's half-retarded." Joe joked.
"Well, if you're looking for food, you should come with us to Megaton, it's a town some people built made entirely out of scrap. If you're a hipster, you'll love it." Victoria assured.
"I love it already." I said sarcastically.
"Oh yeah, what's your name?" Joe asked.
"It's Jace." I introduced myself.
"Well, nice to meet you, Jace." Joe smiled as he patted me rather hard on the back. I followed the two down an open path called a 'road' and asked them questions about The Capital Wasteland. Apparently, the big light bulb isn't actually a light bulb, it's called a 'sun', and it's not on a wall, in fact, there aren't any walls at all. The 'sky' as they called it, is endless. We followed the weathered away road until it led to some walls stacked high. I found out that they were homes. I asked Victoria why they didn't make the town here and she said that the houses were useless and burnt up, and it turned out, all of them were. Some were even completely demolished by the blast. I also asked them what a 'vault dweller' is, and they just told me it was a nickname for people living in vaults. After my questions subsided, the two started asking me what it's like in the vault. I told them about Overseers and how we got food with ration coupons. Joe laughed at the thought of Overseers in the Wasteland and Victoria told me they used paper currency out here, like they did years ago, before the bombs hit. Joe asked me how big the vault was, and I felt compelled to answer. I told him about the diners, the atrium, and how my dad was a doctor and how he wanted me to be one. He called me lucky, because the doctors out here barely use sterile tools and lack experience. Joe told me a story about how he was shot in a fight and had to go to a doctor to get the bullet out. Victoria laughed and told me how he screamed like a girl when they pulled it out.
Eventually, we made it to Megaton, at a time when the sun disappears and it gets dark. Victoria called it a 'sunset'. The town looked fascinating. A giant rusty door powered by a spinning fan opened upwards when the guards saw us, and the three of us walked in. I've never seen so much darkness, only when I slept. I asked Victoria how people live like this. She told me it marks the time when people should sleep. When she told me that, she remembered that we have to get to bed. They purchase a place to sleep in a place called a bar, which is a place to get food and drink, and apparently beds. We walked into the town, which looked empty in the darkness and walked towards the center, where I could make out a light. We walked up some metal stairs, which creaked and bent with every step. As we approached the bar, I could hear faint talking inside the building. As we opened the door, the faint talking turned out to be a large group of people drinking and partying. We walked in and heard a raspy voice from a man.
"Victoria, Joe! Welcome back!" The raspy voice called out. We turned to see a man with a cut up face and falling off skin. I gasped and backed away.
"Aw shit, no! Ew, GOD, fuck!" I screamed.
"Nice to see you too, smoothskin. Who's this shit-doucher?" The man asked through his raspy throated sounds.
"His name's Jace. He's a friend we met out in our patrol." Victoria answered.
"Really? A vault dweller, huh? Nice to meet you, I'm Jab." He let out his hand. I pulled out my hand and shook it. His skin felt clammy, and cold. It felt like it was about to fall off.
"Ah, right. Never seen a ghoul before, huh? It's alright; my brother and I get a lot of guff for it."
"I meant no disrespect, I-I just never seen this before." I stuttered.
"Well alright, if you ever feel like you want to berate me, I'll be at the bar counter." Jab nodded. Victoria paid for my room and Jab walked away and started scrubbing the counter with a dirty cloth.
"Don't worry about Jab, that's just his attitude all the time."
"What happened to him?" I asked, still horrified.
"It's the radiation out here, you take in too much, it changes you. Most of the time, your body dies, but you don't. We call it 'ghoulification' out here. Ghouls are everywhere; I heard they even have a whole town of them." Victoria said calmly.
"What's a smoothskin?" I asked.
"It's a nickname ghouls use to call regular people because we made the nickname 'ghouls'. Doesn't hurt as much as calling someone a 'ghoul', but whatever, they're trying." Joe answered.
"I feel like… I feel like that's referencing something." I questioned his choice of words.
"Dunno what you're talking about, cracker." Joe said as he took a drink to his mouth.
"It's late, we should get some sleep." Victoria said to us.
She showed me to my room, which was upstairs and right next to Joe's. I creaked open the door and looked inside. It was cramped and had a bed with stained sheets and a dresser. It wasn't like home, but it'll have to be for now. I sat down in the bed and took off my holster belt and my pack and set them on the dresser. I lie down in the bed and put the sheets over me. I fell asleep easily.