A boy pale and scrawny with dark brown hair and green eyes sat in front of a computer. He was the dark fear of all past high school football star. His practically paper white skin was illuminated by the pale green light coming from his computer screen. With a shaky hand he clicked the record button and his computer whirred as the camera began to record his face.
"Hello my name is Liam, and I know a secret, the secret actually, I know when the world's going to end. It's a scary thought knowing when atomic bombs are going to drop and destroy everything and everyone you've ever cared about; you know what's scarier? The fact that you're the only one who might be able save your family."
"The only other person on earth that shares this fear is Mr. Robert House, the multi-billionaire and inventor of the Securitrons, whose computers I gleaned this information off of. He used a special algorithm that is basically capable of predicting the apocalypse down to the second. In fact if the nuclear one wasn't looming overhead the next was scheduled in another ten years. I wonder if it'll still be functional after the bombs hit. After days of study I saw that the algorithm was sound if only a few days off."
"I wonder whether or not he has a spot in one of the vault tec vaults. No matter how hard I tried I couldn't hack the Vault-tec Computers and bump some other family off the guest list. In fact everything beyond the Vault-tec home page is locked up tighter than fort Knox — which thanks to me is actually a few hundred thousand dollars lighter. I wonder what they're hiding."
"I'm sure that there are some billionaires out there with some kind of personal bunkers, but how was I supposed to get them to let me and my family in. I could get all the money I needed no problem; the problem is that there's no one selling a get out of jail free card for the apocalypse. I could try building my own bunker, but there's no time and no one who wouldn't wonder where a teenager got enough money to build a Vault."
"Bribing a Vault-tec official is probably my best bet, but I can't find any willing to take a handout. Apparently Vault-tec has tested its employee loyalty by offering them money to give up secrets. From what I've heard those who accept the offer are never heard from again."
"I'm sure that U.S. officials have some kind of bunker of their own, but my dad's is a mechanic, not exactly the type who could call in political favors. If only I had hacked into Robert House's computers earlier than maybe I could have bribed the president with a landslide election."
"The truth is that maybe none of this would be so hard if my family wasn't so damn stupid. My mom I love her and my little sister too, my dad's the problem. He keeps saying that any day now those Chinese chickens will give in and surrender to the U.S., so there wasn't any need to apply for a spot in a vault or reserve a spot in a public fallout shelter. I tried the public fallout shelter route, but the closest one was in Washington D.C. and to kick someone out you needed a thirty digit passcode. God damn my dad, if he had just picked up the phone two weeks ago when I asked him to we'd have a spot."
"He's an idiot, idiot, idiot! Whatever I need my meds." Liam's face twitched uncontrollably as he fumbled for his medication. "You're probably wondering what these small red pills are huh? They're control my facial ticks and muscle spasms. Supposed to ease my anxiety too, but I've been using something else for that since the goddamn doctor just ups my prescription whenever I tell him I need something different."
Liam closed his eyes for a minute allowing himself a minute for the medication to kick in. "Alright, so there's this Vault not too far from here okay? Only five or six blocks away just out there in the middle of the neighborhood. If I could jack onto their signal then I might be able to hack the list of residence allowed in and kick someone out. The problem is that it's being guarded by soldiers all the time; you can't hack people, and I'm no match for a soldier."
"There's got to be a way though, got to be a way, got to be, got to be, got to be." With this Liam shut off the recording, ejected the halo-disk, and put it in his wall safe. When he was a child his father had installed him telling him he would want it when he was a teenager.
Thinking about it now Liam realized that his father probably expected him to hide nudie magazines in there. Oh well, just another way he let his parents down. With a steady hand Liam set his own security system, a cherry bomb that would destroy the halo tapes if anyone failed the combination more than three times.
He didn't know why he made these recordings, but whenever he made one it felt as if the weight on his shoulders eased a little. And with what he now he knew now he needed all the relief he could get.
"Liam it's time for school honey!" his mom called and Liam bit his thumb drawing blood.
"Damn, I need to talk to Katie." Liam said wrapping a bandage over his thumb and grabbing his backpack.
"Have a good day at school honey." his mom called after him as he rushed out the door.
"Thanks," he muttered under his breath.
His mom would drive his little sister Darla to school later as the high school was closer and Liam didn't like cars he walked. He didn't mind though; he didn't like being seen with his mom in public, he knew that the other moms talked behind her back about what an outcast he was. He didn't like putting her through that.
"Hey Liam, I heard that your school is having football tryouts." It was Liam's dad calling out from his garage. Owning his own car shop meant that he could make his own hours and he usually had late mornings.
"Yeah dad." Liam said acknowledging the statement.
"Well, do you think you're going to try out?" he asked and Liam scowled at this statement.
His father never could accept that Liam had no interest in sports and still periodically left a football around the house or buy him some cleats with a vague hope that Liam would suddenly love football.
Although there was no lost love between him and his father Liam's mom and his sister loved him, so he would include him in his survival plans.
"No dad I don't." Liam said.
"Just going to waste your life on those computers huh?" he asked and Liam gripped his backpack strap in a tight grip.
"Yeah probably." Liam said not looking back at his dad who put the wrench down with an audible clang on the car engine.
The walk to school was uneventful except for the soldiers that seemed to come out of nowhere in the middle of the night just to guard the vault. Always outfitted in the trademark T-60 Power Armor they were an intimidating sight. Those guarding the fence in front of the vault even carried what looked like a machine gun on psycho.
"They must be expecting people to riot trying to get in." Liam muttered under his breath. "The government must have their own predictions of when the bombs are going to drop."
Liam's hand shook as the medication slowly wore off on the walk to school, and he was acutely aware of his increasing facial twitches.
The problem plagued his every thought, he couldn't go more than a minute without trying to figure out how to survive the apocalypse, or hack into the Vault-tec mainframe. 'Maybe I could go to D.C. and sneak into the facility, maybe break into the computer room and get the location of all the vaults and then I'd have my pick of places. Maybe I could blackmail some millionaire with his bank statements, maybe, maybe," Liam was at his locker now and twitching uncontrollably.
His hand shook and he was barely able to put in his combination. Another orange bottle filled with red pills, his backup for school. He trembled as he grasped it in his hands and twisted and pulled on the cap that wouldn't come off.
Two hands grasped his own and forced him put down the bottle.
"Hey now baby, none of that stuff." she said. Another bottle was shoved into his hands and Liam sighed in relief opening this one easily and swallowing two. Mentats, soothing and refreshing mentats, his chem of choice to sooth him through these panic attacks. "Feel better?"
Liam didn't respond only reached into his pocket and pulled out a wad of cash. Katie, his regular supplier could also be described as Liam's only friend, though not by his own consent. He didn't know why, but she had taken an interest in him and decided for whatever reason to hang out with him.
She was a nice enough girl if you were willing to ignore the chem dealer aspect of her life. Pretty he supposed, the high cheek bones and blue eyes of a movie star, and nice enough. Who knows in a different life Liam might have liked her, but in this one he didn't have time for a romance. He needed to work on saving his family.
"I don't even know why you even take any of that other stuff Liam. I can get you anything you need." she said airily as Liam kept trying to get her to take the money. She traced his jaw line with her finger pulling away just in time to avoid triggering another panic attack. "Doctors can't take care of you like I can."
"Did you get that other stuff that I needed?" Liam asked ready to pull out another wad of cash.
"You know stimpacks and psycho aren't exactly easy to come by; I had to promise people things and I need something in return." she said waving a package in front of him enticingly.
"I can get you however much money you want." Liam said reaching for the parcel, but she snatched it away.
"No, I want something else." she said swinging the bag in front of his face enticingly. "A few friends let's say are going to fail the school year and they'd rather not. Their parents work for the pharmaceutical companies that make things like the mentats and psycho that you're so desperate for. If we help them then this stuff we can get a constant stream of supplies directly from the source."
"And you think that they won't notice crates of medical supplies being stolen every couple days?" Liam asked. Katie wasn't a stupid girl by any means, so she must know that this plan wouldn't work.
"Obviously, but if you hacked the shipping manifest and changed the logs they would be none the wiser, you can do that sort of thing can't you?" she asked massaging his fingers sensually.
"Yeah, no problem," Liam admitted. Her words caught him off guard, but not for the reason that she probably assumed. The pharmaceutical company did have a computer, and most likely a powerful one. Maybe not powerful enough to hack a direct Vault-tec computer mainframe, but maybe a vault. "You could get me in the company though? In the room with the main computer?"
"Can't you just change it from any terminal?" she asked.
He could do that, he could be in and out in a minute, but he wasn't doing this to help Katie. "No it needs to be in the control room with the big computer. If it's not that one then I may as well be typing on a terminal that's not plugged in.
"Cool your jets spaz, if that's where you need to be to get it done then I'll get us there." She seemed to think for a few moments before smiling dangerously. "Hey your dad owns a garage, right?"
"Yeah," Liam said immediately regretting his answer.
"Good then borrow us a car and by Friday and we'll go Saturday night."
"I can't just take a car besides I don't know how to drive." Liam said. "You handle it."
"Fine, I'll come over and get the car." she said with her devious grin. She turned away leaving Liam shocked at the turn of events. Katie knew where he lived somehow, he supposed that she had him followed at one point in time. How would she look to his parents more importantly his mother who had always had an unrealistic hope that her son would find some plain girl to take care of him. Nothing like Katie who wasn't the taking care of type and hated things like cleaning or kids.
Although he never expected that to happen he didn't think his mother's faith in him could take a hit like Katie. He was about to pop another mentat when the bell rang and he slammed his locker shut in frustration already late for class.
The school day was a blur, Liam was smart maybe smarter than the teachers, but he found little to no reason to try in classes. Doing the bare minimum was his motto; if they didn't think he was smart then anyone from Vault-tec coming to investigate the hack attempts on their systems wouldn't suspect him.
Liam bit his lip his leg shook as the mentats woke up and he felt the familiar feel of mentat withdrawal creep through his system. It wouldn't last for more than a few hours, but for those few hours he would be useless.
Going home and lying down with the blinds drawn was the best solution to this problem. He could deal with getting a car from his father and explaining why he was taking it out in the middle of the night later.
"So, am I going to meet your parents?" Katie managed to sneak up on him in his agitated state causing him to nearly jump out of his skin. "Don't have a cow Liam, stop being such a spaz will you." she hissed at him palming a pill into his hand. "Take one of these while I change and then we can go to your house."
"Why are you coming to my house?" Liam demanded.
"Because Clarice, your family's about to meet your new girlfriend." Katie said going into a unisex bathroom.
"I don't have a girlfriend." Liam said.
"You do for as long as it's convenient." Katie said through the door. "I heard from the mouth of a bird you've never so much as held a girl's hand, so I doubt you've ever brought one over."
"No." Liam admitted.
"So your parents will get cranked when they see their son with a total babe." Katie said like it was obvious. "They won't do anything to ruin their kid's chances."
"And where is this babe you're talking about? My folks are going to be the ones having a cow if you're the person you're talking about."
"What do you think about me now?" Katie asked stepping out of the bathroom.
Liam's jaw nearly dropped when he saw the transformation that Katie had undertaken in only a few minutes. She wore a long poodle skirt that came down to the ankle, a white blouse perfectly pressed and clean, ruby red flats, and a trendy gold watch. Her curly red hair was cut in a fashionable and modern way, her pale skin was like porcelain as if she had shined herself, her green eyes sparkled, and her teeth shone brilliantly.
"I still don't think that my folks will let you borrow a car a couple of days after meeting you." Liam said.
"Well then you must not have a lot of faith in me." She said running a finger along his neck. "Believe me I could have them begging you to propose to me in just a few minutes. Then again I guess any girl could with your track record." She giggled and Liam wondered where from her dark soul did that sound come from.
The walk back was filled with odd kind of peaceful silence, the peace before the storm Liam supposed. Liam kept nervously drumming his fingers on his pant left the entire time Katie trying to convince him to take another mentat. "What do you need them for?" Katie suddenly asked. "The psycho, stimpacks, and med-x I mean? The mentats, I can see why you need those, you're a nervous wreck, but stimpacks won't help that. They might make it worse."
"Something's going to happen soon." Liam said absentmindedly.
"What?" Katie asked.
"What?"
"You said something's going to happen."
"Did I?" Liam asked wondering if he had just blown his secret. Could this girl of painfully inferior intellect really have just gotten him to reveal his secret. His dad has always told him that the dumbest woman was smartest than the smartest man. Could this be what he meant? "Just thinking to myself."
"And just what are you thinking about? I bet you're thinking about that fat city that you're probably going to move to when you do whatever it is that you're going to do with your computers. Probably somewhere big and flashy like Washington, Las Vegas, maybe New York even. Imagine that our own little home town nerd growing up to be some trillionaire."
Liam hesitated for a moment; she actually thought that he might be able to do something with his computers. Not even his mom had thought he could do that, and she was the nicest person he know. Liam didn't even know if he wanted to do anything with computers; it just seemed like a fun hobby until a few weeks ago when he learned about the end of the world.
'That's why this is irrelevant,' he thought to himself. 'The world's going to end soon, so it doesn't matter if I actually did invent something. I wouldn't even have enough time to do the inventing part." Still in another life Liam supposed he might have become a trillionaire. Maybe actually buy that second garage his father was always talking about.
"We're here," Liam said.
"I guess we are." Katie said holding out her hand. "We're going to need to sell it Clyde."
"Stop calling me Clyde." Liam said taking her hand in his own. Her fingers fell between his and he shuddered at the feeling; he really needed something and soon.
Liam opened the door hoping that for some reason his parents wouldn't be home; that they finally decided to go on that date night they were always talking about.
There they were sitting at the kitchen table. They only acknowledged him with a brief glance, but they both stood up as soon as they saw Katie. "Liam, who's your friend?" his mother asked standing up and trying her best to hide her surprise.
"I'm Katie, and we're not just friends Mrs. Wells me and Liam are totally jacketed." Katie said before Liam could open his mouth to explain.
"You're dating? Liam's father asked not even bothering to hide his shock. His mother was doing better, but her mouth still hung slightly opening obviously not prepared for this situation.
"So your name's Katie?" Mrs. Wells asked smacking her husband out of his stupor by disgusting it as a pat on the back gone wrong. "Not the Katie that all the other mothers are complaining about? I heard that she sells chems."
"That's the one." Katie said almost setting off one of Liam's panic attacks before she laughed a sweet twinkling noise. His parents who had been stunned silent joined in the laughter. "No that's some other girl; I don't know about chems, but she certainly seems like she's up to no good."
"Oh well I was just about to make some cookies, so why don't you and Liam sit on the couch so we can get to know you better." Although she was quite caught off guard by the event Liam noted that she seemed to have a plan for this situation.
"That sounds totally hep Mrs. Wells, but Liam and I have to get some work done on a project first, and I've been dying to eyeball his room." Katie said.
"Oh well why don't you two do that and meanwhile I'll make these cookies and bring them in when they're ready?" Mrs. Wells asked.
"That would be totally aces Mrs. Wells, come on Liam." Katie tugged on Liam's sleeve snapping him out of his stupor long enough to lead her to his room. "Ooo is this your computer?"
"Obviously." Liam said walking over to it and sitting down in his chair.
"Are you going to hack in with this?" Katie asked reaching to touch the keyboard, but Liam smacked her hand. "Ow."
"No, I'm not going to hack it with this. Unless you want to carry around a twenty pound terminal in there with you."
"Well then how are you going to do it?" Katie asked rubbing her hand.
"If you get me into the room with the big computer then I install this on its mainframe." Liam held up a halo-disk. "It'll let me remotely control the thing and its virtually undetectable."
"Why do you have to install that? Why can't we just change the shipping manifest and get out of there?"
"Do you want to have to break in every time you run out of product? This way I can change the shipping manifest from my terminal whenever you need some more of anything."
"I guess that's why you're the genius." Katie said patting his back. "So all we need to do is get into the big computer room and stick this in a slot?"
"Essentially yes, but there's a lot of other stuff you probably won't be able to do." Liam said.
"Oh I'm sure." Katie said. "What's that?" She was referring to a poster that hung on his wall. The poster was of a pip-boy 3000 and it served to hide his wall safe.
"It's a pip-boy." Liam said.
"You say it like you want it." Katie said noting the somewhat whimsical tone that he said the words with.
"If I had something like that we wouldn't even need to borrow your friend's key card. I could hack our way into the building and past all the robots." Liam could only wish that he may one day wear a pip boy on his wrist.
"Why don't you just buy one? You're not exactly hard up for cash. Heck you could probably just hack Rob-co and get them to send one here. "While it was true that money wasn't hard to come by for Liam, and he had already hacked into Rob-co computers he couldn't just send himself a Pip boy.
"Because these things are some of the smallest most powerful computers in the world. People don't even make these since they're so valuable; only robots are trusted, and even then their memories are wiped so no one can steal a robot and try to reverse engineer one of these from its video recordings. You can't just buy them and even if I were to get one sent here they would just come take it back and probably lock me up for stealing one."
"Maybe I'll get you one for your birthday." Katie said offhandedly.
"Wishful thinking." Liam said rolling his eyes at her. "So you still haven't told me how you're planning on getting my dad to give us a car."
"Oh it's simple. There's this totally hot party this weekend, and I want us to make the scene as an official couple. But we need to pick some other friends, and since I have a driver's license I can drive us. "Katie said.
"You have a driver's license?" Liam asked.
"I have three." Katie said pulling out three fake I.D.'s with three different variations of her name. Katy the chem dealer he was used to, Kati some hippie looking girl who looked like she hadn't showered in a week, and Katie the girl who sat in front of him. Liam briefly wondered which one was really her.
"And you really think my parents are dumb enough to believe that?"
"Oh Liam, as smart as you are you just don't realize that it's people that are easy." Katie said patting his head like a dog. "So why don't you walk me through the plans of the pharmaceutical company."
"Give me a minute to hack into the city plans." Liam said putting out a few quick key strokes. He found the blue prints of the building and put them on the screen. "Here we are?"
"We're going in through here; it's the janitor's entrance." Katie said pointing to the corresponding location on the map. "The big computer room is which one?"
"Right here." Liam said pointing to a room labeled CC. "Stands for Command Center probably."
"How can you tell?" Katie asked.
"A company as large as this one has to have a super computer; something like that would need a lot of air conditioners and look what surrounds the room." Katie examined the map and agreed that this was the only place that the computer would be.
"How long will it take to install your program?" she asked.
"Anywhere from five to fifteen minutes depending on the kind of anti-hacking software that the computer is equipped with."
"What if you can't get in?" Katie asked.
"The only computers that have managed to keep me out belong to Vault-tec; I don't think this company is going to stand much of a chance." Liam said.
"Why were you trying to hack into the Vault-tec computers?"
Liam froze feeling sweat trickle down. He needed to stop giving away bits and pieces like this; it was Katie's fault she left him feeling unguarded no matter how careful he was. "To see if I could order an extra pip-boy and hide it from them and get it for myself." Liam thought it was an effective cover up, and he would have believed the lie
Katie tilted her head looking at him through squinted eyes. "But you said that they're impossible to steal." Liam felt like banging his head against a wall for his lapse in concentration. He was an idiot for not remembering that; the discussion was only a few minutes ago. "Well I guess you've got to try though. If anyone can do it, it's you, genius."
Liam nearly let out a sigh of relief, but managed to hold it in. "Oh Liam!" Mrs. Wells called opening the door a tray of cookies in hand.