ANDREW DURAN THE VAULT-TEC MAN: A FALLOUT STORY
The story of Vault-Tec representative Andrew Duran's centuries-long life after the apocalypse.
2077 - Sanctuary Hills
He wasn't quite sure how he survived the blast.
In the two centuries following that fateful 23 October, Andrew Duran the Vault-Tec Representative would play the moment over many times in his head: the incomprehensibly large mushroom cloud. The frightened screams of all on the outside. And the searing pain as the radiation burned into his skin.
He was lucky.
Or was he?
-adtvtm-
ANDREW DURAN: It's you…the robot.
CODSWORTH: Indeed I am. I'm sorry to say, old chap, but you look rather worse for wear!
ANDREW DURAN: I know! I can't believe this…but at least I'm not dead.
CODSWORTH: Indeed! Now if you'll excuse me, I need to get back to work.
ANDREW DURAN: Work?
CODSWORTH: Of course! Mr. Nick and Miss Nora will be back eventually. I'll have to get the house in shape before then!
[shrug.]
ANDREW DURAN: Have fun with that, I suppose.
-adtvtm-
ANDREW DURAN: I'm alive. I survived…but look at me! I tried to say hello to someone yesterday and they shot at me! I don't know if I can deal with this.
SANCTUARY HILLS CHORUS: Though you are lonely, we are dead or feral. For the rage of the atomic sunrise is merciless, and drowned us in its fury.
ANDREW DURAN: I feel guilty. All those people and Vault-Tec wouldn't let them in…for what?
SANCTUARY HILLS CHORUS: Little does he know about the nature of his once-employer. How much is hidden from us as we live life?
2084 - Refutown [Covenant]
Andrew Duran had found that the world had changed in many unpleasant ways, but his worst gripe was personal:
Ghouls were not held in high regard.
It was so annoying, and so unfair.
-adtvtm-
ANDREW DURAN: Please let me in! I have nowhere else to go!
REFUTOWN CHORUS: Abomination! Accursed product of the radioactive destruction! We condemn you!
ANDREW DURAN: I'm not feral! Where's your goddamn human decency, huh?!
REFUTOWN CHORUS: Not feral today, not feral tomorrow. But feral one day. BEGONE!
-adtvtm-
It was much the same in all the other places. He suspected it was because the ghouls reminded them that things would never be the same. Even seven years later that damn robot was still cleaning the last house he ever visited for Vault-Tec. Nor was the phenomenon limited to robots: Refutown was infamous among the traders he bartered with. The inhabitants were hostile anything that threatened their illusion of the world before the war. They clung to the delusion that things would one day return to normal.
He knew better. So, for that matter, did anyone with sense. But comforting lies are always more pleasant-feeling than necessary truths, and pleasant feelings were a precious commodity indeed in the post-War world.
After taking one last glance at Refutown, he turned around and made his way to the one place where he could be himself.
2092 - The Glowing Sea
The desolation was total. The nuclear apocalypse had consumed this area of Boston with the ravenousness of a starving lion. Not for nothing was the name "Glowing Sea" being used regularly.
And yet for once his status as a ghoul had worked in his favor. Nobody dared scavenge in the Glowing Sea, not when a single suit puncture meant a slow, agonizing death from radiation. And so he found himself looting what was once Atlantic Offices for supplies. He could stay here awhile.
-adtvtm-
ANDREW DURAN: Loneliness is painful.
CHORUS OF THE DEAD: Though you may think yourself alone, it is not so. Our spirits remain in this place, fused to it by the Glow.
ANDREW DURAN: I wonder what that Crater of the Atom is like?
CHORUS OF THE DEAD: Beware!
2092 - The Crater of Atom
ANDREW DURAN: Please let me in!
CHILDREN OF ATOM CHORUS: MONSTER! You are unworthy of Atom's glow. You take from the radiation but do not bask in it!
ANDREW DURAN: Radiation heals us! We love it! Why do you hate ghouls?!
CHILDREN OF ATOM CHORUS: BEGONE! We have nothing more to say to the impure!
-adtvtm-
He thought of the rejection often.
In the world after the end, nobody wanted to deal with ghouls. They had survived, but they remembered life as it was. Nobody liked to remember life as it was, or if they did they went to the Memory Den and didn't bother others.
Would he ever find a place to call his own?
2156 - Downtown Boston
JACK CABOT: Thank you again for sitting down for an interview, old chap! My other family members are not especially fond of ghouls, but you have the same sort of experience we do.
ANDREW DURAN: Of living forever, you mean?
JACK CABOT: Indeed! Though you may not live forever, at least not with that mind of yours. Feral status is always just a step away!
ANDREW DURAN: Thanks for the reminder. Now can we begin the interview?
JACK CABOT: Certainly. What did you do before the War?
ANDREW DURAN: I was a salesman for Vault-Tec. But when the war came, they didn't let me in Vault 111! Bastards! I spent almost a century wandering the post-apocalypse because they wouldn't let me in.
JACK CABOT: Interesting. You weren't aware of the Vault Experiments?
ANDRW DURAN: The what?
JACK CABOT: Very interesting. You see, the Vaults were not merely intended as shelters. Most were intended as social experiments, to be visited upon the inhabitants. I had a robotic scout visit Vault-Tec's headquarters and confirm the truth.
ANDREW DURAN: Are you sure? Vault-Tec never told me about that.
JACK CABOT: Very sure. I'll give you a few examples. Vault 19, divided between "red" and "blue" factions to determine how hostility would erupt. Vault 101, intended to stay closed for all of eternity. Vault 106, a test vault for experimental chemicals. And so on. Vault-Tec had rather different motives than their publicly advertised ones, though I can understand the scientific impulse.
ANDREW DURAN: What?! I can't believe that! What else was Vault-Tec not telling me about?!
JACK CABOT: Probably quite a bit. They were an influential company with major backers in the American government. You never know what's going on behind the scenes, now do you?
ANDRW DURAN: I suppose not.
2284 - Diamond City and Goodneighbor
"Get out of here, ghoul!"
"You aren't welcome!"
"Leave now or we shoot you!"
-adtvtm-
ANDREW DURAN: Nobody wants me! Nobody will accept me!
WASTELAND CHORUS: You are a ghoul. One of the reminders of the world that came before. A demon of the past.
ANDREW DURAN: I didn't choose to survive the radiation! It's not my fault! But these assholes act like I chose to became a ghoul!
WASTELAND CHORUS: Why is acceptance so hard to find? Fleeting before the war, and fleeting after it.
ANDREW DURAN: Screw those assholes! I'll head to Goodneighbor. There's got to be a place for me.
-adtvtm-
"What'll you have, stranger?"
"A shot of your best rum. I need it."
Epilogue: The Sole Survivor
Andrew Duran was happy.
It was such a simple thing, but he cherished it regardless. Happiness was fleeting, insignificant. Difficult to find in a world where brutality was the norm. But he had found it!
"Hey Andrew!"
He smiled as the Sole Survivor made her way to his bar.
"Hey! Good to see you! What'll you have?"
"A shot of your best rum."
Andrew stared for a moment, then started laughing.
"What's so funny, Andrew?"
"That was what *I* ordered when I first made it to Goodneighbor! I needed it. It's not easy being kicked out of all those settlements!"
The Sole Survivor smiled. "Well, regardless of the past, you're welcome here. Discrimination isn't tolerated in Sanctuary Hills."
"Thank you. You have no idea how much that means to me."