Chapter 9 – The Upper Atrium
With caution, I slowly approached the stair leading to the Upper Atrium, carefully examining every step and corner, as logic dictated to me, that as all the people who resided up there, knew what was really going, then surely they would have taken steps to deal with the consequences, but I could see no obvious signs of prepared defences.
On the half-landing, I found the remains of a barricade, with the bodies of two Vault-Security personnel, but the barricade had clearly been hastily thrown together by its two defenders only minutes before they had been over-run, there was even a filing cabinet lying on the stairs above, which they must have intended to add to the barrier.
The bodies had been stripped of anything useful long ago, but I paused briefly to salvage one of their Pip-Boys. The other Pip-Boy had received a direct hit from something and was smashed beyond repair.
At the top of the stairs, I found the lock of the door leading out onto the overhead walkways was broken, but a close examination of the lock showed that only the latching part of the lock was damaged, and I was able repair that in a matter of a few minutes. The astounding part was that the door's main lock bolts were undamaged, which meant that when the attack came, it had only been lightly locked, and not locked tight like I would have expected.
"Did these idiotic scientists really not consider what would happen?" I wondered out loud, as I looked around.
My search very quickly confirmed that my words had correctly predicted what had happened, of the fifteen Vault Resident remains that I found lying on the walkway, and nearby rooms, ten were the Researchers that had been assigned to the Vault, and the position of their bodies, and their injuries, as much as I could tell they were all of the type of unarmed self-defence, such as you see on C.S.I. where the victim holds his arms over his head to fend off the blows.
There were probably another 7 or 8 bodies that belonged to Vault invaders, such as Raiders, Wastelanders, and even one Talon Merc, though unfortunately his equipment was so badly damaged, that it was unusable, and beyond any possible repair.
The majority of the rooms were completely gutted to the extreme, almost as if whomever had targeted these rooms wanted to destroy every single trace of the occupants; every piece of furniture had been smashed down to basic components, and then the rooms had been torched. The only thing that was fairly clear there had been no attempt to fortify, or even lock any of the rooms – all the door locks were virtually undamaged, and in full working order.
The only usefully things that I was able to retrieve was about a dozen Pip-Boys which I removed from the bodies, sadly apart from the basic factory-default Pip-Boy system files, all any other data that may have been stored on them had been completely corrupted. Also I managed to salvage a badly damaged assault rifle, with about a dozen rounds of 5.56 ammo.
There were only two rooms that were exception to the rule. One was the Overseers Office, and the other was at the far end of the Upper Atrium, in fact looking at its location, it was the furthest room away from the top of the stairs.
I decided to investigate the Overseers office first, however as I approached the door, which appeared to be in a remarkably good condition, I must have triggered some kind of proximity sensor, for there suddenly boomed out of Vault PA system "PLEASE, MOVE AWAY FROM THE DOOR and RETURN TO YOUR QUARTERS", the next thing I knew I was walking down the stairs to the lower Atrium, intending to see how Sarah-Jane was, when a loud grumble/gurgle reminded me why I had gone upstairs for.
For several minutes, I stood there confused, as to why I should suddenly come back down. Then I returned back upstairs determined to complete my search of the upper Atrium, yet when I approached the Overseer's office door, again the announcement boomed out "PLEASE, MOVE AWAY FROM THE DOOR and RETURN TO YOUR QUARTERS". I was half way back to the top of the stairs, before I caught myself, and realised that I was doing it again.
I tried again to reach the door, but again something about the announcement made me back off, although on the last attempt it was only a step or two. It was extremely frustrating; as there was no way that I could reach that door and unlock it without that announcement stopping me.
So, I decided to go and look at the other room that hadn't been wrecked. I crept very carefully along the side of the corridor leading to it, as something seemed very odd about the situation. There were quite a number of bodies littering the floor: ten of which were clearly some of the original Vault Residents, as could be seen from their Pip-Boys, the rest were Raiders, or other later Vault Residents, who wore the Vault suits, but didn't have the corresponding Pip-Boy of an original resident.
My caution proved to be justified, when I reached the door, I found that it had been badly marked up by gunfire, be that either bullet or laser, but most significantly I found that a long slit had been burned through the door by either sustained laser fire or some other cutting torch. I was about to peer in through the slit, when I was saved by the sound of a very familiar clicking sound, I had nearly gone and looked up barrel of a Mk IV gun turret, which had been defending the room through the gun-slit.
The door's operating mechanism had suffered some damage over the years, but ironically the lock itself had been destroyed by some lucky shot, effectively the door was unlocked, but couldn't be opened as the door knob had come off. Fortunately, as I had my tools with me, it was fairly easy to fix.
The next bit was a bit more tricky, and risky. As the door slide open, I did a rapid dive and roll under the gun turret, wrapping my body around the pillar, before the gun could target me properly; it fired off about a dozen shots, but only one came close, it sliced a hole in the shoulder of my Vault suit, but without even grazing my skin. In that position under the gun turret, it was very easy to deactivate it.
Then all I had to do is get up walk over to the computer, and... BANG!,,,,, Damn that was close, the beggar who had this room, had set up booby-trap using an old Combat Shotgun, as a back-up to his gun turret; only the fact that my novel entry into the room meant my approach was from an unexpected angle, and that the state of shotgun, meant that it virtually destroyed itself with that shot, resulted in me escaping injury.
A careful scan around the room revealed that there were no more such surprises about.
Finally a room that met my expectations, the occupant of this room obviously knew something about what had been going on, and had taken precautions. For in addition to the gun turret, with its crude firing slit, and backup booby-trap, the occupant had constructed a rough back-stop to the gun turret out of the room's locker, chest of drawers, and bed frame. In one corner was several crates which like they contained food, although there was a worryingly large pile of empty food wrappers and tins in the opposite corner, and on a worn mattress was the mortal remains of room's owner, cradling a laser pistol.
A first logical step would be to investigate either the computer terminal or the Pip-Boy for information, however nature intervened with a wave of dizziness, and sudden cramping pain, as my stomach reminded me again, that I hadn't eaten yet today, and come to think about it, I hadn't been eating too regularly for the past few days. So I headed first for the food crates, and was greeted with almost complete disappointment, as they were empty, apart from a lone tin of Pork-N-Beans, which I quickly consumed in an attempt to ease the pain. The fact that I really enjoyed that meal, showed how desperate my body was for food. Clearly I couldn't delay looking for food any longer.
But first maybe some answers: The salvaging of the Pip-Boy revealed very little, other than the identity of its previous owner, the elderly Dr Monica Sullivan, who had been an expert on the 'Effects of Gases in Confined Spaces'. The computer terminal proved to be very informative, as she had kept a journal, and although some entries had become corrupted, most were intact.
Day 1 – 23rd October 2077:
They have finally done it - Global Nuclear Devastation. Barely managed to make it into the Vault 106,which is a marvel of technology and my fellow residents are the friendliest and most helpful people I have ever met in all my 60 years old
Maybe there is hope for the future of mankind still.
Day 9:
Something strange is going on. The Overseer Dr Albert Leris has ordered me to deploy gas sensors throughout the Vault, supposedly on Health and Safety grounds. Surely the possibility of dangerous gas build-up would have been dealt with years ago in the design stage.
At least it has meant that I could fully explore the Vault; Was surprised when I visited kitchens, that we don't have a hydroponics section, just a vast cavern laden with food to last us all for over a decade. I just hope it is enough.
Day 11:
There is a problem with the Vault; the new gas sensors have detected the presence of some kind of unknown gas in the Vault atmosphere, especially in the lower levels. I have raised my concerns with the Overseer, but he says that he is aware of the problem, and it is being sorted.
To avoid any unnecessary panic, the other Residents are being told there is nothing wrong.
Add.:- I am having some kind of problem with my hearing aids. They keep picking up a strange buzzing noise, especially when there are announcements of the Vaults PA system. Charlie in Maintenance said he would have a look at them.
Day 15:
The gas levels are still increasing. A number of people reporting feeling strange, or unwell, and there is increasing tension in the Vault. The effects seem to range from increased nervousness, reoccurrences of old childhood nightmares to increase aggressiveness and general bad-temperedness. The Overseer's announcements seem to be preventing problems.
Add.: Good News - Charlie has sorted my hearing aids. He couldn't find what was wrong, so he tightened up the audio filter setting, so that it will only amplify sound that is within normal hearing range. This is good news as I am nearly completely deaf without them.
Day 19:
The situation is not improving, and the Residents are getting worried; they are forming protective groups (or gangs for want of a better word), usually based around where they work such as 'Maintenance', or 'Kitchen Staff' There have even been a few outbreaks of violence between the groups, but Vault Security are keeping things under control.
The Overseer has decreed that the Upper Atrium is off-limits to all, but those who live up here, also all our meals are now being delivered to the bottom of the stairs by the kitchen staff, to save us the long trip down the cafeteria. So far everyone is complying with this order.
Day 24:
Things are getting rapidly worse. The gas levels are still increasing, and we had our first deaths only yesterday: two suicides and one maintenance guy went berserk, and killed 3, and badly injured another 6, before he could be stopped permanently by Security. There was a major brawl in the Atrium this morning, which left over a dozen badly injured.
I managed to get a group of worried scientists together, and we requested Overseer that we must take some precautions, such as getting a stockpile of supplies: food, weapons, etc, as everything is down below in areas controlled by one faction or another. Also we need some defensive barriers or something, in case things turn really nasty. But, the Overseer, who no-one has actually seen outside of his office for nearly a week now, responded over the PA system, telling us that "Thanks to advice from his friend Richard Rubin, the Overseer in Vault 92 and in line with Vault-Tec instructions" He had already taken measures, that would ensure that there "is no problem", and that we "do not need to do anything more".
Suddenly I went from one of many concerned voices, to the 'Lone voice crying out in the wildernesses", as everyone relaxed and went back to their rooms.
No one will listen to me now. Nevertheless I am going to do something tonight.
Day 28:
Things went critical yesterday. There was another huge fight in the lower Atrium, with dozens killed or injured, and Vault Security is now almost none existent, apart from a couple of guards who are stationed up here, the rest are either dead or have joined one of the factions.
After the fight had been raging for over an hour, with Overseer watching from his office window, and the rest of us from the overhead walkways, the Overseer ordered over the PA system for "ALL RESIDENTS TO RETURN THEIR QUARTERS", and amazingly AGAIN, as if my magic, the mob instantly stopped fighting and began to disperse.
Then that idiot Smithy got his camera out, with its extra large flash-bulb, and took a photo of the scene. They all stopped and looked up, staring as if they were only seeing us for the first time. ... There was blood-curdling howl, and they stormed the stairs leading up to us. I don't believe the two guards managed to fire more than a couple of shots before they were overrun, and everyone else just stood there like stuffed dummies. I... I ran like all the demons of Hell were at my back, and they probably were. I was hardly halfway down the corridor before the screams started, and what I heard before I closed and locked my door, haunts me even now.
I have spent today working hard fortifying my room. I unpacked a gun turret I stole from stores, and managed to burn a firing slit in the door. I only have a handful of energy cells left for my gun now. I have even put up a wall to stop any stray bullets. I have never worked so hard in years; I think I may have over done it. Don't feel well.
Day 45:
I am still alive just. I had a bad heart attack, or something, after my last entry, which has left me very weak. I am almost out of food now, and the last of my Buffout wore off an hour ago. I doubt I will last much longer.
So I wish to record this last message, to whoever finds this vault. Vault 106 did not die by accident or misfortune, but was cold-bloodedly murdered by that evil despot Dr Albert Leris. My records show that the gas levels rose shortly before nearly every major fight in the Atrium. He must have been controlling the leaks, and then sat and watched the results from his window, like a demonic vulture. I pray to God that he receives punishment for his crime against humanity, for alas it cannot come from my hands...
I stood for several minutes, wiping tears from my eyes (it must be these damned female hormones), after I close the last computer entry, still thinking of those last words from the dying days of the Vault's history.
I turned and solemnly address Monica Sullivan's mortal remains "Though you will probably never know this, your journal has given the Vault a chance, for it has told me how to get into the Overseer's office, and thus maybe stop this hell", then I covered her body with a blanket, to grant her some dignity until some method of disposing the body properly could be arranged.
I quickly searched through the room for anything of use, but apart from the laser pistol and the gun turret, and a rucksack in one of the lockers, there was nothing else of value.
As I packed all the Pip-Boys that I had salvaged into the rucksack so that I could transport, I ran my thoughts back over what I had just read.
Clearly the majority of the Researchers that Overseer Leris had brought with him into the Vault had been unaware of the secret Vault-Tec experiment, and had been as much victims as the rest of the Vault Residents; likely only the Overseer himself was in the know.
Also from what I could recall from the game: Vault 92 had been doing something similar to the experiment here, only they had been using certain sound waves to stimulate violent and aggressive behaviour in otherwise very passive people. The Overseer there has rushed things because he placed too much confidence in the Control Commands that had been placed in the residents' brains. The game hadn't as far as I could recall spelled out how this had been done, but now thanks to Dr Sullivan's Journal, I had the answer. She had reported that her hearing aids had picked up a buzzing noise, until they had been adjusted; also she seems to have been the only person that wasn't under the thrall of the Overseer. Since Vault 92's experiments proved that some sound frequencies provoked aggression, logically there must also be sounds that induce a hypnotic state, or at least makes people compliant to orders, Leris must have rigged up something similar here, not realising that this would eventually fail.
Once I found some ear-plugs or ear defenders, I should be able reach the Overseer's office, and do something, about all this.
But as I reached these happy conclusions, I heard something that was far from good news, the great Vault Door opening, and then closing, and from the voices it was clear that the Raiders had returned...