"I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end" – Book of revelation 21:6

Chapter 1 – The Great Escape.

"Jake!"

"Jake! Wake up dammit!"

"Huh?" Jake woke to the urgent shouting of Amata coupled with the wailing of a siren over head. "What's going on?" he asked rubbing his eyes in an attempt to see clearer.

"Jake, you have to get up! You have to get out of here now!" The panic in her voice was unmistakeable.

"Why what's going on?" he asked again as she chucked a duffle bag in his lap.

"It's your father Jake, he's gone!"

"Gone where?" A look of puzzlement crossed his face as he climbed out of bed and brushed his hand through his hair; trying to tame it back into the swept back look he wore it.

"Outside! He's gone outside the vault!" She had been frantically darting round his room picking up anything that looked remotely important and came back to pack it all in the bag she had early found.

"But how? I thought the vault was sealed?" he said as watching her, unsure if this was some kind of practical joke. They were known to play pranks on each other, but never anything as dramatic as this.

"It is." She placed the last item, a bottle of water, in the bag. "It was. I mean, I don't know." She sighed. "I know there is a secret passage to the vault entrance in my father's office somewhere, maybe he used that?" She paused for a brief second and looked over her shoulder before turning her attention back to Jake, her long black ponytail elegantly swinging with every movement she made. Noticing the blank expression on his face, hers turned to a softer, more concerned look. "Wait, you didn't have any idea that he was planning on leaving, did you?" Jake could do nothing but shake his head. His dad had left? Without him? Why? Where would he go, there was nothing up there? A million questions began racing around in Jake's head.

She hugged him in a tight embrace, "Oh Jake, I'm so sorry." Letting him go she continued, "But you have to go, right now. Your not safe her anymore. My father, after yours left, he went crazy mad. He's ordered everyone on lock down and anyone out of their quarters, he's" she looked down, no longer able to make eye contact, "he's order to be shot onsite!" A single tear drop began to slowly make its way down her cheek. "Jonas." She said quietly, barley audible over the almost deafening sirens. "He's killed Jonas."

Those words seemed to linger in his head; they were enough to snap out of his daze. "We've got to stop him!" He gently placed his two hands on the shoulders either side the distraught girl, wanting desperately to comfort her, but fearfully of losing sight of the problem at hand if he did.

"No," she replied shaking her head and wiping the tear away. "You've got to get out of here. Head for my father's office and look for the secret passage, it's your best way out. Once you're away from here I'll be able to talk some sense in to him and calm him down." He knew she was right; he had no choice but to agree with her.

He was about to pick up the duffle bag that she had just packed for him, when she grabbed his hand. "Here," she pulled out a 9mm pistol and a spare clip and placed them in his hand. "I hope you won't need it, but just in case you do."

He looked down at the cold metal weapon, and then back up at her, "Ok." He took the gun and placed in belt, "I promise not to use it unless I have too."

She looked into his eyes and hugged him once more, "I'll go and distract my father while you get out of here. I'll try and meet you at the vault entrance. Be careful." And with that she turned and ran out of him room in search of the crazed Overseer.

Jake looked down at the picture of him and his father that he kept by his bed. It was taken on his tenth birthday, just after he had shot a radroach with the BB gun his dad and Jonas had gotten him. Both had beaming smile on their faces. "Dad," he sighed, "What have you done?" Next to it stood a small bobble head figurine of a blonde haired character holding an oversized syringe. An inscription along the bottom read 'A smart man knows bandages only hide his wounds'. His father had given this unique little figure just before Jake had teken his G.O.A.T, the aptitude test that everyone in the vault took when they were 16; he said it would bring him luck. Picking it up, he shoved it into his bag; he was going to need every bit of luck he could get.

He headed for the door out of his room through which Amata had just fled, stopping short of the doorway as he noticed his baseball bat propped up in the corner. Grabbing it, he continued out the door, through the living room and into the corridor that was now bathed in a red light, a stark difference from the soft white light that usually ran throughout the entire vault.

With his duffle bag slung across his back, Jake tightened his grip on the bat in his right hand. He had promised Amata that he would head for the overseer's office and get out of here, but there was once stop he wanted to make first, he had to find Jonas' body. He had to see for himself if Jonas realty was dead. Carefully he made his way through the corridors, avoiding any security officer that came too close to finding him. He stopped suddenly as he heard a familiar voice call his name and spun round to see Butch a few paces behind him.

"Butch, are you crazy? What you doing out here? You'll get shoot!"

The look on Butch's face was a far cry from the normal bravado that he usually expressed. "It's my mum man; she's trapped in her room with a couple of radroaches." If Jake didn't know better, he would have said Butch even looked slightly scared. "You gotta help me man!"

Scratch that, he WAS scared.

Jake couldn't help but smile, "You're asking me for help? If you only knew the irony of this Butch." They had always been at odds ever since they were young, but it wasn't until they had gotten into a fight one morning many years ago as Butch and his gang were causing grief for a young Amata, that they really discovered their disliking for each other.

Butch clasped his hands together, "Please, man. Look I know I've not always been the nicest of people to you, but you gotta help me, it's my mum!"

Jake sighed; clearly the ruthlessness that Butch had always displayed was nothing, when faced with a few big bad radroaches. "Okay, I'll help. But I'm doing it for your mother, not for you!" he was pointing the bat at him, shaking his head in disbelief.

It took less than a minute to get to the quarters where Butch and his mum lived, as Jake stood outside the door he could hear the cry's of help coming from a woman on the other side. And so wasted no time in flipping the switch to raise the sliding door and dashed inside. With a couple of swings of his bat, the room was soon covered in smears of crushed roach. After helping his mother up of the floor from her crouched position behind some cushions, Butch turned to Jake and tried to force out a few words of thanks. "Thanks man, I owe you big." He began taking off his leather jacket and tossed it to across to Jake, who was in the middle of whipping green radroach blood of his Pip-boy screen. "I want you to have my jacket. From now on you're an honorary Tunnel Snake!"

Jake looked at the black leather jacket before slipping it on, it was made from a soft leather and had a snake embroidered on the back in the shape of an 'S'. Giving a nod in appreciation, he turned and headed back out the door, back into the dimly light red corridors.

As he continued to navigate the familiar route to Jonas' office, Jake began to consider how his luck was holding out, having so far managing to avoid any confrontation with any of the patrolling security officers. However just as he decided that it was no longer necessary to continue his journey sneaking along in a crouched position, he turned a corner and was confronted by a lone security officer dressed in the vault's security uniform, complete with matching helmet. Spotting him instantly, the security officer began shouting and demanding that he turn himself in, whilst at the same time pulling out a baton and cautiously walking towards him. The decision of whether to turn around and run back in the opposite direction, or to try and tackle the unfortunate obstacle was cut short as the overseer's voice came booming over the speaker system above.

"This is your Overseer, I would like to remind you all that the vault is on lockdown and you are all to remain in your quarters. Anyone caught breaking this rule will be severely punished. We have a criminal on the loose that is extremely dangerous, and security personnel are ordered to shot him on site."

With that the security officer stowed his baton and drew his side arm, a 9mm pistol similar to the one Amata had given Jake. It was now or never, Jake was about to reach for his own gun when he suddenly changed his mind and once tightened his grip further on his bat as he ran forward towards the officer.

The security officer noticed the sudden change in his assailant's speed, although fully aware his gun wasn't inline with the rapidly approaching body, attempted to squeeze of a shot in vain, followed by another.

The first shot rang past Jake's left arm, but unwavering he carried on running forward. Another shot, this time flying past his head on the right side. He could feel the movement of the air caused by the bullets speed, but determined he stayed his course. Close enough now, he closed his left hand around the handle of the bat and at the same time swung up as hard as he could, bringing the bat to meet directly with the side of the man's head. The force behind the impact sent the security officer sprawling sideways, slamming into the side of the corridor as another shot rang out from his gun, his helmet flying off and landing several feet away with a loud clunk on the metal floor.

Jake was breathing heavily as he looked down at the now unconscious man and repeated the words he had promised to Amata earlier, "Not unless I have too."

After a second to steady himself, but before the unfortunate guard would have a chance to come round, he continued on again heading for Jonas' office. No sooner however had he navigate a few more of the metal passage ways, he noticed another security officer trying to fend off three radroaches. Each shot the officer fired failed to hit the oversized beetles as they scurried this way and that taking swipes at their prey. This particular officer he knew however, but was unsure as to whether he too would also turn on Jake as the other had. Pausing a moment to think, he finally headed over towards the officer, hoping that helping to eliminate the threat would go over in his favour. Within seconds the three roaches either had bullet holes or had been smeared against the floor underneath and the now free security officer turned and much to Jake's relief holstered his weapon.

"Officer Gomez, are you okay?" Jake asked with an air of caution, his grip not loosening on the baseball bat.

"Jake," office Gomez breathed, "Thanks champ." He smiled that old friendly smile that Jake recognised; and Jake immediately loosened his white knuckle grip on the bat. "Thank god you're okay! But look you better keep moving, I don't know what your father has done, but the Overseer is pissed. He's got every officer out looking for you, with order's to stop you dead! I'll tell them I haven't seen you, but you better get out of here."

Jake gave him a brief smile back and nodded "Thanks Officer Gomez." Then turned and continued on down never ending maze of one corridor after another. Thankfully it didn't take him much longer until he found himself in a long one that branched off to several offices, including the one where Jonas worked. Coming to a halt just outside one of the closed doors, he could hear the voice of the Overseer shouting with rage.

"Amata, for god sake girl, tell me where he is now!"

A loud bang followed; most likely the seething man had slammed his hand into a locker or table to further express his anger. Then Jake heard Amata's voice.

"I don't know. Dad please, you have to believe me. I don't know where he is."

"Please Amata, don't take me for the fool. Officer Mackey, if you'd be so kind."

A second, slightly gruff male voice spoke up. "Now Amata, either you talk, or I'll be forced to make you talk." A distinctive click from the loading of a pistol followed the ominous words, meaning only one thing. Without thinking Jake rushed inside, seeing Officer Mackey stood facing the terrified girl Jake dropped his bat a drew his own pistol from his belt.

Amata, being the only one facing the door Jake had entered was the first to see him, shouting his name before she realised the mistake in doing so. Alerted to the new arrival, the Overseer and Officer Mackey spun round; the later with his gun up ready to give their guest a warm welcome. But Jake was one step ahead and squeezed of a shot hitting the officer square in the shoulder just above his body armour, all those years practicing with his BB gun had paid off. The impact through Mackey of balance and the arm that held the gun flew wildly in the air, a stray bullet from the uncontrolled weapon imbedding itself in the ceiling.

Jake shouted for Amata to run as he turned the gun on the overseer.

"Jake." Amata began to protest.

"It's ok," Jake reassured her "go." She did as she was told and ran out of the office they were all in.

As his daughter left, the Overseer chuckled loudly, "You really think you're going to escape? You'll never make it out of here alive"

"I will if I use the escape tunnel in your office." Jake said, his gun still focused on the man in front him.

"It's locked." The old man spat, "You'll never get passed the security terminal".

"My father did." Jake smiled trying not to show his doubts in his ability to hack the computer in question. Jonas had shown him a thing or too, but he was no where near as good as the former scientist at it.

"And he's probably already dead in the wasteland outside. Just like you'll be!" The seething man said through gritted teeth.

"I guess we'll see about that," Jake lowered his gun and headed for the door, "I promise to write!" he called back in an unmistakeable sarcastic tone. Paying no attention to the wit of the young boy, the old man began calling for more guards causing Jake to pick up his pace in hopes of avoiding any further confrontation.

Finally he came to Jonas' office and stopped outside, the fear of what waited on the other side holding him back. His emotions played on each other, giving him doubt as to whether this was a good idea after all and had it not been better just to get out of here straight away.

"No" he said to himself, "I need to know", as he pressed the switch and the door automatically rose with a gentle hiss. He walked solemnly into the empty office. Empty save for a limp figure collapsed in a lump on the floor. Jake's heart sank as he breathed out, not realising he'd been holding his breath since walking through the door. He rushed over and kneeled next to the cold body on the floor, as he'd thought, it was in fact Jonas. The former scientist's glasses lay cracked on the floor next to him, a puddle of blood had developed underneath the man, his once white coat stained a deep red, two obvious bullet holes in his chest.

Shaking Jake fought back tears, tears of sadness at the loss of a man that lie before him and anger towards the people who had shot him, people who he had lived with for over 19 years. Suddenly he noticed a small cassette in the right palm of his deceased friend, carefully he pried the fingers open and pulled out the holotape. These small cassettes were used for storing note's and audio recordings which could later be played back from a Pip-Boy. He inserted this one into his own device and was about to hit play when he heard several loud voices coupled with footsteps coming from the corridor directly outside the office he was in. He would have to listen to it later he decided. Grabbing his bat once again, he got up and quickly headed towards a door at the rear of the office, slipping through he closed it behind him. Thankfully several of the offices in the vault were inter connecting, so in no time he had managed to navigate around the approaching threat and finally, at long last, found him self outside the locked door to the Overseer's office. Cursing he tried the door in vain, knowing full well it was locked, and every attempt at pushing the button returned in the same buzzing noise signalling that the door was as currently inaccessible. About to give up, he suddenly had a small inkling in the back of his mind, and slipped the duffle bag off over his head and placed it in front himself.

Desperately rummaging through the bag muttering "Come on Amata," to himself, he finally found what he was looking for.

"Jackpot!"

From down at the very bottom of the duffle bag, he pulled out a red handled screw driver and a small box containing a few of the girl's bobby pins she occasionally used in her hair. He immediately span back round to face the door, inserted the screw driver in the lock, stuck the bobby pin in just above and began the fiddly process of disengaging the locking mechanism. Within seconds he heard the satisfying click signalling that the lock had given way, another useful little trick Jonas had taught him. Jake tried the switch for the door again, this time the door slide open allowing him passage inside to the plush beige and wooden office, a noticeable difference for the rest of the metal vault. Sparing no time to look around, he headed straight for the computer terminal located on the far side. Already booted up, the green digital font on the screen before him was asking for a password. Jake pulled up a chair and began typing a command line; hitting the return key caused line after line of code to appear, a lot of it he didn't understand so wasted no time trying to follow it at this particular moment. Now asking him for a password again, it also gave him an assortment of pre-defined words, these were in words that the system used to encrypt the password, Jonas had told him. Luckily it only took two to attempts and he had access to the system. Thanking the deceased once more for the useful skills he had given him through out his life, Jake began searching through the options available and finally found the command he was searching for. He highlighted the set of words that would grant him his escape and again hit return.

A shallow rumbling reverberated through out the office and the desk behind him began lifting up to reveal a set of steps descending down into a dimly lit tunnel. Just as he was about to log off and make for the passageway, he caught sight of a few documents listed on the terminal, each detailing several explorations into the wasteland outside the vault. Without time to read them all, but thinking anything that could help him on the outside would be beneficial, he hurriedly synced his Pip-Boy into the terminal and downloaded the relevant files. As soon as the download finished he made his way down the steps and along previously hidden rocky tunnel, until he came to an old metal door. Relived that it too wasn't locked, he swung it open and walked on through.

The large room on the other side was filled a variety of different control panels and various machines, ignoring all of these Jake headed straight for the middle of the room and stood at the top of a small set of steps his sole focus on a massive steel door in the shape of a giant cog. No doubt this was the entrance, or in his case the exit, to the vault. Looking around he had no trouble locating the set of controls that would most likely open the door, apprehension creeping over him as he approached the lone control panel.

He had no choice, he kept telling himself. If he stayed he would surely die. But would he fair any better outside the vault? A moment's hesitation, no, he had to, he had to find his father and find out why he had left, why he would risk causing all this trouble. With that he pushed the lever on the set of controls causing the giant machines around him to suddenly come to life. Steam bellowed out from every piece of metal work and a set of sirens kicked in, as a long mechanical arm began to descend from the ceiling and stretched towards the door giant vault door. As the arm came in contact with its target, it twisted and locked itself in place, then began to reverse its direction and pull backwards. A small gap slowly appearing as the door was released from it current position in the wall, air rushed out into the dark cave beyond. While he was waiting for the gap to become large enough for him to fit through, he saw Amata run out from the tunnel he had exited just moments earlier and head towards him, "You did it!" She yelled, and threw her arms around him.

"You're safe," he said as he embraced the hug. "I wasn't sure if…"

She interrupted him before he could say anymore "It's okay, I'm fine." She smiled as she released him.

The vault door finally banged into place revealing a short walkway through a cave beyond, a worn wooden door stood at the far end. "You better get going." She said as the smile on her face faded.

"Come with me." Jake asked, although he already knew what her answer would be.

"I can't, I have my own father to deal with. I can't let him keep this up, I have to try and talk him round."

Jake hugged her once last time intending to make it last as long as he could, but they were quickly interrupted as the only other door in the room burst open and two heavily clad vault security officers came storming through guns drawn.

Amata positioned herself in front Jake, shouting at him to run. With little other choice he turned and jumped down the steps and started in a run towards the vault opening. A few shots rang out from the guns carried by the officers, all hitting machinery or rock, he looked back to check that Amata was ok, and was relieved to see she was. The two men had moved round her and pursued him down the metal steps, but had stopped chasing him as he passed over the vault threshold; they were too scared to follow him outside the safety of the vault.

He made it to the far side of the small cave in a little more than a few steps. Not wanting to find out if either of the officers had a sudden impulse of bravery, he reached the wooden door, barged on through and stumbled into the outside world for the first time. The sudden onslaught of natural sunlight blinding him, as he tripped and found himself rolling head over heel downwards, a large boulder finally bringing him to a sudden but painful stop.

Hello again! If your still reading this after the prologue, then thanks again and I hope you're still enjoying it. I write this chapter and the prologue together so they could be uploaded together. Again feedback is always helpful, especially to someone just starting out, I look forward to reading them.