Chap 7. Tilda Story
I was on watch the first day we saw proof of life outside the vault. I happened to be roving the vault door as part of my roving watch. My watch title was Hydraulic systems rover. I had to take the hydro level and pressure readings from the door rams and sweep the seams of the door with a Geiger counter. I had qualified and stood this watch several hundred times since I was 16 years old.
I scored very well on the GOAT which was almost bad as flunking it. It meant they could place me anywhere they needed me. If I had bombed the test completely, I would have been placed as a runner for any department. The only real difference was the idea that a high score changed the nature of on the job training. Rather than being assigned manual "shit work" you were explained how and why you do the jobs you do with the intention that you will take over one day. People who scored high in a particular area and low in another were easily placed based on their stronger subjects. The Overseer used high GOAT scores as incentives for department heads when he needed the occasional dirty and secretive favor.
I was working under Dr. Lance Murphy, a professor of electrical engineering. What he lacked in brawn and social grace, he made up for in quick recall of facts and fast calculated decision making. He was given the role of Chief Engineer, making him the figure head for the Damage Control, Reactor, Maintenance, and Recycling divisions. Being that he controlled most of the machinery that made people comfortable, he was often owed favors himself. He had aligned me specifically under him, though he typically groomed "High level GOATS" as shop leads. He was not particularly keen on being questioned or even presenting his reports to the overseer. It was only a short time before he was pushing these responsibilities to me. At first, I was scared to death of the overseer after all that happened, but soon I became a little more comfortable. I leaned heavily on professionalism as did he. It was always unspoken that if given the opportunity, I would kill him with my bear hands.
I often played with the door terminal's camera view while taking these readings simply to see what the outside looked like now. I was very familiar with the way that it was supposed to look. That night, I noticed what looked like a very skinny, heavily burned dog sniffing around the skeletal corpses. I was aghast at this. I couldn't turn away. I used the terminal to radio up to security.
"V-Sec. Hyd Sys Rover." I said into the intercom speaker.
"Hyd sys. V-Sec. Go." Said the voice from the intercom.
"V-Sec, I've got eyes on an anomaly on the door cams." I said.
"Roger Hyd Sys. Noted. Resume watch." Said the voice.
I vaguely made out a voice within the same room of the intercom, "Oh shit, look out, spot, here comes a hungry one!"
My eyes fell back to the monitor as I watched a fast-moving skeletal, charred, human-like being dive upon the dog and start ripping at its flesh and eating it. It still had remnants of clothing hanging from its stained rotting flesh. Its skin resembled a red raisin. I could not avert my eyes as another closed in and begin to tear at the dog's carcass. I could vaguely hear the dog whimper through the vault door. I could not blink, paralyzed by terror. My eyes watered and tears begin streaming, but still I could not blink nor turn my eyes. There were 3 of them tearing away pieces of the dog as two others were behind trying to reach the freshly dead dog. As the two continued to feed on the dog, the other two were visibly distracted by something off camera. I continued to watch as I could hear the muffled sounds of "tinks" hitting the door.
"Hyd sys; V-Sec. Are you still there?" the intercom said but I could not answer.
I continued to watch as the ghoulish creatures' heads exploded one by one. A figure wearing piece milled clothing and a hat walked toward the vault door. He studied the door as he pressed the button on the door control terminal. He gazed up at the camera where I saw his face too was like that of a raisin though he was not terribly charred. He still had hair, though his nose was gone and his eyes were recessed back into his head. He holstered his pistol as he slung his pack in front of him. He took out a Geiger counter and held it up to the camera. The number was 729 CPM. In studying the reactor with Dr. Murphy I knew that this was a high reading, but not a deadly one. He began to page the intercom button on the terminal. I was horrified. That face was glaring at me every time I closed my eyes. I finally broke away.
"Hyd sys. V-Sec. I can see you! Report to V-Sec Central immediately. Your watch relief will meet you here." Said the voice.
I was still paralyzed and could not turn my face as I watched the ghoulish man loot the corpses of the vicious ones and begin to harvest meat from the dog carcass.
"Hyd sys! V-sec! That is an order! Report to V-Sec Central or you will be brought in!" Said the Voice.
I snapped from my daze and pressed the talk button on the intercom.
"V-sec. Hyd sys. Roger. Inbound." I said
I did not delay as I made my way to V-sec. I began to measure what I had seen against what I knew and determined that this kind of event was not a surprise to V-sec, though it was not common knowledge to the rest of the vault. It had to be yet another thing that the Overseer was covering up. I wanted to give up right there. Yet again, my family and I have unwittingly become a target of the overseer.
I did not slow pace as I reported as ordered to V-sec where I used the intercom panel next to the door.
"V-sec, Come on in, Tilda." The voice stated.
I entered the dark room where the glow of monitors dimly lit the faces of the watch-standers. They all continued to watch the unexpected guest's every move outside the door.
"Tilda, what were you doing accessing the cams?" asked Jim Casey, the man I had been talking to on the intercom.
"I was unaware that we were not allowed to." I replied.
"Yeah, well he isn't going to care you know. You may be in deep shit. It's one thing to get caught when there's nothing going on, but this is the first time we've seen someone act sort of with it out there."
"Why aren't we talking to him, Jim?" I asked.
"Tilda, you know while I've got the badge on you call me officer." He replied.
"Sorry, Officer. Why?" I asked again
"Overseer's orders, we are not to make contact at this time." He said. "Nor is the knowledge of any life detected beyond the vault to leave this room." Said Jim.
"Oh. I guess that's why I'm here." I deduced.
"Unfortunately, yes." Said Jim.
"Can I just get my extra duty order knocked out so I can get back to watch?" I said.
"Sorry, Tild, it's protocol." Said Jim.
I growled in frustration as I continued to watch the monitor. The ghoulish man was scrawling a single word on the wall that the camera was facing. T… R… A… D… E… ? I noticed that Jim was rapidly typing as the man made actions. He seemed to be writing the report as it happened.
"Aren't you recording? Why type it all out?" I asked.
"Shh… you aren't even supposed to be watching…. Orders…" he replied.
The doorbell rang as Jim panicked.
"Tilda, get up! Stand at attention and face the wall!" He whispered frantically.
I did as he asked as he opened the door and announced, "Overseer on deck!" as the other two guys in the room popped tall with Jim. He entered the room with purpose along with his personal bodyguard, his apprentice Aiden Varney, and head of V-sec, Coach C.
"Carry on. What's the sit rep?" said the overseer.
"We had an outside event, Sir; This time, proof of intelligent life. And a possible opsec breech at the vault door terminal. Hyd sys rover was watching the door cams when she saw this, Sir." Jim said as he started the playback on the monitor.
"Is the Hyd Sys here?" Asked Coach C.
"Right here, Coach." I said.
"Tilda Story. But of course. Handle it, Coach… Carefully." Said the Overseer.
Coach pulled his handcuffs from his belt and fastened them to my wrists before leading me into the adjacent interrogation room.
"Tilda, you screwed up." Said Coach C.
"I realize that. It wasn't in the watch-stander's regulations nor the vault 52 dweller's code not to access the vault door cams." I said.
"Doesn't matter, there's already someone disabling the cam access on every terminal but VSEC as we speak. Now what did you see?" he asked.
"All of what they're showing the overseer right now." I replied.
"Let me ask again. What did you see?" He asked with a more forceful look.
"It was just a standard watch. There was nothing out of the ordinary going on at all." I said.
"What is the punishment for treasonous acts?" He asked.
"Death to the perpetrator, reparation debt assigned to their family. Don't you think I, of all people already know that law?" I asked defiantly.
I could see that he was resolved not to take the bait as I had cast it being that my sister, Tina Calloway, and I had all been receiving a quarter less of our food, water, clothing, and morale rations for the last seven years. Not to mention the fact that the overseer had ordered my father executed. I was suspicious of the fact that it had occurred as immediately as the overseer would have us believe. The overseer was often one to set an example. My father's execution was not public, nor recorded. I feared that he was being kept somewhere and tortured, but even with underground investigation, no glimmers of hope could be found.
"You'd think so. I will not press that issue any further, but you understand that divulging information deemed as classified is a treasonous act, correct?"
"yes, sir." I said.
"What you did not see on watch today is information deemed as classified." He said.
"Understood, sir, may I sign my extra duty form and return to watch?" I asked.
"No. You will be placed under probationary surveillance until the classified information becomes unclassified. An Eye-bot program placed within a Mr. handy body. If you speak of said classified information, the Mr. Handy will 'Malfunction' and kill you instantly. Understood?" Coach C. Stated.
"Yes, sir. When should I expect my new shadow?" I asked.
"He's already waiting in the hallway." Coach said as he reached down to unlock my handcuffs.
"Thank you for your understanding, sir." I told Coach as I rubbed my wrists.
"See that it wasn't misplaced." He replied.
I walked to the door and as it opened I noticed the familiar striation marks on the body of Stevious. I smiled to myself as I made my way down the hallway and he followed. I had known Stevious for most of my life. I knew that every attempt at turning his sentient memory off had failed. I would assume that Norman Graves had developed a switch combination code to ensure that his personal Mr. Handy could not be pirated to assassinate him; a feature he'd seen added regularly at his work with Robco modifications. I was assuming and did not want to test the theory, however, I suspected that if Stevious was showing evidence of being "wiped" he was acting that way on purpose. As I walked from the V-sec offices and returned to my routine watch, I swallowed little gulps of fury knowing that I was not only being watched by Stevious, but also by V-sec to look for signs of erratic behavior.
Due to the implications of my father before me, I was under keen watch as it was due to his involvement in the resistance. I had to use many layers of detachment, but I was actively involved in the silent resistance and I had a monster of a tale to get to them. In my heart I knew that this was the day that the revolution was scheduled. That number on that Geiger counter eliminated a very large variable. I would merely have to wait for the V-sec surveillance to become complacent. Of which, I would have to give plenty of time to be sure.