Chap 8. Callie Story

This Vault is hell. I often wish I would have shared my mother's fate out there. I've been here for over ten years now and people still treat me and the rest of my family like we are a plague. I GOATed into the medical department, therefore lots and lots of face time with people. The quiet waiting rooms are just quiet enough for me to hear the other citizens re-telling the stories with their opinions camouflaged into it. Gossiping as this tiny underground prison is best at. Talking about my executed treasonous father, my whore of a step-mother and her connections with a made-up resistance, My sister now currently in trouble for digging into secretive information, and me, the youngest, everyone just waiting to see how I am going to exhibit my flaws. I always serve people with a smile on my face hoping to improve their opinion on my family, but no one is happy here so no one sees anything positive.

I have tried to make the best of my time here despite the troubles of my family. My father has been gone for 6 years now, and Tina does the very best she can to help Tilda and me out. The overseer refused to recognize her as our new guardian, so she only gets single rations rather than family. Technically Tilda and I have been wards of the overseer since she was 12 and I was 10. If there was a lower class here in the vault, we were it.

I have been pretty lucky in the fact that Ted Casey cares more about our relationship than he does about his reputation here in the vault. It may be his clean-cut way of rebelling, or it may be meant to be. I'm not one to dig too deeply on the topic. Why explain away a good thing? Ted's older brother works for V-Sec and has recently become another name on Tilda's shit list. Ted works the Science deck. He, unlike his brother scored high in the Intel bracket on the GOAT. It was a pretty exclusive group considering there are only 5 other people in the science deck. Sometimes he's a little cocky about his knowledge. If I ask too many questions, he becomes very suspicious of me. I guess it's understandable considering my family reputation of treason. I could care less what is going on most of the time. So far, knowing any inconvenient truths has rewarded us with nothing but misery. I would much rather be blissfully blind and dumb.

With my family history, any time a conversation about the slightest level of classified information is had and I am spotted, I am greeted with silent dagger stares. I really wish I could say I hate my family for what each of them has done to add to this, but I know it was never us. It was always the populous of this Vault and the Overseer that runs it. I would just enjoy my little victories and try not to think too much about the future like every other vault dweller here. Hope or the lack thereof can equally cripple you. Tonight was one of those little victories. I received an inter-vault mail from Ted telling me he needed to see me tonight, there was something to celebrate.

As I smiled to myself between patients I heard the door slide actuate. Tilda walked in past the counter where the customers waited. She burst into my cubical as she often did like she owned the place.

"Are you going to see Ted tonight?" She asked

"NUNYA!" I said to emphasize her invasion of privacy.

"I'm worried, Callie, I feel like you're going to fast with him. I'd like for the three of us to have a talk." Tilda Said.

"Is that Stevious?" I asked as I rolled my eyes at her concern.

"No, it's a Mr. Handy I'm taking along for some maintenance." Tilda said as she covertly moved her finger to her lips to indicate a secret.

I looked from the Mr. Handy back to her puzzled. She pointed covertly upward and again with two fingers to her eyes. I understood this to mean "they're watching."

"Listen, when you two are done with whatever it is you're going to do tonight, why don't you bring him by our room. I have the perfect test of his intentions." She said as she placed one hand over her balled fist communicating "under cover."

I was intrigued. I knew that whatever this was had to be game-changing. Ted had no ties whatsoever to resistance. Tilda had better not be trying to pull him into something. I knew that I couldn't threaten her now, but I could do my best to communicate the threat with my facial expressions.

I could tell by her reaction that she understood, but her expression was even more concerning. She bit her lower lip as if to say "no choice." I knew my sister well enough to know that the information, or plot she was carrying was cooking her from the inside out. Whatever it was she was going to talk about tonight was going to be a game changer. I watched Tilda walk out of the medical bay as Julia Arvin smiled and winked at her. She frowned at her as she exited the door.

I studied the room as several of the bystanders watched in concern. If there was a plot from the resistance coming to fruition tonight, it would not be by surprise if they weren't more careful about it. This was a detail I had full intention on telling Tilda when I had a chance to speak freely. Then it dawned on me, she wanted us away from whatever was going to happen, she didn't actually want to talk. The rest of the day, I covertly stashed a medic kit and as many stimpacks as I could cook off the books. The little glimmer of happiness and excitement about tonight that I had been riding on was now a feeling of anxiety and dread. I trusted Tilda knew what she was doing, but there weren't many other competent people resistance or otherwise I would trust with an undisclosed plan.

I could not keep tears from welling in my eyes. I was swallowing the ball in my throat so hard that it was intensely painful. I had to try much harder to have faith that it was going to work. I feared that my sister would share the fate of my father if she was caught before during or after this endeavor. This time I was sure that the overseer would commence a witch hunt for those who supported resistance. He was the kind of man who would rather dictate 5 living people and a vault full of corpses than cater to a full vault. I said a silent prayer as I wiped any duress from my face and escorted the next patient in.

Chap 9: Tina Calloway Story

"Who would have thought it would turn out this way? Each of us started as broken mourning individuals. Now we are a secret army. We are dedicated to taking back what was robbed from us. We paid to survive the end of life as we knew it. We were already cheating death. We are living on Borrowed time."

"Fourteen years ago, the very day we all found our new home, a man made it in. Today we know this as the shot heard around the vault. That simple action set the things in motion that showed us the true nature and intentions of our overseer. Why is he called an overseer rather than a governor, or any other form of leadership? Because you wouldn't call a lab supervisor the leader of the guinea pigs would you? Vault-Tec offered us a chance to survive for a ridiculous price, but the fine-print we were not made aware of was that we were to be part of a large series of experiments."

"Each and every one of us are kept fed, healthy, and communized in order to allow them to reap us when they're ready to use us. Brothers and Sister, how many funerals have you attended in the last fourteen years? People have died, yes. Has anyone seen the bodies? Come to think of it, the moment someone is declared Terminal, they are not seen again. I have been made aware of something truly disturbing. There is another wing of Vault 52 occupied by Vault-Tec scientists. Our overseer is charged with giving them specimens. Of which, My husband was the first who was not already sick. Sentenced to death, sure, but even if we behave and no one is sick, we will be drafted eventually."

"Tonight we take this Vault from Vault-Tec. Tonight we turn this Vault into the people's republic of 52 as it was advertised to us. Those of us who have this knowledge have no choice but to fight. To keep his secret, the overseer is willing to kill us all. It's his regime or us. Vault Citizens, stand with the resistance or fall prey to it!"

"Great!" Said Alicia Romans, "There's no way that wouldn't stir something in everyone."

"You don't think the threat at the end is too much?" I asked.

"Not if it's the truth." She replied.

"So you've got it set to broadcast to every pip-boy at exactly 1948?" I asked.

"Yes. I've set a couple traps in the network here for when they try to take the signal down through the mainframe. It should buy enough time to get through the whole speech." She said.

"And you've got capability to broadcast from your pip-boy just in case something goes wrong." I reminded.

"Yes, Tina, I know we haven't been able to talk it out much, but I do well understand the plan." She said.

"Great!. So while V-Sec responds to the breech in the Science Deck, Tilda and I will be thawing Graves and working our way to the overseer's quarters. Are you sure you don't need another body to help with the counter security jobs on both ends." I asked.

"Listen, Tina, I can't very well take another body from the front line out in the Science Deck if I'm not risking anything myself here. I know it's an insurance policy, but the backup protocol is set up to transfer my access gate straight to Nathan Stovall onsite if something happens on my end and he's got protection in place to get him to the terminal safely. With our numbers and our plan, I don't see how we can make this any less risky." Said Alicia.

"I know, I know. If only we could have congregated and planned this openly. Crippling our communication was one of the most detrimental preventions we have overcome. Well may have overcome." I said. "Keep your ear to the rails for the next four hours. I will see you when the smoke clears. If we fail, all hope is lost."

"If we fail, we won't live to see what lost hope looks like. At least not without experiencing whatever horrible experiments they're performing in there." Said Alicia.

"We aren't just fighting for our home. We are fighting for humanity." I said.

"Too bad you didn't work that into your speech." She said.

"I will on the next one." I said with a smirk.

"I can't wait to hear it." She said smirking back.