Chapter 11: Dad
As I walked inside it surprised me to see how well kempt this Vault was. It reminded me a lot of my own Vault. Memories from those days came rushing back in to my head as I trekked further in.
I nearly had a heart attack as one of the doors slid open. On the other side a sizeable robot lied in wait. I instinctively pulled my weapon on it, but hesitated firing on it when I realized it meant me no harm.
"Welcome to Vault 112 citizen, you are exactly 277 years overdue. Please put on your Vault 112 jumpsuit and head for the pod room. If you do not have a jumpsuit I can issue you one." the robot chimed in its synthetic voice.
"No, I don't have a jumpsuit." I responded, and within seconds a freshly pressed jumpsuit ejected from the robots chest. I picked it up and unfolded it.
Wow, it looks like a perfect fit.
I found a small room where I could change in to my new jumpsuit and then placed all of my belongings (except for my pistol, which I strapped to my thigh) on a rectangular table in said room.
I walked back out in to the hall, where the robot greeted me once again. "Please, allow me show you to the pod room."
I followed closely behind it until we came upon a giant room at the center of the Vault. There were many pods placed in a circle around a central nervous system which protruded from the ceiling.
As the robot led me through the room, I felt an eerie feeling come over me. Inside each pod lied a single person who I would have first thought to be dead were it not for the vital signs flashing across the different terminals attached to the pods.
My heart suddenly skipped a beat when I walked past a certain pod which contained an all too familiar face….dad. I pressed my hands and face against the glass when I saw him and called out to him.
"Dad, dad it's me, it's Jason!" I cried, but it was no use.
"Please step away from the virtual reality pod citizen." the robot warned.
"That's my father you stupid robot, I need to get him out of here!" I shouted, and then lifted up my pant leg revealing the hidden pistol.
"I can't allow you to do that human. Relinquish your firearm or I will have no choice but to use lethal force." it threatened.
"Fuck you, I'm getting my father out of here whether you like it or not!" I yelled, and then unloaded a couple rounds in to a part of its head that contained what looked like a human brain.
The glass surrounding the brain shattered and a clear fluid leaked out. The robot twitched a few times and spouted some gibberish in a high pitched voice before finally shutting down.
I found a control panel on the left side of the pod and noticed a button labeled "Eject Sequence". I figured this would be the best way to get my father out of the pod, so I crossed my fingers and slammed my fist down.
The upper half of the pod slowly slid open and released a bunch of pressurized air from within. When it completely opened up, the shackles around my dad's wrists, ankles, and stomach were released, and the leather seat he was lying in slowly lifted him in to a sitting position.
He lay completely still for a good five minutes, and had it been any longer, I would have presumed him dead. I placed a hand on his chest, "Please, wake up dad…" I whispered.
Just then, his eyes suddenly blinked open and he looked around in confusion. His vision must've been blurry because when his eyes settled on me he didn't recognize me at first.
His expression changed from puzzled to a look of pure joy when he finally realized who was standing before him.
"Son…what are you doing here? I thought I left you in the Vault?" he asked as his expression changed once again to an upset one.
I threw my arms around him and pressed my head in to his chest, "I came looking for you." I countered. I probably had tears running down my cheeks from how overjoyed I was feeling. After nearly four months of searching and always being one step behind, I finally found him, I finally found my dad.
He hugged me back and sighed, "Why did you follow after me son, I wanted you to stay behind and live a normal life back in the Vault." he told me.
"I didn't have a choice dad. The Overseer went apeshit and blamed me for your leaving the Vault. Were it not for Amata's help I might've been killed!" I explained.
Dad hugged me tighter and then looked in to my eyes and smiled, "Well, I'm just glad your safe kiddo. Come on, let's get out of this place."
I helped him out of the pod and he stumbled with his footing at first, but he got used to it soon enough. He placed his arm around my shoulder and we walked slowly towards the exit.
"By the way, did you get the information you came for?" I asked him as we trudged along.
"Yes, but it wasn't easy. Dr. Brawne is a mad genius. He has all these people hooked up to a virtual reality simulator, of which he is the Overseer. I knew the only way I could get to him would be plugging myself in. It was a long and arduous process of doing all sorts of menial tasks before he finally told me what I wanted to know. He told me of three other Vaults that were issued a G.E.C.K. but he didn't know exactly which ones still had one. So I got the information, but Brawne refused to let me leave. He said I was part of his world and would remain here for the rest of my life." he explained.
"I'm glad you showed up when you did son, because I didn't know how I was going to get out of there." he added.
I smiled and shook my head, "I'm glad too." I replied.
I made sure to re-gather my belongings and change back in to my normal attire. When we re-emerged in to the Capitol Wasteland night had fallen. I checked my Pip Boy, and it read 9:23 pm. It would be another three days before we reached Megaton, and another four days or so from there before we reached Rivet City once again.
We took our time on the trek back, making sure to avoid sticky situations whenever possible. We did happen upon one group of roving Raiders who spotted us before we spotted them, but I made short work of them when they threatened to kill my old man. Dad seemed a little shocked at seeing how skilled I had become in the short amount of time I had been out here.
It actually took us a little over four days to reach Megaton again, and Simms was more than happy to treat me and my father to a drink at Moriarty's.
We ate a heavy dinner, it had been some time since I had eaten anything worth noting, and even longer for my dad.
We spent an extra day in Megaton to collect ourselves and resupply for the second part of our journey. Dad and I caught up on all that had happened since the both of us had been out. He went in to depth about mom and how it was her dream to purify all of the water in the wasteland.
I laughed to myself, I should have guessed it from the beginning. Mom's favorite passage from the Bible. Revelations 21:6, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely."
With a content smile on my face, I lay back in my bed and closed my eyes. Things were finally starting to look up.
When we arrived at Rivet City dad said he wanted to talk to Madison one more time to see if she wouldn't rejoin him at the purifier. I had to contain my excitement upon seeing her again, I didn't want dad to know, and I knew she didn't either.
It took some time, but after a few hours of talking, yelling, stomping around, and negotiating, my father finally convinced Madison and the others to follow him to the purifier where they could pick up their research once again.
We walked single file towards the memorial with myself at the front as a lookout. The guards at Rivet City told us that the Super Mutants had increased their activity in the area.
Lucky for us we met none along the way. Upon reaching the memorial everyone lined up just outside the entrance to the gift shop. I counted the heads and then told everyone to wait outside while I went in and made sure everything was safe. I had cleaned the Mutants out of the upper half of the memorial, but dad told me of the maintenance tunnels beneath that I had yet to search.
I cautiously made my way down to the lower levels and drew my Assault Rifle from my back. I could hear voices up ahead, Super Mutants no doubt. Two of the brutes were standing around a barrel filled with fire and talked to each other in their slow, childlike manner.
I unloaded in to the nearest one and blew its arm off. It let loose a blood curdled scream and fell to the floor as the other one readied its Hunting Rifle.
Bang!
I cringed in pain as the bullet grazed me ear.
"Fucking die you abomination!" I screamed as I pumped a few rounds in to the brute's chest. It staggered back and loaded another round in to its gun.
Bang!
The bullet hit the wall just inches from my head. I ran forward and butted the mutant in the face as it attempted to load another round. I smashed its face again and again until it fell to the ground and gurgled its last breath.
I heard deep, bellowing laughter coming from the other mutant who's arm I had blown off. I walked up to it and placed the heel of my boot on its throat. "What are you laughing at you freak?" I asked as I pointed the barrel of my rifle at its head.
It laughed louder and looked down at something it clutched in its remaining hand. My eyes widened when I realized that it was holding a live grenade, and I turned to run away as fast as I could.
The grenade went off with a deafening BOOM! And sent me front first in to the wall. I hit the ground and grasped my chest. I could barely breathe, and the only noise I could hear was a feint ringing sound in my ears.
I looked back and saw a pile of gibs where the mutant had previously been. God damn it, I can't believe that freak had caught me off guard and nearly killed me. I grunted aloud and continued to gasp for air. The room suddenly started to spin and the ringing noise picked up in ambience. I checked my health status on my Pip Boy and the little indicator showed my head, chest, and left arm flashing red.
My armor had been almost completely ruined from taking the impact of the blast. It had been singed to hell and I could even see some burnt patches of skin through it. I spat up a bit of blood and coughed as I attempted to get myself up off the floor. I finally managed to get on my feet and leaned up against the wall. I took a Stimpak from my bag and injected it in to my shoulder. I felt a little relieved as the contents flowed in to my body to help me heal. I took another out and injected it in to my side.
The feeling returned to my left arm and the ringing in my head had ceased, I held on to my side and limped off in search of more mutants. Although I wasn't too sure if I would last against another batch.
I found one final mutant roaming the steel corridors of the underground. It ambushed me from behind and smacked me in the back with a large plank of wood. I stumbled forward and threw my hands out to break my fall. I turned around as quickly as possible and fired a single shot from my pistol, which caught the brute right between the eyes.
I laid my head back and moaned in pain. That blow had brought back the ringing sensation and my back and chest burned with such a fire like I had never felt before.
My thoughts suddenly turned to Madison, and I felt a little comforted knowing that by making sure I cleared this place of any danger I was keeping her, and the others, safe.
I got to my feet once again and headed back to tell the others that the coast was clear. My father and Madison both threw their hands over their mouths when I re-emerged from within the memorial.
My dad threw his arm over my shoulder and helped me to lean against the outside wall. "Oh my god son, what happened in there!?" he asked concernedly.
I spat up some more blood and chuckled, "Damn mutant nearly blew me to bits with a hidden grenade." I said in a low, raspy voice.
I could tell Madison was very concerned, but she did her best to hide her true feelings and helped my dad patch me up. They treated my burns, bandaged my ear, and gave me a shot of Med-X to boost my energy levels.
I placed one arm over my dad's shoulder and another over one of the other maintenance guys who had followed us from Rivet City and we all headed in to the memorial.
When we were inside I was placed across a wooden bench where I could recuperate a little from my injuries. Everyone then went about their different tasks of getting the data terminals up and running and cleaning the place up.
When Madison was sure no one was around she knelt down beside me and planted a big kiss on my lips.
"How are you feeling?" she asked me as she ran her fingers through my matted hair.
"Better now." I said with a smile on my face.
"Jason, I have something I've been meaning to tell you since you came back. I'm…" she suddenly cut herself off when she heard someone's footsteps coming from around the corner. She stood up and placed her thumb and index finger around my wrist pretending to read my pulse.
"Madison, everything alright?" my father asked as he came in to our presence.
"Everything's fine James, just making sure your son is recovering properly." she lied.
My dad raised his brow, but his expression soon returned to normal, "Mind if I borrow him for a while?" he asked, and Madison nodded.
I sat myself up on the bench and my dad held his hand out and helped me to my feet. "I know you've been through a lot already son but I had a few tasks in mind and who better to do it than you? It's nothing big, I just need you to go back down to the maintenance tunnels and check on a few things for me." he explained.
I cracked the best smile I could, "Anything for you dad." I replied.
"Great to hear. Now, just head downstairs and I'll radio you over the intercom system and update you as you go along." he said, and then headed back to the rotunda.
I made my way downstairs, no longer having to worry about any danger and waited. The intercoms fired up and the static echoed through the steel corridors. "Can you hear me son?" my dad's voice boomed over the loudspeakers.
"Loud and clear pops." I replied.
"Alright, here's what I need you to do first. Go down to the second level and flush the excess water out of the tunnels. You should find a small panel near a large maintenance door; flip the bottom switch on it."
"Right." was all I said in response. After some searching I found the panel my father had been talking about. I flipped it and within a few minutes my father's voice came over the loudspeakers once again.
"Excellent work son, I can see the water levels lowering in the flooded parts of the tunnels. Now, here's what you need to do next. You'll find a few circuit breakers two rooms to your left. Flip the top breaker of the first, the middle one of the second, and the bottom of the third. That should get the power running at full strength again."
I continued through the tunnels and found the circuit breakers sticking out of the wall. I flipped them in order and the lights flickered on and illuminated the dark corridors and large rooms.
"Fantastic!" I heard my father yell over the intercom, "You're doing great. Next, you'll need to find the mainframe and reset it so we can upload our backup data files from before."
I wasted no time in searching for the mainframe, and when I found it, I reset it with little trouble and awaited further orders.
"Yes, yes! Bang up job down there son! You can come back up now, I need to talk to you about a few things." he told me.
My mind wandered over what exactly my father would want to talk to me about. Had he figured out what was going on between him and Madison? What would he think, would he approve of it?
My fear subsided though as I entered the rotunda and my dad threw his arms around me and squeezed me tight.
"Umm, everything alright dad?" I asked a bit confused.
"Everything's perfect Jason. I just wanted to let you know how proud I am of you. Everything I've heard about your helping the people of the Capitol Wasteland has made me the proudest father in the world. And I know that your mother would be just as proud." he replied.
Tears formed in my eyes and I squeezed him back, "Thanks dad."
A sudden beeping noise coming from one of the terminals broke our happy moment. My father walked over to the terminal and frowned.
"Hmm, it seems there's a blockage in one of the main pipes." he said and then glanced over at me.
"Could I trouble you for one more favor?" he asked politely, and I was more than happy to oblige.
"There's an old sewer grate down the hall in the gift shop that should take you in to the pipe. You should spot an old valve on the wall of the pipe. Give it a good twist and the system should pump enough water through there to clear the blockage."
I found the sewer grate he told me about, opened it up, and jumped down. My feet landed on the damp metal below. It would have been impossible to see were it not for the little lights dangling from above.
I travelled along the pipeline until I found the valve my dad talked about. It stuck out of the lining of the pipe near a busted out section.
I grabbed on to the valve and put all of my weight in to it. I could hear the water pumping through the pipe at my front behind an iron barred door.
The speakers just above my head suddenly kicked on, "That's it Jason, come on back up and-wait, what's that noise?" his tone suddenly changed from ecstatic to upset.