"Begin at the beginning," the King said, very gravely, "and go on till you come to the end: then stop." ― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

~oOo~

"Welcome home, subject 360." A voice came from the darkness. It echoed in the nothing before me as my feet moved. It felt like I was walking through a strong current, pushing past my legs to go backwards. I couldn't see anything, only darkness as invisible hands tugged at my own to drag me deeper into the dark. I couldn't think; I could feel my fingers actually. Everything felt numb or nonresponsive but I could feel the current or the hands but everything else was dull…I can't explain it…

Why can't I think straight?

"It's good to be home doctors." My voice…it sounded so lifeless, hollow, and empty as a bright light was then shone in front of me. I didn't flinch or back away; my feet coming to a stop on front of five shadow figures stood in white doctors' coats with sterile gloved hands, all reaching out towards me. They're faces were hidden in shadow, the only outline I can make of their eyes is from the shine of the goggles that they wore on their faces.

I've seen their faces before…

I know I have…

Have I?

Why can't I remember…

"We have many questions for you subject 360. Please, take our hand. We must begin our work." Their voices echoed together.

"Yes…" My hand was spinning, twirling as my own hand started to move towards them.

"Eve!" Who…who said my name…wait…my name? "Eve…wake up!"

"Come to us subject 360." The doctors' voices got louder and more stern. Someone behind me took my free hand to pull me away from the bright light and into the darkness once more; away from the hands that demanded me that I take them. "Subject 360…"

"Evelyn, wake up!"

The first doctor, the one directly in front of me stepped forward with both his arms stretched out in front of me. I still couldn't see his face in the shadow of the darkness but there was something familiar…. familiar but it felt wrong. I wanted to shrink away from those arms and run but hand betrayed me, trying to touch his.

"Come to us..."

"Don't you dare do this to me!"

"That is an order…"

"Wake up!"

"My pet…"

~oOo~

My eyes shot open, grabbing the person who leaned over me by the arms so that I could use their surprise to flip us so that I would be seated on top of their chest. I placed my forearm snugly against their neck, pressing down so that their oxygen would be cut off. No way this person could shove me off.

I was trained to never let go…

To cut their oxygen off…

To kill…

"Eve…it's…me…Adam…" I froze before scrambling off my brother. I sat a few inches away from him, breathing heavy as I took in the room we were in. It was the pod room they made us step into but only it was cold.

Did they…freeze us?

"Adam, what the hell?! Where are we? What happened?!" I asked him as he coughed. Once air was back in his lungs he looked at me with sad eyes. There was even tears and evidence that he was already crying. "Adam…what's wrong?" I asked him, crawling over to him. He wrapped his arms around my waist, crying into my lap as I held onto him.

"Nora…Shaun…they're gone." Adam said and I looked towards the pod Nora was supposed to be in but what I saw made tears come to my eyes as well. There, in the pod, sat Nora with a blood hole in the side of her head. Her blond hair was matted with it, the blood spatter was everywhere on the inside and her eyes were frozen open.

She sat in a frozen death.

With no Shaun in her arms.

"Adam, where's Shaun?" But Adam didn't answer, he just continued to cry. "Adam, look at me!" I grabbed his face in my hands; making him look at me. "Where is Shaun? What happened?!"

"I woke up in the pod but I couldn't get out. There were these people outside, opening Nora's pod. Shaun started to cry and they tried to take him away from Nora but she fought back. When she didn't give him up freely they…they shot her and took Shaun." Adam explained in what I could make out between his blubbering.

"Who took him? Adam, focus!" I shook my brother.

"I don't know! I only saw the man's face. He was old with a beard and this long scar on the left side of his face. He was wearing funny clothing and there was a woman with him who took Shaun but I didn't see her face. They said that if it doesn't work…at least they still have a backup. Then the pod activated again and I fell asleep." Adam took a breath then looked over at his wife. "When I woke up again I fell out. I tried to help her, I really did Eve, but she was already dead when the pod opened. Then I went to you…but when I got the pod open you weren't breathing either. I tried so hard to get you to wake up. I couldn't lose you too…" He said. I held him close, allowing him to mourn but we needed to get moving.

We needed to find out what happened to us and why.

Where is Shaun and why did they kill Nora?

Or worse, how far away are they from us? Will they come back for us?

"Come on Adam, you need to help me with this. Just hang onto me and we'll get out of here." I told him, trying to get him to his feet but he shook his head.

"What about Nora? We can't just leave her here!" He said and I kissed my brother's forehead. I made him let go of me before I moved over to Nora's pod. I made it so that her eyes were closed and her hands were folded in her lap. I slowly and gently took the wedding ring from her finger to place in my pocket before I closed the pod door and turned towards my brother once more.

"We'll come back to bury her when we find out what's going on. Please Adam, we need to go." I said to him and helped him to his feet. He clung to me as we went through the door we entered from. "Why would Vault-Tec do this to us?" I mainly asked no one since my brother was clearly out of it.

With the door to the way out locked I sat my brother down on the ground while I looked for a different way out. When I got closer to the generator room I almost screamed at the size of the cockroaches that ran at me when I entered a room. I grabbed the baton on the table and slammed it into the head of the bug. Not to mention that there was nothing on the terminal either about what the hell is going on but I only had to hope that the upstairs wasn't as bad a down here.

Yeah, having skeleton isn't what I was actually hopping to see down here.

And more large bugs…

Why did it have to be bugs?!

But finding a 10mm pistol isn't bad either. One for me and my brother along with a couple of rounds for each of us along with some stimpacks. I found a small duffle bag under the self, shoving the weapon except the baton inside. The gun in the case hanging on the wall however isn't bad looking and with only the one bobby pin in my hair I knew that I would have to cross every part of my body to hope that it wouldn't break…

Success!

Now, what the hell is a cryolator?

I shook my head and continued on, logging into the overseers' terminal to find out that this stupid vault is designed to test the long-term effects of suspended animation on unaware human subject. Is everything relating to Vault-Tec involving the use of unaware human test subjects?! They already had Big Mountain full of them but they needed to stick experimental vaults that made people believe that they were saving them, only to fuck around with their heads and bodies! But I also found out what the cryolator is meant to do…sooo, yeah it's a freeze ray basically. I found out what the staff and security were meant to do along with all the other personnel that were stuck down here, waiting for the all-clear signal that Vault-Tec was supposed to give them…

And by judging by the skeleton I found, I'm guessing it's been some years since the all-clear was given. Not to mention the overseers' log was full of memos about what went wrong down here. Mutiny being the only thing that lead to the vault opening.

But where did the people go? Are they even still alive somewhere?

I unlocked the service tunnel which lead me to the entrance way. I took care of more bugs, shivering at the guts that I felt under my boot as I crushed their heads before kicking them to the wall. I backtracked, looking for the medical room where my medicine case was waiting for me, untouched with an inch of dust caked onto it. I slipped the strap over my head before going to find my brother again. But I stopped just short of the door.

There, out of the corner of my eye still strapped to its previous owner was a pipboy.

My brother was right where I left him only he stopped crying and was now just staring into space. I grabbed him, making sure I was supporting him as we walked back to the entrance way. I've never seen my brother so lifeless before; it's scaring me. His face was pale and he looked dead almost; like a zombie. When we got there I sat him on the ground again before tying the door but it needed a pipboy to activate the lock. I plugged in mine and the vault door began to move with a loud creak. Sirens went off as I attached the pipboy I found on the ground to my brother's wrist. I got him to his feet once again, then stretching out my arm to help moved the vault door quicker. It creaked and moaned as I sped up the gears, it sliding to the right as one of the flood lights shone upon us at vault door finally opened; the walkway extending before as we made our way to the elevator.

We stood on it, taking a deep breath as I shit the button to send up back up.

"What if we die?" Adam asked as we started to go up.

"To which I highly doubt but if we do then going up here was for shit." I said and the door above our heads opened up.

The sun…the actual sun shone above our heads in a bright light as we came to a stop at the top. Our vision became cloudy as we adjusted to the brightness but when my eyes focused, I almost began to cry at what I saw.

The world…

The world was destroyed…

Gray, browns, and rust colors were everywhere. Dead trees reached for the sky like skeleton fingers from the grave as the ground cracked beneath them. Fences were bended and twisted and in the distance I could see the neighborhood my brother used to live in. Everything around us looked destroyed or like as if it just sat there for years.

Was there any hope for us in this world?

"Can you walk now?" I asked Adam.

"Yeah." He said, his voice still lifeless. He stood on his feet and followed me as I searched the yellow containers for anything that might help us. Rad-away, rad-x, more stimpacks and these bottle caps that I had a feeling that might come in handy. Who knows, this world is all new to us and anything could be used for currency.

The slow walk back into town felt like forever. The building were rusted and half destroyed, the ground was ripped apart and weeds sprout from the middle of the road. If war did this to the land…I don't want to know what it's done to the people.

"As I live and breathe! You're alive!" I turn my head to see Codsworth floating over towards us.

"Codsworth? You're still here?" I asked him and he began a rant about how he thought we were dead after we ran off towards the vault. I looked over at Adam who simply stared at the house before going inside of it. "What happened after the bombs fell? Is there anyone still alive?"

"There are some people in Concord. They only shot at me a few times miss." Codsworth said. "If I may ask, where is the Mrs. and Shaun? I can see they aren't with you."

"Nora…is gone Codsworth and someone took Shaun." I told him, rubbing the back of my neck.

"Miss, these things you're saying…it must be from your hunger induced paranoia ". Not eating properly for 200 years will do that to you, I'm afraid."

"Wait…200…did you just say 200 years? That's how long we've been asleep?"

"A bit over 210 miss. Give or take of the earth's rotation and a few dings to the old chronometer." Codsworth said and I almost hit the floor with what he just told me. "If the Mrs. and the lad it not with you maybe they're with Shaun's playmate who lives down the street? We can try and see if they're there." Codsworth said, going back to thinking that Nora was still alive.

"It's the truth Codsworth, they're gone! Just stop it!" I screamed at him and regret it. "I'm sorry…Codsworth. Everything…is happening too fast and I'm losing my footing here. I can't…ughh!" I kicked at something at the ground and I ran my hands through my hair. I looked in the direction of the house where my brother disappeared into. He's not himself at all and it's understandable but I can't…I can't help him right now. I need more information about what's going on before I can do anything to help him.

"Miss Evelyn?"

"Codsworth, I'm going to Concord. Adam is inside, watch him. Make sure he doesn't leave the area until I return."

"Yes miss. I'll go see if would like me to whip him up a snack or something." Codsworth said and floated away after I gave him some stimpacks and the gun I picked up for Adam. Going house to house on my way out of Sanctuary led me to some more ammo and a few more medical supplies. The only thing I could clearly paint a picture of is what has happened since we went to sleep when I stumbled upon a corpse and this thing that looked like a dog only it's skin…

I stepped around it and continued on until I reached the Red Rocket truck stop I remember stopping to get a candy bar from before I reached my brother's house. It stood as a shadow of what it looked like before the bombs. The red color turned into rust and windows were long since gone. I'm surprised that it was still standing.

"Woof!" I turned my head to see an actual furry animal I could recognize walk towards me.

"Hey boy, what are you doing out here by yourself?" I leaned down to allow the dog to sniff me. The dog licked my hand before I started to pet it, it's soft fur helping my mind ease the process of trying to wrap my head around what's going on around me.

This animal the only thing of any remembrance.

The dog began to growl and the these rather large pink things popped up from the ground. I switched between the baton and my pistol until the things were all dead. The dog licked my fingers and I petted its head as I calmed my beating heart. It's been a while since I had to worry about things attacking me. Sure, it may have been a couple of weeks but now that I know it's been 200 years…who knows if they're still alive.

If he's still alive.

No…no he's not alive. All humans die. They have to.

After I went through the truck stop, finding what I could I moved on down the destroyed road towards Concord. I heard steps behind me and turned to see the dog following me.

"You gonna start following me now doggy?" The dog woofed and I smiled. "Okay, okay come on. Let's go. We got a lot of ground to cover." I said and the dog ran until he was in front of me, walking ahead. In the distance I could see the small town but at the same time it sent a feeling a dread to my stomach. They looked like ruins, empty shells of what they once were just like the Red Rocket truck stop. I stood at the top of the hill and I looked down at the buildings. Large bugs were eating off a dead corpse and it made my fists clench.

This world isn't what it used to be.

Was this hell?

Or a living nightmare for those who still walked it?

Was there anyone else even still alive despite Codsworth saying that there was people living here?

Would we even survive in this world we woke up in?

~oOo~

Thank you for reading! Please review and let me know what you think!