Chapter 4 Home no more

"He he he you can't catch me Amata you're gona have to run faster if you want if back." Douglas shouted playfully to his 16 year old best friend, as he held a book she had been buried in for the better part of two weeks ignoring him in the process hostage. Running from her as she angrily shouting his name as they ran through the lower levels of the vault that only they and the vaults mechanic Stanley dared to enter. "Douglas! Douglas bring that back right now!" She yelled as she starting to enjoy the chase. "Nuh uhhh you got to catch me if you want it back, it's what you get for ignoring me for the last week and a half." He said as he took a wrong turn into a dead end of the labyrinth that was the vaults lower levels. Turning around to get back onto the right path only to have Amata tackle him like a blur sending them both to the floor laughing all the way. "Got you, now hand it over." She said reaching for the book he held in his hand smiling down at him. "Ok ok you win Amata, this time." He exclaimed smiling back up at her handing her the book. "I miss you, you know, when you seal yourself away to read those books of yours." She'd done it enough times for him to start getting more than a little annoyed prompting this adventure in the lower levels. "I know sorry I just get absorbed, kinda like you when you find something new you haven't taken apart to see how it works." She said blushing at his admission and noticing their closeness. She wasn't the only one who had either. Douglas had noticed her blush his mischievousness rearing its head as he took advantage of their position to trap her in his ticklish embrace. "Ahhhhhhh nooo Douglas stop he he he he he, Douglas he he he stop Douglas, Douglas, WAKE UP WAKE UP!" Snapping from him from his pleasant memory made dream to her shaking him awake and sirens blaring in the vault, he always did sleep like a rock.

"Ohh hey Amata I was just dreaming of you." He said smugly causing her to scowl at him. "Now's no time to be a smart mouth you've got to get up my father's men are looking for you." She exclaimed almost at the point of hysterics. "Why? I haven't given them a reason to detain me and where's my dad at? How'd you even get in here anyway?" He asked confused and still half asleep. "Your dad he's left the vault and my father he's gone crazy he….. he killed Jonas." That woke him up like sack of bricks falling on him Jonas was a great friend of his and his fathers, even training under his father to become a second doctor for the vault he was a lot of fun to be around. "WHAT!? Ohh god Jonas, what do you mean my father's left the vault that's impossible?" He said very much awake now and reeling for this sudden information being brought to him by his best friend. "Your dad left as in no longer is in the vault, you can't tell me he didn't tell you he was planning this, can you?" She asked worried for her friend and what the information she had just dumped on him was doing to him right now. Shaking his head while clutching at the hair on his head he answered her. "No I had no idea he was planning this, I didn't even know it was possible to leave I mean I know there's a door but… I" Trailing off still as he was still reeling from this sudden news. "None of that matters now, you need to get out of here before my father's goons get here otherwise…" She couldn't finish that thought. The sheer idea made her stomach turn in fear of her best friend's life. "And go where? The lower levels if it's as bad as you say it is….. NO! absolutely not, I'm not leaving the vault that's suicidal." He knew what she was going to suggest before she even had to say it. The surface can't sustain life or can it? "You have to if my father gets ahold of you he'll kill you too, and I can't bare that thought." Douglas knew she was right even though he didn't want to leave his home, and more importantly Amata behind just to follow his dad he had too. "Ok ok you're right I need to pack, I can't just go out there in only my suit." He said while franticly gathering everything he could think of and stuffing them into his baseball pack. "Here take this I took it from my father's room just in case." Handing him an N99 pistol and ammunition while he just stared at her. "Jesus! All right I'll try not to use it on anyone here unless I have to." Accepting the items from her and shoving the gun into his suit pocket. "I'm going to go see if I can calm my father down and stop this madness, make your way to my father's office there's a secret tunnel in there to the vault entrance. Good luck." With that said she ran off to try and find her father as Douglas grabbed his pack and baseball bat and made his way out into the hall outside his apartment.

"There he is I found him, Ohh shit more roaches!" Douglass turned to see Officer Kendall being attacked by three radroaches the size of a housecat. Against his better judgment he aided Kendall only to have him grab onto him after the roaches were dealt with. "Get the hell off me!" He yelled as he was grabbed from behind. Douglas's arms were trapped from the officers reverse bear hug whom wasn't going to listen. He put all his weight into throwing himself backward smashing Officer Kendall into the wall behind them stunning him long enough to get out of his hold. Turning around Douglas struck Kendall in the face with a right hook with enough force to bust his nose. Kendall stunned by the move kicked Douglas away with his leg causing him to stumble onto his back. "SON OF A BITCH! You brat I'm going to beat you into paste." Kendall yelled blood streaming down his face as he whipped out his telescopic baton. Scrambling to his feet Douglas grabbed his bat which had been knocked from his hands when Kendall had grabbed him and swung it as hard as he could connecting with the officer's right forearm and breaking the bone. "AHHHH! You son of a-." Kendall didn't get to finish his pained curse as Douglas swung the bat again hitting his helmet with enough force to knock him out cold. "Screw you Kendall and to think I saved your sorry ass." Douglas didn't waste any more time grabbing his pack and the officer's baton before making his way quickly down the main hall toward the diner. "Help! You gotta help me my mother she's trapped in there with those roaches. Please!" The call for help came from Douglas's least favorite person in the vault well second now that honor belonged to the overseer now, Butch Deloria the vault bully and leader of the Tunnel Snakes the vault's local gang. The same Butch whom made his and Amata's life difficult on more than one occasion throughout the years. "You have to be kidding me Butch if only you knew what irony meant." Butch just scowled at him but knowing he needed help he didn't retort back. "Please my mom I can't go in there alone. I know I've been a complete jerk but please you can't just let my mom die. Please!" Sighing Douglas knew he was right he couldn't let her die out of spite, what would have that made him certainly a worse person than Butch was. "Ok but you're going to help me do it take my bat and lets go." Handing Butch the bat and equipping Kendall's baton they rushed into the apartment toward the cries of Butch's mother. They made short work of the roaches and got his mom to the living room. "Thank you man you're alright, I think she's going to be ok now. Listen take my jacket as thanks for helping my mom I can't thank you enough."

Douglas now wearing his new leather jacket ran past the dinner toward the stairs to the vault's clinic and school getting a glance at Old Lady Palmer dead on the floor of the diner as he passed. "Poor Mrs. Palmer she didn't deserve to die to those damn roaches. He muttered to himself shaking his head at the loss while ascending the staircase only to stop half way up at the sight of another guard. "Ohhhh kid you're damn lucky it was me that found you and not any of the other guards." Douglas relaxed instantly hearing the voice of one of his only friends in vault security Officer Gomez. Gomez had taught him how to box in the vaults exercise facility and had become his weight trainer helping him to hone his muscles. "Ohh man you scared the hell out of me Gomez I thought you were another of that lunatic's goons." Letting out a breath he had been holding since he first saw him he approached up the stairs till he has at the landing at the top. "Don't think I don't know it I work for him after all, you need to get the hell out of here kid he's not happy not one bit." He knew that more than anyone at the moment it was his life in danger he had to go. He and Gomez made their way toward the clinic hearing a commotion and seeing flames they hurried to find Andy had fried several roaches with his built in torch. A few moments later Stanley came out of the clinic he had been hiding in it while Andy handled the infestation. "Hey Douglas don't worry I haven't seen you, you and your dad always did right by me I owe you that." Douglas gave a silent nod and went into his dad's office at the back of the clinic finding in in ruins. "Looks like this isn't some elaborate joke after all, this place is a mess. Dad would never let it get this way, unless he did it himself." He mumbled to himself stepping on the medicine bobble head that had always sat on his dad's desk which he leaned down to pick up and stuff into his pack before leaving not wanting to stay any longer, else he let his anger at his father grow for not telling him his plans to leave. As he made his way out and down the next stair case into the vault's atrium he heard gunshots and a woman yelling no before more shots rang out before stopping abruptly. He pulled his own pistol from his suit pocket taking off safety. Peering around the corner he saw the corpses of Mary and Tom Holden gunned down by two vault security officers at the access to the vault door. What happened next was a blur as his anger boiled over losing all control of his actions. Smoking gun in his hand and the bodies of the two vault security officers at his feet lifeless and unmoving, he came too looking down in shock. "Ohhhhh god what the hell did I just do? I… I killed them I don't remember doing it what the hell happened?" The bodies of the two guards were filled with holes and yet not a scratch was on him for the trouble. "I got to get out of here, right now."

Douglas ran up to the next level of the vault toward the security room and the overseer's office killing the roaches in the stairwell as he went along only stopping to peer around the corner of the hall near the security office. "Hey you punk get over here, now!" It was Vault Security Chief Hannon that had spotted him down the hall baton out and running straight toward him. He ducked back around the corner and prepared to swing as the chief rounded the corner. As the chief ran round the corner as if to give chase Douglas swung his bat straight at the chief's face knocking him flat on his ass, to which he smashed him in the face with the end of the bat to knock him out. "Goodnight Chief." It was after this he heard Amata talking as if in distress about something. He ran to the security office and looked in the window catching Amata's eye. She was being interrogated by he own father and his go to goon Officer Mack. That brought rage to his eyes, he didn't even think as he ran to the door of the office opening it and tackling Officer Mack to the ground. "DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH HER YOU BASTARD!" He yelled wrestling Mack on the ground, the two exchanging punches on the ground while Amata ran out the door and her father watched. Douglas grabbed ahold of Mack's un-helmeted head and pounded it into the ground many times until the man stopped moving. Getting up off the floor he made quick strides toward the source of his anger the overseer and grabbed onto front of his suit. "IF YOU SO MUCH AS TOUCH A HAIR ON HER HEAD EVER AGAIN I WILL END YOU, YOU UNDERSTAND ME!" He yelled to the man's face with rage burning in his soul piercing eyes and nothing but hate for the man in front of him. "I understand now let me go or I'll-." The overseer didn't get to finish that sentence as Douglas Grabbed onto his head and drove it into his knee breaking his nose and throwing him to the floor. "Have fun fixing that with the only other person that could fix it being dead by your hands scumbag." Douglas left without another word leaving the overseer clutching his broken face in agony to go find and console his best friend, only to come across the body of his friend Jonas in the next corridor. "Jonas no, I'm so sorry Jonas you didn't deserve any of this." All the anger left him and was replaced by sadness for his fallen friend. He took a moment to remove Jonas's glasses and shut his eyes as a final respect to his friend, it was then he noticed a holotape in his coat pocket with a note attached stating for Jonas to give this to him after his father had left. He had known about his father's crazy idea and had gone along with it. "Damn it Jonas why? Why didn't you tell me before he left?" No time to listen to it now he got up and went to find Amata in the overseer's chambers. "Amata are you ok?" He asked tenderly to his tearful friend while crouching down near her. "You didn't kill him did you?" She asked looking at him tearfully. "No, As much as he deserves it I wouldn't be any better than him if I killed him in cold blood like that, besides ide be hurting you more than ide be hurting him doing it." She tearfully hugged him at his statement and he hugged back. "You need to go, now before security gets up here. And here you will need this to get into my father's office." She handed him a keycard for the office telling him to go. In the office Douglas had grabbed the ammunition out of the overseer's arms lockers there and made his way over to the terminal which needed a password. "Shit ok, R, no, T, no, A." An affirming beep signified the correct input and the granting of access. Very smart, dumbass. Shaking his head Douglas found a few files on the outside world downloading them to his pipboy and executing the command to open the escape tunnel, to which the overseer's desk behind him rose up on pneumatic pistons. "Ok, that's actually pretty cool reminds me of the silver shroud's lair."

Douglas chuckled as he ran down the stairs of the escape tunnel leading to the vault's only entrance. Upon facing the huge gear shaped metal door he just stared at it like it was a mythical creature of some sort that should not be seen. This is it no going back once I open this last door. His thoughts forcing him to act he connected his pipboy to the vault mechanism and executed the sequence to open it. An ear piercing sound of groaning and grinding metal filled the room as the door began to slide back into the room before rolling into its open position. "You did it. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes I wouldn't believe it." Amata exclaimed awestruck at the door sitting there open to the cave leading to the war torn surface. Douglas looked back at her feeling like he couldn't go through with it now that she was here with him. "Come with me, we can leave and never look back Amata, make our own life." He said desperately wanting nothing more than that in his life. "I can't I'm the only one who has a chance to calm my father down and if I'm gone I can't bear to think of what he would do." He heard her words all of them like a hole in his heart and a storm above his head. The access door seal was broken behind them snapping out of his sorrow. "You need to go n-." He stopped her with a kiss surprising her but she returned the kiss only parting when they heard the guards opening the door and rushing into the room. "I'm coming back Amata I promise." He shouted back to her as he ran, ran out into the cave toward the light at the end nearly tripping on skeletons beyond the vault threshold. Ran from the only world he had ever known and from the girl he had loved since that day of chase back in the lower levels of the vault three years before. He was coming back no matter what it took to survive he would come back he had to.

If there is one thing that has kept me alive out here it's not the armor or the guns or the allies I've made out here, it's her and the promise I made I wouldn't let anything stop me from completing the only quest that mattered to me. No matter what I would come back.

Authors note: Yay combat and roid rage double yay, I'm joking don't do drugs. Anyway that's the first time I've written combat dialog let me know what you think, I found it fun and satisfying. Also longest chapter yet they keep growing don't they? Thanks for reading and don't forget to review, please I'm pining for your attention I need it.

Side note: Wow! After reading back through this I didn't realize some of the mistakes I made in the writing sorry bout that. Should be better revised now.

Sincerely Bradknight