"Anything you do can get you killed, including nothing." –Unknown.

Chapter 2: Freedom Waits

Three Years Later, Vault 111

Megan's Point of View:

I yawned as the door yanked open to let me out. Finally, a well deserved break from my job the GOAT had to place me in. "Communications specialist" was it? I don't remember the actual title of it anyway, it went something like that. All I knew was that my voice was used for some of the Vault's PA system. It was weird, listening to my own voice sometimes during the public announcements. Everyone didn't seem to notice when I messed up in my presentations except me. Why was that? Everyone thinks I'm the best suited for this job, but I'm the only one that disagrees wholeheartedly. I wanted something a little more, exciting. Sure my job was steady but, what else was there to it?

I intended to relax, read some more of those shoujo manga that the Vault somehow managed to acquire and wound up in my possession. Too bad it looked like chicken scratch; I couldn't understand a single word of it. I entertained myself just by filling in the blanks and using my imagination. What was it called? Fanfiction? Something like that. Sure I had a job and a few friends, Todd being one of them, but I was content enough in my own little world, before reality spoiled it. My stomach was growling a bit, was there anything to eat in the fridge?

"Dad!" I called out. "Is there anything in the fridge?"

I got no response. "Dad?" I looked in his room and saw the pool of blood. "Oh my God..." I stood there in shock. My father's face was slumped over the keyboard, his glasses were smashed on the floor, and the blood splatter was all over the lifeless walls. I closed my eyes, not wanting to believe the sight in front of me. He couldn't be dead, he was fine when I talked to him this morning before I left for work. No...

"SECURITY, ANYBODY, HELP!! MURDER!!" I screamed, bizarrely still staying there. If anyone tried to sneak up on me, honestly, I wouldn't have heard it coming. If the assailant was nearby and he saw me, I would've been dead too. Speaking of which, is he here too?

I heard boots approaching my quarters though, and then it stopped. Why did it stop? That was really strange. Why would the fearless security force's boots stop? I hid under the metal bed in panic. Was it maybe for some small perceived sense of protection? I'd never do that normally though but why was I feeling this way?

"Go search the other rooms, she should still be in here," I heard one of them say. 'She?' No wait, me? What the hell did I have to do with this? I didn't have anything connecting me to this except only that I was his daughter and that I happened to stumble on his dead body. We're they going to arrest me? But why though? Why arrest me? I thought I'd hear a much more friendlier response from them of all people. Are these people that the entire Vault population trusts their lives with that soulless?

"Sir, she's not here."

"Look harder!" I heard the superior bark. "She cannot be far. Where's her workplace? Look there too!"

He was cut off by the Vault's emergency system. "Code: Victor Charlie. I repeat this is Code: Victor Charlie. Vault Compromised in section Alpha Niner. All security personnel report to section Alpha Niner. Code: Victor Charlie."

"Alright guys," I heard him grumble. "You heard the VES, clear out. We can sort this one later. That bitch will pop up sooner or later."

I saw them exiting my quarters out of the corner of my eye. One of my fears was one of them would suddenly peek his head under the bed and say "peek-a-boo!" in an oddly psychotic manner and I'd be scared to death for some shits and giggles. After waiting a few moments in case any stragglers decided to stick around for a while, I tried to ease myself through the gap between my bed and the floor. My vault suit squeaked on the bare metal floor as I squirmed out of my hiding place. Why were they in such a mad rush to kill him? And me?

I tried moving his corpse to get a better look at the computer at the computer screen. I wanted to shriek at the thump of his body but I instinctively cupped my hand over my mouth. If I had screamed that would be the end of it all. Are the Vault out of its fucking mind? My dad's e-mail seemed to answer my questions.

As you may realized oh-so-long-ago, Overseer, you're a fraud. It began in a droopingly sarcastic and scathing tone. Of course, I'm handling all the crap that comes up to my desk from your retarded approach to the chain-of-command and quite frankly, I should be the overseer. The only thing you're doing so well is letting your son run around and making the vault deplore his buffoonery. I don't know what you'll want to achieve in going after Todd or Spencer, but you're nuts. Spencer is completely innocent, Todd more so. There's a request of authorization of use of deadly force on my desk but I'm guessing you expect me to use it as a place mat or a paperweight.

And no, my daughter is not interested in your son, she talked to me and said it's final. I was going to file a restraining order but I think the both of us know how insignificant it means with your hands dabbling in the security forces...

Long letter short, I officially declare my vote of no confidence.

It was never sent. The Vault didn't notice he was shot or probably was told not to notice. I made a painful choice, I had to save Todd from experiencing the needless death of my father by an Overseer's lust for power. Having enough of the lies, I wanted to get out of this place. There must be grass on the other side compared to here, where grass would never grow in the first place. Every step of the way could mean certain death, all for a prize that seemed fleeting at best. I was thinking about yanking Todd out of his bed or mourning the senseless death of my dad, but I could do neither. I'd hope I would never have to return to this place again, I had to be armed, I had to stay alive. That thought constantly nagged me as I sneaked toward the Vault's armory. I didn't know anything outside of here; this Vault could be inside a mountain, on an island, or even at the bottom of the ocean.

Amazingly, every Vault security guard must have been tasked with handling the code Victor Charlie as the halls were devoid of them. Incredibly, their armory doors were wide open, beckoning anyone to come and take whatever dangerous toys were stored inside there. It was that big of a problem. The rumors flowed that they stored assault rifles in there but who really needed them? Two N99 standard-issue pistols and a couple magazines of 10mm ammo would do just nicely. That should be plenty to make a daring escape. Oh, and a few flashbang grenades; not knowing when they'd come in handy but I grabbed them anyway.

For Todd though, he's going to be in for one hell of a nasty shock. When I got to his quarters I caught him napping on the old green sofa, blissfully unaware of everything going outside his doorstep. I put on the best stoic face I could, pushing the grief and sadness away as best as I could manage, if only for a moment. I took a deep breath in and out, trying to mentally prepare for the task at hand. It wouldn't help much honestly but I needed every source of mental strength I could muster.

I wondered what Todd's reaction to all of this crap would be.

Todd's Point of View:

I felt someone shaking my shoulder "Todd, it's me. Wake up! Todd!"

How long have I been asleep? Is there such thing as a light switch? The Vault's lights are on all the time. The glare and the brightness filled my eyes, being slowly replaced by the figure of Megan looking over me. Woah, where did she come from? But yeah, count on her to ruin a perfectly well deserved nap. I needed it, why couldn't she understand that at least?

"Come on Todd! You've got to wake up!" she said extremely worryingly, almost to the point of panic.

"I'm up. I'm up," I yawned and tried to loosen up as best I could. "What was that for? Lemme get back to sleep!"

"No! This is serious!" she exclaimed like she was ready to throw something at me.

"Alright, alright… what is it?!" I was getting irritated. How serious could it be? It's not like the Vault is on fire, there's no infestation, no one has gone psychotic, no one has left, and this place isn't hell. It's a dull and barely manageable hole in the middle of who knows where, but it isn't hell, at least not yet.

"The overseer's gone nuts since your father left the vault–"

"Wait, what?" I said astoundingly. My father leaving the Vault? That son of a bitch overseer and his damn son wouldn't dare let anybody out the vault. "How the hell did he get out? That's impossible-"

"Apparently not. There must be a secret tunnel out of here," she pondered, crossing her arms and thinking deeply. "The only problem is that there could be hundreds of secret tunnels," she thought out loud. I stood up and walked toward the door. "Where the hell are you going?" she demanded, looking at me with her cross eyes.

"Finding him of course," I replied as the door clamored open. "I just need to– Shit!" I exclaimed as a 10mm bullet zipped past my head. What the hell? Sure, I'm his son, but I don't know how he got out. That thought was quickly forgotten as I felt someone nearly choking me to death with my suit to pull my body back in. That metal door quickly slammed down soon after that little brush with death. I had never been so scared in my life; the adrenaline was definitely flowing throughout my body.

"Oh yeah, the security force has us targeted," she growled, giving me a feeling I owed her for that. "I'm sorry you had to find out like this. I'd wish I could sympathize more, but we've gotta get out of here. I've got a plan," she said with the look of uneasy determination.

"I never trust your plans."

"You've got to now," she sighed. "Take these, I nicked them from the armory," she said as she handed me a N99 10mm pistol with two magazines. I think it was around 20 rounds.

"Grab your gear. We'll take care of the guards outside here first, then split up and meet at the overseers office, got it?" she said as quickly as she could, barely understanding her over the ricocheting bullets being fired at the steel door.

"Got it," I huffed, still trying to catch my breath.

"Grab your stuff!" she ordered. I quickly busted open my first aid container that bolted to the wall, making sure to grab a few kits as well as a few small medical tools that could be handy later on. Grabbing the baseball bat was a good idea, in case my ammo ran out. The rest I'd have to leave behind sadly, I wouldn't want to be killed while dragging all of my childhood memories out of here.

"Ready!" I roared. Immediately, she threw one of the flashbang grenades she had with her out the window, dazing anybody that happened to be in the hallway.

The door opened quickly, I saw two officers stumbling and obviously still recovering from the shock of being blinded and having their ears blown out at the same time. They were being ordered to carry out something they probably didn't want to do but I had no choice, they had to be shot. It was painful to say the least. If I didn't have that much adrenaline, I would have been paralyzed in shock.

Time seemed to slow down at that moment when I brought the N99 pistol up and aimed it at the officers. Forcing my finger to pull that trigger, I could not reflect nor empathize in that painful moment. Blood streamed out of any hole it could find as the security officers collapsed onto the metal floor, gasping and struggling as they clung to their fading life. Their helmets looked really nice but I wasn't so sure of running around with my head smelling like fresh dried blood. If there was a god, maybe he could forgive me for murdering someone. I know it's morally wrong but if I'm going to be murdered in the Vault, the least I could do was fight.

Megan split off and ran off someplace. I should have asked her why, thinking that we would be more effective in a group, but it was too late now. I headed toward the atrium, where I knew the shortest route led to the administration section was. The overseer must have predicted I would be heading this way as four more officers met me there with their pistols drawn and batons raised. After a few shots rang out, I ducked behind the nearest cover I could find, a metal desk. It's a good thing those crudely made, nuclear like steel desks came in handy.

"Surrender!" one of them said. "Put down your- AAAAGUH!!" he shirked in horror, "Radroaches! I'm bit! They've ambushed us!" I peeked out from behind the desk to see 12 radroaches each surrounding an officer three to one, ravenously trying to rip off flesh from their hapless victims. Yep, this place has gone to hell, my initial reasoning has utterly failed me. I waited for the officers with their batons and pistols flailing about and swinging like crazy, to be fatigued by the radroaches. When I thought they were sufficiently weakened I got out, drew my pistol, and fired, making sure to deny the opportunity to fire back at me.

I sprinted up toward the admin complex, swatting aside radroaches that dare stray into my path with my baseball bat. It would be too time consuming to kill them all anyway. I resorted to let the bulkhead door slam loudly behind me and catch my breath. They're a pain to deal with in swarms but I'm not afraid of those humongous sized bugs one on one. It's just that taking on a swarm was not a good idea, especially with my limited amount of bullets. Looking out of the corner of my eye, I noticed one roach trying to wriggle its crushed lower half out of the bulkhead with its front legs. Poor thing, it would probably die due to starvation or dehydration. I put it out of its misery by arching the bat back and letting it fall with a sickening crack, splattering its grime and fluids everywhere. What a slimy mess it made on the bat, I hope it isn't radioactive.

I slowly stalked over to the administration section, turning around every once in a while to visually check all around me. The vault is filled with hidden tunnels that the overseer knows about, at least what the rumors that flow around this place say. I'm not taking that chance of somebody suddenly catching me off guard and then clubbing me over the head. I pointed the pistol every direction I thought possible. My heart was pounding; eyes were twitching left and right. My feet were contacting the metal floors as lightly as possible as my hands were tightly wrapped around the pistol, my finger ready to pull the trigger, all for that one moment. My breathing got heavier and slower, I was prepared for anything, even if I was ambushed from behind.

"NO!!! DON'T TOUCH ME!!" I heard someone screaming down the hall. That completely caught me off guard as I nearly fired that pistol; that would have not been good. I slowly crouched and inched my way down, making sure to take slow, light steps.

"What makes you think I helped him out?!" I could figure out whom that was, she got caught unfortunately.

"It's pointless to argue, Megan," said a voice. "Cameras, bugs; they're everywhere. A third of the vault monitors the other two-thirds. Did you really think you could get away with this?"

My legs pained as I sneaked closer to listen in. Crouching down without getting noticed was painful, my thighs were sore, I am not that flexible. I was right under the windows. Amazingly, I guess all the security force was dealing with the infestation or looking for me. They couldn't be that dumb could they? They have a lot of balls to not have any security protection. I glanced at the overseer's balding dark blonde hair. It's obviously dyed, I don't know who else in the vault has access to luxury items like hair dye. Somehow, they were having too much fun with the interrogation session to notice me. With all the draconian laws set up in this place, there's always room for some fun, it's just that there's an extra special case that sat right in front of him.

"But," the overseer snickered. "We can always make a deal for first time offenders, as you've been a very good and charming little girl." He pulled out his pen, gingerly twirling it around his hand and fingers. "What can we set up for you? I've heard you wanted a promotion or something different to do. Maybe some sultry voice acting, perhaps?"

"You wouldn't dare," Megan scowled.

"Oh?" the overseer inquired, surprisingly very calmly. "If you can't agree to anything else, maybe I think Evan has the perfect job for you."

Right on cue, Evan's god-forsaken ass came out from out of the woodwork. He was holding a manila folder, tattered around the edges and held together with some of the most third-world masking tape available. They must have had to recycle a bit from the previous inhabitants, seeing they couldn't find more folders to steal from us. He coolly took a peek inside the folder and chuckled in delight. Megan looked there scandalized, she was powerless. I wanted to rush in there and knock both of the suckers down, but now was not the most advantageous time. He was still off to the side; I couldn't sneak in without the overseer noticing me.

"Well, lookie here Meggie," Evan murmured, looking at the manila folder once more, stroking his finger over it. "Says here, the GOAT placed you into 'Black Widow'. I'm guessing you could swoon a number of Billy Goats in this vault with your fucking services."

"Do I look like a fucking whore to you!?" Megan demanded.

"Of course not," Evan raised an eyebrow. "That's why we have plastic surgery." He scanned his eyes around her petite figure, "In my opinion, I think we can lift the eyebrows, reduce the chin, smooth out some of the pimples, maybe some implants-"

"Don't patronize me, you asshole! We don't even have a doctor anymore!" Megan was quick to point out. "How can you expect to do plastic surgery without a doctor?"

"True," Evan yawned and stretched out his body, pacing about the room and stopping right in front of the door. "We can always retrain people, we have some smart people in the Vault."

Now was my chance. I sprang from my spot and managed to get my left arm around Evan's neck. The both of them probably didn't expect me to suddenly come in from under their noses, but I figured they were just stupid little shits. I didn't like putting anyone in a hostage situation, but sadly I had no choice. I wanted freedom however ironically, Evan the tyrannical son, would be my way out though this mess. Despite that I hate his guts to death, I wouldn't have dreamed to put him in an extremely terrifying situation or using him as a bargaining chip. Revenge was utterly bittersweet.

However, my contempt for him still registered in that moment. "Unfortunately, just some smart people can't save the vault," I said, grabbing the pistol and holding it in my right hand, pointing it straight ahead, though making sure not to point it directly at Megan.

"Todd!" Megan gasped in disbelief. "Why?"

"Dad! Help me!" Evan cried out.

"Unfortunately," the overseer grumbled. "I don't offer the same deals to repeat juvenile offenders."

"Hmph," I snorted. Even though I ran into minor amounts of trouble with the security forces, that didn't excuse his sorry ass for being a conceited bastard. "Why would I want to work in the vault for? I'm sick of this place! I'd rather die out there in the wasteland than live all my life in this hole!" I demanded, I'll admit, desperately. "Just let me out and I won't harm anyone else, especially your goddamn son."

"Never," he rebutted. "I would never submit to the likes of you."

"I don't think you realize the position you're in," I argued calmly. "Medical services gone, just one armed resident, somehow getting into the administration section, holding the overseer's son hostage; sounds like a formula for public relations nightmare. I don't think I need to spell out if something happens and there's no doctor."

"Are you calling me weak!?" Evan shouted, trying to squirm free from the grasp around his neck.

"No, I'm not," I retorted, tightening my grip on his head, trying to get him to stay still. "I'm just saying you have limited options."

"You do too," the overseer was quick to retort, looking at Megan. "I know that without her, going solo for you would be difficult at best, considering the hostilities and the unknowns of the wasteland". He twirled his pen once more. "Plus it seems to me that you care for her a good deal, what would happen if all that was, taken away?"

Megan gasped; she didn't think the overseer would be that desperate. However, I thought the old man was bluffing, trying to copy my own arguments to beat me at my own game. Counting on the assumption that father-son relationships are stronger than friend-friend relationships, I made my move to corner him. It was my last attempt, before I'd do something that would create a huge mess for all of us. Hopefully not shootouts within the space of a closet but I wasn't planning on anything pretty.

"What a weak bluff," I grumbled. "If your son was killed right now, with all the personnel you have under you, a power struggle would probably erupt within the vault. Am I right, you incompetent son of a bitch?"

"You wouldn't dare," he scowled. "Threaten to kill people for a tiny glimpse of freedom."

"I would. Just give me the way out, release Megan, and no more shots will be fired. Claiming that you look out for the vault is your biggest concern, right?"

"Fine, here!" the overseer pulled out of his pocket the key with the password attached to it, and kicked it across the bare metal floor. I caught the keys with my sneakers, making sure to keep an eye as the overseer started to slowly let Megan out of the chair. Evan stammered his way to his father after I released my grip on him.

The overseer issued one final warning, "If you dare show you face around this vault again, I will personally make sure you are shot on sight!"

"Hmph. That won't be in a long time old geezer," I put my gun back to my side and began to take a leisurely stroll to the overseers office. How easy exactly was it to get out of this place? I'll admit, the thought of killing the poor fucks crossed my mind a couple of times but they were more adept at screwing the Vault over than anyone else.

"Todd!" Megan called me. I spun around to find her staring at me, trying to put on the best straight face she could. She stood there for the longest time, just staring. I was going to make some kind of sarcastic remark of telling her to relax or just to tell me what it is. Strangely, I stood there motionless trying to anticipate what she was trying to say.

"Todd…" Megan muttered blankly.

"Yeah?"

"Can you take me with you?"

I sighed. What should I do?

TO BE CONTINUED...

Thank you for the 3 reviews I have received and 1 alert from Centurious The Azure.

In response to the concerns that my vault was too similar to 101, I wanted to have a good foundation to work off from. I apologize for the Carbon Copy-ness of the first chapter. I hope by reworking the dialogue in this chapter it will stray away from that.

All trademarks belong to their respective owners, including Fallout 3 to Bethesda, and of course my characters.