Fellwood
Prologue part 2
When we amassed in front of the vault doors, we were nothing short of ecstatic. Finally, we would see something not made of metal, something not lit by fluorescent lights, finally… I don't know really, we just wanted something different, something which was not the vault.
The Overseer had presented the search squad to us, though I only cared about one person there, really, Binky Barnes. He used to be a "Tough Customer" back when all they were was a group of kids throwing water balloons in the playground. He quit to join the security force, he was also a good friend. One of the bravest people I know. Mei-Lin, his little sister, was almost twelve at the time I think.
I wasn't surprised that Prunella wasn't there, she and her older sister had been arrested and placed into custody the previous day for unlawful disruption of public order. They freaked out when the Overseer announced we were opening the doors, they called out against it, and practically lost their marbles.
Security teams were standing in front, covering the vault door, in case whatever was out there was hostile. The Overseer gave a short speech, commending the courage of the volunteers, suggesting that we hold prayers for them until they returned, funny, didn't think Mr. Armstrong was the religious type.
I know I wasn't, I didn't like to count the off chance that some deity who didn't protect us from nuclear war might decide to be nice to me. I had Buster, myself, Slink and Molly get some guard armor and weapons from the storehouses. Slink was in second-in-charge of inventory, so he had access to everything. The tan rabbit wasn't best of friends with me, really, but he respected my leadership and helped out when needed.
With us were D.W., Emily, Mei-Lin (Binky's adopted sister), James (Molly's younger brother), The Brain, Rattles, Sue-Ellen, Francine and Prunella's friend, Marina, the blind rabbit. If you really need to ask why there were so many rabbits around, you obviously know nothing about rabbits.
We were all sitting inside the security chamber off the side of the entrance hall, didn't want to get caught with "borrowed" vault gear, cleaning the toilets did not sound like a fun job to do for the rest of my life. So we sat there, waiting, until finally, with one last gulp, the security chief opened the vault door.
Loud conversations silenced immediately, as the sirens went off, red spin-lights spreading abnormal shadows on the walls, as the mechanical arm latched unto the door, pulling it back, and slowly rolling it to the side. No visibility whatsoever past the few feet where the light from inside the vault lit up the dark cave. Whatever generator was working outside when we first came in must've died years ago. The silence continued, as Binky, the first of the search squad took the first step outside of the vault.
"What does it look like?" Marina asked, I remember Francine shushing her. But I said, "It's dark." We were hypnotized, faces practically glued to the glass window. I felt Molly shivering next to me, and held her hand tightly in mine.
Binky advanced several steps until he reached the edge of the light cast from inside. He turned back, flipped a thumb up, and then turned back, pressing the light button on his pip-boy.
Ah, the pip-boy, I neglected to talk about it, the device which was now an inseparable part of any vault citizen, a wrist mounted computer, fused into our bodies and irremovable. Once we turned 11, we were slapped on with this thing, easier to keep track of that way. It allowed instant access to the vault PA system, and the vault radio, not to mention the various other uses it had. Health monitoring, stimpack injection port, chore list, alarm clock, schedule planner, easy access to most computer and every function you'd find on a PDA. Since our vault was one of the last built, our pip-boys were of the newest model, their database was large, and they were able to scan any object and display information about it, should they have it in their database.
Back to what I was saying, Binky gave a thumb up, turned back around and flipped on the light in his pip-boy. We only got a glance at what was on the other side of the darkness before Binky was ripped in two. Whatever it was, it was huge. I felt Molly's hand clench on my own painfully, and gasps from the girls. From outside, screams and gunfire; when the creatures charged inside, I knew it was a lost battle.
Monsters, some of them must have been over twelve feet tall, huge, horned lizards, rows of razor sharp teeth, and front claws that could tear apart a tank. But they weren't just big, they were quick… so fast, it was moments before they were inside, shrugging off small arms fire as though it was a small mosquito sting.
I'm not going to talk about what happened to the audience, to my parents… to my youngest sister... Those things killed everyone in there, and moved further into the vault, fortunately not paying any attention to the small security chamber on the side.
I don't remember much of what was going on, only that everyone around me was screaming or crying, Buster was swearing, Brain was mumbling to himself, D.W. wanted mom and dad, Mei-Lin had passed out and Marina was not responsive.
Molly shook my shoulders; apparently I've been stone frozen for minutes, "Arthur! ARTHUR!" She screamed, "What do we do? What do we do Arthur?" I stuttered, I didn't know what to say. I anticipated something hostile might be out there… but nothing like this, nothing that could massacre so many people in moments.
"We have to get out of the vault, and seal them in." I said, Francine yelled back at me, "No, my family's inside, we have to go help them!" I lost my nerve, probably, because I slapped her, the others looked at me when they heard the resounding noise.
"They're DEAD Francine," I called out angrily, pushing her face against the glass. "Look!" I called out, "They're dead, everyone! My parents, Mr. Armstrong, everyone! The guns do nothing to those monsters! The only way to be safe, the only way for us to survive is to get out of here, and seal those monsters in! We open this door, run out into the cave; I'll stay behind and pull the vault switch, then break it. I'm fast enough to make it before the vault door closes." I explained my hasty plan; at that point I was far beyond thinking of anyone who might've been trapped in the vault.
"No Arthur!" Molly begged, "I'll stay behind, I'm faster than you." I wanted to slap her too, but I couldn't, I wanted to say something, to argue, but Francine interjected.
"I'll do it, I'm the fastest one here." I looked at her, the side of her face was red, I had overreacted. We all nodded; there was no time to argue.
Right before we opened the door, Slink asked, "What if there are more of them out there?"
"Well, at least we'll have somewhere to run to." I answered, waiting for everyone to be ready, before opening the door and starting a mad dash towards the exit.
Marina was holding on to Buster, but fell as she slipped on some blood, she was on top of a body… it was impossible to tell who, and she was covered in blood. She started screaming, but luckily, Buster was strong enough to hoist her over his shoulder and sprint with her.
Once outside, I remember looking back, when I heard Francine smashing the handle on the vault door controls, I remember how she looked me in the eyes, before running inside the vault, letting the door seal her in, she was always braver than I was, and that stung far worse than any indignity about her not following my plan.
We emerged out into the cool cave air, lighting up our pip boys, Molly was holding my arm, as though to make sure I was still behind her. We followed the trail towards the exit of the vault, but something caught my eye in the dark.
In the dark corner next to a large stalagmite, two burning red eyes were shining in the dark. It sent chills down my spine, we ran all the way to the exit, and then finally stopped before we went out into daylight. We needed to adjust, ten years without daylight is a long time.
We collapsed on the floor, convinced of our security for now, after all we sealed those things inside the vault, didn't we? I felt a pang of guilt when Buster asked where Francine was.
"She stayed inside, the idiot." I answered breathlessly, Molly hugged me tightly, I felt her tears slide down beneath my armor, soaking through my vault-suit. I hugged her back and whispered in her ear.
:It'll be alright, we're out now, we're okay." I said, what an idiot. It was a day's walk back to Elwood city, and we were all rather broken from our ordeal.
We sat there for another fifteen minutes before the outside glare lessened, and then, standing up, holding hands, we went outside…
The once beautiful valley was now spread beneath us, what was once a highway was now a shattered, ancient looking rubble serpent, what was once a forest reserve green with trees was now dead brown with the occasional barren stump, or tree jutting out of the ground in odd angles. We hadn't taken any water, save for the canteens on our uniforms.
Off in the distance I could see vague shapes that resembled the city, as in resembled I mean, what was left of it. But if we persisted we could probably get to Crosswire motors within a day, take shelter there, and maybe find a working car.
We started walking, taking in the dead, yet somehow beautiful scenery. It was nothing like we hoped, but I had too keep everyone's spirit up.
"Alright, we can breathe," I said, "Try not to finish up your canteens, and don't drink any water out here, it's probably irradiated." Good job Arthur, keeping the spirits up. After a moment's thought, I realized, "If we can make it in town, we can pick up water bottles, those are likely to be safer. I know we've just been through a bad trip. But if we want to live, we need to keep going, instead of looking back." I held Molly's hand, and my sister's. James was hugging Molly tightly. Mei Lin was now being piggybacked by Brain. Marina and Buster, now covered in blood and shaking both held each other. Slink seemed pretty casual to me, almost calm, but his arrhythmic foot thumping gave away his anxiety.
"We need to be strong, we need to keep going, we need to survive, otherwise leaving the Vault would have had no purpose. I need to know that you guys are with me, that you're willing to go on and not give up. If not for me than for your families, they wouldn't want you to give up." I said confidently, I lost my mother and my sister there, I knew exactly how they felt.
"I'm with you Arthur, and I think it's safe to say we Tough Customers are all down with this." She looked at Rattles and Slink, both nodded, she smiled at them proudly.
"Us too, Arthur." Alan said.
Buster nodded and added, "We're your buddies, no way we're giving up while you're leader."
I noticed Emily was holding something in one of her hands, it was bloody, it was Binky's badge, with his picture. "I… thought Mei Lin might want this." She said sadly.
I nodded, "Let's get moving, we have a long walk until we get home."
So we walked, we walked for a day and a half before we reached Crosswire Motors. We had a run in with wild dogs, and some huge roaches, but we were otherwise unharmed. When we got there, the place was ransacked. We armed ourselves with various spare parts Brain thought he could make things out of, and a tire iron or two, could be useful if we ran out of bullets.
We decided to check the reservoir, but we saw some large mutated creatures near the water and decided we should probably steer clear.
We were almost at the school when we first encountered them… raiders…
Sick sadistic human beings, bent entirely on killing or enslaving what came in their path.
They made the first shot, nearly got me, we fired back, but our weapons were no match, we were forced to retreat. We took refuge in Marina's old house, which was left standing by some miracle. That night Molly and I made love for the first time. We never had the privacy to do that in the vault, and I guess we both wanted to do it before one of us was killed; a very likely option then.
We decided that early in the morning, we'd strike back, raid their weapon supply and kick them out, Brain determined their base of operations to be the school. So Buster, Slink, Brain, Molly, Rattles and I left early in the morning. Leaving Marina and Sue-Ellen in charge of the kids; I didn't like how quiet Sue-Ellen was the whole time, but I paid it no attention.
I took point, we caught the raiders by complete surprise, we managed to take and hold the entrance hall quickly, and we were very good with corridors, unlike the raiders, who ambushed on open ground. By the time we got to their leader, few of them were left alive.
I had no qualms about killing people, I don't think any of us had after what we saw, it was kill or be killed now. No one wanted to lose a friend because of hesitation. We were determined to live, to thrive, to destroy anyone who would deny us that.
They were well armed with submachine guns, one hunting rifle, the leader was packing grenades too. He put up quite a fight, nicked Buster on the shoulder, almost got me in the leg, but luckily, Brain caught him in the head with the hunting rifle when he was reloading. He had an old, broken down assault rifle, jammed more than it shot, really.
I guess the worst part was stripping the bodies and then cleaning them out. We needed the clothes, and we couldn't keep the bodies around, we had to burn them. We didn't want any wild dogs coming to eat the corpses. While doing so I noticed one of them was about D.W.'s age, already a killer, she nearly got me in the head too. She had signs of physical abuse on her. It made me mad, the world had gone crazy.
We picked up the rest of the group, and whatever canned supplies we could from Marina's house later that noon. I had Molly and her gang wash up as much of the school as they could so the kids wouldn't have to see the blood.
When Brain asked me what we were going to do next, I only motioned at the sign saying "Welcome to Elwood City" who someone scribbled over, so it now said, "Welcome to Fellwood City."
"Simple Brain, we're going to build Fellwood."