The feeling never left him. That sensation that your every move was being watched, every action recorded and studied. Perry has known this feeling for the vast majority of his life. In the vault every single thing he did, from his grades, his hair, his opinions, who his friends were, everything… everything was known to everyone. He had grown to accept it as part of life.

How wrong he was.

When Perry first left the vault it took time for the feeling of being watched to eventually vanish. Until then, he was always looking over his shoulder, carefully choosing every word he spoke. When he finally realized that he was actually free, he actually had privacy… the alleviation was majestic. Magical.

Now it returns like a stomach virus. The Stranger was watching him, he could feel it now. Any small movement in the distance or in the corner of his vision caused him to snap his gun at it. Usually it was nothing but a bush swaying in the wind, or a small hideous animal. But every time his brow would be covered in sweat. He had grown so used to his privacy and his sense of freedom. Wanting to be free was the reason he abandoned his friends and Washington. Now he felt as trapped as ever.

Even Fawkes who was not completely talented in recognising human emotions due to his time isolated in vault 87 could see Perry was on edge and close to falling off.

His privacy, his sense of being truly alone whenever he wished it was one of the few things Perry treasured above all else. Now it was taken from him… by that basterd in the trench coat.

Despite his hatred of having his privacy taken from him it also put Perry's loneliness into perspective. He hated being alone, but he treasured his privacy. He was tired of being isolated but he would kill to keep it that way. Was this journey an enormous waste of time? Did it take abandoning everything and everyone to realize the source of his isolation? A cost too high to pay for something so infuriatingly obvious…

His growing anxiety and self hatred for not noticing the obvious was making their journey more painful than it needed to be. But it would have been much worse for Perry if he didn't know where he was going, like before. He was on a path now which offered some comfort. A community that grew out of a vault, Perry had to wonder what the social experiment of this vault was. To his horror Perry knew the truth about the vault's purpose by visiting Vault-Tec headquarters and numerous vaults around Washington.

They were never meant to save mankind. Not to shelter or preserve, but to test. Every vault was given a flaw or a set of rules and the results of these tests would be studied by… that part Perry wasn't sure. By Vault-Tec perhaps? What would they gain from the results though, they were a business. There was something sinister woven into the words of the ancient reports. Like the vault dwellers weren't human, just… subjects.

This was the idealized America? A public image of smiling faces and reassurances of a grand life… but behind those smiles was a soulless, selfish entity that cared not for the people it was appointed to protect.

What happened to us? Or maybe… we were always like this.

In the coldest depths of Perry's heart, the side of him that killed tortured and maimed, gladness grew. These… monsters deserved to have the world burn around them. To have the comfort and security they had taken for granted and have it poisoned, mutilated and be almost completely killed before their eyes. Perry has killed monsters in his life, not mutants or Deathclaws, but true monsters; people. But even these were as nothing compared to the mythical entities of evil that populated the world long ago.

Yes, people today kill, rape and enslave but they could never do it on such an enormous scale like those before. A global power of corruption that managed to not only destroy the world but view the entire human race as nothing more than things to use, and once their usefulness was exhausted… cast aside.

Despite the sickening topic that Perry contemplated, it was still a welcome distraction from the anxiety he was feeling about The Stranger and this approaching vault.

In time, after exactly three days travelling along the cracked road a metal wall grew out of the distance. Perry wasn't sure how the dwellers would react to Fawkes, but if they threatened to kill him Perry would do anything to protect his friend. Even if it means slaughtering the only community he ever finds on his journey.

Coming to a stop in front of the sheltering metal the companions examined their surroundings. To their surprise, there was no sniper guarding the wall nor any guards or manned-protection of any kind. Moving closer to the wall Perry noticed a flap he didn't recognise. It was too small for the average human and what sense would it make for them to create a door not used by humans?

Perry reached out his hand to push on the flap but immediately knew he made a mistake. The unforgettable click, cocks and rustles of rifles being loaded and aimed at him froze his hand in place. He didn't dare move an inch or turn his head.

For a few seconds there was silence and then a voice shouted out from behind them "Human! You will fall to your knees and not move. Do you understand?"

Without any view of his ambushers Perry would have no chance to attack. "I understand" He shouted towards the wall. He fell to his knees and placed his hands on his head. The sound of swift feet approached from behind and in a flash a sack was placed over Perry's head. He was pulled to his feet.

Perry could hear Fawkes speaking to the ambushers. "What are you doing?"

"Silence giant. We have no quarrel with you, only the human you travel with."

"I will not allow you to kill him." Fawkes began to growl and there was a nervous silence from the ambushers.

"We do not plan to kill him until he has spoken to the Overseer. You… may accompany him."

Perry was turned around and pushed forward. He could never see where he was going or what was happening, all he knew was he was pushed down a tunnel which the ambushers must have used. After some walking he could feel the sun warming his head and knew he was above ground again. The sound of working and the gasps told him he was in the community now of… people?

Were they human though? They had called him a human almost as if that was different. And what quarrel were they talking about? They left Fawkes alone but captured Perry, were they ghouls… no they couldn't be. They didn't have the recognisable voice. Definitely not mutants either. Guess he'll have to wait and see.

Through the gasps and the sounds of the community he could hear the unmistakable mooing of Brahmin, but as he was being pushed blindly, his ambusher suddenly veered to the left.

"Careful human! You almost walked into Humphrey!" The ground beneath Perry's feet shook and in front of him roared a creature that must be gigantic. The sound it made was alien to Perry; he had never heard anything like it. What kind of place is this?

Deeper into the community they walked, and it was almost as if every step was met with a new sound. Growls, calls, squawks, roars, barks; the symphony of alien noises was deafening.

At long last he was pushed into shade and was suddenly turned and forcibly placed in a chair. His hands were tied behind him and then silence. His sack still obscured his vision but he tried his best to see through the small spaces between stitches. There were at least two figures standing in front of him and a stream of light was flooding through what must be the door of a tent.

At long last the tent flap flew open and a figure strolled in. He said nothing and must have been examining Perry.

"Show the Human to me." Immediately the sack was pulled from Perry's head. He squinted in the faint light until his vision finally cleared.

In front of him stood three perfectly normal looking people in vault jumpsuits.

Not ghouls? Not mutants? Just normal humans?

Perry could see the middle figure had the metallic signature shoulder guard of Overseer and was in fact a woman. Beside her stood two men who Perry suddenly noticed had branches attached to their vault suits.

"You're… you're human?"

The Overseer quickly raised her arm up and backhanded Perry's face. "Never call us that, Human! We will not be so easily insulted by being associated with the likes of you!"

His cheek still stinging from the blow, Perry looked up at the woman. "Well then… heh, what do I call you?"

"You will refer to us as The Keepers. Consider yourself fortunate, as you're the first human to hear our name spoken." Her words were harshly spoken and filled with such disgust that it astounded Perry he wasn't shot already.

"Well, ain't I lucky…? Where am I?"

"You and your companion are in the community of Noah, but we will not answer any more of your questions until we can determine if you are a threat to our citizens." The Overseer snapped her fingers and another jumpsuit wearing stranger walked into the tent carrying Perry's satchel. They handed it to the Overseer and then bowed out. The Overseer opened his satchel and began to rummage through his belongings.

She would pick up ammunition and casually toss it aside. If she found a piece of fruit or vegetable that Perry scavenged she would nod and carefully place it back inside. Perry had to sit and watch as she did this and had no idea what she was looking for. Eventually she found something and froze. Slowly bringing her hand up, she had Sally's toy horse in her grip.

The others in the tent stared in fascination as the Overseer turned the toy in her hand examining everything about it. Suddenly she pushed the toy in Perry's face and shouted "What is this?"

"What? It's a toy what do you think it is?"

"No, no," she said. "What is this, what do you call it?"

"It's a horse obviously, why do you care?" The Overseer didn't move, like stating the obvious was not what she was expecting. Her eyes searched Perry's and it seemed as if a life time of prejudice and hatred was looking for something, anything to grab hold of.

Perry stared right back. Neither broke contact. Eventually, she retracted her hand and stood over Perry. "Untie him…" she muttered begrudgingly.

The guards rushed behind Perry and untied the ropes on his hand; Perry gripped his sore wrists and slowly rose to his feet. He stood face to face with the Overseer and studied her features. She was in her mid-thirties and had a very poor complexion. Her face and jumpsuit were extremely dirty. If it wasn't for the jumpsuits Perry would have thought they looked like nothing more than filthy scavengers.

"You must understand Brother, we are always suspicious of outsiders. We must protect our Lords at all cost."

Perry raised an eyebrow. "Brother? You're not going to call me a human now?"

The Overseer shook her head. "Your clear homage and respect for our Lords has shown you to be a Brother. Please," She stood aside and motioned Perry to the door. Cautiously Perry walked past her; he pulled the tent flap aside and stood in awe of what was before him.

Enormous creatures walked among the houses, small creatures swiftly ran in tight groups. Birds, dogs, pigs, cows that to Perry's utter shock only had one head. Every creature of every possible kind attended to their own business in front of him.

"Behold Brother!" The Overseer exited the tent and stood next to Perry. "Welcome to Noah!"

A/N: I felt kind of guilty about my last chapter, especially considering at least one of my readers was being slowly killed due to suspense. So I'll try my best to update more often. I had the idea of Noah for some time and was surprised there wasn't already anything like it in the Fallout universe. Stay tuned for more.

As always, criticisms and reviews are appreciated.