It was dark. The room he was in was very dark, very quiet except for sounds of breathing and the sounds of the air filtration vents gently running. He couldn't see anything except for the beautiful woman sleeping in his arms, Amata Almodovar. The Overseer's daughter was in his arms, asleep, with only a wall separating the two from her overprotective father. Max LeBay checked his Pip-Boy 3000A and it showed the time was 5:13 A.M. He put down his Pip-Boy and smiled at what occurred less than 5 hours before.
Max LeBay laid on his bed within the room his father James and he shared. Max checked his Pip-Boy and it said it was now 11:00 at night, well into the night where he knew his father was asleep. He got up, leaving his shoes off and felt the cold, hard, metal floor under his socks. He crept to the door of their bedroom, opened the activation mechanism for the door and turned off power to the door. He reached down pulled up the Emergency override latch slightly, and slipped under the small opening, before closing the door carefully and turning the power back on. Max has had four years of experience traversing throughout the Vault without getting himself detected by a single person. Now, he had both speed and stealth as he made his way into Amata's bedroom in less than 5 minutes, instead of the 30 minutes he would take when first sneaking around the Vault.
When he entered Amata's room and made sure the door behind him closed and locked, he walked over to her bed and went under the covers. He laid on his side and stared into the eyes of the only woman he was sure he would ever love.
"I was wondering when you were going to show up."
"Believe me, I was in a hurry getting here to be with you." Since they finished school almost a year ago, their rescheduled jobs have taken up their entire day, leaving very little time for them to be together.
"Good, because I have been waiting all day for this," she said, as she climbed on top of Max and kissed him. Max gently put his hands on her cheeks and kissed back, a spark building up a fire within him. Amata snaked her hands toward the collar of Max's vault suit, took hold of the zipper, and slowly pulled it down, revealing his chest inch by inch. Suffice to say, the two stripped each other naked and made love for the very first time. After they had reached their peak and finished, the couple slept in each other's arms with smiles across their faces.
When he awoke, Max smiled at the best night he ever had, got up and found his clothes on the floor next to the bed. He felt a bit bad about leaving her alone, but it was either this or get kicked out into the wasteland. After changing, he wrote a note for Amata. Thank you for everything. I love you. He folded the small piece of paper and hid it within Amata's clothes pile. He looked back at his lover and best friend, happiness within his heart and knew they'd be together forever. He opened the bedroom door and snuck back to his room.
As he got into bed and got comfortable, he noticed his father wasn't in the bed opposite of him. He probably went to work early, he thought.
Max stirred as he thought he heard alarms, screams, and banging. He suddenly felt himself shaking, with a voice yelling at him.
"Wake up! Come on, please wake up!" Max's eyes groggily opened and he sat up.
"Huh? Amata? Ha, funny, I was just dreaming of you."
Amata slapped Max on the cheek and said, "Now's not the time! Your dad left the Vault. Don't ask me how, I don't know but my dad went insane and.. and killed Jonas..." She took a moment to take a breath. "They're-they're also looking for you, Max."
"My dad left the Vault? That's impossible. No one can leave the Vault!" Max's world just collapsed. What felt like a great day just hours ago, was now destroyed as he found that his father left him alone. His friend, Jonas, has been murdered, and he was next unless... he left too.
"Apparently, it's possible. To top it all off, the Radroaches decided to come out and in swarms. You have to go, now." Amata handed Max a 10mm pistol and a few magazines with bullets in them. "Here, just in case my dad's goons come after you."
Max handled the gun and fiddled with it until it felt comfortable. "Don't worry, Amata. I'll only use it in case I need to."
"I hope that's true...Listen, you have to go to my father's office, go onto his computer, and escape the Vault through the secret tunnel in my dad's office. I have to go and try to calm down my dad before he hurts someone else. I'll try to meet you at the exit when I'm done." She jumped towards Max and gave him a hug, hoping it wouldn't be the last the two would share. "I love you," she said and ran out the room.
"I love you too…" Max went to his dresser and took everything he deemed important to him. He took out a sling bag and loaded it with some of his Vault suits, his baseball glove and stuffed his BB gun, BB's and the pistol inside as well. He went over to the first-aid kit on the wall,and emptied it of all the stimpaks and Med-X syringes it contained, and put them in a small container that went into his pocket. He put on his baseball cap and grabbed his bat; he felt ready.
He tried walking out of the apartment he and his father shared-used to share-but immediately bumped into Officer Kendall.
"Hold it right there!" He tried gripping Max's arm but hr pulled his arm away and kicked the officer in the stab-proof vest he wore. Max tightly gripped his baseball bat and swung it at Kendall's head but the Plexiglas visor on the helmet absorbed most of the blow. Officer Kendall retaliated by taking out his security baton and tried swinging at Max's head. The young man ducked down and hit the officer hard in the knee with the bottom of the bat, breaking the kneecap with a loud snap! and dropping the officer. Max slowly walked backwards, leaving Kendall on the floor but the downed officer wasn't done. Far from it. Kendall, in a last effort to stop Max, took out his 10mm pistol and prepared to shoot at him until four Radroaches burst from the vents above Kendall. Max watched as the roaches began to start tearing Kendall apart, eating him alive while the only thing the helpless officer could do was scream. Dad was right, Max thought. Roaches have a nasty bite.
Max couldn't stand and watch the officer's body torn apart by overgrown bugs, so he swung his bat and stomped his foot on the roaches, killing them. Officer Kendall reached his bloody hand out to Max groaning for help, having chunks of flesh bitten out of him and a blood pool forming under him. Dad always said if the blood pool under you was bigger than your body, you're done. That's exactly what Max was seeing. Max took out his pistol, opened Kendall's visor and shot him in the head in an act of mercy.
Max's hands started to tremble at what he had just done. He had taken the life of another human being… He felt nauseous at the sight of so much blood from one person. He worked with his father before but never where it involved buckets of blood, especially since Kendall's was repainting the walls and floor. He looked at the body of the man he had just shot, adding to the blood both on and around him, and threw up. There wasn't just blood around him.. but also on Max's hands. The death of another human being was on him now. No going back, no waking up. Reality was right in front of him. After wiping his mouth, Max pulled himself together and told himself that it was the only way he would be able to get out and search for his father. Damn it, Dad...
Max took Kendall's helmet and vest as his own, and strapped the man's pistol holster around his thigh to hold his own . Max looted Kendall's pistol and ammo and stuffed it into his bag. Now I'm looting off a dead man... He made his way through the corridor when Butch ran up to him in a panic.
"You gotta help me! My mom is trapped in there with the Radroaches!"
"Oh, boo- fricking- who. I got my own problems to deal with, Butch. I don't have time to deal with the problems you can fix yourself."
Butch looked at Max in fear. "No..., I can't go back in there. It's…, it's dark in there…, and there are roaches…"
Max looked at Butch in frustration and gave a frustrated growl before running to Butch's room. Through the window looking into the bedroom, he saw three Radroaches attacking Ellen DeLoria as she cowered in fear on the bed. Max rushed into the room with his bat and smashed two roaches against the steel floor and swung at the last roach as it jumped to attack Ellen. He hit the roach so hard, it flew off to the side and crashed through the window of the bedroom, out into the hallway. Butch came running in soon after with excitement, joy, and relief as the last of the Radroaches died, leaving his mother safe.
"Ha-ha! You did it! You saved my mom! You're the greatest friend I can ever have." Butch began taking off his Tunnel Snake jacket and handed it to Max saying, "Look, I know I haven't been the nicest guy to you and your girl but here, take my jacket as payment for saving my mom…, and as a peace offering." The only line that stuck out was the one mentioning Amata. Did he always know about Amata? I hope that he didn't. Max took the jacket, put it in his bag, and continued onward.
Max passed through the cafeteria, where he had his tenth birthday party and saw it infested it with ten Radroaches gathered around two mangled bodies. Fucking Radroaches! Max cleared out the roaches and continued. Sneaking through the corridors, he heard the chirping of a group of roaches up ahead. Getting closer, he smelled a peculiar scent and smiled. The Mr. Handy robot, Andy was cleaning house. As he peeked around the corner, sure enough, Andy was there burning roaches with a security officer. Max held his bat at the ready, but felt something was...different. He crept closer to the duo and found it to be Officer Gomez. Max cautiously stood up and walked over to Gomez.
"Mr. LeBay," Andy called in it's British voice. "How are you sir? It seems we have a bit of a bug problem. No worries, for I have a pest exterminator program!" Officer Gomez turned around a walked over to Max.
"Jesus, kid. You were lucky it was me who found you- or should I say you who found me- instead of the other officers looking for you. Listen kid, you and your dad were all right in my book. Go on out of here before the others find you. They won't be as lenient as I am." Max nodded and continued to the Atrium, the center of the Vault, very close to both the Overseer's Office and the Vault door. He looked around and sort of..., adjusted to the added space instead of the narrow hallways he just came out of.
A couple he recognized as Tom and Mary Holden were talking about escaping like James and ran to the door leading to the Vault tunnel. They disappeared into the hallway leading to the door and Max was going to go onwards until he heard them. He heard shots eminatting from the hallway the couple ran into, he saw the white flashes and heard the screams from the Holdens.
Max was horrified. He always thought of the Vault as the only safe place, the only sanctuary from the murders and dangers of the outside world... that was gone. Peace was only an illusion, safety but a word and simple trigger discipline was but another imagination. The rants he made in his head spurred him, angered him and he charged at the hallway where the couple was gunned down. He took out his pistol and ran full speed at the corridor. His blind rage gave way to death as he shot all twelve rounds into both men before they had time to react. They slumped down, dead. Two more dead by Max.
As his anger faded and his adrenaline diminished, Max realized he took the lives of other human beings, he took the lives of people he had been living with for the past 19 years! He felt his hands tremble but he held down his feelings. They deserved it, he told himself. This isn't my home anymore... not the way it is now. He took deep breathes and looted the two officers, taking bullets, stimpaks and a single shot of Med-X.
Max went forth through the corridors, dispatching roaches, security guards and looted what he deemed necessary until he saw Amata. He saw her sitting on a chair, being hit and beat by Security Chief Hannon as the Overseer watched and asked her where Max was. That was enough. The Overseer ordered Jonas' murder, the murder of anyone trying to escape and the acquisition of him, no matter the cost. Ordering Amata to be beaten was out of the question. He marched in there and shot three shots into the security chief, one hitting the officer in the neck and the two hitting him in his defenseless face, before telling Amata to leave. She ran out of the room in tears. The Overseer looked at Max with an enraged expression.
"I hope you've come to turn yourself in young man! You and your father have destroyed the serenity of this Vault!"
"We destroyed it?" Max didn't just feel fury; he felt the rage burn in his eyes. "We didn't order people to die by the hands of your fucking pets! We didn't do jack shit to make you beat your own daughter!"
"Ah, yes. Your little romance with my daughter wasn't something that I approved of. It really took me aghast that you two had something going on, especially behind my back. If you hadn't been running your filthy, wasteful hands on my daughter, I might have been more reasonable to her."
Max nearly fell back at the news just brought to him. "How did you- look! Just give me the passcode to your computer so I can leave. I'm taking Amata with me so you can't hurt her anymore, too."
"Oh, please! Do you honestly take me for a fool! Being Overseer doesn't just entitle me to decisions no one else can make but it grants me power to the Eye-On-YOU cameras around the vault. I see and hear everything throughout this Vault! How your father managed to slip out into the wastes, I'll never know. All I know is that you are a dead man. Guards! Over-, "He was cut off as Max smacked the Overseer across the face with his pistol, knocking him out cold. Searching through the pockets of the unconscious tyrant, he found the passcode, the key to the office and a few stimpaks. He walked out and heard crying, no doubt Amata's. Max turned into the next room and saw Jonas' lifeless body on the floor. All Max could do was hold in his grief for his fallen friend and walked past Jonas' lifeless body. He walked into the room to his left and saw Amata crying, bruises swelled her face.
"Amata…"
"Max, please. Go, before he has a chance to take you away!"
"No. Amata, come with me. I don't want you to stay here with your lunatic of a father. Come with me and we'll protect each other and be together every day without the risk of your father doing anything."
"Max, I wish I could. You know I do, but I have to stay here and clean up the mess my father created. If I don't, you won't exactly be welcomed back after finding your dad, if considered at all." Max stayed quiet, knowing this was true. The two took each other's hands and made their way to the Overseer's office, unlocked the secret tunnel and went through it together. The other side of the tunnel exited to the entrance to the Vault. Max walked over to the control panel, slid a lever down and the Vault door opened with lights flashing, sirens beeping and the screech of grinding metal.
"You sure you don't want to come?"
"Max… you've killed people..."
"Amata I need you to understand." Amata looked away from Max, sniffling. "Amata I had no choice. It was them or me."
"Even if it was true... I have to stay."
The room became void of their voices for a moment. "Can we have one final kiss at least?"
"It won't be our last." Max leaned to Amata and the two shared a deep, teary-eyed kiss. Deep down, they both knew it could very well be the last they would ever have together. Suddenly, the door behind them opened and two security guards grabbed Amata.
"Max, run! Run!" Amata quickly grabbed a loose, lead pipe and started to defend herself but was soon overpowered. Max raised his bat to help, but saw a third guard at the vault door's control panel. The guard pulled the control panel's switch down, closing the vault. Max saw the Vault door slowly starting to close and ran. He ran to the other side of the door and looked back to see the security guards beat Amata with their fists, feet, and batons. He could do nothing as he saw the gear-shaped 101 screech shut and separating him from all that he knew.
"Amata!" Max started banging on it with his fists. "Amata! I will come back for you!" Max slumped down and cried, not knowing what the Overseer would do with his love, whether she'd be alive for him to see, whether or not he himself would be alive to ever be with her. He stayed sitting on the ground of the rock tunnel for a good hour, watching the remains of people who once held signs asking for entry. Max eventually got up, looked above the gear-shaped door and saw a camera looking at him.
"I know you're watching Overseer." Max reached out and flipped off the camera. Afterwards, he slowly made his way to the wooden door at the end of the rocky tunnel, looking back at his past home and hoped to return one day.
He threw the door openand yelled. "JESUS FUCKING CHRIST!" Max threw himself back into the cave and shut the door tight. Max saw nothing but white. That new light, that blinding light was nothing like what he had ever seen in his life. The Sun wasn't something you see everyday when you live underground. Another hour or so passed, to Max it seemed like a millenium, before his vision finally came back to him. He got up, lowered the rim of his cap and slowly opened the wooden door. Max squinted his eyes to nearly a close but it was easier that time around. Slow and steady...
When it was all the way open, Max got a good look at the world he lived under for 19 years. The world his Vault had hid for over 200 years to the residents of Vault 101. A wasteland would be an understatement. It was desert with large, rocky formations dotting the land and the burnt tree here and there. The skeletons of buildings from the pre-War world were abundant. Max instantly found out why his father would always tell him that the wasteland wasn't something he wanted him to go through. Oh dad, why did you come out here?
I would greatly appreciate any suggestions, advice and ideas as long as its constructive. Thanks for reading. Next revised chapter should be up soon! :D