8
I reach the entrance of Vault 101 about an hour after I heard the emergency signal. I don't know how long ago she sent it I just hope it's not too late. I allow Dogmeat to follow and come into the Vault with me. Holding my breath I type in the password. The alarm goes off. The gears in the vault door switch and move. I hear the hiss of the door and the metal sliding together. The door is open.
In the Vault entrance room, papers and trash litter the floor. I see a few radraoches which I take out easily with my plasma rifle. Dogmeat chews on one's shell. That's when I found a body. By the vault control pod lays the corpse of Jim Wilkins. I sigh.
When I was younger, I and he would play Gronak the Barbarian in the cafeteria. His sister Janice would also play with us. I frown. I hope she is alive too.
Janice had very wavy red hair. It was almost shocking, her appearance. But she was always quiet and humble.
I hear footsteps progressing to my location. I aim my gun and hold my breath on which it is. No matter who, I will know them and that scares me. Dogmeat gives a low growl and lurks closer to the door ready to attack.
"Don't attack, Dogmeat, unless I shoot." I order. Dogmeat relaxes a little and backs away but still continues to growl.
The man in a security uniform runs out with a 10mm pistol aimed ready to fire. I gasp. It is Officer Gomez.
"Stop right there! I don't know how you got in here but if you leave no we won't have any… oh my god. It's you. I didn't recognize you. You have so much grime and dust on you that… that you look like a different person." He says. I lower my gun. Gomez doesn't seem to be any threat but he keeps his gun ready but does lower it. "Guess that's how you opened the door you has more experience with it than all the people in here put together." He continues. "But why are you here?" he asks.
I waste no time in answering his question. When Dogmeat feels the relaxed tension I have he stops growling and stays by my side.
"I need to talk to Amata. I got her message. I am here to help… if I can." I say. He slants his head questioning.
"Amata's message? I don't know what you are talking about. But I should warn you to keep that under your hat for her sake." He says. I nod in agreement. I do trust Gomez, as far as I would trust anyone these days, of course not fully. I learned that you can't trust anyone in the wasteland. But this wasn't the wasteland. This was home.
"She could get in trouble for it. Sending you the message. People blame you for what has happened here. Hell I could get in trouble just talking to you." He states. I nod. I can understand why people of Vault 101 would blame me. They're idiots. Mindless fools that will believe anything that their precious overseer would say. I have always thought that everyone was so dense in allowing him to lead us. But to go so far into believing that this is my entire fault? Are their skulls really that thick?
Maybe it was my fault and that I didn't think of what I was doing but I didn't mean for this Vault to go to shit; I didn't do it on purpose. Besides the overseer killed Jonas and others to hide his secret that the Vault was open. So no it was not my fault it was the brainless son of bitch that everyone worshipped. And now Amata thinks it's a good idea to have me help? Let's hope she hasn't become as dim-witted as the rest of the residents here of Vault 101.
"Regardless of anything I came here to talk to her. She is in trouble and I have a hunch that she truly needs my help." I say. He nods.
"Maybe. A lot of people are thinking the same way now. Ever since that night it has been chaos down here. Nothing but distress." He says. I sigh and rub the back of my neck. Maybe I should take some responsibility. I did leave for my own shellfish reasons after all, but I wouldn't change how things happened. Because no matter how much it hurts, I know there was absolutely nothing I could do to save my father.
"What do you mean? What happened since I left?" I ask. Did I cause a rebellion? The thought stings me in the stomach.
"Everything went crazy, is what happened. The swarm of bugs never ceased since your dad opened the door, and people started to go insane. When the smoke cleared, there were a lot of bodies and more questions than answers." He explained. I look down and pinch where my nose met my forehead. I thought Gomez was done but he added one thing that made my heart sink.
"It didn't help that our only doctor left either." He adds bitterly. I look up at him shocked that he would even go there. But I do have to admit, he does have a right to say it.
"I'm sorry." I whisper. "Dad would have been horrified… if he was still alive." I say narrowing his eyes. Now I know Gomez felt bad, but that was not my intention.
"I'm…I'm sorry to hear that. He was a good man, your father. He was a good friend, regardless how things turned out down here. I thought he would always do well on the outside." Gomez says. I nod keeping my eyes down.
"You know everyone is now thinking he had the right idea, which isn't surprising because he usually did. They now want to step out. Because they thought it was safe out there, why stay locked up down here?" he says. "As you can imagine the Overseer didn't like the sound of that idea, at all." I nod smiling that we both know about the Overseer's thoughts.
"How did he react?" I ask. Gomez sighs and shakes his head. Dogmeat lies down and chews on the remainder of the radraoch.
"Not very well. He started cracking down on that sort of thought. I guess he didn't foresee you returning in the future, but he didn't foresee you leaving either." He says.
"What now? What do I do?" I ask. Gomez scratches his chin and looks behind me. I don't know if he noticed the body before because he frowns and sighs.
"Another one. You know who it is?" he asks frustrated. I nod and look at Jim. I could just imagine his ten year old self chasing me with a baseball bat. I smile at the thought.
"It's Jim. Jim Wilkins." I say. I hear Gomez sigh behind me. He walks past me and to the dead body on the floor.
"Look, I am not stupid. I am not going to try to arrest you and take you to the overseer; honestly I respect my life more than I do his rules." He says with a slight smile, I smile back at him. "Some of your old pals think that opening the vault is a good idea, so I think they would like a visit from you now more than ever. You go on ahead." He says. I smile at him.
"Thank you Gomez. You… you were always my favorite officer." I say blushing and looking at the ground. He smiles.
"And do me a favor. Try not to get killed and… try not to kill." He says sincerely. I look at him surprised that he would think I would do anyone harm in Vault 101 but I nod remembering the night I escaped. The night when I killed Officer Mack.
I enter the atrium finding everything has been thrown and ripped. Even dust falls from the ceiling and floats in the air like it does in the Wasteland. I sigh at the dramatic change that this vault has been through. Then I hear an old man's voice ahead. I run through the hall way and look out into the Atrium. In the atrium there is furniture pushed over to provide for cover and papers and broken wood chips everywhere. I even notice a few bullet shells lingering on the floor. I look up at the 'Thank You, Overseer' sign; I see the thank you was written over by black paint. It now reads 'Fuck You, Overseer'. I smile at it. Well I am not the only one who thought that every time I read that sign.
I see Freddie and Officer Taylor. Taylor is pointing a gun at Freddie. I widened my eyes and pull out my gun quietly and slowly. Officer Taylor doesn't know I am there, but Freddie sees me and his eyes go wide. Something churns in my stomach and I get excited.
"Now Freddie don't make me shoot… stay… stay back now. And go back down below in the Living Quarters." Says Officer Taylor. Freddie breaks eye contact with me and looks at Officer Taylor. He points his knife at him. For a second I am afraid his going to use it.
"Before I do something that we both regret." Says Taylor. I raise my brows. Freddie listens to him.
"What? You are going to lock me up too? Just like what you did to Brotch? Yeah no way. You can't cage a tunnel snake, man!" Freddie yells.
I roll my eyes at the ridiculous comment about tunnel snakes. Shaking my head I aim my gun down. Dogmeat pants happily as if this was a good show.
Clicks his gun and aims more directly at Freddie. I pull up my gun hirer ready to fire.
"Stay back!" Warns Officer Taylor. Freddie only flinches and a gun shoot is fired.
"No!" I say. Dogmeat barks and Officer Taylor turns around with a scared look in his eyes. I can see that Freddie was hit and was lying on the ground.
"Shit!" he says. "You shot me!" Officer Taylor turns to look at Freddie. He looks scared and worried that he might be shot next.
"What the hell are you doing?!" I yell at him I run over to Freddie. Freddie was shot in the hand. I hope we have some medical supplies left here 'cause then I could treat his wounds.
"Don't you know well enough to stay out of the Vault?!" Yells Officer Taylor. Dogmeat growls at him. I rip off a strip of my tank top and tie it around Freddie's bloody hand. He leans his head back and yells in pain.
"You're here." He whispers. He is breathing heavily. I finish my knot and it will do for now. Dogmeat is still growling at Officer Taylor.
"Yeah, I am. And looks like you are still and idiot. What were you thinking?!" I ask. He looks at me offended but shakes the expression away quickly.
"I…I don't know. I just have to get out of here." He says. I help him to his feet and he groans in pain. I sigh and glare at Officer Taylor with the gun still in his hands. I shake my head at him.
"Come on, Dogmeat, let's go. He isn't worth the trouble and neither is his 10mm." I say. Dogmeat gives on last bark but then follows us through the hallway to the Living Quarters. Freddie chuckles. I look at him with a puzzled face.
"What?" I ask, as if I was offended. He shakes his head and looks at Dogmeat. I raise a brow. He looks back at me. His face hasn't changed except for a few cuts and sweat on his face. His hair is also messy and I could tell he hasn't used gel in a while. But with so many things different about him a few remain the same. And one of those things that didn't change was his smile. The half-smile that made me swoon and make me feel light on my feet. But now it doesn't have the same effect on me as it once did before. I look away thinking I must have felt weird out.
"Your dog's name." he says. Dogmeat gives a short glare and snarl. I laugh.
"I didn't choose but I like it. Dogmeat is a good dog. I think the name fits." I defend. Dogmeat barks happily at me. I scratch him behind the ears.
"I didn't say I didn't like it." He says softly. I stop petting Dogmeat. "You are always too quick to assume things, Daenerys." He says. I clench my jaw when he says my full name. "Besides I like it. When I thought you named him I was surprised but I guess I am too quick to assume as well." I nod in agreement. I bite down on my lip.
I rise up and look at Freddie, with a look I never gave him before. I gave him a serious expression. Before all I have looked like was head over heels in love with this guy and now I can't even try to act swooned. It is kind of nice. It's as if I am free.
"Do you know where Amata is?" I ask. His smile fades and he nods. I raise a brow. Dogmeat stands and looks at Freddie just like how I am looking at him. It almost makes me laugh.
"I will show you to her, but can you treat my gunshot wound?" he asks. I sigh and nod.
"I was planning on it." I admit. His smile returns and he takes my hand with his unwounded palm and we enter into the Living Quarters.
We walk through the dirty halls. It almost feels normal but it's just so wrong to be back here. We enter into the cafeteria which is littered with papers. Barstools are broken and knocked down, scraps and crumbs of food are scattered all over the floor and glass from broken dishes crack under our feet.
"Shit." I say. Freddie nods in agreement. Dogmeat is careful when he steps over the glass. I hope I won't have to treat his wounds too.
"Yeah." Freddie agrees. He leads me out of the cafeteria, my hand still in his. I look at our hands together and it feels weird. While we walk, our feet often kick tin cans and glass bottles. It creates more noise than I like, I rather not cause more attention to us. More attention means more people that I know and might have to fight to pass.
We head up a flight of stairs. I let go of Freddie's hand and walk by myself. He looks at me for a moment but then continues to climb the stairs.
When we reach the top shelves and lockers cover half of the walkway. After we pass them, I see Butch. My stomach turns and my face turns white. For some reason I am shocked to see him, but I should have known he would have been with the rebels. I shouldn't be surprised. I should have expected to see him. But I can see in his eyes, that he is as shocked to see me.
"Holy shit, nosebleed." He says. Freddie stops and waits for me to talk to Butch, but I can see that he is uncomfortable.
"You got some balls coming back into the vault. Since, you know, after what you and your dad did, fucking up everything." He says. I am completely offended and I glare at him.
"Dad and I didn't screw anything up. It was the fucking overseer and how he reacted to it. He was the one who killed people and almost hurt Amata. So don't fucking say that my dad did anything because if you do I will fucking have no problem breaking your nose again got it?" I warn.
"Whoa, shit, okay, nosebleed. If you are here might as well make you useful." Butch says. I roll my eyes and glare at him.
"You know you suck at asking for help, Butch. You might want to change your approach." I say. I cross my arms. Butch twirls his switch blade in the light. I know he this movement isn't a threat, considering I got a big ass gun in my hands. Butch was not that dense. Still he wasn't the brightest glowing ghoul, but he wasn't the dullest either.
"Hey, the Butchman does not have any problems asking for help." He says. "But receiving it is another story." He adds. I nod. I could agree to that, but I am the fool who always helps the poor bastard.
"What do you need?" I sigh. He smiles and tries to hide my blush.
"What do you think, Nosebleed? What else do the rebels want? We want the door open, so that we can come and go as we please. So when you talk to Amata, put in a good word for the idea, alright?" he asks. I sigh and nod.
"I will do it, but… Butch. You have to admit you will not last a second out there. Especially with that toothpick in your hands." I say. Butch looks offended but takes another look at his switchblade. After a moment he throws his hands down.
"Ahh hell, what do you care, Nosebleed?!" he ask. My eyes widened and I look down, hiding the truth that was behind my eyes. Then I think of something to say. I look up at him with a smirk that spreads across my lips.
"Well… maybe I don't want to waste such a good barber." I say with a slight tone of sarcasm. He looks even more offended than before. But I could tell that he admitted to himself that that was a good one. He chuckles.
"Yeah, yeah. Very funny, good thing to see that you haven't lost your sense of humor, Nosebleed." He says. I smile. I pull out my .375 magnum out of my pack; I look at it for a second.
"Here, Butch. When you make it out use it. If you find me in the wasteland you can return it but if you are die and can't, I deserve to lose it by trusting you." I say, handing him the gun. Butch eyes become wide when I give him a great gift. I can see some of the regret in his face.
"Wow uh thanks, uh Nosebl-… Daenerys." He says. "You are alright." He says. I smile and walk with Freddie. I can hear Butch's excited laughter as he rolls the chamber. My smile grows as we walk away. I know that Freddie is jealous of Butch just by the way he walks. But I could care less.
We walk pass the classroom and Susie Mack sees me. She never really liked me that much and I don't know if she knew I killed her dad. But about few months before I left, I fixed her heating system and she has been nice to me ever since. It was almost snowing in her apartment it was so cold, but I don't think me fixing her heating system is going to make up for killing her dad. She runs up to me and I expect her to blow up at me but instead, she hugs me. I am astonished that I don't hug her back.
"You're alive!" she chirps. Old Lady Palmer walks out of the classroom and over to me as well. Susie pulls away from me.
"I can't believe you are here! Amata told me everything, and I am not mad, you saved her life." She says. I look at her confused. "Look I know you killed my father but… you had good reason too." She says sadly. "He went crazy."
"I'm sorry. I don't care if you are not mad but I feel horrible about it." I say. Wow that was the worst apology for killing someone's family member ever.
Old Lady Palmer walks up to me and places her hand on my shoulder. Sadness is in her eyes but she smiles.
"I am glad to see you are alive. The wasteland is dangerous." She says. Old Lady Palmer is the grandmother of Jonas. I feel my eyes start to sting.
"I am so sorry about Jonas." I say. "I…I wish I could have been there to stop it." I say. I look to the floor. I hear Old Lady Palmer sigh.
"There was nothing you could have done, honey. It's the overseer's fault and I know it wasn't a mistake." She expresses. I nod.
Freddie pulls me away. We keep moving. We are near my dad's office and I can feel my stomach flipping. I take a deep breath.
Amata runs to me when she sees me. Her arms immediately wrap around me.
"Oh my god you are back! You came! I… I am so happy you came!" she says.
"Of course! I came as soon as I heard." I say. Her arms wrap around tighter but regretfully I have to pull away. She looks at me worried. Her eyes glance at Freddie and she notices the blood.
"Oh my god, what did you do?" she asks him. He shrugs.
"He got shot. I have to treat him. Then we can talk." I say. I feel myself rather blunt so I smile to relax a little. But seeing Amata was just stressful but amazing at the same time.
I sit Freddie down on a stretcher behind a curtain. The strip from my tank top is drenched in blood. It sticks to his skin. I sigh.
"Wait here." I say. He nods. I walk over to inside the office where the supplies are stored. When I walk in I see blood everywhere. Blood is scattered on the walls floor and ceiling. I look up to see the Robot Andy. I look at him as if he has gone crazy. Then I see whose blood it is. Beatrice. She is some weirdo that walks around the Vault. I don't really know her, except when she gave me poem for my birthday. What a lame gift.
I can see her skin on her leg has ripped clean off. I wince at the gory scene. From right when I entered Andy greeted me in a cheerful voice, one that made think if I should run or kill the damn thing.
"Ah, another patient! What will it be? Appendectomy? Tonsillectomy? Hysterectomy?" he asks. His voice grows higher when he says the last option. If I didn't notice all the red that was on his saws and cleavers, I would have laughed. But instead my expression stayed startled.
"Andy, what happened… all this blood…" I say horrified.
"Ah yes well you see in all the chaos that was going on around here, Beatrice seemed to have suffered a painful sprain in her left toe. A rather big one…" he says intently. My jaw drops.
He continues, "Obviously, I had no choice but to amputate the leg. Yeah, I regretfully have to say that the operation was an uh not an uh success."
I look at the dead body on the operating table. "You think you so? Andy what the hell?!" I yell.
"Um and I seem to have cut off the wrong leg." He says. My jaw drops even further.
"So you are the doctor?" I ask. I slap my hand to my head. When I said the people of Vault 101 were idiots, I meant it.
"Um, well I have been, oh what's the human term, um fired? I have been resigned to cleaning duty. And ironically my first job is to clean the clinic." He says. He chuckles. I nod and look back at the body. Cautiously I walk over to where the medical supplies are kept. I open the locker. I collect medical tape, Stimpacks, gauze, thread, needle and a bottle of cleaning alcohol. Then something catches my eye. The verse that was framed in our room is now here, hung up on the wall. I take it down and put it in my pack. But there is secret shelf behind it. I find a bag of bottle caps and a holotape. My heart sinks. I download it to my Pip-Boy to listen to later. I know almost instantly that dad's voice is on the tape. I check the shelf again. I pull out a necklace. It was gold with a little cross. Gasping, I place my hand over my mouth. Was this my mom's? I put it around my neck. I walk out of room to Freddie.
When he sees my hands full of medical supplies, he chuckles.
"Wow." He says. I don't look up. Instead I sort out through the medical supplies. I take the bottle of cleaning alcohol. I hear Freddie sigh. He grabs my hand and I snap my head up to him. Freddie was gazing at me with a look that he wasn't fooling around anymore.
I look back at him, and my stare is softer than I would like. For a moment I get lost in his eyes but I quickly glance away, and then look back with a raised brow.
"What?" my voice sounds smooth but hard. Not what I was trying to do. I think it might have turned him on. He shakes his head.
"Nothing." He says. Freddie looks down at his hand. I follow his gaze. Relaxing my hands, I untie the strip. No part of the fabric is dry. When I put it on the floor, my hands are already covered in Freddie's blood. Then I gasp. Freddie pulled me close to him with his unwounded hand. Our faces are close that our noses are touching.
For some reason this surprises me. I thought we got over each other a long time ago. He still wants me? Not as a significant other, but sexually. He has already wanted and has had me. But I have to admit. I have noticed him looking at me in my tight leather pants.
He pulls my face to his and we kiss. He caressed my face and I felt something wet and warm. But I don't pull away. We kiss longer than a moment. I hear Dogmeat bark and then whine. But when I figured out what I was doing, I pull away. That's when I realized what was warm and wet. It was his hand that was oozing out blood. I grab his hand. He whimpers. I take a medium piece of gauze and pour alcohol. I look at his palm. The bullet went through. I clean the wound and Freddie groans. I get a stimpack and inject him. I chuckle when I hear him say ow. He looks at me.
"What?" he asks. I shake my head, but I can't help but laugh. He looks offended but smiles as if he wanted to know the joke.
"Nothing." I say, but laugh again. "For some reason, I think its funny how you said ow when the needle punctured your skin. You have no idea how many of these I injected, I don't even feel it anymore." I laugh. He chuckles and looks down.
"You've changed, Danny, a lot." He admits. I look up at him. Have I? I chuckle.
"I don't think I have much." I disagree. He doesn't say anything for a while. It's not until I am stitching his palm that he says something.
"You have though. What happened out there?" he asks. I froze. I got laid, killed a few people, found my dad, just to watch him be killed in front of me. I look down and what I thought is exactly what I tell him. He clenches his jaw.
"I'm sorry, about your dad. He was a good guy." He says. For some reason I am tired of people saying this, as if they really knew him. As if they knew his true character. And as if they were sorry that he was dead. No one is as sorry as I am.
"Yeah, lots of people are saying that." I sigh. He holds my hand and I sigh. I give him look. He shakes his head.
"Don't." he says. I slant my head giving in a puzzled expression. It makes him smile but he shakes his head.
"What? Don't what?" I question. I continue sewing his palm. I think I did a good job, better than Andy that's for fucking sure.
"That look, just let me… console you." He says. I laugh hysterically. He frowns and looks down again shying away. I stop laughing.
"What makes you think I need consoling?" I ask. He looks back up at me and I am lost in his eyes again. I just wish it wasn't this easy to be hypnotized.
"Your father was everything to you. And you were everything to him. I could only imagine how it is like to lose everything." He says. I bite back the tears. He was right.
I put gauze of both sides and seal it with the medical tape. I look at the wound to check anything that I have missed. It was good.
"You might want to wash off the blood on your cheek." Freddie says. I laugh and feel my cheek. the blood has already dried.
I run to the bathroom and wash my face. With a fresh towel I dry my face dry. I take a deep breath. I look in the mirror. What I see is completely different than the last time I looked in this mirror. Freddie was right. I have changed.
My eyes were wild and fiendish. The cuts on my face just made me look more cunning. It was odd looking like this. I walk back to the clinic to talk to Amata.
Amata comes in and takes another look at me. She smiles. "You look so different." She says. I nod. I feel different. "I hope you can help us set things back straight." She continues. I nod again.
"You saved my life back there Amata, the least I could do is help you now when you most need it." I say. Her smile grows. But as quickly as the smile came, it fades.
"I…I just wish we could have saved more people. Like Jonas, or Chip or Floyd and the Hannons. So many people died that night." She says. Hannons?! Paul Hannon was one of the Tunnel Snakes when it first became a gang. Hell, Paul was following Butch around before then. But Paul was always nice to me, when Butch wasn't around. Butch always called him my boyfriend. Amata told me he liked me but I never gave it much thought. But he died. He's dead. That's hard to even think about just like the death of Jim.
"Hannons?" I ask. She nods. "How did Paul die?" I ask. She sighs and crosses her arms. Her eyes travel down.
"He was got severe wounds and no one could treat him. I mean you and your dad were the only ones who could treat him." she sheepishly says. I bite my lip and narrow my eyes. Paul died because of me. I rub my eyes. "My father killed them to protect a lie. The vault wasn't always closed. They lied to us Danny! For some reason they closed the door and swore to keep the secret when we were babies and say it was never open." She says.
"So, now you want it to be open?" I ask. She nods her head slowly.
"But they are keeping us locked down here, just to keep that untainted from the outside world fantasy." She says.
"Why don't you just leave then? It's not that hard especially now." I say. She shakes her head.
"It's not that simple. Some of us want to stay, this is our home. But we can't live here like this." She states. I look at her shocked and confused. She wants to stay down here? Is she nuts?
"You have to stop the overseer. We need to be able to connect with the outside world. We need to be able to trade and communicate but we can't do this with the Overseer keeping us down here." She continues. I nod.
"Okay. I will help, but I will come back down and tell you a few things about the wasteland. There are things you need to know to survive from being attacked, okay?" I say. She nods excitedly.
"Thank you! Of course you are the one that knows most about what's out there from firsthand experience." She comments. I nod. "And, Danny please doesn't hurt him. He's… he's my dad." She says ashamed. Even though I hate the bastard I can understand.
"I won't, Amata." I promise.
I give her one last hug and one last look at Freddie. That's when I leave to go see the Overseer.