Chapter 12: Seek The Destroyed
A door opens as a stack of human skeletons pile out of the door. Cheryl - being the person to open the door - yelped and jumped back as the skeletons hit the floor, the sound similar to campfire kindling clattering on the ground echoing through the hallway. Cheryl's yelping gave Rep a small start as well, soon shaking off the feeling of dread and walking toward the door himself.
Peering in he saw multiple skeletons against the wall by the door as well. On the door itself were grooves, like these people were scratching at it. Looking over he saw another security lock keycard reader, "Jesus Christ, these people were locked in here when the bombs dropped. Doors must of slammed shut and locked, but never unlocked. Looming radiation must of killed them."
"Then why is the door unlocked now?" Cheryl asked, still staring at the scratch marks in the door. "Has to be that damn robot. Must of unlocked everything in the building except when he locked everything again he just did the exits." "Then why seal the windows?" she asked critically. "A window can be an exit, can't it?" Cheryl looked like she was going to retort when she visibility stopped herself and thought it over. She looked to the Vault Dweller and conceded, "You got a point."
"Hey, locals!" Down the hallway Rep and Cheryl heard the third of their party call out, "I think I found a break room with one of our boys at an active terminal."
Making their way around the corner they saw Clements standing at the door of what he called the break room. In the room were rows of long tables with napkin holders and salt and pepper shakers, a couple refrigerators, a Nuka-Cola machine, and empty food packaging everywhere. At the back of the room was a table with several networked terminals all lined against the wall, and indeed there was a skeleton wearing a dark blue uniform with, "SECURITY" written on it's back. It was slumped over the keyboard.
Rep stepped into the dark room and approached the dim light of the terminal screens. He carefully walked over and around skeletons and half-rotted bodies that strew about the floor. He stepped over one particular body…
Cheryl screamed, "Rep, LOOK OUT!" Too late. A bony withered hand grabbed Rep by his sneaker-boot clad ankle and dropped him like last week's garbage. He rolled over to find a feral ghoul clawing his leg hissing angrily as it moved forward. He screamed in abject terror as it moved at rapid speed. In sheer panic Rep started kicking the ghoul in the face with his free foot.
Clements and Cheryl were coming to his aid when other ferals started getting up due to the commotion and attacking them as well. One jumped on Cheryl's back knocking her down, and three were attempting to drag the man in Power Armor down, but Clements refused to go down without a fight. The Initiate grabbed one hanging on his left arm with his right hand by the throat and power-choke slammed it into the floor killing it instantly.
As Clements dealt with the other two hanging off his neck, Cheryl was forcefully rolled over as the ghoul attacking her started taking body shots at her. She managed to land a few punches of her own, but as she drew her pistol, the firearm was smacked away by the ghoul flailing its arms around to stop the woman it was pinning down from shooting. Quick jab later, the Wastelander was rendered senseless.
Rep was rolling on the ground with the other ghoul running into tables and chairs. Rep finally got the ghoul pinned as Clements called out to him, "Rep!" He looked over to find Clements deliberately backing himself into a wall forcefully to knock the ghouls off, "Cheryl!" He looked where the Brotherhood member told him to and found the ghoul on top of her snarling.
Rage. That was all Rep felt.
He grabbed a discarded Nuka-Cola bottle and smashed the bottle over his ghoul's head. When it was distracted with pain the Vault Engineer slit the creature's throat with the sharp edges of the broken glass bottle. It convulsed for a moment as it grabbed its neck, then stopped moving.
Getting up, Rep grabbed his hammer and flung it at the ghoul atop of Cheryl knocking it over and off of the Wastelander. Quickly checking over her, Rep saw Cheryl was trying to stay awake, but was far too out of it to be of any help. He grabbed Moreno's shotgun she had slung over her arm and turned in time to have the ghoul that was on her get up and take a swipe at him. A gash was left in his leather jacket. As hard as he could he took the butt of the shotgun and swung it under the ghoul's chin causing the creature born of human rage and radiation to fly back several feet.
Bringing the gun's barrel around he took aim at the ghouls hanging onto the Initiate, "Clements, turn around!" He saw the Vault Dweller with the shotgun, "Are you insane?" he asked, "You miss, you'll detonate my fusion core!"
Rep pressed a button on his Pip-Boy, "That ain't gonna happen. Do it!" Turning his back toward the man in blue he prayed under his breath as Rep's V.A.T.S. kicked in. BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! Four shots. One in the heart and one in the head; two ghouls, both dead.
Clements shed the corpses like an old blanket as Rep propped Cheryl up and cradled her head slightly, shaking her back to consciousness, "Hey… Hey, kid, you okay?" She moaned as he picked up a salisbury steak package off the floor and started fanning her with it as she stirred, "Come on, Cheryl, say something!"
"I fucking hate you, Vault Boy." Rep's face went from worry to annoyance in record time as her eyes opened. He looked up to Clements with a tone in his voice that matched the look on his face, "Great, at least she doesn't have brain damage; both brain cells are intact."
There was a hiss as Cheryl screamed and clenched onto Rep's jacket. The ghoul Rep knocked in the head with the shotgun came to and was about to attack again when Clements turned and grabbed it by the throat. Pulling a plasma grenade off his bandoleer, he shoved the device into the ghoul's mouth and pulled the pin, "Chew on this, peckerhead!" Kicking it in the chest, the ghoul went sailing out the break room door. Clements turned and yelled, "GRENADE, GRENADE!"
He then hopped over an overturned table as Rep pushed another table over and covered over Cheryl to shield her. The grenade detonated in a spectacular flash of green light sending debris everywhere.
Rep and Cheryl peered over the table and saw the destruction after the dust settled. "Why does this remind me of the first time we met?" Rep asked, adjusting his glasses.
"Ghouls and Grenades," Cheryl commented, "then my house was blown up," she then gave him a death glare. Rep - being the ever dense man he was - commented on something without even noticing her glare, "'Ghouls and Grenades'? Sounds like a lame tabletop RPG about this situation."
"RPG?"
"Role playing games. Used to play 'em all the time in the Vault's diner."
"I know what they are," Cheryl said, getting her strength back, "What dink game didn't you play? Do you have your 20 sided dice with you?"
Groaning was heard on the other side of the room as Clements stood up, pieces of table and shredded ghoul falling off him as he did, "Ugh, cut that one just a hair close."
"Considering how close you were," Cheryl pointed out, "I'm surprised your ears aren't ringing."
Clements looked at them, "Huh? Speak up, my ears are ringing." Rep and Cheryl looked at each other and rolled their eyes as they stood up. As Cheryl retrieved her pistol and the shotgun Rep walked back to the terminal bank where the dead body of the security guard sat. He approached the body from it's left side, took off his hat, and crossed himself with his eyes closed. Cheryl had just holstered her gun as he did this.
He placed his hat back on as he reached toward the body, "Sorry…" he looked at the guard's name tag, "...Blake, but we need this," he shoved the body off the chair and proceeded to sit down and start the email program when a game activated in the holodisk drive.
"'RUIN'? Hey I heard of this game!" Rep popped the holodisk out and put it in his messenger bag, "I gotta check this out later." "I hope that wasn't the last thing he was doing before he died," Cheryl said as she slung the shotgun over her shoulder, "or he'd be just as pathetic as you."
Looking at the command prompt and thinking of how the body was found, he took a guess, "It looks like he collapsed on the keyboard and started it by mistake, then the terminal timed out. Looks like these terminals are for recreation and company news." Opening the email program he found a few entries in both the inbox and outbox. He read them over quickly:
Good afternoon, Dewers!
Today, we would like to announce our agreement with Vault-Tec on the National Defense Network transmission system! As you know, Vault-Tec had been experimenting with older versions of our NDN for network communications between their Vaults and the Civil Defense office in our Nation's capitol giving our engineers vital information to improve our transmitters. After extensive testing of the NDN version 3.7 at our Headquarters in Tinley Park, Il, we are ready to roll out the new system and Vault-Tec has agreed to replace all the original 1.9 Transmission towers for us - for free!
Big thanks to our tech boys at the East R&D facility for all their hard work! Replacement work on all transmitters will commence in spring 2078!
Jeremy W. McAdargh
CEO-Kandewit TeleNet Inc.
"With Kandewit, We CanDo It!"
"That explains that," he said quietly to himself, "Robot must be running off the experimental Vault-Tec transmitter." He went to the next email:
Hi Team!
Here's an update on the Exponential Recalculation Project and it's ongoing use in the facility. Recall back in July 2075, RobCo had installed the new terminals and mainframe systems here in our wonderful Tinley Park office as part of our joint operation with FermiLab and the US Government to bring about a new automated management system. A great deal of management software has been blamed for missing files and machinery being shut down in the downstairs plant. This is all false. The ERP software was designed to learn of our projects and how we work by interacting with us and as of this moment the software has increased our efficiency by 30%. The unfortunate part of this is we will have to liquidate some departments; subsequent email to follow.
The final tests are being conducted on Phase 2's recognition protocols. Come month's end, the Phase 3's awareness update to the ERP software will add a whole new dimension of machine thinking the likes the world has never seen!
As always, report to the R&D dept. if you encounter any obscene issues or have any suggestions on how to improve the operation of the software. We're one family, be sure to give of your ideas for the good of us all!
William Moody
VP Research - Kandewit TeleNet Inc.
Hmm, sounds like Vault-Tec had some competition in the A.I. department, Rep thought to himself, but why was RobCo and this FermiLab place involved?
Finally, he found an outbox email exchange between this Blake guy and what looked like another guard:
From: J. Blake
To: M. Shiff
Mike,
I've been talking to facilities and it looks like it's not just the offices. Plant level has had more issues since the ERP went to Phase 3. Software guys keep saying our network is secure, especially since the, "RobCo Ravager," has been caught, but I think it's that damn ERP software jacking shit up. Moody says we should report problems. What should we do?
James Blake,
Kandewit Security
From: M. Shiff
To: J. Blake
Jim,
Listen to me, and listen good, buddy: Don't do it. Moody's been on a power kick lately and he's hellbent on finding anyone speaking ill of the ERP and not only shitcanning them, but also getting them professionally blacklisted. Remember Manny? Reported missing his whole project file and accused the ERP?
Word on the Grapevine is RobCo's been whispering sweet nothings into his ear. He wants to impress them so he could move out of his VP position, head to D.C., and head their Projects Division. He's gonna throw as many people under the bus as necessary until he gets what he wants.
Just watch your ass, buddy. I mean it.
Michael Shiff,
Kandewit Security
From: J. Blake
To: M. Shiff
Mike,
Look, the security system is getting worse. It seems like ever since more and more people started complaining they couldn't access the mainframe except reps, they've been shutting everyone up with that terminal bank in the break room. I couldn't get into our offices on any floor to write this, so I'm here in the break room sending this. Everyone was so busy playing games I barely squeaked into a seat here.
This is ridiculous! They installed that fucking Wile E. Coyote bombproofing system, those goddamn robots, and that fucking artificial intelligence that's going nuts, and the fucking programmers are in here screwing around playing that, "RUIN" game ad nauseam! Is there anything you can do to get me back in?
James Blake,
Kandewit Security
From: M. Shiff
To: J. Blake
Jim,
Yeah, it looks like the master keycard file has been erased. I'm in the Mainframe room with one of the RobCo guys and we tried to override the ERP's control of the security lock on a couple of doors. It didn't exactly work, so we wrote a temporary code for the locks. The code is 4603168833.
Michael Shiff,
Kandewit Security
From: J. Blake
To: M. Shiff
Mike,
Thanks a lot! I'll have to wait until this new shelter-in-place drill passes before I head over there. Ever since Moody let the ERP take over safety drills, I don't know what's real and what's not.
I'll have to get back to you, sounds like something big is on the radio.
James Blake,
Kandewit Security
There was one more email in the outbox. Rep opened it:
From: J. Blake
To: W. Moody
You piece of shit. All of us are fucking STUCK HERE thanks to your kick-back supplying fucks at RobCo and YOU! Your fucking pet project decided that we weren't allowed to leave the building and head to the bomb shelters because all the security doors are totally sealed! People are getting sick and throwing up from the radiation. Last thing we heard on the radio was that the Dresden Nuclear Plant got hit hard.
Are you happy? Is RobCo happy? You ignoring problems with that fucking ERP has sent everyone in this facility to their death. Prepare for Hell because we're all coming for you when you get there!
James Blake,
Kandewit Security
"Damn," Rep said aloud, "I think I know what's going on, but you ain't gonna like it."