Denis was quick to lunge forward, gently tapping every surface he could find. Toilet, toilet brush, that weird brush for scrubbing your toe nails with.
Nothing…
He tried the tooth brush again, hearing it charm, things started to distort again as he saw his own reflection, the ragged wild man stood before him. Seemingly expecting something, he stared at his younger self with an impatient frown before flickering back into the very face that he was judging.
Then he heard the buzzer…
The buzzer indicated that the wrong trigger had been hit. Where were the others though? Before the pattern was completely nonsensical and if there's a pattern in the vault, that could mean any object in the vault.
"Denis?" Amata called, quickly knocking on the door.
"Are you okay in there? What's that noise?"
The Wastelander's eyes slowly fell on the door, prompting him to sigh heavily as he stepped on over to it, opening it up and staring down on her. Amata was clearly shocked by his expression, both saddened and angered at the same time as if he was confused how to feel entirely.
In truth, he was. He solved the mystery, he must have, though… What exactly was he going back to? Mutants? Raiders? There was a girl here, with a baby… If she isn't a simulation, what sort of life would he be leaving her to live?
"I need to… To go." He muttered, stepping out of the bathroom and quickly feeling a faint tug on his arm.
"Denis? What the hell's gotten into you!?" Amata was seemingly worried and she had every reason to be. Her crazy boyfriend had gone off the rails again, now she was wondering if the Father of her baby should be reported to security or not.
"Please… I'm just going to go for a walk, clear my head. I had… Something occurred to me, I need to speak to your Father."
"Now!? Denis he's…"
"I don't care, this is important."
With that, the Regulator marched out, ready to face the Overseer, his plan was a long shot but it was a shot at least…
More than most get…
Alphonse sat with an intrigued look on his face as he leant forward and brought his hands together.
"So… Please, allow me to get this straight for you, Mister Callaghan…" He began in his usual condescending tone as he pretended to reference a few papers.
"You say you had a dream… In the dream, you encountered a substance that is most likely fiction and you found this fictional substance or a trace of it, in your bathroom and you're now asking for full access to my vault in order to search for this, most likely, fantasy virus.
Have I… Summed it up?"
"Yep! Nail/Head!" Denis assured him, doing the actions with his hands and clicking his tongue.
"So, how about it?"
The Overseer stared at him for a few moments before sitting up, sighing heavily as he looked away.
"You're even crazier than my security team let on…"
"I bet I'm crazier than that… But look, this is important. I don't know how it's gotten in but it's left traces all over the vault, Forced Evolutionary Virus has leaked in through a crack, leading through to the outside world and it could potentially cause mutations in our residents."
This was of course, complete garbage, from a scientific perspective. Denis was fully aware of this, however, right now, he was the only one in the world who understood the concept of the FEV Virus.
FEV Virus… How redundant. Didn't the President call it that? Forced Evolutionary Virus Virus… Yeah, nice one, El Presidente.
"Look, what harm can I do? I'm not a thief or anything, I'm a scientist, a doctor, a man of the law." He then paused, realising that he wasn't the latter anymore…
"Well, I was in my dream… The point is though, the worst I'll do is poke a few objects and look a tit but I'm telling you, objects are practically bristling with FEV, one of those objects was your daughter's toothbrush!
It could've hurt my baby, your grandchild!" Denis then paused, taking in a deep breath.
"C'mon Alphonse, if you can't trust me, that's fine, I get that but I'm the father of your grandchild now. That has to mean something!"
Alphonse leant back in his chair, bringing his thumb and forth finger to his chin as he thought on it a little.
"Hmm… You're counting a lot on that holding any weight, aren't you?"
"No, I've seen what you'd do to Amata, if put under the right amount of pressure… Though you don't want her to die or your grandchild. That is what I put my weight on."
The overseer paused, taking in a deep breath and sighing heavily.
"Fine, I'll have Officer Kendal look into it tomorrow morning…"
"Not good enough, I need to do this."
"I should think not. I have security professionals on standby… You're a madman, with a history of violence. I'm not giving you a free pass to go where you please."
Denis paused, glancing down to his feet.
"Please just be a simulation…" He murmured, resting his head on his thumb and forth finger, getting a confused glare from Alphonse.
"Oh, here we go… Look, young man, I know you like the idea that a life of responsibility isn't the life for you. That the rules of the world don't apply to you but you're just going to have to accept your own reality.
You really don't want to be a problem for me…"
Denis paused, glancing up, that sounded like a threat. A threat on his life, no less.
"Oh, you are right. Completely and utterly right." Denis assured him as he rose to his feet.
"Which is why you'll never have any problems ever again!"
With that, Denis drove a screwdriver down into Alphonse's neck, prompting him to stiffen and choke as the improve blade stuck inside his torso and a small pool of blood leaked from the wound, making his vault suit a little more purple, with each passing second.
"T-Traitor…" The older man spluttered, with each 'T' uttered, a small spittle of blood sprayed up into the air and fell straight back down to his lap. Denis immediately let him go, falling back into his chair.
"Oh, get over it! You never trusted me anyway, nor I you. It was only a matter of time before one of us had to kill the other. It's just a shame that I'm more efficient at it than you are."
"C-Cold blooded… Little shit…" Alphonse gasped as he tried to stand up, quickly collapsing to the ground.
"Well, if it makes you feel any better. You're a copy, real you thankfully exists in the world… locked away, safe from me…" Denis murmured as he crouched down and slowly drew Alphonse's key from his pocket.
He found himself pausing and sighing heavily as he watched Alphonse struggle for breath, an egotistical jackass, whose pride was so badly wounded that it was killing him…
It was almost sad to watch…
"I'm sorry, Overseer." Denis finally sighed as he pocketed the key.
"I really am… In truth? I… I don't know if this is real or not, just that I really want it to be a dream now. They say that it's real if you can feel and I can feel here but I've felt in plenty of other, not real, places.
If I'm right…. You will still be alive, when I get out of here. If not?" He slowly rose to his feet and glanced down on the Overseer as he stopped moving altogether and gave his last breath.
"Then it was nice knowing you, I guess…" Denis murmured as he turned around and walked away.
Denis tapped wildly around the room, his hands drummed from one surface to another, without rhythm or rhyme as he tried to find a static but interactive surface.
"C'mon, c'mon..." Denis murmured as he felt around, trying desperately to find it before Alphonse was found, stuffed in a locker.
There were few things that would work as a static objects, people would have to interact with them... Unless there was some sort of perception filter on it. Maybe the sink?
Denis tried it and nothing happened, prompting him to sigh heavily as he rose to his feet, prompting the door to open and make him look around as officer Gomez stepped in.
"Denis? What... What're you doing, snooping around the bathroom?" He asked, taking his hand off of his gun and pausing as he looked down at the floor.
"Looking for small pockets of radioactive activity." Denis admitted, rising to his feet and waving his pipboy.
"Figured I'd best check in here, now, instead of when it's occupied."
"Right..." The Security Guard murmured, he seemed incredibly sceptical.
"Have you done?"
"More or less, I was on my way out." The Regulator said, tapping the nearest surfaces before stepping out.
"Can you cover me? I need to try the ladies room."
"Erm... Okay but hurry up, it's not going to look remotely good if we're caught."
"It's 3AM, who's going to catch us?" Denis asked as he opened the door and revealed a large white room, prompting him to widen his gaze. The room was completely white, not a single surface or object resided inside...
"Holy shit..." He murmured, swallowing as he stepped inside. His steps were quite tentative has he carefully rested his foot on the ground, doing his best to avoid falling in if there was nothing at all. Thankfully, it was solid ground...
"Ooooh... I see! I've never been in here before! I've never even looked!" Denis realised as he stepped out, running his hands through his hair.
"This must be the control room for the simulation!" With that, he rushed out, forgetting that Gomez was stood behind him and walking into him.
"What the hell are you yelling about?" Gomez asked, trying to look him in the face.
"Simulation!? Denis, please, tell me that you aren't digging this shit up again..."
"N-No, I meant stimulation, for the dangerous chemicals." The Regulator said, in an attempt to save himself.
"Don't worry, I'm fine. Just... worried about the Vault right now. I'll keep the craziness to a minimum. I just need to touch everything in the Vault to ensure that it's not dangerous."
"If it is?"
"I'll know by touch."
"Isn't touching dangerous stuff... Y'know… Dangerous?" Gomez asked as he looked around, somewhat bewildered.
"Yes but leaving it unchecked is more so…" Denis pointed out as he continued to tap around the room, he was aware that from a third person perspective he would look like he had ADHD and had gone cold turkey on his meds but considering that his very reality hung in the balance, people can think what they want about him…
"Are you... Sure that this is a good idea?" Gomez asked, prompting Denis to look around.
"You seem all over the place."
Denis quickly stopped in his tracks and sighed heavily, shaking his head and leaning against the wall.
"Oh, Gomez…" He muttered, his gloved pip-boy hand slowly slid down his face, he revelled in the slight bit of pain caused by the friction.
"You know, I always liked you…" He turned his attention fully on the Security Officer now, who looked down on him with rather concerned eyes.
"Denis… You aren't… Losing it again, are you? The delusions? You're not…"
"Gomez… I'm not going to lie. The delusions are looking so good right now, just to slip back into a whole fake world. A world where I can do no wrong, where I'm surrounded by friends and family, a family that I built up myself for years.
You have no idea what I'd give to… to just spend one more day in that life, just… running free without having to worry about my responsibilities dragging me down. Not having to worry about other people, not having to care about what I eat." He paused, shaking his head and stepping forward as he slapped a hand on the officer's shoulder, looking him in the eye.
"But the Wasteland, the real world? It… needs me. Before I got there, it was sizzling with injustice, people were afraid to leave their homes or travel and now? It's just… So much better and it can only get better.
I just… Don't know, how much of this I can forgive anymore. It was one thing tricking me, making me doubt myself and it was another thing entirely baiting me with the life that… I didn't always want but the life that I was meant to have.
But now? The only way to get out of here is to hurt those I love… Friends, lovers, even my own flesh and blood… If I'm right, they'll just be puppets, created by a computer but… fuck man, seeing your Father die twice or your wife cry? These are just things that…"
He swallowed hard as he stepped back, looking away.
"Not even I can repress them, it's basic human impulse to care for your family and friends, your home turf… This bastard, this… sick fucking piece of shit, he's using that against me."
Denis stepped away, noticing that Gomez was now shaking, prompting him to slowly remove the screwdriver, that he forced into his abdomen, he looked to him with a pained gaze as he watched the security officer fall to his knees and eventually guided him to the floor.
"D-Denis…" He murmured.
"Wh-What have you done?"
"Gomez, I'm sorry but you aren't real, none of this is real! It can't be! It's all…"
"They'll never let you go… They'll… kill you…"
"There's no consequence, if I get out of here… Other than having to live with myself, I've lived with a lot worse.
You… Really have no idea how sorry I am, I know you think you're real and… in my head, you are real but the second that I leave? You're dying anyway… You might as well die as a man instead of a line of code."
"No…" He whispered again, slowly looking up to Denis with a smirk, a knowing smirk that caught the Lone Wanderer of guard.
"They're going to kill you… You'll go back to day one, like last time and the time before…" Gomez stopped to cough, spitting some blood across the floor.
"You're already dead, Denis… And there's no escaping hell…" This was the last that Gomez could say before his life signs faded, prompting him to leave one last, long, elongated breath as his final impression on the earth…
Black boots pounded the floor as Vault 101's security team converged on Denis' location, guns at the ready. This prompted the Regulator to draw Gomez' from his holster and pull the latch back as he saw the three guardsmen congregate at the far end of the small corridor, weapons primed and ready.
Already, this was beginning to look a lot more like the reality that he came from…
"C'mon Denis, surrender! Nobody else has to die!" The middle officer insisted, stepping forward as his comrades made sure that the target was definitely in their sites. Denis simply stared at them, pulling the slider back as his eyes narrowed.
"Whoever you are, whatever you are… Know this." He said, not even addressing the guards as people anymore.
"You may destroy me…" He began before raising his pistol and taking a shot, sending a 10mm round straight into the center guard's throat.
"But I will not!" He yelled, voice breaking into an almost manic scream as he quickly changed target to the second one, firing off another shot before the others had a chance to shoot.
"LIVE…" He fired off again, this time hitting the second security guard but not being able to stop the third one from firing and hitting Denis in the hip, causing him to stumble back, crying out in pain as his legs shook furiously, prompting him to use the wall for support with his armed hand, whilst suppressing the wound with the other. However, this proved to be little by way of an obstruction as he quickly raising his pistol again.
"In FEAR!"
He then fired off, one last time, with the security guard's head in the sites, knowing that the illusion was finally broken, he felt something that he hadn't felt since he awoke in this deceptive place…
Hope…