Blood from Vault 18

Hunter and Hunted

One of the first emotions to ever be formed in sentient creatures was fear, from the fears of small animals as they were chased by a predator to the complex fears of mankind, with the fear of nuclear Armageddon being the biggest among them in the last days of the Great War.

Some would say that fear itself had evolved as mankind had progressed, preserved in some of the Vaults. But as Kieron ran in the darkness of the forest he felt a primal fear, the same that many creatures had felt over the course of the history of earth, the fear of the unknow predator chasing him in the darkness.

Something was chasing him in the dark and he couldn't even see what it was, there was no time for him to think about anything only that he needed to run and survive, he could barely see his companions ahead of him the moonlight barely showing them the way. Out of the corner of his eye he saw how a tree exploded in a million splinters as whatever was chasing them grew closer, Kieron heard a scream and saw someone stumble, he recognized that blonde hair.

"Jenn!" Kieron helped her up as he forgot about the pain on his leg momentarily as he looked around frantically, nothing but forest and at he could faintly hear the sound of water

A string of curses echoed in the forest "Kieron this is a dead end!" came the yell from Kurtz from as they caught up to the others, Kira shot with her plasma rifle briefly illuminating the area they were in "W-what… what is chasing us?" she muttered as everyone tried to see any way out of the situation, climbing was not an option, the sharp rocks would make it impossible.

Everyone held their breath as the branches around them snapped and where flung to the side falling into water

"…water"

Kieron activated the flashlight on his PipBoy and spotted a river nearby, it was their best chance and he would not let doubt be his undoing.

"JUMP TO THE RIVER!" he yelled as he grabbed Jenn's hand and dove into the water followed by the rest of friends.

Cold water surrounded them as they surfaced and sawm with the current to get away from the monster, Kieron activated his PipBoy light to guide the group as they left Pinehaven. Most creatures would have been confused at the action and would have stopped the hunt or just followed the scent down the river, but as the old world technology called stealth boy deactivated a monster made of muscle, and radiation the super-mutant more specifically a Nightkin simply glared at the light that was fading away in the distance.

Taller than any man, as strong as the beasts that roamed the wastes, the race of Super Mutants was made to surpass humanity. He could easily catch them, rip them limb from limb and then take the pieces back to the Father, so that their vision could finally be fulfilled and their era could begin proper… but there was a huge issue.

He did not know who the specimen was. The explosion in the mountains alerted them that something was happening and that their master plan could begin, but like everything the Father did there was a small complication at the end.

The DNA sample had changed, the Father had told him in private before he set out for his mission.

The end product was not something that could be predicted anymore, who knew how much a sheltered life had changed the specimen and how it looked like, the parting words of his leader where "I need the specimen alive, but who is the specimen… I am no longer able to tell" the voice of the Father resonated in the head of the Nightkin as he spotted his prey get out of the river and into the road.

So now he would simply do what he did best, he would stalk them in the night.

Wait to see anything that might give him a clue as to who his target was; no mutation could be seen superficially, but soon enough the wasteland would bring it out.

Kieron fell to the ground as they finally stopped to catch their breath, behind him he could hear how everyone from the group was struggling to catch their breath "Everyone… are you ok?!"

Eric placed a hand on Jamie's shoulder and she nodded at him, with a long sigh Eric gave Kieron a tired look "We're fine"

"Same here" Jenn commented as she rested on the grass, Johnny flipped him off, Ben nodded and Kira grumbled her response. Kieron the allowed himself to chuckle "So we all made with our personality intact, goo to know we made it… what was that thing? Kira do you…"-"No" Kira was quick to interrupt as she water drip from her hair into her hands as they slightly shook "The records that we had on the Vault never said anything about an invisible monster"

Eric, the only one with wasteland scout training of the team felt his eyes widen a bit as he recalled some of the teachings of Dr. Rossman, this sounded like something the old doctor had only blurted out by accident. Eric brought Jaimie closer to him, his girlfriend looked at him confused "Is something wrong?"

"Yes, Kieron we need to leave. Do you still have the map with you?"

With a nod Kieron stood up and dusted himself as he looked down at his ripped Vault Suit, for the second time in his life Kieron felt concern as he stared at the fully healed wound on his leg but he would save that little bit of information for later for now he needed to get his… well tribe he supposed he could say to safety.

Johnny stood up from his sitting position and walked next to his younger leader "Hey how many weapons you have with you? I refuse to be used like a pack mule, I grabbed everything I could" Kieron grinned as he took a shotgun and a 10mm pistol from the bully "Nice! Thanks Johnny, no worries we'll share the weight"

Looking at the weapons he holstered the pistol at his side and placed the shotgun on his back and then looked at the road ahead "Lets get an early start then, come on lets follow this road it should take us out of this place"

It was an odd sensation for Kieron, giving orders, he thought to himself as they began to walk down the broken path was never one to give orders. And even with less frequency did anyone actually follow them, Shawn out of a weird need to defy him and Mandy because she always had a better solution in her humble opinion, but now here he was in a situation that he had little control over and people that he considered equal or better than him followed him into an unknow.

Pressure built in his chest as he began to feel anxiety over the future, was there anything here? Was another monster lurking in the dark ready to attack him? Could he even lead all of his friends?

Eric could realistically lead, he was after all trained or partially trained to be a wasteland scout by Doctor Rossman and yet… he saw no interest in him to lead, more focused on keeping Jamie safe, Kieron frowned a bit as he felt as if he had been handed the responsibility of leadership because Eric could simply not care about the others, only about his lover.

But it would do him no good to think about this type of things while anything could ambush them on their way to their next base.

"And after that what?" was the big question that hung over his head, did they just settle down somewhere far for the raiders and live? Search for another vault to live with them? Or maybe find civilization?

Kieron saw a glimmer of light in the distance, campfire.

Walking ahead of the rest of his group he spotted a lone figure with a dog by his side, a raider? Or simply a man trying to survive?

"Johnny, how good are you with that pistol" he asked as everyone caught up to him "My hands are still shaking after all that Med-X, I might shoot you" Johnny answered bluntly. Kieron snorted but nodded "Then, who wants to watch my back while I talk to the stranger over there?"

Kira raised her hand "I'll do it, I installed a scope on the rifle for a reason" Kieron smiled at her and nodded, he took some steps forward making sure to step on some branches so that he was heard. He got as close as possible before he made eye contact with the mysterious person, neither of them said anything but Kieron did see how his hand moved towards his weapon, a hunting rifle if he was not mistaken.

There was a pause as Kieron raised his hands to show he meant no harm, this made the bearded man glare "So, you friend or foe stranger?"

"If I said foe, would you believe more or less?"

Another pause followed, but it was soon interrupted by a chuckle form the bearded man "Well met stranger, why don't you come sit with me by the fire before I leave? Oh and tell your friends they can come out of hiding" All it took was one look at the small group for the man to lower his weapon and frown at the sky "Ah I see, so you come from the Vault. What the hell happened?"

Eric frowned "how did you know?"

"You look the type, healthy skin twitchy hands… that and my old man came from eighteen. I know how to spot you guys, so back to my question. What happened?" Kieron let out a long sigh "Long story, but… the vault is gone. This group of crazy people attacked us and then the vault was destroyed, the reactor exploded" Kieron omitted the part that it was the overseer that pressed the self-destruct button and he had killed him. Only Johnny knew of that part, but he knew that Johnny did not give a damn about that.

To his surprise the man snorted "Enclave, right?"

Kieron slowly nodded "I think that's what they called themselves"-"Because I was raider before all this. The Enclave have been a bug up Elsdragon's ass for the past few months, but now that he has those vertibirds that he stole from then… damn him" Kira moved forward "Who is this Elsdragon?"

"A mean old snake, the current leader of the raiders in Athens Tech. not someone you want to cross, with his new toys he might go to war with the NCR. He calls himself a freedom fighter, but he is just as bad as the rest of us"

Kieron hummed "War, with who?"

This made the raider smile "Ah that would be the NCR, the largest nation in the wasteland. I would be wary of them if I where you kid, they are not fans of your vault" but it was a nation, civilization. A place where they could just integrate and leave peacefully "And do you know where the NCR is?"

"Heh, get your PipBoy over here. See this part of the map? DO NOT go near it, that's the home of the raiders and they would be out for you. As for the NCR, well you do look like you can lie good enough to pass under their radar so if you are up for a two week long trek head here"

Hope blossomed in Kieron's chest as he smiled at the raider "Thank you"

"Don't mention it, hope you find what you are looking for out there kid. As for me, well I am headed to a new nation. One with true meaning, take care" the man said as he stood up and waved at the group as he headed towards the horned red beast of the Arizona.

Kira was the first to break the silence "Athens tech is closer"-"It's full of raiders, we are not going there" Jaimie was quick to cut her off, the purple haired girl frowned but before she could comment Kurtz spoke up.

"So our only option is to walk to this… NCR? Who says they would welcome us?" there was another pause, Jenn looked at her PipBoy. Dawn was almost here "But they are the best option we have. Kieron what do you think?"

The young boy tapped his screen as he the rays of the sun began to illuminate the barren land "For now that does not matter, if doesn't matter if we head to NCR or Athens we still have to walk about a day to be out of this road and reach here" Kieron said as everyone looked at the machine on his wrist.

"But before we walk, anyone wants some breakfast?"

A/N: Hello, thank you for reading! I had a small question for you guys, do you want just the main story to be adapted or also some of the small side quest (there aren't many) to be included, let me know thanks!