- "Breathing feels a lot more restricted and I have this feeling of tightness in my chest. Heartbeat is definitely elevated, I think it's irregular as well. Maybe I have tachycardia? I think I'm also experiencing anxiety and agitation. This could be symptoms of meningitis, what do you think?"
- "Well, in my medical opinion, you're a perfectly healthy sixteen-year old girl. You're just nervous about the GOAT. I told you that you needed to get more sleep before the test. And sweetie, you really need to spend less time reading my medical textbooks."
- "But Dad, this test decides what I'll be doing for the rest of my life! What if I get a medical question and I answer it wrong and I end up in Maintenance or Recycling? Or in Security! I have to make sure I'm assigned to work with you in the medbay."
Amy got up from the medbay bed, then immediately sat back down.
- "Are you sure you want to be a doctor? You don't want to work in pipboy maintenance with Stanley? He was telling me you're really good at it. Or engineering, I thought you found that fun?"
- "Engineering and pipboy maintenance would be OK, but I really want to be a doctor."
- "You know how much I'd love to have you working here with me and Jonas." - Amy thought her father looked frustrated and maybe a bit guilty for some reason. - "I just don't know if the Overseer thinks we need someone else working in medbay. I've been asking for years for someone else to be assigned here. Overseer somehow always gets severe hearing loss whenever I bring up the subject."
- "Do you think it's all dead and irradiated, you know, outside the vault?" - Amy mused. - "Or maybe there are people living somewhere? They would probably need a lot of doctors with all the radiation."
The expression on her father's face immediately changed.
- "Amy, listen to me, never say things like that, especially in front of the Overseer. You know what they say, everyone is born in the Vault, everyone dies in the Vault."
- "And" - Amy asked hesitantly - "is that true, Dad?"
She knew she should not have asked that but she could not help it. Going by what her and the other children were taught since the first day in Mr Brotch's classroom, the world outside was a dead wasteland, anything living long killed by the intense radiation unleashed in the Great War. The only place anyone could survive was inside the Vault. Whenever one of the kids asked if there were other Vaults out there, Mr Brotch just said there was no way to know since you could not go outside. She used to believe that as a kid, but as she got older she kept hearing rumours that this wasn't really true, that there were people living outside the Vault.
The thought always filled her with excitement. How did these people live, what did they eat, what did their houses look like, how many of them were there, were there animals, or plants, or insects, what did the sky look like, or the Sun, or the moon ... Amy could spend hours imagining what life outside was like.
Her father got up so suddenly that it startled Amy a bit. He put his hand on her shoulder.
- "Amy, this is important. I know this place, this Vault is not perfect. But you are safe here. Because what's out there, this is not the life your mother and I wanted for you."
For a second Amy forgot to breathe. Of all the rumours she's heard about the Outside, one of the most persistent was that her father was not born in the Vault, that the Overseer allowed him inside. Dad himself completely refused to discuss the subject. He even got angry with her a couple of times when she would not stop asking questions, at least as close as he ever got to being angry with her. It was pretty much obvious to her that this was true, but still, to have it almost confirmed like this.
"Now go on, you don't want to be late for the GOAT" - her father took his hand off her shoulder. And sweetie, good luck."
"Thanks Dad" - answered Amy, still a little dumbfounded by the revelation.
Jonas walked into the medbay just as she was about to leave. On seeing her he made an exaggeratedly grave face and asked Dad
"So how is our young patient? How bad is it?"
"Very bad". Dad's tone was just as somber "I don't think she's going to make it."
"What do we have to amputate?"
"Everything."
"OK, I'll get everything prepped." Jonas looked at Amy earnestly and put his hand on his heart. "Little miss, I promise we'll do all we can to save you."
Amy grabbed the funny little bobblehead figurine of the Vault Boy holding a syringe from the table and pretended to throw it at Jonas. He bent his torso backwards and sideways as if dodging the invisible projectile. "Hey, good luck with the GOAT."
"Thanks Jonas " Amy smiled.
As soon as she stepped outside the medbay there was a familiar voice in her head
- "Medical knowledge is useful in many situations but there are many other skills that are just as important."
- "Ugh, not now Shroud, I have to concentrate." Amy whispered quickly.
Silver Shroud was still there, ever since Amy first heard his voice on her tenth birthday. He only talked to her when she was alone, mostly when she was practicing with the BB gun in the little utility room on the reactor level. It was weird but at this point Amy was so used to it she hardly thought about it. About two years ago she read some of her father's textbooks dealing with mental disorders and became really scared that hearing this disembodied voice could be a symptom of something serious. Eventually she was worried enough to talk to her father about it.
- "OK" her father looked calm but she could see the tension in his face. "Now, sweetie, this is important. Do you do everything this voice tells you to?"
- "No of course not. Why would I? I don't even do everything you tell me to."
- "You don't do anything I tell you to." Dad complained, but she could see some of the tension leave his face. "I'm going to ask you a few questions and I'll need you to be completely honest, OK?"
Some of the questions her father asked were a bit weird but Amy answered them all. In the end her father seemed to relax completely.
- "OK, this is not exactly my area of expertise but it seems to me there's nothing here to worry about. It's definitely unusual to still have imaginary friends at your age but it's not unheard of. I do think it's healthier to have real friends."
- "I have real friends. There's Amata and Freddie."
- "Yes and I'm glad you're friends with these two. I really like Amata. Freddie has had his troubles but he's a good kid. But perhaps you could be friendlier with other children your age? What about other girls?"
Amy sighed - "I tried, Dad, I really have. Susie hates me, I don't know why. And the other girls all hang out with her and if Susie won't talk to me none of them will either."
- "Now, teenage girls are something of a mystery to me..."
- "Yeah I know." nodded Amy dejectedly, then after seeing her father's questioning look "They are for me too. And I'm one of them."
- "One thing I do know that at that age you still have an open mind. When you get to my age most people's minds are made up, they'll hold on to what they believe in no matter how much evidence you show them that they're wrong. But for young people your age, they can still change their mind. So maybe if you made a bit more effort you could bring the other girls around."
- "I'll try dad" Amy promised.
She has honestly tried, not that it did much good. In the end she had Dad and Amata and Freddie and Jonas and Stanley and Shroud and that was OK.
As Amy was going through the possible test questions in her head, she heard voices in the corridor and her mood took a nosedive. Tunnel Snakes were bugging Amata again.
Butch DeLoria always used to give her a hard time as a kid, but after he tried to punch her in the face on her tenth birthday he mostly left her alone. Ever since then, when they run into each other she could see anger and something like disappointment in his face. Amy tried to avoid him and he seemed happy to do the same and this was just fine by her.
But now Butch was running this 'Tunnel Snakes' gang that half the boys in the Vault wanted to join and it made things more awkward with Paul Hanlon and Freddie Gomez, probably the only two boys that she was friends with, because of course they joined the stupid gang. Well, she couldn't really say she was friends with Paul, they hardly ever said a word to each other these days. What's worse, recently the Tunnel Snakes seemed determined to harass her best friend Amata every chance they got.
- "Leave me alone, you stupid Tunnel Snakes."
- "Hey Amata, I'll show you a real tunnel snake." Amy was pretty sure that was Butch's voice. That idiot probably thought he was being really smooth. Ugh.
Amy could just about see Amata, her back against the wall of the corridor. Four Tunnel Snakes surrounded her, cutting off all escape routes. Other than Butch Paul Hanlon Wally Mack and a couple of others were there. Amata looked flustered, which, Amy thought, made her look especially pretty. Not that she wasn't pretty when she wasn't flustered. Even though Amy was older than her best friend by two months, with her small frame and pale skin she still looked barely adolescent, while Amata already a figure of a woman.
- "I see these thugs are menacing your friend again. We must rescue her from this predicament."
Amy sighed. She really didn't want to be late for the test but Shroud was right, she had to try and help Amata out. She wasn't sure how she'd do that, exactly, but maybe she could talk the Tunnels Snakes out of bugging Amata any more. Hopefully she'd still have enough time to get to the classroom before the test started. It wouldn't matter for these boneheads if they were late for GOAT, Amy thought, they would all end up in Maintenance anyway. Well probably not Paul, and hopefully not Freddy.
"What's going on here?" Amy asked the obvious question mainly to get Butch's attention, he and his minions were totally focused on Amata.
Butch glanced at her impatiently, his eyes still fixed on Amata. "Get lost you little shrimp."
- "If you keep bothering Amata the Overseer is going to come down on your gang hard." Amy wasn't sure how security even allowed the gang to exist with all the trouble they were causing, but surely their luck would run out at some point.
Butch smirked "Nah, somehow I don't think he's gonna do that. Now get the hell out of here."
- "Are you really so dumb you think the Overseer won't care about you making his daughter miss the GOAT? You can't even imagine how much trouble you'll be in."
- "Who are you calling dumb, you runt?" Butch turned around to face Amy.
- "Hey, Butch, maybe we should take it easy, she is the Overseer's daughter and all." Paul Hanlon sounded sheepish. "I also kind of wanna get to that test."
- "You can't wait to hang out with your best friend here huh?" Butch waved a hand towards Amy. "Go on, then, go study with all the nerds"
- "Butch, man, all I'm saying is.."
Amy and Amata waited until the Tunnel Snakes were gone, then started towards the classroom.
- "Thanks for getting rid of these assholes." said Amata quietly. "Just, you know, I don't want to run to Daddy every time I have problems. I want to fight my own battles." She shook her head. "What do they want with me, anyway? Just because I'm the Overseer's daughter, I guess."
- "I think" Amy hesitated "I think this is Butch's way of, you know. Letting you know he's into you."
- "Oh god. Wow, just now, when he and his little buddies nearly had me pinned against the wall, that was just so romantic." Amy didn't think she's ever heard that much bitterness in her best friend's voice before. "I was ready to take off my jumpsuit and just throw myself at him. If I told father about this, he would have security beat these losers so bad they wouldn't be able to sit down for a week."
- "Then why don't you?" Amy genuinely couldn't understand.
- "Because .. all my life my father's been telling me what I should and shouldn't do, how I must do this and that. I want to make my own decisions, live my own life. Just .. never mind."
- "Anyway" Amata continued with a slightest hint of a smile "I've heard you've been getting pretty friendly with one of these Tunnel Snakes."
- "What on earth are you talking about?"
- "A certain Freddie Gomez?"
- "Freddie? We're friends .. I'm not even going to respond to that"
- "Fine, fine" Amata smiled, "Forget I asked. So, you're ready for the test?"
- "I think so." Amy bit her lip slightly. "I just don't know what to expect. One test to decide what you're going to do for the rest of your life."
"You know" said Amata "I've been hearing things. Apparently Mr. Brotch already has a pretty good idea where everyone is ending up. You didn't hear it from me, OK?"
- "Really? Wow, OK. I hope he knows what I want to do."
- "I'm sure he does. You'll be fine, don't worry, but, still good luck"
- "Thanks Amata, you too. Though you're probably not going to need it. Everyone says you'll be Overseer's assistant."
- "Maybe. I don't know" Amata shrugged.
- "Oh come on. You're on track to be the next Overseer. You'll be ruling over us all." Amy raised her hands above her head and made an exaggerated bow "All hail Amata, she who shelters us from the harshness of the nuclear Wasteland!"
- "Stop it."
Amata was smiling but something in her eyes made Amy do as her friend asked.
- "Anyway, do you want to grab some lunch in the careteria afterwards?" Amata continued.
- "Sure, I just want to talk talk to Freddy ... and other people first. What?"
- "Nothing, nothing at all." Amata grinned "Just get me from my quarters when you're ready."
When Amy read through the test, she felt queasy, panic quickly taking over. What were those silly questions, what was she supposed to answer? How would she show her knowledge of medicine here? She took a deep breath, and stared intently at the worn test paper, as if expecting to see some hidden pattern in the ink. The multiple-choice answers of all the different ways of doing the crazy things test asked for... it was just things you were interested in? Was it really so simple?
Amy felt a wave of relief wash over her, mixed with a little disappointment. Did she really need to study all night for this? She thought all the answers through, double checked several times, then finally circled the answers that would get her the result she wanted. This should work, she thought.
She felt pretty good when she finished the test but every step she took to Mr. Brotch's desk took a bit of her confidence away. Was she really sure she figured the test out? What if it wasn't what she thought at all? Would it have been better to just answer the silly questions as honestly as she could? She screwed it all up, damnit damnit what has she done ..
Amy took a deep breath, it calmed her a little bit. She decided she would hang back and hand in her test one of the last in the class. She quietly walked to the back of the queue forming in front of Mr. Brotch's desk.
She could see Freddy still staring at his test paper, looking a bit lost. On the way she run into Susie Mack, she fixed Amy with an icy stare, telling her 'don't you dare try and talk to me'. Amy had no intention to, she knew that Susie and her little group considered her unworthy, though she still had no idea why.
At least she knew she wasn't Susie's least favorite person in the Vault - that honor belonged to Amata. Susie seemed to hate her with a burning passion. Amy heard things like "stuck up" and "she thinks she's better than everybody else" said about Amata. Nothing could be further from the truth but it's not like Amy could explain this to anybody.
The problem was Amata's status as the Overseer's daughter. Amata told her about the many times other kids and sometimes even parents would come to her asking her to talk to the Overseer on their behalf about something or other. Amata hated it but still she tried to talk to her father. However all that ever came of it was another lecture from the Overseer about being impartial and objective when dealing with the Vault residents. Knowing the complete futility of it Amata started turning people down explaining to them that she could never change the Overseer's mind about anything, but that just made people think that she doesn't care, that she despises them and more nonsense like that. Amy wished she could tell everybody how Amata would move heaven and earth for other people if she could but she knew nobody would listen.
Amata was one of the first to hand in her test. "Looks like a supervisory track for you Miss Almodovar". There was a murmur in the background and Amy heard a girl's voice say "Surprise surprise", Mr Brotch had to shush them. Amata walked straight out without looking at anybody.
The results of the others in the class gave few surprises. Most of the Tunnel Snakes ended up in Maintenance just like Amy thought, Freddie was assigned there too. It was always the most likely outcome but she was still hoping he'd end up somewhere else. All the help she's given him with his school work not to mention all the times she did his homework for him had to have counted for something. Paul Hanlon was the only one of the Tunnel Snakes who ended in Engineering. Amy heard him explaining to the rest of the gang that Engineering is not that different to Maintenance and he'd probably spend most of his time working with them anyway. He sounded apologetic. Amy tried to keep her sigh as quiet as she could.
One moment when Amy's jaw dropped open was when Mr. Brotch announced that Butch would be the Vault's new hairdresser. There's never been a hairdresser in the Vault, and ... Butch? It turned out that Mr. Brotch was kidding, Butch was going to Maintenance. Just seeing the look on Butch's face when Mr. Brotch told him was worth it but Amy was glad it was only a joke. She certainly wasn't letting Butch anywhere near her hair.
A big shock for Amy was Christine Kendall being assigned to Maintenance. That made no sense. Did she sneeze all over her test or something? As well as being the most surprising result it held up the queue the longest, mainly because Christine kept tearfully pleading for Mr Brotch to check the result again and again.
Eventually everyone handed in their test and were told the results. Amy was surprised how quickly it took Mr Brotch to grade each test and give the result - it was almost impossibly fast. Other kids gave Mr Brotch a lot of shit behind his back, but he was really good at his job, Amy thought.
Everyone else started leaving the two big groups were Susie's posse, consoling the sobbing Christine Kendall. Amy wanted to go and talk to Christine but she knew better. Perhaps she would catch her alone later. The Tunnel Snakes of course all headed out together as well. It sounded like they were talking about Butch's aborted hairdresser career. Amy heard something about shaving people bald and something else called 'Mohawks', she didn't really listen very closely.
- "Amy" she heard Mr. Brotch call her. "You planning to hand in your test some time this week? Even Freddy handed his in ahead of you." Amy frowned slightly, walked hesitantly towards Mr. Brotch's desk and handed him the test.
Mr. Brotch looked over the test paper as Amy waited, her breath bated. Was Mr. Brotch taking longer than usual?
- "OK, looks like it's Pipboy Maintenance for you, but you''ll also be working in Engineering. Stanley should be happy. You like working with Stanley, right?"
- "But .. " Amy tried to keep her voice steady "Are you completely sure? Could you check again?"
- "Oh for chrissakes, don't go all Christine Kendall on me."
- "It's just that .. I thought .. I was quite sure that my answers would show preference and aptitude for medicine."
- "Look." Mr Brotch sighed. "I like your Dad, so I'll tell it to you straight. They do." Mr Brotch put Amy's GOAT answers in front of him and looked over them again. "Wow, they certainly do. Maximum score for medicine. But there are no openings in medbay. It's fully staffed." Mr Brotch spread his arms. "It's out of my hands."
- "Then what was the point of this stupid test?!" Amy's voice almost rose to a high pitched scream. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that ... "
- "The test is important, OK? It a big percentage in many cases. Just not in your case. Sometimes the outcome is kind of known in advance. The results are still on file, if there is an opening in medbay you'll be right at the top of the list."
- "OK, OK. Thanks Mr. Brotch" Amy turned to go, then turned around "But then why did Christine ..."
- "Don't. Even. Start" Mr. Brotch looked angry. No, not angry, more like really exasperated.
Amy headed for the exit. She wasn't sure if she wanted to cry or to smash something to pieces. Maybe both at the same time? As she opened the door on her way out of the classroom she looked up and her mood brightened a little. Freddy Gomez was leaning against the corridor wall, waiting for her.
- "Hey Amy, just thought I'd ask, did you want to grab a soda at the diner?" He noticed her expression. "You didn't get the place you wanted?"
- "... all that time I've spent studying, what was it for?"
Amy threw her arms up dramatically, coming precariously close to knocking over a nuka-cola on her table. The diner was mostly empty at this hour, apart from her and Freddy there were only a couple of other people.
- "Bummer." nodded Freddy, who for the last half hour or so patiently listened to Amy's outpouring of complaints. "But hey, maybe Pipboy Maintenance and Engineering ain't so terrible. I mean I get it they're really not your first choice, but I mean, at least you're not in Maintenance." he grinned.
- "Oh gosh I'm so sorry." Amy's expression changed in an instant. "Here I am going on and on about how I didn't get into the medbay and you've been sent to Maintenance. Are you OK?"
- "It's really not so bad. I've worked there before, I know a couple of guys there pretty well. It's all right. said I could get reassigned to Engineering later, but really I don't mind."
"You don't want to work in Security, like your dad?" Amy asked.
- "Me in Security? Nah" Freddie laughed. "I can't be chasing after people making trouble, I'm the one making trouble. Also my dad already orders me around at home, can't have him doing that at work too."
Freddy took a sip of his nuka cola then continued "Anyway lots of people are going to Maintenance. Even Christine Kendall. Did you see her after the test? She was not happy."
- "Yeah I saw that. Poor Christine. Her results were never that bad, I'm not sure what happened."
Amy looked at Freddy and asked hesitantly "Freddy, do you think you could, you know, get your Tunnel Snake pals in Maintenance to not give Christine too much hassle. I mean it's going to be hard for her as it is."
- "I don't really run things in Tunnel Snakes, Butch is the main man. And, you know, guys will be guys." Freddy shrugged "But sure, I'll try to get them to not give her too much of a hard time. I'll look after her."
Amy felt grateful, but something about the way Freddy phrased it ... a thought entered Amy's mind. It was ridiculous and unworthy and Amy swatted it away furiously.
- "Thanks Freddy"
- "Yeah no problems. I thought you and Christine weren't friends though?"
- "We're not" Amy nodded "But we used to be, back when we were kids."
- "Yeah. Their whole family is having problems right now." Freddy leaned in "Mary Kendall, her mum, is in some kind of trouble with the Overseer. She wanted something, or the Overseer wanted something I don't know exactly what happened, but they've cut her credits last week. By, like, a lot."
- "How do you know that?" Amy looked at Freddy incredulously.
- "Butch told us"
- "And how would Butch know something like that?"
- "Butch knows lots of stuff"
- "So is that what you Tunnel Snakes do when you hang out together? You gossip about everyone in the Vault?" Amy smiled slighly.
- "We don't gossip" Freddy protested. "Gossiping is what you and Amata do. I bet you say all kinds of stuff about me behind my back."
- "No, about you, never." Amy paused. "Only good things."
- "Yeah I totally believe that." Freddy grinned.
- "So, pipboy maintenance" Freddy continued. "How do you do that stuff? I remember Stanley came to our class to talk about pipboy maintenance, I couldn't make any sense of it."
Amy looked thoughtful for a moment. "It's like the pipboys have their own language, it's all numbers, but if you understand that language you can get them to do different things. You have to be really precise though, one mistake and it all goes haywire."
- "Wow, that's crazy. I'll stick to English I think."
Amy couldn't really say she was all that into pipboy maintenance, she was just good at it. Somehow, she always just understood machines, they made sense to her. Besides she enjoyed working with Stanley and there weren't too many other people in his workshop.
Freddy finished his nuka-cola and got up.
- "OK I'm meeting up with Butch and the rest of the guys now, but, uh, I'll see you later?"
Amy tried hard to hide her exasperation. "Freddie, do you really have to hang out with these idiots?"
- "Butch isn't an idiot. He's got a plan. He's not as smart as you though."
Amy had to try hard to not look too pleased. "Wow I'm smarter than Butch DeLoria. That's not much of an achievement. Next you'll be telling me I'm better looking than old Mr. Abernathy."
- "Um, you totally are. I mean, uh, better looking than Mr. Abernathy."
- "Well you're just full of compliments today, aren't you" Amy laughed with a hint of embarrassment.
- "That's the kind of guy I am" Freddy announced cheerfully. "So, I'll see you later, yeah?"
- "See you later, Freddy."
Amy headed to her and Dad's quarters, by the medbay. She thought she could get a short nap before lunch with Amata. She really needed to catch up on her sleep. She felt a bit better now. It's like Mr. Brotch told her, she thought, if there was an opening in medbay she'd be the first on the list. In the meantime, maybe Pipboy Maintenance wasn't so bad.
She always felt better after talking to Freddy, she reflected. Ever since they became friends back when they were kids he always had a way of cheering her up when she needed it. Freddy changed so much since then, she thought. He used to be this awkward, weird kid they all used to call Freddy the Freak. Now he was a strapping young man - he clearly was going to inherit his father's build, he towered over Amy. Really rather handsome, too. It was really good to have him as a friend, thought Amy.
Medbay was empty when Amy opened the doors, which was rare. Dad and Jonas were busy in the back room, discussing something about treatment for one of the Vault residents. Amy made an effort not to listen. A while ago Dad caught her going through the patient medical data on the medbay terminal and gave her one of the most stern tellings off ever. Since then she went out of her way not to learn anything about any of Vault residents medical problems.
Amy took a look around a medbay. It always amazed her just how much stuff father and Jonas managed to fit in so little space. There were shelves upon shelves of books, many more shelves of pills of all kinds (many more of them at the back), plasters and bandages, all kinds of medical equipment ... Still, somehow it never felt like a utility closet, you could just feel like everything was exactly where it needed to be, when it needed to be there.
At the back there was a large mirror. Before going to her quarters Amy stopped and spent some time looking at her reflection. A slight frame, round face, high cheekbones, delicate features, large hazel eyes, wavy jet black hair tied in a large bun. She sighed in disgust and turned around.
She looked like a damn kid, she thought. So short and skinny. Hardly any breasts at all. All other girls in her class had them already. Amata got them years ago. Susie's were enormous, bigger than any grown woman she knew. As if that wasn't enough she was breaking out in acne all over the place. She heard others call her 'cute' a few times and she hated that. A newborn baby or a doll or a picture of a puppy in a pre-war book could be cute. She wanted to be sexy. Or at least pretty.
Amy finally left the medbay and came to her part of their quarters. She tried to get some sleep, but in spite of feeling tired she just couldn't fall asleep. Too many thoughts were going through her mind, about the test and everything else. After lying on her bed for what felt like a long time she heard her father come in and got up.
- "Sorry sweetie, did I wake you?"
- "No, I couldn't sleep. I wanted to go and have lunch with Amata anyway, maybe I'll get some sleep afterwards."
- "How did the GOAT go?"
Amy told her father about the test, trying to be as matter of fact about it as she could.
- "I can't say I'm surprised." he sighed. "Are you really disappointed?"
- "I just .. I know I would be really good at it. Mr Brotch said I got the maximum score for medicine. Even though the test was kind of a joke to be honest."
- "Of course you'd be good at it. I'll just have to keep badgering the Overseer for expansion of the Medbay staff, maybe one day he'll finally see the light. We can only hope. In the meantime though, Pipboy Maintenance isn't so bad. I remember you said you quite liked it."
- "It could be worse I suppose." Amy sighed.
Just as her father was turning around Amy called to him
- "Dad, do I look like mum?"
He turned back to face Amy and looked at her curiously.
- "As a matter of fact, yes. You look a lot like her."
- "What was she like?"
She saw her father raise his eyebrows. "What's brought this one sweetie? Did somebody say something?"
- "No, nothing like that, I just wanted to know."
- "It was such a long time ago"
Meeting Amy's questioning look her father sighed and sat down on the edge of Amy's bed.
- "Catherine, she was beautiful. And passionate. About life, about love, about her work. You wouldn't know it at first, she was so quiet." He smiled softly. "But once she trusted you, ooh." He turned towards Amy "Most of all she was passionate about you. I've never seen her so happy as when you were born."
- "And she was smart. Really smart. And funny too." By now he was looking somewhere past Amy, past the concrete wall of their small quarters. "But she was fragile. All of them were, but her most of all. When she fell ill .. you have to understand, we only had the most basic medical equipment, we hardly had anything at all. If we had access to proper medical facilities, even something like this medbay ... I don't know. Maybe if we stayed ... but we couldn't stay. She wanted to leave most of all. We had to take you away from ..."
He never finished, just sat there staring off in the distance. Amy didn't remember seeing her Dad like this before.
- "Sorry."
- "What for sweetie?" he snapped out of his thoughts and looked at Amy. "I'm sorry, I never talk about your mum. I understand you must be curious. Maybe I can tell you more about her, some other time. Now, I have to go back to work. Mr Abernathy is coming later."
Amy sat there for a while, thinking about what she just heard, then finally got up. She was going to have that lunch with Amata.
The corridors of the living quarters were empty at this time, most Vault residents were at work. It was very quiet. There was some noise here and there but Amy was mostly too wrapped up in her thoughts to register them. The only time she was snapped out of her trance was when she walked past the Mack quarters. She could hear loud yelling, sounded like Allen, although she could hear Gloria's and Susie's voices too, quieter. Yelling and other noises got so loud that Amy even thought about getting someone from Security but then the noise died down. The Macks, ugh, thought Amy and continued onward.
It was because she was so absorbed in her thoughts that she didn't notice until she run into the Tunnel Snakes. There were six of them there, just standing in the corridor. Amy wanted to think that she just run into them by accident but there was something about their stances that suggested they were there waiting. Probably waiting for her. She tried to turn around and quickly walk back the way she came but Wally Mack and that other kid whose name she couldn't remember have already slipped around her flank and blocked her path.
- "Oh, um hi, what are you guys doing here?"
- "What, are we not allowed to be here or something? Are we in trouble now?" Butch sounded confrontational from the start.
- "No, not at all, you keep doing whatever it is you're doing. I'm just going to go now."
- "Yeah you're going to run and tell Daddy about it, and then the Overseer, and then officer Gomez. Cause that's what you love to do right? Cause you're a snitch yeah?"
Amy looked for a way past but it was blocked completely. Just like with Amata earlier but this time it was different. Butch looked really angry now. She looked at the gleefully smirking faces of the other Tunnel Snakes, they were anticipating a show. She saw Freddy there too and it physically hurt.
- "Yeah you're a fucking snitch. You know what happens? Snitches get stitches, that's what happens."
"Come on Butch, don't do anything st... You'll get into so much trouble, come on please stop".
Butch moved towards her threateningly. She stepped back until she was up against the corridor wall, and then suddenly she could not see Butch's face anymore because Freddy's back was blocking her view.
- "Cmon Butch, let her go now."
- "What the hell is your problem man, get out of my way."
- "Let her go first, don't hurt her."
- "Nobody was gonna... Get the fuck out of my way you fucking moron."
- "Hey quit pushing me."
She saw the other Tunnel Snakes were staring open mouthed at Freddy, there was an opening now. She darted into it almost instinctively, dodging the hands of one of the Tunnel Snakes, and run as fast as she could. She could hear voices and sounds of a struggle behind her.
She heard Shroud saying something about abandoning allies under attack but that didn't even register in her state of panic. She run into someone, tried frantically to run past them and only then recognized the Vault security armor. She breathlessly told the security officer about what happened then continued running until she got to their quarters. She closed the door and sat on her bed and just stayed there in the same pose.
Then she heard what sounded like Freddy's voice. She opened the door and run into the medbay.
- "Oh god Freddy"
Her father was there, cleaning a cut on Freddy's eyebrow. He finished, then turned to Amy
- "Sweetie, are you OK?"
- "I'm fine, just ..."
- "Freddy told me what happened. Security has the rest of them. That won't be the end of it, not even close. I'm going straight to the Overseer with this." He paused. "I have to go get something but I'll be back really soon, don't worry."
When her father left the room Amy turned to her friend.
- "Freddy ..."
- "I'm OK, doc says it's nothing serious. Aww shit." Freddy clutched the left side of his ribcage. "Amy, I didn't want to be there. I just thought I'd go with them to make sure they don't hurt you. Because I .. uh ... you know."
"Yes" Amy said softly, taking Freddy's hand in hers. "I know."