Flash, Bam, Alakazam
"It's now twelve o'clock with the midday news. Mr House, the enigmatic entrepreneur of RobCo has warned that tensions between the US and China are reaching a fever pitch, and that buying RobCo Industries supplies and equipment is the best way to survive the upcoming nuclear holocaust. Critics have said that his comments are 'sensationalist, self serving, and frankly unamerican'. We'll bring you more after these upcoming tunes, but first, this message is brought to you by Blamco Mac and Cheese. Blamco mac and cheese, where every bite is a delight."
To that, the radio switched over to some calming tracks. One More Tomorrow, by Frankie Carle; a favourite of Andy's.
As the horns grew in intensity he kicked himself out of bed and took a look out into the street through a crack in the curtains. He'd been asked to move into the neighbourhood by a close friend of his, Vera, and it was one of the best decisions he'd ever made. Good neighbours, clean environment, he'd even signed up to the local vault recently on Vera's encouragement, with a pushy Vault-Tec representative sealing the deal.
He could see Nate and Nora two houses down. Although he didn't know them that well, he at least knew that Nora was some kind of lawyer and Nate was in the military. Naturally he asked if he fought in Anchorage but he couldn't say, or maybe he didn't want to answer.
And just across the road was Penelope's family. He could see her now, shouting at her parents in the living room while the boyfriend looked on absentmindedly through the window. Even though their eyes could have met, he just stared straight through him.
He could see Vera now sat on her parents lawn, by herself watching the small birds on her bird feeder. She usually lived near Boston but had come up for a few days to look after her parents house and Andy had been over the moon to live so close to his close friend even if it was for a short time. Yet, Vera had seemed distant the whole time, as if something was troubling her. She was prone to internalizing her worries and isolating herself at times like these. Andy wasn't about to let that happen under his watch.
It was a beautiful weekend day and he was determined to cheer her up with a barbecue, maybe invite Nate's family round. It's the least he could do; this move to Sanctuary probably saved his life.
Clothes on, packets of Blamco meat fetched from the fridge, Andy walked across the street under the ever watchful eyes of Jake, Penelope's boyfriend. He was staring at him.
"Vera!" Andy called out, waving the packs of Blamco chicken. "Let's get the grill going!"
Vera smiled at that, she'd looked crestfallen before, but the thought of chicken must have turned that around. She invited Andy into the house and pointed him to the grill in the back yard.
"Anything wrong?" Andy asked once they were in the private of the house.
"Have you been listening to the news?" she asked as she sat down at the breakfast counter.
"I heard something about Blamco mac and cheese." Andy joked.
"No, the China stuff."
The resource wars. That's what people had been calling them. Andy didn't really care, or care to understand them. As far as he could tell, resources weren't dwindling. RobCo gave them unlimited energy, Blamco unlimited food, Vault-Tec unlimited security, not that the army wasn't doing an amazing job.
"Doesn't really bother me. I talked to Nate about it once and he said there's nothing to worry about. That Vault-Tec guy you had me talk to said the same thing-"
"But you signed up didn't you?" She said with concern cutting Andy off.
"Of course I did. It was basically free, for this area at least."
There was an awkward, quiet moment between them for a second, before Andy forced a beaming smile and ran to the back of Vera's home, dragging out the grill to the front yard. Before spending the rest of the day preparing his meal while Vera invited people over.
Come sunset, it was a true party. Nate and Nora came round, bringing beers and a warm smile; an distant childhood friend of Nat's, Mary, came through with some Key Lime Pie; Penelope and Jake came through with... nothing at all, but their presence was accepted.
"Did you manage to get a space in the local vault guys?" Nate would ask after a while. Everyone nodded enthusiastically to that... everyone except for Vera.
"I'm only house sitting for now, so my vault back home in Boston is vault 75." Vera explained. Everyone nodded appreciatively at that. Not that Vera actually had a space reserved just yet.
"We keep missing the Vault-Tec rep." Nora explained. "But hopefully one can see us soon."
There was drinking and dancing after that, although the mood darkened when Penelope joked that this was an end of the world party. To lift everyone's spirits Nora decided to play a drinking game with the group.
"It's extremely simple" she'd explain "we go around a circle and say something that we've done. We just drink if anyone else has ever done it before."
So Nate started. "I have done the dishes today." Everyone chuckled at the lowball, and some drank in response. Next in the circle was Andy, his face curled into a forced smile and drank down his drink. "I've slept with a man."
There were giggles and laughs at that. Nate slapped him on the back, saying "you really went from zero to a hundred didn't you." A couple of the women drank to that as Andy refilled his cup. "It was a bit of fun; nothing serious though. I'm not sure I could ever catch feelings doing that."
Nate shook his head. "No one would have thought that an army grunt and a smoking hot lawyer would have gotten together, but look at us now." To the smoking hot lawyer comment, Nora punched him in the arm, and people were chuckling again.
Mary's turn. "I've driven a car into a building." Everyone erupted into more laughter and shocked expressions. She went on to explain, "officially it was an accident of course. But in truth, I drove past the AAM building every morning going to work. Seeing them ruin our freedoms out in the open pissed me off. Something had to be done!"
One or two people in the circle clapped. The AAM or American Association of Maoists wasn't a well liked group in the Boston area. They protested the resource wars and nuclear deterrent; Andy felt it was blatantly unamerican.
"Fuck em'" Nate said, drinking his beer dry. "What about you Vera?"
"Well, I shot a gun for the first time today." Everyone clapped at that.
"Well done" Andy murmured, as a fist bump was shared between him and Vera.
Penelope's turn.
"I've killed a man."
The party grew silent, as Penelope kept drinking and drinking. No one had noticed, but she'd been ignoring the game; drinking down her cup and filling it again with every round, and sometimes inbetween.
Nate was looking at her with a stormy expression. Staring deep into her eyes, he drank down his full cup and stood up.
"Come on Nora, let's get to bed. I've got a speech at the veterans hall tomorrow."
She nodded solemnly and got up with him. Andy and Vera looked on, before Vera forced a smile and ushered everyone away. It was ten o'clock, and that was time enough for bed, she'd say.
When Andy got home he thought about the night, about other nights, about Jason. When these thoughts erupted in his mind, he unscrewed an unfinished whiskey bottle by the side of his bed, and drank deeply, sinking into a deep darkness.
Across the street, Vera sat alone in her parents house, with only the TV to light the room.
"And Nate and Nora were there," Vera sighed. Her mother cooed in delight from the other end of the phone.
"Was little Shaun with them?" her mother asked. Vera could hear the sounds of her brother and father talking loudly in the background about baseball and plans for his sixteenth birthday.
"No but I did see him earlier today... I think he likes me!" she said gleefully.
"Well you did always have a way with children," her mother laughed in reply.
"Yeah, it was nice," Vera trailed off as silence followed. Her brother wanted a jelly cake or something, this made Vera smile. She'd have to come down and visit them more often once they were home. "How's Philadelphia?" she asked softly.
"It's lovely, you should definitely visit one day. They have so many vaults!" Her mother sighed, no doubt doodling on a notepad by the phone. "Oh that reminds me, did you get accepted into your local vault?"
"I am on my third application but I've told you, mom, Vault 75 isn't interested," Vera grumbled, her eyes quickly darting over to the commercial on TV about the US Military Issued Ripper. They were advertising it by showing a dramatized war with kids using it as a toy, and shrieking in delight.
"Well keep trying, they can't turn down a bright young woman like yourself forever." her mother paused and took a deep sigh. "Please don't worry sweetheart, we'll be home in one day. And remember, if the bombs do fall, pretend you're me-"
"I'm not bothered about me mom...I'm worried about you." She paused looking out the window at the spotlights for Vault 111 on the distant hill. "I love you mum...Kevin and dad too."
"I love you too sweet-heart-"
"Love you V!" Her brother, Kevin and dad chimed in from the background, causing her to put on a wide smile. And then the call ended, leaving her alone in the quiet night once more.
The next morning Andy woke up with a start. There was screaming outside, and he bolted to his window to see what was happening. APCs and vertibirds were parked in the street and soldiers were guiding people towards the eastern road. Towards the vault.
Towards the vault.
Andy ran out of the house, looking for Vera, for Nate, for anyone. In a panic he ran over to Vera's house, and as if she was waiting for him, the door opened.
"Is it happening?" he asked. His voice was shaking, his hands also.
"It's happening." Vera said distantly, and Andy could see on the TV inside of the living room, news reports that New York and-
"They dropped a nuke on Pennsylvania," she said in disbelief. "They dropped a nuke on my family-" she cut herself off with a sharp intake of breath and looked at the chaos unfolding around her. "I'm too far away from my local vault too." She looked at Andy, her face pale and eyes wide with terror, and sorrow.
"Fuck that Vera," Andy pulled on Vera's arm, dragging her down the road and up the hill. There was no way she was going to die. They had to try to get in.
At the top of the hill the entrance to the compound was blocked by a set of soldiers, two in power armour, holding miniguns like they were rifles. They were keeping back a sea of desperate people, who were shouting out their names, hoping to be on the list.
"One at a time! This is an emergency!" The captain called out. Andy and Vera could see that Nate and Nora, their little child Shaun too, were at the gate. After some words were exchanged, with a quick check of their descriptions and names, they were in. Andy breathed a sigh of relief at that.
They were chosen next, and chaos erupted when they were.
"Why do they get to go first?"
"We've been here for five fucking minutes!"
But the only response from the soldiers was the whirring of the miniguns, and an electronically empowered voice commanding them to calm down, but to the crazed crowd, it only had some effect.
Andy gave his name, and after checking the description, it was confirmed that he was on the list, he was being ushered in; but he could not let go of Vera.
"You have to let her in!" He shouted above the crowd who were growing more aggressive and loud as they started pushing against the fences and trying to climb them.
"State your name, citizen," they officer bellowed at her "now!"
Vera hesitated, but when the minigun whirred, she gave her mother's name as she promised. In the confusion due to crowd, they simply let her in without double checking the details or age of her mother. As Andy pulled her away, they could hear the sound of the mini-gun again followed by gunfire and screaming.
They ran into the compound, further up the hill and at the top there was a blue and yellow heavy metal platform. They made it. They were safe. Safe in vault 111.
"Once we're in there we're going to need to have each other's backs. You hear me?" Andy said.
Vera simply nodded, her face seemingly broken in three emotions at the same time. Sadness showing the most. Her eyes were focused on the gate were the man in the power-armor stepped on the dead bodies of those shot by the fence and threatened the survivors.
"You hear me Vera?" Andy continued with a shout, "We're completely safe now-"
But just then, the first bomb in the state of Massachusetts fell, bathing the world in a quick flash of warm light. They turned as the mushroom cloud bloomed in the distance, then the platform jutted downwards, descending into the darkness of the vault.
Before the blast doors could close on top of them, the searing heat of the bomb swept over them all, knocking everyone off their feet.
One man fell off of the platform down into the depths below with a scream that was muffled by the blast doors fully closing.
When the platform reached the bottom, the survivors saw men in lab coats, as well as men and women in blue uniforms, made with a strange material, and plastered with vault 111 on their backs. A few dropped to their knees and started cry and scream in terror and mourning.
Vera, being ever watchful, saw the man who'd fallen off the platform, his fresh blood twinkling in the dark recesses of the vault's walls with most of his body squashed under the metal platform. "Welcome to vault 111" said a friendly voice over the intercom. "You're safe now."
Welcome to the first chapter of Deceptio Belli! If you made it this far, thank you for reading and I hope you stick around for future chapters. This story is an AU where every resident but Nate and Nora survived and were defrosted 200 (and a bit) years later. The story will mostly be focused on Andy and Vera. As this is an AU, a few things will be different from the Games but it will not stray so far away from the pre-established. We're here to have fun at the end of the day. So please feel free to review and let us know what you thought and until next time! -Dawn.