Suzaku blinked, rubbing the tiredness from his eyes as he felt a weight on his chest. He glanced down, almost blushing as he saw Euphemia clinging to him while she slept. Suzaku looked around, running a hand along Euphemia's head as he did so.
Cautiously, he slid her off of him and stood up. 'Alright, you and Euphie have been sent... somewhere. The first thing you have to do is take inventory,' Suzaku noted as he stretched his arms. Sleeping on a tarp with a duffle bag for a pillow was rather uncomfortable but far from the worst that he'd slept on. He gave Euphemia another glance before grabbing the pistol from beside the bed and sliding it onto his belt. Looking around the office, Suzaku's gaze narrowed at the strangely bulky computer resting on the desk. Neither he nor Euhpemia had touched the thing yesterday, but it may give him some kind of insight for their situation.
Suzaku stepped to the desk and took a seat on the old chair. He ran a hand over the computer and found the power button. The screen flashed to life in a blend of green and black before setting itself on a list of entries. Suzaku felt his breath hitch as he looked at the dates listed. 'Twenty-Seventy-Seven? That's impossible,' Suzaku thought as his eyes widened. He accessed the first terminal entry, finding nothing useful except for the date. He read through the next, then the next, a nervous pit forming in his stomach as he finished the last entry; the realization that the staff of the station were dumping nuclear waste below the ground only added to the unease.
'Is it even safe to camp here? would it be better to risk those giant cockroaches?' Suzaku pondered as he slid away from the computer.
His unease wavered as he heard Euphemia wake up with a groan. Suzaku turned back to her as she rose to her feet. "Uhh... I had the weirdest dream," she murmured before rubbing her eyes. Euphemia blinked a few times before looking around the room. Her expression dropped as her gaze reached Suzaku. "It wasn't a dream," she said sadly. She gave Suzaku a concerned look, nervously biting her lip as she looked at him. "What... What is it, Suzaku?" she asked while stepping towards him.
"I... just take a look," Suzaku said, not wishing to lie to Euphemia. He gestured to the computer, stepping out of the chair so that Euphemia could take a seat. Euphemia nervously leaned in, looking through the entries much like him. He saw Euphemia's expression grow far more concerned, sliding away from the computer and turning to him. She hugged her sides as Suzaku wrapped his arms around her.
"We're... we're not in Britannia, we..." Euphemia trailed off as Suzaku pulled her even closer. "Suzaku..." he could see Euphemia growing increasingly lost. He couldn't think of anything to say; what could he even say?
The two of them just stayed there, Euphemia's arms leaving her sides and wrapping around him.
It took the sound of a dog barking and scratching at the door to draw them away from their spiral. Their gaze turned to the door, it had to have been the same dog from the day before. The two of them separated, Euphemia giving the computer another cautious glance. Suzaku moved the shelf out of the way and opened the door. The German Shepard wandered in, giving the two of them what Suzaku could only describe as a concerned look. The dog rested his head against Euphemia's stomach, prompting her to pet him.
Suzaku could only look on in surprise as the dog continued to comfort Euphemia. He had no idea where this dog came from nor who owned it, but he was smarter than he looked. Suzaku ran a hand along the dog's back, prompting the dog to start panting.
The room grew calmer. Euphemia continued to pet the dog as Suzaku sighed. 'I should have just taken inventory,' Suzaku lamented as Euphemia finally calmed down.
"Suzaku..." Euphemia trailed off, her expression one of concern.
"Yes, Euphie?" Suzaku asked. 'Please don't be mad,' he hoped with a tense jaw.
"I... I know we are not in Britannian... but we..." Euphemia trailed off. "We need to make due, we need to survive," Euphemia proclaimed while stepping closer to him.
"We will, Euphie, we will," Suzaku replied as Euphemia pulled him closer. He could see tears welling in the corners of her eyes as the dog wandered over to them once again. Euphie set a hand to the dog's head and pet him once again.
"Thank you," Euphie whispered. Suzaku wasn't sure if she was thanking him or the dog, but he was glad she wasn't spiralling anymore. The two of them just stood there, a dog leaning against them.
'Can we truly do this? Can we survive in this world?' Suzaku pondered.
Euphemia kept a firm hand on Suzaku's own as they approached the suburbs. They couldn't stay at the Gas Station forever, they only had so much food and water after all. So, with much hesitation, she and Suzaku made for the suburbs. If anywhere had food and water, it had to be there.
She violently flinched as she saw a dead man on the ground across from a furless dog with a tire iron jammed into its side. Her grip increased as she held back tears at the sight of mindless death. The dog leaned into her empty side, drawing her attention away from the carrion.
'Just reach the suburbs, just reach the suburbs, just reach the suburbs,' Euphemia repeated her mantra as she covered her face with her arm. They stepped over the bridge, repeating the mantra with the groaning of old wood. She felt Suzaku run a comforting hand to her back as the wood below her feet turned back to concrete.
A loud chittering pulled her away from her mantra, drawing her attention to a cat-sized cockroach rapidly approaching them.
'They're bigger up close. Why are they bigger up close?' Euphemia let out a panicked cry as Suzaku raised his pistol. The dog rushed past them both, clamping his jaws around the giant roach's head and slamming it on the ground several times. When the bug stopped twitching, the dog dropped it, looking back at them with a happy expression. "Thank you," Euphe whispered as the dog stepped back to them.
They skipped the house the roach came out of, walking further along the ruined road.
"I'm so sorry we couldn't find them, sir," A loud cockney voice echoed from past the corner ahead. Suzaku raised an arm in front of her, his pistol raised in the other. The dog seemed unconcerned.
"It's ok, Codsworth, you tried your best," Another voice replied to the first.
Euphie turned to Suzaku, the boy looking back at her with a confused expression. He lowered the arm he had in front of her and began slowly walking further up the road.
"Well, sir, if you are looking for other people, I saw some at Concord, though they did shoot at me," This Codsworth said.
Suzaku passed the corner first, Euphemia not far behind him. They saw a man in a blue jumpsuit with the number 111 on its back, some kind of bulky computer on his wrist, and a pistol at his side, alongside a sphere-shaped robot with three eyes and three arms. The two of them turned to them, the man keeping his pistol trained on them out of caution.
"Oh, and our new neighbors from the gas station, I didn't get to talk to them," The robot, most likely Codsworth, said.
"I see," The man said as he looked at them with narrowed eyes.
"Sir, we were just looking for some food," Euphemia said as she stepped past Suzaku. The man lowered his pistol, taking another look over them. "We're rather far from home and hoping to get some help," Euphemia said. 'I can see you're not a bad guy; you just look lost like us,' she mused as the man gave them a look of confusion.
"You been around here long?" the man asked.
"No, we arrived yesterday," Suzaku spoke up. The man seemed to grow relaxed, setting his pistol into a holster. Suzaku lowered his own, his stance growing relaxed as the two groups just stared down one another.
"Well, if all is in order, I must continue maintenance on the house. Best of luck on your search, sir," Codsworth said before turning back to a large ruined house.
"See you, Codsworth," The man muttered before he gave them another look over. "There's a bunch of gourds growing in the backyard over there," The man suggested while pointing to a house across the street with a similar setup to the gas station garage.
'So food can grow,' Euphemia mused. "Thank you, sir," Euphemia said.
"Just stay safe. I have to get going," The man said as he began walking to the bridge.
"Wait, sir, where are you going?" Euphemia asked.
"To Concord," was all the man said before he broke into a short jog. The dog turned, breaking into a run, and followed after him.
"Hey, come back," Suzaku called out as the dog kept running. Euphemia just looked to where the dog had been but a moment before, then to the disappearing canine crossing the bridge.
"Oh, don't worry so much, he'll be back," Codsworth spoke up from the house. Both she and Suzaku turned to see Codsworth looking at them from the broken window of the living room.
"He will?" Euphemia asked.
"Why yes, that dog comes and goes as he pleases," Codsworth said while shaking his claw hand around in an explanatory manner.
"I see. What do you do here?" Euphemia asked. 'The robot definitely knew that guy, but how?' Euphemia mused.
"Oh, I keep the house in shape, though it's been growing more difficult over the past two hundred years," Codsworth mused with a polite chuckle.
"Two Hundred Years?!" Suzaku asked as Euphemia's mind raced. She looked over the ruins of the house, even glancing at many of the other houses along the street.
"Oh yes... It was horrible," Codsworth trailed off as his voice grew distressed. "One day, everything was normal; Sir, his wife, and his infant son were preparing for a grand day together... Then the TVs..." Codsworth paused, his metal eyes narrowing. Euphie unconsciously grabbed onto Suzaku's hand as they listened to the robot. "Bombs were being dropped, the Red Menace struck the U.S.A., and she struck back... The Sir had his wife and son flee the house as alarms sounded." Codsworth paused, looking down at the ruins of the room. "He promised they'd return... And he has," Codsworth said, his voice growing cheery as he finished.
"Wait, but you said he was gone for over two hundred years. How is he back?" Euphemia said.
"Oh, I can't say, the last time I saw him before today was him leading the misses and young Shaun up the hill there," Codsworth said, pointing his buzzsaw arm to the left, their gazes drifting to a gap a couple houses over. Euphemia and Suzaku turned to look at the gap, seeing a trail leading up a hill.
"You've been very forward with us," Suzaku commented as he looked at Codsworth with suspicion.
"Well, you are amongst the few who haven't fired at me or tried to turn me to scrap," Codsworth replied.
"Oh," Euphemia muttered.
"Well, best of luck. I hope you enjoy those gourds," Codsworth said with a polite wave.
"We will," Euphemia said with her own wave. She turned to the house the man had pointed to earlier. Suzaku stayed near her side, though he glanced at Codsworth.
"Are there any giant bugs in that house?" Suzaku asked.
"Oh no, the only houses with any sort of infestation are those two near the bridge," Codsworth answered. Euphemia breathed a short breath of relief before she looked back at the larger house. She stepped forward, Suzaku just behind her. They stepped past the house, glancing at a workbench similar to the one she had seen on the side of the gas station. They turned, finding a small patch of gourds growing between the white picket fence of the house's yard. Suzaku stepped forward, cautiously grabbing one of the gourds and pulling it off its vines.
She watched as Suzaku pulled a knife from his belt and cut into the gourd. With a short grunt, the gourd was split in half, the insides looking fully edible. Suzaku scooped a small chunk of flesh from the gourd and stuck it in his mouth. Euphemia watched as Suzaku slowly chewed the piece before swallowing.
"It's safe," Suzaku said. Euphemia eased her shoulders before she pulled a chunk from the gourd and took a few bites. It tasted somewhat sweet, a natural sweet rather than the artificial sweetness from the few preserved foods they had found. She took one of the halves and took more bites, savoring each bite. Suzaku shot her a smile as he finished his half of the gourd. Euphemia calmly finished hers, returning the smile with one of her own.
"So... what to do with the skins?" she asked. Back home, they could toss the skins in a garbage can or hand them to a servant to have them disposed of, but neither of those seemed to be an option here.
"I'll take them, Maybe we could use them for fertilizer?" Suzaku offered. Euphemia handed her empty gourd skin to him, only getting a nod as he pocketed them somewhere. She then turned, looking around the overgrown backyards of the suburbs for anywhere else to scavenge.
'Leading the misses and young Shaun up the hill there,' Codsworth's words echoed in her head.
Euphemia passed, turning back in the direction Codsworth had pointed toward. Ignoring the sound of Suzaku pulling more gourds from the ground, She stepped out of the backyard, her gaze narrowing where the road connected to the trail. Suzaku wasn't far behind, the bag he had brought now filled with gourds, stepping past her and inspecting the trail. "Do you think anything will be there?" he asked.
"I don't know, but somehow someone lived for two hundred years up there," Euphemia replied. Suzaku nodded, going up the trail. Euphemia followed, taking Suzaku's hand as they crossed the short bridge over a stream. They continued up the hill, eyes narrowing as they reached a rusted fence with skeletons leaning against it. Euphemia's grip tightened as the two of them crept past the long dead and through the gap in the rusted fence. Euphemia got a bitter feeling in her gut as they walked past old trailers and decaying construction equipment. They could see crows ammasing along the old crane, various crates strewn about and emptied, all around a giant steel platform. '
Walking closer, they could see the large number of one hundred eleven painted on the center of it. Suzaku glanced around, stepping over to a trailer near the platform. Euphemia kept her gaze on the platform as Suzaku now stood in the trailer.
"Euphie, there's a button in here," Suzaku shouted through the trailer's destroyed window.
"Maybe it's the way in. This platform looks like an elevator," Euphemia replied as she stood on the edge of the platform.
"Alright, Euphie, pressing the button!" Suzaku shouted from the trailer. Euphemia gave a glance at the trailer before a series of metal clicks echoed underneath the platform. A loud hiss came from the platform as Suzaku ran out of the trailer. Euphemia stepped forward as the center of the platform began to sink, Suzaku not far behind her. They managed to reach the elevator before the drop got too far to be safe. The elevator shaft groaned as they descended into this unknown facility.
Euphie and Suzaku held each other as the elevator buckled, the elevator shaft giving way to metal grating. Their eyes narrowed as the elevator came to a stop in an open facility with a lone door. The metal grating lifted, allowing the two of them to step forward. They walked past the room and up the stairs, keeping their gaze open as they walked over the grated bridge that connected the room to the rest of the security. Euphie kept her eyes locked on the thick metal door, several feet of solid steel twisted away like a gear.
They continued onward, Euphemia taking cautious steps as they saw three dead roaches scattered across the entrance. A single bullet wound in each of them showed how they'd been dealt with. They could see two open doors, both leading to long hallways that stretched deeper into the facility.
Euphemia looked between the two hallways, contemplating which path to take. 'Left is poorly lit and has a turn, while the right leads to what appears to be the main facility,' Euphemia mused before she turned to the hallway on the right. Suzaku stepped in front of her, his pistol raised in one hand with his knife in the other.
"I'll take point," Suzaku said as Euphemia nodded.
"Ok," Euphemia replied as she stood behind him and put a hand on his shoulder. The two stepped down the well-lit hallway, passing a cart with an empty toolbox. Euphemia glanced to the right, seeing a large room lined with strange pods and an open door nearby. Euphemia stood in front of the open doorway. She took a step closer, pulling Suzaku with her. They stepped farther in, then Euphemia froze.
Her gaze locked on the first pod she saw.
She stood frozen as she looked at a human frozen solid, their face edged in a silent sleep.
Her gaze shifted to the other pods, a similar scene in each of them.
These are people frozen in time.
Euphemia felt herself shake as her eyes darted around the room. Her gaze landed on another bulky computer sitting at the other end of the room. She approached the computer as Suzaku began looking over the pods. She turned it on, watching as green text formed over black. A list of occupants, most likely the ones in the pods, formed, with the status of each one next to each of them.
Status: Deceased.
Euphemia felt her breath hitch as she looked down the list of occupants. Deceased, deceased, deceased; it just kept going. Not a single occupant in the pods was alive.
A cold sweat ran down her neck as she turned away from the computer and looked at the pods. A horrid realization struck her: They weren't in a facility but in a tomb. She stepped away, a dry feeling in her throat as she looked at the blank faces of the occupants. A dull ringing in her ears as she ran into something solid. She turned around quickly, finding herself face to face with a concerned Suzaku.
"Euphie..." he gave her a pleading look.
"I'm sorry... its... its just..." Euphemia trailed off as Suzaku just pulled her close. "We need to leave," she murmured in a low voice. Suzaku only gave her a nod, keeping her in his arms as he sprung back towards the doorway. They passed it, turning back to the empty cart. Euphemia gave the room one final glance as Suzaku grabbed the cart and pushed it alongside them. She slipped out of his grasp and stood next to him, only keeping one of his hands in her own.
They continued until the cart struck one of the boxes piled up on the side of the room. The sound of something bulky hitting the metal floor echoed out. Euphemia looked out, seeing the same kind of wrist-mounted computer that the man had been wearing earlier. She and Suzaku looked at one another before she approached the device. She cautiously picked it up, inspecting the numerous dials and nobs that seemed to function as controls for the wrist-mounted computer. The words Pip-Boy 3000 were edged along the bottom on the device.
Euphemia took a short breath and strapped the device to her left wrist. Suzaku stood next to her, keeping their eyes glued to the device's screen. A small figure appeared on the screen, calmly strolling without a concern in the world, and her name was in the upper right corner. Euphemia felt her eyes widen; 'I never typed my name in, how does it know?' She pondered before flipping the dials on the device. This Pip-Boy... her Pip-Boy showed various status effects on her person: how fed she was, how much she'd drank, how healthy her body is, how much radiation she'd absorbed...
What?
Euphemia did a double take as she looked at the amount of radiation in her body. Considering the strange wildlife they've seen, alongside the story Codsworth told, it made sense that the world was bathed in radiation. But that was over two hundred years ago; how had they...
The food...
Euphemia turned, looking at the bag on Suzaku's back. As her hands ran to the gourds, the Pip-Boy let out a gargled tick. Euphemia looked back at the device. She pulled the Pip-Boy back, and the ticking ceased. She and Suzaku watched on, the soft ticking began again as she ran the Pip-Boy over the gourds. Her eyes narrowed ass she saw a gauge with a small needle on the side of the Pip-Boy, slightly moving while the ticking continued. "It has a built-in Geigar counter," Euphemia commented as she looked the Pip-Boy over.
"That will be helpful," Suzaku mused as he ran a hand to his chin. His eyes returned to the gauge, noting how far up it would go. "The gourds are still safe to eat; it's just a bit more radiation than a banana," Suzaku commented.
Euphemia let out a sigh of relief. "At least one thing has gone well today," Euphemia commented. Suzaku nodded before turning back to the cart. He strolled the cart over the bridge, with Euphemia running over to help him get the cart down the stairs. They continued past the stairs, dragging the cart onto the elevator platform. As Suzaku looked for a switch for the elevator, Euphemia looked back at the entrance. 'This place is a tomb, with only one survivor,' she pondered as the ancient elevator groaned to life once again. Her gaze shifted between the entrance and her Pip-Boy, then her gaze narrowed at the posters she had overlooked during their arrival. 'Vault 111, courtesy of Vault Tec,' Euphemia mused. 'They built this place, built this Pip-Boy, and left those people in here,' Euphemia surmised.
She kept her eyes on the posters, even as the grating shifted back to the elevator shaft. She stood in silence, her mind stewing as she brought up her Pip-Boy. She skimmed through the stats and conditions the device provided for her. She only turned away as daylight washed over them and the elevator stilled. Euphemia turned back to Suzaku and the cart, stepping over to help him move the cart. They continued past the derelict construction equipment, turned their gaze away from the scorched skeletons still clinging to the rusted fence, and continued down the trail. Codsworth gave them a brief wave as they passed the houses. Euphemia returned the gesture while Suzaku continued pushing the cart.
They wandered through the ruins of the suburbs, a small cart with food being their only form of ill-gotten gains. Their pace quickened as they passed the two houses still infested with bugs. Suzaku carefully adjusted the cart as the road grew unsteady and they approached the bridge. The cart rumbled as the bridge groaned against the new weight. Suzaku slowed his pace as they passed the broken part of the bridge, keeping his eyes on the cart to ensure it would stay stable. Euphemia stepped past him, keeping her eyes away from the corpses they had passed earlier.
They continued onwards as the Gas Station came into view.
Euphemia stopped as she saw the corpses of several... things? strewn about the ground under the canopy.
She wasn't sure what they were, being some kind of four-legged animal with no fur and massive jaws. "They look like Mole Rats," Suzaku commented as Euphemia turned to look at him. Suzaku had stepped away from the cart, now on one knee as he inspected one of the creatures. "I think the dog was eating one of these things," Suzaku muttered as Euphemia covered her nose.
"We have to get rid of them," Euphemia said, her throat going dry as she counted the dead creatures.
"On it," Suzaku replied with nonchalance. He slipped on a pair of gloves she hadn't noticed and began dragging the dead animals over to the grass. Euphemia just stepped over to the cart and began pushing it towards the garage.
'Please... Please don't let our stay be filled with needless death,' She silently begged. She didn't know to who she was begging, only wishing that something would answer her request.