The Fallout 1
#1 of Fallout
The Fallout By Kendo Kawabata Chapter 1. Out of Time.
Saturday morning. it seemed so innocent that day. "Dude, your parents are going to be up any minute" "I don't want to let go of you any-time soon" Adam laid against the other boy in his bed, the young lion clad in nothing but his boxers underneath the silk sheets. The other boy was a pearly white marbled wolf, also wearing boxers under the sheets. The two boys were wrapped around each other, Stuart laying on his back with Adam against his side, the lions head resting on the wolfs chest. The radio in the room was playing softly, the verses of ''Mr Sandman'' filling their ears. "You still haven't told your parents about us, did you?" Stuart asked him as he gently stroked his hand down Adams back. "I have no idea how to tell them I'm in love with the boy next door" Adam admitted. He found himself purring softly from the gentle rubbing. He nosed his face against Stuarts chest, his nose pushing up against the small bush of chest fluff that was starting to grow. "You're going to have to tell them eventually" Stuart said with a small smile as he traced his fingers up Adams spine slowly. "And we do have to move. They'll be up in a minute" he said. "Unless you want them to finally see us half naked together and curled up." "But I'm too happy here. Got my arms around my wolfie" Adam said with a grin as he inhaled his friends scent. Although he had gotten his fill of the wolfs scent from the night, he still found himself wanting more of the boy. "You're not playing fair" Stuart said as he felt Adams arms wrap around his waist and he was pulled closer, giggling slightly as he felt Adam crawl on-top of him and nuzzle his face into the wolfs neck. "I never play fair" Adam said with a giggle as he extended his tongue and started to drag it slowly over Stuarts neck. Stuart found himself smiling and started to moan softly from the way that rough sweet tongue was grooming on his neck. Their pendants gently clinked together. They were half circle ''Best Friends Forever" pendants that matched one another. Stuart had thought they were cheesy things that only girls should have worn. But Adam had given him the puppy dog eyes as best as he was able to till he had given in and agreed to wear it. They both stopped when they heard the sound of an infant crying on the other side of the wall. Adam sighed, a very disappointed sigh that their time was interrupted. If his parents weren't going to be up yet, they would most definitely be up now. "Guess we do have to get up now" Adam said reluctantly as he pulled the sheets back off his bed and slipped off his friend. The sheet fell away from his body, revealing the semi naked teen lion in all his glory. Just shy of sixteen, his body was lean with little definition. He had more of a twink build, what little definition he had was hidden under his soft brown fur. A soft streak of black fur was between his chest muscles, slowly trailing down before it disappeared before reaching his navel. Stuart smiled, his eyes trailing down his friends body, down to the form fitting briefs that were covering the top half of the lions legs. A bush of black pubic fur, soft and curly was pointing upwards towards his navel, although it hadn't yet reached it. "You look beautiful" Stuart said with a smile as he eyed the lion. Adams mane was a bit on the shaggy side from the night of sleep, reaching down to his shoulders. His eyes were Stuarts favourite part of the lions body. Adam had one green eye and one blue eye. "So do you" Adam said with a smile back. Stuart was seventeen himself, and his body was almost a mirror opposite. He was more muscled then his friend, his body wide and thicker, showing the build of a football player. He was starting quarterback after all. His body was hard and defined, something Adam liked to trace with his fingers. Stuart had more body fluff then Adam did, his chest and abdominal fur more obvious and in larger quantities. His black and white streaked hair was short, buzz cut down in an even setting across his head. "I just want to get back into bed and snuggled the hell out of you" Adam said regretfully. "I know. I want to as well" Stuart said as he swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood himself up, giving himself a stretch. His boxers rode up against his body, the snug fitting form showing off the boys covered goods. "Young master, it is time to rise" came a metallic voice from the other side of the doorway. "Please wake master Stuart. Breakfast will be served shortly when your mother has finished tending to your little brother." "Alright Cadwell, we're coming" Adam said through the door. "Silly robot" he muttered to himself as he stepped over the unused sleeping bag on the floor. It was where Stuart was supposed to sleep the night, but that didn't end up happening. "You're parents really went and bought one of those things?" Stuart said as he walked over to where he had left his backpack the previous night and started to rummage through it. He withdrew a pair of pants and started to slide them up his legs. "Seems everyone is getting a Mr Handy lately." "Yeah. They bought him last month after Tommy was born" Adam said as he pulled a white polo shirt from his wardrobe. "Mom said it was to help around the house and make her job easier. Well, that was the argument that won Dad over" he said as he pulled the shirt over his head. "My mother swore that if father ever bought her one of those things, she'd divorce him" Stuart said with a chuckle. "She said if father ever wanted a robot to help around the house he'd have married one" he said as he pulled a red striped shirt from his bag. "Well, I guess Dad liked him enough to want him around as well. He loves the fact Cadwell buffs the car better then he can" Adam said with a grin as he pulled out a pair of his own pants and slipped them over his legs, making a show of bending over enough to make his butt stick out at the wolf. Stuart grinned to himself, seeing the lions small but well rounded backside get pushed towards him as he slipped his socks on, then his trainers. Adam was still bent over, making a show of fiddling with his zipper to keep his butt presented. "One day, I'm going to break you in" Stuart said as he stood up and walked over, sliding his hands over the lions covered butt and giving it a firm squeeze. Adam purred and pushed his rump back a bit more till he was flush against the wolfs crotch. "You say that every time you sleep over" Adam said with a grin as he ground himself against the wolfs crotch. "Yes, and every time I sleep over, your parents are sleeping in the next room" Stuart pointed out as he slid his hands over his friends hips. He had seen Adam naked plenty of times, but for some reason he liked him better when he was just in his underwear. Something about the fact that the lions backside was semi covered and the only thing standing in his way was a thin piece of material got the wolfs blood boiling and his right hand busy. Adam then stood up slowly and pulled his pants up with them, securing them around his waist before he turned around so he was face to face with the wolf. "They're going to be away in two weeks for the weekend" Adam said with a smile. "Something about some convention in Concord that Dad has to attend to for work. We can have the house to ourselves" he said with a grin. "The robot will be here too" Stuart said with a smirk on his lips. "So? I know where his off button is. I can put him in sleep mode the whole weekend" Adam said with a grin on his face. Stuart smiled back as he leant in as close as he was able to and licked the felines nose. "Sounds like fun to me. I should have that weekend off. Coach wont need me for practice by then. Football season doesn't start back up till the weekend after" he said with a smile. Adam smiled and went to press his lips against Stuarts before there was a very firm and rapid knock on the door. Adam sighed and pulled away, knowing who it was before anyone started talking. "Yes mom?" he called out. "Adam, Cadwell has finished breakfast. And grab your sheets, I'm doing laundry today" his mother called through the door. "And that's now mister" she added. "I don't think I can wait two weeks to be alone" Adam said to him, sounding both disappointed and regretful. "I know what you mean" Stuart said with a chuckle as he opened the bedroom door. "I'll see you at the table" he said as he left the room, giving a ''Good morning Mrs Gold" to Adams mother as he walked past. "Good morning Stuart" Melissa said, the motherly lioness said before she stuck her head into the doorway. She was already dressed up, her long black hair styled up in the traditional beehive look that was passing around nowadays. A string of pearls adorned her neck and her pale blue cotton dress was covered in a frilly white apron. Adam wondered, not for the first time, how she managed to get up and be dressed before anyone else did. Without coffee. "Sheets Adam" she said to her son as she held out a large white plastic washing basket. "And empty the trash under your desk. Its garbage day as well" she said to him. "Yes Mom" Adam said as he took the basket from her. She smiled at him before she left the doorway. Adam could hear Tommy crying in the living room, presumably being tended to by his father. The radio changed its tune to the news as Adam stripped the bed. The deep blue cotton blankets were removed, although he held them up to his nose and inhaled them a few times before he put them in the basket. He really did not want to have them washed, he could still smell Stuart on them. THe wolf had a much more stronger scent then the lion did. Once his bed was stripped and his mattress was bare, Adam turned his attention to the desk. His room was rather simple, a double bed with a steamer trunk at the end, and a large desk under the window. The desk was covered with the homework he was supposed to finish off the previous night, which was under the stack of ''Grolgar the Barbarian Orc'' comics he had ended up reading instead. Adam pulled the curtains back from his window, revealing the neighbourhood street behind them. The street of Sanctuary truly was the picture of the American dream. White picket fences, outdoor barbecues, well groomed lawns. He could already see a couple of his neighbours, Mr and Mrs Whitfield going for their annual morning walk together. An elderly pair of cougars, they had lived in the area their whole lives. "Well that's odd" Adam said to himself as he saw a huge camouflage painted truck suddenly pass his window, heading down to the entrance of the street. He knew that the military presence had increased lately, but at first all it had been was a few extra soldiers patrolling the street. This was the first time that he had actually seen a military vehicle in the area. "I know things were going bad, but really?" he thought to himself. He leaned closer to the window and noticed the truck had reached the curve in the street that lead straight out. It parked across the road, actually blocking off traffic. If there was any that morning. It looked like they were setting up a check point. He shrugged it off though. With the way things had been going lately, of course it was going to end up this way. His trash bin was filled with crumpled up papers and more then a few discarded tissues. He was a teenage lion after all. And a good amount of candy bar wrappers. He pulled the trash bag from out of the bin and set it on-top of the washing basket before he left his room. "Good Moring young master" said Cadwell as Adam passed him outside the small nook where they kept the laundry machine. "Shall I take that from you?" the robot asked as it gestured with a robotic claw like hand at the laundry basket. Cadwell was what Adam could only describe as a floating octopus. A large clear glass sphere took up its body, inside were four glass eyes on flexible stems that looked in every direction at once. They were more like little headlights in a way, able to shine light anywhere the robot wanted. Anyone could see the impressive amount of circuitry that was exposed in the dome. A multitude of lights would light up now and then, whenever the robot was talking or 'thinking' to itself. Adam had no idea how the robot floated, but the box had said it was due to some kind of magnetic coil that repelled the planets magnetic field or something. There were six long tendril arms that protruded from under the glass dome. The ends of the metallic tendrils were bare, except for two that ended in three clawed hands. The robot was capable of swapping ends of his tendrils to suit its tasks, ranging from cooking utensils to a large circular blade used for hedge trimming. "Thanks Cadwell" Adam said as he handed the laundry basket to the robot. Sometimes he forgot it was a robot and more then once he had found himself having a conversation with it. Although more often then not he found himself referring to it as a He. "Enjoy your breakfast young master. I have your favourite prepared for you" Cadwell said as the robot hovered itself into the laundry nook. Adam did wonder how the robot was capable of sliding into such small spaces. Adam walked down the hallway to the living room, which was really just a large spread out living area that combined the open kitchen and living room, with a counter between them to both separate the two and for them to have a place to eat. Stuart was already at the counter, tucking in to to a large plate of bacon and scrambled eggs on toast. He smiled with a full mouth and waved at him. Adams father was sitting on the large couch, holding his younger brother in his arms and holding a large white bottle against the infants mouth. "Good morning son" said Bradly as he looked up at Adam. Adams father was build more sturdily then his son, still in his striped pyjamas. He wore glasses on his nose, and his black mane was starting to show streaks of grey to show his age. "Did you sleep well?" he asked. "I slept alright dad" Adam said as he slid into the spare seat next to Stuart. A plate of bacon and scrambled eggs on toast was waiting for him, as well as a large glass of orange juice. "I hope you got your homework done" Bradley said as he kept his attention on Tommy, making sure the infant had his breakfast. The television was on, showing the news. It was a large circular screen in a wide wooden mahogany box. The screen was showing the news anchor in black and white, the doberman reading off some news from Washington. "Or were you and Stuart reading comics all night again?" he asked, giving his son a good natured smirk and a raise of his eyebrow. "I got most of it done" Adam said as he started to cut his bacon. "It's not too hard. Just one of those 'What if' scenarios about world war two" he said. "What was the question?" Bradley asked him as he noticed that Tommy had finished the bottle. He lifted his month old cub up against his chest and started to rub his back. "I got asked ''what if we never nuked Japan" and I'm going with the theory that most of the world's culture would be wiped out and we'd all be Japanese by now" Adam said as he started to eat. Cadwell was a good cook, he had to admit. But his mother was definitely better. "You better make sure that you have it finished before Monday son" Bradley said. "I don't want you to get detention again for late homework" he said as Tommy burped against his shoulder and mewled contentedly. "I'll make sure dad" Adam said. "Hey, did you see the military truck that just passed? It's the first one I've seen here" he pointed out as his mother walked into the room and walked over to her husband on the seat, lifting her infant son into her arms. "If there is a truck in the neighbourhood, that means the military is here to protect us, as they should" Melissa said to her son. "So I don't want you two going out there and bothering the men in uniform. They fight for our country after all" she said in a rather patriotic way before she turned to her husband. "Honey, go and get dressed. I'm not having you dressed in your pyjamas all day" she said with a good natured lecturing. "Can I at least have my breakfast first?" Bradley asked as he stood up and gently handed his son over to his wife. The little cub mewled and giggled when he saw his mother, his small arms reaching up towards her face. "You can have breakfast after you've gotten dressed. Adam and Stuart are already dressed, you dont get a pass on it" she said with a grin on her face. "I was looking after Tommy" Bradley protested. "No excuses honey. now get going before I have Cadwell do it for you" she said with an evil grin on her face. Adam and Stuart chuckled to see the older lion get in trouble with his wife, although one look from Melissa made them both stop sniggering before they tucked their heads back towards their breakfasts and resumed eating. Both his parents looked up as they heard the doorbell ring. It was still early, no-one was expecting visitors at that hour. "Oh, it's just that Vault Tech salesman" Bradley said as he looked through the peephole in the doorway. "Do you want to handle him, or should I?" he asked. "Go get dressed and get Cadwell to change Tommy. I'll take care of him" Melissa said as she handed her son back to her husband. Bradley nodded as he left the living room, carrying Tommy against his shoulder as Melissa answered the door. "Ah, good morning Madam." Adam took a look over at the door from his position. There was a mouse at the door, a white one in an orange trench coat and a fedora hat. He was carrying a clipboard in his hands. Behind him, Adam could make out a large blue van with the words 'Vault Tech' in big white letters parked outside the house. "Can I help you?" Melissa asked him. "I'm your local Vault Tech representative. I'm glad to finally catch you at home. May I have a few moments... of your time?" the mouse asked. He seemed rather nervous and was acting a little jittery. "I have wonderful news for you and your .. family this morning" he said. "What can I do for you?" Melissa asked him, making an effort to be polite. "As you know Mrs...uh....Gold" he said as he checked his clipboard. "The inevitable will happen, and sooner then you might... think. So, like all good Americans, we must be vigilant and we must be prepared. And we are prepared, thanks to Vault Tech." "Is this about the giant bunker that they've built nearby?" Melissa asked him. "Ah, you mean your new home in the event of a catastrophe. Vault One-Eleven. Vault Tech has provided the local area with the.... best of the best when it comes to protection against the inevitable" the mouse continued. "We have all the basic amenities that you would... need and more, all to ensure survival against ... what's coming." "Yes, I've seen the brochures your company has spread out" Melissa said to him. "The vault does look impressive from what I've seen, but I don't think we've actually applied for a space or anything." "Oh, but that is the good news that ... I've brought for you today" the mouse said. "You have been... pre approved for a space in the vault, you and... your family. All you have to do is say yes, and ...you will be protected when the inevitable happens. Which might be sooner then you think" the mouse said. "Are you alright?" Melissa asked, a look of concern on her face. "Oh, I just had my morning coffee, and it's still kicking in" the mouse said with a happy grin on his face. "The wife knows how to brew the best coffee around. It might take a while to kick in, but when it does, Ho boy" he said with a bit of a laugh. "Anyway, as I said, you have been pre approved for a space in the vault. Which is good news for you Mrs Gold" he said with enthusiasm. "Is there space for all of us? I heard a rumour that there is only a limited amount of space available" she said. She noticed over his shoulder that a group of soldiers, heavily laden and carrying large rifles were jogging past. They seemed to be in a hurry. "Oh yes, there is space for you and your husband and your two sons. You've all been pre approved" the mouse said with a grin on his face. "We just need your okey dokey and your John Hancock here and you're all set with a safe future, thank to Vault Tech" he said as he held out the clipboard and a shiny black pen. "Well, I suppose it wouldn't hurt. It's not like we actually will be needing it any-time soon" Melissa said as she took the clipboard and the offered pen from the mouse. "Well, you can't be too careful, especially in this day and age. You never know... just what's around the corner" the mouse said. He looked over his shoulder as another group of soldiers jogged past. He visibly gulped, then turned back to Melissa with a smile on his face as he took the now completed form from her. "Thank you very much, you have just ensured your future" the mouse said as he backed away from the door. "I'll just .... run this over to my superiors and you can...spend the rest of your time knowing that you've had your future secured, thanks to Vault Tech" he said before he rather hurriedly began making his way down the side of the street. "What a very strange man" Melissa said as she looked after him in bewilderment before she closed the front door, just as her husband walked into the room. He had changed, now wearing beige khaki pants and a white collared shirt with a sweater vest and tie on. "What did he want?" Bradley asked as he handed Tommy back to his mother. "We were pre approved for a space in the nearby vault. Did you sign up for an application when they handed them out in the mail?" Melissa asked as she took Tommy into her arms, the cub mewling happily. "No, I didn't" Bradley admitted to her. "Maybe it was one of those luck of the draw things. They had some extra space or something and picked the name at random" he suggested. "Hard to say" he admitted to her. "Still, all in all, we just got into the Vault for free. Considering how expensive those things are. I've had to approve the loans people had to borrow just to pay off the application fees" he said. "Guess that's one less thing on our minds" Melissa said as she looked over to where she could see the boys finishing up their breakfast. "Clean your dishes" she reminded them as she sat herself in her chair in front of the television. "Yes mother" Adam said as he and Stuart stood up and took their places at the sink, Adam turned the tap on and then handed Stuart a towel. "That rep seemed a bit odd" he admitted as he picked up the dish brush and began to scrub his plate. "I think I noticed that too" Stuart said as he waited for Adam to hand him the dish so he could dry it. "He seemed on edge or something. I wonder if everyone who works for Vault Tech is like that" he said as he took the plate and started to wipe it down. The television then suddenly began to flash brightly, illuminating the room with flashes of light brighter then the early morning sunlight was doing. The words ''Emergency Broadcast : Please stand by" covered the screen. "Honey, what's going on?" Melissa said as she turned her attention to the television. "Boys, maybe you two should come over and look at this" Bradly said as he stepped up behind his wife and put his hand on her shoulder as Adam and Stuart walked up, both of them looking at the television screen. The screen flickered again before the newscaster reappeared, the doberman holding a large card in his hand and he had a worried look on his face. "Ladies and Gentlemen, Washington D.C. has issued a state of emergency" the doberman read off the card. "Unfortunately, that's all we could receive from our branch there, as the station has gone dark. We have news stations and emergency agencies going dark all over America" he said. "Honey..." Melissa said as she reached up with her hand and grabbed her husbands. She looked scared as she looked up at him. He held her hand tightly in his, but his face was determined as he looked at the television set. "We're getting reports that... is this accurate" the doberman said to someone offscreen. He was handed another card. "This ...this just in... oh dear. Ladies and gentlemen, we've .... we've lost Los Vegas" he said. "We're getting reports...confirmed reports of nuclear detonations across the country." "Oh no" Stuart said. Tommy started to cry softly against his mother as she held her son with her arm. Something caught Adams eye through the front window. He saw movement on the footpath. He crossed the living room and leant against the glass for a better look. "The entire east coast is going dark... we're .... losing contact with...." the doberman said, before the tv suddenly flashed several times and the screen was filled with static. Adam heard the gasp from his mother as he looked out onto the street. The army. More of them had appeared. They were running up and down the neighborhood, hammering their guns on the doors of the houses and shouting commands. He saw several people run past, carrying suitcases. "Dad, I think they're evacuating the street" Adam said as he pulled himself away from the window, just as they heard the sound that they and everyone else had been dreading. It was the air raid siren. It filled their ears as it roared around them, and it sent chills down their spines. The neighborhood suddenly erupted in screams. "Out, NOW" Bradley shouted as he grabbed the handle of the front door and pulled it open. The siren suddenly roared louder, and the screaming hit them hard. "Boys, now. Just run. Don't grab anything" Melissa said as she hurriedly stood up, holding Tommy against her. The infant started to cry as he heard the horrible noise around them. Adam and Stuart ran out of the house first, hitting the sidewalk as Melissa and Bradley followed. "Get to the shelter. Don't stop running" the grunts shouted as they waved their arms at the people rushing past. Adam ran down the pavement, Stuart and his parents right behind him as they hurried. People were screaming and running all around him, he didn't have time to focus as he felt his heart hammer in his chest. The military vehicle had cornered off the neighborhood, several army recruits standing in front of it and holding their rifles towards the fleeing people. One of them was shouting orders, waving with his arm for everyone to head in a certain direction. "This way" Adam shouted over his shoulder as he saw they were pointing over to the overlook that was behind the complex. His feet thudded over the dirt path he was made to follow as they hurried into the woods that lay in front of them. The siren was blasting all around them, the neighbours terrified screams and shouts of panic filled his ears as he tried to focus on running in the right direction. The overlook was not far from them, but in his state of panic it felt even further. "Honey, just leave it. We have to run." Just ahead of him was a female mouse berating her husband, an open suitcase and its contents scattered at her feet. "Just help me pack everything in" he was saying as he frantically scrabbled his hands in the dirt. Adam left them behind as he kept running, the dirt path winding through the trees as the siren screamed around them. "Honey..." Melissa started. The sad fact was, she knew those two. But her husband kept his firm grip on her hand as he ran forward, pulling her behind him. "No time" he shouted over his shoulder at her. Tommy was bawling by now against his mother, Melissa did not want to leave them but she clutched Tommy tighter against her body and kept her focus on following her husband. The path suddenly turned upwards, leading under the enourmous billboard that poked up above the trees. 'Vault Tech - Prepare for the Future' was scrawled over it in large bright lettering, showing a cartoon style image of a line of people heading into a large metal doorway, the Vaul-Tech mascot, a yellow furred leopard was giving the thumbs up and a big smile to the people below. Adam knew they were getting close as the pathway ran upwards, heading up towards the overlook. Heavy machinery was littered around, a chain link fence surrounding the overlook and preventing people from getting too close. The large gate at the end of the path was open, and there was already a line of people there. There was more military there as Adam slowed down, hearing Stuart pant up behind him. But this wasn't the ordinary Military, these were the more elite. He could tell because they were covered in power armour. They looked like oversized robots holding the biggest guns Adam had ever seen in his life. There was two lines ahead of him, two men in combat gear holding up clipboards and shouting at the frenzied people in front of them. As Adam turned to see his parents arrive behind him, a few of the people in the line were allowed forward. But one was stopped before he could move forward. "But I'm telling you, I'm Vault-Tech. I work for the damn company. I am on the reserve list" Adam recognised the mouse rep that had been at his house minutes before was arguing with the grunt at the front of the line. "You're not on the list. Now back off, we are in an emergency situation here" the grunt shouted, the puma looking furious as he gestured at another couple. "Adam, stay close. We'll be on the list" Bradley said to his son. "Come on, with me" he said as he held onto his wifes hand and started to move forward. Adam felt Stuart grab his, all pretense of their relationship now gone as he squeezed the wolfs hand back, his heart still hammering. The siren was still sounding, it seemed to be getting louder. "I'm telling you, I'm on the list. I'm going in there. You can't stop me" the rep shouted as he tried to force his way past the guard. Two of the power armour soldiors suddenly pushed forward and fired their rifles into the ground at the reps feet. He screamed and leapt backwards, the people around him screaming as well at the show of force. "If your not on the list, you can fuck off" the puma shouted. "We are in a state of emergency. If your not on the list, you will wait or you can turn and run" he shouted as the armour units held their guns up, pointing them at the crowd. The rep wasn't able to fight back against guns like that so he stood where he was. "My family is on the list" Bradley shouted as he pushed his way forward, pulling his wife up behind him. "Please, the names Gold. We have to be on the list" he said. The puma looked at his board for a moment. "Gold. Husband, wife, teenage son, infant son. Let them through. Get up on the platform with everyone else" the puma shouted. Adam breathed a sigh of relief as his father and his mother were let through, and he hurried forward with Stuart on his hand. "Your not on the list. Back off" the puma shouted as he suddenly pushed Stuart out of the way, pushing the wolf out of Adams grip and back into the crowd behind the fence. "Hey" Stuart said as he was pushed, but a gun was suddenly shoved in his face and he backed up several steps. Everyone around him backed up as well as the power armour units held their guns up without hesitation. "He has to come with us, he has to" Adam said as he left his parents side and walked up to the puma. "He's my best friend, you have to let him in. You can't leave him out here to die" he shouted at the puma. "I said back off" the puma said as his hand suddenly went to the gun at his waistband. With one fluid motion he drew the gun and brought it up against the side of Adams face. Adam heard his mother and several other people scream before the pain erupted against his jaw as he was knocked to the ground by the pumas gun. "Get these people to the platform. Anyone steps out of line, we are authorized to fire" he shouted as he pointed his gun at Adam. "Now get moving or there will be space for your friend" he shouted as he cocked the hammer on his gun. Adam panted as he was pulled up to his feet by his father, the older lion hurriedly picking up his son. Adam grabbed at the side of his face, feeling a hot warm trickle through his fingers as he tried to fight off his father. He wasn't going to lose Stuart. "Just go. I'll think of something" Stuart shouted at him as the puma allowed another two people through the line. Adam shut his eyes as he was dragged by his father, he didn't want to him to see him crying. He opened them as he was pulled across the wide area to a large circular platform in the middle of the overlook. There was already a group of people there, mostly holding onto one another. A couple had suitcases, some had nothing at all. He was pulled up against his mother and his father, his mother doing her best to try and console his little brother. "That's the last of them" someone shouted from nearby. "Send them down." "What? We're the last" Adam said as he held onto his jaw. "But...but Stuart..." "Adam, he'll be fine. Just..just don't worry" Bradly said as they felt the metal platform underneath them suddenly vibrate with an audible humming. A grunt on a nearby platform was busy flipping switches, the platform vibrating harder. And then everything fell silent. The siren had stopped roaring around them, and when it did, so did the birds. And the people. They stopped screaming as well. Their felt still. Almost unnaturally still. Adam panted softly, even his little brother had stopped crying. But the silence was more uncomfortable then it was reassuring. "Oh my god." Someone had screamed. And everyone on the platform was starting to point to the distance. Adam turned his gaze that way. From the overlook, he could see everything for miles. He could see over Sanctuary, and see his house. He could see over to the city of Concord, he could see the towering elevated highways that crossed over the land. He could even make out the towers of the city of Boston way in the distance. And beyond that. There was a flash. It was only there for a moment, and then it was gone. And it was replaced by an explosion. Everyone started to scream again as an immense mushroom cloud erupted on the skyline. It gained a huge and rapid size in a matter of moments. It was like nothing anyone had seen before. Just a giant mushroom of smoke and fire, surrounded by a white ring of ash. It was so immense that the sky above it turned a ghastly orange. And then the wind blew. Adam felt it, a blast of wind and heat was washing over him and it grew stronger by the moment. He brough his hand up against his face, a hand dripping with his own blood as he saw the very earth below him erupt in smoke and dust as the land seemed to rip up and blast outwards from the explosion. "GET THEM DOWN" someone screamed. The grunt at the controls slammed his hand down on a large red button and the platform shuddered hard enough that Adam and everyone else almost lost their balance. The vibrations got harder and then the platform began to descend. The dust cloud was washing over the land below like a tidal wave, ripping up and destroying everything in its path. Adam felt his heart race harder as the platform slowly descended downwards. He felt his panic rise, his stomach churning as for a moment, he realised that they weren't going to make it. Then the platform jolted again and they suddenly began to drop at a faster rate. The view of the horizon vanished as it was replaced by a wall of steel. The heat of the wind vanished above them as everyone craned their necks to look above, seeing the circular exit above them. Then the wind rushed over them, a furious raging wind of fire and dust that roared overhead like an angry demon. Everyone screamed and ducked, pressing down against the platforms surface as best they could as the wind roared above them. And then the roaring was drowned out as they traveled down into the earth. Slowly, everyone stood up as lights flashed around them, the lift carrying them down into the depths of the earth. The couples huddled together, Bradley putting his arms around his wife as she cradled her son against her. Then they felt the lift begin to slow down with an audible hissing noise. It vibrated and throbbed before it decreased its speed, slowly coming to a stop. A loud siren was heard as they were greeted by a large chain link gate as the lift came to a stop. "Ground Level. Welcome to Vault One-Eleven" said a cool female voice from overhead as the lift settled into position. The gate slowly swung open and a spotlight came on overhead. It shone down on the people from above, illuminating them. "Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to Vault One-Eleven" said a man as he stepped forward. Adam had to bring his hand up to shield his eyes for a moment. It was a sturdily built black horse in a white labcoat, standing flanked by two armed men in helmets. They were wearing blue yellow trimmed jumpsuits with 111 written in yellow on the front. They were carrying pistols. "I am the Overseer, the man in charge of Vault One-Eleven" said the horse. "We know that you have all been through a lot and this is a lot to process, so if you will just follow me we will start integrating you into the Vault life and we can get the process happening of settling into your new lives" he said. "Vault One-Eleven is one of the most advanced Vaults that Vault-Tech has created for securing the future. We all have all the basic amenities, from personal relaxation to recreation. You will want for nothing during your time down here. But, we can only get things going if we start moving forward." "Now, please follow me" the Overseer said as he started to walk up a set of steps. Adam blinked and looked around. It seemed they had come into some kind of underground cavern. As the people began to step out of the lift, his eyes followed the Overseer and what lay above the steps. It looked like a giant Cog had been inserted into an enormous metal wall, and then pulled out, leaving a giant cog shape in it. The steps led up to a platform that crossed over through the giant gap and into the actual vault beyond. "Oh dear god... everything up there... we've just lost it all" someone said. Adam recognized him. He was Mr Russell, an elderly wolf from the street. He lived alone, his wife having died several years older. "Do you think people up there are ok? Did anyone survive?" another said. Adam recognized a teacher from the primary school in Concord, Cindy Cofram. The mare was visibly shook, only talking in a small voice with a vacant look in her eyes. "Ladies and gentlemen, please follow me" the Overseer called from above the platform. He lent over the railing and looked down at the people who hadn't moved from their positions. "I know this is all a lot to process, but there will be time to sit and take stock later" he insisted. "Adam, come along. You heard him" Bradely said as he gently took his sons arm. "Dad... do you think Stuart..." Adam began, but he wasn't able to finish what he wanted to say. Just the very thought of thinking that Stuart was now dead upstairs, when just an hour ago they had been lying in bed together, warm and cozy.... "Adam, I don't know" Bradley said as he squeezed his sons arm. "But we can't think about that now. We'll have time to think about it later, but not now, ok?" he said. "Come along, we'll get ourselves settled in and then we can think about what we need to do" he said to his son. Adam nodded slowly as he swallowed the lump in his throat. He felt sweat on his brow and reached his hand up to wipe it away, but that was when he noticed the red streaks on his palm. It took him a moment to remember that he had actually been struck by the cougars pistol. And then he remembered that it had actually hurt. He brushed his fingers over his jaw, wincing as he felt the area stained with blood. He winced again as his fingers brushed over his lip, feeling a new trickle of a hot warm liquid dribble down his digits. It felt like his lip had been busted open. "They should get someone to look at that" Melissa said as she saw the blood on her son. "Come on, they're probably waiting for us" she said as she gestured to the line of people heading up the steps. Bradley took her hand as she continued to hold Tommy as they joined the group at the bottom. "Is she alright?" one of the guards said, his voice sounding metallic through the grill on his helmet. Adam saw the elderly couple, Mr and Mrs Whitfield had managed to make it there ok. Mrs Whitfield was leaning against the rock wall, looking like she was about to pass out. "I think my wife is sick" Mr Whitfield said as he rubbed his wifes back while she moaned in obvious pain. "We'll get her checked out" the guard said, then he noticed Adam was dawdling. "Move along kid" he said as he shooed at him with his gun. Adam left them behind as he slowly ascended the metal stairs, seeing he was behind his parents. The giant cog shape in the wall was incredibly thick to walk through. It felt like it was its own corridor. He felt a blast of cold air hit him like he had just opened up the refridgerator and it sent goosebumps down his skin. When he stepped past the giant cog shaped hole, he couldn't help but shiver. It really was like stepping into a fridge. He found himself in a large open area, a male fox in a white labcoat was operating a console nearby that looked like it was the controls for the doorway. He didn't look up as Adam passed him and stepped off the platform. Above him in large letters was a welcoming sign. "Vault 111- Welcome Home" it pronounced, with the Vault-Tech Cheetah next to it, giving the thumbs up. "Please take a Vault Jumpsuit and remove all personal items" said a nearby bull in a lab coat. He was gesturing to a female fennec in a blue jumpsuit handing out more jumpsuits in sealed plastic bags. "All personal items and clothing must be placed in a lockbox and handed over for decontamination" the bull explained as he gestured to a white table covered in shiney metal boxes. Adam shivered as he saw his father take jumpsuits for him and his wife while he waited his turn. The whole place was chilled, like a fridge. And it smelt like bleach. It gave off a horrible sterile feel, and he suddenly became aware of how dirty he must have been. The blood that was dripping off the side of his mouth made him feel even more dirty. "Here you go" Bradley said as he handed his son a jumpsuit sealed in a plastic bag. One of the guards gestured to a room off the side, indicating for them to go on. Adam picked up one of the lockboxes, and noticed that it had his name on it in large black letters. He placed the jumpsuit ontop and held it in his hands as he followed his parents into the room. It was a bare room with two benches in the middle and a set of metal cage cupboards lining the wall. Most of the others that had come with them were there in the room. Some were just sitting down with their heads in their hands, while some of the others were midway in changing. He recognised Mr Dipietro, the owner of the the ice cream parlour over in Concord. He lived literally right next to the entrance of Sanctuary. The heavyset rhino was midway through changing his clothing, but he was sobbing into his hands as he leant against the wall. While his father was helping his mother and his little brother get changed, Adam slowly slipped out of his clothes. He folded them up neatly and placed them into the lock box, stripping down to nothing. There was no real time for modesty, although no-one was really paying much attention to him. "Is he ok?" Bradely asked as he took his son from his wifes arms so she could change. Tommy was fast asleep, the infant having stopped crying "He'll probably never know what happened today" he said with a small smile down to his cub as he held the boy against him. Adam opened the bag and pulled out the jumpsuit, seeing it unfold outwards. It looked smaller then it was as he bent over and slipped it over his feet and started to pull it up his legs. It was one of those suits that had a one size fits all type of feeling as it slid up his legs. The material was thick but snug, clinging to his body and leaving little to the imagination. It even came with built in shoes, although the rubber soles felt more like a pair of comfort slippers then real shoes. Adam was just zipping up the back of the suit up against his neck when the Overseer stepped into the doorway. He took a look at everyone before he spoke. "Once you have all placed your personals in the boxes, place place them on the shelves and head down the hallway to decontamination. After that, we will give you a chance to rest up and take in everything that's happened, and in the morning we will have orientation" he said. "How long do we have to stay down here?" someone asked. Adam saw it was Mrs Cofran. She and her husband were a horse and cow, not much older then he was. Newlyweds, if he remembered correctly. Her husband had his arms around her tightly, the two of them looking pale. "That will be covered in orientation, but we are starting to get behind. All of you now carry a possibility of being contaminated by the dust cloud, and the longer you stay here, the greater the risk" the Overseer said firmly. "So please, I know you have all just been through quite a lot, but it would be better for everyone if you hurry along." No-one said anything for a few moments before they all started to move and undress. Adam reached up to remove the necklace around his neck, but he stopped for a moment. That little half circle was probably all that he had left of Stuart, and the thought of actually take it off to put it away, it made his stomach turn. He tucked it under the collar of his jumpsuit instead as he closed the cover to his lockbox. He found a space for it on the shelf as his father placed the ones for himself and his wife beside it. Once they were ready and had finished, Bradley handed his son back to his wife as the cub began to stir, as the four of them left the changing room. The guards outside gestured them to head down a neon lit hallway. Large narrow windows on either side of them gave view to rooms filled with impressive looking machinery. Adam took a glance into one of them and saw that the machines filled the entire spacing. Generators and pumps and what looked like miles of tubing criss crossing everywhere. There was a low but steady humming coming from either side of them as they followed the pathway. "If you'll just step through here, we can start the decontamination process" said another vixen in a lab coat. She gestured with a gloved hand into the room at the end of the hallway. "Please step up into the pods and we can begin." The room beyond was another sterile environment, but this one was filled with large round pods that resembled eggs. They were huge steel constructs covered in tubes and wires, with a window on the front. Another scientist waved them over, a wolf with fur as white as his labcoat. He adjusted his glasses as he pressed a few buttons on a pad connected to the side. There was a loud hissing noise as the front of the egg capsule suddenly pushed forward and lifted upwards, a small cloud of mist spilling out onto the metal floor. "Now, if you'll please step inside" the wolf said as he held up his wrist. There was a large rectangular object strapped to his arm. Adam recognised what it was. It was called a Pip-Boy, and it was a very advanced computer system worn on the warm. The scientist adjusted a few knobs on his Pip-Boy before he opened up the pod next to the now open one, opening it up with a hissing noise and a cloud of mist. He then opened up a pod on the opposite side , another hiss and a cloud of mist pooled onto the floor. "You go first honey" Bradley said to his wife. The inside of the pod contained a metal chair covered in white leather pads. Melissa steadied Tommy in her arms. He was still fast asleep against her shoulder. She carefully stepped into the pod and sat herself down, moving Tommy carefully into her arms as she held him. "I'll see you when this is done" Bradley said as the wolf pressed a few more buttons on the pad and with another loud hiss the cover started to lower. "Adam, you should get in too. Get this process thing over with so we can get some rest" he said. Adam nodded as he stepped over to the pod opposite his mother and climbed in. The seat was surprisingly soft and comfortable. He adjusted himself as he sat down, brushing his hand back against his lip. The blood was starting to lessen, but his jaw was still caked in red. The wolf pressed the buttons on the pad and the front of the capsule lowered down and hissed loudly, going flush against the frame. "The pod will decontaminate you and depressurize before we take you deeper into the vault. Just relax and let the program run its course" the wolf said through the window as he looked in on Adam. "It'll all be over soon." "Initiating sequence. Occupant Secure. Vital signs, normal" said a cool female voice inside the pod. Adam sat back in the seat as the pod suddenly started to fill with a light white mist. Adam tried to focus on the window in front of him, seeing his mother in the pod across from him. Her pod was already filled with the white mist and he couldn't see her through her window. "Cryogenic process starting in 5..." Adam perked his ears up. What? "4.... 3...." His breath suddenly started appearing as a cloud in front of him as the temperature started to drop. His felt the skin under his fur prickle as his breath fogged up the window in front of him. He felt himself start to heavily shiver as he tried to bring his arms up against his chest, but his limbs felt sluggish, like they were made of lead. "2...." Adam tried to panic, he honestly did. But he felt his eyelids start to grow heavy and his head felt fogged up. His body was starting to go limp, but he couldn't move his body. It felt like it was frozen in place. He couldn't feel anything, not even his heart beat. His eyelids was the one thing that was able to move as his vision blurred over and everything started to go dark. He let out one last breath that only added to the thick mist in the capsule as he felt his mind sink into darkness. "1...." he didn't hear what happened next as his mind just blacked out and he slipped into unconsciousness.
".....should be the one on the end...." ".... get this over with...... wasted too much time..." Adam could barely hear the voices as he struggled to wake up. His breathing was shallow and ragged, like he had been asleep without breathing too easily. His eyelids fluttered, delicate crystals of ice breaking off against his eyelashes as his vision swam and blurred before him. He felt tired, like he was still waking up. How long had he been out? Why was he frozen? His mind was fogged up and there was an uncomfortable taste in his mouth. He couldn't move, no part of his body was registering in his mind. He felt numb all over, he couldn't even move his eyes. He could only stare forward. The window in front of him cleared, showing a blurry vision of the outside world in front of him. He could see his mothers capsule in front of him, but he could barely make her out inside of it. She looked frozen inside the capsule, covered in nothing but ice. A figure stepped into view. He couldn't tell who it was, but it didn't look like one of the scientists or the guards he had seen before. This person was covered head to toe in a tight fitting latex suit, a heavy looking mask where the face was. Two large circular tubes were connected to it and ran behind the body, ending at what looked like a gas tank. "This is the one" the figure said. It sounded like a female. His eyes managed to make out the details of her suit, able to now see the bumps on her chest and the curves of her hips. He couldn't tell what species she was, her tail was hidden somewhere. She pointed a hand at Melissas' capsule as another figure stepped into view. It was a lizard. Adam couldn't tell what kind, but his scales were dark, so dark they were almost black. He was wearing an assortment of leathers that covered his body, like protective armor. It looked worn and dusty, like he had been wearing it for a long time. There was a fat cigar in his mouth that he was smoking, Adam could barely make out the cloud of smoke he was blowing. "Get it open already. We're on a schedule" the lizard said. His voice was horrible, like sandpaper that was scratching against Adams face. He took a huff on his cigar and blew the smoke into the air as the female started tapping on the pad next to Melissas pod. With a loud hiss and a cloud of escaping mist, the pods front moved itself forward then slid upwards. The lizard took a step back as Melissa came into view, ice crystals rapidly defrosting as she was exposed to the air. She took a breath like she hadn't been breathing in a long time as Tommy woke up and started to cry as well.
"Is... is it over?" Melissa said as she regained consciousness, holding her son tight against her chest. "What...what's going on? What happened?" "Miss, everything is alright" the female said as she stepped up to the pod. "We just need to take your child to make sure he's alright" she said as she held her hands up to take the infant. "If there's a problem with him... he's staying with me...I'm his mother" Melissa said as she pulled Tommy up against her. "Where's my husband? And my son? Where are they?" "Miss, we need to take your infant" the female said as she reached for the child again. "Please do not fight, we are going to take him. It will not help to struggle" she said as she grabbed at Tommy. "Let go of him right now" Melissa shouted at the woman as Tommy began to cry louder in distress. "You are not taking my son" she said as she pulled her son back against her, the female in the suit however did not let go of him as she attempted to wrestle the infant from her. "She said, let go of the infant" the lizard said as he suddenly pulled a large lethal looking pistol from his side and pointed it straight at Melissa. "We are not going to ask you again" he said. Even Adam could hear the audible click of the hammer being cocked. "Oh god no" Adam screamed in his mind as he tried to move, but his body refused. He couldn't feel anything, he couldn't even move his eyes. All he could do was blink and barely breath as he watched the events unfold in front of him. "You let go of my son you crazy bitch" Melissa said as she ignored the fact there was a gun pointing at her as she attempted to wrestle her son back. Tommy was practically screaming now as he was fought over. The female in the suit pulled hard and Melissa cried out as she was pulled out of the seat. She landed on the floor with a crash and a cry, taking Tommy down with her. Adam could hear his brother screaming in pain, but he couldn't move to see them on the floor as they were out of his visison as the female in the suit quickly moved forward and snatched up the infant. "You.. you give me back my son" Melissa said as she struggled to pull herself up. Adam could only watch as the lizard lowered his gun down towards the floor. And then he pulled the trigger. Adam saw a brief flash, and he screamed in his mind as loudly as he could as he heard the explosion of the bullet. And the sound of Tommy as he continued to scream. "Did you have to do that?" the female said as she held Tommy against her. She didn't hold him like an infant though, she held him like a bag of flour that she was forced to hold onto. "We might have needed her." "Bitch didn't give us much choice" the lizard said with a smirk on his face. "Besides, we got what we came for" he said as he slid the gun back into its holster. Adam was still screaming in his mind, trying to do something, anything. But he was trapped. Trapped in his own hell as his body was unable to respond to anything. He couldn't even cry from what he saw. His mother... was she really dead? Just like that?
"Besides, we still have the backups, don't we?" The lizard said with a smirk as he stepped up to Adams pod and peered into the glass. His face was scarred, like long claws had scratched across his face in an attempt to remove it. He peered into the glass, a smirk curling across his lips around the cigar in his mouth before he removed it with his fingers and proceeded to stub it out on the glass. "Freeze them back up and lets get out of here" the lizard said as he ground the stub of his cigar against the glass window. He continued to smirk at Adam as a hissing filled the lions ears as the window began to fog up from the rapid mist that was filling it. Adams screams in his head began to die down as he felt his mind start to sink into the darkness again as he passed out once more.
Flashing blue light. Bright blue lights invaded through his eyelids. His eyelids flew open and the bright lights burned into his eyes. He inhaled sharply, the first breath hurting his lungs as they gained oxygen for the first time in who knew how long. Adam cried out in pain as his senses returned to him, causing his body to scream out in agony for moving for the first time. He cried out loudly, voice echoing around the room as his throat burned from being used. Slowly, as life returned to his limbs and the horrible numbness turned to pain in his extremities, and then started to fade away to feeling normal again, Adam pushed himself up onto all fours as as he slowly picked himself up. He was panting hard, his lungs burning for oxygen as he stood himself up, feeling his body wobble and his legs threaten to give way. He reached out and grabbed the pod beside him, holding himself up as he tried to regain his balance. Somehow, he was outside the pod. He had been lying on the floor, out cold and defrosted. But why was he out? What had just happened? His mother...his brother... Adam looked down to the floor and felt his legs give way as he saw the body of his mother lying on the floor, sprawled where she was left. He felt his eyes tear up as he sank down, sliding down the side of the pod onto his butt as he started to sob. His mother was just a body in a jumpsuit. The material had faded, coated in a layer of dust. Her fur had gone, leaving behind a greyed skin, stretched over her frame. Her eyes, they were gone, just replaced by two empty black holes in her face. There was a hole in her skull, and a dark red stain on the floor. "Mom....." Adam whimpered as he clutched at the side of the pod desperately. He started to pant as he sobbed hard, unable to hold it back in. He opened his mouth and let out a scream, a scream so loud it sounded deafening in the silent room. He sobbed and wailed, only the sounds of his own crying echoing in the room. All he had inside him was screamed out until his throat burned and his vocal cords begged for mercy. And the tears kept flowing as he sobbed and retched against the floor until his stomach was dry and his eyes burned from the tears. How long he lay there, he didn't know. He was sure he passed out once or twice from his grief, only to wake up and just slump against the machine, just staring at the body of his mother as she lay there. Adam didn't really think as he slowly picked himself up, pulling himself to his feet. He struggled to get up, wiping his hand across his face several times, sniffing hard to get his breathing back under control. It took him several minutes to get his composure back as he held himself against the machine. It was then he realised that the blue lights were still flashing above him, emergency lighting signalling something had happened. The room was cold, but it was also silent. He could barely hear the humming of the machinery around him as he took a look around. The machines were all covered in dust, dust so think his fingers were covered over it when he ran his hand over the surface. How long... how long had they been frozen? That hadn't been a decontaimination process, he had been frozen like a steak in the freezer unit. "Dad...." he said as he suddenly remembered his father had been in the pod next to him. He turned and peered in through the window of the pod to see inside. It was frosted over inside as he wiped the glass surface. His father was in there, covered in a layer of white crystals and not moving. It looked like he was sleeping, the older lion with his eyes closed behind his glasses. "Dad....please wake up" Adam croaked as he jabbed his fingers on the pad next to the machine. Nothing happened. He jabbed again. Then again. Then he started slamming his fist on the damn pad as he snarled in frustration. "Open up" he ordered the machine as he pressed every button on the pad. "Come on please... open up. He's my father." "Manual overide system malfunction detected. Unable to comply" said the computerised female voice. "What? Come on... come on open up, Dad....DAD" Adam shouted as best he could as he slammed his fists against the surface of the machine, pummeling it as hard as he could. But his father was unable to hear him, locked away in his ice bound prison. "Please..please open up" Adam said as he jabbed at the keypad again. "Manual overide system malfunction detected. Unable to comply" said the computerised female voice. Adam felt like he was going to cry again as he looked around, hoping to see someone, anyone who could help him. The door at the end of the room was sealed, foot prints in the dust on the floor. People had come through here, probably those who shot his mother. They looked recent as far as he knew. But there was also something by the door. A computer terminal on the wall. Adam quickly made his way over to it and pressed the buttons on the keyboard. The screen lit up with a black background and bright green lettering, displaying a set of options. "Cryogenic Array..... Pod Occupant Status... there is is. System Overide" Adam said as he pressed the dusty keys to highlight that status. "I was Pod Ten I think...Dad was Nine..." he said to himself as he found the option for his fathers pod and highlighted the 'Open Pod' option. "Critical Error:Unable to Comply. Please consult Maintenance." "What? No... NO" Adam pleaded with the machine as he clicked the option again, only to have those cold unforgiving words display themselves again. And again. No matter how many times he clicked, it just kept coming up with the same words over and over again. It was with a deep empty feeling inside the pit of his stomach that his fingers trembled as they moved the cursor over to 'Pod Occupant Status' and he clicked on the one marked 'Bradley Gold'. 'Occupant Status : Deceased. - Cause of Death : Asphyxiation due to life support failure.' "No..." Adam whimpered as he checked the other pods for their status. But he was met with the same message. Deceased, over and over again. They had all died in their sleep. He banged his head against the terminal. His father was dead. He had suffocated in there who knew how long ago. There was no point in rescuing him. He was already gone. His whole family was gone. He slowly lifted his head away from the terminal, his head aching like he was experiencing a migraine. The feeling in his stomach wasn't going away and it was making him feel like he was going to throw up. "I...I've got to get out of here" Adam said softly, his throat aching as he walked over to the door beside the terminal. They slid open, slowly after detecting his movement and opened up to reveal the hallway ahead. The doors ground shut behind him, telling him they hadn't been opened in a long time. The hallway was dusty as well, and the metal of the walls looked rusted and faded. Tools and boxes were scattered across the floor, as if people had just dropped them there and left them. His feet made almost no sound in their rubber soles as he crossed the dusty floor to the door at the end, but it didn't open up. The door groaned when he pressed his hands on it, but it didn't move. This was the door that lead to the front of the vault. It felt like it had only been a few minutes since he had been there. It felt so surreal. The doorway next to his side was wide open, revealing one of the huge rooms filled with machinery. Adam slowly stepped into it, hearing the low grumbling hum of the age old machinery as they struggled to keep up. He crossed the room, seeing a door on the other side. He jumped at every groan and low rumbling of the machines on either side of him, not knowing if it was the machines or something else. The flickering emergency blue lighting was all that was lighting the place up and the flickering shadows weren't helping. The door opened with a groaning hiss, revealing a short hallway with several more doors on either side. More boxes and crates of materials lay scattered. Only one of the doors was open, and Adam carefully made his way over to it. He found himself in what looked like a cafeteria, and it was full of bodies. He cried out in shock when he saw them, scattered around the place. Some were sitting in chairs and at the tables, some slumped against the walls. They couldn't even be called bodies anymore, they were just skeletons in ragged clothing. Scientist lab coats and vault jumpsuits, it was all staff. "What the heck..." Adam said as he stared in shock. That was when he noticed the bullet holes in the walls. And in the plates and shattered mugs, and across the surface of the floor. A few large pistols were scattered across the floor, surrounded by empty shells. Were they all murdered? "What the heck happened here? Where is everyone?" he asked as he stared at the scene of carnage before him. He must have been out for a long time for everyone to be reduced to skeletons like this, or what if something else had happened? What though, he couldn't even begin to think about. He picked up one of the pistols, feeling the weight of the weapon in his hand. This was the first time he had ever picked up a gun before, and he carefully looked it over. He had no idea if it was loaded, but he didn't want to pull the trigger to find out. He carefully stepped around the dead bodies under him, trying not to disturb them as he headed to the door opposite. The door opened with a hiss, revealing another short hallway with more doors on either side. There was a sign on the wall, reading that the Cafeteria was behind him, and the Overseers office was in front of him. "The overseer... he said he was in charge" Adam thought to himself as he walked through the hallway. There was a dead security guard laying slumped against the floor, its vest riddled with bullet holes. Adam did not like where this was going. The door slid open and Adam found himself in the overseers office. He didn't get much of a chance to really take stock of the room as he saw something else that grabbed his immediate attention. Giant cockroaches! "What the ..." he said in disbelief. Oh, he had seen cockroaches before, but never the size of dogs. They were big and ugly creatures, and the moment he spoke, they noticed him. "Oh god... gross" Adam said as they started crawling across the floor towards him. He didn't know how many there were, but he raised the gun in his hand. His hands shaking, he took aim at the closest one. He didn't know how, but he thought he saw the gun aim for him as he squeezed the trigger. It could have been a trick of the light, but as he pulled the trigger and the gun shot out each bullet, he was sure he saw the gun twitch in his hand, like it was aiming for him. BANG and SPLAT went the first roach as the bullet crashed through its head. Then the same happened to the next roach, and the next one. Adam ended up emptying the entire clip of the gun as he fired on the roaches, a small shower of clips landing at his feet. The last roach exploded, scattering its insides across the floor in a rather grotesque display. The clip of the gun suddenly ejected from the handle onto the floor beneath him. "Oh...so that's where the clip goes" Adam said as he lowered the gun. There were no more bugs from what he could see as he looked around the room. The walls were covered in aged shelving containing various cardboard boxes and rusted metal capsules. Much of the room was taken up by a large curved wooden desk, with a large terminal sitting on it. A box of ammunition lay on the surface amongst the scattered papers. Adam slowly walked up to the desk and gasped, seeing what lay behind it. It was the Overseer, the horses skeleton laying on the floor from where it had fallen, the chair tipped and tangled in his legs. There was a large dark stain on the wall behind the desk, and where the horses skull lay. A pistol was clutched in its boney hand. "He killed himself" Adam said under his breath. He didn't know how to feel about that. He crossed the room to the door on the other side, but it was shut. He pushed against it and it sounded like it was trying to open, but it also sounded like it was locked. "Maybe the terminal" he thought as he walked over to the computer on the desk and pressed a few buttons. There was an option on the screen to unlock the door, which he pressed. He heard the door unlock and it slid open easily. He smiled, there was a way out now. But something else caught his eye. It was a link on the computer screen that read 'Overseers logs'. He clicked on it. A lot of it at the beginning was all about construction and the benefits of the local population, as well as notes on all the staff. But then something jumped out at him in a bad way. A number of phrases written in the logs that made his skin crawl. "If only people knew that Vault-Tech was more interested in science then actually preparing for the future. I can't believe I got landed at one of the experimental facilities rather then one of the safe havens. We're going to build this facility as a cold storage unit to test out the science behind cryogenics." "The facility is finalized, a perfect place to test out the cryogenics. If we can perfect this, we'll have a whole population frozen in time and ready to head back out and rebuild. Of course, that doesn't count the staff, they're all expendable. Too bad they don't know it. Now we just need the test subjects, which should all be registered. Vault-Tech has ensured that, and anyone not registered can be left behind." "I can't believe how easily everyone followed our instructions. Of course, we didn't have much time. The bombs dropped sooner then we thought. Thankfully all the staff were nearby when the alarm went off. Also thankfully that family with the infant from nearby managed to make it in time, guess that Rep we sent convinced them. Now we can test the cryo sequence on infants. Back to point, everyone followed our instruction far too easily. It was probably because they were all still in a state of shock, they didn't have the mental capacity to question what we were doing." "We had to leave the elderly couple outside. The doctor that examined them found them contaminated by radiation, probably due to how old they were. We deactivated the lift from inside and sealed the vault. We don't want any kind of contamination to happen." "The one hundred and eighty day Mandatory Shelter Period has come and gone, but we haven't received the all clear. Some of these idiots don't understand that the radiation up there is still too potent to head out into. We'll be fried if we open up the vault. We're starting to run low on supplies, we weren't supposed to go past this point. We'll have to keep waiting." "We had an incident today where some of the staff started to thaw out some of the residents in the pods. Talked about mutiny. They had the absolute gall to go and unfreeze that Cofram couple, and try to force us to unthaw the others. Thankfully most of the security guards are still on my side and they took care of the matter. I don't regret having to end that couples life though. We still have plenty of test subjects left." "The mutiny didn't end with their deaths. Turns out most are ready to force their way out, rather to take their chances in the wasteland above then take a chance down here, even if supplies are running dangerously low. The all clear has not been passed yet. I'll get my faithful security to take of them at dinner tomorrow. We just won't use the cafeteria after tomorrow." "Supplies have finally run out. We can't leave. We're all going to die down here. The last of the staff have given up. They've just sat around waiting to die. A slow death, that's not for me. I'm going to make it quick. Vault-Tech has abandoned us. Fuck them." Adam leant over the side of the desk as his stomach finally could take no more and he emptied the entire contents onto the floor with a loud retching sound. He heaved and choked as stomach bile and what was part of his breakfast ended up splattering on the floor. He contineud to retch till he had nothing left in his stomach to empty out as he felt himself fall into despair. The whole vault....was a goddam science experiment? It was all just a giant test for some scientists to use them as guinea pigs? And....and they were just left to die. All the people in his neighborhood, they were all dead. He was the only one alive. Adam picked himself up as he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and grabbed the box of ammunition from the desk. It was filled with clips for the gun, all of them loaded up. He reloaded the gun, well he hoped he did as he clipped the refill into place before he walked through the door. There was another hallway, filled with more junk from where the residents had just left them on the ground. Another doorway at the end, and he found himself back in the main area of the vault. The giant hole in the entrance was now closed shut, and there were several more skeletons in the area. They were just slumped down in places, looking like they had just found a place to die and just waited for it to come. Adam made his way over to the main console next to the retracted walkway. The buttons were all covered in dust, one of them was under a glass covering. It read 'Activate'. But when Adam lifted the covering and pressed the button, nothing happened. "Damn" he said to himself. He brushed his hand over the console to look for any indication of what to do and found a small jack port. Under it were the words 'Pip-Boy Remote Link'. Where would he find one of those? Then he remembered one of the scientists was carrying one. He walked over to where the skeletons were laying and began to inspect their arms to check for one. It didn't seem that everyone carried a Pip-Boy in the vault, he didn't even see one on t he overseers corpse. He came across a canine skeleton in the change room, sitting on a fold out chair, a pair of glasses still on its skull. There was a Pip-Boy on its arm. Adam carefully reached down and grabbed it, sliding the device off the arms remains. It looked like it was still in good condition. It snapped over his forearm rather easily, clasping securely. Adam pressed the buttons on the front and it suddenly lit up rather brightly in the dim lighting. Words flashed across the screen as it booted up, recognising a new host. "Guess I need to use this to get out of here" he thought to himself as he headed back to the console. He turned the Pip-Boy around on his arm and found a retractable jack on the back of it. He pulled it out and inserted it into the jack port. The screen flashed twice as it recognised the system. "Gaining Access to Vault System........ accessing...... Accessing Complete" the screen said. Adam withdrew the jack and placed it back in the Pip-Boy, then pressed the big red button again. "Vault Door Cycle Sequence Initiated. Please stand back" said the computerized female voice. The blue flickering lights were joined by flashing red ones as an emergency siren was suddenly heard. From above him, what looked like a giant drill suddenly lowered from the ceiling in a cloud of dust. With a loud and rusty grinding noise it slowly slid forward towards the vault cog door, pushing itself into place. It then whirred as the enourmous drill end worked its way into the center of the cog for several moments, before the huge cog was pulled backwards with a grinding noise so loud that Adam had to cover his ears to protect his hearing. The huge cog was pulled back and then the huge drill bit began to slide the massive gear shape across the wall, more rusted grinding. And then the light spilled through. Adam had to shield his eyes from it as the light almost blinded him. The gangplank then slid outwards and through the now opened doorway of the vault, giving Adam a way out. The light was from the spotlights in front. They had turned on when the cog was moved and they now flooded the access cavern. It took a few moments for Adams vision to sort itself as he hopped onto the gangplank and began to move forward.
It felt so surreal, the platform now rusted and the paint peeling off, when only a short time ago it was so clean it looked new. He reached the faded platform and he could see the lift beyond. He slowly made his way down the stairs, and saw a huddled mass against the wall of the lift. It was the remains of Mr and Mrs Whitfield, who had been left outside to die. With the way they were holding one another and their arms wrapped across each other, they had died together. Or one had waited for the other. Nothing was what it seemed anymore. Adam stepped up to the platform and saw the pad next to the door that summoned it. Two very large buttons, one arrow pointing up and one pointing down. Adam held the pistol in his hand as he pressed the button for up. The lift creaked and groaned as it shuddered underneath his feet and slowly began to ascend. He hung his head, his heart and his mind heavy as he tried to process what was going on. Was it really only a few hours ago that he and Stuart had been together, his parents and alive and well? His little brother in their life? Why had it all gone so wrong? "Enjoy your ascent to the surface. And thank you for choosing Vault-Tech" said the computerized female voice. Adam wanted to laugh, but he didn't have the strength. Not anymore. As the lift slowly ground its way up the rusted metal chute, Adam did not know what he would find topside. And he didn't know if he was ready to find out.