Chapter Text
Her eyes snapped open and immediately burned from the frigid temperature inside her confined decontamination pod. Crystallized tears stung her cheeks from when just moments ago she watched Shaun be ripped from Nate's arms and him... No, that didn't happen. She was in a vault with her husband, and son, and their neighbors. Vault 111. They had just made it down into the Earth without a second to spare. They witnessed the enormous mushroom cloud consume everything on the horizon. Felt the wave of heat from the radiation that accompanied it. The day was October 23rd, 2077, and they were safe from the world outside.
The glass window of her prison finally defrosted enough that she could see how wrong she was. She clumsily tried banging her body against the door. Her arms felt like cinder blocks, and she couldn't raise them very high. One more bang and this time to her surprise the latch released, and the pod door slowly rose in front of her, hydraulics hissing in her ears.
She tried stepping out, but quickly realized she had no control over her legs. She tripped and collapsed face first onto the hard concrete floor. She turned her head to look down at her feet. They were still attached, but apparently refusing to cooperate with her at the moment. Every bone in her body burned. Her muscles felt like gelatin and throbbed.
Her husband's pod loomed before her. She looked up from the ground with tears already forming in the corners of her dry eyes, confirming what she feared to be true. There, on Nate's forehead was the singular gnarled hole from where he'd been shot by the man with the scarred face. It wasn't perfectly centered, not like in the movies. Instead, the hollowed wound was situated just above his eyebrow. The skin around the area was mangled, but not bruised. The cold had prevented that. Fragments of skull and gray matter grotesquely decorated the wall behind where his body permanently rested. Blood caked the left side of his still handsome face. It must have coagulated nearly instantly when the pod door was shut again, preventing it from dripping further, though there were some stains on the neck and chest of his vault suit. The dark red contrasted horribly against the vivid blue and made everything look like an ugly brown mess. She couldn't tear her eyes away from the horrific scene. She tried to make herself believe that it wasn't real. None of this was real. It was just a side effect of the decontamination process. Hallucinations. Nothing more.
But that grim mark was unmistakable, and it let her know she was now alone.
The tears flowed in waves as she tried to bring herself from the floor to her elbows, but her arms still weren't strong enough to hold her weight, and she slumped back down to the hard ground. She bawled hysterically, her body shivering through the thin blue jumpsuit she'd been made to change into. The heart wrenching sounds of her anguish echoed off the tall chamber walls. Without the ability to properly wipe her eyes, her vision became more blurred by the second. Mucus from her nose began to pool on the ground next to her. She was helpless.
Somewhere above an alarm began to sound, and a robotic pre-recorded voice repeatedly instructed all occupants to vacate the vault. It was distorted, but she caught something that sounded like 'cryogenic.' Of course that's what they were. Frozen. She'd been lied to by that annoying asshole in the yellow trench coat. "Prepared for the future!"
Yeah, right.
The alarm was unnecessarily loud and the echo engulfed her senses. The recording seemed to be playing throughout the entire vault simultaneously as she could hear echoes from the distance. Her immediate thought was that it had something to do with the man and woman she'd seen before. What if they were still in the vault? Were they coming back for her? 'The backup.' That's what Nate's murderer had called her. What did he mean backup? Who were these people and why were they targeting her family?
She knew she had to get up. Somehow she had to force her body to move, or drag it if necessary. If they killed her too, Shaun would be all alone in the hands of these murderers. The thought sent a painful shiver down her spine. She would not allow that to happen. She had to move.
She waited for other pods to open and her neighbors to emerge. She would tell them what happened and they could all escape together. Strength in numbers. But no doors swung open. She knew her neighbors survived the blast with her. They had stood on the launch pad with her family. She saw them in the hallway talking and crying as she and Nate passed by. Where were they? Why weren't they waking up too? She pushed her muscles to their limits, and this time was able to make it to her knees, though not fully upright just yet. She looked up at Nate's pod once more, noticing a lever on a pedestal in front of her. It took all of her strength to raise her arm high enough, but she managed to engage the switch.
Steam escaped from the sides of the pod along with the same hydraulic sound hers had made. The door slowly rose and Nate's body silently shifted to the side of the pod, but remained mostly upright. Up close she could see the build up of frost on his hair and eyebrows. His left hand rested across his thigh. The gleam of his gold wedding band caught her eye. Through the tears she reached out and carefully twisted it off his cold finger, promising she would find their son and get revenge on that scar-faced bastard. One final look at her husband, and she wiped her eyes on the sleeve of her suit as best she could, and dropped back to her hands. She crawled at an agonizing pace towards the doorway she remembered entering through. She could see flashing lights lining the hallway outside. Her knees screamed with every step, but she could feel that they were finally loosening up.
As she passed the next pod, she reached up again to flip the switch to open the door, but nothing happened. She could see a figure inside, but the frost on the window prevented her from knowing who it was.
"I'll come back for you. For all of you."
She whispered and continued her long crawl down the corridor passing each of her motionless neighbors one by one. Just outside the doorway was a group of silver containers stacked neatly against the wall. She propped her hands up on the lowest one and with slow, shaky movements was able to maneuver her legs into the standing position, and was upright for the first time in what felt like years. Standing was one thing, but balance was another. Her knees wobbled and she still felt weak, but this was progress.
With a hand trailing the wall for stability, she could limp down the hall. The door at the end, that's the one that she needed. It was closed now, but she had faith it would open. She remembered the door opening automatically when the doctor had stood in front of it. Motion detection, or at least it seemed that way. Much to her dismay, the door did not open. She quickly looked for a button, a switch. Anything that would manually open the door. She pounded on the surface in case it was just stuck. Her attempts were futile. The door didn't budge.
Panic shot through her body as the first thought that entered her mind was that she was trapped indefinitely. That there was no longer any power going to the doors. That this vault would also become her tomb, and Shaun's fate would be sealed at the hands of his kidnappers. She frantically looked around for another exit. There. To her right. Another door. She pivoted her body and limped towards it. The panic subsided when the door split apart in the center as she approached. It led to a short set of stairs that descended into another utility corridor.
Despite careful advance, her foot missed a step and she thudded down to the concrete floor for a second time that day. The sound of her surprise echoed off the walls. She sighed heavily and began to fight her body to once more regain an upright position. It was easier this time than the last, but her muscles were still much stiffer than she was used to. There was a long window in the wall in front of her, and beyond that she could see a room with large mechanical equipment. Bright electrical sparks danced around the tops of the cylinders.
Motion on the window caught her eye, and she gasped when the realization hit.
"What the hell? Is that a... Giant... Roach?" Maybe she was hallucinating after all.
The roach crawled away on the other side of the glass and she reminded herself she needed to keep moving, but not before she picked up the security baton that was laying on a crate under the window. If she ran into Shaun's kidnappers in one of these hallways, it wouldn't provide much help, but it was better than being completely unarmed.
There was another door ahead of her and something of a makeshift office to the right. She made her way through the office, checking the desk drawers and lockers for anything else that could be used to defend herself. Water dripped onto her head from the ceiling, and it was apparent no one had been at these desks for a long time. Where was everyone? She hadn't seen a single Vault-Tec employee since she woke up. Was she the only one left?
Her eyes spotted something on the edge of one of the desks. A Stimpak. She grabbed it and without thinking, closed her eyes, flipped off the cap, and sunk the needle into her thigh. A sigh of relief came as the pain throughout her body slowly began to subside and she was able to bend her knees again.
A minute later she was through the door, down the winding hall and onto the next door. This time when it sprung open she was startled by the giant roach she'd seen on the window. She nervously pulled out her baton, unsure if she could actually take care of this thing. Nate had always been the bug slayer in their home. She thought about what Nate would say if she had asked him to kill a roach this big. Silent tears ran down her cheeks as she realized that that wasn't something she could ever ask him. She wiped her eyes on her vault suit sleeve and knew she had to stop crying. At least for now.
She approached the roach, which unexpectedly lunged at her. Since when were roaches this aggressive?! She jumped back in shock and swung the baton. It missed as the roach flitted around by her feet and prepared to jump again. She closed her eyes and swung once more, this time the baton made contact with the insect. The impact sent legs and oozing green guts flying through the air accompanied by a disgusting squelching sound. She grasped her stomach as the smell of the rotted innards hit her nose and thought she was going to be sick.
It took a moment to compose herself before she sighed and shook the baton to flick off any remaining bits of roach before continuing on. The open doorway to the right looked to be a dining area of some sort, though it was mostly empty beer bottles strewn across a few tables. The lack of signs of human life made her weary.
The door to the left popped open and she now found herself in the electrical room she'd seen through the window. Rays of electricity were shooting from the coils on top of the structures and making contact with the floor, which she soon realized were actually zapping more of those roaches. How could she make it across? An electrical current that strong would kill her in one shot. She noticed a railing around the perimeter of the room where no currents seemed to hit. She slowly made her way around the edge, hugging the wall the entire time. Upon reaching the exit she saw the first sign of human life, or rather, formally human life. Face down on the floor in front of her was a fully decomposed human skeleton in a tattered Vault 111 jumpsuit, much like her own. She stepped around it to try and search the remains. A key, a note, or even just a weapon, anything that could be helpful in the current situation. To her disappointment there was nothing. Just a pile of nameless bones long forgotten. Poor soul.
"Is this all that's left..?"
Her thoughts were interrupted by a loud fire crack followed by searing pain in her right shoulder. She stumbled towards the door, tripping over the skeletal remains and landing hard on her knees. She cried out, gripping her shoulder. She looked back and saw the scorched mark across her vault suit. The skin underneath was red and severely blistered. Charred blood encrusted the surface. Without realizing, she had stepped too far into the center of the room. She cursed at herself for having used the Stimpak so thoughtlessly. At least she wasn't bleeding. The last thing she wanted was to leave a trail behind. She rose to her feet and continued on.
Just up another few steps were two more of those damned roaches which she made short work of, even with the throbbing pain in her arm. The final door led to a large technical looking office. This must have belonged to who they called the 'Overseer.' The man who was supposed to be running the vault. The one who was supposed to keep her family safe. It was apparent that things didn't go as planned, as another human skeleton lay behind the large curved desk. This one was wearing some sort of lab coat.
Something on the desk caught her eye. A silver gun with a brown handle. A 9MM. Or... 10MM? Nate was the authority on things like this what with his time in the military. She wasn't overly fond of guns, but she picked it up and checked the chamber like Nate taught her. It was full. The small box of ammo she found further down the desk provided evidence that this was in fact a 10MM pistol, and she now had at least twenty-four shots.
The door in the corner had to be the last. The final one until she was free from this half-frozen purgatory. She ran to it like she'd done the others, and, like the first door she'd come across, nothing happened. The door didn't open. Panic set in once again at the thought that she'd made her way through the vault to this point only to have this be the end of the line. She spun around to look at the room behind her. There were dozens of shelves, cases, and cabinets, but all appeared empty or useless. Then she saw it. The faint glow from the back of the computer terminal. She touched the keys, and to her disbelief the screen flickered on and bright green text stared back at her. She quickly read off the options. There were several logs and entries that she knew could give her an idea about what happened here, but those would have to wait. There, at the very bottom, 'Open Evacuation Tunnel.' That had to be it. She selected the option and waited. Seconds later the mechanical door slid open and offered her another day.
The door opened up into yet another corridor. There were several roaches in this one, most of which were on the side of the walls. Not wanting to waste any more time she decided to run past the bugs. They dropped off the walls as she ran and tried attacking her from behind, though she was able to successfully reach the next door and lock them out.
The room she found herself in now was not how she remembered. It was the turnstiles she and Nate had entered after they got off the lift. Except instead of being bright, clean, and new - it was flooded. Dark. It was half cave, and half technological creation. An enormous cog sat in front of where the lift should be. More skeletons littered the ground, with roaches gnawing at the rotted fabric remains of their clothing. She pulled out her baton and bashed the few remaining menaces. There was a podium in the center of the platform. That had to be the way to control the cog.
She slammed her fist down on the activation button. A loud beeping sound accompanied with a robotic voice from overhead announced that a 'Pip-Boy interface' was required. She looked down at the skeleton at her feet and noticed a small box attached to the arm, which had been severed at the elbow. From there she could make out some of the lettering through the dust. As she picked up the device the boney hand slid out and clattered to the floor. She wrapped the device, which appeared to be some sort of personal computer around her wrist and secured it in place. It was heavy, but she expected she'd get used to it. The power button clicked on, and miraculously the little computer came to life. She noticed the cylindrical attachment on the top that seemed to be a perfect match for a slot in the podium. She jammed it in the hole and punched the button once more.
This time a robotic arm sprang into action and attached itself to the center of the big cog, which turned out to be a locking mechanism. It rolled away, revealing the lift just beyond. She flew down the stairs and towards the lift that was already waiting for her. For the first time since she woke up, she felt the smallest tinge of hope. Without hesitation she stepped inside and waited for the gate to close behind her.
It never occurred to her what could be waiting on the surface.