Chapter Text
Escape!
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Mae jolted upright, heart pounding. The vault lights overhead were harsh and blinding. She squinted, disoriented. “Huh? What’s wrong, Amata?” Amata was standing above her, her friend looked at her, Amata’s hair was falling out of her ponytail, her vault suit ruffled in places, and she didn’t seem to notice. Her hands pressed together nervously, clamping down hard, moving her hands around together and clamping down hard again, a nervous habit Mae noticed immediately.
“You’ve got to get out of here!” Amata was clearly shaken, the stress on her hazel eyes made her look much older than her 19, she darted her head toward the door. “Your dad is gone and my father’s men are looking for you!”
Mae rolled off the bed into a sitting position and rubbed her eyes. “What do you mean my Dad is gone?”
“He’s left the vault!” Amata started pacing back and forth, her hands on her hips. “I don’t know how, but he’s gone, and my father.” She stopped in her tracks. “He’s kind of gone crazy.”
Bewildered, Mae looked up at Amata, Mae could see that she was trembling. “I’ve never seen you so scared, Amata.” Mae said standing up finally, understanding how serious the situation was. Amata had tears streaming down her face. “What’s happened?”
Amata covered her mouth, tears streaming down her face now. “It’s Jonas. They... they killed him!” My father’s men, they took him and ...” She stopped again. Amata grabbed her hard on Mae’s arms. “Oh my god, you have to leave, now!”
Mae blinked a few times before looking Amata in the eyes. “Oh my god, are you okay?” She squeaked out.
Amata let go of her friend's arms, her shoulder slumped forward, “yeah, don’t worry about me.” She looked back up at her friend, new tears forming in the corner of her eyes. “I’m just sorry you had to find out like this, I know Jonas was your friend.” Amata’s fire returned to her voice, “but we have to go now,” Amata started to push Mae toward the door; “my father’s men will be here any minute!”
“Wait, wait! I know you’re right, I have to escape the vault, and you need to help me.”
“That’s exactly what I had in mind, there’s a secret tunnel that leads directly from my father’s office to the exit. You’ll have to hack the computer in his office to open it.” Amata dug around in her pockets. “Use these to get into his office,” Amata held out a few bobby pins in her small shaking hand. “That’s how I always get in,” she muttered.
Mae took them out of Amata’s hand and quickly stuffed them into her pocket, “Sounds like a plan, let’s get out of here!” Mae started for the door, before Amata grabbed her arm.
“One more thing,” Amata reached behind her and pulled a pistol off her belt, holding it in front of her with two hands. “I stole my father’s pistol. I hope you won’t need it, but you’d better take it just in case.”
Mae cautiously took it from Amata’s hands, her eyebrows crinkled together with worry, “thanks Amata, but you might need it more than I will” Mae looked her friend in the eye, and handed it back. Amata took it back and stared at it for a moment.
“If you say so, I’ll try to meet you at the exit, watch out for security.” Amata headed toward the door, stopping with one hand on the door frame before turning back to look at her friend. “Good luck!” She exclaimed before heading out.
“This can’t be happening. This is just a dream. It has to be.”
Mae reached under her bed and grabbed her book bag she kept there, then she ran over to her desk grabbing the various things she kept there, her only possessions; a baseball glove, a bat, a baseball, her bb gun her father gave her on her 10th birthday, and some bbs. She stuffed everything in her bag as fast as possible. Next she hung the baseball bat over her shoulder, the bb gun across her other shoulder forming an X on her back. Next she went over to her dresser, emptied everything she had into a book bag. She looked at her Grognak the Barbarian comic for a split second before shoving it into the book bag with the rest of the stuff. Last was the medkit by the door, containing 10 Stimpacks and 1 med-x. “I hope this is enough... I have no idea what I’m getting into.”
She ran toward the door, making her way out into the hallway she could hear the security guards yelling at her. “Hey you, stop!” Just as he was making his way toward her a radroach jumped out and attacked him. “Criminey, more roaches!”
She skidded to a stop trying not to gag and turned left to make her way through the bathroom and continued running full tilt down the hallway. She looked back to see if the officers were following her before colliding full tilt with someone much larger than her. The wind knocked out of her and she landed on her back. She rubbed her head and looked up at the brick wall in front of her.
“You gotta help me!” Butch said, he held out his hand, she grabbed his forearm and he hoisted her back up to her feet. “My mom’s trapped in there with the Radroaches!”
Mae looked at Butch, her childhood bully, black hair slicked back, set square jaw, big blue eyes, begging her for help. If he wasn’t such a jerk she might have thought of him as handsome. “Butch asking me for help, if only you knew what irony meant,” she rolled her eyes and put her hands on her hips, “come on, and let’s go see if we can help her.”
Taking the baseball bat out from over her shoulder, she made her way into Butches room; she counted a total of three radroaches. Slowly swinging the bat as high as she could she came down hard on one of them, it made a satisfying crunch noise. One down, two to go.
“Butchy help me!” His Mom sobbed.
She raised the bat high and brought it down hard. Crunch. One down. She spun on the next. Crunch. Again. Only silence remained. She held up the bat to assess the damage, covered in roach guts she shook it off twice and stuck it back behind her.
“Thanks man, you’re the best, the best.” Butch beamed at her, “Here, I know it’s not much,” he was shrugging off his jacket. “but I want you to have my tunnel snakes jacket!” He held it out for her, a full smile still on his face.
“uh, thanks,” she mumbled, she stuffed it in her backpack.
“My mom’s going to be okay now, thanks to you!”
She stiffly nodded at him and made her way toward the door. Looking back she saw his Mom already chugging a bottle of vodka.
Mae quickly made her way back down the hall and took a left, she peered over her shoulder for a split second, then tripped over a mop bucket.
“Ouch! Dangit!” She exclaimed, falling forward she caught herself on her hands, turning her head she watched the bucket camera behind her and fall over. She brought herself up to her knees then back to her feet, swiping the dirt off each knee she continued down the hallway. “Well that will probably never change,” she mumbled to herself along the way. Following the hallway she stopped in front of the diner.
The room was completely black; she took her bat out from behind her and held it close. Taking very small, slow steps forward she inched her way into the room. She took one hand and reached toward door frame, trying to find light. Suddenly she heard radroaches moving in the dark. She quickly turned on the light then clutched her bat with both hands. Squinting trying to adjust to the sudden brightness she saw Grandma Taylor lying in a pool of blood on the floor. Mae covered her mouth to stop a scream. Not her. Not sweet old Taylor. Her stomach churned. She ran.
“No, no, this can’t be happening! I don’t understand!” She kept running down the hallway, past the reactor room up the stairs to the atrium. Still clutching the bat with both hands she saw Officer Gomez taking out the last of the radroaches in the area with Andy the Mr. Handy. She stood there, frozen, wondering if Officer Gomez was going to try to hurt her too.
Officer Gomez wiped the sweat off the side of his head and peered toward her. He stood up straight and exhaled through his nose. Staying where he was, he finally spoke in a strained voice.
“You’re lucky it was me who found you, the others won’t be so forgiving, I don’t know what you’re up to and I don’t want to know.” He held his hands up palms forward. “Just clear out of here and I’ll pretend I never saw you.”
She lowered her bat and let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding. She tried to smile at him. “Thanks Officer Gomez, I’ve always liked you.” She stuffed the bat back behind her.
Officer Gomez looked somber. He put both hands on his hips and looked at the floor. “It’s a real shame it’s come to this. I can’t believe what they did to Jonas. “He took a deep breath”Officer Mack was just out of control.” He wouldn’t meet her eyes, he just shuffled his foot, “You’re a good kid, and you didn’t do anything to deserve this.” He finally looked up. “Go find your Dad, if you can.”
She felt something wet fall down her face, she wiped it away quickly. She took a deep breath, nodded and continued down the hallway. She went into the medical lab towards her Dad’s office. She gasped as she entered the door. The furniture had been completely turned upside down, everything was destroyed.
“There’s nothing here to save...” She whispered to no one. She shook her head and made her way back to the hall toward the atrium.
She made her way back out the door, hands shaking; her heart was thumping a million miles a minute. She continued down the hall toward the atrium, she went through the door and abruptly stopped, she could hear two people talking, turning so her back was toward the wall she inched toward the corner.
“.... to our quarters...” She could hear a woman’s voice pleading with someone else. She made it to the end of the corner and peered her head around to see who the voices were coming from. She noticed it was Tom Holden and his wife. Mae continued past them trying to get around. She was still shaking and wanted to avoid as much confrontation as possible.
“It’s our only chance, don’t you see?” He held both hands in front of him, looking frantic. “We’re getting out of here just like the doctor! I’m not going to let anyone stop us.”
He suddenly turned and ran towards the main entrance door across the atrium. “It’s me!” He shouted, “Tom Holden, Just let me through!”
Suddenly gun fire erupted, she made a quick right towards the upper level, she could hear Tom yelling behind her. She made it up the first two steps and tripped again. She landed on her hands once more and crawled her way quickly back to her feet, barely stopping. She regained herself and pushed through the pain radiating up her arms. She could hear Tom's wife crying and screaming at security.
“You killed him! No!” More gunfire erupted and she put both hands over her ears and slumped against the wall at the top of the stairs.
“No no no,” She muttered to herself, she squeezed her eyes shut tight and shook her head, the room felt like it was spinning, she thought she was going to be sick. She took a deep breath through her nose and opened her eyes only to be met with a hallway full of radroaches. She gasped, pushed herself off the wall and ran past every single one, refusing to slow down. At the end of the hall she took a left and ran across the top atrium. The doors on her right were closed, red signs illuminated the tops. She knew they were locked. Mae continued straight toward the other side of the atrium. She was startled by a loud bang to her left.
“YOU!” A muffled voice yelled at her.
She flinched and put an arm up over her face, peering over her forearm she cowered.
He raised a finger and pointed at her “This is your fault! You and your stupid father!” He was banging his fist on the window. “He had to go and leave, didn’t he? He had to mess things up for everybody!”
Mae wiped the surprise off her face, the sadness she felt suddenly burning into rage.
No one would even listen to me if I tried to explain, I need to get out of here.
She continued through the systems room, breathing heavily, she could feel panic starting to set in, her adrenaline rush wearing off. A man was lying dead on the floor being eaten by a radroach, she stifled a gag and kept running, faster and faster. She followed the hallway right until she could hear Amata, then she crouched under the window to the holding cell.
“I told you I don’t know anything!” She yelled. Mae peeked into the room, she was horrified to see her sitting in a chair with her father looming over her, Officer Mack was standing on her other side; he was looking down at Amata with a police baton extended.
“Be reasonable Amata,” her father coaxed. “Officer Mack may enjoy this but I don’t!” Amata’s father put a hand over his chest trying to convey how much it “bothered him to be doing this.” That's a crock of shit. Mae thought to herself, her fist clenched at her side as the overseer continued. “Just tell us where to find your friend, so we can talk to her.”
Amata was sobbing at this point, “She’s my friend, I was worried about her. What does this have to do with her anyways!”
“Probably nothing,” the overseer shrugged, “which is why you need to tell me where she is so I can talk to her.”
Amata’s face hardened, she stood abruptly from the chair and it knocked backwards.
“Watch out, sir! She’s got a gun!” Officer Mack yelled. Amata pointed the gun
“Amata!” The overseer raised his hands palms forward. “Where did you get that gun?!”
Amata shook but she held her ground, feet planted, “just get away from me! I don’t want to shoot you but I will! I swear I will! She held eye contact with her father.
The overseer lowered his hands and took a step forward, pointing at Amata, “How dare you threaten me,” he spit, “And with my own gun!” His voice was raising every word. “I’m your father, damn you, and you’ll show me some respect!” He shouted.
“You need to learn some respect missy!” Officer Mack shouted, he raised his arm above his head and started toward Amata, Mae stood in the doorway, frozen. Amata braced herself. Then—three sharp shots, one missed and went through the flesh on his neck. His face was shocked, mouth hung open, he dropped his police baton and clutched his neck. Blood spewed from between his fingers. Amata ran out the door past Mae. The overseer was crouched in the corner.
“What have you done!” He shouted, “you killed him!”
Mae stood, shocked in the doorway, both hands covered her mouth. Officer Mack fell to his knees, then slumped forward lifeless. Mae felt like her feet were encased in concrete, she couldn’t move, she couldn’t speak. It felt like a lifetime before she even blinked.
The overseer stood from his hiding position. “I hope you’re here to turn yourself in young lady.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “You’re in enough trouble as it is; don’t make it worse for yourself.”
Mae’s blood boiled, “if you ever lay a hand on Amata again,” she pointed her finger in his face, “I’ll make you regret it.”
He shrugged. “I place the good of the vault above everything, even my own paternal feelings. We must not allow sentiment to cloud our judgement!” He bellowed, he put his hands on his hips and sighed. “But I admire your protective instincts,” he rubbed his hand down his face. “Very well, I give you my word that Amata will not suffer further because of your actions, now then, if you really care about Amata, you will see how dangerous your fathers actions were, hand over your weapons and put an end to this dangerous situation!” He raised his hands up palms facing the ceiling and put them back down again. “There is no need to join your father as a traitor to the vault.”
She couldn’t contain her anger anymore. “My father is no traitor! But you’re a murderer and a thug!” She yelled, her fists were clenched at her sides once more.
“Let’s let history be the judge of that. If you had paid attention to Mr. Brotch you would understand that history is invariably written by the victor, and I intend to be the victor!” A smirk appeared on his face, confusion washed over hers. “You won’t survive the night.”
Suddenly she felt something come down on her right side, hard. She heard bones crunch and she felt hot searing pain. She let out a yelp and side stepped backward fully into the hallway. Officer Hannon was coming at her with a police baton. It was like the world slowed down; she reached behind her with her right arm, even though her side screamed in protest. She grabbed onto her bat and brought it in front of her. By that time Officer Hannon had made his stance feet shoulder width apart. He began to raise his arm for another strike but Mae was faster. She swung in an upward motion at his face, coming into contact with the bottom of his jaw. She heard a sickening crack and Officer Hannons helmet flung off and rolled down the hallway. Guess all those years on the baseball team paid off. She was already ready for another attack, the adrenaline made the pain melt away. Officer Hannon stumbled backward and clutched the bottom of his jaw with one hand. “You Bitch!” He mumbled through his hands.
“Back off!” She stammered, “I don’t want to hurt you but I will!” She planted her feet and waited for a response.
“You have nowhere to go! You can’t get out of here.” He muffled as blood started to show between his fingers.
“I have to try!” She yelled.
Officer Hannon gave her an evil eye and backed away. “Fine,” he balled his hands into fists and spat his blood on the floor. “Get out of my face. Don’t ever come back here, next time I won’t be so nice.”
Mae cautiously took a few steps past him, never leaving her back to him; she made it down the hall and to the right towards the overseer’s office. She clutched her side and breathed for only a moment. “That’s going to leave a bruise.” Looking up she saw Jonas’ lifeless body lying on the floor between two desks, blood pooled around him.
She dropped to her knees, “no, no, oh my god I’m so sorry Jonas.” She put her head in her hands and sobbed. She started breathing quickly, “I need to get out of here.” She wiped her face on the arm of her vault suit. Looking down again she noticed there was a paper sticking out of Jonas’ lab coat with an S on it and a stimpak. She grabbed it and stuffed it into her pocket. “I’ll read this when I finally get out of here.” She mumbled. She stuck the stimpak in her arm and could feel the effects pretty quickly, but never fast enough.
She pushed herself to her feet again and went into the overseer's room to see Amata sitting at their kitchen table with her head in her hands, a 10mm pistol sitting in front of her. Amata looked up at Mae with bewildered eyes. Mae took a seat in the chair across from her.
“On my god,” Amata exclaimed, “I had no idea my father would.... I had no choice, Officer Mack, He...” Her voice trailed off. She looked at the table and slid the gun toward Mae. Amata sat back and crossed her arms over her chest. “Here, take it. I don’t want it anymore, I don’t know what I’d do if I still had the gun and my father came looking for me.”
Mae looked down at the table. “You only did what you had to do Amata,” Mae said without picking up the gun. “You had no choice.”
“I don’t know,” Amata muttered, “You’d better get out of here, here’s the password to the door. I'll try to meet you at the vault door. If I don’t make it,” Amata returned her head to her hands. “Good luck,”
Mae stood, picking the 10mm up off the table she hooked it to her belt loop. “Thanks Amata.”
She made her way through the door. She checked all of the lockers and found some ammo and a stimpak which she quickly stuck into her side. That should heal if anything is broken but they work slow, ill be sore for a while. Now onto the terminal, a lot of it didn’t make sense to her, some info about the residents of the vault including some things about the tunnel snakes she didn’t want to know. She copied what she could to her pipboy and opened the secret entrance.
She made her way downwards into the catacombs of the vault through a metal door down the corridor until she reached a large room. At the other end of the room was a switch, when she pressed the button the concrete barrier in front of her moved down until she could see what looked like the vault door.
She made her way down two steps and stood in front of the vault door control panel. Her heart was thumping in her chest. She pulled the switch downward. Suddenly lights began flashing and the large metal door began to come to life. She took a step backward and watched bewildered.
Voices came from behind a locked door over her shoulder. “She’s opening the vault door! Get the overseer; we need this door opened now!”
Amata came down through the overseer’s secret tunnel and stood, eyes wide behind Mae. She pointed at the vault door, “oh my god you did it!” The door slid open and rolled to the side.
“You opened the door! My god, I almost didn’t believe it was possible.” She stammered.
Mae put her hands on her hips and looked down, “I really couldn’t have done it without your help Amata.”
“No,” she said, “you didn’t need me,” She crossed her arms over her chest. “If anyone can survive out there, it’s you.”
Mae could feel her chest tighten, “Why don’t you come with me?”
“It’s tempting,” Amata mused, “But my place is here, the vault needs me more than you do.” She put her palm up to her forehead, “I’m the only one who has a chance to talk some sense into my father.” She lowered her hand and shrugged.
Mae wrapped her friend into a hug. “Goodbye Amata.”
Amata hugged her tightly back, “Goodbye,” She pulled away but held onto Maes forearms. “Listen, if you do catch up with your Dad, tell him I’m sorry, for, you know, Jonas, and my father, and everything.”
“I will Amata.” Mae mumbled. She took a deep breath and let go of Amata. Suddenly the large metal door began to open behind them.
“Go!” Amata yelled. Mae turned and ran full speed out the vault door. She was in a cave; the wooden door at the end of it had sunlight spilling in through the cracks. The vault door behind her rumbled to life again and she could hear the screeching sound of it sliding shut. She refused to look back.
She refused to look back.
What have I done?
The sun hit her like fire. Her eyes teared up, but not from the light. She squinted and blinked rapidly trying to adjust before being able to take in the world around her, she saw what looked like a rocket ship coming up out of the ground and a bunch of dilapidated houses all clustered together. The next thing she noticed was the blue sky, it was beautiful. Off in the distance she could see what looked like a metal ball shape. Remembering the overseer’s notes she said to herself,
“Megaton?”
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