Prof Tatori
New Member
OK so hello RPN, i started playing Fallout 3 like a month ago, for my first play through, and was inspired to write a story based on what happens to my character, named Zarix. Oh and the first chapter is basically the prologue, talking about his life. I have the first 4 chapters done now and and working on the fifth. so without further adieu, i present my story for you to read and comment on!
Chapter 1
Life in Vault101
Zarix Johnson, a vault-dweller in Vault 101, had actually been okay with life inside the vault. He didn’t quite think that the idea of living there forever was a good idea, but it was all he knew of the world, and as far as he knew, no one had ever come or gone. Sadly his mother had died right after he was born, but his father, a valued scientist named James, raised him up like any other kid in Vault101.
As a young child, Zarix was always intensely curious about his surroundings. Since James was the lead scientist, his ‘playground’ included almost the entirety of the lower levels around the reactor and most of the laboratory sector. The other children played with him throughout vault, especially the atrium, but the lower levels and the lab were his alone. Well, there was Amata, but she was his best friend, and her daddy was the Vault101 Overseer. Despite the Overseer’s dislike of his father, James, and, by extension, him, the two children got along quite well. Even though James and the Overseer often clashed on ideals, things always seemed to work out for the better, and they lived comfortably in the underground facility.
Of course, Zarix’s major problem in life was not the overseer, unlike his father. It was another vault dweller by the name of Butch, and his gang, the ‘tunnel snakes’. They terrorized the other dweller kids, generally bullying and coercing people for their own gains. These guys often messed with Amata and several of Zarix’s other friends, and he wouldn’t stand down and let them get away with it. This often escalated to the point of actual fighting between him and the miscreants in the bowels of Vault101, and Zarix usually came out on top. Of course, James never found out about these fights, because his friend Jonas often covered for him, and Zarix always thought of Jonas as his ‘uncle’.
After he turned sixteen, Zarix ended up working as a trash recycling specialist, after taking the infamous G.O.A.T. test. Despite protesting his placement, the Overseer insisted that every Vault dweller had to fulfill their place in their ‘perfect’ society. He hated his job but, as the machines often worked well enough with hardly any problems, spent much of his time hanging out with his friends. These were the times he loved the best, even if he had to fight the ‘Tunnel Snakes’ from time to time. Of course, his life wasn’t all playing hooky with his friends and repairing the refuse recyclers. He also learned all about science from his father, especially when it involved computer technologies. And Jonas was always willing to share his knowledge of light waves and plasma, which Zarix took to quite readily, learning the intricacies of energy weapons and technologies. This was how his life went on for the next three years.
Then came the day everything changed. Amata woke Zarix in his room, panicking. She told him that an argument of some sort had broken out between his father and her father, the Overseer. When he started to protest about how that wasn’t out of the norm, she told him that this time was different. The Overseer called security on James, and a firefight had broken out. In the process Jonas was shot and killed, and his father had apparently run for it, escaping the Vault.
Amata was scared, and had decided it was a good idea for them to flee too. Her Father was going slightly crazy, and had sent his men to capture Zarix. Amata told him about an escape route her father had from his office, and gave him the keys and, reluctantly, a 10mm pistol, which he promised to use only if he absolutely had to. Alarms were blazing throughout the Vault, and the guards were fighting a major infestation of RadRoaches. Zarix and Amata used the chaos to escape, and quickly split up so as to attract less attention.
Fighting RadRoaches and knocking a few security guards unconscious along the way, Zarix ran into something he hadn’t expected. Butch stopped him in a corridor, pleading for help. His mother had been attacked by the scuttling bugs. After assuring butch that, despite their differences, he would save his mother, Zarix’s emotions got the better of him. He was still reeling from what had happened, and how his ‘uncle’ Jonas was dead, and in a fit of rage, went back on his word. He didn’t follow butch to where his mother was in peril, and when he came to his senses it was too late. Butch’s mother was dead. As he left, he tried to tell himself that just maybe, butch would learn a lesson, but he neither believed this nor was able to assuage his guilt.
Finally, he reached the Administrative sector of Vault101. He ended up fighting even more security guards, and ended up having killed one or two, but only when it was kill or be killed. The entire vault seemed to be falling into anarchy, and he was right in the middle of it all. He hurried through the next couple of corridors, and eventually reached the cells near the Overseer’s office. What he saw next threw him into a fury. Amata was sitting in a chair, with the Overseer and his head of security questioning her about his location, and the Overseer was threatening her, his own daughter. Zarix drew his pistol and quickly opened the door. He immediately shot a round into the guard’s head, and walked into the room, as Amata ran for it.
Turning, Zarix faced the Overseer, who started to explain his actions, ordering Zarix to stand down. As the Overseer spoke, Zarix lifted the stolen pistol, and aimed it at eye level, straight in his face. At this point the Overseer assumed that he was going to kill him. Zarix held the gun in both hands, as the Overseer calmly pleaded for his life, and said he had to stay in the vault for the good of everyone there. He almost pulled the trigger, but stopped. This was Amata’s father, and would be cold-blooded murder. He lowered the pistol, saying that the only reason he did so was because he still cared about the people of Vault101. He demanded that the Overseer hand over his pass codes, but the overseer refused, yelling for security over the intercom, and Zarix quickly left the room.
Following Amata’s path, he met up with her again. They decided she would meet him at the vault door, as she said she had to do some things before she could go. Nodding in understanding, Zarix headed to the Overseer’s office. That was when he came across Jonas’s body. At the sight of his mangled body, Zarix almost broke down, but then he saw the flashing message on the old man’s pipboy. It was a message, from his father. After listening to it, he was even more confused, but he knew he only had seconds to make good his escape.
The Overseer’s office was simple, but elegant. He headed straight over to the desk, but the computer had better security than he’d expected. It locked him out, and so he began to scour the room for some other way to open the passage. Then he opened one of the lockers. There it was, the pass code for the computer. He activated the computer and quickly activated the tunnel. The desk behind him slid back and then raised up to reveal a staircase, leading to a tunnel. Knowing security would be here any minute, Zarix fled down the staircase, and flipped a switch, which caused the entrance to return to its hidden state.
He reached the Vault entrance shortly thereafter, and got to work overriding the security system. This took more work, but after a few minutes, he entered the Overseer’s pass code, and the security overrides shut down. That was when Amata showed up. They stood there for a few moments, but then she spoke, and told him that, despite all that had just happened, she had to stay. That “the people of Vault101 need me more than you do.” At first he tried to argue, but then, Zarix realized that this was goodbye. It was harder then everything else he’d done, even harder than leaving everything he’d ever known for the outside world, but he had to go. And so he opened the vault door, walked outside, hiding the tears that had begun to form.
For the first time, he felt real sunlight on his skin. Out here, the tunnel turned to worn rock and dirt, instead of the tarnished, old metal walls of inside the vault. Even the air he breathed felt different, without the tang of the recyclers. Looking forward, and knowing he could never go back, he let go. Tears streamed down his face, and he headed for the slatted gate beyond the entrance, the whole world beyond…
Chapter 2
A night beneath the stars
Pushing open the slatted gate, Zarix was momentarily blinded. The light was brighter than anything he’d ever experienced, and at first he thought he would never be able to see again. He fumbled for his stims, but then his vision began to clear as his eyes adjusted.
The scene before his was completely unexpected. Spread out before him was a ruined town. Just about every house he could see was a skeletal husk. Rusted and pitted cars lay on cracked and buckled asphalt of what, at one time, must have been a road. And there was absolutely nothing that was moving.
He had read about the Great War over 200 years ago, had seen the holo-tapes of life beforehand, but nothing had prepared him for this… devastation. Was there any human life out here, or had he just left behind the last of his kind? For a moment he just stared, at a loss for what to do. He was alone, alone in the world, with nothing but a past he couldn’t go back to. What had he to do now?
“… Dad… I have to find him.” His father had left the vault. But where had he gone? He couldn’t track, by any means, but James couldn’t have gone far. “So, first things first, let’s see what I have.” Opening his backpack, Zarix ruffled through it taking inventory. He had a few stim packs, two changes of clothes, his baseball bat and ball, a police baton, his BB gun, and the 10mm pistol he’d found earlier, plus rounds for each of them. But other than that, all he really had was a few days’ rations.
“Not much, but it’ll have to do, at least until I can find more.” And so he rearranged his pack so he could easily get to the necessary supplies, made an inventory list on his Pipboy, and strapped the 10mm pistol to his hip, half in his pocket, half held on by a strip of cloth. “Ok, let’s see what we can find on this thing.” And with that, he activated his Pipboy’s radio, hoping that, just maybe, he might be able to find out something.
And after tuning through mostly static, he suddenly hit upon a frequency that was active! Someone by the name of Three Dog was talking about, well what was he talking about? Some fight or something. But before he could make any sense of what he was saying, it cut to some sort of music. “Well, at least now I know there are some people still alive out here.” Then he sat down to contemplate his next move, when he realized that it was starting to get pretty dark. “Guess I camp out here tonight, and move on in the morning.”
After rummaging through the stuff he found outside the vault tunnel, he piled a few pieces of cardboard together, and draped his spare clothing over himself as a blanket. Then, looking up, he noticed something he’d heard about, but hadn’t ever seen before. Pinpricks of light shined down out of the sky, millions of them. Like he was in a dream, he realized he was seeing stars in the night sky, and they were… comforting, in a strange way. It was almost like someone up there actually cared about this messed up world…
Chapter 3
Caps and Scraps
Running, running without end. The guards were going to kill him, and there was nothing he could do about it. Amata was at his side, and they were fleeing down corridors, but each one just kept going on and on, twisting and turning. Every time they seemed to be getting near an exit, more security guards came at them, between them and their escape. He had run out of stims, and they were getting exhausted.
Amata suddenly cried out and fell. Looking back, Zarix realized she had twisted her ankle, but before he could do anything another security guard turned the corner and opened fire. “Zarix! Run… just run, don’t wait fo-“And at that moment a red blossom appeared on her chest through her Vault suit. And Zarix ran; adrenaline and fight or flight carrying him onward. There was nothing he could do as he turned another corner.
The next thing he knew, he was watching through a window where his father and Jonas were cornered. Screaming, he watched helplessly as the Overseer ordered his men to fire at will. The only family he’d ever known was cut down before him, and all he could do was flee.
In a flash, it seemed he was at the vault door. But the security overrides were too confusing, too good. The guards would be here any minute and he couldn’t get the door to open. Screaming he banged his hands on the panel, but that didn’t do any good. Just then he heard a voice behind him. “There he is! Open fire!” And a rain of bullets flew at him…
All of a sudden he woke up. Blinking in the bright light, he tried to put together what had happened. It was just a dream, a horrid dream. He was alive, and he’d made it out of the vault. But Jonas was still dead, his father still missing, and Amata; he would never see her again. He broke down again and cried, sobbed until he had no more tears left, and then he shuddered for a few more seconds.
But he couldn’t feel sorry for himself, he had to be strong. His father was out there somewhere, and he had to find him. It was all he had left. So he got up out of his ‘bed’, and gathered all his supplies back into his pack. Then he got up and dusted himself off, and surveyed his surroundings once more.
There was still no movement, no signs of life. Not even a bird in the sky. “Well, let’s go see what we can find.” And with that he set off into the ruined town. This had to be Springvale, where many of the vault-dwellers’ ancestors lived before the Great War. There really wasn’t much in the ghost town, but he did manage to find some scrap that might be useful if he needed to fix something later. He also found some strange plants that his pipboy said were edible, but they had bare trace amounts of radiation. So he figured he wouldn’t use them except as a last resort, and stored them anyway.
Then he saw a house that seemed completely intact. ‘There’s got to be some supplies in there’ he thought to himself. Trying the door, he found that it was unlocked, and so he opened it and went in. looking around, he found himself in a makeshift kitchen.
“Stop right there!” he heard coming from behind him. “Keep your hand off ‘a that gun and turn around slowly or I swear I’ll blow a hole clear through you.” Zarix immediately tensed, and very slowly turned to face a grown woman with silver hair, holding a two-barreled shotgun aimed straight at him. “I did-didn’t know anyone li-lived here” he started to say, but the woman cut him off and said “Alright we both know why you’re here, and I told Moriarty I earned those caps fair and square, I ain’t giving them back.”
Zarix is completely confused, and it came through his voice fairly clear as he stuttered “Woaw, just a s-second! Who’s Moriarty and wh-what do you mean c-caps?!” After a second, the woman studied him and said “You really don’t know do you. Where’re you from, not knowin’ ‘bout a thing like caps?” “Mind lowering the gun first, so I can explain?” She did and then gestured deeper into her house. “Come an’ sit on down.”
Zarix followed her, as she continued to watch him, still holding the shotgun. It seemed people were pretty suspicious of strangers out here, or at least this lady was. “So, what’s your name traveler?” Knowing that, even though he can’t go back, he can’t betray the people of Vault101, he responded “Zarix, Zarix Johnson and I really don’t know where I’ve been. I… well; I know I can’t go back.” Giving a knowing nod, the woman said “I know how that feels, Zarix was it?” After he nodded, she continued “well the name’s Silver, and I can’t go back home neither. ‘Course this place is more a home than Megaton ever was.” And she looked around at her little shack with pride.
They spent a good chunk of the day talking, Silver even cooks them a small meal they share. Zarix learned that bottle caps, or ‘caps’ for short, are the new currency in what is now called the ‘Capitol Wasteland’, and that the whole world has basically gone to shit, at least as far as Silver knows. She also told him about herself, how she used to be a whore in Moriarty’s Bar in Megaton, and how she’d slept with him to get the very caps he was demanding back.
At this time, Zarix had an idea. “So this Moriarty guy is going to be looking for people to come and get ‘his’ caps back, right? Well then I’ll just let slip that you’ve already moved on when I talk to him!” Silver almost jumped up as Zarix said that “That’d be just brilliant, and you’d do that for me? Guess the least I could do is let yah stay the night.”
Chapter 4
Raiders in the Wastes
The next morning found Zarix packed and heading out. From what Silver had said, the only settlement nearby was Megaton. And so it made sense that Megaton was the most likely place to find information about his father. And so he left her little shack. In the daylight, he still had trouble getting used to that, he was looking around. ‘Hmm, that school seems mostly intact, wonder what supplies might be there.’ He headed over to the school building. After a few seconds he decided it was a good idea to knock this time, no need for surprises. After no one responded, he opened the door and went on inside.
There was a cage, and a body impaled on the wall to his right, and that one had its head removed… this was probably a bad idea. Stumbling to turn around, he tripped over, whatever it was he didn’t want to know. But the noise echoed into the building. “Did you hear that? Sounds like we got us a visitor.” The voice was following by the sound of running feet. Zarix looked around quickly, and took cover behind a desk. If he left this building they’d probably be on him in seconds.
“Where’re yah hiding, come on out so I can shoot you!” Another voice shouted, this time coming from an entrance to his left. Looking back to the door, then at the man at the doorway across from the exit, he realized that these guys weren’t just gonna let him get away. As he contemplated this, he heard from behind him “I found ‘im!” Zarix whirled around to see some guy with what looked to be some leather concoction out of a nightmare for armor. Then he heard the gunshot and noticed the pistol in the man’s hand.
Drawing his 10mm he started firing back “What the hell is wrong with you!” he yelled at the guy, before he decided that it was a waste of breath. After trading a few rounds, he managed to hit the crazy in the chest, dropping him, but by then the other two were opening fire. ‘Good thing these guys are such crappy shots’ in mid thought, he felt the bullet enter his leg. “F*ckin A!” he screamed, grabbing the wound with his spare hand and getting back behind the desk as quick as he could. Popping a new magazine in his pistol, he popped up and quickly noticed the one from the doorway earlier was just standing in the open, firing round after round into his cover, in fact one barely missed his head as he ducked again.
Quickly peeping around the side, he lined up a shot, and nailed the bastard right between the eyes. Then he opened fire on the one to his left. After he took that one down, he thought he heard more movement deeper in, but his leg was a far more pressing matter. He crawled over to one of the, well they must be those raiders silver had told him about, and ripped part of his psycho get up off to use as a bandage. He soaked it in the alcohol from his med kit and used a stim pack lessen the pain enough to get back on his feet.
With all the time it took Zarix to patch himself up, no one came up to investigate, so he decided he might need more ammo, and didn’t those Chinese pistols take 10mm rounds. Riffling through their stuff he found more than enough ammo, and was about to leave. Then he flipped open the journal of one of the freaks.
They were trying to break into Vault101. And from what Silver had said, plus his own experience, Zarix knew these raiders were far worse than even the tunnel snakes, and much more dangerous. He had to stop them, and that would not be easy, especially in their home turf. Well, he’d faced tougher odds in the vault, or so he thought. Gathering all the ammo and some other supplies from the first floor, he moved onto the second floor.
He took out another of the scumbags out guarding the staircase, and started up. That was when he heard the dogs. He quickly slid down the remaining rail on the staircase, and spun back just as the first of the canines came around the corner. Three shots were all it took, and the first dog was down. The second dog was more difficult. It jumped straight at his chest as he was pulling out his police baton. Managing to get the stick between the dog’s jaws and his flesh, Zarix slapped another clip into his pistol and fired one shot right into the mangy beast’s skull.
Knowing that anyone on the floor above him would have heard the commotion, he quickly shoved the dog’s carcass off his chest, and slipped quietly back up the stairs. Peeking around the corner, he saw that the two remaining raiders on this floor were barricaded in what looked to have been a library. And they both had guns trained on the stair entrance.
This would take some creativity, but if he timed it right he should be able to get through. As soon as he made his move the two raiders opened fire, filling the hall with metal slugs. Good thing Zarix had thrown a raider body in first. When the raiders realized what had happened, they quickly began to reload, which is just what Zarix had waited for. A short sprint with the pistol out, and he shot one while hitting the other in the face with his baton. Another hit and the raider’s neck snapped. Investigating the floor he found more ammo, and an old terminal.
After Zarix booted up the system, he realized that this was a full detailed journal of what the raiders had been doing. It was sickening to say the least, but at least now he knew that their progress had been halted by some sort of giant ants. Those sounded pretty dangerous, but if they were locked in a room, he could just take out the raiders and leave. So that is what he decided to do.
Sneaking down to the basement was easy, and he’d found the key for the door on one of the raiders he’d killed earlier. He’d feel guilty after he’d saved the whole vault. Of course, listening to the door, he realized that the entryway had to have been guarded. This was gonna be bad, so he grabbed his baton again, and unlocked the door. Then he kicked one of the desks he’d found earlier through the door and right onto the raider waiting on the other side. Next, he charged through the doorway, and felt a crack on his side.
Stumbling, he saw another raider he’d missed earlier, this one armed with a pool cue. “Hey there mother F*cker, what yah doing in our school!” the raider said, swinging again and again, knocking the pistol out of Zarix’s hand. He cracked the cue across Zarix’s knees, knocking him to ground, and then hit him on the back. The other raider pulled himself out from under the desk strutted over to the fight, kicking Zarix in the face. ‘This is it’ he thought ‘dying to a bunch of scumbags while trying to save the very people who forced me out here.’
Suddenly he saw a box on the ground, and got an idea. With another crack across his back, he pretended to collapse, and broke open the box. Moving fast, he covered his eyes and threw the Abraxo Cleaner at the ceiling, which burst into a cloud of white dust, and the raiders screamed and clawed at their eyes “Goddamn bastard!” one of them yelled and Zarix scrambled to put the goggles from his pack. Then he dived for his gun as one of the raiders grabbed for him blindly.
With the pistol in his hand, he fired twice, ending the guards where they stood. Then he collapsed from the pain, and coughed. Spitting, he saw the blood. This was worse than he could take care of, but hopefully the stims would hold up until he made it to that town, mega-something. That was when he saw another man step around the corner with a rather large knife drawn.
Checking his clip, he only had one shot; he’d have to stop him with that. As the raider moved forward Zarix fired, hitting him in the chest and throwing him back. But the guy got back up screaming bloody murder and jumped at him, and then they were both wrestling for the knife. In a flash, Zarix knocked the man’s hand back, shoving the blade into his windpipe.
The raider died rather quickly, and Zarix barely had the strength to push his body off of him before shooting up another three stim packs. Looking at his leg, he realized it was broken, and would need a splint. Luckily, he had a pool cue handy. He broke the stick in half and tried the two halves to his leg, making a crude splint, and then got back on his feet. ’God that hurts’
He found another pool cue by the door and started using it as a crutch as he searched the rest of the basement for any more raiders, but that seemed to be the last of them. He also found the door to the library, and could hear the angry scuttling of what he assumed were the giant ants. Zarix suddenly stumbled as he was hit with a wave of dizziness. ‘I gotta get going, it’ll be dark soon, and I don’t fancy my chances with this leg locking up overnight.’
Hobbling out of the school half an hour later, he hoped he could make it to Megaton before he blacked out.
Chapter 1
Life in Vault101
Zarix Johnson, a vault-dweller in Vault 101, had actually been okay with life inside the vault. He didn’t quite think that the idea of living there forever was a good idea, but it was all he knew of the world, and as far as he knew, no one had ever come or gone. Sadly his mother had died right after he was born, but his father, a valued scientist named James, raised him up like any other kid in Vault101.
As a young child, Zarix was always intensely curious about his surroundings. Since James was the lead scientist, his ‘playground’ included almost the entirety of the lower levels around the reactor and most of the laboratory sector. The other children played with him throughout vault, especially the atrium, but the lower levels and the lab were his alone. Well, there was Amata, but she was his best friend, and her daddy was the Vault101 Overseer. Despite the Overseer’s dislike of his father, James, and, by extension, him, the two children got along quite well. Even though James and the Overseer often clashed on ideals, things always seemed to work out for the better, and they lived comfortably in the underground facility.
Of course, Zarix’s major problem in life was not the overseer, unlike his father. It was another vault dweller by the name of Butch, and his gang, the ‘tunnel snakes’. They terrorized the other dweller kids, generally bullying and coercing people for their own gains. These guys often messed with Amata and several of Zarix’s other friends, and he wouldn’t stand down and let them get away with it. This often escalated to the point of actual fighting between him and the miscreants in the bowels of Vault101, and Zarix usually came out on top. Of course, James never found out about these fights, because his friend Jonas often covered for him, and Zarix always thought of Jonas as his ‘uncle’.
After he turned sixteen, Zarix ended up working as a trash recycling specialist, after taking the infamous G.O.A.T. test. Despite protesting his placement, the Overseer insisted that every Vault dweller had to fulfill their place in their ‘perfect’ society. He hated his job but, as the machines often worked well enough with hardly any problems, spent much of his time hanging out with his friends. These were the times he loved the best, even if he had to fight the ‘Tunnel Snakes’ from time to time. Of course, his life wasn’t all playing hooky with his friends and repairing the refuse recyclers. He also learned all about science from his father, especially when it involved computer technologies. And Jonas was always willing to share his knowledge of light waves and plasma, which Zarix took to quite readily, learning the intricacies of energy weapons and technologies. This was how his life went on for the next three years.
Then came the day everything changed. Amata woke Zarix in his room, panicking. She told him that an argument of some sort had broken out between his father and her father, the Overseer. When he started to protest about how that wasn’t out of the norm, she told him that this time was different. The Overseer called security on James, and a firefight had broken out. In the process Jonas was shot and killed, and his father had apparently run for it, escaping the Vault.
Amata was scared, and had decided it was a good idea for them to flee too. Her Father was going slightly crazy, and had sent his men to capture Zarix. Amata told him about an escape route her father had from his office, and gave him the keys and, reluctantly, a 10mm pistol, which he promised to use only if he absolutely had to. Alarms were blazing throughout the Vault, and the guards were fighting a major infestation of RadRoaches. Zarix and Amata used the chaos to escape, and quickly split up so as to attract less attention.
Fighting RadRoaches and knocking a few security guards unconscious along the way, Zarix ran into something he hadn’t expected. Butch stopped him in a corridor, pleading for help. His mother had been attacked by the scuttling bugs. After assuring butch that, despite their differences, he would save his mother, Zarix’s emotions got the better of him. He was still reeling from what had happened, and how his ‘uncle’ Jonas was dead, and in a fit of rage, went back on his word. He didn’t follow butch to where his mother was in peril, and when he came to his senses it was too late. Butch’s mother was dead. As he left, he tried to tell himself that just maybe, butch would learn a lesson, but he neither believed this nor was able to assuage his guilt.
Finally, he reached the Administrative sector of Vault101. He ended up fighting even more security guards, and ended up having killed one or two, but only when it was kill or be killed. The entire vault seemed to be falling into anarchy, and he was right in the middle of it all. He hurried through the next couple of corridors, and eventually reached the cells near the Overseer’s office. What he saw next threw him into a fury. Amata was sitting in a chair, with the Overseer and his head of security questioning her about his location, and the Overseer was threatening her, his own daughter. Zarix drew his pistol and quickly opened the door. He immediately shot a round into the guard’s head, and walked into the room, as Amata ran for it.
Turning, Zarix faced the Overseer, who started to explain his actions, ordering Zarix to stand down. As the Overseer spoke, Zarix lifted the stolen pistol, and aimed it at eye level, straight in his face. At this point the Overseer assumed that he was going to kill him. Zarix held the gun in both hands, as the Overseer calmly pleaded for his life, and said he had to stay in the vault for the good of everyone there. He almost pulled the trigger, but stopped. This was Amata’s father, and would be cold-blooded murder. He lowered the pistol, saying that the only reason he did so was because he still cared about the people of Vault101. He demanded that the Overseer hand over his pass codes, but the overseer refused, yelling for security over the intercom, and Zarix quickly left the room.
Following Amata’s path, he met up with her again. They decided she would meet him at the vault door, as she said she had to do some things before she could go. Nodding in understanding, Zarix headed to the Overseer’s office. That was when he came across Jonas’s body. At the sight of his mangled body, Zarix almost broke down, but then he saw the flashing message on the old man’s pipboy. It was a message, from his father. After listening to it, he was even more confused, but he knew he only had seconds to make good his escape.
The Overseer’s office was simple, but elegant. He headed straight over to the desk, but the computer had better security than he’d expected. It locked him out, and so he began to scour the room for some other way to open the passage. Then he opened one of the lockers. There it was, the pass code for the computer. He activated the computer and quickly activated the tunnel. The desk behind him slid back and then raised up to reveal a staircase, leading to a tunnel. Knowing security would be here any minute, Zarix fled down the staircase, and flipped a switch, which caused the entrance to return to its hidden state.
He reached the Vault entrance shortly thereafter, and got to work overriding the security system. This took more work, but after a few minutes, he entered the Overseer’s pass code, and the security overrides shut down. That was when Amata showed up. They stood there for a few moments, but then she spoke, and told him that, despite all that had just happened, she had to stay. That “the people of Vault101 need me more than you do.” At first he tried to argue, but then, Zarix realized that this was goodbye. It was harder then everything else he’d done, even harder than leaving everything he’d ever known for the outside world, but he had to go. And so he opened the vault door, walked outside, hiding the tears that had begun to form.
For the first time, he felt real sunlight on his skin. Out here, the tunnel turned to worn rock and dirt, instead of the tarnished, old metal walls of inside the vault. Even the air he breathed felt different, without the tang of the recyclers. Looking forward, and knowing he could never go back, he let go. Tears streamed down his face, and he headed for the slatted gate beyond the entrance, the whole world beyond…
Chapter 2
A night beneath the stars
Pushing open the slatted gate, Zarix was momentarily blinded. The light was brighter than anything he’d ever experienced, and at first he thought he would never be able to see again. He fumbled for his stims, but then his vision began to clear as his eyes adjusted.
The scene before his was completely unexpected. Spread out before him was a ruined town. Just about every house he could see was a skeletal husk. Rusted and pitted cars lay on cracked and buckled asphalt of what, at one time, must have been a road. And there was absolutely nothing that was moving.
He had read about the Great War over 200 years ago, had seen the holo-tapes of life beforehand, but nothing had prepared him for this… devastation. Was there any human life out here, or had he just left behind the last of his kind? For a moment he just stared, at a loss for what to do. He was alone, alone in the world, with nothing but a past he couldn’t go back to. What had he to do now?
“… Dad… I have to find him.” His father had left the vault. But where had he gone? He couldn’t track, by any means, but James couldn’t have gone far. “So, first things first, let’s see what I have.” Opening his backpack, Zarix ruffled through it taking inventory. He had a few stim packs, two changes of clothes, his baseball bat and ball, a police baton, his BB gun, and the 10mm pistol he’d found earlier, plus rounds for each of them. But other than that, all he really had was a few days’ rations.
“Not much, but it’ll have to do, at least until I can find more.” And so he rearranged his pack so he could easily get to the necessary supplies, made an inventory list on his Pipboy, and strapped the 10mm pistol to his hip, half in his pocket, half held on by a strip of cloth. “Ok, let’s see what we can find on this thing.” And with that, he activated his Pipboy’s radio, hoping that, just maybe, he might be able to find out something.
And after tuning through mostly static, he suddenly hit upon a frequency that was active! Someone by the name of Three Dog was talking about, well what was he talking about? Some fight or something. But before he could make any sense of what he was saying, it cut to some sort of music. “Well, at least now I know there are some people still alive out here.” Then he sat down to contemplate his next move, when he realized that it was starting to get pretty dark. “Guess I camp out here tonight, and move on in the morning.”
After rummaging through the stuff he found outside the vault tunnel, he piled a few pieces of cardboard together, and draped his spare clothing over himself as a blanket. Then, looking up, he noticed something he’d heard about, but hadn’t ever seen before. Pinpricks of light shined down out of the sky, millions of them. Like he was in a dream, he realized he was seeing stars in the night sky, and they were… comforting, in a strange way. It was almost like someone up there actually cared about this messed up world…
Chapter 3
Caps and Scraps
Running, running without end. The guards were going to kill him, and there was nothing he could do about it. Amata was at his side, and they were fleeing down corridors, but each one just kept going on and on, twisting and turning. Every time they seemed to be getting near an exit, more security guards came at them, between them and their escape. He had run out of stims, and they were getting exhausted.
Amata suddenly cried out and fell. Looking back, Zarix realized she had twisted her ankle, but before he could do anything another security guard turned the corner and opened fire. “Zarix! Run… just run, don’t wait fo-“And at that moment a red blossom appeared on her chest through her Vault suit. And Zarix ran; adrenaline and fight or flight carrying him onward. There was nothing he could do as he turned another corner.
The next thing he knew, he was watching through a window where his father and Jonas were cornered. Screaming, he watched helplessly as the Overseer ordered his men to fire at will. The only family he’d ever known was cut down before him, and all he could do was flee.
In a flash, it seemed he was at the vault door. But the security overrides were too confusing, too good. The guards would be here any minute and he couldn’t get the door to open. Screaming he banged his hands on the panel, but that didn’t do any good. Just then he heard a voice behind him. “There he is! Open fire!” And a rain of bullets flew at him…
All of a sudden he woke up. Blinking in the bright light, he tried to put together what had happened. It was just a dream, a horrid dream. He was alive, and he’d made it out of the vault. But Jonas was still dead, his father still missing, and Amata; he would never see her again. He broke down again and cried, sobbed until he had no more tears left, and then he shuddered for a few more seconds.
But he couldn’t feel sorry for himself, he had to be strong. His father was out there somewhere, and he had to find him. It was all he had left. So he got up out of his ‘bed’, and gathered all his supplies back into his pack. Then he got up and dusted himself off, and surveyed his surroundings once more.
There was still no movement, no signs of life. Not even a bird in the sky. “Well, let’s go see what we can find.” And with that he set off into the ruined town. This had to be Springvale, where many of the vault-dwellers’ ancestors lived before the Great War. There really wasn’t much in the ghost town, but he did manage to find some scrap that might be useful if he needed to fix something later. He also found some strange plants that his pipboy said were edible, but they had bare trace amounts of radiation. So he figured he wouldn’t use them except as a last resort, and stored them anyway.
Then he saw a house that seemed completely intact. ‘There’s got to be some supplies in there’ he thought to himself. Trying the door, he found that it was unlocked, and so he opened it and went in. looking around, he found himself in a makeshift kitchen.
“Stop right there!” he heard coming from behind him. “Keep your hand off ‘a that gun and turn around slowly or I swear I’ll blow a hole clear through you.” Zarix immediately tensed, and very slowly turned to face a grown woman with silver hair, holding a two-barreled shotgun aimed straight at him. “I did-didn’t know anyone li-lived here” he started to say, but the woman cut him off and said “Alright we both know why you’re here, and I told Moriarty I earned those caps fair and square, I ain’t giving them back.”
Zarix is completely confused, and it came through his voice fairly clear as he stuttered “Woaw, just a s-second! Who’s Moriarty and wh-what do you mean c-caps?!” After a second, the woman studied him and said “You really don’t know do you. Where’re you from, not knowin’ ‘bout a thing like caps?” “Mind lowering the gun first, so I can explain?” She did and then gestured deeper into her house. “Come an’ sit on down.”
Zarix followed her, as she continued to watch him, still holding the shotgun. It seemed people were pretty suspicious of strangers out here, or at least this lady was. “So, what’s your name traveler?” Knowing that, even though he can’t go back, he can’t betray the people of Vault101, he responded “Zarix, Zarix Johnson and I really don’t know where I’ve been. I… well; I know I can’t go back.” Giving a knowing nod, the woman said “I know how that feels, Zarix was it?” After he nodded, she continued “well the name’s Silver, and I can’t go back home neither. ‘Course this place is more a home than Megaton ever was.” And she looked around at her little shack with pride.
They spent a good chunk of the day talking, Silver even cooks them a small meal they share. Zarix learned that bottle caps, or ‘caps’ for short, are the new currency in what is now called the ‘Capitol Wasteland’, and that the whole world has basically gone to shit, at least as far as Silver knows. She also told him about herself, how she used to be a whore in Moriarty’s Bar in Megaton, and how she’d slept with him to get the very caps he was demanding back.
At this time, Zarix had an idea. “So this Moriarty guy is going to be looking for people to come and get ‘his’ caps back, right? Well then I’ll just let slip that you’ve already moved on when I talk to him!” Silver almost jumped up as Zarix said that “That’d be just brilliant, and you’d do that for me? Guess the least I could do is let yah stay the night.”
Chapter 4
Raiders in the Wastes
The next morning found Zarix packed and heading out. From what Silver had said, the only settlement nearby was Megaton. And so it made sense that Megaton was the most likely place to find information about his father. And so he left her little shack. In the daylight, he still had trouble getting used to that, he was looking around. ‘Hmm, that school seems mostly intact, wonder what supplies might be there.’ He headed over to the school building. After a few seconds he decided it was a good idea to knock this time, no need for surprises. After no one responded, he opened the door and went on inside.
There was a cage, and a body impaled on the wall to his right, and that one had its head removed… this was probably a bad idea. Stumbling to turn around, he tripped over, whatever it was he didn’t want to know. But the noise echoed into the building. “Did you hear that? Sounds like we got us a visitor.” The voice was following by the sound of running feet. Zarix looked around quickly, and took cover behind a desk. If he left this building they’d probably be on him in seconds.
“Where’re yah hiding, come on out so I can shoot you!” Another voice shouted, this time coming from an entrance to his left. Looking back to the door, then at the man at the doorway across from the exit, he realized that these guys weren’t just gonna let him get away. As he contemplated this, he heard from behind him “I found ‘im!” Zarix whirled around to see some guy with what looked to be some leather concoction out of a nightmare for armor. Then he heard the gunshot and noticed the pistol in the man’s hand.
Drawing his 10mm he started firing back “What the hell is wrong with you!” he yelled at the guy, before he decided that it was a waste of breath. After trading a few rounds, he managed to hit the crazy in the chest, dropping him, but by then the other two were opening fire. ‘Good thing these guys are such crappy shots’ in mid thought, he felt the bullet enter his leg. “F*ckin A!” he screamed, grabbing the wound with his spare hand and getting back behind the desk as quick as he could. Popping a new magazine in his pistol, he popped up and quickly noticed the one from the doorway earlier was just standing in the open, firing round after round into his cover, in fact one barely missed his head as he ducked again.
Quickly peeping around the side, he lined up a shot, and nailed the bastard right between the eyes. Then he opened fire on the one to his left. After he took that one down, he thought he heard more movement deeper in, but his leg was a far more pressing matter. He crawled over to one of the, well they must be those raiders silver had told him about, and ripped part of his psycho get up off to use as a bandage. He soaked it in the alcohol from his med kit and used a stim pack lessen the pain enough to get back on his feet.
With all the time it took Zarix to patch himself up, no one came up to investigate, so he decided he might need more ammo, and didn’t those Chinese pistols take 10mm rounds. Riffling through their stuff he found more than enough ammo, and was about to leave. Then he flipped open the journal of one of the freaks.
They were trying to break into Vault101. And from what Silver had said, plus his own experience, Zarix knew these raiders were far worse than even the tunnel snakes, and much more dangerous. He had to stop them, and that would not be easy, especially in their home turf. Well, he’d faced tougher odds in the vault, or so he thought. Gathering all the ammo and some other supplies from the first floor, he moved onto the second floor.
He took out another of the scumbags out guarding the staircase, and started up. That was when he heard the dogs. He quickly slid down the remaining rail on the staircase, and spun back just as the first of the canines came around the corner. Three shots were all it took, and the first dog was down. The second dog was more difficult. It jumped straight at his chest as he was pulling out his police baton. Managing to get the stick between the dog’s jaws and his flesh, Zarix slapped another clip into his pistol and fired one shot right into the mangy beast’s skull.
Knowing that anyone on the floor above him would have heard the commotion, he quickly shoved the dog’s carcass off his chest, and slipped quietly back up the stairs. Peeking around the corner, he saw that the two remaining raiders on this floor were barricaded in what looked to have been a library. And they both had guns trained on the stair entrance.
This would take some creativity, but if he timed it right he should be able to get through. As soon as he made his move the two raiders opened fire, filling the hall with metal slugs. Good thing Zarix had thrown a raider body in first. When the raiders realized what had happened, they quickly began to reload, which is just what Zarix had waited for. A short sprint with the pistol out, and he shot one while hitting the other in the face with his baton. Another hit and the raider’s neck snapped. Investigating the floor he found more ammo, and an old terminal.
After Zarix booted up the system, he realized that this was a full detailed journal of what the raiders had been doing. It was sickening to say the least, but at least now he knew that their progress had been halted by some sort of giant ants. Those sounded pretty dangerous, but if they were locked in a room, he could just take out the raiders and leave. So that is what he decided to do.
Sneaking down to the basement was easy, and he’d found the key for the door on one of the raiders he’d killed earlier. He’d feel guilty after he’d saved the whole vault. Of course, listening to the door, he realized that the entryway had to have been guarded. This was gonna be bad, so he grabbed his baton again, and unlocked the door. Then he kicked one of the desks he’d found earlier through the door and right onto the raider waiting on the other side. Next, he charged through the doorway, and felt a crack on his side.
Stumbling, he saw another raider he’d missed earlier, this one armed with a pool cue. “Hey there mother F*cker, what yah doing in our school!” the raider said, swinging again and again, knocking the pistol out of Zarix’s hand. He cracked the cue across Zarix’s knees, knocking him to ground, and then hit him on the back. The other raider pulled himself out from under the desk strutted over to the fight, kicking Zarix in the face. ‘This is it’ he thought ‘dying to a bunch of scumbags while trying to save the very people who forced me out here.’
Suddenly he saw a box on the ground, and got an idea. With another crack across his back, he pretended to collapse, and broke open the box. Moving fast, he covered his eyes and threw the Abraxo Cleaner at the ceiling, which burst into a cloud of white dust, and the raiders screamed and clawed at their eyes “Goddamn bastard!” one of them yelled and Zarix scrambled to put the goggles from his pack. Then he dived for his gun as one of the raiders grabbed for him blindly.
With the pistol in his hand, he fired twice, ending the guards where they stood. Then he collapsed from the pain, and coughed. Spitting, he saw the blood. This was worse than he could take care of, but hopefully the stims would hold up until he made it to that town, mega-something. That was when he saw another man step around the corner with a rather large knife drawn.
Checking his clip, he only had one shot; he’d have to stop him with that. As the raider moved forward Zarix fired, hitting him in the chest and throwing him back. But the guy got back up screaming bloody murder and jumped at him, and then they were both wrestling for the knife. In a flash, Zarix knocked the man’s hand back, shoving the blade into his windpipe.
The raider died rather quickly, and Zarix barely had the strength to push his body off of him before shooting up another three stim packs. Looking at his leg, he realized it was broken, and would need a splint. Luckily, he had a pool cue handy. He broke the stick in half and tried the two halves to his leg, making a crude splint, and then got back on his feet. ’God that hurts’
He found another pool cue by the door and started using it as a crutch as he searched the rest of the basement for any more raiders, but that seemed to be the last of them. He also found the door to the library, and could hear the angry scuttling of what he assumed were the giant ants. Zarix suddenly stumbled as he was hit with a wave of dizziness. ‘I gotta get going, it’ll be dark soon, and I don’t fancy my chances with this leg locking up overnight.’
Hobbling out of the school half an hour later, he hoped he could make it to Megaton before he blacked out.
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