Well I thought we need a new Fanfic to make things more interesting so I wrote this, its the first part in a series probably of two and I hope you like it Vault of the Future: Part 1
Out in the Nevada Desert a small van sped along the dusty tarmac as fast as it could go. The call had been received and it was time for them to seek safety, the safety of the vault.
Inside the van a man in a blue and yellow jumpsuit with a number 13 emblazoned on the back in bright yellow lettering peered into the murky distance ahead of him as he drove forever onwards. The sun was fading, as if a giant hand was stretching out and blocking it. In the distance he could see a slowly approaching dust cloud, several miles high, the nuclear Fallout. Fear soared into his heart and he slammed his foot down on the accelerator, making the vehicle lurch forward at its top speed.
Inside the van there was a pregnant silence, nobody spoke but it was obvious a lot of thinking was going on. The driver turned on the wipers, cleaning the windscreen of a thick coating of dust that kept appearing.
“Dammit!…the light is fading fast and its nowhere near sunset…..this doesn’t look good! Must be the ash from the eastern cities blocking the sun!” His wife and another man and woman all wearing vault suits sat in the back. The man and his wife were sitting silently with their hands clutched together, lost in thought with brooding expressions on their faces. The drivers wife looked down and checked a device strapped to her wrist.
“I can’t believe it actually happened! How could those fools press the button?!” yelled the driver angrily as he slammed his hands into the stering wheel.
“Calm down honey, we can only hope we make it to Vault 13 on time..Imagine all those hapless souls who unlike us do not have a Vault to flee to. We at least have a life after today.” murmured his wife and then fell silent, the horror sinking through her in a great wave.
Suddenly the other man spoke, his voice flat and bleak “The Pip-Boy notice was very clear ‘Proceed to your designated Vault Immediately.…and for residents of Bakersfield that’s number 13, so shaddap and concentrate on driving us, wasting words yelling is damn stupid ok??”
"Shut up!! Im driving as fast as I can godammit!" yelled the driver furiously.
“Don’t start a fight, I don’t think I could stand it!” pleaded the drivers wife as she clutched at his arm over the space between the front seats. “We need to stick together…. Think of my mother in New York!!…….. the news said it was completely destroyed..and your parents in San Francisco, also destroyed, whole cities full of innocent people…. We are lucky to be alive, we should appreciate what time has been given to us!!”
“Hey look! I can see the mountain! We’re on the home stretch!” cried the other woman excitedly, breaking the tension in the back of the Van. A smile of relief broke out on the face of the drivers wife. She idly fiddled with the scratchy fabric of the brand new standard issue vault suit she now wore. She had hastily grabbed from a plastic case in her wardrobe only hours ago, it seemed like years.
They all gazed out of the drivers window in the fading light as the massive mountain that hid their destination loomed up on the horizon.
The van thundered along, now on a dirt road, approaching a fenced off compound surrounding a circular concrete entrance cut into the side of the mountain that now dominated the landscape. They passed a lonely wooden billboard on the side of the road with a faded and peeling poster reading “Vault 13: The Vault of the Future” in big red letters.
As the van screeched to a halt outside the tall razor wired gate several men wearing vault suits and carrying assault rifles ran out of the guardhouse and stood around the vehicle. They were obviously some of the soldiers that had been assigned to each Vault to keep the peace.
One of them walked up to the car and knocked on the driver side window, and the man obligingly rolled it down.
The soldier peered up at him suspiciously. “Can I see your Vault Citizenship papers please Sir?”
“Yeah sure waitasec” mumbled the driver as he fumbled in the glove compartment and pulled out a wad of faded papers. He passed them to the guard who studiously examined them and nodded approvingly.
“Welcome to Vault 13 folks, sorry about the check, I know you are wearing suits but we can’t be too careful these days. There are plenty of desperate people out there who know they are going to die, desperate enough to do anything…”
One of the other soldiers peered down the road they had arrived on, and began to mutter out loud.
"Its lucky we are this far west, most of the nukes landed on the Eastern seaboard. So we have a little time until the ash and dust reaches us..." He began to talk clearly to the man standing by the car, snapping out of his revelry.
"I think they are nearly the last to arrive, tell em’ to head inside and find the Overseer, he will tell you your group numbers..now move on” he said gloomily “We need to seal the vault door pretty soon”.
“Yessir!!” called the soldier and nodded to one of the others. He pressed a big red button and the massive gates rolled open with a whirring hydraulic sound. A sign reading “Warning: High Voltage” passed before the drivers eyes as he stared at the concrete entrance of the mountain complex created by the Vaultec corporation in anticipation of an event such as this; Number 13, lucky for some.
“War, war never changes, muttered the driver as he accelerated and the van rumbled through the gate, kicking up a cloud of desert dust.
[ September 04, 2002: Message edited by: Slurrydevil ]
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What is new is always evil, being that which wants to conquer and overthrow the old boundary markers and the old pieties; and only what is old is good. The good men are in all ages those who dig the old thoughts, digging deep and getting them to bear fruit - the farmers of the spirit. But eventually all land is depleted, and the ploughshare of evil must come again and again.
- Nietzsche