The Empire Wasteland

It Never Seems To

I woke up on Saturday at about 8:55 in my nice attic bedroom. We have a three-day-weekend due to the teachers' meeting happening down in A.C. My mother hollered for my name, I got up slowly, groaning thinking about the shouts that get me up everyday at 7:15 to get my lazy-butt ready for school. It's the beginning of my seventh year of grammar school. On the news, they say that the threat of the Reds blowing us to bits is imminent but I don't like to think about the bad stuff. The only bad stuff I think about is my U.S. History grade, I mean it's been 300.. 301 years of American history has gone by and it's hard to wrap my head around it all. Anyways, I stumble down the stairs in my Grognak The Barbarian tee-shirt to have my eyes nearly bulge out of my head to the sight of a bowl of Sugar Bombs and milk.

"I got your favorite cereal for you, deary!", my Mom says in her somewhat nice tone. 

"Well, jeez.. thanks mom!", I say in jubilation, taking my seat in our nice eco-friendly wood veneer chair.

 "What are our plans for this weekend?" 

"I guess I'll spoil it, me and your father were planning to take the car up to Boston to go to Nuka-World on Sunday!"

 I exclaim firmly in response, "You know I like some of that Vim! soda better, Mom." 

My mom, with a look on her face of too bad, so sad  calmy says to me, "Well.. I thought this would be a nice trip to finally leave New Jersey for a few hours, but we don't have to go y'know.."

  My mind went racing, aw- shit! How do I save this? I sacredly respond, "Okay, Mom! Fine! Please, I really want to go!" 

Her face resets to a little smirk, "That settles it, now finish those Sugar Bombs before they go bad."

It was now 9:38 A.M. when I finished my breakfast, October 23rd, 2077.

My father worked in a pretty good job for VaulTek, or however you spell it's building in Lower Manhattan, near those old Twin Towers. They've been shunned by other buildings, but they're pretty easy to spot when you see them at angle. Reverting back from that flashback, we got a abrupt interruption on our kitchen radio. A transmission from the Office of the President of the United States of America. Those bad thoughts kicked back in as we heard, 

WE INTERRUPT THIS RADIO BROADCAST TO BRING YOU AN EMERGENCY ALERT. SEVERAL NUCLEAR WARHEADS HAVE BEEN DETECTED TOWARDS THE FOLLOWING REGIONS. PENNSYLVANIA. NEW YORK. NEW JERSEY. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. WE REPEAT, THIS IS NOT A DRILL.

My Mom knew what that meant, she jumped up and grabbed some documents, don't know what they are for and me and ran down the block. The company my father worked for, specialized in "Vaults". It seemed that's what my Mom was heading for, and so we took off for the "Vault". A Vault is a underground shelter underneath thousands of pounds of rock that would stop as Mr. Howard said on the television, "the Rads and the Reds". My father signed us up back in November of last year, being a employee for VaulTek, and when they first started to become widespread. When we arrived, my Mom showed the documents to the military official or whoever and cleared us. We were guided towards a facility. It was underneath Bunny Hill. I remember they were building this years ago, finally being put to use. Then, flashes. The officers sped us up and got us inside the Vault. Dust seemed to be heading our way when we finally got inside, and the rotating door closed.

There was signs all over the Vault, welcoming us to this. This new home. It all happened, just- so fast.. It was terrifying. We went from eating cereal and weekend plans to being in a nuclear holocaust. Vault 26, located in Kearny, New Jersey. Became our new home. I thought about two things that day, that stuck with me for the rest of my life. And learned a lot. 

Where the hell is my dad, and I guess war just- never changes.