Sing for Me

The Revenge

Seconds before I'm about to walk out the door, Miss Williams's warning rings in my head. I allow the madness to take hold of me. I retrieved the small listing device from all those months ago. Something in me wouldn't allow me to throw it away the first time.

The drive was no less frustrating. The closer I got the more I wondered about the warning. Vault Tech was indeed crooked, but killers? I couldn't wrap my mind around such a theory.

I'm escorted to Barb's office. The meeting is running late. Such a surprise. As I sit alone in the silent space. The darkness creeps in once more. I dig into my pocket and grasp the listening device placing it inside my ear. The static clears and voices can be heard.

"Mr. Howard, would you mind if Barb's assistant pops in for a quick hello? He's a big fan." I nod with the practiced actor's smile, "of course."

She dips back behind the doorway leaving me to listen to the conversations in the meeting room. "Our sales are fine. Sure, rumors of the peace negotiations have set us back a bit, but we're here to offer you an opportunity. We'd like to collaborate on some of our vaults."

"I-I don't get the vaults. When it's time to come out, what if people are still alive on the surface?
They'll be Stone Age creatures. Probably eat whoever steps out of your vaults."

"That isn't an issue. Our vaults have the resources to survive for centuries. Meanwhile, our competitors... you know, every other human
who isn't us... will be dead on the surface. Because after all, what is the ultimate weapon of mass destruction?"

"Time is the apex predator. And in the event of an incident, time is the weapon with which we will defeat all of our enemies. That is how we will win the great game of capitalism. Not by outfighting anyone, but by outliving them."

"Even if you outlive all external threats, here's my problem with the vaults. You confine a bunch of rats in a nest for a long time, they end up eating each other. So who's to say your rats are gonna survive better than those animals on the surface?"

Everyone overlaps each other bickering back and forth to no end. "If I could refocus the discussion." Barb's voice pipes up, "When I think about the future, I think about my daughter... Janey. How do I provide her with a better future? That's what we've invited you here to discuss." They agree in the room. "And how do we design our vault societies so our children have that better future? I suggest we hedge our bets. Bud here has an idea for three interconnected vaults. But we need more ideas. We need your ideas. Because it was the spirit of competition that made our companies great, and I propose we bring that same spirit of competition to our solution."

"We have over a hundred vaults spread across America. Enough for each of you to claim several, where you can play out your own ideas for how to create the perfect conditions for humanity. Whatever you want to do, no one needs to know. And may the best idea win."

I can't believe what I am hearing. Humans are viewed as nothing more than experiments.

"So what's Vault 32 and 33? Just people to be controlled?"

"What? No! When you put it like that, it sounds downright morally questionable. They're our breeding pool, the ultimate expression of HR R&D. Genetically selected to breed with my Buds to create a class of super managers. People with positivity, people who make lemonade. People who will inherit the Earth after we've wiped the surface clean. I have our first test subject lined up for freezing in the upcoming months."

"We could intentionally overcrowd a vault so people have to compete to survive inside it.
We have been developing a Synthetic humanoid bot replicating (y/n) (l/n). It has a memory hard drive the size of a large computer. I would like to see a vault governed by it."