At The Precipice Of Something New

Something Institutional

The Institute
January the 7th, 2290
20:35

...And you will sing about the way that I have loved you.

In what felt like seconds Nora Jacqueline Norwich found herself feeling as though she had slammed into the ground. Her ears were ringing, and the light burning sensation on her skin which had taken over her with the blue light was still prickling. Her head hurting badly, she found herself falling to her knees when her legs gave out in disbelief. When the blue light faded, her vision was still spotty and blurry, her eyes blinking rapidly, but, after her eyes began to readjust, she let out a cry of both relief and shock when she saw she was no longer standing in the cold at a long since disused petrol, coolant, and charging station and was, instead, in a metal rotunda of sorts where the temperature was comfortable. The room slowly came into focus and, much the same as she had in those first minutes alone in Vault 111, she took a look around herself before trying to push herself back up onto her feet. When she looked up, she saw a second level to the rotunda which was glassed in, through which she could see computer terminals lined the walls. Her eyes traced it all the way around, Nora shimmying herself still on her knees, before she noticed the machines lining the walls of the level of the rotunda she was on. Smaller targeting devices, she suspected, were what were attached to them but, to her surprise, a door was open – or had it been opened? – down the middle from where she was when she had shimmied herself back into the same spot she had hit the floor in. There were seven of them each, at least, or so she counted; the smaller device affixed to the larger and thus fourteen machines in total wrapped around the walls. The room the rotunda and its machines of which she was surrounded, from the distance, housed what appeared to be a large computer console and a long hallway extended behind that console, so she thought. What was most striking about the room ahead was how new, how modern, it appeared and, despite herself, a gasping sob of relief escaped her.

I did it, Shaun, I did it for you and now I'm –

She stopped just short of pushing herself all the way up onto her feet when a jolt of fear ran through her. Anything, her mind began to furiously tell her, could be just beyond the open door; a Courser, an executioner, anyone. Though her hands were a little unsteady at the thought, Nora took out her revolver and glanced at the date engraved. 29. May. 2288. The day she had killed Kellogg, and, a little less than a year later with the same revolver, she had gone on to kill a Courser, too. If there were an executioner waiting, be it a person or another Courser, there would be a fight. But you said it yourself, she told herself. You haven't come this far to give up. Shaun's in here, somewhere, and I've done it. I've made it into the fucking Institute, and I've killed their best hitman and one of their Coursers. If I have to, I can take them. With a last check to ensure her revolver was loaded, Nora finally pushed herself all the way up onto her feet, dusted herself off, and, revolver at the ready, slowly started towards the door into the second room she realised was more than likely where the Institute controlled their planned 'relays' from. She held her revolver at the ready in her right hand when she paused at the threshold to take a look to her left and right before stepping into the room, and her nerves prickled when she found no one waiting for her there. Seeing it appeared to be a rotund, glass elevator at the end of the corridor, down the short flight of stairs ahead of her, and seeing no other immediate way deeper into the Institute, Nora kept her hands tightly around her revolver and walked cautiously towards the rotund, glass elevator. She swallowed hard when she reached it and found it was not waiting and all she could see when she looked down through the glass was nothing. Despite her nerves still prickling, she pressed what she was sure to be the call button close to the elevator to her right, her shoulders inching closer to each other with every moment passing when she began to hear the almost silent hum of the elevator coming up to where she was. At first, when it was almost there, Nora saw the unmistakable shadow of a man's head and quickly took several steps back away from the elevator, aiming her revolver at the doors she knew would open when it reached her. Then, the bell rang out, the elevator door opened, and the man stepped forward, only to pause in the doorway out of the elevator when he saw a gun was pointed squarely at his chest.