The Outsider

Leaving

Sierra traced her slender fingers across the dark blue cover of, 'The Lone Wanderer, By Cywren Castor'. She was sitting on the edge of of her clean, white bed. Silky red sheets were draped over her long legs. Her thinly framed glasses rested on the bridge of her nose, green eyes speckled with gold. Sierra's short, boyish, ginger hair was as frayed as ever and hung near her eyes. She wore the uniform blue suit, the gold number '96' plastered onto the back.

Sierra sighed, promising herself she would only read a chapter or two of the book a day. The book supply in the vault was limited to educational documents she had read millions of times before. 'The Lone Wanderer' was a book she had gotten for her eighteenth birthday, which was a real party. You see, Sierra was the smartest person in the vault other than The Overseer and most of the doctors, and many of Vault 96's residents envied her. Nearly everyone that lived in 96 came, attempting to become her friend to learn from her; Sierra preferred her books and holotape games.

Slowly pulling open the cover of the book, she breathed in the scent of the worn tan paper and its black ink, something that other people would deem weird. Sierra flipped to the first chapter and pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose. Sierra's eyes flew across the paper as she read.

Chapter One: Introductions

Hello, and welcome to this little book of mine. My names Cywren Caster, but most of you know me as The Lone Wanderer. I only have one thing to say about this title; I don't travel alone. For several years now I have spent most of my time with my first companions, Quasar, a dog, Timebomb, and a super mutant named Copper. I have recently met a woman name Veronica, and she's in the little group too. I used to travel with Sarah Lyons, but she was needed at The Brotherhood.

So no, people who are reading this, I do not travel alone, I actually have quite a large group of friends.

If you didn't know, I'm 37, and, not to boast, I purified the water when I was only 19. After several years of traveling, helping, and much, much more, I decided to take it easy for a while. During that time I wrote this. Now, I'm back on my feet and traveling again.

Sierra huffed in annoyance at her quick reading skills and dropped her book on the floor. She fell back dramatically onto her pillows and pondered over what she should do. Experiment with chemicals? Meh... No, too messy. Read books I've already read? Boring. Study Radiation? Why not! She paused her thinking to sit up, and muttered to herself, " Overseer seems to know a lot about radiation. I'll go see him."

     Sierra shoved herself up lazily and pushed up her glasses. She bent down to pick up her book and threw it back onto her bed, and quickly walked out after fastening her Pip-boy onto her arm. Now, where to find him..., Sierra asked around the vault, coming across a woman she had never seen before. She was in her eighties, her face wrinkled and contorted into a look of utter pain. " Ma'am?" Sierra asked, looking at the woman with wide and fearful eyes. " Go... Isn't... Safe... Overseer... Experiments..." The woman croaked while falling to her knees. Sierra jumped back in surprise as the guards rushed forwards to grab the woman.

" Get that one too!" One of them exclaimed, pointing to her. They rushed to intercept her but Sierra had already turned tail and fled back to her room.

     Sierra rushed into her bedroom and snatched the worn red backpack that was stuffed in her closet, trusting her gut instinct. She had to get out of there.

She had put her book about Cywren in the bag, two bottles of leftover Nuka Cola she had stuffed into the mini-fridge next to her bed, four cans of cram, five bottles of purified water, and her 10mm pistol. Those were the necessities, but she had also shoved a roll of silver ductape in the backpack, many pieces of scrap metal, a box of Bobby-Pins, a screwdriver, and a few rounds for the pistol.

Sierra was leaving. And, hopefully, she would never come back.