Lone Wanderer

Chapter 1 - Forever Falling

They won't stop falling. The bombs just fall and fall one after another. The war was estimated to end a month ago but the explosion's sounds keep running through our vault like Feral Gouls. The war must've started at least 10 years ago. I just had my 19th birthday a month ago. I still remember the day the first bomb fell like, it was yesterday.
I was setting on the couch watching the news. I heard my mom and dad fighting as usual. I blocked it out and went on watching, as I did any other day. As I was watching, the channel flipped to the national weather service alert system. They had confirmed reports of nuclear detonation in New York and Pennsylvania. I had screamed out to call my parents, but the fight was intense. I was headed into their room when I heard fighter jets.
"Oh no," I thought to myself,"there's no way I can warn them without dying myself." I left without them, with the thought digging into my heart that I had left my parents to die and they had no clue of what was happening. How I ever got past this I don't know, but my only concern now is my own survival.
Now many settlers and dwellers survive in this great vault. This vault is vault 46 and has all of the accommodations of a modern home with the addition of unlimited stimpak and radaway production. Although this vault saved me from the initial explosion, I don't trust it. They don't prepare us for the outside wasteland. They say that we are perfectly safe inside, but I need recognition. I need to know what our city has become.
The ambience in the vault was quiet. No voices bellowing, no dogs barking, and not even any gunshots ringing from the range. The reason for this was the recent breach in the vault's side wall toward the east sector. Mole rats dug holes into the metal and were able to make their way into the main hallways. With few trained gunmen we were not able to stop the deaths of approximately 47 dwellers. This death toll was larger than our stimpak production failure!
This pushed me over the edge! The vault doors are weak from the explosions and we are no longer safe from deadly mutant attacks. I need to evade the state of being a sitting duck.
I'd been planning my escape for a while but I think I'd finally perfected it. I would go to the gun range (I had just turned old enough) and while the supervisor was retrieving a gun I would sneak and steal one of the ten millimeter pistols from the display glass and hide it with me. I would then go into the overseer's office and warn him that one of the guns was missing from the shooting range. When he checked it out, I would swipe the keys off of the holder to the storage room. I would unlock the storage room and steal a Pip-Boy from the spare storage container. This is not only necessary for opening the vault door, but I could also specify my vitals on my journey in the wasteland and have the advantage of using V.A.T.S (Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System) on my enemies. From there, I would go out later than custody and open the vault door. I would try to kill as little people as possible.
I executed the first part of the plan perfectly and retrieved the Pip-Boy. The tricky part was just coming up. The vault was quiet and all there were were police grade flashlights bobbing up and down from the guards pacing the hallways. I waited until no more lights were visible and moved swiftly and quietly to the vault door control board. I unscrewed the outlet plugin from the Pip-Boy's holster and inserted it into the motherboard computer to open the vault.
The pip boy fired up in a series of beeps and clicks. "Property of RobCo" the display read."Loading access. Please wait."I heard footsteps coming closer."Cmon, hurry up!" I murmured to myself."Access Granted. Vault Door now prepared for manual breach." I slammed my hand onto the release and had my pistol drawn. An alarm sounded as the vault door slowly rolled away. Guard footsteps flooded through the hallways. A sea of white light shined in my eyes and they had insisted me to halt but I refused. I sprinted as fast as I possibly could, but got nailed in the cheek with a ten mm cartridge. I pressed the re-latch button and bolted out of the small crack in the vault door before it slammed shut and locked me out. I stimpak myself and look at the dark, nostalgic, starry sky. I had made my way into the harsh wasteland. Somehow I feel better off than in the vault. I'm home.