Vault 115

Chapter 7 - Cause and Effects

Michael nods slowly, leaning forward. "You're right, Ciara. Friends don't lie." He gives a meaningful look toward Melanie, then continues. "Do you know anything, Ciara? About what's happening here? About anything we don't know?" He keeps his hands to himself under the table, clasping them together painfully.
-
Melanie looked at Michael intently, trying to decide if what he was doing. Ciara furrowed her eyebrows.

"I know more than everyone thinks I do. I know that this is an experiment. I know that we're all here for a reason. And I know we're getting different because of it."

Melanie cocked her head. "Changed how?"

Ciara smiled. "It's really cool!" Then she lowered her voice. "You can't tell /them/, okay? Promise." She pointed towards the officials standing off to the side. Everyone nodded. "I can hear people's minds now. And John can do that chirp thing."
-
Michael furrowed his brow. 'Read minds?' Ciara nodded quickly toward him. "Yes. I can." Michael shook his head, blinking.

"Okay. Now what chirp thing? What can he do?"

"He makes a weird sound and then a map appears in his head. He can't see exactly what it is, but he can see walls and obstructions. He does it mostly in hallways. Though he doesn't know that I know this. You can't tell-" She stops for a second, glancing toward the side toward Reggie, then taking a bite of her burger.

"Reggie thinks he's becoming stronger. He can easily lift the heaviest weights in the exercise room. He's deciding whether to say something and be possibly considered dangerous but get better weights, or not say anything and just pretend it's still heavy for him." She takes another bite, turning and smiling at Melanie.
Suddenly she looks at Sam, her brow furrowed. Michael glances at Sam, and she looks worried, anxious, and slightly angry.
-
She let out a quiet gasp of pain and touched her temple. Melanie's hand shot up to touch her shoulder comfortingly, but Ciara recovered quick. "You're like a lizard!" She exclaimed, then realized how puzzled everyone was. "You know, from the books. The blend-in kind. I bet you can change your color if you tried. Maybe even your face, too!"

Sam paled, looking mildly stunned. "I can... Camouflage myself? That's actually pretty cool."

Melanie poked Ciara. "What about us? What can we do?" Ciara shrugged nonchalantly. "Nothing." She said, looking at them. "I can't see anything in you guys."
-
Michael hesitated, nodding slowly. "We haven't been here long enough. Whatever experiments they're doing to us isn't as far along as you guys." He glances away toward one of the officials. "They should know what's happening. Try reading someone's mind tonight, Ciara. If you can. I know it happens at night, while we're sleeping. Try then, see if you can get wind of anything. We need to know-" He was cut off by a whistle signaling the end of the day. Michael stands, smiling at the three girls, then walking toward the door.

Once in his room, he grabs his usual medical book, the last one actually, and starts flipping to where he left off. He waited a bit before finally pulling a book off of the shelf nonchalantly. Radiology book three. He flipped to the table of contents, scanning through it and shaking his head. Slowly, he flipped page by page, until he came across rashes. 'Well, there's Melanie's injury.' He began to read it, acting as if he was cross-referencing the two books he had out. Though, during his research, many things led to others, and it turned out he did need both books.

Radiation.

He read the word at the top of the page toward the back of the biochemistry book. Reading through it he shook his head slowly. 'Mutations, sicknesses. It's all here.' He focused intently on it, reading everything he could about it.
'If the Radiation goes untreated for too long, the patient will die.'
-
Melanie sat on the floor of her room, surrounded by scraps of cloth and thread. She idly embroidered a piece of fabric, bored and feeling like she was helpless. Then, something strange. She had a thought that was very intrusive, something that felt like her thought but was certainly not. 'Melanie?' the thought asked. It kept asking.

Melanie was confused for a moment, and then it clicked. 'Ciara?'
'FINALLY! I've been trying this for at least half an hour. Turns out I can project my thoughts into people's minds.'

'Woah,' Melanie thought.
'Woah,' Ciara agreed.
-
Michael slowly shook his head, quickly grabbing the few books he knew that dealt specificly in radiation. It was well known of, considering the horrid radiation outside was the only thing keeping everyone inside the vault, but it hardly ever gets mentioned in his medical books. Though, there were some mentions, in case of an air leak somewhere.

Here, radiation and the effect on the body. Radiation and how to rid yourself of it. Radiation and other energy waves. He thought for a moment, standing and piling five books onto his desk, searching through the psychology books quickly.
Here. Radiation and the effect on the mind. It can drive people crazy, but very few studies have shown that it could change the chemistry in your mind in radical ways. Given you less brainpower, or in rare cases, more.

'Ciara.' He thought to himself, shaking his head slowly. 'But why would they be subjecting kids to radiation? Are they trying new experimental treatments that can protect us from radiation? Does this mean we'll be able to leave the vault soon?'

Memories flood his head of wondering what the outside world looked like, and hacking into the Overseer's computer to try and find a camera that may be outside. He never found one.
-
'Ciara, are you seeing this?' Melanie asked, watching as the hose descended from the ceiling. It wasn't even lights out yet.

'Yes. Isn't this early?' she replied, seeming frantic. 'we'll sleep. Talk tomorrow' her thoughts were growing jumbled and Melanie could barely hear Ciara anymore.

The room was filling with faint white mist and she was feeling very scattered. She managed to scramble into bed before she fell out. To her surprise, she was awake again shortly. She was in a wheelchair, something strapped to her face and giving her air. It was hard to see, though, and the world was blurry. She was wheeled into a bright room.

She was only conscious for about a minute before she heard someone yelling and pointing at her. The gas filtered into her lungs through the mask was increased and she floated back into sleep.
-
Michael had many books open, scattering his desk. Then he heard a mechanical whirring sound and turned around, looking up. He noticed the pipe, studying it for a bit before a circular piece lifted up revealing a hole, and a white mist was released. The first thing he noticed was that it blocked the camera's view of him.
He quickly began to close books and shove them into his shelves, taking a deep breath and holding it for as long as he was able. It was beginning to get close, he felt the urge to breath badly, but the mist was just hitting the floor and he knew only a few breaths of that and he would be out.

'Make it look normal. Make them think you don't know anything.'
He finally slid the last book onto the shelf making a mad dash for his bed. Finally he gasped for air and his head immediately felt foggy. Just as he hit the bed and covered up he heard a door open to his room, heard coughing, and some jumbled words.

He tried to hold on, tried to stay awake, and the mist was suddenly all sucked out of the room. He was awake, but not for long, though pretending to be asleep.

He heard footsteps, two sets. Then silence.
"I don't know what you mean doc'. It doesn't look like he knows anything."

"He was studying Radiology, I saw it."
Footsteps and a few books were pulled off of his shelf, landing on his desk. Papers were looked through, and the silence made it harder for him to stay awake.

"His notes are the same. Still his medical books. A bit of radiology book 1 cross referencing. Remind me why we pulled him? He's a good student, would've made a good doctor."

"Look, I know what I saw, Jared."

"Are you saying it's too dangerous to leave the bookshelf in here with him?"

"Yes." The doctor answered quickly. Silence followed.

"I'll take that into consideration. Thank you." Footsteps began, then a second set as they left the room. And suddenly Michael couldn't stay awake any longer, and then darkness.