The scientists of Vault 115 know nothing of the horrors laying outside, waiting patiently for them to open their doors. Though they imagine, they hypothesize, they plan for the absolute worst. Creating super suits to protect them, whether from radiation or physical damage, they still feel as if they are not protected well enough.
Centuries, generations, flitter by. Myths and hypothesis turn into facts and waiting for the inevitable. Frightened, scientists continue their studies, passing their knowledge from one generation to another, in hopes that perhaps they will find a way to protect themselves when the time comes to finally open the vault doors.
There had been a counter in the main living area of the Vault, but as it counted down the time until the oxygen would run out, people kept getting worked up or scared. In response, the Overseer had it moved to the actual Vault exit, where only the Overseer had permission to go.
As children growing up, we were always destined to be a scientist, to continue the research of our fathers and forefathers. We never questioned this, it was just the way things were. However, one day, two children were picked from class and taken away. They had never been seen again. All the other children in the class were confused, some frightened, some angry they had not been chosen. But no matter the emotions, it remained a mystery. A month passed, and two more children had been picked to leave the class, and they hadn't returned either. The children started to feel restless, and the parents of the missing children never said a word, only went to work and back to their rooms, never smiling.
This month, the children flitter about the classroom nervously. This would be the day that they would take two more children, if they did it again. And, expectedly, the Overseer had appeared in the classroom. She calmed the children, then read two names off of her clipboard. And she read my name.
White was given to an organization right after she was born, she was a mutant of her own kind, she was known as 72. Growing up from that place until she was five, she never knew anything else except for avoid the needles, avoid the people in white coats and to stay strong. The day she turned five though, was the day everything changed. One kind guard set her free, she felt like a bird, she felt like she could fly and soar through the sky, to forget everything that happened in her past. She did for a while, but of course everything caught up to her. A year passed and White still remembered everything. From the smallest detail of the day. She was only six, on that day, exactly a year after she was able to escape from the Border, the only person that cared for her was killed, she was caught. She was back in bars, and the words that the guard told her still echoed in her mind. "Stay safe, stay alive," her life rules. And the years fly by, and still nothing happened. She was still trapped, caught, tamed.
Caught in the act....
Tamed to fight....
Freed from her cage....