Chapter 100 - 100

With the power armor raider destroyed Adam quickly turned his attention to the 30th floor where Salvatore was handling the unarmored peons. He had mopped up 2 of them alone, but the third was giving him trouble, emptying round after round at him from a light machine gun, keeping Salvatore pinned down. Adam wasted no time throwing himself into the fight, pulling out his 10mm pistol and beginning to lay down fire of his own. A bullet hit the shoulder of the man on the machine gun and caused him to stop firing for a moment. A moment was all that Salvatore needed to finish him off. Then, there was silence. The floor, neigh, the building, fell into a deep lull, as if all the fighting they had just done the entire way up never happened. Salvatore looked out of breath as he slowly peeked out from his cover. He did just climb 30 flights of stairs after all, fighting all the way. Adam, for his sake was winded, but could have still kept going if he had to, though he was quite thankful for the break. "You okay?" Adam asked Salvatore as he approached him. Salvatore was leaning, one hand on the wall, catching his breath that he had been holding while he was under fire. "Yeah… I'm fine." he said, wheezing a bit. "Didn't realize how out of shape I was." He joked gruffly. "Then again, no one said I was going to have to fight up 30 flights of stairs." Adam grinned and patted him on the back gently. "You didn't ask." He teased. Salvatore shot him a dirty look. "Assistance required. Unit Designated 'Buddy' is unable to perform duties, trapped due to gravitational forces." Buddy said while he continued to rock ineffectually on the ground. Adam chuckled and then walked over to Buddy, helping him to his feet. "Buddy, resume normal mode." "Recognized. Deactivating Combat Mode." He said as its head sensor stopped spinning quickly and the laser emitters stopped glowing. "That all of them?" Salvatore asked now, still ready for a fight but hopeful the fight was over. "I don't know, Buddy?" Adam asked as he turned back to Buddy again. "No intruders found in the building, however sensors on 23 floors have been disabled, inaccurate capability for me to offer an accurate answer." Adam paused for a moment and then nodded. "Buddy, activate the rest of the juice inside the lab, incinerate it." He said commandingly. "Understood, incinerating the lab." Buddy responded. There was nothing that followed. For all anyone knew Buddy had failed. There was no sound after all, but they were on the 30th floor and the lab was far below them so there was no way they would hear it from here. "Buddy, begin a routine patrol of this floor." "Understood, beginning a patrol." He said as he began to wander off and walk around the floor casually. Adam let out a big sigh, with all the mixed emotions that came with it. "So, guess we made it then huh?" Salvatore said as he walked over to Adam, taking out a cigarette to smoke to calm his own nerves. "Yeah, looks like it." Adam said as he looked towards the CEO's office down at the end of the hall, the only room with double doors. "I'm going to take a break here, you go on ahead. Not really worth watching you look through a computer anyway." Salvatore said as he grabbed a chair from near where the dead bodies of the raiders were and sat down to smoke. Adam nodded and then proceeded into the room alone. The CEO's office was nothing like he remembered it. It bore a resemblance. The fine red carpet was still there, though faded and full of stains that he didn't want to think about. The mahogany desk remained, though now adorned with skulls and other grotesque trophies, the bookshelves were barren, once full of books to satisfy the CEO's vanity, they were now empty. The safe that once sat behind the picture frame of the CEO's father, was wide open, inside was a bag labeled 'caps'. Adam would grab that later, he was here for a reason, he wanted to focus on that. Sitting down at the desk he noticed a note placed on the computer screen. Someone open this damn computer for me before I break it AND all your skulls!! Well it seemed that they never managed to get inside the computer. Which was good for him, if they had, all the data could have been wiped. Hesitantly, Adam turned on the computer, pulling the note off, and entered the CEO's password, unlocking the computer easily. He had told the CEO many times to change his password, on a regular basis if he could. But whether it was due to his confidence in Adam to build a strong enough firewall or due to sheer laziness he never did, though Adam assumed it was the latter. Once the computer was open he was met with a number of options. [Vault-Tec Agreement] [Current experiment progress] [Scanned Subjects] [Project completion rate] [Project overview and goals] There was a lot to unpack here but Adam decided to go one by one. Assumedly his questions would be answered as he read on. So he began with the first file. [Memo to all executive level offices: Thanks to the efforts of our board of directors and negotiations from the CFO and CEO an agreement has been reached with the oversight board of Vault-Tec, we have been allocated Vault 42, a vault located in our very own city of Chicago, hidden underneath an unassuming coffee shop. It seems those at Vault-Tec have seen the merit to our vision and have agreed to provide us with viable and excellent material to continue our experiments. This includes the breeding stock needed to sustain a long term population even as they are used for the experiments. Vault-Tec has given us complete control over the project and vault. The overseer has yet to be picked but it will likely be someone from our executive team. The only people who will be aware of the vault's experiment will be the chosen overseer, who will already be aware of the experiments, the scientists, who will mostly be transferred from our laboratory teams and would also already have foreknowledge, and the chief of security of the vault, who we will select after rigorous psychological evaluation to ensure they will remain loyal. It is not necessary to inform the residents or other members of security, with such a tight deadline we do not have the time for such a rigorous and extensive psychological evaluations for all members, besides, money talks, I'm sure they will fall in line. Thank you for all your efforts up to this point. This is a cause for celebration, uncork that champagne, this secured us enough funding for our projects for the next decade alone!] Adam was horrified, though, of course, he knew most of this, the rest inferred. But it confirmed everything he had assumed from the vault. They knew what they were doing, the people they brought in… the people who thought they were there to survive the bombs… were brought there to be experimented on… and since the security team wasn't told only the chief it meant divisions began to form in the vault. The ending as he saw, violence, riots, and a complete breakdown of the social structure. He may never know exactly what went down there in the vault, but now, he knew for certain, he had zero sympathy for the scientists he saw dead at the entrance. Still, this was not what he was looking for, so he read on, next selecting [Current experiment progress] [Project has stalled since much of our equipment has been moved to Vault 42. The samples that remain here are hardly enough to progress off of. However, we have already achieved success far greater than we had assumed when we began this project. The theoretical process for producing Alpha and Beta series is sound and data shows that with enough time to work on the genetic resequencing we should be able to produce a full unit with a 90% success rate. However until the transfer of the project to the vault is complete we can not proceed further, all crews are told to move to the scanning process as we move to phase three ahead of schedule.] So it seems that the move to the vault set them back? Though they accelerated to phase three? Scanning? And what was this about the Alpha and Beta series? He could only guess. But at least he knew he would get some answers on the scanning question because it was the next thing to open. [Scanned Subjects] It certainly had an ominous title but he was too far to back out now. [Scanned Subjects for Testing of Omega Series Type 2: Agrat, Nevil Anders, Gabriel Armstrong, Hanson Asper, Mary Baars, Kendrick Baron, Liam Baxter, Adam Bell, Victoria Black, Tristan Brooks, Candice Campell, Harper Clark, Kent Crawford, Hannah … [Continue] The list went on, however Adam didn't need to continue, he saw what he needed to see. His name was on this list. He was scanned! What does that even mean? When was he scanned? Who scanned him? He has no recollection of ever being scanned! And worse yet, while he didn't recognize all the names in the list he did recognize some of them, they were all coworkers, like him, employees who handled whatever the company needed doing. Mary was the receptionist in the front office, Harper was an office worker who handled the accounting, Hanson worked in the legal offices, and Gabriel was a security guard for the facility. These people… were all his coworkers! Or at least some were. Why were they scanning them? What does this mean? He was growing a pit in his stomach. He still had unanswered questions, and now, more questions, but he had to read on, he needed to know the truth. So he selected the penultimate choice [Project Completion Rate] {Project has reached the 60% mark. All data from previous phases has proven useful in our experiments. Failures inform success, as they say. We are ready to begin full scale testing. Biochambers are being ordered and constructed as I type this up. Samples are collected and organized, we are ready to start phase four. Due to the Vault-Tec integration, progress has been halted until new biolab facilities have been set up, however in an isolated environment like the Vault I am confident that my team will produce results worthy of this project.] Unfortunately this had answered none of Adam's questions, new or otherwise. However it didn't help the pit in his stomach. He still was no closer to the truth than before but he still had one option left: [Project overview and goals] [Project Second Life is, in a nutshell, an attempt at immortality. Humans have devised many ways to achieve this but we here at Second Life have posited a new, more modern method of achieving this brave new frontier! Cloning! In this project we aim to create 4 different series of clones. To start, using the same technology we have used for the rest of our research, we plan to release Alpha and Beta series clones. Vat grown humans designed for one purpose! Alpha series clones are to be grown for combat, with superior genes for stamina, endurance, higher pain tolerance, and an ingrained desire to follow orders from a superior, we are even attempting to genetically encode memory engrams to create the perfect soldier! Beta series are much the same but with a different goal, Beta series are designed as servants, with a subservient nature, and knowledge and capability to handle all household tasks. With these two projects we aim to replace the need for clunky robots and offer a cheaper more sustainable alternative to such antiquated ideas! However these are nothing more than the side projects of our company. The true efforts are being poured into the Omega series. There are two types of Omega, type 1 and 2. While the names might not be catchy we assure their effects are! Type one is our golden project, our greatest effort, and our holy grail. Type ones are designed to be the perfect body, stronger, faster, able to heal faster using our Ouroborus Factor; a method wherein the healthy cells eat the dead cells in the body to regenerate, and a number of other upgrades to the forms! We expect a longer life span and a healthier body even without the need for exercise or good eating habits! When a VIP is on their deathbed, their brain shall be removed and planted in a waiting body of their specified type. After what will feel like a short nap, BOOM! You awake with a younger, healthier body! Like this we aim to achieve true immortality! However, we are not beyond the realities of the challenges we are faced with this lofty goal. So Type 2 Omega series is considered our current, more achievable target. Type 2 Omega series is much the same as Type One, providing superior bodies at a reduced price! The difference between the two is that your memories shall be scanned from your brain before death and then uploaded into the brain of the Vat grown body. When you pass away your new body will awaken, freely able to continue your work as if no time had passed! You will never truly die! Do not worry this procedure will be fully tested on willing test subjects from our own staff as well as outside volunteers before this procedure is offered to you! The Ouroboros Factor and other genetic benefits will be included free of charge! As an added benefit we shall include a homing instinct in all our Type Two units. This homing instinct will naturally guide you to Second Life HQ to receive you for questions and answers as well as medical checkups and any other services needed! While we do not yet know how this homing instinct will manifest itself, we believe it will likely emerge as a desire, anxiety, or excitement in some way. Do not fear, once you arrive at our headquarters the feeling will naturally fade away! We hope this project has intrigued you and that you will consider investing in our company! We have already turned a profit last quarter by a factor of ten! We here at Second Life have a motto: "Why live only once when your second life can be even better?" We hope to see you in your second life too!] There was silence in the room as Adam finished reading. His head was spinning and his breathing was getting labored. He was slow to piece everything together. It was hard to understand, nay, it was hard to accept. There was so much information he just read but… the Type Two… him being in the scanned list… the things mentioned about the Type Two.. the fact he woke up in the vault… the fact he was in a biochamber… the fact he felt he had to come to Second Life… Adam was going wide eyed as he slowly fell to the floor in an ungraceful way. His world was shrinking, the room was growing darker, the sounds in the room, that of Buddy clanking around, the wind blowing through the open window, the sound of the still on computer, all of it was fading away. Adam was shaking, the world was disappearing, he was having a hard time breathing, his mind was stuck on a loop, he couldn't think, he couldn't feel, he couldn't breathe. He felt like he was about to have a heart attack. The world was only him now. Nothing existed beyond himself, he curled up in a ball as he buried his head in his knees, the universe was only him, and it felt small, broken, he existed in a void as he spiralled deeper and deeper. The only thing that existed in this space was himself and the truth. The truth that was staring him in the face. The truth that had been right there since the beginning. He was a clone. He was not Adam Baxter.