Chapter 2

Words : 1558 Updated : Sep 9th, 2025

His explorations through the hallway outside the Overseer's office revealed a sign that read "Reactor room" "Overseer's office" "Living Quarters" "Armory" "Decontamination room" How he had missed signs earlier as he wandered around was beyond him, but likely the maze like structure of this subterranean dwelling had confused him. But that was just an excuse, most likely he simply didn't notice before. But he was more ready to leave now than ever, so he decided to head to the decontamination room, his thoughts were that the only reason one would enter decontamination was to remove radiation from entering the vault. In addition to that the armory was in the same direction so it seemed as good a plan as any, not like he had any other ideas in mind. After stumbling through the dimly lit hallways of the vault for a while longer he finally stumbled upon the armory, and more importantly the decontamination room and vault door separating him from his freedom. He could see, through massive thick panes of plexiglass, the giant vault door that remained sealed, but little else besides that, it seemed that the exit room was pretty dark, no warning lights were in this room, or at least, no warning lights that were on, nor did it seem like the power that dimly lit the rest of the vault reached this far. But the decontamination room was connecting the hallway to the exit, so it seems his hunch was right. However, before he would brave whatever lay in the outside world he decided to check the armory right next to him to see if he could find anything useful which… there was nothing. The armory was picked clean, every locker, every case, ever drawer, was empty. The only thing that was still in the room was a vault Jacket sitting overtop the back of the chair overlooking the exit to the vault and an empty Nuka-Cola bottle and bottle cap sitting next to it. So useless junk. The jacket was of interest but not worth getting excited over, so instead he focused his efforts on leaving. Walking through the giant sprayers at the entrance to the vault for decontamination, they were, predictably, turned off, so it was uneventful, but the room was so dark it was hard to see. But he did notice a light on his pip-boy, so figured there must be a way to use it like a flashlight. After a minute of tinkering he figured it out and switched on his pip-boy light only to be met with a gruesome scene. Bodies, lots of bodies, lined up side by side row after row. Well bodies are a bit much, they were all skeletons, comedically wearing clothes as if some game designer dressed up a halloween skeleton and dropped it down to create a little scene. But it was anything but funny. It was horrifying. There was no doubt in Adam's mind that these men were executed. Lined up and shot in rows of men. Almost all of them were scientists, wearing lab coats of some fashion, but there were one or two guards in the mix as well, but they were few and far between. As if to give credence to his theory he looked down and saw the spent shell casings from bullets fired, small caliber mostly right below his feet. That proved it, this was a mass grave for executions. Perhaps, if he were to speculate, the scientists who were conducting these human experiments were rounded up by the residents and killed for their crimes before they left the vault. The few guard bodies intermixed among them suggests that either there were few guards in this vault to begin with and they were killed too. Or, as the Overseer speculated, the guards were helping the residents and when the breakout occurred the guards sided with the residents. It was a theory but it seemed like a good one. He could probably find more explanations to what was going on in the vault if he explored more, but right now, all he wanted to do was leave. But before he turned to the vault door panel he stopped and looked at one of the few guard bodies. They were still wearing a bulletproof vault-tec imprinted vest and pistol holster. It seemed wrong to rob the dead, but he wanted to be prepared for whatever lay beyond the vault door, worst case he could leave it behind, but he didn't especially plan to come back again. So, after steeling himself for a moment, he stepped into the mass grave and pulled free the vest from the dead body of a guard and then unclipped the holster from the belt and clipped it onto his own. After that he swiftly got out from the center of the piles of skeletons and threw the bulletproof vest on. He chose not to dwell on its previous owner, grave robbing was bad enough, but wearing a dead man's clothes didn't sit well with him. Still it was the safest choice, he was sure of that. As he walked over to the vault control panel he noted a port where a corded jack could connect, usually used on computers or security systems, often even robots, and then noticed that his pip-boy too had the same jack. So he pulled it out, noting that the cord was coiled around the inside so it could extend further than he thought, and then plugged it in and hit the big red button. The room whirred to life. Sirens blared, the formerly dead red lights blinked to life and spun concerningly and the door hissed with a great force. Slowly, the vault door began to open, rolling off to the side. It seemed the entrance and exit had its own power system so it was safe from the brownouts throughout the rest of the Vault? He was unsure, but truthfully it didn't matter nor did he care, all he wanted to do was get out of this metal prison. And so he walked through. He emerged through the other side of the vault door into a small cave. As soon as he stepped through he was met with more skeletons sitting on the other side of the heavy metal gear shaped door. They were not Vault-Tec related, if anything, based on their positioning, they seemed to have been begging to get into the vault from the outside, perhaps dying of hunger or exposure before getting in. What was going on in the outside that led to these people dying here like this? Was the world truly gone? With these questions circling his mind he could hear the hissing sound of the vault door again from behind him, an automatic shutting sequence, he watches for the 20 seconds it takes to fully close again before once more steeling himself to get out and see what has happened to the world he knew. He walked through the cavernous pathway, carefully stepping over another skeleton of a long dead person who was in the middle of the narrow path, until he came to a small metal door that lay open. Walking through this last doorway he emerged into a world he did not recognize. It was destroyed, the area immediately around him was the remains of what once was a town, Clearly destroyed by both the ravages of time as well as… the bombs. "The world has ended…." He mutters softly to himself as he takes in the horrific view around him. The foundations of each former home remained but each building now was nothing more than a crumbling visage of what once was. Some buildings still stood, though barely, and with holes and broken walls and panes of glass. But others were nothing more than rubble. It didn't look as if the bombs had fallen here, but it did look as if the bombs had fallen and the surrounding areas had fallen due to societal collapse. This was the stuff nightmares were made of. He remembered the newscasters talking about this sort of apocalyptic event, and to his horror, they were right. But he had no time to dawdle, his geiger counter on his pip-boy was clicking, not very fast, but enough he knew he had to vacate the area. So he walked, still unsure of exactly where he was until he accidently heard the sound of something other than dirt. Metal, as it turned out, underneath his boots. Looking down he noted the green sign seemingly half buried under the dirt. Wiping away as much of it as he could he was quick to try to read what was written on the sign. Welcome to Naperville Shit. He knew where he was. He pauses as he stops to look around. His geiger counter was no longer clicking so it was safe to stop but he needed a moment to collect his thoughts. He hadn't gone far. He was right close to home. Right where he grew up, studied, played, and found his first love. Despite the harrowing experience he just went through and how he still has no answers to how he ended up in the Vault, he was near where he last remembered being. He was outside Chicago.

Chapter 2

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