Fallout: Commonwealth (Pt.1)

East Boston Prep had never been a place that Bastian enjoyed being. Not back when the nuns had it, and certainly not now. He wished he could have said he was surprised that raiders had taken up in the place, but the truth was that it made an amount of sense. After all, it was a structure that, despite the significant damage, was still large enough to be utilized by a decent number of people. The fact that Judge Zeller had moved his little 'army' into this place just meant that they had given him an unintended home-field advantage.

Oh, sure, the place was falling apart on the inside, and a full wing had been demolished by an airliner, but it wasn't as if the building itself had been restructured. He'd been in these halls for plenty of time as a teen. He'd been in trouble more than once for sneaking through the place. And Nora, bless her, had actually covered for him. Never did have to do it, but did it every time regardless. Was times like these that he missed her, but also had to admit that maybe... maybe it was best she not have to see the world change like it had. The Commonwealth had gone to hell and was no longer the home they once knew.

“You're fucking dead, you hear me!” Zeller shouted from behind the cover he'd taken around the corner. His goons had been wiped out already. Which left Bastian, Piper, and Zeller on this level. Roland had managed to get a large portion of the raiders that had been inside to chase him outside and into the rubble and wreckage.

“Ya think any raiders have a more expanded vocabulary, Blue?” Piper asked. She was on the opposite side of the hall that they were in, both of them having taken cover behind knocked-over lockers and a pile of debris in the middle.

Bastian glanced at her, then shrugged, “Doesn't really seem like their thing.” Both ducked down then as Zeller popped around the corner and opened up on them. The raider boss had already been wounded, but he was more than willing to keep up the fight. The former DIA agent looked toward his reporter partner, “You still have that Combat Rifle?”

She nodded and slid it to him, “Have a plan?”

“Think you can distract him?” He asked with a lowered voice, and though the look returned to him seemed to ask 'and how am I going to do that?', she nodded all the same. It was one of the things that he had found endearing about Piper – she was always willing to have a go of it, though not blindly.

As Bastian slid himself back down the debris pile on his belly, she removed her cap and slid it higher up the berm, along with the barrel of the Combat Shotgun he'd given her. Out of sight, he moved to the side of the berm, where it was dark and the pile wasn't so tall. A clear line of sight to the corner that Zeller kept popping around. He low-crawled into position in the grime and dark. As he did, Piper raised up the 10mm Pistol she was carrying and popped a few shots off as covering fire.

Good girl. You're learning. Bastian thought as Zeller ducked behind cover. Were the raider thinking, he might have realized the difference between the muzzles of a Combat Shotgun and a Combat Rifle, or more importantly the difference in sound between a 10mm and either a .308 or a shotgun shell, but he didn't seem to be in the 'situational awareness' kind of mindset. It suited Bastian just fine. He was ready by the time that Piper's magazine ran dry in the 10mm, and Zeller popped his head around the corner again. The circle of the .308 Combat Rifle's reflex sight was right over Zeller's head – and just as quickly his head was gone.

Zeller's head was shot clean away and the body pitched back on the floor. He raised a hand when Piper looked his way, as if to indicate for her to wait a moment more. Zeller was history, and he was pretty sure that the goons were too, but he wanted a few moments of quiet just in case. Once he was certain that there was nobody left, he stood up and lowered the rifle into a carry position.

“So, you seem to know this place pretty well.” Piper said as she stood, shouldering the shotgun and placing her cap back atop her head, “Why is that?”

“I'm an East Boston Prep Alum.” Bastian said with a little grin, “I'm old, remember?”

“Well, I know you're old.” Piper replied with a teasing look, “I just forget how old, is all.”

He countered with a playful glare and poked the tip of his tongue at her – which she also did in turn. “Brat.”

“You enjoy it.” She smirked, then glanced around as they headed toward where the captive caravan workers were being held, careful to mind the holes in the floor. “So... when did you graduate?” She had yet to actually ask his age, but she supposed this would net her the information.

“Nora and I both graduated from here in 2061, a year ahead of schedule, and she was valedictorian that year.” His smile was wide when he said this, obviously proud. Of course, the smile faltered in an instant when Piper asked the next question.

“You know, you talk about her a lot more than you talk about yourself. Why is that?”

He paused when they neared the entrance to the first captive's cage. “Apart from having lost her?” He said, with a touch more of an edge to his voice than he really intended. He saw the wince that happened when she heard the rebuke and glanced down. “Sorry. Still fresh, y'know?”

Piper nodded slightly, “Look, Blue, you don't need to tell me if-”

“No.” Bastian shook his head, “You asked, and you've already trusted me with things, so... I think it's time I reciprocate.” He moved to the first cage and began to pick the lock easily, and then continued on with the next couple cages' locks as he spoke.

“See... I don't talk about myself because... well... my sister is the one I'm proud of. Valedictorian; went to college, ended up a lawyer... helped people. Even became a mother. Then there's me. Graduated same time she did, mostly because I had help from her. Then I drifted around... crossed the country. Ran out of money and... well, did some things that I'm not proud of. Got life without parole, and I was only twenty-one at the time. An agent from the DIA came to see me, offered to get me out if I worked for them. Apparently, they had been watching me for a while.” He shrugged, “Started working for them in '65. It was just luck that I was back here in '77 when the bombs fell. You kinda know what happened after that.” He looked at her then as the last caravan worker headed out of the area, “So yeah. My sister was the good one. I'm just the one still here, helping my brother-in-law try to find what's left of a good thing.”

==X==X==X==

Cold. It was the first sensation that registered with him, cutting even through the haze his senses had been put under. It was a worse cold than he had ever felt; worse than Anchorage, even. His vision slowly returned a moment later, and a mild panic washed over him. Where the hell was he? It didn't take long for his memory to catch up. The cryostasis pod. The Vault – Vault 111. He let out a sigh of relief and relaxed for a moment, sitting there and resting as warmth returned to his body, little by little.

The relaxation didn't last overly long though before he noticed the sounds of muffled banging and leaned forward to try and look around. Nobody was around, except for the people in the other cryostasis pods. They were all banging on them as if they wanted to be let out. Desperation was clear on their faces. It was then that he noticed the air in his own pod had begun getting thin. And nobody from Vault-Tec seemed to be around. The pods weren't opening. They were all going to suffocate.

His own desperation began to fire his brain, and he began to think of how the hell he could get out of the pod. The military had used similar equipment to get troops with critical injuries from field hospitals back to proper hospital facilities on base. Those had been built by Med-Tek; these seemed to be very similar – if stationary and designed with a much longer duration in mind. But they likely had the same fail-safes. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his Gold-Plated Flip Lighter. It would take valuable oxygen, but if it worked, it would get the pod open. If it didn't, he was dead anyway.

He began to look around, keeping his breathing even but was jolted when he heard the muffled sound of a gunshot. It had come from outside the cryostasis chamber he was in, down the hall. He paused for a moment, wondering what the hell was going on – before he was galvanized by one thought: Nora. His twin was down here, as was his brother-in-law, and baby nephew. Vault-Tec was nowhere to be seen, the pods didn't seem intent on opening on their own, and now someone had discharged a weapon? Something was wrong. Very wrong.

He looked around again, this time finding the sensor inside the pod. He flipped the lighter open and got a flame soon enough. It wasn't very big, but he held it close to the sensor, and a moment later the fail-safe kicked in. The pod came open, and he sucked in a breath. At the same time, the flame of his lighter jumped high, and he dropped it when the heat intensified. It clattered down by his feet and then out onto the ground. His attention went toward it, and then up as he noticed movement. Someone walking down the hall carrying... a baby.

His eyes went wide. Shaun! Who the hell had him? And where were Nora and Roland? The person didn't look like they were Vault-Tec, for damn sure. He was about to try and move out of the pod for the first time when the pod suddenly shut and the cryostasis sequence began again. It was happening in his pod and the others – though the others looked like they had already succumbed to their lack of oxygen by the time it started again. The last thing he saw as he looked out the front of the pod was a man following the other, he assumed, technician down the hall outside the room.

He looked like a real hard case. Mercenary sort. Kind of like a guy he'd encountered once down in South Africa who was helping smugglers get diamonds out through the local port. Of course, that guy had been toting around a blued Tommy-gun. This guy wasn't the type to just spray lead. The bearing was different. No, he was sure, this guy was a gun-hand. He couldn't see the weapon that the man carried, but he had no doubt that the single shot he'd heard had been fired by this man.

Sadness, dread, and rage all washed through him in an instant. One shot had been fired. One of those technicians had Shaun. Nora wasn't present. It all pointed to one primary series of events, and if he was right in his deduction... this man would pay.

Dearly.

==X==X==X==

The next thing he knew, that same cold sensation returned, but this time his mind knew well what it was. He was coming out of cryostasis. The pod had been activated again, though he didn't know by who, or why this time. The thaw finished, and then the pod actually opened, which came as both a relative shock and a relief to him. He'd dropped the lighter the last time and the pod had shut before he could retrieve it.

When he felt he was able to move, he took a slow step out of the pod and glanced around, feeling mildly disoriented. Just as he had feared, the other occupants of Vault 111, at least the ones he could see in the immediate vicinity, had suffocated. But their pods were, oddly, still active. The life support systems seemed to have been shut off, just as his had been, but the cryostasis functions were operational. He glanced down then and spotted his lighter, squatting down to pick it up. When he did, he brushed the layer of dust that had formed on it on the leg of his Vault Suit, then flipped it open and shut a couple of times and lit it up for a short moment to test it.

Seeing it was still good to go, he slipped it into his pocket and headed toward the hall. As he did, he felt it come back to him. The rest of the incident from the last time he'd woken up in that pod. Nora! He broke into a run and reached the hall, then went to the right, heading toward the other pods that Nora, Roland, and Shaun had been put in. As he moved, he reached the rows of pods and felt his heart drop. There stood Roland, with Nora's lifeless hand held in his as he removed her wedding ring.

Something possessed him in that moment, though he knew not what to call it. Looking back, he would one day say a 'passion of anger' had seized hold of him. He sprinted at Roland, nearly colliding with him, but stopping short. He grabbed his shoulder, turned him, and then dug his fingers into the other man's Vault Suit, and shook him by it. “What happened, Roland? What the fuck happened to my sister?!”

Roland hardly seemed to react for a moment. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but the words wouldn't form. Bastian's knuckles cracked as his fists clenched tighter in the material, and tears formed in his eyes. Then he glanced to the side, seeing his sister and the method of her slaying. She'd been shot, straight through the heart. He then glanced toward Roland, shoving him back, and then turned in an instant and slammed his hand down on her pod's controls, sealing it. He watched for a moment as the cryostasis resumed, just as it had for the others in this Vault turned Tomb... and then he leaned his head against the glass, and wept.

It was only as his tears began to fall that Roland finally found his voice. “He killed her right in front of me, Bastian. I was less than ten feet away, and I couldn't do anything to stop them...” He swallowed, his voice becoming more firm, “And they took Shaun. They shot her so they could take him. We have to get out of here and go find him... and I'm going to need your help to do that. My son... he needs us.”

Slowly, the tears stopped, and Bastian wiped them away, nodding his head. “I saw the guy. As they were leaving, I got a look at him. Looked like a Merc', from how he moved, but I didn't get a good look at his face. Probably escorting those other two that looked like technicians.”

Roland nodded, stepping up beside him and putting a hand on his shoulder, “And that's why I need you with me. Now let's find a way out of this place.”

Bastian was quiet for a moment before standing straight and slowly nodding. He said nothing but Roland could tell that the other man held no intention at the moment of taking point. Back in Anchorage, that would have been different. When they were up against the Chinese, the native Bostonian was always willing to stir up trouble – in his own ways, of course, but willing regardless. Seeing him sullen was strange.

Roland took the lead and Bastian followed behind him, though he paused as they reached the end of the hall. One door went to another cryostasis chamber, while the other went down a set of stairs. The path immediately before them was blocked by a sealed door that couldn't be opened from this side because the door seemed to be busted. So... stairs it was. They didn't go far beyond that when they both stopped dead in their tracks. They stared for a moment, not sure if they were really seeing what was before them.

“Bastian, you see that too, right?” Roland asked.

“Oh good... it's not just me.” Bastian replied. Before them, on the other side of a window, was a roach easily the size of a football. “I didn't think something like that existed outside a jungle.”

“You don't think giant bugs are a thing now, do you?”

“I'm kind of hoping that's just a random freak of nature.”

Only a few yards farther on, they found where security seemed to have been based out of. The room was scoured, though all that was found were a couple Security Batons, a cigarette, cigar box, pencil, battered clipboard and scraps of paper, a stimpack, and backpacks for both of them.

“Not much, is it?” Roland remarked as he looked over the little bit they'd found.

“No, no it isn't.” Bastian said, though he seemed distracted as he looked toward the terminal in the room. Something was bugging him. He had no idea what had gone on while they were out – either time. He sat in the chair before the terminal and began to access it.

“What are you doing?”

“Seeing if I can find out what happened. Vault-Tec obviously hasn't been around in a while. Maybe something on these terminals will shed some light on our situation.”

Roland waited patiently, or at least as patiently as he could, and passed his time practicing striking with the baton. He'd just about given up being patient when Bastian finally spoke.

“Rotten bastards...” He breathed the words out, then scowled, “This Vault was a death trap.”

Roland blinked, “What do you mean?”

Bastian turned his head to look at him, “The place only had enough rations for about six months.”

“What?” Roland asked incredulously, “That isn't even enough time for the radiation levels to go down. Are you sure?”

“Says it right here.” Bastian thumbed to the terminal, “The Overseer had a mutiny on their hands by then. It was either wait for the all-clear from Vault-Tec or open the Vault. The all-clear never came. Granted, considering the Chinese were able to nuke Boston, Vault-Tec probably got blown away, too, if the Chinese got as far south as the Capital. Either way, looks like that's why nobody else seems to be around.”

“We don't know that yet. Someone might be here still. I mean... we don't even know what time of day it is. Maybe they're just asleep.” Roland pointed out, though even he had his doubts about that. The Vault didn't look like it had been maintained well, which meant either the staff was slacking, or the staff was gone. Not to mention the fact that the security room had been trashed.

The two shared a look of agreement – what he had said was possible, but not at all likely.

Bastian looked back to the terminal, grabbed the clipboard and pencil, and began taking notes on the paper that was in the room.

Roland glared at him, “Bastian, quite wasting time. We need to get out of here.”

Bastian paused in what he was doing, and looked over at Roland, “I know we do, but...” He thought for a moment. He wanted to run out of this damn place and go find who had shot Nora. He wanted to make them pay for hurting her. They both did.

But at the same time, despite his emotions, his training was telling him to slow down.

“...We need intel, Ro'. And we need to keep track of it, somehow. We don't really know what our situation is. All we know is Nora was shot, Shaun was snatched, Vault-Tec seems to be long gone, and we saw a giant roach.”

Roland relented after a moment more, nodding in agreement. While he may have wanted to go kill that bastard and get his son back, he knew that they had no idea how long it had actually been – not only since they were put into cryostasis the first time, but how long it had been since Shaun had been taken. They needed information, and potentially a lot of it.

“You know, Bastian, I think we might need something better than these.” He held up the Security Baton he was holding, “They're quick, but... if there are more of those roaches, more than just one, we might need something else.”

Bastian nodded as he copied down the information from the terminal, “I hear ya. But there aren't any other weapons in here.”

Roland thought for a second or two, “That's true... but by that busted door there was a Ball-Peen Hammer. An Adjustable Wrench, too, if I remember right. Better than just whacking then with an extendable baton.”

He wasn't wrong. The Security Batons were certainly fast, but a hammer and a wrench with some weight on the end were better options.

“Let's go back and grab what might be useful before we go too much farther. We rush this, and it might be to our detriment.” Bastian said once he was done taking notes.

The two divided what they'd found in the room, Roland taking the Cigarette, Cigar Box, and Stimpack, while Bastian took the Pencil, Battered Clipboard, and scraps of paper he'd been using for notes. Then they headed back, grabbing the tools: an Adjustable Wrench, Ball-Peen Hammer, Screwdriver, and Wrench. Bastian went back into the cryostasis room he'd woken up in and looked around, finding another Vault 111 Jumpsuit. They divided what they gathered once more, this time Roland getting the Adjustable Wrench and Ball-Peen hammer, while Bastian got both of the Security Batons, Screwdriver, Wrench, and the jumpsuit.

“Why do you want both of the batons?” Roland asked as they put the gear in their packs, both of them sliding their weapons into their pockets.

Bastian went a little shifty-eyed, “Well... because...” He put his backpack on again and pulled out the batons, “...I like doing this...” He flicked the batons so they both extended.

“...Really?”

“What?”

Roland shook his head, “That everything?”

“I think so.” Bastian replied, pressing the tips of the batons against his thighs to compress them again, and slipping them back in his pockets.

“Alright... let's get going.”

Moving once more, they made their way toward the cafeteria, halting when they saw another roach. Just as big as the first they had seen, and directly in their path.

“So much for being a freak of nature.” Roland said as they glanced at one another.

“You want to take the first crack at it?” Bastian asked, “You have the hammer.”

Roland turned his head to look at Bastian, “You chose to take the batons.”

Bastian turned to look at Roland, “So? I'm just saying, I think you're better equipped.”

Before this could go on much longer, however, they both heard scuttling and the rapid ruffling of insectoid wings. Both turned to look in the direction of the sound, only to see the giant roach scurrying toward them. Both backed up a couple of steps as it drew near – only for it to jump and try to fly at them, mandibles spread wide. Roland reacted on instinct, and swung the hammer, slamming it into the bug's carapace. It was splattered – not only on the hammer, and on the ground, but bug juice sprayed on both of them as well.

“Oh, that's... nasty...” Bastian said, spitting out a little of the juice that had ended up in his mouth.

“Well... at least they aren't hard to kill...” Roland said as he wiped his face off with the hand that was still relatively clean.

They continued forward to the cafeteria, and upon reaching it, were relatively surprised that they didn't see more of the football-sized insects in here. Though, considering what the terminal had said about running low on food, perhaps it shouldn't have been all that surprising. Supplies here were meager at best, but there was something that Bastian stumbled across that made him chuckle a little.

“What is it?” Roland asked when he heard his brother-in-law sounding amused, and began stepping toward the terminal that Bastian sat in front of.

“Look.” He said, pointing toward the screen. Upon it was an arcade game. Red Menace. “They had this set up to be a recreation terminal.”

“Any idea when they last accessed the game?”

Bastian shook his head, “Nah. None of the scores have dates next to them. It doesn't look like anyone has been down here in some time.” He stood, and popped the holotape out of the terminal, slipping it into his backpack, “Think I'm gonna keep this, though.”

Roland raised a brow, “...Really?”

“What?” Bastian asked, “I like games. And yeah, we have important things to get done, but think about it... There's going to be downtime when we need to rest and relax, and frankly... we don't have any books to read at the moment, so... why not a game? If my old PipBoy is still in my apartment over in Concord, I should be able to play this on it.”

Roland rolled his eyes but said nothing more about it. If his brother-in-law wanted to carry around a video game, what was the point in arguing about it? It wasn't like it would really have a negative impact on things. It wasn't long before they moved to the reactor room, where they had seen that football-sized roach the first time. Looked like it had been damaged, or if not damaged, certainly hadn't been maintained. Arcs of electricity sparked from it here and there in the middle of the reactor room, though the walkway around it seemed safe enough. However, there were more of those roaches.

The two men could hear them skittering to and fro in the distance, across the room. None of them were particularly large, but they were certainly bigger than either of them would have liked to deal with. And, of course, the walkway wasn't wide enough for them both to fight on it without getting in eachother's way. They looked to one another, and after a quick game of ro-sham-bo, Bastian was the one that had to take the lead this time.

“I really have to do this, don't I?”

“I killed the last one.”

“Fine, but you get the next batch.”

Bastian looked over where the roaches were and made a decision. He didn't want them coming at him. But if he took them by surprise, he might be able to kill the little bastards quickly. So, with that in mind, he ran along the walkway toward them. Roland blinked a little bit at the sight of his brother-in-law charging the oversized roaches. The first one got kicked against the wall, and he just jumped on the second one, splattering it. The last one made to jump at him, but by now the batons were out, and he smacked it like he was swatting a fly. It gushed when he did.

“Oh my god!” Bastian shouted in disgust, “They're juicy! Why are they so juicy?!” He heard the first one he had kicked starting to try and get up again, and turned, slamming his foot down on its underside, spattering it. “You totally are killing the next ones!”

Roland, for his part, was waiting for him to be done. “No problem.”

There were a few more of the oversized bugs on the way to the Overseer's Office, but they were handled in much the same way as the first few had been. Upon reaching the office, they set to scrounging up whatever supplies that they could. The most encouraging finds were a few stimpacks and a couple of 10mm Pistols, with ammunition. A unique sort of gun case was by one of them, and information found in the Overseer's terminal described the weapon. A... Cryolator. Apparently, it could freeze targets, similar to flash-freezing something. Unfortunately, there were no keys and the case wasn't connected to a terminal to provide another way to open it.

“Any other way to get in, do you think?” Roland asked as the two looked at the weapon.

“If I had some bobby pins, I could try picking the lock, but... well, haven't found any yet.” Bastian shrugged, and then turned, “Can always come back for it.” He said as he headed toward the Overseer's terminal again. He scrolled through things, looking through entries to see if there was any more information on what had happened while they'd been under. And there certainly was.

“Find anything interesting?”

Bastian nodded, “Yeah. Looks like the Overseer was well aware that they'd be walking out into a radioactive hell, and didn't want to open the vault. I can't imagine what was going through this guy's head though. He must have known beforehand that something was off. They only had six months' worth of supplies. Even if Vault-Tec sent some kind of all-clear, they couldn't leave the vault. Not without radiation suits.”

“Maybe they had some? Though... admittedly, I don't remember seeing any on the way in. Just jumpsuits and lab coats. Why would Vault-Tec give them these orders, and so little supplies?”

“Not sure... though it doesn't sound from any of the entries that the company particularly cared much for what happened to anyone in the cryostasis pods.” He scowled, “Good riddance.”

A little more investigation on the terminal and he found the controls for the Overseer's escape tunnel. They had accessed it a moment later, and soon enough were on their way to the controls for the vault door. Of course, upon entering the door control room, they found it oddly in a similar condition to when they had last seen it. Boxes that had once held vault suits were here and there, as well as trays. The vault door was closed. It all looked as if the room had been all but abandoned after the day they arrived in the vault.

All, except for the skeleton of one of the science team members next to the vault door's controls. Roland stepped over, crouching down beside the body while Bastian inspected the door that they had gone through the day they arrived. When he toggled the controls, it opened just fine.

“Guess it wasn't broken after all. Just sealed from this side so nobody could leave.” Bastian said, looking back toward Roland.

“Yeah, and this guy was definitely shot. Hard to tell when. There are holes in the front and back of his coat. Ten millimeters, it looks like.” Roland replied, and then looked at the controls for the vault door, then down at the scientist's arm. Upon it was a PipBoy. “He might have been here to keep the door sealed... or to shut it again after the others left.” It was difficult to tell which. Either way, he was dead, and the door was shut.

Reaching down, Roland picked up the PipBoy and grimaced slightly as the skeletal arm came along with it. He tilted it sideways and the skeletal arm dropped out before he put it on his own. Then he looked to Bastian, seeing him pick up a vault suit that had been left in the room, still folded up. “You ready to get out of here?”

“Yeah, I'm ready. Crack her open.” He said, putting the vault suit into his backpack.

Roland did so as Bastian stepped over to the extendable catwalk, and both men watched as the mechanical arm moved to attach itself to the vault door. Alarms sounded to warn of the door being opened, but they paid little mind to the annoying little klaxon. Both winced though as the horrible screech of metal sliding against metal met their ears, but soon enough the door rolled away and the catwalk extended. From there, it was just a short elevator ride to the surface, and they would see what had become of their home.

As they rode the elevator up, Bastian quoted a verse. “And he cried in a loud voice, 'Lazarus, come forth!'...”

After a moment, as they neared the top, Roland finished it as he looked skyward, his voice quiet, reverential, “...And Lazarus did arise from the grave.”