Chapter 29 The Horror of Vault X

Rosie woke two hours later, John sleeping in a sheet tied between the shelving. With the iv bags drained, She went to the washroom and used a subroutine to make herself vomit. Far preferable than doing it in the suit.

Virgil had woken John by the time she returned. “You good?” John asked, focused and ready.

“Ready.” She put the thought of sunlight on her face from her mind.

“Come on.” Virgil put his head down and pushed into the dark.

They came to the water purification room. Rosie marvelled at the ingenuity of what Virgil had done. Effectively turning it inside out, cleaning the water above, giving life a foot hold.

The gear had been placed in a body bag, then inflated, held in a plastic tube frame. Virgil opened the hatch in the water pipe, filling the room with a whooshing rumble.

“Straight shot, and it’s warm. Head down, there’s a gantry near the warhead. Get there, find the manual aperture override. I’ll be right behind you.” Virgil helped her up the ladder. She took a moment and swung into the vent sized pipe.

The current took her along at a steady pace. She kept her eyes closed, not that it made a difference. Her rational brain got her through, knowing that she would soon be free, as long as she didn’t panic. Soon enough the water grew cold and she felt the pressure shift.

It took a moment for Rosie to orient herself, By the time she did John appeared, she gave him a thumbs up and got one in return. Rosie tucked in her legs, and dove deeper into the dark.

She made it to the manual override, yanking the hydraulic pump arm free. Rosie charged the hydraulic arm again and again, switching off with John. She ascended, arms straight, legs kicking in unison. Her light picked up movement as Virgil entered the flooded launch tube. Behind him the gear bag inflated fully and floated up.

She tapped John twice and he slammed the pump arm up, reaching the pressure needed for a steel disc to slide together above them.

Virgil tugged the wheel on the hatch. Water ripping it from his grasp the moment it opened. The draining pulled her close enough to get through, followed by John and Virgil.

Water stopped cascading down the three storey high gantry. Her light swept along the natural rock ceiling, enclosing a cavernous space. Rows of control stations along the ground. Towering steel missiles lined the back wall, still looking new.

Virgil led them down into the exhaust tunnels. Thick concrete walls, angled to vector the blast. A ladder took them down into a room with a single thick window and heavy door. “No!” Virgil slammed his fist on the glass. Nothing remained inside.

“What now?” She asked, not prepared to give up.

“We’ll have to check…” Virgil turned, climbing back up. “Come on.”

A large, rectangular blast door stood in their way, sealed long ago. Three feet of reinforced concrete, held in place with thick metal locking pins, top and bottom.

“Alright Red,” Virgil started typing on the terminal by the blast door, pointing to one on the other side. “Time to show ‘em why they pay us the big bucks.”

Virgil built digital bombs on one terminal. Rosie made holes for them in the multilayered, shifting firewall. The military grade encryption proved a formidable foe, never falling for the same trick twice. She kept seeing the same dormant protocol popping up.

“I’ve found a way in, there’s a protocol with access.” She glanced back at the name. “Omega.”

“No!” Virgil yelled, glaring at her, only he didn’t look angry. He looked afraid. A cold shiver ran through her. Rosie didn’t protest, and got back to her task.

“That’s it!” Virgil left his terminal and stood peering over her shoulder. It took Rosie half a minute to finish. She turned to look at Virgil, finger hovering over the enter key. “Do it.” She hit the key and stepped back.

The faint glow from the terminal shut off, leaving them in the pitch black darkness she hated. Rosie felt John take her hand.

A faint hum crept in from below, slowly building in volume. Control stations whirred into life, row by row. Spot lamps above shone. Half of them popping with an electric hiss then raining down glass shards. One by one, lights from below illuminated the ballistic missiles. Towering and exalted like statues of ancient gods.

“Omega protocol active.” A synthetic female voice announced from loud speakers above. “New user login required.”

“No! No, no, no.” Virgil raced to the now active control terminals.

“I didn’t touch it, I swear.” Rosie followed, certain she hadn’t accessed the protocol.

“It shouldn’t be active, it’s not possible.” Virgil shut his eyes, thinking intently. “User Blake, Burton.” He looked at her with shame, hanging his head as he spoke. "You cannot hope to build a better world without improving the individuals.”

“Error. User Blake, Burton is deceased.” Virgil lashed out. He slammed his fist against the station again and again. John put himself in front of her as Virgil raged in a savage, near feral state.

“New user. Powell, Rosie.” She said aloud, knowing if Virgil had any other ideas he wouldn’t be breaking things.

“Confirmed.” The disembodied, artificial voice responded. “Select passphrase.”

“Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt.”

“Confirmed. Awaiting targets.” Everything went silent.

Rosie got a notification in the corner of her vision. A symbol she recognised from her science book. She raised her arm as a projection floated above it. A spinning globe with the names of cities she’d never heard of. Red arcs cresting from a single point. Rosie began to understand the power she just inherited. She could wipe these cities off the map with a snap of her fingers.

“Now I am become death, destroyer of worlds.” Virgil stayed slumped on the floor, his voice heavy with guilt. Rosie knew the quote. Knew the man that said it. And knew why Virgil cut his arm off.

“I don’t want it.” Rosie couldn’t handle it, her mind calculating numbers that only terrified her more. “Please,” She fell to her knees beside Virgil, his expression vacant. “I don’t want it.”

“Omega protocol. As long as it picks up a heartbeat, it stays active.” Virgil stared blankly ahead. “It’s designed that way on purpose, so they could fight to the last man.”

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

“There must be some way.” Rosie begged for an idea, a solution from the old world genius. He looked at her without hope.

“Give it to me.” John stood next to her, offering her a hand up and a way out of the nightmare unfolding before her. “Transfer it to me. I’ll take it from you.” She took his hand and stood.

“I can’t ask you to do that.” She loved him for just offering.

"You didn’t.” He pulled her close. “I can carry this Rosie. For you.” She rested her head on his chest, listening to his heartbeat. Steady and true, like always.

It took a few minutes to set up the transfer. “Alright, go ahead.” Rosie turned to John.

“New user. Blake, John.” He spoke without hesitation.

“Confirmed. Select passphrase.” The computer responded.

“Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” John chose a quote that brought tears to her eyes. She’d always been a fighter, always had the strength to rebel and push back. She’d never had the strength John did. The strength to endure. The force of will to do the right thing, despite the cost.

“Confirmed. New secondary user active.” The voice confirmed the transfer.

“Secondary user?!” Virgil sprang to his feet. “Identify primary user.”

“Primary user. Shaw, Andrew.” Virgil stepped back, stunned and horrified.

“It can’t be. Dear God.” Virgil closed his eyes, whispering under his breath. “I need you to stay here.”

“No.” Rosie looked to John, getting a nod. “We’re coming with you.” Rosie wouldn’t have let him out of her sight this morning out of mistrust. Now she wouldn’t let him out of her sight to keep him safe.

With access granted, the blast door opened with a keystroke. Thick locking pins retracted, solid looking concrete separated. Light spilled out into the pitch black corridor beyond.

The light cut off where the corridor dipped. Rosie felt the dark pulling her under. She padded silently ahead, her torch beam on the ground, the rads climbing the more they descended.

Soon the floor became level, a long corridor ahead. Something insect like showed in the beam, freezing her in place. Slowly she panned the light across, seeing not legs, but fingers. Then a hand, an arm. Bones jet black, and a pipboy just like hers. She crouched to get it, but it didn’t even switch on.

Rosie had to look closer, knowing that her bones looked like this. No trace of white to be seen. A latticework of black between the ribs. Hair thin filaments the shape of an iris in the empty eye socket. Rosie lifted the shut down pipboy with the tip of her knife, able to see through. A twisted pillar of black grown from the back of the device, fusing to the bone.

Spent casings began to litter the corridor. Rows of bullet holes dotted the walls. Windows fractured and smeared with blood. Then came more black boned skeletons. Some had their heads turned almost backwards. More than one had a combat knife driven through their eye socket.

“They turned on each other.” Rosie whispered, trying to make sense of the brutality.

“No, they loved each other like family.” Virgil sounded pained. “The lights I used, I designed them to create a calm, suggestible state. Shaw, he used it to order them to come and get me. Once the violence started, the devices took charge. I turned them into puppets and forced them to kill their brothers and sisters.”

“You weren’t to know.” Rosie tried to find something to say, hearing how hollow it sounded.

“That’s just it Red. I didn’t know. And I did it anyway. People look at me and see a monster, but I was a monster long before I looked like one.” Virgil stopped, overcome with guilt.

“You’re not a monster.” Rosie swept her light to find Virgil, getting close enough to see his eyes. “I’ve seen monsters, up close. The thing that makes them monsters is they think they’re heroes.” She thought about the Overseer. The Red Hand. The Elder that betrayed John. And Jones. “You didn’t set out to hurt anyone. You didn’t benefit from any of this. And you came back here to help us. Maybe it doesn’t make it right, but it’s not nothing.”

“I…” Virgil couldn’t speak, he simply placed a hand on her shoulder and bowed his head for a moment. “Come on, not far now.”

A few minutes later, Virgil stopped at a metal door left ajar. John stacked by the door, taking point. He eased the door half open. John went left, she went right. She swept the beam across more skeletons. Some cut down while wearing backpacks, leaving them sat up on the ground. Rosie saw a carbine, still clasped in black boned fingers. She blinked the light to get John’s attention, then pried the carbine free.

“Cover me while I check these packs.” She whispered, handing him the carbine.

Without thinking, John checked the magazine and slid the bolt forward. At first Rosie thought she heard the echo of the unmistakable metallic clack. Then she heard it again, and again, and again. She swept the beam along the ground, finding an empty space where a skeleton had lain.

Soon the clacking from the dark began to come in pairs, edging nearer. Rosie moved close to John, drawing his pistol for herself. She panned the beam the breadth of the room. The round circle of light fell upon a jet black skull, stood motionless. Then it’s jaw opened and shut, clacking twice.

She felt John tense to shoot, but pulled him back. As she did, her leg bumped a work table, knocking over an ammo tin. Suddenly a black skeleton lunged at her from the dark.

Rosie slipped into the dreamlike state, spinning away in the slowed time. Only for the skeleton to move just as quick. Muzzle flash lit the room in snapshots as John fired. Every flare lit another blink fast attack to be dodged.

She sensed intent behind the feral rage. The clawed slashes began to separate her from John. Rosie went on the offensive. She blocked a blow with her pipboy, taking the attacking arm by the wrist and spinning. A palm strike at the ragged clump of flesh around the elbow snapped the bony arm off. Taking the pipboy with it. The twice dead bones clattered to the ground.

Rosie instantly found herself fending off slashing strikes from all sides. A point blank shot in the eye put one down. Another finished with a strike to the neck as she swerved its attack. She ducked a swipe, staying low and firing up under the ribcage to drop one more. Still they came.

A talon like grip clamped onto her shoulder, dragging her down. The same grip locked tight around Rosie’s throat, making her gasp for breath that wouldn’t come. She stared into the sunken black sockets and saw nothing. No trace of humanity, completely lifeless. It terrified her, knowing the same code driving the savage attack drove her as well.

Seconds felt like minutes in the death grip. Until a boot struck the side of black skull so hard it snapped the neck. Rosie gasped for stale air as John pulled her up. They stood back to back, waiting for the next onslaught. Nothing moved.

“John!” Virgil yelled. “Here, take it and get topside, now.” He slid a pack across the ground.

“We go together.” Rosie demanded, not willing to leave him behind.

“There’s something...else down here. I can feel it.” Virgil could sense the radiation shifting in the dark.

Something began to emerge from the pitch black. Hazy, green light that seemed to advance on them. The light coalesced around a human shape. Bones not entirely black, the spaces left glowing bright green.

“Get her out John. This is my fight.” Virgil walked ahead of them, shouting to draw the luminous creature. “Shaw!” Rosie felt John grab her, dragging her out.

“Stop, stop!” Rosie pulled free in the corridor. John turned, his face slashed in the attack. “We have to help him.” She could see the pain in his eyes.

“How?” He sounded hopeless. Rosie brought up the scan from her mapping pulses, too garbled by radiation to be of use. Thinking on her feet, Rosie darted for the nearest skeleton. She connected the wireless four pin and pulled the mapping data.

“We go through these rooms.” Rosie ran to a door, heaving it open. She powered through the room ignoring the eight odd looking chairs, pushing into the firing range.

She sprinted along the target side of the range, hopping through the stall. “Get a weapon.” John rattled through the rack of long guns as Rosie scored the opaque glass with her knife.

“Stood ready.” John gripped a carbine. Rosie stepped back and he fired a deafening burst across the glass. Bullets skipping off and ricocheting down range.

“Kick it!” Rosie kicked at the waist high glass, as did John. "Again!" They soon found a rhythm and one last kick broke away the glass.

John fired into the room, drawing the frenzied, incandescent creature. It zipped one way then the other, zigzagging with bursts of blink fast speed. Rosie scrambled for a weapon from the rack, forcing the tremor from her hands she aimed through a cracked and grimy scope. She caught glimpses of streaking green, shifting to get ahead of it. Then she fired, hitting the glowing flesh around the knee and severing the leg.

She watched through the scope as the creature thrashed. Until Virgil drove the spike from his arm through the glowing bone at the temple.

“Thought I told you to leave.” Virgil half joked as climbed through the broken window.

“I don’t take orders from you.” Rosie quipped. “Or him.” She turned to look at John, seeing him pale, bleeding and woozy. “We need to go.

“I’ll get him patched up.” Virgil took the pack from John, steadying him with arm round his waist. “I need a favour, it’ll help some people." Rosie nodded.