Fallout

*Note to the Readers: If you are going to comment on this please dont just leave a comment that says, "good job". Please leave a real comment stating what you did and didnt like about the story and what i should work on. That way i really know if you have been reading my novels! And also, I will not update any chapters until each chapter gets 20 views and 10 different comments!

Prologue

Saturday October 23, 2077

I lay in bed staring at the clock as the digits turned from 5:59 to 6:00. I had not gotten an ounce of sleep at all. How could I with all the anxiousness I was feeling.

Today was the day, the day I had been waiting for since I heard the news last January when Communist China had been forced out of Anchorage and the Alaskan front line was reclaimed by American forces.

Ever since that day that I heard the U.S had won the battle of Anchorage, I had wanted to sign up for the U.S Marines. Today was the day that I would get to sign up and soon I’d be off to boot camp for eight weeks.

I couldn’t wait, many of my High School friends were also going to sign up alongside me. The U.S was in dire need of troops, even if they were fresh out of school.

The Resource wars have been raging on for twenty-five years. Though we were all on edge, in the last four years our government has been on high alert, suspicious that China might try to launch a Nuclear or biological Attack.

All these thoughts swarmed my head and I had butterflies in my gut. By the way, my name is Dominic, I am 18 years old and I am currently living in Washington D.C with my Dad Jonathon Richardson and my Mom Julia Richardson.

Let me tell you about my family. My dad John works for Vaul-tec industries, a corporation that builds designs and produces Vaults.

From Schematics, Booklets, Commercials, and other things advertising Vaults, I’ve learned that they are underground cities or just giant bunkers that are built as shelters in case of a Nuclear or Biological attack from foreign countries. But besides helping build these Vaults, my Dad also helps the Government with other top secret projects that he can’t talk about.

My Alarm sounded which interrupted my thoughts. I had set it to go off at 6:05 exactly so I could get up and get ready. I lifted myself from my bed and stretched. I gave a silent grunt as I stretched and walked out of my bedroom andtiptoed down the corridor to the bathroom.

I flipped on the switch and the light flickered on. I rubbed my hand across my face and stared at myself. My long black Shaggy hair was a mess, and my Dark blue eyes were blood shot. It was a wonder how one night with no sleep could do this. My eyes felt heavier each time I blinked.

Hopefully a nice cold shower would help me feel more awake then I already was. I brushed my teeth for about two minutes and then I hopped in the shower. Just as I had hoped, the shower had done its miracle. I dried myself and slipped on my underpants.

Walking back to my room quietly humming to myself, I began to dress myself. First I put on a white long sleeve shirt and then I put a sweater vest over, I then put on some Jeans and put my shoes on.

All I had to do now was wait for my father to wake up and take me to the Enlistment offices in Downtown D.C. My stomach growled and I figured I’d get some breakfast in the mean time. I slowly walked towards my Kitchen and from a cabinet I grabbed a bowl and a box of cereal.

I poured some milk and began to eat. I suddenly heard a noise that sounded like it was coming from the distance. It sounded like distant thunder. I paused for a second, thinking I would hear it again but after a few moments nothing.

I continued to eat my food when suddenly the lights started to flicker. I looked at them and after a few moments it stopped flickering and went back to normal.

“What the hell?” I said to myself.

Out of nowhere the house phone rang and it startled me. After letting a sigh of relief I walked over to it and picked up.

“Hello?” I said into the phone.

“Hello? Is this John?” A male voice asked.

“Uh no sir, this is Dominic. May I ask who this is?” I asked politely.

“Hello Dominic, I need you to get John for me, like right away,” The male said. His voice sounded urgent.

“Just a moment,” I said.

I put the phone down and walked towards my parent’s room. My Mom and Dad were sleeping and I walked over to my Dad. I patted him on the shoulder and whispered his name.

He mumbled something.

“Dad there’s someone on the phone for you. He didn’t say his name but he sounded like he really needs to talk to you,” I told me.

My father rubbed his eyes and slowly got up. As he got up and walked past me he patted my shoulder.

“Big day today huh?” He said smiling.

“Yeah it is Dad, I can feel that today is gonna be a great day,” I said.

I walked with him to the kitchen and I continued eating while he picked up the phone.

“Hello?” He said.

My Dad gasped.

“I- I didn’t think I’d hear from you in a while,” My Dad said.

I looked at him. Obviously he was talking to an old friend.

“Wait, what do you mean? It can’t be today, it’s too soon. Why would China-” Dad said.

“Are you sure? Have you got confirmation from your troops, mercenaries, rebels, or whatever they are?” Dad asked. “Are you absolutely sure it is today?”

He paused for a while. “What do you mean it’s already started?” My Dad said, raising his voice in surprise.

“Then we have no choice, we have to start the project now. I’m gonna head to the vault and I suggest you do the same. If you can’t make it to 101 then I suggest you go to the bomb shelter under the highway in Downtown D.C. There’s an extra Cryo-Chamber we built in there. It’s behind a large generator. I’m sure you’ll find it. Are you sure their mobilizing their forces now?” My Dad asked.

“How long do we have then?” He asked. “Less then two minutes?! You’ve got to be joking,” My Dad exclaimed.

“Very well, I will leave immediately. Good luck to you too,” Dad said and hung up.

He put both his hands on the counter and took a deep breath. After a long exhale, he turned around.

“Something wrong?” I asked him.

He was speechless. His eyes were darting all over the place and he seemed scared. There was more thunder in the distance and the lights started to flicker some more. More thunder boomed in the distance this time it seemed closer. Suddenly everything in the kitchen started to rattle and shake.

“Earthquake? This early in the fall?” I asked myself.

“That’s not an earthquake,” My Dad said softly. “We’ve got to get going… now,” Dad said.

“To where? What’s going on? You seem so anxious,” I asked him.

“Wait here, I’m going to wake your mother. Just… wait okay?” He muttered and jogged towards his room.

The thunder in the distance was getting closer and closer. Each time I heard thunder, the lights would flicker and the ground would shake. I heard my Dad talking to my Mom. I could hear confusion in her voice.

What was going on? My Dad seemed so out of it right now. My Mom and Dad emerged from their rooms fully dressed. They each had suitcases in their hands.

“Um, where are you two going?” I asked.

“Not just us, all of us. We’re heading to the Vault,” My Dad said.

“Wait what? Why? I have a scheduled appointment in an hour,” I said.

“It’s the Chinese, they're invading,” Dad said.

“Wait wait wait wait wait! China can’t be invading right now, what are you talking about?” I exclaimed.

“Not now Dominic, I’ll explain everything in the car and once we’re on the way, but now we have to move,” He said.

I didn’t understand what was going on. All I understood was that apparently we were being invading by China. Leaving my cereal where it was I quickly went outside with my parents to get to the car. I looked towards D.C and what I saw took my breath away.

All the neighbors were outside looking at what we were looking. Some had their hands to their mouths but they were all silent. The City of Washington D.C was in flames. Long pillars of smoke rose from the buildings and the entire sky above D.C was red and black.

A could see large bursts of light coming from all over the city. I saw objects coming down from the sky and striking the city and small explosions erupted from them.

“The Chinese have artillery pointed at D.C?” I heard someone ask.

“Their shelling the crap out of us!” I heard another say.

“My God…,” I muttered to myself.

“Where the hell are all of our troops?” Someone asked.

“I heard that a lot of our troops are over in Beijing trying to capture it,” Someone answered.

I looked up in the sky and I saw dozens of Chinese Bombers and Planes heading to and from the city. And then like rain, they started to come down. Hundreds and thousands of Parachutes started to descend from the sky; the parachutes were red with a yellow star on the top.

“This can’t be happening,” I said to my Dad.

From some of the houses, Men emerged each with guns and homemade outfits with tons of Ammo strapped around it.

“I ain’t gonna let no fucking commies take my country,” One of them said.

“Look at the pattern of the Artillery,” Someone said.

I looked towards the city and suddenly a saw a shell land in the neighborhood ahead of ours. Many of our neighbors screamed and started to run away or into their homes.

“Oh crude, I forgot our family photos. I’m going to go get them John, wait for me,” My Mom said.

She quickly ran into our house. Dad and I started walking towards our car and he started unlocking the doors.

“We’re going to have to cross D.C. Dad, there’s no way we’re just going to pass right through. We need something to protect ourselves with just in case,” I told him.

He looked down for a moment then nodded. “Right!” He said.

He searched for something in one of the cabinet compartments in the car and took out two objects. He handed me a 9mm M&A pistol and two clips.

“You’ve kept hot weapons and ammunition in your car?” I asked surprised.

“I have reasons for it,” He replied. “I don’t suppose you know how to use it do you?” He asked me.

“Of course I know how to use it. Marcus and I always use to go the firing range with his Dad and he had one of these,” I replied.

I slipped one of the magazines into the weapon and pulled the slide. I put the weapon on its safety and then put it in my pocket. There was a loud whistle like noise in the air.

“What the hell is that?” I asked my Dad.

“Oh Shit no… the angle its flying in… its going to hit… oh Shit!” My Dad screamed.

“What?! What is it?” I asked.

“Artillery shell! Everyone back away!” He screamed.

I looked and I saw it heading for where we were. To my horror I could see where it would end up hitting.

“We have to get Mom out of there!” I screamed at Dad.

“JULIA NO! GET OUT OF THE HOUSE!” My Dad screamed.

We both sprinted towards the house but we were too late. The shell hit our house and exploded. Completely obliterating our house and sending my father and me flying backwards. I crashed on top of Dad’s car and he landed on the cement beside the car.

Rubble, brick and metal from our house flew everywhere. A saw a large piece of rubble flying towards me, without thinking; I rolled off the front of the car and landed on the ground just as the car was completely crushed underneath the rubble.

I struggled to get up and I dusted myself off. I walked towards my Dad and helped him up. My Dad shook his head and ran to the large crater where our house had just been. He started to dig through all the rubble, hoping that he would find Mom, but I knew better.

A lot of the neighbors came to his aid and tried to help him search for my Mom.

“Look, up there,” A women said.

I looked up and I saw dozens of parachutes heading down towards us.

“Not my neighborhood you commie bastards!” One of my neighbors shouted.

And suddenly he and all the people armed with guns started to fire up into the sky. I grabbed my head and fell to my knees, all this was really happening?

It all felt like a bad dream, I could hear my Dad yelling in frustration. I knew he wouldn’t find my Mom, there was nothing left of the house anyway. It had suffered a direct hit.

A single tear rode down my cheek, and I bawled my fists. Look I know I should be more depressed and upset about just losing my Mother but given the current circumstances I just couldn’t. I’ll be honest, at the current moment I didn’t really feel anything.

I looked back up and I saw that one of the paratroopers started to plummet down and a second later he completely splashed all over the road.

The Paratroopers from above seemed to grab their Assault rifles and started to shoot downward. Bullets rained down, hitting the ground and the occasional unlucky pedestrian who was standing underneath the firing zone.

I ran to my Dad and grabbed him by the shirt. “Dad it’s too late, there’s nothing we can do. We have to get out of here!” I said aloud.

My Dad pounded the ground and then stood up. He nodded and we started to jog away from the crater. An explosion suddenly rocked behind me. I looked above me and I could see the Chinese paratroopers where dropping grenades from the sky.

Everyone in our neighborhood that didn’t have a gun started to panic and run. A grenade exploded a few feet in front of us, sending a man flying backward…. his entire left arm was gone.

The Paratroopers finally landed and were opening fire at all of us. Many of the armed civilians took cover behind fences and cars and opened fire at the Chinese troops.

Paratroopers where suddenly landing in front of us as well. My Dad and I started to sprint down the street to our left, away from all the carnage. More armed civilians started to run towards the Chinese, firing insults and bullets.

One of the armed civilians took a bullet to the head and the gun he was holding literally went flying into my hands.

“Kid over here!” A man yelled to my left, holding his arms out.

I tossed the gun to him and he caught it and started firing. My father and I continued sprinting up the road.

“What do we do now? We don’t have a car so how are we going to make it to the Vault?” I asked my Dad.

“A friend of mine has a car we can borrow. We’ll take that and then we’ll head to D.C,” My Dad replied.

“You really think he’ll let us use it?” I asked him.

“I know he will,” Dad replied.

We continued to sprint and made several turns and finally we reached a house.

“Jack!” My father screamed.

I saw a man trying to open his car door and he quickly looked at my Father.

“John? What is it!?” He yelled back.

“We need your car!” My dad said.

“No way John, the commies are attacking and its time I made like a Banana and got the fuck out of here,” He said.

“Jack, you don’t understand, we need to get out of here. I need to get Dominic out of here and to vault 101 this instant,” My Dad argued.

“No way John, I’m not giving you my vehicle! End of discussion!” Jack said.

Suddenly Jack shook furiously and fell to the ground as four bullets ripped through him. I looked back and saw Chinese Commandoes heading our way.

I looted the car keys from Jack’s bloody corpse and tossed them to Dad. He sprinted to the driver’s seat and leapt in. Three Chinese soldiers ran up towards us and pointed their guns at me. He yelled in Chinese but I couldn’t understand him.

He was about to pull the trigger when I heard a loud pop and a second later his head exploded. The two other Chinese soldiers were also shot and they to fell.

I looked around to see who had saved me but I didn’t see anyone.

“Dominic, get in!” My Dad screamed.

I jumped into the passenger’s seat and slammed the door close. My Dad started to engine and backed away from the house, he then gunned the engine and we lurched forward driving towards D.C.

We finally reached Downtown D.C and the entire city was in utter chaos. My Father drove like a maniac as we raced through the streets of D.C. The invasion had clearly just started but the streets were a war zone. I saw a look of worry on my father and I saw beads of sweat sliding down his forehead.

I looked out the window and I saw that the U.S army wasn’t going down without a fight. Everywhere we drove I saw U.S soldiers shooting and either killing or getting killed.

I saw civilians running away screaming as whole streets were destroyed from Artillery shells. A Chinese bomber flew above us, sending a missile towards a building, completely destroying the building. I was speechless, for the first time in history America was getting invaded and it looked like we were losing.

A metro bus was driving right alongside us and it suddenly exploded as a missile hit it. I looked away and ducked down as bullets flew around our Vehicle.

“This can’t be happening!” I said to myself.

We finally reached the bridge out of Downtown D.C and started to drive out in the outskirts. We took a road and drove on an underpass.

“We’re almost there,” My Dad said.

After a while of driving, my Dad stopped the car near a rocky slope. “Is this it?” I asked.

He nodded. We exited the car and I could still hear gunfire and explosions coming from Downtown. Suddenly a very large Chinese plane from above us towards D.C.

“Oh shit no!” My Dad exclaimed.

“What is it?” I asked him.

“Come on we have to go now!” My dad screamed.

From the large plane a very big and bright object was dropped out of it. It quickly began to fall to the ground.

“Look away now!” My Dad screamed.

I turned away just as a bright flash illuminated the earth followed by the biggest boom I had ever heard. I looked back and from the city I saw a large bright Mushroom cloud. The entire sky was illuminated in a bright orange-red glow.

The massive shockwave from the explosive overtook buildings causing them to topple over. The ground started to shake violently and I could barley keep myself from falling over.

“Dominic we have to get away from here now!” My Dad screamed.

I looked away from the carnage and followed my Dad. We went down this narrow path, holding onto large boulders as we walked to avoid falling down. I noticed were in the hills near the overpass and I looked down and saw something familiar.

“We’re near Springvale?” I asked.

Dad nodded. “Yeah we are,” He said.

“What are we doing here?” I asked.

I looked closer at the town of Springvale and noticed some civilians walking up towards the hill.

“Vault 101 is buried in these hills, and the entrance is around here,” My Dad replied.

I followed my father down the hill and we saw a large group of people all in a single file line walking up the hill. There were at least five scientists in lab coats telling the citizens to remain calm.

One of them looked at my Dad and recognized him. “John! Good to see you alive, I all but thought that you had perished in D.C.,” he said.

“Hello Albert, and no we did not. We escaped just in time and made it out of here before the bomb hit,” My Dad replied.

“That is good news, we better get all these people inside and start our project before the Enclave show up or more bombs fall,” Albert said, glancing towards the large cloud in the distance.

“Agreed, shall we proceed?” My dad asked.

“Certainly, wait a second. Where is Julia?” Albert asked.

“She didn’t make it,” My Dad said sadly.

“I’m truly sorry. At least you have your son here to help you out,” Albert said.

My dad smiled weakly and looked at me. “Yeah, you’re so right. Come on Dominic, let’s get inside,” Dad said.

I followed my dad as we started to head towards a doorway that was built into the rocky hills. I sighed and followed closely behind my Dad as he and the Scientist began to chat.

We finally reach the doorway inside the vault and once I walked inside I saw a long natural rock tunnel leading to a massive gear shaped four foot thick Vault door. The vault door was open and a lot of people were going inside.

Finally for the first time, I entered the Vault. I entered the entrance to the vault and I saw large collections of machines and control booths everywhere. There were people going through doors and Scientists working on the computers.

“Wow,” was the only word I got out.

I was completely fascinated with what I was seeing. I was starting to follow the civilians who were heading deeper into the vault when my Dad stopped me.

“Hold on… your not going with them. At least not yet,” My Dad said.

“Why not..?” I asked.

“Because you’re going to be a part of a different project then they are,” My Dad replied.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Let’s not talk here, there is a room over there we can all talk in,” My Dad said.

“Is Anna here?” My Dad asked.

“Yes she is, I’ll tell her and the others to meet us in the room,” Albert said.

Albert quickly jogged further into the vault and my Dad led me and a few other people into a room. There we waited. All the scientists there were glancing at me and my Dad.

“Is this him John?” One male Scientist asked.

My dad nodded.

“Marvelous.”

Albert suddenly came in with a Blonde woman who looked like she was in her mid-thirties.

“I just made sure my son is alright with his uncle. Now let’s get this thing started,” The Woman said.

“Alright, now that Anna is here we can begin. As you know we have been working on Project Immortal in case of a nuclear attack. But since the threat of nuclear war has just become unavoidable, the project is now in full affect. The Air raid sirens have sounded, and the Chinese have dropped their first bomb on American soil,” My Dad said.

“Reports say that the white house took a direct hit from the bomb. Several other locations around D.C have been targeted by Warheads and the entire west coast has been destroyed by Nuclear weapons. Cities such as Los Angeles, Seattle and Portland have been obliterated almost hours ago,” Albert said.

“Thank you Albert, now almost every Vault in this area has helped in Project Immortal and one person for each Vault has been selected as the test subject. The test subject for this Vault is my son Dominic,” My dad said.

“Wha-What?” I asked alarmed.

“Him? He is barely a child, how can he possible help with this project?” A scientist questioned.

“Erik, the point of the project is to put a person with the knowledge of pre-war life into cryo-sleep and then they will awaken several decades later and help restore and rebuild the country,” My Dad said.

“What does that have to do with anything? Why don’t you do it John?” Erik asked.

“Dominic is Eighteen years old; he is almost into his prime which would help greatly. He can teach the future vault dwellers what it was like in the pre-war era. Help them understand the mistakes we made and help them find ways to learn from them. In a way, we could learn more from children then anyone else,” My Dad said.

“For the record, I’m eighteen, not four,” I said.

They all stared at me. “He needs to get the Vault suit on, everyone else is equipping them on,” Anna said.

“Wait a second, don’t I get a say in this? How come you never told me that I was part of this top secret project for the government?” I asked my Dad.

“Because I didn’t think there would be a need to. This project was only to be set in motion in case of a nuclear attack,” My dad said.

“How do we even know more Bombs are coming?” I asked.

A scientist looked up at me. “We detected several hundred nuclear missiles on the way to the east coast. No doubt America will retaliate in just a few minutes. So we have at least thirty-twenty minutes before the rest of those bombs reach us,” He said.

“This is crazy man,” I muttered.

“Dominic, would you follow me. We need you to get outfitted with a special outfit for the cryo-sleep process,” Anna said.

“I don’t know what that means but I’ll follow you,” I said.

She gestured for me to follow and we walked out of the room and went down deeper into the vault. We entered a room with several cabinets and lockers.

“So this project… will it work?” I asked her.

“Yeah it will… it’s what happens after you wake up that has us concerned… if you wake up at all that is,” Anna said.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

She walked to one of the lockers and began to dig through it.

“There’s a chance that you will go through Cardiac arrest while you sleep and you’ll never wake up,” She answered.

“How much of a chance?” I asked.

“I’d say theres a 50/50 you'll wake up or die in your sleep,” She said.

I slapped my knee and leaned against the wall.

“Lovely,” I muttered.

Finally she pulled out a blue jumpsuit and laid it on the table next to me.

“Change into this and then come back when your all done,” Anna said.

“Why don’t any of you do this? Why me?” I asked.

“Because we old people have nothing to do or live for in the future. Your young, you have so much to live for and you can become wiser then we were,” Anna said.

“Why can’t I just live with the other people who live here in the vault?” I asked.

“Well one reason is because eventually you and all the others of my and your generation will die, completely wiping out all the pre-war generations. We need someone with the knowledge of the pre-war era in the future. With your knowledge of our mistakes, you can help shape the fate of the future,” Anna said.

“I understand, it’s about setting an impact,” I said.

“Exactly,” Anna said. “Is that allor should I leave you to change?” She added.

I smiled. “That’s all but thanks,” I said.

She smiled back and walked out the door and closed it behind her. Finally alone I took my clothing off. My clothes were all dirty, torn, blood stained, and dusty. Today was not how I imagined it would go.

I picked up the Jumpsuit. It was completely blue except for a yellow outlining from the collar, all the way down the zipper, and around my waste. On the back of the jumpsuit in golden numbers were the digits 101.

I put on a pair of black boots and then a pair of gloves. I left my old clothes where they were and walked out the door towards the room where everyone was.

I walked in and everyone looked at me. “Are you ready?” My Dad asked.

I nodded. “Good,” Anna said smiling.

They all led me to another room across the entrance room. There were many cryo-pods, each was leaning against the wall and all of them were open.

“The freezing process may be a little painful but it will only be a few seconds, two minutes at the most,” Anna said.

“Yeah thanks for telling me now. Anything else I should know?” I asked.

“No that’s about it,” Anna said.

“Are you ready to go?” Albert asked.

I nodded.

My Dad walked over to hug me and we embraced, tears filled his eyes.

“Will I ever see you guys again?” I asked.

My Dad shook his head.

“But you might meet my great grandchildren though,” Anna said.

Suddenly an alarm sounded and Albert raced out of the room. He quickly raced back with a grave look on his face.

“What is it?” My Dad asked.

“Their here, a squad of Enclave are outside and are coming in,” Albert said.

“WHAT?! Can’t you seal the entrance?” My dad exclaimed.

“No John I can’t, I won’t have enough time to close it,” Albert said.

“What’s wrong? Who’s the Enclave?” I asked.

“A secret branch of the government, damn it they weren’t supposed to come here!” My dad exclaimed.

“Why, what’s wrong?” I asked.

“The Government doesn’t know we’re conduction project Immortal or that we have allowed many civilians in for free. They probably found out,” My Dad said.

“This isn’t good!” Albert said.

“Albert! Close the hatch between the entrance and the main area to the Vault. We can at least keep the rest of the citizens safe,” My Dad instructed.

Albert raced out of the room and then came back a few seconds later.

“It’s been done but they're here,” Albert said.

All the scientists started to head for the door out. “Dominic, stay here,” My Dad said.

He and the others exited out the door and I followed. I had a bad feeling about this and I couldn’t let my Dad go alone. As I walked out, I saw at least ten men emerge from the tunnel into t he vault.

Nine of them wore power armor I had never seen or heard of. Each held Assault rifles in their hands. There was someone in front of them all who looked like a leader.

He wore a trench coat and had short blonde hair and icy blue eyes. He had what looked like a laser pistol at his side.

“John, it’s been a while. We haven’t talked ever since Project Safe house was initiated. Rumor has it that you and your science team have begun a project without the authority of the U.S government and that you have illegally allowed people to take shelter inside the vaults for free. These are all acts of treason John and I’m sure you know the punishment for it these days don’t you?” The man asked.

“Listen Eli, we have a way to help the future, you must understand why I had to do this. It’s for the future!” My dad exclaimed.

“John, for the future or not you have done treacherous things. Now terminate project Immortal and open excess to the vault,” Eli said.

“For what, so you can kill everyone who didn’t pay? Eli, they are only allowing those who paid so much to enter the vaults, do you honestly think that that is fair? I thought the vaults were meant to save people!” My Dad argued.

“They are meant to save people, those who can pay,” Eli said, getting irritated.

“And you’re okay with millions of other people dying?” My Dad asked surprised.

“Salvation requires sacrifice John you know this,” Eli said.

“Your condemning millions of people to death, just for money!” My Dad spat.

“Open the Vault,” Eli said, ignoring Dad.

“Why should we,” Anna said.

“Fine I’ll tell you why. I am with the United States military and I order you to open this vault and cancel any further operations on project Immortal. I won’t ask again,” Eli said.

“No… we won’t,” Anna spat.

Eli sighed and gestured at Anna. To my horror, one of the power armor soldiers stepped forward, raised his weapon and fired one shot at Anna that struck her in the stomach.

She fell to the floor dead.

“NO!” I screamed.

My Father glared at Eli.

“This is your final warning John, open the vault or die,” Eli said.

“No, I won’t open this vault. If we have to die for the others to live then so be it,” My Dad said.

“Fine then,” Eli muttered.

With that he reached for his laser pistol and to my horror, he shot my Dad. The red beam of laser erupted from the weapon and went straight through my Dad.

My Dad’s eyes bulged in shock and pain and he reared backwards, falling to the ground.

“No, No!” I screamed.

Without thinking, I pulled out my 9mm pistol and aimed it at one of the power armor soldiers. I shot and got him right in the head. The soldier moaned as blood squirted from the hole in his head and he toppled over.

I saw that many of the other Scientists grabbed weapons of their own and started to fire at the Enclave.

“Kill them, kill them all.” He said pointing at all of us. “So long John,” Eli added looking at my dad.

I leaped to cover behind a computer terminal and shot at one of the enclave. I got him right in the leg and he screamed. I saw Albert armed with a .44 Revolver duck behind a desk and shot at Eli.

The Enclave troops started to retreat towards the tunnels. Many of the scientists fell as bullets ripped through their bodies. Albert started to press some buttons on a terminal and an alarm sounded.

“Warning! Vault door closing!” An automated voice said.

“Damn you!” Eli said.

He fired a blast of laser at Albert and it went straight through his head. Albert fell backwards on his back as a pool of blood started to surround his head.

The enclave started to retreat from the vault and ran to the tunnel. Eli begin to run with them but I wasn’t going to let him get away. I ran in front of the vault entry way and I shot after Eli, getting him four times in the back.

Eli groaned and turned around to attempt to shoot me but I must have done him in because he dropped his laser pistol and fell on his knees. He screamed as blood dripped from his lips and he fell foreword.

The Soldiers began to shoot at me and I realized it was just me and them. Everyone else had been killed; I aimed my weapon at them and was about to fire when it clicked empty.

“Shit!” I cursed and threw my gun down.

I retreated from the door as bullets started to come from it. Suddenly bullets came from behind me towards the enclave. I turned and saw three scientists shooting at the enclave. I saw my dad lying down and he was moving.

I quickly ran to him.

“Dad!” I exclaimed.

“You... have to get to the cryo-tube…. There isn’t much time left,” He said.

He breathes were getting slower and I knew he didn’t have much time left. He struggled to stand and he put a hand on his wound.

“Hurry John! We can’t hold them forever,” One of the scientists said.

My dad limped to the cryo room and he started pressing buttons on the keypad on one of the cryo-pods.

“Get in…” he said.

Before I entered I gave him a big hug. “I’ll miss you and I’ll never forget you and Mom,” I said with tears in my eyes.

I reluctantly laid down in the cryo-tube as my Dad typed more things into the keypad.

“Be strong for me and everything will be fine,” he said with a weak smile.

He closed the opening to the cryo-tube and gave me a weak smile. Then with one last look he exited the room and sealed the door behind him and I didn’t see him again.

“NO father!” I cried, banging on the glass.

I tried to open the glass but it wouldn’t budge. Then all of a suddenly everything started shaking, shaking so bad it made the worst earthquake feel like a tickle. Followed by noise that sounded like thunder, I knew what it was. It was the bombs dropping. The shake got worse and worse and worse.

I could feel every organ, every muscle, and every bone shaking like crazy. My teeth rattled in my mouth. I screamed in fear and to make matters worse it suddenly got cold. So cold I couldn’t feel my feet because they were so numb. I gritted my teeth, the pain was unbearable.

Then my legs went numb, followed by my torso, then my arms and then my mouth, then my nose, then my ears. Everything was going numb.

I screamed as my whole body started freezing.

“Ahhhhhhhh God. Father please… help me.”

But I knew he couldn’t hear me because I knew he was dead, like everyone else, I was the last one alive. I screamed as my whole body ached in pain from the shaking, the cold, and the pain of losing my family.

I kept screaming. Then I couldn’t scream anymore, I felt sleepy. There was a bright light and then everything went black and I saw and felt no more.