How could this have happened? Why did we let it happen? Skies afire, nuclear death raining down upon the world of man. Everything was lost. But I, I was one of the lucky ones. I heard the sirens, but unlike many who assumed it was yet another useless drill, I knew from the radio that it was the real deal. I knew America had prepared for this. I had recently received a letter telling me that I had a place reserved at one of the many underground Vaults. I didn't have a wife or children, no one to desperately search for first. I was close to the Vault when this was all going down. I went straight there.
I was lucky, I know. A lot of other people weren't.
I ran up to the entrance of the Vault, pushing my way through the crowd gathered there. A squad of soldiers kept only a tiny fraction of order with drawn and readied assault rifles. The noise of desperate people was maddening. Ahead of me, I saw people let through the checkpoint. Others turned away by force. Anyone let through that had brought personal things, suitcases, backpacks, and in one stupid-ass case a huge trunk, had their bags taken and thrown aside, pushed into the entrance with nothing in their hands. I managed to reach the front of the mob, yelling my name over the noise to the sergeant there. A quick check of the list, and I was let through. As I had brought nothing but the clothes on my back, I passed unmolested. Into the entrance I ran, a hundred feet of narrow tunnel crudely dug into stone and dirt, heading down into the hillside. Around me, more lucky, panicked souls scrambled to make it down into the enshrouding earth. It was nearly a stampede, I don't know how nobody tripped to get trampled underfoot.
Up ahead, a steel wall cut across the tunnel, a gaping, circular, saw-toothed hole ten feet across the only mark on it. Through it, I ran, into the chamber on the other side. Inside, a few more soldiers were directing traffic through a second, identical doorway, leading deeper into the facility. The next room was some sort of antechamber, and still more soldiers directing traffic through a smaller, more normal, steel doorway. Traffic was heavy, however, and the doorway narrow, so as I stepped out of the general flow to look back the way I had just came, the soldiers let me be. The flow of humanity continued steadily for a while. Nearby, in a command station to one side, a couple labcoats watched, counting along as people went through. Eventually, the tide slowed, then faded away.
"That's it! Seal it up!" The call came out over the intercom from the command station. One of the soldiers, nodding, walked over to a raised control panel. A key was inserted, a lever pulled, and a large, red button pressed.
"Wait! There's still people outside!" I heard myself yelling. Klaxons blared, and a ten-foot wide, circular door, several tons of steel and lead shaped into a giant gear, rolled across into position. Through the closing doorway, I saw an identical Vault Door rolling into place for the first doorway.
The soldier didn't even turn to look at me. "We can't hold any more." The tone of voice made it clear, everyone knew what this act meant. And as the door was slowly shoved into place, over the screeching of metal on metal I swore I could hear gunfire from the other side...
And then there was nothing. No sound. The great Vault Door was sealed, and the outside world may as well have ceased to exist. All that was left was the 69 stenciled in the center of the door.
"C'mon," the soldier at the control panel said. "We should head to the atrium. We're going to have a lot of scared people on our hands." Nodding, I just quietly complied. What else was there to do? I walked through that second door, the soldiers and labcoats falling in step behind me.
Eventually, we reached the main atrium, a massive four-story room with walkways at each story down both sides and spanning the middle of the room. The place was packed with people, wall to wall. Hundreds of eyes were brought up to the fourth floor, as one person stood high and called for attention over loudspeakers. As we were told that each one of us was now a resident of Vault 69, and exactly what that meant, my 'fight or flight' instincts began to fade away, and other concerns began to surface. I looked around me. And I quietly thought to myself... 'There's an awful LOT of women here...' |