Fallout 4: GROUND ZERO

[A Blind Guy]

War, war never changes.
They finally did it. Those bastards finally did it.

The world was on the verge of collapse. Nuclear technology has become the greatest achievement every made by mankind. Powering cars with little to no fuel, personal computing systems that make life so much easier.  But not everything was right in the world, even with these advancements. Shortages of almost every resource are pushing the United  States and China further and further to war. Until one day. sirens blared, people screamed, and soldiers in standard issue power armor were swarming everywhere. The bombs were falling,the entire world was waiting for this moment.  
Enter Vault-Tec, a private corporation, contracted by the United States government to build massive, underground shelters built for the event of total atomic annihilation. Thankfully, most people were safely underground when the bombs fell, but not everyone was so lucky.

200 years later

you're cold in places you never knew you could be could, your vision returns to you slowly and you lean against the wall of your individual pod. The wall didn't have much support though since it gives way under your weight, sending you clattering to the, yes cold, vault floor.

[Helsing]

Get a vault they said, it will be an investment they said, the world won't blow up they said.

Well fuck you too Steave! The world did blow up and this vault was a nice investment! I don't know why I'm angry about that last part but screw you!

Those were the first thoughts of Clarence MacKay, former Lance corporal of the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit. Second thought, cold. Third thought, his lunch wasn't going to stay down. And so that's what happened, he barfed on the floor before checking his surroundings.

[A Blind Guy]

After Clarence's lunch made an unexpected appearance, he looked around to find another person, on the other end of their row of cryopods, coughing their lungs out.

[Flagmauth]

Nora Sinclair, who didn't have any fancy military records to her name, was quite thoroughly miserable. The world ended about five minutes ago or so, then she'd been frozen (and felt like she still was, good lord was it ever cold) and now she was reasonably certain ice crystals had formed inside her lungs.

Pushing herself back up to her hands and knees, she wondered briefly why there was dried blood on her hand. No, wait, it was coming back to her...she'd cut it open beating against the inside of the...

Oh god...

Oh god! Nate. Shaun. Both dead. All of a sudden she really wished she was still frozen. Slowly, she looked up, hoping that it had somehow been a dream, a hallucination brought on by the cryogenic sleep.

Through the slowly defrosting glass, she saw Nate, bearing a severely out-of-place serene expression, slumped lifelessly in his own pod - a neat little hole in his forehead and the contents of his skull splattered across the back wall.

She didn't scream, if only because her lungs still didn't work properly yet. Instead she broke out into a new round of violent coughing.

[Helsing]

Clarence knew a lot about messy situations, being a Power Armor soldier/Engineer in the Marines tends to help with that. So when he saw Nora coughing up a fit, he slowly got to his feet before calling out "Are you ok ma'am!?

[A Blind Guy]

Clarence was now able to see why she was crying, he noticed a growing pool of blood on the floor, coming from the cryopod Nora was in front of.

[Helsing]

He grimaced "Oh shit."

[Flagmauth]

Nora ignored Clarence, forcing herself to her feet and nearly collapsing again in the process. There had to be some kind of release...she had to get Nate's pod open, that had to help, do something to make this better, anything at all really.

Still freezing cold, Nora staggered over to the pod, looking it over. "There has to be...some kind of release..." she rasped. Ice wasn't good for the lungs. Good to know. More importantly, there was some kind of red lever on this console to one side. That would probably...uh, do something. Something helpful. She pulled it. "Come on, come on....oh god..."

[A Blind Guy]

With a rush of even colder (if that was even possible) air, the pod door opened, and inside was the lifeless body of Nora's husband, something rolled out of the pod, landing on the floor with a small metallic ting and a glint of something shiny and gold caught her attention.

[Helsing]

Clarence, who was smart enough to notice a mourning wife when he saw one, stood a little to the side.

[Flagmauth]

Numb, Nora just picked up the ring, letting her forehead rest against the side of the pod as she squeezed her eyes shut to stop the tears running down her face.

[Helsing]

Clarence continued to keep to himself.

So he walks over to the terminal and looks up whatever happened in this vault while he was asleep.

[A Blind Guy]

It appears that the terminal is a monitoring station for all of the Cryopods. All but 4 of them were listed as deceased. the remaining pods were named as follows

Nora Sinclair: Alive
Clarence MacKey: Alive
Nate/Saun Sinclair: Unknown Status: Manual Door Override initiated.

Over the PA system, a metallic voice could be heard, repeating a line that the two only had realized was looping from the beginning.

"Warning, potentially hazardous materials have been exposed to the interior of the vault, immediate evacuation is advice."

[Helsing]

Clarence swears to himself before glancing over at Nora. On one hand, a grieving wife. On the other, chemicals sounded like something you don't want to be near. Clarence quickly runs over to Nora and places a hand on her shoulder "I'm sorry, but we need to move now. Can you walk?"

[Flagmauth]

Nora jumped as she felt someone grab her shoulder; she'd been so focused on Nate that she hadn't even considered anything else. Only one of the other pods was open...that must have been where this man came from. She didn't recognize him, but then she hadn't known everyone in Sanctuary Hills.

In response to the question, Nora just nodded, getting unsteadily to her feet. At least she wasn't half-frozen by now - still cold, yes, but the burning in her lungs had largely subsided.

[A Blind Guy]

The PA message kept looping and the two former popsicles were able to see now that there were a number of warning lights going off, and there was an open door, maybe left open by someone else, or just a malfunction in the door controls.

[Helsing]

Clarence pointed to the open door "This way, stay close and don't slow down."

With that, he goes into a quick jog leading to the open door and through it.

[Flagmauth]

With one look back at Nate's final resting place, Nora followed him, keeping her arms wrapped about her midsection for warmth.

[A Blind Guy]

The two vault-sicles manage to stumble their way through the winding corridors of the vault, making it finally to the entry room, the massive vault door looming in front of them. and next to what looked like a control console, were the two remains of lab workers that didn't quite make it out in time. their labcoats and slacks clung to their skeletal frames with a layer of mold, and on both of their left arms were two VAult-tec brand Pip boys.

[Flagmauth]

"Jesus..." Nora managed to say, seeing the two bodies. "H-how long were we frozen?"

[A Blind Guy]

The skeletons decide not to answer Nora.

[Helsing]

Clarence grimaced at the sight of the skeletons but he leaned down and examined the bodies "They're completely dry. Not a drop of decaying matter on them, so we've been frozen for at least fifteen years. Unless someone gives me a date I can't tell you much more."

[A Blind Guy]

While Clarence was examining the skeletons, he could see that both of their pip-boys were in, surprisingly good condition, given the demise of their owners. Nora could see that a panel next to the door contained a strange looking socket.

[Flagmauth]

Fifteen years. Felt more like fifteen minutes. Nora shook her head, bewildered, and skirted around the bodies to get a closer look at the console. All that was immediately apparent was a big red button but it was locked behind a little transparent cover. Maybe something had to be plugged into the socket...

Glancing around, she spotted something that looked like it would fit attached to one of the Pip-Boy computers. "Can you...can you hand me one of those Pip-Boys?" she asked Clarence.

[Helsing]

Clarence picked the pip-boy and attached it to his arm. Using his prior knowledge as a power armor technician, he booted up the pip-boy to check the systems before wordlessly handing the other to Nora.

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