Horrorcrop : Nuclear Love

Ch.2 The Vault Dweller

Ninety years without slumbering

Tic Tock Tic

His life seconds numbering

Tic Tock Tic

It stopped, short never to go again

When the old man died.

I never liked that song when I was younger. The song was played on an old music box. Then quickly turned morbid. At least that's the only morbid thing about this vault.

I was born in a nuclear vault, along with many other people. It's a safe place, nothing bad ever happens. Except roaches and rats. That's the worst it ever got. I've never seen the outside world before, our leader here always told us there was no need to go outside. According to him a bomb dropped exactly 105 years ago and It's dangerous out there. I learned a little about the bomb when I used to go to school.

The fat man was a bomb used against us. Instead of firing it at another country it landed here. Some effects were documented like people suffering from radiation, animals mutated, and the air being so thick, many suffocated. Scary...I'm lucky I wasn't around during the blast. Our leader told us the air outside was still dangerous. A single breath could kill all of us. With that, I never thought about leaving, most people never did. Those that tried to insist on leaving the vault had a long chat with the leader..... actually now that I think about it, I don't think I've ever saw them again....?

"We have everything we need here.", Our leader insisted. Water is filtered and boiled to be as clean as possible, food is grown and small animals like chicken and rabbits are here for meat. To keep the vault working, people are assigned jobs through a test called S.A.A.S, special abilities and skills. It's a long test with no wrong answers. It consisted of scenarios, what would you do in them, and interests. Once the test is finished you are immediately selected into a job for the rest of your life. Jobs include: cook, officer, teacher, farmer, breeder, and a few other necessity jobs. I got placed into a farming job while my brother was a breeder. Occasionally on slow days me and him would talk or discuss what's going on in our jobs.

Up until I was about twenty, me and my brother had no problems with the vault or the leader. Then things got a little odd. My brother started coming back to our room shaken up just a little. He assured me that he had a bad day and the rabbits fought. I would've believed this if it was a one time thing. However every other day he seemed to come home pale. Then my job got a little weird. Our leader gave me new fertilizer to use for the crops. It worked well, I'll admit but...the room where we grew plants smelled horrid. That day I talked to my brother when we were both in bed.

"Hey rabbit ....", He got that nickname since it was his favorite animal,"Have you....noticed the vault is a little weird now? Like I was given new fertilizer and it's red colored...it smells awful."

Rabbit stared at the wall and sighed,"...I don't think we're going to be safe down here anymore.", He said quietly. He shifted and sat up, tapping his fingers against the bed.

Tap tap tap

"Why do you think that? We've always been safe! We have water and food. A good bed! I mean...the meat has been tasting a little off but maybe-", before I could finish Rabbit cut me off.

"Well about that meat... we're running out of rabbits and hens. They're all too old to breed and the younger ones aren't mature enough. We only have maybe three rabbits that are old enough to breed. Also, Have you noticed people who go have a 'talking to' with our so called 'leader' never return from his office?"

"I noticed ...maybe they're around here somewhere or moved floors?"

"... I'm not supposed to talk about this ...", he bit his lip and crossed his arms.