HOLDING OUT FOR A HERO,, fallout

ONE

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chapter one.
❛ crawl out through the fallout ❜

On the day that vault 49 fell the clouds hung low around Los Angeles and a light patter of rain fell down on the wastelands. Of course no one in the vault felt the rain, they never felt the rain deep underneath the ground, under the safety of the metal bars and supports that kept them from radiation of the desolate world above.

It was just like any other day in the vault. Jane woke up and was greeted by the smell of canned peaches that filled her nose, and her parents humble abode within the vault. The smell engulfed her senses and woke her up in a nice mood. She quickly dressed into her blue jumpsuit with the number 49, in yellow, on the back and skipped to the kitchen where her parents were sat awaiting for her to join them.

"Good morning." She said and took a seat in the end chair of the small, rounded, table.

"Morning." Her Dad greeted as he adjusted something on his pip-boy. His face looked rather puzzled and his eyebrows knitted together in confusion.

"What's wrong, sweetie?" His wife, Maria, asked. She had just placed down three plates of the sweet peaches down on the table.

Jane quickly dug into her breakfast and tried to savour the tangy taste of the fruit. It was always a rare occasion when they ate peaches but always a nice one. They were a particular delicacy in the vault since the famine of 78' happened there had always been a shortage of the delicious yellow and pink fruit.

"The doors are malfunctioning." He replied and continued to fiddle with the gadget around his wrist. The situation still bewildering him. Jane stayed oblivious to her surroundings and munched down on her food before she finally took note of the conversation.

"What does that mean?" She asked in equal confusion. The doors had never malfunctioned before, they were made to never break or need fixing and so far in all the years of the vault being closed it had never changed.

"I'm not sure, Janie. Might have to go up and check." He smiled down to her before standing up, leaving his portion of the canned delight untouched. He gently rubbed his hand on Jane's head messing up her hair in the process making her complain.

"Good luck, dear!" Maria shouted out the door as he walked off and down the corridor.

"I wonder what that's about." Jane said and moved her eyes over to her Mother.

She wanted to tell her about what she had learnt in History class yesterday but feared that her Mother would shut down her wild thoughts immediately. As Jane often dreamed of going outside the vault which always seemed to fill her Mum with sadness.

Jane wasn't sure why, or how these thoughts began but ever since she could walk she always tried to escape the vault by any means necessary. That included her trying to escape via the ventilation system once, she was then banned from leaving a trusted adults side for two months.

However, she was brimming with excitement to tell her Mother about the class she had been in and the things she had learnt and so she did.

"Do you want to know what we learnt yesterday?" Jane asked and pushed her empty plate away from her.

Maria simply hummed in reply awaiting to hear the history lesson that she had already been taught ten odd years ago. They never changed the curriculum in the vaults. Everyone knew the same things and that was just the way it had always been. Seeing as no new information about the current state of the world ever really got in. Only the radiation level scale.