Fallout: Born Unto Trouble

4. New Life

She blinked her eyes open, still sensitive to the light, and used her hands as shade to look out over the Wasteland.

It took a few minutes for her eyes to adjust, but the first sight she saw was of a ruined town down the hill, the Capitol Building, and Washington Monument.

It smelled weird. But the air felt fresher and not laced with cleaning chemicals like in the Vault.

Outside. She was outside. In the open where there was radiation and monsters and cannibals and—

It was hot. She checked her Pip-Boy for the temperature, but it had to take a moment to adjust to the heat.

The wind, dust, sounds, smells, sights, everything was so different.

It felt like she was dreaming.

Maybe this was a dream. Maybe all of this was a dream.

She would wake up, seventeen years old again with an empty stomach and a death wish.

Or maybe now she really had a death wish.

It didn't matter, she had no time to lose. She carefully made her way down to the ruined town, Springville, and into a town called Megaton.

The air blew her freshly chopped-off hair onto the left side of her face, and she tried her best to put back into place as she made her way to Megaton, as indicated on a large sign with an arrow pointing to the settlement. Gloria marked its location on her Pip-Boy and headed on inside, casting an untrusting glance at the robot... thing outside the gates.

The mayor greeted her, explaining how the town was built around an atomic bomb, worshiped by a group of people, and Gloria definitely wondered if she was dreaming.

But she wasn't. The metal railing up to the second story of the town was hot to the touch, burning her skin more than a normal wastelander's.

The town was made entirely of broken down buses, planes, scrap metal and a whole lot of duct tape. It was a wonder it hadn't fallen apart yet. Gloria's fingers traveled over the railing to a large building, then a doorknob she turned and pushed the door open.

A woman in a utility jumpsuit was humming to herself while a man in leather armor eyed Gloria carefully. She assumed he was her bodyguard? But what would she need one for?

"Welcome to Craterside Supply!" The woman chirped, startling Gloria. She blinked a couple of times before asking "What?"

"Oh! You must be that kid from the Vault!" She had a strange look in here eye, and Gloria wasn't sure if she wanted to continue this conversation or not.

"Yeah, I am... why do you ask?" She asked slowly. The woman giggled, which was way too cute for a woman in her late 20s.

"What was it like?"

Well... It was her home. What else could she say about it? "It was kinda dark."

"That's it?"

"It... was cramped?"

"Go on," the woman tapped a pen against some paper in front of her, eyes gleaming in childlike delight.

"I don't know. It was home I guess. Sort of wanted to make me-" She couldn't finish her sentence. The woman sensed her discomfort and stopped pressing the issue, then wrote what she needed on the paper and slipped it under the counter.

"What's your name?"

"Gloria. Hill. Gloria Hill." She stuttered out, and the woman held out her hand. Gloria stared at it, and the woman laughed. "You're supposed to shake it. My name is Moira Brown."