Wandering Alone Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Family Issues

"Come on let's move, let's move." said a slave as him and three others were running through the waste in the dead of night.

"Oh shit, my collar's beeping." yelled another one.

A female slave put a hand on her collar as she began to hear noses as well. "We need to find someone who can-" she was so focus she hadn't realized she hit a rock, but it wasn't a rock. "AAAHHH" she screamed as she looked up at a mountain of a man in full armor, if it wasn't for the armor she would have thought he was a small super mutant. The man reached down and picked her up with one hand before placing her down gently, "Uhh thanks."

"Just stop that beeping." said the man in armor in a sad tone

"We can't," yelled one of the runaway slaves frantically, "Please these bombs will kill us, we need-" in a flash the man quickly pulled off the slave collar and threw it away, "Help?" as he felt around his neck where the collar used to be.

The man then quickly went to the three others and took each of their collars off and threw them all away before they exploded in a million pieces. "There, they're off, now leave me alone." as the man began to walk off but stopped and looked up at the hill. "I'm not in the mood."

Up on the hill were several slavers with guns all pointing down upon him, "Well I'm not in the mood to lose product, you bastard. Now how about all of you come quietly before we pump holes in all of you."

"Fuck off." said the man.

The head slaver look surprised, "Did you just tell us to fuck off, we're from paradise falls, who the hell do you think you are?"

The man looked up at them, "I'm the Chosen One."

The slavers all paused for a moment before laughing, "The Chosen One, oh shit how much Jet are you on?"

"Ha and on thought the Children of Atom were delusional." said another.

"This guy has to be on some on some shit, what type of moron comes up with this shit."

As they laughed the Chosen One felt rage like no other as his mind faded back to his past before he had to leave his home for the first time.

"Dad do you have to leave?" asked a little girl saddened by the news.

The man gave a slight laugh as he kneeled down to his child, "I'm afraid so, Catherine. Arroyo needs me to be the champion like my grandfather before me."

"Oh so you're like a Chosen One like the one grandma talks about?" asked little Catherine.

The man smiled, "I suppose so."

"My dad, the hero of Arroyo, the Chosen One." she then gave off a laugh.

The Chosen One laughed, "That's right, I am the Chosen One, the peoples champion, my name is-"

"Dad," as Catherine interrupted her father. "Are...you going to be gone long?"

"Don't worry sweetie, I won't take long, I'll be back as soon as I can and don't worry, I'll always be there for you when you need me." he then held a hand out with a raised pinkie, "I promise."

The little girl ignored the pinkie and jumped up hugging her father. "I love you dad."

"I love you too sweetie, be good to your mom, while I'm gone, okay, Catherine."

"Okay." she said as she let go of her father, "Go get em Chosen One."

"Okay." said the Chosen One as he began to walk toward the slaver, "I need to blow off some steam, come here."

The slaver gave a slight chuckle as he pointed his gun confidently at the man who he thought was walking to his deaths, "Open fire boys."

What the former slavers saw as they watched fight from a safe distance behind a rock, they could only describe as a one sided massacre. The Chosen One was picking them off one by using his gun to cripple their legs before moving in close and tearing them apart when none of them could run, it didn't take long for him to be covered in blood.

"What...the...hell is he?" asked one of them.

"We need to get out of here, now."

"Wait," said one of them as they quickly ran over and grabbed one of the slavers' fallen rifles. "Now we can- FREEZE!!!"

The former slaves all turned quickly to see a man in a very old and used armor that covered him from head to toe. The man slightly raised his hands, "Calm down will yeah, there's nothing to be afraid of, I'm just a humble Vault Dweller."

"A Vault Dweller?" they asked slightly confused.

"Now calm down, there won't be sunlight for a few hours, it would be in everyone's best interest if we set up camp and wait for the boy to get done with his temper tantrum."

"Temper tantrum," the former slaves looked over at the Chosen One as he literally ripped the head off of a slaver and proceeded to use it to beat another man to death, "That doesn't look like a temper tantrum."

"You're right," said the Vault Dweller, "He's far more angrier than usual, I wonder what happened."

"Wait, you know that Chosen One guy?" asked another one.

"Yeah he's family." said the Vault Dweller as they watched the Chosen One threw one of the slavers down the hill at one that was trying crawl away, the massacre was so violent that the dogs decided it was time to run away rather than fight the Chosen One, but the Vault Dweller saw that coming a mile away, "Come on, he should be done playing with in a bit, there's some tumbleweeds stuck on that rock we can use for a fire and I got some mole meat we can cook."

The former slaves looked at each other for a moment before they decided to quickly help the Vault Dweller set up camp while the Chosen One proceeded to kill everything coming at him, including the Death Claws that were being drawn in by the screams of terror.

~o~

"How is he healing so quickly?" asked Susie as the Lone Wanderer heard her voice.

"I'm...I'm not sure." admitted Amata. "He... he was always special before, faster, bigger, stronger-"

"Easy around the eyes." said Susie, earning a raised eyebrow from Amata, "Hey he maybe a bit of a freak but even I have to admit he's good looking."

Amata somewhat ignored the comment, "When I woke him up and told him his father had left the vault and that the Vault was going into Chaos, Jonas showed up and ripped that weird box thing that was on his Pip-boy then when your brother came in-."

"He knocked his block off, I know, he still can't eat right," commented Susie as she remembered how her brother Officer Steve Mack got glocked in the face by the Lone Wanderer, "Was that the first time you saw that...power of his?"

"He called it Rad Lightning." said the Lone Wanderer startling the two girls as he sat up, his eyes darted around what appeared to be a bedroom before they landed on a small nightstand next to him that had various of his items including the sunglasses that the Chosen One had tossed him, "Hey guys what did I miss?" as he chose not to put on the glasses.

"What did you miss?" Repeated Amata as she slapped his shoulder which did nothing to him, "Do you have any idea how worried we were."

"She was worried," corrected Susie, "How the hell are you alive? That guy used your body to dent the wall of the Vault, shit that's supposed to handle nukes."

The Lone Wanderer nodded his head, "Yeah I know and to be honest I don't know how I'm still alive," he then groaned as he stood up.

"Whoa, careful careful." said Amata as she helped keep him steady.

"Thanks Amata," said The Wanderer as he looked around he noticed that the room was foreign to him and wasn't one he recognized from the Vault, "Where are we?"

"We're inside the lower Vault." explained Amata.

"Yeah the one filled with advanced weapons and tech that could kill us all." clarified Susie as she began to walk towards the door, "Though to be specific we're in the living quarters because apparently the Vault of doom needs a kitchen."

"What?"

"Yeah, come one will show you around." said Amata as they walked outside of the bedroom.

When the Lone Wanderer walked out of the room he saw the inside of the massive hangar he saw earlier, inside the floor was filled with several boxes and cargo freights that he had seen before in books, they currently were on the second floor in the back of the hangar that appeared to be a section for an office or living space for someone, 'They probably had a few people watching this place at all times, they needed some place to sleep and make food.' He thought as he looked back at the living space before his eyes darted to the ceiling and saw even more crates being suspended up above. "Are those secure?"

Susie shrugged, "Most likely, this stuff is way advanced, far above anything else in the vault above."

"How many people know about this?" he asked.

"Just us," said Amata. "I haven't told anyone else, didn't have a chance to, I got an alert on the Overseer's computer in the office about a breach and then a door suddenly opened up on the wall leading us down here."

"Doesn't that mean the current Overseer will know about this?"

Susie pointed to Amata, "She's the current Overseer."

"Wait?" he looked at Amata in surprise, "But how? You're too young and aren't the Overseer supposed to be selected from either security or management."

"Yes, that's how it's supposed to be." said Amata in a heated tone, "But my dad made it so that every system in the vault that the Overseer controls is only responding to me. He put it in place just in case anything were to happen to him, according to the letter he left in his will, he set this all up to ensure my safety, that in case of a revolt they couldn't kill me without destroying the Vault in the process."

He had to take a moment to process the information, "So his will when he died was for you to become the Overseer." Amata nodded, "And you don't want the job."

"No, of course not, but right now I'm the only one that the computers will listen to, I can't even pass it along to anyone else until I'm 25." Amata sighed as she rested her head against the railing, "I didn't ask for this."

"None of us asked for this," said the Wander as he looked at his friend. "I didn't ask for this freaky power, for my dad to run off, for Jonas to kill your father, if I could I would have brought him back, but we can't change back the clock."

Susie leaned against the railing, "We've been dealt these cards, now we got to do our best with them." as she agreed with the Wanderer, "So Overseer, muscles, what's the plan now?"

Amata gave her a look before she turned back to the Wanderer, "That depends, what are you planning, what exactly have you been up to on the outside....did you find your father or Jonas."

The Wanderer shook his head, "No, I haven't found either of them, it's only been a few days since everything happened, I'll tell you what happened but before that, Amata, what do you want me to do when I find Jonas?"

Amata was silent as she sorted through several emotions that had still been swirling within her for the past several days. Eventually she slowly shook her head, "Nothing." she said simply with a small pause, "I want to tell you to kill him for my dad but I know that won't change anything and right now Vault 101 needs an Overseer and whether I like it or not that's me."

The Wanderer nodded, "Okay, so what does Vault 101 need help with?"

"Nope," interjected Susie, "Right now we need to hear your end of things, what have you been up to and what's the outside like?"

"Susie!" spoke up Amata.

"What? We've been stressing out over our shit for awhile now, I think it's time to hear someone else's trouble for once."

The Wanderer gave a slight chuckle, "Okay, well as you two know I left a few days ago after things here had calmed down just a little bit and I found that note where my dad ditched that experimental pre war armor.

~o~

"Yes, in our family it is quite normal for adult males to be over 6ft tall and well built," answered The Vault Dweller who replied to one of the former slaves question about his family's size, he looked up from his makeshift campfire grill and saw the Chosen One walking towards the group covered in blood. The former slaves carefully moved away as he came over, "Hold it, before you sit down and eat, clean yourself up at the river please."

"I'm not in the mood grandfather," said the Chosen One as he sat down on a rock close to the fire, illuminating his armor and causing the blood on it to reflect its light, "What are you doing here?"

The Vault Dweller gave his poking stick to one of the former slaves as he looked at his Grandson, "Well right now I want to make sure my grandson is okay. I've seen you angry before but what you just did went far beyond that." The Chosen One didn't respond, "What happened?"

The Chosen One began to shake slightly before the quiet sounds of sobs could be heard, "She's gone. Catherine...my little girl....she's really gone...I didn't want to believe it....but she really is......"

The Vault Dweller got up and walked around the fire to his grandson and gave him an embrace, ignoring all of the blood, holding him close.

The former slaves just sat there in silence as they watched the two mountains of men who, from what they could tell, could rip someone in half with their bare hands, hold each other close and mourn for their loss.

~o~

"And that's when you guys showed up," finished the Wanderer, they had moved to the small living quarters that had a dusty table they quickly cleaned off while Amata was able to get the microwave to work to make some snacks for them, "You know the rest, I know it's a bit of a short story but looking back I wasn't expecting to see you guys so soon."

"I'll say," said Susie, "I was expecting that the next time we see you would be years from now and that you would devolve into Grognak the Barbarian." she said Playfully.

The Wanderer gave a slight laugh, "Haven't gone that far back just yet but I can tell it's going to be rough out there."

"I'm sure you can handle it," said Amata as she looked at him in the eyes and saw a faint glow of green from them, "Though I hate to say it, that guy might be right, hiding your eyes I mean, they might bring you some trouble."

The Wanderer gave a slight nod to the statement, "I haven't seen anyone on the outside with eyes like mine, nor with powers like mine."

"You think it might be a family thing?" asked Susie, "That guy seemed to know your parents and he mentioned something about more of you out west."

The Wanderer thought about it for a moment, "I don't know, everything my dad has told me seems to be a lie I don't have anything really to go by, the only two people right that would know anything would be my dad and Jonas, and both of them are out there in the waste."

"They both went to that GNC building right?" asked Amata.

"I know my dad did but I don't know about Jonas."

"That Moriarty guy knows something, your dad did deal with him." pointed out Susie.

"Yeah, but I don't want to rely on that guy," admitted The Wanderer, "He's scum and making life difficult for the people of Megaton. Did you guys find out anything about my dad or Jonas after I left?"

Amata shook her head, "No, I don't know why but my dad hated yours, before Jonas killed him, he was trying his best to erase your father from the history of Vault 101, I wasn't able to recover anything from what the security team destroyed and the most I got from Jonas quarters were a few photos of some monuments before the war that are around DC."

"Really, if they're here in DC, it might give me a clue where to start looking."

"Speaking of Pre war stuff," spoke up Susie, "You mind if I take a look at that PINA you found."

The Wanderer brought it out, "It's not exactly functional at the moment."

"True but one of the things we were checking out while you were unconscious was to see if this place had any medical bot we could use and it doesn't but it does have an old military computer that looks like it came from space." said Susie somewhat excited.

The Wanderer gave them a raised eyebrow making Amata speak up, "According to the records it's a super computer that some advanced scientist made before the war and it still turns on and yes it does look like it came from some sort of comic book."

"Well alright then,"  as he took out the PINA and handed it to Susie. "Thank you, Susie."

"Don't mention it," said Susie as she stood up and made her way to the door, "Amata should be able to catch you up on what's been going on here since you've been gone." as she left.

After she left there was a silence between the two before the Wanderer decided to speak up, "So, what have I missed around here?"

Amata took a deep breath, "Nothing much to be honest, thanks to your help with the rad roach infestation before you left we were able to save the Hannon's but our esteemed security chief has yet to wake up after he was shot."

"You mean after I shot him."

"No," said Amata heavily, "I was the one that shot him after you refused to take the gun."

"You needed it more and as far as the rest of the Vault is concerned..."

"As far as the Vault knows, you shot him after he went crazy after you beat up some of the other security officers, which you did do and after Jonas shot my dad to escape." Finished Amata as she took a pause to take another breath, "After you left we were able to calm things down, some people were calling you a hero, surprisingly one of those was Butch."

"I did save his mom," he interjected.

"Yeah she was also one of the people calling you a hero but there is still a large group who were on my dads side that still believe you should be killed for the chaos you three caused, but they calmed down when I firmly made the decision to close down the Vault until further notice. Some are angry about that but after I made officer Gomez the chief of security and made a few promises to do things differently than my father they calmed down. As of right now, I've just been trying to keep the peace and go through everything my dad had been trying to keep secret. It's just been a lot of work to keep things running."

"But you're not doing it alone, right, Susie's helping you," said The Wanderer.

Amata gave a small laugh, "Yeah, she and a few others from our class have been the most helpful so far, I think they understand I didn't ask for this job but I'm making the most I can from it, they've been helping me out a lot."

"That's good," said The Wanderer, "If you need anything out there in the waste, spare parts, meds, a souvenir I can get it for you."

Amata gave him a smile, "Thanks," she said before pausing for a moment, "So that girl, Nova was is it?"

"Yeah, the girl that worked with Bod for Moriarty."

"You thinking about that offer she made?" asked Amata.

Instantly alarms flared up in the Wanderer's head as he knew he had to be careful, "What of course not, I barely know the woman." he said looking at Amata straight in the eyes.

Amata blinked for a moment before her lips curled into a smile, "Is the Lone Wanderer hero of the waste scared of what I would say?" she said a bit playfully.

"I'm not the hero of the Waste, I've just helped out Megaton for now."

"Then the hero of Megaton, but you are planning on helping everyone else, that's just who you are." pointed out Amata. "Hero like you is bound to get gifts from his adoring fans."

"Maybe I don't know," he looked at his friend confused, "Where is this coming from?"

Amata's playful attitude went silent for a moment before she asked a serious question, "What are we?"

The Wanderer was silent for a moment, "I uh I honestly don't know." he said truthfully as he really had no idea.

"I've missed you," said Amata honestly with sadness in her voice, "After you left, part of me wanted to go after you, but now I'm stuck being Overseer and you...you can't come back."

The Wanderer shook his head, "No I can't. The Vault would go into chaos again and I still have things I need to do on the outside, need to find my father, find Jonas and I need to figure out what I am."

"Will you come back?"

"When I can, this place is still my home and I still want to help out when I can." He looked around for a moment, "Actually I could use this place to come back, store anything useful or too dangerous out there, and of course to come back and say hi." he said in a happier tone.

Amata thought it over for a moment, "That could work, we can't have you just walk into the Vault but down here, no one knows about this place and I don't plan on telling anyone, it is supposed to be a secret after all."

"See we might be able to work things out," said The Wanderer smiling, "We might be able to be something."

Amata gave him a weak smile that slowly faded, “I…don’t think we can, not with you always out there and me always trying to run the vault, it would be chaos.”

The Wanderer leaned forward and gave her hand a caring squeeze. “Amata, I know things are crazy and uncertain, but I do know for certain that I care for you deeply.”

Amata couldn’t help but smile, “You keep talking like that and I won’t let you leave.” This made the Wanderer smile, “fuck it, tonight you’re mine.”

“What?”

Amata said nothing as she stood up, walked around the table and straddled him before proceeding to kiss him, one he was more than happy to return, but as he did he wondered what she meant.

~o~

The light of dawn soon stretched over the sky over the capital wasteland, for four slaves this was the first time in a while that they've had a good nights rest knowing that their were two men that were more than able to keep watch over them, but it was those two men that got them up so early in the morning.

"You did WHAT?" yelled the Vault Dweller, all the former slaves were instantly awoken by the noise as most of them grabbed the weapons they took off the slavers while one of them instead grabbed a rock by accident, they all looked over to see the man known as the Vault Dweller who was looking at a sheepish Chosen One.

"I didn't know it at the time we started fighting, grandpa," yelled the Chosen One quickly, "It was after when I left and I put two and two together."

The Vault Dweller groaned, "Did you at least get his name?"

"He said they called him the Lone Wanderer."

It was hard to tell for the slavers but the Chosen One could tell his grandfather was giving him a deadpan glare, "The Lone Wanderer."

"Yeah, the Lone Wanderer, apparently that's what the people of Megaton are calling him and himself."

The Vault Dweller groaned, "Yep that sounds like one of yours."

"Hey!"

The Vault Dweller then jabbed a finger into the Chosen One's chest, "Listen here, you have got to talk to this boy, if you are right then you need to apologize to him, understand."

The Chosen One was silent for a moment, "No."

"Excuse me, what did you just say?" asked the Vault Dweller in a dangerous tone.

"I can't, not yet," clarified the Chosen One. "I need to find James first, I know he's alive. He went into DC, I have witnesses."

The Vault Dweller was silent for a moment, "And what exactly are you going to do when you find him?"

"I'm going to kill him."

"Now wait-"

"NO!" he yelled at his grandfather, "He is the one that took her from our family, that bastard is the whole reason she's dead, I can't face that boy not until I break James legs and make that bastard beg for mercy a mercy I won't give twice, I should have killed him the first time."

The Vault Dweller was silent for a moment before taking a deep breath, "Okay, I understand, I won't stop you, but I'm not going to help you, right now I'm going to take these people to safety and then I'm going to try and find this Lone Wanderer and maybe we can talk like people instead of...."

"Ripping each other to death like Death Claws."

"Yeah."

"Thanks Gramps."

"Of course we're family and so is this new boy," said the Vault Dweller, 'I guess I should go say hello to my great great grandson."