Fallout Wastelander

As soon as the clock had resumed ticking, the overseer turned around and walked off in the direction of the other adults, presumably to talk to them.

Following his departure, dad reappeared and said. “Ohh I forgot to tell you son, make sure to enjoy your party because you’re only 10 once, so have as much fun as you possibly can!”

"Okay, I will, dad." I replied, while giving him a big, wide smile.

As I was about to head over to talk to Amata standing off to the side and farm some more brownie points, he placed his hand on my shoulder, grabbing my attention.

"One last thing, son. Make sure you spend some extra time with Amata because she did a lot to get your birthday party all set up!" Dad said in a low voice.

"Already planned on it."

"Good, off you go then, champ." Dad said lastly while putting me in the direction of Amata before walking off again towards the overseer.

"Catch you later, dad."

Once my old man had walked off, I headed over to talk to Amata.

“Happy birthday! We really surprised you, didn’t we?” She said.

“Thank you, and yeah you guys got me really good this time, ha ha.” I replied, chucking.

Amata made a small giggle and continued. “Ha ha. Your dad was afraid you were on to us. But I told him not to worry so much since I made sure to keep everything a secret and only let a few others in on the party planning.”

"Yeah, my dad just told me all about how you put in a lot of work getting this party set up for me. Thanks again Amata."

She and I then spent a few minutes chatting before I cracked a joke that got her giggling.

Her laughter continued for a couple more seconds when she asked. “Guess what I got you for your birthday?”

I responded very seriously. “Hmm, a date with my childhood friend, Amata?”

“Ah-ah, n-no silly, I got you a Big Book Of Science. I know how you love reading that sort of stuff.” She responded, all flustered with red cheeks and all.

After saying that, she continued in a barely audible whisper with her head turned to the side. “But if that’s what you really want, I wouldn’t mind.”

Thanks to my 10 perception I was able to hear her loud and clear, thus I took her up on her offer with a smile on my face. “Okay deal, I’ll take you and the book, then.”

Hearing my response, she went mute whilst her face began glowing bright red.

"Alright, I'll be taking your silence as a yes, then. So we'll meet up this weekend at 10:00 AM."

Amata began to try to make some sort of response, but she fumbled her words and just ended up releasing a few small squeaks. A second later, she nodded her head in agreement and the moment she ran off and out of the dining area where the party was taking place.

Whilst she swiftly fled the scene in embarrassment, I looked over to where my dad had walked off to see if I was in trouble. I saw him standing with Amata's father and the both of them appeared to be mighty pleased with themselves since they were both giving me a thumbs up while grinning from ear to ear just about.

They then said something between themselves before they patted each other on the back and turned back around to continue their conversation with the other vault dwellers that they were conversing with originally.

I suppose I got the go-ahead from the man in charge. Aside from that, it looks like I'll be reallocating that extra time with Amata till this weekend.

After that little event, I headed over to talk to Stanley Armstrong, who was at the counter with Andy, the mister handy. “Hey Stanley, can I cut the cake instead of Andy today since it's my birthday?”

“Sure, I don’t see why not. Just don’t hurt yourself, kid.”

Before I could begin walking off to my next destination, Stanley stopped me in my tracks. “Hold up for a second kid before you wander off and I forget, I got you a present.”

Reaching under the counter, he brought out a kid’s baseball cap and handed it to me.

“Thanks, Stanley.”

"No problem, kid." He said lastly prior to going back to arguing with Andy the mister handy.

Happy with the gift I received, I adjusted the strap and wore the baseball cap with the bill pointed to the rear and out of the way. The second I had the baseball cap fitted snugly on my head, I went off to go talk to Grandma Palmer next.

Arriving in front of Grandma Palmer, I was about to ask her how she's been doing lately but she wrapped me in a hug with surprising strength for her age and started the conversation before I could.

"Are you having a nice party, my little muffin?"

"Yeah, I'm having a great time, grandma." I responded, still wrapped in her arms.

She held me in her hug for a couple more seconds before letting go to get a good look at me.

"Ten years old, my, my, my. Seems like it was only yesterday that your daddy and you came… Goodness, listen to me ramble! You’re waiting for your present, aren’t you?"

“Oh nonsense grandma, you being here is already good enough.” I responded, trying to farm a few additional brownie points that I could cash in for sweet rolls later on in the week.

She brightened up at my answer and pulled me straight back into another hug and said. "Such a polite grandson I have. Here you go, I baked you a dozen of your favorite sweet rolls this morning."

"Thanks, grandma."

Returning her hug and smiling from ear to ear since Grandma Palmer never gives me this many sweet rolls at one time, the most she'll usually give me is 2 and no more than that. So receiving a dozen of her legendary sweet rolls at one time is a massive haul. They would last me a few days realistically if I was to eat them sparingly, but because they are basically the equivalent of crack, I'll probably blow through them as soon as I get home and step through the front door.

Once I was done hugging Grandma Palmer, she gave me the dozen sweet rolls she baked freshly this morning and said. "Alright, there you go, muffin. Go on and enjoy your party now and remember to eat them slowly, otherwise you'll get a tummy ache."

"Okay, I'll be sure not to eat them all right away. Thanks again." I said before I found myself in one last hug for several more seconds.

After I was released, I made my way over to talk to Butch and the gang.

“Hey, how are you guys doing?” I asked them.

“Ehh, not too bad boss, but we're getting kinda hungry over here.” Butch responded.

“Yeah, yeah. We’re starving over here, boss. When is the cake gonna get cut?” Wally and Paul followed up while holding their stomachs comically.

“Ha ha ha. Well, I better hop to it then and get that cake cut, otherwise you three will wither away. Oh, and here are a couple of my precious sweet rolls. They should be enough to hold you guys over till I'm done cutting the cake.” I said, while I started handing Butch and the gang a couple of sweet rolls to hold them over until I could get the cake sliced up and served.

"Thanks a bunch, boss." Butch said first, followed by Paul and Wally next.

As I was handing the three of them the two sweet rolls to share amongst themselves, I couldn't help but recall the time when I had to rough em up a bit because they were bothering Amata. After I put them in their place, they straightened themselves out and started following me around and calling me boss for some odd reason.

I suppose it's a gang thing, though I don't know where they could have learned about gangs down here in the vault. Maybe they overheard one of the old timers on the elder council reminiscing about the time before the great war or they could have possibly gotten their hands on an old comic.

When I was done handing out sweet rolls to the three of them, I returned to the cake to cut it and distribute it among everyone here. A few seconds later, I was back at the counter where Stanley was, thus I asked him for a knife and started slicing the cake into even segments as best I could.

It took a few minutes, but I got the cake separated evenly and plated on the plates that were already sitting on the counter. With the cake ready to be served, I took one of the slices of cake and put it off to the side for Amata. Once that was taken care of, I informed everyone that the cake was ready.

Hearing that, dad and the overseer came over and helped me start distributing the cake. The minute everyone had a piece of cake, I got a slice for myself as well and sat down with Butch, Paul, and Wally and started chowing down on the cake that grandma Palmer most likely made, though she probably received a bit of assistance from Amata.

Hours passed with everyone enjoying themselves, nevertheless we all eventually decided to call an end to the birthday party and wrap things up. As soon as that decision was made, all the partygoers collectively chipped in cleaning up the mess and all the party stuff. After everything was picked up for the most part, all the vault dwellers started to slowly file out of the dining area one by one to either go home or to do whatever else they had planned for the day.

Staying behind to do a bit more cleaning and put away several things that were missed, Dad and I were the last ones to leave the party. However, once we were finished, I grabbed the piece of cake I had put off to the side for Amata and returned home for the night.

As we were walking through the vault hallways in the direction of our home, a thought came to my mind just as we began nearing the entrance.

Hmm, this is probably as good a time as any to ask about going to the vault mines since I got that new perk, but I'll wait till we get into our home before I bring it up.

Walking in through the doorway, the two of us settled onto the couch, making small talk. Passing the time like that and relaxing for the next 10 minutes, I brought up the topic.

"So, dad, I think it's about time you let me enter the old vault mines since I'm 10 years old now and have made significant gains in most of my physical abilities."

“Yeah, there is no way that’s happening son, it's way too dangerous for you to go into the mines. Also, if I did, let you enter them and something happened to you. How would I be able to face your mother in the afterlife?”

“Well, what about if I get uncle Gomez and the other officers to train me? What about then?” I responded, trying to convince him.

As soon as he heard my response, his face changed to a look of contemplation and after a while, he came back with. “If, and this is a big if. If you can show your uncle Gomez and the other vault security officers that you are more than capable of handling yourself against multiple foes. Then I'll allow it.”

“Thanks, dad, I'll make it happen!” I said, pumped prior to getting up and giving my dad a hug.

He smiled and said. “Sure thing, son, just be extraordinarily careful and know your limits.”

Finished with that topic, we continued our conversation and relaxed for a while longer on the couch, discussing what sort of projects he was currently working on and how my library conquest was progressing before we both turned in for the night.

Finding myself laying in bed staring up at the gray-colored metal ceiling, I began going over my plans for tomorrow in my head.

Hmm, the number one thing I need to do tomorrow is talk to uncle Gomez and ask him if he and the other officers could train me for combat to face the number of mole rats that I will inevitably encounter in the old vault mines.

The next task that'll need to be done following that is that I need to make some equipment to ensure nothing goes wrong. Thus, I'm going to need to make a set of armor for protecting my body from the mole rat teeth, a melee weapon, or weapons for dealing lethal damage. And maybe a bow of some sort that would allow me to take them out from afar for my excursion into the mines.

I've already given this quite a lot of thought already, so the sort of armor I was thinking of producing would use a leather armor body suit as a base with steel plates sowed upon it. When all the steel has been attached to the armored suit, I'll weld metal spikes onto certain areas that would prove useful in various combat situations. Alongside the armor, I'm going to need to make a pair of spiked gauntlets and boots so I don’t lose any fingers and toes.

All those sharp metal spikes will double as weapons, so if I ever lose my actual weapons, at least I won't be absolutely defenseless and I'll at least have something that can deal some halfway decent damage. Lastly, for head protection, I'll fabricate a protective helmet. For the design, I'm thinking of going with something that looks like an altyn helmet from my previous world with an inbuilt light powered off a small energy cell.

Now for the weapons, I'm thinking of making a relatively large cleaver-like sword. That sort of weapon will allow me to take on multiple opponents on my own and cleave right through multiple mole rats at once with a wide swing. I would've preferred to make something with a ripper, but I doubt anyone I know will just give me one of those.

Besides that, I haven't seen one ever since I've been reborn into this world, so there's a good chance that there might not be a single one down here. My inability to get my hands on a ripper aside, I'll also be making several spears for close-quarters combat and for throwing. For the last melee weapon, I'll craft 2 combat knives with sheaths that will be attached to one of my boots and the other will sit on my belt.

I could also make caltrops. But if I do that, I would need to put a steel plate in the bottom of my boots to prevent myself from accidentally stepping on them. Don't particularly want one of those piercing through the bottom of my foot and fucking with my mobility in a not so safe area...

Yeah, that should be good enough for now. It's time to get some much-needed sleep, though I won't be needing my normal 8 hours anymore thanks to the Monstrous Physique perk. I'll have to see how to best use those extra four hours over the next couple of days.

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If you want something else to read, that's similar to this, check out my other webnovel Wasteland Conqueror. It has a lot more chapters released.