NOVEL WEB Chapter 4
[P̴̠̅̅̃̽̊̈́͝ͅo̵̡̖̲̻͚͚̳̲̐͐̋͒͆͌͘͠d̶̨̫̙͓͙͔͙̙̗̖̞̘̬̦̙͛̚ ̶̖̺̤̾̽̂̎͒͘C̶̠̞̀͒̃̎̉͘͝1̶̡̦͈͎̱̞̮͍̺͓̫̩͔̹̾̔̿́͛̏:̵̛̼̗̝̔̾̑̔͊̐͂͂̎͝ ̵̨̘͍̰͎̤̼̩͕͐̏̎̍̈́̀̀͝B̷̛͙̎̑̀́á̴̰̰̲͖̙͓͈̥͒̍͑͜ͅs̷̢͖̳͔̮͎̪̮͎͙̣̆̍̔̆̽͐̋ị̶̡̢̡̹̮͔̿l̴̼̮̪̞̗̖͂́̈́͌̊̔̄̀̀͜]
[Pod C2: Mrs. Callahan]
[Pod C3: Mr. Callahan]
[Pod C4: Mr. Able]
[Pod C5: Mrs. Able]
[Pod C6: Nate and Shaun (infant)]
[Pod C7: Nora]
[Pod C8: Mr. Russel]
In place of where the first Pod's text should be was a line of corrupted text. Attempting to access further information only returned an error message. If my Fallout 4 lore serves, Pod C1 was supposed to be empty, but I was occupying it in this universe. My Pod's control was also corrupted, and the central system no longer had access. This probably separated the remote management and caused my life support to be kept online.
Going through all the individual statuses confirmed that everything else is still how it was supposed to be, except Nora has yet to be released. Now having a basic grasp of my situation, I started planning my escape. I know there are radroaches, so I must find something to defend myself as soon as possible. After I make my way out of this vault, I can decide where to head to. One step at a time.
"Ok. Deep breaths. You can do this. You can definitely do this. It's just cockroaches. They might be bigger than normal, but you're a grown-ass man."
After psyching myself up, I went to the door exiting the room. After steeling my nerves, I pushed the button to open the exit. A wooshing sound of high-pressure air can be heard as the pneumatics respond to the signal from the panel.
The door hesitantly jerked upwards and got stuck for a split second before screeching and opening the rest of the way. Once the door opened completely, it revealed a corridor with one door immediately to the left, a door further down to the right, and a final door directly at the end.
The door to my immediate left should lead to the second cryogenic array. I should check if there are any other survivors like me. There might be some loot as well. Making my way over, I opened the door.
Immediately I knew something was wrong about this room. It was much larger than I remembered, and looking to the right showed way more rows of pods than there should be. A quick count told me at least 24 cryogenic pods were in the room instead of the original six.
"Most of these are empty. Maybe Vaultec built extras in this universe for the employees. It would make sense if they thought there was a chance of them needing to stay in the vault for longer than planned."
Looking at all the pods showed that most were empty, meaning that if my theory was correct, the vault workers didn't decide to go into the pods. Scrounging around showed no loot, and the control terminal showed the same information as the one in the last room. Figuring that nothing was left to see, I returned to the hallway and entered the door further down.
Behind the door was a short stairway leading down and into another hallway. The mix of simplistic architecture designed for research and artificial lighting was really starting to bother me. Closer to me on the right was a door leading into a room marked "SECURITY" at the end of the hallway was a turn heading left.
The security room should have weapons, so I opened the door, hoping to find something to arm myself with. The room had a few dilapidated filing cabinets and a desk with a security baton and terminal atop it. Picking up the baton, I extended it and swung it a few times. The simple weapon has some good heft and should serve me well before I could get to something better.
Happy now that I had something to fight with other than my bare fist, I started working through the filing cabinets. The first one was filled with useless documents and a pack of cigarettes. A bit disappointed, I pulled out a drawer in the next cabinet, hoping I would have better luck this time. Suddenly a large black shape leaped out and rammed into my forehead, knocking me on my ass.
"*Ooof* What the hell was that?!"
Quickly scrambling back, I got a better look at what took me to the ground. A few feet before me was a radroach fluttering its wings at me, preparing to attack again.
"Fuck!?"
Pissed that a bug knocked me down, I ran over and slammed my baton on the insect. The baton's tip landed squarely on the spine of the roach, and with a sickening crunch I broke its carapace and caved in its back.
The roach screeched loudly in response. Quickly trying to stop the ear-piercing noise, I pulled the baton back above my head and slammed it down again, right on its head. The radroache's head splatters, and the death cry immediately stops.
"Damn straight! Fuck you, you overgrown roach!"
Winning my first fight felt fantastic, but my high from defeating the radroach was quickly diminished by the sound of skittering noises from behind the filing cabinets. Soon after I got into a combat stance, a radroach crawled from behind the desk and launched itself at me with the power of its wings.
Quickly swinging the baton, I stopped the roach from getting to me and swatted it into one of the filing cabinets. Taking advantage of the radroach that fell to the floor and was temporarily stunned, I rushed up to the creature and stomped harshly on its head with my vault-issued boots. The exoskeleton couldn't resist, and the skull spilled its content onto the concrete floor.
Taking a step back, I reverted my baton into a defensive stance and waited for more hidden surprises. Nothing further came, and I lowered my guard to look better at two dead roaches.
These things were massive, roughly a foot and a half long. It also reminded me that there were some hazardous things in the wasteland and that I needed to stop procrastinating and find more supplies. Shuffling through the remaining file cabinet and desk drawers returned nothing.
Exiting the security room, I headed down the hallway and turned left. This showed two more doors. One led into the power generation room, while the other led into the living area/kitchen. Deciding that the kitchen and living area would likely produce supplies, I decided to scavenge through there first.