Escape

"We're out of time" Dante yelled!

"No I'm not ready" my Maria screamed while holding me tighter.

"We don't have a choice" Dante walked over and pulled me from her arms. "What do you think they will do to Dan if they get their hands on him?"

"I-I'm sorry Dan we couldn't protect you, you have to leave now" She cried.

"I don't understand what's happening, who is after up and why do we have to leave?" I screamed.

"It's the Vault who is after us. As soon as I opened this secret passage it activated my failsafe."

"That doesn't explain WHY they are after us?"

"It's because of what we just stole" my Mom interrupted while letting go of me looking extremely calm.

"Although you managed to survive the gene modification and gained an unrivaled ability to absorb Dark Matter you actually ended up absorbing too much. Your body wasn't able to handle it and you almost died.

Luckily through our previous studies we found a way to slow the flow of Dark Matter into your body. However your speed of absorption was still too much, you are like a slowly inflating balloon. Even though there is no problem now on day you will pop."

"Maria can we speed this up they will find us any moment."

"Long story short after the Institute was destroyed we had no way to research your condition. Luckily from our spies we managed to catch wind that we weren't the only people who were studying Dark Matter and so we found our way to Vault 122. Where your uncle Dante and I managed to find a cure for your problem. It's a modified version of the FEV virus which is meant to strengthen a person's brain allowing to control the Dark Matter in their bodies."

"And we just stole it" Dante came over holding a small syringe holding glowing green liquid. "This can be considered as Vault 122's masterpiece. Luckily when we first joined the Overseer had me share all of my information about Dark Matter with some of their scientists and they showed this. Which allowed me to mark it with a special tracker that I could use to teleport it to my location.

When we came down here my plans had already been set in motion activating the Teleporter and sending this here. Originally we had planned on waiting until my Teleporter was complete before do this but, we ran out of time."

"It is those powers you talked about" my Mom chimed in from our experiments when someone who doesn't have an affinity for Dark Matter absorbs too much of it the final stage before their death is to start exhibiting their powers, so we needed to move up our plans."

"But my powers are differ-" I tried to say but, was interrupted by Dante.

"It doesn't matter what your powers are we are already well past the point of return. The only thing we can do now is to send you out from here and unfortunately it will have to be alone."

"W-what do you mean" I asked feeling an ominous sense of foreboding.

"It means" Dante replied "That the Teleporter is unfinished. The Institutes original Teleporter could only transport Synths due to the precise equipment inside of them that let them reach their destinations safely. If a human tried it they would more than likely end up as nothing more than a pile of meat and bones.

This new one I'm building however can transport people with 100% safety . . . however it's not finished. I haven't installed the power dampeners yet which means if I teleport anything much larger than a child the whole machine will short circuit."

"No" I yelled I won't leave you here.

"You don't have a choice" my Mom spoke with tears streaming down her face once again.

"Aaron" Dante ordered.

Before I had time to react Aaron suddenly appeared behind me like a shadow. He picked me up and slung me over his shoulder and no matter how hard I struggled I couldn't break free.

"Where did he come from" I screamed.

"He is a Synth Courser and is built with a Stealthboy installed inside of his body. He has been your secret protector for most of your life. Never straying too far from your side and he will continue to be your protector in the outside world."

"Stop it put me down" I cried while grabbing at Aaron and punching him in his face.

Aaron completely unaffected carried up on to the Teleporter platform as Dante was at a nearby computer inputting commands.

"You don't need to worry about us sweetie were too important they won't kill us. Only force us to do research for them" my Mom said with a sad smile while doing everything she could to hold herself back from running up to the Teleporter.

"I have finished Inputting the coordinates however as I have mentioned it is not complete so I have no idea where you will actually be so be on your guard Aaron."

"Right" he replied pulling his gun from his holster keeping it at the ready.

"Oh I almost forgot I was going to give you this for your next birthday but, seeing the current situation you can have it now" Dante said while fishing through some drawers. "Here catch" Dante exclaimed while throwing me the object he pulled out from the drawer.

I caught it in my hands and was shocked by what I saw it was a Pipboy but, one unlike anything I had ever seen.

"I call that the Pipboy 4000 it is based completely off of the Institutes technology it is far stronger, smaller, and more powerful than any other Pipboy out there" Dante smiled.

Dante looked like he was about to say more but, before he could another explosion rocked the house.

"Oh no they found the secret entrance you have to go now" He yelled as he went back to the computer.

Soon the machine started crackling with electricity and a slowly building humming sound filled the air.

"Remember Dan whatever happens I will always love you" my Mother sobbed.

"MOM" I cried out as everything turned white.

______________________________

"Where am I" I mumbled while holding my head.

Sitting up I could see that I was in a small room. As my memories were slowly coming back to me the first thing that hit me was smell. It smelled terrible I her like a blend of rotting wood and garbage.

Looking around I could see that the room I was in was rotted with peeling paint and half destroyed furniture. Even the bed I was laying on was stale and moldy, after getting my bearings for a moment I got up to try and look around more.

The rest of the house was just as decrepit as the room I woke up in. Everything was eerily quiet and I couldn't help but start feeling a little scared. I wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible.

I slowly crept to a nearby door. Outside I could see an empty road filled with leaves and trash. The sunlight filtered through reflecting off of the dust in the air giving everything a smoky effect. As I was stepping outside a hand suddenly grabbed over my mouth.

I wanted to scream but, my mouth was held completely shut.

I turned around and saw a man towering over me. He had a dark trench coat on and a strange hooded gas mask.

My breath was stuck in my throat, I couldn't speak I couldn't even move I was so scared. He slowly lifted up his arm revealing a massive machete at his side. However instead of chopping me to pieces like I thought he would he lifted his hand up to his mask.

"Aaron" I almost scream but, Aaron stopped me with another hand on my face.

"It's not safe to talk here follow me" he whispered.

I followed him out the back door of the house. He led me through a maze of backyards until we reached a clearing. In the distance I could see a small building with a sign above it that read Super Duper Mart it had boarded up windows and was covered in barbed wire. I remembered it as the name of a supermarket chain that was in Fallout 3.

Aaron was silent but, he motioned for me to follow him towards the store. We ran as quickly and quietly as we could across the parking lot before reaching the entrance. He opened the door and led me inside.

It was as dusty and spooky as the house I was in before except there was a faint scent of blood present here too. Aaron closed the door and moved a large metal plate in front and wedged it in place.

Walking deeper into the store I could see dozens of aisle all completely bare of any food or items. As if realizing that there was no food my stomach growled in annoyance. I almost fell to the floor I had never felt this weak in my entire life.

"Keep moving there is food ahead" Aaron emotionlessly spoke.

I could only man up and keep walking. He led me up a flight of stairs and to what looked like a manager's office before taking out a pair of keys and unlocking the door. When I saw what was inside I jumped. The room was full Gun's, Ammo, and all kinds of other supplies.

Seeing my reaction Aaron spoke "This used to be the base of a group of raiders. I left you waiting in that house as I . . . cleaned them up."

I swallowed my saliva while thinking about the smell of blood hanging in the air.

"Aaron can you tell me what happened my head is all fuzzy the last thing I can think of is all of us talking at dinner."

"You don't remember fleeing the Vault Aaron" ask curiously.

That's when it came back to me I collapsed on the ground crying. In my last life I had nothing I thought I was fine by myself but, I didn't know how much I was missing until I had the chance to have a new life in this world.

The last 5 years I had spent with my family were the happiest I can remember. I wanted to just continue that peaceful life in the Vault forever but, I knew how dangerous the world was and that if I didn't have enough strength to protect it it could all be destroyed in a second.

How could I have known that I myself would be the thing that destroyed it? All I wanted was to tell the truth to my family I couldn't understand how it had led to this. I didn't even get to explain about my powers to them. My powers might not even have been related to that Dark Matter stuff. That would mean that everything was my fault for causing them to start their plans early.

I sat there sobbing for over half an hour and Aaron did nothing but stand there and wait for me to finish. After enough time had passed I slowly sat up and looked at Aaron.

"How long was I asleep" I asked in a monotone voice.

"Three days" Aaron replied.

Three days I thought to myself which means that they have definitely been captured by the Overseer by now. Taking a deep breath I calmed myself down.

"Where is the Vault" I asked?

"I don't know before we left Dante erased that part of my memory in case you tried anything stupid" He answered.

"He was right" I whispered to myself.

I stood up and walked to a nearby window that wasn't completely covered in plywood. Through it I could see an endless expanse of destroyed houses and roads' leading towards the mountains in the distance it was oddly beautiful.

"So what now?"