A Walk Down Memory Lane
by Connor
Lance woke up on a nice soft bed with pillows, which was like being spoiled because of the usual mattress he was used to at the citadel, The Brotherhood of Steel’s base in the area around Washington D.C., commonly known as the Capital Wasteland. “Why can’t my paladins bring back something like this from the raids instead of dog meat?” he thought. He lifted his head up and looked around. The room he was in looked like a nursery. “Oww,” he said, as he felt his head. It was throbbing in pain, and there was a big bruise on it. Where was he? He couldn’t remember anything from the night before. The clock said four o’clock. “In the afternoon?”He wondered. He stood up and walked over to a mirror inside the bathroom. The bruise on his forehead was a greenish yellow and it hurt like heck. He turned o the sink and splashed his face with water. Then he remembered.
The night before he received word that some of his men were under fire from an Enclave gunship. He was the only available soldier to give them the aid they needed, which was called a G.D.P. He couldn’t remember what it was for or what the acronym meant. He ran over to the bed and put on his power armor. He grabbed all of his weapons and supplies off the floor and ran out the door. The brotherhood of steel power armor was a metal suit that did a great job of deflecting projectiles. It was standard issue from the Brotherhood. The Brotherhood could be called the government although it was not really what they were. They traveled from California to liberate the people of the Capital from the grasp of the Enclave.
“Hey watch it buddy!” A man yelled out as Lance almost crashed into him. He was in a hallway with no windows, just people bustling about.
“Hey where am I?” Lance asked a passerby. The woman looked at him and burst into laughter.
“You’re in the vault, just like the rest of us,” she replied.
“A vault, what vault?”
“One hundred and sixty-two!” she exclaimed annoyingly.
“One sixty-two?” Lance thought. “I thought we found all the vaults in our area. The farthest one east in Washington is one thirteen. Where am I?” he said to himself. The last thing he remembered was running away from Enclave soldiers with the G.D.P., and that he had to get it to his fellow Brotherhood of Steel members. “But why?” he wondered. The Enclave was the corrupted government of the wasteland. Their leader, President Blithe, had never been seen before. The entire Enclave wanted power and equality.
Shouts were coming from the room he had just left. “There he is, get him!” Lance turned to see two Talon mercenaries running toward him. Lance saw a Pip Boy 3000 sitting on a table inside one of the rooms. A Pip Boy was a watch that all the vault dwellers wore. It could hold information and files that were important to the user. It was basically a small but super computer.
Lance grabbed the Pip Boy and quickly drew his laser rifle and blasted one in the head. His much needed appendage flew off in a cloud of gore. He targeted the other mercenary in V.A.T.S., the Vault Activated Targeting System that came on the Pip Boy. Lance selected the Mercenaries head and proceeded. The mercenary flew back and hit the wall. The rifle had made a huge hole in his chest. Everyone started screaming in panic. Vault guards were coming around the corner. A sign at the end of the hall pointed to the left and said Atrium. Lance knew that in every vault there was a secret set of stairs underneath the atrium that led right to the vault door. He sprinted left to the Atrium.
Once he reached the Atrium he hacked into the terminal next to a desk. “Running random codes and a match,” Lance said to himself. He selected the option to open service tunnel. The doors started to open. A guard ran into the room but couldn’t say much before he disintegrated into a pile of ash. Lance ran down the stairs into the service tunnel. He had a decent amount of time because the guards would have trouble finding him in all the mass hysteria the crowd up above him was creating. He ran up the other set of stairs into the room containing the vault door he activated the terminal and the round door started to open.”Oh, one more thing,” Lance said as he put down a new experimental brotherhood remote mine. He stepped out the door.
“Hey! Stop right there!”A guard demanded.
“I don’t think so,” Lance countered calmly as he pressed the button on his detonator. A giant explosion rang out from inside the vault as the door started to close again with him on the outside unharmed.
Lance walked down the fake mine shaft used to disguise the vault and opened the wooden door. A breeze of stale air swept upon him. “There’s not much of a difference between the air out here and the air in there,” Lance thought to himself. He started towards a road and turned right there he saw a town that looked much like Bigton. He walked towards it and saw a wastelander.
“Hello there citizen,” Lance expressed cheerfully. The man turned to look at Lance.
“They will put us in cages ha-ha, in cages!” the man said in a strange voice.
“Who will do that to you?”
“Why the ghouls, they watch us from the sky,” The man said while looking at the sky.
“What do you mean ghouls don’t come out in the sun, let alone fly,” Lance said looking at the traveler.
“Why don’t you get on your way, where are you headed?” The man looked at him and smiled with rotten teeth from all the raw meat and radiation he must have been eating.
“As you wish, Brother Lance,” He chimed in with a grin.
“Now hold on a minute you slime,” Lance ordered in a harsh tone. “How do you know my name?” He grabbed the man by his throat and threw him to the ground.
“Hold it right there!” Lance heard as he felt the cold metal of a Chinese pistol touch his neck. “Get down on the ground!” Lance turned just enough to see a man about six foot tall wearing a trench coat and a assault rifle on his back. “Now!” the man said, his voice was louder now. “Get going!” The man said as he led Lance towards the mess of a town.
The large lead doors on the wall surrounding the town opened with a loud squeak. “Listen sir, my name in Lance Hogback and I am one the co-leaders of the Lyons Pride, you know, the Brotherhood of Steel.” Lance said hoping that would get the weapon away from his brains. Lance was a co-leader for the Lyons Pride, or the chapter of the Brotherhood of Steel in the Capital Wasteland.
“Yeah, yeah you steel guys are all the same, thinking you can just bust into my town and strip it of all its resident’s supplies and property,” The man said.
“Well I can assure you that if that has happened it will not occur again,” Lance insured. Lance had no weapons so all he could use was his charisma.
“Can you promise that?” The man shouted. “You can tell my son that was murdered by your pride that you can stop what is going on here!” Lance looked around in disbelief.
“My men swore to protect this land and they have murdered no one!” Lance said assertively.
“You can see for yourself. They will be coming tonight anyway. For now you can sit in one of our cells and watch your men wreak havoc once again on our town of Caldwell.” The man led Lance to an iron door and opened it. Inside were cell doors on both sides. The man opened one and shoved Lance inside.
“Oh, and by the way my name is Dwayne McCredie, Sheriff Dwayne McCredie, and as long as you’re here in my town, I will be your worst nightmare.” The door slammed shut.
Lance was alone in a dark cell. The only bit of light came from the moon outside shining in through the barred window. The prison was musty and smelled of raw meat. Suddenly he heard and noise from the corner.
“Who is there?” Lance said nervously. A Man stepped into the light. He was African American with a big beard. His clothes were torn and stained with what looked like blood.
“The name’s Wallace,” the man said.
“How did you get in here?”
“That there sheriff put me in the slammer for speaking out.”
“What did you speak out about?”
“You won’t believe me, but this world we’re in isn’t real,” Wallace said sheepishly.
“What do you mean it isn’t real?” Lance replied.
“We are in a simulator inside an Enclave warehouse,” Wallace answered. “I know who you are Lance. You fellow brothers are in this simulator as well.” Lance looked at Exit astonishingly.
“Where are they in here?”
“They were taken prisoner by the Anti-Brotherhood, see in here the brotherhood are a branch of the enclave,” Wallace told him.
“So that’s what that fool sheriff was talking about,”
“Yeah,” Wallace said. “Tonight the brotherhood’s minions come, ghouls, they attack all the towns in this simulator. We need to get you and your guys out of here Lance.” Lance turned and looked at the wall.
“Yeah, but how?”
“If we can somehow escape this cell and get to the control panel inside the basement of the sheriff’s office across town I could get us out of here,” replied Wallace.
“Yeah but how are we going to get out of this cell, the sheriff took all of my remote charges!” Lance said in irritation.
“I don’t know, plus I would need a nuclear splicer with at least a 235 power charge to break the mainframe off the computer running the simulator,” Wallace said in disappointment.
“Well we can’t just sit in here and rot!” Lance screamed.
Suddenly a large explosion rang out from outside the window, followed by screams of horror. “They’re here,” said Wallace. The two looked outside their cell window and saw a horde of ghouls running throughout the town.
“Lance we can use this as a way to escape!”Wallace yelled in excitement. A glowing steel ghoul stopped outside the cell door behind them. Wallace picked up a sharp stone and told Lance to stand back. He threw the rock and hit the explosive ghoul right in the head. A huge explosion blasted a hole in the wall where the door used to be.
“Come on!” Lance shouted. They ran out in the hall and to the gun case. Wallace grabbed a large stone and bashed it against the week glass case. The two stocked up on weapons when Lance heard a hoarse yell from behind him. Standing behind them were five Steel ghouls.
“We got to go!”Wallace yelled. Lance pulled the pin on a frag and dropped it to the ground knowing that the ghouls were following behind as the two ran down the hallway and out the door. The sound that followed was ghoulish screams that had escaped the zombies’ bodies as they were consumed by the fire. Lance and Wallace ran off into the night as the town of Caldwell was destroyed.
On the other half of town was the sheriff’s office. Luckily no one followed the two heroes as they made their way to the shack. “Lance, watch my back while I pick the lock,” Wallace broke in. He stuck two bobby pins into the lock and tried to open it. “Crap!” He said. The pins had broken. “Screw it!”He yelled as he shot the door handle with the shotgun he had stolen. The door came down with a crash.
“Hurry, get inside!” Lance said in a hurry. The two scrambled inside.
“Hello Brother Lance, and Wallace how lovely it is to see you two,” A voice said from behind them. Lance turned to see General Hans Lovelier of the Enclave.
“How did you get in here you rough skin?”Lance questioned, insulting him by calling him a ghoul.
“Well I am in a simulator pod just like you and your men. Bring them out!” the general said. Three Brotherhood of Steel paladins were dragged out, all beaten and bloody.
“You demon let them go!” Wallace yelled out.
“Not so fast my friends. It’s such a pity you didn’t get the G.D.P. here before my Enclave soldiers captured you and your soldiers and secured you in this pod.
“Wait you have the G.D.P,” Wallace whispered to Lance.
“Yeah I do. Why, what is it?”Lance replied in the same tone.
“They have the same capabilities and the nuclear splicer I need. It stands for General Deployed Power source” Wallace said. “Here give it to me and I’ll try to access the control panel but I’ll need a diversion.”
Lance handed Wallace the G.D.P. Wallace grabbed it and then walked over to the general.
“Thank You Wallace” The general said.
“What the heck Wallace,” Lance said.
“I thought that you of all people would know not to trust anyone Lance,” Hans said. “Wallace is mine, He works for me! Now it is time for you to die!”
General Hans lifted up his Assault Rifle to shoot at Lance, when suddenly his head exploded. “What the heck!” Once of the Enclave soldiers said out of fear.
“Someone killed him from outside the simulator. We have to get out of here!” The other soldier said. The two started to run out the door behind Lance when their heads exploded as well. Exit turned and looked at Lance.
“Look Lance I’m sorry it’s just the Enclave, Th-they have my wife and kid man. I didn’t want to help them alright,” Wallace said holding back tears.
“Ok Wallace let’s just get out of here and figure everything else out when we are in the real world,” Lance replied. “Now, whoever is out there doesn’t like the Enclave but they could just as easily be marauders so we have to get out before they shoot us.”
Wallace walked over to the control panel and tapped into the mainframe of the super computers. He took the G.D.P. and plugged it into the micro-fusion outlet on the panel. “I got it!” Wallace said with excitement. The two went outside the sheriff’s office and looked to see that the sky was changing from its normal reddish brown to what looked like a grey ceiling.
“Lance, help me!” Wallace said in a choking voice. Lance turned to see Wallace on the ground behind him with a hole in his head.
“Rest in peace my friend,” Lance said calmly.
Just then Lance opened his eyes. He saw Steel members looking at him through the glass of a simulator pod. The pod opened smoothly and Lance stepped out.
“Sir, are you alright?” One of the Brotherhood of Steel paladins asked.
“Yeah, but what about the others?” Lance asked in a hurry. Three of Lance’s paladins limped forward.
“Sir, if it weren’t for you, we would be dead,” One of them said. Lance looked at them with assurance.
“Let’s get back to the citadel and regroup,” He said.
“Sir, me and my men will clean up and shut this place down to prevent further Enclave use,” The leading Pride member said.
“Thank you, have one of your men escort us back to the base,” A paladin stood up.
“Right away sir, please follow me,” He said.
The squad returned to the citadel and was debriefed on what happened. The Enclave never pulled a stunt against the Brotherhood of Steel like the one they pulled in the simulator warehouse. The war in the capital wasteland between the Enclave and the valiant Brotherhood of Steel still raged on. And war, war never changes.
