Jacob Burns and the Order of the Algorithm #Wattys2017

Chapter 4: A Girl out of Time

The sun was creeping below the horizon by the time I carried the girl down the hill and into a bomb-blasted apartment. I found a secluded room, where I laid her gently down on the sofa and took up watch next to the window. I stared out over the square below, my bloodshot eyes begging for rest, but there was no chance. I'd be up all night for sure, the last thing I needed was for her to wake up and run off into God-knows-what. This was definitely no place for a young woman to be caught after dark.

I watched as the ferals crawled out from their holes and into the cool night air. They shambled aimlessly through the streets below, lost souls of a bygone era, forever doomed to wander. I knew the feeling. It seemed like that was all I was doing these days, and now there was no end in sight.

It was supposed to be easy, in and out with all the guns and goods I'd ever need to live out the rest of my days, but nothing's ever that simple. I was sitting off worse than ever before, not to mention someone still had to explain this whole mess to the girl. I certainly didn't look forward to telling her the truth about her old man, but somehow, I think she already knew.

I looked over at her for about the hundredth time since I had first seen her in that vault. She looked so peaceful as she laid there, the ephemeral light of an old television dancing across her delicate features.

There were a million questions racing through my mind, the same questions I'm sure every Wastelander had asked himself at one time or another. Sure, you could talk to one of the old pre-war ghouls, but 200 years inevitably took its toll on the mind. Nobody was meant to live that long, and memory can be a fickle thing. But this girl? She was someone who had actually lived back then, who could remember. A part of me felt guilty for wanting to know, I despised Vault-Tec and everything they stood for, but still... I couldn't help but wonder...

How had it really come to this?

I watched as one of the ghouls below stepped on an active mine. The explosion blew pieces of him clear across the plaza and left him writhing in agony on the ground. Before the poor beast knew it, his fellow ferals were on top of him, tearing into his flesh and devouring him alive.

This was the only world I or anyone else had ever known. Dog eat dog, and to hell if you thought that was ever going to change. And yet, all around us were remnants of the past, echoes calling out to us from every corner of the world. It was recorded on every holotape, written on every poster, and plastered on every billboard. Forever taunting us with that never-ending question.

How?

I turned away and back towards the girl. She was a mystery all her own. Who was she, and how did she end up there? And what was with that vault anyway? It looked like it had belonged to some conspiracy nut, but she sure didn't fit the profile. Whoever put that place together must have had some deep connections with Vault-Tec, at least the money and influence to know a thing or two. I eyed the Pip-Boy on her wrist and thought to myself (and not for the first time either), what secrets could it be hiding?

I couldn't take it any longer. I carefully unhooked the latch and slid the device gently off of her wrist. At once, I could tell this wasn't your average model. In fact, I wasn't sure if this was a RobCo at all. It had all the features every other portable computer came with in those days; tele-screen, radio, holotape deck, but I'd never seen one with a collapsible keyboard before, let alone an adjustable interface cable that looked like it could plug into just about any port. I booted up the system and green letters flickered across the screen.