The General: Reunions

Chapter 1: War Never Changes

Mason wakes up, not knowing what time or year it is. Banging twice on the window, which he notices has a crack, before a voice from his pod says, "Cryogenic array. Resident must vacate immediately."
It opens, and when he drops to the floor, he's gasping for air he didn't realize he was holding. After standing, he rushes over to Nora's pod, hoping she's alive, his breathing uneven. He had seen a lot, but he couldn't lose her. Shaun was taken, she's all he has. Going to the control panel, he frantically pushes the button.
"Come on, come on! Oh god!" Mason yells as the pod opens. When it does, he ducks under the door, getting to her faster, and when he sees her, everything comes falling down. To him, he hadn't lost his siblings and son even an hour ago. Now his wife was dead, and he had the murder fresh in his mind. Pulling her ring from his finger, he takes his wallet out from his suit, which is still in surprisingly good shape and puts the ring in it. Tucking it away, he turns back to her and drops to his knee.
"I'll find who did this," Mason declares, holding back tears, steeling his nerves. "And I'll get Shaun back. I promise."
He may not know who the bastard who did this was, but he knew what he looked like. And that's what he needed. When he found him, Mason was going to make him regret the day he was born. Make the man wish he never came into this vault.
Before leaving, Mason pushed the body to close the pod, and he started to exit the place. Opening the door, Mason sees an empty corridor. Not caring where everyone is, he starts looking for supplies, seeing if there was anything he could use. After finding junk, he put it in a toolbox by the entrance and went to open the door. When the door didn't open, Mason sighed and knew he'd have to take a detour. A slight detour and he'd be out of this hell-hole.
Knowing more than likely he wasn't alone in this place, he held onto the toolbox and began walking. He came to a set of stairs, and after taking a step down, he started to walk down a corridor. When he did, he saw something on a window before it crawled away, leaving him to wonder what it was. It looked like a bug of sorts to him. Passing through the corridor, the only thing running through his mind was how to get out of there. Walking through, he noticed something living by the tables. Knowing it wasn't human, he held onto the toolbox and ran forward. Slamming the toolbox down as he reached the thing, whatever it was died, and likely its head got crushed underneath
"Giant... roaches? Que diable," Mason muttered as he continued into the room behind the thing. After collecting the bottles and filling them with water, he put them into the toolbox and sat at a terminal. He didn't see anything useful in it but found a game. Taking and putting it away, he approached the roach from earlier and bent down.
"May as well see what I can get off this enfoiré," Mason muttered as he pried it open. He'd have to find a knife for this stuff later. After collecting some meat off it, he put it away to cook later and continued forward. Opening the food to the generator room, he saw a roach in the center and was about to go take care of it until a bolt of electricity from the generator zapped it, making him glad he wasn't in the middle. Walking around, he had to slam the toolbox into a roach on the railing, then again onto one on the ground. How many of these baiseurs were there?
Opening a door leading to a set of stairs, Mason swung the toolbox up as something came flying at him, hitting a roach back and into the ceiling. One that was behind it tried jumping at him, but Mason dropped to his hand and kicked it into the wall. Not taking his hand off the toolbox, he kept turning his body, swinging the container. Slamming it into the roach, he released it as the first one tried to jump onto his leg. He quickly pulled his leg up before stomping, catching the roach mid-jump. When the roach hit the ground, his foot didn't stop, crushing its back.
After collecting the meat off the roaches, he continued to a room where he found a circular desk. Finding a 10mm pistol on the desk with ammunition, he put it away while collecting some stimpaks that were in a little cubby hole. It was unfortunate the glasses didn't work for him, wrong prescription. Looking around, he sees what's likely a prototype of a weapon and knows he wouldn't be able to pick it. Not only was he no master at the craft, but he also had no bobby pins. After looking around and finding ammunition in some dressers and cabinets, he sits down at the computer and looks for a way to open the door. Finding the command, he presses enter and stands to leave, the toolbox in one hand, gun in the other.
As he walks down the corridor he sees more roaches as he near them and holds the pistol up. Taking aim, he fires six shots, hitting two in the head and four in the back. Collecting the meat off them, Mason continued forward, trying to think of what to call these things. Opening the door to the entrance, Mason saw a roach by a skeleton and aimed his weapon at it. Pulling the trigger, the roach screeched in pain before dying, allowing Mason to step up to the lift.
"Merde!" Mason yelled as he stepped back, a roach crawling out from beneath the platform. Stomping on it before it can do anything, Mason walks up the platform and looks around before his eyes land on something.
"A Pip-Boy," Mason mutters. "Well, this'll be useful. Help keep track of merde." Picking it up, he straps it to his arm and lets it start. Once it's finished, he figures out how to open the vault door, then stops to look around. After walking around to make sure he has everything, collecting some junk and ammunition, he steps back up to the platform. As the door opens, Mason steps back as the drill pulls back the door and gets it off its hinges. When it opens, he hurries across the walkway, wanting to get out as soon as possible.
While he waits for the platform, he catches his reflection in a panel and takes notice he looks the same for the most part, except for his eyes. Before this happened, people would say his eyes were full of life, and that he was the life of a party. Now? One could say he had a withering stare. A glare that could pierce through anyone's defense.
When the lift arrives, he steps onto it, thankful to be getting out of the place. As it starts to rise, Mason starts thinking about the man. When he finds him, he's going to hurt him. And when he's done, the man's going to beg for mercy.