Whale of the Wasteland - Level 2 (Patreon)

Chloe begins her quest to replace Vault 13's broken water chip. He best lead is to investigate Vault 15, but the wasteland is unkind and more dangerous than she expected.

Chapter 1

The Vaultt Overseer’s office could more accurately be described as a command centre. His desk was raised several feet off the ground and was surrounded by terminals and various equipment that allowed him to monitor the myriad systems necessary for maintaining the vault. From here, he could manage the work of every member of staff, all while  seated within walking distance of the break room.

“Chloe, are you happy here?” The Overseer asked, leaning down to look at her. She sat a level below him in a yellow, leather-backed office chair. Her face was still bloody from Albert’s untimely demise, and she’d found a bit of tooth caught in her hair on the way down. She blinked a few times, needing to repeat the question in her head twice before she was certain that he had asked it.

“I don’t think I understand the question.” 

“You have an incredible aptitude for machines. You’ve scored excellent grades in both employee and manager-level training courses, and you’ve done excellent work in both the maintenance and R&D divisions.” He pulled up a report on his monitor and displayed it on the large screen behind him so that she could see.

“The trouble is, all your supervisor reports read the same way. ‘Lacks focus, needs constant supervision, insubordinate.’” He shook his head. “Chloe, why can’t the people of this vault count on you when they need you?”

The words were delivered with compassion, but they hit Chloe like a punch to the jaw. “Mr. Overseer, I don’t know if I agree. I think I do a fair job of helping the people in need in our community.” 

The Overseer nodded. “But what about Albert? Did you help him when he needed you?” Chloe could feel the blood drain from her face as she pictured the look on Albert's face, right before it had been crushed by the vault door. “I think it’s time we utilised your skills, outside of the vault.” The overseer pulled out a pen and a clipboard and scribbled his signature on a slip of carbon paper.”

“Sir!” She yelped. “I– that isn’t– I mean, you don’t have to–”

“You’re approved to requisition a ten millimetre pistol, and whatever tools the maintenance department can spare. I’ll also let the doctor know to prescribe you some medical supplies and stim-packs for your journey.” He removed the top sheet of paper and filed it away in his desk, handing her a pink and yellow copy. She took them and looked back up at the Overseer, mouth agape.

“You’re kicking me out?”

“Kicking you out? No! Of course not. We’re a family here, Chloe.” He smiled at her with genuine warmth and gave her a few precious moments of relief before his face darkened. “But, we need that water chip. I’m not exaggerating when I say that within months, we will be completely out of drinkable water. If someone doesn’t find a new chip for us soon, people around here are going to start dying.

Chloe gulped audibly, startling herself. “Okay, where do I start looking?”

“Vault 15.” He pulled a map up on the screen behind him, showing their location overlaid on decades old aerial photography that had been acquired by a vault drone. “It’s a week due east of here on foot. If the vault is intact, they may be able to share a spare chip. If not, then they may at least be able to point you in the right direction.” 

“Mr. Overseer, I don’t know if I’m the right fit for this.” Chloe’s head was swimming. She kept looking down at the requisition form for the gun. Her thumb had left a bloody smudge on the carbon paper. How much more death would she witness outside, away from the climate-controlled halls and the scheduled meals? She tried to hand the paper back to the Overseer, but he rebuffed her.

“Miss Chloe, do you know why Albert was my first choice for this assignment?” The overseer asked.

“Because he was… personable?” She asked.

He shook his head. “Because he was trouble. That man has talked his way out of more written warnings this year than most vault members get in their entire career here. Trouble isn’t useful inside the vault, but it might be useful out there.” He handed the paper back to her. “Go make some good trouble out there for us.”

She stared for a moment. Then stood to leave. “I’ll do my best, sir,” she said, doing her best to put on a brave face.

“We’re counting on it. Oh! And Miss Chloe, make sure you clean up the vault door before you go.” 

Chapter 2

Chloe had been walking across the scorching, sun-baked desert for three days now. It was easier to travel at night, navigating by Pip-Boy during the dark, moonless nights, than sheltering in caves from the sun and the stinging, foul-smelling air during the day. She’d yet to use any of her medical supplies, but she had used her gun more than once. The rats directly outside the vault’s entrance had been cute when viewed through security cameras, but much less friendly than she’d hoped in person. She had also seen giant scorpions in the distance, scuttling across the scarred desert landscape in search of prey, seemingly looking for something smaller than her to fight with.

She’d failed to find shelter this morning as the sun rose over the irradiated peaks of the Rocky Mountains in the distance. And she untapped her vault-issue overalls, letting the flap hang down over her legs as she trudged ever eastward.

She had already resigned herself to a long, sweaty day of waking when she noticed a flat, pale structure in the distance. At first, she thought it might be a rock formation or the ruins of some prewar structure, but as she got closer, she recognised the sure signs of human life. Wheel ruts snaked through the desert toward the walls, and there was trash littered about left behind by other wanderers or leftovers from the old world that had been scavenged for any useful parts.

She got closer to the walls and, to her great delight, saw people for the first time in days. A short, bearded man and a thin woman with short, dark hair stood by the wide, open gate! Her pace quickened, and she waved, only for the man to look up and point a rifle at her. 

“Hold it, stranger.” The man spoke firmly but with a practised air of de-escalation. “You’re welcome into Shady Sands, but you’d best keep that weapon holstered while you’re here.” She looked down to see the pistol, clenched in her hand. She placed it back in her holster and uncurled her fingers. Watching the dust around her knuckles crack and feeling the stiffness of her fingers ease as she flexed them for the first time in hours.

“This is Shady Sands?” She called out. He lowered his gun, and she continued walking. She trotted eagerly, but tenderly, careful not to overwork her aching thighs.” Do you have water here?” 

“That depends. Do you have anything to trade?” 

Chloe slapped at the pockets of her coveralls until she found the flares she’d been issued. She tossed one to the man, and her looked it over. 

“Oh, absolutely,” he said as he looked it over, turning it over in his hands. “Need anything else, supplies, food, or just caps?”

“Caps?” She asked, finally getting within spitting distance of the man, and accepting her flare back from him.

“Yeah. You know, bottle caps. Like from Nuka-Cola?”

Chloe's eyes widened,d and a smile stretched across her chapped face. “You guys have Nuka-Cola!” 

A few hours later, Chloe was sitting at a genuine table inside a real house, surrounded by people who spoke her language! When she’d left the vault, she hadn’t known if she’d meet any other humans at all on the surface. Even if she did, she hadn’t expected them to be in any sort of civilised state. The people here were rougher than she was used to, and some of them could use a bath, but not only did they have food, shelter, and technology, they also had currency! God bless America.

The bottle caps from the old world had been repurposed into a kind of currency. And apparently, we were accepted as such at all of the local settlements. Ian, the man from earlier, sat across from her and gave her a warm Nuka-Cola and a handful of caps in exchange for one of her flares. Chloe popped the cap and greedily slurped it down, both to quench her thirst and her craving for sugar after days of eating nothing but stale rations and burnt rat. 

“So what’s your story?” Tandi, the young woman, hanging on Ian’s arm, asked. She was wiry, a few years younger than Chloe, and intently interested in Chloe’s vault. “A vault, huh? I’ve heard of one of those! A few of the people here came from one of those a few years back.”

“Really? Was it Vault 15?” Chloe asked, wiping the sticky soda pop from her chin.

Tandi shrugged and pointed to a rotund couple sitting in the corner. “You can ask them. They don’t talk much about it. It’s somewhere east of here.” 

“Thank you!” She stood, taking Tandi’s hand and shaking it. Tandi raised an eyebrow and laughed, burying her face in Ian’s shoulder, and Ian raised his bottle of Nuka-Cola to Chloe as she left. She couldn’t help but notice that Ian tolerated Tandi’s affections, but didn’t seem to reciprocate them. She acknowledged the snoopy part of her brain that was curious to know more, but filed that information away in the “none of my business” category. 

Chloe approached the hefty couple and introduced herself. The woman looked up, soft cheeks and round eyes opened wide in both curiosity and distrust. “My friends told me you came from a vault to the east of here. Would that happen to be Vault 15?” 

The woman nodded, face brightening a bit. “You’re from a Vault, too.” She pointed to the large yellow “13” emblazoned across Chloe’s chest.

“Yeah! I’m looking for a water chip! Do you know if your vault has one?” 

The woman sighed and shook her head. “We were attacked by raiders years back. They took everything worth anything from the vault.” Chloe’s shoulders dropped.

“Might still be there though!” The hefty man chimed in. “I don’t know if a raider would know what to do with a water chip. 

The woman nodded and turned back to Chloe. “Just be careful! Our vault specialised in animal agriculture and alternative food production. Last I heard, some of the test subjects were still hanging around.

Chloe cocked her head. “What kinda test subjects?”

The two former vault dwellers shared a knowing look before the man turned back to her. “Ever heard of a Pig-Rat?”

Chapter 3

The sun hung low over the flat, grey expanse of the horizon. Dusty, polluted air turned fiery colours in the atmosphere as dusk set upon the wasteland. Chloe adjusted her belt and the straps on her overalls before getting ready to leave the comfort of Shady Sands behind her.

“Leaving so soon?” 

Chloe turned to see Ian, standing behind her, leaning against the town’s outer wall.

“The sooner I get to Vault 15, the sooner I can get home.”

Ian nodded, tossing his knife into the air and catching it by the handle.” Want some company?”

Chloe glanced at him over her shoulder, taking a moment to read his body language. “Get bored with Tandi already?”

Ian winced. “Nothing like that. Tandi is a great girl, but she’s barking up the wrong tree. She’s interested in adventure and excitement, I’m interested in…” He rolled his eyes and shrugged.

“Oh!” Chloe straightened, suddenly far less worried about Ian’s intentions. “To tell you the truth, I’d appreciate the company. I’m not convinced I could hold my own if one of those scorpions decides I look tasty!”

They headed out from Shady Sands, due east. As they walked, Ian told Chloe about the various dangers of the wasteland, and Chloe spent the daylight hours tinkering with Ian’s weapons. By the time they reached the Vault, both of them were feeling confident that they could trust each other in a bind.

 “We’re 2 Clicks west of the vault.” Chloe adjusted a knob on her Pip-Boy, zooming in on the location on her map. “Keep an eye out for anything that might be an entrance.”

“Up there,” Ian raised an arm, pointing out a tiny building off in the distance.”Does that look like something?” Chloe squinted, raising a hand to shade her glasses from the glare of the early morning sun.

“Could be? Got a Nuka-Cola.” 

“Last bottle.” Ian tossed it to her, and she managed to catch the bottle before it could shatter on the ground. She twisted the cap off and chugged it, before tossing the empty bottle aside. And heading toward the shack.

They entered cautiously, pistols drawn. The interior was empty, save for some rotting shelves on the walls and a ladder in the centre of the room stretching down into a deep, dark manhole drilled directly into the concrete foundation of the shack. 

Ian reached into his coat and retrieved one of the flares he’d traded with Chloe for days prior. He grinned at her and twisted the cap off, dropping the light into the pit and watching it fall for several seconds before landing on the earthen floor below with an echoing clatter. 

Chloe went down first. She dropped to the floor on the last few rungs and looked around. She was in a cave, cool and moist, with the unmistakable silhouette of an open vault door deep within its depths. Dozens of cave rats scurried away from her, but one fat, pink creature lumbered through the cavern, apparently unfazed by her presence. 

“Ugh, what is that thing?” 

Ian dropped down beside her and looked out toward the flesh lump that trundled around the centre of the cave.

“Pig-Rat. Ornery than a cave rat, but worth the effort. They’re good eating.” Chloe shot him a look of disgust, but looking back at the creature, she had to admit, she could see the appeal. Thick, muscled legs supporting a stout, fleshy body. She could imagine the marbling. She shook her head.

“The water chip should be on the third floor. Let’s go.”

As they approached, the pig began to squeal and charge, but Ian raised his pistol and shot it in the head before it could pose any real threat. He grabbed the carcass by its back leg and opened his backpack, dropping it inside.

As they made their way into the vault proper, Chloe felt her heart sink. The various terminals and devices had been smashed. Wires hung out of broken computer screens and lockers hung open and off their hinges.

Ian whistled. “They weren’t kidding when they said that this place was ransacked. How do we get to the third floor?”

“Elevator.” Chloe pointed to a door on the back wall of the vault entrance. She approached and pressed the call button. Nothing happened. Obviously, the power was out.

Ian grabbed a crowbar off the ground in front of one of the broken lockers. He shoved one end into the doorway and leaned against it, but the door wouldn’t budge until Chloe leaned against it and pushed her full weight into opening the door. The vacant elevator shaft opened with a wheeze as stale air filled the confined space.

Chloe coughed, and Ian retrieved the flare, dropping it down the shaft. This time, the light fell much further, bouncing off the walls until it finally landed in a puddle below and extinguished itself.

“Great, what now?” Chloe asked, scanning the walls of the elevator shaft for a ladder ot some sort of access.

Ian’s response was to reach into his bag and pull out a rope, tying one end off to the grated floor outside the elevator.

“We climb down that?” She winced. “I’m not really much of an athlete.”

Ian nodded. “Slide, don’t climb. Hold on with both hands and brake with your feet.” He gave the rope a tug and then lowered himself down. Chloe watched his descent with some anxiety, but it did look easier in person. Once he reached the bottom, it was her turn. Sat on the edge of the elevator and scooted off, at first falling faster than she was comfortable with, but eventually slowing and coming to a complete stop. She hung there for a moment to catch her breath, but then loosened her grip and let herself slide again in short lurching jumps, all the way to the bottom.

She dropped to the floor, making a little splash, and beamed at Ian. 

“Great work! Now the hard part is going to be climbing back up.”

Chloe’s smile dropped, and she turned to stare up the long shaft again with a dawning horror. Ian burst into laughter, and despite herself, Chloe laughed too. Their laughter was cut short by a low growl from deeper within the vault. They froze. Ian reached into his pocket and pulled out the second flare, twisting off the cap and holding it up.

Thirty feet away was an enormous pig-rat. Its soft, pale body filled the entire corridor, and its red eyes flashed from its tiny head in the middle of its soft, wobbly form. It bared it’s long orange teeth, each the size of Chloe’s forearm and roared a deep, squealing roar before charging at them.

Chapter 4

Chloe yelled and drew her pistol, firing three shots into the giant pig-rat before it crashed into her. Each of her shots went wide, hitting the monster, but in non-vital areas. It trampled Chloe, stubby forelimbs scratching at her with long five-fingered claws that scapedat the leather of her overalls, but didn’t penetrate to her skin. It snapped at her with its powerful teeth, and she raised her arms to protect her face. The teeth locked around her arm, and its lips opened behind it as it bit into her skin with the smaller, sharper teeth inside its mouth. 

Ian couldn’t get a clear shot of the beast’s head and instead tossed the flare at it, causing the creature to rear back, giving him space to beat it around the head with his crowbar. It squealed and shriked as Chloe searched in the filthy water for her dropped pistol. Finally, she gave up, grabbing Ian’s from the holster on his hip and firing two shots into the monster’s head. It shuddered and fell, sending a ripple through its pale flesh. 

Chloe slumped onto the threshold of the elevator and caught her breath while Ian dug around in the water for her missing weapon. Once he’d found it, he came over offering it back to her. She reached out to take it and got her first good look at the teeth marks in her right forearm. She gagged and dropped the gun in the water again, forcing Ian to retrieve it. 

Chloe reached into the large pocket on her overalls and pulled out a stimpack, her fist aid supplies. She cleaned out the wound with fresh water and theninjected the stimpack into her forearm, watching the bleeding stop and the injury begin to close. She wrapped her arm in gauze and smiled apologetically at Ian. 

“Sorry. I guess I wasn’t much help back there.”

Ian scoffed and pointed at the body of the giant pig rat. “I don’t know what you’re talking about; it’s your kill.” He shruggedand held a thumb up to a spot on his chest. Before I reached Shady Sands, I got shot by a raider on a caravan run from Junktown. No one gets out of the wasteland unharmed. He handed the gun back to her. She nodded, placing the weapon in her holster. 

“Come on, the control room is up ahead.” They passed through the lab section and the remains of more pigrats. Most of the specimen jars had been broken by a cave-in, and the entrance to the main control room was blocked by fallen debris. 

Chloe cursed. The chip was under thousands of pounds of rubble and, even if they could get to it eventually, there was no guarantee that it had survived. Chloe found a mostly intact terminal and unscrewed the housing to get at the memory unit inside.

“What are you looking for?” Ian asked, crouching beside her.

“Information. Maybe there’s something we can use.” She plugged the disk into her Pip-Boy and waited for the information to be downloaded, the transfer completed, and she reviewed the files. “Apparently, they were experimenting with growth hormones down here. That explains our giant friend over there. Ugh, apparently, they even put it in the drinking water for the residents.”

“I did always wonder why everyone from Vault 15 was so… substantial.”

“Well, this was useless.” She stood, stretching. 

“What do we do now?” Ian asked.

“I dunno. Do you know anywhere that might have a water chip?”

Ian shrugged. “We could try the Hub.” Chloe turned to look at him, confused. “It’s a city, the biggest in the wasteland, at least that I’ve been to. All the caravans go through there. If anyone knows where we can find one of those water-things, it would probably be someone there.” 

“Sounds like a good place to start. Do you have a plan on how to get me back up that rope?”

Ian grinned. A few minutes later, Ian climbed back up the elevator shaft while Chloe watched, mouth agape. He swung up the rope, hand over hand, barely using his legs at all. It reminded Chloe of holotapes that she had seen of monkeys.

Once he reached the top, he pulled the rope up after him and began tying knots. After several anxious minutes of waiting alone in the dark, the rope dropped back down, now with two dozen evenly spaced handholds tied into it.

Chloe tied off the bottom and then braced her feet against the walls of the shaft. Slowly and with great effort, she began to pull herself up. A quarter of the way up her biceps burned from the exertion, and by halfway she was truly struggling, but she didn’t stop.

Despite Ian’s reassurances, she was still embarrassed by their fight with the big pig rat and wasn’t willing to embarrass herself a second time. By the time she reached the top, her fingers felt numb, and her heart was pounding in her chest. Ian grabbed her wrists and pulled her up onto the ledge, where she collapsed, gasping and let her arms flop on the floor beside her.

“I vote we camp here for the night.” She managed between breaths. 

“Seconded. Ian said, already setting down his pack and setting a campfire beneath the manhole.

“Oh, and Ian.” She looked over at him, and he stared back in quiet amusement. “Would you mind grilling up that little pigrat in your bag?”