Chapter 13: Engagement

*Ksshnk*

With the doors now closed and safely secured, I turned back towards Old Man Pete and said with a grateful expression on my face. "Thanks for not shutting the doors on me, old man."

He patted me on the shoulder and responded with. "Yeah, yeah, no problem youngin. But if you was any slower in coming back, they woulda ripped you apart. So you need to be more careful, because you won't necessarily be this lucky in your next venture."

"I'll try not to kill off as many mole rats when I come again." I said in response, somewhat apologetically due to the trouble I caused. 

"But if I do take out a bit too many of them, I'll be sure to run back as quickly as I can and give you a heads up about any possible trouble I may have gotten myself in." I added on.

"Alright, sounds good, kid."

"Oh yeah, Old Pete, what are we gonna do about that mole rat horde out there and all the corpses that'll inevitably be left behind once the turrets are finished dealing with them?"

"Nothing to worry about youngin, the defenses are more than adequate for the number you brought back with you and the defenses would also have no issue in dealing with them whatsoever, no matter how many of those pests were to rush over. As for the corpses, the miners and I will go out and dispose of them later on with some of the vault security officers when the day's work is taken care of."

"Can you elaborate further on why the mole rats have no way of breaching the vault defenses? I would think they would be able to tunnel their way into the vault at some point in the future."

"Well, they do in fact have strong teeth, stronger than a beaver, in fact. However, not strong or durable enough to chip away at the walls, which are made up of a special blend of concrete. And even if they were able to breach the concrete layer, they would be met with the next layer of the walls, a super strong steel alloy. That layer they have no possible way of getting through at all, regardless of how many of them gnaw on the walls." The old miner elaborated.

"Also, all the materials have been tested in the past with captured mole rats, so as I said before, kid, there's nothing to be concerned about."

Once Old Man Pete was done explaining, I asked if he knew what went into the special concrete as well as the steel alloy used in the vault walls and he replied that he did indeed know of what went into the mixture. Thus I inquired if he was able to share said recipes with me too and he said it wouldn't be an issue because it was common knowledge amongst the construction crews and the guys processing the ore that gets pulled up from the new mines on a regular basis.

A short while later, I finished learning what went into the two recipes and their related production methods. We continued chatting about a few other things for a further 10 minutes and began wrapping up our discussion. Just about ready to turn around and head home, he gave me heads up that the relevant people that needed to know regarding the situation have been informed already.

"Thanks again for not leaving me for dead, old man." I thanked Old Man Pete again, gratefully.

"No problem, kid. Just make sure you go talk to the overseer after you get yourself sorted."

"Alright will do, I'll see you around Old Man." I said lastly while turning around to head home to drop my stuff off.

Navigating the never-ending gray vault hallways, I passed by the occasional vault resident, going about their business and right around the 20-minute mark, I finally made it back home. As soon as I came through the front door, I went straight to my room and dropped my stuff off. It took more than a few minutes, but I organized and returned everything to where it belonged. Pretty tired, I took a load off and relaxed for five minutes before I got up again to pay a visit to the overseer.

While I was making my way to his office, my mind started wandering.

I wonder if I'll be able to get firearm clearance because of the events that took place in the old mines. If I can present an actual need for having one and use some of the affection, I've been farming and building up over the years, I might be able to make it happen... On second thought there aren't too many people who are allowed that privilege, so realistically I'll probably have to play all my cards just right if I want to obtain clearance.

Not long after completing that thought, I reached the overseer's office. Seeing Tom and Bill, who guarded the overseer during the day, I greeted them and chatted with the both of them for a minute. I then asked them if Amata's father was busy and they replied that he was inside waiting for me, so I opened the hefty metal door leading to his office via the small panel located on nearly every door in the vault.

*Ksshhk*

Nothing standing in my way anymore, I stepped inside his large office and right as I rounded the corner I saw he was typing away busily on his terminal. Noticing that he was in the midst of something I didn't wish to interrupt and disturb him, thus I did the courteous thing and walked off to the side and took a seat on the couch positioned along the wall of his office to wait until he was finished.

I sat there waiting patiently for around two minutes or so before Amata's father, the overseer, either completed what he was working on or got to a point where he could pause his work. And as he did, he looked up from the terminal he was typing away on previously in my direction with a smug grin plastered on his face.

"I've been told you've managed to stir up the mole rats quite a bit on your short excursion into the old vault mines and that you did a mighty fine job killing off a decent amount of them. Good job." The overseer commented while I was somewhat surprised at not getting ripped into.

"You seem surprised. Why is that?" He asked.

"Well, I thought you were gonna rip into me for putting myself and possibly the vault in danger."

"Ohh nonsense, son. Why would you be in any trouble for killing off a bunch of those little bastards? I'm actually more than pleased that you took out more than a few of them." He said, quite happy about the losses the mole rat swarm experienced.

As I was about to get a word in, he stood up and rolled up his vault suit's right leg, showing a decent size chunk missing from the side of his thigh. "Any chance we get to stir up and dispose of those fucking rats always puts me in a good mood, since I get to have a little payback for what they did to me in my younger days. So how many did you take out?"

"I managed to hunt down 50 of them, sir."

He whistled hearing the number and continued with an even broader smile than previously. "Even better than I thought you would do. Also, no need to be so polite son, please call me father-in-law from now on."

Once I registered what he said, I must've had a very befuddled expression on my face because after a second or two, he started roaring in laughter and just about began rolling on the floor. "Ha ha ha ha…"

He recovered somewhat moments later and began again. "Ha ah ha. I haven't had a laugh like that in a very long time. Thanks for that. But in all seriousness, you did a great job clearing out and thinning their numbers and I was 100% serious about you calling me father-in-law because I've already arranged it with your father."

"What! Why would you do such a thing, sir?" I asked him, surprised that he was serious.

"Ah, ah, ah, father-in-law." He corrected.

I repeated the same question I asked moments ago, but called him father-in-law as he wished instead of sir and he answered with. "Well, son-in-law, my Amata, and you seem to get along very well and she talks about you nearly every day. So, wanting the best for my little girl, I decided to take the initiative and do what's best for her and secure her the person she likes early on."

"And I'm sure you're well aware that you are a very special person with many great qualities any normal child, or even an adult human for that matter, shouldn't have. Hence, why wouldn't I want to lock down a person of such great quality for my only offspring?" He added.

Can't really fault the man there, even though I'd much rather be the one to decide who my own partner is.

Unable to find fault with the man's rationale and reasoning, I let him go on.

"Also, I doubt you'll be complaining in the end when this is how her mother looked while she was still alive and hadn't gotten sick yet." He added while handing me a photo of a dark-haired, fair-colored woman with a buxom and well-shaped body with curves in all the right places. And if I was to rate her face, I would say she was about a high eight or nine and possibly reaching a ten with makeup.

As soon as I was done taking a brief look at the photo, I handed it back to him, where he sighed and added further once he pocketed the photo of his late wife. "Let me tell you, son, they don't make them like that ever and I would know since I was a bit of a player back in my heyday. But sadly, she passed away around eight years ago shortly after you and your father arrived here at Vault 101 and to this day, I still haven't been able to get over her passing."

He paused for several seconds while having this distant look in his eyes before regaining clarity and saying lastly with a grin. "So not such a bad deal, aye, son."

Having heard him out, I couldn't help but nod along and agree with what he's said so far.

"Yeah, I would say it's a pretty great deal. I can't really find much, if any, issues with what you said for the most part, so I'll agree to the engagement. And I bet there will be some perks that come along with being the overseer's son-in-law that normal vault residents wouldn't have, right?" I said in response while also seeing if there was anything else I could get out of this engagement that could possibly help with my future plans.

"Excellent, I'm glad that you're in agreement and your assumption regarding additional perks is spot on. We can discuss those benefits and privileges after we iron out some of the finer details regarding your engagement with my Amata." He replied with a very satisfied and relieved look on his face.

We went over the details of the arrangement for around half an hour and decided not to have anything planned for now since we were both way too young currently. Though we'll probably start getting everything planned and set up when Amata and I are both nearing the age of 18-19 years old.

With that figured out, nothing really needs to be changed in my plans currently other than I'll need to allocate time to come back to visit the vault regularly once I start my venture out into the wasteland. Which honestly shouldn't be that much of an issue because I should be able to get my hands on a vehicle or some other form of transportation in the future.

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Next chapter will be out Saturday.

If you want something else to read, that's similar to this, check out my other webnovel Wasteland Conqueror. It has a lot more chapters released.