Chapter 3: Frozen meat still moves

As the lift descended, the entire shaft reverberated with a deafening cacophony of metal straining against the weight above.

Loosening my grip on Nora, I release her as the elevator grinds to a halt. After what feels like an eternity, the doors finally slide open, revealing the dimly lit expanse of the underground bunker. As the crowded and terrified masses spill out of the lift, I take in the sight—a vast chamber dominated by an enormous staircase leading to the iconic Vault-Tec vault entry.

Though I've played Fallout and seen advertisements of Vault-Tec before, the sight still leaves me unsettled. The prospect of spending approximately 280 years underground is a sobering one.

In the cavernous room, I notice the other occupants—nine couples, five families, and one with a baby, making a total of six families with us. Accompanying us are six Vault-Tec guards and two scientists, who usher us up the stairs and through the gate.

Passing through the gate, a scientist greets us with a cheery demeanor, directing us to grab a suit and follow another scientist. "Once we get everything sorted here, we'll show you to your rooms," he assures us.

Ignoring the commotion around us, Nora and I follow the scientist with slicked-back hair and black glasses, his demeanor calm and collected. As we traverse a seemingly endless corridor, my nerves begin to fray, but I press on, reassuring Nora that everything will be fine.

Finally, we arrive at a sterile steel room filled with rows of cryopods. My muscles tense as I take in the sight, but I force myself to continue forward. "Please change into your vault clothes and then enter the medical scanner before I assign your rooms," the scientist instructs us with a false smile.

Behind a curtain, Nora changes into her vault suit, and I follow suit, though not without reluctance and hide the gun in my underwear. As I reach for Shaun, Nora's plea stops me in my tracks. "No, love, please, I'll hold him... his heartbeat comforts me," she implores.

Reluctantly, I relent, but not before making a promise. "Okay, but he stays with me in the pod, okay? You can hold him after, I promise," I assure her. As I turn away, she questions the presence of the gun in my possession.

"Don't worry, honey, just in case, okay?" I reply with a strained smile.

Approaching the cryopods, I reclaim Shaun and share a tender moment with Nora before entering our respective pods. "You're going to be fine. Don't worry," the scientist assures us before the door seals shut, enveloping us in darkness not before I take back the weapon in my right hand.

 A HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS LATER

After 150 years, the vault door creaks open, revealing 15 scientists clad in hazmat suits and a bald man in leather.

"You know why we're here, so move it!" The man barks impatiently, his disdain evident as he follows the scientists through the corridors and into the cryopods room.

"Ha, so many subjects to be used for the 'betterment' of humanity," he sneers with contempt.

A scientist approaches him with a note, reporting monotonously, "Of the six families we came for, four have a child between six and fourteen, and the other two have a baby each."

Another scientist adds, "But during our search, we discovered that we have no means to suppress the life support of a couple and a family."

"Can we still open them?" the man, Kellogg, inquires.

The scientist nods, prompting Kellogg to declare, "Then it's inconsequential. We'll eliminate them anyway. Take the youngest child and the two babies."

Without hesitation, they open the child's pod and retrieve him, then proceed to the families with babies, taking one of them without protest as the mother remain frozen asleep.

As a ringing echoes in my head and searing heat washes over me, my eyelids flutter open to blurry figures—a strange pale-green-blue form beside a dark silhouette.

"Hi, you're alright... give us the baby, and we'll help you ou—"

"STOP!" The dark silhouette shouts, I press the trigger as the black figure fires at me piercing under my right lung. 

The Ranger Sequoia, frozen by the cold, explodes in my hand, sending shrapnel flying killing the one in front and hurting the rest with the black figure getting seriously injured. In the chaos, the figure screams and hastily fires at the pod lever "YOU FUCKING PLAN B!", encasing us once more in icy stasis. They go away liking their wound with at least what they came for.

As the door seals shut once more, I hold Shaun close "Sleep well honey bun.", my bloodied hand crystallizing as the cryo-fluid seeps into my wound.

Unaware that two life support suppression failed, only letting the baby life support on thinking I Duncan Mason was dead.

Little do they know, the Masons—Duncan and Nora—are among the living but the mother they took the baby from too, was alive, Sofia Wonder.

The mama will go rip and tear till it's done that sure, but as for the Masons? Only time will tell.