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Well, I just finished this, didn't feel like proofreading yet so please excuse any spelling errors.
Anyways, this is my first fan-fic posted here. I'm still trying to decide if I'm satisfied with it myself or not. Let me know what you guys think.
Random Rendering #004: Goris
I woke up. The first thing I noticed as I regained consciousness was that I was alive. Well, at least I thought I was still alive. Consciousness seeped slowly into my mind as I dwelled on this. I did not open my eyes yet, and was almost afraid to, worried that it would reveal the horridness of an afterlife. After a few minutes, though, I became reassured I was indeed not dead. I could hear distinctly the breathes of at least two other people in the room. Their breathing was slow and steady. I could also hear the rhythm tic beeping of numerous machines.
It was at this moment I realized just how enhanced my senses were. In fact, my entire body felt different, as did my mind. Something was not right; something had greatly changed. As to what exactly this was, I had no idea. There was, though, only one way to attempt to find out. Carefully, I opened my eyes. I was looking at the ceiling. There were numerous bright lights over me, which caused me to instantly squint. I then began to lift my right arm to my face in order to block out the light. It was at this time I realized I was restrained to the table I was on. My arms were locked down securely, as were my legs and body. I kicked, trying to free myself.
My commotion startled the two people in the room. They rushed over to me, one on each of my sides. They appeared to be wearing some sort of biochemical suits. At this time, my confusion and nervousness rose. I did not know how I had gotten here or who these people were. One stood on each side of me, looking directly at my face, as if looking at a stranger.
“He’s finally awake. What do we do now?” One of them asked as he looked over to his companion.
“Give him another shot. He shouldn’t be conscience yet,” came the response.
I watched then as one grabbed a needle from somewhere beyond my range of sight. He brought it back above me, and then began to move to one of my arms. I considered struggling, but decided against it. What would it matter? I was restrained. Perhaps I could reason with them, though. “Where am I?” I asked slowly and uncertainly, my voice trembling and sounding hoarse as if it had no been used in quite some time.
“Well, he’s talking. That’s a good sign,” the one with the needle replied right before I felt my arm being stabbed. I didn’t cringe in pain, but it was still uncomfortable.
“Where am I?” I asked again. The two people exchanged glances.
“Do you think we should tell him?” one questioned.
“Of course not. Just follow the same procedure we used with the others.” He continued to say a few more sentences, but they were lost on me as I drifted back into unconsciousness.
---
I woke up. Instantly my eyes opened. Where was I? I looked around, and let out a loud sigh of relief. It had been a dream. I jumped up, examining the wasteland now. The fire from the night before had been out for quite some time. I looked over now at Sulik and Myron, my two companions, who were both still sleeping. I considered letting them sleep for a while longer, but decided against it. The sooner we started on the road again, the quicker I could forget about that bizarre dream.
“Myron! Sulik! Get up!” I yelled out as I ran over to them, giving each a friendly kick of encouragement. “It’s time to travel. We should be able to make it to Vault 13 today.”
“It’s too damned early, boss,” Myron grumbled. “The sun has only been up for a couple of hours at best.”
“Are you sure there isn’t any way we can shut him up?” Sulik questioned. The feud between the two had been ongoing ever since Myron joined up with us. However, it was a healthy one, and neither really meant the other harm.
Nobody amongst our group enjoyed the morning, including myself. However, I was excited about today. I felt certain that the Garden of Eden Creation Kit would be in Vault 13. I was about to save Arroyo! Nothing could ruin my spirits. I urged Myron and Sulik to move faster, and within ten minutes, we were out on the open wasteland again.
“Are you sure we are going the right way?” Myron asked. By now, I had come to ignore a lot of his senseless questions. To say the least, Myron enjoyed letting his ego run rampant, and felt it necessary to question the motives of everybody else. I knew that someday this would get him killed, but it still didn’t stop him. “Are you sure we –“
“Yes, I’m sure,” I answered impatiently, hoping the answer would shut him up. “We should be there within three hours if you don’t slow us down with stupid questions.” Myron groaned but did not ask anything else for the rest of the journey.
At last we reached the underground cave that led to the holy vault of my ancestor. I could hardly restrain myself from sprinting through the dark tunnel and to the large, steel door. Common sense won over, though, as I lit a flare and peered into the darkness. To rush in such a foreign and unlit place was not a good idea. Still, I marched onward rather quickly, with each of my companions following closely. We searched through the cave for the door for only a few minutes before we arrived at our destination.
“Hold this,” I said, handing the flare to Myron as I moved over to the control panel next to the door. The panel was covered with a layer of green slime, as I noticed were most of the cave walls. I motioned for my companion to bring the torch closer as I tried to brush the slime away. The dampness of the cave had not been a friend on the panel, though, as I could not make out any of the labels. I was not about to give up, though. Rather, I simply began pressing random keys, hoping for the right one. After about my tenth try, I achieved success.
The red light above the door began to flash, and an alarm sounded. Startled, Myron dropped the flare, which promptly went out. The red light, though, was able to illuminate a surprisingly large area of the cave. The redness seemed to grow even more with each second, until suddenly the ancient light bulb reached its end. The glass cracked, and the light disappeared. We were left then only with blackness, the sound of the alarm, and the groaning of the door as it moved out of the way.
Light shined from inside the vault, basking us as the door lurched to the side. It was a relief that the electricity was still working. However, my relief quickly sank as a menacing figure stood in the light, casting a fierce shadow. Almost instantly, I realized what the creature was, and began to reach for my weapon.
“Do not be afraid,” the creature spoke. Startled, I froze. My companions did the same. All of us simply stared at the deathclaw with gaping eyes and mouths. “I am not going to harm you. Come inside.” The creature then turned, walking into the vault. I exchanged glances with Myron and Sulik. Both looked astonished and terrified, and personally I could not blame them. They seemed as if they wanted to run.
“Let’s do this,” I said plainly. I had not came this far to fail Arroyo. I would succeed. It was inevitable. I marched forward into the vault confidently. My fellow travelers paused briefly, but then continued behind me. I saw the deathclaw that I had spoken to waiting in the first room.
“I’m glad to see you’ve chosen to follow me,” he spoke smoothly. “I’m Gruthar, and before we get too friendly, tell me what you are doing here.”
“My name is Steve,” I said confidently. “I am from the village of Arroyo. I have come in search of a Geck, or Garden of Eden Creation Kit. It is needed in order to save my village, and I have reason to believe there may be one here.”
“Hm, a Geck?” Gruthar ponders this for a moment, and then states, “I cannot give you access to the vault. It would be too risky. Besides, I don’t think what you are looking for will be found here.”
I thought quickly now. I did not want to travel all this distance only to be turned away. “Well, perhaps I can offer you something in return?”
“Well, there is one thing.”
“What is it?” I would do almost anything to get into the vault. I knew it was important.
“One of the machines on the third level of the vault is no longer working,” Gruthar explained quickly. “It was made to recognize voices, but now it has stopped listening. It is our only means of accessing the food and water supplies of the vault. Deathclaws are not skilled in fixing human machines.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Myron spoke up. “We can get that machine up and runnin’ before you know it.”
Gruthar looked questioningly at me and then at Myron, as if attempting to decide if we were trustworthy. Finally, he agreed. He told us we could search the vault under the condition that we would take a look at and attempt to fix the broken voice recognition module in the machine on the third floor. It was a fair trade. However, the whole talking deathclaw ordeal was quite unexpected to me. How was that possible?
My companions and me made our way to the third floor. I had no idea what machine Gruthar was speaking of, nor where it would be found. However, while searching, I did take the exact wrong turn. I went to the end of the hall, and decided to work my way back, checking each room as I went along for both the machine and the Geck. The first room I checked in, though, had the most peculiar deathclaw that was cloaked in a robe.
“Who are you?” it asked as soon as I had stepped into the room. It did not bother to remove the cloak as he spoke. “I don’t recognize you.”
“My name is Steve. This is Myron and Sulik,” I responded, motioning to my companions. “Gruthar asked us to look at the broken machine down here.”
“Ah yes, hopefully you will be able to fix that,” the deathclaw stated. “My name is Goris.”
“Nice to meet you,” Myron said from behind while poking me in the back discretely, as was his habit whenever he became nervous and wanted to leave a place in a hurry. Once again, I ignored him, though.
“Same here, I hope,” Goris answered to Myron. He then turned back to me. “For an outsider, you must find this place to be a marvel beyond your wildest dreams. Talking deathclaws inhabiting a vault. It is something that does not even exist in dreams!”
“Yes, it does baffle me,” I responded, deciding to make the most of this situation. “How is it possible for you to talk, anyway?”
“Well, allow me to tell you my story. I was a young hatchling when my mother was murdered. I didn’t remember that until after the experiment, though. You see, it helped to unlock past memories as well. Ah, but I am getting ahead of myself. Back to the story, I saw my mother killed at the hands of two men and some dog in the Boneyard quite some time ago. I only managed to survive through luck; that old building’s basement had many hiding spots for a young deathclaw, and I was not found. Still, my mother was dead, as were my brothers and sisters. After that horrid scene, I fled from the Boneyard, never to return again. I feared that the man would return.”
A chill ran down my spine as I heard this story. Was it possible? I had heard many times about the battle between my ancestor and the deathclaws of the Boneyard. I decided against mentioning this, though. I feared that Goris might still be angry about the entire situation. Rather, I simply asked, “How long ago was this?”
“Honestly, I cannot say. Deathclaws have an incredible lifespan. My guess would be many generations ago. But back to the story, after I left the Boneyard, I was fortunate to fall in with another group of deathclaws. We have always felt close kinship with our own kind, so I had no trouble surviving with them. Gruthar was part of my pack at that time. Then the incident happened.” Goris paused, taking a deep breath and letting it out with a sad sigh before continuing. “We were taken hostage by a large group of men who descended from the sky in large machines during the middle of the night. Lights flooded us, and the sounds of the great machines and men shouting from one to another filled the air. The machines hovered above the ground, and we stood with our backs against one another in a circle. There were four machines, one on each side of us. We waited for the end, to either be shot down from the sky or for them to come for us on foot. Either way, we all felt sure that it was our end. We waited for an eternity for the end to come, but it never did. Then it happened.”
“What?” Myron spoke up now. He was no longer jabbing my back.
“The men had tranquilizer guns. They shot each and every one of us, letting us fall to the ground in a great slumber. I don’t know what happened when we were asleep, but when we woke up, each of us was in a large cage. Thick chains surrounded us, and when we would touch one, a bolt of electricity would greet us. It was not a good sign indeed. We were given plenty to eat, though, to ensure our survival. Other than that, we had no contact with our captures until they came to get us. They would come to our cage, one each day, and take us to be injected with some sort of virus from what I understand. I don’t know what type of virus it was, but it changed us. It made us smarter. It gave us the ability to speak! But it came with a cost. We were to obey those who captured us and fight for them without question. Of course, we did not want to be slaves. So one night, the night after I was injected with the virus, we escaped from our captives and came here to reside in peace.”
“Wait a minute,” I said. Something didn’t make sense. “So you weren’t smart until after you had the virus injected, but you escaped the night after you were given it? So you had no idea of the plan?”
“Actually, no, I didn’t. I was resting still, unaware of what the virus had done to me, when I was woken.”
“Who held you captive?”
“A group of people called the Enclave,” Goris answered. “I do not know much about them.”
“Well, that’s quite an interesting story, Goris, but I really should be going. I need to fix that machine,” I said. “I will stop by before I leave again, though.”
“Sounds good,” the intelligent deathclaw replied. I turned around then and began to walk back to the door. As I did, something happened. I think I tripped. Either way, I was falling now, and the floor was rushing to greet me. I caught sight then of a crate out of the corner of my eye right before the side of my head crashed into it. Everything went black.
---
I woke up. Somebody was nudging me. What was going on? Where was I? My eyes fluttered open to see a deathclaw, Gruthar, standing over me. His face was only a mere foot away from mine. He smiled. “Good, your up. Now let’s go Goris. It’s time to leave the Enclave. I’ll explain on the way.”
Anyways, this is my first fan-fic posted here. I'm still trying to decide if I'm satisfied with it myself or not. Let me know what you guys think.
Random Rendering #004: Goris
I woke up. The first thing I noticed as I regained consciousness was that I was alive. Well, at least I thought I was still alive. Consciousness seeped slowly into my mind as I dwelled on this. I did not open my eyes yet, and was almost afraid to, worried that it would reveal the horridness of an afterlife. After a few minutes, though, I became reassured I was indeed not dead. I could hear distinctly the breathes of at least two other people in the room. Their breathing was slow and steady. I could also hear the rhythm tic beeping of numerous machines.
It was at this moment I realized just how enhanced my senses were. In fact, my entire body felt different, as did my mind. Something was not right; something had greatly changed. As to what exactly this was, I had no idea. There was, though, only one way to attempt to find out. Carefully, I opened my eyes. I was looking at the ceiling. There were numerous bright lights over me, which caused me to instantly squint. I then began to lift my right arm to my face in order to block out the light. It was at this time I realized I was restrained to the table I was on. My arms were locked down securely, as were my legs and body. I kicked, trying to free myself.
My commotion startled the two people in the room. They rushed over to me, one on each of my sides. They appeared to be wearing some sort of biochemical suits. At this time, my confusion and nervousness rose. I did not know how I had gotten here or who these people were. One stood on each side of me, looking directly at my face, as if looking at a stranger.
“He’s finally awake. What do we do now?” One of them asked as he looked over to his companion.
“Give him another shot. He shouldn’t be conscience yet,” came the response.
I watched then as one grabbed a needle from somewhere beyond my range of sight. He brought it back above me, and then began to move to one of my arms. I considered struggling, but decided against it. What would it matter? I was restrained. Perhaps I could reason with them, though. “Where am I?” I asked slowly and uncertainly, my voice trembling and sounding hoarse as if it had no been used in quite some time.
“Well, he’s talking. That’s a good sign,” the one with the needle replied right before I felt my arm being stabbed. I didn’t cringe in pain, but it was still uncomfortable.
“Where am I?” I asked again. The two people exchanged glances.
“Do you think we should tell him?” one questioned.
“Of course not. Just follow the same procedure we used with the others.” He continued to say a few more sentences, but they were lost on me as I drifted back into unconsciousness.
---
I woke up. Instantly my eyes opened. Where was I? I looked around, and let out a loud sigh of relief. It had been a dream. I jumped up, examining the wasteland now. The fire from the night before had been out for quite some time. I looked over now at Sulik and Myron, my two companions, who were both still sleeping. I considered letting them sleep for a while longer, but decided against it. The sooner we started on the road again, the quicker I could forget about that bizarre dream.
“Myron! Sulik! Get up!” I yelled out as I ran over to them, giving each a friendly kick of encouragement. “It’s time to travel. We should be able to make it to Vault 13 today.”
“It’s too damned early, boss,” Myron grumbled. “The sun has only been up for a couple of hours at best.”
“Are you sure there isn’t any way we can shut him up?” Sulik questioned. The feud between the two had been ongoing ever since Myron joined up with us. However, it was a healthy one, and neither really meant the other harm.
Nobody amongst our group enjoyed the morning, including myself. However, I was excited about today. I felt certain that the Garden of Eden Creation Kit would be in Vault 13. I was about to save Arroyo! Nothing could ruin my spirits. I urged Myron and Sulik to move faster, and within ten minutes, we were out on the open wasteland again.
“Are you sure we are going the right way?” Myron asked. By now, I had come to ignore a lot of his senseless questions. To say the least, Myron enjoyed letting his ego run rampant, and felt it necessary to question the motives of everybody else. I knew that someday this would get him killed, but it still didn’t stop him. “Are you sure we –“
“Yes, I’m sure,” I answered impatiently, hoping the answer would shut him up. “We should be there within three hours if you don’t slow us down with stupid questions.” Myron groaned but did not ask anything else for the rest of the journey.
At last we reached the underground cave that led to the holy vault of my ancestor. I could hardly restrain myself from sprinting through the dark tunnel and to the large, steel door. Common sense won over, though, as I lit a flare and peered into the darkness. To rush in such a foreign and unlit place was not a good idea. Still, I marched onward rather quickly, with each of my companions following closely. We searched through the cave for the door for only a few minutes before we arrived at our destination.
“Hold this,” I said, handing the flare to Myron as I moved over to the control panel next to the door. The panel was covered with a layer of green slime, as I noticed were most of the cave walls. I motioned for my companion to bring the torch closer as I tried to brush the slime away. The dampness of the cave had not been a friend on the panel, though, as I could not make out any of the labels. I was not about to give up, though. Rather, I simply began pressing random keys, hoping for the right one. After about my tenth try, I achieved success.
The red light above the door began to flash, and an alarm sounded. Startled, Myron dropped the flare, which promptly went out. The red light, though, was able to illuminate a surprisingly large area of the cave. The redness seemed to grow even more with each second, until suddenly the ancient light bulb reached its end. The glass cracked, and the light disappeared. We were left then only with blackness, the sound of the alarm, and the groaning of the door as it moved out of the way.
Light shined from inside the vault, basking us as the door lurched to the side. It was a relief that the electricity was still working. However, my relief quickly sank as a menacing figure stood in the light, casting a fierce shadow. Almost instantly, I realized what the creature was, and began to reach for my weapon.
“Do not be afraid,” the creature spoke. Startled, I froze. My companions did the same. All of us simply stared at the deathclaw with gaping eyes and mouths. “I am not going to harm you. Come inside.” The creature then turned, walking into the vault. I exchanged glances with Myron and Sulik. Both looked astonished and terrified, and personally I could not blame them. They seemed as if they wanted to run.
“Let’s do this,” I said plainly. I had not came this far to fail Arroyo. I would succeed. It was inevitable. I marched forward into the vault confidently. My fellow travelers paused briefly, but then continued behind me. I saw the deathclaw that I had spoken to waiting in the first room.
“I’m glad to see you’ve chosen to follow me,” he spoke smoothly. “I’m Gruthar, and before we get too friendly, tell me what you are doing here.”
“My name is Steve,” I said confidently. “I am from the village of Arroyo. I have come in search of a Geck, or Garden of Eden Creation Kit. It is needed in order to save my village, and I have reason to believe there may be one here.”
“Hm, a Geck?” Gruthar ponders this for a moment, and then states, “I cannot give you access to the vault. It would be too risky. Besides, I don’t think what you are looking for will be found here.”
I thought quickly now. I did not want to travel all this distance only to be turned away. “Well, perhaps I can offer you something in return?”
“Well, there is one thing.”
“What is it?” I would do almost anything to get into the vault. I knew it was important.
“One of the machines on the third level of the vault is no longer working,” Gruthar explained quickly. “It was made to recognize voices, but now it has stopped listening. It is our only means of accessing the food and water supplies of the vault. Deathclaws are not skilled in fixing human machines.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Myron spoke up. “We can get that machine up and runnin’ before you know it.”
Gruthar looked questioningly at me and then at Myron, as if attempting to decide if we were trustworthy. Finally, he agreed. He told us we could search the vault under the condition that we would take a look at and attempt to fix the broken voice recognition module in the machine on the third floor. It was a fair trade. However, the whole talking deathclaw ordeal was quite unexpected to me. How was that possible?
My companions and me made our way to the third floor. I had no idea what machine Gruthar was speaking of, nor where it would be found. However, while searching, I did take the exact wrong turn. I went to the end of the hall, and decided to work my way back, checking each room as I went along for both the machine and the Geck. The first room I checked in, though, had the most peculiar deathclaw that was cloaked in a robe.
“Who are you?” it asked as soon as I had stepped into the room. It did not bother to remove the cloak as he spoke. “I don’t recognize you.”
“My name is Steve. This is Myron and Sulik,” I responded, motioning to my companions. “Gruthar asked us to look at the broken machine down here.”
“Ah yes, hopefully you will be able to fix that,” the deathclaw stated. “My name is Goris.”
“Nice to meet you,” Myron said from behind while poking me in the back discretely, as was his habit whenever he became nervous and wanted to leave a place in a hurry. Once again, I ignored him, though.
“Same here, I hope,” Goris answered to Myron. He then turned back to me. “For an outsider, you must find this place to be a marvel beyond your wildest dreams. Talking deathclaws inhabiting a vault. It is something that does not even exist in dreams!”
“Yes, it does baffle me,” I responded, deciding to make the most of this situation. “How is it possible for you to talk, anyway?”
“Well, allow me to tell you my story. I was a young hatchling when my mother was murdered. I didn’t remember that until after the experiment, though. You see, it helped to unlock past memories as well. Ah, but I am getting ahead of myself. Back to the story, I saw my mother killed at the hands of two men and some dog in the Boneyard quite some time ago. I only managed to survive through luck; that old building’s basement had many hiding spots for a young deathclaw, and I was not found. Still, my mother was dead, as were my brothers and sisters. After that horrid scene, I fled from the Boneyard, never to return again. I feared that the man would return.”
A chill ran down my spine as I heard this story. Was it possible? I had heard many times about the battle between my ancestor and the deathclaws of the Boneyard. I decided against mentioning this, though. I feared that Goris might still be angry about the entire situation. Rather, I simply asked, “How long ago was this?”
“Honestly, I cannot say. Deathclaws have an incredible lifespan. My guess would be many generations ago. But back to the story, after I left the Boneyard, I was fortunate to fall in with another group of deathclaws. We have always felt close kinship with our own kind, so I had no trouble surviving with them. Gruthar was part of my pack at that time. Then the incident happened.” Goris paused, taking a deep breath and letting it out with a sad sigh before continuing. “We were taken hostage by a large group of men who descended from the sky in large machines during the middle of the night. Lights flooded us, and the sounds of the great machines and men shouting from one to another filled the air. The machines hovered above the ground, and we stood with our backs against one another in a circle. There were four machines, one on each side of us. We waited for the end, to either be shot down from the sky or for them to come for us on foot. Either way, we all felt sure that it was our end. We waited for an eternity for the end to come, but it never did. Then it happened.”
“What?” Myron spoke up now. He was no longer jabbing my back.
“The men had tranquilizer guns. They shot each and every one of us, letting us fall to the ground in a great slumber. I don’t know what happened when we were asleep, but when we woke up, each of us was in a large cage. Thick chains surrounded us, and when we would touch one, a bolt of electricity would greet us. It was not a good sign indeed. We were given plenty to eat, though, to ensure our survival. Other than that, we had no contact with our captures until they came to get us. They would come to our cage, one each day, and take us to be injected with some sort of virus from what I understand. I don’t know what type of virus it was, but it changed us. It made us smarter. It gave us the ability to speak! But it came with a cost. We were to obey those who captured us and fight for them without question. Of course, we did not want to be slaves. So one night, the night after I was injected with the virus, we escaped from our captives and came here to reside in peace.”
“Wait a minute,” I said. Something didn’t make sense. “So you weren’t smart until after you had the virus injected, but you escaped the night after you were given it? So you had no idea of the plan?”
“Actually, no, I didn’t. I was resting still, unaware of what the virus had done to me, when I was woken.”
“Who held you captive?”
“A group of people called the Enclave,” Goris answered. “I do not know much about them.”
“Well, that’s quite an interesting story, Goris, but I really should be going. I need to fix that machine,” I said. “I will stop by before I leave again, though.”
“Sounds good,” the intelligent deathclaw replied. I turned around then and began to walk back to the door. As I did, something happened. I think I tripped. Either way, I was falling now, and the floor was rushing to greet me. I caught sight then of a crate out of the corner of my eye right before the side of my head crashed into it. Everything went black.
---
I woke up. Somebody was nudging me. What was going on? Where was I? My eyes fluttered open to see a deathclaw, Gruthar, standing over me. His face was only a mere foot away from mine. He smiled. “Good, your up. Now let’s go Goris. It’s time to leave the Enclave. I’ll explain on the way.”