Amata lay face up on her bead thinking about her day and her life. Today was an ordinary day, just like any other in Vault 101. Wake up, work, give praise to her father a.k.a. the Overseer, and go to sleep. Except she had a scheduled check-up with the Vault Physician.

She had stopped by the clinic, and saw her best friend, and high-school crush, Sam, at the clinic too, coming round to visit his father, the good Doctor himself. James, the Doctor seemed to be preoccupied with his thoughts after his kid left. When Amata had asked about it, he asked what she thought of Sam. The question had taken her aback, but she had told him she thought he was a bright young man, that he had found his place in the Vault, and doing well for himself. She wondered if he had been wondering about the crush she had on him, but he went back on with the check-up.

A while longer, he asked another question, one a little more serious, and more thought provoking. Did she feel as though she's made a difference in the world. She had to say that no, she really hadn't, but with the Vault as secure and safe as it was, there was no real reason to change anything. Was there? His eyes had glassed over, as though he were staring at some unknown object that only he could see. He then asked what she though the most worthwhile thing she had done was. When she thought about it carefully, even being the Overseer's daughter hadn't given her many oppurtunities to do much worthwhile in the Vault. She wasn't in the Debate team, she hadn't joined the club that sprang up trying to reserect the lost art of cooking that so many other Woman had, she hadn't even been part of the Vault Little League team apart from being on the sidelines to watch her best friend play. The only thing she could consider worthwhile was knowing her best friend Sam, but she couldn't say that in front of his Dad, so she had to say that she didn't know.

Again his eyes went blank, but the check-up was about finished, so she left with a head full of questions, and few answers.

She decided to turn on her side and go to sleep. Maybe she could go to that Ice-cream Social that the Mack family was to be holding, and that could take her mind off tShe fell asleep, looking forward to another day in the morning that could give her time to think.

"Wake up! Wake up!" "Please... he's my friend..."

"Weird I was just dreaming about you." "If you ever lay a hand on Amata again, I'll make you regret it."

"You freeze!"

"You gotta help me, my mom's trapped in there with the RadRoaches!"

"We're getting out of here, just like the Doc."

"Anyone found outside their quarters will be punished." "Severely."

"Just get out of here, and I'll, I-I-I'll pretend I never saw you."

"You, this is all your fault, you and your stupid father!"

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, I do believe you've missed him. Went up topside for a bit of air. Should be back any minute now."

TOMORROW

He pulled the lever, and a warning siren went off, with orange lights going round and round.

"He's atually doing it!"

"Quick, we need to get that door open now!"

A puff of steam, and a giant lever like device that hung from the ceiling slowly swung down, and then latched on to a heavy cog shaped steel door that had kept at bay the horrors of the apocolypse.

"Oh my god... you actually opened it."

The lever then pulled away, pulling the door inward, with an ear-screeching sound, and let go, and the cog shaped door tumbled to the side, letting in a huge puff of hot and dry air in from a world devastated by war.

The young man known as Sam turned to his best friend Amata next to him. Put simply today was hell. His father had left, RadRaoches were plaguing the Vault, people were being killed, Amata had just been beaten, and Sam had killed the man who did it. Today was Hell.

It was nearly impossible to think that he could kill someone, but he had. He was the goddamn nerd of the Vault for Christ's Sake! He was the one that constantly bullied in school, and his best friend was a woman who simply took pity on him, and who's father hated him, and now he was a cold-blooded killer!

"You did it! You actually opened it! My god I almost didn't believe it was possible." Amata said.

Sam looked her straight in the eyes and said "I couldn't have done it without your help."

"No, you didn't need my help." Amata told him. "If anyone can survive out there, it's you."

Sam stared at the exit for a bit, thinking.

"Do you... do you think you could... could you come with me?" Sam asked.

The question surprised her. She knew that she should stay. She had no reason to leave the Vault, and she was the only one who could get to her father... maybe. And she knew that Sam didn't need her. But at the same time she desperately wanted to go regardless.

Sensing her hesitation, Sam said something again. "Amata... before I go... we both know that it's extremely likely I'll... die out there. And even if I don't... I'm never getting back inside here. I killed a man today Amata, I killed Officer Mack. I've got nothing left, no life, no family. Just-just you, and I know I'm asking you to throw everything away and that youve got a life and that I shouldnt be (Gasp) !"

Amata was blown out of her mind.

Sam couldn't look her in the eye's. "I love you Amata. For as long as... ever. You've been the one reason I can stand always being picked on, and getting put down, and being able to get up in the mornings. Your smart, funny, strong minded, and absolutely beautiful, and-and that I, I-"

Amata silenced him by grabbing his shoulder. She turned him to face her, but his eyes were glued to the floor. She lifted his face to look at hers, and then she jumped on him, and assaulted his lips, kissing him vigourously, to which he slowly responded with equal passion.

She pulled away at the mind blowing experience, albeit relunctantly. "You could have stopped at I love you." She told him.

She couldn't believe that she had done what she had just done. But she didn't regret it in the least, and hoped she could do it again soon. She had thought her feelings for affection had stopped once the had gotten their assigned jobs but it hadn't. She tried repressing her feeling for him, feeling it was a relationship fated never to be, but right now, all her emotions flooded her mind, and she had practically knocked him down with that kiss. Despite the fact that her father had ordered her beaten, and people had died today, and that she was facing the choice of whether to leave her home, or see her loved one vanish... she felt wonderful.

"So is that a yes then?" Sam asked hesitantly.

"I still think you don't need me." Amata said, getting off him. "But... I think I need you. My father changed today. I don't think I can help. Power tends to corrupt. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. I don't think my father is a different man than he was yesterday."

"So it is a yes."

"Yes, I'm saying yes." Amata said finally.

"Good."

"There he is!" One of the Security Guards yelled as they finally managed to get through the door behind them.

Sam was what used to be called a Deer caught in headlights. Amata recognized the glint in the officers eyes as the same one that were in Officers Mack when he had been ordered to beat her by her father. She grabbed Sam and ran towards the exit, and made the transitions from hard metal to worn gravel and sand. She made what would normally be a mistake, by looking back on her pursuer's, but saw that they had stopped before the door, and wouldn't budge.

"Why aren't you going!"

"I'm not crazy enough to go out there, I don't see you moving!"

Amata gave a sigh of relief as the two began to continue walking onwards, towards the light at the end of the tunnel. When she turned her back however, one of the guards took out his pistol, and aimed.

Before she could move he fired, but Sam managed to intervene, putting himself between him and the bullet, with it hitting, and digging into his shoulder. He grave a brief grunt of pain, but stayed still incase more shots were fired. But they weren't.

The door was being closed, and various arguments were breaking out. They wanted to stop the door closing, to get back the Overseers daughter, and they wanted to know who was stupid enough to fire there gun, and various other things, that were being drowned out by the screech of the giant metal door.

Amata just grabbed onto her best friend, as he slumped on to her.

"What the hell were you thinking?" Amata asked. "You could have gotten yourself killed!"

"Actually, that's exactly what I had been thinking." Sam said. "I saw a gun, I saw it pointed at you, and I couldn't stand seeing you hurt again. Least no one died this time."

"Come on, maybe we can find some medical supplies, or something." Amata said, as the two walked towards the end of the tunnel. They stopped only once before the door, to listen to the grave silence, and look at the remains of those who died trying to get in to the Vault 101 200 years ago. Little did they know of the far more chilling sights they would encounter as the days went on.

Amata reached for a small wooden gateway that led to the outside, and hesitated only a moment before grabbing onto it, and stepping outside. Into a blinding light.

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