This is part of my three stories competition. Its pretty simple. Whichever story gets the most reviews is the story that gets an update. I don't know when I'll have time to update, but whichever story is in the lead at that point will get dibs. The other two are A Visitor from the Vault (an Adventure Time fanfic) and Inkspot Stigma (a Legend of Zelda fanfic).

Part I

"Come on!" Amata cried, "Wake up!"

Ian opened his eyes blearily to find Amata standing above him. She was visibly unsettled, constantly glancing back toward the door. "Hurry, wake up! You've gotta wake up!" she continued, still staring worriedly out of the room.

"Ugh, I'm up," Ian moaned, still half asleep, "What is it? Did something happen?"

Amata spun back around, her eyes wide, and let out a frantic laugh, "Did something happen? Your dad… he… he's gone!"

"What!" he burst out, leaping from his bed, "What do you mean he's gone?"

"He… left the vault!" she forced out, "I don't know how! He's just gone, and…" The vaults loudspeakers burst to life in a wave of static and the Overseer began to speak.

"Good morning, vault 101 citizens. I regret to inform you that there has been a radroach infestation and you are all hereby confined to your quarters. The vermin's extermination will be marked by a further broadcast. Until then, any and all citizens found in the halls without proper authorization will be dealt with… severely."

Amata stared up speaker mounted in the wall and began to moan, "Oh my god, oh my god, Ian!" she turned back to him and started to speak quickly, "That's you, it's a cover, oh my god." She leapt toward him and grasped Ian by the shoulders, then looked down at her hands when they struck flesh.

Ian looked down and realized for the first time that he wasn't wearing his jumpsuit, just a pair of grey boxers. His eyes darted back to Amata and saw that her face was coloring furiously even as he felt his cheeks begin to burn.

Closing her eyes, Amata spoke quickly, "Hurry, get dressed, my dad's men will be here any minute. You've got to leave… get outa here."

Ian paused midway through zipping up the blue jumpsuit, "Leave! Do you know what you're saying? I'll die out there!"

Amata opened her eyes and Ian realized there were tears there. "It's Jonas, they've… killed him!"

Ian felt his legs go weak and he dropped back onto his bed. "Jonas is… dead?" Ian's breath caught in his throat and he almost choked as the words came out. He'd known the man his whole life, one of his father's closest friends. And now he was… gone. Ian's eyes flickered to the BB gun laying on his desk and remembered when Jonas and his father had given it to him. Ian clenched his jaw and tried desperately to fight the tears that should have been coming, but they didn't. Just a feeling of emptiness.

"Yes!" Amata said, frantically looking back out the door, "And I heard my dad talking, they're gonna be coming for you next! You've got to go before they find you. There's a secret passage from the Overseer's office to the vault door. No one knows about that way; you can use this key to get into his office but you'll have to find a way to get the tunnel open. Maybe if you find a way onto his computer. Here, I took my dad's gun. Now go, hurry!"

He'd quickly pocketed the key, but Ian leapt to his feet as she pushed the gun into his hands. It was heavy, heavier than it looked. Ian could feel the coldness of the metal leaching warmth from his skin. With shaking hands he glanced back and forth between Amata and the gun.

"What am I…"he stammered out, "What am I supposed to do with this?

"Ian, if any of the security officers find you… They'll. Kill. You." She said, pronouncing the last three words with uncharacteristic intensity. "I don't want you to end up like Jonas, I don't."

Looking back down at the gun, Ian let out a long shaky breath. His hand hands were trembling and he felt dizzy.

"No," he pushed out between ragged breaths, "You take it, I don't want to kill anyone. I'll… I'll find another way. Just go, you don't want to get caught with me right now." Ian pushed the gun back into her hands and said, "Thanks, Amata."

With terror still floating in her eyes, Amata nodded and ran out of the room.

Ian stood there in a daze, listening to her footsteps fade in the distance. Once they had fallen silent, he shook himself and got to work. He grabbed his old backpack from beside the door and dumped the now-useless textbooks out onto the floor.

From there he tore open his dresser and stuffed his pair of extra jumpsuits into the backpack. Turning and scanning the room, Ian's eyes fell upon the small collection of memorabilia cluttering the top of his desk. His baseball equipment and the BB gun his dad had given him nine years ago along with what remained of the tin of BBs.

Ian shoved the baseball and mitt into his backpack, and stowed the BBs in his pocket. He slung the BB gun over his shoulder with the strap and gripped the bat tightly by the middle. Taking a deep breath he slunk out of his room and into the hallway. Ian quickly glanced back and forth, checking the halls, before heading off in the direction of the Overseer's office.

The halls were mostly silent except for his own footsteps and the distant skittering that Ian attributed to radroaches. That was why he was so surprised by Butch's appearance.

Butch appeared from one of the halls, looking around frantically. Ian jumped and tried to find something to hide behind, but he was spotted.

"Hey!" he called toward Ian, out of breath and sweating, "You gotta help me!"

Ian cursed quietly before meeting Butch's eyes with a stern glare. "I've got my own problems right now." Ian tried to slip away then, but Butch grabbed him by the shoulder and held him still.

"It's your dad, right? I heard he left, but the radroaches have my mom. You gotta help me save her," Butch pleaded.

Ian resigned himself to waiting until Butch released him, and said exasperatedly, "Can't you take care it on your own?"

Suddenly Butch released him and began to mutter, "I… I'm… Goddamn it! I'm scared of them, okay? Those damn roaches give me the creeps, you gotta help me."

Looking over his shoulder to make sure the hallway was still empty, Ian groaned, "Fine... Here, take this. Let's go take care of them." He handed Butch the baseball bat and swung the BB gun around.

Ian followed Butch for a short while until they reached his mother's rooms. From inside Ian could hear a woman screaming over the frantic scratching of radroaches.

Beside him, Butch was sucking in air and gazing straight ahead with a look of terrified determination.

"You ready for this," Ian muttered, loading the gun.

"Yeah," Butch moaned hollowly. From the corner of his eye, Ian could see that the blood had drained from Butch's face, leaving it deathly pale.

"Let's go," Ian spat out and leapt into the room. The first thing he noticed was a woman perched on top of the bed. She had an empty bottle in one hand and was trying to fend off the radroaches surrounding her.

Ian raised the gun and fired it on the nearest radroach. A spot of the insects shell cracked as the BB struck. Butch ran forward, brandishing the baseball bat, and slammed it down on another of the radroaches. It was crushed against the floor and a pale green liquid began leaking from its cracked shell.

Ian reloaded the BB gun and fired again. The radroach's already damaged shell exploded in a burst of brown and green. He started to reload again but before he could turn on the final radroach, Butch had crushed it.

The moment she realized the radroaches were gone, the woman pushed her way past the two of them and ran out into the anteroom.

Butch let out a pent up breath and turned to Ian with a relieved grin. "Oh man! Heh-he, we did it! Here, you can have this back," he said, handing the bat back to Ian. "I don't know what I can give you, you're the best!"

"That's fine," Ian said, trying to take a step toward the door, "I don't need anything…"

"Bullshit!" Butch spat out, grabbing him by the shoulder, "You saved my mom, man. I gotta give you somethin'!"

Butch looked around quickly, seeming to search for some kind of reward. "You know what? You can have my jacket, that's all I got, so… here!" Butch took his jacket off and tossed it to Ian.

Without saying another word, Butch ran out after his mom.

Carrying the jacket awkwardly under his arm, Ian slipped out past them and into main hallway. Once he had turned a couple corners and knew he was alone, Ian shoved the jacket into his backpack and moved on. The atrium was just a few blocks away, and then he'd reach the Overseer's office.

Ian headed up a stairwell, moving quickly. There were a few radroaches stalked the stairs, but Ian ignored them and ran past.

As he entered the hallway above, Ian heard a voice calling him from behind.

"Hey kid."

Turning around, he saw Officer Gomez standing there. Ian gave a start but the man didn't seem to be reaching for his gun.

"I'm sorry about all this," Gomez said, "I really am. I've known you and your dad for a long time. This whole thing just doesn't seem right to me, and I don't want any part of it."

Officer Gomez looked up and down the hallway quickly, then said, "Just get going and I'll say I never saw you."

Without saying another word, Gomez turned and walked away, disappearing around a corner after a few moments.

Ian shuddered. It hadn't sunk in until then, the idea that people he'd known his whole life might try to kill him. Luckily Gomez had let him go, because Ian didn't think he'd have been able to kill a friend of his father's, even if it was kill or be killed.

Ian shook his head and continued down the hallway. At one point he saw the vault's robot, Andy, fighting off at least a dozen radroaches with a flamethrower. Ian was careful to sneak past Andy without being spotted. Even the robot might turn him in, and Ian didn't want to risk that.

Once he had left the robot behind, Ian quickly found his way to the Atrium. As he entered the high-ceilinged room, Ian stopped dead at the nearby sound of voices. Before anyone could notice or recognize him, he leapt behind one of the metal pillars and held his breath.

Two voices were conversing on the far side of the room. Ian could hardly discern the words from this distance, but he quickly realized who they belonged to.

"Come on," Tom Holden said, excitement thick in his voice, "Let's make a run for it. James got out, and so can we."

"Are you sure Tom?" Mary replied, sounding uncertain, "Do we really want to leave the vault?"

"Of course, let's go!"

Ian heard the sound of running footsteps and couldn't help peeking around the pillar. Anyway, Tom and Mary seemed to have sided with his father, so they probably wouldn't try to turn him in.

Ian saw Tom dash into the tunnel, waving his arms and shouting, "Hey! It's me, Tom Holden! Let us through, we want out!"

Moments later Ian heard several gunshots and Mary screamed. She ran after her husband, a sobbing mess, shouting his name in anguish.

More gunshots.

Ian could feel the sweat beading up on his forehead and rolling down in streams. This was insanity, the guards were just killing people. Tom and Mary hadn't done anything wrong, but they'd been shot dead. Ian tried to swallow but his throat felt dry.

With shaking hands, Ian took a gulp of air and ran for it. Despite the fear and uncertainty coursing through him, Ian was able to keep his legs pumping long enough to reach the stairwell on the other side of the room. Even when he accidentally glanced down the hall after Tom and Mary, catching a glimpse of the two stagnant corpses, he kept moving. It wasn't until he reached the stairwell that Ian allowed himself to stop and breathe freely.

Ian climbed the stairs, holding the baseball bat tightly in both hands. He encountered six radroaches in the stairwell and by the time he reached the upper level, the bat was covered in broken bits of shell and grey-green blood.

Ian ran across the bridge and stopped as he heard his name being shouted. It was Allen Mack, pounding on the glass of his window. The man was yelling for the guards to come and that Ian was over here. He paused only momentarily to address Ian by telling he was to blame for this whole mess, him and his dad.

"People have died you know!" he shouted through the glass, "Died! All because your father had to go and leave! Guards… Guards! He's over here!"

Ian ran past the man, into a nearby hallway and straight into Officer Hannon. For a moment he hoped that the guard had an opinion similar to Gomez's, but the thought was quelled as Hannon reached for his gun.

Moving as quickly as he could, Ian brought the bat down on Hannon's wrist, producing a sharp snap. The man let out a cry of pain. Without pausing, Ian pushed past the man and ran further down the hallway. He turned at the first corner he could, and the second, hoping to lose the guard. But if Hannon pursued him, the man was easily thrown off a trail because the Ian didn't see a hair of the man, not even when he paused to catch his breath.

Ian made his way to the Overseer's office from there. He made an effort to avoid any other people. The few times he heard footsteps, Ian held his position until they passed or, the one time they'd seemed to be coming in his direction, he backtracked then navigated around the person.

Eventually he found himself the hallway leading to the office. He'd never really been down this way, though, since the only rooms in this portion of the vault were the security office, the Overseer's office, the vault detention center, and the Overseer's quarters. Amata's around here too, near to her father's, but Ian still had only been down this way a time or two despite his friend.

This time, he encountered something he hadn't before. As he passed the detention center, Ian heard voices. Usually those rooms were empty, except for the rare times someone actually did something worthy of being arrested for.

Curiosity overcame Ian and he crept nearer to the room, peering in through the cracked door. Inside he saw Officer Mack and the Overseer standing around someone. Ian couldn't quite make out who the third person was since the other two were standing in front.

"Why don't you just tell us where he is?" the Overseer said, he tone strict and harsh, seeming just barely under control, "All we want to do is talk to him."

Mack let out a sly cackle, saying, "Yeah, just talk. That's all we want."

"Amata," the Overseer continued, sending a shock down Ian's spine, "Officer Mack may enjoy this, but I don't. We won't hurt your friend. He's probably as scared and confused by this as we are. Nobody's going to do anything rash."

"Rash?" Amata spat out, "What about when you went to talk with Jonas? You killed him!"

"This is a matter of vault security. It's all in the interest of the vault and of its citizens."

Ian saw Amata move and the two men stepped back suddenly.

"Amata!" the Overseer said, "I can't believe you would threaten me with my own gun! How did you even get that? Nevermind. Officer Mack, take that gun away from my daughter. We'll find him," he said, "whether or not you want to tell us. Mack, now!"

On the cue, Mack leapt forward with hands reaching for the gun. A loud crack told Ian that Amata had fired the gun, even though he wasn't sure he could believe it. Mack fell to the ground and was immediately still, blood pouring steadily from a wound in the center of his chest. The Overseer stepped back, his face the picture of horror.

"Amata…" he choked out, "What have you done?"

Amata started toward the door, but the Overseer was too quick.

"No! You… will… not…" the Overseer growled as he struggled against her.

Ian leapt into the room and grasped the Overseer by the shoulders, trying to tear him off of Amata. By the sheer advantage of surprise, Ian was able to overpower the Overseer in moments. As the Overseer fell away from Amata, Ian saw the shock in her eyes and simultaneously shouted for her to run. Amata seemed to obey without thought and darted out of the room.

However, as Ian turned to follow her, he felt a hand grab his shoulder and pull him back with surprising ferocity. Ian found himself facing a furious Overseer. They locked eyes for a moment and the Overseer bared his teeth in a maniacal snarl.

Only a slip of the Overseer's eyes prepared Ian for the man's mad dive for Mack's gun. Ian dropped the bat and leapt after him. Ian reached the gun just a moment after the Overseer had torn it from the dead man's holster. He was able to lock his hands around it just as the Overseer did, leaving them wrestling for control of the weapon. They rolled across the ground, fighting against each other. Ian felt himself land on the baseball bat, but he ignored the stabbing pain as he struggled. Ian saw the man's finger slipping against the trigger and it was all Ian could do to match him. Now both of them had access to the trigger, and either one of them could be the victor.

But not both.

That was made clear as Ian drove his knee into the Overseer's stomach. It was made clear as Ian forced the gun's barrel toward the Overseer's head and infinitely clearer as Ian pulled the trigger.

At first the only thing Ian registered was the feeling of warm wetness spread all across his face and hands. A feeling of confusion floated across Ian's mind as he wondered where the Overseer had gone and whether he had just picked up and left for some reason. Then Ian noticed the pair of hands still wrapped around the gun and bloody stump of a neck that remained.

Then Ian screamed.

He scrambled away from the body, feeling numb. But then all the feeling came back at once and Ian felt something coming up. He rolled over onto his side and spat out whatever still remained in his stomach from last night's meal. It wasn't much and Ian found himself staring at a pale pool of bile. He wanted to get up but his body didn't seem to be listening to him.

Finally he managed to get to his knees, then to a stooping crouch. Ian tried to stand up but he almost passed out before reaching his full height. Ian fell back down to the crouch and tried to move along by holding onto the edge of a table.

As he hobbled along, Ian couldn't help catching a glimpse of the Overseer's headless body. It just lay there, mangled and ruined. He'd done that…

Ian might have thrown up again, but the sound of footsteps in the hall sent him scrambling to his bat then out of the room. He stayed bent over until he reached the first turn, but Ian was able to stay upright by the time he'd reached the Overseer's office.

The office of the man he'd killed.

Ian pulled the key from his pocket and opened the door quickly. Stepping inside he locked it and ran to the computer terminal. From the start Ian knew he'd be relying on the luck of either guessing the password or finding it written down somewhere.

Skipping to the second resource, Ian crossed his fingers and opened one of the desk drawers. He found nothing but a few pens and pencils. The next drawer was empty, and the two after that as well. Ian was about to despair before he noticed the trio of filing cabinets lining one wall. Moving quickly he searched the first, finding nothing.

The second cabinet yielded a slip of paper that said,

Terminal Password: AMATA

With shaking hands, Ian returned to the terminal and typed the password in, feeling a small jolt of guilt shoot though him as he typed his friend's name in.

He'd killed her father.

The password screen fell away and Ian selected the obvious Open Overseer's Tunnel option. The floor began to shift and Ian had to hold onto the desk in order to keep from losing his balance. With a sudden start, Ian realized that the section of floor he stood on was sinking. It fell below the rest of the room and set Ian down in a whole new room.

The walls were dirty and the tunnel in a state of abandon. Rust marked some of the metal and Ian noticed half a dozen radroaches lurking in various shadows. He ran past them and flung open the door at the end of the tunnel.

Ian ran out into the next room and was surprised to find himself staring at the vault door. It was huge, at least fifteen feet tall. Ian quickly ran to the controls but paused with his hand on the large red "Unseal Vault Door" button. Pressing the button meant leaving the vault behind, forever. There would be no way to get back in, and no one who would welcome him.

It was that thought that decided him and forced his hand. No one would welcome him back once he left, but would he really be welcome if he stayed? His best friend would undeniably hate him, if not now then as soon as she learned of what he had done. What he'd done… he'd killed a man. Ian might have thrown up again if there was anything left in him. Nevertheless, Ian's stomach did a backflip and his throat burned.

He couldn't stay, that definitely wasn't an option. Not anymore.

Ian pressed the button.

An earsplitting siren burst to life even as the great vault door began to twist open. It took almost a minute for the door to be pulled away from the wall, but eventually Ian was granted an unabated view of the world outside. All he could see was the inside of a darkened cavern, not comforting.

Ian walked around the console, down the stairs and toward the opening. He paused there for a moment, savoring his last taste of the vault.

Suddenly the door behind him burst open, one he'd overlooked upon entering. Amata came through, still holding her father's gun. Ian saw that her eyes were red from crying and the guilt surged up stronger than ever.

She crossed the intervening space quickly and pushed the gun flat against his chest, hard. Ian grabbed it, half grateful that she would still give it to him and half scared she would change her mind and use it on him if he hesitated.

Her voice was a whisper, but he could feel the barely contained fury coursing through the words.

"Go. Just go," she said hollowly, "Just leave. There are guards coming this way, I guess I've been your friend long enough to let you know."

"Amata…" Ian murmured, "I'm sorry, it was…" but she cut him off.

"You didn't have to kill him!" she screamed at him, "He's not a bad man, wasn't… You had no right to!" Amata stopped talking, seemingly with great effort. She stood there almost shaking with hatred, but she just whispered, "Get out," and that was all she said.

Amata turned away from him and started to walk back to the door, but suddenly two security guards ran into the room, followed closely by a third. All three held guns and the first through fired his.

Time seemed to slow as Ian saw Amata thrown backward by the force of the bullet. Her feet were raised off the ground and she did a slow spin in the air. Amata landed face down and slid for a few inches.

Ian raised the Overseer's gun and pulled the trigger three times. The foremost guard fell, and Ian saw the second drop his gun. The last man through the door managed to fire off two shots at Ian, causing him to duck behind cover, but not before one of the bullets clipped his arm.

Ian hissed at the pain, trying to push it away from himself. There were other things to focus on right now, things that were more important by far. He was being shot at, he had probably killed at least two men, he needed to escape, he needed to find his father, and Amata was shot. She was shot, bleeding, maybe dying.

Ian looked down at her and felt a rage rise up in him. He leapt suddenly from cover and fired on the single remaining guard. He managed to catch the man, who he recognized as now Officer Wolfe, unawares and Ian shot him in the shoulder.

Officer Wolfe fell to the ground, clutching the wound.

As soon as Wolfe was disposed of, Ian dropped down beside Amata. Rolling her over, Ian sighed when he realized the bullet had only clipped her, missing any major organs he knew of. She was still bleeding, though. A bright red puddle glistened where she had lain.

Ian decided that, despite the relatively safe location of the wound, it was still life-threatening. She could still die, if only from blood loss.

And the vaults only doctor was gone.

Ian felt his blood run cold as that thought surfaced. His father was gone, the only vault resident with medical training. If he left Amata here, she would definitely die. It would be as bad as killing her himself.

But he couldn't do that to her, take her from her home without a choice. That would be just like kidnapping her.

Ian heard footsteps approaching from somewhere within the vault. Someone shouted something. They were growing closer. Ian thought he heard someone cock a gun.

Kidnapping was better than killing her, if only barely. Ian swallowed the lump in his throat and made a decision. He shoved the gun into his pocket and picked Amata up as gently as he could.

Even as the door opened, Ian was running out into the dark tunnel. Sprinting out into the darkness, Ian felt something push against him, shoving him forward, but he ignored it to the best of his abilities. He had to escape.

Behind him, he could hear the siren going off again and the grinding gears of the great metal door sliding shut.

They were cut off, sealed out, all alone. Effectively in exile.

Ian ran to the end of the tunnel, then fumbled with the doorknob for a moment before the door's hinges gave way and he stumbled out into the light.

And what light it was!

All around, burning down from above. Ian's eyes squinted almost shut as the burning rays flooded his vision. For what could've been the first time in his life, Ian felt warmth on his skin.

"It's too, bri…" Amata murmured. Ian looked down at her, and saw that though her eyes were closed, they seemed to be trying to shut tighter.

Ian held her in his arms with one arm behind her back and one arm under her knees. If he'd been able to, Ian would've put her down and tried to patch her wound. That is, if he was sure he' d be strong enough to pick her back up after setting her down. The wound in his arm, while seeming insignificant at the time, was starting to burn and ache. What scared him more than the pain was the fact that his fingers were going numb.

No, he couldn't put her down, couldn't put a bandage on or do anything to stop the bleeding. The best he could do was find help. Surely he could find someone out here, anyone who could help.

Ian tried to run but soon found himself fighting for balance as he descended the gravelly slope. It turned into a half crouched descent as he did anything he could to not fall. Eventually Ian reached the bottom, and then he began to run.

For as long as he could, anyway. The flat ground only continued for a couple dozen feet, then uneven terrain prevailed. It stretched on as far as he could see in any direction, though Ian had to admit that he couldn't see very far. Between the terrible brightness and the worrying haze that seemed to be settling down over his eyes, he couldn't see much farther than fifty feet in any given direction.

The whole while, Amata murmured in his arms. Sometimes she would make delirious comments on things that they both experienced, like the strange heat or the blinding light. Other times she seemed to talk to someone who wasn't there, or simply speaking in nondescript phrases, fragments of sentences that had no explicit meaning on their own. I am, or those, or even once where did it.

What really terrified Ian was when Amata started shivering despite the heat. That was when he started running again. He screamed too, as much as he could. The first time he tried to speak, the only thing that came out was a hoarse croak of a shout. The second time it was a much smaller sound and the third time even more so.

Soon enough he was doing no more than stumbling through the wilderness, moaning and grunting. At one point Ian realized he was no longer aware of Amata's presence. A jolt shot through him, until he looked down and confirmed that she was still there. Even looking straight at her, Ian couldn't feel her.

As the exhaustion settled over him, Ian's stumbling run turned to a painful stagger. Half limping and half shambling, Ian moved sluggishly through the haze. His vision had decreased again. Now he could only see a few feet ahead, less than a dozen. Strange noises filled his ears, moaning sounds that seemed faraway and distorted, like how noises seemed when heard underwater.

Water, that would be good. He was so thirsty. His tongue could've been coated in dust. It felt thick in his mouth, like it didn't belong there.

Something swam into Ian's field of vision, a dark shape, and another. Several shadowy figures. One was big, huge and massive. The other two were smaller. Yes, there were… three of them. Maybe they would help. Help with what? What did he need help with? Something important, yes, certainly that. But what? What could be so important?

Father… his father was gone. Where had he… she? Someone was hurt… she was hurt. Who was she? A… ama… who? Ama…

Ian collapsed and faded from consciousness.

If this is intriguing and you want more of it, make sure you leave a review to boost its chances of getting a speedy update.

If you're interested in reading the competition, here are the links:

s/9185905/1/A-Visitor-from-the-Vault

s/9185899/1/Inkspot-Stigma