Ground Zero
"Nina, we're getting in the shelter NOW!" you grab her hand and run to the shelter entrance, upon seeing this others begin to follow your lead as the motorcycle rumble gets closer.
You Nina and Jack get in the elevator first, and everyone else starts to crowd inside unfortunately everyone is shoving and pushing to get in, but there simply isn't enough room not allowing the door to close.
"GET OUT! THE ELEVATOR CAN'T CLOSE!" You yell.
"FUCK YOU! YOU GET OUT!" someone shouts back.
Desperate times call for desperate measures
You pull your gun out and start shooting in the ceiling of the elevator, causing folks to run out.
"GET OUT! THIS IS OUR RIDE!" you shout and push the door button, taking one last look of the frightened crowd as the doors close.
On the way down Nina holds on to Jack trying calm him down. She looks at you with silent disbelief. She can't believe you actually sacrificed all those people just like that, the men, the women, and the children.
"Don't look at me like that Nina! I did what I did to save us! This is fuckin' survival Nina! You know that!" you retort.
When the elevator reaches the bottom, Nina runs back to your room with Jack and you quickly get something to jam the door open, so the elevator can't go back up again. You see Charles come out from the computer room. He must've been the only one down here to keep an eye on the computer.
"What's going on? Why are you blocking the elevator door?"
"We're under fucking attack and I can't let those fuckers come down here!"
"But what about everyone else?! You can't just leave them up there! You're the only one with a proper weapon!"
"Hey that's tough! I mean I'm sorry all those people are in deep shit right now, but that ain't my concern, my family is MY concern!"
"You heartless bastard! What about all the other families you left to probably die up there?! I always knew you weren't fond of people, but I never thought you'd go to this extent! Well if you're not gonna do anything I will! Get outta my way, I'm going up!"
You shove Charles back hard.
"What the fuck are you gonna do Charles? You ain't a fuckin' hero! This ain't like those old movies you watch! You're a fat outta shape fuck, you wouldn't stand a chance! Shit you don't even have a weapon!"
"Well gimme yours then!" Charles says trying to take your pistol. You push Charles back even harder, when that doesn't work, you hit him with face with the butt of the gun causing him to fall back.
"Don't even fuck around like that Charles." You warn pointing the pistol at him.
He doesn't seem to understand you're being deadly serious here; he makes another attempt by charging at you. You shoot him three times before he falls dead at your feet.
Nina comes running from your room to see what's happened now, she's horrified. Your actions within the past few minutes have severely changed her view about you.
"He was trying to go to the surface! I can't allow that, we have to remain down here where it's safe! Who knows how long those fuckers will stay around! I'm trying to protect all of us!" you shout.
Days pass and things are strained between you and Nina. She doesn't approve at all of what you did. A lot of those people she was friends with. She says you did it purposely just so you could get more of your precious solitude and while that isn't true, you can't help but feel things are a lot better without anybody else around
A year passes since the invasion, you used to keep an eye on the elevator door on a regular basis, but lately you haven't bothered. Nina has been distant with you ever since that day. Sometimes you're all right with each other, but more often than not you argue. If it wasn't for Jack, the both of you would probably just stay on opposite sides of the shelter.
One day you wake up and look for the both of them, but you can't find them anywhere then it suddenly occurs to you where they've gone. To the surface. You immediately press the call button and shut "Come on! Come on!" at the elevator's slow descent. You do the same thing when you're going up.
You rush outside wondering where the hell Nina thinks she was off to, considering there's no knowledge of any beacons of civilization nearby. You figure she couldn't have gotten far and you're right, she's surveying the remains of the invasion. Everything that was built on the surface was destroyed, and it looks like nobody was spared. You see skeletal remains littered everywhere. She's crying while holding on to Jack and then speaks when she sees you.
"See what you did!"
"Hey I didn't do THIS! The wasteland scum did this! What the hell Nina? I only have so many bullets, and I didn't even have my spare clips with me at the time! I couldn't shoot them all!"
"Oh, but you could shoot Charles right?"
"Now that was "
"Or how about Elliot? Remember when you shot him and claimed it was self-defense?"
"That WAS Self-defense! Nina, you're acting like a stupid bit " you stop yourself from completing that sentence, calm yourself and then continue. "Look, I did what I did to protect us, I didn't want any of us getting killed. Let's all just go back inside the shelter and "
"Get your hands off of me! I'm not going back in there with YOU! I can't stand to look at you anymore, even if it is a rarity nowadays!"
"So whadda ya gonna do Nina? Take Jack traipsing across the fuckin' wasteland and hope you don't get raped and killed before you die of dehydration? In case you haven't noticed, but this is IT! There probably ain't another place like this for miles! And if there is, I bet it damn near isn't as comfortable OR friendly! Look Jack needs the both of us here and "
"Jack doesn't need YOU! You're barely spend time with him anyway! I can't do it anymore I can't spend one more day in that shelter with you after seeing what you did a year ago!"
"NINA SHUT THE FUCK UP AND GET BACK IN THE GODDAMN SHELTER NOW!"
Now Jack begins to cry, and Nina attempts to make him stop, and now you see this situation isn't going to go away even if you dragged them both into the shelter kicking and screaming. Yet despite all this, you can't let Nina and Jack leave, you do the only other solution.
"Oh fuck it. Here." You pull out your pistol and shove it into Nina's hand. She doesn't accept it at first until you force her take the thing. After she finally holds it, you start to leave. Nina calls out.
"Where are you going?"
"Oh now you show concern? I'm leaving Nina, you said you can't live here with me since I now repulse you so much, so I'm doing what's best and fuckin' leaving, because whether you believe it or not I do what's best for this family. I'll leave and probably die somewhere out in the wilderness or if you still have any kind of feelings for me, you'll save me a lingering death and just shoot me now. Either way, I'm gone. Jack, take good care of your Mom, she gets a bit high strung at times. The computer's easy to run, just read the damn manual. That's what I always told everyone else. Both of you have a nice life."
You turn and begin to walk, you start wondering how long you're going to last without any kind of supplies, you didn't even bring a canteen with you. What does it all matter now anyway? Fuck it right?
You turn your head and see Nina and Jack just entering the shelter entrance. You shake your head, wondering where you went wrong. Where all the love went so damn quickly. Maybe she was right in some ways, maybe you were too ruthless. You just wanted to save them so badly though, you didn't want to lose them. Of course you did anyway.
You turn your head again, now you just see Nina. What the hell is she doing now? You hope to god she didn't have some change of mind suddenly. Because you know what's going to happen, she'll ask you to come back, and like an idiot you probably will, and then things will be semi-okay and then they'll get worse again and you'll be back to this again. At this point you don't feel like putting up with the shit anymore either. Just let it go Nina, just let it the fuck go. You made your decision now stick fuckin' by it.
Once more you turn your head; she's walking briskly towards you with your pistol in her hand. She has an unemotional look on her face. Reminds you of when she was going to throw Ron and his boy toy into exile that one time. You always knew she had a darker side to her, looks like its coming out one last time.
You slow down your walking so she can catch up to you quicker, until finally you stop altogether. You don't turn you head anymore; you want to make this easy on her.
Now you feel the metal barrel to your head. Your last thought on this burned out world are:
"She did still care."
You Nina and Jack get in the elevator first, and everyone else starts to crowd inside unfortunately everyone is shoving and pushing to get in, but there simply isn't enough room not allowing the door to close.
"GET OUT! THE ELEVATOR CAN'T CLOSE!" You yell.
"FUCK YOU! YOU GET OUT!" someone shouts back.
Desperate times call for desperate measures
You pull your gun out and start shooting in the ceiling of the elevator, causing folks to run out.
"GET OUT! THIS IS OUR RIDE!" you shout and push the door button, taking one last look of the frightened crowd as the doors close.
On the way down Nina holds on to Jack trying calm him down. She looks at you with silent disbelief. She can't believe you actually sacrificed all those people just like that, the men, the women, and the children.
"Don't look at me like that Nina! I did what I did to save us! This is fuckin' survival Nina! You know that!" you retort.
When the elevator reaches the bottom, Nina runs back to your room with Jack and you quickly get something to jam the door open, so the elevator can't go back up again. You see Charles come out from the computer room. He must've been the only one down here to keep an eye on the computer.
"What's going on? Why are you blocking the elevator door?"
"We're under fucking attack and I can't let those fuckers come down here!"
"But what about everyone else?! You can't just leave them up there! You're the only one with a proper weapon!"
"Hey that's tough! I mean I'm sorry all those people are in deep shit right now, but that ain't my concern, my family is MY concern!"
"You heartless bastard! What about all the other families you left to probably die up there?! I always knew you weren't fond of people, but I never thought you'd go to this extent! Well if you're not gonna do anything I will! Get outta my way, I'm going up!"
You shove Charles back hard.
"What the fuck are you gonna do Charles? You ain't a fuckin' hero! This ain't like those old movies you watch! You're a fat outta shape fuck, you wouldn't stand a chance! Shit you don't even have a weapon!"
"Well gimme yours then!" Charles says trying to take your pistol. You push Charles back even harder, when that doesn't work, you hit him with face with the butt of the gun causing him to fall back.
"Don't even fuck around like that Charles." You warn pointing the pistol at him.
He doesn't seem to understand you're being deadly serious here; he makes another attempt by charging at you. You shoot him three times before he falls dead at your feet.
Nina comes running from your room to see what's happened now, she's horrified. Your actions within the past few minutes have severely changed her view about you.
"He was trying to go to the surface! I can't allow that, we have to remain down here where it's safe! Who knows how long those fuckers will stay around! I'm trying to protect all of us!" you shout.
Days pass and things are strained between you and Nina. She doesn't approve at all of what you did. A lot of those people she was friends with. She says you did it purposely just so you could get more of your precious solitude and while that isn't true, you can't help but feel things are a lot better without anybody else around
A year passes since the invasion, you used to keep an eye on the elevator door on a regular basis, but lately you haven't bothered. Nina has been distant with you ever since that day. Sometimes you're all right with each other, but more often than not you argue. If it wasn't for Jack, the both of you would probably just stay on opposite sides of the shelter.
One day you wake up and look for the both of them, but you can't find them anywhere then it suddenly occurs to you where they've gone. To the surface. You immediately press the call button and shut "Come on! Come on!" at the elevator's slow descent. You do the same thing when you're going up.
You rush outside wondering where the hell Nina thinks she was off to, considering there's no knowledge of any beacons of civilization nearby. You figure she couldn't have gotten far and you're right, she's surveying the remains of the invasion. Everything that was built on the surface was destroyed, and it looks like nobody was spared. You see skeletal remains littered everywhere. She's crying while holding on to Jack and then speaks when she sees you.
"See what you did!"
"Hey I didn't do THIS! The wasteland scum did this! What the hell Nina? I only have so many bullets, and I didn't even have my spare clips with me at the time! I couldn't shoot them all!"
"Oh, but you could shoot Charles right?"
"Now that was "
"Or how about Elliot? Remember when you shot him and claimed it was self-defense?"
"That WAS Self-defense! Nina, you're acting like a stupid bit " you stop yourself from completing that sentence, calm yourself and then continue. "Look, I did what I did to protect us, I didn't want any of us getting killed. Let's all just go back inside the shelter and "
"Get your hands off of me! I'm not going back in there with YOU! I can't stand to look at you anymore, even if it is a rarity nowadays!"
"So whadda ya gonna do Nina? Take Jack traipsing across the fuckin' wasteland and hope you don't get raped and killed before you die of dehydration? In case you haven't noticed, but this is IT! There probably ain't another place like this for miles! And if there is, I bet it damn near isn't as comfortable OR friendly! Look Jack needs the both of us here and "
"Jack doesn't need YOU! You're barely spend time with him anyway! I can't do it anymore I can't spend one more day in that shelter with you after seeing what you did a year ago!"
"NINA SHUT THE FUCK UP AND GET BACK IN THE GODDAMN SHELTER NOW!"
Now Jack begins to cry, and Nina attempts to make him stop, and now you see this situation isn't going to go away even if you dragged them both into the shelter kicking and screaming. Yet despite all this, you can't let Nina and Jack leave, you do the only other solution.
"Oh fuck it. Here." You pull out your pistol and shove it into Nina's hand. She doesn't accept it at first until you force her take the thing. After she finally holds it, you start to leave. Nina calls out.
"Where are you going?"
"Oh now you show concern? I'm leaving Nina, you said you can't live here with me since I now repulse you so much, so I'm doing what's best and fuckin' leaving, because whether you believe it or not I do what's best for this family. I'll leave and probably die somewhere out in the wilderness or if you still have any kind of feelings for me, you'll save me a lingering death and just shoot me now. Either way, I'm gone. Jack, take good care of your Mom, she gets a bit high strung at times. The computer's easy to run, just read the damn manual. That's what I always told everyone else. Both of you have a nice life."
You turn and begin to walk, you start wondering how long you're going to last without any kind of supplies, you didn't even bring a canteen with you. What does it all matter now anyway? Fuck it right?
You turn your head and see Nina and Jack just entering the shelter entrance. You shake your head, wondering where you went wrong. Where all the love went so damn quickly. Maybe she was right in some ways, maybe you were too ruthless. You just wanted to save them so badly though, you didn't want to lose them. Of course you did anyway.
You turn your head again, now you just see Nina. What the hell is she doing now? You hope to god she didn't have some change of mind suddenly. Because you know what's going to happen, she'll ask you to come back, and like an idiot you probably will, and then things will be semi-okay and then they'll get worse again and you'll be back to this again. At this point you don't feel like putting up with the shit anymore either. Just let it go Nina, just let it the fuck go. You made your decision now stick fuckin' by it.
Once more you turn your head; she's walking briskly towards you with your pistol in her hand. She has an unemotional look on her face. Reminds you of when she was going to throw Ron and his boy toy into exile that one time. You always knew she had a darker side to her, looks like its coming out one last time.
You slow down your walking so she can catch up to you quicker, until finally you stop altogether. You don't turn you head anymore; you want to make this easy on her.
Now you feel the metal barrel to your head. Your last thought on this burned out world are:
"She did still care."
