Chapter Text
Lucy stared up at the ceiling above her. The lighting had dimmed greatly since she woke up, but the overwhelming smell of metal and rubbing alcohol made her slightly lightheaded.
They had given her a blue jumpsuit to change into - the same everyone else around her was wearing. It wasn’t particularly comfortable; the material was a bit stiff and felt rough on her skin.
The nurse had left abruptly during her evaluation, hastily tossing the suit at Lucy and informing her to change. She wasn’t sure what happened, but it was about thirty minutes before the nurse reentered with a souffle cup containing one rather large pill.
“Okay, Miss MacLean,” said the nurse standing by the cot Lucy was laying on. “I’m going to give you a supplement before we send you in to see your family.”
Lucy nodded weakly and accepted the cup, swallowing the capsule. She was hoping it was a sedative, but she couldn’t be that lucky.
The nurse ushered her through a door to the next room. It was small and a bit dark, but the fluorescent lighting was doing its best. Norm was sitting on one of the metal folding chairs while Hank stood nearer to a large wooden desk in the corner of the room.
“Hey, Lucy,” her dad greeted. “How are you feeling?”
Lucy ignored his question. “What’s going on?”
Hank took a seat behind the desk and sighed. Norm remained silent, though he looked a little pale.
Her dad finally spoke up, “I gave you some tranquilizers last night to calm you down before we entered the Vault. They knocked you out pretty good, though. You’ve been out for quite a while and we need to catch you up to speed.”
“Okay,” Lucy said slowly. After being gestured by her dad she took a seat next to Norm.
Hank took a deep breath, about to speak, but before he could he shook his head, letting it fall into his hands. “We have it on good authority that the bombs dropped this morning.”
Norm, who apparently had heard this information in real-time just stared straight ahead.
Lucy stilled, unsure of what to say, but she was incapable of words, her tongue thick and heavy in her mouth. Anything she could think of would be pointless so she let her dad continue. “China sent over the first round this morning. The whole thing lasted about two hours.”
“So the world is…?”
“Practically over, yes,” Hank confirmed. “The levels of radiation our sensors are picking up are much too high for any kind of survival at the surface. Our scientists have hypothesized that if anyone has managed to survive, they will be dead from exposure soon.”
A cold spread through Lucy’s body. Everyone on the surface was dead or dying. Cooper was dead or dying. She began to shiver despite uncomfortable warmth from the suit.
Cooper, who refused to find a Vault to take him in. Cooper, who had insisted on hiding in his wine cellar while the bombs dropped. Cooper, who she had loved and had planned her life around.
“And we’re in a Vault while the people on the surface die?”
“Well, Lucy,” Hank sighed. “We’ve been warning people to sign up for Vaults for years. Everyone should have known this was going to happen. The people registered for Vaults received the same orders as we did.”
“But you knew ahead of time and didn’t warn anyone?” Lucy could not wrap her head around any of this cruelty.
“You have to understand that space is limited, especially in this Vault. We need to ensure the safety of the population down here. We need to keep humanity going.”
Lucy scoffed, turning away so she was no longer looking at her family.
“Lucy, this is important!” Hank hissed, which drew her attention back. “I need you both to focus right now. The world is counting on us.”
“What do you mean?” Lucy crossed her arms.
“There will be a time when the world is ready to be populated again. A time that we can go back to the surface and give humanity a fresh start,” Hank pressed. “We’ll be ready for when that happens.”
“We’ll be dead when that happens,” Norm deadpanned.
“We won’t be,” Hank said. “We’ll be kept alive for years and years, ready for the time when they’re ready.”
“They?” Lucy raised an eyebrow.
“Vaults 32 and 33 will need us to keep their population going. They’ll need leaders and strong guidance from people who know what the world ought to be.”
“This is ludicrous.” Lucy stood from her chair.
“This is reality,” Hank retorted. “We’ll be put into a cryonic sleep until our services are needed. It could be hundreds of years before we’re unfrozen and introduced into one of the other Vaults. Here, I’ll show you.”
He stood from the desk and strode out the room. Lucy and Norm both hesitantly followed him to a large mechanical door and typed in a passcode which prompted the door to unhinge with a hiss.
When Lucy could focus on what was in front of her she gasped. Dozens of tanks stood before them, radiating a light blue light. They looked like skinny, cylindrical fish tanks, but upon a closer inspection she saw people laying in them.
“What is this?” Lucy whispered. She moved toward the rows and had to cover her mouth from shock. There was Stephanie, her dad’s coworker. Next to her, another Vault-Tec employee Lucy saw regularly at functions residing in the tank with his eyes closed as if he were asleep.
“This is the future of the world,” Hank said, gesturing to the tanks. “These are the people who have willingly given themselves to the greater good. Lucy, we are going to be those people.”
Lucy approached one of the tanks. There was a tag below that read ‘Lucy MacLean’ and she wanted to vomit. “Everyone on the surface is dead?”
“Our three Vaults are a large portion of what is left of humanity. I know it’s tough to hear, but it’s the truth. There’s nothing left up there.” Hank grabbed Lucy's arm. “There is no one left.”
Lucy knew who he meant by no one. She bit the inside of her cheek to stop from crying, but it just made her throat tighten up even more.
Norm took a deep breath and stepped into his tank. At Lucy’s incredulous look he shrugged, “I figured this is our only option right now.”
Lucy closed her eyes, imagining Cooper was here. She could picture his hazel eyes on her as he sat with her in the rocking chair on his front porch, his arms encircling her waist and holding her tightly to his chest.
That was gone. And so was that rocking chair and the porch. And him.
Looking between her dad and Norm who was standing in the tank, Lucy relented. “Fine.”
Hank’s face broke out into a grin. Helping her into the tank he frowned for a second. “Did you take the ab- I mean supplement the nurse gave you?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Wait,” Norm said, “I didn’t get any supplements.”
“You didn’t need any. They were for an iron deficiency Lucy had,” Hank said, though the words rang funny in Lucy’s ears.
Lucy’s eyebrows knitted together. She didn’t know she had an iron deficiency.
“I was just checking,” Hank said quickly, then with a nervous laugh, “Y’know, we have to keep ourselves healthy if we want to repopulate the Earth someday.”
Lucy gave a half-hearted laugh, but it was mostly from nerves.
“Okay, you two, I’m going to close you in.”
“Who’s going to shut your tank?” Norm asked.
“Oh, Bud will,” Hank said. “He’s got the special task to make sure we’re all in here safe and snug as a bug.”
Norm nodded, but Lucy could tell that he was nervous.
“Well, I’ll see you in a couple hundred years.” Hank felt a pull at his heart. He knew this was for the best, but it hurt to see his children so anxious.
Lucy watched as her dad hit a few buttons on a panel next to their tanks and the lid closed over Norm. Her breath caught in her throat as she watched him close his eyes.
“Are you ready, Lucy Goosey?”
She nodded, but who could say they were ready to be suspended in time for centuries while the world as they knew it was over?
“It’s okay,” Hank comforted. “Things will be better on the other side. We can go back to the way things were before this summer. Movie nights, going for walks, whatever you want. We can be a family again.”
His sincerity was what won her out. Maybe she did need to think ahead, move forward; everything they left behind was nonexistent anymore. She had to think about her family and their future.
“Okey dokey.”
Lucy’s surroundings blurred, and she shut her eyes as the chill of the tank consumed her.