Chapter 1 Rosie

“Shut it down! Shut it down!” Rosie bellowed louder than the malfunctioning constructor frame that just limped its way into the repair shop. She cursed under her breath and scowled at the moron driving it. Who’d managed to rupture the pistons down both oversized, powered arms. Leaving the tall, mechanical exoskeleton needing a full rebuild from the waist up.

The truth was she didn’t care about the damaged frame, not even a little. She wasn’t even angry at the idiotic operator, she was angry at John. The love of her life and the only true friend she’d ever had in this awful place. Trapped deep below the ground, working every day to build space they didn’t need for a future they would never see.

They’d barely spoken in the last month, a new record for them, all because John wouldn’t listen. And now he’d set the plan in motion, using her code, unaware of the changes she’d made in the last month. She planned on telling him. Even though that meant also telling her partner that she’d been hacking his pipboy wirelessly, for years. Starting long before writing the code to breach the door that kept them trapped in the Vault. Trapped under the earth, trapped by a lie. A lie reinforced all day, every day, by the faded posters on the dull steel walls, and the degrading recordings blared over loudspeakers. All under the Overseer.

Rosie busied herself by trying to look involved in the repair work despite having no intention of being here to finish it. It wasn’t hard, she’d basically worked on automatic for years. Her small hands rewiring and rebuilding broken parts or machines. Fuelling the pointless expansion of the Vault into the surrounding caves. All while her mind ran through idea after idea to get out.

In the end, the inspiration had been simple, and not her own. As they prepared for their escape John and Rosie climbed through the air recirc vents'. Learning there was no future for everyone they ever knew. Not with the state of the fan blades and main oxygen generator. It didn’t take her long to figure out why, the relentless pace of expansion.

The dust created by the rocks John broke, along with hundreds of others. Twelve hours a day, every day, till he could barely stay awake, had been like rubbing the hard wearing fans with grit paper for years. Ever so slightly wearing the precision contours and angles unevenly, compounding the problem further.

This got John on board with her plan of escape quicker than she hoped. Although only after she’d hacked ninety per cent of the Vault systems. Including the stock check, which showed no replacements. Then faking work orders, and checking the massive store room, in person, despite the risk.

That had been the inspiration for her esc code. When John hacked the storeroom door and tricked it into a fire safety test to get it open. Easily done by changing the time and date on the access terminal. Simple subroutines left relatively unprotected by the basic operating system of the entire Vault. He’d set it a week back, Rosie knew she’d have to set the vast, round, door back further than that. But she knew the spark of an idea John gave her would work.

After that moment of genius from the man everyone but Rosie took to be a dim bulb, the code fell into place. It took years of attacking the virtual vault door. One of the jet black devices running the simulated door, with another running the hack against it. After learning from every failure, Rosie finally cracked it, then the arguing started.

Her plan had always been simple. Tell people the truth over the loudspeakers that lied to them their whole lives, wait until there’s trouble. Use the distraction of Vault Sec thugs cracking skulls to get out. Only she’d grown tired of waiting. And thanks to the raw processing power held within the jet black devices they wore, she could cause more than enough trouble.

John refused. He wouldn’t even entertain the idea. His will harder than the rocks he broke all day. Leading to hushed shouting matches in what little time they had together.

It really bothered him, Rosie never understood why, not really. She’d always planned on telling as many people as possible, giving them an option. After that she found it tough to care about these morons.

Nothing they did made any sense, you only had to look at the map, even the fake pre-installed map, and it jumped right out. There was more than enough space already. They weren’t building for the future, they were being kept too tired to fight back. So those upstairs could sit on their comfy seats and eat their precious fucking apples. She’d tried an apple once, half an apple, once.

In the end she’d told John he should stay behind. Hoping to snap him out of whatever notion he’d got into his head. Not thinking he’d actually agree, and heart broken when he did. She thought about that moment now, realising the look on his face. The same look she saw as they passed in the corridor, he’d decided to go alone instead.

In a little over an hour the vast, Vault door would open, and stay open, till someone in charge noticed. Finding her barely hidden signature, forcing them to talk to her if they ever wanted it closed again. Giving her the perfect opportunity to broadcast the truth to everyone else, before making her own escape. If John would have just listened they could have gone together. Instead he chose to protect people too ignorant to see the truth right in front of them, and chose to leave her behind.

She couldn’t be angry about that. It would be easier for her to slow things down with her command of the Vault systems. And she knew that in his way, he just wanted her to be safe. Besides, Rosie had plenty to be angry about, she wasn’t going to waste that on the only person she cared about.

Things in the repair shop progressed as usual. Broken machines came into the long, open, corridor at one end. Found an empty bay, and stayed there till someone fixed them. All so they could go back out the other end, reasonably repaired. Returning to helping keep people too tired to fight back.

Rosie hated it. With her athletic, five foot eight build, small hands, and keen eyes, she was ideally suited to the predetermined life. Thanks to that stupid test every child in the Vault took. Although what it didn’t tell the people in charge, what crude questions with multiple choice answers couldn’t even begin to define, was Rosie’s intelligence.

By the time she was issued with the jet black device at the age of ten, she already understood more than anyone she knew. With access to the Unified os anytime she wanted her understanding of coding grew exponentially. The more she coded, the more the device taught her. Five years later she'd hacked enough systems to map the entire Vault. Including the vast door they left out of the pre-installed version, she had to see it.

Rosie thought about that day often. Remembering her excitement turning to rage as she stepped onto level one. Seeing the luxury they lived in. The simulated sunlight, the shining floors, the spacious rooms. The very opposite of how she and John were forced to live.

Her act of rebellion didn’t stop at trespassing. She stole an apple from the cafeteria, real food, not the tasteless protein bars. It took all her discipline to carry it all the way back down to level six, but she wanted to share it with John.

The pipboy contracted on her arm with a notification. John made it to the door, she knew he would, and he’d uploaded her ‘esc’ code. Rosie walked out of the repair shop. Ignoring Waters and his idle threats of reporting her for negligence. Blanking the mush brained, gawking dullards she despised. Knowing this was the point of no return so she may as well watch her code in action, or as close as she could get.

Rosie's footsteps echoed through the oppressively low corridors she'd spent every day of her twenty five years in. She couldn’t remember a time she didn’t hate the dull metal. The repeated patterns. The harsh fluorescent lighting that buzzed constantly and made her headaches worse. Her anger stayed close to the surface. She wished that John hadn’t gone without her. She wanted to see her masterpiece in action, but watching the mirrored screen on her arm felt like enough. Even if she had to hide in the toilet to do it.

Her code ran. Drawing in power, air, coming to life before her eyes and high above her. She picked out the dates being altered. The false commands tricking the system into running a simple test, then she saw it, knowing John saw it too.

*Main door cycle: y/n?*

After what felt like an hour Rosie watched as John hit yes, and then presumably left, out into the world above. Rosie tried not to feel abandoned, betrayed, robbed of seeing her creation defeat the barrier that kept them both trapped down here. She couldn’t. “See you soon John.” Rosie said to herself, focusing on her own escape instead of slapping her partner across the face.

With the exception of John, who she loved dearly. And her childhood friend Dutch, who she hadn’t seen in almost a decade, but vmailed almost daily for more than just creating a backup of her code. Rosie despised almost everyone she’d ever known. Saving white hot core of her contempt for those in charge, the liars, stupid liars at that.

She walked the empty corridors. Double checking her locator was on, it was. And still these morons either hadn’t noticed the vast door was wide open for the first time in almost a century. Or they couldn’t even crack her barely concealed signature.

She needed them to get her up there. If Oversight ordered a full lockdown it could make getting up through the five levels above near impossible. Certainly slowing her escape enough to put distance between her and John. She didn’t like the thought of being alone out there any more than John being alone.

The children’s stories she knew were lies implanted fear of the outside in them from an early age. Giving them both nightmares for years. Yet the idea that killer robots actually existed seemed far fetched. However the idea that wolves lay in wait to tear people apart seemed all too real.

Rosie walked the corridors. Let her barely shoulder length hair down, undid the laces on her boots that were too big, even running. Breaking as many rules as she could think of to somehow how draw Vault Sec down on her.

The code ran, infiltrating systems on every floor. Preparing to seal off level one. Trapping the Overseer in his undoubtedly comfortable office. The code did everything her near total access allowed. All except connecting the loudspeakers on every floor. Only the Overseer's pipboy could do that, and she’d never been able to get access. It would have been easy to open the Vault door with that kind of access. But even the morons that struggled to send vmail knew better than to add it to the main network.

After two hours waiting to be detained by security. A feigned attempt to hide. And another four hours left sat on a stool in a stripped out room on the Med deck, someone with real authority came to her. The balance of power shifted in Rosie’s favour for the first time in her life.