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( A/N: Hey, since this is the first chapter of my new fanfiction FalloutStuck, I’d figure I’d share with you some basic info on what this is going to be about. For those of you who don't know Fallout is a game that was originally developed by Black Isle studios, Micro Forte and 14 Degrees East from 1997-2004, then in 2008 the 3rd Fallout game was released by Bethesda Softworks. Fallout itself is a RPG set in a post nuclear future set to a 1950’s aesthetic (there’s a reason they never moved past the fifties though, but I don’t have the room to explain every detail about this amazing game play it yourself to find out). In this fanfiction the main character will be Karkat, and will take place between the time of New Vegas and Fallout 4 and the location will in fact be the Mojave from New Vegas, it’s my favorite location in the Fallout series. I will be building off of a few other’s ideas but will mostly stick to my own ideas. With all that being said, I hope you will enjoy my fanfiction.

The year is 2284, a young troll wakes up in the familiar surroundings of vault 612. He has lived in this vault for as long as he could remember, thinking about it just made him angsty, the vault’s Overseer was very strict about not letting anyone under the age of 18 out of the vault. Once they turn 18 they must spend a week in the Mojave before returning, they can choose to stay in the vault or stay in the Mojave, if they don’t come back they were pronounced dead. The young troll had recently had a friend leave, a female troll named Kanaya chose to stay out in the wild Mojave, she joined The Followers of the Apocalypse and hasn’t been heard from since. Of course she wasn’t the first of his friends to leave, and it’s certain she won’t be the last.
Unfortunately, the young troll was far from being able to join them, for he had only recently turned 16. He couldn’t wait until that big day when he’d finally get the chance to leave and search for all his friends again, but for now he’ll have to wait. Today is a very important day for him, he’ll have to take the the Generalized Occupational Aptitude Test (G.O.A.T.) , a test that tells him his occupation while in the vault, of course this is only a temporary position if he choses not to stay.
The young troll finally rolls out of his bed when he hears a tapping at the door, “ Come in,” he hollers.
The door open and his good friend Dave Strider steps in, “ Karkat, are you ready for this test, it starts in five minutes.”
“ The fuck I am, I just woke up I haven’t even had time to change.”
“ To be fair, the vault suits all look exactly alike.”
“Oh, don’t be a wise ass Strider I don’t want to wear the same smelly ass clothes that I was wearing yesterday, you might be comfortable doing that but not me”
Dave rolls his eyes, “Fine, get changed and be quick, I’ll be waiting out in the hall.”
Dave leaves, and Karkat quickly scrambles to get changed, when he finishes he darts out of his room and into the hall where Dave is waiting for him.
“You ready to go?” Dave asks.
Karkat groggily nods and they walk to the classroom together in relative silence, when they got there the class was already seated, a few of them have even started their tests. While the teacher lazily reads out the questions, his feet propped up on the desk, and his rear half in the worn leather chair, he glanced up as Dave and Karkat enter the room, “ Nice of you to join us gentlemen,” the teacher say laying the paper across his chest, “ have a seat,” he gestured to two rusty desks in the corner. The majority of the class watches them cross over to their seats, which make loud squeaky cries as the two sit down. The teacher calls the attention back to him, and the class returns to their exam, while Dave and Karkat play catch up, quickly filling out the answers in a mad dash to keep up with the rest of the class. By the time they finished most of the class is gone, or getting their answers. Dave finishes before Karkat, and confidently strolls over to the teacher and hands him his papers. The teacher studies Dave’s answers carefully, glancing between Dave’s paper and and the key that sorted everyone out. After a few moments the teacher looks up at Dave and smiles,“ Mr.Strider, you are a fry cook,” the teacher chuckles, “ following in your brother’s footsteps I see.”
Dave’s face turns red, “This is bullshit, there’s no way I’m spending the rest of my life in some smelly little sweat shop of a cafeteria!”
The teacher shrugs, “ You can always try again next year,”
“Ugh, forget it I’m leaving this place when I turn eighteen anyway.”
“ That’s what they always say.” the teacher murmured, as he goes back to grading papers.
Karkat swallowed hard, hoping he didn’t get anything as ridiculous as that. He quickly finishes the last few questions and slowly walks to the teacher’s desk and hands him the paper. The teacher studies it for what seemed like hours before he sat the paper down and smiled, “Now this is a surprise”
Karkat tilted his head, “ What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”
“Marriage counselor, this almost makes me want to get married, I’m sure you counseling anyone would be an experience all its own.”
“ Ah my god, that’s going to be so mind numbingly boring, can I take it again?”
“ Sorry Mr. Vantas you’ll also have to wait a year, how ever it might not be so bad, you’ll at least be a pipeline for most of the juicy gossip.”
“ UGH FUCK THIS!”
Karkat stops out of the class seething, “ STUPID FUCKING TEST, THE HELL DO THESE FUCKERS THINK THEY ARE, TELLING PEOPLE WHAT THEIR FUTURE PLANS SHOULD BE, WHEN I TURN EIGHTEEN I’M LEAVING THIS SHIT HOLE AND NEVER FUCKING *EVER* COMING BACK.”

ONE MONTH LATER

It’s the end of a long work day, Karkat was busy filing some papers, something he wasn’t to keen on doing, when a large trimmer shook his office. Karkat shrugged it off, as these trimmers have been happening all week, Overseer said there was nothing to worry about, just something going wrong in the boilers, they’ll have it fixed by the end of the week, but the trimmers were getting worse each time they happened. Yesterday Dave was telling Karkat about how he’d almost face planted into the grill at work. Dave wasn’t the only one narrowly missing a casualty, a few other vault dwellers have had bookcases come tumbling down near them, a filing cabinet almost crushed one of the oldest residence. Everyone’s starting to get really worried, scared that there might not be much time left before they all have to clear out to find a new,safer residence. Which didn’t sound too bad to Karkat, he was so sick of the confines of the vault’s large metal walls, even a catastrophic event such as the vault collapsing could mean freedom.
Once Karkat had finished filing the last bit of paperwork, he packed up and headed for his room. Normally he’d stop by the grill and chat with Dave after the dinner rush, but something about today had just worn him out, so Karkat just went straight to bed after work. He slept soundly, and dreamed of being on the outside the wind blowing through his hair, a big blue sky above his head, the warm sand beneath his boots and a gun strapped to his hip. It’s really been his only dream growing up, sure he’ll be leaving his family, and a few friends behind, but he’ll have the whole world to explore and not a care in the world. Mean while down in the boiler room, a large valve that pumps air from the surface, had burst and now the oxygen levels were decreasing rapidly. An alarm sounds and the P.A. system comes on, alerting everyone to not panic, not that it would do much good they were panicking anyway. The only ones that seemed really calm were the children, and young adults. Despite all this commotion Karkat was sleeping soundly, until Dave burst in his room, and began shaking Karkat’s unconscious body, “ Come on dude, now’s not the time to be taking a cat nap.” Dave says in a hushed but frantic tone.
Karkat starts coming to, and opens his eyes, “ What? Why?” he asks looking around
Dave shook him again, “Karkat you idiot can’t you hear the alarms and the people screaming, a pipe exploded and now we’re running out of oxygen! We have to leave now!”
Karkat shook the sleep from his head and quickly stood up, he winces as the sound of the alarms finally rush his ears. Karkat goes to start grabbing some things, when Dave grabs his arm and starts dragging him to the door, “ It’s okay, my Bro’s got all the supply we need” he screams, now almost inaudible among the increasingly loud residence and the wailing alarms.
Dave dragged Karkat out of his room, and into the hall people were scattered everywhere, running to and fro. A couple trampled bodies lay mangled, and unrecognizable as hundreds of residences carelessly trample over the poor bastards. Karkat grimaces at the sight of the corpses, this being his first time to ever see a dead body, Dave looks back at him and tries to be reassuring, “ You’ll get used to it, especially where we’re going,” he points up. Karkat begins sweating hard, a mix of lack of air and adrenaline as panic sets in. A natural reaction of course, but a dangerous one, especially now that he’ll be going on to the surface, for the first time he recognizes how real danger is in this world, death finally becoming a reality to one so young; finally Karkat realizes he’ll never have a normal life again after tonight, this was the beginning of a new chapter in his life, one that will lead him down a long rocky road, or a quick trip down the side of a canyon. He holds tight to the hand that leads him, knowing that this might be the only bit of mercy he’ll get shown for the rest of his life.