Blood falls out of my mouth as my vision blurs and I hit the ground hard. Unable to move my hands that are tied against the chair I am sitting in, I hit the ground face first. While feeling soaring pain rush through my face, I also feel a pair of hands grab me and pull me back up. I spit out the blood that has formed in my mouth and look up.

The bright light shining into my face illuminates the figure standing in front of me in a shadowy presence. The bright light didn't allow much perception so I couldn't make out exactly where I was, not that I even remember how I got here.

"You've got ," he pauses as he kneels at my eye level, "Tenacity. I like that. Makes this more fun," he continues as he slips off his leather gloves and puts them in his side pocket. "John is it? That's what I hear the guards call you. Seem they know you quite well. Nod if you're name is John or if I can call you John." I slowly nod. "This is how it's going to go down. Simply put we saw you enter that building, and when we entered said building the main computer oddly has its memory wiped with only showing local vaults. Now it could have been done years prior and you found that computer in the same state has we have, but! That look you had when you left that building tells determination, not disappointment so you will tell us the location of a Vault. Once you do that I will order these gentlemen to safely take you back where we found you. Now where is Vault 44?"

My eyes widen as I hear him calmly say those words but I don't respond. Again, I fall hard to the ground, again I feel soaring pain running through my face, and again I spit out blood as I get picked up.

"Where is that Vault?! Where is Vault 44?!" shouts the figure as he kneels closer to me. This time I could make out a white suit and combed back blond hair but his face still lingers in the shadows. In response I spit what blood formed in my mouth into the man's face. He wipes it off and punches me again. I get picked up again only to fall to the ground once more with searing pain.

"I can keep doing this or you tell me and avoid more trauma to your face," the man says as he kneels down to me as I still lie on the ground. "Where is the Vault John?" he asks in a softer tone, but I can tell he's trying to control his anger.

I look up and say, with what strength I had left in me I utter, "Go to hell." I feel his fist hitting my face multiple times, each strike sending waves of pain soaring through my face and my vision blurs even more.

Once more I fall to the ground coughing out blood. I notice the metal floor has small puddles of blood around my fallen chair.

"Pick him up," the figure says as he rubs his sore hands. I feel the hands pick me up again. "I've had enough of your arrogance John," he says as I notice  the guy behind me hand the man a large knife.

The blade glistened under the bright light the figure is standing in front of. "Maybe this will make you talk," he says, a smile forming on his shadowy face as he gently places the tip of the blade on my knee and slowly applies pressure. I groan as I begin to feel the pain pulsing from my knee.

Suddenly I hear a metal door open in a squeaky clank and see a person stepping in. My blurry vision and the terrible pain didn't allow me to see what the guy looks like.
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"Sir! Commander Jabsco wants to see you," he says, ignoring my presence.

"Can't you see I'm busy?" the figure responds with an annoyed tone.

"I don't care. He wants to see you now!" The man says in a louder tone before leaving the room.

The figure simply nods as he gets up and hands the guard beside me the knife. He then leans close to me and whispers "Shame. Just as we were having fun. Don't worry, I'll be back soon." He then approaches the man beside me again, accepting back his gloves and says to him "Tend to his wounds and take him to his cells. We can't have him pass out or die just yet. Don't let him out of your sight ok? Great. See you two soon," The figure says in a jolly tone before exiting the room.

The person behind me snarls in response before I could feel the rope around my hands slowly come off. Blood rushes back into my hands as I tried my best to stay conscious. Breathing hurt like hell and I groan as the man forces me off the chair.

"Quiet," he snarls as I feel the rope around my hands again. Sensing a bit of energy left in me I fall to my knees with my hands on the bloody floor. "Get up!" The guard groans as he reaches down to grab. Instead however he feels my elbow crush his throat. He gags and coughs as he falls to his knees, clutching his neck. Quickly I knock him to the ground with my elbow to the forehead then from behind grab the rope that was used to to tie me and instead wring it around the guards neck. He tries desperately to reach out for me but I use my body weight to lean back has hard as I can. After a short moment of him kicking around and trying to grab me to no vain, he stops moving as he chokes up his last breath. Suddenly an ear piercing alarm begins to echo.

I toss away the rope and stumble out of the room, my head swirling with pain and my ears buzzing. Red lights flash from the metal walls and I thought I heard gunshots way off in the distance. 'Either way, I have to get out of here wherever I am,' I thought to myself as I make my way down the hallway.

A metal door beside me suddenly screeches open and a figure in black steps out. Reacting as fast as I can I charge towards the figure as fast as I can. With surprise and full momentum at my side I was able to tackle him to the ground. I frantically search him. I feel the grip of some blade, pull it out, and began stabbing him multiple times until his body stopped twitching and I stopped hearing his gurgling from his gas mask.

Thankful his face was covered up, I began searching him when I hear another metal door open behind me. I grab his black painted T93 Chinese Assault Rifle, quickly turn around, and pull the trigger at the three men in similar attire stepping out of the door. They had no time to react as they all got riddled with bullets before falling to the ground. I toss the empty gun aside, sling another behind my back and quickly began searching the bodies. In a small pack I find a needle. Despite my blurry vision I make out a large 'M' and 'X' on the label. I remove the safety cap and inject the needle into my neck. I feel a rush as my pain immediately fades away. I let out a heavy sigh of relief as I toss the needle labeled 'Med-X' away. The alarm suddenly came back to me. The fighting made me drown it out for a moment. I quickly grab a couple spare magazines from the corpses and ran as I hear more gunshots getting louder followed by inhuman cries.

With my pain temporarily subsided, I was able to move at a faster pace. The hallway began to fork between two directions. Hearing inhuman cries and gunshots coming from the left I naturally picked right. Right into a group of soldiers in black armor. Now that my vision isn't all messed up I can make out exactly what they look like. Black combat armor with a white mark painted on it resembling a mirrored 'K', tinted black gas masks, a black combat helmet, and armored arms and legs. They resemble riot soldiers. Each were armed with a black painted T93's and I could make out the holstered pistols on the right hip and a long knife sheathed to the left.

"The prisoner! Get him!" shouts one of the soldiers.

I quickly fire off a few rounds, hitting one of them in the arm and face, before turning around and running the opposite direction. I hear gunfire followed by bullets zipping by but quickly end as I hear one them shout "Don't shoot. They want him alive!" The hallway forks again in two directions. Hearing the gunfire coming from the right side I decided that facing those guys is safer than whatever caused the alarm so I turned left and entered the first room I see. The room, a barracks filled with around a dozen bunk beds and the same amount of lockers hugging the wall, was quite big. I notice a small bathroom through an open door to my left with another door leading to the same room across it and beside it a closed door. I was about to open said door but it actually was opening on its own. I quickly dive through the open bathroom door and hide in the corner to the right, squeezing myself against the wall with the T93 in hand.

I hear a group of footsteps jog away from me and into another group of footsteps coming from where I came from. "Stop. The prisoner has escaped. Have either of you seen him?" Said one the multiple soldiers, his voice sounding high pitch and slightly mechanical due to his gas mask. "Uh no sir. We're just responding to the Supermutant attack," responds the soldier, his voice a slightly higher pitch. "No need. We need to find the prisoner. Our boys can handle them. Search the adjacent rooms and do not report this to the Commander or the Employer got it?" "Yes sir" the three say in unison before splitting off.  I duck out of sight as I see what seems to be the leader head towards the bathroom with his two lackeys.

I squeeze against the wall as much as I can as the three step into the bathroom, passing me. I held my breath and very carefully raise my weapon as they each kick open a bathroom stall. With the weapon at eye level I pull the trigger. The weapon bursts all of a sudden a bunch of rounds at the unaware soldier, startling me as I thought the weapon is set at 'Auto' instead of 'Semi'. The bullets riddle the unaware soldier and falls to the ground, blood quickly forming a puddle beneath him. I had no time to change the setting and so fired at the next soldier but after a couple rounds go off the weapon jams. The bullets hit that soldier on the side of his gas mask and his arm, the force of impact knocking him forward and onto the stall and toilet. The third soldier reacts faster and charges at me. I react just as fast, moving aside and using his own momentum to throw him against the wall. He immediately gets back up and swings at me wildly with his fists. He gets a couple lucky blows but I barely was able to dodge and block them until he thrusts his leg into my chest flinging me hard against the door frame of one of the open bathroom stalls. The one where one of the dead soldiers are in. I see the holstered pistol and tried to grab it but was picked up and tossed to the other side of the room, the pistol falling out of my hand and landing by my side.

I try to reach out for it only for that soldier to step on my hand and then kicking the weapon away. I look up only to see the soldier kick me in the face. My vision blurs, my ears ring as I cough up some blood. I lean myself against the wall, trying to compose myself. "You killed my friends," The soldier says, his voice reminding me he was the one who gave out the orders earlier. "I may not be allowed to kill you," he continues, pulling out his knife while talking, "but that don't mean I'll take you back in one piece. I will cut you like I stock pig!" He shouts before a blade pierces through his chest. He gasps, turning his head as far back as he could. "Not if I cut you first!" The figure behind him says, despite the voice I could tell it was that of a woman. The dead soldier collapses to the ground and it's revealed that my savior is in the attire of the other soldiers.

I reached for the dead soldiers knife in a heartbeat, my head still pulsing with pain and my vision becoming slightly blurry. The figure raises its hands in assurance, as if saying it means no harm to me. I watch as it reaches for the tinted gas mask and helmet, revealing to be a beautiful young woman with fiery red hair, bright blue eyes, and freckles on her cheeks.

"Reilly?" I ask before darkness takes over and I collapse.

"Oh my god John!" I hear her voice, though more of a fading echo as I pass out.