Today is October 23, 2277. My name is Marcello, I'm 19 years old. On my left and right are my two best friends, Sam and Sela, in front of me is my little sister Lucy scolding me for leaving dirty clothes on the floor of our shared room, she is just 2 years younger, blonde and full of energy. But that doesn't matter, tomorrow the vault opens for the first time in 200 years. Something that me and everyone else has been preparing for all our lives. None of the three of us could contain the excitement for what was in store, the last 19 years of drilling, learning and drilling again was finally going to pay off, I was finally getting to wander the wastes. I had made good enough marks on the assessments to be trusted with a squad when the door opened, it would include my trio and Peter who was just a year older and obsessed with explosives.
	"Marc you have to stop leaving those smelly ass gym clothes on the floor of MY room, I nearly pass out every time I walk in." Sam speaks for you "Give him a break Lucy the drill Sargent doesn't make PT easy with the Vault opening so soon." "That doesn't mean he can't throw his clothes anywhere else!" she retorts. Sela just watches on in amusement staying quiet as she often did. She was almost as tall as you at 5ft 9' built like a sprinter with long strawberry hair pulled back into a ponytail, showing off her light freckles running just under her eyes and across her nose. On your other side sat Sampson, imposing at 6ft 2' and 240lbs with short sandy curls, he insisted on wearing brushstroke short shorts and training with a FAL, which you thought made him even scarier to people who didn't know him. He was the opposite of scary to you, like a big teddy bear, one of the nicest people you had ever met. I am 5ft 11' 180lbs with dark brown wavy hair buzzed down on the sides and back while still being fairly long on the top. We all were in extremely good shape from free time spent in the gym and PT during the weekly training we had done our entire lives, almost everyone in the vault was sculpted like an Olympic athlete who's sport was killing. It didn't hurt that the gene pool of vault 034 was made up of special forces, spies, and natural born leaders. Sam and Lucy still bickering you finally speak "Drop it Luce I'll pick them up after we get some food. Wanna tag along?" "Whatever" she responds as you stand and start making your way to the stairs that led to the mess hall.
	Large enough to seat 500 people at any given time the mess was one of the biggest open rooms in the vault. I look for a table and find an open portion close to the kitchen. "You guys can sit down, I'll grab the food" Sela responds with a smile "Thanks Marc." as she Sam and Lucy sit down, the latter trying to explain why the FAL was inferior to any other battle rifle and making no headway in doing so. I walk up to a counter where one of the chefs walks up the greet me "Heya Marc what can I get you guys today?" "How about pasta for four?" "Coming right up" "Thanks Dave" I return to the table with Sam retorting to Lucy's argument. "Should it matter how 'inferior' my FAL is on paper when I can hit a man sized target 20/20 times at 500m?" He wasn't lying either at the vault's range he made the battle rifle sing to his tune. "Well no, but it still doesn't mean that the design isn't flawed!" "But that doesn't matter when preforms when I need it to." Defeated Lucy buries her face in her arms on the table letting out an 'ugggh'. 
	Not a minute later David walks out of the kitchen with a big pot of what was going to be dinner. He sits it on the table while a tiny girl working as an apprentice runs out with plates and silverware. "Saw you had the big guy with you so there's at least enough for 5 in there." David says while clasping his hands together "Bon appetit" everyone at the table chimes in "Thanks David" even Lucy who was now excitedly passing out the plates and silverware. Content with his delivery David returns to the kitchen, the apprentice scampering behind him. I open the pot letting out a cloud of steam sealed inside and begin serving out heaps of the fettuccine cut pasta covered in a red sauce with green streaks of spinach laced throughout. Everything was grown in the vault hydroponics department so fresh was a welcome constant in the food, all of it was genetically modified to make up for the lack of meat in the rotating menu, but it still tasted excellent, something David and the other cooks took pride in. Garlic and Basil are what jumps out at you in the pasta, savoring the first bite everyone digs in. 20 Minutes of speed eating later the pot is empty and so are the plates. Groaning, Sam proposes "Who wants to watch war movies in the rec rooms?" nods in approval all around confirm the plans for tonight, after dropping off the dirty dishes your group makes its way to the rec rooms down two floors near the residential area. 
	The Vault's residential floor was on a cooling and warming cycle in line with the sun on the outside, warmer in the day and cooler at night making it easier to sleep, it was getting late now 2144 your watch read. The rec room is empty and dark with a chill in the air, Sam gets to work flipping through a box of holotapes in front of the tv wearing his pajamas, also in brushstroke, also short shorts. I start filling in the couch, Sela notices the chill and grabs two well worn quilts from a basket in the corner, they are frayed at the edges but maintained and treated with respect as everything is in the vault. She throws one at Lucy on your right and sits down draping the other over me and herself. Sam utters an "ah ha!" finding the holotape he wanted and pops it into the television hurrying back to an open spot on the couch next to Lucy. With everyone cozied up on the couch in comfortable pajamas wrapped beneath quilts, the screen goes black casting the room into darkness, then the opening scenes for Enemy At the Gates begins. Sam knew how to pick em. 
	Not even an hour into the movie Lucy was passed out cold, Sam was hanging onto consciousness and I was even having trouble keeping my eyes open. Curled up into a ball, her head on my shoulder and her arms coiled around mine Sela quietly asks "Marc, are you ready for what's outside the vault?" a little surprised by this I respond "I think so, we've all been training our entire lives for this, every single week learning tactics in the classroom or practicing them in the afternoon. We're as ready as we'll ever be. Plus I'm going out there with the people I trust more than anyone else, you and Sam." on my last statement Sela squeezes my arm a little tighter but only for a second. "You're right, we'll have each other out there, so don't even hesitate to rely on me." With that the room returned to relative silence, Sam was now fully asleep with his head rolled over the back of the couch. I really enjoyed how close we all were, after spending the last 19 years growing up together, physical touch had become a normal thing between us three, Sam insisted it was different with Sela and I but I always wrote him off citing that she was like family to me after growing up together. Citing that our parents found the lot of us wrapped up in each other, passed out hundreds of times over the years. But ever since Sam had said that the thought had been in the back of my mind, dismissing the thought yet again I re-adjust one final time before slowly drifting off to sniper fire in the background.
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	The next morning came with the discomfort associated with being too warm in the morning as the vault started its heating cycle. Sam, still comfortably melted into the couch snored along, liberating Rhodesia in his dreams, Lucy was hidden beneath the quilt dead to the world. Checking my watch it was 0613, still very early. No longer present at my side, Sela was missing, she had probably awakened much earlier than me and went to start preparing for the afternoon when the vault would open. I decided it was time to start preparing myself, so I stood, folded the quilt and made my way to my room to get dressed for the surface.
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