EC – Chapter 1

The Vault, Day 1

Boom…

BOOM…

Boooommmmm…the echo is practically non-stop.

But it doesn’t sound like the structure protecting is giving way, I quickly noticed. Thank goodness.

A few seconds later…

The steady sound is always at even intervals. It keeps repeating endlessly. The sound is coming from nearby, as if something is hitting a wall with a big weight.

I opened my eyes. I look up.

Where am I?

What am I doing here?

I look around to figure out where I am.

I’m on a clean but damaged firm and aging mattress with a few small holes torn in it around the edges. There are no sheets or blankets, but the smell is clean. The bed box springs is under the mattress, so that the mattress isn’t on the floor.

I look over.

A single light bulb with no lamp shade is twitching oddly but hasn’t seized up yet in the only light in the small room. The walls are solid well built concrete but barren of any design with flat roof, also very solid material like the rest of the room.

There’s no other furniture in the room except for an outlet and a small mini-fridge in the corner. It seems like the vault like survival room has electrical power but I can’t see anything except a chipped small old but clean sink with a small faucet. It looks like the pipes of the faucet look really old and …not rusty but close to it, with a drain pipe that goes into the wall.

It reminds me of a certain theme…

The room is smaller than most bedrooms. But it doesn’t look like a bedroom but more like a cross between a ‘facility’ and some kind of cell.

There’s nothing else here.

Where am I?

I look around.

No books? Is that a mistake? Where is my computer? And where’s my family? How did I get here?! I began to panic.

Wait a minute.

My mind and memory are unclear. I continued to be restless and panic.

Wait, where did I come from?! Why can’t I remember anything?!

Why?! What’s wrong with me?! How come I don’t remember anything?

I sit up and scratch my head. OK, think…I have to stay calm. I have to be careful and not just run around crazy like a chicken with its head cut off. It’s important to think about what to do logically.

I should do something about that tapping and banging against the outer door huh?

The sound of the wall being battered endlessly is getting annoying. It sounds like something human sized.

How did I end up here?

…

…

Wait a minute…

Who am I?

Did I lose my memory?

And where is this place?

Think…think…think…

There are no windows in the concrete room. That’s interesting.

Am I in a jail of some kind?

No, that can’t be it. But a lot of jails do have similar architecture to be honest.

I’m sure that I’m not a criminal of any kind. I can’t even be sure why I think that but I’m not the type of person that would be like that.

If only there were some tools or something to interact with.

The dull thudding against the wall and door continued. I’m thankful the door is some kind of heavy metal also, if it were wood I’d be in a lot of trouble right now. The hinges and lock on it are some kind of raw aging iron or low grade steel also with rust caked over it.

The door is thick and solid, but oddly enough I find it interesting that someone would invest in it this much because it wouldn’t be cheap to do metal doors. A wooden door would be easy and cheap. It even has a massive deadbolt that would be considered overkill even on an armored car. There’s like a slot in the door that can be opened and shut made of metal only big enough for two eyes to see out of, complete with a sliding opening and shutting cover slide.

Wait…how do I even know what an armored car or a computer is? Is that also a clue to my existence?

…

What can I do to figure this out?

And that dull thudding is really annoying. I should do something about that.

What could make a noise like that?

I got up as quietly as I could but the mattress still squeaked a bit, since the springs in it are made of some metal. Carefully I approached the door.

I hear something growling on the other side. That was the first real red flag that I can’t just open the door and risk my neck.

The second clue is that I noticed how cool this room is. It feels like…the temperature of an underground parking structure.

What could it be that was growling at me? It was a growl that was merciless and vicious from some kind of predator that I hadn’t comprehended before.

Carefully I slid the peep hole slide cover open.

Ironically even though I try to do it quietly it scrapes and makes a hissing rusty sound.

What the fuck?! I’m lucky I hadn’t open the door or I’d be attacked right now!

The creature on the other side goes nuts. He’s trying to attack the door and the peephole, but the peephole slide is too small for him to get at. It’s a vaguely dark silhouette that I have trouble seeing still because there’s no light on the other side of the door.

But it’s clear, there’s a monster creature there.

So I can’t even see what kind of creature it is.

What is it?

Relentlessly the pattern of attacking the door continued mercilessly. I even felt the movement of claw marks or clawed hands against the slide cover trying to get into it but not being able to.

Then the creature on the other side screeches…or is it a howl?

The howl continues! It’s the howl of a creature of darkness but I can’t tell what kind.

My gosh…it doesn’t even sound like it’s alive. The howl didn’t sound like a beast but like some creature from hell. My blood chilled. And even scarier was that the mouth and head of this creature were at eye level with the peep hole, or it wouldn’t noticed the peep hole at all. And it must have a strong sense of smell also, for it to have known I was here before I was making noise.

Will the door hold?

Fuck…I don’t have any weapons.

I hold my breath trying to be as still as possible but the endless attacking and striking the metal door continued.

Well the door seems to be holding.

The problem is that it’s so hard to see because of darkness that I can’t tell what’s outside the room. I can’t tell if I’m in a building or out in a warehouse, or in a field outside the concrete room.

I considered my options carefully.

What is this?

Who am I?

I don’t like the threat of some creature trying to get in.

When I tried to talk to it, it just got madder and increased its intensity of attacks. It has no comprehension of self damage or fatigue, I realized with even more shock.

That could mean only one thing. So whatever it is, it’s not alive or it’s a creature of infinite rage.

“Hello?” I called out.

There!

Holy FUCK!

I saw briefly it got its fingers inside the sliding peep hole. I almost thought I imagined it, at first. The long gray fingers looked dead and white with black nails and the look of something gross. There was some kind of black sludge on some of them, which I’m not sure about what it is.

The fingers disappeared as quickly as they’d gotten in.

HUMAN shaped fingers!

I jumped back about two feet in surprise.

The beating on the door continued. The echo of noise from the beatings is going far, and one worry is that the loud noise will attract others.

What am I supposed to do?

The creature is hostile obviously.

I need to protect myself.

But I have nothing in the room that I can use as a weapon.

But if I just let the creature continue its howling then what if it draws other creatures near? Then if there are more of them, will the door still hold? Actually the steel hinges and steel door are very secure, but how many of those things coming will test its strength?

OK, think…

How do I get through this?

I have to think…

I began pacing the small room.

First, let’s look at resources.

I searched the room.

It’s a small room but I need to try harder.

Should I negotiate with that creature?

At first, I had this as a peaceful thought. It would be the right thing to do.

But then I realized it was rabidly violent, whatever it was. Going out there or trying to talk to it would make it worse.

OK, what about where I’m at? Are there any clues?

The small mini-fridge feels cold and is getting power from its power source. So I have discovered my room has electricity, or an energy source mirroring electricity. Also I discovered that there is a sandwich in a plastic container, which looks delicious inside it. Also there’s a can of soda pop, and a plastic container of bottled water.

I realized the ceiling of the room has very thick steel girders across it and is also solid. There doesn’t seem to be anything else there that I can use.

I can’t find anything else.

[Search skill has been acquired!]

What’s this? It’s a skill? What the fuck?!

That’s not normal for a screen to appear in the air like a computer monitor. The blue screen with white text is odd too. It’s like the monitor is so thin and perfect like it’s made out of the air itself with no mechanical machinery of any kind on the monitor. When I try to I can pass my hand through the screen; so it’s a visual effect of a screen but it’s magic and more of a mind effect? Wait, it’s a real screen but just built to be sub-real so that it can’t be attacked too. But it’s a real tool.

“What is this?” I said to myself.

But when I tried to touch the screen it disappeared along with the window screen, fading in the air until its nothing.

Hmm, that’s interesting. I used the search skill again. This time the skill didn’t popup, nor was there a screen.

I can’t be in a game can I?

Its too real to be a game with vivid realistic textures impossible to not be real. Also, I feel my body and flesh moving real and not animated.

But there’s this weird …system?

And when that thing tried to grab me slipping its fingers through the peephole I felt the danger was real. And plus, I’ve already stubbed my toe once inside this room while pacing, and the pain was real. The damage on my toe with an ‘almost’ bruise looks real too.

I have discovered that I’m wearing clothes. Duh…of course I’d be wearing clothes. I’m wearing a white T shirt, a pair of jeans, and a pair of sneakers with clean white ‘Walmart special’ socks.

When I used the search skill for a third time, I discovered that the beautiful, delicious looking sandwich in the mini-fridge is a cold turkey and cheddar with lettuce, tomato, bacon, olives and mayo with mustard are in it just the way I like with salt and pepper. It looks just the way I used to order them from Busway, my favorite restaurant.

Wow. That looks delicious. Forget bank robbing, if I become a bank robber I’ll steal sandwiches from sandwich shops! It feels like I haven’t eaten in days.

My gosh…I’d almost kill for a sandwich this beautiful.

Have you ever seen anything so beautiful in your entire life?

It even hypnotized me so much that I’d forgotten about the creature trying to get into my room for a full two minutes to stare at the sandwich.

[Identify skill has been acquired!]

Wait, so what other skills are there? This is kind of like a game…except everything is real. If I was in some game or a VR setting there would be screen blips. There would be too much perfection also, and nothing out of place. The rust on the sink for example, is too perfect. Also my skin pores don’t look flawless, and are too real.

Back to [Identify]…

Amazing…the blue screen popup is in front of me, hanging in the air again. There are no cords and no electricity going to the screen. I can even put my hand through the screen if I try but…that made the screen disappear.

You’ve identified your personal customized Turkey sandwich!

Damn…it’s Turkey too?! That’s not going to last long…

You also identified that the plastic container that the sandwich is in, has a barcode on it. The soda pop can also is aluminum and has a barcode on it.

This situation is still weird, since I don’t know who or what I am, other than I look human.

But how did I get here? And what’s with that critter on the other side of the door.

Right…I need to deal with that creature don’t I?

But how?

It sounds dangerous, whatever it is. And I don’t want to be in a struggle with it in close combat.

I was about to try choking to death on biting the most big ass bite you’d ever seen into that sandwich when I stopped suddenly.

Wait…what if this is my only food source for awhile?

I better make it last.