Chapter Text
It was an average afternoon in the di Angelo household. Maria and Bianca di Angelo were making lunch for Nico and Hades di Angelo as Hades fervidly watched the football game that was playing on the television, shouting at the screen as if it would have any effect on the game, while Nico glared at him as he tried to reread Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, keyword tried. It was too hard to focus with his dad screaming at the tv. Codsworth, their Mister Handy, levitated around the house, cleaning and tending to Nico and Hades' beverage needs.
They lived in a small blue house at the bottom of a hill, which held a structure surrounded by sharp barbwire fences. Many teens had tried to go up there and see what was behind them, but there were armed guards standing around the perimeters so no one would look or dare to trespass. Even at night. Many people were confused to what was being built behind those fences.
Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. Hades di Angelo huffed in exasperation before getting up from the couch, eyeing his somewhat-content son whose eyes followed the words on the pages of his book. He sighed and opened the door, seeing a man holding a clipboard. The man was wearing a tan suit with a red tie, looking like he was a door-to-door salesman. His features were a little wrinkled, but he had a smile on his crinkly face.
"Hello, how may I help you?" Hades di Angelo asked.
"Hello, sir, sorry to bother you," the man started. "But I'm from Vault-Tec. I'm sure you're well aware of the war going on, and we are looking for volunteers to go into a safe vault, in case if a bomb falls on the area."
"Vault-Tec?"
"Yes, we're offering a safe fallout shelter underground, trying to improve our future," the man grinned, as if he wasn't discussing a grim topic. "Atom bombs are inevitable, unfortunately, but major deaths aren't going to be! So, what do you say? Should we sign you up?"
"Why not?" Hades asked rhetorically, shrugging his tired shoulders. "Is there enough room for my family, as well?"
"Who is your family?" the man inquired, looking down at his clipboard.
"My wife, my son, and my daughter," Hades told him.
"Yes, there is enough room," the man stated. "Should I write you down?"
"Yes, please," Hades said.
"What are your names?"
"I'm Hades di Angelo, spelled H-A-D-E-S, di Angelo spelled D-I-space-A-N-G-E-L-O, my wife is Maria di Angelo, my son is Nico di Angelo, and my daughter is Bianca di Angelo, spelled as they usually are."
He wrote down the information on his clipboard quickly, then asking other details, like endurance. Hades di Angelo responded to the questions accordingly, despite how strange the questions seemed.
"Perfect," the man grinned. "I'm going to run this up to the vault. I hope we don't see you there!"
Hades nodded impatiently and closed the door. Nico looked up, a look of shock at his face, for he was listening to every word.
"Inevitable? We're going to be bombed?!" Nico shouted.
"I hope not, but war is unpredictable," Hades shrugged. He sat down and frowned once he saw the game had ended. "Bombs might be part of it. You know war. War never changes."
A shiver went down Nico's spine at the thought of it.
- - - - -
Nico was finally able to indulge in his book in peace. He was lounging on the couch like a cat, lazy and not planning on getting up anytime soon. However, the peace had to end eventually. Nico started to hear planes outside, the loud engines roaring in the sky. Enemy planes. Codsworth turned the tv channel to a panicked news broadcast, calling the rest of the family over to look at it.
"...Followed by... yes, followed by flashes..." said a shocked news reporter on the tv, reporting the terrible news with his stressed tone of voice. "Blinding flashes, sounds of explosions... We're...we're trying to get confirmation...we've seemed to have lost contact with affiliate stations. We do have...coming in...confirmed reports. I repeat, confirmed reports of nuclear detonations in New York and Pennsylvania... My God..."
Nico looked at his family, who were circled around the television. They had expressions of shock on their faces, nearly identical to his own.
"We need to get to the vault," Hades said sternly. "Now."
The other di Angelos did not need to be told twice. They raced out of the door of their blue house and ran down the trail that led up the hill to the formerly barb-wired area. Nico could feel his heartbeat in his temples, and that was the only thing he could hear at the moment. All of the other sounds around him seemed to have been tuned out.
He and his family ran towards their safe shelter, his heart racing as he saw the crowd of people around the fence that guarded Vault 111, or so he heard the officers telling the people who were registered to go to. He was grateful that his father agreed.
The crowd of people were screaming, crying, begging to get into the vault. The officers calmed them down, well at least attempted to, and shoved them back. Hades di Angelo's hand grabbed Maria's, who gripped onto Bianca's, who was already holding onto Nico's, and led them to the man who was taking information.
"Let us in, we are on the list," Hades told him. "The di Angelo family."
"Yes, you are," the man confirmed. "Go in and stand on the platform."
They ran over to the platform, their breathing patterns heavy, their hands gripping each other, not wanting to let go. Hades looked over at Maria, a sad look in her deep, brown eyes.
"Someone didn't show up," one of the vault officials told another. "They're late! We need to give them more time!"
"There is no time!" the other shouted above the screaming and crying of the crowd. "Everyone on the platform! Send it down!"
Abruptly, a bomb fell out of the sky as the platform began to sink down beneath the Earth's surface, forming a large, blindingly bright mushroom cloud on the horizon. It swiftly spread out across the ground, destroying everything as quickly as it passed over it. All Nico could hear was the explosion of the detonated atom bomb, which was nearly as bright as the sun; the planes, which were soaring above them in the sky; and the people above the ground screaming and weeping, knowing immediately that they were going to die. That their lives had come to a painful, abrupt end.
Just as soon as the dust and radiation reached them, Nico and the other people on the platform had disappeared below the ground, seeing the dark, poisonous smoke just before the hatch closed. Then, all that they could see was darkness. Nico's heart beat in his ears, making him feel lightheaded as the platform slowly descended in the earth. He felt Bianca's hand gripping tighter on his own, feeling the sudden desire to wipe the sweat that formed between their hands on his pants, but the need of not letting go of his sister's hand was stronger than his instincts.
It landed on the floor of Vault 111 with a loud crash, but given the size and weight of the platform, the youngest di Angelo assumed that was normal. Nico could actually see where he was now, other than complete darkness, but he didn't want to see what he was seeing.
The officials were instructing the new inhabitants of the vault where to go and what to do. The instructions they had given were simple, but the officials acted like it was nothing that everyone above ground was dead now. Reyna, his best friend, who was almost like a sister to him. Will, who could've been his boyfriend if given more time. Hazel, the sweetest girl he had ever known. They were all gone. The thoughts brought tears to his eyes. Everything he knew was gone. This was his new home.
He felt his grip on Bianca's hand tighten, the older girl looking over at her younger brother with a reassuring smile, which calmed him down slightly, but not a whole lot.
They walked through the gates, giving their information to one of the staff members. Nico looked at his surroundings, which looked plain, but he didn't know if the rest of it looked that way. Over the intercom, a woman's voice said, "Welcome to your new home."
But to Nico, this place wasn't home. Home was above ground, all blown up and destroyed, inside a massive cloud of heavy radiation from the nuclear bomb that recently detonated, not this.
After the new inhabitants of the vault had given their information to the men and women in lab coats, they were being issued identical blue and yellow jumpsuits, all having the number 111 on the backs. Nico reluctantly accepted one. After receiving the jumpsuits, the doctor told them all to go through a certain door which led to a hallway, an instruction which everyone obeyed.
Nico, his family, and a few other people he had never seen before were led to the room at the end of the hall. The room was full of people in white lab coats standing next to large chambers that could fit humans inside of them. Maybe that was what the chambers were made for. Were those their beds?
"Change into your clothing, then step into the pods for decontamination," a woman's voice ordered the di Angelos and the other people in there with them over the intercom.
They did as they were told, changing into the blue and yellow jumpsuits and then climbing into the chambers. Nico was questioning why they were being put in chambers, despite they already explained: decontamination. Why did they need to be decontaminated to live in an underground fallout shelter?
"Decontamination process has begun," the female voice over the intercom announced.
Once the doors had closed, all Nico could hear was his own shallow breathing. His anxiety rose, and the sixteen-year-old began to panic. Unexpectedly, he heard a hissing noise, which was louder than his escalated breathing and the pounding of his heart in his chest. Everything began to feel cold. Extremely cold. As cold as if someone started poking his skin with thousands of pointy, frozen needles. He felt his limbs stiffen, the glass of the pod door beginning to fog and freeze. He let out a startled cry before his vision turned completely white.