Fallout Shelter Fourteen

Fallout Shelter Fourteen
Chapter 7 - Reality Falls

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I woke up, it was dark. Very dark. I couldn’t hear the hum of the reactor in the background, the sounds of the lights in the hallway, or any of the other ambient noise that accompanied the Stable. It was deafening to listen to, the silence. I needed noise, something it’s too quiet! I thought maybe I hadn’t opened my eyes, or that I couldn’t move. Sleep paralysis was one of the many things to torment me.

I could have sworn I had my eyes open. It was... like there was just an absence of stuff to see. I turned around, yes, okay, I was definitely up. But then I realized I wasn’t walking, but I was. Walking towards shapes that I could just barely make out across the blackness. Just at the edge of sight.

I saw 10 doors, each of them shut. They looked all alike. I went to open the first door. It was locked. After trying several other doors, I found they were all locked. I waited for sometime, in my head I was aware I was dreaming, but I wasn’t able to control my actions. The empty black space around me wasn’t helping my nerves, I couldn’t just run off into the darkness.

What to do?

Knock

Knock...? Knock! Knock on which door though.

I knocked on the first door. After it opened, I found a postcard on the ‘floor’. I looked around, more black, I trotted back out the door and looked around the doorframe, more black endlessly. I finally had control of what I was doing, looking at the postcard, it was a beautiful sight, from where ever it was. Mountain peaks and glaciers. On the back was a number in red Ink.

6

Door six? I picked up the postcard in my mouth and trotted down to door six. I knocked on the door, it had worked once right?

Nothing. I looked around the door for a mail slot. Not even that. After sitting for awhile, I shoved the postcard under the door. A moment later it was shoved back out, it had been changed, there was a red line on top of the 6. I knew what that meant though.

9

Nine, not six. I flipped the card around, the image had been corrected, rotated 180 degrees. Trotting down to the ninth door, there was a mailslot, I opened it and put the postcard through it. The door opened. A coffee table a few feet in front of me. On it was a note.

3 @ 2:00

Door 3 at 2 am? I looked at my PipBuck, it was 1:50. I guess I had to wait.

After ten minutes, I approached the third door.

I knocked on door 3, it was exactly 2:00 when I did. The door opened. I heard a noise, something scraping across the floor. I only saw it for a second, but something (a leg?) decloaked from the blackness and kicked something across the floor over to the door. I picked it up.

A key, a brass key. I wasn’t sure which lock it was for. I said thanks, (I think) and shut the door. I was tempted to go to every door I hadn’t gone to yet and try the key. But I found the only door of the ten that had a brass lock. Door 7. I slotted the key into the lock and turned it with my mouth. The lock clicked.

I found a picture frame, there were three doors. Seven was the middle one. It had a brass lock. I thought about it.

Alright, if that’s 7, and these are in the right order. That means the one on the left is six, and I’ve already been there. So 8! Eight is next.

I closed the door to number 7, and went to 8. I knocked on it with a hoof. I got nothing. I looked at the door. There was a knocker about two thirds the way up. I planted my hooves on the door. Whoever made these doors wasn’t thinking about me. I managed to get the knocker slightly, I couldn’t grab it, but I could flick it back and then it would hit the door. I flicked it. It hit the door and made the quietest of sounds when it hit the door.

The door opened abruptly, I fell in. I shook my head and got back up. I found two sheets of paper. A full sheet of letter paper, and a half sheet of letter paper. Okay, unlike the other doors, this wasn’t obvious. I flipped the full sheet over. On the back in blue ink, there was a number.

8

That wasn’t very helpful. All the others told me where to go. I flipped over the other sheet, it was blank. This made no sense. I just sat there looking at the half sheet. I picked up the half sheet and put it over the full sheet, grabbed both in my mouth, walked out and closed the door. I wasn’t sure how long I sat looking at both sheets.

Think, think, think think. THINK dammit.

I took a deep breath.

So this isn’t as obvious. 7 wasn’t as obvious either. 8 is on the full sheet of paper, what is on the half sheet of paper? Half sheet.

I placed a hoof to my chin.

The second sheet is a half of the first. Then the second number is HALF of the first.

4!!

I galloped down to number 4. I knocked, no answer. I looked around at the door. There was a doorbell button. I pressed it. This door opened outwards and pushed me aside before closing almost immediately as it opened.

Oh, so you’re gonna play that way huh?

I stepped off to the right side of the door, and pressed the doorbell again. The door opened and I zipped inside, it shut behind me. I turned around looking at it. I was surprised when I was greeted with 9 other doors, not including number 4. They had been reversed, as there 3 other doors to the right of 4, instead of to the left like they should have been.

Suddenly, they started shifting around, changing positions with each other. It turned into a blur. When it finally stopped, all the doors were out of order. But this time, each had a number on the front about half way up. The numbers were all out of order. Okay, simple. Fix the numbers.

I didn’t have much to go on, but I did know: 7 had a brass lock, 4 had a doorbell, 9 had a mailslot. Those were all easy enough to identify.

I swapped the numbers accordingly. When I tried to pull the number back off 7, it wouldn’t budge.

Alright what else did I know. Hmmm, the photo. 6 was to the left of 7 and eight was to the right. I placed 6 to the left and 8 to the right of 7. Both 6 and 8 fell off.

What the hell.

That wasn’t supposed to happen. Oh wait, everything was backwards. I placed 6 to the right and 8 to the left, they both stuck. That only left 1, 2, 3, 5, and 10. I had visited 1 and 3, but they didn’t look any different. That left 2, 5, and 10, and I hadn’t taken a close look at any of them.

Trial and error it was. I pulled all the remaining numbers off their respective doors. If they could be removed, then it wasn’t their proper door. The one I had started with had the number 1 on it before I had taken it off.

I tried 2. Didn’t work.

Then 3, that didn’t work either.

5 or 10, 5 or 10. Maybe I’d get lucky?

I put 5 up....

It fell off.

No of course not. Never get lucky.

I put 10 up, and it fell off.

Are you kidding me?

I put 1 back on. It stuck.

Oh, screw you.

Next door. I repeated the process, 2 was removed from the bag. The door following that took 10 away from me, then 3, and finally 5. The moment I placed 5 back onto it’s proper door, the doors started changing again. They were in their reverse order proper this time. 10 on the left, 1 on the right. I made the choice of leaving the same way I got in. Through number 4.

When I exited, I tripped on a doormat that was placed on the otherside. I got up.

Well, that wasn’t there before.

I looked at the mat, it was just a run of the mill, rubber doormat. I kicked it aside, I found a key under it. This one was aluminum. The number 2 lock was a dull grey, so I assumed it was for that.

The key didn’t fit the lock, figures.

I moved down to number 5, the key fit into the lock. When I turned it, the key snapped. I facehoofed, before letting out a gahhhh. I knocked at the door, nothing. Now what?

I heard a creaking sound, number 2 had opened. What choice did I have?

I scampered down to number 2, I saw a small light in the distance. When I entered the door, it slammed shut.

Not again!

Trying to open the door rewarded me with nothing, it wasn’t going to open. I cantered over to the light in the distance. I picked up the pace, but it didn’t seem to come any closer. I broke into a gallop pushing my self as far as I could. Despite this being lucid, I was apparently still governed by the real life circumstances that I had been ‘lucky’ enough to had been given. I couldn’t fly, or break into superspeed. Come to think of it, this was the first time I had ever lucid dreamt. All I had was my horn.

Okay, there is no way this dream was that accurate.

I concentrated, suddenly I sparked a light at the end of my horn.

Okay, that was a start.

I willed myself to be closer to the light, or for the light to come to me. Teleporting? Was it even possible? I was about to find out.

I pictured myself right next to the light.

Come on!

I blinked, suddenly everything flashed I was right beside the light. I looked around, it was another door. Didn’t see that one coming. I twisted the knob, it opened surprisingly. I walked out. The door slammed shut behind me. That was getting kind of old.

When I turned around to look at the door again, I found there was a bit of a key on the ground in front of it. Examining the lock, I found there was a broken key in it. This was door 5. That left door 10.

I trotted down to door 10. There was a key pad on it. I wanted to see how many numbers were in the code. I punched 1 in 10 times, it stopped at 10. Before resetting. I didn’t know the code, but the number pad was from 1 - 9. 10 spaces, 9 numbers, repeats could work... that means.... 9 times itself 10 times, 9^10... uhhhh a really freakin’ huge number? Well over a Billion.

Of course my brain made me see the worst way of looking at this situation. I was tempted to say screw it and try and wake up. But I liked a challenge. I tried to clear my head, get a fresh look at the problem, I took a step back from door 10.

The answer is right in front of you.

Okay, that wasn’t me. If that was the case, why wasn’t there a note on the door saying the password? The only thing in front of me was 10 damn doors. I blinked, their respective numbers appeared where I had put them, in the right order, from left to right.

I entered the combination: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9... wait what? It was a 10 combination password, I hit 1 again. Doing that didn’t work, unsurprisingly.

After taking another step back from door 10, I looked at all the doors. I thought what I had been told, or whatever that was.

The answer is right in front of you.

The combination had something to do with door numbers. While thinking about it, 1 reopened. I trotted over to it, surely enough there was the postcard, with the big red 6 on the back of it. I went to go through the door, and it slammed shut on me. I huffed a bit. I heard a wavy sound, I looked to my right, 6 had spat the postcard out. I picked it up, there was the corrected postcard, with the red 9 on the back. 9 opened, with the note on the coffee table that said 3 @ 2:00. The door slammed shut, 3 opened, there was the brass key, 3 slammed shut. 7 opened, the photo was there, 7 slammed shut. 8 opened, the two pieces of paper were there then slammed shut. 4 opened inwards, before it came back and opened outwards, then slammed shut, 2 opened and then closed, then 5 opened outwards and closed.

Something in my head clicked, I galloped down to door 10, looking at the keypad, I entered the code: 1, 6, 9, 3, 7, 8, 4, 4, 2, 5

The order I had used the doors in. I had used 4 twice. I waited a moment, then I heard the door click!

...

I opened the tenth door, I trotted in, I was cautious, the door slammed shut. I turned my head and shook it a few times. I was expecting that. But I was not expecting this!

When I looked back in front of me, I found three... me’s?!!

“ARRHHH!” I screamed.

“You’re to be commended for making it this far.” The Middle Dakota said, she looked just like me. She was wearing a set of metal plated armour, it was grey.

“Indeed, a clear test of resolve and determination.” The Dakota on the left said, she was wearing some sort of rag-tag armour, thrown together. Was that blood on it? She also had a scar across her right eye. She looked like she had gone to Tartarus and back, twice!

A test? That is what this was? Their... my... their idea of a test. Was dragging me here, wherever here was?

The Dakota on the right, she was wearing a light white metal armour. I turned to her... me, I mean her!

She said to me, “The right pony in the WRONG place can make all the difference in the world.”

The Dakota on the right continued, “Whether the difference is for better...”

“Or for worse...” The Dakota on the right said.

“Or somewhere in between.” The Dakota in the middle said.

“Unfortunately,” The middle Dakota said, “Not a lot of ponies are capable of making any of those choices. Dealt an unfortunate play of cards.” A quick flash, showed me an image of myself.

The Dakota on the left continued, “And then there’s some that enjoy watching others get a bad set of cards.” She smiled, it scared me a bit. I got another quick flash, I saw the Overseer.

“Finally, there are those that get a bit lucky. They get a nice set of cards. Four aces, a bullseye, hole in one, a strike, if you will. And they spread it around.” The Dakota on the right explained. I didn’t know anypony that had gotten lucky in life.

The middle Dakota picked up where she left off, “That’s not the case though. There’s not a lot of contrast in the world anymore.”

Both the Left and Right Dakota’s spoke, “The world isn’t black and white.” They faded from existence.

“It’s mostly grey.” The remaining Dakota finished, “But that’s just an overall view. Average by mean, if it pleases you.”

The Left and Right Dakota’s reappeared.

The Right Dakota addressed the left Dakota, “You are a savage! Praying on the weak!”

The left Dakota retorted, “And you’re a goodie-four-horseshoes fighting an unwinnable battle. Get with the program, or get the FUCK out.”

The Right Dakota addressed the middle Dakota, “Surely you agree what she’s done is unforgivable!”

“How many have slavers have you killed to set a slave free? Comparing apples to apples, you’ve still killed.” The middle Dakota observed.

“And you haven’t?” The Right Dakota confronted.

“I don’t act like I’m a righteous, above the rest, self absorbed, disciple of whatever cause you’ve committed to.” The middle Dakota said calmly, she shook her head, “And she does have a point, you’re fighting a war you can’t win.”

“Aww, not so high on your pedestal now are we princess?” The left Dakota snapped at the Right Dakota.

“At least I can sleep at night.” The Right Dakota held her head high.

“I can sleep at night too! It’s on whatever’s in my wake that cushions me.” The left Dakota grinned madly.

“You know, I could sleep at night too if you hadn’t dragged me in here.” I expressed my mild frustrations.

“We haven’t dragged YOU anywhere.” The middle Dakota snapped, “You could have stopped using the doors at any time. But you didn’t.”

“So why am I here then?!” I snapped back, “Answer me!”

“Looks like you’ve made a new friend huh?” The left Dakota leered.

The middle Dakota gave the left Dakota a very good smack, the right Dakota laughed at her. Then the left Dakota made a lunge at the middle one, only to have her sidestep it and run into the right Dakota instead. A fight broke out, while the middle Dakota watched.

I stood there watching. The fight was getting pretty horrid. I didn’t think I was capable of this kind of violence. But apparently, whoever these ponies were, were capable of reigning hell.

“You stand in the way of rule and order!” The Right Dakota screamed!

“The only sensible way to live in this world is WITHOUT rules!!!” The left Dakota screamed back.

The middle Dakota simply watched while the left and right Dakota’s beat the living shit out of each other.

“Do something!” I shouted at her.

“I can’t.” She said, “This isn’t my fight. I cannot intervene without having to take a side”

“You don’t have to take a side! Just stop the fighting. Call a truce, cease fire, treaty, something!”

She looked at the fight, then to me and shook her head. “I can’t.”

I walked up to her, face to face, “And what are you gonna do when one of them wins huh? You’re gonna be next on the list. And you know something else, you caused this fight. You are responsible for the outcome. For better or for worse...”

“Or somewhere in between...” She said.

We both spoke at the same time, “We restrain them.”

“I’ll take right Dakota, she might be more willing to listen to reason.” I said, that was just a hunch, but I wasn’t in any mood for stepping in the way of the left Dakota. She looked meaner.

“I’ll take left me..., I mean you, I mean us, I mean Dakota! I doubt you’d be able to hold her back.” She nodded.

The right Dakota had left Dakota pinned, but that wasn’t stopping left Dakota from getting a few good hits on right Dakota’s face. Then right Dakota start throwing punches, and she didn’t stop or let up.

“On the count of 3.” I said, “One. Two. Three!”

We both dived in at the same time, I pulled right Dakota off of left Dakota. Middle Dakota dragged left Dakota away, and sat on her.

“Let me go!” Right Dakota yelled, “I’m not finished with her yet.”

As fierce as she was, she was also worn out. I was able to hold her back.

“Are you done?” I asked.

“Let go of me!” She yelled again.

“Are you done?” I asked again.

She relaxed a bit, “Fine...” I released her, and she stood next to me.

“I should refrain from such impulses, quite frankly, I thought they were beneath me... I guess not.” She fixed her mane.

“War brings out of the best and worst in us.” The middle Dakota declared. She was still sitting on left Dakota.

“Okay, now that everything’s calmed down... now what?” I asked.

“Well that depends...” Middle Dakota said, still sitting on left Dakota.

I was getting irritated, “Look, I am sick of these games. No more tests, no more trials, no more freakin’ observations. And what is with that impartial mediation Bee-Ess? How do you expect to get anything done without choosing a side. Why are you wearing armour if you don’t fight other ponies? At least the other two have explaination. You don’t.”

“There’s only one more test. And it’s a no-brainer. Trust me.” She encouraged, she also didn’t answer my question.

“Why should I trust you. I don’t know anything about you!” I was astonished she’d even ask that.

“Well, deny it as much as you want. Of the four of us here, we’re most alike.” She said that with the most expressionless face I could imagine,

“I didn’t stand around watching these two rip each other a new one. I actually did something.” I retorted.

“And so did I, or did you forget it took both of us to end the fight.” She was starting to act just a tad condescending.

“You... you... You! Didn’t join right away! We could have stopped it a lot sooner” I defended my words.

“You know there’s a saying. ‘Better late than never.’” She had her own defence

I facehoofed. She stopped sitting on left Dakota. She was still out like a light. I should have expected myself to be as smart as I was. Okay, that was just weird.

“Did you have to be so... rough on her?” I asked right Dakota.

“She showed me no restraints, why should I have given her that privilege?” She asked me.

“Aren’t you supposed to be the better pony?” I answered her question with a question.

The middle Dakota laughed, “Ha, better pony. You’re no better than she is!”

Right Dakota glared at middle Dakota, was she expecting her to recoil or something? Middle Dakota remained unphased.

Middle Dakota turned to me, “Your final task is to open this door.” She stomped a hoof, and a new door appeared.

“Seriously? When you said no-brainer, I didn’t believe you.” I flatlined.

“Well, you have a few options.” Middle Dakota said.

“Like what?” I asked.

“Smash it down!” Left Dakota was finally up and about.

“Why don’t you just knock?” Right Dakota recommended.

“Or, take this key.” Middle Dakota offered, “The answer is right in front of you, whaddya pick?”

I took a breath, “I’m not smashing it down.”

Left Dakota was disappointed.

“I can only choose one?” I asked.

“Yes.” Middle and Right Dakota said.

“I’m thinking the key.” I said aloud.

“You know, that’s not a sure fire thing. The key might not work.” Right Dakota said.

“And knocking might not either.” Middle Dakota shot back.

I thought about it for awhile. Then I got up and walked over to middle Dakota. I took the key from her, walked over to the door and pushed the key into the lock. I turned it, the lock clicked and opened. I pushed the door forward. There was nothing behind it.

“What was the point in that?” I shook my head, I was confused.

“Sometimes it’s not the destination that matters, just the journey to get there.” Middle Dakota smiled to me.

“The reality is that all options would have worked.” Right Dakota mused, “But you accomplished the task we gave you. The way you did it is what matters.”

Middle Dakota stepped forwards, “We each gave you an answer. You chose mine. The way I would have done it. Knocking was the nice thing to do wasn’t it? Smashing it down would have been rude. But a key? Well, who’s to say that whatever behind the door was yours to start with? Wouldn’t that have been theft?”

“But there was nothing behind the door.” I said, I was so confused.

“That doesn’t justify breaking and entering, even if it was through the front door.” She said, “I think we’re more alike than you want to admit.”

I didn’t argue, she was right.

“So what was the point of all this?” I asked.

“She doesn’t see it.” Right Dakota said.

Left Dakota laughed, “Are you blind kid?”

“The answer is right in front of you.” Middle Dakota said, specifically to me.

“Well, what’s in front of me?” I asked.

The Left and Right Dakota’s disappeared.

“Just me.” Middle Dakota said, “The answer is right in front of you.”

“What’s that supposed to mean? You’re in front of me. You’re not an answer, not the answer I’m looking for!”

She grabbed me and shook me hard, “Dakota, the ANSWER is right in FRONT of you.”

“I don’t understand! What’s that supposed to mean?!”

“You just can’t see it yet, the answer is right in front of you. The answer is right in front of you!!!” She screamed at me... I screamed at me.

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