A 6000 word story commission for WanderingWastelander.

Cabazon is a simple dragon with skills as a merchant of scrap metal and parts in the barren fallout wastelands of the United States. However, after an unfortunate event that made him run for his life out of his old place of residence, he now is roaming the lands in search of a new home. Everything seemed to be going downhill until, one day, he came across a the remains of an odd location, forgotten to time.

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Vault 27 (Part 1); for WanderingWastelander

Log Date: May 4th, 2135

I’ve been wandering the outskirts of this city for relatively two weeks now. Foraging for scrap parts is surprisingly a more difficult job that one would make it out to be in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. The further in you go towards the center of any city the bigger chance you’ll find yourself in danger either by mutated creatures or crazy people who have lost all sense of conscious thought. I’ve found that the safest, and most reliable. location if someone were to find themselves in a city would be to stay on the outskirts. After all, you have the most room to escape, you have a good view of your surroundings, and you can keep on your job without anyone bothering you. One thing that separates me from other adventurers is that I keep to myself. I don’t know who to trust, and after surviving this long on my own I think I can keep going. We’ll just have to see what lies ahead.

- Cabazon

The dragon finished typing away on his device and gave the text displayed one final look over before turning the device off. The figure in question was a tall and pudgy dragon, thick black scales with an orange underbelly splitting his front and back sides in two. He was clothed in a belted trench coat and black pants, with an assortment of pockets and pouches filled to the brim with tools or scrap metal all around his coat. Aside from the glasses resting softly on his horned snout, he also had a pair of yellow goggles around his neck and a winter hat set snug between his horns. An added little oddity about the scalper dragon was an industrial flashlight duct-taped to the tip of his seemingly prehensile tail.

Currently, Cabazon rested in a small camp just outside the crumbling city of a name long forgotten. As he had written, he had been foraging these parts for a good two weeks at this point, which allowed him to be relatively familiar with his own territory. The dragon had been perched on a tree stump while writing his log note, sitting comfortably before a small fire next to his tent. It was a basic local, but the perfect slice of heaven for the scavenger.

He placed the device into a pocket at his side before turning his attention to the sky, looking across the overcast with a blank expression. A few seconds of silence passed before the dragon sighed, his head falling back down to the ground where his campsite sat. “Damn,” he complained, propping his head up with his arm on his leg, “what am I supposed to do now?”

Cabazon, or as he was often referred to as Cabby, was not exactly the best at doing solo jobs, regardless of him preferring to be alone. In the simplest terms, while he was a great explorer, he had a terrible resistance in fighting off homesickness. He remembered fondly, in that moment, just two weeks ago when his shop back in Downport was still active. While his wares were relatively simplistic, and arguably worthless, he had quite the knack for playing it up like they were exclusive finds only the best of explorers could locate. But after Downport was overrun by that undead-mutation plague he had no choice but to literally abandon shop and run with the few things he could carry on his back. Luckily, his pockets helped lessen the load a decent amount for the most part.

“Well, no use sulking over lost parts.” Cabby told himself as he rose to his feet. “Might as well make the best of my situation.”

The dragon ambled his way over to the firepit where a tripod stood over the flame, a covered pot hanging from said tripod. Cabby reached in and lifted off the top, not having to worry about the heat due to his resistant hide, and peered inside to see the progress. Inside the pot was a stewed mix of what could only be described as “unconventional food”. Mystery meat and veggies bathed in a light-brown cream; some of the veggies were recognizable as squash and zucchini, and the meat had a texture similar to venison but with a dark orange shade.

Cabby took in a deep inhale of the stew, letting out another, more satisfied sigh as the flavors stirred in his nose. “Smells about ready!” He said aloud with glee, reaching to the side of the tripod and picking up a soup ladle. Carefully, he plunged the ladle into the pot head and began to stir up the insides. As he watched the concoction mix together, Cabby couldn’t help but begin to salivate. The flavors enticed him, pushing him to consume the stew already; his mouth watered, causing his draconic tongue to slide across his lips subconsciously, while his covered midsection let out a low rumble of hunger.

Once he was for sure satisfied with the results, Cabby stepped back with a confident smile. “Almost ready.” The dragon turned on his heels and began to walk back to his bag next to the stump. “I just need to get my special flavor spice and we’ll be good to g-”

Just as he was walking back, his eyes fell upon a giant rodent; green fur matted and covered in insects, and it was digging through his bag. “What th- HEY! Get out of there!” His shouts surprised the creature, looking up to the dragon with glazed red eyes. As the rodent realized what the sound came from, it jumped back onto its hindlegs and hissed at Cabby. However, it put up no fight as Cabby came storming towards it, skittishly jumping away from the dragon as he neared.

Cabby let out a groan as he looked down at his belongings, reaching down to put stuff back together. “I swear, even the animals are beginning to make life on my own dif-.... what?” The dragon picked up the bag in confusion. “It should be right here, I know I put it here.” Cabby frantically dug through the bag in bewilderment. “Where the hell did I put that spi-...” Cabby looked up with a shocked expression, realizing what had happened. Not that far away from him, he could see the rodent laying on the ground, chewing away at the outside of a plastic bag.

“Oh HELL no!” Cabby jumped to his feet, reaching into his side pocket and retrieving a handgun. “That spice cost me two months of work, I am NOT letting you take it away like that!”

The rodent raised its head in further confusion at the yelling, before jumping to its feet and just barely missing a bullet that struck itself into the ground. With a fearful hiss, it scampered away with the bag in its mouth, Cabby following close behind. The dragon was a little less able than he should have been due to the filled trench coat holding him down, making his chase against the rodent a battle of equal strength. The mutated creature led Cabby down a path of countless twists and turns that almost tripped him up with some of the tight corners. Nevertheless, regardless of the trips and falls and spills he made, he kept up a decent pace in his pursuit, shooting a few bullets at the rodent that subsequently missed their mark.

Cabby got the upper-hand at one of the later turns when he managed to send a bullet into the ankle of the rodent’s hindleg. The impact sent the creature flying forward and tumbling over itself before crashing onto a turnwheel. Cabby rushed still to the rodent, locking it off in a closed alleyway. As the rodent stood upright once more, shaking its head in a daze, Cabby carefully stepped forward with his gun pointed downwards. “Alright you, hand over the spice or else!”

The rodent, obviously unintelligent, screeched at Cabby before lunging at him. Cabby quickly took action and managed to raise his gun and pull the trigger just in time, blowing the creature’s head clean off as its two halves went flying behind him. Subsequently among a small splatter of green blood the bag of spice also went flying, slapping Cabby directly in the face. He staggered back for a second before shaking his head, some of the green goop flying off him in the process.

Cabby peeled off the bag from his face, giving a disgusted expression as he did. “Eyuck, good thing this stuff is sealed. Wonder if this stuff is gon-”

RRRRUUUUAAAAA!!!

A hellish cry of a beast rang out into the area, alerting the attention of the dragon. He knew that sound all too well, his eyes going wide with shock. It then occurred to him just where he had run off to when chasing that rodent, finding himself in an alleyway of the inner city. “Damnit!” He cursed to himself. “Why did I follow that stupid rat into the city?! Wait, maybe it’s not close by. I can probably just run out, right?”

Cabby leaned out from the alley, looking over to where the noise had emanated. To his shock and disappointment, there in the distance stood the enormous and terrifying sight of a fully-matured Deathclaw. Cabby pulled himself back out of view, panicking to himself. “Deathclaws, why is it always Deathclaws?! Come on Cabby, think here. What can you do in this situation?.... I don’t have enough bullets to fire at it, and if I tried to run I don’t know if I’d be able to escape it. Maybe I could distract it?” As he was thinking over his possible situations of escape, he was further startled by a crashing noise. The Deathclaw was getting closer, tearing through things around it as it tried to find the source of the noise from earlier.

Just then, Cabby was hit by an idea. “Hang on a minute… I think I have an idea!” Cabby widened his stance before opening up his trenchcoat. Inside was an assortment of tools and gadgets all hanging around his coat and off his own body; guns, bombs, blades, and tons more things. One thing took his attention, however, and he picked up said item. It appeared to be a cartoonishly large double-sided hammer with a retractable hilt.

“This should do perfectly.” He pulled it out and opened up the hilt, and as he did the side of it lit up with a faceplate display. A simple logo of “(OWO)” was shown on the side, only it soon turned out that this was no mere logo.

“Hewwo mastew (^W^),” the hammer spoke, “awe you in nyeed of my sewvices today?” Cabby gave a look of anticlimax as realization of the item’s nature outside of use came back to him. The face was a little concerned as it continued to speak. “Oh, I apowogize (´･ω･`) Am I bothewing y-”

“Shut the fuck up.” Cabby told the hammer directly.

“Oh (>n<),” the face turned sad, “I’m sowwy.”

Cabby then turned back to face the Deathclaw, who was a good distance away at this point, perfect for Cabby’s use of this special weapon. He jumped out into view, dragging the attention of the Deathclaw. “Hey ugly, eat this!” He stepped back and swung the hammer around him several times before letting it go, causing it to go flying at the Deathclaw. It was a perfect shot, aimed right for its head.

However, the impact was surprisingly so ineffective that it could have just as well have been a squeaky hammer. The Deathclaw’s eyes closed for a second as the hammer hit and bounced off its face, looking down at the ground with an annoyed expression to figure out what had hit it.

“Hewwo thewe (>W<) wouwd you wike to be my fwie-” The hammer was instantaniously crushed by the force of the Deathclaw’s forearm.

The Deathclaw then looked up to the scared Cabby with an angry expression before roaring once more. Cabby quickly ran back into the alley, only for the Deathclaw to take chase. Realizing his mistake a bit too late, Cabby quickly looked around for an option of escape, but there was nothing. All he could see was chipped walls, rotting crates, dead plants, a closed porthole door, broke-

“Wait, a door!” Cabby ran for the door, having to lean down due to its basement-entrance structure. As he looked around it, he saw that the only option of opening the large door was the turnwheel at the center. Wasting no time, he quickly pulled at the tight lock and managed to twist it open after a few seconds of straining.

The Deathclaw then finally made its way into the alley, noticing how Cabby was not immediately in sight. It looked to the far back and saw that the dragon was using a porthole as a method of escape. It angrily charged for Cabby, jumping up to strike him down. It nearly got him too, missing by just as millisecond as the door closed in record time. Cabby quickly sealed off the door from the inside, almost jumping back as he heard pounding from the outside. The Deathclaw tried furiously to break inside, banging and scratching as hard as it could but to no avail. As a minute of attempting to break in came and went, the Deathclaw let out a final cry of anger. And as the heavy footsteps of the beast stomped away, soon, everything went still.

The room around Cabby was dark, completely devoid of any possible light. His hands and feet found footing on ladder railings that seemed to be just the right size. He flicked his tail in a natural motion and, suddenly, the flashlight on his tail lit up, illuminating the room. He was in a small tunnel, and as he peered downwards he couldn’t make out bottom with the light of his flashlight. He contemplated just how far down he’d be willing to go through this hole, deciding he had no option other than to go downwards as he knew he wouldn’t dare go back outside yet.

In his descent towards the bottom of this dark abyss, Cabby wondered to himself if it was truly worth the effort to do what he did in the first place. “All of this trouble for just some spices? Really Cabazon?” He argued in thought. “Well at least I’ll have hot food when I get back, that is if I can find my way out.” Only the sound of his boots against the metal railing was heard as he made his climb downwards. The eerie stillness of everything seemingly unnerved him, used to even the barren wastelands outside giving some kind of indication of noise or motion. Here, however, he seemed completely alone.

When his feet finally touched solid ground, Cabby carefully hopped off the ladder and found new footing on metal grating. It was still dark down here, so he had to use his tail-light again to check out the new surrounding. He appeared to be in a tunnel, pipes and support beams lining the curved roof from floor to ceiling all the way down. Giving a quick glance back up to where he came from, Cabby simply shrugged his shoulders before ambling forwards once again.

The air down here felt stuffy, dusty, and overall old, as if this place had been abandoned long ago. Funny thing was, as his tail swung from side to side, that he didn’t see any signs of aging; no rusted pipes, no worn pathways, no chipped paint. It felt, to Cabby, as if the place was entirely brand new. “This place… could it be…”

As he was forming the thought in his head, he came up to another sealed door. This time, the door simply had a slit down the middle, signifying it was automatic. On the door, in bold yellow text, was the number “27”. Cabby was taken aback by his discovery, going wide-eyed with awe. He looked up above the door and saw a message of a similar text, although covered in a layer of dust. Reaching up and wiping it away, the message read, “Safety, Survivability, Sanitation”; directly below that was the all-familiar Vault-Tec logo.

“No way… a fallout shelter.” Cabby spoke aloud, though to himself. “This is Vault 27, huh?... Why is it sealed? Didn’t they open back up?” He leaned his head in, trying to listen to the other side. Much to his disappointment, there was no sound he could hear on the other side; it was seemingly dead silent. He pulled his head off of direct contact with the vault door before quickly pounding his fist several times into it. “Hey! Anyone in there?!” He yelled, hoping to gain attention from someone inside. “Hello?!...”

Dead silence.

He stood back in confusion, looking the door up and down as his brain tried to process the information before him. This made no sense whatsoever to him. Was this vault dead? Were its inhabitants still inside yet unaware that the outside world was living again? His tail flashlight moved around again, light catching on the slit in the middle of the door. Cabby realized the door wasn’t perfectly sealed in place, but rather that it was slightly ajar. Curious, the dragon leaned in and, with precise claws, dug between the crack and attempted to pry the door open. It surprised Cabby how easily the door opened, as with a POP the door slowly slid to the side. Cabby looked around carefully before stepping in, and what he saw surprised him.

The entire vault was empty.