Dweller

Ashe Kepley || 33 || Seattle

[ashe-kepley]

"That's a badass name. Asher," he said, taking the offered hand and shaking it firmly, "nice to meet ya, even if the circumstances are royally fucked."

Shouldering the heavy bag, he fiddled with the straps for a bit before hefting his weapon of choice over his shoulder.

"Alright. I say we keep scavenging for supplies as we go through the vault 'cause we're in for the hike of our lives. Weapons, food, and water. My sense of direction is not the best so if you're down with being the brains of this operation - which you clearly are - and navigate us in the right direction, I'll be the pack mule." To prove his commitment, he grabbed another bag, an empty one, and threw it over his shoulder to join the one already there.

Then, he smiled.

"As long as there's no rabid, mutated anything, we have a good change at making it to Cali."

[ashe-kepley]

"No, but I think I saw the golden gate."

At that point, he was truly starting to lose all belief in coincidences. The odds of them seeing technically the same place and literally the same faces - because he had decided to simply assume they were the same, were simply too small, and yet...

It had to mean something, right?

Then, there was the pull, the almost violent need to go to the bridge. It was so strong and persistent that he knew ignoring it for too long would be next to impossible soon enough.

He sighed and cursed under his breath; San Francisco was not exactly around the corner, and god only knew what was waiting for them outside of the vault.

Jaw set with determination, he didn't even hesitate to break the glass of an emergency box and exchanged the pipe for the ax held inside. Better safe than sorry.

"Guess we're going for a hike."

[ashe-kepley]

Walking around the vault was eerie, to say the least. The silence was almost suffocating on itself, and it made their footsteps sound like gunshots in the dead of night.

Picking up some sort of military-esque looking backpack, he took it upon himself to start packing whatever he thought they might need. Tucked away in a cabinet, he found some food without expiration dates, it was fishy, but it didn't look moldy and they had very little options if they wanted to survive. He was more than okay with eating stale cookies if it saved their lives. As many water bottles as he could find ended up in the bag too, along with a small first aid kit.

Ever the gentleman, he turned around to grant her as much privacy as possible while they changed. There wasn't a whole lot of variety in clothing, so he settled for keeping the jumpsuit on and tucking away a set of clean clothes in the bag, just in case.

The question was not something he had been expecting, the shock so acute that he whipped his head around to stare at her, modesty be damned.

"You saw them too."

[ashe-kepley]

"Well... Maybe we just happened to be lucky. I ain't gonna to start complaining about being the glitch in the matrix." But as much as he tried to sound confident in his words, the shift back and forth of his eyes told a different story.

He wanted to believe there was an error that allowed them to live; he had to believe, lest he started losing his mind.

Then, he groaned at the woman's words. He knew she was right, they should at least take a peek outside and gauge the situation above ground, but it was still a scary prospect. He had watched the Chernobyl documentary once upon a time, and it didn't paint a pretty picture.

"I dunno, you look pretty in blue, but I guess we should find like, supplies and stuff. I'm just realizing I'm very, very thirsty."

Looking around, he spotted a metal pipe near one of the pods and picked it up. It was not baseball bat, but it would do in case they found anything unsavory.

"Alright, I'll bring the rear and keep an eye for anything trying to jump us."

[ashe-kepley]

While the only other living being in the immediate area went to a computer and started typing away, Ash carefully got to his feet. Moved by a morbid sense of curiosity, he ignored the slight chill still refusing to leave his body, he approached one of the pods.

The man's skin was still covered by a slight frost, the unsettling stillness of the body made his insides churn, but not with disgust. Whatever the feeling was, he didn't have much time to identify it before his companion's voice filtered through his brain.

"What?" Making his way over, he read the systems report over her shoulder. He wasn't a computer wizard, but no special skills were needed to understand the plain as day statements.

All two hundred and twenty five occupants of the pods scattered around the vault were marked as deceased.

"Well, that's clearly bullshit, since I'm pretty sure we're not dead. Here," he offered his arm still covered by the royal blue uniform provided upon arriving to the vault, "hit me; hard."

[ashe-kepley]

It started with a faint light shining in the distance, then, came the distorted faces.

There was movement, far too fast for him to follow, dashes of color appeared and objects he couldn't quite make out. There was gray and so, so much blue, and in between them both stood a shining beacon of burnt orange calling out to him. It flickered back and forth between the ghost of a memory and the haunting reality he had not yet seen.

The light suddenly died out and he awoke with a start, gasping for air as his hands reached out in panic. He clawed, punched and kicked with all the strength left in a body weakened by disuse, until something gave out with a loud hiss of air and he crumbled to the floor in an ungraceful heap.

He coughed and wheezed as his body fought to get some much needed air in his lungs. His entire body ached and he was cold, far too cold as he curled up on himself to try and guard the chill off.

Why was he so cold?

Another loud hiss made him startle where he laid, and with no little effort he lifted his head and looked around.

There, only a few feet behind, another body hit the floor. It was enough of a shock to his still disoriented mind that all he could do was crawl closer, reaching out with shaky hands to make sure he wasn't stuck in some kind of nightmare. He only noticed the coughing after checking for a pulse, but once he did his head hit the ground once more.

What the fuck happened?

[ashe-kepley]

"Yeah... Come here often?" Even in the midst of a rather dire situation, Ash couldn't help himself, and the ridiculousness of it all made him chuckle. Which, of course, sent him into another violent coughing bout.

As he looked around to try and process the situation, his memory started coming back to him piece by piece, and all the humor died out.

War, sirens all around, screaming mobs as their end was plainly announced. He ran just like the others, thanking whatever deity up there that he had signed his name on the dotted line when the salesman came knocking on his door. At the time, he had thought it to be a scam, a waste of his hard earned money, but not long after he had been proven wrong.

He had a spot reserved among the few that would survive what would take the lives of millions all over the world.

His train of thought was abruptly interrupted by loud hissing and his head whipped back and forth in fright. The pods opened, but nobody came out.

Wide eyes stared at the one before him, where a still frozen body remained unmoving.

"Uh... I have a feeling that's not a good thing."

[ashe-kepley]

It started with a faint light shining in the distance, then, came the distorted faces.

There was movement, far too fast for him to follow, dashes of color appeared and objects he couldn't quite make out. There was gray and so, so much blue, and in between them both stood a shining beacon of burnt orange calling out to him. It flickered back and forth between the ghost of a memory and the haunting reality he had not yet seen.

The light suddenly died out and he awoke with a start, gasping for air as his hands reached out in panic. He clawed, punched and kicked with all the strength left in a body weakened by disuse, until something gave out with a loud hiss of air and he crumbled to the floor in an ungraceful heap.

He coughed and wheezed as his body fought to get some much needed air in his lungs. His entire body ached and he was cold, far too cold as he curled up on himself to try and guard the chill off.

Why was he so cold?

Another loud hiss made him startle where he laid, and with no little effort he lifted his head and looked around.

There, only a few feet behind, another body hit the floor. It was enough of a shock to his still disoriented mind that all he could do was crawl closer, reaching out with shaky hands to make sure he wasn't stuck in some kind of nightmare. He only noticed the coughing after checking for a pulse, but once he did his head hit the ground once more.

What the fuck happened?

[ashe-kepley]

Name: Asher Kepley

Age: 33

Birthplace: Seattle, Washington

From a young age, Ashe was always inclined towards sports, showing particular promise for a future career playing professional baseball, but a torn shoulder ligament destroyed his dreams of ever making the big leagues.

Disheartened but not hopeless, he fell back into his hobby; playing the guitar, and made it his saving grace. While never reaching stardom, he was well known all throughout Washington and its neighboring states. Between that and taking up the odd, manual labor jobs that came his way, it allowed him to afford a comfortable life.

Sole son of a middle-class, single father who was more of a stranger than a dad to him, he had very little familial attachments when the nuclear war broke out.