Hello everyone!

I would just like to say that this story is in no way related to Aussie_made's fanfiction. I wrote this completely unaware that there was already a fan-fic here on the forums based in Australia in a fallout setting so sorry for any confusion! I'm hoping to post a new chapter every few days until I reach the point where I start writing again.

Story Information

Words: ~72,000

Chapters: 24

Status: Incomplete

Chapter 1. Vault A-79

"Where is little Array?" A young advlt male said loudly as a group of 5 young men and women around him sniggered as he knocked on a dormitory door.

"My name is Arry!" A young woman said bursting out through the door. "A-ree, it's not that hard to pronounce." She looked up at the male who just made a stupid face and sniggered.

"Let's go she's not very interesting today." The male said pretending to yawn.

"Yeah Max let's go find some of her younger siblings to pick on." One of his male friends said as the small group turned and walked away leaving Arry standing in the doorway alone.

Turning around Arry slammed the door shut and walked back into the room and sat down on the lounge chair that was there.

Arry was a resident in vault A-79 which was only one of over 150 that the Australian government had created over 120 years ago when the threat of nuclear war became apparent. One of Arry's ancestors had been lucky enough to be chosen to live in safety in one of the vaults and ever since generation after generation had been born and raised here. The entire underground bunker could house around 130 people at a single time and was completely underground with at least 10 different levels which separated the different dormitories, kitchen areas, recreation areas and eating areas.

The original residents of vault A-79 had been told to never leave until someone from the government came to tell them that everything outside was safe. They had now been waiting over 100 years and no contact from the outside world had ever been recorded. Luckily for the residents the facility had its own fresh water supply and its own small greenhouse where food was produced. The entire facility itself was powered by a small nuclear device that only the head family were ever allowed to see but which they often informed all residents that it had power for at least another 200 years.

Arry was one of six children from her family which compared to other families within the facility seemed quite small with Max Donald's family having seven children all of varying ages from 5-24. Arry was 23 years old and was the 3rd oldest of her siblings. She had two older brothers, Paul 24 and Miles 26 as well as 2 younger sisters Mavis 18 and Lily 16 and finally her youngest brother Andy 13.

Why were the families so large within the facility? Now the answer to that completely depended on who you asked but Arry was no fool and had long ago realized why. The simple answer Arry discovered was that after 100 year within the facility the gene pools of the families were starting to dwindle which meant that soon they would either have to leave the facility or result to in-breeding between families between first and second cousins. The head family, the Donald's, who feared leaving the vault a few generations previously decided to keep a very well organized family tree and that families were to have multiple kids instead of just a single child to help. Arry knew this was not going to be a permanent solution and that one day in the future the residents would have to leave and see what became of their once beautiful world and country.

So after the residents being stuck inside for so long what did they even know about the outside world? The truth was that no one really knew and that's exactly why they feared it.

"Were those Donald's teasing you again?" Arry's mother said walking inside the room with a small bag.

"It doesn't matter Mum." Arry said with a sigh.

"Of course it does sweetie, I may not be as outspoken as your father was but I can still have a talk to those Donald parents." She said sternly.

Arry's father had died only one year previous when a leak in the nuclear reactor powering the facility was detected. Someone had to fix it or else all residents would have to leave the facility or die of radiation poisoning. Arry's father bravely agreed to be the one to fix the leak and in doing so had received a huge dose of radiation and died a few days later having saved the facility and everyone inside.

"It doesn't matter." Arry said with a sigh when suddenly her pip-boy began to beep angrily. "Oh damn it I'm late to tending the greenhouse!" She said jumping up.

"I just came from there." Her mother said pulling out some fresh vegetables from the bag she was carrying. "You're doing an amazing job down there." She added with a smile.

Arry nodded before quickly running out of the families tiny living room and into the hallway where she nearly bumped straight into her older brother Miles.

"Wow hold your horses." He said looking down at Arry. As well as being the oldest sibling Miles was also the tallest. He was a tall 6'2 compared to Arry who was only a small 5'6, she took after her shorter mother whilst Miles took after her tall father.

"I'm sorry Miles I'm late and my supervisor the oldest Donald sibling will kill me!" She moaned. With the Donald's having such a large family each child within the family had of course received an easy supervisory role around the vault meaning that once again the Donald's outranked every other citizen.

Arry quickly stepped around her brother who shook his head as she made a mad dash down the hallway to the stairs.

When she finally reached the correct level she ran as fast as she could to the greenhouse door where she burst inside to see Dave Donald and her co-worker and friend Mary Rial waiting for her.

"I am so sorry I had to help my mother pack away her items!" Arry said quickly.

"Second time this week!" Dave shook his head. "You have been so slack ever since…look just get to work minding the vegetables and greens." He sighed before walking into a nearby office room.

With a frown of her face Arry walked over to her friend.

"They will kick you out of the vault if you keep being late!" Mary said sounding worried.

"I really don't care at the moment." Arry frowned.

"Don't talk like that!" Mary said grabbing her friends arm. "Please don't say things like that.' She looked a little frightened.

Arry knew that many of the residents including some of her siblings had a deep underlying fear of whatever lay beyond the vault door. For all she knew it could be a paradise outside and still some people inside the vault would fear it. It wasn't that she herself wasn't concerned of what lay beyond the safety of this underground prison it was just that ever since her father died she wondered whether or not being down here in this maze was much safer than the outside world? Arry was not a complete fool despite how she carried on around the Donald's because she knew that some people every now and then would go crazy inside the vault and rumour had it that over 50 years ago someone even tried to escape and one day just disappeared. That one incident was never allowed to be spoken about in public but it was a good scare story that most children heard growing up in the vault.

"Concentrate Arry!" Mary said as Arry snapped out of her thoughts and noticed that she had accidentally cut off a small branch off one of the small tomato plants in front of her.

"I just don't know what's wrong with me today." Arry said with a sigh. "Maybe I should just go home."

"You only just arrived Dave would never allow it!" Mary said in a whisper.

"I-I just need to go…."Arry said and walked out of the greenhouse room.

-----

Arry after walking around the vault aimlessly for awhile she eventually reached the cafeteria which was empty. Slowly she walked inside and sat down at one of the tables and sighed.

"I knew I would find you here." Arry looked up to see her brother Paul standing at the door.

"How did you know I was here?" She asked.

"It's the tracker I put into all the pip-boys like yours when I make them." He grinned and sat down beside her. "Hmm not buying that one eh?" He said as Arry gave a small smile.

"I'm not ten anymore." She said shaking her head.

"Yeah you've caught onto me and all my tricks but that's not why I've come down here…I heard that you left work early this morning and Mum told me that Max has been annoying you again."

"Oh don't worry about that idiot I can handle him." Arry said angrily.

"Sure? Because you know I am bigger and stronger than him I could hit him pretty hard." He said with a sly smile.

"If you did that you'd get kicked out of here so quickly!" She laughed looking back at Paul who seemed to have turned quite serious.

"Would that really be such a bad thing Arry?" He paused and looked around for a moment. "Have you ever noticed how different some kids are to their parents around here?"

"Are…you are you're being serious." Arry said quickly.

"Come on Arry you've always been the smartest sibling, I can't believe it wasn't you who noticed this first. Ever since dad died you've been different…if he was even your dad…"

"How dare you!" Arry snapped angrily and stood up.

"You can walk away if you want to Arry but for one moment please just listen to me, you're the only one I can trust. We used to talk all the time when we were kids remember?' He looked up at Arry who was frowning but nodded reluctantly and sat down. "Haven't you ever noticed how different all our siblings are from each other?"

"Genetics can be funny…' Arry started.

"But why does Miles looks so much like our father and I don't? Why does Lily look like mum but Mavis doesn't? How can you and I have blue eyes but Miles has green? And why does Mavis have such blonde hair when no one else in our family does?"

"Or why Miles is so tall…" Arry said to herself looking up at Paul who nodded. "No, this is crazy! Are you saying that all of our brothers and sisters have different mothers and fathers? How could that possibly make sense? It would make it extremely hard to make sure there's no inbreeding."

"There is only one way that…' Paul started but finished off when someone entered the cafeteria and looked at them. "Good afternoon Mrs Vance!" Paul said instantly jumping up.

"Oh you younglings don't stop talking on account of me I won't interrupt I promise." She cooed happily. Mrs Vance was the vaults oldest resident and was the kindest person Arry had ever met. She acted like a grandmother to almost everyone.

"Us younglings? Mrs Vance I could swear you are not a day over 40!" Paul grinned as he stood up and pulled out a chair for her at a nearby table.

"Stop your flattering young man and get back to work." She said as she slowly sat down.

"Of course! I'll speak to you later Arry I hope you're feeling better!" Paul nodded and walked out of the cafeteria.

"Oh my dear have you been unwell?" Mrs Vance said turning to Arry who nodded hesitantly, she was a horrible liar. "I have some pills in my pocket for those nasty tummy aches sweetheart." Arry stood up and walked over to Mrs Vance and took one of the pill capsules Mrs Vance put in her hand.

"Do you want me to get you anything before I go home?' Arry asked.

"No thank you dear I just came in for a nice cup of tea that I can make myself." Mrs Vance said as Arry nodded and walked out of the canteen.

Arry walked back to her families tiny dorm and silently crept inside but was happy to see that her mother and siblings were all out. Breathing out a sigh of relief she walked into the room she shared with her 2 sisters and laid down on her bed. She turned to look at the photograph on her bedside table of her and her father and closed her eyes telling herself that Paul was wrong that was her father and nothing could change that.

...

Hearing voices Arry slowly opened her eyes and yawned, she had no idea how long she'd been asleep for. Sitting up she stretched out her arms before standing up and walking to the door to try and hear who was in the living room. From the very muffled voices all she could make out was that it was her mother and another man. Suddenly realizing it may have been her supervisor from earlier that morning she panicked and quickly opened the door.

"I'm sorry I was sick I…." she trailed off when she saw the vault overseer and head of the Donald family Riley Donald standing with her mother. "Oh I'm sorry to have interrupted." She said quickly and looked to her mother who looked upset. "Mum what's wrong?" She asked feeling a horrible sickness in her stomach.

"Arry I have some bad news about your brother Paul, he has left the vault and will not be returning…" Riley said looking at Arry who was too shocked to say anything.