Ben looked at both of them and gave a small laugh, "You know what... You've got the right idea, I haven't been out of D.C for about six Months, about time to get out of here... That and it looks like theirs absolutely nothing to scavenge in here, no offence girly," he looked at her sympathetically, "It's just that this place looks picked clean... Pretty damn stupid if you ask me, I wish I knew who got everything..." He trailed off and looked at the two. He didn't unholster his Rifle either.

He gave a small smile, "I'm Ben by the way, never been in a group before and I'm starting to like the idea," he let the smile wipe off his face, "I'll cover your backs, especially yours girly, but, as long as you cover mine, I can't shoot everything y'know?" He gave a small chuckle and turned around. He walked into the elevator and looked at them, "Well? I don't think staying here forever would be a good idea... At least for the moment." He gave another small smile.

He'd never been around many people, especially not girls, he found the idea alright though, "Oh and girly? I'd be happy to show you around the Wastes that I know of, D.C is like the back of my hand now, and theirs nothing new on the back of my hand so you know." He laughed quietly to himself, but let it fall though. He knew he was trying to hard to be friendly and it might annoy them...

Lydia shot an awkward glance at the woman and stepped in after them. The man pressed a button and the doors slid shut. It was quiet, Lydia could hear them breathing. They were filthy, weren't there showers in the Wasteland? Didn't they have Hygiene inspections like in the vault?

"I'm Lydia by the way." Lydia said, a big grin forming on her face. She'd done it, she'd left the vault. At the cost of her brother's life. The grin quickly faded when she remembered Ray.

Ben looked at the girl and gave a small laugh, "Finally, took you a while to say so missy, nice to meet you Lydia, welcome to the Wastes, I'll give you the introductory speech." He thought he heard a small scoff from the other women but he just grinned, "Welcome to the Capital Wastes! Home to such great things such as: As much junk as you can carry! Irradiated water! Terrible food! And people that almost always want to kill you! Have fun and make sure to stay alive."

He gave a good chuckle at that, "Ha, but seriously, stay witty out here, anything can kill you, maybe even this elevator if it stuffs up..." He gave a thought as to how the hell was Elevator was moving at that point.

Lydai couldn't help but smile. This was going to be exciting. "Thanks," She replied. "I'll be sure to-" suddenly the elevator shook. Lydia fell to the filthy carpeted floor and hit her head hard on one of the doors. An ear shattering screech filled the whole elevator as it slowly grinded to a halt. The doors didn't open, and Lydia couldn't tell if they went up or down. "Speak of the devil." Ben said, but he didn't smile or laugh this time. His face was cold and serious. As if he knew something was going to go wrong. Lydia looked at the silent woman, who in turn looked back. "We have to get out of here." She said. Pressing a button named "Open".

The lift was stuck. The doors weren't opening and the light was flickering more then ever. It was getting hard to breath for Lydia. She held onto Ben as she got to her feet. Her head was cold. Was that... blood?

Ben was annoyed, terrible thing that it always went wrong when he mentioned it, he found it funny, but most of the time it certainly wasn't funny. Ben noticed that Lydia was holding onto him as she got up, he was actually worried for once in his life, he quickly said, "Hey, Lydia, you okay? You seem to be..." He trailed off as he noticed blood coming out of a shallow wound on her head. He wondered if it was a bad wound, but he quickly discarded that otherwise she wouldn't have gotten back up...

He quickly patted around his pouches to try and find some medical things but nothing was on hand, he scowled, "Sorry Lydia, unless she has some medical equipment, do you think you'll be alright until we get out of this mess? Looks like..." He trailed off yet again, thinking, looking around a bit. Okay, so the doors are jammed, the walls are metal, we're a little way up... What about the roof? He thought, he quickly looked up and couldn't tell if there was a hatch or not.

He grumbled something unintelligeble, quickly saying, "Hey, can one of you check the roof? I can't really see at the moment, I've got bad eyesight sometimes, stupid dust from the Wastes..." He trailed off again, giving up on that, instead trying to wipe his eyes with his right hand.

Sorry about posting so much, this story is such a great idea and I just like it too much...

Alice could see that Ben was trying to look for something, most likely something medical. She tossed him a Stimpack. "I assume this is what your looking for." She said, grinning. For some reason she was caring for the child's safety and well being. Usually the only people she cared about were the Rangers. Looks like that's changed she thought to herself.

Alice anolysed the roof, looking for some sort of maintenance hatch. At last she just about saw the grime-filled gaps, indicating that there was one. She pulled out her Chinese Assault Rifle and turned to Lydia and Ben "You might want to stand back." she began smacking the hatch with the butt of her gun. "C'mon." she grunted. "This is going nowhere" she said while holstering her gun.

She put her hands in her head, trying to think of a way to open the hatch. When she looked up she saw the man, Ben, tending to Lydia's wound. Damn, that girl isn't going to survive out there. She decided to slump down in a corner of the elevator and mull things over.
"I'm Alice by the way."

Lydia's' forehead was bleeding. She clutched it as she walked into Ben's arms. He held her, stroking her hair. Alice was kicking and punching at the ceiling, and a tile was starting to come loose. "Here." Whispered Ben in a calming tone. "This will help." He held out a small syringe with a meter on the back. It was a Stimpak. "This might hurt a little, be brave." Ben slowly inserted it into Lydia's wound. It stung like high heaven and Lydia started crying, but Ben restrained her from moving. "There we go." Lydia looked up at Ben and he smiled at her. it made Lydia warm inside. He was a great Friend. "Aha!" They both heard Alice shout. The Tile snapped in half and came crashing onto the elevator floor.

"Come on, up we go." Alice reached out her hand and helped Lydia up. It was easy for Lydia to get through, she was only 13. The elevator shaft was filthy, rusted and freezing. Colder then the Basemant. She stared back down the grate. "What now? You guys won't fit!" She asked them. They looked at each other and gave her a we-have-no-idea look. "I'll see if I can find a way out. Hold on." Lydia activated her Pip-Boy light and looked around the darkness. There were two thick metal ropes suspending the elevator. One had snapped, leaving small metal chards everywhere. "I think we're trapped." Lydia shouted down the grate.

"Godammit!" Alice shouted. She returned to the corner she had previously been in. Well this is certainly a kick in the balls. she thought, grimacing. We open a small hatch, but can't fit through it

She surveyed the elevator, looking for any other way out. As far as she could tell there wasn't many options. They couldn't blow their way out and there was no chance her and Ben could fit through that gap. Even if they did, Lydia told them that they were trapped here.
She let out a sigh a called up to Lydia. "Let us know if you find something, I need to take a breather." She let her head drop down, thinking of what she could be doing right now; having a drink with the Rangers and Joules in Moriarty's, relaxing after a tough week, but instead she was trapped down here with two strangers.

She looked over to Ben. "Well, since we're stuck down here for the forseeable future, what's your story?"

Ben gave a small smile, "Well, yeah the forseeable future indeed..." He gave another small chuckle, "Well, I'm pretty young, been living on my own since I was about 16 I think, I left my Father because he was a terrible Parent, didn't do anything to help save my Mother... I got angry and just walked out on him one day, now I've just been living in D.C for a while, it's been hell to live in but hey, it's life out here..." He trailed off and gave a thought as to what to do now.

He rolled his eyes, "Okay, so if we are stuck in here, with a small hatch open... Why not make that opening bigger? Explosives would bring us right down to our death, while if we could maybe shoot it up a bit..." He trailed off, he knew shooting up at the roof would be a bad idea now that Lydia was up there, and Alice didn't look like she would agree with wasting ammo. He sighed and sat down on the ground, he looked around the elevator and somehow noticed a little red handle.

It had something along the lines of 'E e gen y el as ', it wasn't really readable but he knew it probably did something dangerous or not something usual... He shrugged, "Hey, I think this might do something... But I don't want to risk it, it looks a little..." He trailed off as he looked at it. He thought about his last couple of moments and he realised that he cared for Lydia, unlike the rest of the people he'd been with... He guessed it as a little sister kind of thing, since he'd never had a sister...

While Alice just seemed like she'd be a good friend if she'd just open up a little. He shrugged to himself, "Hey, Alice, considering I don't want to perhaps condemn us by pulling that lever, tell me, what's your story? You look like a Ranger to me but..." He gave a small laugh.

Alice gave a smile, at least he wasn't one of those types that completely freaked out when something went wrong, he was trying to make the situation better. "I came from one of the Vaults just outside D.C. One of the days the Vault was opened and I decided that I had enough of sitting in there doing nothing so I decided to get up and leave. At the time, I had no idea what I was going to do so I just wandered. It was pretty dangerous, but it thought me basic survival and how to use a gun so that was pretty useful." she gave a smile and a small laugh. "Brings back memories of me hiding behind a rock trying to remember how to load my gun while a bunch of Raiders tried to pump bullets up my ass."

She paused for a breath and listened to the sound of Lydia's footsteps as she walked around on top of the elevator. "When I was walking through the Wasteland I saw Megaton and decided to check it out. It was a pretty nice place, but not for me, so I stayed in Tenpenny Towers for a bit. I met up with a man called Joules. He got me contracts for my freelancing, even managed to get one to help the Rangers when he heard their distress signal. When I helped them, I decided to join them. I mean, Joules was a good friend and all but the Rangers had a nice family feel to them, something I was missing a helluva lot. Sometimes I go back to Joules when the Rangers run dry, though. And there you have it."

Ben gave a small laugh, "Well, yours seems to be more interesting then mine, anything that has a Vault in it is always remembered I'm sure... Either way, we need to find a way out of here, and I'd say that Lydia has a small chance of finding something out there so... What are we going to do? Sit here and die of starvation, pull that lever or do something else that's really stupid?" He laughed a little then actually started thinking about it seriously.

The lever looked promising, but it might do something that we really didn't want to happen, the rest of the elevator looked pretty bare and Lydia was probably not going to find anything... "Damn, stuck in an elevator, I never thought I'd see the day." He gave a small smile and looked at the roof. There wasn't anything more that could help up there, but the floor... The floor? Ben looked down and thought he could notice something, he squinted but his eyesight was letting him down again.

"Hey Alice, check out the floor, I think there's a grill or something."

((I'm a bit busy with GECK right now, I'll post in a few hours. ^_^)

"Sure thing." She said while she began shifting papers and detritus around and moving it to the corner of the elevator. That's when she noticed there was an imprint of a grill on the carpet.
"Hey, Ben! There's something over here!" she shouted. Ben ran over and saw the imprint of the grill. "Get Lydia. I'll get this open."
She began stomping on the grill when she heard the sound of rusted metal give way. It fell for about half a minute before she heard the sound of it clattering against the bottom. That is NOT good. she though.

"Emm, Ben, we have a problem. There's one hugeass drop right there, I didn't remove the carpet yet though. Now what? Go up and search or go.. Er, down?" she looked worried and felt it. She was trapped in an elevator with two strangers whom she barely knew, but their presence here helped keep her reassured a bit.
Alice started thinking, these old elevators had metal cords which acted as pulleys to move them up and down, maybe they could climb up the pulley and see if they could reach the top, or at least see if there was an access hatch or something.

By this stage Ben had got Lydia down, she looked at them. "Either of you good at climbing?"

Ben scratched his head for a second, then fiddled with his hands, "Well, I can't climb because I've got bad eyesight, I left my glasses in my pack which is upstairs... So, I say we go up, it sounds better than going back down to the Vault and dying of starvation doesn't it? So, are either of you good at climbing?" Ben leant against the wall and started wondering at what to do, wondering how he got stuck here and why the hell he left his glasses in his pack!

"Well I've got Combat Armour on so it'll make climbing hard, but if Lydia isn't up for it then I'll go." Alice said.

Typical, a simple sounding job that turns into chaos because some little girl decided to play the heroic adventurer and we get trapped down here. Herself and Ben looked at Lydia seeing if she was up for climbing, but she seemed uncomfortable under the stare of the two advlts. Damn, how's this girl gonna survive in the Wasteland? She can barely handle herself in an abandoned Vault. At least it's practice, I guess.

While she waited on Lydia to decide whether she wanted to climb the shaft or not she began unbuckling her equipment, just in case. Taking the Chinese Assault Rifle off her back, the Plasma Pistol off her belt. And taking her remaining two Pulse Grenades off and Frag Grenades, leaving one Frag one her belt. No matter who went, she had an idea that just might get them out.

This is really good nice to see a collaboration, especially one that works so well! :goodjob:

Ohh, thanksh! I have nothing to post about from the story-line view because we're waiting for TeeHee:3 to post.

(Sorry guys! I completely forgot about this. Let's try to get back into it, hm? We're still looking for more people by the way. )

Lydia stared at ben, his handsome face frowning in the flickering light. Lydia got them into this mess, and she'd get them out. "I'll climb it. My Pip-Boy has a light, so darkness won't be a problem." She smiled as ben's face loosened up a bit. "Don't worry, I've climbed in the Atrium before." She motioned to the hole in the ceiling and Alice helped her up.
"Good luck Lydia, watch out Ok?" Ben shouted through the hole, sending his voice echoing up the shaft.

Lydia felt the walls. They were cold steel panels, typical. Lydia removed her Vault Suit belt and tied one end to the Pulley, and the other to her waist. Then, planting her feet firmly on the wall, she began to climb. It was jerky at first, and there was alot of dust, but eventually Lydia got the hang of it. At first it felt like a chore, but it gradually became entertaining, exciting even.

Lydia must have climbed for about an hour before she reached an opening. It was a large crack in one of the metal panels. She clambered through it and fell into the dusty floor infront of her. After quickly fixing her belt, Lydia looked around. She was in a corridor, with numbered doors stretching both sides. The dust was so thick Lydia could barely see, like a deep fog had entombed the Hotel. Lydia stumbled down one end of the corridor,
towards a flashing red light.

Ben was worrying about Lydia, he didn't know what it was; he'd never cared about anyone else before really... Not even his Father. He cursed lightly and kicked the side of the elevator, he looked at Alice and gave a small smile, "Well, I'm guessing we're gonna be stuck here for a while... Goddamit... We shouldn't have let her go on her own, what happens if theirs still Muties in the motel?" He cursed again and kicked the side of the elevator again for good measure.

He scowled and sat down, resting his back against the cold metal, closing his eyes he thought of what would happen if they got stuck there... He sighed and quickly went rummaging through a pouch on his side, he brought out some cram and ripped open the top. He wasn't hungry, just angry, he quickly started shoving the food down his throat, he was angry at himself as well as Lydia, angry at her for not letting anyone really help her... He scowled again, typical.

((Wow Andy, how can you juggle so many RP's at a time? ))

She kicked the machine again, hoping another Nuka Cola would fall out. It was useless, the only thing that worked was the light. Lydia picked up a nearby pipe and began hitting the Bottle Cap to loosen it. It popped open and fell on the floor. Lydia lifted the bottle to her mouth and began to sip, slowly at first. She hadn't eaten or drank anything since she'd left the vault, bu she wasn't thirsty, or hungry. She was guilty. She was responsible for the death of Raymond, she was responsible for getting Ben and Alice out of here.

She was responsible, for the first time in her life.

Lydia dropped the empty bottle, fastened the pipe to her belt and continued down the hall, coughing as she did so. What exactly was she looking for? Stairs? An exit? There was no way she could help Ben and Alice from up here. She needed someone else, another person. "No." Lydia said to herself. "I'm responsible. I have to do this. I'm not in a Vault any more."