"Halt ! Who goes there?"
As we made our way to the exit, we were stopped by the exit guard.
"We were sent by the Overseer. We have his permission." I answered.
The guard sheathed his shotgun and walked to the controll panel. He typed in a code and pulled a lever.
"Sorry for that. Last thing we can have is people leaving the Vault." The guard answered.
"Now take a few steps back."
The giant metal door was pushed forward by some kind of robot hand, until it was far enough for us to leave.
Behind the door was a cave. I knew that from school. It was a long cave full of darkness and perhaps some small critters.
"Here, take this." The guard walked to his desk and gave us some flare sticks.
"You'll need these to find your way out of the cave. It might take a few hours, so don't light 'em up all at ones"
We thanked the guard and made our way out of the Vault.

After four hours of walking, we finally made it to the ladder. Above it was a manhole.
"Clerence, what is up there?" Sam asked.
"This manhole was placed in a forest. We'll be covert by trees for the coming days so we can keep a low profile for any patrols." Clerence answered.
"And what about the wild life? Anything we should worry about?"
"The most dangerous critter is the fox. No need to worry."
A few more questions were asked.
"All right, squad. Me and Clerence will go up first. We'll give you the thumbs up if it is safe to come up."
Clerence went up first. After she had opened the cover, she gave me the thumbs up. Now it was my turn to go up, and I was really excited.
It was very rare for a dweller to go outside. I for one didn't know anybody who had until I met Clerence, and now I would finally know what
'fresh air' is, how the grass feels, and seeing my very first animal. I had read a few books about farms when I was a kid, and it showed all kinds
of animals. Like cows and horses.
"You coming yet?" Clerence asked impatiently.
I snapped out of my thoughts and climbed up. When I got out of the cave, it wasn't the grass I felt first.
"Ahh ! That hurts ! Got, my eyes." I yelled.
"Don't look directly into the sun." Clerence said.
"You could have told me that sooner !" I answered back.
We gave the thumbs up to the others and they climbed up. After we were all up, I took out my map and pointed to the city we had to reach.
"The first checkpoint is the German city 'Essen'." I pointed to the city.
"It's eightyfive KM in total, and if we walk sic hours a day, we should reach it in three days."
Gilligan sat next to me and asked me a question.
"Do you know who we're gonna meet there?" I saw he was concerned about this. I can't blame him, for all we know it could be a spie from the
empire.
"No, but I'm sure it's safe there. The Overseer wouldn't send us to a deathtrap. And besi-"
My speech was cut of after we heard noise. We crouched down and listened. We readied our guns to shoot any danger. The noise came closer,
it came through the bushes. Just when we were ready to shoot, a fox jumped out. We gave a relieving sigh, stood up and started walking.

After a few hours, Timmy came up to me.
"Hey, about that new pistol of yours..."
I took the laser pistol out of my pocket.
"What about it?" I asked him, though already knowing what he was going to ask.
"Would you mind it if I took a quick look at it?"
"To be honest, I would. It's not that I don't trust you or anything. It's just that neither of us really know how it works. You might get someone
hurt."
Timmy gave me a disappointing look, and asured me that he would be very carefull.
"Tell you what. I'll take the ammo out so that I won't be able to shoot anything by accident."
I sighed and gave the pistol to Timmy
"Thanks ! Now just removing the ammo... and done."
Timmy showed me the ammo. It looked a lot like batteries, only more futuristic. He toyed with the gun for half an hour and gave it back.
"got any wiser?"I asked Timmy when I put the gun in my holster.
"Yeah. It seems it's run by solar energy. The sunlight loads the batteries. In short, you've got unlimited ammo."
"Hu, figured as much. Didn't really get a back full of ammo for the pistol back home." I gave him a smile and stopped.
"Let's make camp here. Sun's going down."
We set our tents and made a camp fire for the night. We talked about our quest. Non of us wanted this, but it wasn't like we were given much of
a choice.

After an hour, when we were just about to go to sleep, we heard noices again. This time much louder than the previous ones from the fox.
We put out the campfire and hit behind the bushes. The noices became louder, and I maaged to make footsteps out of them. Hard and loud
footsteps. My blood ran cold and I nearly started to panic. They came closer and closer, until we saw three persons appearing about 10 yards
away. They all were tall women, about eight or nine feet tall. They were moderated musculer, and one of them held a spear. They did not wear
anything, they were completely naked. They had more bodyhear than I would have thought. Not like they were covered with it, but I had seen
the naked body of my wife, and I could not find one hear other than her hear on her head, I could hear Timmy and Charles silently praying, and
after that Melissa silently cursing at them that they had to shut up. It seemed the three women were making camp. I signed to the squad to keep
their mouth shut, so I could eavesdrop them. It wasn't hard, for the Amazon's had really loud voices.

"Are we making any progress?" Said an Amazon with long black hair.
"Yes, we are." Said the woman next to hear.  She had dark skin, with black hear as well.
She reached for her backpack and took out a skinned animal. It seemed like a small wild pig, I recognized it from the farm book. With only one
small pull, she ripped on of it's leggs of, and ate it. Without burning it on a campfire first.
"Squad twentysix recovered another old world map from a Vault raid last week. The dwellers had died out long ago, but enough data was
still intact. For savety reasons the direct location wasn't on the map, but we now know it's within fourty KM of this place."
It came as a shock to me. They recovered another Vault. If they could find that one, it would only be a matter of time 'till they found our Vault.
Then the last woman stood up, the tallest of the bunch.
"It will only be a matter of time until that Vault is recovered. And it is crucial that we find it. Can you imagine? We know that it was home
to thousands of people. If we find it we will get the honor of leading the troopers into the Vault. And we will be given all the spills we want.
I can't wait to get my hands on a man! I haven't had sex with one since the 2140's."
The other girls giggled. The dark colored one was the first to reply.
"Yes, we heard. we heard that you went to hard on him and that you accidentally killed him"
The last woman, who I figured to be their leader, said "Yes... After that they wouldn't grand me any more men. They were afraid I'd kill more,
and back then the men were already dying out, so they couldn't let them go to waste. But trust me Natisha, the next men who dies because
I raped him, won't be an accident !" She laughed, and took a piece of the pig. The dark colored woman, named Natisha smiled and sat again.
The woman with black hair had finished eaten the head of the pig, and started talking.
"I just hope that the Vault won't be found by those Behemoth's or Giantess's. The Behemoth's will just trample them and the Giantess's
will just insert or swallow them. We deserve them Marta."
"Yes we do Valery, and I promise you we WILL find them first."

After that last line, I got tapped on the back by Timmy, as he singled to crouch away. I saw that the others were just, or more shocked
by this event than me. I saw that Charles had wet himself as I signalled the others to stealthly sneak away one by one. After all of them
had managed to sneak away, it was my turn. I was scared that they would here or see me, and that I would be the reason all the other
got killed with me. Especially after what their leader had said. Getting killed was one thing, but I wasn't going to lose my pride a long
the way. I took a depe breath, and started crouching towards the high grass, what would provide a cover. I slowly went one yard
every few seconds, to make sure I wouldn't make any sound. After a minute, I was only half way when I snapped a branch. I
Immediatly stopped every movement, as I heard the conversation between the giants end. I looked around me, and saw that Gilligan
already had his sniper aimed. When the fieldmen saw that, they silently took their weapons and followed his example. I looked behind
my shoulder, and saw that Natisha was looking for what caused that sound. I'm sure that they had been informed that there had been
scouts around this area. They surely wouldn't take their chances and assume that it was an animal. I got a sign from Jane that I had to
continue crouching. If I would stay there, she would surely find me. I took my chances, and contineud crouching. After a few yards had
passed, I heard behind my back the footsteps of Natisha. I had made it to another set of bushes, and it covered me for a bid. I held my
breath and closed my eyes, hoping that she wouldn't find it. She had three rifles aimed at her, but I wouldn't take my chances with that.
I heard about the pantser skin, muscles and bonestructure. Even if the shots killed her, the other two would be on top of me within two
seconds. Now she was only a few feet away from me. I could smell her and hear her breath. After a few second of searching she signed the
others that it was a false alarm. I released my breath and nearly fainted. I hurried towards the others, and reached it without causing
further trouble. I saw that Jane had cried a little, and she gave me a hug. We crouched further until we lost sight of the Giantes.