It was cold, dark, and dusty in the air vent Silvie was hiding in, and her legs were starting to cramp up. It had been an hour since she had heard anything, so the invaders were surely gone by now right? Not being able to take laying still anymore, Silvie decided to take a chance and move the grate that was obscuring her so she could move around the room. As quickly and quietly as possible, Silvie crawled out and slid the grid back in place before standing up and attempting to dust herself off. It was still dead silent, to Silvie's relief, so she determined it would be safe enough to look for survivors.

As Silvie opened her door, her face contorted in horror. There were bodies everywhere. Corpses of her friends and neighbors strewn across the floor of every room she checked. Her parents bodies were the worst; they died embracing each other right outside her room. Silvie choked back as sob as she came to a realization: she had to leave, there was nothing here for her now.

Silvie returned to her room to grab a backpack so she could pack for her journey to get help, she didn't know much about the outside world, so being prepared couldn't hurt. The only things in her room of use to her was a half-full bottle of water and some snacks, so she haphazardly shoved the food in her bag and kept the water bottle in hand so she could fill it back up in the kitchen.

Readying herself, Silvie opened her door back open and carefully stepped over and around the bodies on the way to the kitchen, not looking at their faces or her bloodstained shoes to avoid crying again. As she made it to the kitchen, she saw the body of one of the intruders laying face down in front of the fridge  with a pistol in his hand. His clothes were tattered and dirty, and his head was shaved, looking so different from the people of this vault. Silvie tried to avoid touching the dead man's feet as she stood over him, turning the faucet to let cold water into her bottle. Almost immediately after turning it off Silvie heard the noise of something moving around outside the kichen and she immediately eyed the gun. Was it another survivor? Or one of those murderers? Fearing the latter, she grabbed the pistol.

What stepped into the kitchen wasn't a human, but a cockroach the size of a large cat. At the sight of it Silvie stood frozen in fear before she let out an ear piercing scream. The bug then charged her and she tripped over the raider's legs as she tried to get away, landing on her ass as the roach got closer. In a panic, Silvie let out three shots from the gun, splitting the roach open with the one bullet that managed to hit. Not taking any chances of encountering another one, Silvie scrambled out of the kitchen and sprinted to the vault's entrance. 

Rather than feeling relief when seeing the daylight stream in from the vault's blown-open entrance, she only felt a larger surge of Adrenalin to get out and get help. Who could she ask for help from now that everyone she knew was dead? What was kind of world was awaiting her if the monstrous bug from before was a byproduct of it? Once she was outside and could see past the glare of the harsh sun, Silvie saw that the world was far from the green and beautiful place she had been told about, but instead a barren wasteland that was scorched to a crisp.

The shock of the scenery was enough to get Silvie to stop dead in her tracks. How long has the world been like this? Was it like this when her family let little Adam be taken to live outside? Could he have even survived? The thought brought Silvie to her knees as she started to weep. Had the Great War really happened? She couldn't think of anything else that could make the land look this way other than nuclear fallout. As her world came crumbling down around her Silvie curled in on herself and continued to sob. She had been lied to, violated, everyone she cared about was dead, and she had been scarred for life by the sights she saw today.

After about 15 minutes of crying Silvie heard loud sniffing right against her ear. Startled, Silvie fell back onto her elbows and saw a friendly looking dog panting and waving it's tail as it looked at her.

"A...dog?" Silvie questioned aloud. An ordinary dog was the last thing she expected to see.

Clearly happy to be spoken to, the dog began to lick away at her tears until she stopped crying and instead cracked a smile and let out a weak laugh.

"H-hey, cut it out..." Softly scolded, attempting to hold the large back from smothering her before the glint of a name tag on his collar caught her eye. "Bruce." she read aloud. The dog suddenly stopped assaulting her with kisses and looked at her expectantly instead.

"You're all alone too, huh?" she asked Bruce while scratching behind his ear, "if a normal dog like you can make it out here then do you think it's possible that my brother could have too?" 

While the dog didn't answer, Silvie thought on her question. She had just seen some humans from the outside a little over an hour ago, so that meant that not everyone was dead...and it wasn't like they had sent the 5 year old to live out on his own, there were people who came to get him...so there was actually a good chance that Adam was out there somewhere.

"Hey, Bruce, would you like to help me try and find someone?"

The dog wagged his tail in response, and that was a good enough answer for Silvie. She now had purpose to keep her going.