. Flame however is not. 
Intro
There was a light at the end of a dark tunnel, as I watched, it began to grow brighter. Thankfully, my slowly returning senses showed I was not actually dead, and was instead just starting to wake up from deep sleep. First thing I noticed was how deep numbing COLD It was. Hell, It was God Damn FREEZING! I have never been this cold before in my LIFE! Not even when I had to shovel all that snow at my old house had felt this bad, and that had been during a Blizzard! that was one Hell of a day, BRRR!
The temperature in the air was rising thankfully. [God Bless heaters] When said temperature had risen up to a more... tolerable level, I began shifting my arms about in search of warmth. The bed covers must have slipped off during the night, because I couldn't feel them anywhere on me. [internally grumbles] I began to reach out to grab them from wherever they were so I could get back to sleeping when suddenly my arms came in contact with metal.
Ok, I knew for a fact that I had no metal of any sort in my room, and especially not right where my night stand should be. My arms were moving all around me now, panic was starting to set in. Metal in front...metal above...metal below... shit, even behind me there was metal! Gravity was pushing me down unto my feet instead of my back, which meant I was awakening in a stand up position, that was definitely NOT normal! The last straw came when I tried to open my eyes and all I could see was light, bright. white. light.
Now let me ask you, what's one of the most terrifying things people fear happening to them? Well, being buried alive in a small dark space is one of them, now throw in being blind......will now lose my shit in 3...2...
1
I must have screamed for hours, at least it felt like hours, in reality it had probably only been like 10 seconds [but whos counting]. Ok, just to be clear I'm not afraid really of small dark spaces, but when someone finds themselves in one after just waking up well, Fuck! Well to be honest, my screaming probably came out more like this "aaaaaahhhhhh!!!" You can blame my sandpaper of a throat for that. GodDamn! feels like I haven't had a drink of water in like, 200 years!
Just as I was about to try and force my way out of, whatever this thing was [probably breaking some of my bones in the process], my vision started clearing up. Oh man, I don't think I've ever been more relieved as I was right now in my entire life! I didn't even want to think about not being able to see anything, how can you live? I mean people obviously do but...how!?
Well once I had gotten my eye sight back again, I was able to confirm without a doubt that I was indeed trapped inside some sorta metal tube. Right away I noticed that there was a hole in the wall in front me, allowing me access to see the outside of my so called prison. Immediately like a Dumbass I tried shoving my head threw it,.....only to have my face smash up against some very, VERY, thick glass.
...ouch...
Now don't you guys laugh at me! I had JUST fucking woke up In a cold metal tube with absolutely no idea in hell how I got there, and was just finishing going thru a mini panic attack. So I think I can be forgiven for having a Derp moment. OK!?
Anyway, while rocking back and forth holding my poor face I started to hear this ringing sound, it seemed to only get louder the longer I listened to it. Either I had hit my head too hard [in which case I was fucked] or an alarm was going off.
"Critical failure in Cryogenic Array. All Vault residents must vacate immediately." said some computerized voice. Yep, definitely an alarm [thank god], which means there's something that I needed to be alarmed about! I needed to break out of this damn thing, now. Try as I might, I couldn't find any way to get out of this blasted thing! No door handles, no buttons of any kind, there was nothing! What was I going to do now? Start head-butting the fucking window again!!?
Wall in front of me gave a loud hiss before starting to open. Ok...that was convenient, not that I'm complaining. The wall now confirmed door opened till it touched the celling, giving me a clear wide view of what looked like a hallway. Directly across from me on the opposite wall was another metal pod...thing, honestly it looked kind of like a fancy time capsule or something, only bigger. I cautiously poked my head out of my pod and looked around, to the left of me was some stairs that went up a few feet to some blocky looking equipment. A small gasp escaped me once I had turned my head the other way to my right, six more of those capsule like machines were lined along the walls going a short distance up the corridor before coming to another small set of stairs leading up to a blast door.
Not wishing to spend a second longer in this tin can refrigerator I moved to step down unto the dull gray floor, but the moment I had both feet on the ground my legs slipped out from under me. I had not anticipated the cooling mist making the floor around my pod slippery as hell. I tried grabbing the guard rail inside my pod in a futile attempt to save myself but apparently it was to be fate that my first kiss would be a hard cold [200 year old] floor.
fuck you too fate, fuck you too.
KA-WHAM!
...Well, least now I can add face planting the ground to my [shit that has now happened to me] list. Guess I should put waking up in a refrigerator too...and face planting glass...and kissing the floor...... that list is only going to get bigger isn't it?
So now begins the part where I yell several bits of colorful profanity as I hold my [for the second time I may add] poor abused face. "fffFFFFUUUUUUUUCK!!!" and so on, etc. Once the pain had died down enough I slowly rolled with a groan onto my hands and knees. I took a deep breath in then out before reaching up to grab unto the guard rail on the pod next to mine. With another groan I pulled myself up...to find death staring me in the face.
Of course being the man that I am [that rhymed], I thought I reacted pretty calmly and rationally. "AHFUCKYOU!" ........see? Calmly and rationally [smiles big]. Fuck it, Lets just skip the part where I screamed, jumped backwards, slipped, and gave the floor another hard kiss. Eat shit and die fate [shows middle finger].
A little time later once I had a chance to get my beating heart back under control, I stood back up with a shaky breath. Mentally preparing myself this time while taking a deep steadying breath, I slowly approached the glass panel where I had seen those eyes. There was a body, a man to be more specific, he was definitely dead cause skin was not at all supposed to look pitch black like that.
[.......I WAS TALKING ABOUT FROSTBITE NOT SKIN COLOR YOU DODO HEADS! I AM NOT RACIST!]
[coughs] yes well, moving on. The man's body was completely covered in frostbite, every batch of exposed skin that I could see anyway. The machine he was in must have malfunctioned or broken down while he was under, at least he went out painless while sleeping. This wouldn't be the first time I've seen a dead body [and it certainly wouldn't be the last...], I've been to a few funerals, including my grandfathers, but it still never made it any easier being in the same room with one. I honestly didn't know what to think of the current situation I was in, I was still kind of in a state of shock what with me waking up in this unknown location, trapped inside a metal tube for who knows how long, there being a dead body!
My mind was racing with so many questions right now, chief among them being why the hell was I in a cryo pod? That is what that robotic voice said right? I knew cryogenics was an actual thing being studied by scientists, along with cryonics. Now cryonics was a sub category of cryogenics, it's the theory that a living person or creature could be preserved by using extreme cold temperatures in a controlled environment to slow the bodies function to a standstill. Basically, a type of stasis. That person then could be revived from that frozen state, back to the land of the living. Someone could stay under something like that for years, hell, centuries even! In theory anyway.
Technology like that would be hard to come by and expensive as hell to make, so the list of nations that could be behind this would be pretty short. The U.S government being the first to come to mind, for obvious reasons. Thou I suppose one of the other half dozen technologically advanced nations could be behind this too. For now I'm just going to assume it was the U.S government, all that remained then...was the why. Perhaps this was all some kind of experiment they were doing? If that is the case then I had just been used as a guinea pig. While I didn't want to believe my government had just done fucking experiments on me, the proof around me said otherwise, shit.
If they really needed test subjects so badly I'm sure they could have gotten some volunteers, to try out the safe parts. They could then use animals, like rats, for the more dangerous ones. Hell, even certain types of criminals could be used. I don't mean to sound heartless when I say that, but honestly, what else good are they!? Murderers, serial killers, rapists, they would all get what they fucking deserved! And if they ran out? Just throw in some lawyers [chuckles]. Yeah yeah yeah I know, not all lawyers are greedy blood sucking vampires, but I knew for a fact that the majority of them are, so the fuckers can just burn in hell for all I cared.
Back to my current situation. Well, no guards had shown up yet, and probably weren't going to anytime soon. In that case, I would have to go and find them instead. Not the best plan, but still better then me standing here all day freezing my ass off. For all I knew I might be the only one left in this entire facility. I wasn't seeing anyone else getting out of their pods, and I certainly could not hear the rush of anyone trying to escape on the other side of the big door either. ...Ok on second thought maybe I should find the way out instead.
Now I'd like to think I was a smart guy, perhaps a bit clueless at times, but still...pretty smart. I just couldn't for the life of me figure out why this place was giving me so much Deja-vu. This was probably going to drive me crazy till I figured it out, but it couldn't be helped, right now I needed to concentrate on escaping. However, even as I started making my way to the steel door at the end of the corridor that feeling just wouldn't go away. The door was right in front of me now, at first glance their didn't appear to be anything special about. Gray in color, looked thick as hell [would probably take at least some C4 to bust it down], Honestly, the only unique thing about it was that it appeared to open up into the celling, that and the numbers.
Was the only colorful thing on it actually. Big black numbers surrounded by yellow, and square shaped. I was getting some real heavy Deja-vu from this, but why? If I looked at it long enough maybe I would find the answer? So I kept staring, and staring, and star.....ing?
........slowly, ever so slowly I turned myself around and began making my way back to the center of the room, towards a certain pod opposite of mine. My heart was hammering harder and harder as I closed the distance to my target, all the while my mind was a raging inferno of emotions. There's no way this was real. I couldn't believe it, I wouldn't fucking believe it, shit like this just doesn't happen! Unless...it was a dream, yeah, that had to be it, this was a dream there couldn't be any other explanation for it. A dream, IT ALL HAD TO BE A DREAM!!!
But it wasn't...you can't feel pain in a dream. The bruise on my head flared a bit as I consciously rubbed it. Well, no point in delaying this any longer, I had to make sure. I was standing in front of the control panel now, the cryo tube seemed to loom over me, filling me with Dredd. All I had to do now was just push that lever up, taking a deep shuddering breath I slowly reached out with trembling hands, and pushed.
Hissing followed by white fog came out from the corners of the lid, and with a slight pop it opened. [No...] Inside that pod I saw deep down what I knew I would see. [No.........] What once had been a raging storm of thoughts and emotions inside me ceased to exist, and in it's place was a black hole of nothingness. In a soft stoic voice devoid of all emotion I said "Nora..." For that was who was inside the pod, Nora, wife of Nate the sole survivor aka the main character from the video game Fallout 4. This without a doubt was the same Nora. The position she was slumped over in, the bullet entry into her chest that had killed her, the wedding ring on her hand, all one and the same.
Everything began clicking into place, I had been used as a Guinea pig in an experiment, or more specifically the character I was playing as had been used as one, I am in a video game...this is crazy, was I even still me? STOP!!! JUST, STOP IT! I couldn't break down, not now. I had to be strong, I needed to stay strong right now and think of a way to fix this, somehow. Cause If I thought to much about it I would have a mental break down, and that would be of no help to me at all. Don't think about it, don't think about never seeing your family again, don't think about dying here, don't think...about...being...forever, alone.
"......Oh god" I fell down to my knees. " OH GOD, NOOOOOOOO!!!" I cried out.
I'm not ashamed to admit I wept like a baby. Under the circumstances, I'm sure others in my position would have had similar reactions. Think about it, gamers like me would probably jump at the chance to ACTUALLY be in a game, Sure. Be our favorite character, the Hero that saves the world! That would be awesome, and under different controlled circumstances I'd be jumping for joy.
However, It was clear to me that this wasn't simply a video game anymore, I had no idea how the laws and rules would work here, would it be like how I played the game? If I died, would I come back to life? Would I feel pain? yeah, head bruise and all. Or would it all be realistic? Whatever fucked up powers had brought me here obviously had no qualms bending the very fabric of time and space for their own purposes. [Actually that kind of reminds me of someone...]. Whelp, to sum it all up, I was deep, Shitingly, OVERWELMED!
Hours must have gone by before I finally came back to my senses. With eyes still all red and puffy I shakenly got back unto my trembling legs. I must have looked a real mess, but I was determined now, probably more then ever in my life, to find a way home. I would see this thru to the end, one way or another, or die trying. I reached out with my right hand, after a slight bit of hesitation I took Nora's ring, and holding it in a tight fist close to my heart I said with all the determination and spirit that I could muster "I'll find who did this and I'll get Shaun back. I promise" [And to my own family, and to myself, I make this promise. I will never give, I will never surrender, one way or another...I will see you all again.] I figured I would go along with the games script for now, see where it takes me.
Now I'd be lying if I said a small part of me was not actually enjoying this. Don't get me wrong, I take getting home very seriously. But, I didn't see why I couldn't enjoy some of this along the way. Like I said before, it's not everyday you find yourself inside one of your top favorite games.
As I started heading back to the door that would allow me to leave this place, I glanced at the numbers that had changed my whole world, 111. The days ahead no doubt would be hard and painful, I would be forced to take others lives in order to save my own, and that of others. By the end of this I will most likely be a changed man, I could only hope that some part of me will still exist in the end.
............................................................................
And so a young mans journey begins. Once the quest was completed, it was his hope that he would magically find himself returned to his world. He wasn't looking forward to some of the choices he would have to make along the way, but if it was to get home, he would do it. Nothing, would stop him from returning to his family, if there was a way, he sure as hell would find it.
The world outside however, was not the same one he was familiar with. Instead of the common wealth like he expected, he would find an entirely new world. Where the choices made are permanent and have everlasting consequences, death forever stalking him around every corner, and finding out that he would be the only one of his kind in the whole world. In this, hellhole of a wasteland where every inhabitant struggles every hour of each day just to survive, How can he, a simple gamer, the alien amongst them, find a way to live in this world? A world he would soon come to call [Fallout] Equestria.