Martin Vickers
Pachirisu Gijinka
Vault 62

Martin had been sleeping late as usual. More so than usual, because he slept through most of the alarms that were blaring off.

"Martin!" a voice shouted to him, pushing him to get out of bed. "Something's gone horribly wrong! Get your butt out of bed!"

Lazily opening his eyes, Martin looked up to see it was Patrick, a Fearow Gijinka. From what Martin could tell, he didn't look right at all. It looked like he had become less human and more Fearow overnight.

"Whoa, what happened?" Martin asked in alarm, looking at his friend and realizing the high-pitched noise was coming from the sirens throughout the vault.

"It's the EvoTox!" Patrick shouted. "Something went horribly wrong with it!"

EvoTox, as Martin had easily recalled, was the vaccine each member of Vault 62 had gotten injected with on a bimonthly basis, said to help promote the lifespan and longevity of gijinkas and prepare them for possible life outside of the vault when the time came. Unlike other vaults, where entire generations were expected to live out their lives in the vault and never know what life outside of the vault would be like, entrants to Vault 62 were given the promise that they would life through any nuclear war that happened and could rebuild.

"I thought EvoTox was supposed to be a good thing?" Martin asked, wondering why they had been injected with it on a continual basis. "What went wrong with it?"

"It's... a different strain of FEV," Patrick moaned, remembering what he had been told by one of the Vault 62 medical personnel after the horrifying discovery. "After all these injections and months, the mutagens in the strain were gradually triggered and..."

Martin did the math and knew what that meant. Patrick and several other gijinkas in Vault 62 were part of Group A, who received the injection on the first month while Martin and the remaining half of the Vault were part of Group B, who received the injection on the following month before the process rotated back to Group A. It had gone on like this for quite a few years, but now, it seemed like Group A's mutagen effects had been triggered.

"Martin, half the vault is out of control," Patrick told him, looking like the effects of the FEV were having a bad reaction to him. "I don't know how much time I have left before..."

"Before what!?" Martin shouted, wondering what the end effect of this was.

"Some of us are... turning into mutants," Patrick told him with anxiety. "Others are losing their mental capacity, and others have become so much like Pokémon that they can't even be distinguished from the real ones."

Martin couldn't believe it. They were being used as lab rats for more than a decade, and now the aftermath was all around him. It was then that Patrick handed Martin a 10mm pistol, and Martin was in shock.

"The vault door has been opened," Patrick told him as Martin cautiously took the gun. "Some managed to escape, but others were hurt and killed in the confusion. There's at least ten vault dwellers that are definitely nothing like the gijinkas they used to be. This should keep you safe long enough to get out yourself."

"What about you, though!?" Martin asked.

"I don't have... much time," Patrick replied with a cough. "The FEV is turning me into some kind of Fearow mutant, and... I'm starting to hear weird voices in my head. I'll help you reach the vault exit, but after that..."

As much as Martin wanted Patrick to come with him, there was nothing he could do. The Fearow gijinka looked to be in agony, and Martin could swear he saw a few inches of growth in both Patrick's beak and wings even in just the short time he had been talking to him.

"Let's go!" Martin shouted, not wanting to waste another minute about this.