First Time Outside

      I was back in my restroom leaning over the sink staring into my deep blue eyes. My pupils were dilated again, in the comfort of my room inside the vault. I wasn't accustomed to direct sunlight yet. No wonder my head was hurting so much. I'm obviously in pain from the damn sunlight burning my retinas. Looking now at my skin I could see the sun damage. No one could have guessed that we would burn so quick. I was only outside for a few minutes before I stumbled back inside. It was so bright outside the vault. No one could have ever explained the intensity of the sun to someone under ground his or her whole life. Looking again at my skin as it was already recovering from the sunburn. That's one thing our people did right while we were buried. Good thing too. I would hate to be without these genome advances. I wouldn't want to be normal in such a frail state emerging. I wonder if any normal humans in other vaults would survive the resurfacing. If any other vaults even survived Shiva.
      "You going to travel outside again today Gaven?"
      Thinking very little about the question. "Yes I just need some eye protection. These flimsy glasses they provided for the resurfacing didn't work. To much light comes around the lenses."
     "You don't have to leave the vault yet. Let others do the adventuring and find out if its safe."
      She moved over around to the opposite side of me letting one arm drape over my shoulder lightly so as not hurt the damaged skin. Leaning in close she kissed me on the chin. She then slipped into my lap and hugged me close. "Stay here with me."
      Listening to her plead underneath I subsided my desire to go outside. I would need to figure out how to protect my eyes better first before I chance damaging them again. Gently pulling her into me I kissed her once. "I'll wait until tomorrow before I try again."
      Leaving her behind I went to undress the layers of clothing I had on. I began to think again about the surface. It was so bright the light came from everywhere. When the doors opened the light was immense. Only visible thing was white followed by a pain in your head. Then your skin would feel as if nails where being poked in at every pore as the cold air came in. I froze there unable to move. Trying to wait for my eyes to adjust so I could glimpse at the world before going back inside. Then the frozen rain came through the T.F.S.B hanger doors drenching my clothes in damp moister only increasing the pain caused by the cold air. Unwilling to take anymore I went back inside the surface structure and down again to the vault like the rest. No one could stay outside very long because of the cold. We had grown accustomed to a never changing temperature inside the vault.
      As I laid down to sleep Kami pulled up next to me. "So how was it outside, I heard its not what people were hoping for?"
      How was it, I thought to myself? It's horrible. "The world may be ready for us Kami but we are not ready for her." Then I turned off the light and tried to get some sleep.
      Waking the next morning to the sound of Kami working in the other room. I probably kept her awake with my snoring again. Getting up I grabbed my watch and looked at the time. I overslept it was hours past my expected time. I got some clean clothes and went to take a shower. Kami entered the bathroom while I was cleaning up but went strait to the storage on the other side then left. She gave me a warm smile and continued on her business. Wonder what she's up to? I was looking into my own eyes again while I shaved. I needed a way to protect them until they adjusted to the light. Drawing another blank on ideas, I finished up and went to find Kami. Lets see what she's up to.
      I entered the living room to see her patching together some leather?
      "No! You can't see it yet, go cook some breakfast." She said with a playful tone trying her best to hide her own excitement.
      I obeyed happily. This was turning out to be a good start to the day. She was always full of surprises. Wonder what she's making? I didn't really feel like cooking but managed to scramble some eggs.
      Kami entered the room with her project and put it next to me. She stood behind me and let her arms hang around my neck as I looked at her gift. At first I didn't realize what I was looking at. It looked like leather underwear. I picked it up for a better examination of her work. It was beautiful. The leather construction was sewn around two circular heavily tented lenses creating goggles that strapped around my head. There was a third strap that went over the top and locked into the other two straps. It was a firm fit designed to keep extra rays of light from finding my eyes around the lenses. I sat there and wore them for a minute testing them out.
      "Wow! This is perfect Kami."
      She hugged me from behind and softly spoke in my ear. "Please don't stay outside long. I worry too much." Giving one last tight squeeze before letting me go. “I heard that Fran’s husband Buck has went outside and hasn't returned from the communications tower for almost a week. You better not do that to me.”
      "I just want to see the world. I've seen everything in this hole for the last forty years, and now that they are letting volunteers join the surface rebuilding team I have to go see where are ancestors used to live." I gave her a smile and headed out the door. “I guarantee you’ll see me sooner then you know. Your the only person worth coming back for. ”
      I went strait to the elevators leading to the T.F.S.B. The elevators were constructed after the quaking years. It was built by bots, as was the terra-forming building. I hated the atmosphere in the bots area. The bots had no life and no decorations just boring stale metal everywhere. Making it to the elevator I was approached by the elevator control bot.
      Speaking with a microphone on the top of its four legged construction "Traveling to the terra-forming surface base today?"
      With out any hesitation I responded with an annoyed "Yes." That question was obvious this elevator only went to one location, plus it was the only elevator that required you to strap in. No one could make the mistake of not knowing where he or she were going. Getting into the elevator I sat down and strapped into the seat.
      "Traveling to the terra-forming surface base today?"
      "Yeah it would appear so." The voice said sarcastically.
     I smiled coming to the conclusion that others also got annoyed with the pointless question. Another man got on the elevator. He wasn't wearing anything other then normal clothing. I informed him of his problem. "You are going to freeze out there."
      "Oh you don't need worry about me. I'm not leaving the T.F.S.B. I'm in command of the bots on the surface. I'm one of the foreman in charge of getting that communications tower up and running." The man set down and strapped in. "Next month we should have the communications tower up and running. Then we can see if any other vaults survived." The elevator began to lift slowly at first then rapidly increased in speed until it felt as if we were flying up. The foreman was almost yelling. "The surface changed drastically and we ended up almost twice as deep. Thats one reason we had this elevator a quick lift." After a couple of minute the elevator began to slow its ascension to surface. "Follow me, I'll give you a better jacket."
      Looking around the T.F.S.B. it was as plain as all the other bot areas. "Why didn't we construct windows to see outside?"
      The foreman stopped at a locker and pulled out a long heavy hanging trench coat looking jacket. He then ripped the nametag off leaving a torn area above the left pocket and gave it to me. "Safety precaution. We didn't want to take chances with leaks. Our air supply is very delicate and must be regulated. If a window leaked or was damaged we would lose the vault. Anyways you can have this jacket and ill find you some sunglasses."
      "Keep the sunglasses. I tried um yesterday. There worthless." I pulled out Kami’s invention and put it on my head. "Wife made um for me."
      The foreman seemed impressed with the idea. He kept his eye on them a bit longer then asked. "Do you think she would mind if I copied the idea and produced some more for other volunteers?"
      I liked the uniqueness of my gift and didn't really want everyone wearing these. "I'm not sure, but I'll ask her for you." I wasn't going to ask. I'm sure he was going to copy them anyways.
      Thanking him for the jacket I left his work area and returned to the T.F.S.B. hanger. Coming up to the hanger doors again I stopped as the foreman came running up to me. "Do me a favor in exchange for the jacket, take this information disc to the other building down the path. Then insert this key to enter the door. Give the information disc to the bot in the control room so it can get the corrected data. I made a mistake in my original calculations. Hopefully this will get that comunications tower up and running."
      I didn't really feel like helping him, but I was a volunteer and needed to earn my keep, so I accommodate his request. He then moved back into the shielded area.
      When I was alone again, I took a deep breath and pushed the button. The huge slanted hanger doors stretching above my head began to open. The light exploded in on me again. It was still bright but the goggles were working great. The cold air streamed in like a river almost knocking me down. I pulled the jacket around tighter and waiting until my eyes were adjusted before moving outside.