<strong>Gil Bates</strong><br/><br/>Gil watched as the hands of the clock marched their pace around its face. Sometimes things got hectic, but most of the time it was pretty quiet. He knew that this shift was his as he was still in training, but one day he'd be a full-time doctor in the Vault.<em>Then, </em>he thought dreamily,<em>I can move up to the 2nd level where the really nice apartments are. Maybe one with more space in it than the spot he had in the dorms. Too think, one of my skill and intellect still stuck living in the dorms. Any girl would be lucky to have me. </em>His thoughts kept up unabated as the medical room at 2 in the morning (vault time) was not a very interesting place to be. Procedures had been in place for over a hundred years to minimize injuries and keep everyone safe. No bugs, germs, viruses, or anything like that could enter the sealed system of the vault. All the food was prepared the same way it had been for hundreds of years. Yep, things kept going smoothly and being a doctor was an easy job in the vault.<br/><br/>Of course, the security guard he had talked with a while back seemed a little worried. He was talking about some tapping noises they had heard outside the vault door. At first Gil was a little worried. What if those noises came from people. People who might want to come into the vault and bring those nasty germs and diseases and such in here. The vault was a nice, clean, orderly place and should remain so. Panicked, he had gone to the medical records and searched through to find out what he could about diseases and germs. He was placated, instead, when he found records indicating that tapping noises had been heard on many occasions before. So, this wasn't the first time the noises had occurred, and nothing had happened then. It was probably just some natural phenomenon and just like in the past it would go away soon. He may have to administer some calming drugs to a couple of security guards who had overactive imaginations, but otherwise, nothing of significance would come of this.