Crawled Out Through The Fallout

Chapter 1

The days before complete nuclear annihilation were good. I had a loving husband, a simple life, and a son I loved more than anything. That ended real fast.

When the alarms rang out through our neighborhood, I immediately grabbed Shaun, and headed for Vault 111, where we were told we would be safe from the radiation. My husband Nate followed behind, and we made it to the Vault just as the bomb had fallen, causing a mushroom cloud to rise up, and a shock wave to rush across the land. We were lowered into the vault, where we were given blue and yellow jumpsuits, and told to step into large pods for decontamination. Turns out, they were cryogenic pods, and Vault-Tec lied about us being safe. Before I could do anything, I froze.

After an unknown amount of time had passed, I woke up, and looked through the small window of the pod. Nate was in the pod across from me with Shaun, and they were awake too. I watched as several figures approached their pod, and took Shaun. When Nate resisted, they shot him.

I remember the feeling of horror and panic I felt then, the sensation of throwing up without actually doing it.

I froze again immediately after witnessing Nate's death, and Shaun's kidnapping.

When I woke up this time, the vault was empty. I exited my pod and began searching for signs of life. I found myself up against oversized cockroaches that I later learned are called radroaches, and decided it was a terrible idea to remain unarmed. I grabbed the nearest thing to arm myself with, which was unfortunately a police baton. It worked for a little while, but soon I required better weaponry.

As I explored the vault, all I found were bare skeletons in threadbare clothing. I wondered how long I was frozen for, considering how empty it was. I thought maybe everyone had gotten out. I was wrong.

That's all I remember from the very beginning. Well, that and the feeling of uncertainty and terror at my new surroundings.

That was several months ago, I can't remember exactly how long. Hell, it could have been only a few weeks.

Anyway, I live in the same neighborhood as I did before the war, after having fixed it up a bit. It was nothing like it used to be, now filled with debris and uninhabitable houses. I looked around, shaken from my reminiscing by my first companion, Dogmeat. He had sat on my foot, looking up at me with a blank stare and his tongue hanging out.

"Get off my foot. Dogmeat, go over there."

I pointed towards the house I was using as shelter, and he made his way over there.

"Hey, Blue. Got a minute?"

I turned at the sound of Piper's voice. She was the companion I traveled with the most. She is good with her gun, making her a valuable asset when on dangerous missions.

I nodded.

"Sure. What is it?"

She pulled a packet of papers from under her arm and handed them to me.

"I wanted you to take a look through this. It's about some synths that escaped the Institute."

I flipped through the papers, reading the scrawled handwriting. The Institute, the place where I believe Shaun to be. I have to find it. The paper talked about a synth who was found wandering the Commonwealth.

"What do you want me to do with this information?"

Piper flipped the packet in my hand so I was looking at the back of the last page.

"There. You need to talk to him. Nick Valentine."

I looked at the name.

"Where is he?"

"Diamond City."