They call me the Sole Survivor. On October 23, 2077, my family and I were ushered from our home in Sanctuary Hills to Vault 111. My husband and son were bundled into one decontamination chamber while I was taken to another. But that was just a cover. All of it. The husband and son. The decontamination chamber. None of it was real. My marriage was one of political necessary. My child was borne of one night of weakness with Nate and a woman whose name I chose not to learn. And the decontamination chamber put me into a cryogenically frozen state for 210 years.
If I've survived anything, it was a life of lies. The world I'd awoken to may not have been the one I'd have chosen but it was the only one in which I could be free. Seeing Nate in that frigid tomb along with all of my neighbors, me and Shaun the only two inhabitants that would escape it alive, was downright horrifying. The truth is, sometimes when I close my eyes at night, I see their peaceful faces. Other times, I see Nate's contorted in fear. Fear for me and Shaun. In either case, I wake up in a cold sweat and reach across the bed for comfort.
Fortunately, comfort is never far away. Piper Wright sleeps beside me nearly every night. When she feels me reaching for her, she turns over in her sleep and burrows into my arms. With her dark hair pressed firmly under my chin, all it takes is the gentle rhythm of her breathing against me to lull me back into slumber. It's the simple things in life, really.
Settling down in Diamond City had been Piper's idea and it was a good one. Her sister attended school and now that I had taken the ten year old synth version of my son from the Institute, it made sense to send him there as well. We haven't told Nat Shaun's a synth yet. As of right now, the only person who knows is Piper. I'm sure the secret is killing her but so far, she's agreed that despite the Institute having been shut down for good, the existence of synths still frighten most people. If Shaun is ever to have a chance at a real life, no one can ever know his origin.
It's been a few months since I teamed up with the Railroad, an underground organization dedicated to freeing the synths, to take down the Institute from the inside. Saying goodbye to my son before destroying everything he'd built... it was like losing him the first time. I owed it to his legacy, misguided as it was, to raise the synth boy with the same integrity the man he was modeled after had. Only this time, he would have his mother's hand to guide him.
They call me the Sole Survivor. Once, I was a wife, mother and lawyer. Now I'm a hero of the Commonwealth. And my story's not yet over.