Her reality used to be so very cookie-cutter real. It was a life that had been constructed with years of hard work and careful effort. It was easy and clean, but it was real and it was all hers. She had a man who adored her, and who she loved gracefully in return. They had been there for one another always, their relationship never challenging. They just fit together like two puzzle pieces. Things were almost foolishly perfect, and then baby made three and it was beyond perfect. They were blissfully happy, and blithely unaware that it was all about to end. This world that she loved so very much, was torn from her hands in what felt like an instant. She blinked and the world collapsed- she breathed and her entire life crumbled. All that was left, was a grim new reality when she peered out from beneath the fallout. Little did the Vault Dweller know, this new world was going to take her on an unparalleled journey.
Freya squeezed her eyes shut as she dug a bullet from the meaty part of her arm. Thank God it's my right arm, Freya thought to herself. She was left handed, and in a world like this losing full strength in your dominant shooting hand was not the best situation to get yourself into. She tossed the bullet into a metal tin bucket that was next to her. She was attempting to keep the blood contained as best as she could. She didn't want to attract anything grisly from the scent of her wounds. So she continued trying to keep the wound tidy as she began cleaning it and patching it up with what bits of cloth she had found.
"Fucking, Raiders!" Freya hissed as she tightened the bandage around her arm. She had only been living in this world for a few weeks, but she had already found herself adjusting to the knowledge of this wasteland. She had to become alert to her new reality rather quickly, or else she wouldn't survive. People who had lived here their entire lives found themselves falling victim to its many dangers. Freya refused to be one of those people, she was going to be a survivor, because that was what she did. She survived. She had made a promise to Nate, her husband.
"I'll find who did this. And I'll get Shaun back. I promise." Freya spoke to her husband's lifeless and bloody corpse. She had dragged herself from her cryo-pod and forced herself to fight the pain as she slammed into the ground below her.
The memories were still so fresh that she felt herself wanting to avoid them instantly. She grabbed a bottle of whiskey from her bag and took a swig. It was bad. Really bad. But it wasn't nearly as gamy and disgusting as choking down mutated mole rat meat. This entire irradiated world stunk, like Deathclaw piss and rotting flesh. Frankly the towns weren't much better. Soap was hard to come by most of the time and so was the site of water that wasn't drowning in radiation.
Freya closed her eyes for what felt like a mere second when she felt her leg being nudged. She snapped her hazel eyes opened to find that her companion had become uneasy with her choice of resting place. The dog that she had discovered at the start of her travels, was a beautiful German Shepherd that came with the name Dogmeat. She had much preferred call him Pal or Boy and occasionally she would grace him with the nickname, Killer. He was an amazingly loyal companion, who stuck by her side the moment she gave him a stick of dehydrated jerky that she had found before leaving the vault. There was a rather strange comfort in having him by her side when the darkness fell around her. He often growled before Freya even noticed that an enemy was near, and he had saved her multiple times now by tearing an attacker from her body. She was certain she would have died by now, if not for her new best friend.
"Alright, boy." Freya squinted and drew in a deep breath. "Time to get going then?" She rubbed his head affectionately and pealed herself from where she was sitting. She double checked to make sure that her gun was fully loaded and ready for duty. In this world something could pop out from behind you without a moment's notice, she needed to be prepared.
Her next destination was Diamond City, and she was sure she wasn't far at all. She had always had a knack for directions, but now she was mostly running on instinct and a minimal amount of knowledge she had picked up from people on her travels. She knew was close, but unfortunately she had run into some raider troubles on her way to Diamond City. One girl, one single girl and her dog took on a crew of about five raiders and won. But that was nothing compared to a handful of other battles she had encountered since she emerged from the vault. Fighting with a Deathclaw was probably the worst fight she had endured since arriving in this cesspool. After escaping those treacherous monsters nearly unscathed, she somehow managed to get nicked by a Raider's sniper rifle before she even noticed he was there.
Just as Freya was getting ready to head towards a safer place to rest, she saw Dogmeats ears perk up and his body duck down low to the ground. He hadn't begun to growl just yet, but he was on full alert. She held her breath and rolled her eyes. What now? She thought. She knew it wasn't Feral Ghouls, since Dogmeat would have been much more on edge, he hated them just as much as she did.
Freya clutched her weapon and ducked behind the broken down wall of the building she was currently residing in. As she pressed her back against the wall- feeling a tad bit like James Bond- she noticed a shadow drawing towards her from the other side of the door. Freya quickly spun around the doorway and held her gun in front of her, ready to open fire at whatever or whoever was waiting for her. She hesitated to pull the trigger when she noticed an entirely human man standing in front of her.
"Woah, woah! Easy, Tiger!" The man shouted, holding his hands in the air to express that he meant her no harm.
"What the hell do you want!?" Freya hissed, her fingers twitching over the trigger of her weapon.
He was a good deal taller than her, but that didn't take much. His hair was dark and thick, and his eyes were covered with dark sunglasses. He wore a ragged plaid shirt and nicely fitted jeans- certainly didn't dress like some raider scum. Even though she was uneasy, she felt herself hesitate as she stared at this stranger. She didn't want to harm him, even though waiting just one second could mean her demise.
"Uh-" The man hesitated for a mere second. "World peace?"