Note: This fic has been set up to follow other Fallout lore where Pre-war America is not as safe as the intro to Fallout 4 might lead you to believe. There will be mentions of the plague, the Ration Riots, Hot Summer, and anti-military movements. My SS lived her early years in Chicago and experiences the Ration Riots first hand. This fic will have typical in game violence etc. I plan on shoving as many literary references in as possible. Thanks for reading~
If she hadn't heard her name being called she'd never have walked towards the curtained window in the first place. White knuckles and sweaty palms held the shotgun Nate had bought her before leaving for Canada. The sharp rapping came from the window again. The light from the city outside was present even in the dead of night and silhouetted a large figure crouched on the fire escape. Using the end of the shotgun barrel she slowly drew back one side of the curtains and staring back at her through thick brows and blue eyes was the very man responsible for the gun now pointed at him.
"Nate what the hell," Nora demanded after wrenching the frosty window open. He climbed in setting a pack on the ground. A chilly wind followed in after him sending a shiver through Nora's body. Nate's shoulders were hunched forward. His hands were awkward half fists at his sides. The man who once stood confidently was a ghost. Nora stepped forward and rested her warm hand on his icy cheek gently turning his face to look at her. His bloodshot eyes were wary of findings hers. "Nate," she called softly.
His eyes finally made contact with hers briefly before he pulled her into a rough embrace. She tried to move her arms now pinned to more comfortably hug him back, but Nate only squeezed tighter. His face was buried into her hair taking in deep shaky breaths until he thickly said, "marry me Nora." It was more of a statement than a question.
The white paint lines radiating from the plus symbol were the cleanest things in his line of vision. Deacon wiped the sweat from the bridge of his nose that had been causing his sunglasses to slowly slide down. He had a report come in stating that this vault was a source of some synth activity, and yet the whole time he had been here not a single one had shown it's face.
Gingerly turning the page on his mostly preserved copy of Robert Musil's two volume work, he felt lucky to have found the second volume in the Capital Wasteland. "I only make fun of it because I love it," Ulrich said curtly. He finished the chapter and stood up to stretch.
Maybe the Institute had already gotten what they wanted from this place and left. The informant was fairly credible. They had reported a small team of chrome-domes entering and leaving the vault several times in the past month. He lit a cigarette and as if on cue he felt the rumbling under his feet as the metal vault doors parted. He grabbed his gun and watched the opening through the scope.
A woman in a blue vault suit numbered the same as the vault door appeared on the elevator platform. She coughed and shielded her eyes with one hand and carried a 10mm in the other. It was strange how clean she was. Her brunette hair shone vibrantly in the sun, nothing like the dull mess of most wastelanders. She even had on makeup. Her first couple steps were like watching a newborn radstag walk for the first time. She made her way down the hill and away from the vault.
Deacon quickly packed up and followed noting that the vault elevator was still up and he would be able to come back and enter on his own, but he was too curious to see how this new player worked out. This could have been the answer from the past he had been looking for.
Nora's head was spinning. Only moments had passed since she had seen the sky catch fire, silhouetting her husband and child. Her husband. Nate. She gripped his wedding band tighter into her palm until it hurt. She kept seeing the red bloom on his blue vault suit
She ran towards Sanctuary Hills. Was there anything left? The trees had been stripped bare and she didn't recognize any of the plant life around her. Her blood pounded in her ears and she ran down the street she lived on. Few of the pastel houses remained. Rusted paneling, broken mailboxes, and broken glass stabbed at the edges of her vision.
She saw their house. Mostly intact. She got to the threshold and yelled, "Codsworth?!" The reply in the form of silence was deafening. She stepped over the broken red door into the living room. "Codsworth," she screamed feeling it hurt her throat. The couch Nate had been so adamant about getting from his parents house was still there, overturned and stained. Tears filled her vision blurring the nightmare in front of her. She needed Nate so badly right now. He would know what to do. Where to start looking. She heard a familiar noise behind her; the sound of fans and a thruster whirring.
"As I live and breathe," said the Mr. Handy when he appeared in the doorway. "Miss Nora is that you?" She turned sharply, blinking away her tears.
"Codsworth?"
"It's… it's REALLY you mum!"
Nora jumped up and hugged the Mr. Handy, "Codsworth what is going on? Why is everything dead? Is anyone alive?"
"No mum. Where is sir?"
"Nate… he," she trailed off not wanting to say the words out loud. "They shot him Codsworth. The people who took Shaun. They shot him. Oh my god Codsworth they killed Nate and they took Shaun! You have to help me. Did you see anyone around here? From the direction of the vault?"
"Mum… these things you're saying. These… terrible things… I… I believe you need a distraction. Yes! A distraction, to calm this dire mood"
"Codsworth," she said placing her palm on the spherical body of the Mr. Handy unit, "I need you to listen. I need to find the people who killed Nate and took Shaun. Please… please tell me anything you know."
"It's worse than I though. Hmmm. You're suffering from… hunger-induced paranoia. Not eating properly for 200 years will do that, I'm afraid."
"Two… Two hundred years? What are you talking about 200 years, Codsworth!?"
"A bit over 210 actually, mum. Give or take a little for the Earth's rotation and some minor dings to the old chronometer. That means you're two centuries late for dinner," Codsworth laughed. "Perhaps I can whip you up a snack? You must be famished."
"Codsworth you're acting weird. What's going on? Are you alright?"
"I… I.." and with that the Mr. Handy broke, "Oh mum, it's been just horrible! Two centuries with no one to talk to, no one to serve."
Deacon crouched around the corner of the house and couldn't believe what he'd just heard. This vault dweller was a Pre-war relic. The genuine article. Even he couldn't have made this shit up. It explained her squeaky-clean appearance and why she was screaming for all the 'Wealth to hear. She had no idea of the dangers around her. The screaming. Her husband had been killed in front of her and her child stolen. He felt a pinch in his stomach and decided it was better to let this reunion continue on without him. He wanted in that vault to see the story for himself. You can't trust everyone he thought.
The vault was eerily quiet. His well practiced footfalls echoed like a Super Mutants in here. He found several Radroaches with bullet holes that matched her gun. She's got great aim he observed seeing each was a headshot.
His breath became visible in the stale air when he reached the cryo-chambers. Every single pod had a dead frozen body in it. It was more of a morgue now. The second chamber showed two unlatched pods. One was empty. The other housed a man inside with a bullet wound in his chest. His haircut and build were military, but his eyes seemed gentle. If it wasn't for the boutonniere of red Deacon could have sworn he was sleeping.
Deacon checked the terminals. One yielded what the real purpose of the vault had been: none of the residents knew they were going to be frozen. They were told they were climbing into decontamination pods. It seemed there had been a mutiny amongst the vault's employees against the overseer. Their posts and charges abandoned as they left the vault.
Not everyone had made it out. There were skeletons littered around the place with tattered vault suits and vault-tec lab coats. He nudged one out of the way with his foot to get to a terminal. It held information confirming the vault dweller's story. Nate was her husband and had entered the pod with an infant child named Shaun. Nora. Nora was her name and she was a lawyer.
"Curiouser and curiouser," Deacon whispered. It was time to return to the house and check up on his project.