Chapter One- War.. War Never Changes...
"... We began to use atomic energy, not as a weapon, but as a nearly limitless source of power. People used luxuries that were once thought as science-fiction; domestic robots. Fusion-powered cars. Portable computers. But then, in the 21st century, people awoke from the American dream. Years of consumption led to shortage of every resource. The entire world unraveled. Peace became a distant memory. It is now the year 2077. We stand on the brink of total war. And I am afraid. For myself. For my wife. For my infant son. Because if my time in the army taught me one thing... It's that war... War never changes.."
"You're gonna knock 'em dead at the next meeting, hun." Came the sweet voice of a woman with shoulder-length black hair standing amidst the doorway of a sliding bathroom door.
"You think?" Came the hesitant reply of a man with a chiseled jaw and strikingly handsome features. His dark gray eyes locking onto the woman as she smiled at him with a love and satisfaction only he knew.
"Of course. Now. Stop hogging the mirror." She said with a tease as she pushed herself from the door and made her way over to him.
The woman was beautiful. For the lack of a better word. She looked at her husband with those brilliant sky-blue eyes of hers as she leaned against the sink and turned her sharp features left and right. Not a scratched marred her smooth complexion and the man beside her found himself lost in the pool of her blue eyes.
He couldn't help but smile as he stood behind her as she fixed herself, making herself look as beautiful as she possibly could. She didn't even have to try. Even without the addition of the makeup she wore whenever they went out, she was as intimidating as ever. When she finished applying her pink lipstick, her eyes already lined with the black liner that made her eyes pop even more than before, she gave him that all-too-adoring smile of hers and pat his shoulder. Leaving him to his bidding as she turned in the hall to the living room and kitchen that made up the entryway of their luxurious home.
"Ah, good morning, mum! Your coffee! 173.5 Fahrenheit! Brewed to perfection! And, today's newspaper, just delivered!" Was the happy-go-lucky voice of the automated help hovering in the kitchen with the fresh jug of coffee ready to be placed back onto its maker.
Elliot couldn't help but to smile. She was glad for their purchase of the Mr. Handy unit once the baby was born. He had been a great help to them both just starting out raising a family. While he tended to baby Shaun during the nights, allowing Elliot and her husband the lap of luxury to sleep without ailment, they found themselves well rested to care for their son as Codsworth, they decided to name their robot friend, took care of the daily chores. With the occasion of Elliots' help, that is.
Despite having Codsworth around, Elliot felt there was always something to do around the house. Whether it was doing laundry or cleaning up dishes or even the simple task of changing a light bulb, she wouldn't allow Codsworth all the fun. She hummed a tune in her head that had been stuck there for the last couple hours as she grabbed her perfectly tempered coffee and sipped it, ignoring the burning sensation to her freshly painted lips.
She couldn't help but to smile as she looked the newspaper over only to see the newest advertisements for the latest issue of Grognak the Barbarian. Secretly, Elliot admired these things and her husband was the only one in the world who knew.
She was graced as a young girl with an older brother who was more or less the nerdy type and his daunting obsessions regarding the flow of comics into the household rubbed off onto her throughout their childhood. Both of their parents worked during the day and hadn't returned often until late in the evening, leaving the siblings alone to each other.
Elliot didn't mind. She found that reading had its' advantages expanding her cranium more than taking a risk with socializing to the girls of a middle and higher class. Elliot and her brother had gone to the finest school nearest their home in Sanctuary Hills but with all fine schools came the cliques and the prejudices of the poor man that Elliot and her brother managed to hide, seeking refuge in their comics soon as the day bell rang for school to end.
It was even at a junction that Elliot went to with her older sibling she ran into her husband, Nate. The soldier who had come home after serving his time in the Army. He was a little older than her but his charming smile and chiseled jaw and steel gray eyes caught her attention, sending her mind whirling, straight into a nearby jock and his pretty gal. Things had been about to get rough when her knight in damaged armor had come to her rescue.
It was at that point that Elliot and her brother had come to know the name of their rescuer and found his charm to be quite exhilarating. They had quickly come to know that Nate was returning home and happened to fancy himself a comic book or two and talked to the pair of their concerns and interests in the newest comic release of the very Barbarian character that Elliot now found herself staring at.
She laughed almost aloud as she shook her head and placed the newspaper back onto the counter for a later read as Nate, dressed simply in a white t-shirt and faded blue jeans, came from the bathroom with a sigh. He looked beat and Elliot wouldn't have that. She flashed him her award-winning smiles that she knew would make any man melt and she started over to him when the cry of their child pierced the soothing melody of the radio playing on the kitchen table.
"No, no. It's alright, Ellie. I'll get him. You enjoy your coffee." Nate had spoke, his voice genuine as he left back down the halls to the bedroom where their sons' crib lay.
Elliot wondered how in the world she could have gotten so lucky to have been able to marry a man like Nate. What he ever saw in her, it was well beyond her. She smiled anyway and questioned it no further as she looked to the small television set in their front room, polishing off her coffee now that she had grown numb to the fiery burn of its contents.
Within a few moments, Nate had come back into the room with Shaun in his arms as she leaned against the little bookshelf next to their front door. She smiled affectionately towards their son as he had finally settled down with Nate pressing a small bottle of milk to the childs lips. They were watching something about the news as Codsworth had been cleaning out a glass before setting it into its place in the higher cabinet.
"Uh-oh. Looks like that man from earlier is here. Vault-tech." Nate had said with sarcastic concern.
Elliot found herself rolling her eyes. That would make the third time this week that man had come to their doorstep trying to offer them up some mumbo-jumbo insurance for some End-of-the-world scheme. The first time she had opened the door thinking it was a man coming to check on the status of their Mr. Handy unit until he started firing off his mouth regarding the insurance. The second time he had come by, she pretended not to be home and with luck, Nate had left to buy some Sugar Bombs they had run out of.
Now, with their car sitting under the port and the tv on, there was no escape. With a sigh, she quickly slapped on a smile and smoothed out her white floral dress and opened the door, greeting him with a smile that she would often greet with her friends.
"Good morning! Vault-tech calling! We're here about you, ma'am. Helping to secure your future! You see, Vault-tech, is the foremost built of state-of-the-art, underground fallout shelters. Vaults, if you will! Luxury accommodations. Where you can wait out the horrors of nuclear devastation. You can't understand how happy I am to be speaking with you. I've been trying for days. It's a matter of utmost urgency. I assure you." The man dressed in his snazzy tan suit spoke, a somehow serious expression now on his face as he met her steady blue gaze.
She stifled an outward sigh before she glanced to Nate who only looked at her with a warm smile, urging her to play nice. "Yes... I'm sorry about that. We've been busy, you know. Preparing for Halloween, but I am here now."
"Haha. So you are, ma'am. So you are. Now I know you're a busy woman, so I won't take up much of your time. Time.. Time being, uh... A precious commodity. I'm here today, to tell you that because of your family's service to our country, you have been pre-selected for entrance into the local Vault! Vault... 111." He said with such stupor that he even waved his hands in the air for emphasis.
Elliot cringed. She didn't truly buy into the whole end-of-the-world thing and with Halloween so close, she felt that it was nothing short of a scam. She desperately wanted to slam the door right into the man's face, teaching him not to come to her doorstep with this psycho-babble. Instead, she felt her husband's grace as he stepped up from the sofa and stood by her side. If she knew her husband, he was going to indulge in the man at least.
"We have a family. That would include all of us, right?" His husky voice came, the one she had fallen so desperately in love with.
"Why yes! Of course! Minus your robot naturally. In fact, you are all already cleared for inhabitants! It's just a simple matter of filing for some information. Don't want there to be any hold-ups in case of the.. Eheh. Unfortold scene of atomic annihilation. It won't take but a moment." When the man had begun to see that Elliot's expression was a little more than dissatisfied, he feared the worse in her shutting the door in his face. Unaware that that thought had already crossed her mind.
"Vault 111 is well-equipped with amenities for the common house-hold dwelling, I assure you! Not to mention, total protection from total radiation and hostile mutants. A better future underground. It's not only our mission, it's our passion."
"Huh. The apocalypse? Well, hell! Sign me up!" Elliot slipped through her husbands charm and leaked out some well-deserved dose of sarcasm.
Clearly, the Vault-tech salesman did little to understand her innuendo. She would have to work on that. "Haha! That's the spirit! Now.. Let's see..."
He handed over to her a clipboard and a fancy blue pen marked with a lovely complimentary yellow, no doubt the colors that deemed the Vault-tech establishment familiar. The questions mattered very little to Elliot as she scanned them over rapidly with her sky-blue eyes. She quickly checked random boxes, keeping the simplest of questions she caught glimpses of true to their word. Her marital status and the number of children she currently had. As well as her name. Elliot. Elliot Alisworth. She did little to hide the smirk that spread across her face as she clicked in the top of the pen before she smiled smugly at the salesman in his funky snazzy suit and handed over the clipboard to him when she had finished.
"Wonderful! That's everything. I'm just gonna.. Walk this over to the Vault. Congratulations on being prepared for the future!" He had said as he took a jerk step back off of their front step and away towards the van he had come in.
Of course, Elliot didn't see him walk away as she slammed the door just then and let out an elaborate sigh that she had apparently been holding. She shook her head as she met her husbands' gray eyes and pursed her lips.
"Did you have to indulge in that crazy man's antics?" She moaned as she walked over to him and softly kissed his cheek. Nate smirked then, knowing just how to push her buttons.
"Hey, now. It's just a little piece of mind. Besides, it didn't cost us a thing. No harm done." He soothed her, rubbing his hands down her soft skin and she couldn't help but to return his smile with one of her own.
He was right of course. No harm done except for the headache she had now had. Elliot wasn't exactly a people person. She hadn't been from the moment of her birth. Awkward associations especially with random people really got to her. Codsworth had just finished putting away one of the dishes from the drain into its' place when she and Nate had taken a seat.
It wasn't all but a few moments into their settling into one another that their son started to cry again and Codsworth chimed up from his hovering in the hallway. "Mum. Lord Shaun has already been changed and fed but he will just not settle down. I think he needs the caress of a mother at this time."
Elliot smiled. The way Codsworth spoke always fascinated her and made her giggle. She looked to Nate then, silently asking his permission to leave his arms. He returned her smile warmly and let her go. "Go ahead, hon. I'll be in there in a second."
He took her hand and softly kissed it as she stood to her feet and let her go. She stepped into their sons' room and walked over to the crib where Shaun lay, waving his arms and crying for attention. A motherly wave of adoration washed over her as she gently wound up the rockets atop his crib. The same rocket mobile that Nate had fixed a couple days ago after a slight malfunction in its' make. Simple. Nothing too hard to fix.
Soon as she wound it up and it spun, a soft melody filling the room as it moved and Shaun quieted down then, fascinated with the moving object. "My little man isn't giving his mother any trouble, now is he?" Nate's voice came from the doorway and he watched as his wife took loving care in the way she handled the mobile rockets. The same care that had so often won over his affection and led to the creation that now lay in front of them.
"Listen, hon. After breakfast. I was wondering if you would like to go to the park for a bit? The weather looks nice today and should hold up until later in the evening. What do you think?" He asked now, stepping into the room and wrapping his arms lovingly around his wife.
She smiled and fell into his warmth, pressing her head gently against his jaw. "That sounds absolutely wonderful to me. When we get back, we can carve pumpkins for Shaun's first Halloween. I've got some wicked cool ideas."
"Sir! Mum! You should come and see this!" Codsworths' sudden jarring tone ran them both rigid. Sure, Codsworth had an uncanny tendency to overreact for some things, but truly, something sounded off then in his voice that made them both rush from the room to his aid.
"... Followed by flashes... And sounds of explosions.. We're, uh.. Trying to get 've seem to have lost contact with the, uh.. Following stations-" Elliot moved slowly towards the window that displayed the neighborhood they lived in. Several of their neighbors, their friends, were busying themselves packing away suitcases into the back of their cars while several more scrambled making their way down the road. "We.. We do have.. Coming in... That's uhm.. Confirmed reports-.. They're.. They're confirmed reports of nuclear detonation in New York and Pennsylvania. My god-.."
Elliot stepped away from the window then, her heart just about stopping in her chest as she turned to face the television as the screen flashed to a readied "Stand-By". She hardly heard the sirens off in the distance as her entire world slowed. Nate was just coming from the hallway with Shaun in his arms, his face creased with worry as he stepped by her and opened the door.
"Elliot!" His voice snapped her to and she shook her head. Her family's safety was what she needed to focus on now.
"We need to get to the Vault!" She cried, unable to keep the fear in her voice from breaking through.
"I've got Shaun! Let's go!" Nate said and his wife hardly had time to look back at her home. Hardly had time to see Codsworth floating in the doorway as they ran out the door.
"RESIDENTS OF SANCTUARY HILLS. IF YOU ARE REGISTERED, EVACUATE TO VAULT 111, IMMEDIATELY." Elliot listened vaguely to the man over the intercom giving the residents instructions. Like anybody in their right mind would stop and listen to them anyhow. Her heart raced as she ran after Nate and Shaun, her skirt fluttering out from underneath her heals. She picked a terrible day to break-in the heels she had bought. All around her, people she called friends ran among each other for the safety of the Vault. Most of them stopped and stared, almost like they were just waiting for the bombs to fall. Elliot, however, did not want that chance. She would gladly leave it to her imagination what they looked like.
As they ran passed the small river that was fed behind their houses, Elliots' blue eyes wandered to the sky. Almost tripping over her heels, she gasped and quickly caught herself, wincing as her hands scraped the soil. She swiftly snapped to then, pushing herself beyond the pain as she ran to catch up to her family, only to come to a heart wrenching sight.
"That's absurd!"
"Open up the gates!"
"But I am on the list!"
Elliot heard different people cry. People whose voices were familiar yet strange to her. Voices that belonged to her neighbors. Voices that belonged to her friends. Voices... That belonged to the very people she cared about.
"I'm going in!" The familiar cry of the Vault-tech salesman came higher than the rest as he tried to push his way past the guards. Immediately there were cries of panic as the soldier he shoved pulled out a gun, aiming it straight at the tech with a hard stare.
To Elliot, though, that gun meant very little if it meant that her family would live. So let this foolish guard stand in her way to the Vault. The one place that would provide sanctuary to the threat that they now all faced.
"Excuse me!" She heard herself cry out as she came to a stop in front of the guard, staring him down with ice-chips that now replaced her usual calm blue eyes. "We need to get in. We're on the list. Alisworth."
The guard stared her down, his dark green eyes showing no mercy as he faced this woman dead-on. In an instant, he looked at the clipboard his counterpart held and looked back to the dark-haired woman. Whether she was crazy or just crazy brave, he somehow admired her.
"Male. Infant. Female. Okay, go ahead." He finally said and stood aside, however keeping his gun on the people that crowded around behind the small family.
"What?! Why them!"
"That's not fair!"
"We're on that list, too!"
The cries of their neighbors rang through Elliot's ears once more and as the man with the clipboard began to lead them further up the hill, she gently held onto Nate for support, casting her icy gaze on the obvious egghead. "What about all those people? Some of them are on that list!"
"We're doing everything we can, now keep moving!" The man called before he continued on, leading the family further up the hill where several military-standard trailers stood, Vertibird circling around in the skies above them no doubt providing extra support in case things went awry.
"In the cirle! On the platform! Get in the circle and on the platform, now!" Cried a soldier off to the side, his hand hovering dangerously close to a red button. Elliot stared wide as the people on the platform were very few. A startling very few. She counted only three people standing scared on that platform. All returning her fears reflected in their eyes.
One woman cowered on the platform, her knees to her chest as she rocked back and forth, tears streaming down her cheeks unchecked and the two other men staring around amidst the confusion. The sirens had died down then, only becoming an even further wailing. Quickly becoming nothing more than just background noise against the terror that they all felt.
"Is Shaun okay?" Elliot asked as she whipped around to her husband to find him unnervingly calm. She wondered how in the world he could look like that when their very lives were at stake and it was then that she remembered he was trained in this sort of thing. Despite his obvious love for her and his son, he rarely showed any other emotion, especially fear, when it came to everyday things.
"He's fine, hunny. He's fine." He said in that calm voice of hers. "We're going to be okay." She almost believed him.
Then there it was. The flash. So blinding. Like the sun. And the explosion. God, the explosion was deafening.
"Oh, God!" a man cried, his voice faltering as he stared directly at the flash of light off in the distance.
Elliot then turned around sharply, gasping and nearly lurched to the ground as her heart skipped several beats. She saw it. The heavy cloud billowing up into the sky. A mixture of yellow and oranges she had only seen light up the sky when the sun had set. Rings of smoke disturbing what once was that of a calmed sky. She heard it then before she felt it. The impact of the bomb that she was rapidly approaching them. Bending down trees and cutting down buildings in it's wake.
"DOWN! SEND THEM DOWN NOW!" Screamed a soldier, his location all lost to her now as she wrapped her arms around her husbands' waist, hugging tightly to him now as she pressed her breast to her him, protecting the infant child between them.
A sudden lurch. The faint groan of gears shifting and pulling, and the platform they stood upon slowly moved down the shaft. Their heads were just clear of the opening ring when the impact hit them. Smoke blew over the top, shrouding over them like a heavy and suffocating fog. The smoke rapidly filled Elliots' lungs and her eyes burned as she squeezed them shut. She heard Shaun cough and cry out and she opened her blue eyes again to nothing but the darkness that now consumed them.