Disclaimer: I'll say this once. I. Do. Not. Own. Fallout.
Author's Note: I just started writing this story this morning. Literally, just started writing. No real direction. No plan. Not sure where this story is going. But I've been considering the character of 'Nora'. Military wife. Mother. Went to law school, but hasn't actually practiced law. (Nate did say "You'll shake the dust off your law degree". So I'm assuming being a wife and mother got in the way of her actually practicing law.) The whole time I'm playing as her, I'm thinking in my head, yeah, I'm a badass, but seriously, how far would this woman make it in the wasteland. She'd the equivalent of a 1950s housewife. Best case scenario, she's only ever shot a gun in practice, and maybe only a few times. Her husband would survive this place no problem, but her? Anyway, so I'm writing her story. If you like it review if you want to. And don't worry. This isn't going to be a reprise of the game. I'm just starting off in the vault because it felt natural.
Chapter One
Cold, But Not Dead
Cold. It was so cold. She felt like she couldn't breathe, and she lay gasping on the metal floor beside her husband's body for what could have been hours. She couldn't stop the tears. He was dead. She had seen it with her own eyes; she'd felt for a pulse and found nothing, so she'd pulled him out of the pod and attempted CPR, but it was too late. He was gone. But she couldn't process it in words yet. In fact, it seemed like a long time before she managed coherent thought at all. When she finally did, the bossy voice inside her head that had gotten her through college, law school, child birth, and even the dropping of a nuclear bomb took over. Up, it commanded, you have to get up! She didn't want to do it. This horrible pain had claimed her, and she didn't want to resist. She didn't think she could face a life without Nathan, but the voice was right. She had to get up. Because she had to find Shaun.
Shivering, and still coughing, she forced herself to her feet. One last time, she looked down at her husband, promising him that she'd find whoever did this, that she'd find their baby. Sniffling, she slipped his wedding ring off his finger and clutched it to her heart, then forced herself to turn away.
"Shaun," she whispered, her throat raw. "My baby."
Where is my baby?
Stumbling and coughing, she wandered around the vault, looking into the other pods, looking for anyone who might know what happened, but all she found were corpses and skeletons.
"Is anyone here?" she called out desperately. "Hello?"
The only answer was her voice echoing through the halls.
Eventually she found my way to the Overseers office, where she found his terminal and discovered the horrible truth. They were an experiment. And as for these bones… these people had killed each other. Some trying to get out. Others, knowing that would mean instant death, fighting to keep everyone in. Shivering, she started to scour the room. She found a few stimpacks, and some food, but there were no pockets in her vault suit, nothing to carry them in. Scouring the other rooms, she found an army-green duffel bag and filled it with what supplies she could find. She'd seen that bomb go off. She knew there couldn't be much left above ground. She'd have to make these supplies last.
The only thing she hesitated over was the gun. A 10mm pistol was laying casually on the ledge of the Overseers desk. She'd only ever shot one a handful of times. Nate had insisted she learn, but what proper housewife walked around with a gun in her purse? Now she wished she'd learned more, that she hadn't stopped the lessons once Nate was confident she had the basics. In truth, she was tempted to leave it there, but her fear of the unknown made up her mind for her. Who knew what she'd find beyond that door? That man had had a gun. He'd killed Nate with it when he'd tried to stop them from taking Shaun. What if he was outside, waiting for her to come out?
Cringing away from the cold metal, she wrapped her fingers around the grip and pulled with duffel bag over her shoulder with her free hand.
It was a good thing she'd followed her instincts. She had barely left the Overseers office before she was confronted by the most enormous, hideous, terrifying cockroaches she'd ever seen in her life; they were fat and brown and over a foot long. They'd been crawling benignly along the walls when she saw them, but at the sound of her shrill scream, they'd fluttered down onto the floor and came charging in her direction.
Panicking, she quickly retreated, backing away and practically stumbling over her own feet as she fired the gun indiscriminately in their direction. Afterward, she was sure more bullets had hit the walls and the floor than the roaches themselves, and the noise had been deafening, but she succeeded in killing them all with only one minor scratch on her wrist. It stung, but her heart was racing so fast that she barely noticed. Giant roaches? Taking a deep breath, she reminded herself that it wasn't so bad. Bugs had been a part of life before the war, and if they were still around, surely that was a good sign, even if the were a little… different.
Bolstering up her courage, she pressed on, finding a handful more roaches in the next room. She was more careful this time. Her ears seemed more sensitive than usual in the silence of the vault, and now that she was paying attention, she found she could hear them long before she saw them. Taking a deep breath, she tried to remember the few things she had learned about properly firing a weapon, and she wasted considerably less bullets in the next few rooms.
Finally, she found the entrance. Apparently, someone had made it this far trying to get out. Two skeletons lay on the floor next to the console that would open the door, but she guess they'd killed each other in the ensuing altercation. Or maybe they'd been shot from behind in their attempt to escape. She would never know. But one of them lay next to a Pip-Boy 3000. Setting the pistol down on the console, she hesitantly picked it up, letting the wrist bones fall from it as she examined it. With relief, she realized it was a Mark IV; she didn't fancy having the thing biometrically sealed to her arm. Snapping it around her wrist, she locked the latch and it immediately started to boot up. She dusted off the screen while she waited, and the first thing displayed was a miniature, slightly cartoonish model of herself, showing the condition of her body down to her muscles, organs, and bones. It even noted the scratch on her wrist.
She'd examine it more later. For now, she wanted to get out of here. She linked the pip-boy to the console, and the casing protecting the door control popped open. She slammed her fist down on the button, and was overwhelmed by the blaring alarms that echoed around the room. Covering her ears, she watched with relief as the door opened. It seemed like only minutes had passed since she'd watched it close behind her, but the bones scattered on the floor around her told a different story. But it didn't matter. None of it did. The only thing that mattered anymore was finding her son.
"Shaun," she whispered as the elevator lifted her toward the surface. "I'm coming, sweetheart."
