Into the Wasteland

by Snow White The Brave

All Buttercup ever wanted was peace. But after the nuclear bombs destroy the world she once knew, she escapes from Vault 111 after 210 years of cryostasis, eager to heal the world that she left behind.

A whole new life. That was what I was to expect in Vault 111. A refuge from the devastation outside. The bombs. The war. They ushered us in so quickly that I couldn't imagine that they were going to cryogenically freeze us – me- for over two centuries. I didn't know that somewhere in the middle of it all, I would only awaken to see the pod across from me opened, my infant son taken away by some stranger and my husband shot in the head for resisting to hand over our child. I was too weak, I couldn't fight back. I was contained behind a freezer only openable from the outside. The pods were reactivated, and my body caved into the freeze. I slept.

But then, I awoke.

I was freed from my pod and into the dark, dank hall of cryo pods. I fell to the floor, scrambling to free Nate from his pod. But what I had thought was a nightmare was only my reality. He was dead. All of the other pod occupants were dead. I was the sole survivor. I promised to find Shaun, our son. And avenge him. I wandered the Vault, discovering only decay and skeletons. The Vault had been abandoned for years. Scouring through the still fuctional terminals, I discovered that a mutiny had occurred between security and the Overseer's people. They destroyed each other. Nobody had survived. I was utterly and completely alone. I scavenged what I could, including some weapons and a functional Pip-Boy, which continued to be one of my greatest blessings. I escaped the Vault. Into the Wasteland.

At first, I wasn't entirely sure what to think, as the same bright sun that shone across my old home. This is the world I had been frozen from for so long. It's not the world I was raised in. It was destruction manifest. I managed to find Codsworth, my family's Mr. Handy caretaker robot, and learn what I could from him before setting out on my journey to find my son.

So much has happened. I found the Minutemen, Diamond City, Piper the Reporter, Nick Valentine, R.J. MacCready, the Brotherhood of Steel, Paladin Danse, the Railroad, Raiders, Super Mutants, Cait and the Combat Zone, Power Armor, Kellogg, Synths, the Institute, Dogmeat, the Commonwealth in it's full radioactive glory. Everything played a part in helping me find Shaun. I found him. He was the Director of the Institute. He freed me from Vault 111 in hopes I would find him.

Now it's been up to me to keep the powerful factions of the Commonwealth from tearing each other's throats apart. They all despise each other. And I'm in the middle, keeping everything from falling apart. It's not an easy job, but I'm managing. Something strange that I discovered happened shortly after I was released from the Vault. I had the ability to freeze things. If my emotions were powerful enough, I could freeze a whole army of super mutants with just a cast of my hand. At first, I was terrified of this power. I couldn't understand it, and I refuse to tell anyone about it because I know that nobody will either. The only companion that has ever travelled with me and has seen me use this power is my loyal pup Dogmeat. He's the only one I trust with the knowledge of my unexplainable, dare I say it, power.

But I've gotten pretty good at hiding it. Sometimes when my emotions run intensely, it makes itself known. Without my consent. When I travel alone, often I will practice with it, harnessing it and familiarizing with it. If it was going to be a part of me, I figured it was futile to ignore it. But I'm not ready for everyone else to accept it yet. And so, we wait.

The year is 2279, two years of having been awoken from the darkness of Vault 111. My name is Buttercup Evans. And I am the Sole Survivor.