The sudden noise of a coffee pot shattering against the floor wakes the girl up. Her eyelids open slowly against the light amidst the painful pounding in her head.
"Oh, oh! So sorry, mum! Pay no attention!"
She is awake now and groaning against the almost unbearable pain in her head. The light is painful – everything is painful. The voice is still talking ("So clumsy of me, it's as if I'm freshly out of the factory") and she wishes it would stop before the darkness surrounds her again and she passes out.
Strange dreams cloud her head. A single gunshot rings in the dark. There is a man with dark hair and a scar. A coldness creeps over her body. She is walking with a man through their house. There is a baby's crib and a massive explosion. The gunshot rings again…
It's the sunlight that wakes the girl this time. She blinks twice and clutches her hands together, the cold seeping around her as if she were still in her dream. She shudders. She tries to sit up with little success and cries out at the pain in her head.
"Oh mum, do lie down! I don't think you're quite ready to be sitting up yet."
She turns her head to examine the voice (much to the dismay of her head.) A Mister Handy is floating around the couch where she has been laying, its robotic eyes staring at her with dismay.
"Mum? Are you alright?"
She tries to speak but her tongue is like lead, "Phow….Who are you?"
"Hahaha! Good one, mum, but it seems like the most inopportune time to be making jokes," the Mister Handy swivels away and grabs a pillow, comfortably jamming it between her back and the couch, "Did all that sleeping grant you a sense of humor?"
The girl gives the Mister Handy a blank stare and looks around slowly at her surroundings. She is in a house that has been almost destroyed. Everything is seemingly very old and there are stains on the walls and floor. She notices the bookshelves have collapsed and that the kitchen counter is cracked. On the living room table there is a TV with dust on the screen that hasn't looked used in years. She continues to look around. The furniture looks out of place, but she can't remember being here before. There is something nagging at the back of her mind. The house seems vaguely familiar, but she can't remember why.
Suddenly a robotic eye is in front of her again. "Mum, are you alright?" The girl gives a startled jump.
"Where am I? Who are you?" The girl has gotten use of her tongue again, "What is this place?"
The robot's mechanical eyes widen in shock, "Miss Zoe? Are you quite alright?"
The name triggers a pain in the girl's head and she shuts her eyes. Zoe. Her name is Zoe. She opens her eyes again and stares at the robot for confirmation, "Am I Zoe?"
"Yes, of course you are Miss Zoe!" The Mister Handy floats a little closer, "Do you not remember?"
The girl goes to shake her head and then remembers the pain, "No, I don't remember anything. I have a fair idea that my name is Zoe and that I've been to this place before, but I don't remember it like this."
"Oh mum…Oh dear…" The robot seems to pace back and forth, his figure floating in midair. "Yes, your name is Zoe. I used to be your butler, Codsworth, before the explosion, and this used to be your house."
Suddenly a memory exploded in the girl's mind, "The nuclear explosion!"
"Yes, yes! You were reserved a spot in Vault 111, about a ten minute walk from here, before the nuclear explosion. You were just telling me, two days ago, how the Vault Tech people had unknowingly cryogenically frozen you two hundred years ago just after the nuclear bomb dropped. Unfortunately, a few minutes after you had begun telling me this you stepped indoors where a piece of damaged roofing fell from the ceiling and landed on your head. It knocked you out but I assumed you would be fine," The robot rearranged a blanket around her shoulders, "But it seems as if it has completely erased your memories!"
The girl, now Zoe, sat on the couch and absorbed this information. The information was unfamiliar concerning her memories but… she thought that it was true. After all, she didn't exactly have any other reliable information and a tugging in her gut believed all that Codsworth had said. There was something missing though…something that she couldn't pinpoint.
After a few minutes in silence Zoe spoke up, "Codsworth, did I live here alone? Did I travel to the vault alone?"
Codsworth turned away suddenly and busied himself with arranging the table and rug. "Hmm? Oh yes, mum, you lived quite alone. Yes, you were a single law student."
Zoe frowned. She supposed this was true but…Why had she been expecting something else? "I remember…I remember walking in this house with a man."
The robot butler froze in midair for a brief second before continuing to rearrange the furniture. "Oh yes. That would have been your boyfriend at the time, Nate. It was serious for a time being, if that's what you're remembering. But I suppose it doesn't matter now!" There was a brief edge in Codsworth's voice.
Zoe stared at the carpet again feeling that mysterious disappointment and sadness. She bit her lip slightly and tried to forget about it. "It was only serious for a short time, like Codsworth had said," she thought.
She looked down at her smooth hands, now 200 years old. She realized that she couldn't accurately remember what she looked like and asked if Codsworth could bring over a mirror.
The woman staring back at her in the mirror had long auburn hair that reached down to her mid-back and a patch of freckles that littered her face. Her brown eyes were adorned by dark brown eyebrows and a medium-pale skin tone set off by a strong nose in the center of her face. Zoe was pleased that her appearance, at least, seemed familiar. She set the mirror down and closed her eyes for the next question, "Codsworth, is anyone still alive?"
"Oh yes, mum, I imagine so! I see a few settlers arrive from time to time every 25 years or so…They talk about Diamond City not so far from here and various other settlements. Yes, I suppose people still live in this world."
She let out a breath that she hadn't known she was holding. Thank God, people still survived. She liked Codsworth, but she wasn't sure if she could stand being the only two coherent beings in the world. "I have to go there then. Now."
She tried to stand up and for a minute the ground swayed under her before steadying. "Oh mum, are you sure? It's awfully dangerous out there," Codsworth said as Zoe stooped to the ground and grabbed a backpack, "You could be killed!"
"Codsworth, I have to go," Zoe shoved a few Nuka-Colas into her backpack and grabbed the 10mm pistol that she knew was in a hidden kitchen drawer. There was a sudden conviction in her bones to go explore and find Diamond City. It was reaching a feverish pitch and she knew that she couldn't stay in this house any longer with its hidden memories. She added in some questionably preserved food and tightened the straps of her backpack, "I can't stay here forever but, don't worry, I'll come back once I see what this new world is like."
She stepped as if to go down the hallway of the house when she was suddenly cut off by Codsworth. "Oh, don't go down there mum! We've had a…pack of radroaches residing down there recently! Anyway, I can assure you there is nothing useful in those rooms. Everything is destroyed. Absolutely everything."
Zoe raised an eyebrow at Codsworth and tried to sidestep him only to be blocked again, "Now really, mum, do you want to risk radroaches before even beginning your journey?"
Zoe threw her hands up and gave up on the hallway even though that throbbing feeling of sadness and disappointment had once again reappeared in her chest. Was this a symptom of hitting her head?
She put her hand on the doorknob. "Thank you for your help Codsworth. Even if I can't remember your prior service, you were a great butler today."
"Of course, mum, of course!" Codsworth said bashfully, "Now, please do be safe and don't forget to come back!"
Zoe grinned, "I won't," and stepped out bravely into the Commonwealth.