Zootopia is property of Disney

Fallout 4 is property of Bethesda

Over the past 200 years, many mammals have made their mark on post apocalyptic America. Some have brought life to the wasteland, ensuring all mammals would have clean water whenever they needed it. Others have brought death, destroying entire opposing armies that stand in their way. All of them have a story. This one starts in Massachusetts, on a beautiful Saturday morning, with the threat of nuclear war looming.

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"Time for a whole new life." Nick sighs, as he looks at himself in the mirror, fresh out of the shower.

He wasn't kidding himself either. This really was going to be the start of something brand new for Nick.

His upbringing in the city of Boston was, at best, less than pleasant. Sure his parents cared very deeply for him. Not very much for each other, but they both wanted to give Nick the best shot he could have. The area where things got difficult was with the other mammals.

To them, all Nick Wilde ever was, and ever would be, was some shifty red fox who would probably steal everything they had and run if they let him get close to them. They never cared that he would never steal anything from anyone, that he didn't want to hurt anyone. All they ever saw was a shifty, untrustworthy fox.

This amount of animosity towards the fox at such a young age had a very strong impact on him. If they were only gonna see him as a thief, or con-man, then he saw no reason to try to be anything better.

So when he was around 12 he made his very lucrative start in the life of organized crime. He would do the odd job for other guys, who had more guts to do bigger crimes. He would do small things, run messages between drug warehouses, or be a lookout during a break in.

His personal favorite job though was the one he did for himself.

The Hustle.

It never felt right to him to just take someones things from them without them knowing. His parents had put it in his mind that it was never, under any circumstance, okay to steal from anyone. So what he perfected was the art of manipulation. He was able to convince mammals to buy, or trade practically anything. The trick was making people want it, and this he excelled at.

Doing this for around 19 years proved to be quite profitable for the young fox, and things seemed to be going well for him. He had a nice apartment downtown, a steady income flow, even a nice vixen to keep him company. Everything was going fine for Nick.

Until the baby.

The previously mentioned vixen, Clare, and Nick had been getting 'better aquatinted' for quite some time. They were always careful, making sure that a child was not coming their was any time soon. His friend Finnick always said they were just flirting with danger. He would turn out to be right, thanks to them having a lot more beers and a lot more hormones in their systems than usual one particular night. Nick wan't exactly ready to be a parent, but he didn't just want to just forget about his own kid. His parents had almost this exact same situation happen when they had Nick, and he was able to have a healthy relationship with both of them.

So he helped Clare with anything she needed during the pregnancy, food, a place to stay, anything involving doctors. They actually became pretty close during this time, even trying to make their own relationship work out. As much as it was a crazy situation for Nick, he was actually pretty happy during this time.

Nick didn't exactly know what to expect the day the baby came. He thought there would be some emotions, bit of happiness, bit of relief if everything went well, a lot of sadness if everything didn't. What he didn't expect was how much he would care. He hadn't even know the kid for thirty seconds and he already cared more for this tiny little thing than anything in the world. Laying in his mothers arms, wrapped up in a little tiny baby blanket, was Shaun Wilde.

They brought Shaun back Nick's apartment, which he and Claire now shared, and began life as parents.

And things were going great.

Until Clare left.

One night they were discussing the future, what they would do for Shaun.

And the next morning she was gone.

Nick tried to get into contact with her. He called he work, called her friends, even her father, who still hated Nick's guts for what he did to his daughter. None of them had any clue at all where she would've went. He tried to find her for weeks, but never found a trace.

He thought over what he wanted Shaun to be one night when he finally gave up on finding Clare. He realized that the kind of work he did, hustling people out their money and possessions, was one of the last things he wanted Shaun to do with his life. He wanted his son to have an honest profession, to not have to dodge the question when people asked what he does for a living. If he grew up in downtown Boston, having to deal with the same crap Nick had to when he grew up, then Shaun wouldn't be anything better.

So he moved.

He moved to a nice suburb a little ways northwest of Concord. Nice little place by the name of Sanctuary Hills. The place wasn't exactly cheap, and some of the neighbors were a bit concerned about having a fox in their neighborhood, but it was someplace where he hoped Shaun would have a better shot than he did.

Nick finished drying his fur and walked back into his bedroom to get dressed for the day. He had gotten a job in Concord, at an ice cream shop. Not the most luxurious or highest paying job, but money wasn't exactly an issue. He had enough saved up that he afford to spend a little time at a job that was less demanding. Just a place to start before finding more permanent work.

He walked out in his signature hawaiian shirt and tie combo. If anyone he knew was in Concord they could recognize him pretty easily thanks to his outfit choice, but he doubted any of his old contacts would be all the way out here.

He went into the room opposite his, Shaun's room, and made sure he was doing okay. As he looked down at his son, he couldn't help but see a lot of himself in Shaun. He had the same emerald eyes, same color of red on his fur, nearly identical shade of brown on the tips of his ears and around his paws and feet. As much as he didn't really like to admit it, he was glad that Shaun didn't look a lot like Clare.

'If she ever tries to find him...' he thought to himself. He shook his head, trying to get rid of that thought and focus on getting reading for work. Taking one last look at Shaun, he headed towards the kitchen to start his breakfast.

He had to admit, he really did like his new house. It wasn't the biggest house in the neighborhood, but what it lacked in size it made up for in comfort, and style. He had a nice kitchen, comfy couch, a fireplace, along with a great backyard. He knew Shaun was really going to like that backyard when he's older.

His thoughts were interrupted by the phone ringing. He quickly answered.

"Wilde Speaking."

"Mr. Wilde…" a older female voice said. "It's Abby, just letting you know that I'll be their in around 20 minutes."

"Ah, thank you for letting me know Abby." He said

Nick of course couldn't just leave Shaun all alone while he was at work, so he hired a sitter to come in from Lexington to come by and look after him. Abby was a coyote, and came highly recommended by one of his neighbors. He could've gotten one of those Mr. Handy robots that some of the neighbors had, to help around the house and look after Shaun, but those were expensive to buy, expensive to maintain, and he didn't really trust them around Shaun.

After saying goodbye to Abby, he poured himself some coffee, and a bowl of Sugar Bombs. As he ate, he grabbed the newspaper and read the headline, 'Case Closed on Crime Boss Eddie Winter.'

'Good.' Nick thought to himself. He had done a few odd jobs for the old shrew in the past, and the guy was nothing short of a scumbag. Nick got lucky, but there was the occasional story of mammals who didn't get the job done right, and payed the price for it.

Nick read up on the situation with the war with China. The Chinese were being pushed out of Alaska, and US troops were being stationed in several places in Southeast Asia. By the looks of it. The conflict was far from over. Many people of course had fears of nuclear war, with both countries having stockpiles of nukes at the ready.

'More of the same.' he thought to himself. He was certainly glad that any foreign invaders wouldn't be able to get anywhere near him and Shaun, but he still didn't like that they were fighting anyway. Of course, he kept that opinion to himself. He didn't want to be put under investigation for being a communist. Plus he was pretty sure one of his neighbors was a veteran, so he definitely didn't want to say anything around him.

Finishing breakfast, he saw that Abby was still around 10 minutes away. He decided to kill some time by watching some television. Currently an add for the Fat-Man mini nuke launcher was playing. Not to purchase of course, just to show everyone how well protected we are. He soon though heard the doorbell ring.

'Is Abby here already?' he thought as got up to go answer the door.'She still had about 8 minutes to go, maybe she got here early.'Pulling the door open looked down to see a stoat in an orange business coat and hat, holding a clipboard, smiling up at him before saying, "Good Morning! Vault-Tec Calling!"

"Umm… good morning." Nick said nervously. Why did Vault-Tec come to his door? He hadn't registered in any vaults.

"Isn't it?" the stoat said, "Just look at that sky out their!"

"Yep." Nick said, wanting him to get to the point.

The stoat cleared his throat and began his sales pitch.

"I'm visiting today on behalf of Vault-Tec, talking to anyone in Sanctuary Hills that hasn't yet reserved a spot in the local vault, Vault 111. I understand you haven't at this point, is that correct Mr… Wilde?" He said, looking down at his clipboard.

"That's correct pal. Don't need to spend money on something I'll never use"

"Oh, I understand you sir." the salesman said. "It's just that… the big kaboom is, well… inevitable, Im afraid. You just need some safety in times like these. Just think of it like insurance! You have insurance for your house, your car, even for you!"

He wasn't wrong. He did have insurance for his house, car, and himself. But this is an entirely different situation right?

"Do you have any kids Mr. Wilde?"

The question caught Nick a bit off guard. "Yes. I have a son."

"Well don't you want to make sure that no matter what he has a life to look forward to?"

Nick thought for a moment. About everything. Shaun, the war escalating, how he could be prepared for a worst case scenario. He made plans to make sure Shaun grew up to be happy. None of these plans accounted for nuclear war though.

He did want Shaun to grow up. To have a good life.

Great. He was being hustled.

Well not really. It's not like the vaults didn't exist or anything. Hell, he'd seen the construction of one back in Boston.

"Alright, you make a fair point." Nick said "What do I need to do?"

"Excellent!" the salesman said "It's just a matter of filling out some information, along with a deposit fee of course."

Nick filled out all the necessary paperwork, and paid the necessary fees to reserve a spot in the vault.

It had cost quite a bit, but making sure Shaun would be safe was more important to him than having a little spending money.

"Alright, thats everything! Just gonna walk this over to the vault. Congratulations on being prepared for the future!" the salesman said as he walked away.

"Umm… thanks again." Nick said as he closed the door.

Checking the clock, he saw that Abby should be arriving any minute now and he could go to work. He decided to go check up on Shaun again before she got here.

He was awake now, giggling as the mobil above his crib was spinning around.

"Don't worry buddy," Nick said softly. "I won't let anything happen to you."

He bent his head down and kissed Shaun's forehead before heading back to his living room.

As he walked in, he saw the panther on the new look very stressed. Like he'd just heard the worst news of his life.

'What's going on?' he thought, as he went to turn up the volume.

"… have confirmed reports, I repeat, confirmed reports of… nuclear detonations in, New York and Pennsylvania… My God..." was all he said before the newscast cut of, and the sound of nuclear sirens going off could be heard.

"Shaun." Nick said to himself. He only had one thing on his mind.

He had to get his son to that vault.