Chapter One: Ain't That a Kick in The Head
"Shaun... Bye bye? Say bye bye? Bye honey!"
Every night I've had the same dream for as long as I can remember. They all start the same way, I'm running. I don't know what from, but I'm running. I go down this long elevator and people blur past me into obscurity. I can't recognize any faces but I get the feeling that I know these people. Then everything gets really cold, and the dream blacks out. Suddenly I see in the dream a figure shoot someone else, and I get more angry than I can ever remember being before, but the cold comes back and swallows me whole, and I'm screaming at the top of my lungs and bashing on a door, but it's useless, the cold always wins.
My eyes opened just as the cold blackness closes around me and I realized that I was actually warm. I ran my fingers through my hair and scratched my beard. It was getting kind of long, I should really shave again soon, I thought to myself. It's so hard to find a barber out here though. I sat on the edge of my bed and thought about the last two weeks. I had woken up here in Sanctuary with a massive headache and a dislocated shoulder. The worst damage though, was that I couldn't remember a single thing. I was surrounded by two robots and a bunch of people I had never seen before. I now knew these people as Codsworth, Curie, Preston, Marcy, Jun, Sturges, and Mama Murphy. They say I had been fighting some radscorpions out by Tenpines Bluff and one of them slung me off of the cliff. Dogmeat was the only one with me other than the settlers there and he sprinted back to Sanctuary and got help to come to me. By the time they got back I was basically naked as some raiders or scavengers had stripped me of any valuables that I had minus the pipboy, and I was bleeding badly from my head.
It's been two weeks since then and I've mostly been on bedrest as per Curie's orders. Everyone has more or less left me to be since returning, all too caught up in their own business to worry about me too much. Curie has been at my side almost every waking moment however, taking blood samples, checking my vitals, getting me anything I needed, and just generally taking care of me really. She's asked me some questions and run some tests and we came to the conclusion that I've retained pretty much all of my skills and knowledge but lost my identity and anything I felt emotionally before the incident. She says it's nice that I'm talking to her so much, as I guess beforehand I just kept mostly to myself and had Dogmeat tag along wherever I went. She's really intelligent, and I guess I am too she says, which surprised us both. I also realized sadly that I don't really care to regain my lost memories. I felt fine as I was and anything that happened before me may as well have happened to someone else entirely.
I sat up on the edge of the bed and looked around my room. There were a couple bobble heads on a stand in the corner, and a few miniature robots on a bookshelf against the opposite wall. Just to the left of that was a dresser with a radio on it, and following left was the exit to my room, with the bed in the center of the room and next to the door. I got up and made my way to the dresser, picking out a "white" t shirt and a pair of jeans that held together a bit more than the other pairs. As I got dressed I knew that my plan wouldn't go over well, but I had to get out of here. This place held no memories for me at all anymore, these people didn't need me, and I have no debt that I owe anyone really other than Curie. I laced up my boots and looked at myself in the cracked mirror in the bathroom next door. The wound on my head was healed basically all the way now, and thankfully because of Curie's talents, the only scars I'll have are on my chin and lips.
I made my way out into the living room where Curie was getting a lesson from Codsworth on how poach an egg, though apparently mirelurk eggs were far from what Codsworth was used to working with so it was just a big greenish yellow soup now. Upon noticing my appearance Curie went straight into doting mother hen mode.
"Oh Monsieur Cole, you're awake! Please sit and allow me to check your vital signs before continuing further activities. According to my medical records data you should remain with bedrest and little activity for another week at least for an injury such as yours. Although I've little data on how radiation would affect such things."
I smiled a bit and sat down on the couch as Curie floated her way over to me.
"Sure Curie, you can take your vitals. I feel fine though, really. Ready to work and do whatever else I can."
"Oh non! You must remain at rest or else your injury could worsen." She said as she began taking my temperature.
"I can't do that Curie, I'm getting real stir crazy and I don't know what I'm going to do if I don't get out of here soon" I mumbled around the thermometer in my mouth.
"Well surely we can find some alternative. I know for certain however that I am not letting you out of my sight until I deem it safe. And maybe not even after that."
I chuckled and shook my head at her.
"Yeah, yeah Curie." She finished taking my vitals and put away her instruments before returning to my side.
"Monsieur Cole, you are well enough to perform basic day to day activity but I urge you to take frequent rests and know that I shall be keeping an eye on you all day" she asserted. She means well, she really does. I'll be sad to leave her the most when I get out of this place.
I stood and walked myself over to the door, turning the handle and letting the bright radiated sunlight stream through the doorway.
This was it. This was the day that I was going to move on. I only hoped they would all be okay with it. As I walked across the road to the yellowed house across the road I couldn't help but wonder what all these people had been doing in this town.
There were armor and weapons workbenches sitting in the garage portion of the house, boxes next to them filled with junk and materials for protection of all kinds. Next to that was a big dumpster looking thing that was very obviously built by hand; inside there were many different and random types of materials that under normal circumstances nobody would think about but in this day and age you made into construction materials. Sturges was sitting on a bench and cutting cans open to lay them flat, then nailing them onto wooden boards in order to form a metal wall patch for the house. Similar patches were all over every house here, and it almost looked like they were building entirely new houses down the road a ways, only the frame standing however.
Someone had taken the time to construct a giant fence around the entirety of Sanctuary Hills, with an enormous water purifier sitting in the river, and a large, several story gate along the main road. There were guard posts all along the wall and several spots where automated turrets and spotlights were guarding the perimeter as well. Also clearly visible were the large farming fields down near the river, filled with all sorts of fruits and vegetable to provide for the people living here as well as to provide a source of income if the people here ever run low on scrap and need to leave to trade for some. A power grid had also been installed and most of the houses in Sanctuary Hills were fully powered, with the old pre-war ovens, stoves, and water heaters working. It seemed like Preston and everyone else were preparing to have a lot of guests or something with how much work they've been putting in.
You would think with all of this clearly on display that it would have been like a giant neon sign for raiders and the like to come in and stomp all over the place, especially since there were only about 6 people and a couple of robots here. You're not wrong to think that, but I forgot the most impressive thing about this place. Above the water purifier in the river and all along the river bank on this side there was a massive building with holes all over the front. This was the real wall in Sanctuary.
It was four stories tall, stretches the length of the river, and every single inch of it was filled with turrets and spotlights of all shapes and sizes. From simple 5.56mm machine gun turrets, to rapidly firing laser turrets, all the way to missile launching turrets on the top level. Apparently the settlement had been attacked one too many times for my liking back when I was a different person, and I spent the better part of a month travelling back and forth from the Commonwealth with as many weapons and scrap materials I could find, began building like a mad man, and that was the final product. The generators keeping everything running in that place were surrounded with concrete slabs thick enough to stop a herd of charging brahmin and tall enough that nothing less than a super mutant behemoth could get any sort of projectile in there. It was loud, bright, and garish as hell, but at the very least I hadn't heard of any living thing within a mile of this place in the two weeks that I had been here.
It scared me, honestly, a little bit to see the kind of thing I used to make with my free time. I'm sure it was for a good reason, or at least I'd like to hope, but the reality is that I just don't know. That could have been made by some magical fairy and I wouldn't know the difference at all. The most annoying part about it all however was that the turrets and spotlights had all been tied to a terminal, and I guess the paranoid person I used to be put a password on it, and surprise, surprise, I didn't know the password. Anybody new that approached this place was in for a nasty welcome party.
I stopped halfway across the road, a thought bursting to life in my mind. What was I doing? Why was I here anymore? Why had I stayed even this long? A decision formed in my mind and I turned toward the blue building next door to the yellow house. The door was locked when I tried the handle, but I shouldn't have been surprised. This was the building in which all of the food, weapons, and gear that everyone had collected had been stored. One downside to these dilapidated buildings though was that there were no windows, so I simply climbed on through and went about my business.
Twenty minutes or so later, and I made my way towards the gate of Sanctuary laden with weapons, armor, and rations for a couple of weeks, as well as a healthy stash of bottlecaps, which are apparently currency.
The leather straps I had donned fit snugly, but each was stuffed with all kinds of pockets and pouches, allowing me to carry even more than I normally would be able to. As for weapons I had decided on a simple 10mm pistol that seemed in decent shape, along with a decently sized pouch of ammunition for it, a short, bolt-action hunting rifle along with a handful of rounds, that I had grabbed mostly for the scope on top of it, and a few rounds of energy cell ammunition that I grabbed with the intention of trading if I needed to.
Just before reaching the gate I heard a commotion behind me, and turned to see Preston running towards me and yelling.
"Cole! Hey! Hold on a second!" he yelled as he approached. When he saw that I had stopped he slowed his pace to an even jog, and waited until he reached me to continue speaking again. "Hey, Cole, man, what's going on? Where are you going? You should be resting some more, you look like you're geared up to head on an expedition though. Is everything okay?"
I could see in his face that he was confused, which I guess was understandable. I also thought I saw something else, was it worry, or fear? I didn't owe him an explanation though, I was just going to say it how it was.
"I'm leaving. With all of this. And nothing you say or do is going to stop me. I'm sorry, but I just feel no connection to this place anymore and while I'm thankful for what you guys have done I need to get out of here."
Preston looked a bit taken aback by that, "So that's it then, huh? We drag you halfway across the Commonwealth, nurse you back to health, and you just steal some of our stuff and walk away? Did I get all of that right?" Preston scowled and shifted a bit, almost looking like he was reaching for his laser musket, "I don't know if I'm okay with that, yeah? We did all that to help you and you just walk all over us and leave without even saying goodbye? That's cold. Real cold. But you know what? Fine. Go ahead. It's not like we need you, we've been functioning here just fine without you helping out anyway."
Preston got an almost sad look on his face before he turned his back and started walking away. It tugged at my heartstrings a little bit, but I had made up my mind. Without a second thought I turned around and walked through the gates of Sanctuary, ready for whatever the wastes decided to throw at me.
Footnote: Level Up!
New Perk Added: Lone Wanderer - Who needs friends, anyway? When adventuring without a companion, you take 15% less damage and carry weight increases by 50.