Signing up for entrance to vault 111 was the best and worst decision of Juniper's life.
Her day started semi normally getting ready for her husband's speech at the veterans center. Alfonso, or Al for short had just returned a few months earlier from the war. She smoothed her ginger hair back behind her ears and put the rest up in a semi formally made bun. While she was lining her bright steel eyes with eyeliner Al snuck up behind her and watched with awe.
" You look stunning" he whispered behind her startling her enough that a strand to fell out of place. She looked at where he was in the mirror and smiled,
" I try".
Chucking he scooted her from the mirror,
" You look fine, besides Codsworth made coffee".
Juniper was a little apprehensive about having a robot in the house especially with their baby Shaun still so tiny. Cringing juniper made her way out to the kitchen and gratefully accepted the mug he made for her. While Codsworth made his way to change Shaun, she eyed the robot from behind.
"I know you had doubts about him, but I'm happy that we have Codsworth" Al chimed in while reading the paper.
"I just wish he wasn't a literal fire hazard that floated above our carpet". She said scowling.
A brisk pair of knocks made both both Al and Juniper look at the door.
" He's been trying to get ahold of you for days, you should talk to him".
Juniper hated making small talk, especially when it came to people she was unsure of. The only reason Al had convinced her to go out to begin with was the fact that he kept making subtle advances. After muddling through the conversation, with the highlight being " An apocalypse?, hell sign me up!" Juniper quickly shut the door only to see Al had moved to the couch. Looking in her direction he smirked
" I liked the apocalypse part".
Rolling her eyes juniper walked back to the island of their kitchen,
" what else was I going to say, If their was some bomb there's no way we'd even know in time to get to the vault."
Codsworth floated over to juniper looking troubled
"I'm afraid Shaun even after being changed still appears to be troubled, he needs the maternal affection you speak so highly of mum".
Juniper tried not to smile, but the thought of her baby already needing her so much made her happy. After walking into the nursery she brushed his cheek with her thumb, he cooed back at her.
" Hey try out the mobile, I just fixed it yesterday"
Al walked through the doorway looking excited. Twisting the mobile the opposite direction, It started to spin. Shaun look up happily and formed a toothless smile. Al smiled at Juniper and started to ask about going to the part later, when a nervous Codsworth interrupted.
"Mum you should really come in here!"
Sighing Juniper slouched a little and made her way into the living room. The usual morning anchor was hunched over his desk looking concerned,
" We have confirmed reports of nuclear detonation in Pennsylvania and Washington D.C, oh my god."
Then the tv showed a grim please stand by picture. Al was already holding Shaun but, with his other hand he grabbed my shoulder hard
" We need to leave now."
Blinking through tear Juniper followed Al through the door, then realized something horrifying. She looked back through the doorway and looked at Codsworth. There's room for your family but not the robot of course. "Codsworth honey, please take care of yourself" Codsworth focused his eyes and looked at Juniper " Oh mum, you as well, take care of them".
All the guilt for treating Codsworth so coldly started to bubble up, Juniper smiled through her tears and started to catch up to Al.
It was chaos through the streets, people trying to drive around the military tank positioned in the middle of their block. Couples arguing over what to bring with them into the vault. The worst part was walking by the vault representative watching him get declined access into the vault. His eyes met Junipers and he looked away scornfully as they pushed past the rest of the people waiting to get in. Once they were checked off the list, they were pushed to one military grunt to another
" What about the rest of those people" Al said angrily at one of the military personnel.
He diverted his eye contact and only could manage
"we're doing the best that we can sir".
After making it all the way to the platform, Al faced Juniper
" I love you".
His face looked like he was giving it everything he had in him to be strong for her and their child.
" I love you too"

Was all Juniper could say before the sky erupted with a blinding fiery light.
GET THAT PLATFORM LOWERED
Juniper watched a huge cloud of smoke and debris rush towards the hill side that the vault was in. The people around her panicked and some of them shielded other family members. With a rumble the platform began to lower, slowly at first. Juniper didn't notice until that Al had tried to cover Shaun between the two of them while the platform was lowering. After the platform started to move more quickly, Al looked at Juniper. Looking up Juniper watched the Blue October sky become a dark brown smoke filled one as the platform made it's descent. Slowly that sky too disappeared as a large metal door sealed at the top. For almost a minute there as just darkness and the hum of the platform making it's way down the track. No one spoke or moved, everyone was in shock, but they all feared what was next. Juniper saw blinding lights as the platform found it's destination. The vault overseerer introduced himself and told everyone to move along to get into the vault. One of juniper's neighbors started to realize what had happened and she made it over to the wall before she had a full breakdown.
" Everyone else is gone, does that mean our son?"
Her husband took her hand and just held her while she then recognized her, their son just had gone off to college in Washington D.C.
Confirmed nuclear detonations in Pennsylvania and Washington D.C.
Al kept walking with Shaun, and Juniper just followed behind him slowly taking in their new metal surroundings. In front of them was a huge metal sign that said
Vault 111, Welcome Home.
After tucking a vault 111 jumpsuit under her arm she looked around more. People in white coats were eyeing up everyone walking through. Their attention turned quickly to Shaun, which unsettled Juniper. Walking up to Al, she knew he felt unsettled as well.
"There's no way I'm leaving Shaun alone in this place" Juniper whispered to Al.
"Shaun has the both of us, nothing bad will happen to him while we're around." He said firmly placing an arm around her shoulder they made their way to the doctor who showed them through the hallway. More of their neighbors were in the hallway, some of them were arguing with vault personnel while others seemed like they were still in shock.
Juniper listened to the doctor but, not fully. Slowly she realized everything she had ever known was gone. Al felt her body start to tense up, quietly he whispered "You need to stay calm, If they see you start to have an attack they might take you somewhere, I can't protect you from them while I protect Shaun from them too." Exhaling slowly Juniper straightened herself and looked up. The doctor had stopped and was eyeing her suspiciously.
" Sorry, I just had to catch my breathe, that elevator ride was a little too fast for me."
The doctor instantly smiled and continued the tour. Both Al and Juniper exchanged glances and kept following him. It wasn't that Al and Juniper weren't grateful, it's just that something seemed off here. There was no actual living areas so far, and they had passed by a window which had strange tall individual machines next to each other. Juniper went to ask but was told to keep moving along. The deeper they went into the vault the colder it got. The last room they came to was filled with these pod looking machines and some people already had their vault suite on and had gotten in.
" Alright these last two are yours, just put your vault suit on and hop right in!"
Shaun started to cry the moment Juniper walked towards her pod,
" Hey sweetie I'll be right over there, don't you worry." She kissed Shaun's temple and looked up at Al. He nodded towards her and Juniper smiled.
" There she is, see she's not going far" Al comforted Shaun and he finally seemed to relax.
Juniper looked up at Al one more time and kissed him.
"I love you, and not matter what happ-" Al interrupted and kissed her again slowly and more passionately. " Nothing will keep me apart from you two". He wiped a tear from Juniper's eye as she walked over to her pod. She slid on her vault suit, and grabbed one of the handles and got into her pod. She looked over and saw Al had his suite on and was holding Shaun.
The doctor kept talking while the door was shutting but Juniper had stopped listening She was burning the picture of Alfonso and Shaun into her mind.
" Our life, is never going to be the same." she said so quietly no one heard.
Occupant secure
Thoughts starting going through Juniper's head so quickly she started to breathe heavier.
Occupant vitals...Normal
What if this was a mistake? What if whatever this is kills all of us? Is Shaun too little to go into these? What about our parents? Is Shaun going to grow up without knowing his family? No Al told me we'd keep him safe.
With every second going by, It kept getting colder and colder Causing Juniper to breathe heavier.
Procedure complete in 5...4…...3…..2….
Everything disappeared slowly and Juniper fell into a deep sleep.
Slowly Juniper heard herself breathing slowly at first then, faster and faster.
All she could think was that she was cold.
The same voice that did the countdown a few seconds ago said something about a manual cryogenic stasis being suspended. Juniper knew what those words meant but she couldn't piece them together, for some reason.
Slowly her vision began to unblur, her pod's window was covered in ice. Eventually she could make out the image of Al holding Shaun across from her. Is It over?
Someone covered in a strange white hazmat suit walked up to their pod.
"This is the one" The figure said pointing at Al and Shaun. Juniper blinked hard to try and see who they were. Then someone else walked in front of her pod with their back facing Juniper. In a rough voice the man said
" Open it."
Their pod opened up Al hunched over coughing hard, while Shaun started to cry.
" Is it over….Are we ...ok?" Al managed to get out while he coughed.
The one in the white suite started to extend their hands towards Al, Juniper started to breathe heavier realizing something seemed off.
" Hold on everything's going to be alright" The rough looking man said. The one in the white suit said softly" Come on come here"
She was trying to take Shaun.
Juniper's heart started racing no, stay away from him
Al must have realized the same thing " No it's fine, NO I've got him!"
Without a second through the rough looking man held a gun up " Let the boy go, I'm only going to tell you once"
The white suited person started to grab at Shaun, causing Al to struggle with them.
" I'M NOT GIVING YOU SHAUN" He screamed while shaun cried out in confusion.
A loud gunshot echoed throughout Juniper's pod.
Al...no
Within an instant Juniper saw all of her memories of Alfonso, when they met, when they first kissed, the moment he proposed to her, their wedding, and the birth of their son.
Tears trickled down her face while she watched her husband's body fall backwards and slowly slink down into the pod.
Shaun's crying startled Juniper back into reality.
Blinking quickly She scanned the room and saw the white hazmat suited person holding her son trying to comfort him. Rage started to fill Juniper's veins.
The rough looking man looked around "God dammit, Get the kid out of here let's go"
Al's pod started to shut, and the realization that she was trapped started to rise.
I have to save him, How do I get this pod open, oh my god Shaun.
The hazmat suit walked away holding shaun, no no no, then the rough looking man walked up to the pod and came face to face with Juniper.
"At least we still have the backup" He grumbled.
Juniper tried to scream but her voice wasn't their, her body was still frozen.
Cryogenic sequence reinitialized
NO, SHAUN
By the time Juniper was able to scream and move it was too late. She bashed on the glass while screaming
" Come back here you son of a bitch, give me Shaun!"
The glass started to ice over and the last though Juniper had was that she was going to kill whoever took away her family.