Chapter 1: From the ashes.
It was early morning as she scouted the town entrance through her hunting rifle scope, taking in the cobbled together guard tower and the ghouls aimlessly wandering between burned out cars. From what she had heard, this place was a Raider toll stop built as a way to milk travelers of the little they owned on their way to Diamond City. It made her sick. You'd think as a lawyer, seeing innocents pay obscene amounts of money to blood sucking leeches wasn't an uncommon sight, but she'd never been able to tolerate corruption in the old world either. Her intolerance of what others considered "business" hadn't won her many friends. Thinking back, she'd actually been relieved when she'd met Nate. The lawyer part of her had known he'd be the end of her career. Predicting people's actions had been her specialty in the court room, so she knew he would make her his whole world, want to settle down and have kids. The simple life. After a lifetime of fighting the good fight, she'd been ready to put down her crusade and be nothing more than a great wife and mother. She'd been confident that her life would stretch before her, quiet and meaningful.
Lowering the scope slightly, sadness moved across her face as the thought hit her: I didn't see the end of the world coming. Sensing the shift in her mood, Justice, the beautiful brindle she'd bought off Gene, a traveling dog breeder, nuzzled her arm. "It's okay girl," she whispered, while reaching out to ruffle Justice's velvety ears. Justice sniffed in acceptance and trotted back to Dogmeat's side, where he crouched in the weeds and silently bristled as he watched the lumbering ghouls in the distance. Smiling at his dedication, Aria turned her attention back to counting the ghouls at the entrance. If the stupid raiders had been wiped out by this herd, then this would be easier than she'd thought. Silently signaling with her hands, the mutts moved out, pressing forward into the tall grass. She followed behind, gingerly picking her way around broken glass and rusty metal. Stealthily getting as close as she dared to the town entrance, Aria motioned again and the dogs paused their movement, waiting for word to attack. It was time. Putting her agility to good use, she quietly climbed up on a rusted car body and took the safety off her hunting rifle. "Winds are low and line of sight is perfect" she talked to herself. Left hand on the trigger, she took a breath and remembered what Nate had taught her. "Take your time, there's no rush. The perfect shot finds you."
Aiming for the ghoul pacing the walkway of the guard post, she let her sight settle on it's bloated form. A name tag hung loosely from it's shredded cover-alls with the faded name Tim stitched into the fabric. "Good bye Tim", she smirked and simultaneously pulled the trigger. Tim's head exploded like a rotten pumpkin sitting too long on a door step: half caving in and the contents oozing out. Grr-aaaahhh! Ghoul shrieks sounded and the remaining seven charged out towards Aria's position. Surprisingly fast for running corpses, she only got two more shots off, but they were enough to knock two ghouls off their feet, causing others to stumble. The fore-runners met a coordinated ambush by Dogmeat and Justice. He lunged for the necks of heavier clad roamers and she disabled the legs of weaker ghouls. Re-loading, Aria finished off the ghouls catching up to the mutts. Bam-Bam! Watching flesh fly as bullets ripped off chunks of decayed skin. Dogmeat, covered in blood, spat out the vocal cords of his latest ghoul and turned towards the last two who were catching up to the fray. Slinging the rifle on her back, she jumped off the car heap, and sprinted towards the dogs, while un-holstering the sawed-off shotgun on her right hip. Dogmeat dodged a lunge from the first ghoul letting it tumble past him in a heap. The second one, wasn't as fresh or bloated, it looked more emaciated, more skeletal. It knowingly anticipated Dogmeat's attack, back handing him with a large swipe. Aria charged ignoring the first ghoul trying to get back to its feet while justice bit into its tendons trying to disable it. She could see the withered ghoul snap and gnash its teeth at dogmeat while struggling to pin him down. The shepherd yelped in panic. Hearing him cry, made Aria snap.
Reality seemed to shift into the past and instead of a ghoul trying to kill her best friend, she saw the scarred man in front of her trying to take her baby. To her it was like time had slowed, without thought or command her body reacted as cold fury gripped her heart. Slamming the butt of her shotgun into the man's face, she knocked him off balance and away from Nate and Shaun. She didn't notice the blood flowing from where his nose used to be, all she could focus on was the crying of Shaun in his father's arms. Leveling her shotgun inches from the man's face she pulled the trigger. She could feel the wet gore sliding down her skin, saw as the headless body of a man slumped to the floor, spewing blood, but she shot again and again and again until the trigger clicked instead of firing. She pulled the lifeless trigger several more times before letting her hand go still. Her arm went slack, falling to her side. It was over but it wasn't. No matter how many times she killed the scarred man, the icy cold feeling in her chest never went away. It would never be over. Even if she found shaun again and killed the man for real, her dream of a simple life would never be a possibility again. She stayed that way staring at the man who killed her dream, letting the blood crust on her face until something cold pressed into her open hand. Blinking twice, the vault of ghosts disappeared and she was once again in the wasteland. Looking down toward her hand, she saw dogmeat licking her palm, trying to comfort her without the use of words. At least she wasn't alone..