Only One Survives

Upon approaching Sanctuary Hills Charlotte could see that most of the homes had stood the test of both bombs and time. The structures still stood. The gardens were charred and dead, the paint peeled away, the picket fences rotted, and the cars burnt to their frames still parked in the garages. The road was cracked with weeds growing through. The old oak tree that stood at the end of the cul-de-sac was reduced to a black, dead tree no longer throwing shade over the homes.

Charlotte walked in the middle of the street. Analysing every detail of the post war Sanctuary. No longer the middle class suburban neighbourhood that had been voted Neighbourhood of the Year four times in a row. Now it sat silently, ghosts of its past still haunting the homes as no one had looted them. Charlotte suddenly wondered how many years had it been? She looked on the Pip-Boy but it didn't give any indication of time passing. How long could she have been kept on ice?

Clip Clip Clip

Charlotte spun around. She knew that noise. Sunday mornings when the sun shined through their window her and James were always welcomed to the sound of their robot butler Codsworth clipping the hedges out front.

Her weak arms gripped her stomach as she watched a rusted Codsworth clipping at a dead hedge. She didn't move for moment. She felt like she was looking at a ghost. She had felt delirious coming down the hill from the vault. Despite how weak she had felt it seemed as if she had floated down. Her body didn't feel like her own. Now she watched her old robot clipping worn out hedges as if it was any old Sunday.

As she approached him she could hear him humming to himself. Unique programming his creators had added to make it seem as though he were more human and to give the sense that he enjoyed his work.

"Codsworth" Charlottes voice croaked. It was dry and sore. Like she had sucked in a breath of cold air on snowy winter day. Codsworth turned his three eyes to look at her. Even without a human face Charlotte knew she had startled him.

"As I live and breath, its REALLY you" he burst in his cockney British voice. Charlotte was thrown off by how genuine he sounded. Like his voice was about to crack. It took another moment for her mind to catch up and say something to him.

"I can't believe you're... still here" she could barely hear her own raspy voice. Codsworth spun his floating three armed body to face her. Charlotte reached a hand out and touched his cold metal body. She could feel the rust beneath her numb fingertips. He was really there. He wasn't a paranoia induced daydream. He really had been clipping dead hedges waiting for his masters to return. She felt a pang of sympathy for him, even despite his lack of consciousness.

"Oh yes Miss Charlotte! I've been feverishly awaiting you and Sir's return. Uh, where is the master?" Charlotte's face tightened. She let out a deep sigh.

"He's gone Codsworth." She whispered.

"Gone? Gone where? When will he return?" Annoyed by his intrusiveness Charlotte stepped closer and screamed at Codsworth.

"He's dead!" Silence hung between them. Only the sound of Codsworth rocket filled the air. Charlotte shook her head. He was just a robot. He wouldn't understand mortality of humans.

"These men... they killed him and they took Shaun"

"Mom, these things you're saying. These horrible things sound dire. You must be suffering from Hunger Induced Paranoia. Not eating properly for two hundred years will do that to you" he declared in his usual posh, upbeat voice.

Charlotte glared at him. Trying to decipher what he said.

"Two hundred years? That can't be right"

"Well that's what my internal clock says Mom. Two centuries since you, master and Shaun left for the vault. Where is the young lad anyway?" Charlotte stared around neighbourhood. Two hundreds seemed unfathomable. She shouldn't be alive.

What the hell were those pods for?

Looking around at the desolate houses she realised it made sense. She wasn't dying of radiation which meant ample amount of time must have passed. Codsworth seemed in good shape for a robot that had been hovering around for two centuries. Except for his ability to comprehend Charlotte's loss.

"I told you Codsworth. Shaun is... he's gone"

"Nonsense. I'm sure he's around somewhere. Perhaps if we look he'll turn up. In the meantime we can prepare you some food, you must be famished" Charlotte gestured to the house.

"Lead the way" She didn't have the strength to argue with him. Her muscles had held out so far but she could feel them getting tired. Her stomach still curdled with nausea but she figured food would fix it. Besides Codsworth wasn't programed for Nuclear war.

Or perhaps Codsworth was just in denial. Could a robot be in denial?

"They're- they're really gone... aren't they?" Codsworth's voice had a tone of sadness that surprised Charlotte. Of all the years that he'd been with them she'd never heard anything but enthusiasm from him. She never really questioned how detailed his AI was beyond butler services. Did Codsworth really miss James and Shaun?

"James is gone, forever. Shaun is still out there somewhere" Charlotte sat in their old kitchen. The bar stool no longer had a cushion on it making it uncomfortable. Everything had succumbed to time and radiation. Most of the furniture had been destroyed and some of the tiles on the walls had dropped revealing the world outside. It didn't really feel like home anymore. She didn't even have old dirty clothes to change into. She was stuck in the bright blue and yellow vault 111 jumpsuit. She hated wearing it but she couldn't go out in the stark.

"It's been so dreadfully dull around here. All this time I waited for your return. To go back to being a happy family. I tried so hard to keep this house in shape. Do you know how hard it is to get nuclear fallout out of vinyl wood floors?" His voiced peaked as he talked. He seemed to be having a meltdown.

"And the car! How do you polish rust!" he boomed. Charlotte sat back and eyed the emotional robot. She couldn't imagine what he'd been through. It was cruel of his programmers to lock an emotional AI inside a robot that only existed to serve. But with no one to serve he must have been... lonely.

"It's fine Codsworth. I'm here now and we can fix things. But I need you to tell me what you know"

"Well, I don't know much. All I know is that you and the master and Shaun left so quickly then the bombs dropped. I thought for sure you were all... dead" He tone went sombre. Once again Charlotte was surprised by his sincerity. Those scientist really were ushering in a new era, until the bombs dropped at least.

"But I do have this though" Codsworth plucked a holotype from his dispensary and gripped it in his claw. He held it to Charlotte.

"I believe James wanted you to have it" Charlotte took the holotype and read the black marker label written on it.

"Now why don't I fix you a meal" Charlotte stared at the tape. The writing was James's handwriting. He had beautiful cursive writing, unlike her own. He had made a tape for her. Her throat tightened.

"Forget the meal. I-I have to rest first." Charlotte shot up and headed to the hallway.

"Perhaps some water then? Mom? Miss Charlotte?" Codsworth called out to her back. She disappeared into Shaun's old bedroom.


Oopsie. Ha ha ha. No no no. Little fingers away. There we go. Just say it. Right there. Right there. Go ahead, Ha Ha! Hi Honey! Listen...

I don't think Shaun and I need to tell how great of a mother you are... but we're going to anyway. You are kind, and loving, and funny. That's right and patient. So patient. Patience of a saint, your mom used to say. Look, with Shaun, and all us being at home together... It's been an amazing year. But even so, I know our best days are yet to come. There will be changes, sure. Things we'll need to adjust to. I'll re-join the civilian workforce, and you'll shake the dust off that law degree...

But everything we do, no matter how hard... we do it for our family.

Now say goodbye, Shaun... Bye bye? Say bye bye?

Bye honey! We love you!

The sun had dipped below the horizon casting its last golden rays across the wasteland by the time Charlotte turned off the holotape. Even when it was switched off she could still hear James's voice echoing in her head Hi honey! Like a ghost haunting her. Shaun's cooing sounds ripped her heart in half. She missed silently creeping in his room at night and watching him sleep peacefully. Those times she wanted to wake him up and cuddle him, she never did lest he be reduced to a fit of crying. Now sitting next to his rotted cot listening to his baby sounds from two hundreds earlier she wished she had cuddled him every chance she had. Now she longed to hold him in her arms, to see his big brown eyes just like his fathers. Instead she gripped the Pip-Boy, her arms shaking and her eyes stinging from dried up salty tears.

And James. She missed him horribly. Hearing his voice again reminded her what a great man he was. All the doubt she had about their marriage washed away with a single holotape. Or perhaps it was the fact that marriage seemed like such a small insignificant thing in this world. Either way she had been wrong about him. She wanted nothing more than to tell him how much she loved him. To tell him she was sorry she ever had doubts.

She always knew he deserved better than what he got. He deserved a planned pregnancy with a woman that actually wanted a family. Not lawyer who saw it all as an inconvenience. He deserved a beautiful happy marriage not a shotgun wedding to the woman he knocked up. Even so, they made it work. Since Shaun was born everything seemed to work. She wanted to be a mother, and James wanted to be a father. Maybe they weren't a perfect binding couple with a passionate marriage but they were a family. They always put their family first, he left the military and Charlotte bought the house. Both had made their sacrifices but they turned out to be worth it.

It just took losing them both for Charlotte to realise what a perfect life they had. James was wrong though, their best times were not ahead of them.

Charlotte leaned back against the wall and looked at the cot. She switched on the holotape again and let her eyelids slowly drop.

Oopsie. Ha ha ha. No no no. Little fingers away. There we go. Just say it. Right there. Right there. Go ahead, Ha Ha! Hi Honey! Listen...


Stars glittered in the sky. It was a cloudless, crisp night. Charlotte appreciated how beautiful the post nuclear war sky was. It seemed everything else was tainted. Sitting by the makeshift campfire and stirring the stew her thoughts got lost. The spoon scraped against the rusted pot as she stirred, it was almost hypnotic. The smell of boiled meat and root lingered around her whetting her appetite.

She could hear Codsworth's rocket as he approached from the darkness. The only light came from the campfire, everything else was drowned under the dark, new moon night.

"Glad to see you're getting your three- er well, two meals a day Miss Charlotte. I'm sorry the food is so horrid. I'm afraid molerats and roaches are all that's around these days. Too bad the market isn't open anymore" Charlotte barely heard him. She looked down into the pot of brownish boiling water with meat floating around.

"You said there were people in Concord" she said still staring into the pot.

"Yes mom. But they're not the friendliest of people. The last time I wandered there they pummelled me with rocks and sticks. Dreadfully rude they were" his pompous voice echoed through the street.

"If they've never seen a robot then they were probably scared of you." Charlotte looked up at him. His rusted silver body throwing the fire light around.

"They won't be scared of me"

"Oh mom you're not thinking-"

"Yes, I'm leaving. Tomorrow at the earliest."

"But why mom? You're safe here. You have food, shelter, and nothing dangerous lives here. You have a much better chance of survival here Miss Charlotte" he sounded anxious. In the last week of living in the post-war Sanctuary Hills with him Charlotte had become accustomed to his human likeness.

"The way I see it I have two choices. Either I stay here haunted by memories until I die or I go out and look for Shaun" Charlotte tapped the spoon against the pot. She picked up a bowl and dished some of the stew into it.

"I can't stay here Codsworth. I just can't" She expected protest from him but he said nothing. He hovered in place. She wondered for a moment if he had finally malfunctioned after two centuries.

"If anyone can find Shaun, it's you Miss Charlotte"

He had said it with such integrity that for a second Charlotte believed him. Then she realised she had no idea where to even start looking for him. The truth was more complicated than just finding Shaun. He was as gone as James was. Right now she just needed to move forward- do something so that James's voice would stop plaguing her.

"I'm going to Concord to find people. After that, I don't know, I'm doing this the only way I know how- one step at a time"

"That's the Charlotte I know! Determined, unstoppable, clever Charlotte" Codsworth spun on the spot, a show of his excitement. She wondered if robots could go crazy, had Codsworth gone crazy?

"What should I do?"

"You're going to stay here. Keep an eye on things. I might need you if it gets... messy"

"Of course mom, I'll hold down the fort, now eat your supper. You'll need all the strength you can get"

Charlotte spooned the stew and slurped it hungrily. As she swallowed the Geiger counter on the Pip-Boy began ticking away. She gotten used to the sound after a week of hearing it. Her radiation ticked upwards slightly, nothing lethal but she knew she couldn't eat like this forever. After she found people she wanted to figure out how they survived. If she wanted to find Shaun she needed to stay alive.

And eating radiative molerat wasn't going to keep her alive.