With a slow breath, he filled his lungs and tasted the thick polluted air. Now faced with the decaying ruins of the city he used to love so many years ago he stepped away from the protection of the city behind. Shotgun cocked and at the ready, he prepared himself for the inevitable. Old military training flooded to the forefront of his mind.

"Expect no mercy from the enemy, soldier. They want you dead. You hear me? Dead as a thanksgiving dinner! Six feet under and worm food. You ever want to see your family again? Any of you want to see your girls back home? Only one way that's ever going to happen. You shut up, you nut up, you point your gun at the commie bastards and don't miss!"

The drill sergeant certainly did his job. Under his rigorous training and constant appraisal of malice, Nate and the rest of his unit became one of the most ruthless squads in the U.S. fighting force. Blood and violence became all they knew, men trained like dogs for years until their sergeant was proved to be psychologically unfit for service, and by extension, every soldier trained under him.* Nate returned home to Nora. The sight of her standing in the doorway to greet him was the start of his journey back to the world of humanity. It was arduous, and he had his lapses more than once. Triggered flashbacks and violent outbursts, but the ruthlessness had chipped away over time. His loving wife was the light at the end of the tunnel and with her help he was a soldier no longer, a became a husband and, in time, a father.

The training was hardwired into his person, but it was deeply suppressed, right until he lost everything in the Vault. The rage dragged out every memory hidden away in repressed corners of his mind. The training, the orders that justified murder, every night spent wishing he didn't have to wake up to another day of being who he was.

Nate stepped out of the cryo-pod ready to rip throats out but was only met with the body of his wife and a frozen audience to his show of anger and grief. Shaun was gone, ripped right from her arms and taken by strange men to who knows where. Nate had no time to mourn, that he could do once Shaun was safe. The Vault would be her resting place and the pod her coffin, for now, he promised, for now. No one was going to stop him from finding his son, his last connection to his own humanity, or so he thought.

In mere days, several near death experiences taught him that he was far from the worst thing to walk the Wasteland. He was no fierce monster, awoke from a two-hundred-year slumber with a vengeance, no, he was nothing more than an ex-soldier with a little bit of a mean streak.

The only thing that made any sense was that people were the same as they always were, just a little more violently inclined. His training had given him power of those same people before, he just had to be sure he kept it that way. War-torn future or not, Nate was still a scary, capable man and he soon put himself to use. Any paying work was good work, but mercenary jobs paid the most and very quickly became a reoccurring thing. It brought in a steady stream of "caps" and didn't limit him to one location in his search for Shaun. Despite all his travelling and searching, he always found himself back in Diamond City saving up for that house. Fetching the paint was just bringing him three hundred caps closer his goal, three hundred little metal pieces that justified his leaving the city behind if even for a day.

Getting to Hardware Town wasn't half the challenge Nate had made it sound to the old man requesting the paint. The streets were clear of any of the usual threats, no hungry animals or raiders or out for his skin. It was worrying, and Nate quickly ducked behind the array of cars that littered the streets to avoid being seen. He weaved from car to car, unsure what to look for but knew that it had to be dangerous enough to scare off anyone or anything from the prime hunting grounds that was the main road.

Nate skulked along two more blocks before a pungent smell hit him like a punch. The scent of the rotting dead hung in the air, and, much to Nate's dismay, only grew stronger as he continued along to Hardware Town.

"Arrrg! Too quiet. Wanna kill something."

The sudden call for violence confirmed his suspicions, there were Super Mutants about. It was possible that they had taken over the area, tearing apart and eating anyone they could get their hands on. Nate remained silent with his back against the car. He couldn't see any of the green giants in his immediate area, which meant they hadn't seen him either and he still had a chance to escape with all his limbs attached.

"Want. To. Kill something!"

The super mutant was growing closer with every second. Nate felt his heart skip a beat as it rounded the adjacent corner. The putrid smell alone was enough Nate to guess where it was, but it's constant yelling made it very clear that it was just waiting on the opposite side of the street. Running was no longer an option, it was suicide. The mutant wouldn't stop chasing him until it had him cornered and brained him with a sledgehammer, and that was assuming it didn't have a gun. By adjusting the side mirror of his vehicular cover, he could see that it did, in fact, have a sledgehammer slung over its musclebound shoulder. It was well-worn and coated in a distressing amount of gore.

With this, Nate began to plan his next move. Simply outrunning the monster wasn't going to work and fighting it outright was just crazy; the only option left was to get distract it and flee the area. He collected an empty can that lay at his feet and threw it well over the car and into the other street. After the cacophony of sounds, it made as it met the floor, a blood-curdling silence followed, then

"Die human!"

There was a quick sound of propulsion before the car was crushed under the swinging hammer, barely missing Nate but utterly destroy his cover. Scrambling for distance, Nate turned around to see the mutant standing before him with its rocket-powered sledgehammer in hand. It raised the hammer high and struck again, Nate rolled to avoid the attack. Once on his feet, he did as instinct commanded when faced with imminent death. He ran, and the super mutant was only a dozen steps behind.

*I want to make it clear that I have no idea if this can actually happen in the real world military

A.N. Hey all, wanted to let you know that I'm still around and not quite yet dead. Anyway, while I have you and if you care to listen, I'd like to apologize for the delays in my other series. Life is being difficult again and I've hit a slight wall with it. This story here was to just get a clean slate until I can complete the other one. As such, it will be significantly shorter in chapter size and overall length. Plus, I'm running out of fanfiction things to write about and time to get invested into new potential fanfiction material but that's a problem for later. As always, your favourites are much appreciated and the reviews more so. See you in the next chapter.