Chapter 4

Crawl Out Through the Fallout

The light was blinding. There was something stifling about the air. It was chilly outside. I could feel the sun on my face. It took my eyes a moment to adjust, but I was finally able to get a good look at my surroundings.

Everything was dead. No leaves on the trees. No green grass. Ruin lie in every direction. It was overwhelming to say the least. The sorrow overtook me. The tears were coming like a flood. My home was destroyed. My child was gone. I left my husband below, in that crypt. I had no idea if I was the last person alive. No words could describe the feelings I felt.

With shaky legs, I made my way down the hillside and back into Sanctuary Hills. Everything was so quiet. Every now and then, I would hear a crow cawing nearby. When I caught sight of the bird responsible for the noise, I had to double take. It didn't look like a crow at all. Some kind of ugly, mutated bird. It was almost as shocking as the giant cockroaches.

I walked to my home. It was still standing, sort of. All that was left of it was the frame and some of the siding. The ceiling had all but collapsed, leaving room for rainwater to fall through the holes with ease and flood the molded floor. The flowers were dead and my car was totally fucked. Only the frame was left, and it was completely rusted.

Did the bomb do all of this?

There by the dead shrubbery was a familiar and heartwarming sight. Codsworth was loyally trimming the bushes in the front yard. He looked like shit, what with the rust marks and kinks, but he wasn't having any trouble getting around as usual. He was humming merrily to himself.

One of his sensors caught sight of me, then all three turned in my direction. "As I live and breathe!" he cried. "It's . . . it's REALLY you!"

"Codsworth! You're . . . still here. So . . . other people could still be alive, too."

"Well, of course I'm still here. Surely you don't think a little radiation could deter the pride of General Atomics International? But you seem the worse for wear. Best not let the hubby see you in that state. Where is sir, by the way?"

It all rushed back to me in no time. My happiness was short lived. "They came into the vault . . . Maybe you saw them? They had guns . . . and strange outfits?"

"Only Ms. Rosa's boy, running around in his Halloween costume, more than a week early. I swear, the nerve of that woman leaving her brat unsupervised. Not like you, mum. You're the perfect mother. And sir is . . . oh, where is sir, by the by?"

"He's . . . in a better place." At least I prayed he was. I was a moderately religious woman.

"Mum . . . these things you're saying. These . . . terrible things . . . I . . . I believe you need a distraction. Yes! A distraction, to calm this dire mood. It's been ages since we've had a proper family activity. Checkers. Or perhaps charades. Shaun does so love that game. Is the lad . . . with you . . . ?"

"Codsworth . . . listen to me carefully . . . have you seen him? Have you seen Shaun?"

"Why, sir had him last, remember? Perhaps he's gone to the Parker residence to arrange a play-date? I'm sure he'll be back with him momentarily."

"It doesn't make sense. There's just no reason someone would take my baby . . ."

"It's worse than I thought. Hmm hmm. You're suffering from . . . hunger-induced paranoia. Not eating properly for two-hundred years will do that, I'm afraid."

Another wave of shock hit me. I had thought maybe we had at least been in cryostasis for two years or so. But two-hundred? "Two-hundred years? What? Are you . . . sure?"

"A bit over two-hundred and ten actually, mum. Give or take a little for the Earth's rotation and some minor dings to the ole' chronometer. That means you're two centuries late for dinner! Ha ha ha. Perhaps I can whip you up a snack? You must be famished."

Although he was a robot, and robots could be weird sometimes, Codsworth was of the intelligent sort. He was acting more or less oblivious to the gravity of the situation. It was highly unlike him. I wasn't sure he was okay after all. The last thing I needed was for him to be malfunctioning. Without him, I'd be all alone for sure.

"Codsworth, you're acting . . . a little bit weird. What's wrong?"

"I . . . I . . ." His voice started to become shaky and riddled with emotion. "Oh, mum, it's been just horrible! Two centuries with no one to talk to, no one to serve. I spent the first ten years trying to keep the floors waxed, but nothing gets out nuclear fallout from vinyl wood! Nothing! And don't get me started about the futility of dusting a collapsed house. And the car! The car! How do you polish rust?!"

"Calm down, Codsworth. What do you know?"

"I'm afraid I don't know anything, mum. The bombs came, and all of you left in such a hurry. I thought for certain you and your family were . . . dead." Codsworth reached with one of his appendages into a compartment on his back. "I did find this holotape. I believe sir was going to present it to you as a surprise. But then, well . . . everything happened."

I took it from him. "A holotape? What's on it?"

"I believe it's a private message for you. My etiquette protocols would not permit me to play it for myself. Any standard holotape reading device should be able to play it back. Oh, like that pip-boy on your arm. That should work brilliantly. Now, enough feeling sorry for myself. Shall we search the neighborhood together? Sir and young Shaun may turn up yet."

"Have you seen anything dangerous?"

"Oh, just the usual, mum. Pesky neighborhood dogs and mosquitoes. Shall I investigate?"

Codsworth was much more equipped to take out any hostiles than I was, so I allowed him to lead the way. I followed him around the neighborhood, humoring him. He would see for himself that Nate and Shaun were really gone. He wasn't going to listen to me.

To my surprise, there were more than just giant roaches. Now, there were giant flies that spit acidic fluid from their faces. It didn't seem to bother Codsworth. He sliced into them with the saw on one of his robotic appendages. We checked house after house, killing giant bugs, but there was no other signs of life. I really was the last one left.

We stood in the middle of one of the collapsed houses. Codsworth came up to me with dismay in his voice. "Oh, mum. They're not here either. That means they're . . . they're really gone, aren't they? Sir and young Shaun . . . they aren't here."

"Shaun's out there, Codsworth. I need to find him."

"What about Concord, sir? Plenty of people there. And last I checked, they only pummeled me with sticks a few times before I had to run back home."

"There's still people alive in Concord?" A spark of hope ignited within me.

"Yes, although they're a bit rough. You remember the way? Just across the southern footbridge out of the neighborhood past the Red Rocket station. I shall remain here, and secure the home front!"

I thanked Codsworth and immediately started making my way to the city of Concord. It was just a ways down the road. My and Penny's favorite coffee shop was there. I doubted it was left standing, just as I doubted Penny was still alive.

It as almost sunset. The air was starting to get chillier. I rubbed my arms. The vault suit didn't provide much warmth. At least it was flexible. It wasn't long after I entered the main part of the city that a group of people in strange clothes spotted me and started to open fire.

I ducked behind an old car, covering my head and screaming, "I mean you no harm! Stop firing!" I had never been shot at before. This was a whole new experience. I was thankful that I still had my gun with me at least. I peeked around the corner of the car and shot as many times as I could in their direction. By a stroke of luck, I managed to hit one of the hostiles.

My stomach turned. Oh, my God, I just killed someone. Oh, my God . . .

There was a strange noise coming from the building ahead at the end of the street. I peered up to see someone shooting lasers from the balcony of the museum. He wasn't shooting at me; he was shooting at the other hostiles in the road.

We eventually picked off everyone, though he did most of the work. I was just lucky to be alive.

"Hey!" called a voice. "Up here, on the balcony!"

I stood up from my cover and walked closer to the building. My heart was still pumping adrenaline through my veins. I felt light-headed and still frightened.

"I've got a group of settlers inside! The raiders are almost through the door! Grab that laser musket and help us! Please!"

Someone was asking for my help? I didn't know the first thing about guns or raiders. However, I was a sucker for he service of my fellow man. I went to law school to help others. If someone needed help, the least I could do was try. Besides, I was fairly certain that I owed this man my life, now.

I picked up the laser musket from the sidewalk next to a dead body. It was the body of a young man who was wearing a checked button-up shirt, jeans, and an old-fashioned militia hat. The gun was a little heavy, nothing like the 10mm pistol I was using. However, the pistol was almost out of bullets. I inspected the rifle and noticed the crank on the side. I cranked it to test it out, and it clicked twice. Two laser cartridges were inserted into the chamber. I aimed as steadily as I could at a distant poster on the side of a building and fired. It was off – way off – due to the weight and knock-back, but it would have to do. If all else failed, I had a knife on the end of the gun.

I opened the door to the museum. It creaked open slowly. I shuffled my feet as silently as I could across the floor. I heard shouts from above as I entered the room. I looked around and found that the stairs in the front were collapsed, so there was no way I could reach the balcony of the upper floor without finding another way up.

Someone immediately started shooting at me as I came into view of the main room. I ducked for cover behind a nearby wall, which seemed to be my only way upstairs. After practically walking through a maze and killing random hostiles along the way, I was ready to collapse.

At my destination, there were two men conversing outside a room that I'm guessing had the group of settlers inside. They were threatening them and had their guns in their hands.

My hands were shaky but I steadied myself as best as I could. I shot one guy in the side of his ribs instead of his head where I was aiming, and it alerted them both. I managed to shoot him a second time and killed him, but the other guy started shooting at me. I hid for cover again and cranked my rifle. Only one cartridge left. I quickly aimed for him again, and missed.

Damn it.

I pulled out the pistol and prayed that at least one of my three bullets would hit him. Thankfully, two did. One in the leg, and one in the neck. My aim sucked.

After the guy bled out and went silent, I tiptoed around him and knocked on the door where the settlers were holed up.

The man that was on the balcony outside earlier opened the door. He had dark, chocolate-brown skin and black hair shaved to the scalp. He wore a pin-up militia hat and a militia coat and gloves to match. He had a laser musket of his own.

"Man, I don't know who you are, but your timing is impeccable. Preston Garvey, Commonwealth Minutemen."

I huffed. "Minutemen? So now I'm traveling backward in time?"

"'Protect the People at a minute's notice.' That was the idea. So I joined up, wanted to make a difference. And I did, but . . . things fell apart. Now it looks like I'm the last Minuteman left standing."

I looked around the room. There were four other people inside. Two were of Asian origin, pale skin and black hair, one a man and the other a woman. There was a man standing behind Preston who had brown hair, a tan complexion, and wore overalls and a t-shirt and workman's gloves. He had some kind of utility belt on, full of work tools. Then there was a little old lady with white hair and a warm hat, fuzzy house slippers, and a blue coat. She sat on the couch in the middle of the room. She looked particularly zoned out.

"Who are these people?" I asked Preston.

"Just folks lookin' for a new home. A fresh start. I've been with 'em since Quincy. Lexington looked good for a while, but the ghouls drove us outta there. A month ago, there were twenty of us. Yesterday, there were eight. Now, we're five. It's just me, the Longs – Marcy and Jun – that's old Mama Murphy on the couch. And this here's Sturges."

"Hey," said the tan guy in overalls behind him.

"Ghouls? What are ghouls?" Sounded like something from a cheesy horror film.

"Wow, you really aren't from around here, are you? Ghouls are . . . irradiated people. Most are just like you and me. They look pretty messed up, and live a long time, but they're still just . . . people. The ones I'm talking about are different. The radiation's rotted their brains. Made them feral. They'll rip you apart, just as soon as look at you. Anyway, we figured Concord would be a safe place to settle. Those raiders proved us wrong. But . . . well, we do have one idea."

"Uh, well, let's her it." I was unsure why he was telling me all this in the first place. I felt like just as much a refugee as Marcy and Jun and the others at this point.

"Sturges? Tell her."

Sturges turned his attention away from a terminal he was looking at on a desk behind Preston. "There's a crashed vertibird up on the roof." He had a country twang to his speech that I recognized from my past in Louisiana. "Old school. Pre-war. You might have seen it. Well, looks like one of its passengers left behind a seriously sweet goodie. We're talkin' a full suit of cherry T-45 power armor, military issue."

"What makes that power armor so special?" Nate was always the one who knew more about this stuff since he was in the armed forces, but he never shared a lot of details with me.

"A WesTech Internalized Servo System, that's what! Inside that baby, super is the new normal. You'd be stronger, tougher, resistant to rads, and . . . get the suit, you can rip the minigun right off the vertibird. Do that, and those raiders get an express ticket to Hell. You dig?"

I went along with the plan. "Huh. Could work."

"It'll work! Provided we can reactivate the suit. It's totally outta juice. Probably has been for a hundred years. It can be powered up again. Bu-u-ut we're a bit stuck."

"So what's the solution?"

Preston spoke up. "What you'll need is an old pre-war FC. A standardized fusion core. They're high-grade, long-term, nuclear batteries used by the military and some companies way-back-when. And we know right where to find one."

"But," Sturges continued, "we can't get to the damned thing. It's down in the basement, locked behind a security gate. Look, I fix stuff. I tinker. Bypassing security ain't exactly my forte. You could give it a shot?"

"Wait, you want me to do it? Why can't Preston do it?"

"I need to make sure I keep these people safe," said Preston.

After a quick back and forth with Sturges and Preston, it was clear that they were going to make me be the one to do it. How did I get into this situation? Codsworth wasn't kidding when he said the people here were rough. He could have been more specific and said something more along the lines of "insane" or "heavily armed."

I managed to find the basement. I didn't know much about computers, but I tried my best. A friend of mine in the office had a lot of know-how when it came to computers and showed me a little bit about security in case I needed to access hidden or otherwise inaccessible files. However, it was no use. I was no computer hack.

I took the bobby pin out of my long, blonde hair and picked the lock the old-fashioned way. It took half an hour to figure out how the tumblers worked. I was sure that Preston and Sturges thought I bailed on them. When I took the fusion core out of the machine it was powering, it whirred down. The core was warm in my hand. I held it close to my body to warm up as I carried it back up the stairs.

"I got it," I said, presenting it to them.

"Well, alright," Preston replied. "Maybe our luck's finally turning around. Once you jack the core into the power armor and grab that minigun, those raiders will know they've picked the wrong fight. Good luck."

I groaned and made my way to the roof. Before I made it across the room, Mama Murphy got my attention. "Careful, kid. There's somethin' comin'. And it is . . . angry."

"Huh?"

"I saw it."

"You 'saw it?'"

"It's the chems, kid. They give ole Mama Murphy the 'Sight.' Been that way for as long as I can remember."

I was already not taking her seriously. "What's . . . the Sight?"

"I can see a bit of what was, and what will be. And even what is, right now. And right now, I can see there's something coming. Drawn by the noise, and the chaos. And it is . . . angry."

"What is it?"

"I see . . . I see . . . Oh, it's horrible, kid. Claws and teeth and horns. The very face of death itself." Her face shook like she was having convulsions. Then, the shakes subsided and she took deep breaths. "That's all I can manage. That's all. I need to rest now. And you have a job to do . . ."

Mama Murphy dismissed me, and I can't say that I wasn't eager to get away from her. I bumped into a pacing Marcy as I made for the door.

She snorted at me. "We need help, and we get a Vault Dweller? What are you going to do in that stupid jumpsuit? Bleed to death?"

"I, er . . ."

"These are our lives you're playing with! Are you listening to me?!"

I backed into the door and nervously searched for the handle. When I finally found it, I exited the room with haste and ran up the stairs to the roof above. Preston really had his hands full with these crazies.

I found the suit of power armor and inserted the power core into the back. When I entered it, I felt almost weightless. I punched the wall with my usual amount of strength and actually left a dent. I felt invincible in this suit. I ripped the minigun off the side of the vertibird as instructed and started searching for raiders below.

I found a few and started to aim for them, but lost my footing and fell off of the roof of the building. My heart fell into my gut as I started falling to the ground. I felt myself hit, but it didn't hurt. I managed to leave cracks in the concrete, even. I picked myself up and searched for the minigun. Thankfully, it hadn't been busted to pieces. Again, I tried to aim at the raiders in the distance.

The raiders died very quickly. I was still cringing at the thought of killing other people. I was a lawyer for Christ's sake. Nonetheless, the raiders were wiped out pretty quickly. Preston whooped and hollered from the balcony in a small celebration.

Just then, something huge popped the sewer cap off of the road.

Teeth, claws, and horns, just like she said.

"What is THAT?" I screamed. My voice sounded tinny and muffled in the helmet. I didn't think Preston heard me. It didn't matter. He was already warning me about it.

"Deathclaw! Watch out!"

"A death-what?!"

It roared and charged after me. It looked like a mutated lizard mixed with Satan himself. His claws were as long as my forearm, and he was twice as tall as an average human. I was frozen in panic. The back of his clawed hand smacked my torso and knocked me at least ten feet across the road. I landed with a loud clang. I actually felt the pressure from that one, and it knocked the breath out of me for a moment. As I tried to regain my breath, I scrambled around for the minigun that was knocked from my hands.

The minigun lay about four feet away, so I jumped for it. The deathclaw thing was horribly angry now and jumped on top of me. I wrestled with him and he smacked my helmet around. Preston fired off his laser musket as quickly as he could into the monster's back, but it seemed like all it did was tickle him.

I was horrified as the deathclaw pinned me down to the ground with all its crushing weight. I tried to position the minigun just right to start a hail of bullets into the monster's stomach. When I finally managed, it knocked the deathclaw backwards. At first, there was no blood at all. It was like he was wearing his own suit of armor: his scales alone.

Suddenly, a dog – a German Shepherd – leaped at the deathclaw and sunk his teeth into his ankle. I tried to stay focused, but I was just confused now. I kept squeezing the trigger on him, trying desperately not to kill the dog that just barged into the fight. The deathclaw tried to force his way toward me. Finally, the monster's 'armor' gave way and he started bleeding everywhere. The bullets did the rest of the work for me.

The monster gave one last growl of pain and landed on the concrete in a lifeless heap.

I took my helmet off and dropped the minigun on the ground. I was covered in sweat and breathing heavily. What insanity.

"Yes!" Preston cheered. "I'll meet you inside!"

The dog from earlier made his way up to me with a happy expression and a wagging tail.

"Hey, boy. Where'd you come from? What are you doing out here all by yourself?"

He barked happily.

"You seem like an okay guy. A regular badass . . ."

He sat down and wagged his tail.

"Okay, then. Let's stick together." We made our way inside the museum.