Chapter 3 – Memories; Good and Bad

She was so cold. That was her first thought, of how cold it was. Then she heard the voices. At first, Nora couldn't remember where she was. That's right, the Vault! I'm in the Vault because the sirens went off and they put me in this pod for decontamination. I must of fallen asleep. The voices were getting closer, talking about finding the "right one." The right one? What does that mean? Shouldn't all the residents be getting out? She saw them then through iced glass. A rough looking man in dirty clothes and some kinds of armor and another person in some kind of protective suit stood across from her in front of Shaun's pod.

"Here it is, this one here," said the one in the suit. They started manipulating the buttons just next to the pod until it hissed open.

Shaun, being the cheerful baby he always was, sleepily gurgled at those near him, waving his tiny fists about. The one in the suit cooed and gently removed Shaun from the straps and buckles holding him in place. They moved slowly to make sure to cause little disturbance. It looked even slower to Nora. Why were they taking her baby? Why wasn't she being let out too? Where was the rest of the Vault staff?

The man was trying to get the one in the suit to hurry. He looked ill at ease with the situation and the environment. When the person stopped listening to him, he drew a large hand gun from his side and fired it a foot away from the other's head. The person in the suit seemed to get the message and proceeded to hurry, now ignoring the baby's cries. Meanwhile, the armored and armed man just closed the pod and told the other one it was time to leave.

Nora realized her hands hurt, and then saw why. She had been pounding on the door, screaming to get out and stop them. The man stopped over at her pod and said something before leaving. His back was the last thing she saw as a computerized voice informed her that the cryogenic stasis was being reinitialized.

XXXXX

Cryogenics? Well that explains the passage of time. I have literally slept like a popsicle for 200 years. Realizing it was early morning, Nora stretched up from the couch. She cracked her spine out of the stiffness of a bad night's sleep and looked around for Codsworth. He was not in the immediate vicinity. Puttering outside, she found him just bringing back items scavenged from the other houses in her bag.

"Ah mum!" he cried. "You're awake! I went around to a few of the houses and grabbed some things I thought you might need." He zoomed back into the house passed her and immediately started unloading it onto the counter. Appearing before her was an array of old food, a couple stimpacks and chems she didn't recognize, a box of 10mm ammo, some bobby pins, a few bottle caps, and happily a few more Nuka-colas.

Her face split into a grin at the sight of the now ancient soda. Not caring about the age or the fact it was warm Nora reached out, grabbed one, popped the top and took a long drink. It was sticky not as fizzy as it should have been, but it was wonderful all the same. Just a little bit of happy memory to settle her mind and distract from the now. It brought her back to sitting at Starlight with Nate so long ago. Thinking of two Nuka-cherries sitting forgotten while Nate and Nora were too wrapped up in each other to pay attention to the show just made her smile more. In really thinking about it, she was fairly certain that was the night Shaun was conceived.

The smile became a little sad when Shaun came to mind. Shaking her head she looked up at the robot waiting on her. "Thank you, Codsworth. This is great." Packing it back up, aside from the pins which she used to bundle up her long black hair into the best bun she could. Nora didn't know much about this new world, but she was fairly certain having her hair down would only cause problems.

Nora considered the gun she had brought from the Vault. Nate had taught her how to shoot long ago. His reasoning being she was a lawyer working with and around criminals and should know how to handle a gun in case the need arose. He had taken her to a shooting range, educated her on the different parts of a gun and everything. She had even been a fairly decent shot at the time, but it was so long ago and the gun just felt strange in her hand.

With a sigh Nora knew she would have to practice some. "Codsworth, could you help me set up some bottles and such to practice with this gun?"

"Capital idea mum!" His appendages rose in excitement and immediately flew back out to gather cans and bottles. They were speedily lined up on the old wall by the river for Nora to shoot back down.

Nora only took about 30 minutes to re-acquaint herself with firearm basics. She didn't want to waste too much ammo in doing so. After making sure she was comfortable with loading and unloading and could aim accurately enough to take down four out of six bottles from a fair distance, she packed the gun away and strode back to her house. Instead of going in, she dropped her bag on the front step and decided to take a slower more thorough walkthrough of the neighborhood.

Each house looked about the same as hers, with dust and old relics everywhere. Some were even fully collapsed with no way to search through the rubble, not that she wanted to. There wasn't much else to find besides scrap since Codsworth had already made the rounds through. Nora did make note of an old safe, but didn't even try to pick the lock knowing she would only break pins if she did. The only occasion she had ever had to pick a lock was when her little sister had locked herself in the bathroom during a tantrum. No one had been able to find a key and her father had not wanted to kick the door in. After about five tries and many bent and broken pins later, Nora had been able to get the door open for her sister to receive a very long grounding.

It was mid-afternoon by the time she finished walking the town and Nora finally noticed she was hungry, very hungry. This made sense since she had consumed nothing that day aside from the one Nuka Cola. She strolled back to the house and found Codsworth had prepared another can of pork and beans for her. He apologized profusely for the quality and lack of variety, but she only waived him off stating it was fine and dug in.

"I'm going to head to Concord tomorrow, see if I can find anyone. Will you come with me?"

"I would be delighted, mum! I don't like the thought of you going it alone with how the world is now."

Nora only nodded and finished eating. She decided to spend the remainder of the day making sure everything she needed was packed up well in her bag and the pockets of her jacket were filled as well. During this time she had Codsworth go back through the houses and gathered all the scrap to be dropped back off at the workbench in Ms. Rosa's old house. When it finally made it to evening, Nora curled back up on the couch and fell into a deep exhausted sleep.

XXXXX

The light of morning stabbed at Nora's eyes, signaling her house still had holes and it had not been a horrible nightmare. With a groan she rose from the couch, rubbed the strain from her back, and looked out the window. It was time.

"Codsworth, are you ready?" the robot was out front at the hedges again, though she didn't see why he kept trying to trim them when they weren't growing anyway.

"Of course, mum. I gather it is time to leave?"

Nora only nodded. Hefting her bag over her shoulder in a cross body fashion, she headed for the bridge. In first seeing the Old North Bridge, she didn't know if she was surprised it was still mostly standing, of sad of how broken it was. One could still make their way across as long as they stuck to the right side and away from the gaping hole on the left. It was a mess. Boards were cracked and splintered, or missing altogether and it looked as though a good rainstorm would cause it to fully collapse.

A sigh left her lips, expelling the memories of when she had first crossed this bridge to her new home. It wasn't worth thinking about right now, and Nora shook it out of her head. She needed to focus on the task at hand. With the baton grasped firmly in her right hand, Nora took the first step on the bridge and towards the search for her son.

She hadn't been walking for very long, maybe five or ten minutes, when the Red Rocket Truckstop came into view. It too looked old and faded, like everything else, but was still fully standing. It was covered in vines and had trash all around it, but it was in one piece. It was nice to see. She lost in herself in thoughts of the Truckstop until she heard a bark and the scrabbling of large paws coming towards her.

Bracing herself, she adjusted her stance towards the sound and saw…a large normal looking dog loping towards with silly doggy like exuberance. The mutt skidded to a stop in front of her, plopped his butt on the ground and grinned up at her, tongue lolling. A laugh of surprise escaped her lips. He was so normal looking in this no longer normal world it was ridiculous.

The dog barked at her again to get her attention and Nora snapped back to the task at hand. Kneeling to get closer to eye level she held her hand out for a sniff. Without pausing the dog stuck his nose in her palm and licked it all over before insisting she scratch behind his ears. Following orders, she dug her fingers into the thick fur and made him a very happy dog.

"Hey boy, you out here all alone? Where is your owner?" he only barked again and put a paw on her knee. "I guess that answers that question. You want to come with us?" With a yip and bounce that Nora took as assent, she took to the road once again with a new friend.

Codsworth puttered behind for a moment before gliding to her side. "Are you sure about this, mum? He's hardly trained and could cause trouble. Additionally, what will you feed him?"

As someone who had attended University to be a lawyer, Nora thought before answering. "If he was going to attack, he would have done so already. As for trouble, with how long he has most likely survived out here, I'll be more likely to cause trouble than he will. Added to that, he will do fine on what I eat or foraging for himself, as I'm sure he has been doing to make to the large size he is." Codsworth didn't argue the point further. As a robot he was able to process beyond the average human enough to know it would be pointless.

Within another ten minutes Nora could easily see Concord ahead of her. Aside from a delay caused by more of the too large disgusting bugs, she was making decent time. She was slightly concerned on the lack of people though. There had been no sign there was even people around anymore. Not long after this crossed her mind, Nora heard gunshots ahead of her and she froze.

Some very large bugs, she could handle. Nora wasn't sure she was ready for confrontations with people. Slowly she drew her gun out and moved forward. She didn't want to keep going, in fact she wanted to run back to Sanctuary and stay there forever, but she had a made a promise and Concord was where she had to go to keep it. Nora knew she would go through anything to get her son back.

The closer she got, the clearer she could hear the shots and soon came the sound of yelling. Rounding a corner the Museum of Freedom came into view at the end of the block. On the street below were several figures running back and forth firing up at a man on the balcony. Due to the distant, she couldn't make out everything perfectly, but he appeared to be all alone in holding off those below.

Before she could choose to help and who to help, the dog launched himself down the road with a battle cry in the form of vicious barking and jumped closest figure to them. Since the person didn't see it coming, they went down quickly with a ripped open throat and blood all over the ground. Nora didn't even move it happened so fast. It wasn't until a bullet hit the car next to her that she fully realized what was going on.

They had seen her and were now firing at her and the dog and Codsworth. She ducked behind the car and tried to think, it wasn't something she was able to do easily considering the situation. Meanwhile her robot butler charged into battle, taking his saw to the first shooter he encountered. She was still being fired on though.

Squeezing her eyes shut, figuring she was about to die, Nora rose from behind the car and fired at the man, she could see now it was a man, advancing towards her. Her hands shook on the first two shots, but she bore down on her nerves and fired again. The next two bullets hit shoulder and chest, bringing her attacker to his knees, and then fully to the ground, from which he didn't rise again.

By the time she had killed that one man, Codsworth and the dog were ending the last ones in site. Her chest was heaving and her gut was in knots. It was at that moment Nora noticed her arm felt like it was on fire. In looking at it, she was surprised to see she had been shot. It was just a graze below her left shoulder, but it was the first time she had been shot. Nora had been experiencing many firsts in the last couple days. She was positive she didn't like any of them.

A call from above broke her reverie. "Hey! They've got us trapped inside! Grab that musket and give us hand!"

It wasn't a question, it was a hope shouted in the form of an order. Nora had heard such before when observing her husband in a military setting. She considered not entering the museum, this wasn't her affair and she needed to find her son. Maybe they can help me. If I help them first, maybe they will help me. Decision made, Nora grabbed the indicated musket, not easily as she was not used to its weight, and made her way to the door.

"Ah, mum? Are you sure about this? It could be rather dangerous." Codsworth sounded very hesitant to even question her from the second time.

"No, no I'm not sure about this, but it is the right thing to do and these people could know something about Shaun. So I'm going in," Nora sighed. "You don't have to Codsworth, you can stay out here."

The robot huffed in his robot way, "I wouldn't dare let you go it alone!"

From her side, the dog barked in agreement. "I guess we are going in then," with that, Nora yanked open the door and ducked inside the monument to freedom.

After an hour of navigating the broken building, and more bodies than Nora wanted to think about, she made it to the room the man from the balcony and whoever else was trapped in. To her surprise, she found that man and only four others. It was him, a dark skinned man in an old fashioned militia coat and hat, another man in overalls with slicked up hair looking for the world like a greaser mechanic, and old woman sitting on a ratty couch, and another man and woman who stayed very close to each other. The man looked as though he had lost everything and the woman just looked angry.

"Wow, you actually made it through! I honestly wasn't sure you could. You have my thanks stranger," the man held forth his hand. "The name's Preston Garvey, member of the Commonwealth Minutemen."

"The Minutemen?" Nora gave an amused smile. "So I'm going back in time?"

"Helping the people in a minutes notice is the motto. Same now as it was then with so many in need," he gave a small smile in return, but turned serious quick. "Look, there are more of those guys are still out there. If you are up for it, we could use some more help so can get out of here alive and intact."

This made Nora pause. What more could they need her for? "I'm listening," was all she replied with along with a wary expression.

From here the man in the overalls stepped in and explained the plan. This plan outlined as utilizing the "cherry" power armor up top and ripping a gun off a crashed vertiberd to kill the rest of the "raiders." The raiders being the men and women in mishmashed armor attacking the group for reasons unknown to Nora. Apparently this also involved cracking a terminal to get a fusion core out of the basement. How the two men thought Nora was the one to do this, she had no idea.

"Is there reason why one of you can't do this?" she challenged at the end of the long plan.

The man in the overalls, Sturges she had come to learn, gave her a look, "Look, I'm all for fixin' up machines and shit, but computer code is not in my tool box."

Preston nodded. "Likewise. Along with that, I have to stay with these people."

Nora huffed out a breath, "Okay, let's get this done."

Quietly, the old woman on the couch spoke up, "Be careful out there, something dark is coming here. All the noise brought it up from the dark and it is very angry! So angry!"

"What do you mean?"

She only shook her head wearily. "That's all I saw kid, but with Dogmeat at your side, I'm sure you'll be fine."

"Dogmeat? Who's…" then she looked at the dog beside her. Dogmeat!? Really, that's his name? That is a horrible name for a dog! "Oh! Is he yours?"

Again, she shook her head. "No, no. He's what you would say his own man. Belongs to no one but chooses his friends well and wisely. He'll stick with you from now on."

"Okay then," was all Nora had to offer in return. "C'mon Codsworth." With that she turned back out of the room for the basement.

Before she knew it, Nora was on the roof in a set of very old power armor shooting a very, very large gun at the remaining raiders below. Preston was back on the balcony firing off with his laser rifle as well. As some were hiding behind cars and in the broken down shops, she had ended up going back to road by jumping down.

Nate had shown Nora power armor and had told her many stories of the things he had accomplished when wearing a suit. Thanks to this, she knew the jump would do her little to no damage. Only a few minutes after her jump, the ground rumbled and the intersection at the other end of the street exploded. From the crumbling hole rose what Nora could only later think of as hell itself. It was big, black with horns, and ugly.

"What the fuck is that!?"

From above she heard Preston's shout of "Deathclaw!" and his voice contained abject terror.

This is bad, this is very bad, this is sooooo bad. Was all Nora could think while spewing expletives and holding down the trigger of the minigun as hard as she could. The thing hardly seemed to notice and it was charging her down. Turning and backing away as quickly as she could in the awkward armor, Nora had almost made it to a corner shop when the thing caught up to her, raised a large, clawed hand and knocked her like a ragdoll into the store.

Power armor was tough and gave a high amount of protection from bullets and such, but she felt that hit all over her body. Thankfully the gun had landed in front of her and the thing, Deathclaw, could not fit in the store. On top of this, Codsworth and Dogmeat were distracting it with quick in and out attacks. Knowing she couldn't stay on the floor, Nora hauled herself up and grabbed the gun. Settling it back in grasp, she yelled for them to get out of the way and held down the trigger for all she was worth. Before she knew it, the drum was empty and the creature was still standing, but barely.

"Well shit," was all Nora could gasp out. Drawing her little 10mm, she fired until the thing roared a final breath and collapsed to the ground.

Not fully trusting that it was dead, she approached warily, and gave it a kick with her armored foot. It didn't move and Nora finally let her breath out. Skirting around it to get to the open street, she ejected from the power armor and fell to the ground, trying to remember how to fully breathe again. It was this time Preston ran out of the museum and to her side.

"That was amazing!" he praised with a huge grin, pulling her up from the street and supporting her back to the museum entrance. "I'm glad you're on our side. I wasn't completely sure of what you could handle, being a Vault Dweller and all, but you handled yourself magnificently well out there!"

Vault Dweller? Oh yeah, I'm still wearing my Vault suit. Nora didn't reply, she really couldn't with her main focus being on breathing still. She felt as though she had been beaten all over and didn't have the capacity for speech at that moment. When she thought about, she had been beaten all over.

Preston got them both inside the museum, Dogmeat bounding forth and Codsworth worriedly hovering at her side opposite Preston. After being situated on a chair in the remains of the lobby with the rest of the group, Preston and Sturges launched into making sure they could safely get everyone to a nearby town that Mama Murphy, the old woman, had told them about. Apparently this nearby town was Sanctuary and according to Marcy, the angry Asian woman, it wasn't that Mama Murphy had heard about it, but had seen it.

"Wait, what do you mean 'She saw it'?" Nora interrupted.

Mama Murphy looked at her dreamily "I have the sight. Depending on what I take I can see some of what was, what will be, and sometimes what is going on right now," her voice was as hazy sounding and tired as her vision looked.

Nora gazed at her in disbelief. "How is that even possible?"

"I don't know the science behind it, kid," she shrugged out. "Some have it, most don't. For me the chems help me see clearer."

"Chems? Like drugs?"

Mama Murphy nodded "Exactly. I know your searching for someone, kid. I have seen him."

"Shaun! You saw him somewhere!? When? Do you know where?"

She got a tired nod "Sorry kid, it don't work like that, but I can tell you a good place to start, The Great Green Jewel!"

Nora gave a confused look "The what?"

Preston stepped in "She's talking about Diamond City. It is the biggest settlement in the 'Wealth."

Mama Murphy nodded again and when she spoke, her voice sounded more distant "Diamond City holds answers, but they're locked tight. You ask them what they know, but people's hearts are chained up with fear and suspicion. But you find it. You find that heart that's gonna lead you to your boy. Oh, it's... it's bright. So bright against the dark alleys it walks. That's... that's what you need to do, kid. Follow the signs to the bright heart."

It made no sense to Nora, but it was something so she nodded. "Thank you, I appreciate it."

"Sorry, I don't have more for you kid. Maybe you get me some jet and I'll be able to see something more."

"Jet?"

"Mama, we talked about this, no more chems!" Preston interjected before Nora could get an explanation.

This started a different argument between the two that Nora didn't bother to fully listen too. She really only heard Mama Murphy's defense of her being too for it matter anymore. It was her turn to interrupt, "You said you were going to Sanctuary? I know the way."

These words got Preston's attention, "Really! That's perfect! Are you good to head out now?" He was so excited it was like watching a bouncing child.

Nora couldn't refuse him, so she nodded and got back to her aching feet. With this, everyone gathered their few belongings and made the forty minute walk back to her old neighborhood. They encountered nothing on the way as she had already killed the bugs that had previously resided near the road. When leaving Concord, Nora had stopped at the first raider she had killed and looked at his face. He was young, barely nineteen or twenty she thought. That thought made her sick. What drove him down this path to end like this? She had no answer, neither did the dead raider. With a tired shake of her head, she moved on.

It was reaching evening when they made it back. All Nora wanted to do was sleep, but Preston wanted to walk the town with her quick. She sighed and followed. The sooner it was done, the sooner she could close her eyes.

"The place is perfect! Most of the houses are in decent enough shape, they can easily be used for shelter with no issue," he exclaimed, mostly to himself.

Nora gazed around at the sight of the ruined town, "Yeah, it used to be perfect," she spoke in a whisper so quiet Preston barely heard her.

"What do you mean it used to be?"

She just shook her head in reply, not ready to talk about her past and unsure if Preston was a good person to tell it too. Preston didn't press further, for which she was grateful. They finished the walk and ended back at Ms. Rosa's old house, where everyone seemed to have gathered in and Sturges was looking over the workbench and scrap she had collected there.

"Thanks again for all your help today. We couldn't have done it without you," Preston offered his hand again.

At first Nora just looked down at it. Preston was a very kind and polite man in a world that seemed to have no call for it. It was refreshing if not odd, but she took the hand and shook it firmly.

"You're welcome. If you don't mind though, I'm exhausted and am going to sleep," she gestured at her old house behind her. "I'll be in that one."

He nodded, though looked in curiosity at the house. No doubt wondering why that one specifically, but he let her go. With that, Nora walked wearily to her home and fell on the broken dusty house. She immediately fell into a deep sleep and, thankfully, did not dream.