Dakota Michelson

A Fallout 4 Fan Fiction

Chapter 6: Publick Occurrences

I woke up in my apartment. I open my eyes and see the bright blue sky peeking through the blinds covering the window. I get up to open the blinds and see people walking the streets, cars driving down the road, and the colorful trees which look like they are straight out of a painting. I turn the television on and walk over to the refrigerator to get something to eat. I look at the calendar on the fridge door and see in big bold letters "EXAM" on today's date. As I panic to search for my binder, the phone starts ringing. I answer it and hear my mother's voice on the phone. "Good morning Dakota," she says. "Morning," I respond back. She says, "-was wanting to see if you could stop by this morning. Haven't seen you in a while." "I don't know about today, ma. I've got an exam." In just that moment I hear something on the T.V. about a detonation. My heart drops and I turn around to look at the T.V. My mother is talking still but I'm no longer paying attention. I look outside the window and see a mushroom cloud in the orange sky and the blast from the bomb moving closer and closer and closer…

"Michelson!" I sit up, startled. "Are you alright, soldier?" Danse asks. I'm still trying to recover from the nightmare, but I nod yes anyway. "Do you want to talk about it?"

I look up at Danse and say, "I was back in my old apartment. Well, right before the bomb dropped and then I saw the cloud in the sky-."

Danse cuts me off by putting his hand on my shoulder. "It's alright. I won't make you relive it again." I give him a nod and he walks back towards his bed. "I'm going to check out my armor and make sure those damn mutants didn't damage it too badly. It shouldn't take long. We will head back to the station afterwards." "Yes, sir," I say.

I walk outside and see the bright blue sky. After the radiation storm, it is a welcome sight. I walk around the market and realize I must have been asleep for a while. The residents are eating noodles being served by a Protectron. "That's new," I say to myself. I decide to go ahead and try them. I walk up to it and it says something undecipherable. I say, "Huh?"

"Just say yes. It's all he understands," a voice says. I look over and see that it's Piper, the reporter from outside yesterday. "Yes?" I say as I hand over the caps. I take a seat next to Piper and it hands me a bowl of noodles. "So here's the deal, Blue. I want an interview." I raise an eyebrow and realize she is referring to the blue jumpsuit I'm wearing. "Your life story in print," she continues. "I think it's time Diamond City had a little outside perspective on the Commonwealth."

I look around see if Danse is nearby. I find him on the other side of the marketplace still working on his power armor. "All right. I'm in."

"Good. Let's get down to business. Tell me your name and a little something about yourself to give the readers some background," she says. "All right. My name is Dakota Michelson. I'm from here—well, here as in the Boston area. I was in Vault 111."

"How would you describe your time in the vault?" she asks. I chuckle at the question and say, "Well, I was only consciously in there for a very short time. They froze all of us in the pods. I only recently thawed out." Her eyes widen and she says, "Wait. They boxed you up in a fridge? The whole time? Are you saying you were alive before the War?" I nod. "Yes, I am 233 years old."

"Oh my god," she says excitedly as she scribbles some notes down on a notepad. "So. You've seen the Commonwealth. Diamond City. How does it compare to your old life?" I raise an eyebrow at her. "That's a tough question really…" I pause for a second. "There's so much violence and danger. The comfort of knowing that you are going to be alive tomorrow and the next day and so on is gone. All the luxuries and conveniences I used to take for granted have been destroyed. Besides that, the world looks so dead. No beautiful greenery or even fully intact structures anymore." I look up at Piper and see that excited look has been smacked away and replaced with a grim face. "Despite that…" I continue. "…It is not all bad. Seeing the world surviving despite all of these setbacks… well… it tells me that there's still hope. It tells me that we can get through this." "Wow. That's going to be a fun one to quote," she says. "Yeah… sorry about that. I guess I'm still adjusting. The memories of the old world are still very fresh for me."

"No, it's okay, Blue. I get it and you're alright. Now this next one's a bit different. How about we go into my office instead?" I nod and as I turn around I see Mayor McDonough walking towards us. If looks could kill, McDonough's angry glare would have demolished Piper into ashes.

We get into Piper's office and continue. "So you've met our 'wonderful' Mayor McDonough already. He's in charge of Diamond City Security Too often do they turn a blind eye on missing person cases. This and some other interesting facts I've learned led to the article that got me thrown out of the city. My point is that the threat of kidnapping is all but ignored in the Commonwealth. Everyone wants to pretend it doesn't happen. What would you say to someone out there who's lost a loved one, but might be too scared, or too numb to the world to look for them?"

"Wow. Um… I guess my first thought on that is 'How can people ignore kidnappings? That is something the authorities definitely should be looking into.'" Piper lets out a short chuckle. "Glad you're right there with me on that. I've been trying to find the real reason, but honestly, I don't have anything concrete yet. Everyone blames the Institute and the only reasonable explanation I can think of is McDonough is behind it. He's probably even a synth himself."

"What can you tell me about the Institute, Piper?" "Well… no one really knows who they are. Synths, or synthetic people are sent from their hidden labs to do the Institute's dirty work. Sometimes they even replace a person with a Synth double. A little covert agent no one would ever suspect. The first kind of synth is an obvious fake. Skin looks like plastic. Skeleton might even be showing. You see groups of them scouring the Commonwealth, killing people, and scavenging what's left. I reported on University Point a while back. Whole town got cleaned out. The second type of synth is the real deal. With skin, blood, warm smiles and guilty glances just like a good, old-fashioned human."

"That's insane. How could they even have survived the war with all of the technology intact?" Piper shrugs her shoulders and says, "No one knows where they are. It's not totally impossible to assume that they were somewhere far away that wasn't impacted by the bombs. Maybe all of this technology actually is post-war. Who knows?"

I look down as I take all of this information in. "I have one final request for you. I want you to make a statement to Diamond City directly. If you could say anything at all, what would you say?"

I think very carefully on what to say for this one. Whatever gets published will have my name written all over it… and by the way, I should ask Danse about getting some real uniform when we get back to the station, so I don't stick out like a sore thumb.

"It's obvious that there are lots of terrible threats out there to our survival. A lot of it is us fighting each other. That kind of bullshit is what caused the bombs to drop in the first place. We need to set aside these petty issues and work together. That being said, it seems we all have one common enemy here. The Institute. If they don't stop with these synths which threaten our survival, then they should be our main target."

I look up and see Piper's eyes widened. "Wow… Dakota. That was very moving." She writes down some notes. "I hope the readers will feel moved also. It's gonna take some time to put this all together, but I think your story is going to give Diamond City plenty to talk about. Hope you don't mind if I summarize that last part a bit."

I smile and nod and she walks me to the door. I head back to the room in the Dugout Inn and see Danse waiting for me. "Ready to move out?" he asks. "Yes, Paladin." I say. "Outstanding."