Chapter 7

Nora stood in her living room with Nate and Shaun as the reporter on tv spoke in a tense voice "We have coming in thats confirmed reports of Nuclear detonations in New York and Washington, dear God" his head drooped down and the screen went blank as air raid sirens began to scream out side. "We have to get the the Vault now!" she screamed and watched as Nate took Shaun and ran for the front door. "Codsworth hun stay safe" she said to the robot "And you as well Mum" the robot replied. She turned to leave only to find she couldn't mover her legs, and the harder she tried the worse she seemed to get stuck. A bright flash from behind her made her realize she was too late.

Nora snapped awake again as the Shockwave from her dream hit her house, thankfully she was able to stifle her screams and not wake the other patrons of the Dugout Inn. She reached for her Pipboy and saw the time was 5:00 in the morning and she decided to try to get some more sleep, but Sleep wouldn't come and after laying in the bed for three hours got up and began to gather her things in preparation for her trip into the glowing sea, where most of the bombs that devastated the Boston area had hit.

"Gotta try and do something about these nightmares," Nora said to herself as she looked at her reflection in the tiny mirror in her room. Crows feet at the corners of her eyes and dark circles beneath them told the story of the lack of restful sleep she had gotten since leaving Vault 111 and starting her search for her son. She pulled her pack of smokes out and fished the last one out crumpled the pack and as she lit her morning smoke tossed the empty pack in the waste receptacle by the bed.

As she stepped out of the Inn her eyes were assaulted by the bright early morning sunshine and she covered them with one hand as she took another drag off her smoke. Nora started walking towards Arturo's stand in the marketplace inwardly thanking herself for bringing the suit of Power armor from Concord to have Rad Scrubbers installed. As she got closer she saw the armor outside his shop and Arturo waved to her in greeting, "Good morning Nora" he said in his soft hispanic accent "Good morning Arturo" Nora replied as she covered the last few feet to where he was standing. "I took the liberty of reinforcing the frame and the armor while i installed the rad scrubbers" Arturo said as Nora admired his work, "Thank you Arturo" she replied while she gazed at the suit of armor as it glinted in the early morning light.

She noticed something on the chest plate of the armor and moved closer to look and her heart caught in her throat as she felt her eyes begin to burn from the tears that had started to well up, as she saw written in small lettering were the words "Fear not son, Hope is coming." Arturo noticed Nora's tears as they fell from her cheeks and placed his hand on her shoulder "After reading the interview you did with Piper I thought it would be fitting." he said, and Nora choked out a Thanks as she tried to stem the tide of her grief and sorrow. She heard footsteps approaching from the right and as she looked saw Piper walking towards her with Nick. "You Ready for this Blue?" "Honestly no" Nora replied but steeled herself for the task at hand. After Donning the Armor she walked outside of Diamond City where she found Hancock already waiting for her. "All set?" he asked in his gravelly voice. Nora shook her Head finding it somewhat stifling under the helmet of the T-45 Power helmet.

A few hours later Nora and Hancock were approaching the neponset highway and the edge of the Glowing Sea, her nerves faltering ever so slightly. "Well there it is sunshine the edge of the Glowing Sea, aint it a sight or what?" She had heard stories of course from people in Diamond City, traders mostly, about the Glowing Sea but now that she looked at it she realized that none of the stories came even close to what she was looking at now. the radiation in the area was so bad that the air and sky looked distinctly green. As they moved into the area she heard the rad scrubbers in her armor kick on and the gieger counter on her PipBoy begin ticking loudly.

The air was thick with Radiation and even though her Geiger counter was ticking like crazy she knew that the Rad Scrubbers were eliminating the most harmful bits before it could affect her. "So do you know where we need to go sunshine?" Hancock asked as she paused to look at her pipboy hud in the helmet. "According to the map there is a large area ahead that may be inhabited," she answered. "Hmmmm odds are if it is it will be those damned children of Atom freaks," Hancock stated,and when Nora looked at him with her head turned slightly he explained further. "The Children of Atom believe that the great war that happened way back when was the god Atom performing what they call the division, and that the radiation was his divine gift to them." When Nora shook her head slowly Hancock chuckled "Hey I told you they were freak's" "But they are dangerous freak's nonetheless," Hancock admonished "Best to not agrivate them as much as possible sunshine." "I'll keep that in mind" Nora answered.

They walked for another two hours before they arrived at what Nora assumed was "Ground Zero" and marvelled that anyone could be living in this god forsaken area, but sure enough she saw several people going about their own day to day affairs. As she watched she heard a man's voice call out, "In the name of Atom declare yourself or be divided!" The man that approached was carrying a weapon that looked like a small squirt gun that had been modified to have a small dish on the front, "Gamma gun susnshine, really nasty to you harmless to me, let me do the talking here." "Greetings brother of Atom, my name is Hancock and my friend and I seek a man named Virgil" The man holding the Gamma gun looked disgusted as Hancock spoke "Ghoul's are an affront to Atom, so why would i help you?" "Hey now how can i be an affront to Atom, his radiation made me what i am." Hancock replied smoothly.

The man stopped to think and he realised that what Hancock had said made a lot of sense. "Follow me to the village, Mother Isolde will know better how to handle you," and with that turned and began to walk back the way he had come from. "Told you they were nuts," Hancock whipered to Nora as they walked behind him. After a few minutes of walking they reached the center of the Crater and were instructed to enter the building at the top most point, and after doing so were greeted by a severe looking woman "What business do you have here in our refuge?" Mother Isolde asked. Nora spoke as one woman to another, "I'm looking for a man named Virgil, he may have the information i need to find my missing child." Mother Isolde's features seemed to soften slightly and when she spoke her tone was lighter "We know of this Virgil, he comes to us every so often to trade, but be warned he is not keen on fraternization and angers easily." "Okay, but do you know where i might be able to find him?" Nora pressed, "Yes he is in a cave about 7 miles West of this Crater," "Thank you so much Mother Isolde," Nora said and on a whim "May Atom bless you and your Crater."

"A believer? from the Commonwealth?" "What an interesting turn of events" Mother Isolde said "May Atom bless you as well child, Take care when you get to the eastern ridge as Deathclaws have been known to hunt there." Hancock looked at Nora in amazement, never in a hundred years would he have been able to pull off what she just had, and he felt his heart tug at his chest as he looked at her. As they left the Crater Hancock looked at Nora "Sunshine that was some very quick thinking back there, you may have gotten us both out of there alive, you know that right?" Nora shrugged under the armor "Honestly I don't even know what made me say it" she said lightly "But you were right, they are fucking nuts."

After about an hour of walking Nora spotted some rather ugly lokking Feral Ghouls standing in a very irradiated pond. As she was attempting to find the best route past them one Ghoul made it's distinct vocalization and began to charge right towards them, drawing the attention of the 9 or so others with it. "Shit sunshine Ferals" Hancock growled and began blasting them with his sawed off. Nora drew her .44 magnum, made double sure it was loaded and craked a few rounds at the nearest Ghoul.

They walked in silence for a while and after the harrowing experience with nasty horde of Ferals, took a brief rest in a sunken Red Rocket station. "According to the Pipboy the cave we are looking for is just over the next rise." Nora said as Hancock lit a smoke, took a deep drag and exhaled as he put his feet up on an old ruined desk. "I'd offer you one sunshine but I would rather you not take off that helmet right now, wouldnt want that beautiful face to end up like mine." Hancock said as he took another long drag off the cigarette "Damn and here I was about to ask for one" Nora said laughing softly. Nora took out her .44 and admired the piece as she reloaded after the fight with ghouls, the bull barell glinting in the low light of the station. "When we get out of this place remind me to thank Piper for the new barell again," Nora said "I think you did that already about a hundred times sunshine" Hancock replied.

After Hancock had finished his smoke they set out again and upon cresting the ridge saw that Mother Isolde had indeed been right, at the bottom of the hill a Deathclaw was stalking slowly searching for prey. "Shit fuck," Hancock growled softly "How do you want to handle this Nora?" She thought back to her last encounter back in Concord and shuddered lightly, "We can't sneak around it, my armor makes to much noise and no offense but a Deathclaw would smell either of us coming if i left the suit here." "Dammnit all anyway," Hancock said his mind processing the remaining options that he could think of. "Don't really fancy fighting one of those fuckers if we can avoid it" he said to Nora "Well if I can get to a good vantage point I may be able to criple it's tail or legs which would give us a slight edge, but also piss it off immesurably." "Well I suppose it's better than just standing here waiting for it to find us," Hancock said gruffly, even though he didn't like the idea of Nora having to fight the damned thing anymore than he wanted to himself.

Hancock pulled out his own .50 Caliber rifle as he waited for Nora to get a good vantage point over the beast that stalked below and watched for her signal, and after about fifteen mins she finally got into position and waved at him to ready his weapon. They would have to be quick and precise as a missed round meant a lot larger fight than they needed right now. Nora took aim with her .308 and after exhaling slowly pulled the trigger watching as she struck the beast in the left knee with enough force to take its leg clean off from the knee down. Hancock wasted no time in taking a shot he had aimed at the beasts head and as it roared in pain and anger his bullet ripped into it's open mouth taking the back of it's skull on it's way through.

"Damn nice shot sunshine!" Hancock praised her as she walked over to where he was standing,"Damn nice indeed." Nora affected a tiny bow as Hancock complimented her "Not too bad yourself there John." then they both laughed hard and set out for the cave that was just visible through the haze of radiation. As they entered the cave they saw a turret set up and an old Protectron wandering in the entry way, and as it saw them raised its arms defensively "Halt intruders state your business here" it said stiffly. We're looking for Virgil," Hancock said immediately. "Let them pass" A deep voice rumbled from further in the cave and the old robot lowered its arms, "Have a nice day." the protectron said and allowed them to pass.

"I figured the Institute would eventually send someone after me" The deep voice boomed "But you havent attempted to kill me yet so it is likely you're here for some other reason." The owner of the voice stepped out of the shadow's that had been concealing him from view and Nora gasped in shock. "I know I'm freak but would you care not to stare at me." The Super Mutant said gruffly. "Let me guess you ate Virgil and now we're next right?" Hancock said rather harshly. "No no you misunderstand, I am Dr. Brian Virgil" The mutant responded. "I was one of the head researchers in the Bio Sciences division of the Institute, we were tasked with working on a new strain of the F.E.V and when I figured I had found a way to turn the Super Mutants back to their original human forms I began to try to synthesize it, but i had been wrong in my calculations and ended up turning myself into one instead." "I'm sorry i jumped to a conclusion there Dr. but its been my experience that Mutants generally try to eat anything they see," Hancock appologized.

"I'ts quite alright, If i were you and saw me i would have probably started shooting." Nora meanwhile was still trying to process everything she had just heard when it clicked in her mind. "You said you were one of the head researches, past tense, what do you mean were one of them?" "A fair question which i'll answer if you will in turn answer the question of why are you here, and how did you find me." "Fair enough" Nora stated. "When i accidentally turned myself into this hideous creature the alarms in the Institute went off as the sensors detected a mutant roaming about, The SRB dispatched Coursers to kill me so i used the relay to escape before they could." "In my haste to leave i left behind a new batch of serum i had been working on which may hold the key to turning me back to normal." "But enough about me, why are you here and more importantly how did you find me?" Virgil asked and Nora sighed before she answered wondering just how much to tell him. She decided that the whole story would be the best. "To answer that properly I have to take you to the begining," She started. "About three months ago my family and I were sealed in a Vault, Vault 111 we had been cryogenically frozen since 2077." Virgil's eye brows raised as Nora told her story "at some point during our time in there a man Named Kellog broke into the Vault, murdered my husband and kidnapped my baby."

"After that the system malfunctioned at all the Cryo pods deactivated, I was the only survivor of that hell hole and i made my way out of there, it took a little while but with help from a friend I was able to track down Kellog and he told me that the Institute had my son and kept sneering at me and taunting me. The conversation turned into a gunfight that he lost and i took his augmentations to see a Dr. Amari in goodneighbor where we were able to go through his memories and found out that you were in the Glowing Sea." Nora finished. "You killed Kellog? I wondered why he hadnt found me yet. I'm impressed." "As to why I'm here you have knowledge i need, how to get into the Institute." Nora said and Virgil scoffed as he answered "You want into the Institute? Everyone else in the commonwealth fears them and you actually want in?" "Tell me did you hit your head or something in that Vault or do you simply have a death wish?"

"The Institute took my baby and I will make them pay!" Nora said heatedly "Now either you can tell me how to get in or you can't but stop wasting my god damned time!" Both Virgil and Hancock looked at Nora and then at each other eyes as wide as hubcaps, slightly shaken from her sudden anger. It was a few moments before any one spoke and Nora took to pacing around the small cave, her temper flaring in her chest. Finally Virgil broke the silence,"I do know how to get in but you will need to build a relay system to do it. I'll give you a list of the items you will need and a schematic to follow in its construction." He said and set about drawing a rough diagram and a list of parts, "Since you are hell bent on going there I have a small favor to ask." "No promises but I"ll see what I can do." Nora said as she began to calm herself. "As I said earlier I had been working on a serum that may be able to cure me, so if you do manage to get in and not get killed perhaps you would be kind enough to go to my old lab and retrieve it for me." Virgil asked as he handed Nora the list of items and the schematic. "Like I said, no promises but I will see what I can do Dr."

"Here, take this before you go, it's a small piece of tech that will allow you to leave the glowing sea quickly, just hold it in one hand and have your friends hand in the other when you squeeze it and it will teleport you to the edge of the Glowing sea." "Thanks Doc," Hancock said slyly thinking that the sooner they got out of here the better.

(edit. I know that the way i have described rad scrubbers in my story are not how they actually work in game, however i wrote it that way as a small change from lore.)