Brave New World

October 23, 2287

Hard to describe everything I felt once I awoke in that coffin-sized freezer that kept me in. As I fell out landing on my feet I was initially concerned beyond words, filled with fear, as I rushed toward the box holding my wife. I pressed the button and it was in the process of opening.

I was so overwhelmed with what happened to Nora that I was yelling something to the effect of "Oh God!" as it did so. Thinking that yelling would help, which it didn't regardless. She was dead, killed by a single shot to the head by that bald bastard with a scar. I fell to my knees, only able to mutter a promise to my dead wife "I'll find whoever did this, and I'll get Shaun back." Once I made that vow I closed the metal box and left her there with my neighbors, who like her were all dead.

That was when I first received my introduction to the new reality I was in. I found a cockroach, but it didn't look like a normal one. It was bigger—the size of a pup—and it came at me. I instinctively grabbed a nearby baton and beat it bloody. Just as I would every other big roach that I came across before finding myself a pistol.

Taking some gear to add to my blue jump suit, mostly a holster off one of the dead guards.

Weaving through the corridors of the abandoned facility, stepping over the skeletons of those abandoned to rot away, I found my way to the entrance. Using the Pip-Boy of one of the dead employees to open the door to reach the elevator.

Every second of the ride up was tense. As I waited for it to reach the surface my mind was rushing with a million possibilities of what I could expect to find. It could have been an irradiated wasteland, maybe the town was unaffected, maybe things were not as bad as I had imagined it would be at the time; so many thoughts I lost track of them all.

The truth was a bit of all of 'em.

As the doors opened and I was brought to the surface, the sun shining into my eye, stinging a little as it did so, I took my first glimpse of the new America. Sanctuary was in sight from atop the mountain which the elevator platform stood atop as I saw only the ruins of the community I once called home; and all I could think was "They did it. Those bastard's actually did it." as I collapsed to my knees once again. As I looked on I then noticed something: movement. It was near where the ruins of my house stood.

Grabbing my pistol, I rised to my feet and rushed to go and investigate—hoping to get my mind off the predicament of the moment. Running down the road with my pistol in hand hoping to find another human. Someone, anyone would be acceptable. Passing the skeletons on the ground and the remains of the outpost around the large elevator with little thought in the process.

I was greeted by the mechanical voice that was as confused as me, asking "Sir?", from a mister handy drone, but this was one which I recognized well. It was Codsworth in the midst of doing what I discovered was him perform a routine attempt to keep the house tidy in the apocalypse. It was farcical, but to him it made sense—it was all he knew to do.

He was as overjoyed to see me as I was with him, and must've had a thousand questions; it was a sentiment I shared.

I tried to explain to him what I had experienced in a matter of moments: Nora's murder, Shaun's kidnapping. But it all seemed to not fully register with the housekeeper. Saying how the words I was spreading lacked sense to him and went about the Sanctuary Hills in search of Shaun. It was fruitless but I played along. Whoever the bald bastard was that kidnapped Shaun would have been long gone by then—lit out of the place to put some more distance between himself and the scene of the crime. Codsworth went on a massacre of these oversized roaches and bloated flies…I almost forgot he had some of those features.

As we moved about Sanctuary Hills, dispatching the abominations of nature, I could not resist but to be disheartened by the state of its ruins. The neighborhood I once, the place which I called home for the longest time, was not a collection of derelicts.

Once we finished the task, Codsworth was left distraught by the fruitlessness of his endeavor. I tried to ease his stress and ultimately he recommended that I try my hand at talking to some people in Concord. All I could think in response to that was it's a lead, I can work with that. So I thanked him, but before we parted ways temporarily he gave me something: a recording.

It was from Nora, or so he told me. I believed him. Codsworth wasn't the deceitful sort—I question if he was even capable of such things because of his programming—so I presumed he was telling the truth and it was from my beloved wife.

Making my way to the bridge which was the exit to the town, I proceeded to put the recording into my newly acquired Pip-Boy. Then was greeted by a feedback sound of someone toying with the mike.

"Oops. Ha ha ha. No, no. Little fingers away. There we go. Just say it. Right there. Right there. Go ahead. Ha ha! Yay! Hi honey! Listen...I don't think Shaun and I need to tell you how great of a father you are... but we're going to anyway. You are kind, and loving…"

You could hear Shaun laughing and giggling throughout the recording..

"... and funny! ha ha. That's right. And patient. So patient. Patience of a saint, as my mother used to say. Look, with Shaun, and us all being at home together... It's been an amazing year. But even so, I know our best days are yet to come. There will be changes, sure. Things we'll need to adjust to. You'll rejoin the civilian workforce, I'll shake the dust off my law degree... But everything we do, no matter how hard... we do it for our family. Now say goodbye, Shaun... Bye bye? Say bye bye?"

I heard Shaun giggle in his adorable manner one last time.

"Bye honey! We love you!"

That recording…it brought a tear to my eye…it still breaks me sometimes. Nearly brings me to tears to listen to it now, after all that happened to me. I failed them, failed Nora. I was supposed to protect them like every husband and father should but I couldn't. I must confess, sometimes it felt as though God himself or even the Devil was toying with me.

Then, in my grief, I remember the scarred face of the monster who took all that from me, who destroyed my family, and my sadness turned to rage.

That bastard's going to pay was all I could think.

But for the moment I needed to put aside my rage and so I proceeded to make my way down the road. Coming upon a Red Rocket gas station, there I came across a dog, a german shepherd. He was happy to see me. I didn't know how long he had been there, I presumed maybe a short while—perhaps a day, at best I ended up bringing him with me.

Traversing the ruins of the countryside, we came upon the corpse of Concord. And as we did so I heard gunshots.

Priming my pistol we rushed into the city.