October 23rd, 2077
Nate was home and for the life of her, she couldn't have asked for anything more. Finally after years in the service and having fought on two different battlefields he was here in front of her softly holding their son Shaun in the living room. Her Nate, her precious Nate with his scar that went over his left eye and came down his cheek, her Nate missing two fingers on his left hand, her Nate who would scream in the middle of the night in Chinese some slur or another, her Nate. It had been a long, long couple of years with three deployments but finally, she was out of college and as of five o'clock yesterday, Nate was officially a veteran of the United States Army.
Looking behind him on the wall she scanned over the folded flag he'd been given on his return from his second deployment, the one for his brother killed in mainland China. His shadowbox where he put all his medals and awards, styled around the patch of the 33rd Infantry division. He was finally out, a free man who hadn't thought of all the trauma he would have gone through and which had made him distant year after year, a tinge of sadness behind his eyes every time he looked up to her and smiled. She could see the pain there, the trauma of events he could not and would not ever tell her, she understood.
Nate was home now though, her having settled on this house far out from the city located in the newest development called Sanctuary Hills. It was a nice quiet neighborhood, no crime to speak of thanks to a sheriff's deputy down the street. The only drawback was the vault located about a hundred meters to the west, built behind a long fence of chainlink and barbed wire, the construction company had certainly taken its time in building the damn thing. Word was that a rep for the company would be coming by today to recruit members from the neighborhood if the world's horrors were to come true but she didn't think much of it.
"Coffe Ma'am?"
The new Mr. Handy she'd bought yesterday rolled into the living room pincers moving every which way, not a bad price compared to her lawyer salary.
"No thank you Codsworth, I'm fine."
Today they were going to head into town for groceries before going to the park in the afternoon and just living a little. Getting to see her Husband for once every day now felt surreal knowing he wouldn't be leaving for another eight to nine-month deployment in some far-off shit hole where who knows what would happen to him.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
Glancing out the window toward the street she noted a blue vault tec van sitting in front of her house. Nate moved to get up before she shushed him back down.
"I'll get it, you keep him asleep and happy."
Quietly she moved to the door, opening it quietly as a man in a tan overcoat and hat prepared his speech.
"Hello! Vault Tec calling!"
Stepping outside and closing the door behind her she gave the man a rude smile.
"Yes hello, how can I help you?"
He had one of those fake smiles you'd see on the TV most days when people were trying to sell some type of garbage or another.
"We at Vault-Tec have come to finally welcome the residents of Sanctuary Hills to enroll in the Vault registry if the day ever truly comes. If you enroll you will be the survivors of the nation in the aftermath of Nuclear calamity, the true torchbearers in the darkness of the nuclear fallout! So I now offer you, as this region's Vault-Tec rep, to enroll today and face a better tomorrow with the assurance of space in Vault 111."
"And what comes with that exactly? Is it just a city underground or?"
"Vault Tecs state-of-the-art technology will allow you and your family the opportunity to live underground, away from any possible contamination, in a space you could not differentiate from the above-ground neighborhood. It is truly a modern wonder how Vault-Tec has recreated the liveable experience underground."
"Alright, will I be paying anything or-"
"All subsidized by the US Government ma'am, you pay nothing."
"Alright, I guess, hand me the forms."
Nora quickly filled out her family's information, noting any special medical and family history before handing it back to the rep signed.
"Great thank you, I'll bring this over to the Vault now, a safe and secure future awaits with Vault-Tec!"
She waved the man off before heading back inside to a now awake Shaun being fed with a bottle by Nate.
"Guessing we're signed up then?"
"Yup, we are officially residents of Vault 111 or whatever, I checked over all the legal parts of the documents to make sure there weren't any tricks."
"It pays to have a Lawyer as a wife. Anyways, wanna pack for the store and park afterward?"
"That would be great."
The couple with Shaun moved to his room and began packing a bag of baby items, extra clothes, diapers, and anything they could possibly need in having a three-month-old baby. Nate handed off Shaun just as he began to put everything into one of his old army bags he'd brought home, making sure to make it as tight as possible she noted. An old quirk of the army he would most likely never give up, making sure his pack was as tight as possible before moving out meant it would move less on the back and allow the user greater movement. As he finished he hoisted it onto his shoulder before allowing Nora to hand Shaun back to him.
"Alright lets…"
"Sir, Ma'am, you better come see this!"
Nora could hear the emergency broadcast tone before she had even left the room. Rushing to the living room both parents were greeted with an emergency broadcast channel before a slice of text began to play at the bottom of the screen.
NUCLEAR DETONATIONS REPORTED IN NEW YORK AND KANSAS. ALL VAULT PERSONNEL REPORT TO VAULTS. ALL MILITARY AND LAW ENFORCEMENT PERSONNEL REPORT TO EMERGENCY STATIONS. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. MAY GOD BLESS US ALL.
No.
No no fucking no!
This could not be happening it couldn't, not now not the day after she has gotten her Nate back no this could not be fucking happening. She looked over to Nate who carried a look of utter amazement before they locked eyes. He was the first to speak.
"We have to get to the vault, NOW!"
He screamed the last word as he rushed for the door, backpack still on, making sure she was following as both of them sprinted outside.
It was already mayhem and it'd only been a minute since the broadcast.
"RESIDENTS OF SANCTUARY HILLS, REPORT TO VAULT 111, REPEATING ALL RESIDENTS OF SANCTUARY HILLS REPORT TO VAULT 111!"
A green military little bird helicopter buzzed overhead blaring this broadcast as the family moved down the street and toward the paved walkway. Everywhere she looked her neighbors were rushing out of their houses in varying stages of dress heading for the vault. Nearing the end of the street the neighborhood was greeted by a National Guard five-ton truck with a platoon of soldiers disembarking in what Nate would call "Full battle rattle." One moved to the front of the platoon as they began cordoning the street off, the chevrons of a Sergeant First Class visible on his flak.
"Keep moving up the hill! Follow the path to the gates and Do NOT STOP!"
On the other side of the platoon, Nora spied cars and angry-looking people beginning to approach the platoon. She didn't look back as gunshots rang out in the streets behind her.
Following the path further up the hill Nate reached a large group of people angrily screaming and banging on the chain link fence while soldiers held the only entrance to the facility. Larger forms in power armor patrolled the entrance carrying belt-fed machine guns and were warily watching the crowd as Nate and Nora pushed through.
"If you are not on the roster, leave now or you will be fired upon!"
A soldier wearing the bars of a Captain stood at the center of the gate carrying a clipboard and megaphone. He angrily berated the people attempting to push through until a power-armored soldier butt-stroked a woman who went down bloodily. Nate being Nate stepped over the now downed woman's body, his face one with the Captain.
"Nate, Nora, and Shaun Baylor! We are on the list let us in!"
The Captain eyed the trio as soldiers moved around them and began to disperse the crowd with rifle butts and bayonets. Noras Laywer's mind began to list the dozens of laws being broken around her but could barely comprehend them as the Captain looked over the clipboard.
"Nate, Nora, and Shaun Baylor yup. Alright, let them in, Corporal bring them to the pad!"
"Yes sir!"
The little bird from earlier had begun to approach for landing as they moved up the hill now passing Vault tec personnel in blue suits and white overcoats. On top of the hill overlooking the greater Boston metropolitan area was a metal cog-shaped pad of some type with at least a hundred people already standing on it. Soldiers in armor surrounded the pad as a pair of jet fighters screamed overhead heading toward Boston.
"Alright onto the pad now!"
The corporal screamed before heading back off to the fence behind them. A vault tech employee stood to their left in some kind of control booth, his black armor not masking his worried features as he looked to the horizon.
"Alright, that's it, send it down!"
Nate not even breathing heavily looked to the assembled crowd and then at her, a look of something she wished she never see again in his eyes, a look of fear.
"Everything is going to be ok, I love you."
She said as he nodded slightly, his nerves overloading his brain as he cradled Shaun harder. Nora looking behind Nate spotted a trio of white lights coming down from the clouded sky, the white standing out amongst the autumn orange of the day as they came down ever so slowly toward Boston.
"Oh fuck…"
Was all she said as the pad began to lower its gears. Her eyes tracked the white dots before the lifts metal walls and shaft met her vision. With a sudden vibration of the metal elevator, the ground violently shook and dust was suddenly thrown over the top of the shaft and left to rain down on the people. A massive metal gate suddenly closed above them and left the group in darkness.
100 Meters below ground.
Nate huddled Nora with Shaun between the two as the lift came to a stop. Floodlights filled a rock-filled cavern with Vault tec signs and styles everywhere to be seen. Standing at the center of a massive cog-shaped door was a Vault tec employee in a jumpsuit and black-plated armor.
"Welcome Citizens of America! Welcome to the future!"
Frozen.
She was fucking frozen and that piece of shit doctor in a lab coat had told her it had been for vitals. She should have known exactly what It was upon seeing it but her stress-filled mind hadn't grasped the memory until she was already inside and looking across to her husband. She had been put into a cryotube, and frozen just like everyone else she had probably come down here with and now she was dreaming. Or so she thought she was dreaming as her mind began to feel the cold, no super cold of the tank and the window in front of her began to defrost.
"Which one?"
She heard in the hallway to her front.
"Pod 36B, there fourth one on the right."
Two figures in white chemical suits and gasmask appeared on either side of Nate's tank. Each wore a black plate carrier over their suits with the same black-styled high-cut helmets Nate said the Special Forces guys would wear. In their hands, each carried an M4 by the looks of it but beyond that, Nora could not see any identifying marks on either of them.
"Open it."
Nora could see Nate through the glass of his tank, his face fuzzy and his eyes unfocused as his tank opened in front of him.
"Hello citizen, hand me the child and we'll get you out of there."
Nate, till unfocused and blurry gave a slight nudge of Shaun toward the person on the right, whoever gleefully took Shaun as Nate began to disembark. Nora looking across from him noted him looking up toward her pod, their eyes meeting the fear in them and he snapped. She saw it the moment it happened, she knew the look, the look of being back there, the look of being back in the jungle, the look of everything about to die. His body recognized this was wrong, all wrong, and his body did what it had been trained to do. In what looked like a blur to her he had backhanded the person behind him under the helmet and drawn the pistol that had been holstered on the front of his vest. Using the man as a shield Nate stood behind him and began screaming.
"Give me back my fucking baby!"
Unseen to her she could hear at least six people begin screaming at him as he held the white-suited man by the neck in front of him. They must have been advancing on him, they must have as Nate opened fire. Three shots rang out, three shots in under two seconds, and to her right and muffled by the pod, she heard three bodies crumple. After those three shots whoever was still to her right opened fire. Automatic weapons fire struck the white-suited man and through him Nate. Nora watched bullets strike his body, his blue jumpsuit aching blood into the air as he fell to the cold concrete floor. The white-suited man was beyond help she noted, already half his head missing as he went down as well. Three more of the white-suited quasi-soldiers moved onto Nate, holding their fire as she watched them surround her husband bleeding out on the ground.
Nora pounded on the glass, tears streaming down her face and she looked upon her husband bleeding out, his eyes looking up to her window on the pod. Their eyes met, locking she could see his pain, his suffering both mental and physical, as he bled out on the floor. One of the white suits kicked the pistol away as another figure filled the void between her and her husband.
"What the fuck you idiots, he was the backup!"
An older voice, much older and gritter. He wore an older style of helmet like what Nate had from the army, the same body armor the white suits but in his hand, he held a massive silver handgun she recognized from a case she looked over years ago, a Desert Eagle.
"Well fuck, can't just let em bleed out then, FUCK!"
The new man said, he also wore green and black camoed BDUs rather than the white suits of his fellows. She noted every detail she could, down to the finest point she could even the lot numbers on the suits these fuckers wore.
"You had your chance buddy, and you fucked it."
The new man said as he raised his hand.
"No!"
Nora screamed as the weapon fired and with it, the life of her love left this earth. She screamed, oh she screamed as she pounded the glass until her palms bled, she screamed as the white suits left the man overlooking her husband's body as he huffed. He must have heard her then, as he turned and looked toward her pod. She met the eyes of her husband's killer then, he was an older, white male, with heavy scarring on the left side of his face. She knew then, right then and there, she would kill this man, she would take his life, fuck the law.
"Luckily we have a backup to the backup."
He said before moving off.
"Alright freeze her again and fuck the rest, we don't need them."
"Roger sir!"
Nora's last sight of her husband was a headless blue jump-suited corpse on the floor and a massive area of dark blood before her body froze yet again.