Nate woke up, head aching and spinning from the crying he did the day before.
He lay on the broken bed frame, with his legs dangling off it.
Wondering how he got here, then slowly remembering the crying he did, hours of endless tears pouring out from his eyes.
He'd cried so much; he woke up awfully hungry. A feeling like he was running on empty, his throat also ached from the water he'd lost.
Getting up and stretching his limbs that felt locked in place. He slowly began walking down the hallway and into the kitchen, he opened the cupboard, and there was nothing, only dust lay on top of the shelves now.
Moseying his way to the fridge, he swung open the door and looked inside, and to his surprise, there sat a Nuka-Cola and a Salisbury Steak, nothing else though.
He snatched the two and sat it on the counter behind him, using the corer of the counter to crack open the Nuka-Cola and ripping the box apart to get to the steak inside.
Eating felt amazing, Nate had no idea how long he was out for. When he met Codsworth, it was starting to dusk, and when he woke up, the sun was right in the middle of the sky.
Savoring every bite of the steak as if it was his last meal and drinking the disgustingly warm Nuka-Cola like it was ice cold.
After his 'breakfast' he went outside to see Codsworth, who was hovering by the car, trying desperately to smooth the pure rust that had now taken over the metal.
"I don't think that's gonna work Codsworth" Nate said, a touch of sarcasm in his voice.
"There's no harm in trying, sir!" Codsworth said.
"Listen, Codsworth, I'm gonna go out for a while, see if I can scavenge any food" Nate knew Codsworth would be fine, if he lasted 200 years, surely, he would last a bit longer.
"Okay sir! Just try not to get yourself shot, there's some mean types around here"
"Okay Codsworth"
And with that, Nate set off his first target being the Red Rocket gas station. He was surprised by the fact that there were other people milling about, he' thought he was the only one. With that massive mushroom cloud, he didn't know how people could survive that.
Walking slightly faster and ignoring the dilapidated structures that his neighbors used to live in, he stepped across the bridge.
The sun was bright, and extremely hot, he could feel the sweat starting to drip inside of his vault suit, but for now, it was all that kept him clothed.
He made it to the gas station, pistol in hand. The gas station didn't look to different than he remembered last, there was broken machines and trash lying everywhere, and it was only a bit more dirty than it normally was, but it was nowhere near as run down as some of the houses in Sanctuary.
He inspected the garage that was wide open, he noticed several workbenches, some of which that could be useful to him, and a weird looking post that looked like to was men to hold something in place.
He was inspecting the workbench that seemed to be built for weapons when he jumped at the sound of something to his right, aiming where he heard the noise almost instantly.
Nate let out a huge sigh of relief, It was only a dog.
He walked over to the curious animal and bent down slowly, ready to jump back if it decided to bite.
But it didn't it nuzzled up next to his arm, trying to get Nate to scratch it.
"Okay boy?" He said, as he was scratching it between its ears.
The dog stepped back and barked playfully at Nate.
Smiling, Nate returned back to the workbench, feeling happier that dogs were still walking around the Commonwealth.
He started hearing faint noises to his left, coming from Concord.
He walked outside to listen better, and he identified the noise as gunshots.
He wanted to know where the shots were coming from, so he left he station to investigate the town.
Getting back on the road, he noticed the dog was next to him, he tried to shew it away as getting this dog shot would ruin the rest of his foreseeable future, but the dog wouldn't budge constantly following Nate.
Accepting defeat, he carried on down the road, hearing the shots get louder and louder he felt his military background bleed into his mind again.
Rounding a few buildings and peeking around one of the corners when he felt the noise was loud enough. He saw a bunch of people, wearing makeshift armor, and using bootlegged weapons that Nate was baffled could shoot.
Hearing them shout, the hatred in their voice, Nate could confidently classify these degenerates as "the bad guys".
Taunting some man on a balcony, firing a laser weapon down on them.
Nate decided that he would interject in this matter.
Gripping the handle of his 10mm, he crouched down and sneaked around the building, hunkering down behind a piece of fallen debris.
He turned to look around, the pistol in his hand pointing towards the perpetrators, breathing in, he focus down one of them, ignoring all the other gunfire, letting their hand guide the pistol, following the head, waiting for the right moment.
Bang
A spew of red came out of the perpetrator's head, falling hard on the ground soon after.
The others looked around bewildered, fumbling to get behind cover, which allowed the victim atop the balcony to remove a few of them from the fight.
Nate crouched again, moving to get to a closer cover, hunker down again behind a doorway. He breathed in peeped around the cover, hearing the slightest of footsteps coming from stairs to his right.
Spinning around and shooting at the noise, a person came tumbling down the stairs, dropping their spiked baseball bat on the way down. Rushing over to ensure the enemy wouldn't get up, he pointed the gun right at their face.
The person looked up, seeing Nate's unsure face.
"What? Don't want to finish the job?"
Their voice sounded like they were on the verge or laughter, their eyes showing insanity.
"I swear if you let my go you'll-"
Nate didn't have time for this, so he reared his pistol and bashed the person's head in.
Returning to his cover, he looked around it, seeing that some of the perpetrators had, again, focused on the balcony. Seeing this as another opportunity, he breathed in, aimed, fired, breathed out. Another dead body on the floor.
Repeating the pattern, of move, shoot, move a few times, eventually no one stood except Nate.
"Hey you!"
Nate heard a voice coming from the balcony.
"We could use a bit more help inside, grab the musket on the body right by the door. Lets show these raider scum"
Hatred seeped into his last sentence.
Nate grabbed the gun and the fusion cells, looking over it to see how it worked as he walked into the building.
Nate gathered that a crank needed to be turned before a shot could be fired, but when a shot fired, it was powerful. Aiming the musket around every turn in the building, it was child's play to take out a raider right in front of Nate with a longarm, especially when they didn't Nate coming.
One room after another, Nate made his way across the building, he stumbled on a gate, containing a fusion reactor inside of it. The gate had a terminal next to it, but Nate had no clue how to get inside one with a password.
Looking over his options, he scrounged around the places he had been through, looking for anything. He found nothing that could help break the door, only a few bobby pins and a screwdriver.
Making his way back to the gate, he jammed the screwdriver into the lock, carefully placing a bobby pin next to it.
Moving it from side to side, the gate eventually let out a click and it swung open.
Pulling out the core from the fusion reactor, he thought it could give a lot of power, and so he kept it.
Room after room, raider after raider, effortlessly cut down. It began to be easier the more their numbers dwindled. Eventually after sending a raider to the afterlife by kicking them off the top floor, Nate heard no more gunshots.
The silence being interrupted by a door opening.
"Hey" the man said, signalling him to come over. Nate walked over calmly entering the room.
Looking around he saw a number of people, looking like they had just had their hope zapped from them.
"That's some mighty fine shooting sir, Preston Garvey, Commonwealth Minutemen" The man extended his hand to Nate, sounding happy considering his predicament.
Grabbing his hand and shaking it, he replied with a simple "Nate"
"Well, 'Nate', I hope you don't mind helping us out a bit further, you see Sturges over there saw a T-45 out on the roof, minimal damage and a crashed Vertibird with a minigun, sounded like a blessing until we realized the thing was out of juice"
Nate almost laughed at how comical it was that he was to stumble upon the fusion core, right when these people needed it the most.
"I should have that covered" He said, holding up the fusion core.
"Well I'll be, it seems out luck is turning. How about I'll fire from the balcony, and you can go down there and raise hell on the sons-of-bitches"
Nate nodded with a grin on his face, not about to turn down an opportunity to wear power armor.
He walked out of the room, signaling the dog to stay, and out onto the roof.
Seeing the sight of power armor made him giddy with excitement, let alone with a minigun a few feet away.
Jamming the core into the power armor, turning the rusty valve and climbing in, he immediately felt the power in his actions. Ripping the minigun straight from the Vertibird. Walking to the edge of the roof, his footsteps heavy with the amount of steel behind them, he looked over the area.
It seemed more raiders have come, some sort of reinforcements, he thought. Thinking that he could handle a few idiots with guns inside of a walking tank, he leaped of the building.
Soaring through the air and falling like a lead balloon, sending a shock-wave as he made contact with the ground, cracking the tar that he landed on.
Looking up, revving the minigun, and without a second delay, unleashed the ammunition still inside it.
The cries of terror from the raiders as they fruitlessly hid behind cover that the minigun tore through within seconds were blocked out by him, the constant sound of the rapid firing was the only thing Nate could hear. Shrugging off the bullets bouncing off of his power armor. Spraying for a good minute or so, the minigun ran dry, and not a slight movement could be seen.
Walking through the street, checking both sides to see if any remain. Preston and the dog looked from the balcony, seeing the gunfight reduce to a man walking calmly down a silent street.
Then a noise came from the end of the street, a sewer entrance started to bustle up and down, as if something as trying to break free.
Nate scurried off into a building, reloading the minigun with the ammunition left. The noise continued from a few seconds, before a massive beast burst out of the sewers.
Nate could of sworn that he was dreaming, this thing looked like something for a science fiction book.
Horns protruding from its head, a massive array of pointy teeth, and claws that could rip a person apart like paper.
Nate was terrified, but knowing that he had an inch of metal and a rapid fire death machine on him, he liked his chances.
Revving the minigun and moving out of cover, he unloaded hell onto the monster, making sure every single bullet connected as the beast jumped from side to side to avoid the oncoming fire. It was only until it was about 10 meters away that Nate decided to retreat inside the building, moving up the stairs and trying his best to stay quiet, since he had a plan on how to deal with the beast.
Standing on top of the stairway, holding his breath, ready to jump down at any moment, he waited until the beast carefully bent over to inspect the level below.
Waiting until it was halfway through the doorway, it's head poking inside, he revved up and jumped down to the lower level, trying to keep his aim straight as he simultaneously landed and started firing directly at the monster's head. Shooting every bullet straight into its skull.
Blood flying out of its head, the beast pulled out of the doorway and started to retreat back to the sewers as Nate tracked it with his hands and tried to unload more on it before -click .
"Dammit"
He was surprised that he managed to fend it off, near moments before his gun ran dry.
Walking back to the building and looking up at the balcony, he shouted "It's safe now!" and sat on the steps before the building.
After catching his breath and resting for a minute, the doors swung open and Preston walked out with the dog jumping on Nate.
Trying his best to scratch the dog with power armor on, he said to Preston "I think we should be safe for now, that thing sure seemed spooked, heh, not nearly as much as me" he added in a low voice.
"Look, this is going to sound off, but I think I know a place where we can lie low for a while, avoid these raiders. Mama Murphy says there's a place up the hill - what did you say it's name was again?"He said turning to an elderly woman with a beanie.
"Sanctuary" She said weakly
"Yeah, Sanctuary. You ever been there?"
Well, of course he's been there, he used to live their with his… wife… Nora.
"No, but it sounds like one hell of a place with the name 'Sanctuary'"
Trying to cover up the sadness in his voice, not very well.
Preston with a confused look replied, "Well, I'm sure it's a fine place, what do you say you walk there with us?"
Nate swallowed his sorrow.
"Yeah sure"