Fallout 4: War and Pursuance

Chapter Four: The Commonwealth

Nate couldn't see a thing but white light as the top of Vault 111 opens up. He covers his eyes until he gains vision and the platform finally reaches the top. He breathes in and out heavily, then slowly sees what he is just witnessing.

Total annihilation. The only word Nate can describe to what he is seeing. Everything around him is dead. The trees, the grass, all dead. Life as he knew it was dead. He looks around the hill to see rusty old trucks and cars, a decomposing billboard advertising Vault 111, and nonliving skeletons. Nate couldn't believe his eyes.

"No...this can't be real...this has to be a dream..."

As said before, it wasn't. Nate is fully awake. He looks around. Where should he go? Home. Sanctuary Hills. Nate rushes down the hill into the neighborhood. Houses were almost destroyed. Some of the outer walls were exposed, mud and other strange substances form, streets were cracked, cars were worn out, almost everything was useless. Nate finds his house nearly destroyed. Suddenly, he sees a figure hover out of the house. He quickly pulls his 10mm from his side and aims at it, until he recognizes the figure. A Mister Handy. The robot sees Nate and hovers towards him.

"As I live and breathe...it's...it's REALLY you, Sir Nate!" said Codsworth. Nate's robotic butler looked to be rusty and dirty instead of the clean and shiny robot he use to have.

"Codsworth!" he said. "Y-You're...still here? So...other people could still be alive, too..."

"Well of course I'm still here!" said Codsworth. "Surely you don't think a little radiation could deter the pride in General Atomics International? But you seem the worse for wear. Best not let the wife see you in that state, hahaha! Where is the missus, by the way?"

"They....they killed her," said Nate. He began to tear up.

"Sir...these things you're saying," he said. "These...terrible things...I...I believe you need a distraction. Yes! A distraction, to calm this dire mood. It's been ages since we've had a proper family activity. Checkers. Or perhaps charades. Shaun does so love that game! Is the lad....with you?"

"He's...he's gone!" said Nate angrily. "Goddamn it!! Someone took him! They stole my son!!!"

"It's worse than I thought," said Codsworth. "Hmm hmm. You're suffering from hunger-induced paranoia. Not eating properly for two hundred years will do that, I'm afraid."

Nate's eyes widen and his jaw drops open. Did he just hear Codsworth say he was in the cryo pod for two hundred years?

"Two hundred years? What? Are you...?"

"Erm, a bit over two hundred and ten actually, sir," said Codsworth. "Give or take a little for the Earth's rotation and some minor dings to the ole' chronometer."

"Oh my God...this can't be happening...t-this can't be!"

"That means you're two centuries late for dinner!" laughed Codsworth. Nate slowly looks up at him angrily. He wasn't in the near mood for jokes.

"Perhaps I can whip you up-"

"This isn't funny Codsworth!" yelled Nate.

"But sir-"

"SHUT UP!" he screamed. "NORA IS DEAD AND SHAUN IS KIDNAPPED!! AND HERE YOU ARE TRYING TO CHEER ME UP?! JUST STOP IT CODSWORTH! STOP ACTING LIKE THIS!"

"I....I'm sorry..sir," Codsworth said quietly. "I was....I was just so happy to see you alive! Oh it's been just horrible out here! Two centuries with no one to talk to, no one to serve! I spent the first TEN YEARS trying to keep the floors waxed, but nothing gets out nuclear fallout from vinyl wood! Nothing! And don't get me started about the futility of dusting a collapsed house! And the car! The caaaar! How do you polish rust?!"

Nate stares at Codsworth. He starts to feel bad for him for being outside for two centuries, while he was inside a cryo pod that felt he was in there for a few minutes. Or even hours.

"Codsworth...I'm sorry for raising my tone," he said. "But come on, stay focus. What happened?"

"It's...it's okay, sir," said his butler, "but I'm afraid I don't know anything. The bombs came, and all of you left in such a hurry. I thought for certain you and your family were...dead. I did find this holotape. I believe the missus was going to present it to you. As a surprise. But then, well...everything, "happened"." Codsworth hands the tape over to Nate.

"Thank you, Codsworth," he said.

"You're welcome," he sniffed. "Now! Enough feeling sorry for myself! Shall we search the neighborhood together? The missus and young Shaun may turn up yet."

"All right," said Nate. "Lead the way."

"Proud to serve, sir!" Codsworth said enthusiastically. He hums patriotically as he hovers around the ruins of Sanctuary Hills. Nate follows him from behind. They enter inside a house and search around inside. Nothing but Halloween decorations and debris.

They exit and search inside another house. More of those roaches Nate encountered crawl around inside. Codsworth uses his saw arm and attacks them.

"These Radroaches are everywhere," he said. Radroaches. So that's what they're called. Nate and Codsworth search around everywhere for the next few minutes until they reach the last house.

"Sir," said Codsworth. "You're family isn't here either. They're...they're really gone, aren't they?"

"Shaun's out there, Codsworth," said Nate. "I need to find him."

"What about Concord, sir? Plenty of people there. And last I checked, they only pummeled me with sticks a few times before I had to run back home. You remember where Concord is, right sir? Just across the southern footbridge and past the Red Rocket station."

"Thank you for helping, Codsworth," said Nate. "And I'm sorry about earlier."

"That's quite all right, sir. I shall remain here and secure the home-front!"

Nate leaves the house. He looks around the whole devastated land of old Boston. He then looks at the holotape Codsworth gave him and puts it inside his Pip-Boy. A message from Nora and Shaun.

"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, 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?
Bye honey! We love you!"

The message ends. Nate smiles a little bit and begins to tear up. Nora was the best wife he has ever had in his life. She was his life...until the bombs dropped. Nate wipes his tears and looks up at the sky.

"I love you too, honey," he said. "And I promise...no matter what happens...I'll get Shaun back..."