Endgame (Fallout 4)

Chapter 1 - The Fallout

The first thing he saw was the icy window in front of him beginning to defrost. He was confused, and his lungs felt as though they were being filled with water as he found himself slowly able to move again. Coughing and spluttering, he pushed on the door of the pod, trying to regain his senses.

Where am I...?

The door, to his relief, opened, and he discovered too late that cryosleep had all but turned his legs to jelly. Falling onto his hands and knees, sharp pain ran through all four of his limbs, and he would have cursed, had he not erupted into a coughing fit.

After a moment he lifted his head, and saw that the pod opposite him was also open. But who was in there? He saw black Vault boots, as his gaze ran upwards, and it only took a moment for his heart to freeze as solid as the corpse before him. 

It was Nora.

Gathering what little energy he had, still coughing with each breath, he dragged himself over to her pod, then used the sides to drag himself to his feet. He swayed a moment, his vision doubling, but he managed to steady himself enough to rest his head against his dead wife's chest, just next to the bullet hole that had left the smallest of red stains on her blue vault suit before her blood had frozen in her veins. He wanted to cry and scream and give up, but he couldn't feel. It was as if his emotions were as dead as his spouse. Instead he just held her for a long time, before he remembered that whoever had done this had also kidnapped Shaun and he had to get his son back.

He had no idea how long he stared at Nora's body, but he eventually managed to snatch the locket that she had worn when they left their home, which had fallen to the floor before Shaun's kidnappers had refrozen her. He also managed to somehow slide off Nora's wedding ring, where he slid it over the chain of the locket, putting it around his neck.

~~~

The next hour or so flew by. He still found himself racked by coughing fits from the cryogenic pods, but he had managed to escape the Vault, making it to Sanctuary Hills, back to his home. He had encountered Codsworth - his family's pre-war robot butler - who had explained that he had been frozen for over 210 years, and the world had all but died around him. The scenery was certainly a standout, but he was blinded by the need to get his son back and avenge his wife. The ruined buildings and the dead atmosphere were out of focus.

~~~

"I... I remember it. All of it..." he muttered to Codsworth, who floated there, listening to his master, as he was programmed to do.

"It's like a picture in my head, burned into my memory... I can see my house, my life... The neighbors going about their daily routines... Nora feeding Shaun in th-"

"Sir," Codsworth spoke up after his master had trailed off, unable to speak of his family.

"I remember it all, but I can't even remember my own name..."

"I can tell you, if you wish, sir," Codsworth explained, to his surprise his master declined.

"No, that's not me... Whoever I was before the war died along with everything else. I'll never be that man again. I can't be..."

"Then what shall I call you, Master?"

"Everything feels so empty... So dark... But there's hope... Like the damn stars in the sky there's a flicker of hope that I can find my son, if this isn't all just a bad dream..." he paused a moment. "Night. I'll be called Night. The darkest of the dark, but with a glimmer of hope on the outside..."

"Very fitting, sir," Codsworth replied, and Night shook his head.

"Codsworth, I can't sit here pitying myself, I have to find Shaun. Are there... Other people out here?"

"Of course, sir," Codsworth began, "there used to be a group of settlers just down in Concord that used to visit regularly. Though, that was a long time ago, maybe seventy years or so?"

"But that's my best bet to start, right?" Night asked the machine.

"Yes, sir. It is."

"Then off to Concord I go."

~~~

Stepping over the creaking, broken wooden bridge that sat over the river, disconnecting Sanctuary Hills from the rest of the land around it, Night breathed out into the cold night air. His breath hung in the air a moment before dissipating, and he sighed to himself.

He didn't want to pity himself, but he felt dead, like nothing in the world could ever make him experience the feeling of happiness again. His eyes stung with tears they couldn't shed, for a life he could never return to. Making it just around the corner of the shattered road, he reached the old Red Rocket gas station, which, like everything else, lay tattered and forgotten.

Except for the sound of movement that came from within the building. Night's hand instinctively went to the 10mm pistol he had at his belt - one he had stolen from a skeleton in Vault 111 - as he did so many times when he had fought in the war before the world ended.

He relaxed, however, when a rather large dog came running out, jumping at him while whining for attention. The dog was scruffy, but didn't look much different from the dogs from Night's own time. He had expected much worse considering the unreal amounts of nuclear fallout the entire state - possibly the entire world - must have taken.

"Hey, boy... You're friendly, huh? What're you doing out here all on your own?"

Night continued to pat the dog, that licked at his face, still jumping on the man who had crouched down to pet him. Night stood, finally, a tiny smile pulling at the corner of his mouth.

"You wanna come along, boy?"

The dog barked in agreement, and Night nodded, continuing down the road to Concord.

Once he was there, he saw the same thing he had seen since exiting the vault. Dead, cold and worn-down was the description that fit best. And it was silent, until there was a gunshot down the road, towards the old museum.

Drawing his pistol from its holder, Night sneaked around to a corner to get a good look at what he was dealing with, and as he peeked around the corner, he saw a group of people dressed in rags, shooting up at the roof of the museum, where he saw another person standing on top. 

Someone was in trouble, and someone needed his help, but he wasn't yet sure who. He didn't want to run in and get himself killed. 

Instead, he ran towards the people shooting upwards, grabbing one around the neck and spinning him to use as a human shield while he made his way from one to the next, knocking them out with a swift hit to the head with the butt of his pistol.

He then ducked for cover where the people on the roof couldn't aim down at him, and he heard a voice. It was deep, and full of fear.

"Hey, you down there! Please, help! The raiders are almost inside! I have settlers in here, so grab the laser musket by the door there and please help us!"

Taking a deep breath, Night chose his side. The man that had begged him to help sounded honest enough, and Night had always had a knack for telling if someone was speaking genuinely or not. Looking down at the discarded laser musket the man was talking about, he picked it up along with a few fusion cells for ammo, and made his way inside, the dog following closely at his heels.