The Minutemen: United We Stand

Chapter 1

Blinded by the light, Nora stood on the Vault One-Eleven pad. Her breathing became shallow and erratic; her hands barely registered the ten-millimetre pistol dangling from her fingertips. She scanned her environment as her brain whirred, desperate to make sense of what she saw. For a moment, she wondered if she had woken up in hell.

No trace of the world she knew remained. It was now a wasteland; brown and dead. The only real colour she distinguished was her royal blue jumpsuit. Through the gnarled trees, she could see her neighbourhood of Sanctuary Hills laying in shambles. What had been a beautiful, bright and thriving suburban utopia was now an echo. The few homes that had not collapsed had severe damage, gaping holes and shattered windows.

Bleached skeletons littered the ground around the vault elevator on which she stood. The ones in military garb were likely the vault staff who had ushered her and the others to safety. However, these weren't the first skeletons she had to step over since climbing out of her pod, but moments ago...

Nora stumbled off the elevator pad, her eyes on a small building, not twenty feet away. It was a tiny rusted metal square painted white with one window, but at least it appeared to be undamaged. She rounded the doorframe and came upon a vault staff's skeleton slumped back in the chair by the elevator button. He was the one that pushed the button just in time to save her - to save all of those who made it in time... everyone on the list.

Tears stung her eyes as she checked the room for supplies. All she found was a Nuka-Cola, the red label and white lettering pristine as she picked it out of the battered cooler in the corner. She stuffed it into the duffel bag she had found in the vault and moved on to the crates outside.

"Rad-away," she muttered to herself as she pulled the medication out of one crate. "Ten-millimetre bullets," she continued as she pulled out the cardboard boxes from another crate. "I'll need all the ammo I can find if those huge-ass roaches are any sign of what's out here." Burned into the back of her eyelids, the image of the first living creature she had met. Cockroaches, but the size of Cocker-Spaniels, assaulted her upon first sight. She had to beat them to a paste with a security baton on a nearby table. One had glowed green, its splattered insides illuminated the hall in an eerie, sick light.

Stuffing the duffel with her finds, Nora slid the strap back over her shoulder, the bag settling just below the golden triple ones on her back. She walked down the approach toward the chain-link gate and slowed down as her eyes fell on the skeletons of her neighbours. Men, women, children... strewn across the ground beyond the fence. Her breath stuck in her chest for fear of bursting into tears. Nora clenched her eyes shut and forced her way passed them. Fear, coupled with disbelief, gripped her as she stumbled down the road leading home. The small bridge that crossed the stream was rotten away and groaned under her weight as she crossed it.

The many skeletons she had seen and how clean they were... Rust on vehicles and structures, how deathly the forest was, how decrepit the buildings, bridges, and fences were... How long had Nora been in that vault? What world had Nora crawled into?

Out of habit, she made her way up the street through Sanctuary, stepping over fallen trees, tires, tipped mailboxes and other debris. As her home came into view, she spotted movement and heard a familiar thruster. Their Mr. Handy hovered by the dead geraniums. Busy pruning the twigs and brown leaves, he hummed as if everything was as they had left it. As if she could walk through that front door and find him barbecuing in the backyard and their son asleep in his crib.

"Mum..?" his servo voice broke through her reverie and back to the hell she could not escape. A tear slipped out of her eye and down her face as the silver robot rocketed to her, his three spider-like arms waving about. "Oh, Miss Nora! It's - It's really you!" The sun reflected dully off his tarnished sphere chassis, and his three eye-like orbs on the end of hydraulic stalks scoured her.