Nuka Girl, Nuka'd World

Frostbite

Hitting the ground with a thud, ears roaring as she sucked in deep and desperate gasps for breath, Vanessa reached out and pressed a bruised hand against the cryopod in front of her.

-

"Just give us the baby, don't make this any harder than it needs to be."

Vanessa screamed, slamming the sides of her hands against the glass of the cryopod, as Nate tried to keep their child out of the arms of the intruders to the vault.

"No. You're not taking my baby! I'm not letting you take Shaun!"

A gunshot rang out throughout the room, chilling Vanessa's skin to the bone. Even from within the cryopod the sound was deafening. Within seconds one of her already sore hands was pressed firmly against her mouth, the other still weakly banging against the glass, a single tear rolling down her face.

"At least we've still got the backup."

And with those last words spoken right against her face, everything got cold and dark again.

-

"N-Nate... I'm so... I'm sorry."

Dragging herself closer to the cryopod, lungs still aching as they drew in breaths they'd been desperate for, for far too long. Vanessa pressed her forehead against the cold glass, finally regaining her control of her legs, she used the pod to drag herself to her feet, trembling under her own weight.

She stepped away from the pod, her fingers slowly leaving the glass.

"Shaun."

She sucked in another breath through her teeth, before looking around at all the other pods, furrowing her brow, teeth chewing at her lower lip.

"Dead... all dead. Why!? Why would Vault-Tec do this!?"

"...Now Ness, you're talking to yourself. You've gone mad already."

Making her way through the vault, letting out a screech she would later view as embarrassing when she first encountered the giant bugs.

"Bugs... fu-bloody hell... why are they so big. Of course these horrible things would survive a nuke. Oh god."

Lunging for a table to her left, she grabbed a security baton that was sat upon it, and bashed the damn thing's brains out. But there was no way in hell she'd be comfortable defending herself with a glorified piece of plastic. Continuing her route through the vault, she eventually found herself spotting a 10mm pistol, and thought back to the self defence lessons she'd received from Nate whilst he was still suffering from his paranoia.

"Look down the sight, that's it. Vanessa for fuck sake stop shaking! It can't hurt you, but people can. And you need one of these to stop them."

"Nathaniel, it's a bloody live gun!"

Holding it in her hands made her for the first time in her life feel in control. The surge of confidence made her feel sick, actually, so she tucked it into a rung on her belt, one hand hanging by her side ready to grab the damn thing as she picked up her pace, running through towards the vault exit.

She'd done nothing but whisper an apology to the skeleton by the vault entrance as she snapped off their arm to take the Pip-Boy, rationalising it to herself that they clearly wouldn't need it anymore. With a swift shake to get the boned arm off the Pip-Boy, she slipped it onto her own, fastening it before plugging it into the door control, and slamming her hand on the button.

She had to get out of here.

The minute she could get to the elevator she could, wrenching the door shut to prevent the roaches that had followed her from getting too close, squealing as they tried to worm their way in. Alas, they were too late.