A Man Out Of Time, Out Of Place, Out Of Mind

A New Beginning

I had never imagined what had happened, did. It was an average morning - October 23rd, the lead-up towards Halloween. I got dressed, went to the bathroom, cleaned myself up, practised my speech in the mirror for the veteran's hall that evening, and walked to our open-plan kitchen/living room for my morning cup of coffee, brewed by our Mr Handy, Codsworth.

I spoke briefly with my wife Nora and was attempting to watch the news but was interrupted by the doorbell. It was some guy from Vault-Tec, asking me to fill in a form to ensure Nora, our infant son Shaun and I could get a place inside our local vault for whenever we would eventually collapse into an all-out atomic war. I knew it would be sooner rather than later but I was unsure how soon that time would be.

Codsworth asked me to attend to Shaun since with him being a Mr Handy and not a Miss Nanny, he could only do so much. I walked into my son's room and spun his mobile to calm him down as Nora was suggesting we could hang out in the park for the rest of the day. Had I known how the rest of the day would have turned out, I would not have sarcastically told her that I was going to watch baseball instead. We had no time to do anything though, as Codsworth called for us to the living room and to hurry.

Walking into the living room, we saw the news anchor looking rather distressed and panicked. He talked about flashes, blinding flashes - otherwise known as bombs - in Pennsylvania and New York. We were in Boston, only an hour's flight away and I knew how powerful those bombs were, so within seconds, I yelled at Nora that we had to get to the vault.

Running down the street, we saw tanks and our neighbours panicking, yelling at each other and crying but we had no time to help as we ran up the hill to the vault. As we approached, the Vault-Tec guy was there again, complaining because he wasn't allowed in and now it was my turn to panic. What if we weren't allowed in? I fought for my country, and there was no way I was going to give up...

The form. I remembered the form. We were on the list! He read us out, infant, adult male and female, and we were through the gates. We ran past soldiers wearing Power Armor and members of Vault-Tec again, although these guys were wearing blue jumpsuits with gold lining and a golden '111' stitched into the back. We ran to the platform, where some of our other neighbours stood. At least they'd also made it through. Loud alarms blared as the platform kicked into gear which shook us. I reassured Nora and before I could say anything else, a large, orange bright light blasted in the distance. We all screamed and I closed my eyes, thinking it was the end. I opened them again, to find we had just made it, going down. My arm was raised above my head and I saw my own arm bones.

This reminded me of our nuclear blast training, but I had no time to think about the past when we were right here, alive and safe from annihilation...at least that's what I'd thought. The Vault-Tec guys who were wearing jumpsuits we had seen outside instructed us to follow them up some stairs and to a screening machine which buzzed as we walked through. "Routine safety checks" they called it before they instructed us to retrieve one of those jumpsuits from a man wearing a scientist coat and a screen on his left wrist. I was later to find out that it was a Pip-Boy. A kind of computer terminal on your wrist which featured many things including the local radio, frequencies, a to-do list, and an overall interface which signified your health readings such as radiation damage.

My wife asked what would happen next and we followed him down a hall to some strange pods, large enough to fit a body in. If I had known what they were for, I would have fought my way out of there, dangerous radiation above ground or not. "Decontamination pods", my butt. A man was writing on a terminal and a few of our neighbours were getting themselves comfortable in the vault suits, talking about being prepared for the future of our lives in the vault. Before I got into mine, Shaun started to get upset. I think he had an idea something wasn't right, poor kid. I calmed him down and told him I wouldn't be far as Nora took him into the pod with her. I got into mine directly across from them and prepared for a whole new life underground.

My breathing slowed, and I found myself falling asleep...

I awoke suddenly, coughing. I heard a voice and saw a woman in some sort of medical suit, then in came a bald man with some type of armor on his arm. I watched as they approached the pod Nora was in and opened it up. She, too, was coughing. She asked if we were safe but before anything else happened, the woman tried to grab Shaun, who was crying. I punched at the door in front of me, hoping it would open, but it didn't. I was forced to watch as Shaun was taken from my wife, and she was shot, right in the head by that bastard. He walked right up to me, his voice rough, like gravel. "At least we still have the backup." and without any chance to yell or pound at the door any longer, I found myself falling asleep again.

I awoke, yet again. Coughing and spluttering and punching at the pod door. This time, it opened and I fell out onto my hands and knees. I got up quickly, trying to unlock Nora's door, hoping she was alive. She wasn't...the last thing she saw was our baby being taken from her and my frantic punching of the door. A terrible way to go. Even though she knew I loved her as much as any close friend would, she knew I cared about her.

A little backstory of myself: my name is Jonathan Nathaniel Young. Nora called me Nate for short. Partially to hide my identity, and act as if I wasn't that gay man from downtown Boston, and partially because her own Dad was called John. Yeah, you read that right. I'm gay. As gay as they come and Nora was my best friend. We went to high school together. One day, after graduating, not long before I had to go to war, we went to the park and we were blind drunk. We ended up having sex and Nora got caught pregnant with Shaun. Law was, if she was pregnant, you married her. Saves the church any drama with hail Marys and forgiveness. So, we got married. We moved into Sanctuary Hills, Nora got her jurisdiction of being a lawyer and we bought Codsworth in preparation for our son and lived a quiet life. Not long after, Nora and Codsworth saw me off to war at the airport. Eventually, I came back, realised I was gay and lived our life as "normal" as we could, and a year later, all of this.

Taking the wedding ring off her frozen finger, I promised I would kill the man who killed her, and I would get Shaun back. I left the pod room and found myself alone. Other occupants in the pods were also dead, too. What the hell were Vault-Tec doing?

I made my way to a couple of doors, to find one locked, so moved to the other door and walked through, finding a baton, a stimpak in an office room, a bunch of other junk and a recreational area. Before I could actually enter the kitchen I found myself face to face with a very large cockroach, about the size of a small dog. Radiation is a bitch. Put it this way, I thought THAT was the worst thing radiation could have done. That was before I met larger creatures, and zombified men made of pure glowing rads. Attacking the roach with the baton, I found a small bathroom and a room full of bunk beds. On a terminal, I saw lists of scores for the holotape game that had been placed inside - "Red Menace". Ironic, given that was the thing that killed us.

Leaving the area, I found myself face to face with a few more roaches and skeletons, as well as a malfunctioning generator; pushing through, I found myself at the Overseer's office, where I found a 10mm gun, some ammo as well as a few stimpaks and another terminal. Looking through, I saw a bunch of entries:

VAULT 111 OVERSEER INSTRUCTIONSCryolatorOperations Protocol ManagementAll Clear & EvacuationOverseer's Log

Looking through these, I found myself sick to my stomach. This vault wasn't a place of safety. It was for science experiments! They were testing prolonged suspended animation on "unsuspecting subjects" - that's why we fell asleep. We weren't being decontaminated, we were being used as a damned time capsule!

I opened the evacuation tunnel, shooting through the remaining roaches and found myself at the entrance again. Skeletons of scientists and vault personnel were surrounding the scanners, including the scientist with the Pip-Boy. I discovered that, in order to open the vault door, I would need it. So, after dusting it off, picking it up and unlocking the door mechanics, I made my way down the stairs and to the elevator, unaware of what I would be faced with when I ascended.