Fallout: (Nuclear)Winter Is Coming

For the residents of this world, today might seem like a normal day.

The sun rose in the east just as It did every morning.

But today, an event that would signal the end of their little world would happen.

And I had a front row seat to this event.

Outside my vault, I set up a lawn chair and a cooler that had a few beers and some snacks.

I was content to just bask in the fleeting moments of tranquility that the world would not know again for a long time.

I cracked open a cold one, thinking that just a few miles away, the Sole Survivor and thier family are enjoying thier morning coffee and watching the news.

I know that at exactly 9:47am is when the fireworks would start and it was currently 9:30 am.

So I wouldnt have to wait long.

To be honest, I felt a bit guilty. I had the safety of my vault to ride out the end of the world, but I planned to occupy it alone.

Couldn't I have saved a few people? The answer is yes but I didnt see myself as some white knight.

And not to mention, I couldnt just trust people to not go crazy and murder me. The risk was just too high.

But that didnt ease my conscience much. Here I am, watching thier deaths like it was just a spectacle.

I could only hope they didnt suffer too much.

The time ticked by and I felt more anxious with every passing second.

"7 minutes left..." I checked again to keep track of when I need to be ready to jump into my hatch.

"What is that..?" After checking the time I noticed some movement in the distance.

I pulled out a rifle with a scope from my inventory to see what it was.

"A girl in a blue dress? What's she doing there?"

In the distance was a girl who looked to be about my age. She had tan skin and long black hair.

I couldn't see her very well but there was something tugging at the back of my mind. Like what I was seeing should be something familiar to me. After a few moments it clicked,

"The saddest girl in Fallout 4!"

I couldn't believe I had chosen this spot and forgotten about the story in that ranger cabin.

The player finds the skeleton of a girl and a holotape labeled Runaway's Holotape or something like that.

The holotape was the story of a nameless girl that was disowned by her parents so she ran away to this cabin to have a place to stay temporarily.

But the bombs dropped the next morning...

The theory was that she told her parents she was pregnant and they disowned her since the reason she ran away was not clearly stated in the holotape. So it was just generally assumed she was pregnant.

"Aw shit... can I pretend I didnt see her..?"

I checked the time, again and then looked at the ranger cabin.

A mental battle was taking place within my mind right now.

The scales of my conscience were weighing my options.

But in the end my feet moved me closer to a choice that would have lasting consequences.

I ran the 100 yards from my hatch to the cabin.

5 minutes... no, 4 minutes, 38 seconds, is all I had.

It took a minute or so to get over there while sprinting. My lungs were aching and my heart was racing a mile a minute.

The girl had already gone back inside the cabin so I ran up and kicked the door open.

What greeted me were two confused and shocked emerald orbs.

My dramatic entrance might have frightened the poor girl because she started backing away.

"Who-who are you?!"

Just then the whining alert of air raid sirens echoed across Boston.

We were out of time.

"The bombs are dropping. I dont have time to explain further. Come with me!" I reached out and grabbed the girls wrist and pulled her along with me.

She struggled but once I got her out of the door, I picked her up over my shoulder and began jogging back.

"Put me down!"

"What's going on?!"

The girl was kicking and firing off questions but I kept moving.

My muscles starting to burn from the strain of carrying a person and running.

With only a minute to spare, I had reached the hatch and dropped the girl on the ground.

I opened the hatch and looked at the girl and pointed.

"Get down there if you want to live."

She looked at me defiantly, clearly not understanding the situation.

"No! I dont know you, there's no way I going into some hole!"

*boom*

I turned and saw what I had been waiting for all morning.

A huge mushroom cloud on the horizon.

"Still don't want to go?" I asked knowing that any second now, the shockwave will kill us both.

Seeing the blast, the girl's eyes widened and she scrambled down the hatch.

I looked on in amusement and glanced back. The shockwave was getting closer, so once the girl was clear, I jumped down grabbing the hatch and closing it behind me.

The ground rumbled as the shocked wave passed over us.

"Quick, we need to get inside and seal the vault before the radioactive fallout sets in!"

The girl seemed stunned at the events that just happened as well as the vault she didnt expect to see.

She moved inside robotically and I following behind her limping.

I think I broke my leg when I jumped down the hatch.

I pressed the button and the vault door began closing. Sealing us in to protect us from the radiation, my internal radiation meter had already begun spiking so the door closed right on time.

When the vault door hissed closed, my body deflated and I sat on the ground in silence.

The girl I saved followed suit, too stunned by what just happened to move herself.

"Ahh!" With the adrenaline spike over, I could feel the pain on my broken leg.

I pulled a stimpak out of my inventory and with shaky hands, injected the needle into my leg and allowed the stimpak to do it's work.

The bone in my leg began fusing back together and the pain disappeared.

I'm still thankful to be in a world where such a miracle healing item existed.

Even if the world has so many dangers and problems, the technology makes up for it.

I looked over at the girl who was zoned out.

"So... what's your name?"