Though the settler’s transition to moving into sanctuary was rough at first, the former vault dwellers had eventually opened their arms and hearts to the broken remainders of the minuteman’s group.
Sturges quickly took up shop in the house across the street of Annalee’s precious home. The tools glinted in the sunlight and caught his eyes, and no one protested when he started building up the walls again, since the owners had not been part of the lucky few admitted into the vault.
It became the center of the neighborhood, the Hubhouse, and Sturges established a workshop. Marcy Long reluctantly taught the vault dwellers how to plant various types of post-war crops.
The only thing wrong with Annalee’s new life was that Nate was gone and Shaun was still missing.
Mama Murphy had told her to make her way down to a place called Diamond City, but she didn’t know how to start. She had hoped to depart with Jason, who had similar goals to explore this newfound Commonwealth, but he now laid incapacitated at the Hubhouse, fighting off infections from the wounds on his face from the Deathclaw’s attack in Concord.
She walked towards the house and entered. Mama Murphy sat at Jason’s side, tending to his wounds as he lay there unconscious, muttering from his feverish dreams. The old woman noticed her walk in and beckoned for her. Annalee looked down at Jason. He was drenched in sweat, and mismatched pieces of cloth bound his face.
“Will he survive, Mama?” Annalee asked, still fixed on the gauntness of her friend.
“I’m not sure Anna dear,” Mama sighed, her grip on the chair tightening. “But I do know one thing…”
Dogmeat shifted his head as he continued to nap next to his master, and let out a soft whine.
“This is where the two of your paths must divide.”
“What do you mean? He’s my friend.”
“You’ll see each other again. I’ve seen it. But his journey is different than yours. You must not delay any longer Annalee Jun. A path will appear to you and only you. It may end the life you knew but you must choose your own path in the days to come.”
Her faded eyes looked down at Jason.
“His healing will take a long time. Time that you don’t have to spare.”
Annalee looked once more at her friend and wiped a tear from her eye. She was going to be alone once again.
“Oh honey,” Mama Murphy stood from her plush armchair and embraced her in a light hug, “You won’t have to go on your journey alone.”
“Thank you,” she sputtered out, sobbing into the old seer’s arms.
They stayed there for a minute or two, still as the sun rays shining through the dusty windows. Annalee let go, thanked Mama Murphy and walked out, leaving the healing man in the hands of the caring old woman.
She knew what she had to do now.
For the next hour, she collected various canned food items and whatever clothing or tools she thought she would need. She opened her closet, and brushed her fingers past the two old sundresses she would never have to wear again. Instead, she grabbed Nate’s old bomber jacket from his service in the army. His name was still stitched over the heart in gold letters. She wanted it to smell of him, but two-hundred years had not been kind to her wishes for familiar memories.
She threw it over her shoulders, deciding to stay in the vault suit. Though it represented the twisted deceit of the vault-tec scientists who promised a better future, the suit was still snug and warm. She finished packing her backpack and held Nate’s old hunting rifle she had retrieved from their safe.
She exited her house and walked towards the hub, spotting Preston talking to some of the vault dwellers in the yard. She walked over to him and leaned against one of the walls that hadn’t crumpled in, watching him cut mutfruits open with a switchblade and mix them into a pot over the fire, teaching some of her former neighbors how to make a simple stew.
She watched him smile at their questions, and he had a new energy to him from when they had first met, no longer weary from constantly being on the run, or worried that his last group would meet brutal ends by raiders.
He handed the ladle over to Mrs. Able and she took over the stirring, and he stood up from his seat of rubber tires and turned, spotting her behind him.
He smiled, but when he looked at her bag strapped over her shoulder, his smile disappeared, turning into a worried glance only he could perfect so well.
“Annalee, are you leaving?”
She nodded and beckoned him over to her side as she started walking down the cracked road that led through Sanctuary.
“I have to find Shaun. He’s somewhere out there- my little boy,” her voice cracked.
“You’re not waiting for Jason to heal? For you to rest after Concord?” He questioned.
“I can’t. Every minute I stay here is another that I waste when I could be looking for him.”
“You don’t even know where you’re going!” The anger in his voice surprised her and he took a breath, trying to calm himself.
“I’m just worried for you.”
“Well, you shouldn’t be. You have your people to worry about. Mama Murphy said I have to go to Diamond City and that’s where I intend to go.”
He grabbed her arm, stopping her in her tracks.
“Listen, I have faith in Mama’s Sight, I mean, she led us to find you all and Sanctuary. But it’s still going to be dangerous and what you saw in Concord was only a sliver of what could happen out there. I think I should go with you.”
“Because you don’t think I can do it myself? This is my son we’re talking about.”
“And you won’t find him if you die on your way to the city.”
She stared at him in silence.
“You can’t come with me-“
“Why not? You know I’m right-“
“Stop. Just stop!” She raised her voice and he backed away, not realizing how close they had gotten.
“You have to take care of this place. Your settlers, my dwellers… they need someone to show them the ropes, how to live. No offense to Sturges or the Longs, but you’re the leader of the bunch. They need you more than me.”
He stared at her, her words stinging, but he knew she was right. Their small new settlement needed all the help it could get now that it had to support life.
“I know, you’re right, but, you have to admit, this isn’t the world you knew. You need a guide, someone to help you. There are raiders, bloodbugs, mole rats, deathclaws- you get the picture. So please don’t think of me as someone trying to hold you back. I'm just worried for your safety, that’s all.”
She sighed, and cast her glance over at the neighborhood.
“I’ll take Codsworth with me, is that better?”
“How about you take Codsworth and the power armor?”
“What? Wouldn’t it be better here?”
“I think you’ll need it more. Besides, I think it should technically be yours. You’re the one who took it from the rooftop and besides Sturges, you’re probably the only other person to keep it in good shape.”
“Fine, I’ll take it then.”
He smiled, “There we go, much better. I’ll bring ‘em both to you.”
With that, he left her at the neighborhood sign, just before the bridge that led back to Concord and hopefully to Diamond City.
She adjusted her bag on her back and held her rifle in her arms, watching the dead tree’s swaying in the breeze. Dust picked up across the bridge and the soft water lapping below her almost made her forget the daunting task ahead of her. She never noticed the river before the vault. She had taken walks around the neighborhood, but she had always been focused on the people around her and the cars driving by instead of the trees or hills that surrounded Sanctuary.
Preston’s voice was in the background now and she turned to find him in the power armor, the suit’s footsteps clanking alongside the hovering spherical robot.
He stepped out of the armor. Codsworth approached her side, bobbing his three eyes at her as well as a robot could portray enthusiasm.
“If I were to hear Mr. Garvey correctly, mum, then you would like me to accompany you as you search for young Shaun?”
“You’ve heard correctly Codsworth,” she smiled at him, “Are you up for the challenge?”
“I shall be by your side, ready to serve.”
Annalee turned to Preston and held out her hand, hoping that it wouldn’t be the last time she saw him or her old neighborhood. She hoped for Jason to heal and to find whatever he was looking for and she hoped above all else that she would find Shaun, no matter what.
He shook her hand, still in wonder about the tenacity of a pre-war mother, and hoping it wasn’t the last time he’d see her.
368Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2LcuulA6jK
She walked past the Red Rocket in the power armor, holding the rifle in her hands, not wanting to be caught unaware by any more bloodbugs. She didn’t have a loyal German Shepherd with her, but she did have a robot companion. And glancing at both the torch instrument and the buzz-saw he had attached to his arms, she knew that he was a fine stand-in for Dogmeat. Besides, she probably wouldn’t be able to separate the dog from Jason’s side, nor did she want to.
Despite her initial inhibitions about taking the power armor, she did feel much safer in the frame and the few parts it still had. She’d have to find a new fusion core in a day or two, knowing it wouldn’t last her long. It had already been in use for so long already.
They passed the crossroads where a strange two-headed cow carcass lay in the middle, the stomach an open cave of where the innards have been picked clean. Preston had said the animal was called a Brahmin.
What a strange name to replace “cow”.
Crows flew above her, circling and dropping down into Concord ahead of them, probably picking at the raider corpses that Annalee and her ragtag group had left behind.
Images of Mr. Cofran’s last moments and the wild fear of Mr. Pedro’s eyes entered her mind, resurfacing from a recent memory she had hoped wouldn't come back to haunt her. She didn’t want to see anything of what was left in Concord.
Taking a smaller path around the city, they avoided the main road that led back to the museum. She didn’t want to see the bodies, and did not want a face to face with that beast of a deathclaw, even if she had managed to kill it.
She couldn’t believe they were the one to kill such a monster. After her ‘showdown’ with Molly after the battle, she had left the group, returned to her home and sat on her slumped couch in shock. There hadn’t been anything like that animal before the war, had there?
They passed by Concord and continued to follow the road. Earlier, she had connected the pipboy into her suit and she pressed a button, causing the pipboy interface to show up in her helmet’s view. Luckily there was a map setting in the portable computer and she looked at the roads to take. Preston had told her that Diamond City could be found if she followed a large road across the bridge, and had pointed to the area that it should have been. All she had to do was follow a road. It wasn’t going to be too hard, right?
As long as she didn’t run into any mutated creatures or bloodthirsty raiders.
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