[Fallout 3] “Nuclear Nightmares”
Title: “Nuclear Nightmares”
Fandom: Fallout 3
Author: darkjediprinces
Feedback: ...is the wonder-combination of Jet, Ultrajet, Nuka-Cola Quantum, and Nukalurk Meat! Especially so for this one, as this is my first Fallout fic. >.>
Rating: R/M
Word Count: 1,037
Prompt: Song Prompts #24: “Dreams”
Characters: Lone Wanderer (here named “Claire”), Sarah Lyons, James/Dad; mentions of Carol, the Brotherhood of Steel, and the Enclave.
Summary: ...On most nights, when Claire would retire to her house in Megaton, or find a mattress lying in the husk of a building or house if she found herself away from the safety of the small town, her imagination treated her to visions of the War.
Pairings: None.
Warnings: Spoilers for the “Galaxy News Radio”, “The Waters of Life”, and “Picking Up the Trail” Main Quests; Language, Apocalyptic imagery and, of course, nukes.
Disclaimer: Fallout 3 = Bethesda Game Studios's property. Claire is my Vaultie, but I don't claim to completely own her.
Author's Notes: This was, unsurprisingly, another story for my Creative Writing class. I finally broke down and did something that was obviously FanFiction for one of the exercises. This was exercise #5: Starting with Aftermath. I've been playing a lot of Fallout 3, and have begun reading A Canticle for Leibowitz (both of which are post-Nuclear Apocalypse fiction), so the solution seemed obvious: in Fallout, almost EVERYTHING we see is Aftermath. It was too perfect. So I had to do it. And as I'm from Washington DC, where the third game in the series is set, and have only barely started the first two games, I decided I could only feasibly write Fallout 3 fiction. So here we are! It's a bit unconventional for the assignment, but hey, I take creative license with almost everything. Also, the fic fit the prompt “Dreams” from my Song Prompts challenge, so it is my answer to that prompt. Another one to strike off the list!
Originally, this was split into three separate sections, one for each part of the assignment, but I wrote them so they could work as either one complete story or three separate stories. The first part was to be a couple of paragraphs starting with the aftermath of something, and had to begin with the word "After". The second part was a couple of paragraphs in the aftermath of a disaster or tragedy, and a resulting negative effect of such. The third section was to be in the aftermath of something joyous, and a small, positive thing that happens afterwards. Since I wanted this to read as one story eventually, I decided to go with... well, what I have here. Which is why there's a rather abrupt flashback in here.
Anyway, enjoy the fic! :D
Crossposted: fallout3comm.
“Nuclear Nightmares”
After she’d left the underground Vault she’d called home for nearly twenty years, Claire often found herself wondering what it had been like on the day of the Great War. The aftermath of it was plain to see, of course. All one ever saw were wrecked buildings everywhere. There was a crater where the White House had once stood; chunks were missing off the Washington Monument, and a gigantic hole had been blown into the Capitol. The most obvious sign was the complete lack of any healthy, green vegetation. Only brown, dry grasses and bushes grew in the Wasteland, and the trees were completely bereft of leaves. Yes, the results of the Great War were plain to see. In fact, one could never truly escape them.
Comparatively, however, what was left of human society knew nothing of what the day itself had actually been like. It had been 200 years; the only people who were there, on the fateful day of October 23, 2077, were ghouls, and most people didn’t like being around ghouls. So, on most nights, when Claire would retire to her house in Megaton, or find a mattress lying in the husk of a building or house if she found herself away from the safety of the small town, her imagination treated her to visions of the War.
The dreams of the War got worse after Claire lost her father when the Enclave took over Project Purity. She’d have them more often, and they became more and more personal. One night, as she slept in a spare bed in the Citadel (what had formerly been the Pentagon), she dreamed she was Carol, the pre-War ghoul she’d met in Underworld, whose father had been obliterated in the blasts. Claire woke from the dream in a cold sweat, but eventually managed to fall back asleep again.
Her dreams then decided that she and her father had been near the National Mall when one of the bombs had been dropped on the White House. She and James watched the mushroom cloud explode upwards from the home of the President. Fires ignited instantly in the surrounding buildings, her imagination making them appear in a sickly green colour, and the pressure wave knocked them both back and blasted many of the buildings apart. Then she and her father became ghouls, much faster than she knew it actually took, their skin sloughing off and their hair falling out in mere minutes.
Claire awoke from that dream shaking in fear. She sat up and hugged her knees, trembling, before lying back down and trying to fall asleep again. When she could not, she got off the bed and went looking for Sarah Lyons.
* * *
Claire remembered quite clearly the day she had first met Sentinel Sarah Lyons. She’d stumbled in to a battle between the Brotherhood of Steel and the Super Mutants that infested the DC ruins. Sarah had berated her for being apparently oblivious to the danger, but then decided Claire might be able to help her and her men. Claire had assisted in the ensuing battle, managing to down several of the “Uglies”, as the Brotherhood sometimes called them, with the .44 magnum she’d taken to using.
Outside of Galaxy News Radio, the destination of both her and Sarah, Claire had found a large and very heavy miniature nuclear missile launcher, which, apparently, was called a Fat Man, after the nuclear bomb that had been dropped on Nagasaki at the end of World War 2. It was designed to fling miniature Fat Man-bomb-based nukes at enemies, and she found eight of those miniNukes nearby. It was just as well that she retrieved the weapon when she did, because not five seconds later, there was an explosion, and the largest Super Mutant she’d ever seen stomped into the plaza, one of the Brotherhood soldiers shouting “BEHEMOTH!” as loud as he could as it did so.
The Brotherhood had scattered, regrouping farther back, towards the blocked Metro station, hefting their laser rifles and other weapons at the giant. Without more than a second’s thought, Claire hefted the Fat Man, resting it on her shoulder, and quickly placing one of the miniNukes into the slide. The thing couldn’t be that hard to hit. It’ll be like trying to hit the broad side of a barn, she thought, awkwardly aiming at the Behemoth’s enormous chest and letting loose with the nuke. It struck home, flinging the Behemoth backwards as it exploded in a miniature mushroom cloud. The shot hadn’t killed the bastard, so she fired another miniNuke at it. This one finished the job, and Claire dropped the Fat Man, breathing heavily, and slumping against the dry fountain in the centre of the Plaza. Sarah approached her, looking very impressed. Claire got the impression that Sarah wasn’t easy to impress.
“Holy fucking shit,” Sarah swore. “That was impressive, kid.”
Claire thought that Sarah couldn’t be very much older than her, somewhat resenting the “kid” bit. “It… was a thrill,” Claire admitted with an adrenaline-drunk smile on her face, still panting.
“Guess it’s my turn to thank you,” Sarah said. “We’d probably be dead now if you hadn’t grabbed the Fat Man when you did. Thanks.”
The adrenaline coursing through Claire’s system made her far more giddy than she usually was, and Claire felt a surge of pride at Sarah’s words. “You’re welcome,” she said with a small giggle. “Sorry. Adrenaline.”
“I know the feeling,” Sarah responded, laughing, before walking away. Another Brotherhood soldier came up to her and said, “Nice work, taking down a Behemoth by yourself,” before heading back to his post at the door of Galaxy News Radio. It made Claire’s day: she had, indeed, taken down one of the largest monsters in the Wasteland by herself, and the resulting respect and compliments had been icing on the proverbial cake.
That had been a three months ago. Since then, she’d met Sarah again, when she'd fled from the Enclave. They’d become fairly good friends in the meantime. It was for this reason that Claire decided to see if the Brotherhood Sentinel was awake, and to talk to her about the dreams if she was. Sarah, she knew, would listen.
Fandom: Fallout 3
Author: darkjediprinces
Feedback: ...is the wonder-combination of Jet, Ultrajet, Nuka-Cola Quantum, and Nukalurk Meat! Especially so for this one, as this is my first Fallout fic. >.>
Rating: R/M
Word Count: 1,037
Prompt: Song Prompts #24: “Dreams”
Characters: Lone Wanderer (here named “Claire”), Sarah Lyons, James/Dad; mentions of Carol, the Brotherhood of Steel, and the Enclave.
Summary: ...On most nights, when Claire would retire to her house in Megaton, or find a mattress lying in the husk of a building or house if she found herself away from the safety of the small town, her imagination treated her to visions of the War.
Pairings: None.
Warnings: Spoilers for the “Galaxy News Radio”, “The Waters of Life”, and “Picking Up the Trail” Main Quests; Language, Apocalyptic imagery and, of course, nukes.
Disclaimer: Fallout 3 = Bethesda Game Studios's property. Claire is my Vaultie, but I don't claim to completely own her.
Author's Notes: This was, unsurprisingly, another story for my Creative Writing class. I finally broke down and did something that was obviously FanFiction for one of the exercises. This was exercise #5: Starting with Aftermath. I've been playing a lot of Fallout 3, and have begun reading A Canticle for Leibowitz (both of which are post-Nuclear Apocalypse fiction), so the solution seemed obvious: in Fallout, almost EVERYTHING we see is Aftermath. It was too perfect. So I had to do it. And as I'm from Washington DC, where the third game in the series is set, and have only barely started the first two games, I decided I could only feasibly write Fallout 3 fiction. So here we are! It's a bit unconventional for the assignment, but hey, I take creative license with almost everything. Also, the fic fit the prompt “Dreams” from my Song Prompts challenge, so it is my answer to that prompt. Another one to strike off the list!
Originally, this was split into three separate sections, one for each part of the assignment, but I wrote them so they could work as either one complete story or three separate stories. The first part was to be a couple of paragraphs starting with the aftermath of something, and had to begin with the word "After". The second part was a couple of paragraphs in the aftermath of a disaster or tragedy, and a resulting negative effect of such. The third section was to be in the aftermath of something joyous, and a small, positive thing that happens afterwards. Since I wanted this to read as one story eventually, I decided to go with... well, what I have here. Which is why there's a rather abrupt flashback in here.
Anyway, enjoy the fic! :D
Crossposted: fallout3comm.
“Nuclear Nightmares”
After she’d left the underground Vault she’d called home for nearly twenty years, Claire often found herself wondering what it had been like on the day of the Great War. The aftermath of it was plain to see, of course. All one ever saw were wrecked buildings everywhere. There was a crater where the White House had once stood; chunks were missing off the Washington Monument, and a gigantic hole had been blown into the Capitol. The most obvious sign was the complete lack of any healthy, green vegetation. Only brown, dry grasses and bushes grew in the Wasteland, and the trees were completely bereft of leaves. Yes, the results of the Great War were plain to see. In fact, one could never truly escape them.
Comparatively, however, what was left of human society knew nothing of what the day itself had actually been like. It had been 200 years; the only people who were there, on the fateful day of October 23, 2077, were ghouls, and most people didn’t like being around ghouls. So, on most nights, when Claire would retire to her house in Megaton, or find a mattress lying in the husk of a building or house if she found herself away from the safety of the small town, her imagination treated her to visions of the War.
The dreams of the War got worse after Claire lost her father when the Enclave took over Project Purity. She’d have them more often, and they became more and more personal. One night, as she slept in a spare bed in the Citadel (what had formerly been the Pentagon), she dreamed she was Carol, the pre-War ghoul she’d met in Underworld, whose father had been obliterated in the blasts. Claire woke from the dream in a cold sweat, but eventually managed to fall back asleep again.
Her dreams then decided that she and her father had been near the National Mall when one of the bombs had been dropped on the White House. She and James watched the mushroom cloud explode upwards from the home of the President. Fires ignited instantly in the surrounding buildings, her imagination making them appear in a sickly green colour, and the pressure wave knocked them both back and blasted many of the buildings apart. Then she and her father became ghouls, much faster than she knew it actually took, their skin sloughing off and their hair falling out in mere minutes.
Claire awoke from that dream shaking in fear. She sat up and hugged her knees, trembling, before lying back down and trying to fall asleep again. When she could not, she got off the bed and went looking for Sarah Lyons.
* * *
Claire remembered quite clearly the day she had first met Sentinel Sarah Lyons. She’d stumbled in to a battle between the Brotherhood of Steel and the Super Mutants that infested the DC ruins. Sarah had berated her for being apparently oblivious to the danger, but then decided Claire might be able to help her and her men. Claire had assisted in the ensuing battle, managing to down several of the “Uglies”, as the Brotherhood sometimes called them, with the .44 magnum she’d taken to using.
Outside of Galaxy News Radio, the destination of both her and Sarah, Claire had found a large and very heavy miniature nuclear missile launcher, which, apparently, was called a Fat Man, after the nuclear bomb that had been dropped on Nagasaki at the end of World War 2. It was designed to fling miniature Fat Man-bomb-based nukes at enemies, and she found eight of those miniNukes nearby. It was just as well that she retrieved the weapon when she did, because not five seconds later, there was an explosion, and the largest Super Mutant she’d ever seen stomped into the plaza, one of the Brotherhood soldiers shouting “BEHEMOTH!” as loud as he could as it did so.
The Brotherhood had scattered, regrouping farther back, towards the blocked Metro station, hefting their laser rifles and other weapons at the giant. Without more than a second’s thought, Claire hefted the Fat Man, resting it on her shoulder, and quickly placing one of the miniNukes into the slide. The thing couldn’t be that hard to hit. It’ll be like trying to hit the broad side of a barn, she thought, awkwardly aiming at the Behemoth’s enormous chest and letting loose with the nuke. It struck home, flinging the Behemoth backwards as it exploded in a miniature mushroom cloud. The shot hadn’t killed the bastard, so she fired another miniNuke at it. This one finished the job, and Claire dropped the Fat Man, breathing heavily, and slumping against the dry fountain in the centre of the Plaza. Sarah approached her, looking very impressed. Claire got the impression that Sarah wasn’t easy to impress.
“Holy fucking shit,” Sarah swore. “That was impressive, kid.”
Claire thought that Sarah couldn’t be very much older than her, somewhat resenting the “kid” bit. “It… was a thrill,” Claire admitted with an adrenaline-drunk smile on her face, still panting.
“Guess it’s my turn to thank you,” Sarah said. “We’d probably be dead now if you hadn’t grabbed the Fat Man when you did. Thanks.”
The adrenaline coursing through Claire’s system made her far more giddy than she usually was, and Claire felt a surge of pride at Sarah’s words. “You’re welcome,” she said with a small giggle. “Sorry. Adrenaline.”
“I know the feeling,” Sarah responded, laughing, before walking away. Another Brotherhood soldier came up to her and said, “Nice work, taking down a Behemoth by yourself,” before heading back to his post at the door of Galaxy News Radio. It made Claire’s day: she had, indeed, taken down one of the largest monsters in the Wasteland by herself, and the resulting respect and compliments had been icing on the proverbial cake.
That had been a three months ago. Since then, she’d met Sarah again, when she'd fled from the Enclave. They’d become fairly good friends in the meantime. It was for this reason that Claire decided to see if the Brotherhood Sentinel was awake, and to talk to her about the dreams if she was. Sarah, she knew, would listen.