The Road to Freedom

There I was, helpless. Holding on by a thread, fading in and out of consciousness. The  heavy fumes I breathed in from the streets of Boston. Feeling alienated by the rest of the world. Just a chess piece in God's game of life. My name is Preston Garvey and I am the last remaining member of the minutemen. The Minutemen were founded as a result of the efforts by various small communities to protect themselves against the numerous threats present within the Commonwealth. Boston, Massachusetts or known as the Commonwealth 200 years after the Great War of 2077 is now a radiated wasteland. Nowhere was safe unless you were in a vault underground somewhere. But still there was a chance of death waiting just around the corner. A vault is a type of subterranean installation initially designed by the Vault-Tec Corporation, later constructed in collaboration with RobCo Industries. Officially, they were designed for the sole purpose of sheltering up to one thousand individuals in the event of a nuclear holocaust; however, in reality, they were part of a series of secret experiments orchestrated by the United States government. The Commonwealth was infested with thieves, murders and creatures beyond your wildest nightmares. But there were good people out there, people who would die for complete strangers. That's what was so fascinating about the time period we lived in. Either you were greeted with a warm welcome and smiles or .10mm rounds whizzing past your face. This was our society, this was our government, this was our life. As I lay there lifeless on my back, wheezing, crying for help. I came to the conclusion that life as I knew it was boiling down to these last couple breaths. Suddenly I heard voices up the road. I lifted my head up with all the power in my body and saw a group of men. My vision was blurry and couldn't make out an exact identification of the blurs that were approaching. Were they the brotherhood? Were they survivors? Were they even real? My mind was going crazy with all the scenarios, all these ideas but to me they all ended with death. My vision faded back to normal and these men were dressed in ripped leather clothes with human bones dangling from them. I knew what they were and knew I had to make an attempt to get away. They were Raiders. Raiders were countless groups of bandits, thieves, murderers, junkies, and psychopaths who dwell in the Commonwealth and its ruins. They have no true "society", living simply by the philosophy that what's yours is theirs, and killing anyone who gets in their way. I felt a shot of adrenaline throughout my body. I got up as quickly as my broken body was able. I shambled across the street to a bookstore with the door wide open. As I entered the door shut behind me and I immediately smelt an overwhelming stench of death. There were no good hiding spots besides behind the counter of the bookstore. There I knew they wouldn't be able to see me from outside the broken windows. Their voices grew louder and gunfire began to arose. Once again I knew I had to make a decision. Either I wait this one out and have a possibility of getting caught or I run out the back and make an attempt at running as far away as I can. I wrapped my hand up on a bar above me, pulling my body up off the ground. I noticed the right leg of my pants was wet. A dark red color. I couldn't feel any pain but there was hole ripped in my pant leg. S***.. Was I shot? As that thought entered my mind the front door of the bookstore busted open. I dropped back down clenching a large shard of glass in my hand. I felt the blood dripping from my hand onto the floor next to me. Footsteps started to sound. I heard a man's voice cry out to the others outside “This bookstore ain’t s***.” Another voice called out but sounded farther away “check the register.” The register was right above where I was sitting and the only way to access it was behind the counter. This time the adrenaline shot again but more. His footsteps drew closer and closer. As he stepped around the corner I lunged towards him and put the shard of glass in his throat. I put my hand over his mouth and lowered his lifeless body behind the counter with me. I grabbed his pistol and the ammo he had on him and put it in my pocket. I searched him for anything else and found a canister of jet and some dirty water.  Jet is an inhalant chem commonly found throughout the commonwealth and using  Jet creates an altered state of consciousness where time appears to slow but your actions are 10x faster than normal. I put it to lips, pressed the button and inhaled the fumes. Immediately it hit. I stood up on my feet and felt no pain in my right leg. I kicked open the back door and ran through the alley out back. It felt like nothing. My heart was beating slowly but I was at least running 25mph. I took a sharp right down another street and was approached by some more raiders. I drew my pistol and fired three shots. 3 between the eyes headshots. They all dropped in the order shot. In no hesitation I just kept running. I could feel the effects starting to ware off but I needed to get somewhere where I could pick up firepower. The Cambridge Police station was on my left. The effects wore off and I was back to reality. I limped up the stairs feeling the sharp burns of the bullet that entered my right thigh. I walked into the police station and was stopped by two men whose guns were already drawn. A man in a mechanic like outfit told me to drop the pistol I clenched in my palm. The other man said “Who are you and what do you want?” I said “My name is Preston Garvey and I am; as far as I know, the last known survivor of the minutemen.” The mechanic said “Oh really? I've heard better excuses from half dead mutants claiming to be angels sent down from above trying to find lost puppies.” The other man chuckled. “You have to believe me… Please” I said. A dark figure emerged from the shadows. “Let him be” said a soft voice. An elderly woman dressed in clean clothes with a bloody rag in her hand started to walk up to me. She wiped the blood off my forehead and said “You belong”. I was confused. In this day in age I didn't belong to anything. The minutemen were gone, I was a lone wanderer. She told me “You belong with us. People trying to survive in the commonwealth. Follow me.” I began to follow her into a back room where I was shortly greeted by another woman. She was a black haired middle aged woman who holstered a pistol on her right leg. The elderly woman from before looked at me and spoke out. “My names Mama Murphey but you could call me Mama.” “That man in the Mechanic Uniform names Sturges.” At that moment raiders barged in guns blasting. Guns were drawn from both groups. Ducking, running and firing. A table was flipped and luckily I got behind it when I did. A grenade exploded on the other side sending debris everywhere. I fired a couple shots into the smoke and heard a grown. Gun fire stopped and the sound of footsteps echoed out of the station. A voice erupted from the other room “Sturges, Mama is everyone ok?” Everyone replied in sync “Yes.”. Everyone got up and met in the middle of the Station. “We need to get out of the city.” Sturges said “I agree” Said Mama. “Does anyone have any ideas?” Everyone looked around for a couple seconds. Glancing around at the blank faces of terror. “There's a little museum just out of the city in Concord that used to be an old minutemen hideout.” I said. Everyone's face lit up. “Are you sure it's safe” one of the men spoke out. “As far as I know the place is abandoned and in good shape. Thats where I was heading before I almost died a couple blocks away.” “Well I say we try it” said Sturges. The group and I packed up all the food, ammo and junk that we could carry and headed out of the back of the station. We started walking down the back alley and took a left when we got to the end. Down a couple blocks was a bridge that led out of the city to a forest. Just on the other side of that forrest was Concord. You could tell by the large buildings in the distance and a flagpole towering over them. The group and I picked back up again until we heard something stomping. We were almost to the bridge so we went from walking and taking our time to almost sprinting. A behemoth came around the corner and stopped in front of the bridge. Behemoths are the most powerful super mutants by far, towering at about 20 feet tall. This one was holding something though. What looked like a fire hydrant hammer type weapon. It had a shopping cart on its back with small boulders in it. We were at least 50 yards away from this thing. It’s back was to us so we were gonna try to sneak by the best we could. We all ran behind a bus stopped near the bridge. It gazed around looking for something to kill. It breathed heavy and its breath was putrid. It was dripping a radioactive liquid from its eyes, mouth and nostrils. Suddenly it let out a monstrous roar and started walking down the street we just came from. We were in the clear. We ran across the bridge and were hoping to not be met by anything else. But in the commonwealth you never knew what was gonna happen. The roads were filled with mainly raider roadblocks and other creatures so the group and I got off the main road and headed into the forest. It was dark and really muddy from the night before. The rain in the commonwealth is heavy and filled with radioactive molecules so it is best to stay inside during rainstorms. But some of the rainstorms lasted up to 3 days. Usually flooding most areas around the city. We continued through a manmade path in the forest for a quite awhile. Hearing gunshots in the distance at least every 5 or so minutes. Everyone was scared. We didn't know what were walking into and if we would even make it. I looked back and saw Mama Murphey gripping a necklace with a cross on it praying to herself. It made me think… There's hope. I wasn't much of a religious person myself but thinking about all the nights I sat alone, crying, wondering and contemplating ending it all here she is talking to someone, fictional or not giving her hope and the will to keep going was amazing. We came to a crossroad of man made paths. Tents were perched up but the sides were splattered in blood. But no bodies? The campfire was still lit and the pig roasting on top was burnt to ash. “What happened you think?” Sturges said. “Either raiders or wild dogs. But out here you never know. But we need to keep going. If we stay out til the sun goes down we will have some problems.” The group didn't hesitate and continued on. Finally after about an hour of walking in mud, blood and water they arrived the back of the museum in Concord. They could not get by the fence that was in between them and the museum which forced them to walk around to the entrance of the city. They knew they weren't gonna get there without a fight. The group headed toward the entrance which wasn't to far and saw a large group of raiders. They stopped us dead in our tracks. I pulled out my gun, aimed for one of their heads and pulled the trigger. Boom. Headshot. His head blew up in what looked to be a thousand pieces. We already had our guns drawn and we mowed down about 10 of them unexpectedly. We knew this gunfire would draw groups of them so we had to move fast. We came to the doors of the museum. Everyone was ready. Guns and knifes in hands because we didn't know what could be on the other side of that door. We barged in but it was nothing but dead silence. This was good. Nowhere is silent. Each of checked all the rooms in the museum and it was completely empty. It was so crazy how untouched this place was. It was a beautiful sight. Everywhere else is destroyed. We all tried to get as high as we could in the building  so we went to the overseer's room on the fourth floor. You could see the entire museum from up there. In there was a couple sofas, a refrigerator, a computer and ammo caches. “S*** we should live here.” chuckled Sturges. Everyone settled in for the night after a long day. I slept through the night with no problems. First time in my lifetime I got a full night's worth of sleep. When I woke up everyone was up and were eating breakfast, cleaning their guns and just sat there happy. It was amazing. These people could have gunned me down when I walked into the police station and without me they would probably be laying face down 6 feet under. There was Mama murphey though; with that necklace in between her hands that were pushed together. She prayed to a god that led her to safety. It was truly amazing. But it was bound to happen. Gunfire in the streets again. There was door that led out to a balcony in the front of the room. I walked out and saw everything in Concord. Raiders in the street shooting at a man. A man in a blue suit. I couldn't believe my eyes. It was a vault dweller. This man was gunning down every raider that stood in his way. So I pulled out my gun and did the same from the balcony. The raiders stood no chance so I called out to the Vault dweller. He did not respond but kept looking at me and walking towards the balcony .He finally got close enough to where I could make out a face and the numbers on his Vault Suit. I said “Come inside we promise safety.” All he replied was “I am the safety.”

The End