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It started the same way that it did in ‘77. War of some kind was on the horizon, and no one really wanted to deal with that reality until it was too late.
As things grew more tense with the deployment of the Brotherhood of Steel to the Commonwealth and it’s communities, and the continued lingering threat of the Institute, people started to get twitchy. Trade from the surrounding communities had also started to dry up as settlements hunkered down against the continued “requests” for supplies from roving patrols of Knights and Paladins. This meant austerity measures and increased security in Diamond City. Security beyond the regular forces usually hired from the populace because the rising unrest in the residents to match the austerity measures seemed to be putting Mayor McDonough on edge himself. He said it was needed to keep things civil and that residents of the Upper Stands (where his donors lived), had demanded increased security amid rising uncertainty. Those who lived below weren’t consulted on anything, increased security forces or austerity measures or otherwise.
As much as they tried to go about life in as normal a manner as they could, things continued to feel more and more tense. Nick continued to see a dwindling amount of clients as caps from the residents’ discretionary spending started to decrease in response to rapidly raising prices for the goods they needed to survive, and distrust started to build. Neighbors who were once relatively civil were at each other’s throats, and Annaliese had started to notice more and more angry glares sent in their direction whenever she went out with Piper or Nick to run errands. Synths and troublemakers, as the really nasty folks hissed at them.
As she went about her days, Annaliese couldn’t shake the feeling of tense muscles and a lingering buzz of anxiety at the base of her skull daily as though she was waiting for the other shoe to drop. It happened when the new security forces arrived.
Hiring a paramilitary force like the Gunners to patrol Diamond City was a move of desperation that threw most of the residents of Diamond City for a loop. People knew things were getting bad, but bad enough to bring in a private militia that answered with impunity only to the mayor consisting of outsiders was new for most of them. The guards in Diamond City were from among the residents. There was a bit of a casual social contract and understanding among the people that while they answered to the mayor at the end of the day, they still had connections and a responsibility to the community they served.
Gunners were outsiders. They had no such sense of community connection and therefore acted like it.
Folks waiting in line for food at the butchers or supplies at Myrna’s shop were often shoved aside as the troops, paying only with IOUs from Mayor McDonough, got dibs on the choicest supplies. The Dug Out Inn was overrun with drunken shenanigans from the troops. The Noodle Stand was always crowded with Gunners after their shift at dinner time, driving away Diamond City citizens who would normally stop there for a spot of community and some of the best food that the Commonwealth had to offer. It all came to a head when a resident of the lower city, shoved out of the way to see Doctor Sun after he’d been waiting for an hour to get treatment, shoved back. The Gunner didn’t take more than a moment to look at the man before he simply withdrew his pistol and shot him in the head, then moved back to his stolen place in line like nothing had happened.
Annaliese had been grudgingly waiting in a line of five or so people at the butcher’s with Piper as a few troops had once again made their way in front of everybody else when she heard the shot and the screaming rang out. Piper grabbed her hand and dragged her to the Publick Occurrences offices as the Gunners and a few Diamond City Security started to loudly argue over the scene as the dead man bled out below them. She had tried to run back home to Nick, but Gunners had started sweeping the streets and herding anyone in the area to a makeshift holding pen they’d created while the mayor was summoned and the Chief of Diamond City Security started to make his way out from their offices. Knowing that getting detained wasn’t a better alternative to sheltering in place with Piper, Annaliese reluctantly helped her barricade the front door as Nat demanded to be filled in on what had happened in the market place.
Piper took the lead in calming her little sister while Annaliese sat on the sofa and stared blankly ahead, lost in a memory from 2077.
There was a knock on the door. Uncle Nate hadn’t been expecting company so Annaliese was surprised, but she made her way over to the door and opened it without second thought. After all, Uncle Nate was busy in the kitchen making dinner and Shaun was crying in his bedroom. Things were chaotic enough without her bothering Uncle Nate with what was probably a solicitor.
It wasn’t. When Annaliese opened the door she came face to face with men in military uniforms that eerily reminded her of those that the Gunners wore two-hundred plus years in the future. Masks covering their faces and no distinguishing badge numbers included.
“Uncle Nate?” Annaliese called out, uncertainty tinging her voice. Nate looked up from the Saddle Up Salisbury Steak he was struggling with at the stove and his face paled considerably. He switched the stove off and immediately made his way over, shooing Annaliese away from the door.
“Check on Shaun for me, Anna?” He nodded down the hall to the crying child and Annaliese wanted to protest but the look in the eyes of the men at the door had her retreating down the hallway to the room she shared with her cousin. Before she could get to Shaun to comfort him, Codsworth made his way over and cheerfully declared he’d handle the “fussy little one”. This gave Annaliese a unique opportunity to eavesdrop on her Uncle and his guests, which she did so with very little guilt but an overwhelming amount of anxiety.
“—Heard anything from your old friend recently?” She heard them questioning him.
“I haven’t kept in contact with my old army buddies. Had a lot going on in civilian life.” Nate responded tersely and with a healthy amount of distrust. “And while we’re asking questions, can I get a badge number and name?”
“No. Not necessary when we’re here on national security matters.” The man who’s flak jacket simply said “Military Police” on it answered swiftly. Thrown for a loop at the denial, Nate then followed up with a question that made Annaliese’s blood run cold.
“Am I being considered as a national security threat? Should I be getting a lawyer?” Annaliese could’ve sworn she heard a smirk from the door.
“Why, got something to hide? You a Commie lover, or was your college membership in the ‘young democratic socialist’ party something you did to impress that China woman you married?” That was a new voice that she hadn’t heard yet. Nate made to protest when the man who seemed to be the officer in charge reined the conversation back in.
“You aren’t under intense investigation at this time due to your service record; but you can understand based on your past associations and the fact that you did have a close relationship with someone who is currently under scrutiny why we had to stop by, can’t you?” Annaliese could hear the staggered breathing from her uncle that those who didn’t know him might have read as fear. He wasn’t afraid however, he was pissed.
“Past associations being my dead wife, and a good friend who saved my life on the battlefield while we kept Alaska from being occupied, those past associations?” He bristled. Before things could continue to spiral due to rising tempers, Annaliese made the calculated decision to come out from her hiding place in the hall.
“Everything alright Uncle Nate?” There were five men at the door now, a few of them were starting to fidget with the comically large rifles they were kitted out with for prowling through Boston’s suburbs in what appeared to be intentionally intimidating overkill. The lead officer at the door seemed surprised she’d made a return but, seeing that they weren’t getting much of anywhere with their line of questioning and were starting to draw a crowd of attention in the streets, he decided that it was a good time to head out as their point had been made.
“Just keep us in mind if Chen reaches out, yeah? After all, like you’ve said, you’ve got your hands full with your family and the last thing you need is to be associating with Communist aggitators and risking your pension.” Uncle Nate didn’t say anything else as the masked military police took their leave.
Nate shut the door with a slam and locked the deadbolt with a clatter. He turned on his heel and stalked down the hallway to Shaun’s room, shoulders tense. Annaliese trailed behind softly as his steps thundered in comparison. When he got to Shaun’s crib the tense anger in his stance and scowl started to melt away, taking his son from Codsworth’s care. Annaliese felt the urge to apologize for putting him through what had just happened.
“I’m sorry.” She choked out past her throat as it tightened with fear thinking about that last remark the men at the door had given. Uncle Nate looked from his son to his niece and she saw a helplessness in him that she’d never seen before.
“Don’t apologize Annaliese. You’ve done nothing wrong, I’ve done nothing wrong. This is just the way things are right now. If we keep our heads down it should blow over. That was just a warning.”
So they had tried to keep their heads down. When the food riots rang out, when their neighbors were pulled from their homes and interrogated or sometimes flat-out arrested due to having parents of Chinese descent, when the reporter showed up demanding more info on the Eddie Winter scandal that had ended her mother and aunt’s life, Uncle Nate had the same answer.
“This is the way things are right now and I don’t have any way to change it. I need to watch out for my family.”
Then came the salesman from Vault-Tec and the War they’d been trying to ignore from the safety of their suburban “Home of the Future” crashed the world down around them all.
“Blue? You there? You having another episode?” Piper had asked, gently shaking her by the shoulder. Annaliese had nearly jumped out of her skin as she was drawn out of her flashback. Piper held her hands up in surrender to show she meant no harm as Annaliese drew in a harsh gasp.
“Need to get home to Nick.” Annaliese choked out. Piper nodded sympathetically, but then indicated the barricaded door.
“We need to wait until things settle down out there. Want to play Blast Radius with Nat and I?” Annaliese nearly yelled at Piper that no, she did not want to sit around waiting for the war to come to her door again but then reined herself in after a deep breath.
“Suppose we should do something until it’s safe to go out again.” She agreed with a croak in her voice.
Eventually, when Annaliese and Piper were able to determine later that night that it was safe to get back home, Piper escorted her there. The streets were empty of most people, but they still stuck to the shadows just in case. Once she made it to the agency, she met Nick’s worried gaze with a watery one of her own and just made her way to bury her head in his arm as the shock from the scene of brutality earlier in the day broke and the dread started to manifest itself physically.
Piper debriefed with Nick what they had seen in the market earlier while Annaliese went upstairs to try to pull herself together. After the quick rundown of the situation, Piper made her exit as they learned through Nick’s side of the day that there was a curfew and that residents were ordered to avoid going out as much as possible. The Gunners were the ones selectively enforcing that curfew. And supposedly they’d be following up doing home visit the rest of the week, looking for potential “trouble makers”. Nick had just been about to chance it and go out to find Annaliese when they arrived. With Piper gone, Nick quietly ascended the stairs to check on Annaliese who had curled her knees up to her chest as she replayed the day’s events in her head and tried to puzzle out why it had made her remember that particular incident with Uncle Nate. Nick noticed her distressed look and sat down on the end of the bed.
“Hey, kid.” He said softly, laying a has on her knee to get her attention. Annaliese jolted away from his touch and he immediately withdrew to give her space. The embarrassed look he got from her indicated that it wasn’t unwanted touch or comfort necessarily, it was the toll the day had taken on her that made her jumpy. Still, better to give her the space she needed to process her emotions, so he kept a small amount of space between the two of them and tried words to comfort instead.
“It’ll be alright, Anna. We’ll figure something out.” Nick then wished her good night and went back down to his office to try to continue to work on the case he had been working with John by slowly chipping away at the leads he provided to him. It had been getting harder to pass info without whoever they used as courier getting stopped and harrassed by roving Brotherhood patrols as they seemed to be trying to keep an extra tab on Goodneighbor for some reason, so new details were sparse and in between. As Nick struggled to focus so he could work on determining who had been trying to monitor what he and John had been up to in recent weeks, above him Annaliese was struggling to find rest.
Every movement Nick made as he shuffled papers, every creak of rusty metal in the structure, every groan of the wooden planks settling, all of it put her on high alert. Eventually, she dozed off in a light sleep, hovering between the unconscious and consciousness. But her body was tense and she didn’t sleep deeply.
It was like that old song her Uncle had played. Supposedly subversive and unpatriotic and disrespectful for the way it depicted those in authority, he’d warned her not to bring it up in other people’s company, but she’d found it haunting. The chorus rang through her mind as she settled into her uneasy rest:
“That old knock on the door, knock on the door
Here they come to take one more
One more”
That night she spent in a restless sleep, waiting for another knock on the door. The one that would bring the war back to her and Nick and take what sense of normalcy they’d had, now that they couldn’t just stay hidden in Diamond City’s walls any longer to wait things out.
One day, if not that night, they’d hear that knock on the door. With their unusual home makeup and friends to boot, from associations with reporters to synths to ghouls, it was really only a matter of time.
And Nick knew that too.