Chapter Text
War. War never changes.
In the year 1945, my great, great grandfather – Hubert Stilinski –serving in the army, wondered when he’d get to go home to the wife, and the son that he’d never seen. He got his wish when the US ended World War II by dropping bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
The world awaited the end. Armageddon. It never came.
Instead, something almost miraculous happened. Slow progress. They began to experiment with using atomic energy as a limitless source of power, instead of as a weapon. It took decades for it to become a reality. Something real. Words waged verbal wars between countries, and within them, at the safety of the project. Whether or not the radiation used with in would create world wide catastrophe. And, finally, in the 21st century, it became something more much than just an idea.
Before my world changed, I was all too familiar with war. And it wasn’t like the war in history books – or the wars overseas. For my brand of battle, you would instead need to brush up on your mythology. And I thought, in my teenage mind, that druids, werewolves, and banshees were the worst that I would ever have to deal with. Especially after moving across the country for some reprieve, to a college in Boston.
And, despite the fact that my battles I fought alongside my friends – my comrades if you will, were well past my years – I was so wrong.
The atomic energy boom began my senior year of high school, in the year 2074, and continued to snowball with technologies that this world could only have dreamed of before as I moved onto college – and even began to study these theories in a classroom setting. Everyone was excited for the changes this could bring to the so called American Dream.
In the year 2077, we were on the brink of war. The world was beginning to exhaust their new resources too quickly – and everything was breaking to down at it’s foundation. The world was afraid – I was afraid. It was the year 2077 when I lost everything.
When the bombs fell, it wasn’t the end of the world, as some had predicted. But instead, it was another bloody chapter of human history. The world as we knew it ended, and it left me behind.
And when the doors of Vault 111 slid closed, never to be opened again for over 200 years, I would bare witness to the new world that was the Commonwealth. A world that I did not want, but instead the world I found myself in.
I can feel it wash over me. The heat, the force, the radiation… the fear. I see my life before all of this. Before the bombs. Everything can change in an instant, and the future you plan for yourself shifts – whether or not you’re ready. At some point, it happens to all of us.
But I know. I know I can’t go back. And I know War. War never changes.
Everything – it all happened so fast.
Stiles had heard that so many times in his life – and he, finally, understood the meaning of it. The visit from Vault Tec. The bombs. One minute him and his fiancé, Lydia Martin, were discussing summer plans. They were discussing their new babysitter, Dawn – so that Lydia could go back to school now that she had had Claudia. So that they could build a new future for themselves in the “better tomorrow” that was promised. Better tomorrow. Stiles knew better, after all that he had been through in Beacon Hills, he knew better. But he stayed optimistic. If not for his own sake, then for Lydia’s. Even though, he could tell, deep down in those intelligent eyes, she knew better as well. Maybe it wasn’t for the sake of each other. Maybe it was for the sake of their daughter. To hope for a better world for their child than they had.
Everything seemed, despite his worries, like it was slowly being put back together after the chaos that had ensued due to his life back in Beacon Hills. He was getting a higher education, studying the new technology that left the First World Countries booming with jobs – he was going to marry his first crush. Everything was perfect.
When Vault Tec showed up, Stiles knew of them. He didn’t know much, but he knew of them. Of course – everyone knew what Vault Tec was, and their “Project Safehouse.” Somehow, he had made the list. Maybe his father had pulled some strings – maybe Chris; he would need to ask other members of the pack about it. Scott. He needed to fly out over the summer and spend some time with Scott, anyway. But, Stiles didn’t expect the worst of the world – didn’t expect a total nuclear disaster. The world was too wrapped up in the positive that this nuclear could do for them, despite the petty neck-to-neck fighting over resources. He expected – or, he hoped – that the petty fighting would burn itself out.
So, he agreed. Signed on the dotted life for himself and Lydia. And their child.
It was merely a few weeks later when the sirens woke him up – when he and Lydia stumbled out of bed and they took almost too long grabbing Claudia and running out of their small apartment and into the crowded street. It was raining, Stiles would always remember that. It was raining when the world ended. It was raining, and Lydia’s beautiful red hair was matted to her neck and forehead as she clutched Claudia close – panting and spitting out rain water as she yelled over honking cars and the water pelting against the cement for Stiles to run!
Stiles was cold. It was a strange thing for him to register at the time as sirens wailed and people screamed, but the rain was chilling him to the bone and clothes plastered to skin as he anxiously trembled when the security checked for their names and ushered them back.
It happened all too fast for Stiles to consider any alternatives. Any foul play. He was focused on safety. Not any red flags. Not the aching in his heart that he didn’t know where his father was – if there were any open Vaults back home. Where Scott and the others were. He wasn’t thinking. He wasn’t thinking as he stood on the elevator to the unknown and the earth itself shook under his feet – arm coming up to shield his eyes and his other wrapping around Lydia to shelter her and the child as a sharp warmth wrapped over them. And the last thing he heard before he broke the surface of the Vault was Take it down! Take it down NOW!
It all happened too fast. The world he knew ended too soon – and it left Stiles behind.