The black slowly shifted to a bright white. The white soon changed to the image of a door. The door was metal, with an interior padded with yellow fiberglass. At the center of it all was a small window, speckled with bits of white frost. Dan was familiar with this sight. While Dan was enthusiastic to start the game, he couldn't help but wonder why the introduction had been skipped. He had yet to customize his name, character appearance, or S.P.E.C.I.A.L. traits.

"Cryo-pod opening." The cold, mechanical voice echoed from the vault's speakers. The door slowly opened, as Dan could barely contain his excitement. The door leisurely opened, and Dan gradually began to exit the pod amidst clouds of steam. His limbs were stiff and cold. To his surprise, Dan actually felt the pain of spending centuries frozen. He tried to rush towards the pod opposite his, but his rigid body would not allow it. With each step he wanted to collapse. His weak, deteriorated muscles struggled to pull Dan across the chamber.

"Okay," Dan thought, "This is slightly more difficult than I imagined, but I'll be fucked if I don't love full immersion!"

Dan fell to the floor. He spent a moment with his knees and palms glued to the ground; catching his breath and waiting for the fatigue to subside. He took a few long, drawn out breaths, and eventually had the strength to rise to his feet. Once he was standing tall, Dan slowly made his way to the pod opposite his. He wiped away the condensation, and saw the face of a portly bald man.

"This – this is not my wife…" Dan thought as he took in the man's appearance. He glanced around the chamber, and realized something was wrong. His pod should be the last in the row, but he was two away from that position. Dan rushed to the end of his row, and saw an empty pod.

"What the fuck…" Dan thought to himself.

He looked across the row, and saw a pod containing a frozen, agonized woman. The frost on her skin and bullet-hole in her torso confirmed that she was dead. Her hands were stuck in a position that was once used to cradle an infant.

"What the – I'm not Nate?" Dan thought, confused. Why would he not be the protagonist? Or, maybe, this was a new sort of plot. Maybe, after re-hashing the same game since 2015, Bethesda thought that they should spice things up? These thoughts flashed through Dan's head, but he was too excited to get hung-up on such thoughts. He was actually inside of the post-apocalyptic world of Fallout 4! Why should he be worried? This was all just a game, after all.

Dan was about to follow the standard trek through the vault, except that the door to the entrance hall was open.

"This should be locked? Why isn't this locked!" Dan thought.

He decided to explore the alternate path anyway. There would be some stimpacks, as well as a 10mm with some ammo he could really use. He turned left at the threshold for the main hall, and went down the corridor the winded throughout the vault. The first thing Dan noticed were the corpses of radroaches. The first few seemed to be beaten to death, but farther down the line Dan saw their corpses riddled with bullets. Dan slapped his palm against his forehead.

"Oh, fuck me." He groaned. Dan realized that Nate – who apparently is an actual, different individual in this game – would have already escaped Vault 111. He must have cleared the place out and looted everything in sight.

Dan made his way to the Overseer's office, and saw a mounted glass case. The door to the case had been opened, and was stuck slightly ajar.

"Are – are you kidding me?" Dan approached the case. "He took the cryolator? He took the goddamn…"

Dan paused as he caught his reflection in the case. Now he understood why there was no customization screen. His face reflected his exact appearance in the real world. His dark brown hair was parted to the left, his skin was pale and decorated with freckles, his ears were a little too big; hell, he even had the scar on his forehead from that gigantic pimple he had popped in college. Every feature and imperfection was perfectly imprinted on his avatar.

After the wonder of seeing his reflection faded, Dan noticed that there was a small, green pinpoint marker in his left periphery. Following the marker, Dan found himself in the entrance hallway he had previously evaded. The hallway took him to the vault entrance, where an elevated steel walkway littered with the corpses of scientists and radroaches lay before him. The marker led to the skeleton of a former Vault-Tec scientist, who still had a Pimp-Boy 3 Billion wrapped around the bones of his forearm.

"Well, at least I know that my mods got transferred over." Dan thought aloud.

Dan took the golden, diamond-bejeweled Personal Information Processor and enclosed it around his wrist, snapping the latch once it was positioned correctly. Dan activated the Pimp-Boy, and once it had turned on Dan heard a short "wah-wah" guitar riff, not unlike something out of a 1970's porno. Dan stood for a moment and tried to remember whether this came with the Pimp-Boy mod, or if he had installed a Wild Wasteland mod. Either way, fun times lay ahead.

Dan walked across the elevated walkway, and then down a short flight of stairs. In front of him lay a wire-mesh gate, and behind that was a large, gear-shaped platform. The gate slowly opened, and Dan was frozen with delight. Once he crossed that threshold and stepped onto the platform, he would be elevated out of Vault 111. He would ascend into the Wasteland. The Commonwealth.

Once he felt able to move again, Dan rushed onto the platform. Two yellow lights began to flash in the entryway, and a siren started to blare.

"LEAVING VAULT 111. LEAVING VAULT 111."

Dan felt a small jolt in his legs, and saw that the large gear was rising upward. He tilted his neck back and saw the small white light above him draw closer and closer. He bit his lip and shook his arms in delight. The light drew even closer. In just a few seconds, he would be in it for real! Time to play Fallout like never before!

As the elevator reached the surface, there was a brief flash of light. As it faded, Dan saw himself surrounded by darkness. He checked his Pimp-Boy, and saw it was about 1:00 AM.

"Why the fuck was there a light at the end of the…" Dan stopped, as when he looked Southeast towards Sanctuary. A Vertibird was circling the small cul-de-sac, with a floodlight beaming towards the ground.

"The Brotherhood? Oh – oh no. I get…"

"Don't. Move." Dan heard from somewhere to his right. His whole body swiveled towards the call, and he instinctively put his hands up. It was dark, but he could make out the hazy shapes of trees and bushes in front of him.

"Hello? I'm unarmed. Please, I'm not sure what's going on."

One of the bushes rustled, and then a shadowy figured stepped out.

"What is your name?" the figure inquired in a quiet but firm voice.

"I'm Dan Murphy." Dan replied, still a bit shaken.

The figure cautiously moved towards him. After a few steps, it became apparent that she was pointing a handgun at him. A few more steps, and Dan could make out a newsie cap on his scalp. A few more steps, and Dan could see the gun was a .44, and that she wore a red leather coat. By now, Dan knew who it was, but seeing her raven black hair only confirmed it.

"Piper?" he asked with a shaken voice.

By now, Piper was no more than two feet in front of him. Hearing the name caused her to freeze in surprise. First her eyes widened in confusion, followed by one eyebrow raising inquisitively. Without saying a word, she gripped the barrel of her revolver, and swung the handle of her gun into Dan's left temple. Everything went black, save for the green text in the upper-left corner.

[AUTOSAVING…]