He slept little that night, for the first time he did not think about survival but about the future. The lone wanderer had lost his father a year ago, and his mother when he was born. He was refused entry back to the vault, who had gone dark after the Enclave defeat. He was alone. Cross and Fawkes had died throughout the fight against the enclave and the younger Lyons had vanished to fight against something called "Legion." A threat that was many years away but had to be taken seriously. But he was not sad, he enjoyed seeing people actually living and just not survive. He saw the tents around the mall and children playing together. Now he wanted to create a future for the many lives he once saved from the Enclave.

Things had changed. The three days that went since their last meeting at the Jefferson memorial went fast. Lyons sent a group too the abandoned raider camp the same day and they starting the not-so-fun work of removing all the dead bodies and was away the blood. The work was still going on there. TLW had used time to follow a engineer group around the weak area of the fortification fence. Those were the areas that had clear streets leading to the wasteland and places where unwanted company could easily access the mall without no one ever knowing. They estimated that it would take up too two months to fully secure the area.

Yesterday he visited the Northern area of Dupont Station to see where the gate would be. The engineer in charge of the area said that he wanted to make a double gate fortification with two guard towers on each side, making sure that there would be no form of a trojan horse infiltrating the area. At the side they would try to build to small buildings, a barrack and a guard leader office. Right now there were nothing there, but soon it would be the entrance to the mall. But now there were other things to worry about.

Around him through the entrance of one of the subway stations stood three other people. Two BOS and one person from Reilly Rangers that were this mission demolition expert. They all were veterans. The ranger had not been with Reilly at the failed mission at Statesman hotel, but he had come from a family that had passed their secrets of creating and understanding demolition techniques. He moved from an uncivilized tribe with his family, but he was the only one surviving the the two years trip. The two steels was on the other hand with him at the battle of Jefferson memorial, or at least he thought so. Difficult to know when they had their metal helmet on.

" Okay, everybody ready? Everything is equipped, we have three entrances that needs to be shut, so i dont wanna come back here before we are done."

"Check"

"Check"

"Check!"

"Okay then, lets go." They turned around and went down the escalator who had stopped running 200 years ago. The subway tunnels was not so dangerous as they used to be. Lots of traffic the last year between had almost killed of the Feral ghouls that were living down there. Still, there were many hundred kilometers of abandoned subway tracks, stretching far beyond the area they now called the mall. Therefore it could never be sure that they would exterminate all threats. So the next solution was too seal the whole area. The only line still planned to exist were the one leading to the Adams Air force base.

They went deep into the tunnels, away from the more popular stops and down to the ones that were never used. After 10 minutes of walking they stopped. If it havent been for the lights on the pip-boy it would be pitch black. One of the steels marked their route with chalk on designated places so that would not get lost. TLW watched the Pip-boy, they were at the designated place.

"This is the place guys. Do what you are supposed to do." The demolition expert started wiring C4 charges around the tunnel. The C4 was acquired from Adams, where there was tons of it. Enough to raze a city, but at these times no one could afford to loose another city.

"This will take some minutes, make sure nobody is attacking me." he said.

"Watch out!" one of the BOS said loud at the same time, right before he lifted his assault rifle. Two Ghouls came running against them. They were horrible creatures and TLW often have philosophical thoughts if they still were human somewhere inside those shells of monsters. These things had lived here since the bomb fell.

" Got them" TLW shouted and took up his assault rifle. He concentrated and entered what he called meditation mode. A state of mind that almost stopped the time and give him all the time in the world to aim. It was a gift he have had since birth. He could not explain it, so therefore never told anyone about it. It was like he could calculate the damage and see where the bullet would hit. It had saved him more than one time. They came running, but not for long. TLW pulled the trigger, 6 bullets, 3 for each of the enemies, both fell on the ground lifeless.

" Still got it" he said loud as the group lowered their aim and continued with the mission.

After 5 minutes the Demolition expert was done. "Okay, i have enough C4 to create a full rubble atleast 5 meters wide. Nobody will pass trough here even with missiles. We need to evacuate at least 20 meter before detonation. They took some steps behind. his group took cover between a abandoned subway car, but TLW just smiled while he held the detonator, standing in a direct line to the blast.

"Fire in the hole" he said with a low voice while he pushed the button.

The blast was in two stages. The first was a small detonation between the sidecharge before the main charge made a blasting noise that could be heard far away. Then all the ground above fell down and filled the hole. It took a minute before the dust settled and the sight to the massive wall could be seen.

"One down, two to go" TLW said.

It took four hours before they were done with the assignment. When they stepped up from the subway, the sun was on the highest point and people was busy with their things. But something were different. The refugees who before just watched their own business were now co-operating and working together in a coordinated move. Some of them moved food around and was giving out dirty bottles of water, while others carried rocks and rubble from the streets. And some one worked by removing the planks from the trenches and filling it again with earth. Thanks to the seed from Howard it was possible this once again would be a grassy area.

TLW walked to one of the soldiers that were guarding the area. "What is happening here, why are people starting to work together like this?" TLW asked.

"Elder Lyons orders. If we are going to offer protection, the refugees have to work. The most of them are starting to remove rubble from around the mall. Some with special skills are helping with the barricades and construction and some is scavenging with armed soldiers."

Smart move, with so many refugees working, the Mall would be rubblefree in no time. TLW dismissed his team for today and started walking towards the Lincoln Memorial. Maybe Hannibal was there, even though he spent more and more time in the mall, talking to former slaves, arranging for them too get treatment for their mental and physical wounds and sometimes he were lucky enough too tell some of them what happend to their family, even though it was often not good news too tell.

He was impressed by the statue of Lincoln. Caleb had attached the head to Lincolns body, but the rest of the memorial were still in bad shape, or at least it was. The holes on the wall was being fixed, the sandbags were removed and the stairs cleaned and dirt removed. It would never be as it was in its former glory, but were starting to be impressive according to this apocalyptic standard. He walked up steps and saw Caleb cleaning the information plate at the bottom of the statue.

"Hi Caleb, how is it going?"

Caleb turned around and looked at TLW.

" Long time, no see. Its still going here. The memorial starts to actually look like a memorial and we are still alive. Cant complain."

"Have you seen Hannibal?" TLW

" Yes, he is in the memorial room."

"Okay, need to talk to him, i see you later."

" Yeah, catch you later." Caleb answered and went back to cleaning.

TLW walked down the stairs again and went into the door at the bottom of the memorial.

Hannibal was sitting down and reading when he saw TLW. He stood up and shook his hands when he saw him.

"Done for today?" he asked.

"Yes, the are only one line out of The mall with the subway lines now. And there is already a control post established there. So we are more safe than we were yesterday.

"Good, good. Its hard to believe that we can create a civilized life again in the ruins of once a great city. I have read much about how it was before the bombs fell, and its hard to imagine a life with order and law."

"We will bring it back" TLW said.

" I hope you are right. I have seen alot, and there are no guarantee against evil, and Paradise Falls is stronger than they were before also."

" When we master the flight of the attack vertibird, we will bomb them out of the map." TLW was clear in his voice.

"And kill the hundred of slaves captured and held there. I hope not."

" Well atleast it is a problem for tomorrow. They are not strong too attack us and we are not strong enough to attack them. A form for peace."

" You are right, and as people start coming here it would be harder and harder for them to capture humans.

A silent boom was heard, the ground was shaking a little bit and a book fell from the ground.

" What was that?" TLW asked while he started to move to the exit.

" Dont you remember. They had to have a controlled explosion of the Maxwell Building to create a barrier. With this rate we are finished within two weeks. And then we can start with the future".