Chapter 4:

A rough kick to her backpack woke Andy with a jolt. She hadn't even been dreaming, just floating in the endless black cushion of unconsciousness. The blond woman from the pod bay greeted her when she opened her eyes.

"C'mon and get up. We gotta go soon." The blond woman stood tall over her. "Woke you up a bit early so you can shower and clean up if you want. You look like you might want to."

Andy grimaced and scratched her dirty scalp. "Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. Is there hot water?"

"The hottest. Compared to this icebox, that is. Name's Beulah."

"Andy. Nice to meet you." Andy pulled herself up and grabbed her backpack. "Bathroom over there?" She asked, rubbing her eyes.

"Yeah, the shower's in there. It's all nice and warm right now so you should be good." Andy took in her wet hair and guessed that Beulah was speaking from experience.

"Thanks." With that, Andy hurried to the bathroom to claim the shower before anyone else could. Most everyone was asleep, huddled onto bunk beds and benches or on the floor like she had been. Those awake had sober, serious looks on their faces. Most of the military people, she guessed.

As she washed her hair, Andy found herself grateful, not for the first time, for her shorter haircut. It far easier to wash and detangle than if she would have had long hair. Maybe she wasn't the most stylish with her shorter cut, but what did that matter anymore. After scrubbing herself down with a bar of soap, Andy found herself wishing that she would have waited to put on a new vault-suit when she had a shower. With not much of another option, she put her new, but dirtied, vault suit back on. Either way, she felt refreshed from the hot water in a way that she hadn't for a while. Taking a small towel from a small stack that had been placed near the shower she rubbed herself down and did what she could to get the water from her hair before hanging the towel up to dry.

Wiping the condensation away from the mirror, Andy took in her appearance. Large dark circles under her eyes gave her a haggard look. The dark circles weren't helped by the large bruise on her cheekbone from falling out of a cryopod. A red angry split on her lips was additional evidence of the same accident. Her shoulder-length hair looked a dark brown, but she knew it would lighten to a dark honey color once dry. Her grey eyes looked tired. Tired enough that she appeared to be several years older than she really was. All in all, she didn't look all that good. With a shrug, Andy pulled herself away from her reflection. Someone else was probably waiting on her to get out of there.

Once out of the bathroom, Andy set to brushing her hair out with a brush in her backpack and pulling it into a tight ponytail. She considered it for a moment, and then poked a hole into it just above her hair tie and then pulled her ponytail through it, creating a rolled bun look so that nothing could snag onto her hair. That done, she was ready for—anything? Nothing for it but to take everything straight on.


Andy found Captain Jeffords in the entrance room along with some of his people and Jeff. She gave Jeff a hug when she saw him. He along with most others in the room were checking over weapons and clips of ammunition. The soldiers were much more distinguishable as they now had body armor on over their armored vault suits and many more weapons than just batons. Jeff had an armored suit on as well as a trucker's cap.

"What's the plan?" She asked him.

"We're going topside in about 15 minutes," he replied. Pulling his hat to fit snugger on his head, he continued. "You and I will be looking for any items we can scavenge, or if possible, any livable spots where we could set up a basecamp. We'll have to check if the generators that the city had hooked up to the water system is still operational, as well as the power supply. Those are our first priorities. You'll be my assistant on that."

Captain Jeffords cut in. "Overall, Smithwright, the plan is that we're going out. One squad will remain here with the rest of the civilians, one squad plus your uncle, Brunswick, yourself, and I will be going out to scout the outside. Team 1 will up a radio transponder while Team 2 proceeds to the town below – as Mr. Marsden has already explained – to see what has become of it, bring back any food we can, and secure the area." Jeffords gestured to each person referenced individually.

Andy almost hadn't recognized Nate Brunswick; his expression was so dark. He nodded shortly at her before rechecking his pistol. She wasn't sure that she had seen that much anger and death displayed on someone's face in a long time. She remembered what her uncle had said – that someone had broken into the vault years before the rest of them awoke and stole his child after attempting to murder his wife. Though she couldn't imagine what it must be like to suffer that, she couldn't fault him. Not in the slightest.

Captain Jeffords continued. "These armored vault-suits have light Kevlar built into them." He gestured to the chest, arms, and legs. "It won't stop multiple bullets and getting hit by a single shot will still be like getting a sledgehammer to the stomach and may even cause internal bleeding, but it's better than nothing. I'm not giving you any weapons, you have no previous experience with them and I'd rather you not shoot any of us by accident."

Andy couldn't fault that logic. She was a fairly good shot but that was only because Jeff had taught her and Jonathan how to shoot, but that was standing still shooting at a target. She wasn't comfortable in this kind of situation with one.

Jeffords addressed the room. "Listen up! I want everyone to keep their eyes and ears sharp out there. We have no clue what we're going to find out there. The Army has done experiments on the mutations caused by intense exposure to radiation, and none of the results are pretty. Ambient radiation levels should be just fine but keep an eye on your Pip-Boy Geigers just in case." Jeffords hooked his thumbs into his belt as he walked around everyone gathered. "First objective will be to set up a radio transponder on the hill when we come up. Second objective will be to scout out Sanctuary Hills, determine a location for a possible FBO, collect any food, and return to the vault. Tertiary objective will be to collect any intel on the surrounding area, the state of the government, and any surrounding areas. Questions?"

While a few soldiers asked questions about the specifics of the radio transponder and such, Andy turned to her uncle.

"Think the government's still out there?" She asked.

"I don't know, Andy. That was a pretty big blast over Boston. I certainly hope so, but we'll see."

As one of the soldiers connected his Pip-Boy to the blast door controls, lights started flashing, alarms sounded out and an automated message to 'please stand back' began to play. They stood in silence as the massive machinery unscrewed the bolts holding the blast door in place and the walkways slid into place for their exit. The grating to the elevator which they all entered on slid aside, and Jeffords signaled for everyone to proceed forward.

Once everyone was on the platform, Jeffords hit a green button at the edge, and the grate slid back closed as a chirpy voice thanked them for using Vault-Tec. The wheels and gears ground and clicked as the platform ascended, rust shaking loose and showering them from time to time. Beulah gave Andy a wave and a wink when they caught each other's eye.

Rust and dirt began to fall on them all when the top doors covering the outside platform split apart, opening to the outside world. Andy shielded her eyes from the brightness of the sun as they rose to the surface. Fresh air flooded her senses as a breeze hit them from above, carrying with it the scents of the wilderness, the crisp fall air washing over her.

"It's still Autumn," Andy breathed. If it weren't for the ruined and twisted structures, she wouldn't have guessed that anything had happened. "Plant life seems to have recovered."

Tall trees covered in red, yellow, and gold leaves waved in the breeze. The ground cover was beginning to lose its density and fallen leaves covered the ground. The military and Vault-Tec trucks that had been there when they went down into the vault were rusted and twisted remains.

"Rogers, Yanukovich, set up the transponder. Team 1 stay here with the transponder. Team 2, with me."

The descent down the hill to the old neighborhood took around twenty minutes at a slow careful pace. Andy and Jeff stayed in the center of the formation. The town itself was a ruin. Many buildings' roofs were caved in, the scent of mold and wood rot coming from them. The ones that still stood were curiously, well, maintained would be almost the word but there were no signs of residents. The team continued down the road and took a pedestrian bridge across the river that curved around Sanctuary Hills. Once they were in the neighborhood proper, the answer to the maintained houses was answered. Mr. Handys. Outside the Brunswick's home was a Mr. Handy, trimming the hedges. Andy had to admit the hedges were in good shape.

"Sir!" The Handy cried out and he and Nate had a tearful reunion. Well, as tearful as a repressed British butler can be.

"Codsworth, what happened?"

While master and robot reunited, Andy started looking around. Codsworth couldn't be the only Mr. Handy left, could he? Sanctuary Hills wasn't that small and was fairly middle class. The couldn't be the only ones who had Handys.

"Andy, with me." Jeff called out. "We need to find the utilities access manhole." He beckoned with his hand and the two of them pealed off from the group, two of the army soldiers following with them.

The utilities access was a street down and up back the way they came from. Andy looked at the dark hole with trepidation. Confined, closed space, and who knew what was down there. Luckily one of the soldiers volunteered to go first. One by one, they lowered themselves down the ladder into the utility access tunnel.

There were no lights on, but their Pip-Boys provided bright lights in the forms of flashlights. Their footsteps echoed down the dusty tunnel.

"Here we are," Jeff pronounced as he found an electric panel box and flipped a switch. Lights popped on, illuminating the tunnel. Andy's eyes took a moment to adjust to the light level. As they turned off the Pip-Boy lights, Andy heard a wet sounding groan that sent a shiver down her spine. Further down the tunnel, where they had not yet explored, Andy heard a pitter-patter of footsteps followed by the sound of something bouncing off of a chain-link fence, then a thud of something large hitting the ground.

The soldiers wasted no time. "You two, get behind us, stay ten feet back and watch our six," one ordered. The two already had their weapons out, safeties off, and were scanning the tunnel for the source of the sound.

The wet groaning and growling sound continued. They crept down the tunnel, toward the noise. It grew louder and louder until the two soldiers disappeared around a corner. Andy heard three shots and a thud. The growling grew ragged and then stopped. She and Jeff stayed back until they heard a "Clear!" ring out. Andy was immediately horrified by the sight that greeted her.

The tunnel opened into a larger area that contained a fusion reactor humming like the day it was installed. Surrounding the reactor was a chain-link fence, and inside of that fence was one of the most disgusting things she'd ever seen. A humanoid body that looked everything and more like it was ripped straight from a zombie horror film. But these were no prosthetics. Bumpy skin that looked like a 3rd degree burn victim with muscle exposed in places, bumpy scar tissue and what could have been tumors all over made the appearance bloated and twisted looking. The neck had all but disappeared as the shoulders had fused with the head. The face was even worse, missing teeth, a malformed jaw, nose almost gone, and eyes swollen almost shut by the fused skin around it. Worst of all, the tattered rags it wore looked like they belonged to a maintenance repairman.

"What the fuck is that?" Andy spat out in shock. She wanted to vomit from the sight.

"That, my friend, is a case of extreme radiation poisoning." One of the soldiers replied while opening the gate that had kept it from coming after them. "Poor fucker. I don't know how he survived all this time down here."

Jeff squatted down to take a closer look. "Yup. ERP. Who knows how many people there will be like this out here." Examining the body closely he used a nearby wrench to nudge its face to the side, Jeff continued in an informative, lecturing voice. "They make us look at the different stages of radiation poisoning when we do our doctorate in nuclear sciences. Most people die before they reach anything near this stage. The 'ghoulification' process, it's called. This is what happens when you get hit by a massive amount of radiation all at once. Usually it happens to plant workers when reactors go critical and they get hit by so much radiation that it – changes them. Somehow the radiation mutates the cells so fast that if you're lucky it becomes an energy source for your cells. The mitochondria begin to use radiation as an energy source as well as glucose." He stood up. "Prolonged exposure will still leave a person with all of their mental faculties. However, the longer you're exposed, or if your just plain unlucky, if it progresses to an extreme exposure, you're going to be just like this guy here. Covered with so many tumors and cancers that it drives you insane. You remember your Granny?"

"Yeah," answered Andy.

"Well, she just had a single tumor in her brain, and she lost her mind in just six months. We thought it was dementia at first, and she acted like it was dementia, just happening at an accelerated pace. With this, it's like the dementia keeps going but you're not dying. Because your mitochondria consumes radiation as an energy source, you won't die of starvation as long as you're absorbing enough radiation. You're just alive, and your mind continues to deteriorate further and further until you're no better than an animal." Jeff looked at the soldiers. "Watch out for any bodies that seem to be just lying on the ground and look like this one. They'll go into a hibernation state if there isn't enough radiation around to sustain prolonged activity. Most likely, once they wake up, like this one did, they'll keep going until they run out of any energy they've stored up."

The soldiers looked at Jeff in surprise. "We were just shown what the stages of radiation poisoning looked like," one of them said. "Never got a university lecture over it."

"It's not something the government likes for everyone to know, and just about everyone is more comfortable not knowing. We use nuclear energy for everything. It happens so rarely that it's better for people to just know the basics of staying away from radiation, no need to worry people with the most extreme cases. Kind of like rabies. Better to just let everyone know to stay away from any animal they think has rabies and to go to the emergency room if they get bitten than to show the graphic cases of what happens at the end if they don't. If you're studying it though, it makes sense for you to see what happens."

Jeff walked over to the reactor. "Enough of that. Andy, bring me that toolbox over there, I'll need you to follow my instructions on this. You two," Jeff caught the soldier's attention. "I don't need you here to do this, if you need to take a look at the rest of the tunnels that's fine with me while we work on this."

One of the soldiers nodded. "We'll lock the gate here so that if there are any more – extreme poisoning cases here – you'll both be fine until we can get back."

The soldiers dragged the corpse outside of the fence before placing a padlock Andy found in the toolbox and tossing Andy the key 'in case they didn't come back.' With that, the two soldiers left them while Andy acted as an assistant to Jeff while he repaired the wiring connections running to the reactor.