They stood at the edge of the Glowing Sea. The splintered trunks of dead trees spread out in front of them, bending away from the source of the blast. The sun was shining weakly, but a faint yellow haze hung over the road ahead.

Ella fitted the power armour helmet over her head, blinking as she adjusted to looking through the eyepiece. There was a faint hissing noise as the suit pressurised, and then a flood of new information as the environmental monitoring sensors blinked on. She was uncomfortably aware of the power armour holding her in place, straps supporting her head and limbs.

Her geiger counter started ticking as she stepped forward. She hesitated, uneasily, before pressing on. The yellow air thickened, closing in around them. The sunlight dwindled to a weak glow, then faded entirely, leaving them in a gloomy half-light. The metallic echoing of electrical discharge rattled against the hills in the distance.

Ella's breathing was loud in her ears as they picked their way along the remains of the shattered Interstate 95. Huge chunks of concrete and rebar lay scattered and broken across the ground, and a thick layer of ash filled the cracks in the parched, barren earth.

Rusted shells of cars were abandoned along the remnants of the highway. "They never stood a chance," said Ella, her voice crackling and flat through the power armour speakers. "They would have been able to hear it on the radio. Imagine being stuck in traffic, away from all the people you care about, and all you can do is sit and wait for the bombs to h-hit. Another twenty minutes, that might have been us."

She heard Nick's footsteps behind her stop, and turned around to look at him. His eyes glowed yellow through the mist.

"We don't have to do this today, Ella," he said.

"What?" Her voice echoed tinnily in her ears.

He shifted his weight, head tilted to one side as he watched her. "You sure you're up to this right now?" he asked. "The Glowing Sea doesn't go easy on people."

She was speechless for a moment. "I have to find Shaun."

"I know," he said gently. "I just want to make sure you actually make it that far."

She stood motionless. All she could hear was her own heartbeat and the crackling of the Geiger counter.

"I'm not saying we should go back," he said. "I'm saying you need at be at the top of your game."

"And you don't think I am," she said, half-questioning.

"I don't know, Ella," he said. "I'm not going to make that call. What I do know is you're not here in the present if your mind's two hundred years in the past."

She took half a step towards him. "I can't-" she began, but broke off. "I can't just stop. Not now."

"I want to see you find your boy," said Nick. "And I'm not in any kind of hurry to explain to those power armour-wearing friends of yours why you're not coming home. If you want to keep going, that's fine with me - but at least let me go first. I'm worried you're going to trip over a deathclaw."

"I don't even know where we're going," she said, her voice cracking. "This has to be two hundred square miles. Do we just walk in there and look around? I don't know what to do."

"That pip-boy of yours have a map?" he asked.

"Yes," she said. "It comes up on my display, but I can't show you without getting out of the armour."

"Anything interesting on it?"

She flicked over to the map display. It superimposed itself over her field of vision. "There's a crater," she said. "Is that where the bomb hit? And part of the old highway."

"Well, we know he didn't want to be found," said Nick. "Who knows what he took from the Institute to help him survive out here? Let's head for that, and if your pip-boy comes up with anything else along the way, we can check it out."

She let out a long breath. "Okay," she said, weakly, and watched as he walked past her. She fell into line behind him and followed him down the road.

Nick kept up a stream of commentary as they walked, but Ella couldn't respond. They walked past pieces of the world she used to live in; a crashed plane, surprisingly intact; a Red Rocket station tossed like a toy. It seemed like nothing could survive in such hostile conditions, but the Glowing Sea was densely populated. Nick led them carefully around radscorpion nests and sleeping deathclaws, aimless packs of feral ghouls wandering in their wake.

The landscape grew more alien as they approached the crater. The craggy rock beneath them was a dull grey, the air hazy and thick with glowing particles. Swaths of ground had fused to pale green speckled glass.

The storm was now overhead, the sky a churning mass of clouds and flashes of lightning. She could hear the rasping of dust against her power armour in the vicious gusts of wind that blew past.

Ella had stopped trying to figure out where they were, stopped trying to grasp at fragments of buildings she thought she recognised and fit them into her memory. She focused instead on following Nick's slight form, his trench coat billowing around him.

They paused on the lip of the crater. There was a rusted metal structure in the centre, sitting on top of a pool of glowing liquid. A row of shacks were perched precariously on the slope around it.

"Are those - people?" asked Nick.

She followed his gaze. Deep down, in the bottom of the crater, she could just make out kneeling figures by the water's edge.

"How can anyone live here?" she asked. Her voice was croaky and dry.

"You think our Dr Virgil is down there?" he asked.

She swallowed. "I don't see how he could be anywhere else," she said.

"Let's go, then."

A woman stood up as they approached. Her skin was sallow, and her eyes reddened, but she smiled at Ella as they neared. "Greetings, child," she said. "You are a long way from home. Have you come to seek the glory of Atom?"

Ella looked at her blankly, exhausted. "What?"

Nick stepped forward. "We're looking for someone called Virgil," he said. "Any new recruits lately? They may not be calling themselves Virgil."

The woman's expression cooled considerably. "We know who Virgil is," she replied. "He is not one of our number."

"He's in the neighborhood, then?" asked Nick.

"I had concerns his presence would draw attention," she said, frowning. "I am not happy to have been proved right."

"We're not looking for any trouble with you folk," said Nick. "If you tell us where he is we'll be on our way."

"There's a cave a short ways to the southwest," she said. "I should warn you, though - he might not be what you're expecting."

"Thanks very much," he said. "We'll be in touch if we need anything else."

"We'll be in touch?" Ella asked, as they left.

"I guess that's a little unlikely," he admitted. "That would have been my standard sign-off to a witness at the close of an interview. I haven't said that in years."

She used both hands to pull herself up on to the edge of the crater. "I'm glad you're here," she said.

"Wouldn't miss it for the world."

The track to Virgil's cave was rough and rocky. "He still goes by Virgil," said Nick, as they followed the path. "Interesting decision for a man hunted by all the resources of the Institute."

"With Kellogg gone, who'd be coming after him?" she asked.

"As far as I know," he said. "Synths are immune to radiation. It wouldn't be so hard for them to get out here. If they managed to avoid the deathclaws and radscorpions, that is. You saw how easily I got that information. I won't be altogether surprised if they got to him before we do."

Her heart sank. "What do we do if he's dead?" she asked.

He stopped, and turned back to her. "We'll - find another way, if it comes to that" he said. "I shouldn't be expecting the worst just yet." He turned away. "Not out loud, anyway."

She was fairly sure he hasn't meant her to have heard the last part of his sentence, but her speakers picked it up. She paused for a moment, before falling back into line behind him.

The cave was nestled deep into a rocky outcropping, hard to see from the wrong angle and facing away from the winds.

They stepped inside cautiously. The wind howled against the cliffs outside. She could hear the familiar ticking noise of a machinegun turret close by. She glanced around the nearest corner, but ducked back as she saw the barrel tracking towards her.

Nick held up a hand for her to keep still. He tossed a small stone around the corner. After it got no response, he took his hat off, held it gingerly by the brim, and stretched his arm out of cover. He glanced back at her, shrugged, and stepped out. She held her breath, but he turned and jerked his head, signalling her to follow him. The gun barrel followed them as they squeezed past it, hugging the rough rock wall.

"Don't move!"

A hulking shape to her left made her turn. She reached for the gun at her hip reflexively as a super mutant lurched out of the half-darkness.

Nick caught hold of the barrel and forced it down."Easy," he said. "You're picking up some nasty habits from those friends of yours." He turned to the super mutant. "Dr. Virgil, I presume?"

"You've gone to a lot of trouble to find me," the super mutant said. "I knew the Institute wanted me dead. It was just a matter of time before you turned up here. Where's Kellogg? I would have expected he'd be the one to finish the job."

Ella's throat was dry, her hands still shaking. "He- he's dead," she said. "We killed him."

"You killed him?" Virgil asked. "Why? How?"

"He kidnapped my son." She lifted her arms to remove her helmet, so she could finally see better.

Virgil was silent for a moment. "Is that right?" he asked.

"His name - my son's name is Shaun," she said. "Have you seen him? He's about this tall-" She held out a hand. "And he's got sandy blonde hair."

"How old are you?" he rumbled. "The Institute doesn't take children, as a general rule."

"Thirty one," she said. "But there's some - time issues, because of this cryogenics thing. I think he's about ten years old."

The silence drew out again. "The only children at the Institute I've ever seen are the children of the people who work there," he said, carefully. "I'm - sorry."

"I have to get into the Institute so I can find him."

"I - see," said Virgil, slowly. "Well - I can help you find your way in. But I'll need something from you in return."

"What is it?" she asked.

"When I left the Institute," he began. "I infected myself with the Forced Evolutionary Virus, to turn me into - this. I needed to be able to survive the radiation out here. But the antidote, which could reverse the effects of the virus, is still in the Institute laboratory. If you make it into the Institute, I need you to bring that back to me here."

"Anything," said Ella.

Virgil sighed. "I don't know what state the lab will be in after I left. You'll have to be - careful."

She nodded impatiently. "How do I get in?"

"There's only one way into the Institute," he said. "The Molecular Relay. And there's only one way you can access it. You'll have to kill a courser-" He paused. "A special type of synth, designed for hunting other synths. They're - different to regular gen-threes. Stronger. Tougher. Faster. It - won't be easy."

She gave him a blank stare.

He sighed. "There's a chip embedded in their brain. A computer chip. Right at the base of the brainstem. Reproduce the signal code on that chip, and you can use it to get into the Institute."

"You make it sound so simple," Nick said dryly.

Virgil cast a long, measured look towards him. "You'll need to head to the CIT ruins. The chip emits a low-frequency signal you should be able to pick up on a radio. I can't guarantee you'll make it back, but that's how you can get in."

Ella nodded. "Thank you."

"And please," he said. "The serum. I can't live like this any more."

"All right," she replied.

"And," he hesitated. "I - hope you find what you're looking for."

They left the isolated safety of the cave and stepped out into the storm.

"Something wasn't quite right about that," said Nick.

She had to step closer to hear him. "What do you mean?" she asked.

"I think there was something he knew but wasn't prepared to say." Nick frowned.

"Well, he's an ex-Institute scientist living in fear for his life," said Ella. "I'd probably be a little secretive as well."

"Maybe," said Nick. "You sure spooked him when you took your helmet off, though."

"You think so?" she asked.

"You didn't notice?" he replied. "Maybe it doesn't matter. Let's get out of here before you start glowing green."

They walked north, back into the yellow fog.