It was a week before Stark, Barton, Lacey, and MacCready found their way to Diamond City. There was only one major encounter on their way, and it happened while they had just entered Boston. It wasn't anything unexpected, but it was unfortunately not what MacCready or Lacey were hoping for.

"Hey, you little bitch!" yelled someone. Out of the corner of her eye, Lacey could see it was a raider. It had to be, considering how stupid they usually were.

Lacey groaned, slowly turning to the raider as he came up to her. "The fuck do you want?"

"Is he stupid?" She heard Barton whisper to MacCready.

'What do you got under that Power Armor, huh?" He leaned in closer. "Pretty as your face?"

Lacey took this opportunity to strike him in the face with the side of her laser rifle. He reeled backwards, arms spinning. When he wiped his face, he inspected the blood that smeared itself onto his hand. He grinned before whipping out his own pipe pistol and yelling into a communicator on his shoulder. Soon enough, a large number of raiders had converged on the area.

It was a long shot to call this encounter a challenge. The team had killed, or at least seriously maimed, all the raiders within five minutes. It was, however, a rude reminder of the world that they were now inhabiting.

After another half hour trek, they made it to Diamond City. "I've never been here before," Lacey admitted. "I've been in the area, but I've never actually come to Diamond City."

Once they were let through the gate, MacCready stopped to let the three newcomers gape at the large city built into a baseball field. Once they made it to Home Plate, they were met with warm welcomes.

Phoenix tried to get up first, but found that she had been beaten by Rogers, who didn't seem to sleep at all. He never mentioned anything regarding the situation, but Phoenix felt that anxiety was the culprit. Although Rogers had gone through a similar experience, it must have been a large mental strain to feel the same loss that he had many years ago.

As she cleared her mind, she hopped out of her bed, throwing on her gear. Steve glanced over at her. "Are we leaving already?"

She smiled. "No, I just wanted to look into this place a little more."

Rogers stood up, then leaned against the wall. "Then first explain what this even is."

She paused, thinking of her answer. "It's a fallout shelter. It was designed to house occupants in case there was a nuclear attack. Spoiler alert, there was. It sounds peachy and everything, except these national vaults were built by Vault-Tec. From what I understand, each vault was intended for experiments on the occupants. Horrible, terrible experiments that completely went beyond human ethics. I'm not sure what the purpose of this one was."

"But you're from a vault. So what was your vault?"

"Vault 111 was designed to test cryogenic freezing on unwilling, unknowing participants. Similar to the way you were frozen for seventy years. Except I was frozen for over two hundred."

"I'm sorry," Rogers answered, with no hint of expression crossing his face. Typical.

Thus, the two set out into the now empty halls of the vault. When Phoenix tried to go further, however, she found that she was completely blocked in with concrete. Complete rooms on the lower floors were filled with concrete, and when she looked through windows, entire rooms were destroyed. "What the hell?" She asked herself. Rogers only stared in awe.

Eventually, when she found no hints except for the large card table in the main atrium, she came back up to the gift shop. Sarah was faithfully there, ready for any more customers. She turned around at the sound of the door opening. She smiled dutifully at them. "Hi there! Enjoy your stay?"

"Uh...yeah. I just have one question. What happened here? Why is the vault filled with concrete?" Phoenix asked.

Sarah's smiled faltered for a moment. "When Vault 21 opened its door to the strip, we found ourselves in a diplomatic situation with Mr. House, who owned the strip at the time. He wanted to fill the entire vault, my home, with concrete. Eventually, we worked out a deal where Vault 21 could be used as a hotel. I am the only remaining resident. Everyone else left."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Phoenix said, although she couldn't help but feel anger towards Vault-Tec again. "So what was the purpose of your vault?"

Sarah smiled again. "Our vault solved every problem through gambling. If anything arose, two competing residents would gamble and play cards in order to solve the issue. The winner of the game would be able to make whatever decision they were gambling over.

Phoenix paused, waiting for more. When she realized that Sarah was done, she couldn't help herself. "That's it?"

"Yeah, I know, right? I've heard about some of the other vaults. Terrible, terrible things. I was lucky to be born here."

Phoenix calmed herself down. It wasn't Sarah's issue to deal with. "Tell me about it," was all she managed.

"Thank you for letting us stay here," Steve politely thanked her before escorting Phoenix out the door. Normally, she wouldn't appreciate Rogers doing that. However, this was her exception.

She took the time that it took to walk to the Lucky 38 from Vault 21 to calm down. The warm breeze on her face and her slow breathing made her feel much more calm. She felt even better when she saw the Courier waiting for them. Her jacket whipped behind her in the wind, and her mask made her look, Phoenix was not happy to admit, like a badass.

"Wow," The Courier said. "Took you long enough."