X
xxx
Sinking, sinking, sinking... falling! Open eyes. Just a jolt. Harmless jolt.
xxx
After a small meal of prepackaged foods, the vault girl sat against the wall, fiddling with her wrist device. For many minutes there was nothing but different pitches of static.
"I got it," she said, turning the volume down so it was just barely audible. "I'm getting a signal from GNR."
Together, they listened for a time. "Got some great news out of the town of Megaton: turns out the live atomic bomb in the town center has finally been deep-sixed for good by that little one-oh-one gal! Hey one-oh-one, next time you're in the neighborhood, pop into the studio - ol' Three Dog's toaster's been on the fritz."
Her brow furled. "He knows about me?" she whispered. "How? I'm just..." she trailed off and sat in thought for a moment. "He must hear about everything out here."
After a time, she turned the radio off, and the vault girl had curled herself up in the corner, pencil and sketchpad in hand, her nose very close to the page. Charon closed his eyes, but found himself not in want of sleep. He listened to the sound of her pencil quietly scratching against the paper. Maybe an hour later, she set the pad down and drifted off to sleep.
Charon grew tired soon after, and was awoken by her restless noises only twice during the night.