Chapter 7
Following in his Footsteps
In the days passing, Sandra became more and more distracted from her original task of locating Vault 112.
After their spat in Andale, she and Charon seemed even closer than before. They didn't bring up the fight, but they didn't argue with one another for about a week after, and they both seemed to be going out of their way to help each other more often.
They discovered a place called Big Town, a town full of young adults who were scraping by on almost no food and water, and who were living in constant fear of super mutant invasions. So, Sandra, Charon, Bryan, and Thrash all trekked after the super mutants and put an end to them. They even managed to rescue a few of Big Town's human captives alive from the super mutant hideout. Charon took the opportunity to teach Sandra and Bryan how to look for traps, and it was a good thing he did. Otherwise, Sandra and Bryan would have blundered directly into a few hidden landmines and frag grenade bouquets.
They also found a town called Arefu, which sat on top of a broken highway. The town had been plagued with visits from a nearby cannibal cult, but they weren't the same as the Andale towners. The cult, who called themselves the "Family," were very careful about practicing their habits; they only drank the blood of humans, rather than eating all of their flesh, and they'd usually use blood packets rather than feasting on live people. Sandra found them to be a strange bunch, but oddly enough, she actually got along with the family of vampires quite well, as they were nothing like the monstrous inhabitants of Andale. After organizing a pact of peace between Arefu and the Family, Sandra and her companions were on their way.
Now, they'd all made themselves comfortable at a small campsite next to an old run-down bus.
The back of the bus was gone, leaving a gaping hole open as a makeshift entrance to the ancient vehicle. Sandra planned to sleep inside of the bus when nighttime would roll around. But as of now, she and Bryan were taking turns shooting glass bottles and boatflies off in the distance, while Charon sat on what remained of the bus' bumper, cleaning his shotgun and sipping on a bottle of water.
A few days ago, they'd visited a Nukacola factory—and now, Sandra was overjoyed. All of the empty space in her backpack was filled with as many Nukacolas as she could possibly carry. The rush of caffeine was a special treat for her; Nukacola was definitely her favorite wasteland luxury.
"Mistress," Charon called without taking his eyes off his shotgun. "Stop inhaling those goddamn things unless you wanna have a heart attack."
Sandra finished off her third Nukacola, hopped off of the picnic table, and placed the empty bottle at the top of a rock. Bryan waited until Sandra was sitting on the picnic table again before he aimed his revolver and opened fire, and the bottle exploded into hundreds of shards/
"You're doing good!" Sandra grinned. "Hell, you might be a better shot than me now."
Bryan smiled bashfully.
Thrash finally managed to paw his way onto the top of the picnic table and cuddle up beside Sandra, letting out a few bearish yawns as he did.
"Hey… I can see Tenpenny Tower from here." Sandra shielded her eyes from the sunlight and stared off into the distance, where Tenpenny Tower stood tall and ominous over everything else. "We should go visit them again. I'd like to see how Roy and Tenpenny are getting along. That's gotta be interesting."
It was rare for this to happen; the setting was simply nice. After all the adventures they'd gotten themselves wrapped up in lately, they needed a break. What would make a better day off than sitting around with friends, shooting at inanimate objects, and chugging Nukacola?
"Charon, why don't you come shoot?" Sandra asked.
"You don't have any more bottles left. You destroyed them all," Charon replied, cleaning out his gun's barrel with a rag wrapped around a stick.
"I got plenty of bottles." Sandra pulled out three more Nukacolas from her backpack. "I just have to make 'em empty. Gimme a second..."
Then, Sandra began gulping down one of the Nukacolas without pausing for breath.
"Mistress… just look around for some tin cans to shoot instead of scarfing down that bile." Charon sighed. "Seriously, there's no need to…"
Something caught his eye, making him trail off.
Bryan had claimed a spot at the picnic table, and was now reading a comic book. Sandra was far too busy ingesting her soda, and Thrash had fallen asleep. None of them noticed the gigantic reptilian creature off in the distance.
Further down the clearing, just within sight, was a deathclaw.
The deathclaw wasn't coming toward them yet. It seemed to be occupied with something else; it raised its elongated claws and swatted repeatedly at something that Charon wasn't able to see.
"Mistress..." he uttered.
Sandra held up a finger, gesturing for him to wait until she finished off her Nukacola.
"Mistress..." Charon said again.
Sandra made a stop-sign motion with her hand, still lost in her beverage.
"Mistress!" Charon hissed insistently, pointing off toward the field where the dealthclaw resided. "Look, goddammit!"
Her Nukacola bottle became empty, and Sandra tossed it aside and squinted at the clearing.
"Is that a deathclaw?" she said. "We haven't seen one of those in a long time."
"Maybe we should leave," Bryan uttered, trying his damnedest not to sound afraid.
"Yeah, we should definitely... definitely... leave..." Sandra mumbled as she slowly climbed off of the table, growing distracted, narrowing her eyes and taking a closer look at the deathclaw afar.
It was attacking something... or someone...
A tiny round object hovered in the air near the deathclaw. It fired off a few laser shots, burning the creature in the face.
The round object was an Enclave eyebot. It hovered over top of a person, who was lying in the dirt at the deathclaw's feet.
Sandra pieced it together. That person in the clearing got attacked by that deathclaw, and the eyebot was trying to protect them.
The deathclaw roared and smacked the eyebot out of the air. It hit a nearby boulder and broke into several chunks of metal, sending blue sparks flying amok.
"Shit!"
Sandra grabbed her 44 from the table and bolted down the hill without thinking.
Someone was in trouble, about to get eaten alive by a deathclaw.
"God—fucking dammit!" Charon hollered, heading after her with his shotgun.
Bryan and Thrash both followed close behind.
The injured man crawled backward, gazing up at the monstrous creature with his mouth hanging agape.
"HEY!" Sandra pulled the trigger twice; two shots hit the deathclaw's scaly shoulder. "OVER HERE, FUCKER!"
It turned to her, exhaling a low, menacing growl and baring its teeth.
The monster's white, soulless eyes rested on her.
"Um..." Sandra aimed at the beast's head.
The VATS on the screen of her pip-boy gave her a precise reading, indicating a small portion of the deathclaw's head which would be the most vulnerable part of the monster's defensive outer shell. Sandra glimpsed at the reading, and just when the deathclaw went to take a step toward her, she hammered the trigger and unloaded her 44 into the deathclaw's face.
It reared back and let out a series of pained yowls, but somehow, it didn't die. Its face became bloody—but it zeroed in on her, still ready to strike.
The deathclaw lunged at her—
Sandra snapped her eyes shut—
And more gunshots rang throughout the wasteland as Charon and Bryan shot the monster to death, positively riddling it with gunfire, piercing both its heart and its skull.
The deathclaw crumbled and fell hard to the ground.
Sandra let out a relieved cloud of breath.
"Are you outta your fucking mind?!" Charon snarled, making brisk strides closer and rounding on her.
"Whoa... I can't believe I shot a deathclaw," Bryan smiled as he wandered closer. "Cool."
Sandra didn't hear them. Her eyes were fixed on the injured man on the ground.
The injured man returned her gaze, both of them staring at one another in total awe.
This man on wasn't just a random wastelander—it was someone she recognized.
"What're you doing out here?" Sandra asked him in astonishment.
"Well... it's… complicated," Mr. Burke moaned in response, forcing himself to sit upright. "It's a long and complicated story, my d... ngh…"
"Here, sit still." Sandra knelt beside him and examined his wounds.
Mr. Burke's sunglasses were intact, as well as his hat, but his tan suit had two long gashes along the collar and the left side of his chest. The deathclaw had sliced into him with two of its five enormous claws, and the suit was becoming stained in his blood.
"It figures," Mr. Burke mumbled, looking down at his chest. "This is my nicest outfit. Serves me right for traveling in it..."
"I can fix you up," Sandra said. "Come up to the bus. I have some first aid stuff in my backpack."
"Oh, come now… I can't have you giving charity to me. I don't do well when I'm indebted to someone…"
"No… come on… I don't work like that. Jesus Christ. Just c'mon."
Sandra grabbed his hand and pulled him to his feet.
"Owww." Mr. Burke grasped his two bleeding gashes, the blood staining his fingers and his palm. "Ahhh… nothing like a mortal injury to instill some humbleness..."
Sandra led Mr. Burke up the hill.
Charon and Bryan exchanged glances before they followed suit.
"Sit down and take your shirt off," Sandra ordered, pointing at the picnic table.
"My, my… dear... should we really be so intimate in front of your friends?" Mr. Burke said with a sly smirk.
"Shut up and take your shirt off," Sandra retorted. "And what the hell're you doing out here by yourself? That's kinda stupid of you to do."
"I don't ordinarily travel alone," Mr. Burke said roughly, unbuttoning the upper half of his suit and wincing in pain. "Of course... my circumstances were anything but ordinary. I used to travel with Tenpenny and Gustavo, as well as a little robot protection. But none of them could accompany me this time, I'm afraid."
"Why not?" Sandra asked as she dabbed the blood off of his bare chest with a rag. "What happened?"
"Well... my leave wasn't a vacation or a business run. It was an escape," Burke explained. "Your harmless ghoul friends turned out to be a lot more aggressive than you had anticipated. All of the human residents were evicted or killed. Tenpenny was thrown off of his balcony, and Gustavo took a few 5.56 rounds to the head."
Charon raised his eyebrows, and Bryan 's mouth fell agape.
Sandra looked shocked.
"Don't get me wrong. The way some of the residents treated the ghouls... I see clearly why it happened. But it seemed Roy Phillips wasn't interested in weeding out the bigots and accepting the more tolerant humans. No, he wanted all of the humans extinguished from Tenpenny Tower. And he succeeded," Mr. Burke told her. "I suppose nobody involved truly wanted tolerance for the other side…"
"I'm sorry," Sandra mumbled, feeling an immeasurable guilt welling up inside her. "I thought... I didn't know they'd..."
"Oh, please. What's life without a little excitement?" Mr. Burke replied with a pained little laugh. "It was certainly a refreshing change of pace... running for my life like that..."
Sandra stared at him incredibly. "What, you're just… you're just okay with all your friends dying?"
"My friends?" Mr. Burke chuckled. "My dear… Tenpenny and Gustavo were just mutual survivors. I simply worked for them. I wasn't their friend, I was their... employee. I was their go-to for problem solving, and I maintained that role for my own survival, nothing more. And, in case you didn't notice... neither of them were particularly decent men. I don't mourn their loss at all. And… with the loss of them… I can finally have myself a fresh start. Something I didn't know I needed, until… well… recently."
Sandra studied him for a moment, then popped open her first aid kit and went to work disinfecting his two injuries.
Mr. Burke had only just realized that Charon was glaring at him.
"Um..." Bryan walked up to the picnic table and glanced up at Mr. Burke. "I don't mean to be rude, but... who are you?"
"Yeah. That's a real good question," Charon added, crossing his arms and staring between Burke and Sandra.
Sandra gulped as she began wrapping Mr. Burke's chest with gauze. She had told Charon and Bryan the story about Mr. Burke in Megaton, but neither of them had ever actually seen Mr. Burke before. There was no telling how they'd react to her becoming friends with the man.
"I am Mr. Burke," Mr. Burke answered. "Pleased to meet you both."
"Mr. Burke?" Bryan uttered. "You're the guy who tried to blow up Megaton…?!"
"That's all I need to know." Charon marched forward and raised his shotgun, holding the barrel inches away from Burke's face.
"Hey!" Sandra shoved the shotgun away, making Charon drop it. "Calm down! You can't just blow his head off!"
"Why the hell not?" Charon shot back. "You told me what he did. We ain't keeping him around."
"He just said he wanted to make a fresh start!" Sandra griped. "Give him a fucking chance!"
"No. No chances."
"He helped me when I was at Tenpenny Tower! He's not just completely evil!"
"Like hell he's not. I know evil when I fuckin' see it."
"Yeah? Then you're no better than Ahzrukhal."
"Excuse me?"
"You heard me. You had to do Ahzrukhal's dirty work just like Mr. Burke had to do Tenpenny's. You got a second chance—so he should get one too."
Charon opened his mouth to retort, though no further arguments came to him.
There was a long, tense silence, the two sharing a deep, burning glare.
Then, Charon let out a deep, grumbling cloud of breath.
"Fine. Whatever," he growled, lowering his shotgun. "But if he gives me one fuckin' reason to believe that he's gonna screw us over—then I'm ending him, whether you give that order or not."
"Whatever," Sandra said dismissively.
They all fell silent, gathered themselves, and headed off together, starting a long, tense, and quiet trek across the wasteland.
"So..."
All of them walked in silence for nearly an hour before anyone bothered speaking.
Sandra was at the front of the group with Charon close behind, followed by Mr. Burke, Bryan, and Thrash.
Sandra didn't feel like talking, and Charon feared he might explode in anger if he opened his mouth again.
"Dare… I ask," Mr. Burke mumbled. "Where exactly are we going?"
"I'm still looking for the vault where my dad is," Sandra answered.
"I see," Mr. Burke nodded.
Silence fell again.
After another hour of walking, Sandra decided to lead her friends into a nearby garage in order to rest. Everyone was tired.
"Sweet!" Sandra said once they walked inside the musky enclosure, sticking her arm inside of a Nukacola machine and pulling out a Quantum.
"Just what you need. More jet fuel in your goddamn bloodstream," Charon griped as he claimed a seat on one of the mattresses.
"Hey, I never got to have Nuka growing up. My dad wouldn't let me drink it. I like it, okay? It tastes good," Sandra told him. "It's one of the few luxuries of the wasteland. It's the same with you and scotch."
"I do not drink scotch that much."
"Yes you do!"
"No, I don't. And even then—scotch doesn't do shit to me. Nuka hypes you up and makes you act like a fuckin' radscorpion on jet."
Sandra and Charon continued to take playful shots at each other. Bryan laughed at them.
Mr. Burke didn't say anything. He merely pocketed his hands and watched them silently.
When they stopped talking, Sandra began kicking around one of the old trash cans, bashing it into the wall and making a loud, obnoxious BANG-ing noise over and over again. Thrash, who seemed to think that she was playing a game, galloped after the can and tried to leap inside of it numerous times.
"Aaaah!" Sandra delivered one final kick, sending the trash can flying across the inside of the garage. "We're never gonna find this damn vault!"
"Will you quit kicking shit around?" Charon massaged his forehead irritably. "You're giving me a migraine."
"But I need to find the vault! Fuuuck, we've been looking forever! There's no leads or anything!" Sandra exclaimed.
"Yeah, yeah, I get that. Kicking shit around ain't gonna help, though."
"I can kick shit if I want to! It's a wasteland!"
"What?"
"It doesn't matter if I destroy stuff. Everything's already destroyed!"
"Yeah, but I have a fuckin' headache."
"Well, I'm sorry! I'm just annoyed!"
"So am I."
"Ugggh!"
Mr. Burke walked across the interior of the old building quietly while Sandra and Charon argued. He skimmed over the walls and the shelves, and then, his eyes rested on a rectangular yellow switch on the wall behind Sandra.
And Sandra, lost amidst her rant, still hadn't noticed it.
Looking down, Mr. Burke noticed that Sandra was standing on a large metal platform that looked very different from the rest of the floor. It looked like an entrance to a very large basement.
"Charon, you never get headaches! How do you have a migraine now?!"
"Fuuuck, I don't know. Maybe being forced to quit a hardcore chem cold turkey might have something to do with it."
"You've been fine up until now! Don't give me that shit! I did that so you'd feel better, not worse!"
"Well, good freakin' job."
"Up yours!"
"Um... if I might interrupt..." Mr. Burke said, turning to them and raising his hand.
"Dammit Charon—you're not gonna live that long if you don't watch your damn health!" Sandra continued.
"I ain't paid to live. I'm paid to fulfill my contractual obligations. That's all I'm supposed to do. That's all I fuckin' care about doing."
"Don't give me that bullshit! I know better than that!"
"Are we doing this again? Are we really having this argument again?"
"Yeah, we're having this argument again. We're gonna keep having it until it sinks into your stupid head!"
"Excuse me..." Mr. Burke said again, but neither of them seemed to hear him.
"Charon. When we were in Andale, you went after me. You saved my life right in the nick of time. Remember?"
"Yes. It's my job."
"Yeah, well… if you would've just let me die, then you would've had your freedom. But you didn't."
"You're reading way too much into the way I do my job, Mistress."
"Why can't you just say that you're my friend? Why?!"
"My goodness… you two quarrel like an old married couple," Mr. Burke muttered with a sigh, approaching the yellow switch and pressing one of the buttons. "Let's see what this does."
Just when Charon was about to retaliate—the platform underneath Sandra's feet began to open.
Sandra stumbled and nearly fell—and Charon grabbed her by the arm and yanked her away from the expanding entrance at once, dragging her back as they both watched the floor open up before them.
The two metal platforms slid into either side of the floor, revealing a dark underground stairway that led into a secret area underneath the building.
Everyone exchanged expressions.
"My dear… if we're very, very lucky... I believe we may have just found your vault," Mr. Burke said. "Lead the way."
"What? Vault? That's the entrance to a vault?" Sandra beamed excitedly. "Yes! Yes yes yesss! Thank you!"
She rushed down the stairs without wasting a second.
Mr. Burke was smirking. Charon shot him a strange glare before following Sandra into the basement, Bryan and Thrash tip-toeing close behind.
Sandra turned a corner, spotting the vault's actual entrance, but before she could step inside, a robobrain rolled around the corner and stopped her.
"Greetings. Welcome to Vault 112. According to sensors, you are two-hundred years and four months late, resident. Please take your vault uniform from the nearby cabinet and go to your assigned tranquility pod in the main quarters," the robobrain said. "Have a nice simulation, resident."
"Simulation?" Sandra wondered. "What the hell does that mean?"
"I believe that some vaults were equipped with simulation technology. These were vaults that didn't have proper living arrangements... beds, kitchens, showers, basic living essentials of any kind really... so, some vaults simply used virtual reality as a means to keep their residents feeling at home," Mr. Burke informed. "It's not quite as nice as it sounds. VaultTec almost assuredly had ulterior motives for utilizing such a program. They're well known in the history books for treating their human residents like lab rats in a controlled experimental environment."
"If my dad's here..." Sandra mumbled.
"Then he is most likely inside of the simulation," Mr. Burke replied. "If he came here to speak to any of the vault residents, he will have had to enter the simulation to talk to them. Waking them from the simulation would have potentially lethal effects on the residents' nervous systems and may well put them into shock, or simply kill them."
"How do you know all this?" Sandra asked.
"I am an expert when it comes to unpleasant information of any kind, my dear. It's my curse," Mr. Burke answered smoothly.
"That doesn't sound right," Charon grumbled. "If these people have been in a simulation for all these years, that means nobody's found a way to wake themselves up and snap out of it. If you go in there, you might not be able to get out again."
"Well... theoretically..." Mr. Burke began, placing his fingertips together thoughtfully. "If you could find a way to hack the system from the inside, then you would be home free. One of the people in the simulation has to be controlling the whole thing, otherwise it couldn't function. Find the person who's in charge, and he will know how to awaken you from your virtual reality slumber."
"Yeah, if he wants to give up that info," Charon added. "She wouldn't have any way to make him spill his info. He could just keep her trapped there, and she wouldn't be able to do a damn thing about it."
"What do you care?" Sandra snarled. "It's got nothing to do with your contractual obligations, so it shouldn't bother you."
Charon opened his mouth to reply, but he couldn't find the words, somewhat shocked that she'd say such a thing.
After a small pause, Sandra marched into the vault. Mr. Burke, Bryan, and Thrash followed her.
"Oh… don't be a fucking brat," Charon growled as he trekked after them. "Don't go and do something fucking reckless just because you're pissed off at me. Jesus fucking Christ..."
Sandra entered the main floor, where she was able to see many virtual reality simulation pods stationed in a circular formation down below. She thumped down the stairs and approached the only empty pod that she could find.
"Mistress." Charon slammed a hand onto the metal exterior of the pod, staring into Sandra heatedly. "Don't."
"Charon. Make up your mind," Sandra said flatly.
"What?"
"Make up your mind."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, make up your mind—do you even care about me or not?"
Charon almost said something incredibly impulsive in response to this, but he managed to force it down, just catching the words before they could escape him.
Sandra raised her eyebrows at him.
"C... course I do." Charon said difficultly. "That's a stupid fucking question."
Sandra stared at him for a second, then seemed to soften, and she gave him a half-smile. "I appreciate that a lot... but I still need to go in there."
"It's not safe, Mistress."
"I know that… but I'll find a way out. I promise. I won't keep you waiting."
"Perhaps... we should study up on this a little more before you do anything rash," Mr. Burke cut in. "Maybe we can uncover a failsafe, some sort of Plan B to get you awake and on your feet if things in the simulation go awry. There must be a failsafe of some kind here."
"The failsafe would be controlled by the guy in charge, and he's in the simulation. I have to talk to him from inside, like you said," Sandra told him, pressing the green button on the pod. "So… here goes."
The top half of the pod opened up to reveal a seat, a countless amount of wires, and a television on the inside.
"I'll wake up as soon as I possibly can… okay, you guys? Just wait around for me. Make yourselves comfortable in the vault. Take a nap if you have to. I'll wake up soon, I swear."
Sandra climbed inside of the pod and sat snugly in the leather seat.
The last thing she saw before the pod closed itself around her was the troubled look strewn across Charon's face now.
After a long while, the group soon found a way to pass the time.
"Um... go fish?"
Charon glimpsed at Bryan. "Kid. We're playing Poker, not Goldfish."
Charon, Bryan, and Mr. Burke were all sitting in a circle outside of Sandra's simulation pod with a deck of cards placed on the floor in between them. They all had a handful of cards, and Thrash was too busy gnawing on a nearby robobrain's arm to pay them any mind.
At least three hours had gone by, and after standing around in silence, Mr. Burke proposed that they do something to pass the time. So, here they were.
"Full house." Charon laid all of his cards down.
"My..." Mr. Burke gave Charon an impressed stare. "You have quite the poker face, Mr. Charon. I didn't think you were the type."
"Years of practice," Charon replied as he began to shuffle the deck. "I've been a bouncer for years. Played a lot of cards in my down time."
"I don't wanna play anymore," Bryan sighed.
"Suit yourself, kid," Charon responded. "All right. Just you and me, baldy. Let's up the stakes."
"Oh, you mean gamble?" Mr. Burke asked. "You really don't seem like the type to be hustling people out of their caps, you know. A ghoul bodyguard—I picture you breaking a man's arm backwards before I picture you smooth-talking your way through a high-stakes game of poker."
"Who's to say I can't do both?" Charon said devilishly. "Play me, chicken shit. Ain't like we got anything better to do."
"Oh, very well."
They continued playing cards as time passed on, and Charon would steal a glance of the simulation pod every now and then.
He grew more and more anxious the longer they waited—yet even after hours, Sandra still hadn't yet emerged from the metal pod, showing no signs of awakening any time soon.
Then—something finally happened.
Before their next game could start, one of the pods further across the room began to open. Charon narrowed his eyes at it.
Another pod opened off to the left. Then another near the back of the room.
Suddenly—people began stepping out of the pods all around them.
And finally—Sandra's pod opened as well.
Charon reached his feet, facing it and waiting for her to emerge.
Sandra blinked herself awake, sitting upright inside the pod and rubbing her eyes. "Ow... aghk, my head…"
"Mistress." Charon waved a hand in front of her face. "Hey. You with us…?"
"Oh..." Sandra grasped his hand and pressed it into her cheek. "You're so warm... thank God... thank God I'm back in the real world... I can feel stuff again..."
"What was it like? Spare us no suspense," Mr. Burke said.
"Yeah, tell us what happened!" Bryan added.
"Well... I found a lot of people. I didn't find my dad, but I found this guy... this doctor guy... he was a little girl... and the computer was in the wall... and the oven killed Mrs. Wellington... and the Chinese people came," Sandra mumbled tiredly.
Bryan, Charon, and Mr. Burke all traded dumbfounded looks with each other.
"Wait... wait, everyone's waking up," Sandra said urgently, her eyes darting across the room and seeing that the vault residents were walking around the simulation room, all of them appearing dazed and confused. "Dad's here somewhere... let me down!"
Sandra jumped out of the pod too quickly, and Charon caught her just before she could fall.
"Calm the fuck down," he told her, holding her gently by the waist until she became steady.
Sandra ignored him. Her attention was completely somewhere else now.
Charon, Bryan, and Mr. Burke all turned to see that a middle-aged man in a vault suit was approaching them. None of them recognized the man, but they all knew who he was immediately.
He wore the same exact model pip-boy as Sandra, and he even had the same crystal blue eyes.
It was James—Sandra's long lost father.
"Oh... sweety." James placed a hand on Sandra's face softly, wearing a saddened expression. "You look so different... so worn out, and beaten, and... where did you get that outfit? Goodness, I never wanted this life for you. A life in this... radioactive… violent cesspool."
Sandra wrapped her arms around him, beaming and feeling immense relief at long last.
They hugged each other in a smothering, loving way, and when they separated, James looked between Sandra and her companions.
"I see you've made some allies," James observed. "I'm glad you came. I wasn't prepared for Doctor Braun, or I might have fared better. All the same... it's good to see you, but… what are you doing here?"
"I came to find you," Sandra said simply. "Amata's dad and the others ran me off, anyway. They thought I had something to do with you disappearing."
"They what?" James said, sounding astounded. "I... I never thought they'd go that far, or I never would have left you there."
"Dad, why did you leave?" Sandra asked him, forcing down the urge to cry.
It felt wonderful to finally see her father again, but ever since the day she left Vault 101, she couldn't comprehend why he'd left her there in the first place. It was a question that she desperately needed answered for a long while now.
"Sweety... I wish I could have explained it to you a long time ago. I probably should have." James replied. "I'm guessing that you found my journal logs, and that's how you knew I'd be here in Vault 112."
"Yeah, and I remember hearing something about a GECK," Sandra said.
"Right. I need a GECK to get Project Purity up and running again. I thought Doctor Braun might have had one, but well, this vault wasn't exactly what I was expecting, and neither was he. I suppose I'll have to take my search somewhere else. But the data I've found is invaluable. I have to get this back to the lab in Rivet City as quickly as I can. Purified water for everyone in the Capital Wasteland—that's my goal here. You must understand, Sweety. I wouldn't be doing all of this if it wasn't absolutely worth it."
"I get it, but..."
"Sweety." James placed his hands on her shoulders. "I'd love it if you came with me back to the memorial. We can get Madison, and we can get the project moving again. I'd like you to be there with me when I open those floodgates. I'd like your help."
This explained everything; Sandra herself had spent all of her time wandering the wastes helping anyone she came across, even disgruntled ghoul bouncers, shady and merciless businessmen, and recently orphaned children, not to mention young mutant monsters.
She didn't know why, but she loved helping people—and that's exactly what drove her father.
He planned to help everyone in the wasteland all at once, sustaining them by distributing purified water to them all. Of course she understood why he left, and she was damn proud of him for the goal he was chasing now.
"I'd love to help," Sandra said with a smile.
"That's my girl," James grinned, patting her on the arm. "Come on. Let's go. We've got a long walk ahead of us now."