Chapter 3, Are You Real?

With the realization of who this is finally setting in, I quickly rushed to the woman and to get ready to help her up. She was wearing the same outfit in the painting, but they were extremely rugged and torn with part of her left sleeve being ripped open to her dress being torn in multiple areas. One of her cuffs on her left arm was gone and most of her panty hose stocking was ripped. Not only that, there were bloodstains all around the outfit. Given that context, it tells me that however she died, it wasn't pretty. As I got closer, I noticed that she looked significantly shorter than I originally thought. I think she was five feet, six inches which is a whole four inches shorter than me. As I reached to help her up, she immediately pushed me aside and gave me a cold look with her blue eyes as she stood herself up.

"Who are you? And where is Atlas," She demanded.

"Who is Atlas," I asked.

"The guy who is running the shots here, your boss."

"Last I checked, I don't work with anyone named Atlas and there is nobody here besides us."

"Wait, what's going on here? Who are you,... am I still in Rapture, ... and how am I here? Are you… even real, " she questioned as she stood up, removing her cold tone and giving a more calmer, sweet demeanor as she reached toward my face with her right hand.

"My name is Evan, and yes this is still Rapture or what's left of it. And yeah I am real, " I replied as she touched my face.

"What do you mean?" She asks, pulling her hand back as she looks around.

"Well Rapture has not been alive with people in a very long time. Last people that were here was four years ago, but they had to leave in a hurry after finishing their research."

"I don't understand what's going on and how I'm back in the land of the living," she questioned.

"I brought you back with that Vita Chamber with your brain, hair, and whatever was left of your clothes, " I stated, pointing to the machine.

She turned around and took a look at the Vita Chamber as well as took a look at the chalkboard with all the information on how it worked. Her movement indicated her curiosity as she muttered to herself, reading the words on the chalkboard.

"I'm so confused. How is this possible? I remember dying to Atlas with him beating me to death with a wrench and then …," She paused, with her hand on her forehead, trying to remember.

Can't say I really blame her memory for being so foggy after coming back from the dead, especially from being killed by being beaten to death with a wrench to the head.

"I remember," She perked, " Sally! Do you know where she is," She turned around, coming toward me.

"No, I don't know any Sally's, sorry," I replied

She stopped and started fidgeting with her hands and looked down at the ground. I can tell by her body language, she felt distraught, possibly thinking of ideas of what happened to whoever Sally was. I don't know what Sally meant to her fully, but I can tell it was something big. Maybe it was a friend? Her sister? Or maybe even her daughter? As to whoever Atlas was, not sure but he sounds like an asshole already given her tone with him. And if he was calling the shots here, he might have had a hand in Rapture's fall.

"Hey." I spoke, trying to snap her out of her trance. She shook her head in response "I didn't catch your name."

"Elizabeth," she replied.

Now that makes sense what the E on the vial of hair stood for. Her full name was Elizabeth Comstock.

"I don't know all the details of what happened, but I promise we can check the files I downloaded to see what might have happened to Sally." I told her

She smiled, "Thank you Evan. That means a lot to me."

The way she smiled at me made me feel a hint of something I hadn't felt in a while. I think I know what it is but I'd rather not assume anything yet. However, she had a level of innocence I could just feel by her posture or her tone in her voice. Like she was incorruptible and clean. Which gives me the feeling of trusting her since she hasn't lived the horrors that everyone in the Mojave or the world had and have that turn her into a suspicious person. Brushing it off for a moment, I smiled back at her.

"Wait." She requested, "Is this still or around 1959?"

I froze. How do I even tell her that she is 300 years old and not to mention that we are living in a post-apocalyptic wasteland? Only way I can think of is just starting slow by telling her it's just 300 years in the future.

"Well, you are about 300 years in the future. It's 2281 right now," I told her.

She got a huge look of shock on her face. At first she paused, unable for words. I couldn't tell if she was upset she was 300 years in the future or felt something else. But then she immediately smiled and joy sparkled in her eyes.

"Wow, there has to be so many advances in so many areas of life. You have to tell me more," she responded with such an excited, giddy tone, it was like a little girl excited for her birthday present.

Before I could even think of a response, the alarm went off and lights started to flash.

"Do you know what's going on," she asked.

"I think activating the Vita Chamber might have created an overload and triggered something. We need to get out of here and get to the Submarine," I state, turning towards the exit.

"Lead the way," she replied, standing behind me.

We quickly rushed out of the room and already explosions were going off. I could hear the place collapsing in on itself from the cracking in the ceiling.

"What's happening," Elizabeth shouted.

"The whole place is coming down. No idea why it took so long for it to notice the overload but we got to keep going." I shouted back

As we got back to the reception desk, all I could see was fire initially, but when I got through, I could not believe my luck.

"Oh you got to be fucking kidding me," I exclaimed.

The submarine was destroyed by rubble from the ceiling and water was starting to pour in from the ceiling raising the water levels only higher. I had a feeling this was going to happen. Now I don't know how we are going to get out.

"Just what we needed," Elizabeth responded.

"Well I'm out of options."

"Did you find anything else here that could help?"

I turned toward her "There was a log talking about some sort of portal device, but they could never get it to work again."

"Well it can't be that easy. Never is. Show me where it is," she replied.

I throw up my hands in distraught for a moment and lead the way. Anything is on the table at this point, so if she knows anything on how to get it working, it's worth a shot.

As I brought her down the hall and up the stairs, I could hear the ceiling starting to crack and give way to either water pressure or something collapsed on it. And then a strong shake threw both of us on the ground with me slamming right into the wall.

"Are you alright," she asked, putting her hand around me to help me up.

"Yeah, let's get to the top before water starts coming out," I replied, taking her offer to help me up.

I brought her to the device and judging by her look, she knew what it was.

"A Lutece Device," she said.

"Is that what it's called?" I replied.

"Yeah, I can fix it. I've been fixing quantum field generators since kindergarten," she said with her arms crossed.

Immediately I have so many questions about how the old world was and what kids were up to. When I was a kid I was just playing around in the vault with all the other kids, not really doing stuff like fixing quantum field generators. Or maybe she was being sarcastic. Hard to tell with my adrenaline going right now from the prospecting of being buried at sea, hundreds of miles under the ocean.

"Ok, do you have any information that you gathered here," she asked me while she was inspecting the machine.

"I have the expedition logs and it looks like it covers how to restore the device," I said, giving her the log files.

"Let's see…. Okay! We need only the CO2 scrubber and there should be one in one of the bathyspheres," She said.

"What's a bathysphere," I asked even more confused on more of this terminology

"It was that round sphere next to the submarine," she said as she ran ahead to get to the bathysphere.

I followed her to keep up as I continued to hear the sounds of the sirens and the place collapsing. Water started to leak everywhere even more now and it only just made me anxious further. I hope this works otherwise, Rapture really will be our grave.

We arrived at the bathysphere and she took a quick look and grabbed a rock from the debris and hit open a part of the bathysphere. Once it opened, she threw the rock aside and took a part out.

"Got it. Let's get back to the Lutece Device," she exclaimed, running ahead again.

"Hey, don't leave me behind," I shouted over the alarm and the place collapsed further.

"I won't. As long as you can keep up, " she shouted back.

We got back to the Lutece Device and she immediately put the part in its place and rewired it to work with the machine.

"Ok we should be good. Now we won't immediately die of CO2 poisoning the moment we turn the thing on," she states.

Can't figure what's worse at this point. Drowning at the bottom of the ocean or dying of CO2 Poisoning.

"Ok, everything is fixed and we are ready to go," Elizabeth stated.

"Good. I'll start her up."

I made my way to the top of the stairs where the controls were and as I pressed in the coordinates for the Brotherhood of Steel base I said to myself " Please work, please work, for god's sake please work." I confirmed the coordinates and nothing blew up or made things worse.

"Hurry," Elizabeth shouted.

I ran down the stairs and saw a giant portal opened with what looked like a black and white version of the submarine base.

Elizabeth jumped in first without any hesitation. Most likely since she seemed to know more about the thing. However, I felt incredibly hesitant to jump in. I looked behind and saw the stairs halfway collapse in itself with more of the place coming down and water starting to pour in immediately. After seeing that, I jumped right in. I immediately landed in the water and swam to the stairs leading out of the water. I looked behind me real quick and the portal closed itself immediately and the last glimpse I got was Rapture closing in itself. I walked up the stairs and met her at the top. We both were catching our breath after what we had witnessed.

"Well, that was close," I chuckled

"Yeah," she said, faking a smile to me. "You just saved my life. Thank you Evan."

She shocked me by giving me a hug.

"Technically, you saved both of our lives." I replied.

She let go, "No, I meant thank you for saving my life and bringing me back."

She stared at me for a few seconds as she tucked some of her hair behind her ear.

She looked around, "So what is this place?"

"Well this is an old naval base and I loaded the coordinates from the submarine to take us here," I replied.

"Alright, So, where next," she asked.

"Well you can come with me to New Vegas if you would like. I have some work I have to do and you are more than welcome to tag along," I stated.

"Ok, I am more than happy with that."

Elizabeth followed me out of the submarine base and I remembered I had to report back to Paladin Kovalsky on what happened. As we approached his tent, I told Elizabeth to stay outside. I approached him and he looked at me with curiosity, but immediately went back to his stern demeanor.

"So, where is my submarine," he demanded with that thick accent of his kicking in again.

"It's gone. As well as the underwater city. I was lucky to escape."

"Ok, Keep talking. What else happened," he asked..

"The ruins were unstable and it all collapsed when the generator overloaded everything in the base. Sorry about the submarine," I told him.

"Well that doesn't explain how you managed to escape and get back here," he said leaning on me a bit further, doubting my response.

"There was a teleportation device in the city I was able to get back working before it collapsed in."

"A teleportation device," he asked, taken a bit back. "Were you able to get anything at all?"

I thought for a minute and realized, I couldn't let the Brotherhood of Steel get this information. They might try to replicate it and who knows what they could do with it given their fanatical nature here. If these were the ones in D.C, I would have given them the info in a heartbeat. Instead I lied.

"Everything happened so fast I never had a chance to explore the ruins. Once I arrived, the whole place felt the submarine arrive and it made the place immediately become unstable."

"Well, that is a shame. The possibilities of the technology that could have been rediscovered could have helped us, " he replied, shaking his head.

"Anyway, clear out and see you later," he stated, turning around back to his work.

He was right, it was a shame I was unable to even get more information on that Vita Chamber. It could have helped humanity's future in so many different ways. Or I could have found maybe even some cool prewar weapons that could either have been valuable or helped me in my survival in the Mojave. I left the tent and Elizabeth was looking around with curiosity at everything.

"I told him what happened. So, what do you think of the place?"

"Well it's not much," she said with her arms crossed, and a bit of a cynical tone in her voice. "But it's only a small encampment area. The whole world can't look like this," she immediately said with some hope in her voice.

I really have no idea how I can even begin to explain the truth of the world. Judging by her word, Elizabeth is expecting a better world in the future full of technological advancements and prosperity among human beings. And this is after dying potentially an awful death and being brought back. Instead, she is going to be hit with an awful truth of how it's all mostly destroyed and life here is so much worse than what it was back then.

"I really want to know more about the future. You have to tell me more," she cheerfully said with one of the biggest smiles I have seen on someone in a long time.

"No wait," she said and paused, coming towards me, "I want to see it for myself and you can explain what things are."

I collected myself really quick after hearing that as the initial anxious thoughts that had come over went away knowing I had to explain what happened to the world to Elizabeth. I don't really know how to explain it at all or rather where to start. Should I start at how things are now and then make my way down a list? Or should I start from how the world was bombed and then go from there? Before I could continue to think, she grabbed my hand, shocking me and pulled me towards the exit.

"Come on! I want to see everything I can," she giddily said, letting go of my hand and running ahead.

Not only was I surprised she was running so fast in heels, but she was running ahead like nothing was going to stop her from seeing the future. I quickly shook myself back to reality and saw she was getting a huge head start. As I ran after her, I shouted towards her "Elizabeth, Wait! Slow down, you are not ready to see this! Let me explain!"

I ran after her as fast as I could. After a minute, I was able to catch up to her and grabbed her hand. She stopped in her tracks and turned to face me.

"Listen, you need to know something about the world now," I stated.

"What about the world," she asked, starting at me with a confused look.

"It's not what you think. It's…" Before I could finish my sentence, a loud thunder was heard signaling a storm was coming. We both looked up and I could see in the distance storm clouds coming our way.

"Tell me later, I want to see a bit of the new world before it starts to pour horribly!" She exclaimed, still with that happy look on her face. As she turned the corner, I could tell looking behind her that all that hopefully, giddy happy nature she was feeling was sucked out immediately as the reality of the world kicked in.

Elizabeth stopped in her tracks from the sight she saw. She was witnessing the crater I had mentioned earlier right in front of the gas station and the supermarket, destroyed by the nuclear fallout. A sight I am used to, but to her most likely not.

"What is this? What happened here," I heard her shakily say.

"This city was bombed years ago," I responded.

"Then why hasn't this city not come back from this destruction," she asked, still with a shaky tone.

I walked towards her and replied "It isn't."

She turned towards me. "What do you mean? Why can't it come back? Cities always come back from destruction just like France did after the French Revolution," she replied.

I sighed looking down at the ground, getting myself ready to explain what I was afraid of wanting to have to tell. After a few seconds, I looked back up and responded.

"There was a Great War here that ended with a nuclear apocalypse in 2077. Two hundred years ago. This is what's left of Washington D.C. and the rest of the U.S. including New Vegas and the Mojave. The whole world was destroyed just like here as well."

"No, this can't be," Elizabeth stated with tears starting to come out as she fell down on the ground crying her eyes out.

I've heard people cry before, hell I cried after my father died. He wasn't perfect, but he did his best despite the circumstance we both were in. But I have never heard a person cry as hard and as in so much pain as Elizabeth spent the next few minutes crying. I can't even describe how gut wrenching, depressing, and sorrowful it sounded. It made me even want to cry a bit. Imagine dying a horrible death to save someone, then being brought back from the dead only to witness a literal hell on earth and unsure if what you did mattered in the end. Putting that all together, I think that is a fragment of how she felt, but not the whole picture since I barely know anything beyond that. However, with the weather sounding like it was going to start pouring soon, We need to get out of the street.

"Hey, we should get off the street before it starts to storm horribly," I stated.

She got up and started to brush her tears away, "Yeah."

I noticed the gift shop from earlier that was still standing and decided that would be the best place to wait out the storm. However, as we got closer, Ghouls appeared. I pulled out my Service Rifle and popped a few shots on them and watched as one by one they all fell down to the ground. One of them, their heads exploded as my rifle round pierced its skull. As I cleared them out Elizabeth got out of cover behind a rock and walked towards me.

"What happened to these… people? What are they," she asked point towards them.

"Ghouls, they were normal people infected and turned by the radiation," I answered.

"I don't like this Evan. This can't be how the whole world is," she shakily said.

"No one really does. It's the world we live in now."

"Let's just get in the shop, I don't want to see any more of this now."

We entered the shop and as always, it looked like a total mess. The front counter was completely smashed and destroyed, the air smelled musty, and the walls were losing paint and plaster. Not to mention there were these stupid mannequin's just standing there that only added to the creepy factor.

"I think you should get a change of clothes, your dress is a complete mess," I stated, pointing at her dress.

She looked down at her dress, "Good idea, let me see what's here."

I would have loved to see what she looked like in her dress when it was new. It looked like it hugged certain features of women to help give off their beauty a bit more and the stockings I feel only enhanced it as well. But given the world we are in, armor or what covers your skin more is more important, but one can wonder.

"I think I found some clothes that work," She said after digging around with some clothes in her hands.

"There's a dressing curtain over there you can use or what's left of one," I pointed out.

"It'll do for now," she replies.

As she enters I jokingly say, "I promise not to peak, even if it's that easy with that curtain."

I hear her chuckle a bit as she closes the curtain. I feel a bit of an urge to look still, but gain composure quickly. She isn't one of the women on the strip that are begging people to look at what they are wearing and revealing. I need to be respectful if I am going to get her to trust me and to want to be around me. A few minutes later she comes out wearing blue jeans, regular shoes, a brown leather jacket, and a basic white buttoned up shirt. She also had the red handkerchief tied around in a knot around her neck with the bird pendant in the middle.

"How does this look?" Elizabeth asked.

"Definitely gets the job done and hopefully you will not catch too many eyes looking at you." I replied.

She cracks a bit of a smile, "Is that a bad thing these days?"

"Well not necessarily as long as it isn't the Legion.'

"The who," she asks.

"Group of people that dress up as old Roman soldiers from a long time ago and are not at all the friendliest people."

"How bad are we talking?"

"They tie people to crosses if you cross them and pillage and rape towns for Caesar," I answered.

"That is so morbid and awful on so many levels. How is this tolerated," she disgustingly asks.

"It isn't, but there is no central government that people support here that can do something about it. There is the New California Republic, but they are so spread out they cannot do much anyway. This is a lawless world now," I explained to her.

Elizabeth looks at the ground and fidgets with her hands again, primarily with her right pinky and walks over to a mattress in the corner and sits down on it. I can tell she is still trying to take everything around her in and is contemplating the world. And this is only scraping the surface. There is so much here in New Vegas that even I don't know and I'm even figuring it out. So many factions with different goals and agendas that conflict with each other, who knows how New Vegas can be fixed or lead on a more righteous path. We would need a real strong authority figure to figure this out that can be at least a decent human being. One that wouldn't be corrupted or manipulated into thinking a certain way.

Before I can think of another thought, I hear the rain starting to pour against the windows and eventually come down hard. I turn towards the window and take a quick look through the cracks of the boarded up window to see the outside. I hear Elizabeth get up off the mattress and join me in looking outside, but she doesn't say anything. I can tell just looking at her she is just still doing a ton of thinking and taking everything she can in. She started humming something, but I couldn't make out what it was after a minute.

"What are you humming?" I asked.

"Something I know to heart, something… that's keeping me a bit calm," she responded, still staring outside.

"Something from your childhood?

"No,...something a bit later."

I could tell by her responses, she was wanting to think more than talk and there was no use trying to get to know more about her right now.

"Well, the storm is probably going to stick around for a bit and given the day we both had, I think we should get some sleep." I stated..

"I agree, though I don't see another mattress here." Elizabeth replied, turning around and looking around.

"You can take the mattress, I can take the floor."

'You sure? I don't mind sharing," she responded, turning to me and looking at me with her blue eyes.

Ugh, as much as I want to especially with her looking at me with those eyes, I can't. She just met me and that's putting a ton of trust in a stranger. Not to mention, I just met her, I don't know her true intentions, and don't want to ruin any first impressions by me doing something stupid.

"Naw, besides, I'm used to sleeping on the floor. I've been living like this on a mattress one day and off one the next day for four years," I answered.

"Ok, well I'll see you in a few hours," she said as she walked, grabbed one of the loose pillows, dusted it off, headed towards the mattress and started to drift off to sleep.

I grabbed another pillow, laid down across from her on the floor, and looked at the ceiling as I slowly started to drift to sleep.

Despite being on the floor, I felt incredibly comfortable and my mind only felt more clam and at peace as I continued to sleep. Eventually I heard something.

"Evan?" I heard a voice say in a calm, quiet tone with my body being shaken ever so slightly

It sounded so comforting I wasn't sure I wanted to wake up. I just shrugged it off and continued to sleep.

"Evan?" I heard the same voice say it again, but in a bit louder tone with it still feeling like a quiet whisper while being shaken a bit more.

Again, I still didn't want to get up and move. I felt like I was floating, the universe surrounding me.

"Evan!" I heard it much louder in a shrill tone, but quiet like it was trying to get my attention without being incredibly loud and the shaking was much more violent. I opened my eyes and saw Elizabeth staring at me with a worried look on her face.

"The rain stopped, but I'm hearing something outside. Is it one of those Ghouls you mentioned earlier," She asked, concerned.

I rubbed my eyes and got up.

"I'll go take a look. Wait here," I replied, pulling out my 44 magnum.

I went outside and was met with the faint orange and pink color of the sun starting to rise. I went around the corner and saw it was a ghoul eating a mole rat. I whistled and the ghoul stopped eating the mole rat and turned around in my direction. I growled and screeched at the top of its lungs. I pulled the trigger once blowing his head off and sending him flying a few inches. I holstered my gun and went back inside.

She asked, "It was, wasn't it?"

"Yeah."

"Do you have a spare weapon? I don't mind taking these things on, but I don't really feel safe without a weapon," she requested.

"You've been in combat before? There is a thrill you have to get used to."

"Oh yeah I have been in combat many times before," she replied.

"Alright, first chance we get I'll get you a weapon. I need both these to fight back against them or anything else that comes our way."

"OK, hold on a second, I saw a safe I can pick the lock open."

Elizabeth ran behind the counter and crouched down to start picking the locked safe open. Once I heard her finish picking the safe open, she opened the safe up and said "I found two pistols, looks like you won't need to find me something for now." She got up and showed me what they were.

"Looks like a .22 and a laser pistol. They should do well for now until we find something better," I said.

We both left the shop and made our way to the train station entrance in order to get back to the high speed train to make our way back to New Vegas. As we arrived, I heard a loud disgusted sound come from Elizabeth.

"That's how you got here," she stated.

"Yeah it isn't the best looking thing, I'd recommend going to the front cars as they are covered the most. It won't be as loud as well."

We both walk into the train and I start it up to take us back to New Vegas. We both sat down and I figured to ask the first of many questions I had for her.

"Ok, I have so many questions about what the hell Rapture was and what happened to it," I asked Elizabeth.

"Well I'm more than willing to tell you, but I also want to know what happened to the world. Why did those nukes go off and how bad was humanity affected? How are things currently?" she stated.

"Well, as they say, ladies first," I replied, sarcastically.

She smiled and agreed to start first in explaining what Rapture was and what happened leading up to her death.

"Get comfortable, it is quite the story," she replied as she leaned back with her legs crossed.

Inspiration for Elizabeth's return was taken and expanded upon by the Elizabeth companion mod by yscsn.