A/N: Forewarning for course dialogue (if you haven't gotten enough warning from the story rating and the fact that it's about raiders), as well as companion questline and location spoilers in this chapter.

Chapter Four: Unearthed

"You`re a Vault dweller? You? Tell me another one, this time with a punchline." Gage simply could not believe the Overboss`s outrageous claim.

"It`s true, although I left nearly three years ago. Where else do you think I got this from?" Frost held up her wrist, drawing attention to the Pip-Boy strapped there.

"Off a trader would be my best guess." He eyed the portable piece of tech dubiously. Even if a merchant did manage to come across something that rare, the odds of finding a functioning one were next to impossible. He doubted it was the kind of thing a person simply sold or gave away. Even Gage had to admit the chances were slim, but the idea that a battle hardened raider like the Overboss was originally a Vault dweller seemed even less plausible.

"Not likely. I looted it off of the Overseer`s remains in Vault 111, since it was the only way to manually open the Vault door."

"Say I humor you, Boss. Even if you were from one of those underground bunkers, why would you leave? Why take off from a place with no radiation, no monsters, stocked with clean water, food, and real beds? Most of the stories I've heard make the Vaults sound like paradise compared to whats out here."

"Because most of what you`ve heard has been lies. Hasn't anyone ever told you if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is?" Frost looked sideways over at him with her eyebrows raised. She hadn't figured Porter for a man that was easily deceived. Then again, he'd put his faith in Colter, who was now stone cold dead and probably rotting in a heap somewhere.

"Hm." Gage made a noncommittal noise but said, "I suppose you may have a point there. Then how do you explain the Gunners in Vault 95? Been a while since a few of `em came through here, but they rolled in with a supply of chems and alcohol bigger than any I`d ever seen about six months back. They must`ve made a hell of a profit from selling it all. Claimed they got their stock from the Vault."

"It`s true that some of the Vaults are full of useful salvage. But do you know what 95 was really used for? It wasn't a shelter from the nukes. That's just the lie Vault-Tec sold to get people to want to live there. Like the other Vaults, 95 was used for human experimentation. The reason it was full to bursting with chems and alcohol is due to its use as a facility monitoring addiction in a social research program. The residents were all former drug addicts or alcoholics, who were brought in and underwent a therapy program to rehabilitate them. After a few years one of Vault-Tec`s 'scientists' on the inside opens up this huge cache of chems and lets the dwellers at it, to see if they stick to the program or just dive off the deep end. You can probably guess what happened."

"If that's true that's seriously fucked up. But how would you know that? You said you were from Vault 111."

"I am. I also told you I ran with the Gunners for nearly a year. I`ve been to Vault 95. There`s a machine in the bowels of that place that can be used to cure the most severe chem addictions. It's an extremely painful process, but it works. I took one of the mercs I ran with there as a personal favor to her. She wanted to get clean so she wouldn't kill herself with Psycho."

"That shit will mess you up." Gage agreed, and added; "Never touched it myself, but I`ve seen what it does to a person. That friend of yours...did that actually work on her?"

"Yeah. She was as weak as a newborn for a couple days afterward but she hasn't touched a chem since. Still drinks, but only for special occasions." Frost thought back to the last time she'd seen Cait. It had to have been almost two months now. They had parted ways after a bad argument where Cait had tried to tell her friend she was crazy for wanting to take on the Institute using a bunch of raiders. She hadn't even listened to the other woman`s logic behind the plan. So much for being the best of friends, the Overboss smiled bitterly. She still missed the feisty redhead. There were more than a few people the survivor missed. The idea that she didn't need anyone was a stubborn lie she kept telling herself so she wouldn't feel so damn lonely. Gunners did not show weakness. Neither did raiders. Vulnerability would get her killed, especially in her current position. That she had admitted to even having helped Cait might very well have been a mistake. What was I thinking? I don't even know this guy. We`re working together for the moment, but that's all. I can't afford to slip up in front of him again. He and his gang leaders had their last Overboss killed. Given, I had a hand in it too, but I didn't have a choice. I was going to have to kill him anyways to get these cutthroats to follow me. I have to get him to trust me, but we cant be friends. Raiders don't have friends. The Overboss least of all. Better move this conversation along, she thought as she realized her error. It shouldn't have mattered to her that Gage believed her or not. Now she was stuck in the uncomfortable position of trying to get him to believe she was being honest with him, that she was someone he could trust to lead. Simultaneously she had to make the attempt to avoid divulging any further unnecessary details about herself.

"That's...incredible. And incredibly sick, at the same time." His scarred brow wrinkled in thought, the large metal eyepatch hid part of his face. Gage rubbed at the dark stubble on his jaw and asked; "That's not some tall tale then? There were rumors, but I never saw any truth in them. Vault-Tec really did experiment on people?"

"They still do." Frost told him with certainty. "Not all of the Vaults have been found yet. Each one is reputed to have run a different type of experiment on its inhabitants. There are still people out there living or trapped underground, that have no idea of what the Wasteland is like."

"Fuck. That makes some of us raiders look like stand up citizens. We mostly do what we do to survive. But that's just..."

"Sadistic? Yeah, it is."

"Then you... What did they do to you in Vault 111? Some kind of anti-aging serum?" Gage was having a hard time wrapping his head around this new information, but he believed the boss. Up until this point she hadn't given him any reason to doubt her. Most people wouldn't admit to being a Vault dweller at all. She had not hesitated to tell him about her plan to take on the Institute, either. Gage was beginning to learn that the Overboss seemed to be an all or nothing kind of girl. As far as he could tell she wasn't being half assed with him, although he knew there were some things she wasn't ready to talk about when she responded to his inquiry.

"I...we...were all frozen. The Overseer and 'doctors' that greeted us when we arrived told us we would have to go through a decontamination procedure inside these pods. Everyone was separated, including my...family, and neighbors. We were put on ice. I saw more of the inside of the Vault while I was trying to escape than I ever did while I 'lived' there. When I woke up everyone was dead or gone."

"How? Did they open the Vault and just leave you, or what?"

"Not exactly. Vault 111 was never meant to be a long-term residence facility. They weren't stocked with enough supplies to support all of us, which is why I'm assuming we were frozen. The caretakers, that is; the scientists and the Overseer, plus the maintenance personnel, ran out of food pretty quickly. According to the computer records I hacked in to, they were waiting for an all-clear signal from Vault-Tec that never came. All of the staff wanted to open the vault and leave, but the Overseer refused to let them. There was a mutiny, and they ended up killing each other. Without someone to maintain the life support systems, the cryo pods malfunctioned, and most of us died."

"What happened to the ones that didn't? Die, I mean."

"Some people came in to the Vault. One was a scientist and the other was a hired gun. They opened my pod looking for something. When they didn't like what they found the mercenary shot me and sealed me back inside; I froze up again. They took what they wanted and left. When the systems failed completely I thawed out and woke up." Every word was true. The only things Frost omitted were that the intruders had been looking for her child, and that there had been one other survivor; her ex-husband. She hadn't known right away. He`d thawed before she had, and assumed she was dead. She had never seen the look on his face as he stood outside her pod, his hands and face pressed against the bloodied frosted glass as he swore he would find whoever killed her and took their son Shaun. An ugly, oily feeling of hatred and betrayal welled up in her gut as she thought about how he'd left her without a second thought.

"How did you survive being shot?" Gage asked curiously as the two of them crossed the bridge leading back in to Nuka World. To their right loomed the planet shaped structures and alien towers of the Galactic Zone.

"Being frozen is probably what saved me. I was shot in the shoulder, but nothing vital was hit. It`s a good thing the guy was a terrible shot up close. A few inches lower or to the right and I would have been dead. I think the only thing that convinced them was how much I bled. Thankfully the cold slowed my heart rate enough that the blood congealed and stopped the possible spread of infection. When I came to I stumbled around in the dark until I found the Overseer`s apartment. There was a surgical grade med kit locked in a cabinet in his bathroom. I used the stimpak and some sutures inside to patch myself up."

Gage was giving her a blank look. Whether it was because he didn't understand what the word 'sutures' meant, or because he disbelieved she was capable of giving herself stitches without anesthetic wasn't apparent. He blinked skeptically and looked her up and down. "So a little thing like yourself just survived being shot, walked out of a Vault in to the wasteland after a couple of centuries, easy as you please, and joined up with the Gunners?"

"Pfft. Haha. Hell no. I limped out, carrying the Overseer`s pistol, first of all. Went to my old neighborhood nearby and scavenged what I could for supplies. Then I started looking for the dickhead that shot me so I could find out what the hell happened." She didn't want to tell him about all of this, but he was easy to talk to, and she was knee deep in it now. They were passing Fizztop Mountain. The Disciples guarding the entrance to their lair looked a little less unfriendly than they had before. They weren't smiling, exactly. But one of them nodded at Frost and Gage in approval as they passed by. Throughout the plaza this phenomenon repeated itself. It seemed the gang had seen their flag raised and were pleased with their new territory. The Pack members and the Operators however, were visibly sulking. A few were glaring; clearly they were jealous. Gage interrupted the Overboss`s observations, although she knew he`d noticed the other raiders` reactions too.

"And?"

"And, what?"

"Did you find the guy? What happened?"

"I killed him." Frost replied, and left it at that. They passed by the Parlor and the Nuka Cade, and had nearly reached their destination in the marketplace when her companion stopped walking. "What?" She asked, and he pointed.

Near one of the stalls an argument was breaking out. A short man dressed in a tan leather duster that was missing a sleeve was threatening the vendor. He had the front of the larger man`s clothes grasped in one hand and a combat knife in the other. He was all but pulling the guy over his own counter. Frost would have recognized that narrow-chinned, lanky bastard anywhere. Even if she hadn't heard the dulcet sound of MacCready`s interrogation techniques numerous times before. Her first thought was to wonder how much deeper in trouble she possibly get. She had not expected the ex Gunner to follow her here. She`d made it abundantly clear she had no interest in continuing to work with him, or so she'd thought.

"How about you tell me what I want to know and no one has to get hurt?"

"The only one about to get hurt here is you, pal." The merchant told his assailant as he spotted the Overboss and her second in command coming towards them.

"You`ll be missing an eye before your raider friends can fire a shot." MacCready barked. He thought the trader was talking about the patrol guards on the catwalks above them.

"I`m not friends with this guy, but last time I checked, I`m faster with a gun than you are with a blade, MacCready. That guy you`re harassing, works for me." Frost was already regretting this. Why did he have to show up here of all places? She knew there was no way she was going to get out of talking to him. Not even a week here and her past was already catching up with her. She`d thought the raiders would be a good barrier between her and the rest of the Commonwealth. MacCready`s arrival proved her wrong. She glared at him as he abruptly released the other man and spun around to face his previous partner. About ten feet of space separated them, and her pistol was already drawn, unwavering as it pointed at his chest. A few steps behind her and off to one side stood Gage, his rifle also at the ready.

"You always were a tough lady, Frost, but I never expected you to be running with raiders." MacCready tucked the knife back in his belt and put his hands in the air, clearly surrendering.

"You`re looking at the new Overboss of Nuka World. Unlike with the Gunners, raiders don`t mind following a woman. All I had to do was kill their previous Overboss and the position became mine." She didn't lower her gun. Neither did Gage or the other raiders watching the confrontation.

"The Gunners are cap hungry mercenaries who want to pretend they`re hardass soldiers with a code. Turns out I didn`t agree with all their policies either, which is why I left."

"Not sure I believe that. What are you doing here, MacCready?" The boss asked flatly.

"Looking for you."

"If you came to try and drag me back then you'd better turn around and leave now. My trigger finger is getting itchy."

"I swear on my life that's not why I'm here." The mercenary saw that his statement gave his acquaintance pause, and he continued. "I told you I`ve left the Gunners. You`re the only one that's ever left and lived to tell about it as far as I know, and it started a trend. People are defecting left and right, joining up with Talon Company, or even heading as far as the NCR to work for the Crimson Caravan or the Gunrunners. Barnes and Winlock are furious. They heard about the trail of jobs you took on your way to get here, and the pile of caps you made."

"As if I care. Cut to the chase." Her arm was getting tired, but her she wasn't showing it yet. If the next words out of his mouth weren't an actual explanation she really was going to shoot him.

"You`re getting impatient, I see. Fine. The Gunners that are left have been hunting down and killing everyone they can trying to find you. Barnes blames you for starting the whole 'Gunner gone rogue' movement, and Winlock has had it out for you since you refused his offer. They`re coming for you, and for me since I left too. I hitched a ride with that chick to come warn you." MacCready jerked a thumb over his shoulder in the direction of a small trade caravan led by a thin woman with a sallow face and bruised looking eyes. Her name was Cricket, and she didn't appear too happy to be named in affiliation with the merc. Frost slowly lowered her gun and sheathed it in her shoulder holster.

"Boss?" Gage spoke up as he watched her put away her weapon. The tension in the air slowly began to drain away as others followed her lead. Gage wasn`t sure he was ready to take this stranger`s word at face value, however.

"It`s alright Gage." The woman gestured for him to lower his rifle as well, but did not take her eyes off the newcomer. She asked MacCready; "Let me guess, you didn`t come to warn me out of the goodness of your heart, did you?"

"You know me well. I came to ask for your help."