True to her nature, Anastasia woke only a few hours later, and flipped on her Pip-Boy light. She used the restroom, tied up her hair and grabbed her bag. She took all her pictures and letters, and the pillow and blanket from her old bed. Soon enough Charon appeared on the edge of the light emitted by her Pip-Boy, armored up, his pack on his shoulder.

"Did you already get the blanket and pillow from in there?" He nodded. "Good. I'm almost done here, then we can move on to my dad's office.

They walked down the halls in silence, and didn't mention the night before. They passed Butch's living quarters, where his snoring was audible from the halls. Anastasia smiled, but didn't even pause.

Nobody was in the doctor's quarters, so they rummaged through it, taking some of her dad's old notes, a picture of him and Anastasia's mother, and then Anastasia pulled his favorite quote from the bible off the wall to put in her bag to find a safe behind it. She traded Charon the quote for a bobby pin and screwdriver and picked the lock in seconds flat, even in the dark.

In it was some plans for weapons, ammo and a pistol, and a bag of caps marked for Ana. She took it all.

Andy, the vault's Mr. Gutsy robot, was occupying the kitchen, so they just passed it up and headed for the main entrance. When they got out to the vault door they found Amata asleep in a chair by the controls.

"She knows me too well." Anastasia murmured. "But she has no idea there's a way to close and open the vault door it on the outside."

She'd foreseen a hasty getaway in her future, so Anastasia now activated the auto-release she'd placed on the outside controls and as soon as the Vault door was open wide enough for her to squeeze through, she did, and closed it behind her, glancing back at Amata jolting to consciousness.

She looked down as they walked out, and Charon opened the door for her; he knew it wasn't easy for her to leave this place behind, especially a second time.

Charon paused to go back and take the remote activation from the vault controls, and the moment he stepped outside he was aware that Anastasia wasn't there. He heard voices-lots of them.

"So, this is her, eh? She was pretty damn easy to mezz, if you ask me. Must've been something fierce in tat cave to put her out of it like this."

"Nah ain't nutin in dere. I been past here tons of times. Fugget about it."

"Be quiet, she's comin' to!"

"What-?" Charon recognized Anastasia's voice, but it sounded distant, like she'd just woken up.

"Hey, sweetie. You hurt at all? Good."

"Here, babe. Put this necklace on, just like that, good girl." Charon's body tensed.

"Aww sweet man! She's gonna be worth so much money!"

"Shut up!"

Slavers- that necklace must've been a slave collar!

"Hey, you a virgin sweetie?" Charon grimaced.

"Uh, yeah."

"Bonus! You're gonna be worth billions, you know that?"

"Wha-"

"You run your sweet little ass down to Paradise falls, okay? Or that collar's gonna snap your head off, and you'll be worth a lot less than that, right?"

"Oh."

Charon heard them laugh as they started after her and opened the door just a crack to see Anastasia running toward Paradise Falls, kicking up dust for the seven slavers that jogged after her.

Fuck.