The giant steel door of Vault 111 opened with a metallic screech that was all too familiar to Nate. The giant fallout shelter, now abandoned, still hosted the body of Nora, his former wife and the mother of his first son, Shaun. Her corpse was still perfectly preserved inside her cryogenic pod who hasn't been opened since she was shot by Kellog. Nate was ashamed that in twelve years since he exited Vault 111, he never had a chance to offer her a proper funeral. Now, he wanted to rectify that.

Nate, Nick, Hancock and Piper entered the Vault, accompanied by four other men from Diamond City. Outside, six other guys awaited them in an improvised Brahmin driven carriage.

"Wow, Blue. I must say, this place is incredible. I know you don't have happy memories with it but the technology is amazing. Thanks for taking me with you, guys!"

"How could we possibly let you out since you've been blabbering about it for days! Now, feast your eyes, Piper!"

"For your information, Hancock, I am a journalist. It's the first time I've had a chance to enter one of these vaults. The people need to know!"

"Piper is right, John. Besides, we are here for Nate! Especially for him!"

"That's right, Nicky."

Hancock grunted and approached Nate, who stood frozen in front of his former wife's pod.

"You alright?"

"Yeah… Just memories. I remember the last time Nora and I went to dinner. Three days before the bombs fell, we went to this expensive restaurant in Boston. All the night I admired how beautiful she was and contemplated how lucky I was to be with someone like her. And then…"

Nick put his left hand on Nate's shoulder:

"It's OK. It's true, you lost a world when the War started but right now, you have another chance at happiness, something not many can say they've obtained."

"That's right, Blue. Chin up. We're here for you!"

"Yeah. Think about Sandra and the kid. You must be strong for him; especially about how soft he is. Did I tell you about how he threatened to never again speak to me if I hurt that shit who stole my things?"

Nate smiled:

"Hey, it seems that if you obeyed him, you really want him to talk to you again."

"Well… yeah, that goes without saying."

Piper laughed:

"Well, well, I knew that underneath your tough talk and manners you are just a big teddy bear!"

Hancock frowned and before he had a chance to say anything, Valentine spoke:

"Now, now, let's calm down. Now, Nate, if we open the cryo pod's door and take Nora outside of the airtight environment, it is possible that she will start to decay extremely quickly. Do you want to tell the boys outside to bring that metal coffin in or do you want us to try to remove the pod in its entirety?"

"Uh… I really do not want her to… just… turn into dust or something, but I reckon it will be a lot harder to take this entire contraption with us."

"That it is."

"So… Let's just open the pod and put her quickly into the coffin we brought."

"Good. Bud, go outside and signal the boys to bring in the coffin!"

"Yes, Mr. Valentine!"

After thinking for a few seconds, Nate spoke to the remaining persons in the Vault:

"Hey, guys, we take Nora out and bury her but… what about the others here? We must bring closure to them too… It's not their fault they were caught in all of this!"

"Well, you're right. We should take them out the pods too and bury them outside."

"How many of them are here?"

Nate went to a nearby console which was still functional and looked in the database.

"Excluding me, Nora and Shaun… 93!"

Piper gasped:

"Blue… That's horrible!"

Hancock was outraged:

"Death isn't punishment enough for those who did something like this to people!"

Nick went to another console and then said:

"Well, I remember from my time in Vault 114 that all these shelters have special rooms in which they incinerate the dead. And the one in Vault 111 is just below us, according to the console. I'll go find more coffins there, or at least body bags. Kenny, Rick, come with me. Ernie, stay here to help Nate when Bud returns with the coffin for Nora!"

"Yes, sir."

After Nick and the others left, Nate and his remaining companions took a little break. Hancock continued to look into the Vault 111 console.

"You know, Nate, these Vaults weren't such a bad idea if they wouldn't run these crazy experiments. I mean, they had the potential to save a lot of people and now the society wouldn't be as messed up as it is!"

"Yes. Think about the people in Vault 88. There are 82 people there and they are pretty happy, well, as happy as you can be in this world. They have clean water, shelter, food and of course, safety. And nobody is experimenting on them. Too bad is 222 years later."

Piper laughed:

"Well, better late than never. You are a great Overseer, far better than that Barstow lady ghoul. Shh, I hear something."

"The Vault elevator. I think it's the guys outside!"

Indeed, Bud and two other men brought in a metallic coffin in order to put Nora in.

"Sorry we're late, Mr. Nate, but we had some trouble with some molerats. But we took care of things!"

"Good job!"

After a couple of minutes, Nick and the other two returned upstairs.

"There's a whole lot of body bags downstairs. Enough for all the people in the pods. Come on, let's do this!"

They started to open each pod with each body being inserted into a bag within minutes. In half an hour, all 93 were bagged and Kenny, Rick, Bud and Ernie took them to the elevator. Only Nora was still in a pod, as the metallic coffin was prepared.

"Now, here goes nothing."

Nate pulled the lever from Nora's pod which opened only after a few minutes. The sole survivor of Vault 111 thought that happened because of the fact that he opened the pod 12 years ago when he took her wedding ring. Probably that caused a malfunction with the device. Eventually, the door opened with Nora almost falling from it if not for Nate and Nick's intervention. After putting his wife in the coffin, Nate collapsed on his knees and started to cry. Piper approached him:

"Hey, Blue… it's alright. Do you want us to leave you for a minute?"

"No… I need you here with me. I want you here with me. You are my friends in this new world. Each of you are part of my family now and family needs to stick together. I couldn't bring Sandra here and even though Danny insisted, I couldn't bring him either. He is just 9… I want to spare him the pain, at least for now. Thank you all for being here!"

Hancock shook Nate's hand:

"Well, thank you for having us… This ragtag band of weirdos will always have your back, no matter what!"

"You are not weird."

Valentine laughed:

"A goody two-shoes Synth, a junkie Ghoul and a nosy journalist… If that's not the definition of weird…"

"Don't forget a guy who had his ass frozen for more than 200 years."

All of them laughed. It was good for Nate, this laughter, even though it came in those moments. It made him remember that in this messed up Commonwealth, he had family and friends, people he can count on. He and the others took Nora outside the Vault.

Few hours later, all the other residents' bodies were buried near the entrance to Vault 111. Each of them had their names inscribed on planks that acted as their tombstone. Nate knew the majority of them so on those he knew, he inscribed on the planks the religious symbol of their confession like crosses or stars of David. On the others, he just wrote their names and on all the 93 tombstones he wrote the word HERO.

"Now, I hope you found your peace, in death. Guys, let's take Nora to Sanctuary."