Note: Enclave to the core. I'm in a weird spot right now, trying to push through it. I promise this awkward crap will be done with soon. Let me get in my element

Lillie approached the town near Vault 101, keeping an eye out for danger. She'd dealt with a few things already; mostly radscorpions, but she had run into people of an undesirable nature. People who she'd put down when no other option presented itself.

Raiders. Why bother working at it, when you could take what other people had. Lillie was disgusted with the idea, with the people who thought it was okay to steal and kill. They were just another abomination in the wastes that needed to be destroyed. Danger that was unnecessary.

She'd killed them because they would have killed her, and because she'd seen no reason to let them live.

Megaton, the town outside of the Vault, was a dreary place. Even in full sunlight―they were living around an undetonated bomb! How could they not be worried? How could they―oh, and she'd met that Confessor standing in the water, deliberately exposing himself to the radiation. Really? He was really allowing himself to wallow in that nasty water, because he thought nuclear fission was something worthy of experiencing? She couldn't bear to listen to his preaching. It made her upset. So―so horrible.

Now she understood why President Eden was so focused. It was their duty as the Enclave to protect these people; to keep them from hurting themselves, from reveling in the horror that the world had become. They didn't know any better, and they needed the help. Some were pathetically wishing for death.

Colonel Autumn... had never talked about the wastes. He'd never said much of anything except to berate her for being useless. Her face filled with blood. All of that... his meanness... had been brought out by President Eden, for some reason. She hoped he understood her message―the words were meant to be seen in many ways. She hoped Colonel Autumn would understand when he spoke to President Eden to find out where the words were from, and that he would not believe what the President took away from them. She'd intended for him to see the words as her solemn promise to him, that she would help him.

She also hoped... that he would forgive her for attacking him, if he'd truly ordered her arrest. Even if he hadn't. She covered her face for a long while, to hide that she was crying. She had to be careful. The people at Raven Rock were watching her every move.

She would do this―whatever it was Eden wanted of her, and she would find out why they were being manipulated. Then she would return... and... she didn't know. What she did know was that she couldn't be out here for very long. She had to get somewhere safer, and she knew there was one place she could go―

Maybe. If the option was still open to her. She needed information, first.

Lillie met the sheriff. Told her to mind her p's and q's and not start trouble. She could do that. He also mentioned about the bomb sitting in the middle of town, about how he wanted it dead. He promised her money, if she could. She could really use the money.

God, she was starving. She'd scavenged some potato crisps the day before, but the radiation made her nervous. Her gear couldn't keep out all the rads, being ordinary combat armor, and she didn't have any Rad-X to keep herself safe. She had to eat, though... and she needed to get some meds for the radiation damage she'd already taken.

The town looked a little less dreary, for that. Lillie got directions from the sheriff and made her way to the saloon. If anyone were to know anything about the Vault, it would be a gossip mill such as a bar.

Moriarty's Saloon was where she met her first real-life ghoul―the first one who wasn't feral or stuck in a specimen tube, anyway. Right inside the door, she saw the peeling skin, the eyelids that no longer existed―her breath caught in her throat when he started talking.

Lillie's mouth thinned into a line, her hands clenched into fists. Never mind the whole―abraded―nature of his body―how could one continue to exist after being made into a monster?! She glanced around the bar, identified the man in charge, and set herself onto him. The sooner she got herself out of this place, the better.

"Colin Moriarty, at your service," the gray-haired man said, in an accented voice. "If you want a drink, talk to Gob. Need a room? Nova handles that." He gestured at the woman leaning against the wall, looking sour and tired.

"No, thank you," Lillie said, and tilted her head at the man. He carried himself like someone in charge, but there was something else―something she could barely see. Something that told her he was interested in her being there, that he wanted to know more.

She could use that against him. She knew she could.

"I need information. You know your business. Talk to me."

"Ach, I like you. Already in charge." Moriarty smiled slowly, and invited her to sit at the counter. "We can pow-wow. What do you need?"

Lillie sat down, keeping her hands off the counter top, and stared him down. "I need to know about the local Vault."

"Hang on now," Moriarty said. He put his elbow in his hand and the other grazed his beard. "You look familiar."

"I doubt that," Lillie said, sourly. She'd been a baby when she was last in the area―

"I got it." Moriarty pointed at her and smiled. "James' girl. I haven't seen you since you were a wee babe. You look just like your daddy." He leaned onto his hands, on the edge of the counter. "What can I do for you?"

"I'm looking for information, not chit-chat," Lillie said, trying to be firm. "I need to know how to get into Vault 101."

"That's your game, is it?" Moriarty leaned back, giving her a more serious attitude. "Listen, lass, information is a commodity. You want to know, you have to pay."

Lillie sighed to herself. She didn't actually have the money. God forbid any of these people actually be altruistic. "I'll have to get back to you," she said, pushing herself up from the stool. "I am, at the moment, out of caps."

Moriarty fixed her with a calculating look. "There are other ways to pay―" he started, and Lillie's fingers tightened against the peeling vinyl of the barstool. "You give me information, I'll give you what you want," he finished, his voice hard. "Unless you'd rather give up the caps. It'll be one hundred, mind."

"What in the world would I have to tell you?" she asked, her eyes narrowing at him. That―was a lot of money. She only grabbed a handful from the raiders. Should have taken their food, she could have found someone here to buy it. Lillie grumbled to herself. Could have eaten it, too.

"You haven't been in that Vault all these years, now," Moriarty said. "I know James left the area. He didn't get in."

"No, I didn't grow up there." Lillie stared him down. Her brain logged the information and processed it, quickly. What he said didn't make sense. What?

"Didn't get in"? Why would her dad want to get into the Vault? They were from the Vault, weren't they? She needed time to think about that―her head ached, from lack of sleep.

"Where did the both of you, end up?" Moriarty asked. "If you can give me something worth what you're asking―well, then I'll owe you."

She put the idea out of her mind for the moment. Needed every available cell to deal with this man, who she was steadily realizing she ought not to have bothered with in her sleepless and starving state. Her stomach rumbled and reminded her, unnecessarily.

Should have gotten that food anyway. Wouldn't do for her to starve to death out here.

"I only want to know how to get into that place," Lillie said, shaking off the fatigue unsuccessfully. "That is it. I don't have any other information that you would consider useful."

"Maybe, maybe not." Moriarty looked her over. "Wherever you went..." He blinked at her, without emotion. "Maybe you know more than you're letting on, now."

"Whatever," Lillie muttered, standing up and starting to walk away. She needed to leave. This wasn't going well.

"Don't be like that, now." Moriarty chuckled. "Tell you what, maybe you can help me with something."

She listened to what he was asking, and told him she would consider the option. He wanted her to shake down a local woman for some owed caps, and she didn't see that the action would be beneficial. Other than to get his information―but she didn't even know she wanted that, anymore.

This Moriarty was a keen businessman, and he clearly knew how to skew a conversation to benefit himself more than he deserved. She scoffed before she removed herself from his presence, but was held up before she managed to get outside.

"You," the man in the corner was saying. "I think you and I could have a conversation. Please, come sit."

Lillie rubbed her eyes and stared at the wall blankly. How long had it been since she slept? Her stomach was aching with hunger, her head fuzzy, her hands shaking from the strain. She was in no shape to talk to anyone, and she shouldn't have had that talk with Moriarty―

She slumped into the chair beside the man and closed her eyes, her head thrown back into the chair and body limp. "I'm sorry, sir," she mumbled. "I'm... not much use right now."

"My, my." He leaned forward and cast an eye over the bar, then turned his head to her. "This place has sapped your energy so very quickly. My dear girl, I am very happy to make your acquaintance." He smiled. "I am Mister Burke."

"Mm-hmm," she said, feeling the sleepiness overtaking her.

"And you, well, you are not a resident of this putrescent cesspool. That makes you a rather valuable individual."

Lillie opened her eyes and stared at the man, moving herself into a better position to watch him. "You don't sound like one of them," she said, without indicating who.

"I should hope not. I represent certain... interests." He adjusted his tie and brushed off his pants. "Interests that harbor no love for this place... this blight on a burgeoning urban landscape."

Lillie watched him speaking. "I don't care for it, either," she said. "I haven't found any place worth my time and energy, to be honest."

Burke chuckled. "It is rather depressing, is it not? But I have a feeling about you... You could assist my interests, in erasing this little accident off the map. The bomb for which this town is named, is still very much alive―"

Lillie closed her eyes, sighed out and leaned back in the chair. "I don't think that's something I would be interested in doing," she said, tiredly.

"Megaton means nothing to you!" Burke said. "You'll rig the bomb. Then you'll get paid. Handsomely. What do you say?"

"Doesn't matter," she muttered, swallowing. Her throat was really dry. Maybe... she ought to get a room in the bar and something to drink―but she didn't want to sleep in this town, not with that bomb that could blow up at any second―

"Once rigged to the bomb, it will be detonated, by you, at a secure location. Easy money, my friend."

And this man here, telling her he wanted the bomb to blow, too. She shook her head slowly. "No, thank you, Mister Burke. Much as I would rather this place not exist, it does. I can't honestly say I would kill everyone here, just for some money."

Burke stared at her for a moment, then narrowed his eyes. "You must think about this, my dear. If your physical state is an indication of your status... well, you don't seem the type to be satisfied with transiency. What I'm offering you is a place to exist as a stanchion, standing tall above the lowest bars."

Lillie stared back at him. "I will think about it, Mister Burke. You have my promise. Just... let me... think."

"Good, good." Burke turned away and looked out into the bar, lighting a cigarette. "I get the feeling that you, much like myself, enjoy when things go your way."

Lillie sighed, and let herself sink back into the chair. "I don't even know what my way is," she muttered, before sleep overtook her.