Lillie opened her eyes.
It was―well, not what she'd expected. She'd entered the simulation as directed by the robobrains in the Vault, but...
Everything was presented in black and white―that, she expected. But she was surrounded by a pristine environment, in which she'd appeared without celebration, containing a circular road with several houses around it. She noticed several people walking around; some were talking to each other, or buying drinks from a small boy at a stand outside of one house. The place was peaceful, a dramatic change from the outside world.
She looked down, wondering how it had changed her own self. She wasn't the adult she ought to have been, but had appeared as an average eleven-year old girl. Not much difference, there, either.
Lillie blinked and examined her surroundings again, a smile crossing her face. The whole of this was... a place where people were alive, but unharmed, where they could live in their make-believe world and everything always went well. A place to play pretend, a place to... to live as one wanted to, without fear. This was her element.
Tranquility Lane. What an apt name for the place.
She glanced around and approached another small girl, who was humming to herself as she watered the plants at the center of the simulation.
"Hiya!" the little girl said, cheerfully. "I'm Betty!"
Lillie smiled at her, showing a little teeth. "Hello. I'm Lillie," she said, in the same tone. "Could you tell me..."
"Do you like games?" Betty asked, interrupting her. "I love to play games!"
Lillie closed her mouth and blinked at the girl. Tilted her head to the side and smiled again. "Yes, I like games," she said, as if she hadn't been interrupted.
Betty beamed at her. "I know a really fun game we can play."
Lillie listened to Betty, carefully.
It was less than five minutes later when she pulled herself from the lounger and stood in the center of the room, staring blankly at the far wall.
Despite her having little knowledge of the Vault and its reason for existence, she knew what had to be done in the end. The never-ending simulation―the changing of the venue occasionally, by that madman―all of it, was abhorrent. Lillie knew what it was like, to want to run away from everything―
But to always escape, and to never reap the benefits of the real world? That was awful. The old woman knew what was up, forever kept confused, touted as delusional by the others―the little boy, trapped in his forever state, never to grow older―
The people in this place had been dominated by their own tyrant, a madman with an ever-changing appearance who toyed with them, much as President Eden had been toying with her.
She shuddered to herself. Running away into something like Tranquility Lane had been a temporary escape for her, when she was younger. She knew it was not meant to be permanent. Eventually she would be thrust back into the real world, and so she'd enjoyed her ability to escape.
But they couldn't escape that Wonderland. Not with Dr. Braun treating them like―she didn't want to imagine how long two hundred years could seem, stuck in that horrid simulation. Not being able to come back to reality―
Reality had been just as wonderful, for her. When she'd come to realize her...
She felt a stabbing pain in her chest. Her feelings, for... for Colonel Autumn. Her knight in shining power armor. The pain she felt when she'd realized he was dead, which had been stemmed by the realization that she could still see, suddenly slammed back into her.
Lillie leaned back against the lounger, letting herself slide down to the floor. She put her knees up, placing her elbows against them, and covered her eyes with her hands. The terrible pain in her chest rippled out and engulfed her head, making her eyes flood her hands with tears.
A loud keening noise ripped from her throat. Jericho walked around the lounger; she could hear him coughing. He didn't say a word as she cried her heart out.
It was―she knew that President Eden wouldn't allow for Colonel Autumn to die, not if he could reliably use him to produce his goals. Her dad had killed the Colonel, and her dad had only died because―because President Eden wanted the purifier, and her dad was an idiot―
He'd wanted to see his dream―her mother's dream―come true. That was all, just an idealistic want to carry on the dream of a loved one who'd died.
Her mother died because she'd been born. Her dad died because she'd been blinded, because they'd had to go to the Enclave for safety. Colonel Autumn had died because she'd gotten her dad to the purifier, because she was trying to play President Eden's manipulation game.
Every one of those people were dead because of her. Because she existed―
She ground her hands into her eyes, letting the sobs fade into shudders. Tried to control herself, to come back from the edge. She'd been there before―
She threw a hand backward and up, punching the side of the lounger. Drew back a hand, shakily, and pushed herself upward. "Let's get out of here," she told Jericho, holding her now broken hand curled up near her shoulder.
He kept his mouth shut as he followed her from the Vault.
"It wasn't the right Vault," she told Jericho, as they were exiting the garage above the place. He nodded, coughing with his mouth closed, watching her with hooded eyes. He'd been acting like that, being quiet and minding his bad behavior, since she'd taken out Evergreen Mills. Wouldn't have had to do that, if they'd not run into the raiders.
In a way, she was glad to have had the opportunity to end his paranoia. Without the threat of the raiders, he was more focused on helping her―efficiently taking down threats and furthering her goals in a more than adequate manner. He was... well, now he acted like he was terrified of her.
That might be amusing if she didn't have so many other things on her mind, so many things that she had to sort out―and Jericho being scared of her wasn't exactly a bad thing, he'd stopped the grumbling commentary peppered with curses―
She sighed to herself, running a hand up her head and brushing her hair back. Hadn't wanted the situation to end like it had, though. Jericho had a permanent limp now, shuffling around behind her in a way that drew more attention than they needed. His hand―she pressed her mouth together. She'd expected the raiders would tie him up and put him over a fire rather than maim him.
Lillie looked back at him, saw him watching her, saw how he twitched when she put her eyes on his. Really, didn't enjoy being the cause for that. She opened her mouth to say something, but her words failed her. Wasn't enjoying that, either; she'd tried to apologize for him being hurt, but...
She heard a small noise, so small she could barely recognize it. Lillie blinked, staring out into the wastes, confused. For a moment, she didn't see it. But as she moved her gaze from one side of the area to the other, and caught Jericho in her periphery, she noticed an eyebot banging against the wall of the garage.
She frowned, pulling her pistol. Jericho grew more animated, lifting his rifle to his eye and striding forward a few steps. "Stop," she whispered. He dropped his foot with a loud thump, but didn't take his eyes off of the eyebot.
She moved with a careful sidestep toward the eyebot, never lowering her pistol. It was mobile, repeatedly hitting the side of the building. She frowned, glancing around. Maybe it had a mechanical defect―or was a rogue eyebot, and would shoot at them―
As she came closer, it beeped in recognition and stopped itself. She set her feet, preparing for anything. A moment later, a holotape ejected from the back of the bot, landing in the rubble. It beeped again, and started away from them.
Lillie watched it moving away, keeping her pistol up, and didn't move until it was out of sight. She reached down and grabbed the holotape, brushed dirt from the outside, and stared at the thin handwriting. This was...
Her hands started to shake. After a moment, she dropped the pistol and scrabbled at her pockets, trying to find―
She pulled the scrap of paper with Colonel Autumn's message on it, comparing the writing. It was the same―she opened the top of her Pip-Boy and hurriedly jammed the tape into it, staring at the controls and trying to remember how it worked―
It... wasn't his voice, but a similar one. "I don't know if I can trust President Eden," the man said. She felt her heart sinking, crestfallen. She'd thought―she'd hoped―
"Priority Override, Authorization code 420-03-20-9." The holotape seemed to end, but then... a crackle of audio sounded. She stared at her Pip-Boy, fighting a new wave of tears, as new audio began to play.
"Lillie, these are your orders. To the west of E4 point zero-two. Access is limited on the surface. Seek out a nearby cave system for admission."
Colonel Autumn's voice. She felt her knees going weak. He was―he had to be―the holotape was―he was alive! Her heart soared, flying up into her throat and choking her with newfound tears and hope and relief―
"Return to me, when you find your objective." President Eden. The feeling of hope in her chest shattered into a million pieces. Eden was still playing the game and the Colonel was still trapped in that bunker, with him. She let her legs go, falling to her knees. After a moment of staring blankly at the ground, she replayed the holotape.
The first part. She memorized the override, playing it repeatedly. She could hear Jericho standing behind her, his boots scuffling on the ground as he turned to watch the distance. Once she could quote off the numbers without any mistakes, she let it play the rest.
E4.02 was an Enclave site to the north, near a partly functional gas station. It was a stopping point for Vertibirds, to resupply―she'd stared at the map with all the markers, for so long... President Eden had told her to memorize it, so that she wouldn't get lost. Told her where the camps would be, in great detail.
So that she... she sighed, closing her eyes. She was sure that the President had wanted her to use that information to avoid being caught, until she was able to track down the thing her father had been looking for. The G.E.C.K. was in this Vault near that camp, and the President was telling her how to find it.
If she went after the G.E.C.K. in the Vault he'd referred to, she would be caught. There was no other ending to this.
Lillie stood up, removing the holotape from the Pip-Boy and putting it away. She turned to Jericho and stared at him for a long time before speaking, watching the small movements in his face.
"You said... 'one last fuckin' hurrah'?" He twitched violently when she spoke. Lillie sighed.
"...Not about the money," he muttered, under his breath.
"Yes," she said, smiling gently at him. "I'm sorry... that things have gone this way. But I made you a promise. And I intend to keep it."
He didn't reply, only stared at her with an increasingly twitching face. She turned herself out to the north, and narrowed her eyes at the distance.
"C'mon, Jericho," she said, motioning at him to follow. "Let's go stir up shit."