Wade expected the ISD piece to be in the ant mounds outside Celia's hideout. He knew she hadn't been rounded up with the rest of Stockton, much to Mayer's dismay. Neither had the ghoul who was so attached to her. After travelling to Stockton, finding nothing in the now-abandoned town or the ant mounds, Wade visited the little hideout but didn't search through it. No one was there, of course, the door was locked. He expected that, too.

The infrasonic emitter was still operational, and no ants had overrun the base. He looked up at the tower and entered the radio tower, and disabled it. He didn't like the feel of the sounds as they vibrated through his skin. All other equipment at the base was running as it had when Sigma left.

For a few weeks he camped out in Stockton, and cared for the Brahmin that were left behind, tending the crops that were going to waste. He ate in the mess hall, borrowed a few books from Calhoun's office. Wade wondered if he'd been successfully conditioned. He didn't want to hope that any of the people were still alive. It was pointless.

He reviewed the information on the ISD again. Both pieces were capable of emitting a distinct infrasonic signal. If it was near, and active, he should be able to locate it with his Pip-Boy. He considered it unlikely that the ISD would be active, though he did scan the area frequently. It's probably sitting in some wastelander's trash heap, or buried in a pile of radioactive sludge, he thought.

Wade moved outwards from the base in a spiral, scanning and investigating. Every time he saw a hot sunrise, or a cold sunset, he stopped to stare out over the wastes. He was thankful for the opportunity. Every slow-moving body of water, every green bit of scrub, every small animal he ran across, represented what he'd been denied before. It was enlightening to move across the wastes without having to shoot at everything in sight, or eliminate what Control considered a threat.

Wade also brushed up on his gun skills. He'd had it easy with Sigma, with three other people who were the best at his back. Armed only with the laser pistol and a finite amount of ammo, he wisely picked up a combat knife from the base as a back-up. This was helpful when he'd run across the yao guai slumbering in the hills west of the base.

Wade's undisguised heavy footfalls, and his beeping Pip-Boy, had woken it up while he was surveying the area near the lake. He'd run into a few Lakelurks, but not anything worse, up to that point. The yao guai came barreling at him from the treeline and Wade panicked, backing into the lake. He'd run through the shallows, shooting at it, until it caught up to him. After a few frenzied jabs and some serious scratches, he'd put it down with the knife.

He limped back to Stockton, and dressed the many, many, wounds he'd received. Stockton was well-supplied with medicine and bandages, and the Mister Handy in the clinic. He ignored the robot, though; it didn't work correctly, and he didn't need it.

While he was tending himself, his motion detector registered movement outside. He armed himself and opened the door of the clinic, slowly, a bandage trailing off his arm.

Two men, both with black hair and leather armor, were walking toward the mess hall. He pulled back and shut the door, and barricaded himself in the O.R. while he finished his bandages.

When he was done, he peered out again. The Pip-Boy indicated that the men had gone into the main building across the road. Wade slipped outside and around the side, entering through the small side door. He edged down the wall of the hallway, listening.

"Definitely," someone said.

"Well, where the hell could all of 'em be?" the other asked.

"Don't swear, Jesse," was the reply. A clicking noise sounded. "If it was unsafe, maybe. Raiders might have forced them out. Lionel said they weren't real smart about the wastes, yet."

"But there were supposed to be robots," the one called Jesse said. "I don't see any of those, anywhere. Or anything other than some minor scavenging, and those graves out there."

"Only two graves, Jesse."

Wade had watched those graves being dug, and he recalled the names of the people in them.

"Hell, Avery―"

"Don't. Swear." A smacking sound came.

"Mnngh!" Jesse groaned. "Stop treating me like a kid!"

"Then stop acting like one. Back-up plan?"

"Fine, let's leave the message. I'll look around for food."

"It is strange, though," the one called Avery said. "No one's here, but the crops are being harvested? And the cattle look well cared for." A loud scraping noise began, and Wade couldn't hear anything over it.

He moved to the double doors leading into the mess hall and took a quick look, but was spotted. The younger of the two raised a rifle to his eye and aimed. "Freeze!" he yelled. "Avery, company!"

Wade kept his pistol up, advancing on the two. "Why are you here?" he asked. The older one, Avery, had been etching a message onto the wall with a power tool. "All Well", it read.

"Whoa, man," Jesse said. "That's far enough. We were looking for the people who lived here."

"Shut up, Jesse," Avery said. "I'm Avery Royce, this is my brother Jesse. You?"

Wade looked from one to the other. Neither looked at all familiar. "Calhoun," he said.

"Oh, good," Avery said. "This is for you, then." He gestured at the wall.

"Yeah?" Wade asked, suspiciously. "Who from?"

"A guy named Lionel." Avery cleared his throat. "He said to tell you everyone's fine, we went north, back after a while."

"That one-armed bastard better not come back here," Wade said, imitating Mayer.

"Why not?" Jesse asked, and was shushed by Avery.

"Because," Wade said, putting himself into the role of the former Overseer, "he lead those damn soldiers down here, got all my people taken south, while he skipped town with the girl."

The two men shared a glance. "What was her name?" Jesse asked.

"Celia, of course, who else?" Wade asked, annoyed. That was an important question to answer. Now they had no reason to doubt him.

"Who's in the graves?" the kid asked.

"Officer Pesaro and the Knowles boy," Wade answered. "Shot down by Sigma."

Avery looked around. "Why are you still here?"

"This is my home," he said, sadly. "I couldn't keep Sigma from taking the others, but I can keep this safe, at least."

Avery nodded. "Okay, man, I get you." He looked at Jesse. The boy lowered his rifle, finally. "You, uh, wanna send a message back for Lionel or Celia?"

Wade considered. The girl had sticky fingers, picking up things she wasn't allowed. She'd taken the striker from On-the-Bay, the prod from his belt, and he'd heard rumors about her from the townsfolk. It was possible that she might have found the ISD and pocketed it, either in the ant mound, or around the town. Who knows what she would have done with it? And going north would take him further away from Detroit, and his inevitable death.

"Where did that grungy old ghoul take Celia, anyway?" he asked the two. "She doesn't belong with him."

Jesse relaxed a little and laughed. "Way north, man."

"You heading back that way?" Wade asked. "I think she ought to be told what really happened by a witness." He hated to make the situation sound so wrong, but it was a role.

"We can run you up north," Avery said, "but you pay for your own food, and we aren't bringing you back unless you hire us."

Wade nodded. "Alright," he said. "Let's go north."