MacCready handed the girl a can of purified water as he walked by, leaving her to her thoughts while he returned to his rucksack to remove the last of the contents they'd found up the road at Sanctuary Hills. She was nervous leaving the safety of their camp, but equally anxious to take a look around and stretch her legs. They'd returned just before the noonday heat was at its worst and she planted herself in her usual spot on the floor with her back against a wall, feeling dejected at her second, more thorough look at the state of things. Lowering himself to the floor across from her, MacCready added a few boxes of ammo to the pile between them, as well as some assorted cans of food.
"I'm surprised there was this much ammo up there. It doesn't seem like anyone's been there for awhile." He said this while digging around his pocket for a cigarette, popping it between his lips and lighting it with his new found flip lighter.
She nodded in agreement, "Not surprised; 90% of it didn't seem livable."
He chuckled and exhaled smoke without removing the cigarette from his mouth, even managing to speak, "You think? Boy, you're gonna be fu-.. really shocked to see where people bunker down."
They'd been staying at the Red Rocket truck stop for the better part of a week while the girl tried to get her bearings. It was probably strange dealing with somebody who had zero clue about the world around her, but he was patient with her. If anything, she was grateful that he had so much to teach her because without a single memory of anything before she awoke, it's not like they had a lot of back and forth discovering to do about one another. MacCready didn't seem pressed to say much about himself other than the bare minimum. He'd told her, rather carefully on the day he found her, that he was a mercenary for hire and it was clear he didn't want to scare her any more than she already was with that news. "Explains the bullets, though, right?" he had said with a grin, which prompted a small laugh from her.
The girl wrinkled her nose at the thought of the living conditions of the wasteland, the stomach turning mental images cut off as a cold nose touched the side of her face, followed by a few laps of a rough tongue. The dog, who they creatively named Dogmeat, licked her face a few more times and then stretched out next to her. Dogmeat had come wandering out of the truck stop as MacReady and her approached without even a trace of aggression. It was clear he no longer had an owner and she had decided right there that he was staying with them. She thought to herself that she was clearly an animal lover and considered that one win for her search of who she was. Unfortunately, it was the only moment of clarity she had since she'd entered this new and strange world.
When she tentatively asked why everything was so... dreary, MacCready briefly explained to her how the "Great War" had caused the end of humanity as it was known a long time ago- long enough that not a lot of people could really tell you exactly what had happened. As far as he knew, the vaults were created as shelters from the inevitable war and that there were generations of people who had lived without ever leaving the safety of their underground bunkers. Others weren't so lucky and were stuck in the wasteland, born and raised, to fend for themselves. She'd gotten overwhelmed by the information and he left it at that. She decided that she'd ask for all the details eventually, but for now she couldn't quite wrap her head around everything that was happening. First she woke up in a frozen tube, then she had the heavy realization that she had no idea who she was, and as if that wasn't bad enough it was followed by the bombshell that the world had basically ended at some point.
Scratching the top of Dogmeat's head, she suddenly had a thought, "The vault- do you think we can go back down there?"
MacCready looked perplexed, grinding the last of his cigarette on the floor, "Why would you want to? It was depressing as heck."
She shrugged, "I don't know who I am- but what we both know is that I was frozen by ummm Vault-Tec? I don't know why they did it or how I got there..." her voice trailed while she put together her thoughts, "Maybe they have files? You said there were a lot of people down there- they had to have kept track of them, right?"
"Huh." Her companion nodded, "It's worth a look. From what I saw when I was in there digging around for scrap, most if not all of the terminals were pretty messed up. They might have paper copies for backup?"
It was decided- he would escort her back after they had lunch. Although their canine companion whined as if to argue while they readied themselves to leave, she reassured Dogmeat that they'd be back soon.
MacCready generally had a sarcastic, light hearted way of speaking, but as they were stepping off the property line of the Red Rocket, he glanced back at her and said seriously, "Stay close behind me, alright? If I say duck, duck. If I say run, run." When she nodded, he nodded back and took his rifle off his back, holding it across his pelvis at the ready. She knew that he'd only grazed the surface about the wasteland and she wondered just how much worse it could be out there if he was wandering around with a high powered gun.
The girl knew she'd find out eventually- but she didn't know if she wanted to.