Depressing "as heck" didn't cover it.

Peeking out from behind MacCready, the girl glanced around the vault and frowned. Maybe the folks who stayed in vaults their whole life weren't as lucky as she assumed. Most everything was made of buffed metal, the only colours she noted being muted blues, burnt orange and sometimes a muddy green. She had no other description of the space other than "eerie". Even with people roaming around and something to fill the silence, she couldn't imagine the vault ever feeling like home.

Skeletons were littered around the vault like rag dolls- some were wearing the same jumpsuit as her, while others were wearing lab coats and their splayed corpses set some disturbing scenes. One skeleton still had an arm outstretched towards a handgun on the floor just out of its reach, another was hanging over a desk with a very clear bullet hole through the back of its head. Her stomach was knotted, but she wondered why she didn't feel more scared. Maybe it was because it all still seemed too outlandish to be real.

"There's a few rooms we can search through that I remember seeing filing cabinets in." MacCready spoke above a whisper, and below his usual volume, eyes forward and practically unblinking, "I only had to deal with a few roaches before I found you. In the grand scheme that ain't so bad, but they can still be deadly. Stay on your toes."

"Roaches...?" She started to inquire about what he could possibly mean when he said roaches could be deadly and her words got caught in her throat. The skittering noise came first, and then she saw an impossibly large cockroach squeeze itself out from under a collapsed desk and beeline directly to them. She tugged hard at the back of MacCready's jacket and he turned his head to look at the insect coming at them. Fluidly, he turned around and used his arm to move her back behind him. In the same motion, he used his other arm to bring down the butt of his rifle directly onto the shell of the Radroach. She had placed herself directly behind him so she didn't have to see what happened, but she definitely heard it. A disgusting crack followed by a shrill shriek.

Not wanting to see the aftermath, she turned around and waited for MacCready to take the lead again, "Giant roaches? What the hell?"

Their search of the rooms he'd mentioned was relatively fruitless aside from some more ammo, a Stimpak and another handgun that MacCready grabbed and holstered, "I'm gonna have to teach you to use one of these- but for now just stick close. I don't need an accidental bullet to the back of the head." His comment was met with her giving him the side eye, knowing she had no idea now to use a gun but still feeling a little insulted.

Sighing, she leaned against a cabinet while trying to rack her brain for another solution. There had to be at least something in the vault to give her at least one goddamn answer. MacCready closed a desk drawer and mirrored her sigh, "Nothing."

Determination rose up in the girl's chest and she stormed out of the office they were in; if she didn't do this fast she would lose her nerve. MacCready spun around and followed after her , "Hey! What are you doing?"

She'd gotten to a speed just below a run, following the signs bolted to the walls to lead her to the one place she was certain she didn't want to be in the vault. The sounds of her companion's boots behind her helped her feel less scared, but her heart was racing.

Just a bit further.

Her speed didn't help her cross the threshold of the doorway she came to, her feet stopping without her even thinking about it. Looking into the room gave her chills, her stomach knotting worse as she looked at the two rows of identical pods that lined the walls of the room. She didn't have any recollection of this place away from knowing that this was where she woke and yet she felt sick looking at it. Grief was the closest emotion she could name to describe how she felt.

MacCready said nothing and let her take her time entering the room- one little step at a time. She looked into one of the pods and raised her hand to her mouth in shock. In that moment she realized what he had meant when he said that nobody else had survived- and he wasn't talking about the skeletons. Hurrying down the corridor, she saw that every single pod had someone in it. Bodies slumped, hands clutching at throats... they were all frozen in their last moments. She touched her shaking hand against the cold glass, her eyes brimming with tears. Why did any of this happen? Why would Vault-Tec do this?

"Quinn."

Using the back of her hands to wipe at her eyes, she turned to look at MacCready. He was holding a clipboard attached to the side of some sort of lever by the empty pod and repeated, "Quinn."

Her heart jumped in her chest and she quickly moved over to him, her eyes scanning the page on the clipboard. Most of the ink of the sheet had bled, more information than not entirely illegible.

Date of Cryo(illegible)sis: October 23, 20(illegible)
Tes(illegible) Subject's Age: 21
Test (illegible)ect's Medi(illegible)
Test Subje(illegible)al Name: Quinn Lee H(illegible)in

She took the clipboard from MacCready's hands and stared at it for God knows how long. Quinn Lee H. It didn't ring a bell to her, but that didn't matter. All that mattered to her was that she had a name. She was someone, anyone.

Barely containing the urge to cry, Quinn looked up at MacCready who was leaning against a pod with his arms casually crossed, what was becoming his trademark grin on his face, "Nice to meet you, Quinn."