Author's note: Surprise, surprise. Look who managed to post an update before a self-imposed due date? Amazing. A miracle.

I know. Long time no see. I hope everyone's doing well. Please enjoy.

-August 18, 2277-

Korin opened her eyes slowly, the noise of people waking up stirring her from her own slumber. A cloud of dread and anxiety had settled over her; the remnants of a dream forgotten as soon as she woke, lingering just a bit too long for her liking. She rubbed her eyes and found her cheeks were wet. Maybe it was for the best she didn't remember.

Korin glanced around at their surroundings. The beds were emptying, and the people who occupied them were leaving to start the day's work. She yawned and stretched her arms above her head, carefully, so as not to hit her brother. Her elbow protested as she stretched, but she did her best to ignore it. She frowned as she found she couldn't straighten it all the way.

Her brother stirred in his sleep. Carter looked comfortable for the first time in a week, and it made Korin feel warm inside. Current situation aside, life outside the vault seemed as though it would be better for both of them. No Wally to deal with. No Butch to evade.

No Amata to make her feel better, or Freddie to hold her, either. She blinked rapidly to keep the tears from her eyes.

"Carter." She spoke softly, poking his shoulder. "Time to get up."

"Five more minutes, Dad-" he grumbled and turned his head.

"Carter." She spoke louder. She rose to her feet and winced. Her bottom hurt from sleeping upright on the floor. "Get up already." She gave his thigh a love tap with her boot. "We've got a long day ahead of us."

Carter cracked an eyelid and groaned.

"Fuck." He mumbled, struggling to sit up away from the wall. "Ow. Everything hurts." Korin frowned as she spotted the hand-shaped bruise on her brother's neck, just barely darker than his tawny skin. His voice was still rough.

"How are you going to get that many rads?" Carter winced as he struggled to his feet.

"Well…" the thought scared her, but she spoke anyways. "The pool of water in the center of the crater, where the bomb is, is irradiated. I thought I might just sit there until I glow." She wrapped her arms around herself. "Might take forever but it's the only place around that's irradiated but that's also safe." Carter handed her the bottle of water, already half empty. They shared what was left.

The twins made their way to the door and stepped out. The town was still somewhat dark in the lower part of the crater. Closer to the top, the walls were illuminated by a soft golden light.

At the bottom of the crater, the bomb softly called her name.

She swallowed hard. She felt dread seep into her limbs, and her stomach turned.

She took a step forward anyways.

Carter followed her down the hill, hissing in pain occasionally as they descended the steep decline. She was reminded why her task was necessary, but it did little to assuage her anxiety.

"How many caps did you get from Moira?" She asked, trying to distract herself.

"Twenty-five." Carter patted his pocket. Korin eyed the doctor's clinic further down the path, and the diner across from it. There weren't enough caps for both services.

"Why don't you get yourself checked out at the clinic. I can do this on my own while you do." Carter turned to face her.

"Are you sure you want to do this on your own?"

She didn't. But she knew it would take a while for her to soak up enough radiation to meet Moira's goal.

"I'll be fine." She smiled. Carter narrowed his eyes at her, but didn't protest. "Besides, it sounds like we might need to travel for some of Moira's other research topics. I'll need you in tip-top traveling shape."

They stopped just outside of the clinic. Carter approached reluctantly, but went inside. Korin took a deep breath and approached the bomb. At the edge of the water, a man stood preaching something to a small group of listeners. She stepped around to the other side and stood in the water, unwilling to be within even two feet of the unexploded nuke. Her PipBoy immediately started to click.

She tried hard to avoid watching the Geiger counter. 'A watched pot never boils,' she repeated to herself multiple times, but she wasn't successful. The needle wobbled at the low end of the dial. She sighed, and blew a stray curl away from her face.

By the time Carter emerged from the clinic, she was already past 200 rads. She was starting to feel ill, but it put a genuine smile on her face to see him. He looked like he was in less pain at least, and walked with his usual gait.

He frowned when he saw her.

"You're pale." He approached the pond. She wrung her hands.

"She said 600 rads would be better. I'm going to try for that. Maybe the reward will be better?"

"How much? 600 rads? Are we sure that's not going to kill you?" He raised his voice, and Korin couldn't help flinching.

"It's labeled advanced radiation poisoning on my PIpBoy." She looked down at the Geiger counter. Almost 400 rads. "But it's outside the red zone on the gauge." Not by much. "She said she'd fix it, too. Let me do this, Carter. We need caps to find out where Dad went, and to plan our next move."

Carter didn't say anything, but his stomach growled.

He sat on the ground by the pond and sighed. They stayed quiet for a while, the preacher's sermon droning beside them. He kept repeating something about something called Atom. Korin didn't understand, and she didn't really care to learn more. They'd been up only a few hours, and already she wanted to go back to bed. Her bed, which she quickly realized she would never have the pleasure of sleeping in again. She felt tears begin to well.

"What's the first thing you're going to do when we find Dad?" Carter looked up at her. It distracted her just enough to keep her from sobbing. She crossed her arms and sighed.

"I don't know." She looked down at her feet. The cold pond water had soaked her boots, and the legs of her vault suit were damp. "Might hug him, might slap him… I'll definitely ask him why he thought it was a good idea to leave." She scowled. "And where the hell he was this week. I kept expecting him to come home, with you in tow, with some kind of lecture…" She trailed off.

"A true believer!" The preacher had finally taken notice of the pair, and of her standing in the radioactive splash zone. "She basks in Atom's glow! Children, join us in the warmth of His embrace." She felt her cheeks heat as several eyes fell upon her.

"Oh, I'm not-" Carter shushed her.

"Let's not insult the cult leader, yeah?" He whispered, plastering a fake smile on his face. "Yes! Praise…uh…. Him!"

Korin swore under her breath and followed suit.

"I can feel it… the warmth. It's so… warm."

The preacher smiled at both of them before he went back to his sermon, now joined by a few others standing close to the prewar nuke. Korin looked down at her PipBoy. The rads were climbing ever higher, and the nausea churning in her stomach told her she was definitely suffering severe radiation sickness.

"I'm almost at 500 rads." She wavered a bit. The urge to vomit bubbled up, but she tried to resist. Who knew if her vomiting would be considered desecrating this cult's shrine.

Carter watched from a safe distance. The bruises on his face and neck still stood out, but he looked a bit more hardy than he had yesterday. She could tell he was conflicted.

"How many caps are left?" She eyed the Geiger counter.

"Doctor Church took it all. He said the services usually cost more, but he'd do what he could with what I had." In her periphery, she saw Carter look away. His stomach growled again, as if to remind them of how dire their situation really was. She frowned. If not for the nausea, her stomach would be growling too. She gagged.

The needle on the Geiger hit 600 rads. She exited the pond quickly, trying not to attract the attention of the cult and its preacher. Carter rose to his feet, not quickly but not as stiffly as he had when they woke. Satisfied that she had exited discreetly, the twins made their way towards the ramp for the Craterside Supply. Before they could ascend, Korin leaned over the railing and puked. Carter held her hair back as she retched. Her stomach was devoid of food, but she couldn't help but be mad as she lost what precious water she'd consumed.

When she was sure she wouldn't throw up again, at least not right away, she kicked dirt over the mess and the pair continued on to the shop.

Her mouth felt gross, and she realized quickly also hurt. She ran her tongue over the inside of her cheek, and tasted blood.

"Ow." She winced. Carter looked to her, but she shook her head. "Ulcer. From the radiation. It can't be helped, not until it's fixed."

When they finally reached the Craterside Supply, Korin felt sick again. Moira appeared, out of nowhere, and shoved a worn enamel bucket into her hands.

"Look at you!" The redhead chirped, "You're positively… glowing!"

Korin heaved into the bucket. The water was long gone.

"If I listen closely, I can hear my genes crying." She groaned. Carter rubbed her shoulder.

"You're definitely sick." Moira circled her. Her hand rubbed at her chin, leaving a smudge of black grease. "How do you feel?"

"Itchy… like my skin is gonna come off, I already have sores in my mouth, and I just want to curl up on the ground and become one with the dirt." Korin droned from inside the bucket.

"Let me take a few notes, and then we'll take care of those nasty rads with a little bit of my home-made concoction." Korin groaned and clutched the bucket a bit tighter. Moira produced a pencil and paper from… somewhere. Korin wasn't paying attention anymore. "I've never had the chance to test it out on someone so heavily dosed! I'm sure it'll work out fine. Exciting, isnt it?"

Moira motioned for the twins to follow her into a side room. Inside, Korin nearly wept when she saw the bare mattress sitting on a rusty bedframe against the wall. It wasn't her cushy bed back home, but she wanted nothing more than to lie down.

As she abandoned the bucket to the side of the bed, Moira stopped her and gently reached for her arm. Korin gave it, unafraid of needles after a lifetime of having a doctor for a father. It didn't immediately occur to her that Moira might not be skilled in placing an IV.

"Ouch." Korin hissed.

"Oh, it's just an IV, you big baby." Moira patted Korin's arm. "There! It'll be a bit before that takes effect. I'll be back in a bit." Moira wandered out of the room.

Carter eyed the mercenary keeping watch over Moira's shop. The man eyed him back, before shaking his head and muttering something under his breath.

He followed behind the two women, and stood nearby as Moira placed the IV.

He trusted Moira to do right by them. She'd done an okay job helping him with his cracked ribs, but he wasn't sure what to make of a home remedy that included batteries.

His stomach grumbled again, and he winced at the dull ache. While he didn't know exactly when Korin's last meal was, he hadn't eaten in almost 24 hours, and that meal - if it could be called that - was lackluster. He'd felt lightheaded all morning.

After a hiss from his sister, Moira shuffled out the doorway into the shop proper.

"I can hear you from here." Korin grumbled, now prone on the mattress. "We should have prioritized breakfast."

"I'll be fine." He brushed her off a bit, unwilling to put a spotlight on himself when she was clearly so ill. "We'll get something after you feel better. Moira still has to pay us, remember?"

"Right." She sighed.

Moira wandered into the room again, this time with a tray.

"Consider it part of your pay for this chapter." She handed it to Carter. "You look like a stiff breeze would knock you out. You two must be starving." Korin covered her face with her good elbow. "Well. She will be once she feels better." Carter gingerly sat on the floor, with his back to the wall facing the bed Korin currently occupied. He set the tray in his lap. "Oh, and here's the rest of your payment." She dropped a stack of caps into his hand. A quick count told him there were fifty total. Still not enough to pay Moriarty, but they could afford to eat the next couple of days.

"You mentioned this was research for a book you're writing." Carter picked up a piece of… something. He had no idea what it was, but if Moira brought it, it had to be edible, right?

"Yep! The Wasteland Survival Guide. I'm conducting research to help, well, people like you two. How to survive, thrive, and even revive - as in, rebuild." Moira's face lit up as she spoke. Carter could tell this book meant a lot to her.

"Doesn't that defeat the purpose, if we're the ones doing the research? The inexperienced guiding the inexperienced?" Korin spoke up. Carter took a bite of the mystery food, and could immediately tell it was some kind of fruit. It was mostly tart, with a slightly bitter aftertaste. Not the worst thing he'd ever eaten, but he was just glad to be eating anything.

"Oh, nonsense. Who better to speak on these things than people experiencing the wasteland for the first time? Most everyone has lived here their whole lives. An outsider's perspective is perfect for a book like this." Moira sat down at the end of the mattress, a pencil and paper appearing in her hands from seemingly nowhere, again. "In fact, I think it would be a great idea to have the foreword written by a vault dweller."

"I'm not so sure about that-" Carter didn't like that she was looking at him as she said that.

"It's no big deal. Just tell me about… what it's like to live underground all your life, or to come outside for the first time, or whatever strikes your fancy!" Moira's wide eyes focused on him and her hand hovered just above the paper, trembling slightly. From excitement, surely. Carter felt conflicted.

"Uhm. The vault… wasn't all that great. But it got a lot worse when Dad left." He felt Korin watching him now, too. "We didn't know the vault door could open - had opened. All hell broke loose. They - they tried to kill us. We had to leave friends behind, with no way to know what we were facing. In a way, we still don't."

"Oh my," the redhead looked up from her notes. "That's terrible."

Carter ate more of the fruit.

The juice glistened in dark red pools on his fingers.

He froze mid-chew.

He saw Stevie's body on the vault floor, surrounded by a pool of blood in that same dark red.

"But it'll be great for a foreword. So in that sense, it's great!" He nearly choked on the fruit as he snapped out of whatever had just come over him. "People born in the wasteland tend to think pretty poorly of vault dwellers, with the exclusive club and all. It'll be good to let people know vault life is not all sunshine and rainbows."

They sat in silence for a bit. Carter tried to avoid slipping into another flashback, but failed. When he managed to snap out of it again, he realized his knee was bouncing and stopped.

Korin let out a shriek. Carter shot to his feet and was immediately at his sister's side.

"What is it?"

"My hair…" Korin whimpered. In her hand was an abnormally-sized clump of her hair. She felt through another section, and more came loose. Tears welled in her eyes. He covered his mouth with a hand.

Korin wasn't a vain person, by any means. She'd never obsessed over her reflection like some of the girls had back in 101. But her hair was important to her. Both twins had their mother's curls. But, while Carter's curls were the same dark brown their father had, Korin inherited their mother's dark blonde curls. She treasured that connection, and rarely cut her hair.

"Radiation'll do that to ya." Moira approached, picked up the hair, then discarded it and started scribbling furiously on her notepad. Korin sniffled, then let out a soft sob. Moira looked up from her notes, suddenly self-aware. "Oh - I'm sorry. It's not suuuper noticeable…." She stood up. "I know what will fix this." She left the room again, but quickly returned with a pair of scissors. Korin nearly screamed.

"Woah, easy -" Carter took the scissors from her. "No one's cutting anyone's hair right now!"

"I wasn't going to cut it, I swear." Moira held her hands up. "I just wanted to let her know it was an option!"

"Can you give us a little space, please, Moira?" Carter gave the redhead a look, and she sheepishly but nosily left the room. Carter turned to his sister, who was pouting hard at another decently sized ball of curls she pulled from her hair. "We don't have to do anything you don't want to do."

Korin wiped at her teary eyes with her vault suit's sleeve. For a moment, she didn't answer him.

"Just do it." She winced. "It's… it's just hair. It'll grow back, right?" She forced a chuckle, then started crying again. Carter put down the scissors and held his sister's hand.

"That's correct, but… I know what this means to you. We can find other options." She looked down at their hands. He squeezed hers gently in a show of support. The pair stayed quiet for a moment, Carter leaving space for his sister to make another hard decision in the long line of hard decisions they'd both endured in a short amount of time.

They sat that way for a long time before Korin spoke.

"Cut it."

Carter looked her in the eyes. There was no going back for her, he could tell. She'd made up her mind. He only nodded, before picking up the scissors once more, and helping her to sit up.

Korin held a small mirror, cracked and missing a few shards. Her eyes were puffy and red - bloodshot, even - and she could barely see her reflection through the tears.

Carter had done his best with what they had. The hair loss was more localized to the top of her head, so he left it long to help cover the bald spots. Near her ears, he cut the hair closer. She'd asked for him to cut out what he thought needed cutting. She had to admit, the weight off her neck and shoulders was nice, but... She didn't recognize herself without the long, chunky, loose curls.

If it were anyone else staring back at her, she would say it looked cute. Maybe she just needed time to adjust.

At least her elbow felt better.

Moira came back into the room, now that the cutting was over with, to check on her.

"How do you feel?" She asked carefully. She carefully removed the IV from her arm.

Just peachy, Moira. She wanted to shout at the woman, scream at her, curse at her. But she didn't. It was her decision to say yes, to take on the task and the higher rad count. And Moira had good reason for asking, even if the woman was a bit eccentric.

She didn't really have the energy to curse someone out, anyways.

Carter returned from disposing of what was left of her pride and joy. Korin didn't look up from her hand mirror.

"Well, now that we've finished researching radiation, there's a couple things left to research in chapter one." Moira rocked back and forth on her feet. "I still need research on how to find food and medicine, and how to deal with explosives like frag mines." Carter perked up at the mention of explosives.

"What about mines?"

"Carter-" Korin tried to protest, but Moira answered him quickly.

"People need to know how to avoid dangerous landmines, or even how to profit from them! And I have the perfect place for your research." She motioned for Carter to pick up his arm to show her his PipBoy.

"I don't think this is a good idea right now." Korin warned. "Neither of us is in good enough shape."

"Oh, you'll be fine." Moira waved her off. "Here, this is Minefield."

"There's a town called Minefield?" Carter asked.

"Oh, no. People say it used to be a town called Ridgefield. Slavers cleared it out, and now they say it's cursed. Everyone who goes and lives long enough to come back says it's a deathtrap. So they changed the name to Minefield. Some call it a ghost town. It's all superstitious nonsense, of course. You'll be fine as long as you're quick."

"I'm good with explosives." Carter nodded, rubbing his chin. "But Korin is right. We need a few days to rest and recoup." Korin sighed in relief. "Is there anything we can do to earn more caps in the meantime?"