I neglected to mention before, I did find a battery - though just another chemical one, not a fission model that would last a long time. Where, you ask? In a rusted-out car behind the Cambridge Polymer Labs building. So that whole 'adventure' was kind of a bust, and now I was faced with trying to make it home with the sun already setting. 

 

Thinking back on that night, I'm not completely sure how I even made it back to Sanctuary Hills. It got cold and dark that night, though there was an eerie glow to the southwest that cast the very faintest of lights. Before the war, I don't think I'd ever been in a place that was so dark - there were always lights somewhere nearby before. Now... well, the lamp posts were there still, but not a one was working (or at least, getting power). Still, somehow I made it, and in the wee hours of the morning I staggered into my house and collapsed into bed.

 

I was beat, and I slept in that morning. When I finally dragged myself out of bed around noon, I was greeted with an unpleasant surprise. More frost on the ground. Maybe even a little freshly-fallen snow. Eager to put this out of my mind just a little longer, I hooked up the new battery and started warming up the hot water for a shower... when Codsworth's cries snapped be out of my haze.

 

First it was "well, well, what's this", then a puff of his flamethrower (who thought that was a good choice to put on a domestic robot?), and then "okay, cut that out!" and finally "help meeeee!"

 

 

Yeah, it was feral Ghouls. And a hell of a lot of them. As low on ammunition as I was, I couldn't do much to help Codsworth, but I extended my steel baton and lashed out at any that tried to get into the house. Thankfully, all I had to do this time was hold them off while Codsworth burned them down, but the experience highlighted how all my effort to block the holes in the privet hedge had pretty much been a joke. I needed a real perimeter wall, with no gaps in it, if I was going to keep out unwanted guests like this in the future. And, of course, I still needed a solution to the whole "freezing to death in my sleep" and "can't keep the lights on" problems.

 

An idea came to me while I was cleaning up the ghoul corpses, but it wasn't one I really liked. I was pretty sure I could get back into the vault. When I left, it still had power, and not backup power either - real reactor power. I'd had to cut through the reactor room to get out. If the vault had something like the Workshop, I might be able to winter over underground. But, of course, that vault held a lot of bad memories. I didn't want to go back there if I could help it. So for the moment, I put those thoughts out of my mind and focused on improving the protection for my house. 

 

On the topic of protection, I found something pretty exciting in the Workshop catalogue. Under the heading of "small business", I found an entry for "rolling anti-theft shutters." The Workshop needed a lot of materials to fabricate the kit, and it felt like it was just spitting out different pieces and tools for hours, but when all was said and done... well, take a look for yourself:

 

 

 

I knew this wouldn't be a substitute for a perimeter wall - it didn't even solve the issue of securing the entrance into the house from the carport, but it would certainly keep out any potential intruders from the front - and it gave me a way to cover up the window without having to board it up at the same time. The problem? Every time I hooked up the damn thing, my lights went out. Even in standby mode, the motor for the shutter used up all the wattage from my battery. I had to settle for leaving this closed, at least for the time being and just using the side door to come and go. 

 

Power issues notwithstanding, I was pretty pumped up from solving the front door problem once and for all. Digging deeper into the catalogue, I found a kit labeled 'doorframe adapter.' It turned out it was pretty much what it said - a mounting frame that could attach to a same-size or larger hole in the wall and then screw into the adjoining studs. It even came with drywall panels for patching any gaps. I removed the warped and rusted hinges of the side doorframe (the door itself was long gone), installed the kit, patched it up, and finally fabricated a solid-looking security door. With all that in place, I was pretty confident that I didn't have to worry about unwanted guests in getting into the actual house anymore. 

 

I was ready to tackle building a wall, next, but I was by now covered in dirt and sweat, and I decided to take that deferred shower from earlier in the day. While I stood under the hot water, however, I got a nasty surprise. Remember how I hadn't been feeling well the night before, and how I was pretty sure I'd gotten a dose of radiation down in that lab? The upset stomach and body aches had gone away after I got some sleep, but now, looking down and watching pink hairs start to clog up the drain, I realized that my hair was falling out.

 

 

As if that was a trigger for my brain to realize I wasn't well, a wave of nausea washed over me, and I quickly found myself puking in the sink. I should have taken some Rad-X pills before I went on my little adventure, and I was paying for that oversight now. After I finished emptying my stomach, I toweled off and then plopped down on the couch. For a while, I was paralyzed, just running my thoughts in circles through my head as I tried to think up a solution - anything - to my latest problem. I kept coming back to the same solution, and I hated it.

 

At length, I just balled up my firsts and screamed. Screamed and screamed, putting voice to all my frustration, anger, disappointment, betrayal, hate, and fear. After I carried on like that for a few minutes, Codsworth came to check on me. I wish I had his capacity to look at everything in a cheerful light. We talked... or rather, I talked and he listened, occasionally uttering some empty but encouraging response. I took the discourse that'd been in my head before and put it into words.

 

I needed warmth. I needed power. I needed a reliable source of food and water that I could access through the winter. I needed radiation treatment. I needed security. The only place I could get that right now was in the vault. But at the same time, I harbored a deep loathing for that place - and a knawing fear. Intellectually, I knew that the scientists who'd tormented me there were all long gone. Long dead, in fact. But my gut warned me that the place was dangerous. That I had to avoid it at all costs. 

 

Codsworth's "chin ups" and "no need to fears" offered rather little in the way of comfort, but I appreciated that he was trying. In the end, I had to accept the inevitable: I was going to spend the winter in the vault. I explained this to Codsworth, who took it in stride, offering to keep the home safe while I was away. And just like that, I gathered up the dog and some supplies, then made my way back to the hilltop where the vault elevator was situated. It seemed that my first attempt to escape from Vault-Tek's clutches had failed. 

 

 

Now imagine my surprise when I discovered I wasn't alone. The first sign was the vault itself - a lot of the junk and trash that I'd seen during my escape was gone, as if someone had come through and cleaned up. Then I started to get a strong feeling that I was being watched. Finally, as I turned around to leave a dead-end chamber, I was face to face with another person. She was filthy, looked like she hadn't eaten for a while, but she was human - no Ghoul for sure.

 

"That's quite an outfit," she commented, then - perhaps seeing the number on my back - she stopped. "Aw crap, is this your place?"

 

She seemed suddenly on edge, and I couldn't help but notice the pistol on her belt. In spite of the radiation sickness, I figured out the issue easily enough: she'd had the same idea as me, was probably getting ready to settle down for the winter, and just had someone who appeared to be the 'real owner' show up at the last minute. I tried to keep things calm, not wanting to escalate the situation.

 

 

"It was," I agreed, "for a long time. And you? Planning to call this place home?"

 

She shrugged, still watching me cautiously. "I was thinking about it. The water down here's clean, air's good, and I think with some luck the soil in the cavern might work if I can rig up some grow lights. But I don't want any trouble... reckon you don't either, though, since we're still talking."

 

Her name was Holly, and it turned out she wasn't alone. Her brother Fred and his wife Stephanie - Stef - were also down here, as was Stef's daughter Winter. They were all trying to scrounge up the bare necessities to ride out the coming season, with not a lot of luck left. It seemed I was outnumbered four to one, and with me sick from the rads already, there was no way I was going to evict these folks. On the other hand, it sounded like they wouldn't be able to stay down here on their own if they couldn't find food. So I formulated a plan. A compromise, if you will.

 

I started by asking Holly if she'd found a Workshop down here. I described the machine and, it turned out, she had found one. I must have walked right past it while I was making my escape, because it was in the reactor room. Having established it was here, I made my pitch: I could operate the Workshop, even use some undocumented features that a regular user couldn't operate. But I needed materials and, as they could obviously see from my hair, I was sick. If they helped gather the raw materials for the Workshop, I'd operate the machine and fabricate the things they'd need to survive the winter. 

 

She talked it over with Fred before they made a decision. Honestly, though, it didn't seem like it was much of a debate. Without the Workshop, they almost certainly couldn't get the vault fixed up for them to live there through the winter. Not in time, at lest. 

 

"OK," Holly pronounced, "we're with you. But I still want to know what's up with that outfit of yours. That's... something else."