With the trading post functionally complete (even if we weren't getting much in the way of visitors yet), the next thing I needed to do was finish the perimeter wall. I still had plenty of cement, and more on the way, so from a supply perspective at least I didn't have much to worry about. I did have some things I needed to decide however. For example, did I want more guard towers like what I built on top of the trading post? Protected firing positions were going to be important for repelling would-be invaders, but I didn't have the people to actually man them yet - at least, not without pulling any of our small community off other tasks or recalling Holly and the Ainsleighs from the vault. 

 

I ran my thoughts past Winter and she didn't mince words: build the wall first, then build guard posts as the remaining materials permitted. It didn't matter if we couldn't man them yet, because eventually we would, and having the defenses in place sooner rather than later would keep us from getting caught with our proverbial pants down (our literal ones already being in that state...) in a crisis. I couldn't really argue with her there, and so I got to work. Wall first, guard posts second, and after that? Houses for Tracey and the vault crew. I was going to be busy with construction for a while yet to come, it seemed.

 

While I worked, I started thinking about my own place as well. I was pretty sure that if I wanted to improve beyond what was there already, I'd have to tear down the whole house and start from scratch. I had... mixed feelings about that. It was just another one of those "Ship of Theseus" things... my home was one of very few tangible things that tied me back to the old world. Even if I rebuilt it exactly, would it really be the same home? And honestly, I didn't want to kid myself, I wasn't going to rebuild my home the same as it was before. I needed to build a home that was right for this world, and the amenities and layout were going to be different. When the time came for my house, I'd be replacing another plank on the deck, getting that much closer to the time when I was completely a creature of this world. And while at the time I couldn't admit it - not even to myself - that frightened me. 

 

 

The more progress I made on the wall, the more comfortable I got working within the constraints of the Workshop's prefabricated parts. In the course of installing the east portion of the wall, I added a jog to the wall that let me enclose a fairly flat back yard area. I hadn't decided yet what I was going to do with it, but I was pretty confident that eventually having secure access to that space would be helpful. The only issue I ran into was a little gap in the wall right where it met one of the ruined houses. The easy solution, of course, was just to knock down the house, but I wasn't ready for that yet and so I fabricated some more of the joint pieces and installed them side by side until only a small sliver of separation was left.

 

Winter and I checked it out and confirmed that neither of us could squeeze through. A smaller animal or even a ghoul child might be able to make it through, and ended up backing it with some chain link fence just in case, but overall I was pretty happy with how the east wall had come out. That just left the "real" north wall (I'd decided to leave the experimental wall in place, even though it lacked the blue-and-yellow pattern the later segments used), which was going to need a gate like the one near the trading post. 

 

That north gate actually solved the debate about guard houses for the moment, as I didn't quite have enough cement to finish the wall, much less reinforce the gatehouse or add guard towers. After installing a pair of heavy doors and tearing up some badly damaged sidewalk segments to feed into the Workshop and let me finish closing in the northwest corner of town, I had to accept that my major building projects were on hold until Carla's next shipment came in. Indeed, I also needed to meet up with her to discuss future deliveries. At a minimum, I'd need more cement for pouring new foundations, and realistically I was going to need all sorts of outside resources to achieve the level of security and protection that I wanted for our settlement. 

 

 

With the wall as done as it was going to get, I switched my focus to building a house for Tracey. Two things had been tickling at the back of my mind for a while by then: first, I was going to have to build the houses a little larger than I'd done for the Donahue sisters, but not so big that I completely used up potential back yard space. I still owed those two some more interior furnishings that I'd have to make good on at some point, and it was tough getting everything to fit in place because of the limited interior space in their home. The other was a 'lesson learned' from the trading post - if I didn't built vertically at least a little bit, I was leaving a lot of usable space on the table. So Tracey's house was going to be a two-story duplex. The bottom floor would be where Tracey would live, and then I'd build an apartment above her on the second floor, either for Holly or for some future stray we picked up. I'd address the Ainsleigh family later, not the least because I needed to get a final decision from Winter if she wanted her own place going forward or if she wanted to share a home with her parents. 

 

I spent the following afternoon measuring out the foundation plot while Winter ran through the Workshop catalogue to figure out our material requirements. It was pretty clear early on that we were going to come up badly short on steel for the project. I already knew from my visit to the Drumlin Diner that, while it was trivial to obtain small amounts of steel, bulk quantities were expensive. The way Trudy told it, there was an operational foundry to the east, but it was run by a dangerous cult that would sometimes turn on would-be traders. Because of this, large shipments of steel came with a hefty premium built into their price and sometimes ran late on delivery.

 

After talking through the options with the Donahue sisters, I decided that it didn't make sense to try and arrange a shipment of steel for the project. Instead, I got everyone together and we went down to the Red Rocket as a group to secure everything metal that wasn't bolted down. We were well into dusk when we finally wrapped up, but as I suspected we managed to come away with a big haul. Most of the salvage would have been useless on its own, but when we fed it into the Workshop, all that trash quickly turned into valuable material stock that we started turning around into the various structural pieces and fittings for Tracey's house.

 

 

 

 

When we got back and finished filling up the Workshop's hopper, I had a good chat with Lonnie and Tracey about how things were going. Tracey, understandably, was excited about the prospect of having her own home, and we talked for a while about her preferences for amenities, layout, and so forth. Lonnie also had some ideas and requests for her place, and I started setting my mind to work on how we'd accomplish them. It was going to take a while to turn these ideas into reality, but I was keenly aware of how fortunate our group had been so far and couldn't bring myself to complain. 

 

Lonnie also had a really good idea about the trading post. She started by acknowledging our protection gap - we needed more people so that we could have, if not an actual guard force, at least enough slack that we could take shifts looking out for trouble. In the meanwhile, she suggested that we set up some spotlights in the guard tower. It would be a double benefit: raiders and other threats might mistake the spotlights for a manned guard tower when we didn't have someone up there, and at the same time it would let us cast light near the gate and make it harder for someone to sneak in past the wall.

 

Tracey did Lonnie one better. She agreed with every point the trader made, then offered an idea on how to make it work. She observed that the Workshop catalogue had bright directional lamps in several different kits, such as the one for an illuminated flagpole. Other kits had a reciprocating gear set that could move side to side, such as kit for a spinning business sign. That kit had a simple controller that could change direction or stop based on a simple input. Tracey explained that with some help from Winter, she thought she could rig this up to a sensor to create a simple motion detector that would pin the spotlight on movement, alerting us to potential trouble.

 

 

I loved the idea, and when morning rolled around I got together with Tracey and Winter to make it happen. Tracey's mechanical knowledge and Winter's knack for programming were both essential for success: I couldn't have done it on my own in a hundred years. We cobbled together two of the 'smart' spotlights over the course of the day, though we found that we only had room for one in the guardhouse, so the second one got put away in the warehouse for future use. Watching it whirr back and forth, I wondered if we could apply the same idea to a more lethal solution, but I filed that idea away for later because this whole exercise had reminded me of something I had already forgotten twice.

 

"Winter," I said, "you didn't tell me you were visiting Abernathy Farm during your shifts in the suit," I said.

 

She shrugged and dismissed the comment. "Oh, I guess I forgot to fill you in. I've been talking with Blake and Connie on and off about how we can set up a good farm here when spring comes around."

 

"That's a good idea," I acknowledged, "just let me know next time. That way if I don't see you around town I'll know where you're at. And on the topic of Blake and Connie... they mentioned they have some kind of mechanical well?"

 

Winter nodded enthusiastically. "Yes! I helped them fix it up - Blake's grandfather made it, and it had been slowly breaking down over the years. But I figured out which parts were failing and got them fixed up."

 

"Do you think you could make a pump like that for Sanctuary? That would be a lot easier than working the hand pumps all the time."

 

She thought on that for just a moment before nodding again. "Yes, I think I could, but I'll need some help from Tracey. We'll probably have to fabricate some appliances in the Workshop and then tear them down for parts."

 

"Okay," I said, "how about you two work on that tomorrow while I'm building up Tracey's house. Do you think we can rig up a water tank on it that'll stay filled even if we're not actively working the pump? I'd love to have more flexible on-demand water than just what we can get out of the old plumbing - especially for the new buildings we're putting up."

 

Winter wasn't sure, but Tracey - who had by now joined us - confidently said they could. In fact, she thought that we could eventually put up a water tower to serve as a large-scale reservoir, at least once she worked up a design and figured out a way to fabricate all the parts she needed. I let those two get to work on their project while I focused on the new house. Over the course of the next week I focused on the house while those two built the mechanical pump and then started a deep survey of the Workshop's catalogue to start brainstorming how to make a water tower.

 

By the time the first week of February drew to a close, I'd completed and furnished Tracey's home. All that was left to do was to wire it for electricity and get the lights put in. I also needed to finish up the upper level, but in the meanwhile Carla had arrived with the final shipment of cement, so I put that on hold until I finished the north gate. 

 

 

And it was in the process of finishing the north gate when something caught my eye. A momentary flash of light from the hills to the west. Then I saw it again. Southwest, for sure, beyond the vault entrance.

 

"Tracey," I called, "do you see that?"

 

"What? I don't... oh, crap."

 

"What do you think it is?"

 

She shook her head once. "You better get suited up. This is more of a 'know' than a 'think.' That's reflection off binoculars. Somebody's snooping on Sanctuary."

 

I didn't waste any time. Winter helped me suit up, and well-drilled as we were I was ready for action in just a matter of minutes. After an abbreviated inventory of the medical system's drug reservoirs and a quick ammo check, I left the settlement through the north gate and headed for the vault entrance. From there, I pushed west towards where we'd spotted the reflections. Though I did see any more signs of observation, I found what I was pretty certain was the source of the reflections - a small observation post overlooking the vault.

 

 

Evidently, Winter's family weren't the only ones who had found the vault, and now they had turned their interests, and their eyes, to Sanctuary. I couldn't find any sign of the occupant, but fresh footprints headed west gave me a clue to where the spy had gone. I didn't really want word getting out about our settlement yet, so I followed the tracks at a pace that might have just been a little reckless, letting the power suit's boosted strength carry me through the foliage unresisted. Unfortunately, that pace carried me directly into the midst of a mole rat colony, and my tracking turned to a running fight as I blasted the tenacious rodents into chunks with my shotgun.

 

 

Judging by the shouts I could hear to the west, my gunplay had not gone unnoticed and I prepared myself to face more dangerous opponents. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, it was raiders. Because of course it was raiders. I felt the now familiar sensation of the biofuel gel flooding into me and time slowed down. I blasted one, then two of the raiders with my shotgun before vaulting over the second enemy to deliver a buttstroke from my shotgun to the third. Even as she fell back from the strike, my hands were pushing new shells into the breach and I finished her with a point-blank shot that caught her in the throat and lower jaw. Spinning, I scanned for more threats, but found none. 

 

After a quick sweep of the raider camp's perimeter, I tried to find any further tracks that might reveal other loose ends, but if any were there, I couldn't find them. I felt a degree of relief that we seemed to have eliminated these spies, but it did serve as a warning that our time of safety was running out. If raiders were starting to break out of their winter quarters and scout new targets, I understood that the first spring thaw was right around the corner. 

 

As I walked back to Sanctuary, I decided that it was time to take stock of our objectives and make our final preparations for the end of winter. I was confident that I'd done everything in my power to make our chances as good as they could be, and now we needed to start thinking about what we'd do when the snow melted. I knew what my goals were... short-term and long-term both, but I wanted to understand what my companions wanted as well. I understood that if I didn't take care of their needs, none of us were going to survive the coming year, because the tenuous foothold we'd carved out in Sanctuary could only last if we all worked together to keep it.