Unspoken Words

The Wanderer strode back into Sanctuary, and though he almost glowed blue in the sun, the day was dark. The settlers, all of whom owed this man their lives, waved hearty greetings his way, but the man's head didn't rise. Sturges and Preston, the two who knew where he'd gone, rushed up to him.

"General, you're okay," Preston said, breathing out the tension of waiting. The Vault Dweller didn't stop his stride, continuing down the road as if the place was as dead as they'd found it. "The damn machine blew up, after you were gone. Did you…" Preston shared a worried glance with Sturges. "Did you find what you were looking for?"

The Soul Survivor stopped, noticing his friends for the first time, giving them a glare devoid of anything they could fathom. "Here's your tape." He held out the holotape Sturges had given him, more than a week before. Sturges took it, giving it a quick look over, and by the time he glanced up again, the Vault Dweller was walking again. The settlers gathered around, watching their General walk into his old house, and shut the door.

…

"Thanks for coming," Preston said, as he led Piper and Nick over the bridge. Having a synth so close wasn't a comfortable experience for Preston, but then again, Piper wasn't so relaxing either. Still, none of that mattered now. "We've barely got a word out of him since he got back. I don't even know if he's eaten. I just thought…"

"It's alright, son. We get it."

"Not a problem. We'll straighten him out, whatever it is. Right Nick?" Despite the situation, Piper was as upbeat as Preston had heard.

"Yeah, We'll uh…" Nick stopped, looking over the houses. "Is that him?" He followed the metal, skeletal finger's direction, and saw the familiar shade of blue climbing the hill, towards the vault.

…

The elevator stopped, and the gate lifted with an eerie screech. The dust flew in the air as the heavy machinery worked. Further ahead, however, it was left undisturbed, save for two sets of foot prints; one headed out, looking faded, and one headed in.

"Has anyone but him been in here? Y'know, since he got out?" Nick asked, his fingers clacking against his revolver.

"No." Preston cranked two shots into his musket. "At least, not that I know of."

"Aw who're we kidding," Piper said, her grin a little too frigid in her face, "whatever's in here, I'm sure Blue's already handled it."

"Hmm." Nick led them up the stairs, not even wanting to hold onto the railings. None of them had ever expected him to come back here, but somehow, they all knew it was inevitable.

The old halls of Vault 111 made your back itch. They found the first skeleton on the ground, the body left there to rot for centuries, but it wasn't the rotted corpses that put the speed in their step, it was the fresh ones, the frozen ones. Not a word was said, but they all looked through the window at the dozens of cryogenic pods. Wanderer's neighbors, maybe even friends. None of them knew, none of them had asked.

Nick stopped for a moment, looking down the hall, then continued, his boots placed lightly against what had quickly become hallowed ground. There, at the end of the chamber before them, sat the Vault Dweller, his legs curled up against his chest, his eyes heavy and wide open. Before him, a cryogenic pod sat open. For some reason, seeing the Wanderer like that, the man that had faced the Commonwealth and come back unscarred, Nick forgot, for a moment.

"Now that's not… oh. Oh, I'm so sorry." Nick circled his friend, his eyes fixed the perfectly preserved corpse.

"Is," Piper began, her smile nowhere to be found, "is that who I think it is?" She swallowed, unable to keep her eyes on the woman that used to be in her place, or the hole in that woman's head. "You okay?"

Blue didn't say anything, he just sat there, holding his legs tight. He wasn't crying, or even shaking, he was just sitting there watching his wife's body thaw.

"Listen," Nick turned to his friend, kneeling down to him. "I know this is difficult. If you tell us what happened, at the Institute I mean…" Nick almost gasped, so desperate for the words. "Maybe we could help?"

The Vault Dweller looked down, for the first time, and some unknowable thought flittered past his eyes. It was more than a moment before he spoke. "You know, I hadn't even thought about her, since I left here." He paused, and the silence flooded the room. "I needed to find Shaun, to get my son back, and… and, well, I found him." Piper and Preston sat on the ground, as quietly as they could. "It hasn't been ten years. It's been sixty." He spat the last word out, back at the world.

"Damn," Nick breathed.

"Oh, god." Piper whimpered.

"He's been there the whole time." It wasn't sadness in his voice. "He's been the one behind it all." It was anger. "All those people at University Point. All those missing persons reports. He did it. He," the word trickled off into some sick version of a chuckle. "He played some sick trick. Showed me a synth of his younger self. Said he wanted to see what would happen. And…" With gritted teeth, he forced his eyes up again, into the fresh wound in his beloved's skull. "And I asked him, what he thought, about what the Institute did. About what Kellogg did to his mother." Another tragic smile appeared on his face, and he continued with gritted teeth. "He didn't, care." The Vault Dweller shook his head, there was nothing else to be said.

"What can we do for you, General?" Preston broke the silence, after it ruled for a few minutes. "What do you need?"

The Vault Dweller took a few breaths, and unwilling tears began trickling down his face. "I need to bury my wife."