Chapter Text
Sole looked up from his Pipboy as the ruined school came into view. The name LAKEWOOD ELEMENTARY showed next to the icon, and the survivor frowned. He remembered when schools like this one stood proud among the neighborhood, when yellow school buses lined the curb as happy children skipped off to school.
Now half the walls were gone, the roof was caved in, and the only thing of any value anywhere on the property was an aluminum can rolling up the street.
Codsworth chirped as he moved up beside Sole, “Sir, has the Institute sent us on a wild goose chase…again,” he frowned.
This was the usual setup now that he’d journeyed south. The Trenton area was filled with Supermutants and disasters, and there was no signatures hinting towards a Brotherhood anything let alone something of value. They were nearing the outskirts of the Philadelphia crater zone now. Where there were one buildings in the distance sat a pit, a deep one. There was no doubt the once historic city was now a pile of rubble.
And now Sole was here with Codsworth looking at an elementary school that had seen better days. He frowned as he weighed his options. According to his Pipboy, the signature was a few blocks from the school. Sole skirted the edge of the property, passing a derelict playground as he went, and they continued in relative silence.
Sole looked over the hill and frowned. He could see the fencing and knew what was coming up ahead. A few rusted over signs cluttered a footpath, and Sole resisted falling into the memories of his own time before the “big freeze” as so many liked to call it…jokingly even though there was nothing funny about it. Kellogg had paid dearly for calling him a TV dinner, and while he’d taken out his frustrations on that man’s corpse, it was always hard to shake the lingering feelings whenever he approached another vault.
The Pipboy sounded an alert, and Sole looked down to see VAULT 148 listed on the location. He sighed and moved into a labeled control room, which was more or less a trailer, where he found a terminal, an empty Nukacola bottle, and a pen.
“My god, the terminal still seems to have power,” Codsworth whispered as he followed Sole into the building. Sole glanced back to him, “Don’t get your hopes up, just a final letter. The workers…they died up here. They wouldn’t have had time to run, and they weren’t…they weren’t authorized to join us.”
Codsworth apologized, “I’m sorry, Sir, I forget—”
“There’s nothing to be sorry for. Come on, I see the door controls over here,” Sole pointed out the window. They moved down the metal stairs together and down to the little raised platform.
Sole exhaled as he studied his Pipboy. He glanced to Codsworth, “There’s no telling what we’ll find inside.”
“That’s half the fun, Sir,” Codsworth replied. Sole smirked and accessed the door’s menu options. He requested it to open, and suddenly the ground shook. The familiar rhythm of the elevator rumbled through the earth, and a dust plume rose over them as the elevator reached the top.
“Away we go,” Sole said, leading the way to the platform and making his way into Vault 148.