A Rose Among Thorns

4 | Unlikely Valentine

Since she remembered Swan Lake from her time, it didn't take Briar Rose long to find it near Boston Commons, and since this Vault 114 was under the lake, it had to be in Park Street Station. On arriving at the peaceful spot, she was surprised to find some of the swan boats still intact. Maybe she would revisit one day, pretend to be back in time before her world drastically changed.

For now, she had a job to do; she and Dogmeat skirted the lake to head down to the subway. They cautiously descended, not sure what kind of new opponents waited for them. Even down here under the surface, things were in bad shape too, but at least there was electricity. She heard some men speaking, and she felt relieved that at least they were human. Briar Rose got beside the doorway and peeked in to see if these men were good or bad.

The two men she saw looked like they had stepped out of time too: they wore black slacks, white shirts, and black suspenders, armed with a submachine gun, and spoke in a Jersey accent. They looked and acted like they were gangsters or were triggermen belonging to a Mafia. There was no doubt that these men weren't friendly.

Preston had given her a supply of grenades and she now took one out, pulled the pin, and tossed it in; she ducked back behind the wall for cover. The men yelled out in alarm just as the grenade exploded.

Briar Rose waited for her ears to stop ringing and listened for any noise; not hearing any, she poked around the corner again to find the men dead. She went on, holding her pistol ready in case anyone stepped around a corner suddenly. At Sanctuary Hills, she and Preston had worked on adding a silencer; she had the laser musket on her back.

She and Dogmeat advanced as quietly as they could, sniping individual triggermen when she could, delving deeper and deeper into the subway tunnels. Most of the subway cars were overturned but some Briar Rose could walk through like normal. In one of the cavernous platforms where two subways met, she was forced to fire openly instead of in stealth. Dogmeat helped take down those at a distance as she killed the ones on her side of a platform. After she finished with those close to her, she pulled out the laser musket and killed those in the distance Dogmeat hadn't gotten to yet.

Large machinery sat rusted and unused in 210 years near a metal walkway up to a giant circle in a wall; set into the circle was a gear with the gold numbers 114. She took a deep breath, bracing herself to find out what experiments befell the residents in there, as she ascended to the control panel. She pulled the plug-in out of her Pip-Boy, inserted it, and pressed the button when the glass case opened.

Like Vault 111, a loud alarm sounded as the gear withdrew and rolled out of the way. A metal bridge extended to her when the pristine and white insides of the Vault came into sight.

"Jesus, why does that door have to be so damned loud?"

The male voice dropped Briar Rose to a crouch. She had her silenced pistol in hand when she crept in; even Dogmeat snuck beside her. The man started to call out names in question, wondering who was coming in. She shot him down before he realized she wasn't a friend.

They trekked through the Vault like they did before; there were more triggermen inside the Vault than outside. Briar Rose also kept an eye out for any hint as to what went on in this Vault. So far, she hadn't seen any cryogenic pods or bodies; maybe Vault-Tec hadn't been able to ensnare anyone for their schemes planned here.

Surprisingly, she came into an enormous cafeteria: it had three floors and many tables and stools—Vault-Tec had planned for there to be a lot of residents. This looked like what Briar Rose had expected Vault 111 to be: equipped to provide a new home and a life for its residents, not betray their trust by experimenting on them. She really wondered what went wrong now.