I couldn't believe it. I was in. It had actually worked! The answer was so simple it had been staring me in the face the whole time. All I could do was laugh as I slid down to rest at the foot of the door.

'E'. The answer was simply 'e'! The grandness of the clues had all been a distraction, a trick of perception. Kind of a funny way to secure a top secret vault when you think about it, but then again, maybe that's what had kept the synths at bay for all these years? I had thought for sure I was a goner back there, but I had made it, and now the vault was all mine. To hell with Hancock and his freaks, I'd be long gone and filthy rich by the time they knew what happened.

As I moved to the next room however, my heart fell through my chest. This didn't look like any vault I'd ever seen, in fact, it looked more like the mind of a madman. The entire vault was no bigger than a two-room apartment, and everywhere I looked was covered in newspapers and faded photographs. Maps of the United States and China were strewn across the tables, and boxes upon boxes were stacked in every corner. Just as I was beginning to think I'd been played for a fool, I saw it. The mother of all caches was locked behind a heavy metal gate, full of the kinds of things that would have made even the staunchest supporter of Guns & Ammo blush. This was a full military style arsenal... missile launchers, nuke grenades, even a set of T-61 power armor, everything I could have hoped for and more.

I searched around for a terminal to open the gate and found one buried beneath a dozen file folders and half-smoked cigarettes. I was halfway through the hacking protocol when out of the corner of my eye, something else caught my attention. There, tucked away in the back of the vault, was a strange pod.

I'd never seen anything like it. It stood there like an ancient monolith, untouched by the ravages of time. An icy chill enveloped me as I came closer, the cold radiating off it in waves. I peered inside and gasped.

A face was staring back at me.

A young woman was frozen inside. Her blonde hair curled over her face, and her lips parted ever so slightly as if she were only sleeping. Even frozen, she was beautiful. Her vault suit clung to her every curve, and her long lashes rested delicately on her cheeks. She looked so peaceful as she slept, suspended in time. An angel in blue.

I don't know how long I stood staring. A lot longer than a gentleman should have, I'm sure, but I just couldn't look away. It all seemed too impossible to be real. How had she survived all these years? Why was she all alone? Who was she, and why was she here? Just, why?

Suddenly, a loud BANG shocked me back to the present and my brow furrowed in confusion.

What the hell? I thought, and another bang shook me again. I rushed to the entrance and saw the locks snapping out of place. One by one, they were being forced open, and it occurred to me that resetting the protocols may not have been the best idea after all. If the riddle was what was keeping them at bay, and if a security reset reverts the system back to factory level, then that meant...

The synths were overriding the system.

I raced back inside to the main terminal and saw a security warning flashing across the screen. Sure enough, the reset had given the synths another way in, and they'd be through within a matter of minutes.

I looked up at the cache, then at the girl, then at the timer on the screen.

Well, fuck.

I found the command and an overhead voice announced the start of the rejuvenation process. An alarm reverberated off the walls as the cryopod began to heat up. Finally, the pod swung open and the girl collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath. She mumbled something about the bombs as she took in her surroundings, her eyes wide with fear and confusion. I tried to help her to her feet, but she only shoved me away.

"W-what's going on?" She said, terrified. "Who are you? Where's my father?"

"There's no time for that, we have to go," I told her as I opened up the escape tunnel.

"What's all that noise? Is it the Chinese? The Russians? Hey, let go of me!" I grabbed her by the arm and she struggled against me. "I'm not going anywhere until you tell me what's going on! Help!"

"Dammit woman, we have to go!"

We didn't have time for this, the synths would be here any second! She got to her feet and backed away, grabbing a nearby Pip-Boy and latching it to her wrist. She began dialing out to every frequency, calling out for help that was never going to come. I tried to grab her again and she lashed out. The girl was fierce for such a little thing, and we struggled for several moments until my holotags slipped out from underneath my shirt. Suddenly, she stopped.

"Wait, you're with the military?" She asked, "Did my father send you? Is he alive?" She said with a sparkle of hope in her eyes.

Hey, whatever get's you moving, sweetheart.

"YES!" I yelled. "He's waiting on the outside, but it'll be a pretty depressing reunion if you show up dead, so let's MOVE!" She didn't look entirely convinced, but she took my hand anyway and we ran.

We were racing back through the mines on a straight path to the surface. It wasn't long before the locks gave way and the hordes came crashing through the vault after us. Tremors shook the tunnels as the creatures poured out through the escape door, an army of the undead, or rather the never-living, out for blood. Before we knew it, all hell had broken loose. Lasers screamed past our heads and the tremors around us became more and more violent, until at last a pinprick of light came into view. The exit was a mere twenty feet away, when the girl screamed. Heavy rocks started coming down on top of us as another quake nearly took us off our feet. The tunnel was collapsing.

Mechanical voices cried out before being smothered under an avalanche of earth. The mass of dirt roared down the corridor after us as we sprinted towards the exit. Ten feet away now. Five feet. Four feet. Three, two, one...

We leapt out into the sunlight just as the tunnel crashed like a tidal wave against the rocky wall of the exit, and burst forth like an open floodgate. We rode the wave down the hill until at last, we came to a stop at an outcropping.

I coughed as the cloud of dust settled around me, my eyes watering as they adjusted to the sunlight I thought I'd never see again. I got to my feet, the earth still quaking beneath me as the tunnels continued to collapse, when I realized the girl was no longer at my side. I whipped around in a panic, calling out for her among the rubble, when at last I spotted her standing over the cliff's edge, staring out at the horizon. Her eyes were filled with tears and her body was shaking worse than the mines below, as she gazed out at the decimated ruins of Cambridge and Boston beyond.

I rushed over as her legs began to wobble, and she fainted in my arms.