Sarah Burks's Arc

Chapter 1 of 13

Sarah spread the printouts across the metal table, aware of every eye on her. The Atomic Cats leader had given her forty-eight hours to produce proof, or they'd send their own team into Vault 17. She'd wanted a full week to track the patterns. Now she had two days to turn raw data into something convincing enough to earn trust instead of competition. She'd chosen the old billboard as their meeting spot—neutral ground where neither group held advantage. The faded Vault-Tec sign loomed overhead, its promise of a better future underground now a bitter joke. Sarah pulled the energy meter from her pack and set it beside the analyzer. Both machines hummed to life, their screens glowing with weeks of accumulated data. The leader leaned forward, studying the readouts. The analyzer's dials jumped as Sarah played back the recordings. Each spike matched perfectly with the times she'd stood near the vault entrance. The pattern was unmistakable—pulses that synced with human heartbeats, energy signatures that responded to living tissue. She pointed to the meter's screen, where the numbers told a story no scavenger could ignore. This wasn't random radiation or leftover power cells. Something down there was aware. The leader reached across the table and tapped the analyzer's largest dial. "Two conditions," they said. "You share everything you find. And my best tech comes with you when you go in." Sarah nodded slowly, relief and anxiety mixing in equal measure. She'd earned their partnership, but now she'd have to deliver on every promise the data suggested. The vault wouldn't wait forever.