Sarah Burks

Sarah Burks's Arc
Chapter 8 of 13

Sarah Burks's dream is earning the full trust and partnership of the Atomic Cats leader.

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by @Dodger-McGee
Chapter 8 comic
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Chapter 8

Sarah aimed her flashlight down through the grate again, counting the rungs on the access ladder. Forty feet to the bunker doors. The leader was already calculating routes and contingencies, but Sarah's mind caught on something else. Marvin's grandfather's blueprints showed the path down—three levels of access tunnels, reinforced hatches, a maintenance shaft with safety protocols built into every step. But nowhere in those documents had she seen mention of the equipment needed to open Vault-Tec's third sublevel door. She'd mapped vault entrances before. She knew what they required. Marvin pulled a folded page from his jacket and spread it across the concrete floor. "Grandfather marked this section twice—says the maintenance shaft needs a braced descent rig with rated clips." He tapped the notation at the bottom. "Full body harness rated for two hundred pounds plus gear. Not just rope. The shaft's got electromagnetic seals every ten feet that trigger if weight distribution's wrong." Sarah checked her pack inventory and came up empty. She had climbing rope, carabiners, a decent belt harness for scaling buildings. Nothing vault-rated. The leader crouched beside them and studied the blueprint. "The Cats don't stock that kind of gear. We strip power armor, not maintenance shafts." Sarah stood and swept her flashlight across the tunnel, searching for alternatives. Twenty feet back she spotted a wooden scaffold mounted against the wall with rope pulleys and metal braces—someone had built a loading platform for heavy equipment. The construction looked recent enough to be functional, but the harness requirements weren't negotiable. She turned back to Marvin. "There's an old warehouse three blocks west of here. Spacer's Choice corporate storage before the war." She'd catalogued it weeks ago while mapping power sources. "Industrial facilities kept safety equipment for maintenance crews working elevated conveyors. If the storage lockers survived, there's a chance we find vault-grade harnesses." The leader met Sarah's eyes with an expression she'd learned to read—calculation mixed with respect. "We scout the warehouse at dawn. If the harnesses are there, we run the descent tomorrow night with full preparation." Sarah nodded, understanding what hadn't been said. The partnership held because she'd identified the problem before they'd wasted time attempting an entry that would have triggered every security system Vault-Tec had buried in that shaft. Trust earned through competence, not just transparency. Marvin rolled up the blueprint and stood. "Grandfather knew what he was documenting. He wanted whoever came after to do it right." Sarah shouldered her pack, already planning her approach to the warehouse. The entity below had waited this long. It could wait one more day while they found the equipment that would get them down there alive.

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