Sinclair Feldman's Arc

Chapter 2 of 6

By the time Sinclair reached the vault, the raider camp stood empty. Brad's crew had already swept through and cleared it. Sinclair stepped over spent shells and a cold cookfire toward the vault's outer doors. Blast scars ran across the metal. The Vault-Tec sign above hung by one bolt. Two doors were punched full of ragged holes, but they still held their frame. Zelda knelt just inside, working over a wounded man. One of the Rangers had caught shrapnel in the leg. She had a blue Vault-Tec kit open at her side, its cross-marked flap thrown back. She pressed a dressing down hard and didn't look up. "He'll keep," she said. "Bleeding's slow. I need ten minutes." Sinclair crouched and took the man's weight off her hands. "Take twelve." He watched her work, quick and sure. She never wasted a motion. That steadiness was why he brought her into every hard place. Then Sinclair looked past the wrecked outer doors. Behind them stood the true vault door — the round steel one, gears and all. Untouched. No dent, no scorch. The raiders had blasted through the garage and stopped cold at that wall. "They couldn't open it," Sinclair said. "All that noise, and the vault sealed itself off from them." Zelda tied off the dressing and finally looked up. "So how'd we do better?" A young Ranger stood guard near the inner door. Private Conner, gray tabby, black beret, forest fatigues clean against the rust. He'd been posted here since the sweep. Conner cleared his throat. "Sir. Found something on one of the dead ones." He held out a wrist unit. Sinclair took it. A Pip-Boy 3000, dented and scuffed, screen still glowing green. He turned it over. The vault door read Pip-Boy codes. That was the lock. The raiders had died trying to get a working unit onto the wall. "This is the key," Sinclair said. His hands moved over the dials. Decryption was his trade. The screen scrolled numbers he could read. "They needed one of these and never got it inside. We just did." Zelda wiped blood off her fingers. "Funny what survives when no one knows what they're looking at." Sinclair carried the Pip-Boy to the inner door and pressed it to the port. The Pip-Boy sparked, started smoke and Sinclair felt light shock. Then Zelda saw the bullethole on the Pip-Boy’s side. Sinclair annoyed but calm says the Pip-Boy’s CPU card is still good but it will take a little time to trade for the rest of the part. Until then nobody can get inside so the team needs to set up a permanent guard station. Zelda suggests bringing Logan from Calico Flats to here for his technical expertise and Sinclair agrees.