Cooper had lost count of how many Vaults he'd checked. Two hundred years of searching had started to blur into one long, endless nightmare. A nightmare where his family was missing and radiation buzzed in his veins. Would they still love him when he found them? What if Janey was scared of her own dad now that ghoulification had completely set in?

He was not the Cooper Howard that used to ride horses and star on TV. Now he was The Ghoul, a rad-mutated bounty hunter in a worn away cowboy hat.

Dust shed from his billowing duster coat. The sand and grit from the Mojave desert left a trail on the pristine floors as he stalked through yet another abandoned Vault. Filing cabinets were overturned, leaving folders of patient files scattered about. This Vault looked closer to a hospital than the 'safety bunkers' Vault-Tech had been advertising before the bombs dropped. The faded deathclaw scratches on the walls and bloodstains on the linoleum told Cooper exactly why the place was empty.

Another lie, Cooper supposed.

He was about to leave. No use starin' at empty hospital beds and molded IV drips. Even if some of the equipment looked like it was designed for human experimentation, there was nothing here he really needed to look at. No sign of Barb or Janey, no need to stay.

Until the familiar blue glow of a working cryogenic chamber caught his eye.

Cooper jumped over the clutter and ruin to squeeze his way into the room. The heavy metal door was broken, stuck open just enough to get in the freeze room. Whoever used to be the Overseer of this Vault had been trying to lock the door before the place was trashed. Trying to protect whatever was kept in stasis inside.

Only one of the chambers was still functioning. There were a few others that smelled of rot, meaning they'd stopped working and the people trapped inside had died. But one chamber was still lit up with remaining power. And whoever was inside might be able to get him to his family's Vault.

Cooper got the chamber open and turned off, the glass tube defrosting rapidly. When he lifted out its inhabitant he was shocked to find someone barely older than Janey. You were in a Vault Suit, frost still melting on your skin. And you were the size of his daughter.