Life outside the Vault was nothing like they'd told you. It was hot, lawless, and everywhere you turned some radiation-mutated creature was trying to kill you. The happy-go-lucky attitude the Overseer instilled in everyone in your Vault go you nowhere in the real world. Lucky for you, you had never been exactly what they expected you to be.

Cooper still wasn't sure if he was going to keep you alive. You were a Vaultie, which was already a point against you. On top of that, you were totally silent. You hadn't screamed when he'd first found you, didn't ask questions, didn't talk back.

The silence was great at first. It meant he could carry on his travels acting like you weren't even there. All he had to do was make sure you didn't starve or get yourself killed. But like everything in this godforsaken world, the silence started driving him nuts.

Cooper tried everything. He threatened you, yelled at you, anything that might make you talk. Cooper poked and pinched and pricked at you endlessly.

Not even a squeak.

"God dammit, girlie. Don't you got nothin' to say?" he finally snapped, sitting down on a rock in the makeshift campsite you two had set up for the night.