Briar Rose and Codsworth headed south to Concord; she kept her attention glued to the landscape around her and ears listening for any noise. She became even more paranoid after they passed by a dead man beside a horribly mutated dog—Codsworth called them Mongrels.

To try to ease her nerves, he filled her in on the history she had missed while she slept: after the bombs fell, the U.S. renamed themselves as the Enclave. They had planned many nefarious schemes to use nuclear fallout to their advantage, but the Brotherhood of Steel stopped them. There was also a battle for control over the Hoover Dam, but Codsworth wasn't sure who won. He told her that because there were so many Nuka-cola bottles, the bottle caps had become the currency over paper money.

She smiled in familiarity when the red rocket became bigger in the sky as they neared the Red Rocket Truck Stop. They stopped to admire it when it came into view: the building was all rusted and some of the letters of Red Rocket on the roof were missing. Obviously, no one had been living there, but at least the station survived.

A dark blot caught her attention coming out of the open garage. Codsworth immediately equipped his flamethrower and saw, and she pulled out her pistol as it ran toward her. It slowed as it neared, and she relaxed at seeing it as a normal-looking tan and black German Shepherd. The dog looked at her curiously when it stopped before her.

"Hey, boy, where's your owner?"

He huffed, looked back at the station, back at her, then sat on its haunches. He seemed to understand her question and answered it; she chuckled.

"He seems like an intelligent one. We shouldn't leave him alone out here; perhaps he can come with us?" Codsworth suggested.

She looked at the dog, waiting for her to talk. "How about it? Want to come with us?"

He barked happily, then turned in a circle.

"I think that's a yes, mum."

A deep rumbling sounded suddenly; Briar Rose looked around in bewilderment and the dog's fur bristled as it growled. Squat and furless things burrowed up out of the ground and launched themselves at them with long front teeth. It didn't take much effort to kill the frail creatures; the dog helped by biting into one and holding it down for Briar Rose to shoot.

Once the danger was gone, she looked to Codsworth for an explanation. "Mole Rats."

With the dog in tow, the trio hurriedly departed the abandoned gas station. On their trek to Concord, they came across more creatures: two huge mosquitoes feasting on a dead and disgusting double-headed cow—Bloodbugs and a Brahmin.

Evening neared when Briar Rose recognized the outskirts of Concord; the homes were either boarded up or sagging with age and destruction. She had thought that the bomb would've wiped everything out; perhaps closer to ground-zero, it was.

The pop of gunfire threw her to a stop; the rapid fire of an automatic gun and a buzzing joined it. The sounds echoed out of Concord.

"Sounds like trouble, mum," Codsworth said.

"Nothing's going to be simple, is it?" she retorted as she pulled out her 10 mm.

"The world's not simple anymore."

They cautiously entered Concord and snuck closer to the flashes of light from gunfire; as they drew nearer to the combat zone, a beam of red light would shoot down at the sources of quick light. On the road, figures darted from one corner of a building to duck behind sand bags and fired up at a balcony. Some dead bodies littered the road. At the end of that red beam on the balcony was a black man in a Revolutionary-era pinned-up hat. If she remembered right, that building was the Museum of Freedom.

"Those are Raiders, mum," Codsworth explained in a whisper. "Quite the unpleasant cohorts; they're no more than scoundrels."

"Sounds like we need to help, then."

She aimed at the nearest Raider, faced away from her, and shot him in the back of the head, killing him instantly. At the sound of new gunfire, the other Raiders turned and opened fire on spotting her. She, Codsworth, and the dog ducked into buildings to avoid fire; being more resilient to ballistic damage than her, Codsworth flew after the Raiders, burning them alive with his flamethrower.

A Raider suddenly charged her, forcing Briar Rose into close combat; he was much stronger and quickly disarmed her. When her gun clattered to the ground, the dog attacked by biting into the Raider's gun arm; he focused on fending off the dog, so she pulled out the security baton, lengthened it, and set to beating him down. When he finally crumbled under her blows, she found her gun and shot him.

The city grew silent with the elimination of the Raiders. Codsworth flew up to her. "Mum, are you alright?"

She looked down at herself: blood was splattered over her from beating the Raider. It was disturbing how easily she had turned violent in the need to survive.

"Hey!" She looked up at the black man on the balcony. "There's a group of settlers in here and some Raiders are almost in! Please, help! There's a laser musket on the steps." He disappeared through the door behind him.

She picked up the weapon he mentioned finding it a crudely crafted rifle with some sort of red energy bouncing in a cylinder and a crank.

They went into the Museum of Freedom and killed the Raiders they could find. To reload, she had to crank to charge up the laser; the musket had more of a range than her 10 mm so she used it more.

Destruction and utter ransacking of the place made the Museum nearly unrecognizable: displays were empty and broken; whole floors had caved in; mannequins were naked and lying on the floor; banners and flags were shredded; colorful murals had faded.

After the Raiders were dead, they went up to the third floor to a shut door—from the position of the balcony, the people were probably behind this door. Briar Rose knocked. "It's the one from outside."

Locks clicked, then the door opened to reveal the black man from the balcony; he looked like he stepped straight out of the Revolutionary War from the knee-high boots, pants, double-button and tailed jacket to the leather, pinned-up hat.

"You have impeccable timing, stranger; thanks a lot." He had a smooth, pleasant voice.

"Just trying to help people in need. I'm Briar Rose."

"Preston Garvey, Commonwealth Minuteman," he said.

She stared at him—his attire definitely matched the title. "Now I'm going back in time?"

"What?" he asked.

"Never mind."

He still looked confused but continued. "Anyway, thanks for saving our asses. We thought Concord would be better; last month there were twenty of us; yesterday there was eight; now we're five. The Raiders here have been relentless."

She looked around the room—an older woman sat on a couch, a kneeling man worked on a terminal, and a skinny man and woman with black hair. Other than Preston, these people weren't fighters. "Who are you people?"

He gestured at the man and woman sitting beside each other. "Over there is the married couple, Marci and Jun Long. Mama Murphy is the one on the couch and this" —he put his hand on the kneeling man's shoulder— "is Sturges."

"Hi," he greeted without looking up from the terminal.

"Trying to hack something?" Briar Rose asked.

"Nah. I mostly fix things—I tinker. When it comes to hacking, forget it." He turned to face her. "Speaking of which, there's a wrecked vertibird on the roof with a sweet suit of power armor, but I'm sure it's out of juice. There'll be reinforcements coming, so we're going to need it."

"Is there a way to power it up?"

"Yeah, with the fusion core downstairs. You get that, you'll have enough strength to rip the minigun out of the vertibird."

"I'll get it." She turned to leave and caught sight of the dog. "Stay here with them, boy," she ordered.

He huffed but went and lay down at the feet of Mama Murphy with a spaced-out expression on her face.

"Now look who Dogmeat brought to us," she said.

She glanced at the dog that perked up at hearing the name. "Dogmeat? So he's your dog?"

"Nah, he ain't my dog. Dogmeat's what you would call 'his own man'."

"Uh-huh..." Briar Rose backed away to go. That woman was strange. "Come on, Codsworth."

"Be careful, kid; something big and angry is coming," she warned.

"Good luck," Preston wished.

They headed downstairs and Codsworth hacked the terminal to open the door the fusion core sat behind; she pulled it out of the generator and they ascended to the roof. On top, the wrecked vertibird hung precariously on the edge, but the power armor wasn't hard to spot—a large and hulking frame of a metal man. But it was in full view of the road below and voices could be heard from the Raider reinforcements.

"Careful, mum," Codsworth whispered.

Briar Rose crept up to the back of the suit; she tried to stay out of sight as she inserted the fusion core into its back. It hissed as it awoke; the Raiders heard the noise and cried out in alarm. She twisted a wheel to open the back, then jumped in and it closed behind her. Seeing movement on the roof, the Raiders opened fire on her, but the bullets only dinged the hardened metal suit. With the strength of the power suit, she ripped the mounted minigun off the vertibird.

All of a sudden, there were cries of pain and fear; a loud, beastly roar sounded out, raising the hairs on Briar Rose's neck. The rain of bullets on her stopped and sounded again as the Raiders turned their fire on something else. She walked over to the edge to see what that 'something else' was.

A huge, tailed and scaled creature tore through the Raiders with long claws like butter. Limbs were sliced off and before the victims could flee, the creature would grab them and bite into them; once it caught sight of a fresh victim, it would throw the body away disinterested and go for its new meal.

She had to kill the thing to protect the people inside the Museum, but there was too much distance for her minigun to reach its target. So Briar Rose took a deep breath and jumped; she landed in a loud boom and the concrete broke underneath her—her fall created a crater. The sound luckily didn't draw the thing's attention, so Briar Rose took a few steps to get in range, planted her feet, and opened fire.

The machine gun quickly drew the thing's attention; it turned and roared at her as the bullets relentlessly dug into its scales. It tossed aside the body it was eating and ran at her on two legs, darting amazingly fast and smartly from side to side to avoid fire. A buzzing sounded above her as a red beam struck it—Preston Garvey helped by firing his laser musket.

She backtracked as it grew closer and closer. Flames whooshed past her as Codsworth fired his flamethrower at it after joining her from the roof.

The thing had a few feet before reaching her when it collapsed under the amount of fire. The barrel of her minigun was red and close to overheating when she pulled her finger off the trigger. Briar Rose just stared at the dead creature.

"What was that thing?" she asked; her voice sounded robotic speaking through the suit's speaker. "It looked like a dinosaur."

"That was a Deathclaw," Codsworth answered. "I have been fortunate never to have met one before. I believe they are mutations of what you once knew as chameleons."

Her guess was close enough. But those harmless things mutated into this kind of monster? She wondered what a butterfly would've mutated into.

They headed back into the Museum of Freedom to find all the refugees and Dogmeat gathered on the first floor. She exited the power armor as Preston Garvey approached her.

"You killed a Deathclaw; that's damn impressive."

"I had help; thanks."

"So, why are you here in Concord? I have a feeling it's more than just helping strangers..." he asked.

"I'm actually here looking for help myself. Codsworth told me that maybe I could find it here." Briar Rose took a deep breath. "My son's been kidnapped; his name's Shaun."

"I'm sorry to hear that and I'm also sad to say I don't know how I can help you."

She felt her body sag in defeat. "Thanks for being honest. So, what will you do now?"

"Mama Murphy has seen our new home; we go to Sanctuary now."

"That sounds like Sanctuary Hills."

"You know it?" he asked.

"I used to live there." She quickly sobered up at the puzzlement on Preston's face. "Anyway, I'll go with you."

"Great to have you with us." He turned to the others. "Let's go, everyone; Briar Rose has cleared the way for us."

She got back into the power armor and escorted the surviving settlers to Sanctuary Hills. It still hurt seeing the condition of what used to be her home, but Jun near her sighed in relief, happy that it looked like he would sleep with a roof over his head. Briar Rose stored the power armor under a house's open garage and helped the others scavenge cloth to craft what would work as a bed.

Sure that the others were settled for the night, Briar Rose headed to her old house to sleep. She thought she'd be well rested after being asleep for 210 years, but she was bone-tired—she'd had quite a day. The long couch in the living room still had its cushions, so she curled up on it; Dogmeat lay down with his head between his paws on the torn rug in front of her. Every now and then, she would hear the jet thruster of Codsworth as he flew around. Feeling somewhat safe, she drifted off to sleep.