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Near the edges of the St. Louis ruins, relatively undamaged, was the St. Louis University. Former location of rich knowledge, where aspiring students came to learn whatever was needed to succeed in their lives. While the school and the surrounding buildings were relatively untouched by the atomic bombs of the Great War, the school was all but abandoned after the students either left or were kidnapped by raiders, and the books burned by desperate wastelanders seeking a few precious seconds of warming fire. It was here that Natalie Harper, known now as Nix, lived alone with her father, a Cyberdog named Al who had her father's brain. It seemed like the best choice upon Nix's arrival to St. Louis, after all, what drugged up raider would think to search for people in a school? All Nix had to do was find a spot and rest there each night. Though she was cautious, she knew the good hiding spots, the right place to set traps for people who would come with less than noble intentions.

For a while, life was hard. Nix hardly had any food or water, not even a mat to sleep comfortably on. But as time passed and her hunger grew, she forced herself to brave the shell of the once great city. It took effort, but with Al at her side to help sift through some of the heavier debris, Nix had slowly acquired a bevy of much needed consumables. The food was easy to find, there were countless half opened or crushed cereal boxes that tasted horrible but filled her up for a few hours. On rare occasions, she'd be lucky enough to find a can of fruit or corn unopened. She treasured those finds, and she kept her hopes up with the goal of finding just one more can of peaches. Water was much, much more difficult to acquire. She couldn't afford to drink anything irradiated, so she had to be extremely careful with every find of water. More often than not, she'd discard entire bottles because of the irradiated gruel inside. Purified water was uncommon, but occasionally found on the bodies of recently killed wastelanders. Nix had to force herself to not think about how they died when these situations presented themselves.

And so with the daily routine of scavenging, Nix had manged to sustain herself for a few weeks, and nobody had come to the university to disturb her. As she sat in a leather chair that was ripped in several places in the living room of the girl's dorm, she was lost in thought. Despite the ruined walls and rotted furniture of the building interiors, Nix was finally beginning to to think she could etch out a living here. Maybe once she got older... She could work on repairing everything, restock the school with books. Then she could truly call this place her home. Looking down at Al, she smiled for the first time in over a week, which surprised her. "Things seem to be looking up, dad." She said, her voice croaking slightly, she hadn't spoken in a while. Al, having been lying down beside the chair, lifted his head and stared at his daughter with slightly droopy eyes and growled off what Nix assumed was a word of reassurance. Nix sighed at her father's new body, and how bad it looked. His fur, normally a light brown, had begun to turn grey, and his once pristine machine body parts were faded, and had traces of rust at various parts. He had seen better days... But Nix was confident that she could fix him, if she just had the parts... But the only trading post she knew was close by was in Sportsman's Park, a former baseball stadium for her favorite team, now renamed Sportsman's Trading Post after a band of merchants set up a small market to peddle various wares. It was too far away, and she didn't even have any caps to buy the expensive repair parts.

Nix sighed deeply, and just like that, her mood went back to the dark pit of dreariness. She tried to busy herself with thoughts of where she'd look for water the next day, but the horrible thought of her father's body failing him kept her in a rut that she wouldn't dig herself out of soon. Sighing again, she stood from the chair. "I'm going for a walk." She said, and Al immediately started to sit up. "No, dad. I can handle a walk on my own." Al let his head droop, and with reluctance he sat down.

Turning, Nix opened the large and nearly rotted wooden doors that led to the university grounds. What could have been a vibrant garden was now an endless patch of brown, dead grass. Nix didn't care at this point, anyway, as she walked straight for the main school building. Maybe there was a book in there that she missed... There wasn't any of course, but she'd gotten used to lying to herself.