He was called Jesus, but he was no saviour. That concept, that idea, was from another time. Before the blackouts.

He wore grey overalls, and a coveted death head rebreather. To the people of the twenty first century, he looked like an exterminator who took his job too seriously. To the people of the fifty first century, he looked like a Picker.

Jesus knew things that others did not. This was both his blessing and his curse. The nanoplague - the one that turned people to dust when exposed - had been developed by the Chinese. The release had been entirely accidental. One of their number had failed to observe safety protocols. There goes the neighbourhood. It was an archaic expression which Jesus quite enjoyed. Of course, nobody remembered what the Chinese had done, and now two Chinese AI corporations owned 40% of the market. They were also Jesus’s chief employer. A blessing, and a curse.

The door in front of Jesus was immaculate. It was going to be a good day. Most were pitted and brown from age. This was not an altogether bad thing. Many went undiscovered. Some showed signs of attempted entry, but they remained inviolate. But the ones you really had to watch out for, the dangerous ones, they were already open.

Warhounds and Pickers down on their luck liked to lie in wait. Jesus didn’t mess with those. A door might look secure, but a quick scan of his yeltzer, and he would know. There were ways of hiding things from the naked eye, not so the yeltzer.

The vault behind the current door was special. It was Trombly that had given him the trex cube. It had taken Jesus thirteen years, two hundred and twenty one days, sixteen hours, seven minutes and one second to crack it.

Unfortunately the coordinates had posed some problems. Vault 6bdv12 was located three km below hive gamma. Not exactly a holiday spot, gamma was overrun with Wraiths, and foolhardy gangs of Scavengers.

Jesus had been forced to enter via a data point four kilometres out, then hike in under cover of darkness. The place was a labyrinth of towerscapes, combine housing and factorums. He had been forced to ascend and descend repeatedly, and even retrace his steps for half a kilometre. But it was all worth it, to get a chance at this…..