EXT. DILAPIDATED SERVICE TUNNEL – DAWN
A hazy dawn creeps over the wasteland. Twisted iron and scorched asphalt form the skeleton of a world long dead. Somewhere beneath a crumbling overpass near the entrance to an abandoned subway station, a faint MECHANICAL WHIRR cuts through the silence.
INT. RUSTED VAN SHELL – CONTINUOUS
Inside a hollowed-out van, surrounded by rubble and scattered trash, a silent sentinel slumps in the corner: MAXIMUS, encased in his battle-scarred T-60 POWER ARMOR.
The suit is locked. His HELMET IS ON — visor dim, breath fogging faintly on the inside. It's been hours.
A slight SCRATCHING sound grows louder — faint at first, then unmistakable.
A cluster of RADROACHES wriggles from a shattered vent, antennae twitching. They crawl toward the unmoving soldier.
One climbs onto Maximus's boot. Another scales the dented thigh plate. A third approaches the cracked helmet—
BANG! A radroach explodes in a puff of gore.
BANG! BANG! Two more go down.
Smoke curls from the barrel of a pistol. The shooter steps into frame: LUCY, sweating, trembling — radiation sick but alert. Her Vault 33 suit is torn, stained.
She lowers her weapon slowly and opens the helmet.
MAXIMUS
(weakly)
Hey. Can you please let me out of here? (gasping)
LUCY
(clears throat)
That was you, right? Back in Filly?
MAXIMUS
That was me.
LUCY
Why can't you move?
MAXIMUS (O.S., inside helmet)
'Cause someone stole my fusion core.
Please, c-can you please let me out?
LUCY
Believe me, I really want to trust you, but... I've had a rough week.
MAXIMUS
Yeah. Me too.
LUCY
You, uh, remember that, uh, man I left with? With the glasses and the wh-whole body?
MAXIMUS
Yes.
LUCY
Yeah, I'm looking for his head. That's why I'm here — that's, um... I mean, that's why I'm passing through. (grunts)
MAXIMUS
Hey. You have radiation sickness.
I got RadAway left in the sleeve of my armor. You can have it if you let me out. (panting)
LUCY
I really want to believe you, but... practically every person I've met up here has tried to kill me, so...
MAXIMUS
Listen. Hey. You don't get this medicine, you're gonna pass out. Okay?
And if you lose consciousness, we're both gonna die.
Trust me. Please. Please.
LUCY
What's your name?
MAXIMUS
(hesitates)
I'm Knight Titus.
LUCY
I'm Lucy.
MAXIMUS
There's a manual option, you just—
LUCY
I got it. (grunts, panting)
The T-60, right? The Army started using these after the Battle of Anchorage.
I've seen these in old engineering manuals but never in real life.
And you've even got the tempered lining in this one, which is...
She passes out.
TIME PASSES — AN HOUR
MAXIMUS
(softly)
I had no idea people lived in those vaults.
LUCY
(regathering herself)
What did you think was in them?
MAXIMUS
Monsters.
LUCY
(laughs, then coughs)
No. Just regular folk like me.
MAXIMUS
Well, my squire stole something vital to the Brotherhood.
I've got to go after him.
LUCY
(beat)
Wait. This Brotherhood of yours...
You guys have more of those T-60s?
MAXIMUS
Yeah.
LUCY
And guns? Like real... "I'm not messing around" type guns?
MAXIMUS
Yeah.
LUCY
Listen. I have a tracker that'll lead right to that head.
Now, seeing as everybody on Earth seems to be after that thing, I'm guessing that's what you're looking for too?
MAXIMUS
What are you suggesting?
LUCY
We travel together.
We use my tracker to catch up to your squire, get the head, and take it to the Brotherhood.
In exchange for my help, you lend me the services of five or six of your knights to help me save my father.
Look. You could've been lying about the medicine, and you weren't.
And you could have killed me when I collapsed back there, and... you didn't.
I get that trust doesn't come easily up here.
But you can trust me.
I'm from a place where the worst someone can do to you is forget to say thank you.
MAXIMUS
(softly)
Sounds like a nice way to live.
LUCY
It is.