"I wonder what kind of sick experiments MedTek was doing in here." he commented as we entered the first of the laboratories.
Whatever MedTek had been up to before the war, the lower, hidden rooms told a grim tale. Several tiny cells held trapped feral Ghouls, frantically clawing at the observation windows as soon as they perceived our presence. I was nearly sick at the thought of a company holding people like that, in a tiny bare room, no privacy, no way to escape, performing who-knows-what kind of experiments.
MacCready was in agreement. "I wouldn't be surprised if MedTek leaked whatever disease my son has on purpose... just to drive up demand for the cure," he remarked angrily.
With no other real recourse, we decided to hack the terminals that kept the doors locked, and eliminate the trapped ferals. It felt almost like murder, even if the ferals were less than mindless, suffering in a tiny cell. I swallowed my growing nausea and kept going.
MacCready had already moved on to the next room. "That cure better be here, it's the only chance Duncan has left." He was growing desperate, and when the next room along proved to be infested with ferals, he viciously slung his rifle across his shoulder, flinging several grenades into the room before resealing the door against the resulting explosions.
"You do realize the shrapnel might damage any equipment in the room, right?" I reminded him as we waited for the smoke to clear, making sure there were no remaining ferals. "Including the cure?"
"Damn it," he sighed angrily. "You're right." He tugged at his cap in frustration. "See, this is why I need you along, Boss." Standing up, he brought his rifle back around. "All right, let's keep going." Fortunately, the room wasn't a lab, but a central space leading to a series of smaller experiment rooms. We went room by room, taking our time to examine the equipment, with no success.
In the very last room, tucked away behind another locked door, we were greeted by one last feral Ghoul. This one, unlike the rest in the facility, was wearing an old tattered lab coat and glowing brightly green. The significance was lost on me, but MacCready reacted instantly.
"Glowing One! Move!" he shouted, pushing us to shelter behind a hefty workbench. We peered up at it from across the counter. MacCready had quickly dug into his pockets and shoved a tablet in his mouth, practically throwing a second one at me without looking. The tiny white pill slipped from my fingers and I let it go skittering across the floor, choosing instead to brace my shotgun across the counter in tandem with MacCready's sniper rifle.
Blam!
The feral stood still, slowly raising its arms, seemingly unaffected by my shot. As soon as it reached full extension, a bright flash emanated from it, and a wave of nausea knocked me back behind the counter to the crackling static of my Pip-Boy. What the hell did it just do?
Crack! Crack! Crack!
MacCready fired relentlessly as I tried to recover, dry heaving. Grabbing the edge of the counter, I levered myself upright just as the last round in the sniper's magazine dispatched the glowing Ghoul. It fell without a sound, crumpling in place, still illuminated. Almost before it finished falling, my companion had darted from behind the counter to grab its lab coat and drag the body as far into the back corner as he could. Returning, he explained while reloading, "Glowing Ones are the worst. They absorbed enough radiation that they can blast it out like a weapon. Good thing we had the Rad-X, huh Boss?"
I stood up, shaky and nauseated. Is that what that was? Oops. "Uh, sure." I managed through clenched teeth. Forcing a semblance of my normal energy, I looked about the large space filled with multiple science stations. "Let's give this one a good going-over. It's the last room." MacCready was only too happy to oblige.
We each took one side of the room, searching diligently. About halfway down the line of stations, I found a small container lying out in the middle of a chemistry bench. There was one word inscribed on the side: Prevent. I picked it up gingerly, bringing it to my companion. "Is this it?"
MacCready dropped what he had been holding, taking the small red dispenser in his suddenly trembling hands. He read the label, looked up at me, then back at the cylinder. His voice broke as he exclaimed, "We did it... holy crap, we actually did it! We just gave Duncan a fighting chance to live." He dashed tears from his eyes, grasping the experimental cure in his fist. In a sudden move, he wrapped his arms around me in a brief but enthusiastic hug, before releasing me to careen around the room in an overabundance of happiness. Still feeling drained and nauseated, I leaned against the nearest counter, watching his antics with a smile on my face and a flutter in my chest.
He soon wound down and came over to start the slow walk back with me, declaring fervently, "I don't know how I'll ever be able to pay you back for this... I owe you big time,"
I sighed, "You don't owe me, MacCready. This is a friendship, not a business contract." At least, I hope so. My steps slowed as my odd fatigue rose. C'mon, gotta get out of here.
He sounded startled. "I- I guess you're right. A business partner would never have done this, not for me." A smile twitched his mouth, "Keeping things 'even' is the only way I have to keep score. I've always been better at taking than giving. Maybe one day I'll learn to get my priorities straight." He stepped in front of me to give me a candid look. "You think I've been teaching you? You've been teaching me too, Boss, even if I'm not the best student." His smile returned.
I managed a weak smile back through my nausea just as my legs gave out. I sank to the floor of the first laboratory room, my energy depleted.
"Whoa, Boss! What happened?" A calloused hand reached under my chin to raise my head, piercing blue eyes staring intently at me. "Hey, you okay?"
I shook my head as a wave of nausea hit. Pulling away from MacCready, I crumpled to the floor, dry heaving again. The cramping of my stomach forced a groan from me as I curled up weakly on the cold dirty tiles, unable to move.
"Damn it, why didn't you say something?" MacCready's voice was angry again as he firmly pulled my left arm up towards him, flicking the selection switch on my Pip-Boy. "Geez, Boss! Didn't you take the Rad-X?" He tugged me partially upright, showing me the rarely used STAT screen. The bar in the lower left was almost half red, and an icon of a nuclear symbol with a line of accompanying text had appeared in the top left of the screen: Rads. "Looks like this has been building up for a while. You haven't been keeping track?"
I stared at the screen, at the accusatory red line. How did it get so bad? I shook my head slightly, not answering.
"That's it, we're not going any further tonight." MacCready let go of me to stand up and survey the room we were in. He stalked off, muttering almost to himself, "way too late to travel anyway, I guess." He took a few minutes to rearrange some of the furniture, based off the scraping noises that bounced around the hard walls. Some grunts of effort reached my ears as I lay there, trying to keep from heaving, miserable at the delay I caused. The access doors hissed closed, securing the room from any outside intrusion.
A few moments later, MacCready returned to crouch beside me. "All right, Boss. Do you think you can stand up?" The anger had faded, replaced with concern. He reached to grab under my arms, helping me up. As soon as my feet were somewhat under me, he shifted to pull my arm across his shoulders, supporting me easily with his other arm around my waist. "Okay, here we go."
We made our unsteady way to the narrow access hall between two of the small cells. The cell doors were closed and locked, former occupants stuffed inside. Both beds had been shoved together between the cells, barely fitting sideways in the snug space. MacCready shifted again, arranging me in a mostly upright seated position, leaning heavily against the rails of the headboard. He crawled onto the bed, reaching for my pack and digging into the side pocket. "Aha." Bringing his find back around, he settled down, one leg cocked up on the mattress in order to face me. "Remember this?" he asked, showing me the Rad-Away IV bag from the first night.
"I think so." I admitted, slowly. "It gets rid of radiation, right?"
He nodded, pulling the needle free from the bag and gesturing for my arm. "Uh-huh," he confirmed, tapping at the crook of my elbow to raise a vein. "And it's as much a lifesaver as a stimpak, if not used as often." He grimaced. "A reminder lesson for you: this stuff'll fix you right up, but at a cost. Better to anticipate and take a Rad-X." The needle went in smoothly, "Nice veins, by the way."
"I- I dropped the tablet." I said, unwillingly. "I was already so shaky..." A small sob escaped my lips. "I'm so sorry."
"Huh? Why?" There was genuine confusion on his face as he sat back to look at me.
"I was trying to keep moving, keep going... long enough to get back." The Rad-Away burned in my veins, and I closed my eyes against the additional sting of tears. "You need to get that cure to your son."
MacCready blinked a couple of times, eyes bright, looking at me with an intense, contemplative gaze. He reached up to attach the bag to the wall over my head. "Just lean back and let that work," he encouraged, not addressing my concern. "Actually, here." I squeaked in surprise as he stood up, lifting me by my legs and shoulders to push me across to the second bed tucked tight against the wall. Once I had curled up on my side to face the wall, he settled himself on the first bed to lounge against the headboard next to me, hands behind his head.
"Like I told you before, I hate traveling at night." he began in a smooth voice. "It's almost midnight, and it would be nearly suicidal to try and head back now." One hand reached out to pat my shoulder comfortingly. "This was the reality check I needed to stop me from getting us killed trying to navigate Boston in the dark." He sighed. "The cure won't do Duncan any good if it doesn't get to him."
I reached up to squeeze the fingers patting my shoulder gratefully. "Thanks, MacCready." The Rad-Away still burned in my veins, and I was rapidly losing my battle with the overwhelming fatigue brought on by the medicine. I fell asleep with my fingers still grasping his.