Fallout 4: AR

29. The Cure

"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.