While Med-Tek was able to stay locked-down since the Great War. The signs that persistent individuals had tried making multiple attempts to crack the building open since then were fairly obvious. There was a parking garage to the left of the main entrance, but only leading to administration and offices, no real projects or important valuable data would be accessible on the top floors, and anything worthwhile would be stored underground.

Leading up to the steps were bullet casings, and around the entryway were dead ghouls, long since shot, these were only from the foyer area. The glass doors with metal frames were cracked and glass scattered across the foyer. The lobby looked like a hurricane swept through it, more dead ghouls and shot up Mr. Handies and Securitron attendants. The rest of the foyer was well lit, and well reinforced, mostly intact. Clearly the sign that the robots were running maintenance for the building until raiders or scavengers came and shot their way through.

"Well...you never know." Nate said, unbuttoning his holster. Deacon and Hancock nodded, following behind him and keeping a hand ready to grab their pistols. Sweeping the first floor, they came across storage, security, and bathrooms, a crate's worth of drugs and chems that they all started gathering and collecting. Piling everything together, Hancock opened one Mentat, crushing it between his fingers then snorting the powder.

"Whoop! Yep! Still good!" Hancock said, sniffling twice to clear his nose.

"Thanks for the update."

"Hell, we might as well make a buck off this. Doesn't look like any mutants ever got wise enough to get in here."

With the elevators unresponsive, but power flowing to them, Nate figured there wouldn't be anyway to get them moving without brute forcing the doors open, then rewiring the lift, or finding the executive terminal that would remove the lockdown. Checking the elevator doors, it looked like someone recently tried to attempt exactly that. There were gouge marks, signs that a crowbar had been used to wedge itself in and pry the doors apart. Metal shavings on the ground, Nate ran his clean hand over one of the scratches. Coming up with plenty of metal powder, instead of brown dust, "Fresh," He said.

"Did you say something?"

"Scavenger's been through here recently." Nate said, "Not interested in the chems, probably looking for something stronger?"

"That'd be the only reason as to why most of this stuff was thrown around, and not taken..." Deacon said, "Makes the most sense that there would be some real good, strong stuff in the labs or up above."

In the backside of the Med-Tek building, past the bathrooms and a changing area, shower area, there was a long hallway with decontamination arches leading to a locked door.

Looking down the hallway, their feet met water and chemicals, making splashing noises as they walked through the puddles. "Okay, these have been used recently." Touching the arches, their was still a bit of dampness that could be felt along the nozzles. "Expect company ahead."

"What's the plan, Nate?" Deacon asked.

"Same as always, knock like the neighbors we are, and then if the door's open, we invite ourselves in."

\111/

The door leading into the labs were sound-proof, and once they slid open, allowing the trio inside, Nate was about to cheerily announce 'Vault-Tec. Calling,' but was hit with a buzzing siren, chirping and squealing every ten seconds, plus the sound of laser and gunfire.

"Oh, we're walking straight into the fire here," Nate said, pulling out his handgun, Deacon and Hancock readied their weapons, setting down the crate of meds and chems they picked up along the way and leaving them by the door. "Sun's out; Guns out."

The decontamination arches left a single trail of dried footprints deeper into the lab. There was a hacking growl of ghouls, followed by short bursts of gunfire.

Along the floor, they counted handfuls of decimated ghouls, and even more .45 caliber shells and a dozen .44 magnum rounds.

Following the noise of the gunfire, they could see the walls, missed shots, and even as apprehensive as they were to keep moving forward, they didn't want to walk into a line of sight. "Hancock, take the rear... Whoever's down there has been blasting their way through ghouls, we don't want to spook them."

Hancock nodded, "What's the plan? What are we going to do about our shooter? Let him be? Some of these guys...you know...they get that look in their eye when they're after a fix. No matter what we say, it's all about chasing that high and not stopping for nobody, our chances of getting held up and robbed are more likely."

Listening to the gunshots, it was a .45 and a .44, subtle changes in the tone and noise they made, the bangs from the .45 were semiautomatic, while the deep booms of a magnum were in rounds of six. "We got ourselves a cowboy," Deacon said, listening to the gunfire and making two finger-guns.

"How do we get their attention?"

"Same way we get out of this. Make a lot of noise," Nate said. "Vault-Tec. Calling!" Nate shouted.

"Vault-Tec. Calling!"

\111/

Remaining only a few moments behind their shooter, they were getting closer, as they moved deeper into the sublevels of the Med-Tek building. Passing containment cells, testing labs, a reactor core, the production bay of Mentats and other Med-Tek chems was where they first got a glimpse of their shooter, and dozens and dozens of locked in observation cells in a large room with two floors.

Passing more dead ghouls shot to bits, and noticing that the Mentats were largely overlooked, there was a shipping container untouched that Hancock salivated at the thought of 16 tons of drugs all waiting in pristine condition. "I could...I could..."

"Yeah, Hancock, we know," Deacon said, "Focus for a sec."

"I am focused!" He replied, chewing on another Mentat. Crunching and noisily, crushing down with his mouth open.

"I'm not judging about the drugs, but please chew with your mouth closed! Do you know how loud that is!?" Deacon said, his ears primed towards the gunshots, and as Hancock chewed on Mentats like Altoids candies, the chomping and open-mouth chewing was especially distracting.

"Why, you want one?" Hancock asked, holding out the container and rattling the tin container for Deacon to grab. Hancock put on his best shit-eating grin, making Deacon roll his eyes back towards the front.

The production area was loaded with raw chemicals and powders, all of which Nate saw as a gold-mine of pre-war medications and drugs that otherwise would take ages to synthesize.

"Next time we come through here, we've got to get a whole caravan here. All of this is worth a few hundred thousand dollars. The equipment, the labs, the materials in the raw. We could have ourselves a whole pharmacy running out of here."

The gunfire had stopped, but the trail lead them to a large room lined with over forty rooms, one or two ghouls behind each door in an observation cell, with the only way forward blocked by sealed doors and the sounds of more ghouls.

"You!" MacCready yelled. He was standing in the security control center, overlooking the whole prison-like hospital. Four ghouls banging on the sealed doors to come in after the former Gunner.

After charging into the observation wing, MacCready was about to be swarmed with more ghouls, and lead them up to a security room overlooking the whole area. Taking refuge inside, he locked out the ghouls, but was trapped there until he decided to move on. Taking the time to reload his weapons, and take hold of the armory and security pads and weapons left by Med-Tek, he was preparing to go another round with the ghouls when the trio walked in.

"MacCready! How's it going!?" Hancock shouted, the ghouls still fixated on the security door were oblivious to the conversation, and still trying with no hope of breaking through.

"Want us to take care of your problem there?" He asked.

"What are you doing here?" MacCready shouted back, wondering what reason these three would have being here.

"Hold on! I can't listen to you and these idiots pounding away..." Nate said, aiming his gun up at the four ghouls, he, Deacon, and Hancock all fired away, only provoking the forty ghouls in the observation rooms to their own doors and trying to break through. The muffled thumping and growling only made holding a conversation here that much worse,

"Fuck me," Nate said.

\111/

"Fuck me," MacCready said, watching as the ghouls were gunned down by the intruders following in behind him. He didn't even suspect anyone behind him, or expect anyone would show up behind him.

With the observation cells still locked up, MacCready spent his time going over the controls to the wing controlled from the security terminal in the booth. Before being chased up here, he had tried to check the door leading onwards, but the next area of labs weren't opened by key or card, they were only opened through the security checkpoint here. Meaning he would need to prop the door open after getting through, or the only way to keep it manually open was to disengage the All-Lock sequence, and allow all the cells to open at once.

Feeling outwitted, he knew all it would take is timing and a little muscle to force his way in, but now he felt like being stuck between a rock and a hard place.

"So what they hell do you want?" MacCready shouted down at them, Nate pointed his big hand back towards the door, jerking his thumb over the shoulder.

"Listen, long story short, Mutants eating stashes of Mentats, and I'm here to make sure they don't get their hands on any more. Now that I'm here, I want to come back and revitalize the drugs being made and utilize all the raw materials they've got around here to get a working lab back in order. But what about you? What do you need? Are you the Mr. 44 and 45 calibers?"

MacCready held one gun up in the palm of his hand, "Yep. Here's the thing though. I don't trust you."

"What?! Why not?"

"Cause of the shit you pulled in Mass Fusion!"

"I was acting! I was pretending to be more drunk than I really was!"

"I'm talking about hanging anyone who gets in your way! You're cheap too!"

"That...is mostly true! You're talking about Kellogg, right? Listen, can you come down here so we can have a proper discussion? The yelling and the shouting, and the ghouls moaning and groaning...doesn't make for the best conditions."

"I'm afraid I can't do that. I'm on a mission. I need to get to the trial labs on the other side of those doors over yonder. I need the medicine inside. Whatever Med-Tek was working on. I need it. You need to leave." MacCready said, raising his handgun up, he was still pointing at the ceiling, so Nate put his palms up.

"MacCready, listen, we can make a deal. I need medicine too, for my wife. My wife is about to undergo surgery, and I want to stockpile any and everything I can to make sure that she's got anti-biotics, painkillers, blood-thinners, blood thickeners, anti-vomit pills, IV drips, stuff to start the poop, stuff to stop the poop, stuff for when you have too much poop, top to bottom list of everything a surgery and working hospital needs or would have on hand to make sure that everything goes exactly 100% according to plan so she can make a full recovery. It sounds like we're in the same boat here, MacCready. We can help you finish this out and then we go our separate ways if that's what you want."

"I'd like you to leave, that's what I want, Nate. Hancock, don't even start. I need this."

"Hey, I did you plenty of favors," Hancock said, "What's got you so gung-ho about this place anyway?"

"I said leave!" MacCready said, face turning red.

"Easy, man! What's the score? I'm throwing you a line here, you helped me, I'll help you. We're even keel, right? You got paid, we didn't leave things on a bad note, did we? We didn't even know you would be here. I'm trying to set up a hospital for Vault 111, an infirmary, pharmacy, surgical suite all in one. Any kind of treatment you need, it'll be there in Vault 111. So? What's up, Doc? Where are you hurting?"

"I can't let you have Prevent. It's the one thing I need here, and I'm running out of time. I can't let you have this."

Hancock grabbed at Nate's elbow. "It's his kid," he breathed out. "Sicker than a dog."

"Hey, listen, MacCready, Vault 84 here in Boston has pathogen studies, we have doctors and experienced people who can help with your kid."

That seemed to trigger MacCready more, "Shut up about my kid! I'm giving you the options right now, leave. The only way through is if I disengage the lockdown on all the cells and security doors to the next room. That leaves 40 ghouls crawling over every inch of this place, and no way to shut either of them back in. Or you leave, I get my medicine, and then you fuck off!"

Nate shook his head to confer with Deacon and Hancock, "What the heck is Mac on about?"

"His kid, Duncan. Sick as sin. Laid up in Goodneighbor. Knew about the kid for a long time now, sick with something fierce that you don't see or hear about people getting better from."

"And Med-Tek's got something here to fix that?"

"And you talking about taking that medicine for your own isn't helping your cause, Nate. I think we need to back off, and let MacCready do his thing, and then come back later."

"That's where he's wrong. He's trapped. Those..." Nate turned up to MacCready. "MacCready! Those doors over there. Is there a monitor with a camera feed, and is there controls for this security door up there in the control booth?"

MacCready looked down, wiping the screens off, and taking a moment to turn the machines on.

"Yeah!"

"MacCready, those sliding doors are on a sensor/timer! Those doors aren't meant to stay open longer than it takes for a person to pass through. That's why this room was designed like this, so a single person couldn't break in at night, and that's why the keys to open the door is up there where you're standing, and the door to the secret labs are way over here on that side. You'd have to be a runningback to get from there...to there... in about 5 seconds before the doors close you in. Trust me, MacCready. The people from the past were thinking about this shit. Take one solid look at the cameras, if they're still working. I will bet you a brand spanking new Vault suit right now, that one of those cameras is on the other side of that door, pointing down...am I right? You see, once those doors close, the scientists are locked in there. The only way you're getting back out, is if someone in the security booth looks down and sees that someone wants to come out. If you run in there, you're not getting back out. The doors close, and they stay closed. You would have NO ONE to unlock the security doors. That's a security feature to keep thieves locked in until police or security came in and caught people trying to steal from Med-Tek."

MacCready looked at the security monitor, and sure enough, Nate nailed down the design to a tee. Scientists and lab workers had to show security their clearance before going in and out of the experimental labs. This documented anyone coming or going, and what time they left or entered to pinpoint any internal thefts or espionage.

"So you either let one of us come up there, and work the doors for you, or two, you jailbreak all the ghouls and fight your way through because the safety feature that knocks out all the doors along with it. Either way, you can't do this alone. This is a two man job, minimum."

MacCready already had the security pads on, and a helmet was ready to be worn as well. Palming the helmet he shoved it on his head, "I guess I'll just have to be faster than you."

"Oh crap, he's choosing his family first," Nate said, reading the situation at hand. "MacCready, wait! We'll go!"

Deacon and Hancock were already sensing that MacCready was in no mood to negotiate or reason, and thinking about his family and laid out with the facts that it was either unleash all the ghouls or getting locked in forever pushed him in the wrong direction. He didn't consider the third option Nate was trying to lead him towards, but it was too late to consider alternatives.

Engaging the evacuation protocols, the security system in place thought it was a fire-earthquake-or integrity related issue and allowing all the doors in the observation wing to open at once. Sirens blared for all personnel in the building to evacuate.

MacCready was out the other side door, running with both hands on his guns, hunched like a football player, using his elbows to jab and shove any ghoul out of the way as the observation doors opened and they all came pouring out into the room. Running along the second floor, he made it halfway before the ghouls really started taking notice of their new environment and surroundings. Having not eaten in over two hundred years, Nate and Deacon were first prime cut choices, as MacCready barreled past the next dozen rooms like a football player shoving his way to the endzone. Knocking ghouls over the railing, some charged forward out of their rooms and fell off the side.

As MacCready sprinted, Nate, Deacon, and Hancock made the tactical retreat backwards into the hallway they came from, shooting at the swarm of ghouls emerging from their cells.

He only slowed down to raise his pistols and fire nearly point blank at any ghouls in his way. His expression was flush with determination, shock, and loathing. Three quarters of the way down the balcony, MacCready hopped over the railing, landing behind two ghouls and gaining their attention as he ran for the experimental labs.

While the bulk of the swarm were disorganized and following the crowd of other ghouls chasing after the trio, MacCready shot at several ghouls branching off and following him, blasting and shooting one several times until he passed through the security doors down a hallway bordering more labs.

Flying down the hallway on the tips of his toes, he came to the experimental lab doors, turning there and raising both guns up akimbo, he pulled both triggers on the six ghouls that came after him. When his guns were empty, he charged the last two, and bowled them over. Stomping on them, he pulled out his crow bar hanging from his belt loop, smashing down on the back of their skulls to keep them from getting back up, he shoved his .44 back in the holster and replaced his clip of bullets in the .45, finishing them off with a round to the head each.

The doors to the experimental labs were pried open, and MacCready reloaded his .44 as he stepped inside. Two head researchers were still inside, ghouls with their labcoats in tatters, he didn't hesitate to kill them as they took notice of his presence.

Shaking as the gunfire behind him continued, he swept over the whole room, hoping for an obvious sign or something to point his way to the cure he desired.

Searching rampantly, there were human skeletons, along with a pony's all laid out. Bone saws, old refridgerators filled with body parts, and cryovaccumed bags of organs. When he came to a glass tube stand with syringes of red lined casing, he saw the label 'Prevent' on the side and lunged for it. Wrapping his hand around the vial, the sound of his own heart beating in his ears was enough to drown out all other noise until Nate practically shouted at his back turned to the door.

"You know you didn't have to do that." Nate said, his Deathclaw arm coated in fresh glowing ghoul's blood, arms still shaky at the close contact encounter with the ghouls. Deacon and Hancock both carrying their laser and plasma rifles loosely pointed down at the ground.

MacCready swung around, pointing both pistols at Nate. Raising his palms to MacCready, he covered his chest with his large palm, making sure to position his hand over his heart in case emotions trumped logic a second time.

"Back off, this one is mine." MacCready said.

"Let me take lead on this one, Nate." Stepping aside, Hancock stepped forward, "Take a load off, MacCready," Hancock insisted, "Listen to our offer. RJ, you know I know you. We all know you...we've got no beef with you. You drink at my bar, I remember the first time you showed up at the Third Rail with your kid, yeah? Nate here he wants all this..." Hancock gestured with one hand, making spinning circle motions with his finger, "To come back online. All the medicine here...all the drugs and chems, he wants to make more."

"I don't have time for this, I need to get back."

"Time?" Nate asked, "If it's time. Then I'm a master of it. I'll give you all the time in the world. Listen to me, if that vial is the last in existence, then I need to have Curie, my Miss Nanny doctor analyze its contents. She's a pathologist specialist who spent eight decades developing a cure-all resistance drug to various diseases and viruses. She is an expert at curing people. It's going to take her and a whole team of researchers a while to recreate and synthesize another cure, but with that, she wont have to start from scratch. With you having the power to create more Prevent if you let us look at it, there's always a chance to make more." Nate said, pausing since MacCready was subtly shaking his head side to side while Nate was talking, seeing that he wasn't getting forward with him, he needed another approach.

"I don't have time to wait, my son doesn't either. He wont last much longer unless I get him this medicine."

"MacCready, If you can give me 6 hours. We can get your kid to Vault 111. Curie will analyze the contents of that vial, and take and compile all these notes so we can create hundreds of doses of Prevent. I want to make sure that any other father...mother, brother, or sister who comes looking for that same cure isn't the last one in existence. How much hope will it bring if there's someone else out there right now with the same signs of your kid, maybe just the first symptoms, or maybe even further along, hoping that there's a special magic drug that will cure them...only to come here and find everything gone?"

"My son comes first. Too many times I've heard the phrases, 'first come, first served'. 'Here today, gone tomorrow' I'm not wasting my chance."

"Now hold on, RJ." Hancock said, piping up again. "There's a consequence of using the last one in existence. That's it? Nothing? No hope whatsoever? I don't want to delay you from seeing your son get back on his feet, but this is a way you get your son all the time in the world. It's like putting a big pause on Duncan. He wont get any more sick, and you can have months to get more done. You get to stop his sickness in its tracks. Anyone else who comes looking for the same also gets that glimmer of hope you're feeling right now, and Duncan gets the message that he's on his way to a place that all he has to do is take a nap, and wake up cured."

"What do you mean?"

"Cryogenic Freezers." Hancock said, turning to subtly nod and let Nate take over again.

"We put your boy on ice, we study the contents of Prevent, and then once we identify all the components, we give you everything back. We use everything here at Med-Tek to make more Prevent. That way, if anyone else comes along, looking for medicine, there will be a surplus of medicine. Especially...ESPECIALLY if it takes more than ONE DOSE. What then if it takes more than one dose?" Nate askes, judging his reaction. That seemed to get MacCready to think twice, rationalize that it may take more than whatever's here in his possession. The tiniest of nods, an inkling of indication that they were getting through to him, MacCready was finally open to listening to their logic and reason.

"He wont age more than a few seconds. It'll be instantaneous for him while time passes normally for you and everyone else. I have a carriage we can bring him from Goodneighbor to Vault 111, with the four of us riding coach. We can have your son there by this evening. I just want to see what's inside the vial under a microscope. We need to know what it's made of before you inject your boy, Duncan with it. That's all I want to do. After we look at it, then we give it all back to you."

MacCready was weighing the options as Hancock lit a cigarette, took two draws, then passed it to the nervous father. He shook, twitched as he finally stowed his weapons, but denied the smoke. "No thanks, I grew out of liking the smell."

"RJ, this is a good deal. Take Nate up on it. A vault's hell of a lot cleaner than the Rexford anyhow. You get your kid in a clean bed and I bet you half those symptoms clear up anyway. You put your kid first, and we don't hold that against you for unlocking the doors to the lab here...Right? No hard feelings? Family makes us all a little touchy feely." Hancock said, nodding as Deacon and Nate bobbed their heads in agreement.

"Nate here's got a missing kid and a hurt wife he's trying to do everything to hold onto." Hancock waved his hand flat over the air, clearing the slate. "We'll get your kid all set up real nice; Okay?"

"Okay." He says, nodding.

"Good... Nate?" Hancock leads off, looking towards their leader.

"Great, Deacon, let's look this place over for notes, head out in ten. You and MacCready head to Goodneighbor, Deacon and I, we'll get the carriage hooked up and meet you at the gates. Then, the four of us take the roads all the way up to Sanctuary Hills and get Duncan squared away. Sound like a plan?"

With everyone nodding in agreement, "Alright then, let's get moving."

\111/

Hancock pulled Nate aside for a moment, "I'm going to keep working on MacCready on our walk back. Get him to see that the boys in blue are the right choice for his boy. Just don't keep us waiting too long, yeah?"

Nate nodded, "Yeah, most notes I imagine were stored on data banks and hard drives here, not much written down relating to Prevent. We'll scour the computers next time we're here. Fill MacCready in on what we've been up to too. Remind me, was he a former Gunner?"

Hancock nodded, "Yeah. Started doing extra work outside of the Gunners to bring in extra caps for his kid. Didn't kick back caps to his gang, and then got kicked out for it."

"So he's a family man."

Hancock nodded,

"Good. They're easy to work with. And...the wife?"

"Pheh..." Hancock blew out a breath through his lips. "Brenda? Barbara? Bella? I could be way off. Ended with an 'A', Bull-Dyke type of gal if I ever remember him saying anything about her. Not worth getting into unless you really wanna dig. All I know is that she's not around."

"Nah, I'm sure he'll open up sooner or later. Just get his kid ready to move. We'll be pulling out the moment we get the Giddyups all hooked up. See you at the gates. Make sure he knows that we're all working for in his corner for his kid until we get to Vault 111. With the four of us on lookout, let him know we'll lay waste to anything that crosses our path or gets in a 1000 yards of us that so much as looks at us funny on the way there.

"Will do."

\111/

Next Chapter: Ch. 97 Pound of Flesh Estimated time remaining: 2 Hours, 29 Minutes