August 26th, 2279

Zack and Kade quickly made their way down the marble stairway back to the first level of the large building they were both in. The greenish wallpaper was peeling from the walls and the large tiled floors were cracking in many places. When they neared the last of the stairs, Zack turned to Kade.

"I didn't think you were going to do that." He said with some laughter in his voice. "We need to get out of here quick before the fire spreads and causes the second floor to collapse upon us."

"Right." She responded at once. "He didn't really leave much choice though. The way that he spoke of the children…I just couldn't allow him to continue with his work."

"I understand." Zack said and pulled Kade by the upper arm towards a hallway to their left. Once they entered it a robotic voice was heard echoing down from the far end of it. They paused to listen.

"Explosion detected in main lab. Threat level changed to Alpha. Consider all movement hostile unless given proper voice recognition."

Kade gasped and Zack clenched his jaw. Down the end of the hall was military grade Sentry Bot. It was painted olive green. Its optical sensors burned bright red in the low light within its armored round head. Its arms were lowered towards the ground at the moment. It turned itself with its tri wheeled legs to face the both of them. The metal of its large body creaked as it turned.

It bellowed down the hall to them. "Two targets detected. Please give proper voice command or you will be eliminated. You have three seconds to comply." The robot began to raise its left arm up aiming at them.

"Uh -" Kade managed to say while she stood frozen with fear.

Zack swore loudly. He quickly placed both his hands on her shoulders and guided her to the other side of the hall. As he was doing so a whooshing sound was heard erupting from the other side of the hall. Zack fell to the ground pulling Kade along with him. When they landed on the warm dirty tiles a missile impacted against the wall behind them and exploded. Shattered remains of concrete and drywall rained upon the both of them. A horrible acrid smell filled the air.

Zack's ears were ringing loudly. He shook his head a few times and looked around to get his bearings. He quickly sat up and pulled his revolver out. He moved and kept his back to the wall. From around the corner the robot began to speak again.

"Targets missing. Direct hit. Checking for other hostiles."

Zack peered carefully around the corner as Kade sat up and began to shake out debris from her hair looking towards him. Zack could see that the Sentry Bot was making its way up the wide hall slowly. It was pivoting its upper body left and right scanning for them. Zack brought his head back to look at Kade. She was biting her lip and looking at him apologetically.

"I'm sorry Zack. I totally forgot about that thing when we first came in. The exit is somewhere behind it though. That scientist sealed all the other doors and windows with that armored plating. It's the only way out."

Zack nodded. "There might be another way to get past him. But he might spot us. Its armor is too heavy for what we have. I wish I would have brought some pulse grenades or mines."

"Kade stood up. "Alright. I'm going to find a way to get behind him. With my tools I might be able to disable it from its maintenance panel. Think you can keep it distracted long enough?"

Zack was about to protest this plan, but didn't see any other way out of the situation. Zack nodded. "Be careful."

"I will." Kade stared into his eyes for a moment. She then turned and quickly sprinted down the corridor they were in to Zack's left.

Zack stood up with his back still to the wall. He raised his revolver up and took a few deep breaths. He ran out sideways across the opening of the hall and fired three rounds at the robot. The discharge of his gun echoed loudly in the hall. Two hit the torso and the other a leg. They appeared to do no real damage to it though and it raised its right arm up. Zack cleared the way and got behind cover of the other wall as rounds from its minigun pounded into the wall where he had run across.

"Keep it distracted she asks. Easier said than done."

- An Hour And Half Earlier

The past three nights of travel for Zack and Kade remained mostly uneventful. The only occurrence was a trio of young Jackal Rabbits that Zack had managed to scare off with a few blasts from his gun. They had traveled one more day north before finally heading more to the west towards New Vegas. They had gone through about a quarter of their food supplies, not finding much to scavenge or hunt along the way. The beginnings of dawn had just started showing itself across the landscape as they both entered the outskirts of the settlement of Aguila.

"I'm glad we are finally here. We were beginning to run really low on water." Kade said from Zack's right.

"Yes, hopefully they'll allow us admittance. I'd hate to -" Zack stopped speaking abruptly to pause in the road to consider the strange scene in front of him. Kade stopped as well and was about to question him but then she too saw what he was looking at. She stared with a confused expression on her face.

Coming down the road was a thin elderly man with long tangled gray hair wearing a wide tooth grin. Even from this distance, Zack could see that his teeth were yellow and quite decayed. He was riding on an old red painted bicycle. Zack had seen a couple when he was younger. The bike was dented in a few places and had no tires on it. The man was peddling quite hard to make the steel rims turn to carry him along. A man riding on a bike wasn't that out of the ordinary, not even in the wastes, what was strange was that he was completely naked from head to toe. In his right hand he held a small black pistol. Zack thought it was remarkable that the man was able to ride the bike with ease as his privates were exposed.

As the man on the bike got nearer, Kade hid herself partly behind Zack fearful of what this man might do. He stopped the bike when he was next to the both of them. There was awkward silence as the old man looked at them smiling with his bright blue eyes. His eyes, they seemed distant somehow.

"Um, hello." Zack said at last.

"Well howdy!" The man responded. He said it very loudly causing Kade to jump a little. "You didn't happen to see that thieving bastard did you? He just robbed the bank. He must have come down this way."

Confused, Zack answered. "No, didn't see anyone."

"Ah don't you worry none. My trusty steed and I will track him down." The man then pat the handle bars of the bike in front of him affectionately. "Do you know what I'm going to do when I find him?"

Zack shook his head.

The man raised his right arm up to show the gun in his hand. He then raised it up and placed it to the temple of his head. "This of course." He said it to both of them as if they were ignorant.

Before Zack could react or respond there was a loud bang. The elderly man had pulled the trigger causing the left side of his head to explode outwards. The man slumped forward crashing down with the bike intertwined in his legs.

Zack stepped backwards bumping into Kade hard causing her to stumble and fall to the ground. Zack immediately turned around helping her back up by grabbing her right hand.

"Sorry about that." He said

A look of shock was on her face and her mouth was open a bit as she stood back up. She shook her head a few times slowly and was silent a few moments. Zack could hear strained sounds coming from her mouth.

"Why did that man just do that? She asked.

Zack shrugged. "No idea, he didn't seem all there though. Come on, let's hurry and get into town before someone comes around and think we did this."

"Okay." She said softly, still starting at the elderly man's naked body as the contents of his head spilled out onto the dusty road.

All that remained of Aguila was the town's center. Apparently violent winds or other hazards had caused much of the surrounding buildings and homes to collapse or burn down. There was only one street which seemed to have buildings and that is where they both headed. Before the Great War they must have been shops, restaurants, and hotels. But now they were just shelter and refuge for anyone that decided to enter them. They were made from concrete by the looks of it, which was smoothed flat over the outside. All were painted in dull earthy colors and the largest one was three stories high. The town didn't look to have any power as all the building's windows were darkened. The sun hadn't quite risen fully yet.

As they walked further down the street Zack looked at different areas which would serve well for cover, but didn't see any kind of guards posted anywhere. The entire place was silent. Small creaks were heard from a metal door attached to a car that was partly up on the sidewalk. The wind was causing the door to move slightly back and forth. Zack began to question himself for deciding to come here. On the map this was a settlement the caravan had been to before, but perhaps it had been abandoned sometime ago. He hadn't looked elsewhere on the map for any nearby ones. They might not have enough water to make it to another location.

"Am I the only one that is a little freaked out?" Kade asked.

The ambiance of the town made it appear to be empty of people, but Zack couldn't shake the feeling that they were being watched.

"No, something isn't right here." Zack responded as he tried to look into the buildings for signs of life.

As a precaution he took out his revolver and held it at his side. He motioned to Kade to do the same. She took her laser pistol out and held it in front of her with both hands ready to bring it up quickly if need be.

They came to a large circular concrete fountain that was placed in the median of the road which intersected with another street perpendicular to it. There were many designs of flowers etched into it. The fountain had three levels with a faceless statue of a woman standing at the top holding some kind of jug with both her hands. The fountain was void of water though. The only company it had was an abundant amount of dirt that had filled the bottoms of it.

"Hello?" Zack called out loudly. He heard his voice echo as it entered alcoves and broken widowed buildings. Zack didn't realize this before, but scattered all around the town's center and from when they first entered, were small empty glass vials. Some had been crushed under his feet. He wondered what they could've held.

"There!" Kade exclaimed and pointed with her hand.

Zack look to where she pointed and saw two kids that had exited from a building, a girl and a boy. They both looked to be about eight or nine. Their hair was unkempt and their clothes were tattered and filthy. As Zack looked them over, he could see that their eyes held that same distant stare as the elderly man on the bike, almost as if the lights were on, but nobody was home. The kids made their way quickly across the street.

"Nice, Mr. Oliver left some candy." The boy said and picked up what looked like to be handful of gravel.

He took the small handful, placed it in his mouth, and began to chew on them. Right away Zack could see that it actually was gravel that he was eating. He could hear the crunching sounds as the rocks crushed against the boy's teeth. Blood began to escape the corners of his mouth.

"What flavor is it?" The girl now asked. "I want some!"

She reached out a hand to try and snatch some gravel for herself. The boy pulled his hand quickly away from her. He swallowed.

"Get your own bitch!" He yelled.

The girl immediately threw a punch which hit the boy in the face causing him to fall over. She jumped on top of him and began pounding him wildly with both her arms.

Zack and Kade had stood transfixed watching the commotion between to the two children. Kade stepped forward looking determined to help. Zack held her back and shook his head. Whatever was wrong with them, he didn't think that Kade would be willing to shoot a child if it attacked her. Kade had a look of protest, but eventually nodded in agreement.

After a moment, the girl got up and moved over to where more gravel was. She sat down and began popping small pieces into her mouth and chewing. The boy lay motionless, his face was bloodied.

"What's going on here?" Kade whispered to Zack. "First that man, now these kids."

"Don't know, but I suppose we should find out." He said.

Zack heard a voice calling out. He scanned further down the street and saw woman by a one story building waving her arms over her head to them. Once she knew Zack saw her, she began beckoning him over. She seemed more aware than the others they had encountered and didn't have that blank stare to her eyes.

"Maybe someone can answer some questions." Zack said and gestured to the woman. "Come on."

They sprinted hurriedly down the road towards the woman past the girl. Along the way they saw a man with short dark hair sitting on a bench next to the entrance of what looked like a café. His pants were down to his ankles. He was pleasuring himself with one hand while he stared up at the sky intently with his empty eyes and with his mouth slightly ajar. Zack heard a sound of disgust from Kade as they ran past. When they got to where the woman was she stood smiling at them. She short curly blond hair and was wearing beige shorts with a red shirt.

"Quick, inside." She said and she opened the door behind her.

Zack and Kade followed her into what was some kind of shop. The place was musty and quite dim. A random assortment of goods and items lined the shelves. Zack closed the door behind him and was about to speak, but Kade beat him to it.

"What the hell is the deal with this place?" She asked in a low voice.

The woman held her hands flatly together in front of her mouth with the thumbs under her chin. She looked like she was thinking of how to explain. After a moment she lowered them and sighed.

"My name is Christina, I hope you here to help." She said at last.

Zack and Kade looked questionably to her.

"We have to hurry though. He's going to come down here soon to dispense more of it." Christina said.

"More of what?" Zack asked.

"Why do you appear to be the only sane person in town?" Kade added.

"Okay, well I'll give you the short version." She walked towards a corner and pulled a metal folding chair outwards and sat on it. "We don't have a lot of time. Not too long ago a man moved into town, goes by the name of Dr. Skye. He said he was a scientist and that he was working on some kind of formula for a liquid that would make us immune to the effects of radiation. He went up to the college that is up a hill north of here and began to work in one of the science labs there. After awhile, he started to come into town to hand out samples in those little vials you see everywhere outside, saying that he had to view its effects firsthand to see how viable it was. I was the only one that didn't want to consume it. I pleaded with the others, but they wouldn't listen. He just didn't seem all that trustworthy so I declined."

Christine paused for a moment before continuing. "Only a few days passed and then people began to act weird. Not like they are now, but their moods changed slightly and they sometimes said things they normally wouldn't have, almost like they lost the filter to their mouths. They didn't seem to care that they their personalities were changing and that they were becoming more aggressive. They act like they are in some kind of dream or something. They're asleep but awake at the same time I guess. There's also some kind of addictive quality to the stuff. They can't get enough of it. Every time that he comes into town, the people just line up waiting for more that violet colored stuff. They mostly only go outdoors at night. Something with the way their eyes are now makes them sensitive to the light of the day. The ones you saw outside, they haven't used much of the stuff."

"This is horrible, what is the stuff, some kind of drug he plans to mass produce and sell?" Kade asked.

Christine shook her head. "I don't think he plans to sell it. Sometimes he tells the people to do things, commands it to them. He acts like they will obey him or something."

Kade look lost for words, so Zack stepped in.

"Why don't we have a lot of time Christine?" He asked.

Christine looked down the carpet on the floor. "He usually comes around eight in the morning, going door do door passing the stuff out. He always threatens me when he comes. He doesn't want me to interfere with his experiment in anyway. Keep calling me his "Control Group". I'm worried that he'll just do away with me eventually."

"And what exactly is it you want us to do?" Zack asked her.

"Well…I was hoping that you would…you know run him out of town or something. Force him to leave. Kill him if you have to. That is, if you want to."

"Of course we'll help you." Kade blurted out.

Zack turned his head towards Kade and stared at her a moment before turning back to Christine. "We can try to reason with him, but the way you described him sounds like he won't leave willingly."

"Anything will be better than what's happening to my fellow residents. I can pay you of course. Well, not with money, but you are free to take anything you want from my shop. We haven't gotten many visitors lately." Her voice trailed off near the end.

"We'll go, don't worry." Zack assured her. "I trust that if we leave some belongings here that you'll watch over them?"

Christine shook her head hurriedly. "Of course." She said.

Zack then began to take off his pack, canteen, and duster. He gestured to Kade to do the same. She took her main pack off and placed it on the ground.

"One moment." Christine said. Then she walked towards the back of the place and was rummaging through a box on the floor.

Zack whispered over to Kade. "I can go alone if you want Kade. You can remain here and wait till I return."

"No." She said quickly. "I want to see this bastard for myself. He has no right to do what he did."

"Okay. Just giving you the option." He said.

Christine came back over to the both of them. She held four frag grenades, two in each hand. "Here, take them. They might help. I know he keeps that school like a fortress."

"Go ahead Kade." Zack said.

Kade took them from Christine, placed two in her side bag, and the other two in pockets on each side of her jumpsuit.

"Thank you so much." Christine said. "I wouldn't know where to begin with him."

Zack walked towards the entrance, and then stopped. "We shouldn't be too long. Can you fill our water containers for us?" She nodded and Zack took out his water bladder from his pack and placed it by his canteen. Kade went through her bags and took out her plastic bottles.

"Thanks." Kade said. "Hey, is that a Pip-Boy?" She asked and pointed to a nearby shelf.

Christine looked. "Yeah, I don't think it functions fully though."

"Wow, I so want that." Kade smiled and began to walk towards it.

Zack grabbed her lightly by the arm. "Come on Kade, afterwards."

"Oh, alright." She said submissively.

Zack guided her out the door in front of him.

"Good luck." Christine called out to him.

Zack turned his head to the side. "Thanks. You never know, we might need it." He said and then went outside to meet up with Kade.