-There Stands the Grass Pt. 7-

Am I dead!? Either I have turned into those Spore Carriers and my soul has drifted into the hellish darkness, or I might be experiencing another memory clip without the picture. All I could remember before I was knocked out were three Feral Ghouls appearing in place of Natalie, Veronica, and the missing scientist Keeley with their voices trying to corner and attack me. But the one with Keeley's voice mentioned something about me having bother paranoia and delusions...whatever the hell they are.

"Is she going to be fine?" I heard Natalie's worried tone escaping through her breath when she asked that. Is she nearby? Why can't I move or do anything to reply? Am I still unconscious or is this a dream!?

"I'm not so sure unless she wakes up," I heard Keeley spoke next. "Though I have exactly no estimate on how long she will be in this state, but all we have to do is hope for the best. In the meantime, I need you both to do something in the fifth lower level of the vault."

Wait, Keeley wants both Natalie and Veronica to go down to the fifth level without me!? They can't do that! What if they will catch the Greenscale like I have if they encounter more of those Spore Carriers there!? Great, if I am awake right now, I'll try every way to prevent them from doing so.

"I'm sorry, Ms. Keeley." Now Veronica is the next to speak. "Crimson is part of our battalion under the general's orders. We are not leaving her behind, even if she is like that. We will wait as long as we can until she wakes up."

Veronica!? I'm surprised at her choice yo stay behind. Just then, I felt something touched my left wrist, fingers pressing on it tightly with my pulse tapping at a steady rhythm. The fingers I'm feeling are rugged and fleshy...must be Keeley's.

"You're lucky you got comrades that are willing to stay by your side, even when it comes to difficult situations like this." Keeley let my left arm down and rest on something soft. "I doubt if the numbness has subsided or not," her voice is now even clearer for me to hear. "but I'll keep monitoring her while you two go to the Pest Control area in the fifth floor."

I can't take being a burden to both of my comrades while they go and walk into harm's way. We are part of a battalion sent by Hsu, and we must do this together. "Hey, Crimson's waking up!" Natalie shrieked with happiness.

I moaned a little, shifting my head a little to the left as I slowly opened my eyes to the three kneeling near me. My vision cleared up, revealing Natalie's and Veronica's happy faces. Keeley, on the other hand, deeply sighed in relief. "Thank goodness one manage to survive it." Keeley said, giving a little chuckle. "Actually, you are the very first patient to ever survive the Dexcrobis Hibcus in my eyes."

"Huh?" I spoke, my voice not so weak and hoarsely line before. I feel no shivering, aches, nor anything of my skin shifting to a scale pattern. I used my arms and slowly brought myself up to sit up but apparently some dizziness and my slightly weak arms almost made me flop back onto the bed, thank goodness for Keeley being near me.

"Easy there." Keeley held me up with her hand on my back. Apparently my blue coat is hung on the wall to my left. "You don't want to overexert yourself and move so quickly after an hour and a half of being sedated."

I eyed Keeley and chuckled a bit. "At least it's not three hours." I continued to laugh, laughing a lot without feeling any body aches or pain in my chest. Plus, I might've got my strength back, but not for long when both Natalie and Veronica lunged forward and hugged me tightly. Their weight caused me to flop back onto the bed under me.

"I can't believe you are okay, Crimson!" Natalie squealed as her arms tightened around my neck. I heard Kip chitter beside us happily.

"I'm with Natalie on this! We were so worried you would be turned into a Spore Carrier!" Veronica's arms were wrapped around my torso, squeezing it inch by inch to where I started losing my breath by both of their tight holds. "Oh, sorry, Crimson." Veronica first release her hold and took a crawl back to let Natalie release hers.

"Seems like my little concoction of an antidote really worked." Keeley held up a small tube with some light green liquid inside it. "Whoever knew a mixture of a Stimpak, Metant powder and mantis slime can cure the Greenscale. Good thing that bastard Hildern couldn't think of anything like this with that damn small brain the size of a gecko of his." She placed the little tube on a holder to her right before turning back to us. "But right now, we got more important things to worry about than a friendly reunion. We need to get rid of this plant problem immediately before it become more of a problem."

I turned around to Keeley with confusion as I got back up to a sitting position. "What's going on with the plants? Why is it such a problem here, couldn't we just at least bring you out of this vault and take you back to Camp McCarran?"

Keeley just shook her head and stood up. "I'm afraid there are still some problems lurking in this vault." Her ghoulish voice sounded grave for some reason. "The plants aren't even a problem, its the hazardous pollen that harbors on the plants is what poses a threat. They came from the same Spore Carriers that you apparently inhaled too much of that were hiding in the plants, that pollen alone is highly toxic to humans. Fortunately, while I've been in my stay within the caverns, I was able to experiment an antidote with mantis liquid, Stimpak liquid, and powder from the Metants in case any other mercs decide to scurry on over here. And you, my friend, are the first to have the prototype antidote in you, concluding as a success. And," she held up a messed up flower that was suppose to be on my ear. "sorry about your hibiscus flower, I had to use the petals and stems to sterilize the antidote."

Although I wanted to argue about Keeley making me into a science experiment without my permission, but on the other hand I do owe her from preventing me to be one of the Spore Carrier things. "So, what do you want us to do then?"

"Down in the fifth floor somewhere I manage to filled the vents up with flammable gas in one of the corners." Keeley explained. "With that, once ignited, it'll send off a huge wave of fire through all of the toxic pollen covered plants and burn them off completely. But the main factor of this whole thing is the three of you surviving the flames."

"Wait," Veronica got Keeley's attention. "So what you are saying is that there might be a minute chance of surviving a fire if we are ever to ignite it? How are we going to find ourselves shelter from such a blast?"

"I'm sorry," Keeley apologized, crossing her arms. "I wish I can help you out a little more, but that problem you are going to find out yourself. In the meantime, there are a few possible choices in igniting the gas such as grenades, a huge gun that shoots off fire like the Flamer, and Energy Weapons like the laser rifle. Only thing I can't guarantee is your safety. You better head over there right away and conclude the problem before it proceeds."

"But what about the pollen?" I asked. "Would that still go within our system if we were ever to inhale it?" I don't want to relive the situation of turning into the Spore Carriers again, not foe a million years or so.

Keely waved a hand slowly. "Not to worry. Thankfully, with enough of the antidote I still have, I put them in all of your blood systems in case you get infected, but it'll stay active for a limited time. Now go, the elevator is back and running now. That'll make it easy for you guys to go instead if the stairs." Keeley turned to walk to the terminal behind her.

I stood up slowly to my feet and carefully walked up to my companions and exhaled. "Well, guess we got no choice. Even if we get burn to a crisp there, at least the pollen will be rid of for no other person to contract it."

Natalie and Veronica nod together. Natalie kept a good hold of her gecko, Kip, while her face dropped. "Well, I guess in some missions there comes a time where we have to make sacrifices for the greater good of all people in the wasteland. This time, it's to make sure no epidemic will happen if one single floating pollen leaves the vault. Right, Kip?" She eyed her companion, who chittered a reply in return.

"Then let's get in with it." Veronica sighed. "But, at least I'll be burned to death with a couple of new friends I made instead of being alone." I don't know if I should laugh or groan at the comment. Either way, we turned ourselves around and made for the elevator.

We've reached to the fifth floor of the vault as instructed by Keeley, but now we're trying to walk through this confusing maze of a floor to the area where the damn gas is located. In and our of the room doors, passing through numerous foliage, walking very slowly and quietly to not make a sound, we reached to a hallway towards a dead end. "Great, it'll be awhile to find the damn gas..."

"Well, finding something invisible to the naked eye like that wont be easy." Veronica implied. "I mean, you can't just use your eyes to find such a thing, there are other senses that you can use to find it. Like-" she stopped, some kind of sniffing sound came from her for a short time. "The gas is this way." She pointed forward towards the end of the hallway.

I took a small sniff to confirmed Veronica's direction of the scent. "Ugh..." Just the small smell of the gas made me stop shortly after a few sniffs. "Yep, that might be it." I said, covering my nice with my right hand. The three if us ran our way to the end of the hallway where some kind of translucent vapor is swirling around the space near the vents.

"Yep, that's the gas alright." Natalie spoke through her hand covering her nice and mouth. "But the question is, how to protect ourselves without getting charred?" She turned to me and Veronica. "Any suggestions?"

"Maybe if we can find some hard metal slab from the walls." Veronica suggested, pointing at the wall to our right. "I can hold that up and act that as a shield. What do you think, guys?"

I eyed the huge metal slab on the floor where the gas is hovering over. "Hey, could that metal plate be big enough to protect all four of us?" I walked up to it, covering my mouth with the broken breather accessory attached to the cloth, and lift up the left side of the slab to make it stand up.

"Hmm, seems plausible." Natalie said, sound like she is agreeing to the idea. "I remember back in training that there were two NCR soldiers testing out a prototype, steel shield in case if any Legion goons decide yo Amish any of us in the camps or at war." She walked over and knocked on the slab twice, making a metallic noise echo on it. "They were like this, apparently: strong, sturdy, heat-resistant, and the appropriate thickness of the shield. Bu-"

"Oh, goodie goodie!" Veronica shout with glee, making Natalie silent. "Alright, what we need to do is stand about halfway in the hallway while holding this in front of us. Either you or Natalie can use any weapon to ignite the gas. Once ignited, we will huddle ourselves tog-"

"HOLD IT!" Natalie bellowed in Veronica's ear. "Obviously, you haven't stopped to listen what I was about to say about the prototype shields." Me and Veronica eyed Natalie, then at each other before looking back at her again. Natalie exhaled and cleared her throat. "As I was saying, this metal slab has all the requirements the shield had, BUT it didn't prevent the fire from sliding through the sides and onto the soldier when using a Flamer."

"Shit..." I cringed and gulped. "What happened to the soldier that was using the shield?"

Natalie shook her head and crossed her arms. "He suffered from severe third degree burns. Wasn't a happy sight to see, even when being on the medical bed. But..." She went dead silent, which probably means there is something bad that she had seen during that time. "because of the severe burns all over his skin, he didn't make it in time..."

I kept holding the metal plate up with a distraught atmosphere swirling all around us, besides the gas fumes. I shift the slab away from the gaseous area and places it on the wall to the right. "Well, there goes that idea." I turned around to meet the eyes of my companions behind me, until I notice a small hallway with an opened door across the way. "Hey guys, what's behind that door?"

Both Veronica and Natalie turned around to the same direction I am look at. "Crimson," Natalie turned back to me while keeping Kip in her arms. "this is no time to explore new rooms. We need to find a possible way of protecting ourselves from the ignited gas."

I shrugged my shoulders. "Hey, undiscovered rooms might mean something useful, you know." I turned to Veronica. "Want to check the room out?"

"I'm telling you guys," Natalie said, putting Kip down to the floor. "we need to find a way to keep ourselves alive from the fire." She huffed and groaned. "Fine, you two go on ahead to the room. While you're there, I'll try and find a solution to our predicament, but make it quick."

I just nod my head only once to her. "We won't." With Veronica at my side, we walked past Natalie and Kip to the unopened door in the little hallway. Veronica beat me to pressing the button on the left side to make the door lift up, revealing a small room with control panels on the walls. "Wow, looked like this room has been untouched for quite some time."

"I agree, not a plant or Spore Carrier here." Veronica walked in, scanning the area left and right thoroughly in awe. "Imagine the Brotherhood coming down here and seeing this technology. Every ounce of this would be torn down and be transferred to the bunker for further observations." She kept walking until she stopped where some kind of wall terminal is at. "Hmm..." She tapped on the red buttons as little words appeared on the screen. "Crimson, I think I found the thing that Hildern guy was looking for."

My eyebrows raised up automatically. "Really?" I ran over to Veronica and eyed the screen that has "Pest Control Research" on it. "This might be the one..." I tapped on the down arrow and pressed enter on the section, leading me to an option saying "Begin Downloading Data" on it. I took one of the cords and attached it to my Pip Boy before approving the download. The process of it is a bit slow. "This may take a while."

"Any luck in this room?" I jumped as soon as Natalie's voice echoed from the doorway. She eyed the room, seemed to be fascinated just by the glimmer of her eyes. "Interesting, I've never seen a control room like this before." She turned around to the doorway, only seen wall on the other side of the small doorway. "Hmm, if I remember correctly back in training, the wind currents that were travelling in my direction while I was being protected in a small, protective area, the wind didn't enter into the room."

"Okay, whatever kind if scientific mumbo jumbo whatchacallit you are just talking about, it's really hurting my brain..." I complained. I wish I have time to understand a freaking word Natalie spoke of, but what prevented me is me amnesia condition. That fucking Benny shall pay for this when I meet him at The Tops.

Natalie walked up to me and turn to point at the doorway. "From this angle, we can only see wall across the hallway, right?" She walk before I even got a chance to answer her. "But when we walk towards the doorway, we see a little gap of the gas fume filled space at the end of the hallway." She walked backed to me and held a grenade, making me flinch back. "Don't worry, the pin is still on the grenade. It's inactive right now."

"So you want to head out of the room and pull the pin of the grenade." Veronica suggested. "Once activated, you toss it to the space with the fumes and run as fast as you can over here before it explodes, igniting the flames through the hallway EXCEPT this room. That way, have not only solved the problem of igniting the gas but protecting ourselves from harm."

Me and Natalie blinked twice at Veronica, completely baffled by how she word the plan bit by bit. "Actually, Veronica is correct." Natalie verified. "Okay, since Crimson is already occupied with something, Veronica," Natalie grabbed Kip with both of her hands, reach him out to our Brotherhood friend. "can you hold onto Kip for a moment so he wont run off?"

Veronica grew an apprehensive facial expression when Kip is nearby her, since Kip wouldn't let anybody handle him besides Natalie. "U-Um...o-okay?" Veronica, highly hesitant about the idea, carefully drew her arms forward to grab Kip by the body. Kip wiggled in Natalie's hands vigorously, avoiding being touch by Veronica.

"Kip!" Natalie barked, trying to keep a hold of both Kip and the grenade tightly. "Stop...moving!" Nothing seem to went through Kip and his stubbornness. Kip kept squirming until he slid off of her hands and on the floor. Not only Natalie lost grip of Kip, she dropped the grenade onto the floor with the pin on her left middle finger.

"SHIT!" I yelled, standing against the wall. "NOW THE GRENADE IS ACTIVE!"

"Got to do this quick or we are all goners!" Veronica went to get the live grenade from the floor a foot from her, but it was intercepted by Kip who grabbed it with its little paws. "Huh? How can-" before Veronica could finished, Kip chittered at Natalie before running out quickly through the door.

"NO! KIP!" Natalie yelled and tried to run after her gecko friend, but was caught by Veronica shortly before the explosion occurred, sending all of the flames through the hallway everywhere except for the room we are in. "NO!" Natalie yelled again, dropping down to her knees as she broke down to an agonizing sob.

I couldn't help but feel horrible about what Natalie have to see in her own eyes. I looked away from the north direction, eyeing my Pip Boy that reads "complete" in bold letters. I detached the little cord from my device and went to comfort the Natalie. I placed a hand on her left shoulder, though Natalie didn't seem to look up at me. "I'm..." I spoke softly. "I'm really sorry about Kip, Natalie. I...I didn't expect him to do something like that."

"I agree." Veronica spoke afterwards. "In fact, I've never seen a gecko do something like that before. Normally they have a brain the size of a pea, but Kip..." She eyed the wall through the doorway. "Something about him just stands out from every other gecko. But, maybe we can find you another ge-"

"I don't want another gecko." Natalie whimpered through her sobs. "Nothing can replace Kip! Not even a gecko that looks exactly like him."

"Well," Veronica stood up, bringing Natalie up to her feet along with her. "Life comes with sacrifices, and I think Kip did what he can to make sure his mother is safe from harm. Maybe you should be happy for that."

Natalie nodded, wiping the tears with her uniform sleeves and hugged Veronica. "Yeah, you're right. I can't let Kip's name die in vain like I have with my father. I will honor him and cherish the memory I had with him." She pulled away from Veronica and eyed me. "But I owe it to you guys for helping out as well."

I grinned and walked up to the two. "That's what friends are for, Natalie. And a battalion as well. But now that our problems have been settled, and the research data has been downloaded into my Pip Boy for Hildern, we should report back to Keeley about this."

Natalie nod several times as she wiped the last bit of tears off her face. "You're right. The mission is just about over! Lets hurry back upstairs!" She made a run for it out the doorway, leaving me and Veronica to chase after from feet away towards the elevator.

"Wow, I'm glad you three manage to make it back in one piece." Keeley is shocked when we all came back to the lab after a little lift from the elevator. "Now the spores won't be a problem anymore and-" she stopped speaking for a moment. "Do you three have a small gecko with you a while ago?"

"Erm..." I scratched the back of my head and looked away, hoping nothing with sprout and uproar in the room. "we don't want to talk about that right now. It's kind of painful to talk about it.

"Oh," Keeley spoke. "then I have my deepest condolences to you three on your little friend. Anyway, now our problems with the spores have been dealt with, the quarantine lock down has been lifted from the entrance door. But, there is one small problem that needs to be done for good before I let you three go." She got on her terminal and started typing something.

We all looked at each other with an eyebrow raised. "What is this kind of problem you are talking about?" I asked.

Keeley kept typing at a quick pace on the terminal, but stopped and leaned in closer to the screen. "That's strange, I was about to wipe out the Vault 22 research data from the database, but it looks like it was downloaded off some kind of secondhand device like..." She turned to use, but eyed me and stood up. "A Pip Boy? Gosh, I haven't seen one of those since mine went on the fritz. Have you downloaded the data into there from the fifth floor?"

"Yes, I have." I replied to her question. "It was our mission from Hildern himself foe us to retrieve the data and bring it back to us as part of our battalion punishment."

"Figures, that bastard of a scientist." Keeley crossed that arms. "Sending merc after merc into this vault foe his own selfish reasons, and instead doesn't realize the dangers of the plants that were living in here. If ai were you, I'd let myself do whatever I can to make sure none of this data goes outside these walls."

Something about what Keeley said just happen to hit me with some realization. Sure it is my and my companion's mission to bring back the research to Hildern, but with what I have been through with the disease that almost cost me my life, what if that same road will happen to everyone else in the wasteland. I turned to my friend, who gave me a simple nod. "Alright, let's get rid of this data. With what we've been through, I don't want an epidemic to plague on the people." I walked forward and held out my Pip Boy to Keeley.

Keeley smiled and attached a long cord from the terminal to my device, yapping on a few buttons as a few beeping sounds from my Pip Boy indicates that the data has been deleted. "Alright. Done and done. Glad you three manage to come up with an agreement instead of running off with dangerous research. I'll have to express my gratitude to Angela once we all head back to the camp. But, I'll have to stay here for one more night until I head back out. You're free to go."

"Thank you, Dr. Keeley!" Natalie saluted and smiled. "We should give you gratitude for saving Crimson's from becoming one of those carriers."

I laughed at the little comment. "True that!" I gel out my right hand to Keeley for a handshake. "Thanks for saving my life, Keeley. I owe you a lot on that."

Keeley just formed a grin on her face a she reach to the right side of the terminal and pulled up the same hibiscus flower to me. "I think I owe you a hibiscus flower. After I used yours for the antidote, I think this one can replace the previous one, don't you say?"

I couldn't help but grinned along with her. I kindly took the flower and slide the stem part through the gap of my left ear. "Thanks again, Keeley. We hope we get to see you at the camp soon." With a wave goodbye at the scientist, we walked our way through the path from where we came to the vault entrance, which took us about a minute to easily find our way. We slipped through the gap of the vault door to the night filled outside of the wasteland. "Outside, finally!" I yelled happily with my arms up in the air.

"I couldn't agree more to that!" Veronica replied. "It felt lime we've been in that vault for a long time and forgotten what the wasteland look like before we came in. Time to report back to the camp, Natalie?"

Natalie turned to us and nodded. "Yep, then we can meet up with 1st Recon and Eric and have ourselves some Nuka-Cola and celebrate our efforts as a team! I think General Hsu keeps a case of the drink in the eatery at the top floor, and Ill have to ask permission abo-"

"Attention all NCR! Repeat, attention all NCR!" Some voice was called in some device from both me and Natalie. We dug into our pockets and pulled out the NCR Emergency Radio, which I have forgot that I still have before we made a stop near the 188. "This is General Hsu of Camp McCarren speaking. Be on a high alert for two missing people who has ran out of the camp grounds at exactly 1823 hours. 1st Recon Craig Boone and Eric Scottsdale, if both have found, please escort them back into the camp immediately."

"Strange..." Veronica spoke. "Why would hulk and hunter decide to leave the camp and wander away without informing anyone?"

"I don't know." I answered. "It's unlike them to act like that out of nowhere. They always follow orders and never go against authority whenever necessa-"

"General Hsu, this is Ranger Milo here with the information of said Craig Boone and Eric Scottsdale." an unrecognized voice brought the three of our fullest attentions when he mentions our teammates. "The two said men, along with a third person in their cell, have rushed into Nelson without my authorization and went to attempt a cleaning job against a group of Caesar's Legion and save the crucified NCR soldiers.."

"What!?" We all yelled at the same time.

"Unfortunately, their operation didn't turn out well as they hoped." The ranger Milo spoke in a grave tone. "About three men of the Legion ambushed them from behind and were taken as ordered by a Centurion in one of the small camp buildings. I am ordering for anybody not, I repeat NOT, come to Nelson and try to apprehend the Legion. Over." The radio made a static sound in the speaker.

"Shit, we got to go save them!" I yelled, frantically. "Who knows what the Legion will do to them!"

"Umm, did you here Ranger Milo instructing us not to go to Nelson?" Natalie informed with her arms crossed. "I mean, it is really stupid for those two to waltz into Nelson without authorization, but we have to get back and report to General Hsu and-"

"And what!?" I interrupted her. "Let both Craig and Duster get beaten up by the Legion and died from that!? I know Craig hates the Legion with a passion. And I am not going to fucking stand around and wait when we should be over there saving them! Remember back in Boulder City where we bend the rules a bit instead of letting the NCR kill all of the Great Khans there?"

Natalie stood silent, lowering her head down and stare at the ground. After a few seconds, she nod and looked back at me with determination riddled in her eyes. "Then let's go save them! And I happen to know where Nelson is." She started running forward through all the green foliage in front of us.

"Hey, wait up!" Veronica yelled, began sprinting, with me right behind her, to catch up to Natalie again. When we finally manage to catch up to her, Veronica was the one to get closer to her. "So, where exactly is this Nelson place is?"

"Just half a mile away from Novac." Natalie answered.

"Novac!?" I murmured, surprised by how Nelson can turn out to be near Craig's settlement.