Chapter 242 - Soylent Green

The drive through the canyon path wasn't all the long, and after a couple of minutes, Afton and Anja were greeted with small bits of grass and other plants. Honestly, it was incredibly strange to see the colour green in the Mojave, obviously except for the blast from plasma weaponry.

It seems that Doctor Hildren was right to be interested in this Vault, here before them was proof of that. They continued driving towards the source of it, Afton noting that the area became more and more filled with plant life, despite the fact this area seemed a rather poor place for things to grow.​​

Eventually, they reached a completely green clearing that reminded Afton of national parks in his previous life... Aside from the big sign at the side that so helpfully claimed 'STAY OUT, THE PLANTS KILL!'...

"Well, that isn't foreboding at all." Afton snarks aloud, as he runs his hand over a bush, ruffling the leaves.

"Do we have to go inside?" Anja asks, clearly taking the sign's warning to heart.

Afton shakes his head, "We have a job to do, so let's-"*Rustle*

[Grit is in effect]

The rustling of leaves causes Afton to wrench his hand backwards, he isn't quick enough though and receives a small wound of his palm from a green scythe? No, now that it wasn't obscured by the bushes he could clearly see that his attacker was a giant mantis, it's bulbous green eyes were staring at him with no emotion as its mandibles slurped his blood from its blade.

"Little fucker!" he growls as he throws a hard kick at it, the mantis tries to move out of the way but is sent flying across the clearing. Both Afton and Anja were ready to start firing at it, but it seems that his kick was enough to permanently put it out of commission.

"God, I fucking hate insects." he spits, glancing around to see if there were any more in the area. He spots a smaller one hidden not too far away, but Anja had already locked onto it and fired a shot from her 10mm pistol, blowing its head clean off in a splatter of green blood.

"Good shot!" he calls out, happy that his lessons weren't going completely over her head... Unfortunately, it seems that the firing a gun out here might have been the worst thing they could've done.

Over at the end of the clearing Afton hadn't even noticed teh entrance of Vault 22 just sitting there... It was completely covered by plants and vines, concealing it from any cursory glance. Though, he'd noticed it now that a wave of green could be seen marching out.

Around twenty giant mantises escape the ajar Vault entrance and start rushing towards them, their wings occasionally flapping to give them a boost of speed. Afton, not wishing to deal with this entire situation just pulls out the Plasma mine from his bag and primes it before throwing it at the group.

He pulls Anja to the ground as a green shockwave of plasma erupts from the explosive, frying all of the insects, as well as a good portion of the plant life that'd been there. "You alright?" he asks his companion as he pulls her to her feet.

Anja nods slightly, "Yes... Are you sure we need to go inside? I've got a bad feeling about this."

Afton smirks and sends a thumbs up at her, "Eyyyy..." before realising she probably wouldn't recognise the reference, "*Ahem*, you're probably right, but we're going in no-matter-what." he states, taking one last glance at Dirt-Bird that's parked not far from their position before walking towards the entrance of the Vault, Anja reluctantly following him.

The gear-like entrance of the Vault was partially open with vines covering it, this is probably what allowed the plants to escape the Vault and start expanding outwards from there. Afton ducks under it and makes his way inside.

Once inside he almost immediately notices a peculiarity... The darkroom was completely covered is lush green foliage, which at first glance wouldn't raise suspicions... Until you realise that there isn't any sunlight for these plants to grow...

Taking a look around the room he finds a bed, some plant beds with specific herbs growing in them, and a terminal... Though, the plant life seems to have reclaimed the terminal for itself, vines and roots visibly burrowing into the terminal and rendering it inoperable.

Afton rubs his chin at the sight, it was strange indeed, especially since there's nothing inside the terminal to warrant such interest from the plants... From what he knew, roots would prioritise growing towards water and minerals.

He shakes his head and sweeps the room one last time, not finding anything of significance. He looks at the door leading deeper into the Vault and nods at Anja to follow him.

He opens the door but immediately regrets it as some sort of green dust floods out, washing both him and Anja in it. "The fuck is this?" he asks no one in particular before suddenly starting to cough.

The green dust irritates his throat and Afton shields himself from it by wrapping some cloth around his face as a makeshift filter. Slowly, the dust clears from behind the door, being picked up by the slight breeze and getting blown out of the Vault.

Afton leaves the door open for a couple minutes until all of the dust is gone, he didn't know what it was, but it didn't' seem to be radioactive, perhaps Doctor Hildern had made up a story about this place being radioactive to separate him from Boone and Karl? Yeah... That was likely.

He lowers the cloth protecting his face and takes a breath, nodding to himself as he isn't forced into another coughing fit. He glances at Anja who didn't seem to have any problem with it in the first place, "Did that stuff not affect you?"

Anja shakes her head, and Afton sighs, "Maybe I'm allergic to it or something? Whatever, we got a job to do." he says, walking down the stairs that laid before him.