And so the duo headed made their way down to the infested common areas... Neither knew how many had survived the explosion earlier so both were constantly on high alert in-case any creature tried to attack them.

Sure enough, there were many Spore Carriers still left, all of which stayed hidden until the last second. Afton himself had received a few scratches from a couple close calls. It takes them an hour or two to check every nook and cranny before they were confident to move on or search the area for information. ​ ​

In one room that had pool tables pushed to the side Afton spotted some kind of UV light shining on some plants... It was peculiar due to the fact that these plants didn't seem to need sunlight or any assistance to grow. Additionally, the UV lights displayed all the hidden spores in the air, causing Afton to scowl as he realises that even if the spores weren't thick enough to be visible, they were still there.

At the end of the room was a terminal that seemed to actually be operational... He doesn't even need to hack it to gain access, some else had apparently already down that and edited the contents.

They replaced the trivia games on it and added some sort of expedition and research logs. Said person was the one who used the UV lights to check which areas were most full of the spores, and they even managed to discover that the spores were travelling from the lower floors to the ones above through the ventilation ducts.

Further logs don't really have any other information of interest, aside from the fact that they are very aware of the danger the fungus could present to the outside world, or, more specifically the NCR.

At this point, Afton was confident the person who created these entries was Keely, from what he'd heard she was a scientist in her own right, so it made sense that she'd logged everything just in case something happened to her.

Unfortunately, even with the new revelation on UV lights, it didn't really change anything on how they were supposed to navigate this place. Afton was thankful that Boone's [Spotter] Perk gave them some advantage against the Spore Carriers as when he was focussing on areas that they might be their bodies lit up in dim red light that was only visible to himself.

One day later :

Afton sighs as he sits on the pool table, he and Anja had cleared the majority of the common area, but without setting fire to anything he wouldn't dare be reckless. Currently he was scraping some meat from a can, he was sure it probably wasn't good to eat as two hundred years is quite a long time, but he found he didn't care at this point. He needed sustenance if he was going to get to the bottom floor and find a cure.

The symptoms of the infection had slowly been getting worse... Now, he found himself forced into a spluttering cough at random times, this caused a lot of trouble for them when they were hunting Spore Carriers, as the creatures were blind and navigated via sound.

His skin was crabby and slowly losing colour, and his veins were slowly darkening from their usual dark blue colour to black. The most noticeable change would be his almost constantly bloodshot eyes, Anja had noted it a few times as it'd apparently scared her a few times.

It wasn't all bad news though, he'd found a keycard presumably for the cavern access in the upper floors, so if the research he was searching for wasn't on the fifth floor then it must be there... Hopefully.

Better yet, while they were scavenging they found some sort of laser rifle prototype? From his inspection, it was markedly more powerful than other laser rifles, though it did use two microfusion cells to fire, but with a bit of tweaking Afton was sure he could get it to one... He wasn't sure what he could do about the green laser it fired though, that was bound to draw attention if he tried to use it. Here uses his inventory to check it and compare with a regular Laser rifle.

AER14 Prototype/Laser rifle

Strength req : 3/3

DMG : 35/22

Crit dmg : 35/22

Crit mult : x2/x1.5

AP : 20/18

Weight : 8.5/8

Value : 15000/800

It was strong, and Afton was definitely going to try and replicate it in a more efficient manner. He stows it away in his backpack that was getting heavier and heavier... He had three sets of combat armour and a whole litany of other thing stored in it, he was beginning to wonder if he should leave it behind and pick it up later... But eventually shakes his head, no way was he going to risk having it stolen, even down here.

He clears his throat for the Nth time and looks to Anja, "I think its time we go to the bottom floor, if we leave it any longer even if there is a cure I might not be able to create it in time."

Anja nods in agreement, having seen his condition get progressively worse the more hours go by. It may be selfish to say, but she was glad she was somehow immune to it... It looked incredibly painful after all, and who knew what the fungus was doing within Afton's body at this very moment.

Without further adieu they suit up and start heading for the fifth floor, one ominously named 'Pest Control'... Obviously whatever function the floor had tried to serve had failed, judging by the state of the rest of the vault.