"So it's because of the war in the past that this place is now like a vegetable market built on ruins?"

"You're putting it in the right place, but don't repeat it to others."

Dave handed over a bag.

"What's this?"

Andy pulls something out of the bag and discovers that it's a gas mask.

"Even though you look very healthy, you're still a carrier of the virus, whether it's worth it or not, you should wear this if you still have some moral bottom line.... It reduces your chances of spreading the virus around. ”

After a few turns, this black gas mask is the kind of pig-nosed gas mask that covers the entire face.

"Okay, then I'll be a masked man from now on, and I just happen to look average."

Andy puts on the mask and feels like he's getting a little cooler.

He looked at the bearded man in front of him through the eyepiece, still a little worried about his condition.

"Dave, can you tell me if I'm going to be like Stephen soon?"

"Do you want to ask if you're going to get sick.... I'm sorry I can't give you a specific answer, because I only know a little about the new plague, and it seems that this new strain has a long cycle of attacks, and even the attacks start with the poor old and sick, so this is very uncertain and deceptive, and no one can be sure whether you are in the incubation period or have become an asymptomatic infected person. ”

"Is that .....?"

Dave patted the dust off his white coat, which had just been rubbed against the wall, and he stood up and made a gesture to Andy to follow me.

The two men left the storage room and walked all the way to a small room door.

"Stephen can't hold on for long, while he is still conscious, I have just given him some medicine to help him temporarily free himself from the pain, I have asked him about his family before, maybe he has something to say to you at the end."

Dave made a gesture of please.

Andy felt that this topic was a little heavy, and looked at Dave and suddenly remembered the previous evaluation of the vegetable and fruit stall owner.

"Dave, people outside say that you will never give any charity if you don't get the money, why are you so generous to me?"

Dave walked away with his hands behind his back, answering Andy as he went.

"Stephen had a fatal relationship with me, and he told me that you carried him all the way from a long way here, and I thank him for not letting him die alone in that rag wagon at the last moment."

Dave walked away, and Andy knew it was time to go in and see Stephen one last time.

Pushing open the dilapidated wooden door, there was a fairly tidy room, although it could not be compared to the level of tidiness of Tibbetts Prison, but looking at the floor without much dust and garbage, this small room should be considered a VIP room in Dave's clinic.

Stephen lay on the hospital bed, his face covered in blue blisters, but his expression was soft, and he fell into a deep sleep like a baby.

Hearing the sound of Andy opening the door and entering the house, he slowly opened his eyes with a smile on his face.

"Ah—Andy, you're here...... It was really the most comfortable time I've had in two months...."

Andy sat in his chair and looked at Stephen, only then did he realize that Stephen was not too old, but because of the pain he suffered before, he looked like an old man in his old age.

"It's so comforting to see you like this, your cough is almost etched in my head."

The two men chuckled together, then fell silent at the same time.

"I have a daughter and a son....."

Stephen said this sentence a little dumbly, and his eyes showed some unwillingness.

"I was hoping to make enough money to go back and take them to the big cities in NCR, and even though they were my adopted children, I always considered them my biological children..... Unfortunately, it looks like that's where my path ends...."

Andy doesn't know what to say, and frankly he doesn't like it at all, and he has to comfort something, you'll be okay or something.

"I've heard that Dave has communicated those things to you.... So you're all done, right? ”

Stephen smiled.

"You're really.... I thought you'd comfort me and we could go back and forth for a while about whether or not to entrust you with a child. ”

Andy quickly shook his head.

"This is difficult for you to be a strong man, I am afraid that you will come to this, I am still a young man."

The two of them talked nonsense for a while, and recalled the various experiences on the road before, and the light laughter kept coming from the small ward.

Suddenly, Stephen became serious.

"Andy.... You can't imagine how torturous it is to suffer from coughs, hypoxia, high fevers, headaches, and severe muscle aches all the time every day.... I hope you won't be like me.... Dave didn't heal me, he just gave me a little respite, a brief respite from the pain, you ..... I hope you can do it, or at least give it a try. ”

"Try what?"

"To control this plague..... The inmates who escaped from Tibbetts had no idea what was hidden inside them, and the new plague would spread around with them, destroying one settlement after another, tearing people apart.... The population density in this land is not very large, but if the virus is allowed to spread, sooner or later the virus will spread to the NCR in the west, and then the pre-war epidemic will be repeated in the NCR, and I don't want my children to suffer that situation.... I have felt the power of the new plague, and once the infection occurs, it is a relief to die quickly..."

"I'm only one person, how can I get to this?"

"The thing..... Things are man-made.... At least one suggestion can be said... Tibbetts Prison ..... There will be...... Key ....."

Stephen's eyes suddenly widened, his mouth was crooked, and Andy watched as the blue blisters all over his face actually began to expand again, and finally began to burst one by one, and the blue tissue fluid began to flow out, and then Stephen began to convulse violently.

Andy stood up and opened the door and shouted for Dave, who rushed in not long after, then took out a high-pressure syringe containing an unknown purple liquid and injected it into Stephen, his expression softened a little, and finally passed out again.

After doing all this, Dave rolled Stephen's eyelids, looked at him, and finally turned back to Andy and made a gesture to go out and talk.

The two men walked out of the ward, and Dave didn't even know where to get a roll of tape to seal the crack in the door of the ward.

Finally he stood up and gave Andy a simple explanation.

"Stephen should be tonight..... I gave him some hemp boil-X, but it didn't do much use, just a little relief from his pain... The final stage of the new plague will turn the corpse into a bioweapon, and I need to find a way to dispose of Stephen's corpse.... Deep burial and high temperatures can't be done under the current conditions, I'm afraid I'll have to use some chemical methods......"