"You made that up." Jess said with a narrowed disbelieving eyes.
"Why would I? There are beneficial cults. Like the followers of the apocalypse, shitty name by the way. Tell her Boone." I say despite knowing I was absolutely messing with them.
The man sighs "The followers are good people trying to do the right thing. I wouldn't call them a cult." he said blandly.
"It's basically a religious devotion to the idea of making mankind better. That is a fucking cult with a nicer appearance. At least they aren't like the church of atom, bunch of crazies that group." I say with a shudder.
"I almost don't want to ask but what's the church of Atom?" Jess asked invested in this culty shit show.
"So these people worship radiation. Thinks it's the earthly manifestation of their god, Atom. This means they purposefully go places irradiated and live there. If that was all it would just be a bunch of crazies killing themselves by radiation poisoning or becoming ghouls. The REAL issue is they can be VERY aggressive about spreading their "god's" influence. I don't just mean preaching all in your face either. I mean they would absolutely stick a chunk of radioactive something or other under your mattress so you'd bask in the glow. There's even a branch of the cult that thinks any unbeliever should be killed with radiation and crafted actual gamma radiation weapons that project pure radiation in massive doses wherever they point." I explained seriously.
"How the fuck has no one wiped them out!?" Jess exclaimed in horror.
"Mutations. The thing about constantly exposing yourself to radiation is that you have four paths. You die, you ghoulify, you mutate into a freak of nature or you mutate into a version of humanity that has a higher tolerance for radiation. The cult gives every mutated human or ghoul a place to feel like they belong. That fucked up sense of community makes the cult harder to stomp out then a radroach infestation. It's too damned infectious." I say holding my hands out in "what can you do" gesture.
"Wouldn't the high mortality rate dissuade membership?" Adam asked confused.
"Yes and no. For the extreme ones that refuse to use radaway or rad-x then yes. But the cults philosophy isn't to just OD on rads and die. It's to bask in them and survive. This means they do in fact use radiation cleansing medicine. They just almost immediately after treatment go and do it again. As I said they either die, mutate freakishly or into something that tolerated radiation better. The cult effectively is engineering a radiation tolerant sub category of humanity through brute force and zealotry." I said seriously.
"So survival of the fittest on an accelerated timeframe via radiation?" Adam asked and I nodded.
"Yep. No idea how long the cults been around for either so the amount of evolutionary progress they've made is a bit confusing. In theory if they've been at it for at least three generations worth of time then there is likely at least a preliminary example of one of these rad tolerant humans running around in radioactive stuff without being bothered by it." I say with a shrug.
"Can we please stop talking about cults. I still can't believe we helped one commit long term suicide." Jess said with a grimace.
I shrug "I suppose it doesn't matter in the end. We can go tell Manny that the ghouls are gone and stock up on supplies before setting down for the night." I said casually.
We left the Repcon facility without any trouble after that. Not that this was surprising really when there was no longer anything that could attack us there. Jess complained about the smell the rockets left behind in the air as we walked to path back towards Novac as the sun started to lower. We got to Novac right before nightfall and I dumped all our loot on Boone to sell since I doubted he wanted to deal with Manny. He seemed to appreciate this though it was hard to tell with how impassive he was all the time.-
"Hiya Manny, we are finally done with that nightmare of a quest you press ganged us into doing for you. So spill it, where'd they go?" I said the moment we entered the mouth.
"It was just some feral ghouls. How hard could that be?" he asked confused.
"It WASN'T just some feral ghouls. There was a whole ass back and forth aggravation involving a cult of ghouls, a band of Nightkin and fetching some shit that we didn't even get reimbursed for. Spill. The. Beans." I say flatly.
"Damn, wouldn't have sent you if I thought it was so bad. That guy you are looking for, Benny? He and a few members of my old gang were heading for Boulder city." he said unbothered by my tone.
"And that is?" I pressed.
"Straight north following the road. Theres a small bit of off-roading but you'll know the moment you see it." he said casually.
"Good enough." I say before leaving the T-rexes mouth with Jess following shortly behind.
Boone looked up at us.
"Still intact." I said and he relaxed just a little. "No faith at all I see. That's fine, we have time to fix that." I say with a chuckle.
Cliff looked between us as he sorted the pile of loot Boone had put on the counter before wisely deciding he didn't care enough to ask. I planted myself casually against the wall while we waited to get tallied out.
"One thousand three hundred and sixty two caps for the lot" Cliff eventually said after going over it all.
"That's nearly seven hundred caps below what was expected." I pointed out.
Cliff shrugged "I'd offer you more if I had it but I don't. That's all the caps I have." he said helplessly.
"Hmm, what about armor? I might be a shiny ass who is effectively untouchable but these two are not exactly bulletproof." I said seriously.
"Well I do have a set of metal armor that I could let go for the missing amount. It's in top condition after all." Cliff said after a moment of thought.
"Thoughts?" I asked my companions.
"I'm a sniper. Close engagements aren't where my best work happens." Boone said shaking his head lightly.
"Yeah, let me have it. I've felt pretty vulnerable for a while now and just didn't want to say anything." Jess admitted.
"Well there you have it. We'll take that deal." I said and no one disagreed.