"What the hell do you want" a raspy voice called out as the experienced wastelander entered through the tattered bulk head door. The voice shocked the weary fox as he peered passed a dirty window to a glowing figure sitting on a bed. "well..." he snarkily questioned.

"WELL... I... Umm.... I'm looking for the one they call Rad. Rat." the adventurer proclaimed hesitantly. "I assume that's you?"

"I hate that nick name." he scoffed. "It would be one thing if I was an actual rat, but I'm not so put it out of your head."

the fox walked closer to the glass to gain a closer look at the creature who was now standing.

"I came from Passwinds to ask you some questions on...you know...how you turned." The scarred opossum moved up to his chair by the window and took a seat with his leg propped up on the counter. "What can I say. It's a LONG story, with a lot of sad endings and gritty beginnings." he continued "What, persay, would you like to know?"

The vulpine looked at the room surrounding the ghoul and noticed how odd it was that the walls seemed to have accumulated far more rust then what was on the other side of dirty fenestella, before turning his attention back to the glowing marsupial. "Mainly, where were you when you were first subjected to radiation?"

The Opossum peered off into the distance as if he where recalling a memory he lost a long while ago "It was a while ago but it was about 80 years after the war, and our vault was doing fine." His throaty voice echoing in the chamber, as is scattered through the broken speaker. "We had enough food and water and the rad roaches where minimal. everything was going fine. BUT, unfortunately, mother nature had a bad day." as he continued his tone changed from smarmy to somber. "the earth the vault was built on was unstable. An earthquake hit and caused a massive collapse, then Rad seeped in and started taking its toll."

The wastelander questioned "how many people turned."

The Opossum thought a moment more before answering. "well, I want to say just about everyone. any one not crushed by the rubble that wasn't cut off from the food and water started to fall Ill." he stood to his feet and started to pace trying to replace the images in his mind "as time went on, hair started to fall out and skin started to flake."

"what happened after?" the fox softly asked "the memory is fuzzy but I remember Mr. Geltz attacking 3 people before someone shot him. that divided us and the food was running low. no one could sleep, the lights where flickering and people started to attack one another." the fox, fixated on the story, sat in a chair next to the window "as the weeks went by, eventually whittling us down, only 5 of us remained. the others became savage and had no interest in trying to escape anymore." the glowing one took a drink of water. "sorry my voice is a little horse." he snickered "anyways, as we where digging our way towards the vault exit, the power went out and we where in complete darkness."

the kid with the pipboy slightly gasped "Jeeze! that must have been something." the rad rat looked up snarkily. "it was, here we are in the dark of a half demolished vault fearing we where all going to loose our minds and become zombies or starve to death and all I could think is that I would never get to see the damn sky." he turned to the bed and laid down "eventually the heat started to become to intense, so I decided I was going to strip down. I mean, it was pitch black and the only light was from my pipboy. I took off my jumpsuit and from then I realized...." "Realized what!?" the messenger yelped. the fox then realized the stupidity of the question and let the Opossum continue.

"when I realized I was glowing we continued to dig. we made our way up 3 levels with one more to go when some guy blasted a wall of rubble nearly on top of us."

"and?"

"and... well... at the time I didn't know what we became and I accidentally pumped the poor man full of radiation which made him almost immediately throw up." "he turned out to be fine. he just popped some Radaway. and helped us out of the vault when he figured out we weren't going to "purposely" hurt him. and I've lived here ever since."

"now if I can ask you a question?" he proposed swaggly

the fox moved to the glass and tilted his head to the side. "sure."

"why did you ask me this in the first place?" the adventurer looked at his pipboy. "well I have a scientist looking into how ghoulification works. why do some just drop dead. why some ghouls loose there minds and why other, you, turn into glowing ones. the mystery has always been taunting the wasteland and I aim to find an answer."

the ghoul stood once again and starred into the foxes eyes, "I believe its a curse."

the fox looked chilled and stepped back "well I must go. these notes could prove useful, I'll let you know what we find Mr.?" the creature looked surprised. "Mr. Rodney, Rupert Rodney."

the fox replied "don't sound so surprised."

"not many people care to know a ghouls name, where treated like vermin, I guess that's why my nickname is Rad. rat. any ways take care kid, and be sure to take your vitamins."