《Fallout, Second Life》


 Chapter 1

    ¡°Vault Remedial systems in shutdown mode, releasing test subjects from confinement.¡± A robotic pre-recorded voice rings out from the overhead speakers while a soft alarm blared and red overhead lights illuminated the room as they spun, indicating some sort of emergency. ¡°All Vault-Tec personnel are to report to assigned areas for orders from Overseer.¡± It continues as a number of large vats of liquid containing human bodies slowly begin to open throughout the room. One of those bodies slowly stands up, looking around confused.


    He was naked, of course, but he looked to be a man in his 20¡¯s, well built, abs and solid musculature, brown hair and green eyes. However he looked super confused as he looked around the hallway of vat containers now covered in the same liquid he had been suspended in.


    ¡°Hello?¡± He called out to the empty and quiet space only to be met with no response. Instinctively he looked at the other people who were like him, just moments ago, suspended in the tanks full of a greenish liquid but saw no other movement. They all seemed dead. Or at least catatonic.


    He pauses to get his bearing, thinking to himself about who and what he was to ground himself.


    He was Adam Baxter. A man working for a Vault-Tec Subsidiary, Second Life, but he did not really know what they did. All he knew was they were a scientific research company that had something to do with genetics? He was unclear, he, himself, was nothing more than a repair technician, it was the best job he could find after he got out of the military, but knowing what the company did behind closed doors was beyond his pay grade. But he remembered it all, his life, his home, his job, schooling, the threat of war,, everything. So he wasn''t confused about who he was, although something was confusing him about his body.


    He walked over to one of the glass tank vats, now opened from the bottom to spill out the unmoving human body. It disturbed him but he did his best to ignore it as he examined himself in the reflection of the glass.


    This was him but¡­ much more muscular, and in shape. It looked like how he used to look back when he was serving in the military, but if he was exercising regularly, he had cut abs, muscular legs and arms, and he looked fresh, no scars, cuts or bruises. It was¡­ confusing to say the least.


    He found himself lost in his own reflection as he failed to understand his situation before the sound of the siren finally broke his concentration. It did not get louder or anything, it just woke him from his daze, the constant droning infiltrating his thoughts.


    Deciding there was nothing further to gain from waiting around he followed the path through the long metal hallway, carefully avoiding the bodies laying on the ground unmoving.


    This was a vault, of that much he was certain, he had seen advertisements for them on TV, Vault-Tec''s biggest seller, of course it was well outside his pay grade, even with his military discounts. So he had built himself a small fallout shelter in his backyard if the apocalypse ever came. So not only was his body confusing him, but how he even got into a vault in the first place was also quite confusing.


    As he walked he passed a few rooms of interest, a mess hall that looked to be abandoned, though it was left in a mess it was still empty of anything useful except a few knives, one of which he took with him as he still knew very little of what was going on. Another section with a suite of bedrooms, each with their own beds, living rooms, kitchens, and showers. Also in a state of disarray, papers and clothes all over the place as if someone ransacked it. After looting one of these domiciles he found himself a set of clothing, a vault jumpsuit labeled with a gold 42 on it which he promptly put on so he was not naked, as well as a Pip-Boy sitting on the dresser where he found the vault suit. The Pip-Boy seemed to be in working order as well, though he was unfamiliar with the UI of it so he decided to familiarize himself with it later and instead kept walking.


    Eventually he found himself in the deepest part of the vault, on accident of course, as his goal was escape, but he wandered into the Overseer''s office, the head manager of the vault. A terminal, still on, lit up green as he entered the room, facing away from him and towards what would be the overseer''s chair, if there was one. There was none. In fact, so far, after wandering for probably 20 minutes he had not stumbled upon a single person, no security, no scientists, no support staff, no residents, it was as if the place was abandoned, which he assumed it was. If it wasn''t for the mess left everywhere he would have assumed he was the only living person to have ever been here.


    So, with no moral repercussions for peeking, he walked over to the terminal and sat down in the overseer¡¯s chair, booting the computer up. It was password protected, of course. But he knew his way around computers and machines. And this was a standard rob-co terminal, nothing out of the ordinary, a simple root command call on the password screen brought up the debug menu, and from there he could play around a bit with the password software until he could find the code and unlock the terminal. It took him no more than 2 minutes. Stuff like this is super easy when you know how to do it. And he used to do stuff like this all the time back in his old job, you¡¯d be surprised how often high level scientists would lock themselves out of their computers, and then it was up to him, the IT guy, to come and fix it.


    Opening the computer files he was met with a few options. [Log entries] [Research Breakdown] [Vault maintenance and health] [Vault 42 Experiment Overseer¡¯s eyes only]


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    This was already more than he was expecting, after all the computer could have been wiped before the place was evacuated. But it was not. While he would have loved to start at the top and work his way down, his attention was caught by the last option. Experiment? What does that mean? The vaults were supposed to be places for people to survive the bombs if needed, what experiments could it be referring to?


    However as soon as he opened the file he was met with a concerning and yet confusing find.


    [Vault 42 is an experiment in clo33484f, gen556t4 rfirh8n, and rofguehrgbherejbgiuejf9u3bfeh87gvefjve. After they have been gojg8rborjib therapy and stage two of the program g4gjr9ghburgikbrhngv. The new grourfb3wurjuefbr and uploaded with all critical data, experimental variants apply. Overseer is to use vault residents as test subjects for feirbfuehruyfebuiv, death is expected, scientists and guards will comply.]


    There was a lot missing, the data corruption seemed severe, though he did not know why, perhaps there was an attempt made to erase the data but it was stopped midway.


    He had no choice to dig deeper, hoping to find some answers in the logs.


    He read on, [Log entry 10.24.77. I have finally got to head to my office. I am now an overseer, certainly a step down from Chairman but I will adapt, as I always have. I''ve always said my best trait is that I can grow into any role] [Log Entry 10.30.77. The experiments have officially begun, the chief scientist has assured me that this research will bear fruit. I for one look forward to the results. After all the ideas proposed, the ability to live forever is enticing, I can only hope the theories crafted will live up to expectations.] [Log Entry 12.25.77. Christmas, not much of a celebration when the most we have is stacking a bunch of tables on top of each other and decorating them with Vault suits and tinsel, but we make due. The Chief of security and I are doing a gift exchange. I''m thinking of gifting him my old copy of Moby Dick. I''m hoping Santa brings me a bottle of bourbon this year.][Log entry 4.15.78. Experiments are going along well, Stage 1 testing is proceeding apace, and we welcomed our newest Resident, the baby Kady. Seems Mrs. Michaels was carrying when she made it into the vault. We threw a bigger party than we did for Christmas.][Log Entry 9.7.78 Things have been status quo for a while, I find myself, somedays, wishing for the excitement from before I came here, or at least the parties i used to throw, but the world is not so kind as to indulge me.][Log Entry 3.11.79 The experiments are ramping up, the residents by now know, or, at least, are aware of, the things we are doing behind the scenes. One too many residents have gone missing by now. After all it''s a small place, you can''t very well lose people in a vault. I''m surprised they haven''t rioted] [Log Entry 5.3.79. I''m not sure what I said in my last log, perhaps that the residents weren''t rioting? Well I was wrong, I heard rumors of something stirring. I should be aware at all times. I think they are plotting something.] [Log Entry 5.20.79. Another break into the armory, that makes the third this week. Where the hell are they stashing the weapons? There''s not many places to hide them! I think the guards are in on it! There''s no other way!][Log entry 6.15.79. Am I just paranoid or am I getting weird looks every time I head out for meals? If I so much as leave my office for food the residents stare at me like I''m in some kind of horror movie. I don''t know what''s going to happen, I''m going to keep a pistol in my desk from now on just in case.][Log Entry 8.9.79 I can feel the tension in the air, they are no longer hiding the weapons, the residents are armed at all times, and so are the guards, and so are the scientists, it''s like a mexican standoff and everyone is the loser.][Remote Log Entry 11.12.79. Well, this is it. I am trapped in the reactor room with nothing but a 9mm and the maintenance terminal. The Mr. Handy who runs repairs won''t protect me from the mob outside the door and even if they can¡¯t get in, I''m positive the radiation leaking from the reactor will. Im fucked. This is my last log entry. This experiment was a failure. If you are reading this, residents of Vault 42. Fuck your mothers, fuck your fathers, fuck your wives, and FUCK YOU.][End of Log Entries]


    There was¡­ a lot to unpack there. It seemed as though riots from human experimentation had caused the vault to implode on itself, though there was a lot left unclear, it seems as though the scientists and guards had failed to quell the rebellion, and thus they left? There were still too many unanswered questions. But he had gleaned that there was some sort of hope to achieve immortality? Does that have something to do with his new body? Hopefully he might find some answers by reading on, but before that he had to satisfy his curiosity.


    Curiously, he opened the top drawer on the right hand side of the desk. One of the log entries had mentioned that the overseer kept a gun in his desk, perhaps it was still there?


    And upon opening the drawer all the way, it was! A 10mm pistol lay on its side next to a box of the appropriate ammo.


    Adam pulled out the gun, inspecting it, the magazine loaded into the gun was full and so was the box of ammo next to the gun. Well good at least he had a weapon other than a knife now, if he needed it. But his investigation was not over. He wanted to know more about what was going on here, and luckily there was still the log of the Experimental Breakdown he could look at.


    [Experiment Breakdown:wjeufbenoifvherufj30u834hg04euvghb3nwe0-fi3rf]


    Well shit, that was unhelpful. It seems like the data is corrupted. Probably part of the same attempt to delete data as the first thing he read. He had really hoped for some answers, but ultimately it changed nothing, his main goals remained the same. He decided to read the last part of the terminal. The vault health and maintenance


    [ Inner and outer door seals 100%, external radiation exposure .001%, internal reactor power 10%, hydroponics 0%, overall vault health stands at sub 50%, immediate attention suggested.]


    Well it seemed like the vault was doing okay externally but the reactor was either dead or no longer functioning properly. Which tracked with what the log entry from the overseer said. He would need to steer clear of the reactor at all possible.


    So, with some of his questions answered, he grabbed his gun and stood up, ready to head out of the room to explore the vault more and, hopefully, find his way out.

 Chapter 2

    His explorations through the hallway outside the Overseer¡¯s office revealed a sign that read ¡°Reactor room¡± ¡°Overseer¡¯s office¡± ¡°Living Quarters¡± ¡°Armory¡± ¡°Decontamination room¡± How he had missed signs earlier as he wandered around was beyond him, but likely the maze like structure of this subterranean dwelling had confused him. But that was just an excuse, most likely he simply didn¡¯t notice before. But he was more ready to leave now than ever, so he decided to head to the decontamination room, his thoughts were that the only reason one would enter decontamination was to remove radiation from entering the vault. In addition to that the armory was in the same direction so it seemed as good a plan as any, not like he had any other ideas in mind.


    After stumbling through the dimly lit hallways of the vault for a while longer he finally stumbled upon the armory, and more importantly the decontamination room and vault door separating him from his freedom.


    He could see, through massive thick panes of plexiglass, the giant vault door that remained sealed, but little else besides that, it seemed that the exit room was pretty dark, no warning lights were in this room, or at least, no warning lights that were on, nor did it seem like the power that dimly lit the rest of the vault reached this far. But the decontamination room was connecting the hallway to the exit, so it seems his hunch was right.


    However, before he would brave whatever lay in the outside world he decided to check the armory right next to him to see if he could find anything useful which¡­ there was nothing.


    The armory was picked clean, every locker, every case, ever drawer, was empty. The only thing that was still in the room was a vault Jacket sitting overtop the back of the chair overlooking the exit to the vault and an empty Nuka-Cola bottle and bottle cap sitting next to it. So useless junk. The jacket was of interest but not worth getting excited over, so instead he focused his efforts on leaving.


    Walking through the giant sprayers at the entrance to the vault for decontamination, they were, predictably, turned off, so it was uneventful, but the room was so dark it was hard to see. But he did notice a light on his pip-boy, so figured there must be a way to use it like a flashlight. After a minute of tinkering he figured it out and switched on his pip-boy light only to be met with a gruesome scene. Bodies, lots of bodies, lined up side by side row after row. Well bodies are a bit much, they were all skeletons, comedically wearing clothes as if some game designer dressed up a Halloween skeleton and dropped it down to create a little scene. But it was anything but funny. It was horrifying. There was no doubt in Adam¡¯s mind that these men were executed. Lined up and shot in rows of men. Almost all of them were scientists, wearing lab coats of some fashion, but there were one or two guards in the mix as well, but they were few and far between.


    As if to give credence to his theory he looked down and saw the spent shell casings from bullets fired, small caliber mostly right below his feet. That proved it, this was a mass grave for executions. Perhaps, if he were to speculate, the scientists who were conducting these human experiments were rounded up by the residents and killed for their crimes before they left the vault. The few guard bodies intermixed among them suggests that either there were few guards in this vault to begin with and they were killed too. Or, as the Overseer speculated, the guards were helping the residents and when the breakout occurred the guards sided with the residents. It was a theory but it seemed like a good one. He could probably find more explanations to what was going on in the vault if he explored more, but right now, all he wanted to do was leave.


    But before he turned to the vault door panel he stopped and looked at one of the few guard bodies. They were still wearing a bulletproof vault-tec imprinted vest and pistol holster. It seemed wrong to rob the dead, but he wanted to be prepared for whatever lay beyond the vault door, worst case he could leave it behind, but he didn¡¯t especially plan to come back again. So, after steeling himself for a moment, he stepped into the mass grave and pulled free the vest from the dead body of a guard and then unclipped the holster from the belt and clipped it onto his own. After that he swiftly got out from the center of the piles of skeletons and threw the bulletproof vest on.


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    He chose not to dwell on its previous owner, grave robbing was bad enough, but wearing a dead man¡¯s clothes didn¡¯t sit well with him. Still it was the safest choice, he was sure of that. As he walked over to the vault control panel he noted a port where a corded jack could connect, usually used on computers or security systems, often even robots, and then noticed that his pip-boy too had the same jack. So he pulled it out, noting that the cord was coiled around the inside so it could extend further than he thought, and then plugged it in and hit the big red button.


    The room whirred to life. Sirens blared, the formerly dead red lights blinked to life and spun concerningly and the door hissed with a great force. Slowly, the vault door began to open, rolling off to the side and a bridge extended from where he was standing to the other side of the vault door exit. It seemed the entrance and exit had its own power system so it was safe from the brownouts throughout the rest of the Vault? He was unsure, but truthfully it didn¡¯t matter nor did he care, all he wanted to do was get out of this metal prison. And so he walked through.


    He emerged through the other side of the vault door into a small cave. As soon as he stepped through he was met with more skeletons sitting on the other side of the heavy metal gear shaped door. They were not vault-tec related, if anything, based on their positioning, they seemed to have been begging to get into the vault from the outside, perhaps dying of hunger or exposure before getting in. What was going on in the outside that led to these people dying here like this? Was the world truly gone? With these questions circling his mind he could hear the hissing sound of the vault door again from behind him, an automatic shutting sequence, he watches for the 20 seconds it takes to fully close again before once more steeling himself to get out and see what has happened to the world he knew.


    He walked through the cavernous pathway, carefully stepping over another skeleton of a long dead person who was in the middle of the narrow path, until he came to a small metal door that lay open. Walking through this last doorway he emerged into a world he did not recognize.


    It was destroyed, the area immediately around him was the remains of what once was a town, Clearly destroyed by both the ravages of time as well as¡­ the bombs.


    ¡°The world has ended¡­.¡± He mutters softly to himself as he takes in the horrific view around him. The foundations of each former home remained but each building now was nothing more than a crumbling visage of what once was. Some buildings still stood, though barely, and with holes and broken walls and panes of glass. But others were nothing more than rubble. It didn¡¯t look as if the bombs had fallen here, but it did look as if the bombs had fallen and the surrounding areas had fallen due to societal collapse. This was the stuff nightmares were made of. He remembered the newscasters talking about this sort of apocalyptic event, and to his horror, they were right.


    But he had no time to dawdle, his Geiger counter on his pip-boy was clicking, not very fast, but enough he knew he had to vacate the area.


    So he walked, still unsure of exactly where he was until he accidently heard the sound of something other than dirt.  Metal, as it turned out, underneath his boots. Looking down he noted the green sign seemingly half buried under the dirt.


    Wiping away as much of it as he could he was quick to try to read what was written on the sign.


    Welcome to Naperville


    Shit. He knew where he was.


    He pauses as he stops to look around. His Geiger counter was no longer clicking so it was safe to stop but he needed a moment to collect his thoughts.


    He hadn¡¯t gone far. He was right close to home. Right where he grew up, studied, played, and found his first love. Despite the harrowing experience he just went through and how he still has no answers to how he ended up in the Vault, he was near where he last remembered being. He was outside Chicago.

 Chapter 3

    The realization that dawned on him was bittersweet. On the one hand, he knew this area. Well for the most part. Even at a cursory glance to the surrounding area it had changed drastically, but not so much that he had zero idea where he was now that he knew. However, as it was, he would be lost without some sort of map. No road signs or maintained buildings and roads meant he couldn''t really navigate purely on memory. But this was the good news.


    The bad news was, on the other hand. This was his hometown area. He grew up here, he spent most of his life here, with the exception of when he was deployed to Canada as part of the occupying force and then to Alaska to retake it from the damn commies, he had never really ventured further past the greater Chicago area. There was no need. But his home was destroyed. Gone. The bombs had done more than create a wasteland; they had stolen Adam¡¯s home, and his heart hurt for that.


    However he didn¡¯t give himself time to grieve the home he had lost, instead he remained constructive. He knew the area well enough to be able to navigate with a map, but he did not have one. But he remembered that the Pip-Boy had many features, among which included a map, the problem would be finding it.


    So he found himself a still standing building, one that didn''t look like it was about to fall over on top of him, and entered it. It was not any prettier on the inside than the outside. The inside had been weather worn, the entire ground was caked with dust and dirt, the couch, coffee table, and TV that sat in the living room he entered into were all faded considerably and in a state of massive disrepair, but mostly from the eastern facing side, due to the large hole in the side of the home where the wind likely carried in through. Well it was the same hole he had entered through so he couldn¡¯t complain about it too much.


    He then walked over to the couch and then poked it tentatively. It seemed stable¡­ enough. So he sat. Not nearly as comfortable as a couch in new condition would be, but it was acceptable.


    Once he was sat and settled, he started messing with the functionality of the Pip-Boy, turning the dials, flicking switches, and swapping through the tabs. Doing this he learned various things.


    First and foremost, there was a map. Good. He could use that later. Luckily it was already tuned to the greater Chicago area. Second There was a radio feature, it seemed to be able to receive both in the FM and AM frequencies but it only displayed FM radio, which was odd. But he did notice some signals were being shown to him automatically now that he was skimming through, though he decided to handle that later. Next he noticed there was a UI feature where he could catalogue and organize everything he had on his person, even a modular section for the money he had on hand or other tools he wanted to keep track of, not that he imagined money would have much use if the bombs fell¡­ but such thoughts were depressing so he shoved them away. He also found a notes section, perhaps an on-hand diary? It seemed useful for general note-taking so he would keep it in mind going forward.


    However none of this was nearly as important or eye catching as the last two features. First there was a display that accurately showed his condition, showing, based on percentage, his individual limbs, chest, and head condition, overall health, present radiation in his body, as well as indicators that would light up if he was dehydrated or sleep deprived. It was a full monitoring system. How it worked was beyond his understanding. It''s not like it was a bunch of monitoring devices covering his body, just the one thing on his arm. But Vault-Tec had a lot of scientists working for it, surely one of them was a medical company that invented a system that could read a diagnostic of a person just by placing it on the wrist? Or¡­ not¡­ whatever, so it was magic, it seemed to matter little how it worked, just that it did. This would be immensely helpful if he was forced to survive out in this new world. And lastly something called VATS? It seemed to be some kind of targeting system but he wasn¡¯t able to get it to activate. Perhaps because there was nothing to target? He would have to further explore it later. It could be helpful.


    Finally done with his study of the Pip-Boy he stood back up and turned his attention to a doorway connected to the living room. He still had no ideas on what kinds of difficulties he might face going forward, for all he knew finding food might be the hardest thing to do, which, now that he thought about it, he hadn¡¯t eaten or drank at all since he awoke. He wasn''t desperate or anything but he certainly had cravings.


    So, with doubt he would find anything, he entered the doorway hoping to find a kitchen. He was in luck! It was in fact, a kitchen, however it looked disorderly, there was a mess on the counter, the fridge door was wide open, not that it would matter since the glass window was shattered and it seemed to have no power, and the kitchen table was full of clutter.


    And then he heard a skittering sound. It sounded like¡­ a bug? He didn''t know, but he found out as soon as he turned back around.


    Hiding underneath the fridge, now coming out, was a cockroach the length of his forearm. And it seemed to be making a beeline right towards him.


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    Adam was not a man especially afraid of bugs, nor was he particularly scared of combat. He had been in firefights with the red bastards back in Alaska, gotten a few marks on his rifle back then too. He had more than one close scrape back in the war. He had even almost died as a civie after the war due to a faulty Protectron that had misidentified him as an invader. Luckily that one cleared up quickly. But he screamed. A shrill terrified scream at the giant roach on the ground coming towards him.


    In one swift move he unholstered his pistol, pointed it at the roach, and unloaded. It was dead after the second round connected. But he didn''t stop firing for another 6 shots after that. So caught off guard was he that he lost his trigger discipline.


    After he finally came to his senses and stopped firing he looked at the mutilated carcass of the, now deceased, bug. It really did look like a cockroach just giant, it was notably durable too, the first and second shot were not that far apart from each other so he didn¡¯t have time to analyze but it definitely survived getting shot once.


    ¡°The fuck are you?¡± He asks no one in particular as he examines it, seeing nothing to explain what it was beyond the green blood it was now bleeding.


    Giving up he sighed and then thoroughly checked the nooks and crannies of the rest of the kitchen for more of them before he was satisfied that it was safe, after which he began looking for things of value. He found nothing.


    Well nothing was not quite accurate, in a lower cabinet he found a well preserved can of cat food with a pull tab, however he was not desperate enough to eat that. After all, he had standards.


    So with a heavy heart he left it behind, though he may have lingered for a bit too long, considering taking it with him before he gave it up and headed back out of the kitchen and towards the stairs that were in the other doorway from the living room.


    He stops right at the foot of the stairs and then pulls out the magazine from his gun, and then the box of 10mm ammo he had brought with him from the vault and loaded the ammo back into the gun. He was going to take no more chances.


    This time he was more careful. Now that he knew there were giant bugs, he was not going to be caught off guard again. So, with measured steps, he ascended the stairs slowly and quietly. Upon reaching the top he saw three doors. Opening each of them in succession, breaching into them gun out and ready to shoot anything that so much as twitched, he found 2 bedrooms and a study and luckily no bugs.


    Stowing his pistol away back into his holster he took the time to look through the rooms. First was a young girls room, clearly. It had pink, though faded, wallpaper, a pink comforter on a small bed, a toy box left open with toys still inside, a closet full of small dresses and skirts and a child¡¯s vanity. He was about to leave it before he noticed something in the toy box. Curious, he walked over and pulled out a half buried Jangles the Moon Monkey stuffed animal, in his astronaut outfit worn but still very intact and the glass face mask covering his face still protecting his otherwise clean face from the elements. He had one just like these when he was younger. He hadn¡¯t thought of Jangles in a long time. Not since he started going to high school anyway. It was¡­ nostalgic. But after his trip down memory lane was satisfied he put it back into the toy box and then examined the next room.


    The next room was the master bedroom, clearly of a married couple. The closet door was open revealing a few suits still on hangers, and dress shoes below them, and a full sized vanity with a makeup kit was still out, ready to be used. The bed itself was not in the best of shape, it seems others had stayed here at one time or another and were not the cleanest. Dirt, grime, something he didn''t want to think about, and dried blood, all caked the bed creating an art display of unpleasantness.


    He turned to the footlocker at the foot of the bed, still closed and then tried to open it. Locked. Of course. He considered breaking it open but without a means to do so he figured it was pointless to try. Besides, it was most likely full of throw pillows, blankets, and clothes. But then why was it locked?


    No, he decided not to waste any more time on it, he couldn''t open it so that was that. But he decided to explore the closet for a moment with something specific in mind. Rummaging through the musty closet full of old clothes and half melted cardboard boxes, he finds what he was looking for.


    He pulls out a moderate sized backpack from the back corner of the closet. It seemed to be in decent shape considering the state of disrepair of everything else. It was a matte black and had various pouches and pockets, perfect for carrying whatever he might find going forward. Though he had been unsuccessful so far he hoped he would find something eventually.


    Finally he headed into the third and final room, a study, full of books, a desk, and a computer terminal. But none of that was the interesting part, it was the Mr. Handy that sat deactivated on the floor of the study, still connected to the terminal on the desk that caught his attention.


    However his excitement didn''t last long as he heard the roar of something outside. It sounded scary, whatever it was. He rushed over to the window to look outside and see what he heard and he was met with something right out of a nightmare. It was a monster.


    It stood about 8 or 9 feet tall. Even hunched over it was huge. Its skin was a tannish yellow and it had almost dead white eyes. Its hands extended into claws that made its hands notably larger than its already sizable head, and that''s without even taking into consideration the length of its arms giving it a huge reach. Its head was crowned with two horns that curved upwards giving it a devil-like appearance and its sharp teeth were shown through its underbite. It also had a tail that was as almost as long as its body and was covered in upward facing spikes. It couldn''t be described as anything but a monster. And it was right outside.

 Chapter 4

    Adam resisted the urge to scream and instead immediately hid himself by dropping down below the window. Whatever that thing was it had crept up so close to this house without so much as making a sound. He was lucky it roared at all, had it not and just entered the building he might have died without even knowing it was here¡­


    Luckily for the moment, when he last looked at the creature a second ago it didn''t seem to be coming into the house, but it was stalking nearby. Why was it here anyway though? He walked for a while before chancing on this house and didn¡¯t see anything like it around. What could have possibly drawn it to¡­ He then paused his thoughts and looked down at his holstered gun.


    The gunfire. He hadn¡¯t even considered the noise that firing a number of rounds to kill the bug downstairs would make, it must have been within earshot and then came running to the general direction of the sounds.


    Adam slowly sat up, stealing a peak out the window to look at the creature, just barely poking his head up so he was still hiding. It was still standing there, where it was, a moment ago, sniffing the air and looking around menacingly. It didn¡¯t seem to have any indication of leaving, which was good insofar as he was safe inside for now. But it was bad because that meant he was trapped.


    Out of curiosity he brought up the Pip-Boy allowing it to just poke a bit over the window and once more tried the VATS thing. To his surprise it took a picture of the scene from a small camera attached to itself, and it displayed a breakdown of the creature¡¯s assumed health, the health of individual sections, and, most importantly, a percentage chance to hit. How it calculated such a thing was beyond him. He was a halfway decent shot and at this distance he was confident he could land 8 or 9 of 12 shots on the creature, though he was uncertain if he would kill it even with a full magazine, which is why he hadn''t. But despite Adam¡¯s belief in his own skill, the Pipboy showed low chances for hits. Maybe it needed calibration, or perhaps it needed to see his skill in action, after all the only data it had collected so far was seeing him shoot a giant bug.


    The curiosity sated over VATS he needed to come up with a plan. It didn''t seem like the creature had any intention of leaving, which meant he needed a way to kill it, or to distract it long  enough for him to get away. The question was how?


    As he thought this his eyes drifted over to the deactivated Mr. Handy sitting on the ground a few feet away from him. That was it!


    He quickly, but quietly, walked over to the computer at the desk and sat down, booting it up. Once more there was a password screen, but the same trick used in the Overseer¡¯s office to bypass it worked here, it was even easier, only 4 characters. Get stronger passwords people!


    After getting in he was met with a few options. [Personal Finance Documentation][Wife¡¯s ultimatum][Daughter¡¯s A+ Essay Paper][Open Safe][Connect to Mr.Handy]


    There were even more tabs than in the Overseer''s office. However he was only interested in the last two. As much as he might enjoy snooping into the personal life of someone he has never met, he had a deadline in the shape of a giant monster outside who could, at any moment, walk into this house and up the stairs.


    However he couldn''t help but pause when he noticed the [Open Safe] Option. There was a safe? He looked around for a moment and saw none, maybe it was a misread connection? Or maybe it was hidden somewhere? Regardless it was not important, time spent looking for and looting the safe, likely which was full of, at best, money, was not helpful right now. The Mr. Handy was. Tabbing over to the Mr. Handy on the computer, he was met with the diagnostic screen of the Mr. Handy.


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    This was not his first time reprogramming a robot, in fact he even factory reset and reprogrammed a Protectron for Second Life before he woke up in this strange world. Yes it happened to be the same protectron that tried to kill him but it was an accident, he forgot to include himself with a friendly tag, it was an easy mistake to make. Regardless, Mr. Handy, despite being designed by General Atomics, not RobCo, had an OS that was still nearly identical, or identical enough to work with anyway.


    There was one problem. This Mr.Handy had been hard reset, purged of every file. Even the base model programming was inaccessible. Whatever the guy who owned this computer was doing before he clearly didn''t want a trace of General Atomics programming in it.


    If Adam had all the time in the world, he could certainly reprogram the Mr.Handy from the ground up, giving it new subroutines, even settings, modes, target acquisition, hell he could make it dance on command if he wanted to, but time was not on his side. So he was left with the only option which was to give it very basic commands for it to follow. The question was what?


    The first thought was to have it charge out there and fight the monster, use the time to escape. But he realized that the self preservation and combat subroutines were also gone, so it wouldn''t know how to fight, it would likely just ram its head into the creature and then die.


    His second thought was to simply overheat its internals and explode all its liquid fuel in one fiery explosion right on top of the monster. But this wouldnt work either, not only would this take a while to set up and not kill himself immediately, but the timing would be critical, it would need to explode at a precise moment, a moment he couldn''t account for. In addition, even if he was to get all the variables to line up, there''s no telling if the creature would die. And then he would have a very angry, on fire, monster with nothing else to do but kill him.


    His third and final idea. And the one he settled on was simple. Have the Mr. Handy run past the monster and keep heading east. Not stopping for anything. In theory, assuming the creature chased after it, both would disappear into the distance and give him a perfect opening to run. This was his best play so he got to work.


    It was a tense 10 minutes that followed, never in his life did Adam work so hard and fast on a robot reprogramming. It was life or death after all. But, after the ten minutes was up the Mr. Handy sprang to life, spewing its fuel from below as it hovered in place for a few seconds.


    Adam sighed a deep breath of relief and then executed the program. The Mr. Handy began letting off a loud screeching sound as it began to fly out the room, down the stairs and through the hole in the wall. All Adam could do now was pray it would work. He didn¡¯t have to wait long.


    As he peaked out the window again at the creature he saw its attention immediately peaked by the Mr. Handy. It roared out loudly before it began moving, far faster than Adam would have guessed, in the direction the Mr. Handy was moving, chasing after it like a dog chasing a ball.


    It had worked, all he could do now was sit tight for another minute or so and then make a run for it himself. And so he waited, hearing the sound of the Mr. Handy getting further and further away by the second. Until he finally decided it was time to book. And run he did.


    He barreled down the stairs with all his might, heading, specifically, in the opposite direction of the creature, following the cracked streets to hopefully find somewhere else that was at least a small bit safe.


    He ran for about 20 minutes before he came to a stop, catching his breath as he leaned against the side of a stone brick ruin. However he was not given a moment to rest as he began to see figures in the distance. There was a glare from the sun at the angle he was looking so he couldn''t truly make out the shapes. Was it a human? God he hoped so.


    He decided to gamble. He was exhausted, out of breath, and terrified, he really needed a win right now. So he approached the figures a bit and then stopped, waving broadly at them as he shouted over to them.


    ¡°Hey! Um! Excuse me! Can I approach?¡± he yelled out to them. There was a pause before he heard back.


    ¡°Sure can, stranger! Come on o¡¯er!¡±

 Chapter 5

    There was a wave of relief that washed over Adam when he heard the friendly call back. He truly went out on a limb and luck just happened to be on his side. So he approached.


    At first glance it looked to be rather normal. A touch¡­ hobo looking man, wearing worn and dirty clothes with a big smile, rifle on his back, and leather cap on his head was standing next to a brownish red cow which had a lot of boxes and bags strapped to its back as well as what looked to be a large barrel of water. But this was only at first glance. The cow had 2 heads?! Other than the two heads it seemed to be acting like a normal cow, but that was not what drew his attention the most. It was the literal zombie standing behind the cow, cigarette and lighter in hands as he lit up a smoke. The zombie was decked out in full armor, it looked like a mishmash of the combat armor he was issued when he served and other pieces like some leather and some metal armor but all painted black and uniform enough that he looked well put together. Not to mention he was packing some serious heat. He had two guns slung over her back, one assault rifle with a number of attachments and a double barrel shotgun. But he also had a 9mm pistol in a holster at his hip and a large knife in its own holster on his left leg. If he wasn''t a zombie it would have been easy to assume he was a soldier or mercenary.


    Adam immediately went pale, his eyes darting back and forth between the two head cow and the zombie in armor.


    The man in the leather cap seemed to catch onto Adam¡¯s fear and grew a wide smile. ¡°Cat got your tongue stranger?¡± He laughs. ¡°Ain¡¯t never seen no brahmin or ghoul before?¡± When the man spoke he spoke with a heavy southern drawl, which was strange considering how far up north they were, but truly this was the last question on Adam¡¯s mind at the moment.


    The ¡°ghoul¡± finishes lighting up his cigarette and then scowls at Adam. ¡°The fuck you lookin¡¯ at smoothskin?¡± He says with some vitriol. The Ghoul¡¯s voice was rough. It sounded like stones on a gravel driveway. Which is to say it sounded like he was a coal miner and just got off a shift. It was not any prettier than his face which seemed to be full of rotting skin.


    ¡°I uh¡­¡± Adam started, caught flat footed. Truly, he had just seen a monster not 20 minutes ago, seeing more wasnt that out of the question, but this¡­ ¡°ghoul¡± seemed to be talking to him? And the brahmin was just¡­ standing around like a cow? It took him for quite the spin.


    The leather capped man laughed again and slapped Adam on the shoulder. ¡°Don¡¯t you be worrying here.¡± He says with a wide toothy smile, revealing a missing tooth on the left side. ¡°Neither Bessy nor my hired gun, Salvatore, will be doin¡¯ ya harm.¡± He said with a firm grasp and gentle shake on Adam¡¯s shoulder. ¡°You one of them vault folks? Ya got the blue suit and fancy computer on ya.¡±


    ¡°I um¡­¡± Adam started again still feeling a bit flat footed, but so grateful for a friendly face he regained his footing and decided to be honest with the man. ¡°Well sort of, I was just in a Vault not too long ago.¡±


    ¡°I figured!¡± The man grinned. ¡°No one else but the vaulty types would be confused as you ¡®ere seeing these two.¡± He holds out his hand for a handshake. ¡°Names Chuck, Chuck Winchester.¡±


    Adam takes his hand, shaking it back. ¡°Nice to meet you Chuck, the name¡¯s Adam Baxter.¡± When Adam introduced himself Salvatore in the back raised an eyebrow but said nothing.


    ¡°Well Vaulty, gotta say, not many of your type ¡®round these parts. Heard the last Vaulty to pop up was over 50 years ago. Can¡¯t imagine livin¡¯ inside a metal box for 200 years myself though.¡±


    ¡°Yeah I couldn¡¯t feel comfortable living¡­ Wait, did you say 200 years!?¡±


    Now Chuck was the one who looked confused. ¡°Yes?¡± He looks at Adam with a mix of suspicion and pity, now wondering if Adam was actually a looney.


    ¡°Been ¡®bout that long since the bombs fell, well that''s what my grandpappy tells me anyway.¡±


    ¡°211.¡± Salvatore spoke up from behind, correcting Chuck casually as he smoked the cigarette and leaned against the ruins next to him, mostly waiting for the conversation to end.


    ¡°Two hundred years¡­.¡± Adam repeated, hit with a massive shock.


    ¡°Ya alright there friend?¡± Chuck asked, concerned.


    ¡°I don''t know anymore. I woke up in a vault without any recollection of how I got there, walked past a mass grave, found out my home was destroyed, and barely escaped a monster, all just to find out over 200 years have passed.¡± He said before adding. ¡°I can¡¯t exactly say I have been having the best day.¡±


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    Salvatore lets off a single dry laugh. ¡°Join the club, kid.¡± He responds curtly. Chuck on the other hand was more sympathetic.


    ¡°Sounds like you¡¯ve been having it rough.¡± He took off his hat and gently placed it over his heart. ¡°Look friend, we all go through ups and downs in life and this is just one of ¡®em. You can''t be looking back, just look forward, there''s going to be a beautiful field of razorgrain somewhere out there fer ya.¡± He said, speaking softly and calmly to him, being awfully nice to a man he had just met.


    Adam just sighed deeply and then nodded. ¡°You are right.¡± He offered a half smile. ¡°It''s¡­ a lot, but I¡¯m not letting it stop me.¡± He said a bit more determined now.


    ¡°Good. Now, I''d love to sit here an¡¯ chat with ya all day but I got a delivery to make¡­¡± Chuck said with a smile as he put his hat back on and then paused. ¡°Hold on though, you said you encountered a monster? What sort?¡± He asked, now much more serious than he was a moment ago.


    ¡°I don''t know.¡± Adam admitted readily. ¡°It was some kind of 8 foot tall lizard, it had a long tail, upward curved horns and long ass claws at the end of its hands.¡± As soon as Adam finished describing the creature it was now time for Chuck to go pale. ¡°A Deathclaw?!¡± He said, with some visible fear and apprehension. ¡°Salvatore?!¡± He said, whipping around to look at his armored ghoul friend who already seemed to have hardened his expression.


    Salvatore had thrown his half smoked cigarette on to the ground and stopped it out, and drew his assault rifle, looking through the scope as he scanned the horizon. ¡°I heard him.¡± He said without sass, clearly focused on making sure the Deathclaw was nowhere near.


    ¡°You didn¡¯t let that thing follow ya did you?¡± Chuck asked as he grabbed onto the collar of Adam¡¯s vault suit, in an almost accusatory manner.


    ¡°No I¡­ had it chase a Mr. Handy I reprogrammed. I ran in the opposite direction. I haven''t seen it for like half an hour.¡± Adam said, on the backfoot, not having expected the sudden shift in tone from Chuck.


    ¡°Let him go Chuck, if he was being chased by a Deathclaw he¡¯d be dead already.¡± He sighed and then lowered his rifle. ¡°And so would we.¡± He then dropped his arms letting his rifle hang in front of him loosely on the strap as he leaned over to the side and spat onto the side of the street. The spit was almost very faintly luminescent green.


    Coming to his senses, Chuck let go of Adam¡¯s collar. ¡°Apologies, friend. Just about the worst kinda news I could have gotten.¡± He then takes a deep breath and slaps Adam on the back. ¡°Far from being bad news, you are a good omen.¡± He smiled. ¡°Had you not shown up, we might have walked right into a Deathclaw nest. And I ain''t fixin¡¯ to die today.¡±


    ¡°Hey smoothskin.¡± Salvatore piped up as he picked up his stomped cigarette off the ground and fiddled with it to get it usable again. ¡°Which way was the Deathclaw, how far?¡±


    ¡°Well.¡± Adam paused to consider. ¡°I ran from the east, over that way, for a while, twenty minutes i¡¯d say? I saw it when I stopped to enter a house. But I had the Mr. Handy catch its attention and run the opposite direction, further east. So I can¡¯t tell you where it is.¡±


    ¡°Nah, that''s good enough.¡± Salvatore said as he finished straightening out the cigarette and then re-lit it, only to grab onto his rifle again, having it at the ready if needed.


    ¡°I recommend we change routes. I say we hop off the 75th, hop on I34 and then take it up to Aurora. Should get us to Naper real easy without any chance of running into them.¡±


    Chuck nodded in response. ¡°Fine, we will need to double back a bit.¡± He turned around to look at the path he came from. ¡°Damn, after all the trouble we took to avoid War¡¯s cadre.¡± He sighed as he lifted up his hat and scratched his head.


    ¡°Better than dying.¡± Salvatore added dryly.


    ¡°True.¡± Chuck then turns to Adam who had mostly politely waited for the two of them to finish their conversation. ¡°Well thank ya for the information. Do you know where you are headin¡¯?¡±


    ¡°No I don''t.¡±


    ¡°Well, iffin you¡¯d like, you can come with us to Naper, my home. It''s a bit of a walk away but none too far by now.¡± Adam took a moment to consider, he was truly lost. He didn¡¯t know the first thing about this world and going to some place with other people, no matter how strange, was certainly a good step in the right direction, at the very least he might get some answers.


    ¡°Alright.¡± Adam spoke up after a few moments to consider. ¡°I¡¯ll come with you.¡±


    ¡°Now hold on.¡± Salvatore said, his voice raised in protest. ¡°I ain¡¯t getting paid to cover for two smoothskins just you.¡± He stood staring at Chuck, rifle raised into the air, held with one hand, clearly unhappy about the additional passenger.


    ¡°You don''t need to protect no one other than me. Ya¡¯ right, me and Bessy is all ya need to worry about. But ain''t no worry if we have one more come along, we¡¯re close to home anyhow. Besides, I''m sure the young man can help out in a scrap if needed.¡± He said, gesturing to the 10mm pistol that was strapped to Adam¡¯s belt. ¡°Safety in numbers and all.¡± Chuck smiles.


    Salvatore didn''t respond but he did scoff softly and then turn to face the opposite direction, planning to lead the way as they doubled back a bit to follow their new path.


    ¡°Come along friend, let''s get home.¡± Chuck smiled as he slapped Adam on the shoulder and then grabbed Bessy''s reins and gently guided her back the way they came, to their new route.

 Chapter 6

    The walk to Naper was uneventful. Salvatore kept a steely-eyed lookout the whole time but not even a radrat poked its head out of the ruins. However it was time well spent. Adam had time to chat with Chuck as well as Salvatore, when he was willing to chat, about a bunch of the gaps in information he had. Adam had learned quite a bit.


    The great war, the vault experiments, the rise of raiders and the rise of organizations to combat them, settlements springing back up, some of the smattering of creatures he might encounter in the wasteland such as radroaches, deathclaws, berserk robots, super mutants, and a whole lot more. It was safe to say that Adam was already feeling far more acclimated to this century after chatting with Chuck as long as he did.


    ¡°So¡­ bottlecaps?¡± Adam asked as they turned down the path towards aurora.


    ¡°Yessir.¡± Chuck smiled. ¡°Been that way long as people crawled out of their holes.¡± He gently patted Bessy who mooed pleasantly at him. ¡°Merchant work requires plenty ¡®o funds. Figured you for an interested party when you first called out to me. Shame you weren''t carrying caps on ya, but a good talkin¡¯ partner¡¯s none too bad neither.¡± As he had learned Chuck was a merchant. He travelled between settlements and traded various goods, but as he is from Naper, a farming community, he most often traded food.


    The idea of trading bottle caps struck Adam as pretty silly, after all paper money was easy to transport in large quantities, to transport bottle caps in a sizable amount it would take a whole brahmin full of crates of them. But even more than that it was bottlecaps. How absurd.


    ¡°But like¡­ why?¡± Adam questioned, now curious.


    ¡°Well¡­¡± Chuck said, elongating the word a bit as he thought up a proper explanation to give. ¡°Far as I¡¯ve ¡®eard there is two reasons. First, back in the day, before there were people living in communities again, there was only really one thing worth trading. Water.¡± He gently pats the 20 gallon drum on the side of Bessy. ¡°I mean food too but let¡¯s focus on yer question.¡± He chuckled. ¡°So people were trading round bottles and glasses of water, it was a real tangible thing, ¡®eryone needed water so it was universal. Then someone got the bright idea that if they were to just trade the bottle cap, it would be much easier to transport. And, in theory, if you needed water you could trade in your bottle cap to anyone to get a glass for yourself.¡± He paused once more to consider. ¡°Well I don''t know how true that all is but that''s the story I¡¯ve ¡®eard. But that''s the first reason, second is them¡¯s hard to replicate.¡± He reached into his small belt-loop pouch and pulled out a single bottle cap, specifically a Vimm, and then handed it over to Adam for inspection. It was money and did display a modicum of trust Chuck had accrued for Adam, but truthfully it was the equivalent of handing someone a 5 dollar bill. Sure you¡¯d be upset if they stole it, but it wouldn''t break the bank. Adam noted it was, just simply, a bottlecap he¡¯d have thrown away after he bought a bottle of Vimm. Not that he would, he was a Nuka Cola kinda guy, but the cap itself had survived remarkably well for two hundred years. A little faded and bent, but not much different than if he found one just laying on the side of the road outside a bar or a Super Duper Mart. Just an everyday, normal, bottle cap. As Adam examined it Chuck continued.


    ¡°The means to make more been lost. See, it requires the right metals and a pressin¡¯ machine. I dunno much about the metal, but the machines all been long gone. The factories that used to make that stuff been destroyed with age, maybe one or two still around but nothing that could make more easily.¡± He stuck his hand out for the Cap back and Adam obliged, handing it back without delay. ¡°Which means these ¡®ere are a finite resource. There¡¯s only so many in circulation, makes for a stable and reliable economy.¡± He smiled and then laughed.


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    ¡°But that''s the long of it. Truthfully I don''t know how much is true. What I do know is, people use ¡®em for money, and so I do too. That''s good enough for me.¡± Adam nodded in response, understanding what he was being told. In truth money was nothing more than a shorthand, a means to conduct trades without the goods being on hand. What use was gold or US dollars if no one wanted them. They have value because people are willing to use them as an intermediary. So it wasn¡¯t too strange for people to use bottle caps if everyone else did. It was a system built on the concept that people would always use Bottle Caps as currency, not much different from the old world.


    ¡°Smoo-¡± Salvatore started to speak up before catching himself from referring to Adam as smoothskin. Even he had decorum when he cared enough. ¡°Adam.¡± He started again, this time with a less gruff tone and more curious. ¡°They way you¡¯ve been talking¡­ Do you remember the world before the bombs?¡± He asked, almost suspiciously.


    ¡°Yes¡­ My last memory before waking up in the vault was getting ready for a¡­ admittedly probably boring halloween party at work. I had just finished in a department store looking for a cheap costume and was heading home for the night.¡± Adam said, only now noticing how¡­ abrupt and rather suspicious the jump in time was in his head, but again, there could be hundreds of explanations. For all he knew Vault-Tec could have kidnapped him and then put him in that tube for 200 years. Who is to say? He knew now that Vault-Tec was anything but on the up and up, they were about as shady as they came.


    ¡°Ya don¡¯t say¡­¡± Salvatore responded slowly, studying Adam more seriously now.


    ¡°Why?¡± Adam said, turning to face him now, not having any idea why he was asking.


    ¡°I just¡­¡± Salvatore pauses, seeming less uptight at the moment, almost vulnerable. ¡°I don''t meet many people who remember the old days¡­ us pre war ghouls are a dying breed.¡± Salvatore finished, looking away almost bashfully. Chuck cut in, turning to look at Salvatore himself now.


    ¡°Sal! I didn''t know that!¡± He said with surprise and a smile, as if he had just learned a new bit of lore about a good friend.


    ¡°Yeah well I don''t exactly go around advertising it. Not my favorite topic.¡± He returned, now more defensive.


    ¡°So you remember the world before the bombs!?¡± Adam said in shock.


    ¡°And the world after.¡± Salvatore finishes. ¡°Been a long 200 years kid.¡± He said, now with a more somber tone, he still hid it behind a strong exterior, but it was clear the 200 years had put him through a lot, as one would expect.


    Adam considered responding to that but found himself at a loss for words. He could only imagine what surviving that long in a world like this had put him through, and empty condolences were sure to be shrugged off. However his considerations were interrupted as they turned past a collapsed building and saw a wall made of various materials, from scrap iron to wood to brick to even the ruined buildings themselves. It stretched all the way from the side of the ruined building to the river in the distance.


    The wall itself seemed sturdy, despite its mishmash of construction materials. About 30 feet from them there was a break in the wall where there was a gate made from a car door, a garage door, and patched up with various other metals such as sheet metal, all on a roller that would let it slide open to the right if needed. Standing off to the left of the Gate was a man who stood above and behind the wall, probably on some sort of elevated platform. The man next to the gate seemed armed and armored, but to a significantly lesser extent than Salvatore was. It was also a mishmash of various gear but without a color scheme and only a single worn rifle to protect himself. Adam was also quick to notice that there was more than one bullet hole in the side of the wall as he scanned his eyes across it. These people were no strangers to a fight, regardless how undefended they may appear at first glance.


    ¡°Welcome to Naper, friend.¡± Chuck said with a smile as he directed Bessy towards the gate.

 Chapter 7

    ¡°Hey Chuck.¡± The man at the wall called out as the three of them approached. ¡°Got a good haul this time?¡±


    ¡°You betcha! Got me a nice selection of goods from Midway, The Pier, well as few other places. Couldn''t make it to Renaissance though, too many mutants around this time. Sal here put a kibosh on that plan.¡± Salvatore just scoffed.


    ¡°Who¡¯s your new friend? You didn¡¯t happen to pick up a stray raider on the way over didja?¡± The man on the wall asked, gesturing to Adam non threateningly with his gun in his hand. His tone was serious but it was clear he was not at all expecting trouble.


    ¡°No sir. Well, I suppose he could be, but he picked a terrible story to sell me with if he is, and I aint ever seen a Vaulty be a raider, usually they die first.¡± He chuckles. The man on the wall seemed to agree because he nodded along.


    ¡°Alright, I''ll get the gate open for ya. Welcome Home.¡±


    With a mechanical whir the gate slowly began to open as the gears seemed to struggle to turn under the immense weight of the reinforced gate door. But after a solid 15 seconds it finally opened all the way.


    Chuck turned back to Adam as all three of them walked inside. ¡°I¡¯m going to offload ol¡¯ Bessy at my store and then head to the bar. Sal, you mind bringing the Vaulty to the bar with ya?¡±


    ¡°Contract ended the moment we walked through that gate. I aint gotta do shit.¡± He said grumpily.


    ¡°I¡¯ll buy you a round.¡± Chuck said with a smirk. Salvatore grumbled.


    ¡°Follow me smoothskin, I''ll bring you to the booze.¡± He said as he started walking off without waiting to see if Adam was following. ¡°Not that you have the caps to get a drink.¡± He added quietly as he slowly gained some distance.


    ¡°I¡¯ll see you at the bar then?¡± Adam half asked Chuck as he began to follow after Salvatore.


    ¡°See ya soon.¡± Chuck waved him off as he then turned to a different direction and led Bessy off.


    As he followed Salvatore around he soaked in this settlement. Naper seemed to be a settlement established around an old reenactment village he barely remembered from the area. Naper Settlement? Or something to that effect. Well that explains the name. But it was just a small number of buildings on a small plot of land. It wasn¡¯t anything special to look at pre-war, but now it was a full fledged town. Walls stretched way out to an artificial borderline in the south and over Aurora Ave into the greenery across the street where there was a massive farmland growing a large number of crops that looked similar to ones he recognized but not completely so. The crop fields were stopped at a natural border where the river ran and the two ponds seemed to have some docks laid over them so people could swim or fish. On the other side of the avenue where the heritage buildings were, was a moderately sprawling number of buildings made of scrap materials, mostly scrap metals, but clearly anything they could find. It would be a bit much to call it a town, but a village? Sure. There were enough people even just up and about at this time of day that getting an accurate headcount wouldn''t be easy, so he gave up on the thought.


    But what struck him most was children. They were out and playing like any other kids. Two young boys were kicking, what looked to be, an incredibly worn down basketball, and another boy and girl were chasing each other through the streets laughing, almost bumped into him too. He hadn¡¯t gotten so melodramatic to believe kids wouldn''t be able to grow up in this world, but he did have a thought or two of such things when he first arrived at the wall. After all in such a world of Deathclaws and feral ghouls, how could a child be safe to play? But that is what the guards and the walls were for. In here they were safe. So there was still a life to be led. That, at least, was comforting. Regardless, Salvatore led him, wordlessly, to a large ramshackle building near the northernmost wall clearly labeled ¡°Inn¡± with no further name.


    Salvatore opened the door to the Inn without missing a beat and walked right over to the bar and sat down. ¡°Mandy.¡± He spoke assertively in his gruff tone to the no one behind the bar. There was a door to the far right of the bar leading into the back, presumably where this Mandy might be. ¡°Hit me up with something, it''s been a long trip.¡±


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    ¡°I''ll be right out with you.¡± A woman with a cheery tone piped up from the backroom. After a few moments a woman wearing an apron, her hair in a bun, and looking a bit worn out comes in.


    ¡°Sal! How¡¯s my favorite ghoul feeling today?!¡± She says with a chipper tone.


    ¡°Thirsty.¡± Salvatore returns, curtly.


    ¡°Walked right into that one didn¡¯t I?¡± She laughed softly to herself. ¡°I''ll getcha something real quick.¡± She bent down to reach below the bar and noticed Adam just standing there watching the affair.


    ¡°Looks like you got an admirer ghouly boy.¡± She teased as she pulled out a bottle of scotch and began to pour a shot for Salvatore.


    ¡°Was promised a drink for bringing him here. Chuck¡¯s buyin¡¯.¡± He said, not turning around to acknowledge Adam at all as he downed the shot in one go.


    ¡°Well ain¡¯t you lucky~.¡± She winked at Salvatore and then turned to look at Adam, who was unsure what to do with himself. Largely because he already understood he had no money, which meant he couldn¡¯t order a drink. Damn, if only he had grabbed that bottle cap from the armory before he left the vault. But how was he supposed to know?


    ¡°Well don¡¯t just stand there, why don¡¯tcha grab a seat?¡± She said as she gestured to one of the barstools near Salvatore.


    Adam hesitated for a moment and then took a seat as instructed, one seat away from Salvatore who probably would appreciate a bit of privacy.


    ¡°So what will it be?¡± She asked as she leaned against the bar counter.


    ¡°Well to be honest¡­ I don''t have any caps.¡± He smiled apologetically. He gently tugged at the collar of his vault suit. ¡°I''m uh, recently liberated from a vault.¡±


    ¡°Oh!¡± She said softly, more interested and amused than offended. ¡°Well That explains the blue pajamas.¡± She chuckled to herself. ¡°I do feel sorry for you babe, but I''m running a business here, I don¡¯t do freebies for no one.¡± She shrugged. ¡°Sorry.¡± She turned to walk away and then stopped before she even really left. ¡°That is, unless you got something to trade Mr vault boy.¡± She said, looking at him again, with an inquisitive eyebrow raise.


    Unfortunately Adam couldn''t really think of anything he had to trade, truthfully all he really had was his vault suit and body armor, his pistol and ammo, the pip-boy, and his backpack. He wouldn''t trade his gun or his pip-boy because he didn¡¯t know what he would encounter yet and the backpack would probably be more helpful to have than to sell. And of course selling the shirt off his back was out of the question. Then he remembered he did have one other thing he could sell.


    ¡°How about a kitchen knife?¡± He asked, hopefully, as he reached into his backpack and pulled out the kitchen knife he had taken with him from the vault. So much had happened that he completely forgot about it, not least of all because as soon as he had the gun that was much more on his mind than a kitchen knife.


    Mandy took the knife from him and examined it. ¡°Well damn, this is some of the prettiest cutlery I''ve seen in years.¡± She said with a soft whistle.


    While Adam didn¡¯t really have a comparison, it''s true the knife was in good condition. From his perspective it was normal but it was not bent, rusty, used, old, or blemished, it was nearly as good as the day it was made. After all, it had been safely stored away in the knife block in a sterile environment so it didn¡¯t even really degrade.


    ¡°Tell you what.¡± Mandy hit a button on a register on the bar and opened it up. ¡°I''ll give you 20 caps for it.¡±


    ¡°20 caps for a damn kitchen knife?¡± Salvatore complained from his seat in disbelief.


    ¡°It''s a damn good kitchen knife Sal.¡± Mandy shot back. To which Salvatore waved her off dismissively with a grumble. She then turned back to Adam. ¡°Do we have a deal?¡±


    Adam truly didn¡¯t have a sense of what the value of things were yet so he couldn¡¯t know whether the deal was good or not, but based on Salvatore¡¯s reaction it was a very good deal for a kitchen knife, and it''s not like he especially needed it anymore. But now that he was thinking about it, it''s almost a shame he didn¡¯t take more things from the vault. There were a ton more, at first glance, useless things that were in good condition that might be worth something out here. Though he loathed the thought of going back. He wouldn''t admit it but the place scared him. Thoughts for another time though.


    ¡°Yes, you have a deal.¡± Adam said with a firm nod.


    ¡°Great.¡± Mandy returned as she began to count out 20 caps to hand to him. After she was done she grabbed Adam¡¯s hand and placed the caps, overflowing, into his hand. Mostly making a show of it for fun.


    ¡°Now that you have caps¡­¡± She smirked. ¡°Would you care for a drink?¡±

 Chapter 8

    ¡°Do you have water?¡± Adam asked with a chuckle. In truth he¡¯d love a beer right now, but not only was he very thirsty after walking around all day but his entire net worth was 20 caps, he wanted to make sure it lasted a bit longer than this trip to the bar.


    Mandy smiled and rolled her eyes, letting go of Adam¡¯s hand and standing up straight again. ¡°Sure, do you want the stuff from the bucket? Or clean water?¡±


    ¡°Stuff from the bucket?¡± Adam returned incredulously before he shook his head. He didn¡¯t even know what that meant but it probably wasn''t water he wanted to be drinking. What was strange was that it was even an option, especially if the other option was ¡°clean.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll just have clean water please.¡±


    ¡°Sure, that¡¯ll be 25 caps.¡± Mandy said with a knowing smile, not budging from her spot.


    ¡°25? Isn''t that steep?¡± Adam responded. He knew so little of prices, so maybe this was normal, but it was just water no? There was a large river just past the farms, why was it 25 caps when he could just drink from that, or the pond?


    ¡°I like to think 25 is cheap. It ain''t easy removing all the rads from the water. You wanted it clean after all~¡± She smirked. ¡°You go to one of the big settlements they will charge you 30 or 40 caps for a glass, I''m doing you a favor.¡±


    Oh, so that was why. Seems most of the water is irradiated, hopefully not dangerously so, but enough that it wouldn''t be considered clean unless it was purified¡­ which means the bucket is probably water taken directly from the river or the pond, if he was to guess. Damn, imagine water being a troubling thing to get a hold of. He could already feel his privileged pre-war mentality melting away by the second.


    Adam sighed and then looked at his 20 caps in front of him. He considered what he might do if he had no caps left, he had hoped to make his money go further than a single drink. And he had nothing else to sell. He did consider haggling it down but no amount of haggling would bring it down to a degree he¡¯d feel comfortable. So he made a choice he felt very uncomfortable about.


    ¡°How much is the bucket water?¡± He asked, tentatively.


    ¡°5.¡± She said with a smirk.


    ¡°It''s not¡­ just water from the river¡­ is it?¡± He asked, not wanting to pay 5 caps for water he could literally get by drinking right from the pond.


    Mandy laughed, finding his question amusing. ¡°No.¡± She said after she had laughed for a few moments. ¡°I''m not that cruel.¡± She reached down and then grabbed a little hose with a nozzle that was attached to the backside of the bar counter and sprayed out some clean looking water into a glass, placing it in front of Adam.


    ¡°Well¡­ the water used to be from the river, but it''s cleaned up to get rid of any nastiness. But I can''t do much about the rads without a lot of extra work.¡± She shrugged. ¡°So, you want it?¡± She asked as she slid the glass closer to Adam.


    Adam sighed once more and then split 5 caps off from his pile and slid them over to her, a touch dejected as he did.


    ¡°Pleasure doing business with ya hun.¡± She smirked, grabbed the caps, and slid the water in front of him.


    Adam was quick to grab the glass and begin drinking. But what he had intended as just a sip soon changed the moment the water touched his lips. He was parched. The water tasted divine, even though it was literally just water. He truly had not even considered how thirsty he was up until this moment. Needless to say the water did not last to the count of ten.


    ¡°Glad you liked it.¡± Mandy chuckled to herself as she put the caps in the register.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t realize how thirsty I was.¡±


    ¡°I can see that.¡± She smiled. ¡°So what''s your name Vault boy?¡±


    ¡°Adam Baxter.¡± He said in between a relieved sigh as the water settled into his body, he felt cooler already. Mandy raised an eyebrow but laughed.


    ¡°Well nice to meet you Mr. Baxter. You staying in town long, or just passing through?¡± She asked as she closed the register and then leaned on the bar closer to Adam.


    Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.


    ¡°Truthfully I don''t know.¡± He replied as he gently traced his finger down the side of the glass, feeling the light condensation pool on his finger, mostly as an idle action. ¡°I haven¡¯t really gotten time to get my life together.¡±


    ¡°Amen, brother!¡± A loud man sitting by himself at a back corner table spoke up, raising his beer glass in the air as he did.


    Mandy rolled her eyes. ¡°Mind your business Frank.¡± She said in a motherly scolding manner, to which the man just chuckled and waved her off.


    ¡°Well there''s no shame in not having all your ducks in a row, but you walked into my bar without so much as two caps to rub together, so you won¡¯t last long in town if you don''t find a way to make a little dough.¡± She smiled and then gently took the empty glass from Adam and stored it underneath her bar counter in a bin to be cleaned and reused later.


    Adam scratched his head, not exactly sure what to make with that information. She was right of course, but it''s not as if he really knew a good way to make caps off the bat. ¡°Should I get a job?¡± He asked, more in jest to her than seriously.


    ¡°Unless you wanna be a freeloader, I¡¯d say so~.¡± She shrugged with a smile.


    ¡°Know any high paying jobs that require little to no effort?¡± Adam smirked, feeling playful.


    ¡°Oh yeah sure¡­¡± She started before gently leaning in and poking Adam¡¯s forehead with her finger. ¡°In your dreams.¡± She smirked. He just laughed.


    ¡°Seriously though, mind giving me some advice, I¡¯m still pretty new, I know Chuck is a merchant, but what else is there?¡± He probed, deciding that asking for some leads wasn¡¯t a bad idea.


    ¡°Well¡­¡± She began, as she leaned on the backside of the bar, her arms behind her, glancing up at the ceiling as she thought. ¡°To be brief, there¡¯s always work that needs doing¡¯¡± She offered. ¡°I''m sure if you ask around you can find odd jobs in town to get by, but stable work might be hard to come by in town right now, it ain¡¯t time for harvest for a while yet and the guards are volunteers, shops are all fully staffed, my place included.¡± She smiled. ¡°Could always pick up a job like Salvatore over there, running protection, security or what have you to merchants and people in need.¡± She said with a gentle head bob in Salvatore¡¯s direction as he minded his own business, pouring himself another shot of scotch to drink, though by now he was only sipping.


    ¡°Pays well but jobs are scarce and always have a chance of dying. Ain''t that right, spooky?¡±


    ¡°I ain¡¯t looking for more competition.¡± He responded, all without even glancing over at the two of them.


    ¡°Then there''s the Scavs.¡± She continued, completely disengaging from Salvatore. ¡°Prospectors, scavengers, garbagemen, whatever.¡± She shrugs. ¡°There''s good money to be made by wandering around the city and looting old buildings, it''s a gamble though.¡± She picked up a cap on the counter and held it up. ¡°You might find yourself fighting through a pre-war military installation full of turrets and bots and stumble upon a hoard of pre-war goodies.¡± She then reached for a fork from below the counter with her other hand and held it up. ¡°Or for your trouble you can find junk.¡± She shrugged and then put both back down.


    ¡°I don¡¯t recommend it.¡± Salvatore spoke up finally from his seat, still not looking at either of them but finally engaging in the conversation. ¡°It''s much more dangerous than just standing guard over a caravan, ¡®specially if you''re fresh faced like you.¡± His tone was cold and harsh but it actually was rather sincere and honest advice. Despite his attitude Salvatore was doing his best to not let this man he just met die, a kid by his measure.


    ¡°From the mouth of babes.¡± Mandy teased in return only to get flipped off by Salvatore.


    ¡°Well that''s the score.¡± She continued, speaking to Adam again. ¡°Honestly, your best bet to find better work is to head to one of the largest settlements like The Pier or Midway, they are far bigger than Naper so I bet they have a lot more odd jobs for you to do.¡±


    Adam remained silent as he soaked this all in. Truthfully he did need to get this sorted out soon, figure out a goal, a direction to head in. He knew what skills he had, but it was unlikely anyone needed an old IT tech. Not much technology around anymore. Realistically adapting to this world, getting a new job, becoming a farmer, or any number of other simple stable jobs seemed to be the smart option. But he had a nagging thought in the back of his mind. Why was he here?


    There were still too many unanswered questions. Why was he in the vault? Why did he wake up in a tube? What about the others who were in tubes with him, why did they not get up too? What was going on in that vault, and, more specifically, what was Second Life up to? None of these questions would be answered by staying behind some cushy walls, he would need to explore, he needed to go back to his old workplace, back to Second Life HQ.


    ¡°Seems like you already made up your mind.¡± Mandy said, interrupting his train of thought as she studied the expression on his face.


    ¡°Yeah I¡­ I think I have too many questions, I won¡¯t ever be able to sit quietly until I can find some answers.¡± He responded slowly.


    Mandy shrugged. ¡°Well do what makes you happy, it''s your life, you only got one after all.¡± She grabbed a rag and started to clean the counter where a customer had left as Adam had arrived. ¡°But when you don¡¯t come back I¡¯ll know what happened.¡± She smirked.


    Adam sat there, in silence for a few moments as he considered all of his options, but he came to the same conclusion. He had to know what was going on. There may be more answers in the vault, but the computer was corrupted, well the one he tried looking at. Maybe another would be corruption free, but once again he truly didn¡¯t want to go back there, not now anyway. It was like escaping a prison, a prison that was in the middle of a horror movie. He truly didn¡¯t want to return. But Second Life HQ was viable. Assuming, that is, that it is still standing.


    Looking down at his Pip-boy he opened up the empty notes section where he could input anything he wanted like a diary and opened a tab:


    Main Goal: Get to Second Life HQ and access the database to find out more about their connection to Vault-Tec, the experiments, and how I was wrapped up in it.


    He paused and then smirked before he deleted the word ¡°goal¡± and replaced it with the word ¡°quest¡±. No particular reason, but he thought it sounded a bit more adventurous and fun. Any bit of levity he could make of the situation seemed more than called for considering how bleak the world seemed at the moment.


    Just as he finished adding this note to his pip-boy he heard the sound of the Inn front door open and turned around to look.

 Chapter 9

    ¡°Mandy!¡± Chuck said as he entered the Inn with a wide smile. ¡°Pour me some of your special, the trades were good this time and I''m looking to splurge a little.¡± He grinned as he walked over, taking a seat in between Adam and Salvatore.


    Chuck looked to have changed after they parted ways, he was in a less raggedy looking set of clothing, more dressed down with less padding, but clearly clothes more suited for casual wearing, like when he was safe within the walls.


    ¡°Bless your heart Chuck.¡± Mandy smiled before she turned around to begin pouring from a tab attached to the wall, it was labeled with a beer brand he recognized but doubted it was the same thing. ¡°The wife know you are here? You made sure to tell Mariah you were home before coming right here for a drink, yes?¡± She said, pouring him a glass without stopping but speaking in the same motherly tone she had used with Frank in the back earlier. Clearly she knew her clients well and it was just her thing.


    ¡°Course!¡± Chuck smiled as he waited for the drink to be handed over. ¡°Told the missus I was home after I got Bessy back in her shed. Said she was cooking up dinner and to come say hello to you while I waited!¡± He grinned as he spoke as Mandy walked over with his tall glass of some kind of brown smooth drink to which he happily took from her.


    ¡°Mhm, I¡¯m sure.¡± Mandy said as she rolled her eyes and responded sarcastically.


    ¡°Well¡­¡± Chuck began before taking a large sip of the drink and then continuing after he set it back down. ¡°She did tell me to wait till dinner was done, but saying hi to you was just my way of being neighborly.¡± He grinned, and then looked over at Adam.


    ¡°I see you met my friend here from the Vaults.¡± He chuckled as he slapped Adam on the back lightly. ¡°Hope she¡¯s been keeping you good company.¡±


    ¡°Yes we met.¡± Mandy said, stepping into the conversation as she leaned in a bit over the counter to Chuck. ¡°Which reminds me, Salvatore said that you were buying for him when he got in. Is that true or do I gotta kick his ass?¡± She asked Chuck despite Salvatore being no more than 2 feet away from her at the moment and the fact that she did not seem capable of winning a fight against Salvatore if it came down to it. Though clearly it was not a real fight she was threatening him with.


    ¡°Nah, he¡¯s right.¡± He looks over at Salvatore, minding his business, still just slowly pouring shots of scotch for himself. ¡°Though I did only promise the first round, I ain¡¯t paying for the whole bottle.¡± He laughed.


    ¡°Stingy ass smoothskin.¡± Salvatore grumbles to himself.


    ¡°You might be made of caps Sal, but I sure ain''t.¡± He smiled and then looked over at Adam. ¡°Well what do you think of our little town? I know you more or less came straight here but the place ain''t big, you took in the most of it on your way over. Figured you might have some interesting insights seeing as you knew the world ¡®fore the bombs and all.¡±


    ¡°Well¡­¡± Adam began, as he sorted his thoughts only to be interrupted by Mandy leaning in.


    ¡°You are pre-war!?¡± She said with shock as she seemed to study Adam¡¯s face. ¡°Seems well put together for a ghoul.¡± She mused.


    ¡°That¡¯s ¡®cause he¡¯s not.¡± Salvatore said from his spot before downing another shot and then finally pushing the bottle of scotch away, seeming to be done with it. Adam spoke up again.


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    ¡°It¡¯s a long story, and quite frankly I don¡¯t know much about how it happened, but yes, I remember the world before the bombs.¡± Adam finished. Mandy looked amused.


    ¡°Huh, well color me surprised. Well now I am interested in what you have to say about our little town, can¡¯t compare to this place before the world went to shit I bet.¡± She grinned.


    ¡°Well¡­¡± Adam started a second time, once more collecting his thoughts on the place he saw. ¡°To be frank no, it doesn''t.¡± Adam said, which got a single laugh out of Salvatore. ¡°But honestly, I¡¯m impressed.¡± Adam continued, a lighthearted and hopeful tone in his voice. ¡°We were all told that if the bombs fell life would be over, world would end. Seems like it sort of did, but you all got along fine, you built homes, community, had kids¡­¡± He laughed. ¡°I saw kids playing on the way over. It was nice to see people still ¡®living¡¯.¡± He smiled. ¡°It may be a dangerous world out there but in spite of it all it''s good to see people managed to make lives for themselves, ones that don¡¯t just exist for the exclusive purpose of survival.¡±


    ¡°Well¡­¡± Chuck said softly, placing a hand on Adam¡¯s shoulder and gently shaking it. ¡°Thems about the brightest words I¡¯ve heard all day. Nice to hear you are feeling so optimistic about it all, not everyone would have remained so positive, that¡¯s a good trait to have.¡± He smiled warmly at him.


    ¡°Quite the referral, if nothing else.¡± Mandy laughed. ¡°Now I can tell people that a pre-war softy came along and said this place was full of hope.¡±


    ¡°Well, I wouldn''t go that far. But maybe if you were to let me drink for free...¡± Adam smirked as he playfully egged Mandy. All three of them laughed.


    ¡°Ah, you got a bag for your caps yet?¡± Chuck asked after the laughter died down and he looked at the caps spilled out on the table in front of Adam.


    ¡°Uh, no¡­ I was just gonna throw them in my bag, I hadn¡¯t put much thought into it.¡±


    ¡°Might I recommend a caps bag?¡± He said holding up an empty leather pouch in his hand. ¡°Much easier to manage all your funds without rooting around in your bag every time.¡± Adam shrugged, the logic was sound so he didn''t see a reason to disagree. He began to reach for the bag in Chuck¡¯s hand before he pulled his hand back a bit.


    ¡°Three caps.¡± Chuck said with a smile. ¡°I¡¯m still a merchant.¡±


    Adam stared at him incredulously for a moment before he sighed audibly for a third time since he sat down and then split off 3 caps from his pile and slid them over to Chuck, who took them gleefully.


    ¡°Pleasure doin¡¯ business with ya.¡± He grinned as he took the caps and slipped them into his own personal caps bag.


    ¡°Got a place to stay the night?¡± Mandy asked Adam now.


    ¡°No, I hadn¡¯t thought about that yet either. You got rooms here?¡±


    ¡°Sure I do¡­¡± Mandy began before she looked down at the caps in front of Adam, and smirked, knowingly. ¡°Just 12 caps.¡±


    Adam frowned. ¡°You are doing this on purpose.¡±


    Mandy laughed. ¡°Well, credit where credit is due.¡± She smiled. ¡°But honestly I¡¯m doing you a favor.¡± She started as she grabbed the mostly empty scotch bottle off the counter that Salvatore stopped drinking and turned to put it away.


    ¡°You won''t find a deal like that anywhere else in town.¡± She smiled at him as she turned back around, the scotch now stored back away. ¡°Normally I charge 50, a bit less for regulars, but I''m not about to throw you onto the street heartlessly. Call it a proprietor''s privilege.¡± She winked. ¡°Just for tonight.¡±


    Adam sat there, in silence for a moment thinking over his options and if he was being scammed before he sighed a fourth time and slid the rest of his caps, all 12, over to the otherside of the counter. ¡°Fine.¡± He said with a resigned tone.


    ¡°Wonderful~!.¡± Mandy said with a cheshire grin as she slid the caps the rest of the way off the counter, into her hand, and then reopened the cash register and put them back inside. It probably was true she was doing him a huge favor but Adam felt the smallest bit dejected. He had gone from having 20 caps to having zero caps again all in the span of less than 20 minutes. But at least he had the promise of a bed, it was a net positive, even if it didn¡¯t feel that way.

 Chapter 10

    Adam headed, key in hand, to the place indicated by Mandy to be his room for the night. Upon entering, he found it to be an average sized room, about the size of a smaller hotel room. It had a bed, a dresser, a nightstand, a headboard with a stand, and an attached bathroom with a toilet, sink, and a shower tub with a plastic curtain screen. All the furniture in the room looked worn and used, but not dirty. Nothing better encapsulated this than the bedding on the bed. It was worn, the stitching was even frayed in one or two places and the coloring on the bedding was faded, but it was very much not dirty, it was very clearly washed thoroughly before it was put down, even the very faded coffee stain on the bottom right, near the foot of the bed, indicated it had been used for a long time. The entire room felt more like a home than a hotel, which actually made it feel more comfortable. The pristine sterile nature of a hotel was replaced with the human touches of people actually living their lives. A hotel might have been nicer but this was certainly more welcoming.


    He walked over to the window that sat over his dresser and looked outside. It was nighttime, or, at least, it was starting to get dark. He had managed to spend an entire day since he had first woken up in the vault, or maybe he had woken up halfway through the day? Truthfully he was unsure, he didn¡¯t stop to check the time when he first got out, too many things happening at once for him to care. Regardless of whether his pip-boy had a built in clock or not, which it did.


    The lights were starting to turn on in some of the houses he could see from his window. Which was very few, since his window overlooked nothing of importance and the Inn itself was almost tucked to the corner of the settlement near the northern wall. There were only 3 buildings between the Inn and the wall as far as he could tell. Not that it mattered, but again, it just meant the view was unremarkable.


    He turned to head to the bathroom, intending to clean up, before pausing. In theory any water would have to be sourced locally, likely from the pond or the river, the same pond and river that the ¡°bucket¡± water came from. The same water that needed to be purified to be considered ¡°clean¡±. In effect, if he cleaned himself with it, would he not just be using dirty rad filled water? Wouldn¡¯t that be a recipe for sickness?


    But he stopped himself. He realized, sooner or later no matter how hard he tried, he was going to get irradiated. Whether that be from drinking bucket water like he did earlier or from bathing in the same water, exploring old ruins, or just some happenstance there was simply no avoiding it anymore. That shouldnt mean he should become lax, but getting uptight about the water from the tub or sink was only going to drive him mad. Assumedly Mandy, Chuck, and virtually every other person in this town lived like this. Getting irradiated was a daily part of their lives and they seemed fine. That isn''t to say Mandy looked like the healthiest person he had ever seen but she was healthy enough, the radiation wouldn¡¯t kill him.


    In addition to all of that he knew, from his previous line of work, that radiation was more prevalent in the old world than people thought to begin with. The cars, the power plants, the fatmen deployed by the US military, and a ton more. It was never truly radiation free.


    He had even heard rumors that Nuka Cola had developed Nuka Cola Quantum by mixing the amazing taste of the original Nuka Cola with nuclear waste. Though he was sure that was just some Vimm slander on the brand, no way Nuka Cola would do that to its customers.


    All this to say avoiding any amount of radiation like the plague was not going to be feasible or wise, so if he was dirty, like he was, and he needed a bath, like he did, and had to use water from a lake with a little bit of radiation he wasn¡¯t going to stress himself over it. Especially since what he planned on doing from now would ensure he was getting dirty as he explored old ruins and probably exposed himself to even more radiation.


    So, with his mind made up, he finally took a bath.


    After emerging from the bath, refreshed, and feeling more comfortable, he headed straight for bed. Not like he could watch TV or anything anyway.


    But sleep did not come to him quickly, he found himself wide awake, staring at the ceiling as he thought about everything he had been through up to this point. The vault, the Deathclaw, arriving in Naper. It was a lot. But even if his mind wasn¡¯t cluttered, the various anxieties, excitement, worries and fears all mixed inside him kept him firmly awake. He couldn''t feel settled at all.


    So after some time unsuccessfully trying to sleep he got up and headed out of his room, leaving his bag and bulletproof vest on his bed and taking the key he was given to his room with him.


    As he left his room he saw the Inn mostly empty of customers, he did notice two who seemed to be more of the night types as they sat in the back playing cards together, some strange game that didn¡¯t use a full deck, and Mandy herself was still around, though it seemed like she was cleaning up for the night, wiping down tables and getting things wrapped up, something he was sure of due to the bucket of soapy water and rag that was placed on an empty table. But Mandy herself seemed to be wrestling with an old Jukebox that was shoved in the back left corner near the entrance, kicking it a few times as Adam approached the door. She noticed Adam walking out but said nothing as her frustrations were being taken out on the poor jukebox.


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    ¡°Did the Jukebox hurt you in a past life or something?¡± Adam said, momentarily taken away from his melancholy by the amusing sight.


    Mandy turned to look at him, still annoyed at the infernal machine.  ¡°No I just¡­¡± She sighed and the anger dissipated a bit. ¡°This blasted thing hasn''t worked for nearly half a year. It was working fine until one day it just¡­ stopped. I keep hoping it''s gonna turn on again, but at this rate I''ll be down the music forever.¡±


    ¡°Mind if I take a look?¡± Adam asked, casually.


    ¡°You know something about machines?¡± Mandy returned, skeptically.


    ¡°Actually yes.¡± he said as he bent down, spun the Jukebox around, and then opened the backdoor to look at the internals. ¡°I am a licensed RobCo mechanic after all~¡± He said with a smirk as he focused his attention on the wiring and connections inside. After studying it for a few moments he nodded and then looked at Mandy again. ¡°Well you got a blown Vacuum tube in here and some faulty wiring.¡± He informed her. ¡°I can jury rig it if you want, but if you want it fixed properly you will need to replace both the wiring and the whole vacuum tube.¡±


    ¡°But you said you can get it to work right now?¡± She asked with a suspicious raise of her eyebrow.


    ¡°Well sure.¡± He said, now looking back inside the machine. ¡°Just need to pull a few things. Won¡¯t sound as good but it would work.¡± Mandy is quiet for a moment before she shrugged.


    ¡°What the hell, why not? Go for it.¡± She nodded. ¡°Damn thing wasn¡¯t working anyway so what do I got to lose?¡± She turned around to walk off and go wipe down a table, meanwhile Adam got to work. He reached in and pulled out the broken Vacuum tube, and the faulty wiring, then put in some of the good wiring in the place of the now missing ones and bypassed the missing tube. The entire process didn¡¯t take him more than a few minutes.


    ¡°Well¡­¡± Adam began as he stood up and wiped his hands. ¡°Should work now.¡±


    ¡°What?¡± Mandy said with some surprise. ¡°But you just started.¡± She walked over to look at the Jukebox, not that she was looking at anything important just the front of it.


    ¡°Well It''s just a jukebox, I used to handle much crazier stuff for a living.¡± Adam shrugged casually.


    Mandy wasted no more time and hit the On button and then picked a disk. As if by magic the Jukebox whirred to life and began playing music again, much to Mandy¡¯s surprise.


    ¡°Now, as I said, it''s just a jury rigging. It''s not properly fixed. It''s missing a whole vacuum tube, so from now on it''s going to be prone to overheating.¡± He informed her. ¡°I''d suggest letting it cool off for ten minutes every other hour or for an hour after five.¡±


    ¡°Well I¡¯ll be damned.¡± Mandy said, impressed. ¡°You sure are handy.¡± She smirked to which Adam just chuckled.


    ¡°I''m going to take a walk, I¡¯ll be back later.¡± He said before he casually turned to walk outside, all the while he was being stared at in disbelief by Mandy at the ease of his efforts.


    As soon as he was outside his mind began to cloud again, he once more found himself thinking about all his anxieties. But the night air was good for his muddled mind. It didn¡¯t help solve anything but it felt nice. He looked to the other side of the road splitting the town in half, towards the river and ponds and fields of crops and then headed that way. Once he was close the sound of the river became louder and louder, drawing him over until he stood on the edge of a sizable stream, large enough that fording it would be very difficult. Probably why there was no wall over here, just open space, as getting across to the town from this angle would be a challenge to say the least.


    Softly, he sat himself down, letting his legs rest next to the bank of the river, which stood a foot or two below the green grass of the field he sat on. He truly didn¡¯t know what he was going to do, he had made a plan to discover more about the vault he woke up in, or rather, why he was there, and decided to go back to Second Life HQ to learn as much as he could but he couldn''t help but be intimidated. It was a dangerous world out there. Just from leaving the vault he encountered a monster, the deathclaw that nearly killed him. He was lucky it didn''t. It would be a lie to say he was not scared. And not only were there deathclaws but all manner of other creatures and people out there that wouldn''t care about him or where he came from, just that they wanted to see him dead. It certainly gave him pause.


    He was going to do this, he had to, he would never be able to live comfortably without having the answers to his questions, but that doesn''t mean he was excited to throw himself in danger. A man who had never seen combat might, but he was a veteran, it meant he knew what real danger was like, and that no one should willingly throw themselves into it recklessly.


    But as he thought all of this he just sat there, watching the river flow, the bombs might have fallen, Chicago might be a husk of itself, he might have more questions than answers, but nature moved on, neigh nature never cared. The river flowed on as always, ignorant of the troubles he was facing.


    But as Adam began waxing poetic about the indifference of nature a small frown crept onto his face as he came to a sudden realization.


    ¡°Shit. I should have charged for the Jukebox repair.¡±

 Chapter 11

    Adam spent a few more hours at the riverside, getting his thoughts together before finally returning to the Inn and getting some sleep.


    The next day arrived unceremoniously. But that was a welcome change since the last time he woke up he was in a spooky vacant vault without any clues on how he got there. After dressing up he walked out into the open area and saw a bored looking man standing behind the bar counter cheek on his fist as he stared off into space.


    Adam wasn¡¯t sure who this was but assumed he was a worker. Adam wasn¡¯t sure what to do with himself yet, he had just woken up after all, he needed a minute to get his head in the game, especially if he was going to follow through on his plan for the day.


    ¡°You Adam?¡± The guy said without moving a muscle, his tone as bored as he looked.


    ¡°Uh, yeah?¡± Adam returned, confused at why the guy was asking.


    ¡°Mandy told me you got a meal on the house as thanks for last night. So what will it be?¡±


    ¡°She did what now?¡± Adam returned, confused. He was not told of this, and this man¡¯s absolute bored tone and expression really was throwing him for a loop. He was able to put the pieces together, clearly Mandy was repaying his efforts for fixing the Jukebox with a meal, that was nice of her, especially since he had not even thought to ask for payment. But still the abruptness of this entire exchange so early in the morning was throwing him off.


    The man slowly turned to look at Adam, his expression never once becoming anything more than vacant. He opened his mouth to speak and then seemed to think better of it, sighing and then standing up straight. ¡°Radrat Roast, Mushroom Stew, or Fried Iguana, those are your options.¡± He said with a monotone.


    ¡°Uuuh¡­ stew please.¡± Adam said unsure why this man seemed so¡­ devoid of passion. Then again maybe he was just working a minimum wage job in food service and couldn¡¯t be bothered to care. If that was the case he understood.


    ¡°Okay.¡± The man said before he headed into the back lethargically. Maybe the man was just not a morning person?


    As Adam waited for his meal, he took a seat at the Bar again, the same seat as last night, and then turned around to look at the place. He saw patrons begin to shuffle into the Inn, seemed like this was one of the few restaurants in town, made for a nice gathering place for locals he bet. The energy in the Inn was softer than last night though, the voices were quieter and calmer and it seemed far more relaxed. He took the moment to collect his thoughts, he still had his lofty goals from the night prior, that had not changed, but he couldn¡¯t be rash, he needed caps to live and needed gear to explore further. Which meant his only option right now was to start scavenging nearby for things to bring back and sell until he was geared up enough to head out further. With any luck he should be fine in a few days. That is, of course, assuming he found something useful out beyond the walls. After he got some capital it might not be a bad idea to learn about these other settlements, they were likely great sources of information. He knew where Second Life HQ was, of course, but navigating through the city, right into the densest part of Chicago would not be easy. Even just ignoring the dangers he might face, he doubted his old paths would still work. In the short time he had been outside he already saw many roads and paths completely blocked off by fallen buildings and rubble, some barriers made by people at some point, and even a road that had completely caved inward preventing him from getting across unless he had a plan to scale a 15 foot wall once he was in the hole. Likely there was a way there but he needed to know a route.


    If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    As he was lost in his thoughts the bored looking man came over and dropped off a bowl of stew for him. It looked¡­ pretty normal, aside from the strange looking mushrooms that was the namesake of the stew. Those did give him pause. But he realized that he hadn¡¯t eaten anything at all since he woke up in the vault, and was hungry enough yesterday that he had considered taking a can of cat food with him. He was in no position to be picky. So he ate.


    He had no company, no conversation partners, or anyone to share the meal with so it was a quiet and speedy affair. Not least of which because Adam was itching to get his life moving. He would need to get funds enough that he could rent the Inn room again, at the bare minimum. Living so close to being homeless was not his idea of fun.


    He finished his meal and then got up to leave, stopping in his Inn room briefly to put on his body armor and grab his backpack and gun, his few tools, before heading putting his room key in front of the employee like Mandy had told him to last night and then went out the front door and towards the Southern Gate where he had come in yesterday. As he approached he noted that a new guard, different from, yesterday was standing atop the palisade next to the gate.


    ¡°Excuse me!¡± He called out to the man who had his back to him as he overlooked the vast expanse outside the wall. It took a moment for the guard to know he was being addressed but when he did he turned around to look at Adam.


    ¡°Yes? How can I help you?¡± He asked curious now why he was being spoken to.


    ¡°I was wondering if I could leave. I have a living to make.¡± The Guard seemed to just stare at him for a moment and then shrug.


    ¡°Your funeral, guy.¡± He said back before checking the otherside of the wall for a moment, to make sure no one else was nearby and then pressed a big red button next to where he was standing.


    The loud grinding of gears could be heard again as the gate slowly began to open once more, revealing the tattered wasteland that Adam had survived yesterday by chance. Only now he was braving it again by choice.


    He hesitated a moment. Was this really the best course of action he had available? He did have other choices. He could have asked around town for those odd jobs that Mandy mentioned, offering his skills to the people of this town. Or maybe he could have done more research, asking around about local places, threats and dangers. Or maybe still he could have tried something else entirely, something that didn¡¯t even cross his mind? But no, this was the best course of action. He had thought this through already.


    He would have to go out into the dangerous world beyond this place¡¯s walls sooner or later. There was no getting past that. For one, he planned to, someday, reach Second Life HQ and explore for answers, or, failing that, head back to the vault and explore it more thoroughly despite how much he did not want to. So sooner or later he needed to get used to leaving. Even if this plan of his fell through and he instead accepted the mystery of it all, he was still going to leave sooner or later. Mandy had told him last night, there was no stable work in town at the moment. Odd jobs were the best he could do. They could, of course, pay the bills for a bit, but likely not enough to survive on forever. So his only choice in this case would be to head to one of the bigger settlements anyway since there might be more work available. And the trek there might be equally dangerous. After all, that was why Chuck had hired Salvatore in the first place to escort him. There was no escaping it, he couldn¡¯t avoid leaving, he needed to man up and prepare himself for this change in lifestyle he was about to embark on.


    However he was sure the buildings close to the walls were not going to be especially dangerous. This close to a settlement there could be no raider bases, no hoards of feral ghouls, no super mutants, nothing that could be easily noticed right from the walls. The most that could be in the nearby buildings were some giant bugs and a stray ghoul or two. This was perfect for a test run. He didn¡¯t have to go far to get some practice in. He just hoped that there would still be things worth collecting to sell for his trouble.


    So, with a finally steeled heart, and the gate now fully open, he stepped back out into the ruins and began his first expedition.

 Chapter 12

    There was a building not far from the gate, just across the road. An old Movie theater. In truth he doubted it would have anything of value, both as a movie theater and as a building so close to town but it was a test run anyway. If it went well he would go further. He just had to shake his nerves first.


    He approached the building slowly, his eyes checking everywhere as he walked, now that he had finally understood how dangerous the world had become he wouldn''t be as careless as he was before. Still, he didn¡¯t expect trouble.


    He paused as he approached the front door, frames where movie posters once sat still hung up on the wall but long since removed with the force of time. But the giant sign above the overhand was still there, the neon sign was off, of course, but the sign itself still remained. But truthfully he was just stalling one last time. So, carefully, he entered inside.


    Upon getting inside he noted that there was a lot of natural light inside. He had assumed it would be quite dark, but as he walked further in he noted that the roof seemed to have collapsed in a few places letting in the light of the sun unabated.


    He once more paused as he turned to look at the same frames he saw outside, but now on the inside walls of the movie theater. These ones were remarkably more well preserved, a few still had visible movie posters in them. All were advertising movies that were either coming out soon or had recently come out and were in theaters


    One read: Agent America 6, The Bombshell Beauty and the Horcrux of Time.


    Ah, Agent America, good movie series. 6 was a bit of a let down. The bombshell was a communist spy. Sorry, spoilers.


    He broke away from his thoughts and slowly approached the concession stand. Ruined. What did he expect?


    The popcorn machine was all trashed, the glass completely shattered and it all looked weather worn and ruined. The glass cases where candy bars would be displayed were smashed too, someone clearly had a lot of fun ruining this place. There really wasn''t much to find here, it was all very much looted.


    But he noticed a small green thing on the floor on the worker side of the concession stand. Bending down to look he found a single wrapper of GumDrops. Hardly even considered food, but not worth leaving behind, surely this must be worth something? 2 caps? He hoped so anyway.


    After throwing it into his backpack he turned around to the popcorn machines and examined them. Truthfully if they worked they would probably still be worth quite a bit of money, popcorn was good regardless of the century. But he wasn¡¯t going to cry over spilt milk.


    Instead, with a little ¡°creative destruction¡± of his own he broke the metal rod that held the popcorn popper up and then pulled it out, he then followed that by removing the bottom of the inside of the machine to show the internals. This much was a bit of a struggle, the actual bottom was not meant to be removed, but more brute force worked fine, it was just a popcorn machine after all.


    For all his efforts he found what he was looking for. The motor that powered the Popcorn Machine. Truthfully he didn¡¯t know if it still worked but no looter would go through the effort of taking or specifically destroying the motor, this was likely left untouched all this time. Surely this was worth something.


    So, with his prize found, he threw it into his backpack and then turned to leave before stopping again. Right next to where the motor was, was, predictably, a ton of wiring. He had no need for it, and didn¡¯t want to stuff his backpack full of wire, but the Jukebox needed it and taking enough to fix it wouldn¡¯t hurt his chances so he grabbed it too.


    Finally on the move again he crept through the halls searching each theater one at a time. He was not alone.


    Luckily all he found were radroaches. He was less scared this time as he took them out by stomping on them as hard as he could. He didn¡¯t want to waste the bullets, bullets were more valuable than the lives of these bugs.


    By the time he had cleared the whole movie theater he had killed 12 of them. Including one that seemed to be glowing. That one certainly freaked him out a bit, but it didn¡¯t slow him down at all.


    Predictably the movie theater was bereft of anything interesting to loot. But there was a part of him that felt a bit giddy. There was a small part of him that was enjoying the hunt. Like a scavenger hunt he would do as a child, and the prizes were goods he could sell later. Add in the danger of giant bugs and the darkness he had to occasionally contend with using only his Pip-Boy light and he found himself, far from scared, but excited, he was enjoying himself. Strange as it was. He could get addicted to this feeling.


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    Still the movie theater was mostly a bust. He had not searched thoroughly around every corner and in every stall or under every chair with a fine tooth comb but he had done a single sweep through. The sum total of 4 items of note. A fancy gold watch, a Grognak the Barbarian comic book in moderate condition, a single roll of still usable toilet paper, and a bottle of Nuka Cola still sealed. The temptation to drink the Nuka cola was strong but he decided it would be far more worth it to sell. Of course he found a few other random odds and ends, like small box of Abraxo Cleaner but his bag was still very light.


    Instead of leaving immediately, however, he took the time to head into each projector room, also empty of anything valuable, and take the key components from the projector, notably the motor, just like he did with the popcorn machine. The motors were all small but they did help put a tiny bit more heft into his backpack. It wasn''t nothing.


    Truthfully, the best thing he found in the entire theater was a toolbelt in a maintenance closet. Much like the one he used to wear at Second life. Even better still it still had a number of tools on hand. Which made his efforts to remove the parts from the Projectors much easier than having to break open the casing with his hands. Certainly the best find the entire run.


    All in all, the trip was not a waste, but it was tiring, the movie theater was not large, but between ensuring he was safe from ambushes from those tiny monsters and checking every room with a moderately thorough scan took far more time than he would have expected.


    By the time he was done, he was sitting in the manager¡¯s office, in the cushy office chair, feet up on the desk reading the comic book he found. This was how he spent his break. Honestly having the freedom to set his own time table, the freedom to explore at his own pace, and the ability to simply stop what he was doing to read a comic book was liberating. Far better than the constricting clock-ins he had to do at his old job. Once more he was finding that this agreed with him far more than he expected. But he was also aware this was nothing more than a test run, this building had bugs, nothing else. But in the future he wouldn''t be so lucky. He would come across far greater odds. But by now he was no longer dreading it, he was almost excited at the prospect.


    Finally done reading the comic book, something he hadn¡¯t done since he was a kid, he stepped back outside to see that about half the day had gone by. But it''s not as if he had nothing to show for it. However, despite the wall still being in sight, he decided to push a bit further and explore more. He still had time after all.


    He looked around, seeing what other buildings were still standing enough to explore. In the distance he saw a tall thin office building for a company he didn¡¯t recognize, probably a law firm or something. It didn''t matter much. What did matter, however, was that the building was still in moderately good shape, unlike a lot of the rubble that surrounded it. Props to the engineer.


    He entered the buildings slowly, carefully, just like before. His pistol was drawn and he checked every corner as he slowly swept through the building on his way up.


    The first floor was clear. Though it was also clear of anything interesting. The furniture was all there but it was all empty. The drawers, shelves, cabinets, all of it had nothing. Though he did find a pair of reading glasses sitting on one of the desks, He was going to pass on it but decided he was out here to make money, even if it was junk maybe he could get a cap for it? At this point he still didn¡¯t know what was valuable. He would need to keep a list of the value of items so he could compare when selling later. Hopefully Chuck could help him with that. He could open a new note tab on his Pip-Boy to catalog all the data. Damn, the Pip-boy was really coming in clutch, where would he be without it?


    The second floor was much the same, though he did find a key to a locked door on the first floor he couldn¡¯t open. He had decided that breaking down the door wasn''t worth the effort so left it alone. But it was labeled ¡°Basement¡± so he was reasonably certain it would work. However the third and final floor was different.


    As soon as he got up there he began to hear noises. At first he thought it was more bugs but then he saw the shadow of something running from one room to another. It was far too big to be a bug.


    Slowly, he approached, keeping quiet as he did, ready to ambush whatever sort of thing he found. Finally, as he approached the open door to the room he saw the figure slink into he whipped around the corner, pistol out ready to shoot only to find a gangly looking woman, thin as bones, hair all swept to one side, wearing what could only be described as cloth rags huddling over a pile of random junk mumbling to herself. She was actually pretty pitiable.


    Before he could act she turned around and looked at him. She was definitely not a ghoul, just some kind of Hobo. Adam sighed. He probably just walked into someone¡¯s home¡­ or what amounts to one.


    ¡°Im um¡­ sorry¡­¡± He said as he slowly lowered his gun, now pointing it at the ground but it still remained in his hands. ¡°I didn¡¯t mean to intrude¡­¡± He sighed.


    The woman just stared at him intensely, not moving but she seemed to be twitching, she was fidgeting a ton, and her eyes, now that he was looking, were bloodshot. She was likely on some sort of chems.


    ¡°I¡¯ll just uh¡­ leave you to¡­ whatever you are doing¡­¡± Adam said as he backed up slowly a few steps and then holstered his gun and turned around to leave. He felt bad for her. He didn¡¯t know what this woman had been through, but it''s possible he could end up just like her if he didn¡¯t succeed in finding things to sell. He might end up surviving outside the comfort of the walls, slowly starving to death.


    He sighed heavily as he headed towards the stairs, deciding the entire affair was a waste, he still had daylight, it was far better to just move on than to dawdle here uselessly.


    However as he began to walk away he heard the sound of footsteps coming towards him from behind, he was about to turn around and look when all of a sudden he felt something hit the back of his head. Hard.

 Chapter 13

    Adam opened his eyes slowly, his head was pounding. He found himself sitting on the ground, his back slumped against a wall in the same building he last remembered.


    All of his stuff seemed to be gone, he had no Bulletproof vest on, his backpack, and by extension, all of his loot gone, his tool belt and gun with holster was off and worse than all of that his head was spinning.


    The good news in this whole endeavor is that his stuff was not far, just scattered about through the room. However the next bad news was the woman was in here too.


    She was busy rummaging through Adam¡¯s backpack, casually tossing aside the collection of motors he had gathered while looking for anything good. It seemed like she had already found the gum judging by the empty wrapper on the floor nearby and the toilet paper too judging by the toilet paper thrown about throughout the room like a mischief night prank gone wrong. But she was digging through the backpack like a gremlin, hunched over, pawing at it like a creature, not a human. She had not yet noticed he had woken back up.


    He looked around at the carnage of the room he found himself in. It was clearly where she slept. There was a, and he would hesitate to call it one, mattress on the floor next to a small broken lap with a cord that was connected to nothing. There was a stack of canned food and opened cans in the corner, and a pile of indescribable meat on a plate in the other. On the wall, near where she was crouching looking through his bag was a bookcase with a number of books and odds and ends on it, mostly junk, but a few curios too. Most notably there was a large wooden club sitting on the floor next to the woman, presumably the same one she had used to knock him out earlier. But most importantly above all of that his gun was nearby, still in his holster attached to the belt no longer on his pants. His head hurt but this woman was dangerous and if she got to that gun first, crazy or not, he might actually die this time.


    So, with a pounding head, he crawled over to the gun, slowly, carefully, trying not to make too much noise.


    However, just as he had gotten within reach of the gun the floorboard underneath him gave way and cracked. Not creaked, cracked. Showing the floor underneath him, or at least it would, if it wasn''t hidden underneath his thigh. But luckily it was only one plank of wood.


    Unluckily it was more than enough to alert the woman. She spun around with a crazed look in her eyes as she glared at Adam who was sprawled out on the ground, one arm outstretched and placed on the pistol just ever so slightly out of the holster now.


    There was a pause that hung in the air as the two stared at each other before the woman moved. Adam did too.


    The woman leaped into the air, brandishing the large wooden club as she did, screaming at the top of her lungs like a mad woman. For his sake Adam was quick to completely unholster the gun and then flip over to his back and take aim right at her.


    A shot rang out through the chaos of the woman¡¯s screams as she landed on top of Adam unceremoniously.


    For a moment Adam laid there on the ground, blood on his face, as the woman, still gripping the club, lay on top of him. Both were stunned. But very quickly Adam got up the energy to throw the now dead body off of him.


    The woman was shot, right in the throat as she came down. Mostly a lucky hit from Adam as he was aiming center mass but he wasn¡¯t going to complain. The woman didn¡¯t even choke or writhe in pain, it was as if the bullet had robbed her of the last bit of her life, she just lay there, bleeding out, dead.


    Adam stood up, shakily, holding his head as he did. Luckily there was no blood on his hand when he checked so his skull wasn¡¯t cracked it just hurt. He couldn¡¯t help but stare at the woman, now corpse, that lay on the floor of her own abode. It was a snap judgement and if he could go back in time he would shoot her all over again but he couldn''t help but feel bad.


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    He was the one who walked into her house. He was the one who entered her room brandishing a weapon. He was the one who shot her. Certainly she had tried to kill him too, or¡­ whatever she was planning, as she clearly didn''t think things through too well after dragging his body back into her room with her, but he started this fight. And that didn¡¯t sit well with him.


    Adam was a soldier. He was trained to fight and kill. If she was a damn red, a communist, a chink, or any other thing like that he wouldnt have even thought twice. But such divisions seemed meaningless now. Even his own hatred towards the commies felt¡­ hollow¡­ what use was there to such racism and hatred in a world where everything was over. Do people even remember why they were fighting in the first place? Do people even know what a communist is? He could only sigh. This woman died because out here it was survival of the fittest, and because he was not prepared to remain firm with his approach. He turned his back on her, gave her an opportunity to retaliate. He would make sure he doesn''t do that again.


    He took a long deep breath, still gripping onto his pistol like his life depended on it as it generally pointed at the floor. After catching his breath he began the process of re-collecting his things.


    Everything, minus the gum and the toilet paper, went back into his backpack, his tool belt back onto his waist, his gun back in its holster. But he paused as he looked at the other things in the room, the woman¡¯s things. He considered, for a moment, if he would be no different than her, stealing from a random person who came along if he took it. But such moral uncertainties didn¡¯t last long.


    Ultimately Adam decided that the woman was dead, The things in this room would wither and rot away with her, they were of no use to a corpse. But the food, especially, could be used to feed him and others for at least a bit. If he truly felt bad he could thank her for it afterwards.


    So, with a slightly heavy heart, he began to scavenge throughout the room. He found less cans of food than he had hoped, much of the cans in the corner were opened but left next to the others. Only a few were still sealed. The curios on the shelf too as well as the books were largely worthless, at least by his approximation. Though he did take a few odds and ends, a Book called the ¡°D.C. Journal of Internal Medicine¡± and a copy of Guns and Ammo, as well as an interesting music box. But left the rest behind.


    As he was leaving, however, he noticed a one gallon jug of water sitting in the room across from the room he awoke in. it was next to many other similar jugs but the rest were empty. The jug was labeled ¡°Purified Water¡± but he truly didn¡¯t know if that was true. But at the very least he was carrying nothing else heavy so he could afford to bring it back.


    So, with one last look to the dead woman on the floor he left, carrying all his spoils and the jug of water as he made his way back down the stairs.


    He was about to head through the front door again when he suddenly remembered the key he had picked up on the second floor, the ¡°basement¡± key. He considered whether it was worth checking but figured he didn¡¯t have much to lose as he put the jug down in front of the door and then successfully unlocked it with the key. True enough a dark stairway down was laid out before him.


    Turning on his Pip-Boy light he slowly made his way down the stairs until he was met with an unfinished basement with some mostly empty metal shelving. Though there were a few things on them, duct tape, a wrench, a paint gun, super glue, mostly maintenance stuff. But more than all of that was the thing that drew his attention first. The Fusion generator.


    Right in front of him, at the center of the basement  against one wall was a fusion generator. It seemed to still be running too as the light above it was on, but it didn¡¯t seem connected to anything, so it was just sitting in idle mode. It was strange though, why did this building have its own fusion generator? This was a lot for a small building¡¯s backup generator, but there was no indication it led to anywhere else, not unless it connected underground or something where he couldn''t see. But ultimately it was a line of thought without an answer.


    Adam approached, slowly, as he examined the Fusion core still inside the generator. It worked, miraculously. He could only hope the core was worth something. Who knows, these things could power a suit of power armor indefinitely or a neighborhood for a while if used right, hopefully it was worth something to the people back in Naper. If not it would be a heavy and expensive paper weight.


    So finally, after he had put the various things from the shelf into his backpack, officially making it full, and had the Fusion core in hand, he set off back to the walls.

 Chapter 14

    As soon as he stepped outside he noticed it was dark. Not pitch black or too late, but he clearly had been knocked out for a while since, by his estimation, he had left the movie theater at about 4? 5? And now it looked like it was 9, maybe 10. It was a miracle he survived at all.


    The short walk back to the walls of Naper was uneventful, though he did keep his eyes out, not willing to be jumped again.


    When he got to the wall he saw yet a new guard was on watch, not that it surprised him.


    ¡°Hey!¡± Adam called out. ¡°Excuse me! Can you open the gate for me?¡± he called up to him.


    ¡°I don''t recognize you!¡± The guard called back from the wall as he generally held onto his rifle with both hands, not pointing it at Adam but having it ready.


    ¡°I was just here earlier, I left to do some scavenging. You can ask Mandy or Chuck about me, my name¡¯s Adam Baxter!¡±


    ¡°You aren¡¯t a raider, are you?¡± The guy asked back. Adam was starting to get a bit annoyed, was this protocol? He was unsure, but certainly this was excessive.


    ¡°No, I''m not.¡± Adam said firmly, tired of this back and forth.


    The guard seemed to stand there, staring at him for a moment in silence. But just as Adam was opening his mouth to speak the man spoke up instead.


    ¡°Alright, let me get the gate open¡­¡± He said as he pressed the button next to him and the gate began to grind open.


    Adam sighed in relief, knowing that he was finally going to be back behind the walls. Truthfully this entire experience has been informative.


    For one he learned a lot about the dos and don¡¯ts when adventuring outside a settlement¡¯s walls. He always needed to keep his guard up for hostiles, whether that be bugs or crazed women with a penchant for knocking him out. Second, he needed to balance gathering stuff to sell and making it back timely, coming back late like this was not ideal, though probably would be unavoidable in the future, still he could only carry so much stuff. Three, He enjoyed this far more than he would care to admit. Of course it was dangerous, he nearly died to a scrawny woman earlier, but it was the thrill of it all, the fact he had only himself to rely on, the fact he needed to fight to survive and then the scavenging hunt on top of it, made it rather exciting. And to top that off the end of the scavenging meant he could stumble across any number of things from books to fusion cores made it an incredibly fun affair. Was he an adrenaline junkie for thinking like this? Maybe? But that''s a question for a therapist, and he doubted they survived the bombs. The last thing he learned when he left today was quite simple, he needed to wear a helmet.


    When the gate finally opened he walked inside and sighed again at the fact he was back in the walls. However he still had work to do. He wasn¡¯t off the clock yet, not if he wanted to afford a room to sleep in tonight. So he made his way along the path he saw Chuck walk Bessy to hopefully find his store. It didn''t take long.


    Within a minute of walking he found it. ¡°Winchester¡¯s¡± Emblazoned in a yellow painted wooden sign hanging on top of a large home. On the left hand side was a small stable with a door that opened top and bottom separately. Bessy could be seen through the opened top part of the stable where she seemed to be watching Adam as he approached the house. He nodded politely to Bessy mostly as a joke but she seemed to moo in response which was amusing.


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    He walked up to the door and then tested the door knob, it was unlocked so, assuming it was just normal store etiquette, he walked inside.


    Inside he found what was clearly a store front, unless Chuck and his wife were hoarders and pack rats. Tons of various things from bullets to toothpaste were lined up on shelves of all types, some metal, some wood and at the end of the rows of shelving was a counter with a large black metal box bolted to it. Next to the box was a pad of paper.


    As Adam walked over to the counter he noticed that the paper was full of trade notes. Things such as ¡°Ned 2 bottles of Nuka cola 40 caps; Sally 1 box of 357, 15 caps; Kendal two packs of shaving cream 20 caps.¡± And things to that effect, he even noticed one line with his name on it. ¡°Adam 1 leather caps bag, 3 caps¡± He chuckled. He was definitely in the right place. But Chuck was either not at his store or somewhere else in the building so he decided to call out to him.


    ¡°Chuck?! You in?¡± Adam yelled out through the building. He heard nothing for a few moments before Chuck came around a corner from down a flight of stairs.


    ¡°Well I¡¯ll be.¡± Chuck said as he looked at Adam with some surprise as he circled around to the other side of the counter. ¡°I¡¯ll be honest, when I heard that ¡®the guy in the vault suit left this morning¡¯ I figured you were done for.¡± He lets off a loud sigh. ¡°Glad to see that was unfounded worries.¡±


    He leaned against his counter. ¡°You um¡­ okay though?¡±


    Adam touched his head a bit where he was struck. ¡°For the most part. I was hit on the back of the head but it''s not that bad.¡±


    ¡°So the blood on your face is¡­¡±


    ¡°Someone else''s¡­ unfortunately.¡± Adam said, a bit somber.


    ¡°Welp, that''s the nature of the world, I''m afraid. Hope you got something for your trouble though.¡± He paused. ¡°That is why you came in, yes? Not to just say hi to your buddy?¡±


    ¡°No, you are right, I found some things.¡± Adam said as he placed the gallon of water on the counter and then reached behind him to start dumping the stuff from the backpack onto the counter as well.


    Chuck seemed to be scanning through everything and then his eyes fell on the fusion core. ¡°Well I¡¯ll be¡­¡± He said as he gingerly picked it up with one hand and then reached below the counter to grab a pair of reading glasses to examine it closer. ¡°A Gen-u-ine fusion core. Now what hole did you find yourself in to dig this up out of?¡±


    ¡°A building with a mad woman, apparently.¡± Adam chuckled.


    ¡°Well¡­¡± Chuck said, impressed. ¡°This here alone was worth whatever sort of trouble you went through.¡±


    ¡°So it''s worth some caps?¡± Adam asked, feeling more optimistic about the whole endeavor now.


    ¡°You bet it is. These are in high demand, least of all because this town is powered by a fusion generator and having more cores on deck is handy. Town fund can only help so much though.¡±


    ¡°Town fund?¡± Adam asked as he leaned against the counter himself as he wiped his hand down his face hoping to get some of the caked on blood off of it.


    ¡°Yup! See, everything that needs doing in this town gets it done from the community fund. Guards need bullets? Community fund. Wall need patching? Community fund. Fusion core running low?¡± He grinned as he held up the fusion core. ¡°Community fund.¡± He chuckled and then placed it back down on the counter. ¡°Everyone who lives in town throws in a bit of money every month to ensure the town stays ship-shape, myself included. So if the town needs a new fusion core, ¡®long with my usual haul I go out with a stipend from the town to purchase it from a bigger town like Midway.¡± He gently placed his hand on the fusion core ¡°Suffice it to say i''m very interested in buyin¡¯ if you¡¯re sellin¡¯¡± He grins. Adam just chuckled.


    ¡°Yes, well, i planned to sell everything I found, after all I''m tired, hungry, thirsty, and in need of a bath, I need to rent a room from Mandy again.¡± Chuck just nods.


    ¡°So how about this...¡± Adam began as he looked at his stuff. ¡°Honestly I still don''t know the value of things around here. The fusion core included, so can you just tell me the value of items, what items are hot commodities and what to look out for? You can charge me more or buy it for less if you want, but just help me get an idea of what I''m looking at here.¡±


    Chuck listens patiently and then nods. ¡°Well¡­ That''s a lot ¡®o trust your putin¡¯ in me but i¡¯ll do my best not to disappoint.¡± He laughs. ¡°For starters this fusion core was a good find¡­¡±

 Chapter 15

    Chuck went on to describe the prices of all the things Adam had brought back. Some of it was worth way more than he was expecting, being quoted at 150 to 250 caps for the fusion core location and vendor depending. But some of it was worth way less than he had hoped. But Chuck didn¡¯t stop there, he went on to tell Adam that if he was to head out looking for things in the wasteland, he should be on the lookout for adhesives, things with focus crystals, screws, military circuit boards, gold and silver, and a few other odds and ends. Just to help lighten his pack from picking up junk. But as is Adam had made a very lucrative first run.


    ¡°So, let me tell you the score ¡®ere.¡± He said as he pulled out a cap and pulled out a pink slip of paper. ¡°So, ¡®ere body uses caps. That''s the universal standard, no one ain''t gonna look at you funny if you are using caps to buy things.¡± Chuck began. ¡°But carrying ¡®round large amounts of caps all the time is cumbersome, and, in big cities, it can be downright dangerous, it''s like asking to get mugged.¡± He chuckled. ¡°So I don''t know how folk do things outside of this area¡­ well I do, but that''s not the point here¡­ ¡®round here a lot of us use vouchers.¡± He shows Adam the pink slip. ¡°If you are gonna be making a lot of trades in town it''s more convenient to use a voucher than carryin¡¯ ¡®round hundreds of caps. It''s safer too, the downside is you can¡¯t use a voucher outside of town. If you brought this to a shop in Midway they¡¯d laugh you right out, but I know that they got a similar system in Midway too, ¡®specially for big purchases.¡±


    Chuck opened the heavy metal black box with a small key he had at his hip and showed Adam a number of vouchers of various colors, all stacked neatly. ¡°Not every town does this but us and midway do.¡± He continues as he closes the box again, locking it. ¡°So long as you trade within the town it''s good.¡± He grins. ¡°In Midway they¡¯re backed by the merchants guild but here, me, Greg, and Mandy are the only people that own true shops ¡®round here so we are what backs it.¡± He puts the pink slip back down on the counter. ¡°We copied the system from Midway, it''s real convenient, I say.¡±


    ¡°So¡­¡± Chuck started once more with emphasis. ¡°With that said, I''m willing to buy this fusion core for 150 caps here and now, I can get them ready for ya, or I can give you vouchers worth 200. And it¡¯ll be a similar situation for the rest of the stuff.¡±


    Adam is left to ponder for a moment. So it seemed, in theory, that in-town trade was best handled with vouchers. But if he left, using caps was still the best choice. ¡°But why won''t they accept the vouchers from here at Midway?¡± Adam asked, confused why there was a disconnect in the money system.


    ¡°Cause they don¡¯t know if we are dead or alive.¡± He laughed. ¡°If you were to show up with a brahmin full of vouchers from here and they were to go ¡®round accepting it only to find out Naper is gone, god forbid, then all those caps disappear. See, the only real value it''s got is because me, Greg, ¡®nd Mandy will accept the vouchers in exchange for caps when needed. As I said, just a cleaner way rather than using caps all the time. ¡®Sides, keeps the money in town by incentivizing it to be spent here, and it''s easier to keep track of too.¡± He smiled.


    ¡°What''s stopping someone from forging them?¡± Adam asked, now curious.


    ¡°Me.¡± Chuck grinned cockily before he chuckled. ¡°Technically nothing, but the town is small enough ¡®ere that all the vouchers are accounted for, besides we don''t just hand these out to anyone who walks through the gate, so we¡¯d notice if someone tried to scam us. We are just too local and tight knit for that to fly.¡±


    ¡°And what about Midway? How do they prevent their vouchers from being forged?¡± Adam asked, now just wanting answers to all his questions in the same way he asked a ton about bottle caps.


    Chuck leaned back a bit as he thought. ¡°Well¡­ truth be told, nothin¡¯. Well, ¡®sides the fact they are hard to fake.¡± He chuckled and then got serious. ¡°But The Guild in Midway don¡¯t take kindly to people steppin¡¯ on their toes, so I doubt it¡¯d fly.¡± He shook his head looking far more serious than he had seen him. ¡°But you don''t need to worry nothing about that.¡± He said choosing to change gears again.


    ¡°So¡­ Do we have a deal?


    Adam paused for a moment, considering his options before he nodded. ¡°Yes, I can agree to that.¡± He said with a pause. ¡°I needed to get a room from the Inn Anyway and at 50 caps a night the vouchers alone will cover the bill for four nights.¡±


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    ¡°Good.¡± Chuck smiled widely as he handed Adam two pink vouchers for 100 caps each. Adam took them and began to study them for a moment as Chuck pulled the Fusion Core off the counter and placed it on the floor next to him.


    The vouchers seemed to be made of a sturdy colored paper with a stamped value on it, and in the corner of the voucher had the signature of the three merchants in town, other than that it was fairly simple.


    ¡°Town can never have too many fusion cores on hand, I can reimburse myself from the town¡¯s coffers tomorrow for it.¡± He laughed and then looked at the rest of the stuff.


    ¡°Good news or bad news first.¡± He asked Adam after he was done looking at the vouchers.


    ¡°Uhhh¡­ bad news?¡± Adam returned, confused.


    ¡°Well, I told you the motors you brought are a good decent value as a find, but honestly. I don''t need them.¡± He said with a somber tone. ¡°I''m runnin¡¯ a business and nobody in town is going to come in and ask for this many motors. I buy these from you imma take a hit I won''t be able to recover from for a while, ¡®less I go back to Midway, but I just got back yesterday. Wasn¡¯t looking to leave again so soon.¡± He shrugged.


    ¡°I¡¯ll buy 5 off you, they are good and handy to have around but I don''t need that many.¡±


    Damn, Adam had hoped he could have hit a goldmine with the motors, but honestly what Chuck was saying made sense. He didn''t need a ton of a single thing, he ran a general store by the looks of it, he needed a variety, this meant he couldn''t just offload all the random junk he found while out scavenging he needed to think about who he was selling to. It was a shame, he would have to put some of the motors back into his bag¡­ or trash them, he was unsure, luckily they were not too sizable so he could keep them for the time without too much worry.


    ¡°On that same point¡­¡± Chuck began to separate some of the random stuff Adam had found, but not specifically noted, at the movie theater and the woman¡¯s place. ¡°I don¡¯t need none of this neither.¡± He said calmly as he pushed it all aside. ¡°But then I got the good news.¡± He said as he looked at the pile of other things, books, watch, comic, the Nuka Cola, and a curio or two.


    ¡°These I¡¯ll buy off ya for a good price. ¡®Specially this.¡± He said, holding up the gold watch. ¡°Gold always sells, ¡®specially when it''s a timepiece.¡± He turns the dial on the side and it seems to flick to life, starting to tell time again. ¡°Nuclear powered too, ain¡¯t never gonna die, this is a good find.¡± He noted aloud as he set it back down.


    ¡°All in all I¡¯ll give ya¡­ another hundred fifty in vouchers, or hundred twenty in caps¡±


    Adam paused again. ¡°You said that I can exchange vouchers whenever I want for caps?¡±


    ¡°Sure can!¡± He grinned. Adam was about to agree and then got an impish smile on his face before asking further.


    ¡°What''s stopping me from accepting the vouchers and then immediately turning them in for the extra caps from you?¡± He asked with a cheeky tone. Chuck frowned.


    ¡°Me for one. ¡®Sides, this only works on trust. I don¡¯t hand out vouchers to people I dun know. I¡¯m offering you these ¡®cause I¡¯m putting my trust in you, see?¡± Chuck said with a very unamused and serious tone. He did not find this line of thought funny in the slightest. Adam quickly backpedaled.


    ¡°I''m sorry, I was just joking.¡± He said, putting his hands up in mock surrender, his tone apologetic. ¡°I was not serious about that, I was just playing.¡± Chuck nodded.


    ¡°No worries.¡± He said, still a bit serious but the edge was gone. ¡°Just wantcha to understand I¡¯m not messing.¡±


    Adam nodded. ¡°Alright I¡¯ll do that trade in vouchers too then, the 150 caps, and when I eventually take a trek I''ll swap them all out.¡±


    ¡°Fine by me.¡± Chuck said as he pulled out two vouchers again, this time with a green voucher with a 50 on it. ¡°You got a place in mind to head to?¡± He asked curiously as he handed them over.


    ¡°Well I am curious about this Midway I keep hearing about, and I got my own goals in mind so I¡¯m not planning on sticking around forever. But it won¡¯t be tomorrow at least. Probably not for at least a few days.¡± He chuckled. ¡°I need some time to get myself ready for the trek.¡±


    Chuck nodded and then looked at Adam¡¯s pip-boy. ¡°That thing¡¯s got a map right? Lend me your arm for a second, I''ll do you a favor and mark Midway on your map for you.¡±


    Adam obliged, offering Chuck his arm with the pip-boy, Chuck found the location and made a little mark on the map for Adam.


    ¡°Regardless when you go, stay safe out there. It can be dangerous even between towns.¡± Chuck warned.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I will.¡± He smiled. ¡°Thanks Chuck, for everything.¡±

 Chapter 16

    Adam was exhausted, he was also dirty and his face was partly covered in that woman¡¯s blood. He needed a bath, a hot meal, and a drink. So there really was only one place he could possibly be going.


    When he got in, despite the time of night, Mandy was still in, though she seemed to be cleaning up, despite the handful of bar-goers still drinking happily at the back.


    ¡°Well.¡± Mady said with a bit of surprise and a lot of sass. ¡°And here I thought you kicked the bucket.¡± She chuckled before standing up from the table she was cleaning.


    ¡°Nope, though things did get hairy for a bit.¡± Adam said as he slowly walked over to the table and sat down.


    ¡°I bet, I told you yesterday Scaving is dangerous work, but you went ahead and did it anyway, so can¡¯t say anything but it''s on you.¡± She shrugged.


    ¡°Yes, but I promise it was worth it.¡± He grinned and then held up two of the 100 cap vouchers. ¡°Heard You accept these and I am in dire need of a shower.¡± She looks at the vouchers and then sighs.


    ¡°I¡¯ll say you are.¡± She returned. Adam looked at her confused for a moment and then at the vouchers and then back at her.


    ¡°What''s wrong? Do you not accept these? Chuck told me these are good in town.¡± Adam said, suddenly worried, he had just traded everything for these slips of paper. If they were worthless¡­


    ¡°No no no no.¡± Mandy said quickly, cutting Adam¡¯s thoughts off at the pass. ¡°I accept them, it''s just¡­¡± She then sighed and sat down at the table with Adam.


    ¡°Look, Chuck means well and all but honestly, between you and me, I don''t see the need for them.¡± She shrugged and then leaned back in the chair. ¡°Caps work fine and I don¡¯t see a need to reinvent the wheel. My mother used caps, her mother used caps, her before her mother used caps, and, hell, if her mother before even her was not living in a hole I bet she was using caps too.¡± She reached into her pocket and pulled out a cap, A Nuka Cola branded bottle cap.


    ¡°Chuck visited Midway and they got their own way of doing things, he said they used paper slips as currency over there, I don¡¯t know why, nor do I care, honestly, I wouldn¡¯t accept their paper here. But Chuck had some bright-eyed idea about us doing the same, practically begged me and the Doc to adopt them¡­¡± She paused and then pulled out a cigarette pack from her back pocket of her pants, opened it, and inside was not cigarettes but little sticks of candy, they looked like lollipops but were in the general shape of a thin rolled candy.


    ¡°He¡¯s a small town merchant with big town ideas.¡± She chuckled as she popped one of the candy sticks in her mouth and began sucking on it. ¡°Now don¡¯t get me wrong, they are handy, easier to hand over a slip than count out caps every time, no lie there. But It''s never sat right with me. It is what it is.¡± She said, leaning in again.


    ¡°So, you want to rent a room again?¡± She said, looking at the vouchers still in Adam¡¯s hand.


    ¡°Yes uh¡­¡± Adam said, caught off guard by the sudden realization that the vouchers were not nearly as beloved as Chuck had led him to believe. ¡°I''d like to rent a room for 2 nights for now please.¡± She nodded as she sucked on her candy roll.


    ¡°Fine by me, your room¡¯s still available as it was when you left this morning, did the cleaning though, so it''s all yours if you want it.¡± She said leaning back in the chair again, probably enjoying the momentary break from cleaning tables to chat.


    ¡°That works for me.¡± Adam said, as he slipped a 100 cap voucher to her across the table.


    She took it and then slipped it into her pocket, pulling out her key ring a moment later to take off the key Adam had returned yesterday before he left and put it in front of him again.


    ¡°Enjoy your room.¡± She said as she began to stand up to finish cleaning before Adam spoke up again.


    ¡°Also, I was wondering If you still had food? A drink too would be nice.¡± Adam said, trying to get himself something to fill his stomach before he turned in for the night. She stopped mid standing up and then turned to look at him.


    ¡°Sure, I can fire up the stove if you need. What are you in the mood for?¡± She smiled.


    Adam came out of his room the next morning cleaned and well rested. His head still hurt a little bit but nothing more than a light sore spot where he was hit, nothing he would even notice without touching it. He still was unsure about his plans for the day, but right now he was hungry and could really use a coffee. Luckily, or unluckily, depending how you look at it, the bored employee was standing behind the counter again when he woke up.


    Adam strode over and took a seat at the bar. ¡°What are you serving?¡± he asked the employee who seemed to be lethargically looking out the slightly opened front door into the bright sunny day he was probably wishing he was enjoying instead of sitting inside an inn serving customers all day. Or worse, not serving customers.


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    He turned to look at Adam slowly. ¡°We got a vegetable medley, a bone broth, or more radrat roast.¡± Truth be told, Adam wanted a roast the most, it wasn''t very¡­ breakfasty but he never cared much the idea of breakfast foods to begin with, he would often have leftover salisbury steak for breakfast if he could swing it in the morning, but he would eat pretty anything that sounded good at the time, so some days that meant more traditional meals like a bowl of cereal like Sugar Bombs. But despite his heart calling out for the roast it was a¡­ rat¡­ and something called a radrat couldn¡¯t be that sanitary, even if he trusted Mandy. He would need to get rid of his prewar sensibilities someday, but that day wasn''t today.


    ¡°I¡¯ll have the vegetable medley.¡± He said as he rooted into his pocket and pulled out his cap bag. ¡°Oh can I also have some coffee too?¡±


    ¡°11 caps.¡± The man returned with a monotone. Adam was quick to dump out some caps from his bag and begin counting them out. Last night, when he asked Mandy for some food, she had charged him 12 caps for a meal and drink to go with it, proper beer this time. But as he lacked the caps she took his 50 cap voucher and gave him change. Leaving him with 38 loose caps, soon to be 27.


    He handed over the caps, placing them on the farside of the counter and then put his bag back into his pocket, next to the other vouchers he was keeping on himself at all times.


    The man slowly got up from his slouched position and then sauntered over to the caps, picked them up, and then stored them in the cash register before getting to work getting the coffee and a plate of food for Adam.


    ¡°My name Is Adam, by the way.¡± He said while the man worked the coffee machine with his back turned to Adam.


    ¡°I know.¡± He responded curtly without even turning around.


    There was a long few seconds of silence while the guy maybe ignored Adam. He was about to either call out to him again or give up before the man finally spoke.


    ¡°Eric.¡± He returned softly. Perhaps embarrassed or something? But Adam caught it.


    ¡°Well, nice to meet you Eric.¡± He said with a chipper tone, trying to offset the lethargic energy that Eric was letting off.


    ¡°I''m sure you know I¡¯m new in town. I¡¯m still picking up all the pieces, but I¡¯ll be in town for at least a few days so figured it couldn¡¯t hurt to get to know you, since you seem to be Mandy¡¯s morning staff.¡± Adam said, extending an olive branch.


    ¡°If you aren¡¯t planning to stay, then I don¡¯t see why we should bother.¡± He said callously but not maliciously as he placed a hot cup of coffee in front of Adam.


    ¡°Wish I could leave.¡± He said softly, clearly to himself as he turned to walk to the back to get the medley ready.


    Adam however, was feeling chatty today, maybe it was because yesterday he had a brush with death but today he was still coming down off his high, even after a night¡¯s rest. Or maybe he was just very curious about this guy who seemed so disinterested in everything. Regardless, he pushed forward.


    ¡°Why can¡¯t you leave then?¡± Adam asked casually as he sipped at the coffee which was just the perfect way to start the day. It wasn¡¯t the best coffee he¡¯d ever had, but he wasn¡¯t too picky, so he was glad to have the hot drink in his hands.


    ¡°Where would I go?¡± He said with a somber and still lethargic tone as he walked over to the stone near the door to the back.


    ¡°Midway?¡± Adam asked casually, mostly just probing.


    ¡°You are crazy.¡± Eric returned, while he turned on the stove and got the vegetables ready. ¡°Road¡¯s dangerous enough as it is before those weirdos showed up. I ain¡¯t making it all the way there by myself.¡± He said as he started to cook properly. ¡°Besides I go all the way there to do what? Do the same thing there that I am here? Sis owns the Inn, at least here I know I got employment, there I could just end up a gopher for The Guild.¡± He paused a bit to focus on cooking.


    ¡°Your sister? You mean Mandy¡¯s your sister?¡± Adam asked, not expecting that. Eric¡¯s back was to Adam and all he saw was his shoulders slump a bit but he could swear the air emanating off Eric read as ¡®are you fucking stupid?¡¯


    But all Eric said after a few moments was: ¡°Yes.¡± The air remained silent for a moment before Adam picked back up.


    ¡°So this Inn is family owned then?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± Eric responded again curtly. He then sighed and continued. ¡°The place was owned by our parents before they passed, Sis was the older one so she inherited it, I just live here.¡± He said with an indifferent shrug.


    ¡°Why not try another profession then?¡± Adam offered, he may be getting a bit too deep into this guy¡¯s personal life, but at this point he was mostly just making conversation, it getting deep would probably be on Eric no?


    ¡°Because my parents only taught me how to run an Inn, not how to farm, or how to blacksmith, or how to adventure outside these walls. Just how to cook and clean.¡± He said with a bit of a disgruntled tone. ¡°Of course, now they have a schoolhouse for the kids, but I''m not a kid anymore, so I can¡¯t learn new skills.¡±


    ¡°Well...¡± Adam began before taking a sip of his coffee again and then setting it down. ¡°I used to think like that too, used to be a soldier, after I got out I struggled to find work. But I did, and became pretty damn good at it too.¡± Adam took another quick sip of his coffee and then continued. ¡°Just can¡¯t give up, if you keep looking you¡¯ll find work you enjoy.¡± It wasn''t empty platitudes, truthfully whether he found work he enjoyed or not depended heavily on him, but it wasn¡¯t impossible, maybe he just hadn¡¯t found his calling. Or maybe, with time, he would come to enjoy the Inn work. It wasn''t for Adam to say, but the best advice he could give him at the moment was that there are other options.


    Eric turned around to look at Adam as he held the plated food, a rather nice display of mixed veggies to be honest, with a look of suspicion and defeat, though with a shimmer of hope.


    Eric just mumbles and then places the plate down in front of Adam.


    ¡°I got work to do. Enjoy your food.¡± Eric said as he seemed to be done with the conversation now and just walked off to elsewhere in the restaurant part of the Inn to do something else. Somewhere he couldn''t be bothered.


    Adam decided to leave him alone, it wasn''t his place to pry or push. After all, he just started talking to him today. So he ate his food in silence. Though there was a soft jazzy tune playing through the restaurant area that he just began to notice now that he was left to his own thoughts. The Jukebox was on and playing a tune from a selected album. Seemed his efforts were worth it.

 Chapter 17

    After he was fed Adam decided today was going to be an off day, he had nearly died yesterday and while there was certainly a part of him that was excited to jump back into it, go back out and explore some more, he needed a day to recuperate. If, for no other reason, than to explore the town a bit more, pick up some supplies, and see about some of those odd jobs that he¡¯d heard about. For starters he started with exploring the town.


    Following the various paths through the more residential area he noticed that besides homes there was a blacksmith, a doctor¡¯s office, and a schoolhouse. He only was able to recognize the school house because Eric had mentioned it earlier and because there was a teacher standing in front of a bunch of kids who were all sat on the grass listening to a lecture about the dangers of radiation. It was nice to see that kids still got to learn in a comfortable setting here. Schooling might be boring but boring is a lot safer than teaching a kid by throwing them into danger. Especially when they needed to be taught about crucial concepts like radiation. But he didn¡¯t linger. For obvious reasons a stranger standing around kids wasn¡¯t the best look, besides his curiosity was sated so he moved on.


    The next interesting location he stopped at was the stone building labeled ¡°Blacksmith¡± However a quick peek through the glass window on the door and a test of the doorknob revealed that it was locked and empty. So whoever was in charge of the blacksmith wasn¡¯t in yet. If they would be in at all. A peek at the front of the building showed no hours, no schedule, no ¡®closed¡¯ sign. So he was simply left without answers.


    It was fine though, he didn¡¯t even really need a blacksmith, it''s not like he was a medieval knight or anything, he didn¡¯t need a sword or a suit of armor, though it would fulfill his childhood fantasies, but practicality came first and he certainly didn¡¯t need that.


    The last place he checked was the doctor¡¯s office. It seemed to be open judging by the neon ¡®open¡¯ sign at the front window, so he walked right in. As soon as he entered a little bell at the top of the doorframe dinged, letting the room know someone entered.


    ¡°I''ll be right with you, if you aren¡¯t dying then please take a seat and wait. If you are¡­ scream ¡®help I''m dying or something¡¯, I don''t know¡­¡± A voice said, starting his sentence with gusto and authority and then slowly petering off as he both seemed to lose interest in speaking and lose his train of thought. The voice was coming from one of the two doorways in the back left corner, opposite where Adam entered. The voice was male and had a strange accent to it that Adam couldn''t quite place. Middle Eastern? Indian? He wasn''t sure, not helped by the fact the accent itself was very faint, only noticed through the way he said certain words.


    Regardless, Adam, who was most certainly not in any life threatening pain or danger, took a seat in one of the padded wooden chairs near the entrance as requested and waited.


    He sat there for twenty minutes before a man emerged from the second of two doorways wearing a labcoat and with a pair of framed goggles still on his head but pulled up to rest on his hair.


    ¡°Thank you for waiting. As a reminder, I am a chemist, not a drug dealer. If you are looking to get your hit of psycho go elsewhere.¡± He said as he closed the door behind him and walked over to the counter as he addressed Adam before actually looking at him. But once he turns to fully look at Adam his expression changes.  ¡°I don¡¯t think I know you.¡± He said as he studied Adam.


    ¡°Actually you don¡¯t.¡± Adam said, finally standing up from the chair to walk over to the counter himself. ¡°The name is Adam Baxter, I¡¯m new in town, recently from a vault.¡± Adam said with a casual smile. He had decided that describing himself as ¡®from a vault¡¯ was a far simpler and easier way to introduce himself rather than trying to explain he was from before the bombs. It''s not like it mattered much, but even though the description was woefully ill equipped to explain his true past, it sufficed. Even if he preferred not to be associated with that vault he found himself in.


    ¡°Ah yes, the man in the blue and yellow jumpsuit with the 42 on it!¡± The Doctor said with a bright intrigued smile as he held out his hand. ¡°The name is Doctor Greg Abbas, you can call me Doctor Abbas, Doctor, or Doc, whatever you¡¯d like.¡± He said with a friendly smile.


    Adam took his hand and shook it. ¡°Pleasure to meet you Doc.¡± He smiled.


    The doctor shook his hand for a few moments before he kept holding onto Adam¡¯s hand and flipped his wrist up so he could inspect it.


    ¡°Hm¡­ yes¡­¡± He said inspecting Adam¡¯s¡­ veins? He was unsure but he wasn¡¯t as comfortable anymore.


    ¡°Um excuse me¡­¡± Adam said, trying to remain polite before he wrenched his hand back.


    ¡°Oh yes, apologies, where are my manners?¡± He clears his throat into his free hand¡¯s fist and lets go of Adam¡¯s hand. ¡°I apologize, you are just the first Vault Dweller I¡¯ve ever met and I so rarely get new patients that aren''t either dying or babies.¡± He laughs a bit nervously.


    ¡°It''s alright, I get it.¡± Adam said, deciding to forgive him.


    ¡°With¡­ that in mind¡­¡± Doc begins pausing a bit as he spoke almost sheepishly. ¡°If it were at all possible¡­ Would you mind submitting yourself to a physical check up? It would do wonders for my studies, being as you are from an isolated environment.¡± He said, hopeful.


    ¡°Uh¡­¡± Adam was caught off guard, he did have a reason to come into the doctor¡¯s today, but getting a full physical was not part of that. It was a completely unplanned part of this excursion. Also what reason did he have to agree other than to sate this man¡¯s curiosity?


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    ¡°I um¡­ didn¡¯t come in for a physical¡­¡± He paused, considering outright rejecting the request, but then he had another idea, this man was asking him for a favor, so why not turn it into his advantage? ¡°But I might be inclined to agree if you were to make it worth my while.¡± Adam said, trying his hand at haggling.


    The doctor seems to ponder for a moment. ¡°I don¡¯t have too many caps, but if you are in the market for Stimpacks, Rad X, Radaway, Med X, and other purely pharmaceutical chems, I''m sure we can work out a deal.¡± He offered.


    ¡°Actually that''s why I''m in today, so if we can work something out with that then I think I can agree.¡± He smiled.


    ¡°Wonderful!¡± He said with a wide smile. ¡°Come, follow me into my observation room.¡± He said ushering Adam into the first of the two doorways.


    ¡°Do you often get people coming in here asking for drugs?¡± Adam asked as he followed him into the room and took a seat as instructed as the Doc set up some instruments.


    The Doc seemed to let off a massive and elongated sigh when this question was asked, going so far as to stop what he was doing temporarily. ¡°Yes, unfortunately.¡± He said with some exasperation. ¡°Not from the people of this town, no, but from the outsiders, much like yourself.¡± He turned around to look at Adam.


    ¡°They always come in thinking that, because I¡¯m a chemist, I can make them psycho and jet and daytripper!¡± He said with some energy behind it, clearly this was a big pet peeve of this guy. ¡°I mean, I can, but that''s beside the point. Im not interested in feeding their already addled minds to deterioration! I''m only interested in healing people, not giving them the means to make them worse!¡± He turned around in a huff as he reached for a box of sterile gloves and began to put them on.


    ¡°The only exception to that rule is Mentats¡­ and that''s because they are berry flavored.¡± He said as if he was making an excuse to himself. ¡°Well the ones I make are berry flavored anyway.¡± He said with a shrug as he now grabbed a stethoscope.


    ¡°The point being I do not enjoy catering to those who only want to harm themselves.¡± He said with a note of finality.


    ¡°I uhh, understand.¡± Adam said not realizing he had stepped on a landmine by asking that question. He regretted it.


    ¡°Well anyway, that aside, let''s begin the examination. I hope the results will be as interesting to you as they will be to me.¡±


    The entire testing process took about 2 hours. It was very thorough. The Doc seemed to want to know everything from his internal health to his physical health and even his mental health. Aside from actively cutting him open he did practically everything else. All jotted down and logged. By the end of it the Doc tabulated all the results and read the conclusion to Adam.


    ¡°So, with the testing done, I can firmly say not only are you a fine specimen in good health, but you also are in such peak physical condition you are a perfect example of textbook prime physical health.¡± He said as he looked through the papers on a clipboard. ¡°Your internals show no radiation damage, and your liver, lungs, and spleen all are shown to be in prime condition.¡± He continued before slipping to the last page. ¡°Your mental health could use some work, but considering what you told me you¡¯ve been through it''s no surprise you aren''t feeling euphoric.¡± He said putting the clipboard down.


    ¡°If this is the health of an average vault dweller than I am rueful my ancestors didn¡¯t make it into a vault themselves, seems my health would have been a scholar¡¯s envy.¡± He chuckled.


    Though this process took a lot longer than Adam would have liked he did learn a lot about himself. He was in incredible shape, even pulling off feats of strength in these tests he couldn¡¯t have when he was serving. He was more flexible than he remembered too. There was certainly something weird about his body. He had noted it when he first woke up in the vault but he never spent too much time thinking about it, but once again he is reminded that his body seemed to be in peak physical condition, a condition he had never reached before, as well as seeming to be younger? Or at least more healthy. There were still no answers about that but this confirmed that he was, without a doubt, in far better health than anyone here. In addition to all of that the doctor checked the back of his head, where he was hit, and confirmed it was nothing to worry about, at most a light bruise.


    ¡°Thank you for your work, Doc.¡± Adam said as he stood up from the chair.


    ¡°No no, thank you for these results, I may be able to further my own theories!¡± He said happily and then followed Adam back out to the waiting room.


    ¡°Now, you said you were interested in some medicine?¡± He said as he got to his side of the counter.


    ¡°Yes.¡± Adam responded, as he brought out his own caps bag from his pocket. ¡°I was wondering if you would sell me some Stimpacks, Rad X, and Radaway, i''ll take some Med X too if you are selling but those three are the big ones.¡±


    The doctor nods and then bends down to pull up a tray full of the mentioned chems, all on their own trays. ¡°As a physician I am obliged to ask what you plan to do with all of this.¡± He asked, though he clearly didn¡¯t intend to not sell, but mostly getting a question off his mind.


    ¡°I''m a Scaver.¡± Adam responded. ¡°I''m going to be going to more dangerous and possibly irradiated places in the future, having some things to rely on when I''m in a pinch would be nice.¡±


    The doctor nodded and then looked down at the chems, addressing each of them in turn. ¡°Normally I charge 40 per stimpack, 35 per Rad X, 50 per Med X, and 70 for each Radaway.¡± He explained as he looked at the chems. ¡°But considering our deal and since you have been so helpful to my research I¡¯ll offer the Stimpacks for 25, the Rad X for 20, the Medx for 35, and the Radaway for 50.¡± He offered. ¡°I believe that is a fair deal no?¡±


    Adam nodded, though he had hoped the prices would be cheaper, but ultimately this was the cost of doing business, and having them would be safer than not. ¡°Alright I''ll take 2 stimpacks, 2 Rad X, and 1 Radaway then.¡± He paused before adding: ¡°Actually throw in 1 Med X too. I''d buy more but I''m not made of money.¡± He laughed as he then pulled out the vouchers for 200 caps, which the doc takes as he handed over the appropriate chems.


    ¡°Just¡­ stay safe if you head back out there, it would be a shame to let that perfect health of yours be ruined by a bullet to the head.¡± He replied as he pulled out a blue voucher for 25 caps and handed it over to Adam.


    Adam laughed softly, as he took the change from the Doc. ¡°Well don¡¯t worry about that, my next stop is to grab a helmet.¡± He grinned.

 Chapter 18

    Adam had every intention to buy a helmet next, that was always his next stop, his next goal. But he paused as he left the Doc¡¯s clinic. He was down to 52 caps. From nearly 400 to almost under 50 in a day. He was not a fan of how quickly he was eating through his money. He still had the inn room to sleep in tonight, but if he bought a helmet it meant that come tomorrow, he, once more, would be living just on the edge of homelessness. He would have to go out and scavenge again. While this was his loose plan to begin with, he didn¡¯t enjoy feeling boxed in like this. Surviving in this world was a lot harder, no government support meant that if he was broke, he was broke. Harsh world.


    Still, he needed a helmet. If yesterday taught him anything, regardless of his body armor, if he is hit in the head, it''s over, there was no escaping it. So, resolved, he walked over to Winchester¡¯s to hopefully buy a helmet.


    The door to the store was propped open so Adam simply walked right in, standing at the shop counter was a woman Adam didn¡¯t recognize. She had long brunette hair and dimples on both cheeks. She also wore what looked like a cleaned and resewn pre-war dress, colored light blue. It looked flattering on her.


    ¡°Come on in hun.¡± She said with a smile. ¡°Don¡¯t think I¡¯ve seen you around here before, You new?¡± She asked curiously. But before Adam could respond she seemed to look him over and speak again. ¡°Oh! Are you that Vaulty that my husband has been mentionin¡¯ recently?¡±


    ¡°Uh, yes actually.¡± He chuckles a bit as he approaches the counter. ¡°Are you Mariah? Chuck¡¯s wife?¡±


    ¡°Oh! You know of me! I''m flattered.¡± She laughs. ¡°Yes, I am Mariah Winchester, that oaf''s wife.¡± She grinned, clearly not meaning to be mean to her husband but teasing him as a matter of course.


    ¡°Well it''s lovely to meet you, ma¡¯am.¡± Adam said, offering her his hand which she gladly shakes. ¡°I owe your husband a debt of gratitude for leading me here so I''m pleased to meet his beautiful wife.¡± He smiled. Adam was laying on the charm. Why? He felt it was the polite thing to do for Chuck''s wife. Also, it never hurts to be on good terms with the shopkeeper.


    ¡°Aw, you charmer you.¡± She giggled a bit and then leaned on the counter. ¡°Now, what brings you into our little shop?¡± She said, her eyes now twinkling in mercantile whimsy.


    ¡°Actually I need a helmet, but my budget is kind of thin now.¡± Adam responded as he pulled out the voucher and his caps bag, not that she could tell how many caps were in there. ¡°So I need a good helmet within my budget of 50 caps.¡± He said, hoping this was a fair budget for a helmet, since he was still learning prices but quickly getting a hang of them.


    ¡°Well with 50 so long as you don¡¯t ask for the moon I think we can find you something.¡± She said before pausing. ¡°To be clear you want a helmet for adventuring right? Something to protect you from attacks, not something to just look fancy around town, yes?¡±


    ¡°Yes, I''m planning on going out again, probably tomorrow, and I learned how vulnerable my head is without protection so I''m looking to find something to keep me safe.¡±


    ¡°Safest thing you can do is stay inside the walls.¡± She shrugs and then looks around for a moment. ¡°Well¡­ I think we got three good options for you.¡± She said as she then pointed to one of the shelves. ¡°Over there is an assault gas mask. Sturdy and it even comes with a filter but it''s more for frontal protection than all around.¡± She then ponders for a moment and then nods. ¡°Give me a moment to run to the storeroom and I''ll be right back out.¡± She said before leaving to head through the other doorway that led to a room behind the counter.


    In the meantime, while waiting, Adam walked over to the assault gas mask and examined it. It was, ultimately, a reinforced gas mask with a hood that offered little protection from the back where he got hit yesterday. It was actually pretty cool looking and would be good if he needed to walk through a toxic zone or was on guard when he knew his back was safe, but truthfully, he needed to know the back of his head was safe, especially since he was doing all of this alone. So this was not a winner.


    Mariah came back a minute later holding two other helmets. One looked like a riot helmet, it even had a screen shield in the front made of a sturdy plexiglass that would even absorb small arms fire, probably. As he approached back to the desk looking at it he noted it was a very faded blue. And he could see the edge of a yellow line. He couldn¡¯t be sure, but it almost seemed like gear that maybe vault-tec used. Guard helmet, maybe? He couldn''t be sure. But then he looked at the other one. It was a combat helmet, the kind he used back on deployment, when he wasn''t in one of those walking tanks.


    The combat helmet was proven to be sturdy and even had some bells and whistles on it in the form of a light. It was very convenient. The visored helmet might give him a face shield but honestly, nothing beats peace of mind, and he knew the combat armor helmet well. It was the winner.


    ¡°How much is that?¡± He asked as he pointed at the combat armor helmet.


    ¡°30 caps.¡± Mariah returned as she put down the riot helmet and held the other one.


    ¡°Would you do 25? I have the voucher right here?¡± He asked, hoping he could keep his haggling streak going.


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    Mariah just smiled. ¡°And I can tell you got a few extra caps in there too~¡± She said sweetly.


    Adam sighed and pushed no further and then nodded, sliding over the 25 cap voucher and counting out 5 more caps, he was now down to 22 caps. Well¡­ at least he had enough for probably 2 meals.


    ¡°Pleasure doing business with you.¡± She smiled as she took the caps and handed him the helmet.


    Adam was quick to put it on, strapping it in like he was back on deployment. The feeling was strange and yet familiar. It had been a long time since he wore one but it chafed just like he remembered.


    ¡°Thank you.¡± He smiled at her before walking out with his new prize.


    Adam walked back to his inn room to put it on the dresser, he didn¡¯t need to wear it around town so there was no reason to subject himself to it but he felt better having it already. However now he was left with what to do with the rest of the day. He had too much energy to laze around. And, for that matter, nothing to do if he did, but he was also running low on caps. So he needed to get more.


    Of course his plan was to leave tomorrow to go out and Scav again, but he figured now was as good a time as any to begin asking around town for those odd jobs. It would not only, hopefully, turn a profit, but also kill time and ingratiate him with the townspeople, which was never a bad thing.


    The rest of the day was spent doing exactly this, and he found a number of tasks that could be done. In order:


    First he noticed an old man struggling to clean his house¡¯s gutter, grunt work really, but as Adam had no qualms doing this as he used to do it himself for his own house before the war. So he climbed onto the room of the man¡¯s house using the ladder he had and began to sweep the gutters clean, even making sure the rain shute was clear too. For his trouble the man gave him 10 caps.


    The next thing he found to help was that blasted southern gate. Seems he wasn''t the only one annoyed by the loud grinding sound and slow opening speed of the gate. Adam was promised, by the guard at the gate as well as a few other residents, that if he fixed it he would be paid out of the town fund for doing so. So Adam got to work on it immediately, despite the other tasks he would do later this took the majority of the day. He had to first off oil the damn thing, the gears were grinding due to the metal pushing against itself it needed to be smoothed out. Next he installed a few additional motors from his stockpile of motors he couldn''t sell to Chuck, a good excuse to get rid of them. The extra motors increased the torque of the pulling mechanism to the gate making the process of opening and closing it to be a smoother process for both the people and the electronics. It sped up the process a bit, but the big change was the fact the motors no longer were being overtaxed like they were. For his efforts as well as for the cost of the motors the town bought from him to fix it, he was paid 100 caps. However he did have to buy oil from Chuck''s wife to do so and used nearly the entire can so that cost him 15, netting him a total of 85 caps.


    Next was another repair job but something much simpler, a young woman wanted to have her radio fixed and Adam was happy to oblige. It was a very easy repair, it didn¡¯t take any items other than the tools he had on hand. Another 20 caps.


    Next there was a young girl who had lost her stuffed cat. Though the fact it was a stuffed cat and not a real cat was not made clear to Adam at first, it took him over an hour to find the cat, which was left just slightly underneath a house¡¯s porch, presumably where she had put it down for reasons he didn¡¯t know. Returning it to her got him a single bottle cap but it was an art project, the bottle cap was surrounded by a ribbon of paper making it look like a medal. He didn¡¯t count this one as money, it was a gift.


    As the sun was just starting to set on the horizon he helped a farmer move a ton of wooden crates from the field to his storehouse. This was very simple but just a lot of labor, another 25 caps.


    Lastly, as the night began to set he got the wires he scavenged yesterday and installed them into the Jukebox for free. He didn¡¯t have the vacuum tube so it would not have an effect yet, but it would be fully fixed if he ever found a vacuum tube to replace inside the jukebox.


    And finally, after all that labor he got himself a nice meal and a drink to go along with it, so he was down 13 caps again. Bringing his total net income over the course of the day to 127. He now had 149 caps. It was a lot of work but he did earn back a large chunk of money. Though there were some takeaways from all his labor.


    First, the repair skills he picked up working at Second Life seemed to translate well to this life. A lot of things needed fixing, some of them mechanical, and he had the skills to do that. Not many others did. If he ever wanted to stop Scaving and settle down he might be able to scrape by making a living offering repair service, perhaps like a tradesman. It was an interesting prospect. Made even more interesting by Mariah asking him if he was able to fix up weapons. The answer being yes, she had informed him that there was a market for weapon repair too, skills he had learned in the Army.


    Second, Mandy was right, there were simply not enough tasks to go around to make a living here. Surely he could find some work once in a while like this but not enough to rent a 50 cap room and buy at least 2 meals a day, especially not so if he wanted to splurge a little every once in a while, it was simply unsustainable. If he wanted to do more jobs for people he¡¯d need to head to this Midway people talked about. Or at least a larger settlement. Naper seemed to have a decent population but it was not bustling, there were simply only so many jobs he could get here.


    Third, all his efforts had quickly made him a friend of the community, by the time dinner came he had more than one person come into the bar and buy him a drink. He was grateful and did accept, but it seems his deeds and efforts were noticed, even if it was largely motivated by self gain.


    Finally, he picked up some intel on some places outside the walls with things that might be worthwhile while running around helping the residents, either in idle talk or curious questioning his pip-boy had a few more locations marked for him to explore. He also learned that the blacksmith, who generally only makes tools for the town or things to order through Chuck when he goes to the bigger cities, is always in need of scrap metal, and he would get a lot more caps if he sold it to Grant, the blacksmith. All put together, even putting aside the caps he learned a lot from his efforts, the day was very much not wasted.


    But, after a good hard day¡¯s labor, he finally headed to bed, his cap¡¯s pouch a little heavier, and his heart a little lighter.

 Chapter 19

    It was time, The next day, after Adam got up, spent 12 caps on a meal, and then handed back the key to the room to Eric. He set back out toward the walls. Intending on heading outside to scavenge again. He had a location in mind today, and, outfitted with his helmet and newly acquired medical supplies, he was more prepared than last time to head into the dangerous unprotected wasteland.


    Today was heading to a partially destroyed Corvega assembly plant he had learned about from the farmer he had helped store boxes. It was rumored to still be full of things to loot, which Adam was keen to do, especially since Corvega certainly would have a lot of unique things for him to grab while he was scavenging. As he had learned with his last expedition he couldn''t just grab a lot of the same thing. Maybe he could get away with it in a big city, but so long as he was selling to Chuck, unless he found a lot of extremely easily cap convertible items he needed to bring back a wide selection of things. But he had a better idea what he was looking for now. He hoped this trip would be lucrative.


    The trip there was much further than his last excursion. He had gotten over his initial fear of leaving sight of the walls and was venturing further out into Chicago, but that did not mean he was willing to let his guard down. Luckily not so.


    After walking for about 30 minutes he turned a corner he saw a pack of feral hounds all fighting and picking at a carcass, likely a human judging by the remains though Adam didn¡¯t stick around and watch to say for certain.


    Luckily he seemed to be able to avoid their attention by sticking to the destroyed and burned out husk of a 5 story building, sticking to the interior and hiding behind the columns as the dogs devoured the corpse like this was their last meal. He couldn¡¯t tell what the building once was, it was nearly just the concrete and metal supports that framed the building when it was built. But it was of no concern, so long as he could use it to get around the dogs safely it didn¡¯t matter much.


    Just as he was about to get clear of the area he heard the sounds of shots ringing out. Bullets that came from very near the building he was in. A few of the dogs turned to look at the sounds, right at the building he was hiding in. Shit.


    He had no choice but to run, however he was poorly positioned. Trying to skirt around the dogs meant that he was taking cover in the husk of the building however he had quickly found out that the side he intended to exit on was completely destroyed, it was blocked and even if he had the wherewithal to move the rubble in the way he didn''t have the time. However, a small stroke of luck as a stairway, now nothing but concrete much like the building that surrounded him, was just off to his right. He wasted no time and ran as fast as he could up the stairs, his heart pounding in his chest.


    He could hear from the other side of the walls that offered little sound insulation, the dogs barking and growling at some unseen enemy. He could only hope that none of the dogs would chase him up the stairs.


    The sound of gunfire once more rang out, multiple shots this time, probably a rifle by the sounds. These shots were still shot quite close to his building, it seemed almost as if they were on the other side of the wall that he was blocked from exiting through.The exact situation mattered less than the sounds of the dogs yelping as they were assumedly shot.


    He made it to the second floor finding it slightly more preserved, but not much, so than the first floor, the stairway continued upwards but he was determined to vacate the area as quickly as he could so instead he went deeper into the second floor.


    That was until he heard the sound of something running on the floor behind him. He whipped around to see one of the scrawny dogs from outside, had, indeed, followed him upstairs and it was making a mad dash at him.


    He wasted no time. He pulled out his 10mm pistol, spun around on his heels, and fired nearly point blank at the dog as it dove through the air at him. Unfortunately the speed at which the dog was moving made it hard to hit it accurately. He was aiming for the mutt¡¯s head but he only hit its front right shoulder.


    The dog let out a painful yelp as it dove past Adam and then slid across the floor, its bloody shoulder dragging across the ground. It was still alive.


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    ¡°Hey did you hear that?¡± Adam could hear from outside, clearly another human voice talking.


    Shit! In his haste to defend himself he hadn¡¯t even thought about the fact that the sound of his gunfire would be heard by the other gunman. This was a massive miscalculation. Actually, this is the second time he did this, the last time it drew a Deathclaw to his building. He was so stupid!


    But self depreciation wasn¡¯t going to help him now, he needed to hide. Luckily the dog he had shot seemed to have no intention of moving from its spot, laying on the ground. It was very much alive, but it seemed to have lost the will to fight, or even run away, perhaps accepting its fate.


    Adam spared it not even a second thought as he ran past it and deeper into the second floor.


    ¡°Hey hey hey!¡± the voice from before said in a taunting and menacing way, now much closer, probably inside the building too. ¡°I know you are in here. Why don¡¯t you come out to talk?~¡± He said with a faux tender tone. Adam was taking no chances.


    Luckily, not too far in front of the stairwell were two elevator shafts in a short hallway right before a T junction. One still had its metal doors closed so it was inaccessible at a quick glance but the other had the doors wide open, and, with a quick glance through, the elevator was sitting on the first floor, slightly buried in the floor presumably when it fell from above but he could easily hide on top of the elevator in the shaft if he ducked below where the floor was. The doors to this shaft were open but not all the way, more than enough to sneak in and hide but not enough to be obvious. Or so he hoped.


    He hoped in, ducked, and held his breath, hoping his impromptu hiding place was enough for this deadly game of hide and seek. In addition, though it was risky, he took off his helmet and placed it at his feet, hoping that if he needed to, he could peek more effectively without the bulk of his helmet increasing his visibility profile.


    He could hear the sounds of metal boots stepping on the concrete floor as it came out of the stairway. The man was definitely closing in on him.


    ¡°Heh!¡± The man seemed to laugh once before another shot rang out from his gun. Adam had no idea what happened but it was safe to assume he had just shot the dog as it laid on the ground. He felt bad for the dog but he was going to shed no tears, it had tried to attack him after all.


    ¡°Come out come out wherever you are~¡± The man taunted as he seemed to be getting closer and closer to Adam¡¯s position by the second. ¡°I won''t bite¡­ much.¡± The man said with a menacing tone before he laughed to himself.


    He was close now, probably just before he entered the hallway. Then Adam saw him.


    The man who was speaking stepped into view of the open door to the elevator shaft, Adam couldn''t help but peek and what he saw confirmed his fears.


    He had learned, from various conversations, that there was no ¡®markings¡¯ that set a raider apart from a mercenary, or a soldier, or a bodyguard, or any other survivor. But you could tell by the way they carried themselves, and the type of gear they wore. Adam was told that Raiders wanted you to know they were raiders, they wanted to be seen, their branding was the fear they brought just by their presence. Or so he was told. But now he understood.


    The man before him wore an open vest made of some sort of animal furs, nails and screws were sewn into the vest with the points facing outward towards any enemy he might face. Under his vest he wore a light brown T-shirt filled with stains of all varieties but clearly blood being on that list. His bulky pants were similarly studded as his vest but it seemed like he had augmented his pants, he had metal knee and shin guards strapped to his legs as well as a large metal codpiece with a spray-painted yellow smiley face on it. He had spiked gloves, his boots were brown leather with curved metal sheets in front of the toe area, his hair was shaved all off on one side and swept over to the other. And his eyes were red. The kind of bloodshot red eyes one gets from taking chems.


    But all of this paled in comparison to the thing that drew Adam''s eyes the longest, it was the ears. Not his ears though, the rows of ears all strung up on a thin piece of string he wore around his neck like a necklace. And, of course, he had an evil grin on his face. There was no doubt in Adam¡¯s mind this guy was bad, however he was packing heat. He had in his hand a modified hunting rifle. Adam couldn¡¯t tell at a distance what he had done to the hunting rifle but it was clearly not the kind you would pick up off the wall of a gun store. The only thing he could tell at a glance was the gunstock had a tight white wrapping around it, and possibly thicker padding on the butt of the stock for the arm, but of that he was uncertain.


    Regardless this man meant business and right now he was standing right in between Adam and his way out.

 Chapter 20

    Adam ducked back down as quickly as he had popped out, so as not to be spotted. For the moment the man seemed oblivious to Adam¡¯s hiding spot, but that could change at any moment. Adam was left there, hiding, wondering what he should do. He looked down at his pistol that he still gripped in his hands. There was really only one option: He had to handle this guy before he found him.


    Adam peeked again and saw the guy seeming to be looking around the corridor where Adam hid, there were not many hiding spots, it was only through sheer luck the raider seemed to be looking in all the wrong spots so far. So, with a steeled resolve on what he had to do, Adam leveled his gun, taking aim.


    To increase his chances of making the shot count he hit VATS on his pip-boy to give him a little aim assist. It didn¡¯t do too much for him, but at this moment, any advantage was worth taking. As the target on his head read 90% he slipped his finger into the trigger guard, lined up the shot and¡­


    ¡°Hey, fuckwitz!¡± A female voice with an angry edge said as it drew closer, out of Adam¡¯s view. ¡°You find the fucker yet?¡± She asked as she slowly walked past Adam¡¯s hiding spot, him having just enough time to withdraw his gun and hide himself at the floor level again.


    The woman was dressed similar to the man but with her own style. She wore what can only be described as an armored crop top. It was as if she gutted the bottom of a bullet proof vest and then carved the top to her liking. It didn¡¯t protect her stomach at all which was showing pretty clearly. It was full of incredibly nasty scars and one stitch wound. Her pants were long cargo shorts dyed black but with obvious signs of wear and tear and she too wore boots similar to the man thought without the metal, making them quieter. Her hair was dyed blue and cut very short. But, like the man, she too had a disturbing addition to her apparel. This time, bones.


    Specifically teeth. She had tooth piercings all over her face, human teeth. Two tooth earrings, one tooth on her lower lip, two on her nose and one under her chin. Adam didn¡¯t especially study her mouth to see if she had all her teeth, but he very much doubted the teeth she wore like jewelry were hers.


    ¡°No, can¡¯t seem to find him.¡± The guy admits as he looked at her, shouldering his rifle as he did.


    ¡°Well did you think to FUCKING LOOK UPSTAIRS!?¡± She yelled at him like he was stupid.


    The man seemed to slump a bit and then get an angry look on his face. ¡°No I fucking didn¡¯t get the fuck off my back woman.¡± He said as he started to march past her and, once again, Adam¡¯s hiding place.


    ¡°Talk to me like that one more goddamn time.¡± She said as she placed her hand on her holstered¡­ gun? Honestly, Adam didn¡¯t know what it was, it looked like a thin piece of wood with a pipe and more metal strapped on it like a child¡¯s art school project. It was in the vague shape of a gun, it even had a nail where the trigger would be, but it couldn¡¯t possibly work¡­ right? Hopefully he didn''t need to find out.


    ¡°Fuck you.¡± The man said as he passed her.


    ¡°FUCK YOU!¡± She screamed back at him as he walked out of view.


    ¡°Fucking woman. Good for a fuck but they get a little blood down below and they get so snippy.¡± The man says with a careless callousness as the woman watched him go, seeming to be fuming.


    ¡°YOU DON¡¯T FIND HIM I''M GOING TO HAVE YOUR BALLS!¡± She yelled at him again.


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    ¡°Heh heh, sounds hot.¡± He said as he seemed to finally be ascending the stairs, judging on the sound of his footsteps and voice. Though Adam could only truly guess now.


    ¡°Fucking bastard.¡± The woman seemed to grumble as she stood there, looking at the direction of the stairway, away from Adam.


    Adam had to rethink his plans quickly, after all now there were two of them. He needed to figure out a way to escape or¡­


    He looked at the woman who seemed to just be standing there, though she was clearly pulling out a cigarette from a box. Adam had one shot, he needed to subdue the woman quietly and then sneak out before the man came back down the stairs. It was the only way he could find a way out in the quick moment that passed.


    Putting his helmet back on, he quietly slipped out of the elevator shaft back onto the second floor, crouching as he walked closer to the woman who was only a few feet away. He would have preferred to have a knife or something, but he was confident that, with the element of surprise, he could get the drop on her and take her down before she could alert the other guy. But you know what they say about the best laid plans. And this plan was full of holes from the very start.


    Adam was only a foot away from her when she, suddenly and without warning, turned around and locked eyes with Adam, lit cigarette in her mouth.


    Honestly, despite the fact that she was on the hunt for Adam, she looked as surprised to see him as he was to see her turn around. Though this might have something to do with the fact he was crouch-walking over to her and was about a foot away when she noticed. The moment didn¡¯t last long though as she was quick to reach for the thing on her hip, planning to fire at Adam with reckless abandon. Adam was faster however.


    He had unholstered his pistol, aimed, and fired before she could even get her gun aimed. It was over in a single second. The bullet ripped through her unarmored abdomen and clearly hit her in somewhere vital as she hit the ground like a rock, incapacitated immediately.


    ¡°THE FUCK HAPPENED?!¡± The other raider yelled from upstairs as he started to run back down. Adam had no time to make a move to the stairway. He could only turn and run the other way to the end of the short corridor where it turned to a T junction right after the elevators.


    He didn¡¯t make it to the turn before he heard the loud sound of the gunshot coupled with the sound of a bullet whizzing by his head. He must have had a guardian angel since he had enough time to make it around the corner and take cover against the concrete wall before another round rang out. Though this one was not nearly as close to hitting him now that he had cover. Though he did get to see it impact with the back wall, throwing up some small dust of concrete as it hit the wall.


    ¡°I''M GOING TO KILL YOU! YOU GODDAMN MOTHERFUCKER!¡± He yelled at the top of his lungs again before firing for a third time, once more not hitting Adam as he remained in cover behind the wall.


    However Adam took advantage of the brief window in between each shot where the raider had to charge his rifle again to pop out and take his own shot at him.


    Small bits of concrete were kicked up into the air as his bullet hit right below the foot of the raider as he stood on top of the steps.


    Adam was quick to dive back again behind cover as another shot from the hunting rifle rang out past him. Adam moved again, firing another time at the man. Once again he missed as the bullet seemed to shoot 6 inches to the right of the raider.


    Adam dove behind cover again as another bullet was fired at him.


    ¡°Shit! Fuck! Shit!¡± The raider cried out into the air after he fired. There was no second round a moment later as he had been doing up until that moment. Adam could only assume he was reloading. He did not waste the chance.


    Adam came out of his cover, arm outstretched, holding his pistol still as he walked forward, firing once, twice, thrice, into the man. Each shot landed right into the man¡¯s chest. By the time the third shot landed the rifle in his hands was already falling. A moment later the man followed his gun as he fell face first over onto the ground from the third stair up. He landed with a hard thud.


    Adam observed this for a moment, just about to sigh in relief and collect his thoughts as another round was fired from nearby. He looked over to notice the woman who he had shot in the abdomen laying on the ground, profusely bleeding out but with her weird wood and pipe gun still in her outstretched arm, having just fired a bullet at Adam. Hitting him right in the chest.

 Chapter 21

    There was a moment of shock that followed. Adam had never been shot before. He had seen plenty of others shot when he fought in Alaska, he had even seen a case of friendly fire, but he himself had never been hit. Luck of the draw. So the suddenness hit him like a truck full of bricks. He fell to the ground on his butt, winded, and then had the thought to look at the woman who had shot him.


    She was now dead, laying on the ground splayed out, her pipe gun still death-gripped in her hand. Adam was quick to look down at himself and was relieved to remember he had the bulletproof vest on. He had forgotten. He was just shot after all, it''s an easy thing to forget in the heat of the moment. He needed to be sure he was truly uninjured though so he peeled off his bulletproof vest, to his delight he was not bleeding, his vest also had survived the hit too, though it definitely showed the signs of having been hit with a bullet.


    Adam sat there on the ground for a few moments catching his breath again. It was close but he managed to bring down the two raiders. It was yet another close call though, not something he would relish having to do again.


    Once he had regained both his stamina and his wits he stood back up and walked over to the dead body of the woman. It seemed as though that shot was her last hurrah, she had no more life in her.


    Adam was quick to forcefully rip the pipe pistol from her death-gripped fingers and examine it. It was just as he had thought. A makeshift gun made of scrap parts thrown together haphazardly. But it worked, that was the important thing. He considered throwing it out, it was, after all, nothing more than a junk pistol, and he had a much better one, but truthfully Chuck had told him last time that weapons were all sold for good prices, it was best to take it with him even if the gun itself was a piece of shit. Worst case he could throw it out if his bag got too full later, for now it was worthwhile.


    Then he examined the man¡¯s rifle. It was, unsurprisingly, just a hunting rifle. There were modifications done to it but nothing much major beyond aesthetics. This, unlike the pipe pistol, was worth keeping. He didn¡¯t have a rifle, up until now he had solely relied on his pistol. Having a rifle for tougher enemies and engagements was going to be invaluable so he threw the rifle strap over his shoulder and then stared at the two bodies for a moment. He really did need to get over his old world sensibilities. They were dead, that meant they had no more use for the things they had. He needed to remember that. So, after a moment to steel himself, he got to work.


    On the woman he found some loose 357 ammo for the pipe pistol in her pockets, he also found she had a can of food, a pack of cigarettes she pulled out earlier, and a small bag of caps with 19 caps inside, the rest was mostly junk or¡­ more teeth, he was content to leave it behind. However he did decide to, after a moment to consider, strip off the body armor from her, it was a pretty nasty and gnarly body armor and since it was modified it wouldn''t be as good but armor is armor, maybe he could sell it for something, but for the moment he decided to bare with the weight and the uncomfortable fit and throw it on over his already worn body armor. It might provide extra protection, but more than that it was simply the most efficient means to carry it.


    Then he moved onto the man, once more the man had very little of use mostly junk things not worth taking, but he did have a ankle holster for a combat knife stashed there, Adam did not hesitate to take it from him, however other than the knife everything else was useless, seemed as though this man didn¡¯t even have caps. His partner must have carried them all. What a pitiful amount of caps to have, no wonder they lived outside of the walls, must have been homeless.


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    Thoughts aside, he needed to get moving. He may have dealt with these two but no telling if they were part of a larger group and if they were their compatriots might come looking. So he needed to get a move on.


    A part of him told him to return to the town, he had already faced danger once he didn¡¯t need to put himself into more. But he knew better, first off he was already too far from town to make a journey back any less dangerous. Second, he had nothing of note to show for his efforts so far. He needed to make enough caps to make this journey worth it. Besides, after walking as long as he did, he was closer to the factory than the town now. Besides, even if he did return to the town there was no telling if tomorrow would be safer. No, pushing on while he was uninjured was the best plan. And so he did.


    Luckily the rest of the trip to the Corvega factory was uneventful. It proved to be a simple trip. The only things that held him up were the occasional sounds of gunfire going off in the distance, likely some other people getting into gun fights with the locals, creatures or otherwise, but far too distant to matter to him, and a path that was blocked. The path being blocked only required a moderate redirection but by the time he arrived the sun was already hanging high in the sky.


    The corvega factory was clearly in quite a massive state of disrepair, a large chunk of the right side of the building seemed to have been reduced to rubble, however the other side seemed to still be standing and it looked to be in moderately good shape, considering the damage on the right side. The building was also large, even with a large part of the right side destroyed it was still a sizable building.


    He walked over to the good side of the building and approached what he hoped was either a loading bay or an employee entrance. He found the employee entrance.


    On the side of the building, clearly not the main entrance, was a metal door housed inside a framed metal cage with a roof over it. Perhaps it served as a place for workers to take a smoke break out of the rain. Adding credence to this theory the metal cage looked more like an intricate lattice more designed for aesthetics than for any real use, and the browned broken shards of glass that still remained in few numbers both on the ground near the cage and sticking out of the sides of the frame led him to believe it was once housed in glass. But he had already spent too much time on something so pointless so he moved on.


    The entrance to the assumed smoking area was an open doorway, though he noticed some hinges on the doorway but no door, perhaps at one time a door was here but no longer. Regardless, what truly impeded him was the employee door to the factory. Locked.


    He noticed that the door had a keycard reader next to it but since he lacked a keycard he was unable to get through. He had considered, for a moment, either breaking the card reader or the door itself, but the door was made of metal and wouldn''t break easily, and breaking the card reader likely wouldn''t get him inside, only serve to get his frustrations out. So unfortunately he moved on.


    Continuing to walk alongside the building he did eventually find the loading bay, and luckily a few of the large truck doors seemed to be open. However before he went inside he noticed a number of trucks still hitched to their cargo sitting in the lot. Curious, he went to each one, checking to see if it was unlocked and then seeing what was inside. He was disappointed.


    There were 4 trucks in the lot, one was locked, one was empty, and the other two which he could open had nothing but car parts in them. Go figure. But nothing even worth bringing back, or really portable for that matter. Unless he was planning on assembling a Corvega by hand these things were useless.


    Well, maybe not useless, if he had the wherewithal this could be a good source of scrap metal to bring back to the blacksmith but considering the distance and the dangers between this factory and the town, and considering how a single piece would be bulky enough he''d need to carry it by hand, he decided to just let the matter drop. A shame but nothing could be done about it.


    So finally, after what had already been an exciting trip just to get here, he turned and headed into the loading bay to enter the factory.

 Chapter 22

    The inside of the factory was eerie. But not for the reasons you might expect. It was a massive sprawling factory floor laid out before him where cars of all stages of creation were held by robotic arms most now long since rusted over by the sands of time, both the arms and the cars.


    Adam paused almost as soon as he entered the factory placing his hand on a completed Corvega sports car. The kind of car he had wished he owned back before the world ended. Just the sleek design always caught his eye, but now it was nothing more than a massive chunk of metal.


    He paused as he thought that for a moment. In theory, he could, with the right tools and time, fix up this car, or any car he wanted for that matter, if he had the parts. It was not an impossibility just a complete time sink he didn''t have the luxury for at the moment, perhaps in the future, once he had some answers to his questions, he¡¯d consider other ideas like this¡­ after all cruising around the ruins of Chicago in style sounded like a dream, a twisted one but he¡¯d take what he could get.


    Neigh, why stop with Chicago, the world had changed, maybe he could explore what remains of the world? Who knows what is out there. But these were idle thoughts, thoughts taking him out of his goals here, to scavenge and make some caps to ensure he can live to tomorrow. What a dreary existence. He pulled his hand from the car and headed deeper into the factory.


    It truly was eerie, it was a huge factory far as far as he could see but no one was around. It felt less like he was scavenging an old ruin and more like he was trespassing on a Corvega assembly plant, which, technically, he was. But he doubted any Corvega employees would come to complain. And so Adam began his thorough search of this place.


    For the first hour he focused on the factory floors, for the second he focused on the offices, and the third he explored the visitor and car repair sections, both of which were partly destroyed.


    This place was a bust. Well sort of. Despite how large it was and how interesting of a place to go through, it truly had nothing worthwhile of note. But that isn''t to say Adam found nothing.


    Adam¡¯s bag was positively overflowing with superglue, sensor modules, duct tape, fission batteries, and a few other tools one would expect in a corvega assembly plant. He did also find a few new tools worth keeping on his toolbelt if he ever had need for them, as well as a keycard for employees. Truthfully he was realizing that he alone did not have the ability to bring it all back alone. He could easily make his money¡¯s worth, if he had 3 bags he could bring back all the useful junk items he found that he knew were worth something, but no big ticket items like the fusion core, which was a shame, and the reason why it felt like a bust.


    His final stop was into the head manager¡¯s office, which was separated from the other offices by a collapsed floor, which is why he decided to do it last after he found the second stairway up later.


    As soon as he opened the door he noticed it was remarkably more well preserved than the other rooms. Not to say the other office spaces were bad, in fact they were pretty well preserved themselves, but the broken glass for the windows had swept in dirt, dust, and light that faded and wore down the office spaces. Not like it mattered since there was little to find there too. But the manager¡¯s office was different.


    First off the office was well preserved likely because the door to it was closed and likely never opened judging by the dust caked onto the doorknob, the giant window that sat on the wall behind the mahogany desk was also covered with a nice curtain preventing the light from reaching inside too. The room itself felt more like it had been abandoned for a year, not 200.


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    But none of that was the interesting parts, it was the rows upon rows of bookshelves flanking him on either side, the floor safe he could clearly see below the desk which had moved from its probable old resting place, and the Protectron sitting inside its pod right against the wall to his left as he entered. The protectron came first.


    As he walked over it seemed to be a refit police model protectron set up for body guard duty, but it lacked a computer next to it, like the other empty pods he found in elsewhere in the factory, however there was a computer sitting on the desk so it''s probable that it can be activated from there. It certainly seemed worth experimenting with at least. Protectrons were the most common and versatile robot, even if they had their share of flaws, being clunky and slow. But the dome-headed robotic friends always carried out their tasks diligently, and if that task just so happened to be getting him back to town without encountering more trouble, then he could rest assured he would get back safely. But first the computer.


    He broke from his thoughts and walked over to the computer to get to work. Locked, as expected. But Adam had done this song and dance more than once by now. Without time pressure Adam easily cracked the password and got into the computer. He was met with a few choices. [Corvega productivity notes] [Letter from: Corvega CEO to all upper management][Floor safe lock][Protectron Controls]


    There it was, he was right. He was curious about the other things but getting the protectron up and moving was his priority. So he immediately opened that menu.


    [Patrol mode][Guard mode][Command Menu]


    Seeing his options he was relieved to see that a guard mode was already created, that would make his life so much easier, but he needed to be sure that the Protectron would protect him and not treat him as an enemy, after all he was not the plant manager.


    Adam began rooting around in the command menu, checking files and lines of code until he finally found out where the target priority lay. Once he found it he spent an extra few minutes coding in lines to make sure it recognized him as a friendly. He could do this much in his sleep, coding a robot to recognize him as a friendly was one of the first things you learn when you head to take a RobCo licensing exam. After all, it doesn''t matter how good you program the robot if it kills you right after. Most programmers had a unique way that they handled this, some used their facial features, others used a keyword, some still used a complex algorithm that measured the way they walked, worked, and a variety of other factors to always ensure they were being properly assessed. Adam thought that was excessive. He liked to keep it simple. A keyword worked just fine for him.


    Finally finishing his efforts he activated guard mode and then, with a hiss the pod began to open. He looked up at the pod as the Protectron began to lumber out, waddling as it did. It seemed to be walking towards Adam but Adam preempted that by walking over himself.


    ¡°Please Identi-¡± The protectron begins once it is close to Adam only for Adam to speak up loudly overtop it.


    ¡°Recognize: Adam Baxter.¡± He says with a casual authority.


    The protectron immediately ceases what it was doing and then seems to pause, letting silence fill the room.


    ¡°Recognized.¡± It said with an affirmative tone. ¡°Proceeding to Guard target.¡± It said before it took a step closer and then stopped moving altogether, waiting for Adam to leave and it to follow.


    ¡°Well hold on little guy, I still got work to do.¡± Adam said with a chuckle as he looked through the window at the broken landscape outside. His efforts to scavenge the building as well as the coding escapade he just went on took quite a bit of time, the sun was hanging low in the sky. He was beginning to question if he would make it back to the town in time before it was dark. But he didn¡¯t need to rush out yet, after all, there was still the safe to explore.

 Chapter 23

    Adam went right back to work, sitting back down at the desk computer to explore his options while the Protectron remained activated nearby, standing as still as ever. Adam immediately turned his attention to the Safe option. He wasted no time in unlocking it.


    With a satisfying click the safe beneath his feet opened and he once more moved from the seat to examine the safe contents. It was a good find.


    The safe was mostly full. For the most part it was full of files in manilla folders, some labeled CONFIDENTIAL, and some unlabeled, but truthfully none of it really mattered. What was he supposed to do with a Manager of Corvega¡¯s files from 200 years ago, it was going to be useless. And even if it wasn''t he was definitely not in the mood to spend the next 2 hours reading through to see if there is even a single useful piece of information in them.


    So, satisfyingly, he threw them over his shoulder letting the papers fly into the air and then float down. He was creating a mess but truthfully it was worth it.


    Papers aside he noticed there was a laser pistol inside the safe with a few fusion cells next to it. Strange, why would a manager have a laser pistol? It isn''t exactly the sort of thing Civilians had easy access to, not to say they didn''t. But it was more something you¡¯d see on army bases not in a manager¡¯s office of all places.


    Still, Adam was far from looking this gift horse in the mouth so he took it gleefully and threw it on the side pouch of his backpack for easy access. Truthfully he liked laser weapons, he preferred them in the army when he served, but he did already have two good guns, so he might not need it. He can leave that for later though, he had it, that''s what matters.


    Though all that has been said was nothing compared to the last thing he found in the safe, besides some old photos he didn¡¯t care about. A large gold bar.


    Adam had seen gold bars in movies and the like but never actually seen one in real life. It weighed more than he expected to. It was solid gold. Or so he hoped. It was an amazing find. This made his trip worthwhile. This alone made all the efforts he went through valuable. Hopefully Chuck would buy it for a great price.


    Adam was feeling giddy as he threw it into his backpack next to all the other things he had found. Finding a gold bar truly ignited his imagination and passion for the scavenger hunt part of this new lifestyle. It truly made his near death earlier today seem like a small hurdle he had to overcome to win this prize.


    Adam once more glanced up at his protectron guardian which remained quiet and unmoving, other than the soft sound of its head sensor spinning, and then looked back at the computer. He still had time, it was getting late but his Pip-Boy had a light, he had enough time to read the entries in the computer. He was curious. And besides it was the last bit of proof these people lived, perhaps it was his way of honoring their last memories. That was likely an excuse though.


    So, once more sitting down in the chair, Adam boots up the computer again and opens the [Corvega productivity notes].


    [Corvega July Productivity: up 10% I streamlined one of the manufacturing processes to cut out a needless inspection. The cars always pass inspection, so it''s fine to just ignore it. 10% increase in exchange seems more than worth it]


    [Corvega August productivity: up 23% new servos delivered and assembled by our teams have increased production. Orders from overseas have increased by almost the same factor, I am pleased with our output levels.]


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    [Corvega September Productivity: 11% I like to claim it''s because I fired Janet that our productivity increased, she was always yapping away to the other employees and never doing her work. But the promise of a Christmas bonus coming up likely has more to do with it than me, they know the hard workers get a bigger bonus. Lucky me.]


    [Corvega October Productivity: Down 78% DAMN YOU CEO. The factory was running very well before the new CEO decided he wanted to muddle things. Now it''s going to take months to get productivity back up to where it was before. The CEOs like to talk big but it''s people like me that have to deal with the consequences.]


    Adam was now even more curious what the letter from the CEO was about since it clearly impacted the manager¡¯s disposition and the production figures.


    [Letter to all upper management; I am moving the company in a new, stronger direction, one our shareholders will appreciate. In partnership with RobCo we will be replacing a majority of the low-end jobs in all our factories across the nation with special branded robots who will handle the tasks more efficiently and without overhead. As such we will begin transitioning out our human workforce. Effective immediately anyone without a Green level management position will see salary reductions of 40% starting next month, in addition it is on management to make the workers uncomfortable at their jobs enough to quit so we do not have to pay them a severance package. Productivity quotas are expected to still be met during this transitionary period. Robot workers will begin to arrive within the first quarter of next year.]


    Adam leaned back in his chair. Well that explains it. The workers, and apparently the Manager, got mad that people were being phased out, not like it mattered in the end, the world ended, but he can¡¯t blame them for being upset. But now Adam was thinking about all the things that go on behind closed doors of companies that the public never knew about. It brought to his mind, once more, the thoughts of Second Life. What were they doing? Did discussions like this go on behind his back? It wouldn¡¯t have changed anything even if he knew but his mind couldn''t help but be drawn to it.


    Adam stood up, still feeling a bit lost in his mind as he began scanning the bookshelves for books worth bringing back.


    As expected most were just technical manuals, old car magazines, car inspection reports, and a lot of paperwork. But there was a section that was likely the manager¡¯s personal library he would read when he was free. In it he found a few fiction novels that he figured he could bring home with him as well as a copy of Lying, Congressional Style, which tracked for what he had to deal with the last month before the world ended. However, as he was pulling books off the small personal bookshelf there was a thin red book hidden behind all the others he hadn¡¯t noticed before.


    Reaching his arm in further he learned that the book was more than just behind the other books but instead wedged into the seams of the bookcase itself, almost hidden behind the wood, and pulled it out with a little bit of effort. After retrieving he flipped it around to look at what book had put him through all this effort.


    Chinese Army: Special Ops Training Manual.


    ¡°What the fuck?!¡± Adam said with some shock. How the hell did this end up here?


    Adam looked around the room like he was going to suddenly spot a Chinese spy, or a listening device, or any other thing that might give him answers. Which, of course, there were none.


    His eyes then fell on the seat of the manager. ¡°Was¡­ the manager a spy?¡± Adam asked himself aloud with only the protectron hearing him. Of course again, there was no answer. He had already finished looking around this office, if there was any indication that he was a spy it was not here. This book was an extreme oddity.


    But as quickly as Adam had become heated and concerned he calmed down. The war was over. Everyone lost. What use was there getting bothered about it now? The manager was dead, so if he was a spy, time took his life, now all that was left was this book.


    Adam looked down at the book again and then sighed, putting it into his pack as well. Maybe he could read it later, if nothing else it might make for a good read. After all that is why he is bringing some books back with him, to give him things to do in his downtime.


    With another deep sigh and now a very full backpack Adam turned to the protectron and then spoke. ¡°Alright buddy, let''s go.¡± However just as he was leaving through the doors to the office, protectron right behind him, he could hear distant voices speaking. Deep, strange voices, not human ones.

 Chapter 24

    ¡°Human hunt went good today!¡± An excited deep toned voice spoke from off in the distance, loud enough that he could hear thanks to it basically being shouted.


    ¡°No, not enough meat.¡± Another said, sounding almost identical to the first one.


    ¡°We need more meat!¡± Another complained. By now, Adam wanted to know what he was hearing, and he had a sinking suspicion he knew what was going on, much worse than simple cannibals.


    Adam stepped out of the office and over to right before the stairway he took to get to the manager''s office. There he looked out a massive window spanning from his belly button to the top of the ceiling that overlooked the factory floor. And what he saw confirmed his fears.


    Hulking men, 8 to 10 feet tall, wearing animal skins, hides and loose scraps of armor. They carried makeshift weapons like a club made of a rebar and concrete pulled right from a wall, a sledgehammer which had clearly seen better days and one who held a whole car door like a shield. Most of them were green in color, though a few had a bit more of a red hue to them, and one was blue. The blue one carried what looked like a car bumper but outfitted to be a giant sword? He couldn¡¯t tell completely considering he was so far away. But there was no doubt in his mind. These were super mutants.


    ¡°Well MAYBE if you stopped KILLING THEM before we can bring them back with us we would have more MEAT.¡± The blue super mutant yelled at the others, exasperated.


    ¡°You talk too much. Thinking too hard. Me just smash.¡± Another responded dismissively.


    ¡°Arg! If only the Master were still around I wouldn¡¯t have to put up with you louts!¡± The blue one angrily says as he waved the rest of them off.


    ¡°Bluey is mad. He funny.¡± Another said who hadn¡¯t spoken up yet.


    ¡°And you¡¯re an idiot.¡± The blue one returns.


    ¡°No, he super mutant. I idiot.¡± A different one spoke up defending his friend. The blue one just groaned and facepalmed before he turned to walk away from the others.


    This was bad, from what he knew about super mutants they were incredibly strong, bullet resistant, able to ignore radiation, and stubborn to a fault. He had no chance of beating this many of them without a plan. Adam then sat down below the level of the window, he needed a moment to think.


    There were 5 of them, 1 blue and the rest a shade of green. It seemed like the blue one was their leader and had more intelligence than the others, but not too much. Still, they would be too much for him if he fought. So he needed to run. The problem was they blocked the easy path to the exit, they were on the factory floor, the path out through the doors he got in through. There were other exits of course, but for the most part they required him to go through the factory floor to get through. Except one.


    When he was exploring he noticed that in the section of the factory that had collapsed a part of the ground was also destroyed which had unveiled a large sewer pipe that flowed underneath the factory, it had even gotten destroyed a bit itself so there was a way to get inside by jumping through the broken metal. He wasn¡¯t sure where it led but it would make for a stealthy exit. The problem with his plan was that getting to that part of the building might take him through the patrols of these giant men.


    Adam then glanced at his protectron guard. The protectron would also draw their attention, it was a rather loud clanky machine, and even if he could sneak out with it, protectrons can''t bend their knees so it wouldn''t be able to jump down the pipe easily. However it still could serve a purpose. A distraction.


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    Just like he did when he programmed that Mr. Handy he could send the Protectron in a path so it will collide with, and fight with, the super mutants down below. It would lose, most likely, but drawing their fire and attention was more than enough for him to slip past them and get to the sewers. At least that was the hope.


    He regretted having to sacrifice another robot, after all, having a robotic companion for any number of tasks was useful, even just as a bodyguard, but he could lament his loss later, he needed action now.


    However, before he sent the protectron to its final duty he decided to hook his pip-boy up to its computer in the back to make some final modifications. If, on the slim chance it survives, he was going to give it a location to go to. Maybe he could get lucky and find it again. The problem was where?


    Truthfully he didn¡¯t have a great knowledge of the landscape since he woke up, he knew some places but not with confirmation that they were safe. The obvious choice was to send the bot to Naper. It was where he wanted to go after all. But the trip here from there took him a while and he had to avoid some dangers by taking alternate paths. If the protectron was to head there it might die along the way, not to mention it can''t navigate as well or as fast as Adam does so getting there might take a while even if there was no danger. The next option was Midway, but not only did no one know him at Midway and get confused why a robot showed up, but Midway was no closer to where he was than Naper was. Furthermore since the path is unknown there''s no telling what kind of dangers it could face. Which truly left him with only one option. The Vault.


    One day, he knew he¡¯d have to go back there, he could make a list of reasons from loot to answers. But he had put it off, hoping Second Life had the answers he needed. But truthfully he was closer to Vault 42 than he was to anything else he knew about. The protectron might not be able to get inside but it would be mostly safe and hidden if it stood outside the vault door. He could come collect it later, even if that took months to do so.


    Of course this was all just for speculation. If the protectron died here it would not be going anywhere, but having plans was never a bad thing. So, with an extra few seconds to program in a location. He had set up the protectron properly. Now it was time for it to do its job.


    ¡°Protectron.¡± Adam said with authority to it. ¡°Initiate patrol mode, when Hostiles are clear, report to the location I gave you.¡±


    ¡°Affirmative!¡± The protectron responded with its mechanical tone as it began moving towards the stairs to head to the factory floor. Adam waited as it slowly lumbered its way down the stairs one step at a time, the clanking noise of its metallic feet making an audible sound with every step.


    He could hear two of the super mutants in the distance making conversation loudly to each other, but unlike before they were not shouting so he couldn¡¯t make out what they were saying at this distance, just that they were speaking. Still, their conversation seemed to mask the sound of the Protectron¡¯s footsteps.


    Eventually it reached the bottom of the stairs and turned right, down the short hall to the factory floor. Now it was out of sight. Adam then turned to look out the window that overlooked the factory floor and watched as the Protectron slowly came into view, he could see two of the super mutants in the distance sitting on one of the cars still chatting. Neither party had noticed each other yet, but that was about to change.


    The protectron''s head sensor started spinning as an internal red light began to be emitted from its head. ¡°Protect and Serve!¡± It loudly announced as it raised its arms and approached the super mutants. It clearly had no subtly.


    ¡°Stupid robot, why you come at Super Mutant!?¡± One of them yelled as he stood up only to be hit with a laser blast right in his chest from the hand of the Protectron.


    ¡°RAAAAAAAAAGH!¡± The other one yelled out in anger as he saw his friend get hit with the laser, although it didn''t seem to kill him, just wound him.


    ¡°You pay for that puny robot!¡± He yelled again as he ran forward full speed grabbing his sledgehammer off his back intending to crush the protectron.


    Adam would have loved to stick around to see how this fight played out but he had to make his move now, so he did.

 Chapter 25

    Adam wasted no time, there was already a route in his head that he was planning on taking. He booked down the office corridor to the path that led to the other office spaces, right to where the hole that blocked his search before was, finding it as expected. Carefully, but swiftly, he lowered himself onto the first floor dropping down without making too much noise.


    In the distance he could hear the sounds of yelling, laser fire, the protectron blurting out alerts and the sound of large heavy footsteps moving in that direction. Adam needed to move. And so he did.


    Adam began running through the first floor quickly trying to stay off the factory floor where the fight was happening and stick to the side hallways where he could avoid being spotted. However he came to a sudden halt when he heard the sound of large footsteps rapidly moving closer from in front of him. So he hid, ducking underneath a office desk where he was hidden from all angles except the one he entered from, it was very uncomfortable, but that was better than an engagement right now.


    He heard the sound of the footsteps slowing down as they got closer to his position. He seemed to stop a moment later, sniffing at the air. He could see, just barely, a giant blue foot next to the desk he was hiding under. He was so close to being caught. There was a tense few seconds that followed. Adam was sweating, he was incredibly nervous. Not helped by the fact that now the Super Mutant seemed to be stepping closer, slowly, as he had yet to find Adam, but he was approaching.


    Boom. The sound of a car exploding in what was likely a large ball of fire can be heard from the factory floor. Perhaps the protectron¡¯s laser set off one of the engines, Adam couldn''t be sure, but it did catch the Blue Super Mutan¡¯s attention.


    ¡°Bluey!¡± One of the others from the factory called out in mild desperation as the sound of the fight continued. The blue super mutant growled annoyed before turning around quickly and then jogging off to head to the factory floor with his compatriots.


    Adam sat there for a few seconds more, he had yet again came close to dying, he could have killed that one, though perhaps that was bravado speaking, but handling the rest who would shortly follow was a death sentence, not with just a pistol and a rifle. But thankfully luck seemed to still be on his side today.


    As soon as the blue one was completely clear Adam resumed running down the corridors making it safely to the broken floor where the sewer lay.


    He hesitated, after all he would be entering a sewer, not exactly the kind of place you want to be trudging through. But he could hear the super mutants still in the distance so he swallowed his doubts and jumped in.


    The inside of the sewer was dark, expectantly. Thankfully Adam had his pip-boy which emitted light and his helmet which did too, he was very much able to light up his path without issue. However the sewer was both grosser than he had expected and less than he expected.


    It was grosser because everything that used to sit down here, the grime, the viscera, the excrement, had become caked to the walls floor and ceiling, bodies also were down here, partially buried in the gross muck that caked the surfaces. Mostly skeletons but there was a body that looked fresher than the others, maybe only a decade old. So it was not a fun experience walking around down there.


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    However on the flipside the smell was gone. It still smelled, but instead of smelling like a gross sewer it just smelled like old rusted metal, which was a hazard in itself but it was not something that was making him gag, just reconsider his life choices. Still, now that he was down here he could help but wish he had bought that gasmask yesterday, he would feel much more comfortable with it on. Perhaps that could be his next purchase. At least something for situations like this. But that was for the future, not now.


    He wandered down in the dark tubes for a few minutes, only having the vaguest sense of where he was due to his Pip-boy telling him. Though even it was not completely accurate as it was calibrated for above ground travel, not subterranean. Still, it was something. However he had yet to find any sort of exit. Considering how many sewer grates there were it was simply just bad luck, but as he wandered he did find a small maintenance area where workers could check the electrical controls and catch a breather. He pulled off to the side once he found it.


    Truthfully it was nothing more than a small concrete square surrounded by a metal chain link fence, rusted over, a small folding table and folding chair, a metal shelving unit, and a control console, long since dead with no power.


    Adam took the moment to sit down on the chair. It had been a long day after all, a momentary break was not a bad idea. But the chair did not seem to agree with his assessment as, as soon as he sat down, it buckled under his weight and he found himself sitting on his butt on the ground.


    ¡°Ow, fuck.¡± Adam said softly to himself as he stood up rubbing his ass for a moment. He could only sigh, nothing that could be done about it.


    He then turned his attention to the table, an old Nuka Cola bottle, long since browned, sat on the table next to 3 Nuka Cola bottle caps. Clearly someone was enjoying a break down here at some point much like him. The bottles themselves were useless, only noticing the other two now on the ground, but the caps were just free money so Adam gladly pocketed the three caps in his own bag and then looked at the maintenance shelf. It was almost entirely empty save for a metal Toolbox.


    Despite his bag already being full he decided to open it, after all who knows what it might contain, it might be worth something. To no one''s surprise, least of all him, it was tools. Though there was more duct tape and superglue. Two things that Chuck said he would buy a near infinite amount of. Despite his backpack being full he shoved them in as best he could and zipped it up tight. Vowing to himself to not loot anything more. Or, at least, if he did, he would throw whatever he found into one of the external pockets, he was very much running out of space.


    However despite this vow to himself he immediately reneged on it and looked at the control console, busting open the maintenance hatch at the base of the console with the butt of his rifle. Inside was exactly what he had hoped, a vacuum tube, perfect for replacing the one inside the jukebox. That damn thing was getting a lot of free attention, but he was getting good care at the inn so it balanced out. Finally done looting this tiny square of concrete relief from the pipe he set back out to try to find a way out.


    After walking for a little while longer he came upon a metal bar gate that would stop large things from flowing any further, there was a door built into the gate which was unlocked, thanks to the chain and broken padlock that was sitting on the ground next to it, so he didn¡¯t hesitate to open it and head on through.


    As soon as he did however, he noticed bodies, lots of them, all slumped against the wall or laying on the ground in front of them. They all looked partially decayed, similar to how Salvatore looked when he first met him, but their clothes were nothing but rags, a few were even naked. Whatever happened down here was not pleasant. But they were just bodies, he had seen enough of that by now to not let it phase him. That is until his light illuminated a bit further ahead, where he saw one of those bodies standing. That is when all the bodies began to move.

 Chapter 26

    His brain took a moment to catch up with the scene in front of him as the standing corpse turned around, its patchy horribly near-skinless body in full glory before him, its nose was gone and it was completely bald. But most of all it seemed as feral as an animal. No worse. Like a monster.


    It was now that he remembered feral ghouls. He didn¡¯t hear enough about them to narrate on what they were just that they were hostile to everyone that wasn''t also a ghoul. Adam was not.


    The standing one charged him at full speed growling and making vocalizations that scared him as he pulled his rifle off his chest and aimed it.


    Bam. His shot fired wide, his haste made him miss what should have been an easy shot. But he still had some distance. He pulled the bolt back, pushed it forward, and fired again, this time when the ghoul was only 5 feet from him.


    Bam. Its head popped like a watermelon, sending gore all over. But Adam didn¡¯t have time to think, the other feral ghouls in the area were getting up, one even crawling, and they looked pissed.


    Bam. He fired again, once more popping the head of the ghoul he hit, but they were all up now, too close for comfort. Quickly, he let drop the rifle, it fell slack until it hit the tension limit of the strap that Adam had slung over his body, hitting him in the stomach a bit as it swung inwards. Meanwhile Adam wasted no time pulling out his pistol and beginning to open fire.


    Round after round after round. Adam had no time for trigger discipline, he was just firing. And it was doing less than he hoped. There were more feral ghouls here than he expected, way more. He took out the few slumped ones in the tube near him easily enough. But more kept emerging from the dark, their growls and guttural noises overlapping and reverberating down the long tube he was in. But he didn¡¯t stop shooting.


    Even after he ran out of ghouls to hit within the light that illuminated the small section of the sewers, he kept firing down the tube, hoping to hit any that he could, slow them down at least. Then he heard the worst sound he could.


    Click. His gun was out.


    ¡°FUCK.¡± Adam vocalized loudly as he realized the situation was no longer in his favor, the feral ghouls were already beginning to emerge from the darkness charging at him with reckless abandon.


    Adam made a quick decision. He threw the 10mm pistol behind him, back the way he came and drew the Laser Pistol from his bag. He then resumed firing down the path without stopping, with the added benefit of the red laser being emitted lighting up the hall enough that he could see the hoard encroaching on him. But even during this he was not idle.


    From the moment Adam had drawn his laser pistol he was already backing up. Back through the gate that he stepped through into this nightmare. As soon as his laser pistol fired through the entire fusion cell it already had in it, he slammed the door full force.


    The feral ghouls were within sight now, seconds away from getting him. He had no more time to waste, he picked up the chain on the ground and quickly wrapped it around the bars of the Gate and the door to the gate, effectively sealing it shut with a knot. No sooner had he finished doing this were the feral ghouls at the gate, their arms sticking through like some sort of horror movie.


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    Adam was quick to jump back, watching as the small mass of feral ghouls reached through the bars at him. It was terrifying. Adam watched for a moment, as they fruitlessly reached for him, unable to recognize that their efforts would be in vain. He still knew very little about them. He was extra careful the entire time not to let them get close as, if they were like zombies in a zombie movie he had watched back in the day, one bite might make him one too. He didn''t want to risk it. He knew they were dangerous, that was enough for him.


    He sighed in relief as the ferals kept making threatening guttural sounds from the other side of the gate as he turned around to grab his 10mm off the ground where it landed. In a more ideal situation he would have holstered it. But he was skilled with a gun, he was not a gunslinger, he had no confidence in himself in that moment to reholster the gun swiftly and grab the laser pistol, he knew there was a high likelihood of him, fumbling it, and this was no situation for that, so he decided throwing it was the safer option, because he had always intended on retreating.


    Still, it was not exactly good for his gun to be thrown so hard and carelessly. But it was a sturdy weapon, if that was enough to break it it wouldn¡¯t have been nearly as popular.


    Grabbing it off the gross caked-in grime on the floor he reholstered it, gave one last look at the ferals still reaching through the bars, and then turned to head back the way he came. There were, afterall, many other paths he passed. This one happened to lead him to trouble.


    Doubling back proved to be a boon in disguise as, after taking the first turn that he passed up on behind him, he was met with, only a few minutes later, a ladder leading topside. The sewer grate was gone, letting in the dim light of the near full moon pour down through the hole and giving Adam a clear view of what he had been looking for this whole time.


    However, before he headed to the ladder, he noticed something that caught his eye right next to it. It was a man, of course dead, but the man was in a full suit of power armor, minus the helmet. He was slumped on the ground, his back to the wall.


    Adam approached, curious. The man seemed clean shaven with a short buzz cut. The armor itself seemed to be a T-45d variant, the most common kind, but on the chest was emblazoned a red emblem of a sword with some wings and behind it some gears inside a circle that was formed by the wings. He didn¡¯t recognize the emblem, nor had he heard anything about such a symbol. It was minor overall. After all it could simply be someone who put their own graffiti on the power armor suit once they found it and fixed it up. Power armor did make you feel invincible after all, it wasn''t too far fetched. But despite the dopamine rush one couldn''t forget that power armor was not, in fact, invincible, as evidenced by the man here. It was interesting though, and raised a number of more questions. Questions that could certainly wait until later.


    For now he simply reached his hand to the small space behind the back of the power armor, checking to see if the fusion core was still there. Unfortunately it was not. Taken, most likely.


    Adam could only sigh. It was a shame, if he had kept the power core he sold to Chuck before he might have been able to get this suit moving enough to get it to a place where he could work on it. A power armor station would be ideal but he could technically fix it anywhere once it was upright. But without a fusion core it was just a very heavy suit of armor, one that likely was locked up without power. Even if it was still wearable and he had the strength to lift it all the way back to Naper, he most certainly could not climb a ladder with it on. So it had to be left behind, it was simply a waste of space to Adam at the moment. Perhaps in the future he could come back for it, but truthfully, power armor from the sewers wasn¡¯t his favorite idea.


    His thoughts settled, he finally climbed up the ladder, leaving the power armored corpse alone on the ground beneath him.

 Chapter 27

    Adam emerged into the moonlight that poured from above onto a street he didn¡¯t recognize, though this was no surprise, he had been in the sewers for a while. He took a moment to let his Pip-Boy map recalibrate where he was since it had been skewed due to him being underground. He could have set his Pip-Boy to a local map when he was underground; it might have helped him navigate down there more, though only nominally. Adam had found that, despite the incredibly precise map that the Pip-boy had, it only had a built in US territories map. The local maps had to be done manually. So, while he might have been able to retrace his footsteps using the local map, he would have to explore more of the sewers for the Pip-Boy to actually remember it. Ultimately he had decided early on it wasnt worth using it, after all, his goal was to get topside again. But if he ever needed to go back into the sewers, god forbid, the Pip-Boy did already have a bit of a map uncovered, small blessings.


    Now that the map was updated Adam realized he was even further from Naper than he had hoped, it still was not too far to get back but he had drifted east further than he had wanted. He was actually closer to the Vault and midway now. Despite this, it was now late at night, far too late to be traveling with even a modicum of safety, not to mention he was exhausted. So he had to come to an unfortunate decision. He would need to sleep outside tonight.


    He looked around for a moment at the buildings nearby, most of them were in ruins but one that looked to be standing was a small 3 story building with a grocery store on the bottom floor and, hopefully, bedrooms on the top. He didn¡¯t have many other choices so he made his way there.


    He was careful not to turn on his helmet light and pip-boy light until he was inside the open door, afterall he would be lit up like a beacon if he used them outside, the moonlight was bright, not bright enough to mask him doing all of that.


    Once inside he remembered that neither of his pistols were loaded, it was a careless mistake, he had got so caught up in everything he forgot. Once more he turned off his lights, snuck to a corner of the grocery store he hadn¡¯t yet explored and hid behind a shelf as he began to reload his guns.


    The laser pistol was easy, simply load the fusion cell into the slot, god energy weapons were so nice. The 10mm took a bit longer, loading all the rounds into the magazine and then the magazine into the gun. He was hit with the unfortunate realization that he did not have enough 10mm ammo to be able to fully reload his gun, the ammo he had gotten from the vault had finally run through. Luckily he had two other guns now to rely on. Finally rearmed, he grabbed his 10mm pistol, turned back on his lights, and began to search the building to make sure it was clear.


    The first floor, like the sign outside the building and its green and white striped canvas canopy led him to believe was indeed a small local grocery store, mostly for fruits and vegetables, evidenced by the large bins with labels for foods that have long since turned to dirt or been eaten. Though this fact was unsurprising, food was probably one of the first things looted at the end of the world, this place probably didn¡¯t last a week.


    But it was far from just lacking fruits and vegetables. In fact the entire store was pretty empty. There were shelves labeled for dry goods like noodles or canned foods too but they were all empty. This place had already been picked clean. He moved around the empty shelves and walked behind the counter to where the register lay. Unsurprisingly the back of the counter was also empty, however he did strike upon something useful.


    Underneath a really old raggedy cloth mat he found a small wooden crate full of Nuka Cola. Still intact and preserved as the day they were bottled. To make things even better one of them was a Nuka Cola Quantum! The Quantum glowed with its luminous blue as it was uncovered from the mat even within his little area of light from his pip-boy. This was a great find, there seemed to be 10 bottles total, including the quantum. He regretted the fact that he didn''t have any space in his backpack whatsoever but they were still all crated up nicely so he could just take the whole box. However before he did he turned to the cash register and hit the button to open the drawer. Inside was a few hundred dollars in cash and coins. He mused for a moment about taking them but decided against it. After all, what use was pre-war money, no one would accept it, it seemed as though everyone accepted caps not cash so this was not even worth the paper it was printed on. Unfortunate, but not worth spending more time thinking about, so he left it behind.


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    Leaving the crate where it was until he was certain the rest of the building was safe he proceeded into the backroom of the grocery store where the storage room and the stairs to the next floor was. Predictably the storeroom was as empty as the store itself, save for one opened bag of flour that had long since gone bad. Shame, if it was salt it would be good. The storeroom was empty and uninteresting so he kept moving up the stairs, gun out, ready for whatever might pop out.


    The second floor emerged into view with 3 doors and a staircase to the third floor. He kicked open the first door to reveal a small office space. Something between a study and an office, probably a home office. The computer on the desk had a huge hole through it and the rest of the room looked to be in shambles with nothing interesting to look at, so it was not even worth entering.


    The next room seemed to be a room full of filing cabinets, more paperwork, nothing worth thinking about. The third room however seemed to be a child¡¯s playroom, it had a toy chest, a playmat on the ground, a TV, a child¡¯s couch, and toys littered about. It confirmed that likely the third floor was going to have bedrooms, which was all he really was looking for at the moment. Even if he wanted to scavenge, even if his bag was empty, even if he found something worthwhile, he would do it tomorrow. Right now all he wanted to do is find a safe place to sleep.


    So he proceeded to the third floor to be met with 3 more doors once again. The first room seemed to be a living room style space, a TV, couch, a cellarette, some magazines on a short coffee table and a broken long radio and record player table. It might have something worthwhile grabbing, but once more he was not scavenging, he was looking for a place to sleep, so he moved on.


    Next room he found was a young boy¡¯s room, probably for a child under the age of 5 judging by the excessively small bed with guard rails around it. Far too big to be called a crib but not big enough for any grown person. The room was also decorated for a child with more toys on the ground and a few other odds and ends. But he couldn¡¯t sleep on the child¡¯s bed so he moved on.


    Lastly, and finally, he found the master bedroom. At a quick glance it seemed like it previously belonged to a single man judging by the lacking vanity in the room, though it was possible the wife didn¡¯t need a vanity, maybe she didn¡¯t use makeup? Regardless it didn¡¯t especially matter what he came in here for was the bed. Which, luckily, was sitting right in the center of the room¡­ empty.


    The bedframe was there, the springs that supported the mattress were intact but the mattress itself was completely gone, nowhere to be seen.


    ¡°Fuck.¡± Adam said softly to himself as he left off a big sigh. However as he came to the realization and was staring at the non-existent mattress a radroach snuck out from under the bed frame, closing the distance before he even knew it was there and bit at his shin.


    It hurt, but wasn¡¯t nearly as bad as the surprise he felt by the sudden ambush. He had relaxed his guard since there was nothing in this house up until now, and the realization that his dreams of a comfortable sleep were crushed made him lose focus. The radroach simply got the drop on him.


    Adam was quick to shuffle back and then, using the butt of his rifle, smash the hell out of the large roach but the damage was done. He looked down at the bite mark on his leg, it was bleeding, but not altogether too bad all things considered, just a small bit of damage, he¡¯s lucky that the roach wasn¡¯t carrying diseases or anything¡­ right? He might need to ask Doc or someone about that one when he gets back, but for now he was still left with his original problem. What was he supposed to do about the lacking bed.


    Adam took stock of his options. The only bed he found in this building was the child¡¯s bed, but it was a third the size of his body, it would make for a poor sleep. He would be better off sleeping on the ground rather than trying to contort his body to fit the small bed. He was no stranger to sleeping on the ground, he had done it more than once in the army but comfort was a luxury he would prefer not to have to give up. Unfortunately his options ended there, unless he got very creative.


    Adam walked back to the child¡¯s bedroom and looked at the small bed again. It really was too small. So, left with few other options, he decided to make use of it in the only way that made sense to him, as a pillow.


    He pulled the bed off its bed frame and then placed it on the ground, taking off his backpack and placing it in the corner of the room after he closed the door. He took off both his bullet proof vests and helmet and placed them on the now empty bed frame. Then, with no blanket, mattress, and minimal comfort, he laid down on the ground, head on the small mattress, and bid himself to sleep.

 Chapter 28

    He woke up the next day with some stiffness in his back. Luckily that seemed to be the worst of it, though he hadn¡¯t really gotten that great of sleep. Truth be told Adam was on alert all night. He had never really slept for more than 30 minutes at a time as he kept waking up to every small noise he heard, truly staying outside the walls was not ideal, he needed to get back, that much was certain.


    Adam checked his pip-boy as he sat up, it was still very early in the morning, early enough that the creatures that moved at night would likely be asleep and the day dwelling creatures would likely just be rising. Or so he hoped. Truthfully it could be still 3am and he¡¯d leave. He was very much over staying out here. Luckily he was waiting on no one but himself, so he grabbed his gear, threw his body armors on, his backpack strapped to his back, and then headed back down the stairs.


    He paused before he left the third floor, stopping at the living room to grab the magazines, a copy of meeting people and locksmith¡¯s reader and grabbing a bottle of untouched whiskey from the cellarette. He threw the magazines into the flat back external mesh pocket of the backpack and the whiskey into the other mesh pocket on the side, opposite the laser pistol. Then he finally headed downstairs.


    Adam had almost forgotten about the Nuka Cola he found the night prior, stopping short of the threshold of the door before turning around to grab it. It was not too far to say Adam was overburdened with goods, but he was just at his limit, truly he couldn''t add many more things to his collection on his way back. His bag was full, and now so were his hands. He could fill up his pockets but he was running out of those too. Regardless Adam once more resolved himself to do no more looting unless he could wear it from this point forward. He was not looking forward to lugging this crate of Nuka Cola back the entire distance to Naper, but it was going to be worth it. The Nuka Cola was valuable, Chuck had told him so, each one was worth 20 caps, 3 was enough to cover the cost of a night¡¯s stay at the Inn, with 9 he could afford 3 nights, and hopefully the Quantum was worth that much more too. It was far too valuable to leave it behind, but at least he could complain about it to himself.


    The journey for the next little while was largely uneventful, no raiders, deathclaws, super mutants, or feral ghouls popped up to mess with him. Thankfully. However, part way through his journey he decided to make a pitstop to scale a tall building to get an overhead view of the path he could take. While up there he got a true sense of the devastation around him.


    Chicago was in shambles, the once bustling metropolis of heavy industry and human labor was now in ruins, much of the city, as far as he could see, was not even a shadow of its former self, it truly looked unrecognizable. But he chose not to dwell on it too much, such thoughts were depressing. He could leave his self doubt and pity for when he was safe again, he couldn''t afford to be careless.


    So, with his new vantage point, Adam visually scoured the paths that led towards the direction of Naper, confirming with his Pip-Boy map that he was indeed correct about his directional assumptions. Furthermore while he had the opportunity he scouted the area to see if there were any hosties he could see around.


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    Adam had found that the pip-boy¡¯s VATS could zoom in on a target once it had been designated, with a bit of creative thinking he could use VATS like binoculars and see at great distances. Or so he thought.


    As he quickly found out, unless VATS had a target to lock onto it didn¡¯t want to remain zoomed and furthermore it paled in comparison to real binoculars. It seemed that the VATS system had its limits too. It was a shame but he would have to nix that plan, no matter, binoculars were just another thing he would need to remember to pick up before going out next time. With his scouting done he picked back up his Nuka Cola crate and headed back down the stairs, following the pre-planned path all the way to Naper.


    Once more his journey was largely uneventful. He swore he heard the sounds of a bear at one point but saw nothing so he could only assume either it was a hallucination or the roar was loud enough that it carried, in either case he chose not to stick around to find out.


    Exhausted, stiff, and more than ready to drop the stupid crate he had been carrying for half a day, he finally arrived back at the walls of Naper. It was truly a sight to behold, he could certainly rest easy again now that he could see the walls once more.


    Gleefully, he ran over to the walls and called out to the guard on duty. ¡°Hey! Can you open it up?¡±


    The guard took one look at Adam and then nodded. ¡°Sure. One second.¡±


    Adam was prepared for another small argument with the guard like last time he got back but luckily this guard seemed much more lax, or perhaps his blue and yellow jumpsuit was much more known within town. In either case he was glad to be back inside the safety of the walls.


    Adam headed right to Winchester¡¯s he desperately wanted to go drop off everything he got. He had enough for a room but while he was tired and wanted to rest, more than anything, he wanted the vindication that his efforts were worth it.


    ¡°Welcome back friend.¡± Chuck said with a warm smile and a tone that said he was unsurprised to see Adam despite him being gone yesterday as he walked through the door.


    ¡°Hey Chuck.¡± Adam said as he walked through the door, his energy reaching the end of the line as he hoisted up the crate full of Nuka Colas with a grunt of finality as he finally reached his destination. Chuck whistled as he saw all the things Adam was bringing, seeing his overflowing backpack, pockets, toolbelt and this crate full of goods from Scavenging.


    ¡°Seems the pickin¡¯s were good this time eh?¡± He grinned as he idly played with the top of one of the Nuka Cola bottles with his finger.


    ¡°Oh yeah, but it was a hell of a trip this time.¡± Adam responded as he pulled off his backpack and placed it on the counter too, and then his second, more modified body armor on the counter too. He also, though he had no intention on selling it, put his helmet on the counter as well, mostly just to get it off of his head. He would have taken off his other body armor as well but he would wait to do that when he got back to his room.


    ¡°Super mutants, Feral ghouls, Raiders, radroaches.¡± Adam said, listing off all of his encounters. ¡°Oh and feral dogs too, it was a lot out there.¡±


    Chuck whistled again. ¡°Well I¡¯ll be, you got the devil¡¯s luck that¡¯s for sure.¡± He chuckled and then looked at all the things on the counter.


    ¡°I assume you are selling this all, yes?¡± He grinned.

 Chapter 29

    Adam unzipped his backpack and started a more orderly organization for Chuck to see what he brought back. There were, of course, some things he planned on keeping. Most of the books for one, a few of the tools he had already added to his tool belt, the knife and holster, and he had yet to decide if he was keeping anything else yet, but for the things he was sure of he put back away inside his bag.


    What was left on the table was the modified body armor, the pipe pistol, the scattered .357 rounds, a pile of duct tape and wonderglue, a few sensor modules, a fission battery, a bottle of whiskey, two magazines, one book, a crate of 9 Nuka Cola bottles and 1 Nuka Cola Quantum, and one gold bar.


    Chuck takes a few minutes to look through everything and do some mental calculations.


    ¡°Chuck, do you mind running me down on the value of some of this stuff again?¡± Adam asked, finding his advice from last time to be very helpful in steering what he should be looking for. Chuck just nodded and seemed to break himself out of his concentration.


    ¡°Well¡­¡± He paused as he looked at everything again. ¡°Let¡¯s start from left to right.¡± He said pointing as he did.


    ¡°The fission battery was a great find, they aren¡¯t quite as good as Fusion Cores but they do well for a number of other things, goin¡¯ rates about 75 caps, but imma buy it from you for 60.¡± Chuck begins, same as last time he was telling Adam honestly what the rates were and what he was paying for them, Adam wouldn''t complain, that was part of his deal, though he could say no if he chose not to sell. ¡°Sensor modules sell for something like 30 caps a piece, you got three, i¡¯ll buy em for 75. The wonderglue and duct tape go for 20 and 12 respectively, you got a lot of those, quick count looks like 10 of each. I''ll buy your whole lot for 250. The book is in decent condition, I''ll buy it for 7. The magazines are decent, I''ll give you 20 for each at goin¡¯ rate. The Whiskey is nice, i''ll give you another 15 and probably will sell it for 20. The Armor is¡­¡± He paused as he got to the armor looking at it seriously.


    ¡°Well¡­ this certainly is quite an interesting find.¡± He picked it up and held it aloft while he looked at it. ¡°It ain¡¯t much to look at, looks like someone carved it up real good.¡± He mused aloud.


    ¡°Armor is armor so it''s still usable but it''s gonna be hard to find a buyer for this, i''ll give you 10 caps for it.¡± He then turned to the pipe pistol and sighed as he picked it up. ¡°I hate these things.¡± He held it in his hand as he looked at it. ¡°But, a gun is a gun, so i''ll buy it for you for 15, there''s no goin¡¯ rate on these, always depend on how shoddy the make is. This seems acceptable, though I''d still much rather have a real gun at my side, but beggars can¡¯t be choosers.¡± He shrugged and put it back down.


    ¡°The .357 rounds I''ll buy a cap a piece, so 6 caps total. As for these puppies.¡± He smiled as he looked at the crate of Nuka Colas. ¡°I gotta say findin¡¯ a whole crate of Nuka Cola is quite ascore, not to mention¡­¡± He pulled out the Nuka Cola Quantum and looked at it with a wide smile. ¡°This alone is quite the treasure. These go for 50 caps each though imma be buyin¡¯ it from ya for 40.¡± He put it back into the crate next to the others.


    ¡°¡®Course you know a bottle of Nuka Cola is worth 20 caps each, i''ll buy those at the goin¡¯ rate.¡± Chuck continued before he finally reached the gold bar, which he had purposefully skipped over earlier since he wanted to save it for later. ¡°Now where the hell did you find a gold gold bar?¡± Chuck said more impressed than anything. Adam just laughed.


    ¡°In a safe owned by the Corvega Assembly plant manager, who¡­ I think was a Chinese spy? But the jury is out on that one.¡± Adam joked.


    ¡°Well, Chinese or not this is not an insignificant find.¡± He laughed himself as he placed it back down. ¡°I''m no expert so I''m going to need to call in a buddy for this one.¡± He said with a smile. ¡°So let¡¯s put the gold bar aside for a minute, and deal with the rest, you selling everything here?¡±


    Adam took a moment to think. And then pulled the Locksmith¡¯s Reader off the counter along with one Nuka Cola. ¡°I think besides these two things I''ll be selling everything here.¡± Chuck Nods and then begins to calculate.


    ¡°Seems with everything here your total comes to 658 caps.¡± He said after a moment, displaying a rather impressive mental arithmetic skill.


    ¡°Out of curiosity, how much is this worth?¡± Adam asked as he put the laser pistol on the table. Chuck picked it up and examined it.


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    ¡°Well this one seems well preserved¡­ I say I''d give you¡­ 150 caps for it.¡± Chuck said after a moment. Adam just nodded and then took the gun back. ¡°I''m going to hang onto it for now but it''s good to know it''s worth something.¡± He smiled.


    ¡°So do we have a deal?¡± Chuck asked with a nod of his own.


    ¡°Actually I was wondering If I could grab a few things.¡±


    ¡°Oh?¡± Chuck responded interested in lightening the caps burden he was going to shoulder by buying all of this stuff right now.


    ¡°Well for starters I''d like binoculars if you have them, something with a strap so I can keep it around my neck when I''m not using them.¡± Adam said, remembering his scouting issues from earlier when he tried to find a good and safe path to Naper from a high vantage point. There was simply only so much he could do with his eyes alone, even a small pair of binoculars would help a lot.


    Chuck seemed to muse for a moment before he put a single finger up in a ¡®wait¡¯ motion and then walked into the backroom for a bit. A minute later he came out with a black metal pair of binoculars with a strap attached.


    ¡°This is a good pair of binoculars, but ill be honest with you, they¡¯ve been sitting in my storage for a while so I''m willing to part with them for a discount.¡± He paused to think. ¡°Normally I''d sell this for 60, but if you take it off my hands i''ll give it to you for 40, let me recoup some of my expenses on it.¡± Adam nodded in response.


    ¡°Yes, that works perfectly.¡± He said as Chuck put it down on the counter.


    ¡°I''d also like a respirator or gas mask, preferably one I can wear under my helmet or in addition to, I''d rather not sacrifice my helmet for being able to breathe.¡± Chuck then, once more, went into the back and came out a minute later with a gas mask that perfectly fit Adam''s description. It was fitted with straps so it could attach to the back of his head but it did not have a top to it so it could fit over his face while he kept his helmet on, exactly as he¡¯d hoped.


    ¡°Perfect.¡± Adfam said with a smile.


    ¡°I¡¯ll sell it to you for 15 caps.¡±


    ¡°Add it onto the pile.¡± Adam said with a small laugh.


    ¡°The last thing I need is some more ammo. I need more 10mm, maybe one or two fusion cells for the laser pistol if you got them and¡­¡± he paused as he looked at his hunting rifle inspecting it for a moment. ¡°.308 rounds for my rifle.¡± He said after a moment.


    Chuck reached below the counter and then pulled out a box of 10mm, a box of 308, and two fusion cells. ¡°This enough for you?¡± He asked.


    ¡°That''s perfect. Throw em in the pile.¡±


    ¡°20 rounds in the 10mm box, at 2 each that''s 40 caps, 20 rounds in the 308 box, at 3 a piece that''s 60, and let''s say 20 apiece for each fusion cell so another 40. So far, with everything im owing you¡­ 463 caps.¡± Chuck said, once more displaying impressive mental arithmetic. Adam just nodded, he wasn¡¯t dumb by any means and given a bit of time to calculate he could figure out the total number too but he trusted Chuck not to screw him over.


    ¡°Also I was wondering if you had a holster for the laser pistol?¡± Adam asked, hoping to not have to keep the laser pistol on his backpack all the time. Though as he asked this he looked down at his waist. He had his toolbelt on, tilted slightly to his left side because he also had the 10mm holster he wanted easy access to. So unless he put the holster above his butt there was no more room¡­ no¡­ he couldn''t do that because the backpack would get in the way, it would be able to sit there but not be easily drawable. The next thought was a chest holster, it could fit over top of his body armor, but that wasn¡¯t a good idea either, his rifle rested on his chest due to the backpack taking his backspace and it would bang into it constantly. Which honestly only left a leg holster. Damn, the ergonomics of balancing all his gear was becoming as much of a struggle as actually going out there. He really wished he had his gear from the army, it had so many more pockets. Or hell a mule would be nice, something to carry all his stuff when he didn¡¯t need it, but it was wishful thinking.


    ¡°On second thought¡­¡± Adam began before Chuck began to move away. ¡°Unless it''s an ankle holster I think I don¡¯t have any more space.¡± He laughed.


    ¡°Well let me see what I can find, not even sure I have any laser pistol holsters in stock, you might have to custom order it.¡± Chuck once more disappeared into the back for longer this time, only to return empty handed a few minutes later.


    ¡°No such luck, I''m afraid.¡± He said when he got back. ¡°I don¡¯t have anything like that in stock, not too many laser pistols lying about for people to need holsters. There''s a leatherworker at the Pier, so if you are ever up that way you can ask them to make you one, or if you stick around town long enough you can ask me to grab it for you when I head that way again.¡± Chuck offered.


    ¡°Alright that sounds good, I¡¯ll see about the holster in the future. For now that¡¯s all I need.¡± Adam said before he added. ¡°Well that and also selling the gold.¡± He chuckled.


    ¡°Well let¡¯s get this sorted first and then I can call in Devon.¡± He smiled. ¡°You still okay with vouchers?¡±


    ¡°Yessir.¡± Adam said back.


    ¡°Happy to hear it. Let me just grab a few for you.¡± Chuck then grabbed four 100 cap vouchers, one 50 cap voucher, and then gave Adam 13 caps, giving Adam a total of 622 caps in his possession.


    ¡°Alright, wait here while I get my buddy in to check out the gold.¡± Chuck said with a smile.

 Chapter 30

    Adam waited around the shop for a few minutes before a man wearing a heavy brown smock, welder¡¯s goggles, and covered in soot came walking in with Chuck.


    ¡°This ¡®ere is the town blacksmith, Devon.¡± He said with a smile.


    ¡°Nice to meet you Devon.¡± Adam said, offering his hand to him. Devon, however, ignored Adam and walked right over to the gold, picking it up and began to examine it.


    ¡°Don''t mind him, he¡¯s not the social type.¡± Chuck said with a small laugh.


    ¡°This here yours?¡± Devon asked Adam, seemingly, as he continued looking at the gold bar without even glancing at him.


    ¡°Yes sir.¡± Adam responded, to which Devon just seemed to grunt in affirmation before pulling out some sort of metal detector with a small prong in the front and touching it to the gold bar. It beeped, he looked at the screen, and then he put the gold bar back down.


    ¡°It¡¯s as it said on the tin. I¡¯d wager it''s about 450 caps worth of gold.¡± He said to Chuck, still not looking at Adam.


    ¡°Thanks Devon.¡± Chuck said as he flipped him a cap which Devon caught midair. He grunted again and then walked out without so much as a goodbye.


    ¡°Not the most talkative man, huh?¡± Adam remarked once Devon had left.


    ¡°No, he usually shuts himself up in his smithy, don¡¯t talk to many folk neither. But he¡¯s not such a bad guy, he¡¯s actually quite friendly, just gotta know how to give him his space.¡± Chuck said as he walked back around to the other side of the counter.


    ¡°You ¡®eard him. It''s worth 450 caps. But this is a small town, I can¡¯t sell the bar to anyone here and that¡¯s a big cap investment. So i''ll buy it off you for¡­ 400 caps.¡± he offered. ¡°I''ll sell it at Midway next time I''m headin¡¯ that way.¡±


    Adam took a moment to think. Truthfully he was planning to head to Midway eventually, he just didn¡¯t know when. He still needed to stock up on a few things and prepare himself for the journey, planning out a route and all that. But even with that he would likely make it there before Chuck did. However he would really rather not carry around a gold bar for the rest of the time until he made it to Midway. The people in this town were friendly and kind but there really was no need to take the risk. So after a moment to contemplate he nodded. ¡°Alright that sounds good.¡± Chuck grinned and then reached for more vouchers.


    ¡°Pleasure doin¡¯ business with ya.¡± He said as he handed over 400 caps in vouchers which Adam immediately put away.


    ¡°Alright, I''m heading back to the Inn, I''m exhausted and need a nap.¡± Adam said with a laugh as he grabbed his helmet and backpack, putting them back on.


    ¡°I¡¯ll probably see you later tonight then when I pop in for a drink.¡± Chuck grinned as he waved Adam goodbye.


    Adam had over a thousand caps now. A far cry from when he was worried if he would have a roof over his head the last time he was in town. Scaving was absolutely a very lucrative line of work, but it did come with numerous risks. There''s a good reason most folks don''t even try to do what he is doing. But it pays off well and he is glad to have found something to help sustain him in this wild world that had changed so much from the past.


    When Adam got into the Inn Mandy was talking to Eric about something when she saw him.


    ¡°Well, well, well. Look what the cat dragged in.¡± She grinned as Adam walked over. Adam laughed.


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    ¡°No cats, but plenty of other things actually.¡± He chuckled as he pulled out a voucher for 100 caps. ¡°Can I rent the room again?¡±


    ¡°Sure can, cleaned it as always, nothing else touched.¡± She said as she took the voucher and then handed him the key back again. ¡°You keep coming around like this. Eventually I might consider you a regular.¡± She winked and then put the voucher into the cash register.


    ¡°Can I go now?¡± Eric said, a bit annoyed at his conversation getting derailed by Adam.


    ¡°I''m not holding you, Eric, but I don''t know what your rush is, not like you have a hot date waiting for you.¡± Mandy teased only to get flipped off by Eric who then skulked off heading out the door.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know what to do with that brother of mine. He¡¯s so much work.¡± Mandy remarked, mostly to herself.


    ¡°He¡¯s feeling underappreciated and underutilized, I¡¯d guess.¡± Adam said as he sat down at the bar for a moment. ¡°I spoke with him before I left and he said he was rueful that all he had to live for was playing Inn worker.¡±


    ¡°Did he now?¡± Mandy said as she raised an inquisitive eyebrow at Adam. ¡°Now, how did you get my brother to open up like that? He¡¯s usually not much of a talker.¡± Adam just shrugged.


    ¡°Protagonist energy.¡± He said with a cocky grin and a playful tone. Mandy lightly hit his arm and shook her head.


    ¡°Well his life is his own, he doesn¡¯t need to stay here but I¡¯d be lying if I didn¡¯t say I¡¯d worry if he wasn¡¯t here.¡±


    ¡°Well I doubt he¡¯s going anywhere, I think he¡¯s just feeling cooped up. I told him it''s never too late to learn new skills, he probably just needs a push to find something he enjoys.¡±


    ¡°Maybe.¡± Mandy said with a sigh as she put a hand on her cheek. ¡°I just hope he can pull him out of this slump soon, only so much I can do as his sister. Would be nice if he actually found a girl but I doubt he will walking around like that.¡±


    ¡°Best thing you can do for him is help him when he needs it and give him a home to return to, it''s on him to find something to drive him.¡± Adam offered softly.


    ¡°Doesn¡¯t stop me from worrying though¡­¡± Mandy said trailing off into thoughts before she shook her head and then looked at Adam again. ¡°Now, tell me, did you take a seat just to talk about my brother or did you need something else?¡±


    ¡°Oh yes!¡± Adam said as he unzipped his backpack and pulled out his Nuka Cola he kept instead of selling. ¡°I was wondering if you could put this in the fridge you got back there.¡± Adam said as he motioned with his head to the large Nuka Cola branded minifridge on the back of the bar next to the corner wall.


    ¡°Sure can. 1 cap.¡± Mandy said with a grin.


    ¡°Really?¡± Adam said with a sigh.


    ¡°Really.¡± Mandy chuckled. ¡°It ain¡¯t that big and the drinks in there are for paying customers, if I take everyone¡¯s bottle that needs chilling everytime they ask I''d have nothing to sell. The cap is a cover fee.¡± Adam sighed and then reached into his caps bag and then handed her the cap.


    ¡°Please.¡± He said as he slid the Nuka Cola bottle towards here.


    ¡°Certainly.¡± She laughed softly as she flipped the cap into the air, caught it in her hand, and then grabbed the Nuka Cola.


    ¡°You got a good find out there getting a Nuka Cola.¡± She said as she put it in the fridge. ¡°They aren¡¯t hard to come by but ones that aren''t broken or open are getting rarer as time goes on.¡±


    ¡°I actually found a whole crate of them, a Quantum too. Sold the rest to chuck.¡±


    ¡°Didja?¡± She said as she leaned in on the counter after walking back over. ¡°What¡¯d he pay you for them?¡±


    ¡°20 caps, said that was the market rate.¡± Mandy seemed to think for a moment.


    ¡°Tell you what, you sell me any drinks you find from now on and I''ll top Chuck¡¯s offer. He pays 20 caps? I dont know¡­ I''ll pay 22.¡± She laughed softly. ¡°I¡¯m gonna have to buy the drinks from Chuck anyway, might as well cut out the middle man.


    ¡°Works for me.¡± Adam said as he stood up. ¡°Oh, by the way, is Salvatore still in town? I got a gift for him.¡±


    ¡°Sure is, he has a room over there.¡± She said, pointing to a door he had never seen opened, though it being another room for rent made perfect sense.


    ¡°Awsome.¡± Adam said before he paused again. ¡°Oh, yeah also I found the vacuum tube needed to repair the Jukebox fully.¡± He stopped for a moment before grinning and adding: ¡°I¡¯m going to clean up and then take a nap, if you are willing to cook a meal for me for free when I get up I¡¯ll finish the repairs for you.¡± Mandy seemed to consider for a moment before she shrugged.


    ¡°Alright, fine enough by me, go take your nap, let me know when you want your food.¡±


    ¡°Sounds good.¡± Adam said with a smile, heading back to his rented room, glad to have a sense of familiarity and comfort once more.

 Chapter 31

    As soon as Adam entered his room he began to take off all of his gear, practically throwing it off himself, overjoyed to be rid of the burden of all his excess. Most of it ended up on his bed, but his body armor and helmet ended up on the floor like discarded clothing.


    He sighed in relief as he took a seat on his bed. His bed. That was an interesting thought. This was most certainly not home. It was a rented room, a rather expensive rented room at that. But even though it hadn¡¯t been long since he came out of the vault he already began to look at this room with a sense of comfort and familiarity. It would be a bit much to call it ¡°home¡± but the bed was his and that alone was a rather impressive realization.


    However Adam couldn''t get comfortable yet, he really needed to wash, no matter how tired he was he wanted to wash up first, then, after he was cleaned, he could sleep. So, with a bit of effort, he bid himself to stand and headed into the bathroom to clean up.


    Adam spent the next few hours sleeping, he needed it. He wasn¡¯t exhausted, but he was worn out, he had hardly slept the night prior afterall, not to mention the amount of walking he had done between the last two days. So having a comfortable bed to rest on again was a boon far too great to ignore.


    Once he had slept he got up and headed back outside to the Inn. Mandy was tending bar while chatting to some customers, though upon seeing Adam she nodded his way.


    ¡°Sleep well, Scaver?¡± She teased.


    ¡°Like a log.¡± Adam returned.


    ¡°You want food now?¡±


    ¡°Yes, ma¡¯am.¡±


    ¡°Alright let me cook it up for you.¡± She said as she turned away from the two customers she was talking to, to begin cooking for Adam. Meanwhile Adam made his way to the Jukebox and spun it around, opened it up, and then began the last bit of repairs he needed to do.


    The jukebox was playing music when Adam walked over but he had to turn it off to not electrocute himself while he worked. Once it was off he plugged in the missing vacuum tube and then pulled out a voltage tester that he took from his tool belt to make sure it was transferring electricity right, after which he sealed it back up, turned it back on, and was happy to see that it was working again with no problems.


    ¡°Well, looks like until something else breaks your jukebox is back to working order.¡± Adam said as he sat down at the bar.


    ¡°Wonderful. Honestly, before you came along I was just about to junk the damn thing, so two free meals for a repair is a steal in my book.¡± She laughed softly.  ¡°Now if I could only figure out how to make the Jukebox charge a cap for a song instead of playing for free.¡±


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    ¡°Well it would require some modification, but it¡¯s not too hard.¡± Adam said casually as he watched the people in the Inn, noting that it was not too full at this hour.


    ¡°You can?¡± She asked surprised. ¡°You really are full of surprises.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I mean I¡¯d just need to widen the slot for the quarters and swap out the chute for something bigger, the actual mechanism for accepting quarters is just a motion detector, It''s not that advanced.¡± He laughed and then added: ¡°I used to use old washers instead of quarters to get the machines to think I had money when I was a kid.¡±


    ¡°How much will such a job cost?¡± She said, turning her head around with a raised eyebrow.


    ¡°Well¡­¡± Adam paused. ¡°Let me think on that.¡± He chuckled.


    A few minutes later Adam had a hot plate of food in front of him, some sort of meat covered in sauce. He had the wherewithal not to ask what kind of meat it was, he trusted Mandy not to poison him and knew that whatever it was, was likely not something that would sound appetizing. Sometimes ignorance is bliss. He also had his ice-cold Nuka Cola to accompany his meal. His mouth was already watering, afterall he hadn¡¯t eaten or drank anything yesterday, he might need to fix that, bring a canteen with him, but right now he wanted to focus on his meal.


    And so he ate. Damn was it good. He didn¡¯t know what kind of meat it was but it was the perfect texture, just the right amount of chewy and it was cooked all the way through, also the sauce was nothing like he tasted before and it was a very full and rich flavor. Then there was the Nuka Cola. Holy shit did it hit the spot. Maybe if he had gone a few weeks or months without having drank a Nuka Cola the experience might have instead been transcendent, but as it was it was simply heavenly. He was always a fan of Nuka Cola, it was his go-to brand after all. He had tried the others, the various types of Nuka Cola flavors and Vim! He had even had a chance to drink a Sunset Sarsaparilla which was uncommon this far east. But despite all the different flavors Nuka Cola original flavor was always the best. And right now, after a harrowing journey it hit him in the right way.


    The look of satisfaction was probably evident on his face as it caused Mandy to chuckle.


    ¡°Seems someone is enjoying his meal.¡± She teased. Adam blushed a bit and then covered his mouth.


    ¡°Ah, just uh¡­ very hungry.¡± He laughed, slightly embarrassed.


    ¡°I can see that.¡± She grinned, and then walked off to handle other customers, satisfied with her teasing.


    The rest of his meal went quietly until Salvatore walked out of his room, he looked like he just woke up as he was yawning as he closed the door behind him.


    ¡°Mandy, give me a double.¡± He said as he strode to his spot at the bar.


    ¡°The usual?¡± She asked as she walked back to the bar from a table she was waiting at.


    ¡°The usual.¡± Salvatore returned.


    ¡°Oh, Salvatore. Catch.¡± Adam said as he reached into his pocket and then grabbed the cigarette pack and underhand tossed it to Salvatore. He caught it easily, looking at it for a moment before his eyes lit up.


    ¡°Oh!¡± He said with recognition once he realized what it was.


    ¡°It''s a gift, I found it while Scaving, figured you might like it.¡± Adam said with a grin.


    ¡°Well, hell. That''s pretty sweet kid.¡± He said as he grinned, pulling one of the cigarettes out and putting it in his mouth but not lighting it. ¡°I appreciate it.¡± He laughed softly, which wasn¡¯t the most appealing sounding laugh but it was the first time Adam had heard him laugh at all.


    ¡°You know, for a smoothskin, you ain''t that bad.¡± He said with a grin to him as Mandy brought him a bottle and a glass to pour himself a drink. ¡°Thanks kid.¡±


    ¡°No problem.¡± Adam smiled at him as he sipped at his Nuka Cola.

 Chapter 32

    Adam slept soundly that night, even after his nap he needed rest and damn did he sleep. He didn¡¯t wake up the next day until the sun was high in the sky. He didn''t mind though, not waking up to an alarm everyday was a wonderful gift, and he never had an intention of leaving again today anyway so he was more than happy to just idle the day away.


    The morning was spent slowly, he grabbed a meal from Eric for 14 caps bringing him to just over 900 caps and then spent some time relaxing by the river. He had brought the books and magazines with him and planned to spend the time just reading and enjoying the sun. Which is exactly what he did. He finished the Locksmith¡¯s reader first. It was not at all an instruction booklet, it did not give him step by step instructions on how to lockpick, but it did give him an inkling on how to actually try, he¡¯d need a real book for the skill if he wanted to learn more, since this was only a magazine, but he was at the starting line now, at least, and he was positive that as he kept exploring old buildings going forward he would encounter more and more locked doors, safes, rooms, and chests. Having some sort of skill to unlock them would probably come in handy, but he would just need to learn as he went, there was no substitute for experience after all.


    Next he read the Chinese Spec Ops Manual. It was¡­ interesting. He was done being racist, they really did have some good techniques on how to hide in plain sight, how to move around secure buildings and how to blend into an environment you are not fully prepared to be in. It was incredibly informative. It also gave him insight into how the Chinese had been operating on American soil long before the bombs fell; there were mentions of entire franchises that were fronts for their operations. It made him wonder how deep they had gone before everything went to shit. He could only speculate, but the manual did well to teach him a few new tricks he could try out in the field. A lot of it would require practice and time to master but having extra skills in his back pocket was never a bad thing.


    By now the sun was well past its Zenith but He was content to continue reading, he had no plans for today after all, not everyday needed to be an adventure, mundane and peaceful days are why he worked so hard. So he pulled out his third book, Lying, Congressional Style.


    The book was a hilarious satire and deconstruction on the way politicians from his time would twist words, bend questions, and explain things in a way that was completely advantageous to them. It was a fun read. Sure, some of it could be applied to his everyday life, but for the most part it was not an instructional how-to book as much as it was a satire and explanation on how others talk people down. Unless he planned on becoming a politician it was mostly worthless information, but the book was a fun read anyway.


    The last book, and by now he was impressed with himself due to having finished 3 other works before this one, was a fiction novel written by the man who was making the Agent America scripts. He had heard it was good but he was never much of a reader before the world ended, now he can¡¯t be much else. However, reading the previous book took far longer than he expected, the day almost being over now, so he instead decided to save it for another time.


    Instead he headed back to Winchester¡¯s and quickly sold off the three books he had just read. He was finished and it''s not like he had a home bookshelf to put them on so he¡¯d rather just have the caps. 20 caps each left him 60 caps richer when he walked out.


    He headed back to the bar and saw Salvatore drinking in his usual spot, though he did notice a strange man in the corner table, black braided hair, which was mostly matted down underneath a head scarf, football chest gear painted a bit with a red undershirt, a brown skirt looking thing that only covered up to his knees, and a face mask that hung low on his neck, though it was now down and hanging around his neck as he ate some food. He had a long spear leaning against the side of the table, a machete strapped to his hip, and a lever action rifle strapped to his back. He looked a bit silly but he had seen a few people come into town before from outside, he very much is not the only one who is not from around here, Adam too was from out of town so he had no place to judge. So he paid it little mind and then took a seat near Salvatore.


    ¡°Hey Salvatore.¡± Adam began as he took his seat and flagged Mandy over when she noticed him. She was busy waiting at another table but he was no rush and he was able to convey that to her.


    ¡°What.¡± Salvatore said with a gruff tone. Though, perhaps, that was just the way he spoke, there was no air of standoffishness as he might have expected.


    ¡°How much does it cost to hire you?¡± Adam asked thoughtfully.


    ¡°What?¡± Salvatore said now with a confused tone as he turned to look at Adam.


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    ¡°How much does it cost to hire you?¡± Adam repeated, since he knew Salvatore heard him.


    ¡°Depends on what you are hiring me for.¡± He responded as he downed a shot of whatever he was drinking before turning his whole body to face Adam. ¡°What do you need?¡±


    ¡°I was thinking about taking a trip to Midway, not today obviously, and probably not for a few days but I''m planning out my options. I¡¯ve never gone there and I learned that distant journeys can get harrowing if they are not well planned, so I¡¯m fielding the idea of hiring you out to guide me there.¡± Adam explained as he noticed Mandy walking over to them both, likely to respond to Adam¡¯s hail from earlier.


    ¡°Well¡­¡± He said as he pulled out the pack of cigarettes that Adam gave him yesterday and picked one out, putting it in his mouth but not lighting it, just like the last time. ¡°From here to Midway can get a bit dangerous, i''d say with all the nonsense going on in the area the fee is 100 caps per day, getting to Midway is a two day trip. So 200 caps for an escort. If you want to dick around a bit on the way I¡¯m going to charge you an additional 50 for any other stops, since I bet you won''t want to head right there.¡± Adam paused to consider his options before responding.


    ¡°What if I wanted to hire you outright? Like hire you as a permanent body guard?¡± Adam asked, though now he was mostly just probing, he didn¡¯t really think it was an option.


    ¡°2000 caps.¡± Salvatore responded quickly. ¡°Plus the cost for room and board comes out of your pocket wherever we go, as well as the ammo I spend and upkeep costs for my gear.¡± Salvatore clearly had thought this out since he had already put this list together and spoke without hesitation.


    Adam paused as he considered what Salvatore told him. It *was* doable, he had almost a thousand caps, of course he has his own expenses to think about but hiring out Salvatore as a semi permanent member to join him on his runs would be the best investment he could make with his money. He could buy all the guns in the world and that wont save him from being outnumbered, there was simply only so much he could do alone. It made sense to get a partner. He didn¡¯t have the money right now, but in the future he might be able to get it, especially if he put in even more effort Scaving. A man with Salvatore¡¯s experience would be indispensable going forward.


    ¡°Also.¡± Salvatore said, interrupting Adam¡¯s train of thought. ¡°I¡¯m not going to follow you around like a lost puppy. You pay my fee. I''ll help you when you need, but when you don''t need me I¡¯m going to do my own thing, that includes taking other jobs, so if you head to a settlement and don¡¯t plan on leaving for a while then I¡¯m going to do as I please.¡± He said as he finally took the cigarette out of his mouth and put it back in the pack.


    ¡°It''s the same deal I have with the Winchesters. I make myself available for Chuck whenever he needs to go on a run and whenever we are not in Naper he pays for my lodgings, it''s simple and clean.¡± He said as Mandy spoke up after waiting for a minute for Salvatore¡¯s pitch to end.


    ¡°This old guy has been running this racket for as long as I¡¯ve been alive. I remember being a little girl and Sal here running protection for the adults who needed to travel.¡± She chimed in.


    ¡°Don¡¯t fix what ain¡¯t broke.¡± Salvatore shrugged.


    ¡°I don''t have 2000 caps on me¡­ yet.¡± Adam mused aloud. ¡°But I¡¯m not so far off that I can¡¯t actually consider this idea.¡±


    ¡°Jesus kid you made that much already?¡± Salvatore said with some shock. ¡°Damn, I knew scaving was lucrative but you got the devil¡¯s luck.¡±


    ¡°Well considering I ran into some real tough types the other day I¡¯d say the devil enjoys messing with me. I mean I almost got bit by a feral ghoul, might¡¯ve turned me or something.¡±


    There is a pause of silence as Mandy and Salvatore stare at each other for a moment before they both burst out laughing. It was the first time he had seen Salvatore laughing too.


    ¡°Oh god, kid. You are so fucking stupid!¡± He said through laughter.


    ¡°Did you really think they were zombies from an old horror flick?¡± Mandy asked as she wiped a tear from her eye as she came down from laughing.


    ¡°Well I¡­¡± Adam started before he trailed off, blushing.


    ¡°It''s a radiation kid.¡± Salvatore said with a final chuckle before he calmed down. ¡°You don¡¯t turn into a ghoul without radiation, feral or not.¡± He paused and then reached across the bar for a bottle to which Mandy slapped his hand away. He groaned, reached for his caps pouch and then put down 20 and then grabbed the bottle again.


    ¡°Don¡¯t know what makes a ghoul turn feral, it just happens sometimes, but usually its advanced exposure to radiation that¡¯ll do it. Too much and it¡¯ll turn ya.¡± He then popped the top on the bottle and drank right from it. ¡°Radiation¡¯s a blessing and a curse, it can heal but also turns you feral, go figure.¡± He shrugged as he went back to drinking.


    Adam was left speechless as he sat there not sure what to do with all this new information. He had the completely wrong idea about ghouls. Granted he hadn¡¯t asked but he was entirely off base, and radiation heals them? That''s ground breaking news. If he hired Salvatore and there was a switch in a room full of radiation or some other hypothetical situation he could do it without worry, so long as he doesn''t stay there too long and become feral. He could ask more about it later but it seemed as though Salvatore was done engaging with the conversation so Adam let it drop and ordered a meal from Mandy for 12 caps.

 Chapter 33

    The rest of the night went peacefully, Adam decided to turn in early that night, he had little else to do, though not before spending an extra 5 caps on a beer to enjoy while he chatted with Chuck.


    The next day came and Adam once more found himself with little plans. He spent the day wandering the town more, not that there was much he hadn¡¯t seen, but he did admire the ingenuity people had to create this town, much of the buildings were made from scrap wood and metal, they looked ramshackle but they were sturdy and they were built with survivability in mind. He noticed small subtle things like the houses all had one wall that seemed to be extra reinforced. He could assume to act as a bulletproof wall and room if it came to it. He also noticed that most of the windows had grates on them, likely to prevent grenades and things from being thrown in, though some of the houses had a hinge or two that let the grate be swung open. These were not the only things he noticed either, there were a lot of little construction details that he hadn¡¯t considered but would likely be helpful living in a world where a super mutant raid could happen at any time.


    But all in all this did not take him too long, so he went back to the Inn to grab a meal, 14 caps today. However just as he was finishing his breakfast he heard the sound of a few gunshots being fired towards the north. Then there was silence, no screams, no extra gunfire, just nothing.


    He wasn¡¯t the only one who noticed, everyone else in the bar turned to look at the wall where the sound came through too, even Eric. Clearly this was not a common occurrence. It did not take long to figure out what was going on.


    ¡°Is Salvatore here?¡± A man wearing the heavy coat that the guards usually wear came running into the Inn, looking a bit panicked. Eric looked at him and then looked around and then seemed to realize he was the one who would have to respond.


    ¡°I uh¡­ don¡¯t know¡­¡± Eric said hesitantly.


    ¡°Fuck.¡± The volunteer guard said before he looked at Adam. ¡°You, you are that vault dweller who has been going out recently right? Come with me.¡± He said as he turned around again, not waiting for Adam¡¯s response. ¡°And if someone sees Salvatore send him to the north gate!¡± He said as he started to turn the corner.


    Adam was left speechless for a moment before looking at Eric, then at his scraps of food on his plate. He sighed, wiped his mouth, downed the rest of his drink and then power walked outside to follow the guard who was already out of sight.


    By the time Adam had gotten outside it seemed as though a lot of townsfolk were curious as he was to what was going on, though most seemed to be staying away from the North gate where the sound came from but a small group of people, many of whom he recognized the faces of as guards he had seen on duty at one time or another had gathered at the gate and were discussing.


    Adam approached, assuming this is where he was being led and a few of the men turned to look at him.


    ¡°You are Adam right? The guy who is going beyond the walls?¡± One said questioningly.


    ¡°Uh¡­ yeah that''s me. I heard I was needed?¡± Adam asked before a slightly larger man with white hair and a brown worn t-shirt and cargo pants stepped a bit forward.


    ¡°I¡¯ll cut to the chase.¡± The man spoke, his voice more grizzled than the others. ¡°We just got a visit from some raiders. Said they would be back in a few days to collect a ¡®tax¡¯.¡± He crossed his arms.


    ¡°We aren¡¯t going to give them a penny, but I¡¯m not taking this situation lightly, if you are willing to help us thwart them I will ensure you are compensated thusly.¡± Adam paused, he needed a moment to process this. So a gang of raiders had just stopped by to extort the town and now he was being asked to help fight them off when they returned? He did like this town and would be willing to help but he couldn¡¯t help but hesitate, he didn¡¯t know how many people were coming, what kind of weapons they were packing, or how trained they were. This was a shot in the dark.


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    ¡°How much compensation?¡± Salvatore said as he sauntered over wearing his combat gear and holding his rifle. It looked like he threw it on when he heard the gunfire from his room as the boots were not laced properly and he didn¡¯t have his shotgun on hand, but he looked ready to fight if it came to it.


    ¡°I do not know offhand.¡± The grizzled man returned as he put a hand to his chin to consider. ¡°I would need to find out what we have in the town coffers but 200 caps to every man who helps?¡± He offered.


    ¡°300¡± Salvatore countered. ¡°If I''m going to put my life at risk then I want to be appropriately paid for my work, Grant.¡±


    Grant seemed to stand in silence for a moment as he considered before he nodded.


    ¡°Aright, every man who joins the defense will get paid 300 caps each.¡± He said with a firm commitment to the number. Salvatore pulled out a cigarette from the pack, put it in his mouth and actually lit it this time. Maybe he didn¡¯t smoke indoors, or, at least, maybe he didn¡¯t smoke inside the Inn.


    ¡°You are gonna need to do much more than defend.¡± Salvatore said as he took a puff of his cigarette. ¡°If raiders are operating close enough to here to come for a racket and they feel bold enough to pull it off, you can¡¯t just take out who comes looking, you gotta cut the head off the snake. We are going to need to wipe them out.¡±


    ¡°Are you crazy?¡± Another of the men in the group said as he spoke incredulously to Salvatore. ¡°We aren''t an army! We can¡¯t go and attack their base!¡± Salvatore just remained perfectly calm while he smoked.


    ¡°I¡¯ve been through this song and dance more than once kid, if you don''t pull the weeds out from the root they will just keep coming back.¡±


    ¡°How do you plan to do that? We don¡¯t know how many of them there are!¡±


    ¡°We do know where they are from though¡­¡± Grant added, uncertain if Salvatore¡¯s plan was a wise one or not and was remaining on the fence about it.


    ¡°Good then we can wipe them out.¡± Salvatore said as he cracked his neck a bit looking ready for a fight.


    ¡°I agree.¡± Adam spoke up, finally throwing in his two cents. ¡°But I don''t think we should strike first.¡± He turned to look at Salvatore when he said this.


    ¡°What we should do is let them come back in three days to collect their tax, get them to lower their guard, and then ambush them. Then, after they are dealt with, we all head to their base and eliminate the ones who remain. Divide and conquer.¡± Grant seemed to get lost in contemplation for a moment but Salvatore grinned.


    ¡°Not a bad plan kid. That is, assuming they don''t come in three days with everyone.¡±


    ¡°It''s possible, but what do we have to lose? We have the advantage of playing defense here and we know what way they will come, if we pre-plan angles of attack we can easily create a kill box.¡± Salvatore looked impressed but didn¡¯t add anything to that last comment as he took another puff of his cigarette.


    ¡°It¡¯s a half-way decent plan kid, but the employer is the one who calls the shots.¡± He said looking at Grant.


    ¡°Alright, we will do as you suggest.¡± Grant said, looking at Adam. ¡°We will set up an ambush for them when they return in 3 days and after we handle the ones who come, we will storm their base, minus some who will stay behind to guard Naper while we are gone.¡±


    ¡°Grant, I¡¯m not confident I''ll be able to do this¡­¡± One of the youngest looking guys here said. The only female in the group lightly slapped his back and grinned.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, we got your back, all you need to do is point your gun at them and fire. It doesn¡¯t matter if you hit them, all you gotta do is try.¡± Grant nodded in agreement.


    ¡°A lot of you are not soldiers, just folks who are willing to help out around here, but the town is counting on you. These scumbags come to our home and try to extort us, if not you then who will defend the town?¡± Grant¡¯s comment seemed to get a few of the men to mutter in agreement and nod along. He then turned to look at Salvatore and Adam again. ¡°We got three days to prepare. We have work to do.¡±

 Chapter 34

    The next three days were not spent fruitlessly. A plan was hashed out about how best to prepare for the attack to come, positions were scouted both inside and outside the walls to set up a good ambush, gear was checked and loaded, everyone was outfitted, and Adam spent a good amount of time cleaning and checking every gun that was going to be utilized in the defense of the town. He was more than willing to ensure every man¡¯s rifle wouldn¡¯t jam on them before the fight began. As it turned out a lot of them needed it too, so it was a timely suggestion. In addition, in thanks for his help both with cleaning and the coming defense, his fees for the Inn were waived against Mandy¡¯s objections, but it seemed as though some sort of deal was struck behind the scenes.


    On the third day the team was gathered, the 9 volunteer guards of the town, Salvatore, Adam, Grant, the outsider in the football gear who was called Deccanus, and another outsider who was a self-proclaimed bounty hunter. In all 14 fighters were gathered for this coming battle.


    The outside of the North wall was mostly ruins of once formidable buildings. However a few of them were just collapsed husks, most though were still standing albeit as a far cry from their once majestic exteriors. Still these husks made amazing vantage points when looking at the North Gate. People took up positions along the rooftops and top floors going down a few buildings up the street outside the wall.


    Every man was given one grenade, courtesy of Chuck, and one stimpack courtesy of the Doc, even Adam who had his own supply of stimpacks. The town was as ready as it could be. Children were out of school, kept inside their homes, windows were sealed, doors locked, and the town stood quiet and still. It was almost eerie. The only sound that was heard throughout the town was the Jukebox that had been put outside and turned up at full volume. The music not only would draw the attention of the raiders when they arrived and make them less liable to look around for a possible ambush, but more than that, everyone was nervous, the music helped calm the nerves.


    Well, not everyone was nervous. Salvatore seemed to have his head on straight, smoking quietly from his vantage point next to Adam. Deccanus also seemed unbothered, sitting quietly and not saying a word as he waited for the battle to commence. Though the bounty hunter looked at least a bit unnerved, though definitely not as nervous as many of the guards. They were, after all, just volunteers, most hadn¡¯t left their town, they just helped keep the place safe, today would require them to be willing to prove that.


    Adam for his sake was about as nervous as the bounty hunter. He had been in many gunfights back in the war, but that was back when he served, and even then the sounds of bullets whizzing by your head never gets easier, a healthy dose of fear is to be expected in this situation.


    They sat on the rooftops for about an hour, uncertain how long they would be waiting until they saw the reflective mirror from the forward most building shining light at them, a sign that the raiders were coming.


    Moments later Adam saw them. Raiders. Truly they looked just the same as the last two he fought and killed. They wore a mishmash of gear without cohesion, spikes protruded from random parts of their clothing, they looked unwashed and unkempt, their gear was as hodgepodge as their clothing: an array of rifles, pipeguns, and even a rocket launcher. There were about 15 of them in total. Well at least they had almost the same number, 14 defenders to 15 raiders, with any luck the fight will be evened out easily within the first volley. But no one would know until the bullets started firing.


    The group of raiders slowly approached the wall, guns out, carrying themselves menacingly while the defenders on the roofs and inside the buildings hid themselves and waited for an opportunity. They seemed completely unaware of what they were walking into, by the way they carried themselves they figured showing up in force like they were was enough to cow the town into submission. At least that''s the impression they gave off as they strode up to the gate where the one visible guard was in position on the palisade where he would be expected to be standing. All to give them the impression it was business as normal.


    ¡°Hey loser!¡± One of the raiders said to the guard on the wall with a cocky grin. ¡°We are here for our¡­ ¡®tax¡¯.¡± He continued as a few in the back laughed to each other.


    ¡°Boss said money is owed today and if you can¡¯t pay then¡­ well¡­¡± He grinned menacingly and brandished his assault rifle, waving it around lightly. ¡°We might have to get violent.¡± He finished as he turned back to the rest of his group and laughed along with a few of them.


    ¡°Oh! And women, you got any pretty women in there? If so tell them to expect us, we are feeling awfully cold right now! I need the warmth of a woman right now!¡± One of the raiders from the back shouted to the guard only for a woman from the raider group to elbow him in the stomach hard enough to make him clutch his stomach in pain.


    ¡°Fuck the woman. I''m here for caps and booze!¡± She said uproariously as she raised her gun into the sky followed by a cheer from the other raiders.


    ¡°So, you got our tax? Or do we gotta show your town a bit of hospitality?¡± The raider at the front spoke again to the guard.


    It was just now dawning on everyone that there was one problem with this plan they had established. Everyone had positions, either on roofs, inside the buildings, or at the wall. Everyone had guns, armor, grenades, and stimpacks. They were well geared. Everyone had steeled themselves to kill these intruders as this was the only way to ensure the safety of the town. The town was also about as locked up as tight as it could be. The issue was that there was no ¡°go¡± signal.


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    In all their planning there was no decision made for how to coordinate the start of the fight, everyone had assumed an opportunity would present itself but without a plan everyone seemed to be waiting for the others to make a move. No one wanted to be the one to fire the first shot and start the fight. This fear was assuaged quickly though.


    As the jukebox began to play the next song ¡°We¡¯ll Meet Again¡± by Vera Lynn the situation finally changed. As the raider spoke his last sentence, clearly indenting action on his part if nothing were to change, Deccanus stood up, his long spear in hand and yelled:


    ¡°For the son of Mars!¡± He then chucked his spear from his rooftop position as hard as he could down at the raiders. The battle had begun.


    [Vera Lynn¡¯s We¡¯ll Meet Again]


    We''ll meet again


    The Spear impacts the group of raiders hitting one of the men in the middle. The spear embeds itself into the chest of the raider leaving him with a spear sticking straight through his whole body. He dropped to his knees, and then a moment later to the ground.


    Don''t know where, Don''t know when


    There is a moment of panic as the raiders seem to realize what is happening. The man at the gate ducks behind the chest high metal wall to get cover as the bullets begin to rain down from above.


    But I know we''ll meet again some sunny day


    As the bullets fall they rip through the lightly armored raiders spraying blood up into the air as the few with the wherewithal begin to fire back at the unseen attackers haphazardly.


    Keep smiling through, Just like you always do


    A lucky bullet lands a meter from Adam¡¯s position embedding itself into the thick concrete support struts below where he was balancing his gun. He fired his hunting rifle accurately hitting one of the men in the back who went down holding down the trigger of his automatic rifle.


    ''Til the blue skies drive the dark clouds far away


    The raider¡¯s rifle fired off wildly as he hit the ground hard. As soon as he hit the ground, the gun tilted off to the side and riddled his friend who was next to him with hole after hole, turning him into a mess of a carcass within moments.


    So will you please say "Hello" to the folks that I know


    There is a scream from the raider group as another gets hit in the shoulder. He went down with a heavy thud but not before he fired his own gun off. Adam could just barely see one of the volunteer guardsmen get tagged by the bullet and then go down. He had no idea if he was dead or just injured, but he didn''t have time to worry about him, he had to keep firing.


    Tell them I won''t be long


    The man with the rocket launcher fired his rocket towards Adam. It fell short and hit one of the floors below him. The whole building rocked violently with the force of the explosion. Luckily Adam was laying down to take his shots otherwise he might have been thrown off balance.


    They''ll be happy to know that as you saw me go


    However another man was not so lucky. A guardsman hiding in cover in one of the floors below him was thrown out of the building towards the street hitting the ground hard. Adam watched as he fell from his position below him and hit the ground but didn¡¯t give himself enough time to process. He knew he had to deal with the rocket launcher man before he became a bigger problem.


    I was singing this song


    It seemed as though Salvatore next to him had the same idea as, a moment later, he shot a clean hit right through the head of the man with the rocket launcher with his rifle. The raider hit the ground without a single moment¡¯s delay, his head splayed open.


    We''ll meet again


    Deccanus was fearlessly standing up firing his lever action rifle into the crowd below with a look of anger in his eyes. Bullets whizzed past him but none seemed to hit him.


    Don''t know where, don''t know when


    However, while Deccanus seemed to have a guardian angel on his shoulder, his partner next to him in his position, the bounty hunter, was not so lucky. A bullet ripped through the right side of his head, taking his stetson clean off his head. His dead body just slumped over, hitting the short concrete railing he was using as cover.


    But I know we''ll meet again


    Adam¡¯s rifle clicked as he pulled the trigger, he was out, and in the middle of this firefight he didn¡¯t have the time to reload. Throwing the rifle off to the side he pulled out his laser pistol and resumed firing not a moment later. The distinct sound of the laser rifle was notable in the cacophony of bullets ripping into the ground, the distinct red light of the laser practically illuminating the raiders below.


    Some sunny day


    Just as he saw one of the raiders begin to get turned to ash by the laser fire from him, the guard at the gate pulled out the light machine gun from the palisade and then planted it on the wall. He wasted no time opening fire. By the time he had emptied the belt, there were no raiders standing. Well over half of them were dead, the remaining ones were either dying or too injured to stand or move. The battle had not lasted long at all. The song had yet to even finish and all the men on the ground in front of the gate were defeated. It was over.


    ¡°Clear!¡± One of the guardsmen called out from his position.


    ¡°Clear!¡± Another responded back.


    ¡°Clear!¡± Adam shouted in response. There was a tense moment of silence that followed as the song began to wrap up before the sounds of pain and anguish from the raiders below began to become clear. The few that could move at all were writhing in pain on the ground groaning and moaning in agony from the multiple bullets that hit them. Meat, carcasses, blood, and viscera lay pooled together in a pile where the group had, not but minutes ago, stood confident.


    Adam stood up slowly, his laser pistol still in his hand pointed generally towards the pile of dying raiders before he let off a deep sigh. He then was startled when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He damn near jumped out of his skin as he turned to see Salvatore patting him on the shoulder.


    ¡°You did good kid.¡± He said with a grin. ¡°Come on, let''s head down, we still got work to do.¡±

 Chapter 35

    The walk back down the building was quiet, neither Adam nor Salvatore said anything, not a note of congratulation, nor a comment of tension, just silence. The third man who had taken up residence in the building with them had fallen thanks to the rocket explosion so they had no company as they slowly made their way downstairs.


    Eventually they made it to the street around the same time as all the other teams did. Even from the exit of the building Adam had hidden in the smell of death was nearly overpowering. He considered putting on his gas mask he bought from Chuck but decided against it and instead toughed it out, Salvatore, Deccanus, and Grant all seemed to be fine. The same could not be said for the other volunteers.


    Two were in the middle of throwing up when Adam had arrived at the scene, a third looked like he was going through a dissociative episode, and a fourth was praying. The rest were a varying mix of disturbed.


    ¡°We have to move.¡± Grant said solemnly as he looked at the pile of dead and dying in front of them all. ¡°Our plan to wipe them out requires us to move out immediately, we don''t want them to get a chance to get suspicious.¡±


    ¡°I agree, the longer we waste the less our surprise attack will work.¡± Salvatore said callously. Adam took a deep breath and then nodded.


    ¡°Yeah. I''m good to go too.¡± He said resolutely. Grant looked around at the remaining men, the man who Adam saw get tagged with a bullet earlier was not here, and the one who fell was still laying on the broken and worn blacktop, unmoving. Both were likely dead. But a third guardsman also seemed to be missing as well, likely another casualty that they had incurred while they were taking fire.


    Grant looks at the three who seemed to be taking it the worst, the two throwing up and the one who was giving a thousand yard stare and called them out.


    ¡°I want you three to stay here and defend the town, everyone else will move to their base. It''s only 30 minutes away from here if we stick to the streets.¡± Grant ordered the group.


    Deccanus moved over to the man he had impaled with his spear at the beginning of the battle and pulled the spear out of its fleshy sheath and wiped the blood off with a rag from his pack, and then turned to look at Grant, seeming to wait for his order.


    ¡°Alright, everyone! Let''s move out!¡± grant ordered.


    The trek to the hideout was rather easy, the group moving as a unit scared off any would-be negative encounters, and nothing challenged them as they moved through the ruins of the city streets.


    Eventually, after about 25 minutes of walking they arrived at an old bowling alley that Adam remembered going to once before. He was never a fan of bowling so he only ever went once, but it was during a date with a pretty coworker of his at the time so he had fond memories.


    Now, of course, the once date spot was a terrible sight, paint chipping, the sign half broken, the windows boarded up. But surprisingly even in this state it was still pretty clearly a bowling alley.


    ¡°You sure that this is the place Grant?¡± Salvatore said as he snuffed out his cigarette with his fingers before putting it back into his pack.


    ¡°I¡¯m sure.¡± Grant responded resolutely. ¡°We got reports a few weeks ago from roamers that there was a new group setting up shop over here, ¡®course we had hoped it wouldn¡¯t become a problem for us but I never let myself forget it.¡±


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    ¡°Well then, let¡¯s fuck these fuckers up shall we?¡± Salvatore grinned as he raised his rifle in the air, ready to fight. Grant nodded.


    ¡°I want you, Adam, Deccanus, and 1 of the kids to take the back entrance, me and the other 3 will take the front.¡± Grant said as he looked at the group for consensus or disagreements. When he got none he continued.


    ¡°We will draw their fire, while you three sneak in, i''m not telling you to be stealthy but try to use the fact it''s the back entrance to your advantage.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, yeah, I know what I''m doing, Grant.¡± Salvatore said dismissively before he looked at Adam.


    ¡°You ready kid?¡± Adam nodded, a steeled look in his eyes.


    ¡°Let¡¯s do this.¡±


    Deccanus, Adam, Salvatore, and one of the guardsmen all moved together towards the back of the bowling alley, seeing a metal door left wide open as they came around the side. There was no question that was their target.


    ¡°When we get inside, if we can handle them quietly, do it, if you can¡¯t then everyone be ready to start blowing their brains out.¡± A soft nod from everyone confirmed the plan was set and then they all moved in.


    The backroom was the first thing they saw, a long hallway that was occupied by three doors, two of which were open. At the end of the hallway he could see what was probably the storeroom, but he could see nothing else. It was dark but only slightly so, there was enough natural light that it was not hard to see. In addition there were little candles and lamps spread throughout the areas as far as he could see so things were illuminated.


    The four of them slipped in, Salvatore quietly stepped through the first door on the left. It appeared to be a manager¡¯s office. There, a man was playing chess by himself on the desk, his back turned to the door Salvatore walked through.


    It took Salvatore exactly two seconds to grab hold of the guy¡¯s head and snap his neck. He caught him before he dropped to the ground so he wouldn¡¯t make a sound.


    The next door was closed, Deccanus crept towards it and opened it, finding a changing room full of metal lockers. Inside, a man was lying on a bench sleeping. Deccanus moved without making a sound, getting right up to the man on the bench, pulling out his machete and slitting the man¡¯s throat before he even could wake up.


    Adam was the next one to split off, heading through the third door which was open to see a room that had been completely converted to sleeping quarters. Whatever it was before had nothing to hint at it left. There was a single man, naked, doing¡­ less than PG things to a woman¡¯s body who lay on the ground underneath him. She was mutilated, a huge gash was present on her back, her hair was a wild mess, and she had cuts and bruises all over her body. By the way she was just laying there it was not entirely impossible she was just dead.


    Adam showed no mercy, he snuck up behind the man while he was doing the deed and pulled out his ankle knife, planting it firmly inside his neck with one fluid motion. The man¡¯s eyes went wide with fear as he slowly turned to look at Adam, blood gurgling out of his mouth as he tried to speak to no avail. He collapsed on the woman half a second later.


    Then Adam could hear the sounds of gunfire coming from elsewhere in the building, it seemed as though Grant was doing as he said he would. Good that made their jobs easier.


    Adam bent down near the woman and checked her pulse with two fingers. Her heartbeat was faint, barely there at all, but she was alive. That¡¯s almost worse than if she had been dead. Poor woman. But now was not the time for such thoughts. He still had bad guys to kill.


    He started moving towards the door to leave when he heard from the hallway a voice he didn¡¯t recognize yell out:


    ¡°Hey! Who the fuck are you!?¡±


    Adam was quick to run out of the room, getting outside in time to see the guardsman being impaled through the heavy coat with a bayoneted rifle and pushed into the wall, a second later the gun fired right into his stomach, killing him, or at least, sending him into shock as his body went limp immediately.


    Adam reached for his 10mm and drew to shoot, but Salvatore was quicker and fired his shotgun past Adam hitting the raider with a slug round that took off his right arm. The raider dropped to the ground like a bag of bricks, screaming. Adam was the one to finish him off, firing a single round into the head of the dying man.


    ¡°So much for Stealth.¡± Salvatore remarked casually after Adam had finished the raider off.


    ¡°Let¡¯s get to work kid, they know we are here now.¡±

 Chapter 36

    ¡°Hey!¡± Adam could hear the sounds of shouting from the otherside of the storeroom nearer to where the gunfight was happening. Clearly they were going to engage the rear entrance team too.


    Adam moved quickly, taking cover behind a heavy wooden shelf used to store bowling balls as the raiders poured into the room. He looked over at the still slumped body of the guardsman he was sure by now was dead, judging by the way he had rolled his eyes into the back of his head. Salvatore had taken up position on the other half of their side of the room behind some crates, and Deccanus was using the open door in the hallway as cover.


    Bullets ripped through the room as the raiders poured out of the door, they had no trigger discipline, they were firing madly as they screamed their heads off.


    Salvatore waited for the raiders to take cover on their half of the room and then pulled the grenade from his pack, primed it, and then tossed it over at them. The boom was spectacular.


    An arm of one of the men the grenade had felled flew through the sky and landed in the center of the torn storage room, another screamed out in pain. Adam had no idea how many of them there were, because they had pinned him down as they entered but he assumed no more than 5¡­ maybe 6. They were outnumbered, now, less so.


    Adam popped his 10mm over the cover and began to blind fire at their positions, just hoping to offer his allies a chance to fire back.


    Deccanus was the first to accept Adam¡¯s offer as he briefly popped out in front of the door and fired three rounds at the raiders from his rifle, at least one was a hit judging by the scream of pain.


    Salvatore then took the opportunity to vault over the box, shotgun in hand and begin laying lead down at the enemies, peppering the wall with tiny birdshot pellets.


    Adam too capitalized on the opportunity and popped out of cover and fired his whole magazine at the raiders. He managed to nail one of the raiders who he had a good position on right in the shoulder, causing him to fall back in pain. As soon as he fell backwards his head was in perfect line of sight for Adam to finish him off. His head was unable to resist the kiss of the bullet that followed.


    One of the raiders then popped up from his cover, holding a ramshackle assault rifle and began unloading his clip in the direction of Adam and Deccanus. Salvatore had ceased his advance and was now much closer to the enemy positions as he reloaded his shotgun and prepared for the next advance.


    Another raider, emboldened by his friend¡¯s suppressing fire, stood up straight, took a hit of Jet through the inhaler and then pulled out a hatchet and charged.


    He ran right past Salvatore, who was in the middle of reloading, and even past Adam who he almost brushed up against. It seemed he had his heart set on killing Deccanus and that was the only thought in his mind.


    He dove into the hallway swinging his hatchet down hard at Deccanus. Deccanus only had enough time to drop his rifle on the ground, draw his machete and block the hatchet at the handle, right below the blade, though it remained very close to hitting his collarbone.


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    Adam was quick to spin around and shoot the man in the back with his 10mm. Just to get him off of Deccanus.


    Deccanus did not waste the opportunity and immediately swung his machete deep into the chest of the raider carving out a huge chunk of flesh with it.The raider roared with pain but seemed to be fighting with sheer adrenaline and fueled by the psychoactive effects of the Jet. He had no intention of stopping here. He brought his arm up high to swing down on Deccanus once more.


    Adam took aim at the raider¡¯s head ready to fire but was stopped by more gunfire from the other raider at the other side of the room, he was forced to duck down lower behind his cover to avoid getting hit.


    When he looked back up at Deccanus he had impaled the raider in front of him with his machete, the blade sticking clean through his body. Then, while still holding the machete-impaled raider''s body up, he charged forward towards the raider on the other side of the room, using the body like a shield as it soaked up the bullets fired at him.


    By the time he had reached the otherside of the room his human shield was a bloody mess of a carcass but it did its job. Deccanus pulled the spear off his back and then chucked it at near point blank range at the raider who was shooting at him his entire mad dash of a sprint.


    The spear impaled him into the wall through his heart. There was no struggle, just a look of shock and surprise and one groan of death before he slumped over.


    The last raider took aim at Deccanus who had just thrown his spear and whose back was to him now. Adam wasn''t going to let him take the shot, quickly popping out of his cover again he fired a few times at the raider, none hit their mark, but it was enough to throw off the aim of the raider, enough that he shot wide of Deccanus.


    It was Salvatore who finished him off, walking out of his cover and firing both rounds of his shotgun into the chest of the raider. His chest flayed open like a chestburster had popped out. He was dead instantly.


    The three of them took a moment to look around, making sure there were no other attackers in the room with them. Once all three were sure it was clear they each went about preparing for the next assault in the main room, where the sounds of Grant''s gunfight were still on going.


    Salvatore reloaded his shotgun and rifle, Deccanus recollected his spear, and Adam loaded in a fresh magazine for his 10mm.


    ¡°You two alright?¡± Salvatore asked as he remained behind his box cover reloading his guns.


    ¡°I''m fine!¡± Adam called back from his position as he just finished his own reloading.


    ¡°Fine.¡± Deccanus said with a low, deep tone. But as he walked past Adam back to the hallway to grab his rifle, Adam could see that he had taken a bullet in the shoulder. His armor did little to stem the bleeding that was pouring out.


    ¡°Hey, Deccanus, you were hit.¡± Adam informed him, assuming he just had so much adrenaline running through him that he hadn¡¯t yet noticed. Deccanus looked down at his shoulder where he was hit and then looked forward at his gun again, not once stopping.


    ¡°I see.¡± He said stoically.


    ¡°Pop a stimpack, don¡¯t take the wound lightly.¡± Salvatore said as he walked over towards Adam, ready to regroup and join the fight in the next room.


    ¡°The warriors of the Legion do not use drugs.¡± He said with the same stoic tone as he grabbed his gun off the ground and then shoulder it turning back around to the other two. ¡°I will use a balm later, the battle is not yet over.¡±


    ¡°Sounds dumb, but whatever makes you happy.¡± Salvatore said dismissively before turning to Adam. ¡°Ready kid?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I''m good to go.¡± Adam said as he holstered his 10mm and then unslung his hunting rifle and readied himself for the next fight.


    ¡°Deccanus?¡± Salvaore asked as turned to him now. Deccanus simply nodded in response. ¡°Good. Now let''s go make sure that idiot doesn¡¯t get his head blown off.¡± Salvatore said as he started to make his way towards the exit of the storeroom and towards the sound of the ongoing gunfight.

 Chapter 37

    As they entered into the room on the other side of the store room door they were immediately met with the firefight Grant was engaged in. Two of the guardsmen seemed to be hit, one more mortally than the other as they took cover behind a rounded bar counter. Grant himself was hiding behind the ball return system of lane 3. His big body was only very barely being covered by the machine, he was slumped all the way down, the lower part of his back nearly touching the ground.


    The last guardsman was, at the time they entered, laying down suppressing fire at 3 raiders who were taking cover behind some overturned tables. Another three raiders were scattered throughout the other half of the bowling floor, and another one seemed to be dead, shot in the head, right in the centermost lane, his head cracked open and bleeding profusely.


    Both Salvatore and Deccanus moved to get into a position on the guardsman controlled side of the room but Adam had a different idea. Using the suppressing fire as cover, he hugged the leftmost wall and charged closer to the tables where the three raiders were pinned.


    As the suppressing fire stopped Adam made a quick hard turn at a stone pillar right before he entered what looked to be a small kitchen area where patrons could order the greasiest fried food of their lives. And Adam knew that from experience, the pizza he got here during his date many years ago was more grease than cheese. But this was not important at the moment. What was important was that Adam was now in position to deal with all three raiders at once.


    Pulling his grenade from his pouch he pulled the pin, cooked it for a few seconds, and then tossed it over the table cover the raiders were using.


    There was a pause of silence from there as the raiders seemed to understand what they just saw, a grenade landing at their feet. One even had the wherewithal to speak:


    ¡°Its a fuckin¡¯ grena-¡± She yelled out before the boom drowned out her words. Blood splattered against the wall near where they were taking cover, Adam was sure the blood also painted the other side of the tables too, but he didn¡¯t have an angle to see. But it was safe to assume he got all three of them since even after a few seconds there was not a peep from the tables. If nothing else they were too wounded to fight, that was good enough.


    Adam then turned his attention to the other raiders scattered throughout the floor. Most were in cover, however Adam had a good angle on one of them and it didn¡¯t seem like he was spotted, so, making use of the VATS feature on his Pip-Boy, adjusting his aim according to the percentage displayed, he fired a single round at the head of the raider, his head burst opened with the force of the bullet from the hunting rifle. He dropped like a rock not even a second later.


    His shot was too effective though, as it drew the attention from the other two raiders. A bullet whizzed right by his head, close enough for him to feel the air of the blast move past him, way too close for comfort even with his helmet on. Adam was quick to scoot around to the otherside of the pillar so he was in cover from the remaining two raiders.


    Salvatore noticed Adam in danger and popped out of cover and layed down rounds of his own from his assault rifle. Bullet after bullet ripped into the once clean floors as the raiders were once more forced to hide behind their cover. Deccanus took the opportunity to pop out of cover himself and chuck his spear hard.


    The spear broke through the wood of the overturned bookshelf the one raider was using as cover and impaled his foot into the ground. Roaring with pain he stuck his head up involuntarily. Grant landed a clean blow on his head in this short window, killing him instantly.


    Slavatore emptied his magazine into the area where the last raider was before a short few seconds of silence followed, then, from the spot where the raider was hiding a voice rang out as loud as he could muster.


    ¡°I give up!¡± The raider yelled at the top of his lungs. ¡°I surrender!¡± He said again, loudly, though not as loud as the first time. There were a tense few moments as Adam¡¯s party processed the surrender. It was Adam who made the first move.


    ¡°Hands where I can see them!¡± He yelled back as he pointed his rifle at the spot the raider was hiding, slowly moving from his cover and in the raider¡¯s direction. Adam slowly crept forward inch by inch while no response was heard for a few seconds before two shaky hands slowly raised up in surrender.


    ¡°Kid, watch yourself.¡± Salvatore called out from his cover as a sharp word of warning. Adam kept advancing though, slowly, towards the raider. Adam altered his path to swing behind the cover, keeping his distance, just to make sure the guy couldn¡¯t pull any tricks. Luckily, as he walked around and got a glimpse of the last remaining raider he seemed to have no explosive or any trap set, he was just sitting there on the ground, behind cover, his hands raised, fear in his eyes. There was a ramshackle machine pistol at his feet, but other than that he looked unarmed.


    ¡°Kick the gun towards me!¡± Adam yelled as he held position and pointed his rifle at the center mass of the raider.


    ¡°Y-yeah!¡± The raider said back, frightened as he did as instructed, kicking the pistol towards Adam. As soon as the pistol was well and clear of the raider Adam shot a glance around the room once, making sure there were no other enemies lying in wait nearby. After he was reasonably confident that there was nothing that could hurt anyone he called out:


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    ¡°Clear!¡± Salvatore was the first one to make his move, walking slowly towards the place where the guy was taking cover. Then, slowly, everyone else began emerging from their cover and began to advance on the last raider, no one was dropping their guard, no one wanted to be the last to die in this battle.


    It took another minute before everyone remaining was gathered in the center of the bowling alley main room. The raider was face down on the ground, arms behind his back, stripped bare of everything other than his underwear.


    ¡°Grant, what do you want to do with this guy?¡± Salvatore asked as he began smoking a cigarette now that the battle was officially over. Grant looked uncertain, contemplating how to handle this.


    ¡°Do you not have a jail or something?¡± Adam asked Grant quizzically.


    ¡°No, we do but¡­¡± Grant looked over at the raider, still face down on the floor. ¡°I don¡¯t feel comfortable taking him back, besides what are we supposed to do with a prisoner? This isn¡¯t Midway, we don¡¯t have the resources to care for a waste of space like him, he¡¯d just be living off the work of others¡­¡± Grant said dismissively about the man only a few feet from him.


    ¡°Allow me to make your choice easy then.¡± Deccanus said as he walked over to the raider, knelt down next to his neck, and then planted his machete into the back of his head. Adam flinched, looking a bit horrified at Deccanus¡¯ actions. But he did not raise a fuss or say a word. Nor did anyone else.


    ¡°Well that settles that.¡± Salvatore said with a shrug as he shouldered his rifle now.


    ¡°I suppose so.¡± Grant returned. He then paused, seeming to either steel himself or think over his options. ¡°Alright¡­¡± He then turned to look at Adam.


    ¡°Adam, can you do me a favor? As our resident Scavver can you gather whatever you think is worth something and bring it over? We will bring it back with us. No sense letting another Scavver take it if we can instead.¡±


    ¡°Well, I haven¡¯t been one long but¡­ sure, i¡¯ll take a look around.¡± Adam nodded, turning his head to scope out the place.


    Unlike the outside of the building, which looked ruined but still pretty clearly a bowling alley, the inside, now that he was looking, was a mess. It looked almost nothing like a bowling alley. Aside from a few of the bowling ball machines still standing, and the gutters creating separations between the lanes, it was difficult to tell it ever was anything other than a raider hideout. It had been pretty thoroughly converted into a base for these guys, with beds, booze, and bullets lying about haphazardly. There seemed to be a bit of thought put into where things went, but mostly it seemed like they slept and ate where they felt like without regard for efficient or organized use of space. Though there were a few areas of the bowling alley that were cordoned off with sheets and shower curtains, perhaps creating smaller rooms for people to have privacy? In either case it was clear it might take a minute to thoroughly search this place.


    ¡°Salvatore.¡± Grant asked while Adam was lost in his thoughts looking around on where best to begin. ¡°Do you believe these men were with War¡¯s camp?¡±


    ¡°Nah.¡± Salvatore returned dismissively. ¡°They were too unorganized, I don''t see any emblems either, not that they all have them. But this ain¡¯t connected, likely just some punks who saw the opportunity and did their own thing.¡± Grant nodded in agreement with Salvatore¡¯s assessment.


    ¡°Who is War?¡± Adam asked as he started to walk towards the bar to see if there was anything worth taking from there, from bottles of booze to a hidden safe.


    ¡°Local Raider boss.¡± Salvatore said as he walked over to one of the dead raiders and kicked him over and began to rifle through his pockets. ¡°Guy moved in a few months ago and began absorbing all the smaller raider gangs, cutting down the ones who said no and subjugating the ones who would listen.¡± After patting the man down for a moment he found what he was looking for. A pack of cigarettes.


    ¡°Don¡¯t know much about ¡®im though.¡± He said as he stood back up and pocketed the new pack into his back pocket. ¡°The naming scheme came from the folk in Midway, they got real creative with the names for the folk around here.¡± he said dismissively.


    ¡°What do you mean?¡± Adam asked as he slowly began to gather the few things he found from the bar worth taking, just putting them in sight for the moment, easy to grab later.


    ¡°The four horsemen, kid.¡± Salvatore said with a soft sigh. ¡°War, Pestilence, Famine, and Death.¡± He shrugged.


    ¡°As I said, colorful descriptions.¡±


    ¡°Sounds heavy.¡± Adam said, trying to both process the information he was being told and scavenge. He noticed that one of the guardsmen who had still not moved from his spot was injecting himself with a stimpack to aid in healing his wounded gut shot. The stimpack, like always, seemed to do well to help both stem the bleeding and dull the pain. Stimpacks, unlike what the advertisements would have you to believe, were not cure-all miracle drugs that could heal any wound. But they were a hell of a drug, they had saved Adam¡¯s life back in the war more than once. It was always good to have a real doctor check you out when you get the chance but a stimpack could be relied on in a pinch, it was like having a medic on hand. He didn¡¯t have the first clue how it worked, but it did, and that was enough for him.


    ¡°So War¡¯s a raider boss? What about the others?¡±


    ¡°I dunno.¡± Salvatore said with another shrug. ¡°I just know enough to stay clear of anything sketchy. If you are curious, ask the folk at Midway, they are in the thick of it.¡±


    ¡°Alright, I will.¡± Adam returned, making a quick note in his Pip-Boy about the four horsemen to remind him later. ¡°It''s going to take me some time to get everything here, if anyone wants to help, it¡¯d be appreciated.¡± Adam said a bit snarkily and genuinely at the same time.


    Salvatore grunts dismissively but Grant nods. ¡°You are right, let''s divy up the work, everyone who is still good, let''s see what we can find.¡± He said with a commanding tone. A moment later everyone split up and began to scavenge the building.

 Chapter 38

    An hour later the group had rather thoroughly taken everything of value from the hideout. All in all they had found 17 bodies, their group had just wiped out a raider gang of 32 people. It was an impressive victory to be honest, but no one spoke about it. Those who cared didn¡¯t care to brag, and those who would brag didn¡¯t feel it was something they wanted to discuss. So no one in the group brought up the death count, on either side.


    In the center of the room was a pile of weapons, from solid, reliable ones, to completely useless pipe pistols. There were some pieces of armor that were worth something like helmets, body armors, knee pads, and such. There was lots of ammo, in fact, ammo seemed to be the most lucrative outcome of this whole endeavor. The raiders were certainly lacking good guns, but they had plenty of bullets to fill them with. They also found a sizable stockpile of food. Some of it was canned food, boxed, or jarred. Some of the food looked to be branded with a Midway Logo on it. But a good amount of it was just meat stored in several refrigerators, meat that no one was certain where it came from, so for the safety and caution of everyone involved it was left untouched. Of course there was a notable amount of alcohol too. Though most of it seemed to be moonshine style beer, there were a few choice picks scattered about too. And lastly caps, not an insignificant amount either, somewhere close to a thousand caps. Most of it was hidden inside a safe in the manager¡¯s office but various small pouches of caps as well as loose caps were found throughout the building.


    There were, of course, various other things they found too. A comic book, a few books, a sensor module, some tools, gears, a single bar of silver, watches, a military circuit board, and a lot of other things that could be considered ¡°junk¡±. The most interesting thing that Adam found personally was a little Vault Boy bobblehead holding a pistol. It was cute, but strange because not only was it weird that Vault-Tec had branded bobble heads, but also strange the raiders had it. But he put it in the pile with everything else.


    And of course, besides all the loot they found, they had the woman, who was still unconscious, now laying on a rolled mat the group had moved her to for her comfort.


    ¡°So¡­¡± Salvatore began as everyone gathered once more when the looting was done. ¡°What are you going to do with the woman, Grant?¡±


    ¡°Well, we can¡¯t just leave her.¡± Grant said, stroking his chin in thought.


    ¡°Sure you can.¡± Salvatore said callously. ¡°It aint your job to play white knight, leave the gallantry to others.¡± Grant shot him a look and Salvatore shrugged.


    ¡°I do not see another option other than bring her back with us, we can have the Doc look at her and go from there.¡± The group nodded weakly with Grant¡¯s plan and then they all began to collect as much of the stuff they found as they could to bring back with them.


    An initial attempt was made to wake the woman up, but it was Deccanus who identified that she was heavily drugged and likely wouldn''t be moving under her own power for the next few hours at least. So, with that in mind, Adam offered to be the one to carry her back to town, provided someone else carried his backpack full of the various things they found.


    The walk back to town was quiet, almost every man here had thoughts of their own, some more casual than others, and some still were as tense as before, not willing to let their guard down until they were back inside the walls.


    When they made it back they were flagged down by the three guards who were left behind and let in quickly. The town was still rather quiet even when they returned but that quickly changed as the news of the victory spread. It took less than an hour before a full blown festival was being celebrated.


    The center of the street turned into a long kitchen full of tables and chairs, campfires, and grills, with food from the mundane to the excotic, alcohol, soda, and juice flowed freely, and even Mandy went out of her way to open up her stocks to the defenders. A few of the town¡¯s folk even brought out instruments, some he recognized and some he didn¡¯t and began to play music creating a giant dancing circle at one point. Adam too was heavily celebrated, along with everyone who had fought off the raiders. He had never gotten so many hugs and pats on the back in his life. It also gave him a sense of how many people actually were in this small town, it was more than he had expected.


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    Salvatore didn¡¯t stick around long, he didn¡¯t seem to want to be celebrated and only came long enough to eat and drink for free before he returned to his room without a word. Deccanus was much the same, though from the beginning he had little interest in partying, he grabbed a plate of food and drink and then walked off back to the Inn where things were quieter, ironically.


    Adam, Grant, and the rest of the defenders, sans 2 who were needed to actually guard the walls, stayed throughout the night. Laughing, joking, and partying with the entire town. By the time that Adam had turned in for the night he was so stuffed with food and drink he felt like he was about to explode. But he felt good, and sleep came easy to him that night.


    The next day came and there was some work that had to be done. First, there was a memorial service held for the guardsman who died in the battle, there were 4 in total. It seemed as though 3 of them had families of some sort. One had a wife and kids, one had a younger brother, and one was an only child of two parents. The fourth seemed to have no living family, but all four were buried in the town cemetery, a small fenced in garden area near the gazebo that Adam didn¡¯t even know existed, likely because he had never explored this half of the town, he assumed it was all for farming.


    In addition to the four guards, the wandering bounty hunter who helped defend the town was buried in the graveyard alongside the others. No one knew him, he hadn¡¯t even really introduced himself, though Grant said he said his name was Ken. Still, despite the fact he was a stranger to the town he had laid down his life to defend it, and that alone endeared him to the townsfolk. The least they could do for him is bury him respectfully.


    Adam attended the memorial service. He had nothing to say and didn¡¯t know any of the men that well, but it seemed the right thing to do. It was in stark contrast to the night prior when everyone was dancing, eating and drinking, the mood was expectantly somber and quiet. But there was a feeling of resolution, everyone knew that the men died defending the town, that they died to save everyone else, so while it was a somber affair there was a sense of hope that permeated the crowd, a sense of pride.


    When that finally wrapped up the last of the things that needed to be finished was the payouts. Of course Adam got 300 caps for fighting, and an additional 100 caps for joining the attacking team. The goods they looted from the base also were sold to Chuck and split 12 ways. The 3 guardsmen who had family and died had their shares of caps given to their family instead. When totalled together the lot of goods gave each man an additional 366 caps.


    At the end of the day Adam had a total of 1702 caps, though most of it was in Vouchers. But he was much more wealthy than he was before. In addition, Adam had requested to keep the bobblehead. He found it interesting and Salvatore even joked it was ¡°like Adam¡¯s little brother¡±. No one argued so he put it in his Inn room.


    The last surprise of the day came as he had just finished helping around the town doing various small tasks either as clean up from the battle or him just being neighborly. He was walking back to his room in the Inn when Mandy stopped him.


    ¡°Hey, vaulty.¡± She called out as Adam walked past the bar. He turned to look and then reflexively caught something she threw to him. Opening his palm he turned to look at it, it was a key. He looked up at her confused.


    ¡°That''s your key.¡± She laughed, seeing his confusion. ¡°The room you stay in, consider it yours whenever you need it.¡± She grinned.


    ¡°Well¡­¡± She backpedaled. ¡°I''m saying I''m considering you a regular. It will only be 25 caps per night and you can pay on credit, plus whenever you are in town consider the room yours. Though I can¡¯t say for certain that if you leave town for a while that someone else won¡¯t rent the room, but if you leave stuff in there I''ll make sure to keep it safe for you.¡±


    ¡°Mandy¡­¡± Adam said feeling touched.


    ¡°Don¡¯t get mushy on me.¡± She grinned and shook her head. ¡°I don''t need none of that here.¡± She laughed. ¡°You saved the town, I''m not going to let a town hero suffer me. Besides, you¡¯ve already helped the town out enough without doing what you did, so it''s been overdue.¡± She paused as she looked at the key in Adam¡¯s hand.


    ¡°That one is yours to keep. I imagine you aren''t going to sneak in in the middle of the night and try to rob the room im giving you, but if you ever get back late from Scaving and need a place to stay you can head right in, like I said, you can pay on credit, so just pay me the next day.¡± She walked around to the other side of the bar putting a hand on his shoulder and patting it gently. ¡°You did a good job Adam.¡± She smiled softly. ¡°Thank you.¡± She continued, warmly.


    ¡°Thanks Mandy, I appreciate it.¡± Adam smiled back.

 Chapter 39

    The next day came with the crack of dawn, the light of a new day broke through his window and temporarily blinded him. He woke up shortly after. After getting himself together and grabbing a meal from Eric for 12 caps, he needed to decide what his plans were.


    He had almost 1700 caps now. He could certainly afford an upgrade to his gear but realistically he was running out of space for things, all he could really do is get a new suit of armor, afterall, his legs and arms were unarmored. However, casual discussions with Chuck have already revealed that there is simply not enough in the town for him to buy to get fully kitted, he would need to head somewhere larger like Midway.


    He also had his initial goal still too, to get to Second Life HQ and see if he could learn anything new about why he was in the vault in the first place. Second Life HQ also happened to be closer to Midway so it made more sense to do his planning from there.


    The questions come in on when to head to Midway. Right now he has a rented room for very cheap, friendly neighbors, and lots of caps. There was no time limit on him getting this done, no external factors were pushing him to rush, but he couldn¡¯t stay still forever.


    The trip to Midway, according to Salvatore, would take 2 days. Hiring Salvatore as an escort was either 250 caps for one trip or 2 thousand caps to buy out his contract, at this point it seemed it would be a better idea to make an extra 300 or so caps to hire Salvatore outright, though then the problem becomes he¡¯d still need more caps on top of that to pay for supplies, and at least a room at Midway, so he¡¯d need even more.


    This was his problem, should he head to Midway now with the larger sum of caps he has on hand or should he save up more and hire out Salvatore. He did not have any prescient need to get to Second Life quickly, but he would never feel comfortable until he could get some answers.


    The morning, spent with food and drink in front of him, was spent in serious quiet contemplation as he considered his options. He went back and forth on what to do, there were pros and cons to each plan. However, after a long enough time to think, he decided he would stick around town long enough to make at least 500 more caps, giving him 200 caps after paying Salvatore¡¯s fee. If he could make that much he¡¯d have an easier time once he gets to Midway. Which meant that, at least, he needed to go on one more scaving run from Naper.


    Truthfully though, he was still a bit worn out from the big battle from two days ago. He saw no reason to immediately throw himself back into danger. So he would spend today letting himself relax, he noticed there were these two men in the back of the Inn often playing a card game, maybe he could join them, besides he still had a book to read, and, as he learned two days ago in the bowling alley, one of the volunteer guards named Mick was able to lockpick. He was the reason they could get open the safe in the manager¡¯s office where over 700 caps were stored. He could ask him for a favor and maybe learn how to lockpick himself, it was a skill he was eager to pick up on. So, after a long time to figure out his plans for the day, essentially amounting to taking a day off to rest and hone skills, he set off.


    Mick, as he found out, was more than willing to teach Adam how to lockpick, however in exchange he wanted Adam to take his shift standing guard at the wall. He refused caps. Adam had to consider his offer but decided to agree as he truly had nothing better to do today anyway, so it seemed a good compromise. A lesson in lockpicking for a shift of work. As it turned out, lockpicking was hard.


    Lockpicking itself was rather simple, he understood the explanation well enough and Mick showed it to be a rather simple challenge if you knew what you were doing, assuming the lock itself was not requiring too high of a skill level. But Adam simply lacked the necessary dexterity for it. Which was weird since he was good with his hands as a catch all IT and mechanic during the pre-war times.


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    Still, despite the setback, he learned enough to get the basics, from there he would simply need to keep practicing and he would get the hang of the skill in time. Like with anything else in life, practice makes perfect. As such while Adam spent time doing a guard¡¯s shift on the wall, he spent most of his time with the practice lock Mick had given him, opening it over and over. By the time his shift was over, he was confident enough that if this exact type of lock was presented to him, he could open it in a reasonable amount of time. But before his shift was done Grant came to visit him on the wall.


    ¡°How you doing up there?¡± Grant asked as he stopped at the stairs before the palisade at the wall.


    ¡°Hm?¡± Adam hummed as he turned around to look at who was speaking. ¡°Oh Grant!¡± Adam smiled as he put the lock down. ¡°Sorry, I learned how to lockpick from Mick and that has become my project all day today. I''m doing well.¡±


    ¡°Ah Mick.¡± Grant said with a soft chuckle as he ascended the stairs to be at eye level with Adam. ¡°Well now it all makes sense how you got roped into helping a guard shift, normally folk from outside the town don¡¯t stand on the walls.¡± He grinned.


    ¡°Seemed like a fair trade to me, I learned a new skill that will probably help me in the future and he got a day off.¡± Adam shrugged. ¡°Besides, I wanted to take it easy today. This was a good excuse to not just sit in the room and stare at the walls.¡± Grant nodded and looked like he had something he wanted to say, but was hesitating to say it for some reason.


    ¡°What is it Grant?¡± Adam asked with a soft tilt of his head.


    ¡°Ah it''s nothing much but¡­¡± Grant sighed and then looked Adam in the eyes. ¡°I just wanted to properly express gratitude to you for all you did for our little town. We are used to taking care of our own out here and I know throwing yourself into a gunfight is no one¡¯s first choice.¡± He paused. ¡°But you really showed up when we needed you, and that takes a real man.¡± He offered Adam his hand for a handshake.


    ¡°So I just wanted to express how appreciative I truly am of you.¡± Adam smiled and then took his hand, shaking it.


    ¡°It''s no problem, Grant. This town has been good to me.¡± He then laughs and adds: ¡°And besides I wasn''t the only stranger that showed up to help.¡±


    ¡°No, I know.¡± Grant returned as he let go of Adam¡¯s hand. ¡°But everyone¡¯s got their reasons, Salvatore lives here on his down time so it¡¯s a given he would show up to help, however Deccanus was just passing through, maybe he just wanted the caps or maybe he hates raiders, either way he came out to help too. Same with that bounty hunter fellow, god rest his soul. I expressed appreciation for Deccanus too before he up and left, but you are fresh from a Vault, aint been in town for more than a week and still put your life on the line for the people here. I¡¯m not a fan of beating around the bush, so I just wanted to be upfront and say that the people here will never forget the help you gave us.¡±


    Adam chuckled slightly embarrassed. ¡°Well I um¡­¡± he blushed slightly. ¡°I''m not sure what to say, but I''m happy to help. The people of this town have been good to me, and I might have been from a Vault but people are all still people, and this town has really helped prove that to me. I''m glad that I ended up here, and I''m glad I got a chance to pay the town back a bit.¡±


    Grant smiled and patted Adam¡¯s arm twice. ¡°Just know if you ever decide to settle down somewhere someday, our town would welcome you with open arms.¡±


    ¡°Thanks Grant. I mean it. Thanks.¡± Grant then left Adam on the wall, with only an hour left of his shift before he was replaced, now feeling even more appreciated again. The people of this town truly were nice and welcoming. He couldn¡¯t have asked for a better introduction to the people of this new world he found himself in, all he could do is hope that everywhere else he visits will be as nice as here.


    And with that thought, he took a seat back in the guard post chair, picked up the lock, and worked on the lock the rest of his shift.

 Chapter 40

    When Adam got back into the bar after his shift in the wall he walked over to the two men who were always in the bar playing cards and sat down with them.


    ¡°Mind if i joined you boys?¡± They turned to look at him confused for a moment before one of them smiled.


    ¡°Gladly! We¡¯d be happy to have you sit in for a round or two! Do you know how to play Caravan?¡± The man grinned widely.


    The next few hours were spent in learning as Adam tried to grasp at how Caravan was played. It was unlike any card game he had ever played and didn¡¯t use a full deck like one would expect of a card game. Instead players were expected to collect and find their own playing cards to build a deck to use. It was certainly a unique style of play, well suited to a world that doesn¡¯t mass produce cards anymore.


    One of the men was kind enough to lend Adam his deck for the duration of his stay with them, as he didn¡¯t have a single card to his name. It proved to be a fun experience, even if Adam ended up a poor player. He lost only 10 caps in the exchange though since they were not placing high wagers, after all Adam was still a very new player and as a hero of the town they weren¡¯t looking to fleece him. By the end of the night Adam had a firmer grasp on how the game of Caravan was played and a healthy appreciation for the game. He would keep an eye open for playing cards from now on so he might be able to build his own deck for play in the future, even if he wasn¡¯t that good at it.


    Adam paid 13 caps for dinner that night as well as a total of 50 caps for the room from the night previous and that night, planning to square his debts before he set out to scavenge the next day. It was the least he could do if he was planning to go off and do something dangerous, as usual. Not that he had an intention of dying.


    The next morning it was an additional 12 caps for a meal and an additional 15 caps for a bottle of purified water, Eric cutting him a deal on the water as Adam had made quite a few friends with his actions since he had arrived. He wanted to bring the water with him because, despite knowing his next destination, and knowing it wasn''t nearly as far as the factory he went to last time, he didn¡¯t want to have to go as long without drinking as he did before. He could have gotten a bottle of river water instead but he wanted the luxury of clean water while he was out today. He was putting his life on the line, he could afford to be a little loose with his caps when he leaves to go scavenging.


    Once his affairs were squared away he set back out from the town to go hit up an idea he had thought of when he was at the bowling alley fighting raiders. A small strip mall he remembered from his pre-war days. He was not 100% sure on the direction it laid from where he was, but he was reasonably confident that he knew the general area and could find his way there once he successfully found a few notable landmarks. He had already marked the location on his pip-boy map with a temporary marker just so he could have an idea on his general heading and then set out.


    The journey took him further south than he had gone previously walking past an old statue commemorating the heroes who died in the battle of Anchorage from this city. He stopped in front of the large marble statue that was erected only a few short years before the world ended. The statue was, in its prime, 4 marble soldiers in military garb and helmets all saluting to the west, where there would have been a large flag on a flag pole with all 13 stars proudly displayed. Behind the soldiers was a standing map of Alaska with a big indentation where anchorage was. Underneath the soldiers, on the thick stone base, was a bronze plaque and a list of names of every single soldier including their military rank who died in the battle against the Chinese and who was from the greater Chicago area. Most of them, even for Adam, were just names, and nothing more. But he knew one of these men. A boy who was his senior in school by 5 years. He didn¡¯t know him well, but he was a popular football player and had he not signed up for the military after school he might have gone far. But now all that was left of him was a name on a plaque. Nothing more.


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    As Adam approached the statue he saw that it was chipped and broken in many places. An arm of one of the saluting soldiers was completely gone, another was missing his head and gun, a third was missing his entire upper body, and the fourth soldier was gone altogether. The base of the statue too was broken, a large chunk of the front right side had fallen off at some point.


    It was a bit¡­ disheartening to see the state of the statue. It''s not like he needed accolades for his efforts, and the statue was never for him, but these were men who died defending the country, people who put their lives on the line for those they cared about back home. What remained was a shattered remnant of what once was. No one even knew who these people were or what they died for. But Adam knew. Perhaps that was enough.


    Adam walked over to the plaque, weathered severely by time. The names were now unreadable but the impressions in the metal meant as he gently slid his fingers across it he could feel the impression of the letters left behind. He would remember. In this world that had fallen to nuclear apocalypse perhaps it didn¡¯t matter that these men died 200 years ago, no one needed to remember their story, their bravery. But he would. That is as much as he could do for them. He sighed deeply and then continued walking, leaving the statue to shrink in the distance as he pulled himself out of his melancholy.


    The rest of the walk to the strip mall was mostly uneventful. He avoided what was probably some feral ghouls after hearing their distinctive noises from a building over, quickly making a detour to avoid that area altogether. And, when he arrived at his destination, he realized he had overshot it by a few blocks and was forced to double back the way he came. But eventually he arrived at his destination. The Strip mall.


    Officially it was called ¡°Middle Court Shopping Center¡± But it was a total of 5 buildings surrounding a medium sized parking lot, it didn¡¯t really deserve any title or name. Besides, the sign that once proudly proclaimed the name of this tiny few buildings in the middle of town was now completely destroyed and missing, no one would ever know what this place was called and Adam could not care less.


    At first glance as he walked into the center of the parking lot the buildings seemed largely intact. Aside from some broken glass and windows, the buildings themselves looked very structurally sound, so he was hopeful to be able to find good loot here.


    The reason he had come here, of all places, was not just that he remembered it existed, though that did help. It was because of what businesses actually were present here. From left to right there was a flower shop, now likely absolutely devoid of anything he could find of use, if he had extra time he would stop there but there was no real reason to spend time thinking about it.


    Next was a corner liquor shop. One of two reasons he came here. He had learned that good drinks were as valuable as anything else in this new time he found himself in. A bottle of good whiskey was worth its weight in gold¡­ figuratively, gold was still more valuable. He doubted it would be stocked to the brim but there was a good chance it would have a few goodies laying around to make his trip worthwhile.


    Third was a small smoke shop, cigarettes too were quite valuable so if he could find some it would be a very good boon for his trip, but somehow he doubted it. The shop itself always read to him as bourgie. Though he had never gone inside, he expected to find artisanal cigars and pipes and not cigarettes, but anything he found there would be worth something so it was worth a look.


    Fourth was a record shop. Much like the flower shop he wasn¡¯t too interested in checking this one out. You needed a record player to play records and there were a lot less of those nowadays. They might be worth something but truthfully he didn¡¯t know and it wasn''t worth wasting space in his bag. Especially if he could find other, more valuable things.


    The last, and final location, and the second reason he came here was a gunshop. He had actually been to this gun store before, it''s where he bought his gun and ammo he stashed in his small personal bunker back home in case he needed it. He knew the owner moderately well. Likely the place would be ransacked, but knowing the owner there was a halfway decent chance it could still have some guns worth taking stashed away in a backroom or something. He wouldn¡¯t know until he checked.


    So, with his options scoped out, he headed into the first shop of interest, the liquor store.