WebNovels

Chapter 63 - Chapter 63

Adam walked back to his rented room to clean up, both himself and his suit. The walk there was fraught with thoughts in his head. If nothing else Deccanus would live, but he had just spent most of his money, there was no more money he could play around with, he had to go scaving soon, that was his only option.

Returning back to his room he stripped down as soon as he was in the door, planning to wash both his suit and his body in the shower, he paused when he saw a tin tray with a plate on it with a well arranged spread of crackers. In the center of the crackers, in an empty space made by the ornate decoration was a small note.

Thank you for flying with Delta! We hope you enjoy your stay! Please enjoy these freshly baked Crackers compliments of your hosts.

Adam read the note letting off an amused hum for a moment before he grabbed a cracker and then turned to the bathroom to wash up. The cracker was delicious.

20 minutes later Adam had finished cleaning himself and his vault suit. He had become quite fond of the thing. It was form fitting without being too constricting. It didn't chafe and was water resistant and thus cleaned easily. It also was very breathable material. He wasn't a big fan of the fact it was a jumpsuit but certainly there were worse things to wear, when he found it back in the vault he was just going to wear it to have some decency but it proved to be quite a find. Who knew?

Regardless he once more left his room to head back to the food court, he still hadn't eaten after all. Though on his way out he snagged another cracker, no sense wasting perfectly good food, but it was not good enough for a meal, he wanted real food. So he would eat the rest later, or perhaps save them.

Once he got back to the food court he saw it was business as normal, the scene where Deccanus had been shot was completely cleaned up like nothing happened and people were walking around and chatting like no one almost died half an hour ago. But Adam chose to pay it no mind, instead, once more taking in his options for food, of which he had a lot. After a few minutes, he felt he had settled on one, Mexican.

Mexican food had a weird history in the pre-war world. It had risen to prominence when Mexican settlers moved to America, then as oil reserves began to dry up around the world and the scarcity kicked in, the first signs of the resource wars, tensions between the two nations began to rise. Thus, there was a lot of racism aimed at immigrants from Mexico. This boiled over until eventually America invaded Mexico for its resources, occupying it. Ironically the occupation, at least in the USA proper, calmed down much of the racism and with a freely open border the Mexican food poured into the southern states, then the north. All of this to say that despite a rocky history the Mexican food had proven to be one of America's staples.

He ordered from the food stall a burrito, tortilla chips, and water. All in all it proved to be quite expensive. 35 caps. The water alone was 20 caps. Of course he could have bought dirty water but that was out of the question. That brought him down to 24 caps by his calculation. He had no choice, he really did have to go out and find some stuff to sell. He would once more have to postpone his trip to Second Life HQ for a bit until he could prepare some more.

Not only did he need enough caps to feel comfortable leaving on a purely personal errand beyond the wall, but he really needed to spend some time gearing up. Truthfully he'd love to buy that combat armor mark 2, but it was so out of his reach right now. Even the standard combat armor was too expensive at the moment, but he really did need more armor, so he would need to find a cheaper solution. His life was worth it. Still this was all future thoughts, it just meant that he would be postponing his Second Life adventure for a while longer. At least the burrito was tasty.

The next day came unceremoniously, Adam decided to take it slow in the morning, after all he did just get here yesterday, after two full days of travel. He took a moment to gaze out one of the windows in his room, looking at the vast expanse of the tarmac with mostly nothing on it and a vast wall that surrounded the entire city dotted with the occasional guard tower. It was a very uninteresting sight, but it did impress him nonetheless.

No doubt this airport was full of debris and cars, broken planes and chaos after the bombs fell. To turn it into this organized city, a place where people live and thrive, grow old, have children, and die, is impressive. It really went to show how much humans could accomplish when they put their minds to it. People used to talk about how cockroaches could survive anything, even the apocalypse, and while that is true, one should not look down on the indomitable human spirit. Humans could truly achieve anything, even rebuilding society after the world ended. That should be commended.

Grand realizations aside he had an appointment to keep, but first, breakfast.

He went back to the food court and paid for a meal with all the caps he had left, 24. He was fresh out of money now. But on the other hand he was able to have a good hearty meal for breakfast.

Once he was done eating it was time for work. He headed right to the mall area and right to the Junk shop, which he still was uncertain had a proper name. Once there, he saw Lune conducting business with another Scaver most likely. He was offering her a steamer chest full of what looked to be clothes. After a few minutes of waiting patiently the man walked away with some caps and Lune moved the steamer into her shop. After it was set back down she turned to look at Adam.

"Oh, you are back, I thought you weren't going to show up." She said with a bit of surprise. Now that Adam was looking at her again, her clothes were just as disheveled as yesterday, her hair still a mess, and she still had bags under her eyes. It seemed she did not just get up from a nap yesterday as he had assumed but instead this was just how she presented herself. She was not dressing to impress, but then again she bought and sold junk and random oddities, she didn't have to impress anyone.

"Don't worry, I have every intention of doing as promised. I need money as much as you want your Mr. Handy fixed." Adam chuckled. She rolled her eyes. 

"Come on, follow me." She said as she led Adam into a backroom where there was a small storeroom and office, inside the Mr. Handy was deactivated on the floor.

"Knock yourself out." She said as she gestured Adam to the Mr. Handy. "But I warn you if I find anything missing I will kick your ass." She said with a serious tone.

"I won't be taking any of your stuff, I promise." Adam smiled.

"Well then I'll leave you to it." She said with a small sigh as she left Adam alone in the room with the robot.

Adam wasted no time and immediately went to work.

More Chapters