After his workout Adam left for his room to shower. After his shower he decided to step outside and do some light scavenging. He was feeling restless right now and wanted to be productive. If he wasn't waiting for Eric he would have thrown himself into work but he had to kill a day before he was back so for now he figured the best use of his time was to look through the local area, not straying too far.
As Adam exited the Vault he was met with the familiar landscape he had once seen when he first woke up, but where once he saw devastation and destruction, the end of the world he knew, he now saw opportunity, a chance to grow something new. It was strange but having settled back into the Vault had made him start considering the idea of building something. Not personally, mind you, but something that would help his beloved city of Chicago grow once more.
Of course he had no great ideas at the moment but as he walked over to the ever increasing mountain of bricks the construction protectron was gathering he began to consider the possibilities. Every one of these bricks represented a new beginning, a fresh start. Perhaps they would be a home for a new family, or a store front for a traveling merchant, or perhaps a garage for his new APC, which, quite frankly, did not sound like a terrible idea right now, after all the APC was simply sitting out in the open. Giving it a home of its own was not the worst idea. In addition, having a wall around some of the vault tunnel exit would be good so they did not emerge into a pack of feral ghouls unwittingly. Or, better yet, perhaps actually turning the pile of rubble that was the tunnel entrance into a proper structure, even if it was small, alongside an actual staircase down. He had options.
Luckily manpower was not an issue, the construction protectron was built for this exact sort of work. There was one issue, he lacked any cement. Of course it might be possible to make a lesser cement with the surrounding materials, it would certainly work. But if he wanted to use these bricks and build something to last, he needed real cement and concrete. And that means either scavenging for it or buying it out right. In either case, despite his sudden desire to have his protectron get to work, there was nothing it could do now to build. However, it could prepare.
So, with the thought of the future in mind he walked over to the protectron and programmed new directives in, giving it an order to prepare a few areas for construction. The foundation of most buildings in the area were mostly intact, even if the structure they once supported had long since been destroyed. So all he needed to do was pick a few locations and ensure that they were completely clear of debris. Hopefully he can eventually get a good supply of construction materials to make his ideas come true.
Ideally everyone would be living in the Vault, however his APC was far too big for the small Vault tunnel even if it could scale the slope. So unless he wanted to spend time widening the tunnel, a dangerous and time consuming option, it was better to simply house it above ground. Having a secure place for it to be stored so it was not tampered with or stolen was ideal. In addition, if any visitors were to come to the vault that he did not trust, letting them in might be dangerous, so giving them a place to stay outside was the best plan. Of course all of this was for much further down the road. It simply did not hurt to put in the effort to think about it now.
Letting the construction protectron get back to work, Adam began to look around the area for anything of value. Unsurprisingly, as all the houses in the immediate area were naught but a pile of rubble. Nothing of value stuck out to him.
However, hidden under a few piles of sheetmetal and broken and rotten wood, he found the entrance to a root cellar next to the foundation of a long destroyed house. The door to the cellar, at least, seemed to be intact so there was perhaps something of value down there. There was one problem, it was locked.
Adam sucked at lockpicking, however he had not stopped practicing altogether, he did, however, slow down his practice. Still it was not as if he had anything better to do so he took out his bobby pins and a screwdriver and began to work on the lock.
It actually did not take him long at all to get the door open. The lock itself only had 3 pins so it was very easy to get inside. Still, despite the ease of access Adam felt proud of himself, after all when he first woke up he did not know the first thing about lockpicking, and now he felt like a lockpicking pro. Even if he was barely at the starting line.
Regardless, Adam drew his laser pistol and then began to descend the stairs, pip-boy light on as he did, prepared for anything.
However, within a moment he was already in the cellar and found it remarkably uninteresting. The cellar itself seemed to be a cross between someone's fallout survival shelter and an actual root cellar meant to keep food in storage. As such there was a bed and an open box here as well as a table with a handcrank jarring machine, a box of empty glass jars, and a shelf half full of jarred and pickled food.
Of course none of this was what drew his attention first, it was the dead body that was laying on its back on the bed, still dressed in some kind of business casual wear, shotgun in hand, pointed up at his skull. What happened down here was obvious. Adam chose not to dwell on it as he grabbed the shotgun and then looked at the jarred food.
Technically he had no idea if this was still good, preserves had advanced quite a lot in the 70 or so years before the bombs fell, but it was handmade so there was no easy way to tell. Regardless, he decided he could let the people in the Vault figure that out themselves, they would likely have a firmer grasp on if the food was good or not. Of course he could just open it and smell, but no sense doing that if he was not about to eat it. Besides the Vault was about 100 feet away right now, he could carry it all over easily enough.
However the biggest boon here was actually the jarring machine itself. If they manage to get food production up in the Vault they could store it for long term use in jars if needed, not just in the fridges. In addition jarring food would be good if he ever wanted to take some of it to sell elsewhere, but now he was getting ahead of himself.
So, with a bit of effort to carry everything in his backpack and arms, he took all the valuables back into the Vault with him to be made use of later. He was rather pleased with himself, after all he had spent only a small amount of time searching and came out successful, definitely worth the time invested.
Still, even though he was successful, he still had to figure out how to kill time today without handling any of his big projects. So, once all of his goods were stored back in the Vault, the food handed off to the cafeteria worker, and the shotgun placed into the armory, he headed back out into the ruins of the town above to see what else he could find.