Chapter 22 - 22

Words : 1450 Updated : Sep 10th, 2025

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. 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. Afterall, 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, afterall, there was still the safe to explore.

Chapter 22 - 22

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