Chapter 43 - 43

Words : 1432 Updated : Sep 10th, 2025

Slowly, but with more urgency than ever, Adam stashed himself inside the half destroyed ruins of an old building that had long since lost any easily identifiable markers of what it once was. Once inside he put his backpack down as well as the duffle bag. He then began stripping off all the guns he had slung over his chest until it was just his original gear again. Taking it off was not exactly fast but it was quicker taking them off than putting them on, it would be a pain in the ass to get all this stuff back on him again when it was time to move, but not dying came first. Once he was better suited for a fight he snuck over to the window that looked out of the ruins he hid inside and saw where the gunfire he was hearing was coming from. He also began to pick on what the situation was. There was an armed group of men attacking a man who was standing on a roof laughing. The men on the ground were most likely raiders, they seemed to be wearing similar ragtag gear, but they all seemed more well armed than any raider he'd seen until now, they had actual armor on rather than just things to intimidate people with. Though their armor was in poor condition and still very slip-shod it was better than nothing. But what stood out the most about these men was some of them had a symbol on their backs. A sort of flame symbol sitting behind two crossed swords. Not all of them had this symbol but among the 8 men he saw there about half of them did. Though his angle to look at them was not great, even with his binoculars so more might have the emblem just out of view from him. The man on the rooftop was another story. He was wearing full combat gear, laughing his head off like a madman while he fired down at the partly pinned raiders. In his hand he held a heavy incinerator. A weapon Adam had never actually seen during his time serving in the military but heard about. It was basically a flame mortar able to chuck condense balls of napalm in a wide arc over great distances without losing cohesion. The weird thing was everytime the man pulled the trigger he screamed out "fireball" like he was casting a spell. As if he was a wizard from a story book. "Fireball! Fireball! Fireball! Fireball!" Over and over until, after a minute of shouting fireball on repeat he ran out of ammo. It looked as if the raiders were about to pop out of their varying covers to fire back but then he picked up another weapon from the ground next to him. A strange cannon. Adam had never even seen whatever this thing was but it was shaped like a rocket launcher and had a lot of wires and tubes on it and glowed a bright blue. It seemed to be able to channel electricity and then shoot it out. Now, just like before, the man was shouting out random words as if he was casting spells while firing. "Lightning Bolt! Lightning Bolt! Lightning Bolt! Lightning Bolt!" The fire rate of the strange device seemed slow but the destructive power seemed very high. A direct hit on a car one of the raiders were hiding behind caused a mini nuclear meltdown and the car erupted in an explosion. However the man seemed to have no intention of stopping and the raiders seemed to have no intention of letting him leave so both groups were entirely focused on each other. Adam decided, for his own safety and sanity, to collect all his things and take the long way around. No sense getting involved in this fight that he had nothing to do with in the first place. Regardless of who won, the group of raiders or the crazy man with the heavy weaponry he would not be in a good place to fight the winner. Besides he already had too much stuff as is. He needed to get to Naper. He spent a few minutes getting all his stuff back on, guns strapped to his chest, backpack back on and duffle bag in his hand. The entire time he could still hear the sound of the gunfight going on. At some point the sound of the electrical cannon seemed to stop and instead was replaced by the sound of a grenade machine gun. Just how much ordinance does this one guy have? Adam was not interested in sticking around to find out, so, with haste, he turned back the way he came to take a large detour around the madness that was unfolding behind him. Truly, this was a wild wasteland. Eventually the sounds of the insanity he left behind disappeared into the distance and Adam once more felt comfortable listening to music from his pip-boy once more. Luckily, among the many features the Pip-Boy had, it could remember any station you wanted it to just like a car radio, however it had no max number of remembered stations, it was incredibly convenient. Honestly, how he lived before he had this personalized wrist computer is beyond him, the pip-boy was incredibly helpful. More to that point when he eventually got back to Naper he would need to offload all of this extreme excess he was carrying and sell it to Chuck. He had a ton of things to sell, as evidenced by the bulk, but everything was neatly catalogued in his pip-boy, entered by himself for record keeping. It was very helpful to, at a glance, know how much 10mm ammo he was carrying, which at the moment he was carrying a lot thanks to the gun shop. But not only would it be helpful to easily convey to Chuck how much he was selling, but even just for his own inventory management when he wasn't hauling back loot it served its purpose. In the heat of battle, or while he found himself in a stressful situation he didn't need to spare any thought for what he had in his bag. Did he have stimpacks? Radaway? Med-X? He might not be able to remember in a pinch, but his pip-boy certainly would, that boon can not be understated. Regardless, with his music keeping his mind distracted and his path already known due to mostly retracing his steps from earlier, he was met with no resistance nor any strange encounters. Adam made it back to the wall, panting. This had to be a few hundred pounds of loot, not something he couldn't lift and move, but traversing uneven terrain for several hours all the while keeping his head on a swivel and not letting his guard drop took a lot out of him. Truthfully he could have gone another hour before he would have had to take a break no matter how much he wanted to arrive before nightfall, but the sight of the wall emerging in the distance sapped the rest of his strength. As he walked up to the wall his legs felt like jelly, his arms were numb, his chest stung from the constant swinging of rifles against him, and he was slumped over more than he had ever done in his entire life. "Adam?" The guard called out from the wall confused, seeing Adam come back looking worn out. "You alright there?" "Yeah… I'm good." Adam returned, exhausted. "C-can you… open the gate?" Adam said, between labored breaths. "Yeah uh, sure…" The guard returned as he pressed the gate button and stared at the huge number of weapons strapped to Adam, sticking out of his bag, and out of the duffle bag he found. It was actually pretty impressive. As soon as the gate was open, despite how much Adam felt like collapsing right there on the spot, he mustered what bit of his strength and adrenaline he still had left and soldiered on. Just a bit further. "What the-" was all that came out of Chuck's mouth as Adam dumped everything he had brought back with him on the counter of Winchester's. Adam looked haggard beyond belief, he was sweaty, veins bulging out the side of his head, and his face was beet red. "I'm here to sell." Adam squeaked out with an exasperated and yet still driven tone as he looked at Chuck wide-eyed, almost struggling to stay on his feet.

Chapter 43 - 43

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