Chapter 8 - 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. "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.