Chapter 82 - 82

After finishing his titillating conversation with Eve at The Oasis, and paying 25 caps and a 5 cap tip he returned to his room in The Layover. Despite the challenge of the next day's task he found sleep quickly and easily, though he attributed it to the very light buzz he had from drinking. The next day came and he felt energized and ready. He found himself almost excited for this challenge, breaking into an impromptu military base after the bombs fell, still populated by automated defenses was quite exhilarating. He was joking when he told Jay he was an adrenaline junkie but it might be more true than he would care to admit. He hated the uncertainty of his new life, but he also loved the rush he got from doing this job. It was a part of himself he never knew. Even when he was in the army he never felt this way. Maybe it's because it's on his own terms now? And he is making money off of it? He had thought about this before but had yet to settle on a satisfying answer. What he does know is that this was fun. There was anxiety of course, but more than that was excitement. And he loved that feeling. Leaving The Layover with all of his gear he headed out towards the front door. However as he neared the front door Eve was standing at the exit waiting for him. "Hello there darling~" She said as she sauntered over upon seeing him. "Come to see me off?" Adam said as he hiked his bag up on his shoulders a bit as she stopped in front of him. "Well, yes~" She said with a flirty tone. "But also to give you this." She then reached into a pouch she had strapped to her side and handed over a grenade. As Adam took it he noticed it was an EMP grenade. "If what you said was true you might need it." "Eve?" Adam looked at her surprised, touched, and confused. "Well it would be a shame to let such a pretty face die~" She said with a flirty tone again. "And it should work a bit better than other EMP grenades, I modified it myself, I may know a thing or two about robots~" She then started to walk past Adam heading home, assumedly. As she did she gently dragged one of her claw prongs along his shoulder before leaving fully. Adam laughed softly to himself as he watched her leave for a moment before turning around to head out, putting the modified EMP grenade in his bag. "Ready to head out kid?" Salvatore said, fully geared up and waiting for him at the gate. "Yes I am. Let's go bust this base." He said grinning. Salvatore rolled his eyes and shook his head and then followed as they headed out towards the base that Olivia had marked. The trip would take a few hours, nothing too terribly long but further than the mall, however it took them on a path north and, as he found out yesterday, that meant he was nearing War's territory. Halfway through his trek Salvatore stopped them as he saw some raiders wearing War's symbol patrolling nearby. Salvatore got them both into a nearby alley and watched as they walked past unaware of the two of them. "I heard War isn't prone to random acts of violence?" Adam asked after the men had cleared out of earshot. "As far as I'm aware no. But those guys just a few months ago were likely killing whoever they pleased. No matter how 'noble' a leader is, if the guys are all dickheads that is how they will act." Adam nodded slowly, understanding his logic. Just because they probably wouldn't fight them it was still smarter to steer clear of them if at all possible. After all, there was no telling what they might do. They continued on shortly after, though now Adam had a new question on his mind. "So I asked a friend about the Horsemen." Adam began. "Oh yeah?" Salvatore responded, disinterested. "Well I learned that the Horseman Famine was basically just a lot of feral ghouls." "Your point?" Salvatore said as he looked over at Adam, his eyebrow raised. "Well I was just thinking, if Ghouls can walk amongst Feral Ghouls without them attacking then why don't a bunch of ghouls get together, grab some guns, and just start clearing out the hoard?" Salvatore scoffs. "You don't understand the way they ignore us." Salvatore said before shouldering his rifle and grabbing a cigarette to smoke. "As far as the ferals don't even really notice us, we can walk amongst their number without being attacked. I've heard rumors they sometimes ignore super Mutants too but I don't know how true that is." He paused to take a long drag of his cigarette before continuing. "But it's not like they see us as friends. To them, we are just not any different from the air itself. However, if I were to say…" He leveled his rifle and mimed pulling the trigger and made a boom sound. "Then they would notice me and would all come after me." He said, leveling his rifle again. "So you can walk among them but can't get a free chance to kill them?" "Exactly." He grinned. "Still has its advantages, of course. I've heard of fellas who led attacks on settlements by leading the feral ghouls themselves, blending into the crowd. And of course ghouls can enter any building full of them without worry, but offing them without being noticed? Not a chance." Adam nodded. "I understand." He said, a bit dejected by the fact that his impromptu plan to handle Famine was shot down in its infancy. Of course it would be hubris to think he would come up with this plan before anyone else, these people were living it, so of course they would have considered that option if it was available to them. As they began to near the Brewery, Adam stopped Salvatore a good distance away. "I need to check my gear before we go any further." He said as he unslung his rifle and his binoculars. "I just added this new scope to my rifle but I haven't had the time to sight it so I need to do that now before we get engaged in a fire fight. The last thing I want is to be missing my shots for a stupid reason like that." Salvatore nodded. 'Fair enough. I figure you want me to be your spotter?' Salvatore said as he looked at the binoculars Adam was handing him. "Yes please." "Alright, tell me where you are aiming and go for it, i'll let you know how much to adjust your scope." Adam spent more rounds sighting in his new scope than he would have cared to admit, but eventually, after a good bit of patient work he had it tuned to near perfection. Or at least within an acceptable range for himself. Finally arriving at the brewery the two of them stopped at the exterior of the building. The door was in sight but Adam gravitated towards a small area that was clearly used by the military before the base fell. There was a small sandbag emplacement, a table, chair, two ammo boxes, both opened and empty, and, most importantly, an APC. Adam couldn't help but gravitate towards the vehicle touching it gently as he did. It was very weather worn, the tires looked completely flat and it definitely had seen some gun fire at one point or another, judging by the small dents in the hull, all just cosmetic damage really, but it was intact. Adam couldn't help but imagine getting this thing running again. It would be big and bulky sure, and it would certainly make certain routes impossible to take. But the entire back troop transport area could be converted to store any number of goods, he would no longer be limited to only what he could carry. Not to mention if he found ammo for the guns it would be a potent weapon as well. It was his motorcycle idea but on steroids. However he knew this was a pipedream. He would need more manpower than just himself and Salvatore, and many more tools than just what he had on hand. Furthermore without looking inside at the engine and console he couldn't know how much repair was even needed. This also meant he didn't know what variant it was. If it was a gas guzzling monster then any attempts to get it moving would be moot. Gas was running out in the old world, now, over 200 years later, what were the chances of finding usable fuel? However, as luck would have it for this insane possible plan of his, the military began to phase out combustion engines as the resource wars carried on, after all they were fighting for more gasoline and other resources, it didn't make much sense to use it to fight the war. This meant they made two other variants, a fusion powered APC and an Electric Powered APC. There were pros and cons to each. The fusion power was as good as the gasoline fed one but if it was pierced with a sufficiently powerful round the engine would explode violently killing all the inhabitants immediately. The electric variant had a number of downsides, it could not drive as far without recharging, it didn't have as much torque, and it had extra space taken up for batteries. But the biggest boon of the electric variant? It didn't explode when it was shot. This made it popular with the troops, Adam was counted among them. If it just so happened to be in working order on the inside, and it was electric, with some effort he could refit new tires, fix whatever needs tuning, give it a charge and… suddenly would be in possession of a new APC. Though as much as his mind loved this new idea of his there was one fatal flaw. He didn't have keys. Normally this would not be a problem, military vehicles like APC don't use keys. Soldiers are notorious for losing things. So instead it simply had a button to start up the battery and engine inside. The keys, in this case, were referring to the multitude of padlocks on every hatch leading into the APC. They were old but sturdy. He could maybe pick the locks but it was a waste of time when his objective was the building right next to him. Therefore getting inside this monstrosity without keys would be a huge time waster. But damn, did it light up his imagination. "Feeling sentimental?" Salvatore teased. "What? Oh, no." Adam said as he took his hand off the APC. "I was just thinking about how nice it would be to have this thing working. Would make my life so much easier." Salvatore chuckled. "I bet. But stop dreamin' we have work to do." "Yeah, you are right." Adam said as his gaze lingered on the APC for a few moments longer before he turned his attention to the door, ready to do the thing he came here for.