Chapter 96 - 96

Words : 1477 Updated : Sep 12th, 2025

Adam walked over to the keypad and punched in the code letting the door open with a satisfying click. Once he did he pulled the door open slightly and peeked inside. Adam scanned the view of the backroom, satisfied no one was there. "We need to get Buddy downstairs to the server room, once there I will interface him with the intranet and he will once more gain access to the defenses in the building, assuming, of course, everything is still intact." He said as he opened the door fully now, leading to a small break room-like space with a service elevator in it, clearly meant for employees to use and not meant for the general public. The door leading to the main floor was busted, the handle, and by extension, the lock, completely gone, but the room looked largely untouched though quite messy. It seems that the inhabitants of this building were uninterested in using the room. If there were still inhabitants. They had yet to confirm anyone was inside. "Shh." Salvatore shushed Adam quietly and then turned his head so his ear was facing the door. Adam listened in too and heard people talking in the distance. It was very faint and impossible to make out what they were saying but there were no doubt people here. Well that settled that, it still had raiders here. While Salvatore continued to listen Adam turned to Buddy. "Buddy, enter silent mode." Adam whispered to him. Buddy didn't say anything but raised his arms up in confirmation before lowering them back down. Adam then walked over to the service elevator, hoping against hope that he could just ride it down to the basement like he used to. However it was very clearly unpowered so that option was out. "Where is the entrance to the basement?" Salvatore asked quietly. Seemingly reading Adam's mind about the broken elevator. "There's a stairway a few doors down from here but we'd have to go through the lobby, the most visible place, especially if there are a lot of guys sitting around. Salvatore remained quiet for a few moments more, still listening, before he turned back to Adam. "I think we got some distance from them, it sounds like there are at least 2 walls in between us, they probably aren't in the lobby, if we are lucky they are much further." He then turned to look at Buddy. "Is that thing going to be able to make it? Protectrons aren't exactly known for being stealthy." He mused acerbically. Adam nodded. "Well he's not going to be dead silent but he isn't going to blurt out our arrival, and, if there is enough distance as you said they shouldn't hear him." Salvatore stared at Adam for a few moments and then nodded. "Alright, lead the way." The three of them slowly opened the door to the lobby as they began to creep towards the door that Adam had mentioned. Well, two of them crept, Buddy was as clunky as ever, but there was nothing he could do about that. They could also begin to hear parts of the conversation now too. "War" "Yeah but…" "Didn't you…" "Girls are…" "Out of booze…" random phrases carried through the floor giving Adam only glimpses of what was being said, though frankly he didn't care. However those voices were now becoming sharper, louder… and closer. "Shit." Adam muttered silently under his breath as he began to speed up his crouch walking towards the door. He made it to the door and opened it and began to get inside when he heard one of the voices belonging to the raiders speak up. "Hey!" The voice shouted as it seemed to be a man running over. Quickly Adam dove into the stairwell and instinctively mostly closed the door behind him however when he turned around to look behind him he was surprised that he was not caught. "What are you doing out? You stupid robot?" The obviously raider dressed man said to Buddy as he gently kicked his stubby legs. "Weren't you chained to the wall?" He asked Buddy as if he would answer him. A friend of his walked over too, standing right behind him. They were too stupid to notice that Buddy was neither speaking to them, something Protectrons were known for doing, nor attacking them, supposed intruders in his building. But more importantly than all of that Salvatore was nowhere to be seen. Somehow he got into a hiding place before the two of them walked over. There were not many places to hide, a sandbag emplacement, a few wooden crates, an ovular half desk at the front of the lobby. Adam couldn't see him but he was sure he was in hiding at the moment. "Well… Say something!" The guy said as he shoved Buddy, which only caused him to move back a half step. "Leave it alone man, it probably just got free cause the chain rusted or something, its just a fuckin' robot. Stop giving it a hard time." "You stop giving me a hard time!" The man said, snapping at his companion. "Sheesh dude, lighten up." The other responded. The two began a conversation of little importance as Adam could see Salvatore slowly stepping out of the cover of the sandbags and beginning to move stealthily towards the two of them. Adam caught on to what he was doing quickly. Unlike Salvatore if he opened the door at all he would be spotted so instead he just had to wait for a chance. Then, as the conversation began to boil between them Salvatore vaulted over a crate landing right behind the temperamental one and snapped his neck. His companion yelped in surprise as the ghoul dressed in armor seemed to appear out of nowhere and then began to fumble for his gun. Adam, however, was not going to give him the chance. Adam burst through the door at a full sprint, dashing across the lobby floor as he held the knife in his hand. He dove on top of the guy and planted the knife into his chest as he pushed him onto the ground, falling down with him. Once on the ground Adam straddled him and covered his mouth as he watched as the last bit of life left the man's eyes clawing at Adam's arms with his fingers. Though of course Adam was wearing armor so he didn't even feel it. Once he was reasonably sure that the man was dead he slowly dismounted him. He looked at the one who had his neck snapped and then Salvatore. "Let's drag these guys to the stairwell, just in case a friend of theirs decides to check in on them." Adam said, quietly, still not sure if there were others around. "Good idea." Salvatore said, also quiet as the two of them began to drag the bodies towards the basement stairs. Luckily there was no blood trail, Adam had stabbed the man in the chest and not pierced through his back, thus the only blood was coming from the front, it was still messy, but moving quickly like he did and with careful precision, no blood hit the ground until he was fully inside the first few steps of the stairwell. Once Salvatore had dragged his body over too the three of them closed the door and continued downward. The lights in the basement were off so Adam turned on his Pip-boy light as well as his helmet light to offer some illumination. As soon as they descended down the last of the stairs Adam could see the server room. It was a mess. Had Adam left it in this condition when he was working here he would have been fired on the spot. Though technically that was the janitor's job for places like this, where he spent most of his time at work, it was largely his responsibility. Now dust caked every surface, papers were thrown about, stray wires tossed aside. It looked nothing like the clean and orderly room he once kept. But the important thing was the servers looked intact. Good. Now it just mattered if he could power them up again. Adam flipped a few switches and reset some breakers and the room whirred to life, servers, lights, and all. Adam then turned to Buddy. "Buddy, enter normal mode and come over here." He ordered. "Confirmed." Buddy responded as he waddled over. Adam then opened up his panel and hooked him up to the system. "Buddy, what is your status on connection to the building's defense systems?" Adam asked again. "Reporting full connectivity. He said back. Adam unplugged him and turned to Salvatore. "Easy as pie." He grinned.

Chapter 96 - 96

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