Chapter 98 - 98

Words : 1501 Updated : Sep 12th, 2025

As they walked up to the third floor there was no one immediately in sight, and Buddy didn't even stop on the floor, having been linked to the sentry systems he had an innate sense of where the raiders were. At least on floors with turrets. So the two followed him up. The next 2 floors were much the same. However the sixth floor had a big firefight going on between the ball type sentry attached to the ceiling in the hallway next to the stairs and 4 raiders that it was pinning down. 1 was down the hall hidden behind the wall of a room and the other three were on the stairs taking cover, unable to advance upwards. This meant their backs were to the group. A mistake they could have never imagined. If it were Adam and Salvatore were alone they would have taken a stealthy approach to handling the men but no such luck when Buddy was around. "Intruders found, proceeding to eliminate." He said as he began to advance on them. Naturally the three raiders on the stairwell turned around to look at the advancing protectron, noticing Adam and Salvatore as well. However they did not have time to react. Adam quickly fired right into the chest of one of the raiders, it hit him dead center and it sent him flying back into the wall of the plateau, a burning hold in his chest. Salvatore placed a well aimed shot into the head of the other raider before he could even fully whip around to see. Only the third raider remained. But this one was the unluckiest of them all. Buddy began to fire multiple laser rounds into him while Adam fired one of his own, and even Salvatore fired a few rounds center mass into him. By the time the three of them had finished firing the man had been atomized, now nothing but a pile of ash on the floor. It was a rare occurrence, not often seen even on battlefields. But when enough laser fire was directed at a single target there was always a chance for their entire molecular structure to break down and for them to vaporize. It was similar to, but still very different from, the effect that plasma weapons had on the human body, at times turning it into a pile of green goo. However none of them stopped to admire the lucky atomization that just occurred, none of them really cared about winning this lottery, so they advanced. The floor now only had one raider left. Pinned down by the rapid fire of lasers from the sentry turret Salvatore pulled out his shotgun, loaded a slug into the chamber and shot right through the walls where he assumed the guy was hiding. He was right. A moment after he fired the man fell to the ground, bleeding out, and clutching his stomach where he had been shot. Salvatore showed no mercy, loading a second slug in and shooting him in his head. By the time that second slug had gone through him there was no head left. Adam let off a sigh of relief and then nodded to Salvatore who nodded back before they then began to follow Buddy back up the stairs again. Fight after fight, round after round, close calls, and near misses ensued as they marched higher and higher in the building. Adam stopped on the 14th floor, his floor, or rather, the floor he most often worked on when he wasn't doing server maintenance. He was feeling nostalgic. Though the paint was chipped, though the steel and wood was rusted and rotting, though his office had a big hole out the side that let in air from the outdoors, though it looked like the atomic horror had stolen away his old life… it was still a place that remained of his old life. His home was gone, destroyed beyond all recognition. His office workspace, what was left, was almost like a second home. It was the last bit of his old life that remained. It hurt. It hurt far more than he ever expected it to. To see what remained to be so gone. He never expected it to remain in any tangible way but… it was truly gone, wasn't it? Everything he once knew. Salvatore was the one to break Adam out of his stupor. There were no enemies on this floor, nothing to fight, so they had to move on, there were more people to kill above them. If he wanted to reminisce, mourn, or be melodramatic he would have to do it later, right now he needed to press on. So he did. More of the same as they continued to advance upwards. The next floor that had enemies also had a laser turret but it was in bad shape, already unable to fire at even half the speed it had been before and riddled with bullets. Still, even with this handicap the three of them cleared the floor without issues. Another group of raiders, dead. The next floor with raiders they encountered was an entirely different story. While Salvatore was taking cover on the stairwell, using the wall as cover to fire from, he was tagged in the hand with a stray round from a raider's pistol. Like the badass he was, Salvatore merely grunted in pain and then used his shot hand to continue to balance his rifle and finish off the raider who shot him. "Salvatore are you-" "Cut it." Salvatore said, stopping Adam entirely. "Ignore me, let's keep moving." He said as he motioned with his head to Buddy who was already advancing to the next floor. Adam stared at him for a moment and then nodded, deciding not to press. He followed behind Buddy, leaving Salvatore for a moment as he tended to his own wound. Adam handled the next floor with Buddy. There was only one guy and he was very unprepared to face them, a single volley of laser fire was all it took to take him down. By the next floor Salvatore had rejoined them and they kept advancing. It was now Adam's turn to get hit. Just as he was coming up the stairs, and Buddy had already taken a left out the door, a raider with a shotgun shot Adam near point blank in the chest as he came in around from the right, sending him flying down the stairs landing him firmly on the concrete floor of the plateau. "Kid!" Salvatore yelled as he saw Adam get blasted backwards past him. He didn't hesitate to blast 5 rounds into the raider who was still standing plainly in the open in front of the landing's door. After he shot the raider and ensured he was dead he ran back down the stairs to look after Adam. Adam who was more winded than anything looked up at Salvatore a bit dazed. "Keep moving." Adam ordered, with a squeaky, breathless voice. "But you-" Salvatore started. "Go!" Adam said sharply to him with a commanding tone, despite his weakened state. Salvatore looked at him for a moment and then nodded leaving to follow after buddy and clear the floor with him. Adam continued to lay there, partly slumped up against the wall as he tried to catch his breath. He peeled back the top layer of his combat armor. He was bruised, pretty bad, but there was not a single bullet hole. It seemed as though the man with a shotgun had hit him with birdshot. If he was unarmored he would have been dead, no question, but as he was wearing reinforced combat armor, the same kind he had worn in the war, such tiny pellets would never have punctured his body armor. Honestly, the fall down the stairs and onto the concrete plateau hurt far more than the shotgun did, ironically. Still he was nothing more than badly bruised, so he would heal fine. Adam pulled out a stimpack from his backpack and stabbed himself with it. Instantly he could feel the wounds from his fall and hit begin to heal. As always, stimpacks were a hell of a drug. Honestly though stimpacks did not do anything for the pain, they only have a very small numbing effect, hence why he used it on the wounded area. He would kill for a Med-X right now. Not only would it make him numb to the pain it would reinforce him and make him sturdier, or at least that's what he was told in the army. All he really cared about was that it made the pain of getting shot go away, that was enough. Adam pulled himself to his feet a moment later and took a deep breath, restabilizing himself before he pulled his laser pistol off the ground and started his ascent back up the stairs, planning to rejoin the fight.

Chapter 98 - 98

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