As soon as he stepped outside he noticed it was dark. Not pitch black or too late, but he clearly had been knocked out for a while since, by his estimation, he had left the movie theater at about 4? 5? And now it looked like it was 9, maybe 10. It was a miracle he survived at all.
The short walk back to the walls of Naper was uneventful, though he did keep his eyes out, not willing to be jumped again.
When he got to the wall he saw yet a new guard was on watch, not that it surprised him.
"Hey!" Adam called out. "Excuse me! Can you open the gate for me?" he called up to him.
"I don't recognize you!" The guard called back from the wall as he generally held onto his rifle with both hands, not pointing it at Adam but having it ready.
"I was just here earlier, I left to do some scavenging. You can ask Mandy or Chuck about me, my name's Adam Baxter!"
"You aren't a raider, are you?" The guy asked back. Adam was starting to get a bit annoyed, was this protocol? He was unsure, but certainly this was excessive.
"No, I'm not." Adam said firmly, tired of this back and forth.
The guard seemed to stand there, staring at him for a moment in silence. But just as Adam was opening his mouth to speak the man spoke up instead.
"Alright, let me get the gate open…" He said as he pressed the button next to him and the gate began to grind open.
Adam sighed in relief, knowing that he was finally going to be back behind the walls. Truthfully this entire experience has been informative.
For one he learned a lot about the dos and don'ts when adventuring outside a settlement's walls. He always needed to keep his guard up for hostiles, whether that be bugs or crazed women with a penchant for knocking him out. Second, he needed to balance gathering stuff to sell and making it back timely, coming back late was not ideal, though probably would be unavoidable in the future, still he could only carry so much stuff. Three, He enjoyed this far more than he would care to admit. Of course it was dangerous, he nearly died to a scrawny woman earlier, but it was the thrill of it all, the fact he had only himself to rely on, the fact he needed to fight to survive and then the scavenging hunt on top of it, made it rather exciting. And to top that off the end of the scavenging meant he could stumble across any number of things from books to fusion cores made it an incredibly fun affair. Was he an adrenaline junkie for thinking ? Maybe? But that's a question for a therapist, and he doubted they survived the bombs. The last thing he learned when he left today was quite simple, he needed to wear a helmet.
When the gate finally opened he walked inside and sighed again at the fact he was back in the walls. However he still had work to do. He wasn't off the clock yet, not if he wanted to afford a room to sleep in tonight. So he made his way along the path he saw Chuck walk Bessy to hopefully find his store. It didn't take long.
Within a minute of walking he found it. "Winchester's" Emblazoned in a yellow painted wooden sign hanging on top of a large home. On the left hand side was a small stable with a door that opened top and bottom separately. Bessy could be seen through the opened top part of the stable where she seemed to be watching Adam as he approached the house. He nodded politely to Bessy mostly as a joke but she seemed to moo in response which was amusing.
He walked up to the door and then tested the door knob, it was unlocked so, assuming it was just normal store etiquette, he walked inside.
Inside he found what was clearly a store front, unless Chuck and his wife were hoarders and pack rats. Tons of various things from bullets to toothpaste were lined up on shelves of all types, some metal, some wood and at the end of the rows of shelving was a counter with a large black metal box bolted to it. Next to the box was a pad of paper.
As Adam walked over to the counter he noticed that the paper was full of trade notes. Things such as "Ned 2 bottles of Nuka cola 40 caps; Sally 1 box of 357, 15 caps; Kendal two packs of shaving cream 20 caps." And things to that effect, he even noticed one line with his name on it. "Adam 1 leather caps bag, 3 caps" He chuckled. He was definitely in the right place. But Chuck was either not at his store or somewhere else in the building so he decided to call out to him.
"Chuck?! You in?" Adam yelled out through the building. He heard nothing for a few moments before Chuck came around a corner from down a flight of stairs.
"Well I'll be." Chuck said as he looked at Adam with some surprise as he circled around to the other side of the counter. "I'll be honest, when I heard that 'the guy in the vault suit left this morning' I figured you were done for." He lets off a loud sigh. "Glad to see that was unfounded worries."
He leaned against his counter. "You um… okay though?"
Adam touched his head a bit where he was struck. "For the most part. I was hit on the back of the head but it's not that bad."
"So the blood on your face is…"
"Someone else's… unfortunately." Adam said, a bit somber.
"Welp, that's the nature of the world, I'm afraid. Hope you got something for your trouble though." He paused. "That is why you came in, yes? Not to just say hi to your buddy?"
"No, you are right, I found some things." Adam said as he placed the gallon of water on the counter and then reached behind him to start dumping the stuff from the backpack onto the counter as well.
Chuck seemed to be scanning through everything and then his eyes fell on the fusion core. "Well I'll be…" He said as he gingerly picked it up with one hand and then reached below the counter to grab a pair of reading glasses to examine it closer. "A Gen-u-ine fusion core. Now what hole did you find yourself in to dig this up out of?"
"A building with a mad woman, apparently." Adam chuckled.
"Well…" Chuck said, impressed. "This here alone was worth whatever sort of trouble you went through."
"So it's worth some caps?" Adam asked, feeling more optimistic about the whole endeavor now.
"You bet it is. These are in high demand, least of all because this town is powered by a fusion generator and having more cores on deck is handy. Town fund can only help so much though."
"Town fund?" Adam asked as he leaned against the counter himself as he wiped his hand down his face hoping to get some of the caked on blood off of it.
"Yup! See, everything that needs doing in this town gets it done from the community fund. Guards need bullets? Community fund. Wall need patching? Community fund. Fusion core running low?" He grinned as he held up the fusion core. "Community fund." He chuckled and then placed it back down on the counter. "Everyone who lives in town throws in a bit of money every month to ensure the town stays ship-shape, myself included. So if the town needs a new fusion core, 'long with my usual haul I go out with a stipend from the town to purchase it from a bigger town like Midway." He gently placed his hand on the fusion core "Suffice it to say i'm very interested in buyin' if you're sellin'" He grins. Adam just chuckled.
"Yes, well, i planned to sell everything I found, after all I'm tired, hungry, thirsty, and in need of a bath, I need to rent a room from Mandy again." Chuck just nods.
"So how about this..." Adam began as he looked at his stuff. "Honestly I still don't know the value of things around here. The fusion core included, so can you just tell me the value of items, what items are hot commodities and what to look out for? You can charge me more or buy it for less if you want, but just help me get an idea of what I'm looking at here."
Chuck listens patiently and then nods. "Well… That's a lot 'o trust your putin' in me but i'll do my best not to disappoint." He laughs. "For starters this fusion core was a good find…