Adam began to explore the town, he realized a few things quickly. First, if it wasn't already obvious this was a fishing town, the main economic mover seemed to be fishing all creatures of the lake, most jobs revolved around it, whether that be the fishermen themselves, butchers who specialize in crabs and fish, caravans who have specialized refrigeration units to transport the fish, and so much more. To add on to that much of the color that was seen throughout the town was that of fish imagery. Including one incredibly impressive massive mural on the wall of the largest building. It depicted a scene as a snapshot of life at The Pier, people hauling catches, fishermen in the lake, even the destroyer proudly sitting at the docks along with the ferris wheel next to it, even though those two things were at opposite ends of the pier.
The second thing he learned is that there were indeed a ton of people living here, though definitely some appeared to be travelers, having come on the boats or leaving on boats. However, unlike Midway which could be considered a city by new world standards, this place was a step below that, only feeling like a large town. The population here was definitely sizable but not enough to challenge Midway as the most populated settlement in the area.
Third, while there did appear to be housing from the converted space in the buildings, most of the buildings were converted for work, shops, and hotels, which Adam did find. Most of the people appeared to live on boats. The Pier was full of people getting on and off boats, many of which had been converted to very obviously housing thanks to the tapestries, beds, and other things that showed people stayed on them. Though as he noticed before it was not everyone, just a majority. The docks themselves seemed to be an addition added onto the Pier as they were clearly of lesser quality when compared to the concrete floor he was walking on, but they seemed to get the job done.
Fourth, everyone here seemed more rugged. If Midway had a mix of people from those who had never left their home to people who were more like Adam these people struck him as an entire settlement of people like a mix of Jay and Salvatore. Most were friendly and kind, but they were built big and seemed to carry themselves like they were confident in a fight.
Fifth the town had turrets everywhere. There were so many turrets here that it was almost more impressive they could power them all. They lined the edge of the docks every 100 feet or so pointed out towards the water. Clearly they were prepared for a naval incursion of some kind. Interestingly though not a single one of the turrets were the kind he was used to, the laser variety. There were, of course, other kinds of automated turrets, ones that used bullets such as these. But by the US army standards they were antiquated and being phased out by the time he left the army. They had either built a majority of these turrets by hand or had taken every automated gun turret that fired bullets in the entirety of Chicago. Though somehow he suspected it was the former, a lot of the turrets were not uniform.
The last most interesting thing of note was that the giant heavy pounder guns on the destroyer seemed to be pointing out to the Lake. That might just be because that was how they were left when the world ended, after all the whole reason the destroyer was here was to act as a supporting force for troops in Canada if the Canadians acted out. Though usually when a ship was at dock the guns would be brought to a more normal resting position. Was the gun functional? If so that would be some incredible firepower, but he was not a naval expert, nor did it really affect him so he didn't pursue the line of thought.
Eventually an hour passed, Adam had found a nice hotel for him and Deccanus but had not booked the rooms yet, both because he was assured if he waited a bit they would not be booked, and because he didn't want to double book if Deccanus paid for rooms already. As Adam walked back to the ferris wheel where he promised to meet Deccanus he was stopped by the young girl who was selling flowers near the entrance.
"Excuse me sir." She said politely with a slightly shy voice. "May I interest you in some flowers?" She continued, hopefully. Adam paused, looked at her, looked at the flowers and then looked at her again. He really didn't need flowers, what was he going to do with them?
"How much for those over there?" Adam asked with an internal sigh as he pointed to a nice bouquet of colorful flowers. He was such a pushover. Damn, using kids to sell things was cheating.
Her eyes lit up when Adam asked as she ran over to the flowers, taking it out of its holder and holding it in her little arms.
"These are only 35 caps!" She beamed. 35? For flowers?
"Alright, sounds good to me." Adam said, another internal sigh as he paid for the flowers. Taking them from the girl after he paid.
"Thank you mister! Have a great day!" She said as she put the caps into a little pouch at her side and then went back to hustling.
Adam walked over to the Ferris wheel now, still holding the wrapped flowers in his hands as he did. He saw Deccanus standing there when he arrived.
"I have completed my search and I-" Deccanus began as Adam approached before he noticed the flowers and looked confused for a moment. "Why do you have flowers?"
"A very persuasive little girl sold them to me." Adam said with a small laugh. Deccanus stared at the flowers for a moment and then looked to Adam again.
"I appreciate the gesture but I am not interested in men." He said flatly. Adam blinked as his mind caught up with what he was hearing.
"What? No. Deccanus I-" Then it dawned on Adam. "Wait… was that… a joke?" He asked Deccanus curiously. Deccanus offered a small smirk.
"I do have a sense of humor." Adam looked at him surprised for a moment before laughing a bit.
"I stand corrected." He smiled. "My apologies."
"You have no need for apologies." Deccanus said in return.
"Now, you were saying? You completed your search?"