He woke up the next day with some stiffness in his back. Luckily that seemed to be the worst of it, though he hadn't really gotten that great of sleep. Truth be told Adam was on alert all night. He had never really slept for more than 30 minutes at a time as he kept waking up to every small noise he heard, truly staying outside the walls was not ideal, he needed to get back, that much was certain.
Adam checked his pip-boy as he sat up, it was still very early in the morning, early enough that the creatures that moved at night would likely be asleep and the day dwelling creatures would likely just be rising. Or so he hoped. Truthfully it could be still 3am and he'd leave. He was very much over staying out here. Luckily he was waiting on no one but himself, so he grabbed his gear, threw his body armors on, his backpack strapped to his back, and then headed back down the stairs.
He paused before he left the third floor, stopping at the living room to grab the magazines, a copy of meeting people and locksmith's reader and grabbing a bottle of untouched whiskey from the cellarette. He threw the magazines into the flat back external mesh pocket of the backpack and the whiskey into the other mesh pocket on the side, opposite the laser pistol. Then he finally headed downstairs.
Adam had almost forgotten about the Nuka Cola he found the night prior, stopping short of the threshold of the door before turning around to grab it. It was not too far to say Adam was overburdened with goods, but he was just at his limit, truly he couldn't add many more things to his collection on his way back. His bag was full, and now so were his hands. He could fill up his pockets but he was running out of those too. Regardless Adam once more resolved himself to do no more looting unless he could wear it from this point forward. He was not looking forward to lugging this crate of Nuka Cola back the entire distance to Naper, but it was going to be worth it. The Nuka Cola was valuable, Chuck had told him so, each one was worth 20 caps, 3 was enough to cover the cost of a night's stay at the Inn, with 9 he could afford 3 nights, and hopefully the Quantum was worth that much more too. It was far too valuable to leave it behind, but at least he could complain about it to himself.
The journey for the next little while was largely uneventful, no raiders, deathclaws, super mutants, or feral ghouls popped up to mess with him. Thankfully. However, part way through his journey he decided to make a pitstop to scale a tall building to get an overhead view of the path he could take. While up there he got a true sense of the devastation around him.
Chicago was in shambles, the once bustling metropolis of heavy industry and human labor was now in ruins, much of the city, as far as he could see, was not even a shadow of its former self, it truly looked unrecognizable. But he chose not to dwell on it too much, such thoughts were depressing. He could leave his self doubt and pity for when he was safe again, he couldn't afford to be careless.
So, with his new vantage point, Adam visually scoured the paths that led towards the direction of Naper, confirming with his Pip-Boy map that he was indeed correct about his directional assumptions. Furthermore while he had the opportunity he scouted the area to see if there were any hosties he could see around.
Adam had found that the pip-boy's VATS could zoom in on a target once it had been designated, with a bit of creative thinking he could use VATS like binoculars and see at great distances. Or so he thought.
As he quickly found out, unless VATS had a target to lock onto it didn't want to remain zoomed and furthermore it paled in comparison to real binoculars. It seemed that the VATS system had its limits too. It was a shame but he would have to nix that plan, no matter, binoculars were just another thing he would need to remember to pick up before going out next time. With his scouting done he picked back up his Nuka Cola crate and headed back down the stairs, following the pre-planned path all the way to Naper.
Once more his journey was largely uneventful. He swore he heard the sounds of a bear at one point but saw nothing so he could only assume either it was a hallucination or the roar was loud enough that it carried, in either case he chose not to stick around to find out.
Exhausted, stiff, and more than ready to drop the stupid crate he had been carrying for half a day, he finally arrived back at the walls of Naper. It was truly a sight to behold, he could certainly rest easy again now that he could see the walls once more.
Gleefully, he ran over to the walls and called out to the guard on duty. "Hey! Can you open it up?"
The guard took one look at Adam and then nodded. "Sure. One second."
Adam was prepared for another small argument with the guard like last time he got back but luckily this guard seemed much more lax, or perhaps his blue and yellow jumpsuit was much more known within town. In either case he was glad to be back inside the safety of the walls.
Adam headed right to Winchester's he desperately wanted to go drop off everything he got. He had enough for a room but while he was tired and wanted to rest, more than anything, he wanted the vindication that his efforts were worth it.
"Welcome back friend." Chuck said with a warm smile and a tone that said he was unsurprised to see Adam despite him being gone yesterday as he walked through the door.
"Hey Chuck." Adam said as he walked through the door, his energy reaching the end of the line as he hoisted up the crate full of Nuka Colas with a grunt of finality as he finally reached his destination. Chuck whistled as he saw all the things Adam was bringing, seeing his overflowing backpack, pockets, toolbelt and this crate full of goods from Scavenging.
"Seems the pickin's were good this time eh?" He grinned as he idly played with the top of one of the Nuka Cola bottles with his finger.
"Oh yeah, but it was a hell of a trip this time." Adam responded as he pulled off his backpack and placed it on the counter too, and then his second, more modified body armor on the counter too. He also, though he had no intention on selling it, put his helmet on the counter as well, mostly just to get it off of his head. He would have taken off his other body armor as well but he would wait to do that when he got back to his room.
"Super mutants, Feral ghouls, Raiders, radroaches." Adam said, listing off all of his encounters. "Oh and feral dogs too, it was a lot out there."
Chuck whistled again. "Well I'll be, you got the devil's luck that's for sure." He chuckled and then looked at all the things on the counter.
"I assume you are selling this all, yes?" He grinned.