"Well I did come to check up on you." Adam said with a smile as he gently slapped Salvatore on the back. "And I was curious about this section of town, you were the only ghoul I knew so it has been interesting seeing so many others." Salvatore sighed a bit. "But I did come for more than a social hour." Adam said as he got a bit more serious. Salvatore turned to look at him fully now.
"You good to head out on a run tomorrow?" Adam continued. Salvatore nodded.
"Sure, my trigger finger was getting itchy anyway." He grinned.
"Good." Adam said before he laughed softly. "Because I'm out of money." Salvatore looked surprised.
"How'd you manage that already?" He then laughed darkly as he took another sip of his drink. "You lose it all at the casino?"
"No I-" Adam began before he stopped himself. "Wait there's a casino?" Adam asked, changing the conversation as this seemed far more interesting.
"Yeah?" Salvatore said with a raised eyebrow. "Of course there is. You think a place this large would not have a place for people to gamble their money away?" He chuckled.
"Never been there, obviously, but Midway has it all, casinos, bars, clubs, strippers, it's got a lot of people so naturally a lot of venues." He shrugged.
"Well…" Adam began, shaking off his surprise from a moment ago. "I did not, in fact, lose it all at the casino." He corrected.
"Remember Deccanus? That guy in the football gear from the defense of Naper?"
"Uh…" Salvatore took a moment to remember. Despite fighting with the guy, it seemed as though he was a really low priority in Salvatore's memory. "Yeah, I remember." He said after a moment.
"Well, I saw him get shot in the food court yesterday. I ran him to the hospital and spent most of what I had on making sure he didn't die."
"Jesus kid." He said with a sigh. "You are going to throw all your caps for a schmuck that you don't even know?"
"I did know him, I was in combat with him, you too." Adam said firmly. "I saw him get shot right in front of me. I couldn't not put the effort in to help him." Salvatore shook his head.
"That good nature of yours will get you killed one day if you aren't careful." Salvatore warned.
"Or it will make him a lot of friends." Claire said as she walked over with the mimosa. "Friends are just as valuable as any stash of caps."
"Bah, I'd rather have the caps."
"And that is why you are alone all the time." She smiled and then placed down the drink but didn't remove her hand. She looked at Adam. "Although did I hear you were broke? I don't do freebies." Adam was about to say something but then she chuckled and took her hand away and spoke again.
"Then again I could just charge it to your friend here." She said, getting a kick out of teasing Salvatore. Salvatore grumbled but Adam laughed softly.
"While I appreciate Salvatore's generosity, I do have money, more than enough to buy a drink, though for my purposes not enough to make me feel comfortable." He pulled out the 100 cap bill and put it down. "Though I would like change." he smiled.
"I like a man who can pay their bills~" She said with a low seductive tone as she leaned in a bit towards him, grinning. Then she leaned back, grabbed the bill, and then walked off to make change for Adam.
"She drives me up the wall."
"But I can see why you keep coming back to her." Adam grinned.
"I'm not going through this with you again, drop it." He said sharply, Adam just chuckled.
"Well anyway, my point is tomorrow I'd like to make a run."
"Sounds fine to me, you got a time? Destination in mind?"
"Yes and no." Salvatore raised an eyebrow.
"You do realize knowing where you are going is the most important part of scaving right?" Adam shrugged at Salvatore's words.
"It's worked out so far." He chuckled. "But I just haven't been around here long enough to get some information. I think I'll find a good place tonight, otherwise, we will just leave it to chance, I doubt we will have trouble." Salvatore lets off an amused grunt and then sips at his drink again.
"Whatever you say kid."
"Either way let's meet up at the main gate at 9 tomorrow."
"You know scaving is dangerous work?" Claire said as she walked back over with Adam's change. 92 caps. So the drink cost him 8 caps, honestly, pretty cheap all things considered, she was probably giving him a discount for knowing Salvatore.
Adam nodded as he put the money back into his pouch. "Yeah, I've been warned." He smiled. "But I've gotten pretty good at it, and I was running solo, with Salvatore here, I doubt it will be much trouble."
"All the same, I'd rather you not get yourself killed, and bring this oaf with you to your grave."
"I ain't going to die that easy." Salvatore said as he looked away.
"Alright, fine." She said, hands on her hips. "Then use your immortality to make sure he doesn't die." Salvatore just grunts. She turned back to Adam again.
"Just stay safe." She said with a slightly worried tone. Adam smiled at her warmly.
The rest of the time spent in ghoul town was spent with Salvatore. They didn't talk about anything overly interesting, mostly just chatting about the old days. For Adam it was a rather casual thing, after all despite the world being gone he remembered the world the way it was not long ago. For Salvatore, who had survived all this time out in the world, it was a trip down memory lane. Though he didn't outwardly express it, he really enjoyed speaking about the old days. Salvatore was secretly very sentimental; he just hid it behind a gruff exterior.
After a while to chat with Salvatore and time to finish his drink Adam headed out, he was curious what was in the private terminal but it was not a big priority at the moment so he decided to head back to the city proper.
Once inside he decided to explore a bit, looking for any of these interesting venues Salvatore had mentioned. He realized very quickly that Derek had not given him the full tour, which made sense. This place was huge, but there were entire sections he hadn't seen yet. Now that he was thinking about it though, Derek had mentioned clubs when he was telling Adam about the most interesting locations but he did not give directions nor elaborate. Adam was a bit overwhelmed back then and finding food and a hotel was the priority so he didn't press Derek for details. Seemed as though he would simply have to wander.
In one of the sections that overlooked the opposite side of the tarmac, away from the main gate, he found rows and rows of 'adult entertainment venues'.
Not all of them were the type of things kids were barred from entering, though there were quite a few of those, but there were also dance clubs, piano bars, and the aforementioned casino.
Adam was mostly trying to kill time and enjoy himself so he peeked inside the casino. What once was an entire terminal building with 7 gates had been fully transformed. He found a rather nice floor layout, well decorated interior, plenty of slot machines and tables for all manner of card games, roulette, and a few other games he hadn't seen. There was even a place in the back that was labeled 'Caravan'. Though it was empty at this time, but it seemed even Caravan tournaments would occur here.
It was actually a very nice place if it wasn't for the copious amount of cigarette smoke that permeated the huge room making it smell of tobacco no matter where he went. Adam didn't mind the smoky smell too much, it wasn't normally a big deal to him, but the amount of smoke was enough that it was a bit hard to breathe which certainly dampened his enjoyment of the venue. So he left.
Then, as he was pursuing the various options he noticed a classy piano bar tucked away in the back. There were other piano bars but the rest looked cheap, this one had presentation right outside the door, with faux marble columns and a mahogany veneer. It took him a moment but he realized that the place was once a VIP first class waiting room only given to the people who flew on the most expensive seats. It had been converted into something new, much like everything else here, but it had, instead, kept much of the style from the old world which lent to it drawing Adam's eye.
As Adam walked up to it he was stopped by a black suited bouncer out front. It was possible that he was unrelated to The Guild and that he was just wearing a black suit, but it was safer to assume otherwise.
"No guns allowed past this point." The bouncer said with a stoic tone.
"What? Why?" Adam asked, just confused why there were different security rules over here than anywhere else.
"Cause I said so." The bouncer bit back. He then continued with a calmer tone. "You can check your weapons with me, no one will touch your gun other than me and you." Adam sighed, but he wasn't going to get robbed inside and it really was a good way to sate his curiosity so he unclipped his holster and handed it off to the bouncer.
The bouncer took the gun and put it in a large storage chest next to him. Then he pulled out a small flashlight.
"Hold still." the bouncer said as he shined the flashlight over Adam's eyes, probably checking to see if he was drugged up or something, but all this extra security was super confusing to Adam, maybe he was going somewhere he shouldn't.
After a moment to check Adam and scan him visually to see if he had any more weapons the bouncer stepped aside. "You can come on in. Welcome to The Oasis."