"Glad to see you here, Salvatore." Adam smiled as he offered his hand to Salvatore who gave him a high-five.
"I ain't gonna miss the free room and board." He chuckled as he then saw the crowd of people just about done filtering into the vault. "What's up with the crowd… is that Grant?" He said as he then noticed Grant standing in the back.
"Ah, yeah." Adam said with a soft chuckle. "They begged to come so they could have a safe place to stay for the upcoming battle, it was only the folks from Naper though, and even then only some of them." Salvatore frowned.
"You can't just be letting random people into your home, kid." He then looked at Adam before looking at the crowd again. "But I guess if it had to be anyone, the folks from Naper ain't half bad. They ain't gonna stiff ya." He shrugged, showing his soft side for the people at Naper for once.
"Everything go well on your end?" Adam asked as he pulled out his plug from the terminal and began to head inside with Salvatore.
"Yeah, I got a few buddies who are likely to show up, put out a call too, did what I could, came here fast as I could when I finished, figured you'd need help setting the place up." He then chuckled and added. "Didn't realize you'd have a whole group though."
"Yeah that just sort of happened." Adam then stepped into the vault and looked over at the dead bodies of the scientists at the entrance right where they were left last time. "We can leave the actual mess to the people from Naper, but there are a number of dead bodies we will need to dispose of." Adam said as he saw Pearl walk over, seemingly ready for orders.
"Ah damn, and here I was hoping for a little R and R in the metal utopia of a vault, but I guess I can settle for some manual labor of moving the dead." Salvatore said before he started moving towards the skeletons but Adam stopped him.
"No, wait. I have something far more important for you to do." Adam said seriously. "The reactor to this vault is damaged, how and why, I don't know, I've never seen it, but I read the logs from the old overseer who got trapped in there. Its leaking radiation so I can't get close but-"
"But being a ghoul that is no problem for me, I getcha." Salvatore nodded. "But I don't know the first thing about reactors, surely you aren't expecting me to fix it are you?" He asked.
"No, according to the logs there was a Mr. Handy assigned to keep it operational, likely the Mr. Handy was damaged in some way because otherwise the reactor would still be working. So all I need of you is to go in there, find the Mr. Handy, and bring him outside for me to look at. With any luck the Mr. Handy will fix the reactor for us." Salvatore nodded again.
"Alright I can do that for ya, kid. Do I just…" He said as he pointed to the signs on the wall, one of which was labeled 'reactor room'.
"Yeah, follow the signs, you will find it." Salvatore then turned to leave to do as he was asked and Adam then turned to Pearl.
"You and me, Pearl, we got the dirty job of moving bodies."
It did not take long to move the skeletons of the dead scientists outside. There were not many of them, they were just rags and bones, and they were right at the entrance. Adam and Pearl callously threw the skeletons into a pile of rubble nearby, after all, they were monsters that did not deserve his respect. However these were not the bodies he was referring to. He was talking about the other ones. The ones where he was born.
Adam led Pearl into the lab where he woke up, the sight of the room, tube after tube were exactly as he left them. He stood there, unmoving for a good solid few moments unsure if he had the strength to push forward. A small bit of anxiety began to rise up inside Adam as he was reliving all the worst parts of his memories all over again, the confusion, the fear, the uncertainty, the dread, the worry. It was all coming back to him. However, then Pearl spoke up.
"Is Adam okay? Adam not speak or move for a while." Pearl asked curiously. Surprisingly that alone was enough to break him out of his stupor and bring him back to reality.
"Yeah I um… am fine, Pearl…" Adam said slowly before he sighed again and then looked at the bodies. The clones who had not woken up alongside him, still laying on the ground where they were last left after spilling out of the vats where they were grown, just like him. He still had no idea what made him special. Why he had woken up when the others had not. Perhaps he would never know. Though he hoped to find some clarity on the computers. Most were wiped before the people left but maybe some answers would remain? He wouldn't know until he looked.
However right now he was focused on getting the bodies outside. His… brothers and sisters…
"Pearl, all of these bodies must go outside like the others." Adam said as he looked at the rotting forms that once were human bodies. The smell in here was bad, it was only his memories that were acting up. It looked like a massacre occurred in here. The bodies lay lifeless and half-decayed on the ground. Honestly, Adam was having a hard time even breathing due to the overwhelming smell of death. With nowhere to go in this confined space the smell simply stagnated since he had left. It was bad enough that Adam put on his gasmask and didn't take it off the entire time he was doing this. He rarely had the opportunity to wear the gas mask in the first place, so getting some use out of it was good.
Pearl casually complained that they were 'throwing away good meat'. But Adam patiently reminded her that eating humans was bad, little humans grew up to become big humans so, as a protector of little humans, she should protect the big ones too.
The explanation seemed good enough for Pearl and she, in return, promised to 'stop eating humies.'
Adam was on the second trip when Salvatore came over to see him. Adam handed off the body he was carrying to Pearl who was having an easy time carrying two bodies and let her continue the work while he spoke with Salvatore.
"Well?" Adam asked as he pulled off his gas mask, relieved to breathe fresh air again and happy he was not standing in that room of death like he was before.
"Yeah so I pulled out the robot." Salvatore said as he gestured with his thumb back down the hall, towards the reactor room. "Also you said the overseer used to be trapped in there? Well he was a glowing one so I put him down for you. Can't have ferals loose in a vault full of non ghouls." Salvatore grinned and then motioned with his head for Adam to follow.
"Come on, I'll show you to him."