After informing Rae of their new task and telling the construction protection to stop following Rae around, which they were happy to do, Adam then went to go check on the people he brought from Naper, just to see how they were doing. When he entered the habitat wing he was shocked to find it already way cleaner than when he had seen it a few hours ago. In fact it was so clean that if it wasn't for the red lights still illuminating the hallways he would not even know this place once used to be a mess. The refugees also seemed to have gone room to room and cleaned most of them up. They were not done, but they were keeping true to their word, and were sparing no effort to help make this place nice.
As Adam walked through the halls, passing by people cleaning in one way or the other, he got a lot of thanks, a lot of heartfelt words of gratitude, and a great number of smiles. People were seemingly so overjoyed to be here. Adam wasn't exactly sure what to do with this much gratitude but he simply welcomed them politely and continued on.
There were still a lot of spaces that were not yet cleaned. Even in the habitat wing there were a lot of non sleeping spaces that he found, from a gym and a, now-empty, pool, to a library and school were still in need of work. However besides the living spaces it seemed the only other places the refugees prioritized cleaning was the cafeteria. More than that it seemed as though all of them had pooled their rations together and stocked the place up so that food could be easily taken and cooked by anyone. The only two people in the cafeteria when he walked in were Pearl, who seemed to somehow have ended up helping with the cleaning. Using a rag to wipe down a table without truly understanding why she was doing it and Eric.
"Hey Eric." Adam said as walked over to the cafeteria counter and leaned on it.
"Hey Adam…" Eric said after a moment. He then paused, looked down at the counter he was cleaning and then back up at Adam. "I um… wanted to thank you again for um… letting me come." Adam chuckled. He had gotten thanks from everyone he had seen so far, Eric was just the latest one, but Eric, as he remembered him, was really unmotivated and lacking energy, so it was interesting to have seen him be willing to make the journey.
"No problem, man." Adam said with a smile to him. "Though I am curious why you ended up coming along, if you don't mind me asking." Eric remained silent for a moment looking almost sheepish.
"It… was a chance to get outside… see a place that wasn't Naper and… I… have done a lot of thinking about what you last said to me… about how I should find what I want to do…"
"Came to a conclusion?" Adam asked, curious.
"Well…" Eric began before stopping again. "Well I'm just happy to be out of the town, I… feel more alive than I have in a while." He admitted quietly, ignoring the question. Adam smiled.
"Well I'm glad coming here can ignite a little bit of passion in you. We got a lot of work to get this place back ship-shape but im sure with some effort we can make this place feel alive again. After all, it used to be a home to a ton of people. We can definitely turn this metal shell into a living space once more."
Eric turned around to look at the clean cabinets, stoves, ovens, and other kitchen implements he had already cleaned along with the nearly fully stocked pantry behind him full of food from Naper.
"Yeah, I think I'm going to like it here…" He said with a sheepish smile.
"So are you going to be our chef while everyone stays here?"
"Oh no." Eric shot back quickly before getting a more complicated look on his face. "Well… maybe, I don't know. I don't want to just do the same thing I was doing at Naper just here, but I'm not yet sure how else I can contribute… so I might end up helping out here if I'm needed." He said as he picked up his cloth from the counter and then wrung it out in the nearby sink.
"Well do what you can, that's all that matters." Adam said with a smile. Eric nodded and then disengaged from the conversation to keep working, though it looked like he still had things on his mind, though Adam was fine not to push.
"Hey Pearl, you good to help me a bit?" Adam asked as he turned around to face his super mutant friend.
"Pearl is happy to help." Pearl said, dropping the cloth she was using on the table.
"I'm gonna steal Pearl for a bit, I got to move some stuff into the Vault from the APC." Eric gave a thumbs up while his back was turned and Pearl and Adam then left to head towards the APC and grab everything out of it.
Adam didn't have much, but everything he had was big and powerful; Minigun, Flamer, power armor, 3 large laser turrets, laser rifles, a chunk of ammo, and a few other odds and ends. It took more than one trip for him and Pearl to finish. All of it was loaded into the Armory which could be easily locked, none of the weapons easily fit into any of the weapon racks, after all the weapon racks were probably designed for pistols, shotguns, batons, and things of that sort, not military grade death machines like the minigun. Luckily there were tables in the armory too, more than enough space to put everything in. It all could be modified later, he just wanted to bring it inside. After all, that was half the reason he wanted to move into the Vault, the ability to keep all his stuff safe.
Adam was content to leave the Laser turrets at the entrance, they were all in passive mode at the moment, unless they directly saw a person shoot Adam they would not fire, that was enough for him. There was still a ton of work before the Vault could be called home, but truthfully taking in the refugees was making this far easier than he ever could have hoped. With the exception of one of the two children, everyone was cleaning or doing something to help make the place nicer. The child who was not working was too young to even consider work and was instead playing with a toy car that the mother had found on the ground of the domicile they decided to inhabit. The other child was old enough to do things such as household chores so he was, begrudgingly, helping his parent.
Adam was not exactly sure what else to spend his time doing, he needed to stay available for getting whatever resources that the reactor might need but he didn't want to remain idle. Then, as he was exploring a bit more, he realized what he should do.
He went room to room, storage closet to storage closet and into every storeroom and place he could open to find and gather every single pip-boy the vault had laying around. These were incredibly valuable tools. They also worked as a key to get into his new home. As far as he knew, he was the only one in the entirety of Chicago who owned one, making sure he kept them all secure was a smart idea. In addition to the practical benefits of keeping them all safe and accounted for, they were also the most valuable item in the Vault. A personal portable computer system with as many integrated options as the Pip-Boy had was easily worth quite a lot he was sure. He, once again, didn't expect any of the Naper refugees to take any from him but better safe than sorry. Follow current ɴᴏᴠᴇʟs on 𝔫𝔬𝔳𝔢𝔩•𝗳𝗂𝗋𝖾•𝕟𝕖𝕥
All in all he found a lot more Pip-Boys than he expected. In one storeroom he found boxes upon boxes of them. Some of the boxes were opened, but most were left untouched. It seemed like the former residents didn't prioritize taking the pip-boys and instead focused on taking food and weapons. Honestly, quite understandable. But for Adam this was a massive gain.
He locked all the boxes of Pip-Boys in the armory along with the rest of the things, deciding to, later, figure out a better place to keep all his stuff.
Finally with the day winding down he popped out of the Vault just to make sure no one else had shown up while he was inside. After all, it's not like he had exterior cameras.
Luckily for him, he was right, Deccanus was here.