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The Fallout Chapter 5 By Kendo Kawabata Looking Better.

Even though it was not the same home that he had once visited oh so long ago, Adam was still happy to return to Sanctuary Hills after the rather adventurous day that he had been exposed to.

Returning home was something that he realised that he had taken for granted for the majority of his life. The people that he had saved that day in Concord, they no longer had their own homes to return to. And the Raiders that had died, wouldn't be returning to their homes either.

Slowly, he was beginning to realise that this world was far more dangerous then he had ever given it consideration. If he hadn't have been careful, he wouldn't have been able to return home either. It was probably through sheer dumb luck that he had survived the many encounters during the day that he had, and had managed to come out alive.

Injured, but alive.

He had been walking since Concord, plodding along at the back of the group. He should have been tired after all that had happened during the day, including all the walking that he had been doing. But, the Power Armour suit seemed to make everything easier for him.

He didn't feel tired from the walking, or from carrying around a half tonne of metal and circuitry that was covering his body. The suit was designed to carry all the weight of the suit, and movement was made a lot easier, as if the suit was helping him to move.

Still, when they passed the Red Rocket Gas Station and saw the sign for Sanctuary Hills in the distance, Adam couldn't help but feel relieved and thankful.

Not just because the familiar sight of the bridge and the sign meant that within a short time he'd be able to exit the power armour and find his way onto his bed and possibly sleep for the rest of the days existence; but also because it would mean an end to the damn squabbling that he had been forced to listen to.

How the group had managed to survive as long as they did with one another was something that went right over the poor lions head and into the realm of how-in-the-heck? As soon as the group had left the steps of the Concord Museum, the occasional snide remark and petty banter was made through the whole walking trip back. Usually followed by a heated argument.

Mostly, it was Marcy and Sturges arguing back and forth between them, each one seeming to want to out insult the other. Spring would constantly tell them to either drop it, to Marcy, or shut up, to Sturges, as she seemed to be more worried about Bandit the racoons seemingly rapidly failing health then the fact that those two were arguing at each other.

But Preston didn't seem to even notice, or at least he didn't until Marcy would say something about Mama Murphy and only then would Preston round on them both and tell them to knock it off. That would only work for about the next five minutes or so till, usually Sturges, would make a comment that would start it all over again.

Adam couldn't really see what made the vixen so special, aside from her age, that she needed to be considered immune to the arguing or even the effort of walking. Bandit had tripped over several times on the walk back, his facial features turning pale on more then one instance. Spring had to help him up after each fall and he ended up using his shotgun as a walking stick to keep his balance.

Yet, Preston said nothing about that, but the moment Mama Murphy even mentioned she was thirsty, hungry or even that her feet were aching, Preston had turned to Adam and practically demanded that he carry her the rest of the way..

Thankfully, Cadwell said some rather choice words to that suggestion. And Preston did not mention it again.

By the time they finally managed to grace the presence of the bridge that lead into Sanctuary Hills, the sun had already begun to set in the distance. The storm clouds from earlier had all but vanished, leaving the skies clear in their paled blue colouring. The sun hadn't actually begun to lose any light, but it was obvious that soon night would fall.

"Here we are. Sanctuary. Mama Murphy, you were right" Preston said as he turned to Mama Murphy with a pleased and relieved look on his face. "After all this time, we finally managed to arrive. It was right where you said it would be."

"I knew it would be" Mama Murphy said, the vixen looking up with a rather surprisingly smug look on her face, as if she was expecting everyone to join in and congratulate her. "The Vision guided us, and it has rewarded us for our faith in it. "

"Say that to everyone who died on the way" Marcy muttered.

"Now now, enough of that" Sturges said as he gave a 'calm down' gesture with his hands. "We're here now. And we're all alive. We need to be grateful for that" he said firmly. "We only need to cross the bridge and we're in and safe. Our troubles will finally be over for us all."

"Sturges, either shut your trap, or I'll shut it for you" Spring said firmly as she looked at him with a glare. "Now, since you're so eager to get in there, why don't you give Bandit a hand crossing the bridge? That thing looks like it will break under our weight, and I don't think he can handle crossing it on his own. He's barely made it this far already."

Sturges blinked at her for a moment before he rather hurriedly moved over to Mama Murphys side.

"I can't. You see....ah...Mama Murphy needs a hand over....the bridge looks like it could break, and you know, we don't need her to get hurt after all she's been through" he said with a rather wide and worried grin on his face as he took the elder vixen by the arm.

Mama Murphy gave him a smile as he took her arm in his as she allowed him to help her over the rickety bridge.

"Careful there Mama, don't want you falling in" he said as he looked back at Spring, only to seemingly falter under the does almost murderous glare as he made something of a show with how careful he was being to escort the vixen over the bridge.

"Hmmph. Bitch isn't even hurt" Marcy muttered as she came up past Spring, her good arm wrapped around her shivering husband, her other arm tucked against her side. Jun was muttering under his breath. Adams microphone in his helmet was only able to make out a few words, it sounded like he apologising to someone. Someone named Kyle.

"I'm not arguing with that" Spring said with a shake of her head as she turned to Bandit. The young raccoon looked like he was about to pass out again as he leant on his shotgun for support. The amount of blood that had soaked into his bandages had soaked it red through out, although it did look like it had stopped, it was still unnerving to see it. "I'll help you over" Spring said as she held out her arm for him to take.

"I could carry him" Adam suggested as he stepped up to their side. "It wouldn't be any trouble to me to help him over. I doubt I'd even feel his weight" he said as he looked them both over. The moment he mentioned weight, the hud on his helmet lit up and framed Bandit in a yellow glow, a small number appearing beside him giving an estimate to the raccoons weight.

"That bridge might break under you" Spring said as she walked up to the front of the bridge and looked at it for a moment as she judged it, while the others were slowly making their way over. They could hear the wood creaking as they made their way over, and she was sure she saw the whole structure move to the side.

"Well, only other option is to cross the water, and I do not think that's a good idea. The Rads wouldn't affect you in the suit Adam, but I'm pretty sure it would make Bandit sicker" she said as she turned to him. "Just take it slow. Very slowly" she warned Adam.

"I'll go ahead and put the kettle on. It's been so long since we've had visitors. Plus, I'm sure those mole rats have gotten into the bread bin again" Cadwell said with a rather happy spin in the air. "Oooh, I shall break out the good china and whip up some scones and butter cream. Oh I'm so excited. Visitors again, and the actual good kind, not the annoying kind" he said, with a few happy sounding chirps of his circuitry before he proceeded to dash across the bridge at top speed. Rocket gave a bark and began to give chance, dashing as well across the broken bridge.

All three of them stared in silence for a moment before Adam leant down and gently hooked his bulky arms under Bandits body, picking him up under his thighs and holding him around his shoulders as he very carefully lifted up the injured raccoon. It was easy to balance the briefcase and the raccoon in his grip. The thin raccoon was lighter then he appeared, but it was probably because the suit was taking the majority of the weight.

"Thank you" Bandit said quietly as he wrapped an arm around Adams shoulder pauldrons as best as he could. He did wince and hiss a bit in discomfort as his leg was held, and the blood from the bandages smeared on the gauntlets as Adam held him.

"Alright, take it slow:" Spring warned as she began to cross the bridge ahead of them. "If you drop him, I will hold you responsible" she warned over her shoulder. Adam thought that it was wise to give her a head start by at least half of the bridge before he began to cross over as well.

Although the bridge did not end up collapsing underneath them as he crossed, he was sure that it would have more then once just from the way it was creaking underneath him. The bridge should have been able to hold up cars passing on it daily, but that was so long ago and the bridge was near broken. The water underneath him looked more disturbingly green then normal and the wood sounded like it would actually snap underneath him.

"We made it" Adam said the moment they managed to get to solid ground, which they both gave a sigh of relief to. Spring was waiting for them and she was as relieved as they were that Adam and Bandit hadn't fallen into the water.

Adam was about to put him down when they heard shouting from up ahead in the street. It sounded like two of the men were shouting at each other, and it sounded pretty heated as their voices were carrying down the dead street.

"Oh what fresh hell is this" Spring said as she shook her head again and tossed her rifle over her shoulder and began to march forward. Adam kept Bandit in his arms as he followed her, wondering what was going on now. There couldn't possibly be raiders or something that had slipped in while they were out, right?

The commotion, as it turned out, was a confrontation in front of Adams home between Preston and Cadwell, as both were in the face of the other and both had their weapons in hand. Preston had his musket pointed at Cadwell, who in retaliation had his saw-blade and his flame-thrower in the face of Preston.

Mama Murphy was standing next to Sturges in the street, the elderly vixen staring off into space like she was either spaced out or she had fallen asleep standing upright with her eyes open. Sturges was standing with his hands in his pockets, seeming to watch the argument unfold.

"I'm telling you, stand aside" Preston said. "This seems to be the only working available house right now, so move aside so Mama Murphy has a place to lie down."

"And I'm telling you, this house belongs to Master Adam" Cadwell said in a loud voice right back at him. "I will not allow some tripped up junkie to sully the house and its good reputation in his neighbourhood."

"Mama Murphy needs a place to sleep, so stand aside robot" Preston said firmly. "I don't have time to waste looking through the other houses for one in good condition for her. And she is not a junkie. She's clean."

"And where is Master Adam supposed to sleep if his bed is taken?" Cadwell said firmly. "She is no relation of mine, so there fore it is not part of my nature to care. And I know the signs of a junkie when I see them. I have read all the literature about drug abuse that was sent home in Adams school homework" he pointed out.

"Preston, just find another damn house" Marcy said. She had helped Jun to a seat on the verandah on the house opposite, where he had curled up into a ball and was rocking back and forth to comfort himself. Now she was crossing back over the road and pushed herself between the two fighting males. "She doesn't get top pick just because she made a lucky guess."

"It was not a lucky guess. Mama Murphy guided us here" Preston said as he, thankfully, lowered his gun when he turned to Marcy. "And if anyone deserves top pick, then she does, after all she's done for us."

"Oh, you mean tramping us over the wasteland, just because she had some 'vision' while she was hooked up on chems, and getting most of us killed? That means she gets top pick?" Marcy shouted in Prestons face. "I suppose you get second pick, because you followed her like some stupid puppy and failed to keep everyone alive."

Sturges looked like he was about to interject, probably with some speech already prepared to get them to both calm down, but Spring instead shoved him aside as she came up behind him and proceeded to stand directly between all three of them.

"Preston, shut it" Spring said sharply. "Marcy, you are not helping either. Nobody gets first pick on any of these houses, until we know who owns them" she said firmly. Marcy immediately shut up, although she did give Preston a glare as he opened his mouth to object, but Spring cut him off with a zipper motion of her hand.

"Cadwell" she said as she turned around. "Does someone already live here in this house?" she asked him flatly.

"Why yes mum" Cadwell said as he immediately lowered his weapons and the circuitry under his cracked dome began to glow in a rather friendly way. "I am registered as a Domesticated Mr Handy at this rather humble abode. My owners are Mr and Mrs Bradley Gold. Unfortunately they are deceased, so ownership of myself and the house and its contents in its entirety are passed down to their first born son, Adam" Cadwell said with an amount of pride in his voice.

Spring seemed to accept that as she turned to face Preston.

"The house is already taken" she said. "So pick another one."

"We can't take the word of a robot like that" Preston protested, as Cadwell raised his weapons up again as if he was going to use them. "Preston, find her another house. There are plenty around here" Spring said firmly to him. "She does not get top pick just because she's old. If anything, Bandit should top choice, because he's actually injured worse then everyone else" she snapped.

"I do not take orders from you, or from robots" Preston said sharply as he glared at Spring, as if he was furious that she was even contemplating going against his authority. "I am a captain in the Minutemen, I give the orders."

"The Minutemen are all but dead. And none of us here have joined up, so you being a captain is pointless" Spring said just as sharply back at him. "And we don't have to take orders from you, period. Especially now that we arrived here. And if you don't like it, go find another settlement. As you keep whining about, there's probably more out there that need your help" she snapped.

There was actually several moments of silence in the air as Preston looked completely taken aback by her words, and it was hard to tell what he was thinking in those long silent moments.

"Come on Mama Murphy. We'll find you another house" Preston said as he took Mama Murphys arm and began to lead her away.

"The scarred one will remember you" Mama Murphy said as she pointed to Spring as she was lead away. "He will remember the act of kindness when you think he has forgotten."

"Nutcase" Marcy muttered as they watched Preston lead Mama Murphy away.

"See what you went and did? You upset them" Sturges said as he went up to Spring. "Couldn't you just let her have the house instead of starting an argument?" he demanded. If he expected that to have an effect to the point where Spring said sorry, he was mistaken.

"Do you want to take it up with the angry robot?" Spring said flatly as Cadwell turned his various weapons on the cougar, his lights blinking rather rapidly in a strangely psychotic way.

"Uh....I think I'll just go and...look for my own house...." Sturges said as he pointed over his shoulder in a random direction, which he took off running rather quickly without looking back their way.

"He's such a dick" Bandit said, his voice actually startling Adam as he hadn't expected him to talk.

"Well, that takes care of them" Spring said with a shake of her head as she dropped her rifle on the ground next to her. "Oh, I could really stand to put my feet up for the next few days" she said as she looked relieved.

Marcy looked over at Adam, who was still holding Bandit in his arms.

"You better put him down. We need to look at that wound before Preston comes along and confiscates everything because Mama Murphy has a splinter" she said as she gestured with her arm for Adam to let Bandit down.

Adam nodded as he carefully helped Bandit down, the two females taking the raccoon on each side as they helped him to stand. His leg began to shake rather badly the moment that he put weight on it and he cried out from the amount of pain that he must have been in.

As he placed the briefcase down, Adam noticed one of the lights on his hud was flashing. It was one of the little radial dials that had he hadn't really noticed that had been slowly aiming downwards during the walk. Now it was flashing to show that whatever it was monitoring, had reached zero.

The suit suddenly made a loud hissing noise as several valves started to release steam across the seams in the suit, as Adam felt the inflated interior suddenly start to deflate. The arms and legs of the suit suddenly went rigid as the back quickly opened up with a creaking noise. Adam actually felt himself fall backward as he went off balance for a moment, and fell backwards out of the suit. It took him a moment to regain his sense of balance, now no longer a foot higher in height and without the suit to hold him up for him.

"Woah.....that was.....kinda funny" he said as he felt the world somewhat spin around him. "Guess it....was out of ....power..." he said as he felt the world spin even harder. His sense of balance threw him for a lurch as he had the sudden desire to throw up on the ground. But he didn't end up throwing up, rather he ended up passing out as he collapsed into the dead grass with a thud.

He woke with a start, a gasp from his lips as he found himself staring up at the ceiling of his bedroom. It took him a moment for him to realise that it was still the same ceiling, even if he could see straight through it to the sky above.

The sky was brighter, but still pale. It obviously wasn't evening this time, he must have slept through the night and through to the next morning. He didn't even dream. It was just.....nothing.

He slowly sat himself up, wincing as he felt a sharp brief pain in his side. He realised he was topless, stripped down to his briefs with several rounds of browned bandages around his torso. It actually hurt to even breath deep.

He gasped a bit in pain as he slowly tugged some of the bandaging back, but he stopped and let go when he saw the very deep bruise on the side of his ribs. The flesh under his fur had turned a rather disturbingly deep purple. Right where the Deathclaw had ended up hitting him.

"Ow" he mewled rather pitifully as he tried to stand himself up. His entire body felt heavy, like he had done a non stop workout. Or like he used to feel when his old coach had made them run laps constantly until they ended up throwing up.

"That suit....it's a nightmare" he moaned out loud as he struggled to stand up. His legs felt like lead and he had to stoop forward to he could stand up. Although whether that was from his sore ribs or his back he wasn't sure.

It took him several minutes to get his pants on, which were folded up neatly on his desk along with his shirt and shoes. Someone had taken the care to fold up his clothes in a neat pile, and even attempt to clean his room as he finished pulling them up.

The broken glass on the floor had been swept out, including most of the ruined carpet, leaving just the floorboards. The ruined curtains had been pulled down, although there was nothing to really replace them. He recognised the shelving from his parents room was now in his room, although they were bare with nothing to put on them.

Once he managed to get his shirt on without passing out from the pain in his ribs, he slowly stepped out of his room. He took a peak into his parents bedroom across the hall, and was surprised to find it empty. All the furniture had been pulled out, the room stripped bare. Only the hole from the mole rats was left, although there was a strong smell of gasoline coming from it.

He found the kitchen was covered in goods, most of which he recognised as being from his parents bedroom. It looked like whatever had managed to survive was now sitting on the dining table and on the kitchen counters.

The living room had been swept out as well, the only pieces of furniture left was the couch and the television. Anything else had been pulled out and the floor had been swept. Someone had spent time cleaning, and it couldn't have been Cadwell.

"He had two hundred years to clean out the house, and he starts now? That doesn't sound right" he thought to himself. He didn't want to say it out loud, as he had no idea how far the robots hearing range was.

Adam stepped out of the front door and was surprised, well not surprised, shocked when he saw, of all things, a two headed cow standing on the front lawn, laden down with boxes and looking at him with both heads.

"What the heck?" he shouted in surprise as he felt himself fall back against the doorstop in shock.

"Oh good, you're up."

Adam turned to see Spring suddenly walking to him, where she had been talking to a couple of new faces standing on the opposite side of the cow.

"Adam, are you alright? You look like you've seen a ghost. What's the matter?" Spring asked, a look of confusion on her face as Adam continued to point at the two headed animal that was now looking at him.

"What...what happened to the cow? Why does it have two heads?" he asked. Both Spring and the female, who he now noticed was a female Akita, and dressed in dark blue leathers that looked like they had been dusty long before she had put them on.

"What do you mean, the cow? There's no cow around here" the akita said. "least not the feral kind. they were wiped out long ago" she said.

"But...but that's a cow...and it has two heads" Adam said as he looked at her in surprise. "They're not meant to have two heads. they only have one" he explained. Why wasn't she freaked out by the strange beast as well?

"Oh, you mean the Brahmin" Spring said as she realised what he was talking about. "Adam, we don't call that a cow. It's called a Brahmin" she explained with a smile on her face. "They've always had two heads, at least to us they have" she said.

"They....they always have?" Adam asked as he felt his surprise starting to fade away.

"Of course" the akita said. "they make great pack animals, and their hides are tough and good for materials. course, the meat is stringy as hell, have to chew it a thousand times to get it down your throat" she said with a smirk on her face.

"I think that's enough, Carla" Spring said to her. "Thank you for the supplies, you can put them in the building over there" she said as she pointed to the house across from Adams home. "We'll organise payment when you're done."

"Long as I can get a hot meal and a warm bed tonight, I'll knock off some caps off the asking price" Carla said with a grin and a tip of an imaginary hat on her head as she grabbed the long rope that dangled around the beasts neck and began to lead it away.

"So...cows are now called Brahmin, and ...they now have two heads?" Adam asked as he tried to wrap his head around the rather foreign concept. "Well, yes" Spring said, as if it was pretty obvious that they did. "I'm guessing they didn't back in your time?" she asked.

"No...no they didn't" Adam had to admit. He was now starting to feel somewhat foolish, that he had overacted to something that must have been commonplace amongst the area by now. If Spring noticed that he was disappointed with himself, she didn't say anything to it. But it still didn't help that he felt like a complete idiot for freaking out over something like that.

"This must all still be so strange to you" Spring said in a comforting way as she put her hand on his shoulder. "I still find it strange that you're so old and yet so young at the same time. But God works in mysterious ways and all that, so it's best not to question and just move forward" she said with a smile.

Adam slowly nodded, feeling comforted, not by the words, but by the reassuring squeeze of her hand on his shoulder. She smiled and nodded, seemingly satisfied that he seemed ok as she let him go.

"Anyway, I'm glad that you finally woke up. You were sleeping for quite some time" she said as she looked him over. "And you don't seem to be any of the worse for wear because of it."

"How long was I out?" he asked her, feeling curious.

"At least three days" she sai, with a rather straight face.

"WHAT?" he blurted out in shock. "Three.....three days? I've been out for three days?" he asked. he didn't believe her. How could he have been asleep for three days? That should have not been possible. He had never even overslept in his life.

"Adam, you passed out the minute you got out of the power Armour, and we took you inside and got you on your bed. That Deathclaw must have hit you harder then we thought, your side was almost completely black" she said. "It was a miracle that it didn't slice you in half. We did look you over, nothing was broken thankfully."

"I...I did feel a bit stiff getting up" he admitted, although now that she mentioned the extent of his injuries, it seemed to hurt more.

"We thought you might have bruised your ribs, so we gave you some Med-X to ease the pain and some Sleep-EZ to make sure you were actually asleep. I was afraid we'd have to do something to wake you up when you didn't on your own after the second day" she admitted.

"So....So I've missed three days?" Adam asked her. "Who was that Carla person and what was she doing here anyway?" he asked her.

"I'll explain" she said to him. "if you promise to head to the clinic so that the new aide there can take a look at you. Now that you're up and about, we need you looked over as soon as possible to be doubly sure about it" she said.

"We have a clinic here?" he asked, although he had to wonder if he hadn't been out for a lot longer then that. The only clinic in the area was back in Concord. She didn't expect him to walk all the way over there, did she? He was pretty sure Dr Forrester was well long and gone by now.

As Spring filled him in on what had happened, it turned out that Adam had indeed missed out on a lot that was happening since he had fallen asleep and didn't wake up for the past three days. And she thankfully only gave him the short version of things, since apparently there was a lot more that was needed to do.

One of the first things that they had done, after helping Adam into bed and giving Mama Murphy an entire house to herself, the group had chosen one of the least ruined houses in the area and had settled in for the night. After the long day and even longer walk they had had, no-one objected to an early night.

Come the next morning, both Preston and Sturges promptly had them all put to work in order to get Sanctuary Hills back up and running into a proper settlement.

First order of business? They had started doing was cleaning through the houses one by one, going through and salvaging what they were able to keep. Of course, one of those ended up being Mama Murphys new home and they had to clean it out of all the destroyed furniture and find replacements to help make it more homely. All for her.

Then they had started on the rest of the houses, clearing away the debriss destroyed furniture and general wreckage. They had made good progress on the first half of the neighborhood, thanks largely in part to Sturges finally putting on the power Armour and using it to help clear away most of the bigger refuge.

Of course, come the next day he promptly refused to put it back on, citing that it needed repairs and the fusion core was almost depleted. The rest of the group was left with the task of starting to rebuild what they could, with what they were able to find.

Adam could hear the bitterness in Springs voice when she explained that, instead of aiding them, Preston had holed himself up at the other end of Sanctuary and had been working on a new radio tower. She further explained that the radio tower was rigged to send a message to others in the immediate surrounding area, telling them over whatever radios were working that Sanctuary Hills was looking for settlers to help it out and help it expand.

Then he had started doing what he called were 'necessary patrols', walking around the boundary of the area to keep a look out for new faces. Marcy had argued that by putting up the tower without gathering proper supplies or even a proper defense, all it took was one group of raiders and they'd be finished for good, even with power Armour.

Preston argued back that that would more then likely not happen and continued his patrols without acknowledging that the others had a problem with his way of doing things. It was only that morning though, that a large group of wandering settlers had turned up looking for a new place to live.

Preston had been pretty smug about it.

One of them had been Carla, who was a traveling merchant looking to trade supplies. She had been welcomed in with open arms, as even though everyone had gone through the first group of houses with precision, supplies were far and few between.

For now, all the supplies were being held in the house across from Adams home, so that it could be kept under lock and key. Although apparently whatever food and chems and usable items they had found weren't enough to fill even the bedroom.

One of the new settlers however, was an aide worker who had studied what she could about medicine and chems, so they had allowed one of the empty houses down from Adams to be converted into a makeshift clinic. Everyone had to be in good shape at least health-wise, which Spring had argued against Preston about, who thought their first priority was contacting other settlements for supplies.

"Which, isn't going to work, because no-one here has much in the way to defend themselves if they venture out that far, and we don't have anything to trade with either" Spring said as she walked down the sidewalk with Adam beside her. "And none of us have much in the way of caps either."

"Well, I found some money. I had it in the briefcase I brought back" Adam pointed out to her. "If you need supplies that badly, you can use that. It might as well go to good use" he said to her. Spring gave him a funny look, as if she had no idea what he was talking about.

"Money? What are you...OH.......Oh I see. That green paper money with the numbers on it?" she asked him, which Adam responded with a nod. "That's useless" She said. "It's just paper. people out here use Caps" she explained.

"Caps?" he asked, this time having the confused look on his face. Spring smiled at him and dug into the pocket in her habit and pulled out several battered red soda pop bottle caps and showed them to him.

"Caps" she said as she showed him. "The currency of the wasteland" she explained. "I don't know of anything else being used as currency. We've always used these. Thank you for the offer, but that money stuff is useless" she said.

"Oh" he said, feeling a bit crestfallen at that. He had thought for sure that the money he found, which was several hundred dollars worth or more, would have been helpful. although it did explain why it was left there in the first place.

"Don't worry about it though Adam. We'll figure something out. right now, we're trying to focus on getting these new settlers in, and trying to start growing some crops and getting a water supply going. They're more important right now then caps" Spring said.

They had stopped outside a house on the corner of the road, right beside the dirt road that lead up into the woods behind the neighborhood. The word 'Clinik' had been rather crudely drawn over the front of house in what looked like charcoal.

"Just go in and get the aide there to take a look at you" Spring said to him as she patted him gently on the shoulder. "I need to go sort out the new people. We haven't even gotten through the first of them yet" she said as she left his side.

Adam saw the group of people that were spread out near the front of the bridge down the road. There was almost a full dozen of them, he guessed, standing or sitting around together. By the way that they were scattered, he assumed that they didn't all travel in the same group. "Oh hi Adam."

Adam turned and saw, surprisingly, Bandit was waving at him through the open window of the house. He smiled and gave the raccoon a wave back before he walked inside. He couldn't remember who lived in the house before, but that didn't matter anymore anyway.

The front room of the house had been cleaned out, a makeshift desk near the back besides a large set of metal shelves against the wall. Adam noticed that they weren't very full, but they did seem to contain a lot of jars and weird looking syringes. They must have been those chem things that Spring mentioned.

He took a look down the hall and noticed that the inner walls had been knocked down, so there were now only two rooms. The bathroom had been joined to the room beside it, a desk and a set of chairs set up there. There was a female at the desk, an otter, who was busy wiping down what looked like a set of knives.

The other room had two beds set in it, and bandit was making his way to the one beside the wall. Although, the back wall was almost completely knocked out with several large holes combined to make an even bigger one.

"Come on it. The aide was just looking at me. She wants my bandages off" bandit said as he sat himself on the bed. He only had on a pair of dark stained boxers shorts on, and his broken leg was heavily bandaged. He was much skinnier then Adan had thought he would be.

"How are you feeling?" Adam asked as he sat on the opposite bed.

"I'm ok. My leg feels a bit funny though. It really itches" he admitted as he laid it out on the bed, just at the otter walked in.

"And you are?" she asked as she looked at Adam as she placed a large metal tray on the nightstand between the two beds.

"Oh, I'm Adam. Spring said I should come in to get looked at" he said to her. She nodded and picked up a large pair of scissors.

"I'm Amanda. I'll take a look at you next. I need to look at his leg. Apparently these bandages haven't been removed for days" she said as she began to slowly start cutting through them.

"It just feels itchy is all" Bandit said to her as she slowly cut them into little pieces and dropped them on the floor. They were stained black and it looked like they were soaked through and hardened with blood, dirt, dust and who knew what else.

"Well, at least you have some feeling in it" Amanda said as she continued cutting. "If you didn't have any feeling in your leg, that would be a sign that there was something seriously wrong with it" she said.

"So, apparently I've been out for three days. Springs kinda filled me in. Looks like I missed a lot" Adam said to bandit.

"I've been resting on your couch thing the last two days" Bandit said to him. "I know about as much as you do. But apparently I missed some epic arguments outside. My leg started going numb this morning and then it got real itchy, so spring put me in here and got Amanda to set ....what did you call it?" he asked.

"Set up station" Amanda said as she carefully peeled away the next section of bandage, then she let out a gasp as something red and bloated fell onto the floor. It landed with a rather sickening sounding splat.

"Is...that...." Bandit said as he and Adam looked at it.

"A maggot?" Adam finished. Amanda quickly pressed the bandage back in place and stood.

"Do not go anywhere" she said as she rather quickly left the room. Adam looked through the gap in the wall and saw her hurrying towards the group of new settlers.

"That...that was a maggot...in my leg..." Bandit said as he looked like he was about to be sick.

"A big one" Adam said as he felt his stomach churn at the sight of it as well.

"Can....can you get me a bucket?" bandit said as he had to cover his mouth with his hands as he seemed to choke back whatever was coming up through his mouth.

Adam nodded, as he quickly got off the bed and began to look around the rooms in the converted house for something for Bandit to throw up in. He did manage to find a large rusted metal bucket lying in a pile of old boxes and folders, so he grabbed it and went back to bandit, who mercifully hadn't thrown up yet.

"Here" Adam said as he handed him the bucket. Bandit took it and held it in his lap as he kept his hand over his mouth. Adam couldn't help but look down as he noticed that there was something now oozing through the loosened bandages, and he noticed a rather rotten smell was beginning to trace against his nostrils.

He heard someone approaching and he stood back as a new figure entered the room. He was a tall looking wolf, a timberwolf with stoney Grey fur, and eyes that seemed almost as if they were made of liquid gold. Adam had the distinct impression, when the wolf gave him a glance over, that this wolf was a person in charge. He had a strong sense of deja vu back to his school principle.

He was dressed in military Fatigues with what looked like heavy military combat armor plates over his chest, back, shoulder and almost everywhere else. They were colored in a faded brown camouflage. He raised an eye brow in Adam's direction, then turned it on Bandit.

"I'll take it from here" the wolf said as he waved Amanda away from behind him. "Just stay nearby. we might need some chems that you'll need to fetch" he said as he unstrapped a rather massive looking pistol from his belt and placed it on the desk, with a surprisingly loud thump. Then came the heavy knife strapped to his thigh, and the machete on his hip. Amanda just nodded as she left him to it.

"Alright, lets see what we have here" the wolf said as he picked up the heavy knife. It had a very wicked looking curve that made both Adam and Bandit gulp rather obviously.

"Umm...who are you?" Adam felt rather compelled to ask.

"I'm someone who's going to help" he wolf said as he knelt beside the bed and moved Bandits leg close to him. He began to carefully slide the tip of the blade under the bandages. "Name's Lakota."

"Do...do you know what you're doing?" Bandit asked as he felt the cold steel against the non numb part of his leg. One slip and he could lose something important.

"Of course I do. My father was a doctor" Lakota said as he began to carefully slice away the bandages along the side. "Now tell me, how long has your leg been injured?"

"Umm....since I got shot outside the Jamaica Plains. We got ambushed" Bandit said as he couldn't help but grip the bucket in his lap as he felt that incredibly sharp knife slide up the side of his leg. "We tried to seek shelter in Lexington but there were bandits waiting for us. I managed to get my leg wrapped before we made our escape, and then we reached Concord and I kinda forgot about looking after it."

"Too busy trying to save your life?" Lakota asked as he nipped the last bandage.

"Well, I guess...."Bandit said. He stopped talking as he saw Lakota slowly peel the whole wrap of bandages from his legs and Bandit immediately threw up in his bucket, and even Adam had to hold onto the wall as he felt his stomach lurch.

Bandits lower leg was a complete mess of shredded flesh and muscles, even a white sliver of bone was visible through the seeping wounds. His fur was caked in dried blood, pus and other disgusting visible liquids that seemed to drip like honey. And right in the middle of the mess, was a large number of live squirming maggots.

"Oh god..." Bandit whimpered as he lurched again and another wave of vomit passed his lips and into the bucket.

"That...that's disgusting" Adam said as he held his own hand over his mouth to keep himself from throwing up.

"I thought so. you haven't looked after this wound for several days and maggots have set in" Lakota said. "And that smell, that's necrosis. The flesh around your leg is dead" he said.

"It...it's dead?" bandit whimpered as he lurched forward again and vomited into the bucket.

"We're going to have to let the maggots eat out the dead flesh, and then we'll have to amputate your leg" Lakota said as he inspected the horrible looking sight without seeming to be squeamish in the slightest.

"You're going to have to cut it off? can't you save it?" Adam asked. Lakota shook his head.

"not when it's this far advanced, I'm sorry" Lakota said. "Amanda, bring this kid some Jet. You're going to need to take some chems so we can cut the leg off without you screaming the area down" he said as he helped lay bandit out on the bed, lifting his leg up and propping it up against the end of the bed. "We'll have to work out a prosthetic. Something metal I think."

"You're ...gonna cut it off now?" bandit asked as he looked like he was going to throw up again, the bucket seeming rather full.

"We'll cut it off later" Lakota said as Amanda walked in with a small metal try of Jet, which looked like several asthma inhalers, but bigger, and set it on the nightstand between the beds. Right now we need to let the maggots finish off eating the dead skin, so there will be less to cut away" he said as he made sure Badnits leg had enough elevation on the bed. "It will probably need to be cut off under the knee, we won't need to remove the whole leg."

Bandit just looked very green at the prospect.

"So try to rest up for now. Do not leave the bed unless you want to make it worse" Lakota said, as he waved the curved tip of the knife in front of Bandit in a "do you have a problem with that?" type of gesture. Bandit just nodded with no desire to fight back, so Lakota nodded and re sheathed his knife and left the room. They could both head Lakota talking to Amanda in the front room, although they couldn't hear what they were talking about.

Adam sat back against the bed next to Bandit, who was still looking at his infested leg with a mixture of shock and horror on his face, when they both heard a voice through the window behind them.

"He has the hands of a healer, the hands of a builder, and the hands of a killer. And before he's gone, he will show you all three." Adam actually jumped from the sudden speech behind him, and he turned to see Mama Murphy looking through the window, with that once again spaced out look on her face.

However, he didn't have the time to respond as Bandit beat him to it.

"Get the hell out of here and stop stealing my Jet " Bandit shouted at her. It was then that Adam noticed the hole in the wall next to the nightstand, and the missing chems from it, before he saw Mama Murphy quickly hurry away like she was trying to hide something.

"Did...did she just take your chems?" Adam asked as he looked at the tray, and looked back at Mama Murphys retreating figure.

"She steals from everyone" bandit said as he placed the bucket on the floor beside the bed. He was doing his best not to look at his leg as he still looked green. "I'm pretty sure that's why Spring locked up all the medical stuff, cause Mama Murphy keeps stealing chems from us cause she's an addict."

"But I thought addicts were bad people" Adam admitted. His mother had expressively forbade anything stronger then normal medicines in her house, and even his father had been in agreement that if Adam had ever been caught messing around with even a cigarette before he turned the legal age, he'd be shipped off to military school.

That, and he knew about a few drug addicts who once tried to deal Jet and Mentats to the students at his school. They had been scruffy dirty people who smelt like garbage and gave off a very pedophile type vibe. and the students who had partaken in such chems, well they quickly turned bad.

"Chems are kinda needed around here, since everyone keeps getting shot" Bandit said. "Most people aren't bad because they take them, they're bad regardless" he said.

"Doesn't anyone stop her from stealing?" Adam asked. Bandit almost laughed at that.

"Preston hates anyone talking bad about her, even if it is true" Bandit said as he picked up one of the remaining Jet that had fallen on the floor. He brought it up to his lips and pressed down with his fingers, inhaling deeply. Adam thought he smelt burning coconut and coffee grins. "I hate this stuff" Bandit said, he said as he rather quickly looked drowsy. It only took a moment before he got a rather spaced out look on his face that was very much the same as Mama Murphy had as he laid back, seeming to stare off into space.

Seeing that Bandit needed his sleep and not wanting to have to smell that horrible smell of rotten flesh so Adam decided to leave the makeshift clinic. It didn't seem to him that he'd getting a check out now, although his side still felt aching.

"HERE KITTY KITTY! HERE KITTY KITTY!"

He was almost run over as Cadwell suddenly came streaming past, his razor blade spinning through the air as he waved his machete around like he was pretending to be a pirate. And it took Adam a moment to realize he was chasing another mole rat.

"I guess that's for dinner tonight" Adam said as he watched Cadwell chase the molerat down the street, the mechanical robot laughing like a psychotic serial killer. "That definitely did not get explained in his instruction manual."

He noticed then that Spring was still talking to several of the new comers, all of whom seemed to be just milling around together waiting to be allowed in or given a new role in the area. They reminded him of refugees. And in a way, they probably were.

There were mostly adults in the group, all of them who looked like they had been through hell. However, there were two there that looked to be around his age. A pair of foxes who looked like they were twins.

They were both a strangely bright hue of pink together, both the boy and the girl, and they were wearing very little. At least it seemed that way as he soon realized the pair of them were in pink clothes that seemed to cover only the most basic parts of their bodies and nothing else. He felt a strange sense of pity for the both of them. Maybe it was because they looked scruffy and covered in dirt and dust, or maybe it was the fact they just seemed...pitiful.

They seemed afraid with the way they were so close to one another and had their arms wrapped around each other for comfort. He had the impression that they were almost ready to go running the minute they heard a loud enough noise to get them going. Or that they were too afraid to go running away.

Adam was looking at the two fox twins hard enough that he didn't hear Sturges approach from behind.

"Bet you wanna take that one for a ride do you?" he asked with a smug smirk on his face, making Adam jump for the second time that day. The cougar was covered in dust and dirt, which gave the impression that he had been working. Although, from what Spring had said, that was only an impression.

"A...a ride? But, I don't have a car" Adam said as he didn't understand the reference. For some reason, Sturges found what he said far too amusing as he started laughing rather obnoxiously.

"Oh god, you really are a virgin aren't you?" he said as he started to calm down. "I meant, take her for a RIDE" he said as he gave a rather vulgar thrusting of his hips. "Make her bounce on me like I'm a horses saddle, you know?" he said with a grin. "I see the way you're looking at her. Well, you're not alone in that one kiddo."

Adam suddenly realized what he was talking about, in the open, very publicly and unashamedly, and he felt his cheeks burn in embarrassment to hear such talk. He and Stuart were no stranger to that kind of talk, as they had often chatted for a whiles about what they'd like to do to one another. But that kind of talk was best in private, not out in the open.

"That's....that's wrong" he said as he found the talk obscene. "That... that just sounds horrible."

"No it ain't. Besides, she's dressed for it. I mean look, she's showing off the goods. Boy is too, maybe I could get both in bed for double the trouble" Sturges said as he pointed out how little clothing both the twins were dressed in. "A girl like that is made for bedroom action" he said.

"I....I really don't want to hear this" Adam protested. The talk about those two foxes, for some reason, it just sounded so, so wrong. But Sturges just smirked, clearly not getting the hint that Adam was uncomfortable with what he was saying.

"Man, you really are a virgin. How about we fix that? I'm sure she'd help out" he said as he grabbed Adams wrist and began to pull the protesting lion towards the fox girl. "Besides, we gotta properly thank you for helping us back in Concord. What better way then to break your cherry?"

"that...that's disgusting" Adam said as he wrenched his arm free. "I do not want to do....anything with her. Besides everything that is WRONG with this conversation, I'm not into girls. I have a ....I had a boyfriend" he said. Sturges stopped by the side of the house and gave him a "seriously?" kind of look.

"Fine. Then you can have the guy. Come on man, I bet they don't even charg..." was all he got out before they both heard a rather loud THUNK, and Sturges let out a somewhat high pitched girly scream of unbridled terror.

Adam looked down and jumped back when he saw the rather big lethal looking machete blade, planted in the wall right between Sturges legs. The blade edge was pointed up towards his crotch. He looked up as he saw Lakota walking up to them, flexing his wrist. It was rather obvious who threw it.

"That....that was a good shot" Adam said as Lakota walked up and grabbed the handle of the machete.

"What are you talking about?" he asked as he pulled the blade free, Sturges falling back against the wall with a pitiful whimper as he grabbed at his junk with his hands. "I missed." Lakota then grabbed the front of Sturges bandana around the felines neck and pulled him up so they were face to face.

"If I even have the THOUGHT of you coming up to my kids and doing anything like what you were planning, you and me are going to have a very, very serious problem. Do you want to have a problem with me?" he asked as he waved the edge of the machete in front of Sturges face.

"N...no" Sturges whimpered. Lakota tapped the rather pointed end of his blade against Sturges snot leaking nose and nodded.

"One...thought" he warned before he dropped him on the ground and proceeded to walk away.

Sturges slowly got up, a dark stain appearing in his pants as he wiped his leaking nose on the back of his glove. He reminded Adam of a bully that had been beaten up after beating up another kid. Sturges saw Spring nearby attending to the new people and pointed at Lakotas back.

"Did you see what he did to me?" he demanded. Spring took one look at him, then one look at Lakota, then looked back at Sturges.

"He's definitely staying now" She said with a smile as she gave him a friendly wave of her hand and went back to talking.

"You...you can't be serious. He threw his blade at me" Sturges protested as he wiped his leaking nose again. "He made me piss my pants" he whined.

"Did the blade cut you?" Spring called out.

"No" he shouted back.

"Then stop bothering me unless its something important" spring said as she turned her back to him.

Sturges looked at Adam as if he expected Adam to come to his side, but Adam just stood there unable to really say anything. He didn't feel like coming to Sturges defense after hearing him say such things.

"You're horrible" Sturges pouted, practically on the brink of tears as he covered his soiled pants with his hands and proceeded to run away as fast as he was able to. Spring noticed him running away and walked back up to Adam.

"Well, that got rid of him" Spring said with an amused look on her face. "Do you think you could help me over here? We have more people then I thought" she said.

He kind of wanted to go back and check on bandit, but until Lakota said otherwise he didn't know what else to actually do in the meantime. so he allowed Spring to get him to help her with the people that wanted into sanctuary.

It took most of the afternoon and well into the evening to actually get through everyone. It seemed that most of the people were already good at something that could be of use, and those that weren't, were assigned basic duties for now. The rest of the houses were quickly filled, as everyone managed to have a place to stay, even if a few of the houses were more crowded then they should have been.

Adam was exhausted by the time that Spring allowed him to go and grab dinner when they were finally done. He had to walk up and down Sanctuary and direct people to the houses and help them shift the rotten and aged furniture around. Sturges was noticabley absent, while the Power Armour was simply sitting outside in the open doing nothing.

It turned out, that the molerat that Cadwell had been chasing earlier, was in fact dinner. One of the houses had been unable to be inhabited by the far end around the giant dead tree in the turnaround, so the walls had been knocked down and the house converted into an open area.

Marcy had taken up residence there, keeping the only real working thing the house operational, which happened to be the kitchen. Although the conventional oven had been gutted and converted into a wood burner. It did seem that the mole rat population had finally been cut down, as an entire bench was covered in mole rat carcasses.

By the time Adam managed to get to dinner himself, Cadwell was busily and rather happily cutting through the carcasses while he was singing a rather horribly tuneless attempt at whistling. Marcy was busy cooking over several pots filled with who knew what, and there was a line that stretched with everyone seemingly ready to eat all at once.

Adam rather wearily took his place in line as it slowly shuffled forward. A number of tables and chairs had been spread out in front of the house and they were slowly filling up. There were dining room chairs and tables, as well as the old patio furniture that had been scavenged. It seemed that no-one wanted to eat on their own, so they were all eating together.

When he passed through the front door that was really just a frame, Adam saw a table set beside it containing a stack of plates and bowls with randomly assorted cutlery beside it. He grabbed himself a bowl, feeling and hearing his stomach protest about how it was currently empty.

"Bandit probably hasn't eaten yet" he thought to himself as he grabbed a second bowl and two spoons, slipping the cutlery into his pocket. It kind of reminded him of the cafeteria back at school, only much quieter. They had to walk right past the converted stove where Marcy was ladling out food to the people as they passed by. He noticed Lakota was ahead of him with the fox twins pressed up close behind him. Marcy ladled a good helping into the boys bowl and didn't seem impressed with his reaction to the food.

"You either eat it, or you can go hungry. There are plenty of people in Diamond City, living in the slums who would be grateful for this kind food" Marcy said, in such a manner that Adam swore he heard his mothers voice through her.

"I'm starting to like you" Lakota chuckled as he let Marcy fill the girls bowl before he herded them towards a table.

"Flattery does not get you seconds" Marcy said without looking at him as she resumed stirring the large pot. A few more people passed by before it came to be Adams turn. He held out his bowl as he was served a good helping. It looked like boiled molerat meat and what he hoped were potatoes mixed in with it. Although, since Marcy was currently standing next to an assortment of sharp knives and an open flame, he didn't dare question what was in it.

"Can...I grab a bowl for Bandit? I don't think he'll be able to grab dinner on his own" Adam said as he held out the second bowl.

"If you spill it on the way over, I can't give you more" Marcy said as she ladled him a good helping. "We're not even through the first half of people and we're starting to run low" she said. "so be carefull"

"How come he gets two helpings?" someone shouted from behind Adam.

"I'll more then happily leave you out if you want to make a fuss. Or you can take it up with the robot armed to the teeth behind me" Marcy said without flinching as she motioned for Adam to hurry away.

He was careful to take the bowls full of food down towards the clinic. It was starting to get dark pretty quickly, or perhaps he just didn't know the time anymore. It was different to be walking around without the streetlights to light up the way. There was still quite a bit of debris littering the street that hadn't been removed yet.

Amanda was sitting at the front desk in the house, busy writing something out as several bottles and medical equipement were littering the desks surface.

"Is...Bandit awake yet? I thought I'd bring him some dinner" Adam said as he walked in, now not sure if that was going to be allowed.

"He's still passed out, he's not going to be woken for a while" Amanda said as she looked up. "Lakota had to amputate his leg. He couldn't wait, it was more infected then he thought. He's going to be asleep for the next day or so. But it was a nice gesture" she said with a smile.

"Oh" Adam said, suddenly feeling disappointed. "Well, have you had dinner yet?" he asked her.

"Unfortunately not. I have to take inventory every night. Stupid Murphy woman keeps sneaking in and trying to make off with stock" she said as Adam walked forward and handed her one of the bowls, and dug a spoon from his pocket. "Thank you" she said with a smile.

"If you want to see him, you can. Just know he's not going to wake up" Amanda said as she sat back in her chair. Adam nodded as he decided to do just that, since he didn't feel like walking back to his house to eat alone.

Bandit was passed out on the same bed he was on earlier, although it was obvious that he had had surgery. What remained of his leg was wrapped in makeshift bandages, bloodied through at the stump where his leg was now gone. Adam felt an enormous well of pity inside him for the poor raccoon as he saw him lying there.

Adam pulled a chair up beside the bed as he made himself comfortable and started to eat. He was right, they were potatoes. Although the meat definitely tasted better being boiled then char grilled with a flame-thrower. And the potatoes tasted nice, even if they did taste like molerat juice.

He ate his meal pretty quickly, his stomach growling in appreciation as it was fed. It might not have been the best meal he ever had, but after not eating for three days, it came pretty close.

"Home-cooking. There's nothing like it in the world" he said as he remembered what his mother used to say.

He put the bowl down and looked over at Bandit for a moment. He didn't feel like leaving him alone, especially in his condition. And he didnt' feel like going back to his house and crawling into an empty bed. In an empty house.

He slipped off the chair and sat beside the bed, slipping an arm up and wrapping his hand around Bandits, giving it a soft squeeze as he rested his head on his arm. Just the touch of Bandits hand in his, made him feel a little better.

He looked up and turned the knob on his Pip-Boy, finding the classical music station on the radio function. He adjusted the volume till it was just a nice calming sound to listen to as he made himself comfortable and closed his eyes.

Amanda looked up as she heard the music and got up to investigate. That was where she found Adam, fast asleep leaning aginst the edge of the bed with his arm entwined in bandits. She didn't have the heart to wake him up and tell him to leave, so she simply grabbed a hole filled blanket from the other bed and carefully wrapped it around him, making sure he was covered before she left them both to sleep.