Legend Of The Wasteland

Chapter 5 - The desolate wasteland in all of its unholy glory

Adam came out of the Craterside supply shop and went down the less than ideal safe platform, luckily he didn't stumble before he went to the gate of Megaton

Along the way, he greeted Lucas who was just sitting there, on a chair beside the gate leisurely watching the city in all of its glory, he had an especially warm smile on his face when he watched the children play around

Adam just went past Lucas without giving him any notice and went to the front of the Megaton gate, and this is when Adam ran into a problem

The gate wouldn't open, Adam stood there for 5 minutes not knowing what to do as the gate remained shut, he looked around himself and tried to find clues to open the gate but he had no luck in that endeavor so he was stuck there pondering about how the hell was he supposed to get it open

"Oi, you need the gate to open!?" Suddenly Adam heard a voice from above himself which prompted him to look up only to see a man standing on a platform with a sniper rifle in hand looking down at Adam

"Yes well, that would be appreciated!" Adam made a wry smile as he looked at the figure above him before he shouted out loud for his need for the gate to open

"All right! But just so you know you need to ring the bell if you want the door to open!" The man nodded at Adam before he pointed at a rope to the right of Adam leading all the way up to the platform while being attached to a bell, it is actually quite hard to notice the rope as it looks just like a miscellaneous piece of the scenery so it's really no wonder Adam didn't notice it

Immediately afterward the giant gates of Megaton began to open up, as they loudly rumbled the ground seemed to shake indicating that someone is either departing from Megaton or entering Megaton

"Thank you!" Adam waited for a full minute for the gate to fully open at which point he thanked the man for his help before he exited the city all the while wondering about the gate as his ears rung a bit from the noise generated by the door

'Isn't it using too much power? I know there is electricity but it is definitely limited so why are they spending so much electricity on the gate? Besides that, it's loud and slow wouldn't a normal door in the wall do just fine? And if an attack came just block that door. To top it all of isn't such a huge door a big weakness in the wall? Since it can open up it should be easier to pry it open than one of the walls.' Adam came out of the city while pondering over such matters, it really makes no sense for the city to use such an impractical door/gate, which not only degrades the quality of life but also has the risk of killing everybody if the weakness is exploited by someone crafty so he can't help but wonder why the do it

After Adam was finally out of Megaton he continued to ponder about the city and it's door until he was snapped out of it by a certain, strange feeling

Adam felt an attraction towards the east, almost directly east of Megaton although it is a bit crooked, this attraction made Adam feel as if he had to go towards that place as it would help him achieve something

No matter where he looked with nothing but the murky and gloomy wasteland insight, Adam sighed is sadness, loneliness, and desperation, this was going to be a long-ass journey which Adam probably won't be liking too much especially since it's going to be his first journey ever in the wasteland not counting that brief journey from where he spawned towards Megaton

Opening up the map function on his pip-boy Adam saw that the location of the super-duper mart was already marked by a green arrow with a dashed line going from his current location towards the super-duper mart indicating what is the most direct route towards the place, interestingly the super-duper mart is placed east of Megaton so that marker is probably the reason Adam feels so attracted towards the east, just another handy ability for Adam to help his life in the wasteland

Adam stood there in place observing the wasteland a little longer before he took a deep breath and calming down his slightly agitated nerves as he began walking towards the location of the super-duper mart

So Adam walked and walked and walked through the wasteland, he really didn't even know how long nor how much he had walked, he just walked towards where his feeling took him, going around or climbing up rocks, hills and other types of terrain that is expected in the apocalypse

He was hoping to arrive at the Mart as soon as possible so as to get the mission over and getting a place to sleep/camp safely since he had already spent some hours in Megaton so it was about time for the sun to set and for the night to rule the earth or what was left of it

But as fate would have it Adam started his journey too late and within two hours of walking it started to become dark so Adam made the wise decision to first curse at his shitty fate, then he cursed at himself for staring the journey too late

'Shit.' Finally, Adam cursed the situation itself as he looked at the sky which has started to darken by the second and the sun is probably gonna set in about half an hour to an hour so Adam didn't really have time for a leisurely walk to the super-duper mart

With no other choice left, Adam looked around himself for any form of shelter, even if it was a cave it would be better than this but it seems he has temporarily forgotten that this is a post-apocalyptic American and he is currently in a wasteland with no humans, settlements or man-made structures insight so he would be considered lucky if he found a shelter unfortunately for Adam he isn't really lucky

So with no safe or reliable shelter in sight, Adam decided he would imitate a guy from a survival show he had seen on television in his past life and sleep on a nearby tree branch because that would surely not go wrong now would it?!

Coming up towards a decently high tree but not too high so that it keeps him out of reach from the animals that might come they but not high enough for him to kill himself if he falls down in his sleep, Adam started to climb it, it was hard at first since Adam wasn't really proficient in climbing trees especially when he had to climb barehanded and there were little to no handholds or footholds but he eventually managed to climb up the tree high enough as he sat down on top of a thick branch

As Adam sat up there on the tree he overlooked the wasteland in all of its unholy glory, the orange-red sundown cupeled with the brownish-gray surroundings and green radioactive clouds paints a lonely and gloomy atmosphere that Adam finds quite unique and intriguing

No creatures insight, no animals nor people, while even the plants are dead, the lonely shadows of the dead trees paint a surreal scene, the scene of absolute destruction which brought on the mayhem of the once lawful world, it's a picture that oozes out beauty yet sadness and madness at the same time

Adam didn't think about it any further, he closed his eyes intent on sleeping his thoughts away, even if the system changed his mind and emotions in some aspects, the scene of such a ruined world would always bring on a feeling of sadness at how destructive mankind can be besides that this scene made Adam depressed and sad emotions which are not very good nor healthy for the current Adam

Just as Adam closed his eyes with the thoughts of sleeping a slide appeared before him with numbers that range from 1 to 24 appeared and a number beneath that, the number is 20:37 probably indicating the current time

Adam was stunned for a few minutes before he realized that this is the sleep slide from the fallout game so Adam set the number to 11 so that he is awake at 7 A.M. and begins his journey as soon as possible, he can't wait for this quest to be over

The moment he hit the confirm button Adam fell asleep, like a light that went out Adam was no more, even if someone shot him right now he wouldn't wake up, it:s like he is in a coma he feels no pain, no emotions nor anything, which is bad for his survival as someone could easily kill him in his sleep so a companion would be necessary to guard his body but all of that is in the hopefully not so distant future

After 11 hours of sleep which seemed like a second to Adam, he woke up with a yawn as he stretched out his hands, he feels really and truly refreshed, like a new man, which is a wonder considering the fact that he slept on top of a tree branch the whole time

'Man, that was a good, quality sleep. I haven't slept that well in ages.' Thought Adam as he woke up, because of his otaku habits it is rare for him to have quality sleep, or sleep that lasts more than 6 hours since he would go to sleep at 9 am and wake up somewhere at noon or at one, now if he had some food other than cup noodles he probably not consider himself a true otaku anymore

Now that he thinks about food, how come that he isn't hungry? Or thirsty? He certainly feels a little peckish and his mouth is a little dry but it is barely noticeable. Does it have something to do with the system? He hasn't eaten nor drank anything for a whole day so how come he is feeling neither thirsty nor hungry? Also, he had spent the past day moving around the wasteland and getting irradiated, although he did excessive in bis past world it was not nearly to the point where he was strong enough to do this much

By all means, he should have muscle cramps right now and his muscles should feel on fire, he also barely broke a sweat the past day yet the temperature was scorching hot and he was moving around, this is definitely not normal, and the system must be somehow involved in this, there is simply no other explanation

As Adam was thinking about the fact that his body seems to be heavily altered to work differently from the body's of other humans he hears some rustling beneath accompanied by some trembling and some strange sounds so he looks down and what he sees scares him quite a bit

A whole pack of mole rats is beneath him, this would not be scary if it was in the game but this is real life and there are more than just a couple of mole rats, there's at the very least a couple dozen maybe even a hundred mole rats more than enough to kill Adam

Fortunately, the scare was just temporary as Adam recovered quickly so he managed to not make any noise so they didn't notice him so Adam could rest easy for now but he certainly couldn't go down, in reality, he could go down but the moment he touched the ground he would be eaten alive by the mole rats, but it really is a wonder they hadn't noticed bim until now as the tree Adam was in had no branches so he was quite obvious

'Just my luck.' With no other choice left Adam stayed in the tree hoping his luck works and the mole rats don't notice him, and luckily for him they really didn't notice him the whole time they remained down there

Also luckily for Adam, they seemed to only be passing by as within half an hour they went away from the tree and out of Adam's sight much to Adam's p.l.e.a.s.u.r.e, he would not want to suffer the fate of being eaten alive by the mole rats

So with a sigh of relief, Adam went down the tree, he observed the area around him just to make sure there were no hostiles insight before he continued his journey towards the super-duper mart all the while thinking about something that is probably very brilliant

He was thinking about Moira's concoction, in the second chapter she is gonna requite him to use a special stick whose top is laced with a special concoction that is meant to cause an allergic reaction in the mole rats driving them away when they are hit by it so she is gonna need Adam to do some testing by whacking some mole rats with it, that concoction has the side effect of making their heads explode

So Adam thought about that concoction more and more, he started to deeply think about the concoction and its uses/purposes. What if it was in a gaseous form? Or in a powder? If packs of mole rats are this big then wouldn't they pose a major problem to the people of the wasteland, especially the farmers and travelers? If using her concoction makes the mole rat's head explode then wouldn't her concoction basically become the people's best friend? Just imagine it, a whole colony of over a hundred-mole rat's killed by releasing a gaseous form of the concoction, a quick and efficient way to deal with such a problem now isn't it, the only problem would be the cleanup since their heads would well explode splattering bones, soft tissues, and blood all over the place

Adam smirked evilly as he thought about that since Moira is the only person who knows how to make this green concoction she basically has a monopoly on it, so Adam only needs her help and he would basically have a great source of income to make himself rich

By the time Adam snapped out of his thoughts he was already a hundred or so meters away from the Super-Duper Mart, it seems he had traveled a decent distance while he was in his own thoughts so he had arrived the back of the super-duper mart quite quickly

From there Adam maneuvered himself thru the terrain to a more favorable position before he came to the side of the mart and Adam could see 3 raiders as they were walking over towards a corpse, probably the person they last killed, Adam, didn't even flinch when he saw the dirty and vile raiders nor when he saw the corpse of another person if anything he was happy that the situation is like this

'Perfect.' Adam once again evilly smirked as he watched the raiders come closer and closer to the corpse if it's a recently killed person they need to loot him, meaning that they would stay still for a minute or so as they loot the corpse giving Adam enough time to kill at least one of them

Going on his belly and aiming thru his sniper scope Adam observed how the raiders came closer, and closer and closer until 2 of them crouched down to look thru the corpse while the third kept a lookout for any danger

'Fools.' Adam thought as he holds his breath and aims at the head of the raider keeping guard, the raider only stood still moving his head left and right from time to time, with such minimal protection they are wearing they put only one lookout instead of two? Yes sure the looting is faster with two people doing it but their safety should be more important to them but guess it isn't and Adam is surely going to take advantage of that

Adam just aimed and after a second of the rifle swaying on to the head of the raider and the raider's head bobbing into just the right place Adam pulled the trigger with no hesitation

Immediately a loud boom was heard all around Adam while a lead projectile came out of the sniper rifle and headed towards the head of the raider at crazy speeds

Within milliseconds the raider was dead and within seconds his body dropped dead to the ground, lifeless and with a hole in his forehead and the back of his head as blood started to ooze out of the wound

Even thou this is the first time he had killed someone Adam didn't feel anything, he wasn't disgusted, he wasn't sad nor mortified, hell if he did feel anything it is relief that he had managed to kill the raider which is a far cry from the reaction a normal person should have in this situation, at least a normal person from Adam's old-world but now was not the time to think about that, Adam still has two more raiders to take care of

The moment the other 2 raiders noticed that one of their pals was lying dead on the ground they panicked dor a moment before immediately turning towards the place where the gunshot sound originated from and they noticed a human laying in the dirt with a sniper rifle in hand aiming at them

Due to the fact that the place Adam chose to lay in had no grass nor any for of concealment instead there was only a big rock to his right, they immediately saw Adam and they ran to cover, they know that if they are up against a person with a sniper rifle they would loose without cover, however, Adam was faster than them not letting them run away so easily

'Vats!' Immediately Adam thought about Vats and the world came to a standstill, he doesn't know how he did it but Adam just thought about Vats and it instinctively came to him how to use it, it just clicked into place about how to use it once he thought about using it

Adam observed the paused world with intrigue for quite a long moment before he focused back towards his targets the raiders

Because of his low small guns skill, not 100% condition sniper rifle and the distance, the highest chance of hitting Adam had was a hit to the torso with a 23% chance of hitting

Adam selected the torso of the right raider twice before he ran out of AP and the system notified him he had no AP left for any more shots so he mentally hit the confirm button in the bottom right corner

Immediately his gun fired but he missed the first shot by a little bit, the bullet strayed a bit to the right missing the raider, then he fired another bullet all the while time was still stopped but unfortunately the other bullet also missed, this one was too high so it flew over the raider

Time started to flow once again and the raiders were surprised that the person attacking them could shoot so fast with quite some accuracy but the astonishment quickly faded as they continued what they were doing, this is their enemy and they have to take care of him quickly unless they want to be killed like their fellow raider

One raider started to shoot at Adam but he missed every shot while the other ran towards the doors of the super-duper mart

Adam immediately set his sights on the raider running towards the doors and he shot another bullet which fortunately hit and pierced the guy's leg making him fall down on the ground, additionally, due to the fall he had hit his face on a brick stunning him for a bit

Adam took another shot which pierced the guys head before he could call out for help or reinforcements which if they did appear for some reason would probably land Adam in quite some deep shit

While killing the guy who is shooting at him would grant Adam temporary safety as he would not be getting shot at any longer he would be f.u.c.k.e.d if the other guy managed to call for reinforcements which could probably kill Adam so Adam killed him first before he could call out for help

Rolling to the side Adam crouched up as he hid behind a boulder with his back facing the boulder as the other raider continued to shoot at him, it seems the raider was using a 10mm sub-machinegun since the fire rate was quite fast but luckily none of the bullets hit Adam before he had managed to hide

While listening if the raider was approaching/coming closer to him Adam reloaded his sniper rifle, every so often the raider would reload, but he wasn't firing all of the time, he would fire 10 bullets at Adam's position every so often so as to make sure Adam wouldn't be popping out as he came closer and closer to the boulder

Soon Adam had reloaded and now he was just waiting, the raider fired 10 bullets, then another 10 and finally another 10 bullets, his magazine was empty and he had to reload that's the time Adam struck

Coming out of hiding Adam saw the raider less than 6 meters away from him as he hurriedly reloaded the submachinegun

The raider noticed Adam, his face drained of all color as he tried to reload faster but it was useless as Adam wouldn't let that happen so easily

'Vats!' Immediately activating Vats Adam noticed that he only had enough AP for one shot but with a 95% success chance on each body part of the raider success is basically guaranteed

Adam picked the head and chose the confirm button, Adam then watched how the bullet exited the barrel and flew towards the raider

'Shit!' The bullet flew and flew and Adam couldn't believe what he was seeing, the bullet had...

Tap the screen to use advanced tools Tip: You can use left and right keyboard keys to browse between chapters.

You'll Also Like