-1Author's note: First off, thanks to all those who have been keeping track of the story and have a blessed new year.
Second, Easycompany506's character, Lowell Morgan will be making an appearance in this chapter. Of course, you'll have to hear more from him in his own story which Easycompany will be publishing. I claim no rights on him.
Perhaps before the bombs fell there were some things money couldn't buy
I'm not sure if that's true these days
I didn't start off on the wrong side of the law
But I didn't start on the right one either
In avarice and fear my decisions were made
Adam grew up on the east side of the Hudson, right across from the mountain range that James lived in. The site of a former nuclear power plant that was targeted in the war provided a hazardous setting for nearby inhabitants but it also proved to be a breeding ground and hideout for some of the more shadier gangs south of the Adirondack Mountains.
However, sometimes the lines between "raider gang" and a "regular gang" and "band of people simply trying to survive" can get blurred. Adam was not sure who his parents were or even if he was originally born in the area. His earliest memories consisted of him struggling to survive alongside a bunch of other desperate men and women. Giving young children even a pistol with minimal ammunition can be a recipe for disaster so it was decided a lesser evil to let the child play with the knives that the rest of the group did not care for. At least he was never told not to run with sharp objects.
Regardless, any living, breathing ten year old out in the wastes has to have some intelligence to have survived that long out in the wastes, especially with a gang of people who, though not necessarily raiders, were not exactly paragons of the wastes either. It is bordering on suicide to attack most of the creatures and savages out in the wild with only a sticker several inches long at most. On the flip side, there is also the knowledge that those several inches of knife can be extended with a nice, hefty throw.
Adam became a self taught knife thrower. His proficiency got so well that the gang leader saw some potential in this growing asset. One day, the leader who they called "Boss" introduced Adam to a man named "Mr. Conner." Mr. Conner was a businessman.
"So is this the boy you spoke of?" Mr. Conner asked Boss as the businessman wearing the cleanest looking clothes Adam ever saw scanned him over.
"This is him." Boss replied.
"Good. Where do you keep your knives, son?" Mr. Conner now addressed Adam. Adam pointed to the belt he wore that tucked away a dazzling collection of knives and daggers but he also motioned to a few that he kept tied on both boots.
"Hmm…I think there's a way we can fix that. If you let me keep the boy, I'm sure there's a way I could cut a deal that would be profitable to both of you. Shall we talk business, Boss?" Mr. Conner asked. Shortly thereafter, a deal was struck.
Mr. Conner had a few things to explain to Adam as he insisted that he start the boy off "All over again." The suave businessman was teaching the adolescent some things as he laid the proper gear before Adam.
"Petty killing is such a wasteful deed. It knocks off someone who could do work, not often enough do I see it taking care of a sap that's just wasting space. Everyone has a reputation, Adam, no matter how insignificant they may feel they are. Reputations are profitable things, Adam, and there are some people who are more valuable dead than they are alive. Workers in death, the agents who make sure these people die, are called 'Assassins,' Adam. We're going to make you into an assassin."
Years of surviving in the wastes and trying to sneak up on enemies already put Adam ahead in the training program. Now by default under Mr. Conner's payroll, Adam was given an amount of freedom to roam and adventure as he chose. It certainly gave him an opportunity to earn a few spare caps doing freelance work and every creature, or person, he killed in quiet fashion was only practice. Its what also allowed him to learn the people skills he needed to do the occasional manipulation and the reading of another person.
Mr. Conner's skills in "teaching" were certainly something to be mentioned of since it was only three years later that he managed to convince Adam to assassinate Boss and his former gang. This was done for "financial reasons." It certainly gave Adam a higher share in the caps afterwards.
When he was seventeen, five years of assassinating and working alone out in the wastes having now made him a silent killer, Adam was walking along a road with two friends he had made years back. One, a comely young lady named Leslie, was certainly all smiles when he was around. The other was an adolescent his age named Lowell Morgan. The three had been hanging out for the past couple years at the time, at least when Adam was in the area.
"What was your latest adventure, Adam?" Leslie asked. Adam chuckled.
"Just a little of this and a little of that. I even helped a mother get enough molerat meat for her kids. She gave me about fifty caps for that. Not a lot but at least I got to practice throwing my daggers." Adam stated.
"Well, that was nice of you." Lowell informed.
"I wouldn't doubt-" Adam stopped short, his eyes darting. Something was wrong. He looked over at Lowell, the man already had his shortened double barrel shotgun shouldered.
"Do you hear that, Lowell?" Adam asked. Lowell nodded.
"Whatever that sound is…it's ringing a bad bell in my mind and I can't seem to remem-" Lowell's eyes suddenly went wide and he cursed. Adam followed his horrified glare and cursed himself.
Lumbering towards them was a deathclaw.
"Leslie, walk back slowly. If that thing starts running, I want you to run as fast as you can, don't look back." Adam whispered.
"If you don't hear from us, don't go trying to look for us. You probably would not want to find us." Lowell added, his eye still desperately taking aim.
"Now go!" Adam hissed to the petrified girl who started to stumble back. Why was that deathclaw taking its time, did it not notice them yet?
The large monster suddenly stopped and sniffed the air. Its mouth open to reveal a row of jagged teeth bathed in foul saliva. Suddenly, it roared and started to charge.
Lowell and Adam immediately let their weapons fly. It was horrific to watch the monster simply absorb, no, shrug, the blades and bullets that slammed into it, never once abating its pace. Lowell continued to curse and desperately squeezed the trigger on his shotgun. The reaction he got was rather jarring.
The deathclaw stopped dead in its track, suddenly roaring in agony. The two bewildered men stared with open mouths and suddenly saw what had stopped the creature. The deathclaw had a large, bloodied hole where its left eye should have been.
"Lowell, that was a bloody good shot!" Adam cried.
"No kid-"
Adam's heart sank when he saw Lowell simply disappear behind a massive, gnarled claw. The deathclaw had not died, it was now simply blinded in one eye and now Lowell was thrown to the ground. Adam had no time to check on his friend. He simply reacted, jumped on the creatures back and started stabbing with the daggers in his two hands. The monster reached back and snared part of the assassin's leather armor, throwing the man to the ground. Before Adam knew it, the deathclaw was screaming in his face. The assassin knew he was going to be dinner within a couple minutes and there was not a thing he could do about it.
And then, rather unexpectedly, the deathclaw's head vaporized.
Adam did his best to brush off the gore that had landed on him and sat up. He was even more surprised to find Lowell sitting up in shock as well though the man had three deep gashes running diagonally on his face. Adam looked around bewildered. Lowell was still lying there.
"That one's free, boys." another voice chimed in. Adam looked back to find an older man in a long, olive green coat standing in the road holding a plasma rifle still steaming from its recent use. Leslie was peeking from behind his coat. Returning the rifle on his back, the stranger continued to walk, simply stepping around the deathclaw's body.
"Hey um, you want to help me up?" Adam asked sheepishly.
"I'm a busy man, son." the man replied, still walking. Adam continued to watch him before sputtering again.
"Hey uh...could you check on my friend?" Adam asked hesitantly.
"Bad as they look, they're flesh wounds. He can keep the scars." the stranger replied.
"...Oh..."
"By the way, the name is Francis." the stranger said and disappeared down the road.
"…So…some help getting this thing off me?" Adam asked. At that moment, Lowell slowly sat up.
"...Hey Adam..."
"Yes?"
"Tear that bastard's other eye out, would you?"
That was the last time Adam saw Lowell. He kept track of Leslie but Lowell disappeared awhile after that. The way he heard it, Lowell got drafted into the 10th Ranger Mercenary group. He wasn't sure what became of him after that. He did hear that he might have gone further west to a placed called "DC" but that was all just hear say.
A few years after that Mr. Conner sent him on a mission. Adam was approaching an shack under the dead of night along the Hudson River. Mr. Conner seemed to be a little irate about this mission, as if the usually collected businessman had a thorn in his side about this hit. Adam could take care of that.
The lock on the door gave way quietly under Adam's work and the man snuck in silently and dark as a shadow into the building. The man he was to exterminate was sitting in a chair behind a desk at the end of the room. Adam could see his silhouette in the dim light. He quietly continued to sneak up on the target until he was up to the man's desk. Adam unsheathed his dagger and was ready to end the man's life when the night in his vision suddenly exploded in white stars.
Adam was on his back on the floor, partially stunned by the sudden punch to the head but even more stunned by the end of a plasma rifle sticking in his face. He stopped struggling only to find the targeted man awake and staring back down at him. The surprises just didn't stop either because he realized he recognized this man.
"Aren't you that boy whose hide I saved from a deathclaw awhile back?" the man grumped, still not moving his plasma rifle from Adam's face.
"Francis?" Adam demanded.
"He's not the only one here, you know." a softer voice announced. Adam tore his gaze towards the right.
"Leslie!?" Adam choked. He saw that the woman also wore a duster but he couldn't gawk for long. The plasma rifle suddenly jabbed his nose. Francis leaned down to talk to Adam face to face, the assassin could see the individual hairs on the older man's mustache.
"The reason you were sent here is because my regulators have been taking care of your employer's assassins one by one. I'm kind of glad I didn't kill you out right because I've heard stories about you. You're not all bad, you're just kind of motivated by caps. Regulating has its own share of caps to be made and there are far more targets to be killed. There's a lot of evil to be regulated out there. I just need your word that you'll go straight, boy." Francis ordered.
It was an offer Adam could not refused.