As they were walking up the stairs Jack held his hand up and stopped Nora for a second, "I'm still unsure if I can trust you but even less that I can trust them," Jack started being completely honest with her. "But I am willing to give you a chance as you haven't led me into a trap yet," he finished simply staring at her and giving her time to respond. "Well... thank you, I'm glad I'm trustworthy to you," she said smiling up at him seeming genuinely happy at having someone she can trust to help her.
Jack and Nora then walked up the stairs and into the main hall of the museum, they both noticed that the small group of survivors was making their way through the gate, or where the metal gate had been. When they noticed the two coming through the entrance Preston walked over to them, "Man I've never seen someone as strong fast and agile in power armor like you, it must be some sort of experimental version huh?" he asked looking at Jack. Before he could give any answer Nora gave one for him, "I don't know what it is but it looks like he came from outer space or something," she said changing the subject away as she knew he still didn't trust them.
Preston gave them a very weird but short glance before shaking his head a little and continuing on, "Anyway thanks again for all of yall's help, we definitely wouldn't have made it without you two's help,". Jack gave no response, but Nora was sure to answer, "It's no problem, we're always looking to help people in need," she said trying to lightly hit Jack in the ribs and immediately regretting it as her elbow met with solid steel. "Oh well in that case you both are welcome to come with us to Sanctuary up the road," when Preston said this Jack noticed Nora give a slight reaction to the word Sanctuary, "We'll think about it, first there's some other things I wanna check out," Nora replied.
"No problem we'll be there if you ever decide you wanna join," he said before shaking Nora's hand. "Oh I almost forgot," Preston said suddenly, "Here, for helping us out," he said as he held out a hand full of bottle caps. Both Jack and Nora were very confused by this, "What's this for?" she asked taking the bottle caps holding them in her hands. "It's for helping us out, I know it's not much but it's all I can give," he replied looking pleased with himself, "Ok, but why bottle caps?" she asked still very confused.
"Because bottle caps are the world's current currency, you must have just come out of the vault huh?" Preston said motioning to her vault suit. "Yeah I just got out earlier today actually," Nora said putting the caps into her backpack and smiling at Preston as he walked away from the two to catch up to the rest of his group that was already headed to Sanctuary.
After the pair watched Preston catch up with his group for a minute they looked at each other, "So what do you think about them now?" Nora asked wondering if the large man's mind had changed. "I still don't trust them," he said in return, 'I just don't know enough about them yet,' he thought to himself. "Ok, well I guess we should search around here for more supplies and anymore of these bottle caps," Jack shook his head at the last thing she said but he knew they would possibly need them in the future.
The two split up and began searching all of the dead raiders fully that were sprawled across the battlefield, there were a few raiders that had been torn apart by the deathclaw and those raiders Nora refused to search as every time she had tried she would have to throw up immediately after. Jack took the job of searching these bodies for her as he had seen so much death in his lifetime it didn't faze him at all to see a person tore to pieces. Jack at one point found a double barrel shotgun with no stock and a sawed down barrel, he attached the shotgun to his back before continuing on to the next body.
After the two finished searching all of the bodies of these raiders, the sun had begun to sink close to the horizon, "We better find some shelter somewhere pretty soon," Nora said as she looked up at the sky and could see it beginning to turn an orange and red color. Jack nodded in agreement, "I think the station back there will work for tonight and in the morning we can come back and search the buildings, if you want," she said as they began to walk towards the station. Jack thought about it for a second before agreeing that they should come back and make sure there isn't any enemies or resources left in the town that they could use.
As they were walking up the road to station Jack reached for the shotgun that was on his back and pulled it off of the magnetic plate on his back and without looking at Nora he offered the gun over to her. "Why are you giving it to me?" she asked wondering what had gotten into him that he would give her one of his guns. "It's better than a couple pipes stuck together, and if you're gonna fight along with me I need you to actually be able to deal some damage," he said to her never once looking at her but just staring straight forward. Nora looked surprised but took the shotgun and got it into her backpack in a way that she would be able to quickly draw it if she needed it, she also practiced doing this as they were walking on the road just to make sure she got used to it.
As the pair were walking up the road where the station connects to the main road Dogmeat, as Nora had named him on the way up the road, began growling at something towards the station. Jack immediately drew his pistol and Nora pulled out her new shotgun ready for any action, Jack couldn't see what the dog was growling at but he hoped it wasn't something stupid. Just as he was about to put his pistol up and berate the dog, a large hairless creature burrowed out of the ground in front of them and began rushing towards them. Jack immediately fired a single shot into the creature slowing it for a second before it simply kept running at them, he then heard Nora's shotgun go off beside him as the powerful close range weapon blew the animal's head to pieces.
Then three more of the creatures came out of the ground the same as the first, "What the hell are these?" Nora said out loud asking the question both of them were thinking. Jack shot one of the creatures twice killing it and Nora shot the other two, once the creatures were all dead both of them stood there waiting to make sure no more of these weird creatures were gonna appear. After about 2 minutes of nothing Jack put his pistol away and Nora did the same with her shotgun, "What are those?" she asked as they walked over towards one.
Jack looked over the creature noticing that it looked like a giant hairless rat, "It looks like some sort of rat," he said breaking the short silence. "Like some kind of rad rat or something?" she asked trying to make up a name for these things, "Sure," jack said in reply not wanting to try and argue with her over names of a weird creature. He then turned and walked into the station looking around at the trashy but empty store, 'just like everywhere else,' he thought as he walked through the entire store not finding anything of interest.
"There's no bed here but there is a desk and a chair you're willing to-" Jack stopped as he walked into the garage portion of the store seeing Nora setting up an old sleeping bag that seemed like it had seen many better days. "Oh I actually found this in one of the drawers but thank you," she replied laying down into her new sleeping bag. Jack stood there for a moment before turning and walking into the office of the building, he wasn't very tired but maybe that was just his spartan training trying to tell him to keep alert.
'I wonder if their still fighting for reach,' he thought as he stared off at the ceiling of the office while sitting up against the wall, only cause he knows the chair won't hold his weight. He cleared his head of those thoughts, 'I can't worry about what I'm not currently fighting for,' he thought. As Jack was sitting against the wall he decided to check his pistol and make sure he knew how much ammo he had left. In his pistol he had half a magazine left, but in his backup magazine he had the full ten. In their search they hadn't found any 10mm ammo as all of the weapons the raiders had been carrying had taken all different ammo such as .308 in some, .45 in others, and even a couple that used .38.
He knew he was going to run out of ammo soon if they didn't find him a new gun that was actually practical, he didn't take a pipe weapon off of one of the raiders simply because he had no way to carry it on his self unless he held it the entire time. The large spartan didn't want to have one of his hands occupied at all times, so he instead opted to just try and find more practical weapons and ammo for them.
As he was sitting there he thought about all the things that he has had happen over the last 24 hours; he went from fighting on Reach against the covenant to being in a desolate wasteland that looks like a very old Earth he has never seen, and finally he has found this random woman that he has begun to trust for no real reason at all other than she's the first person he met. Jack shook his head at his thoughts and couldn't believe how many things he had done that have gone against everything he was taught, but at this point he knows that he's running low on options and it seems like his training won't fully help him here. It does give him an edge but he has to get used to this world's rules of engagement.
After five and a half more hours of sitting alone in the office only with his thoughts and no sleep coming to him he stood up and walked out of the station making sure his steps couldn't be heard by Nora or anyone that could possibly be outside. As he stepped outside he could see that the sun was beginning to come back over the horizon and douse the entire area with some low light that allowed him to see some of the distant buildings and hills that made up most of this land. Jack did not find this land beautiful in any form of the word but he did think of the land as interesting.
He thought this because of the new things he hadn't seen in this world and he was interested to see how the things of this world would compare to the things of Earth he had heard about and read about during his time in the UNSC. As Jack was standing there looking out over the landscape and memorizing some landmarks to help him remember where they were in the future, he could hear rustling coming from inside the station which he knew meant Nora was waking up.
He quickly looked back over the landmarks he had chosen and then turned and walked into the station again walking straight into the garage where Nora had been sleeping. She was just getting out of the torn up sleeping bag when Jack noticed that she no longer had on her blue jumpsuit, but she instead had on some kind of dress that seemed like it had seen its better days.
Nora turned around and was startled by Jack standing in the doorway as she hadn't heard him move there, "How are you so quiet?" she asked knowing she wouldn't get any answer. "Anyways good morning, how did you sleep? I'll just say that this little bag is more comfortable than you'd think,". "Didn't sleep," he said as he watched her roll up the bag and stuff it into her bag as best as she could, "Why not?" she asked as she finished getting it into her bag and then walked over to where her blue jumpsuit was folded on a weapons bench looking table.
"I don't need much sleep," he said as she walked over to him holding the jumpsuit under her arm. "Well you need sleep so you better get some tonight," she said pointing at him with her free hand, "But I have to get changed so go out there somewhere please so i may do that,". Jack gave no response and did as he was asked waiting outside for her as she walked outside a few minutes late with her jumpsuit seeming to be a little tighter to her body than it had been before.
"Ready to go search the town for goodies?" she asked the large man with a smile plastered on her face, Jack nodded and proceeded to walk next her making sure to keep her pace as to not leave her behind. "So which end of the town do you wanna start on first?" she asked as they walked down the road towards the town, "The closest," he responded never breaking his forward gaze.
As they got into the town the two noticed that a few of the raiders bodies had been moved, 'animals are nearby,' Jack thought as he looked over the town making sure he took note of everything that had changed from the day before. Nothing else had really changed besides the few missing raiders so the two just continued into the first building on the right.
When they entered the building Nora immediately went upstairs to search as she remembered what happened last time the large spartan tried to go upstairs in a wooden building. As Nora searched the second floor of the old building Jack walked around the bottom floor and saw some kind of medical box behind some sort of old bar. He took the box off the wall and looked inside of it, he saw some sort of needle with a pressure gauge on the top of it that was connected to some sort of metal piece that made the syringe look like a cross of some sort.
He then heard Nora coming back downstairs and looked inside of the box and saw a few other small medical supplies that had been left behind, but they seemed to be the normal things you would find in a medical bag. Jack turned and saw Nora holding an extra magazine of 10mm ammo in her hand with some bullets that were not in a magazine in her hand. "I found you some more ammo up there, along with some other ammo for my shotgun and some 308's," Nora said as she handed the spartan the ammo.
Jack took the ammo and nodded his thanks before taking the magazine out of his pistol and making sure it was filled with ammo again and stowed his extra magazine in his small belt pouches that used to hold his old pistol's ammo and his assault rifle's ammo and his grenades, which he had none of those now. He then handed Nora the medical box he had found, "Oh awesome that ought to be useful in the future whenever I'm the one that gets hurt," she said jokingly but getting no reaction from Jack as he just stood there and stared at her from behind his tinted visor.
Jack and Nora continued their search for the next six hours, going through each of the open buildings and making sure they left nothing they could use behind, even though Nora kept a few things she said she needed even though she truly didn't. But there was no time for them to argue too much so Jack would just continue his search whenever she decided she wanted to keep something ridiculous.
After they had finished searching all of the building the pair made their way to the stairs of the museum to make sure they had everything that they had collected from here. "Seems like we got a lot of good things today," Nora said as she adjusted her new leather armor she had taken from some of the raiders and had put on over her jumpsuit or 'vaultsuit' as she called it. Jack nodded seeing all of the extra medical supplies they had found in a few of the buildings they searched along with more ammo both for guns they had and some they didn't.
"We should be heading to shelter," Jack said as he looked up at the sky and could see the sun was beginning to head towards the horizon, they still had a few hours but he wanted to be sure they made it back to some shelter safely and had time to organize everything they had found. "Good idea," Nora said, "We can head back to the red rocket station if that's fine with you," Nora said checking with the large spartan man, "It will work," he said in response picking up some of the heavier things they had found that Nora wanted to take to the minutemen in Sanctuary as she thought they would be able to use them.
The pair then began the journey back to the small station with all of the new things they had gathered from the town. As they neared the station Jack could hear talking coming from the station itself, he quickly set down what he had been carrying and motioned for Nora to stop and waved his hands at her in a 'wait here' motion.
The large man then snuck up the side of the road until he could see underneath the guard rails around the stations parking lot. He couldn't see anyone immediately but he was definitely sure that he could hear them talking inside the building, he then slowly made his way up the road and towards the station itself. Just as he was about five feet from the door however he heard a generator of some sort crank up and then the garage door began to open, Jack immediately drew his pistol and was prepared for a fight when he noticed a man wearing a light brown trench coat.
"Oh hi," Preston said as he noticed the large armored man holding a pistol, "Don't worry we're not raiders, we just saw that you two had stayed here last night by the burnt up fire outside and I figured we'd clean up the place for ya'll," he said smiling. "What were you making me wait for?" Jack heard from behind him as he turned his head and saw Nora coming into the parking lot, "Oh hi Preston, what are you guys doing here?" "Well like I told him, I thought we would clean up the place after we saw your fire pit over there," he said pointing towards a small hole dug with burnt wood and ashes in the bottom.
"Well thank you so much!" she said happily as she walked past the two and went to set down her bag with all of the new materials they had. "He's got some materials we found for ya'll, he left them back on the road just a short walk but I figured you guys could use them," she said as she put her hands on her hips and stared at the two men. Jack had nothing to say and walked back down the road to get the materials he had left behind, but not before making sure he watched Preston out of the corner of his eye almost the entire way down the road.
'I still don't trust them, how would they know we stayed here,' he thought to himself as he carried the materials back up to the group, 'and who made that fire because I don't remember Nora ever making a fire,' Jack was very confused by the new small pit and made sure to remember to bring it up to Nora later. "There, that's everything I could find that was in some sort of good condition," Nora said to Preston as Jack handed the heavy materials over to the militia dressed man.
Preston smiled at the two, "Well thank ya'll so much, I'll be sure to use these to help us build up the settlement," the man then turned and handed off the materials to one of the other minutemen that had come with him. Preston then turned to Nora and stuck out his hand which she took and gave as firm a shake as she could, "I'll be glad for any materials you two can find and bring back to us," Preston said.
The man then turned and began walking back towards Sanctuary looking over his shoulder as he yelled a goodbye to the two other survivors. Once the minutemen had left the pair walked into the old Red Rocket to inspect what the small militia had done to the place. They were both very surprised to see most of the trash and random pieces of both metal and wood that had once littered the floor was no longer there and everything was now as clean as you could get it with the building still almost falling apart, but in much better shape than all of the Sanctuary houses.
As Jack was walking around the small station he noticed that instead of the desk and cabinets that had been in the room he stayed in before there was now a small bedframe and mattress along with a sleeping bag now on the two ends of the room. Nora walked up behind the large man and peeked into the room noticing the two sleeping areas, "I definitely call the bed," she said from behind him as he just turned his head and looked at the woman. She smiled up at him not knowing what his reaction was or what he was thinking before lightly pushing her way into the room and sitting on the bed.
Nora took her backpack off and set it next to the head of the bed making sure that she can still reach her shotgun quickly just in case of emergencies. Jack then walked over to the sleeping bag and sat down on top of it not needing a blanket as his armor made sure his body temperature was always even.
"You better get some sleep tonight ya hear?" Nora said as she looked at Jack who was just sitting with his back against the opposite wall. "Fine," Jack said hoping it would get her to fall asleep and that way he could stay up like he had planned on doing, but when she didn't move like she was waiting on him to move first he finally laid down.
"Happy?" he asked as he laid on top of the sleeping bag still with no intention of actually going to sleep, "Better but I'm gonna stay up until I know for sure that you're asleep," she replied as noticed her put her elbows on her knees and her head in her hands. Jack sighed internally and knew he could wait her out as exhaustion would eventually catch up with her but she was right, he needed sleep and he knew it. So he decided to lay down and closed his eyes and tried to fall asleep as she had wanted him to even though he was still worried about Nora and whether she was fully trustworthy he figured if anything was to happen he would be able to deal with it when it came.
When he did eventually fall asleep he knew that Nora probably wouldn't notice and that she would just have to trust that he was asleep after a little while of not moving. However no matter how much he hated it he knew that even the greatest of spartans needed sleep, and he was no exception. But what Jack had forgotten over the few days he had been awake was the nightmares that came with being asleep and everything about the experiments done on them and the nightmares of his team dying in front of him.