Farnan led the way out of the now mostly collapsed building, his rifle at port arms. They crossed the charred grass to a quonset hut, and stopped outside the door at the near end. "We should send clunky in there to clear the room. He's expendable" Farnan said, gettting a scowl from Nadine. "Just because you're right, you don't have to say it" she replied. "Master of the obvious, that's me" Farnan said as he moved towards the robot. "Clear the building" he said, slowly and deliberately to ensure he was understood. "Orders received...and...understood. Scanning...for...enemies" droned out the protectron as Farnan kicked in the door and quickly backed out of the way. When the dust settled in the doorway, the robot rotated left and right, scanning for motion and weapons. Finding none, it walked into the room to start a physical search. Several minutes passed by, during which the protectron droned out several of it's search routine phrases before clanking against the far door frame. "Sounds good to me" Farnan said as he brought his weapon down to low ready and entered the building. More of the dust of ages coated everything in the room. The bunks were arranged in neat rows with a dusty wooden case at the foot of each bed. The beds were all neatly made, and showed only a small degree of wear and age. A quick search of all the beds and trunks turned up a handful of doses of Rad-X and Rad Away, 4 more water bottles, fresh(er) blankets, and a skeleton still wearing combat medic armor. This was quickly removed from it's former occupant, and with a grimace Nadine tried it on. It fit surprisingly well, as the plates were shaped for a woman. "Do I have tooo" she implored to Jason, looking more than slightly disgusted at wearing something that someone who died 200 years ago had on until just now. "Yes. We don't know what's out there and if you have to take a hit I'd rather you have something a little tougher than vault suit between the round and anything you want to keep." As much as she wanted to argue that, she couldn't, and grudgingly fell into step behind Farnan as he crossed to the far side where the Protectron waited. They split their new posessions as evenly as possible, and shouldered their packs once again. "After you" Farnan said, holding open the door for Nadine. "Much obliged, good sir" Nadine replied, walking out the door into the bright sunlight. It took a moment to adjust, but it wasn't nearly as painful a transition as the first time. They cleared two more quonset huts in this manner, gaining a good size handful of radiation drugs, rounded out their collection of water bottles at 10, and finally found their greatest prize of all. Someone had stashed a cache of fancy lads snack cakes under a pillow in the last bunk of the third hut. They tore into the carton with abandon, putting 3 of the four packages away in a matter of seconds. Suddenly, without warning, a queasy and burning feeling overcame them, and they had to fight down the urge to hurl it all back up. "They aren't spoiled" Farnan said, showing the still moist and chewy bits which clung to the wrapper. "Must be the rads" Nadine said, noticing for the first time how her pip boy's geiger counter jumped slightly when it got closer to the package. "Do you think we should take some of the Rad Away, Doc" Farnan asked. "This low dose isn't lethal, but we should consider popping a Rad-X pill before we shovel large quantities of radioisotopes into our faces in the future." "Sounds like a plan. We've got enough of those to feed an army." "They WERE here to feed an army." "Yeah well..." Let's get going. The rest of this place isn't going to explore itself."
After leaving the last of the row of huts that formed the enlisted barracks, they made their way over to a surprisingly normal looking house, with a white star composed of shingles on the roof side facing the dirt road. "Must have belonged to the Commanding Officer" Farnan said, shielding his eyes from the sun to make out the white star. Should be some good stuff inside." Nadine and Farnan moved up to the front porch fo the house, but Farnan put out his arm and stopped Nadine, an instant before she snapped a tripwire that was strung across the bottom stair leading to the front door. "Lucky glance is all that was" she said, but her smile and sigh of relief were more than enough thanks. "Ok we're even" she said, looking over at Jason with a smile. "What about the Grognak bit" he replied, smiling as well. He had to rub it in when he could, because the frequency with which he got the upper hand was (admittedly) not as high as she did. "Fine, the Grognak bit too. Growl, roar, manly man etc, etc." She stood up and pantomimed swinging a great axe and chopping off the heads of imagined knights and men-at-arms. "Happy" she said. "Yep" he replied. "Grognak strong, Grognak smash, Grognak save you from trap." He opened the top pocket on her pack, and started to dig around. After several seconds, he threw up his hands and said "how do you find anything in this mess." "What do you need" she asked. "Wire cutter" he said, and held out his hand. She reached back and fumbled for about three seconds, before handing him the tool, needle-nose first. "I don't even want to know how you did that" he said, rolling his eyes as he grabbed the tool and dropped to a crouch to examine the trap. "Tsk-tsk" he said, "not a very impressive setup" he said. He maneuvered the wire cutter around the cable, and with a quick snip and a twist of the tool, the wire snapped and a grenade cluster fell out from under the step. All three pin rings were attached to the small end of the wire Farnan just cut. He reached down and picked up the grenades, carefully sliding the wire through the rings and then putting the grenades into their easy access points on his belt. He stood up, and happened to be silhouetted against the front of the house with the white star in view. Nadine burst out laughing, and said "You look like a poster boy for the old U.S. Army. Combat armor, loaded ammo pouches, grenades, canteen, an assault rifle, and a hot nurse by your side." "I can't seem to find the hot nurse" Farnan replied with a grin. Nadine playfully punched his shoulder and pulled her hairpin out to try the lock. It proved more resistant than the personnel office however, and after several frustrated minutes she stopped playing around with the doorknob and looked around sheepishly. Farnan stood up and said "And that's my cue." He unslung his rifle, sighted down the barrel and sent a burst into the lock and a burst into the frame housing the bolt. He then stretched his legs, rolled his neck, and cracked his knuckles. Taking a step back, he took in a deep breath, let half of it out, and roundhouse kicked the door down. Splinters and fragments flew across the house's living room, and the door crashed against the wall behind it. "This was the commanding officer's house" Farnan said, surveying the living room with it's ironing board, broken tv, empty bookshelves, and empty fish tank. The ironing board held a gray overcoat with two stars on both shoulders. Farnan folded up the coat and put it in his pack. "Might come in handy later. Besides, I bet it would look good on me. I earned my stars back in the vault, so it's not like I'm assuming false rank." "Sounds impressive, General Farnan" Nadine replied. They walked into the adjoining room and found a kitchen sink, a gas range built into the countertop, and a dust covered refrigerator. Shelves with dishes lined the walls. Farnan and Nadine both reached for the refrigerator at the same time, then looked at eachother. "Do you think we should" Nadine asked? "Who knows what might be in there. Two hundred years of mold and growth and whatnot could even be sentient by now." "I'll do it" Farnan said. He slung his rifle back over his shoulder, but drew his sidearm and chambered a round before wrenching open the door. A perfectly preserved (it was even still shrink wrapped) 24 pack of beer, along with 6 Nuka Cola classic's and a bottle of Quantum tucked in behind the 6 pack carrier. "Score" called out Nadine, grabbing the handle of the Nuka Cola carrier. The rime of frost prevented it from budging, however. "That's still cold" she exclaimed, pulling her hand back and jumping out of the way. The entire preserved collection was indeed in it's element, still ice cold and awaiting a thirsty officer who passed away more than 200 years ago. "Well, we know it's still good then, or as good as it possibly could be. That Nuka Cola probabaly still has the frosty bottle opening effect. Care to try it?" Farnan pulled a bottle out of the frost, handed it to Nadine, and extracted another for himself. They twisted the caps off and clinked the necks together before tossing back a healthy gulp. After packing up their finds from the kitchen, they headed down the short hallway from the living room to the house's modest bedroom. The bed was made in immaculate order with crisp corners on the sheets and the top of the cover turned down. What they found as their eyes traveled across the bed wasn't so cheerful however. The preserved skull of the house's former owner, minus a large hole in the temple, grinned up at them from empty eyesockets. His weapon was still clutched in the bony remains of his hand, pointed where it was the last time it was fired. The weapon was a custom gold-plated .44 magnum, with Strategic Air Command engraved on the barrel and white mother-of-pearl stars inlaid in the polished mahagony grips. Farnan pried it loose from the finger bones, and checked the cylinder. "Five shots left, and they seem to be in good condition. Should probably try it out just to be sure." "I think that gun has been 'tried out' enough already" Nadine said darkly, facing the other way and lowering her voice. It was then that she noticed the closet door standing open. In addition to a small number of uniforms on hangars, she made out the right side of what looked like a safe set into the wall. "Jason, look in the closet, I think it's a safe." They went over to the closet and pulled all the clothes off the hangars and threw them on the bed, doing their best to be respectful when covering the remains of the general. The safe didn't have a dial combination that they could try, but instead a keyhole. Nadine got out her trusty hairpin and started to fiddle with the lock, but realized right away that she wasn't going to be making any progress. "We need a key" she said over her shoulder to Farnan, who shook his head and sighed. "I'll bet I know who has it" he said, nodding to the skeleton. "Flip you for it" Nadine said, pulling out the cap from her Nuka Cola bottle. "Ok, you're on" he said, as she flipped the cap into the air with her thumb. "I call the rubber side" Farnan said, before Nadine had a chance to say anything. The cap landed with the Nuka side down, thus declaring Farnan the winner. "Damn" Nadine said, reaching for the edge of the blanket. She cringed at having to do this, but stoicly pulled it back and flung it across the room. She turned away while searching the uniform pockets, but eventually came up with the key. "Don't ever make me do that again" she said to Farnan, who simply nodded. He took the key and walked over to the wall safe. It opened with a creak of protesting metal, to reveal several stacks of money, a binder (which looked suspiciously like the point of origin for the folded piece of paper in his front pocket), 2 boxes of 12 .44 rounds, and a boxed collection of the many different Nuka Cola caps that had been issued since the company started. "That's a lot of different caps" Nadine said, taking the box from Farnan and adding hers to the collection. "I have to save theis one because it's the first time you beat me in...well anything" she said with a smile as she closed the small box and put it in her pack. Farnan counted out the money, and distributed it as evenly as possible. "That's about eighty grand a piece" he said, "told you we'd be rolling in Benjamins in no time." Nadine stuck out her tongue at him, as she put her money in a small side pocket of her pack. They left the house without another word. While they were walking, Farnan spied a door with what looked like a pocked and tattered Nuka Break poster plastered onto the side. The door handles also appeared to be made of bottles, one amber colored and one clear green. The amber bottle appeared to have once been a beer, and Farnan thanked his lucky stars, almost weeping with joy. Nadine had been talking the whole time, but he had stoped listening, and by this point even walking. "And that's when the spider jumped out of the cake" Nadine said, coming to a stop and turning to face him, indignation at being ignored glaringly obvious on her features. "Are you even listening to me" she asked, extending her right arm and putting her finger right under Farnan's nose. His thousand yard stare was soon followed by Nadine, who turned on her heel and and gaped at the wonderous sight of the post cantina. It almost seemed to acquire a corona or a halo, and they both ran up to the doors and tried to pry them open. Farnan got ready to knock the door down, and for once, Nadine didn't argue, simply stepping out of the way. Farnan put two shots into the lock, and then booted the door down. It came off it's rusty age worn hinges, landing with a dusty crash inside the building, followed by "put...down...your...weapons...and...submit...to...authority..." just as two needle sized beams and a larger, darker red beam shot out in his direction. Nadine had just enough time to cry out as Farnan hit the ground with three smoking holes in his torso.