They arrive at the vault after a long journey made grueling by Adam's poor path finding. He made a mental note to ensure his paths going forward would be better scouted to avoid this. However the entire time Deccanus did not utter a single word of complaint. He soldiered on without issue. Even keeping up with Adam's level of endurance and stamina, which was impressive and not something even Salvatore was able to do.
They arrived at the location, surprisingly the entrance to the underground parking garage looked untouched by the bombs. Which was good because if the entrance was blocked they would have had to turn around and go home. But likely The Guild Boss made sure this place was accessible before he asked for Adam's help.
Adam walked up to the control panel and plugged his pip-boy in while Deccanus watched. Even under his bandana he was clearly tense, hand gripping his rifle tightly.
With the loud sound of gears grinding the giant vault door with the emblazoned '54' began to slowly open as red warning lights began to whir to live from the inside of the Vault. As soon as the vault door was open they began to head inside, the door shutting behind them automatically.
It was dark. Very dark. Unlike Vault 42 which still had enough power to keep the lights on, this place clearly had no power whatsoever. Adam turned on his pip-boy light and his helmet light. Deccanus, however, had no light so he simply looked in the directions Adam was pointing.
It was hard to see, the only areas of the vault being illuminated by Adam's two lights. One that created a circle around him from his pip-boy, and one from his helmet that shined forward. However even from the minimal looking around they had done in just the entrance the entire vault felt… eerie. In the distance noises could be heard faintly, though what those noises were was unclear.
They advanced, having no choice but to travel through this uncomfortable atmosphere in silence as they illuminated pathway after pathway. Something became clear after they had been here for a few minutes. They were not alone.
Someone was here, or something. The noises were growing in frequency, it sounded like something walking around on metal floors, or heavy breathing, or the chattering of teeth, or any other number of sounds. And yet they still had not seen anything.
The Vault itself, though they were not specifically looking to loot, still had a small handful of goods. Though they were not raiding every section they went into, the rooms still seemed like the inhabitants had not left the vault at all, clothing items strewn about the rooms like someone raided them but didn't leave with them. Though the food seemed to be missing, who knew what else. If not for the inability to see or the creepy knowledge that something was in the vault with them this would have been a lucky find, enough goods to bring back certainly. However this was the time for caution not the time to be thinking about making some extra caps.
Deccanus was the first to see something, he turned around quickly, drawing his machete and getting in a stance, ready to cut down whatever came at him, but nothing came.
"What did you see?" Adam whispered as he stopped, keeping his back to Deccanus so he could cover the front.
"I do not know." He said with a stern but almost… fearful tone. "It was large and fast, but the light did not illuminate it enough." Adam nodded.
"Lets keep moving. I'll cover the front, you cover our backs."
"Understood."
The two of them continued to advance, slowly, through the cramped hallways of the vault. In a sense they were wandering aimlessly. His pip-boy map was helping, giving Adam a mild sense of where he was going and where he had been, uncovering more of the map as he traversed it, but truthfully he was just wandering. He had a goal. A lab. If there was anywhere a vial of this serum might be, it would be there. At least in theory. But as he crept around, Deccanus at his back, he kept hearing sounds, like there were creatures moving through the dark hallways just around the corner, nowhere to be seen once he had sight on them. It was starting to get scary. He was beginning to hate Vaults.
Then it happened.
As Adam rounded a corner after finally finding a sign that read 'laboratory' with an arrow pointing right, he saw them… or it.
It was humanoid. But to say that was generous, it was tall, lanky, hunched over, with arms almost the size of its body. Its head was stretched out and its mouth hung open, its feet were the size of Adam's chest and its teeth were the size of his eyeballs. It looked emaciated, thin, and had veins visible throughout its body. And when Adam spotted it, it spotted him.
It screamed, a wail of the damned that nearly caused Adam to drop his gun and cover his ears. However he didn't, instead he fired.
The rounds connected with the lithe body like a sharp knife on tissue paper. The body had no resistance to the bullets at all. However it did not appear to feel pain and instead charged through the hail of bullets towards Adam.
Adam had no recourse but to keep firing at the monster as it charged at him. He heard another blood curdling scream from behind him but didn't have the time to turn around, he could only trust Deccanus to handle it. Instead he fired a few more times at the creature. It came to a halt in front of him, dead. He had wanted to aim for the head but the way the creature moved it bobbed its head around so much it was like hitting a bee mid flight, so instead he had focused on center mass. It worked.
He whipped around and turned to help Deccanus only to see one of those creatures take a swipe at him, however Deccanus was faster, he ducked underneath the swipe and cleanly cut the entire arm off at the elbow joint. As it began to swipe again Adam fired at its head. Luckily not bobbing as it was engaged in combat, and it died instantly.
"Come on, let's get to the lab." Adam said with a commanding and hurried tone.