"Ah, sleeping beauty finally woke up." The voice of a ghoul spoke up from somewhere nearby. Adam's vision was still blurry, his head hurt, and he was unable to move his body, but he was slowly coming to.
He found himself in a warehouse of some kind, shelves and boxes thrown about randomly all over the place, making the place feel like it had been turned over by more than one scaver. In front of him was a ghoul wearing military fatigues and was leaning on a service rifle, around his neck were dog tags right from the US Army.
To his left was that big man who he assumed knocked him out, his arms were crossed and he was staring at Adam like he was ready to kill him if he tried anything. Next to him was that same woman, gray hair, long rifle. However she was not paying attention to Adam and instead she was sitting on a wooden crate field stripping her gun and cleaning the parts quietly. To the ghoul's right was another man, he too was wearing army fatigues, which seemed to be the theme here, but his face was covered by a black balaclava and nothing to cover his jet black hair. He was throwing up and down a combat knife while watching Adam. In the back of the group was a woman with blazing red hair tied into a pony tail, wearing overalls on top of half an army fatigue uniform and working on a missile launcher. A mini nuke was on her makeshift workbench and, at a glance, it seemed like she was trying to put the mini nuke warhead on the missile casing. Right next to her was another ghoul, a woman, smoking a cigarette as she seemed completely disinterested in what was going on, she too was in military fatigues. Lastly, in the far back of the warehouse, Adam could see some more people milling about. He couldn't make out any features but the distinct colors of the military fatigues spoke wonders about their affiliations.
However none of this was as important to Adam as the fact that he had woken up sitting on a metal chair, his arms and legs tied to it quite tightly, cutting off circulation slightly. He might be able to break free if he struggled as hard as he could, but in the current situation, where he was being watched, he stood no chance of breaking free quickly.
Adam shot the ghoul who spoke up first a scowl.
"What do you want?" Adam said, fearlessly to him. "I don't know what you hope to gain by kidnapping me but-" Adam began before a bullet fired by the old lady from a previously holstered 10mm landed next to his head without her even glancing over quickly shutting him up. If Adam wasn't in danger of apparently being killed he would have been impressed that the woman had so accurately missed his head without even looking over. Or, at least, he hoped she was aiming to miss.
"Now now, don't get your panties in a bunch there, Adam Baxter." The ghoul said with a sadistic smile as he got up off the box he was sitting on and walked a bit closer to Adam. "You see I had you brought here because I had some questions for you." He said as he walked over and put his hand on Adam's jaw, forcing his head to look up at him. "You see I'm hearing some interesting rumors as I come back to Chicago for the first time in a while. Some no name is going around and becoming quite a big shot in my absence huh? So who are you?" He said with a menacing grin.
"Who the hell are you?! Why does it matter?" Adam asked back, staring daggers at the man, not willing to give the ghoul the satisfaction of seeing him scared.
"No no. You don't get to ask the questions here. I do." He said with emphasis as he squeezed Adam's face he was holding a bit tighter for a moment before letting go. "I asked you a very simple question. Who are you?" The ghoul said with a tone and expression that read he would kill Adam if his answer was not to his liking.
"You know who I am!" Adam shouted back angrily. "I am Adam Baxter!"
"No, see. I don't like that answer." The ghoul said as he pulled out a combat knife of his own and twirled it in his fingers. "You are not Adam Baxter. So I want the truth." He said as he put the knife close to Adam's throat now. "Who. Are. You?" He asked slowly and methodically.
"I don't know what you want me to say!" Adam said back undaunted. "I am Adam Baxter and I have only ever been Adam Baxter!" He shouted. The ghoul stared at him for a moment before he lifted the knife from Adam's neck, but not before giving him a light knick on the cheek with the blade, drawing a small amount of blood.
"I have seen a lot of things in my day." The ghoul said as he walked back over to his crate based seat. "Psychers who could see the future, Deathclaws that could talk, ai running civilizations, even fucks who think God is a nuclear bomb, fucking freaks." He said casually almost as if he was talking to myself. "But in all my years I have never seen something like this, someone like you." He said as he sat back down and pointed the knife at Adam.
"What do you mean?" Adam asked, reigning his anger back in a bit.
"I mean to hear that name again. Adam Baxter. It brings back some…memories." He paused. "You look right, though something's a bit off, can't put my finger on it. You sound right, and, from what I've heard, you ain't no slouch." He gently pointed at Adam's whole body with his knife before he re-sheathed it. "But you can't be Adam Baxter." The ghoul said with a cold low tone.
"And why is that? What makes it so hard to believe?" Adam insisted further. Staring right back at the ghoul, undaunted by the potential danger he was in. He had, of course, not stopped trying to find a way to escape, but for the moment, aside from divine intervention, he could find no way out.
"Because I knew Adam Baxter." The ghoul said slowly. "And you ain't him." He continued one, his eyes sizing Adam up with every glance. However his words shocked Adam, he went wide-eyed, this man knew Adam? The first Adam? The one he was cloned after? Maybe this ghoul was someone he knew from before the world ended but is it possible that… the original Adam had survived after the bombs fell and made new acquaintances.
"Are you saying that…" Adam began slowly, unsure what to say to this.
"What I'm saying is, if you can't be Adam Baxter. Then you must be someone else. So…" He said, partly interrupting Adam's train of thought as he brought over his service rifle to where Adam sat and mildly pointed it at Adam's head. Though it was a casual stance, not one that indicated he was going to execute Adam at the drop of a hat… probably. "If I don't get some satisfactory answers soon, you may find yourself with a few less brain cells every time you lie." He said with a frown and a serious no-nonsense tone.
Adam hesitated. He was unsure what to do. This man was convinced he was not Adam Baxter. No, if he knew the original, of course he couldn't be that Adam Baxter. There was no amount of lies or web spinning that would satisfy this man. If he messed up here he might die. His only choice was to tell the truth, the whole truth…
"I'm waiting…" The ghoul said again slowly, gingerly tapping the barrel of the gun against the side of Adam's head.
"You are right… to an extent… I am not the Adam Baxter…" Adam said slowly, not exactly sure how much he should say or how to say it but deciding going for broke was best.
"Now we are talking. So then, who are you?" The ghoul repeated, now standing up straighter.
"You misunderstand. I am not The Adam Baxter, but I am Adam Baxter. I am his clone."