After about a day of travel, luckily with no actual encounter with the cult. The group decides to set up camp for the night. Deccanus spotted a large grocery store that was still standing that might, possibly, be able to house everyone for the night. So they all entered the building and found it in a predictable state of disarray. However there were signs that it had, at one point in time, been inhabited so there were a few bedrolls and at least one drum barrel grill. It was more roomy than the parking garage was so the army was much more comfortably able to take to their own spaces without mixing too much.
Adam momentarily reflected on the march so far. He had heard the sounds of gunfighting in the distance. And far more than one firefight. In all likelihood those men who broke off to drag the attention of the cult were doing their jobs well. Though likely from this point onward they were deep in Cult territory. There was no way they could get to the base without engaging with patrols at least once. That was tomorrow's problem though.
However he did note how the warfighters seemed to not only be well behaved but also seemed to be taking orders well. It was curious that a ragtag bunch of former raiders under War's banner were willing to march off on missions to draw the enemy's attention and quite likely get themselves killed. Even if not all of them were former raiders, enough were that it was curious. Maybe it was War himself. Something about him screamed power so maybe raiders just naturally supplicated to him. Or perhaps it had something to do with the warshippers. Or perhaps it was something else entirely. He had no idea. For the time however, so long as they were not causing issues he was content to leave them be.
Adam decided to spend a bit of time exploring the grocery store since he still had energy after the march. His enhanced body was sometimes too energetic. The grocery sections, which is to say the entire front of the store where customers are allowed, was raided thoroughly. There was not even a single box of sugar bombs cereal left. So he moved to the back.
The back was just as barren as the front, full of nothing of value whatsoever. However looking for things of value was not really his main goal, instead he was mostly killing time. However, upon entering the manager's office he found something that made his meandering around worthwhile. A protectron.
The protectron was still encased in its pod. Clearly left untouched since the times before the war. It was a domestic model, completely uninteresting in design and sporting nothing more than the bare bones equipment, two laser emitters. But Adam already knew how much a single protectron could be of value if used properly. A robot is a robot no matter what.
Since it was still in its pod its corresponding terminal was on the wall right next to it. A simple hack was all that was needed to gain access to its coding. Once through the password screen Adam pulled over a chair and got to work. He did not even need to make any drastic changes to the protectron, just his normal Admin access, and a few tweaks. Otherwise he largely left its original programming intact. After all, it's not like he needed a hyper aggressive robot to begin with. He was content with it as is.
"Whew. You work fast, kid." Baxter whistled as he leaned in the doorframe to the manager's office having, somehow, snuck up to Adam without him noticing and clearly watched him for a bit of time. Adam looked over at Baxter while the protectron stepped out of its pod.
"Protect and Serve." The protectron said as it stepped out, ready to follow its programming. Which at the moment had it set to just wander around the immediate area until it found hostiles, which it would find none. Adam looked from the protectron back to Baxter.
"Was I always that good at programming?" Baxter mused aloud while still looking at Adam.
"I've gotten better." Adam said as he turned to look at Baxter now. "It is a useful skill to have. And I've gotten to flex my programming skill a lot since I woke up." Baxter rocked his head side to side.
"Nah. It's noteworthy, that's for sure." He chuckled. "I certainly can't do that." He grinned. Adam paused and looked at him confused.
"Wait, you can't? I have your memories, everything you knew from before the war. You worked at Second Life and even Buddy-"
"Yeah yeah. I used to work for those assholes at Second Life. Sure. But that was over 200 years ago. Why would I still remember all that shit?"
"I don't know? Maybe because robots are especially useful?" Adam shot back, a little annoyed at Baxter for letting go of such a useful skill.
"You don't get it." Baxter began, no longer leaning on the wall. "When the bombs fell the last thing on my mind was fucking how to reprogram robots. Most of them tried to kill me. I would much rather put a bullet in its hardware than try to sit there and figure out how to make it listen. I was hungry, cold, tired, and in constant danger. Of course there was no time to practice my programming skills. Now, 200 years later, I can't remember any of that shit." He then gently gestured to the Protectron, randomly wandering around the room aimlessly. "But glad to see you are putting the skills to good use anyway." Adam just sighed softly.
"Was there anything you needed?" Adam asked a bit bluntly.
"Nope." Baxter grinned. "Nothing at all. I couldn't sit still, not until I at least secured all entrances and exits. Gotta know all the escape routes and come up with plans and all that, after all. So me coming in here was just a coincidence." Baxter chuckled softly. "I'll leave you to it then, good night, kid." As Baxter walked away Adam shook his head. It was such a weird feeling, looking at such a different version of himself. He was far more jaded, careful. He was like an entirely different person. But he kept popping up, he probably wasn't lying about ensuring he knew where all the exits were, but he didn't just come and watch Adam by accident. However he was not going to find the answer by just thinking so instead he let it drop for now.
"Protectron, follow me."
"Roger, following." The protectron returned as Adam then turned to leave the room too. Back to link up with the rest of his group.