By the time I finish repairing half of the elected sheet cutters and even managed to find what was wrong with the toy that I was asked to repair, the sun had already set by more than three hours. In all honesty, I was beyond tired from staying focused for such a long time. Yet, somehow, I felt happy that I could do something meaningful with this new power of mine. As tiresome and how time-consuming it was to learn every nook and cranny of every piece of machinery, it was also a good thing in the long run. While not many components are the same, a vast majority of them would be similar thus making my job easier once I get enough experience to repair bigger things like cars, planes, or even ships. Unfortunately, that's a job for the future since right now I can barely even put together a toy, nevertheless something as complicated as a bike, or even a computer.
When I woke up in the morning, I didn't see Vito in the house, but let's be honest he was old enough to take care of himself without having a kid, barely past sixteen years old shadowing him.
Picking the sandwich that the sheriff left for me to eat, I start thinking about what I should do for the rest of the day. While I could spend the whole day repairing things, it would incredibly boring.
Just as I was brainstorming for an alternative, my green friend walked into the house, followed by a man and a woman wearing combat gear.
"Morning kiddo. What are you planning to do today? Stay inside and fix the stuff you were given?"
"As boring as it sounds, that's the plan unless you have a better alternative."
"You really are a kid, despite acting mature. Well, these two wonderful people asked for my help dealing with some pest control. What do you say kid, fancy some rat hunting?"
"What are you waiting for? Let's go!"
"Kids these days... ain't I right?"
The couple looked at Vito in disbelief, whatever he found out must have made the couple embarrassed, because both of them left in a hurry, leaving me and the green giant to prepare ourselves for our first mission.
Thanks to the lack of personal belongings, we didn't waste more than a few minutes before we followed the couple outside of the house and right onto the streets.
We quickly found them waiting for us a couple of meters away from the house, both holding extra guns in their hands.
"Good to see you ... Dante right?"
"Yes, mam. Thank you for bringing me out of the house. I swear I would have died of boredom if I were to spend the whole day repairing stuff again."
"Don't be like that, Dante. You don't know how much it means for us to have a mechanic willing to repair some of our tools. Most of the people living in this town only have a few jobs that they can choose from, and believe me when I tell that losing tools is akin to condemning us to death."
"If I'm not being rude asking, can you explain a little bit about what you mean by that?"
"It's no problem sweety. Well, our town doesn't have that many things one can do. Usually, the police force is taking turns being active if you want to call it like that. While the majority of us work most of the time in the underground mushroom farms, there was once another way for us to earn caps or NCR dollars and that was purifying water in the old water station. Sadly, we lack the components necessary to repair the machines that once kept the facility working. That's why taking back the farms is such an important task."
"Sorry for being blunt but why would the sheriff ask Vito to help you when he could have sent a much bigger team, probably much better prepared to take on some mole rats?"
As soon as Lily and James, the couple gave me a pistol and Vito, a hunting rifle, the four of us left eh settlement towards the mine. When we got there, I was confused when I saw that there were four rather destroyed buildings clustered together. Whoever lived here before the war was either a miner or a bloody introvert, anyways, when we got close enough to see the buildings, I realized that missiles hit most of them, however, one, in particular, shone at me more than the others. While most of the rockets were small, one of them was large, at least three times as big as the small rockets, and although it was too burned to be able to determine exactly what color it had before, a closer look made me that infamous red banner and golden stars albeit quite a bit washed up.
The other three buildings were different from this apartment building, I think. The smaller one seemed to be some kind of a garage of some kind obviously set up to repair the vehicles and probably equipment for the miners. While the last two were destroyed for me to even think what they could have been before the war, nevertheless, one could build something of all of the rubble that was left after the bombs fell.
"That one looks the least damaged and yet it has the biggest bloody missile I ever saw."
"Of it's the least damaged. The people that lived there were communists before the war or at least looked like them. We found them transformed into ghouls wearing the red army outfit when Mike (the sheriff) told us to find a place to set up some underground farms for mushrooms. Anyways, the way towards the underground tunnels is through the house."
"Quite convenient don't you think?"
"C'mon kid. Even an infant would have realized what these commies were doing here. I guess that's why you guys use quite a few Chinese assault rifles and pistols right?"
"You don't even want to know how many of them are still lying in the warehouse, unable to be used thanks to either wear, rust, or the lack of working parts. Maybe Dante would take a look at them sometime in the future. "
"If I can help, I would do it without a problem."
After all, who wouldn't want a free gun as payment, especially since I loved the idea of making something similar to what Vito told me? Just imagining me as the leader of some big organization that deals with all factions was absolutely fantastic. Maybe not now when I don't even have a tiny bit of fame on my name, but maybe in the future, would be able to rule the world from behind the curtain.
Shaking those end-game thoughts out of my head, I quickly followed my ground inside the house. While the building didn't seem that damaged from the outside, the inside wasn't that much different. Then again, from what Lily told me, they were unable to get inside the tunnels for more than a week already thanks to the sheer number of mole rats that took over the tunnels. Maybe these little mutate rodents were the reason most of the furniture had signs of being bitten by some strong irregular teeth
"These little fuckers destroyed the furniture! Ah! Do they even know how much time it took to find so many pieces not destroyed?"
"I don't think they care friend. Say, you two mentioned that no one had come here in over a week right?"
"Yes, no one was allowed to come here, regardless of how much food we were losing thanks to the mole rats. Why?"
Vito didn't answer, instead, he pointed at some equipment lying near the wall. One red football armor alongside a rusty machete was left next to the wall by their owner.
"Does that look familiar to you?"
"Caesar's legion…fuck me. These crazy bastards sneaked inside NCR territory."
"What should we do? I don't know what this legion is, but by how James reacted, I don't think it would be a good idea to strike them without a plan."
"Kid, you amaze me. I thought you will be just like all boys your age that want to prove themselves."
"Vito…you know what happened there. Kind of come once you are left alive from all that."
"Sorry, you two, it seems that our mole rat problem just become worse than ever."
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