Adam looked at Torusk who was laying on the floor, blood pouring out of his face. He was not moving, his eyes seemed to be rolled back into his head. His nose was clearly broken, one eye socket was shattered, his forehead was slightly caved in, his jaw was delocated and he was missing most of his front teeth.
Adam, on the other hand, still had the deathclaw gauntlet impaled into his arm, his hand still felt broken, and his elbow was not in much better shape. He needed a doctor, but he would likely not find one in the middle of this battlefield.
He looked back at Eve and then back at Torusk again, he then ripped his arm out of the deathclaw gauntlet claw blades and then administered two more stimpacks, one to his left arm that was impaled, and one to his right arm that likely was broken in multiple places. The stimpacks helped, a ton, but as amazing as stimpacks were, they couldn't heal broken bones… usually. For that he would need an actual doctor. Still this would be enough for now.
As he got up, he never broke line of sight with Torusk as he pulled his hunting rifle from his chest, and put the barrel to the man's head. He then fired, at point blank range, two times, turning Torusk's head into an unrecognizable mess. He was not letting this man get away alive. That was for sure.
This had been the closest someone had brought Adam to death since he woke up. Of course he had nearly died when he was fighting the feral ghouls, and it's not like he had an easy time fighting all the other battles he had taken part in but this one man brought him closer than anyone else.
When he was laid up on the ground staring up at the death claw gauntlet he could see his life flashing before his eyes. He could practically see the grim reaper staring from over Torusk's shoulder at that moment. However he really did not have time for this sort of reflection right now. Nor did he have time for questions. How did he get here? Why was he in the cultist base? How did he know Adam was here? How did he show up with this timing? And so many more. But once more he did not have time for these questions. The answers would have to wait, if they existed at all.
"Feel better, handsome?" Eve asked.
"No." Adam replied coldly. "But we still have work to do. So let's get back to the killing."
"I couldn't agree more~" Eve said with a flirty tone. "Though as much as I love a man bloody, I think you should just cover my back and take it a bit easier. You look in rough shape~"
"I'll be fine." Adam said back as he took a slow deep breath as he leveled himself out. Truthfully the stimpacks had already done wonders for his body. He could not possibly win another melee like the one he was just in, but when it came to simply holding a gun and firing it, despite the immense pain, he could do it just fine.
"Suit yourself~" Eve said back with a flirty tone.
"Adam!" Colonel Harrison called out as he kicked open a door holding the body of one of the cultists in front of him as a meat shield. "I can't protect you if you are going to act so reckless!" He yelled as he then shot the man he was holding in the head, and let him fall to the ground. He then signaled his men, who were behind him in the room he just came out of, to begin to fan out and clear the building room by room. Meanwhile he, himself, walked over to Adam. Surprisingly he grabbed hold of the collar of Adam's shirt and looked angry.
"If you have a death wish, go die on your own terms, don't drag me and my men into it." He said with a cold stern tone as he stared Adam in the eyes. Adam felt taken aback and then took a deep breath.
"I'm sorry Colonel, I just acted without thinking."
"Damn right you did." He said dismissively as he let go of Adam's collar. "But what's done is done." He said before he glanced down at Torusk and then fired thrice into the chest of the very dead body. The casual indifference he did it with suggested that double tapping a downed enemy was part of the Gunner training. Well, 'take no prisoners' was their credo after all so it fit. Then again, he had done the exact same thing not more than a moment ago. So who was he to judge?
"From this point forward I will take charge of your safety, move with me and my men. The rest of your group are being escorted inside. Don't make my job harder than it already is." He said sternly.
"I'm sorry." Adam quickly apologized. "Lead the way, I will follow." The Colonel nodded and then whistled before waving over two of his men.
"Stay with Adam, keep his flanks secure, he will move us as we clear out the east wing."
"Got it sir."
"Roger that." The Gunners said in near unison as they took up positions nearby Adam.
"Well, looks like you got an escort already, handsome. So I'm going to keep pushing on. Looks like the rest of our robo-squad is making their way in through the hole Hades blew through the wall so I'm going to go back over there. Don't have too much fun without me while I'm gone~" She said before miming the motion of blowing a kiss and then charging off down the hall again to re-link with another group of units.
"Alright men, follow me." Colonel Harrison said with a commanding tone to the men nearby, Adam included.
The group of them then began to, systematically, blow open each door to the building and eliminate each hostile inside. There was the tiniest pang of guilt from Adam. He knew that not all of these people were evil, surely some of them must have no idea what the kind of man they were worshipping was. Or, more to the point, what kind of atrocities they were committing just under their feet. However they were all zealots. Not a single person they had encountered had tried to flee or hide. Every single person so far, man, woman, and child, unfortunately, was fighting with a fervor that suggested they would rather die than give an inch. Even if there were some among them that could be counted as civilians there was no way to discern them, and with everyone being hostile there was no way to be anything but lethal.
So Adam followed suit, and shot everyone wearing purple. The casualties on both sides, even just in this one hallway, were mounting, however the cultists did not show any signs of slowing. In fact as they became more and more cornered, their ferocity only further increased.
Adam watched a Gunner, as he charged into a room to gun down its inhabitants, get tackled onto the floor and literally have his throat ripped open by the teeth of a probably nineteen year old cultist tearing into him like a zombie from one of those bad horror movies.
Before Adam could even react, another Gunner put the boy down, and then, a moment later, put down his ally, who was suffering as well. It was cold, ruthless, and efficient. Just as the Gunners self described.
Eventually, through a lot of effort and blood, the entire hallway Adam was in was cleared of hostiles. Frankly, while Adam did help a little, he was mostly sequestered to the back of the group, mostly put on rear guard duty. But since they were clearing room by room, and the path behind them was cleared by other attacking forces, there was nothing that attacked from behind. Ultimately his contribution was very small. But the Colonel was taking his protection seriously and he appreciated it. Not least of all because his body was still in massive pain from the wounds he received earlier. Perhaps his body would heal with the Ouroborus factor, but he was no comic book super hero, he needed time to actually heal, it would not just miraculously happen, so for the moment he was impaired.
To combat the pain he injected himself with another Med-X. Honestly, Stimpacks already have a numbing effect that reduces pain, but the Med-X's pain reduction was far more potent, albeit shorter lasting. That was his last Med-X though so, from this point forward, he would have to ride the wave whenever the pain returned. Or risk stimpack addiction by using the stimpack to help lessen the pain. However, that was a bridge he could cross later.
"Alright people! We are still on an active battlefield! Get a move on! We have to push to the West now! We kill their leaders, and this is over!" Colonel Harrison said with a commanding tone as he men did some very quick first aid and reloading.
Adam turned and glanced out one of the windows overlooking the back lot where, just like everywhere else, there was still fighting going on. However he noticed a strange sight. Deccanus was outside, next to the tennis court, surrounded by a number of cultists all wielding melee weapons and charging at him. That was normal, knowing Deccanus, however what was not normal was the fact that the ranger was at his back, gun off his hip as he gunned down several cultists one after the other with pinpoint precision. Deccanus himself was cutting down cultists with efficiency that he came to expect of him. However he had already incorporated his new armor into his fighting style, using the heavy greaves as a makeshift shield to glance, parry, or sometimes outright block incoming blows and then turn the momentum into an opportunity to attack.
There was no doubt about it. As he watched for a moment Deccanus and the ranger were definitely fighting back to back, covering each other in what would definitely be a scene straight from a movie if he had a camera. Unfortunately the danger was real and Adcam desperately wanted to go help.
"Hold on!" Adam said as he broke free of the Gunner's group, ran over to the nearest window, leveled his hunting rifle, and began to fire at the cultists surrounding the two of them. He could hear the Colonel shout at him from behind, groan, and then join in on the fire fight helping clear the cultists surrounding Deccanus and the ranger. As soon as the two of them were clear Deccanus raised his machete into the air while looking over to Adam's direction and then dove back off, back into the building, to rejoin the fight. The ranger was a little less brash, taking a moment to check to see if there were any other hostiles around before more slowly sauntering off. However as far as Adam was concerned the two of them were in the clear now.
"Alright, I'm good to move." Adam said as he turned back around and looked at the Colonel.