The man and woman were immensely grateful for the rescue, introducing themselves as people from the Pier who were caught when they were heading to Midway. Adam and Salvatore agreed to bring them the rest of the way to Midway with them. It didn't matter much to Adam they were close and he wasn't going to leave them in the lurch after coming this far, and Salvatore was fine to let them tag along as long as he was not responsible for their safety.
The two rescuees had nothing to offer Adam for his help as their belongings were lost when the Super Mutants took them but promised they would help him in the future if he ever needed it. Adam agreed if only because he didn't need to be repaid, he was happy to have simply saved them.
Thankfully the rest of the trip, about an hour, to Midway was uneventful. As they turned around a broken skyscraper and walked through an old, long since cracked archway Adam saw it, Midway, and he felt like an idiot.
Midway International Airport, the airport in the center of Chicago, his airport, the one he would use if he ever would need a plane, not that he ever did. It was that Midway. He felt so dumb for not realizing it until now. As he thought back there were a few hints here and there, a plane looking symbol on the Midway branded food they found at the Raider hideout, how everyone talked about how large it was, the location, it was a giant square, visible even on his pip-boy map, but he just hadn't put two and two together. The world changed so much he never really thought about it.
Shame aside, the sight was magnificent. Walls stretched as far as he could see enveloping the entirety of the settlement. It was clear that it was built along the perimeter where a chain link barbed wire fence once stood, as much of that fence remained. Now, however, the wall of steel, wood, and stone, now stood flush against it. The walls were built similarly to how Naper's walls were built, with whatever materials were available. Unlike Naper's wall, however, this was of much higher quality, the wall also seemed a bit more uniform, was painted, and looked regularly maintained. There also were several guard towers even just within sight. It was hard to see from this distance but there were men in the towers and each of them looked well armed and armored, not at all like the volunteer guards of Naper.
Lastly as he passed through the broken archway and saw the gate leading into Midway in the distance he could see a grand stone sign, something made after the world ended.
Welcome to Midway
Carved into the large stone sign in a bold font, painted over with black paint. It was clear that this place was far more serious than Naper was as a settlement. That was what took him aback the most, the sheer size of what he was looking at. It was possible that not the entirety of the airport was utilized but if they put walls surrounding the entire exterior of the runways that means it is at least all considered 'part of Midway'. He had no expectations for it being this big, this was truly far more than he could have imagined.
"Stop gawking kid, we got to get inside."Salvatore said, snapping Adam out of his trance.
"Oh, uh, yeah." Adam said as he hopped a bit and sped up a little to catch up to Salvatore and the other two as they lightly left him behind.
Once they got to the gate, a double set of massive steel doors more akin to something you might find in a military base, two guards outside the door, standing behind sandbags told them to stop.
Now that Adam was closer he could see the guards were indeed far more armed and armored than the guards at Naper. They were also more uniform too. They seemed to all have on heavily modified TSA and airport security uniforms but decked out with the combat gear of the onsite response forces, much of their body was covered in some sort of armor and their heads were protected by a security helmet with a visor. They were mostly in a pallet of blues, whites and blacks. And they seemed far more professional than the Naper guards too.
Not only were there two guards outside the gate behind the sandbags but there were also two guard towers flanking either side of the gate doors, each with a guard of its own. None of the guards seemed at all ready to fight them, but they seemed to be paying attention, they simply didn't expect a fight.
"Stop right there." The guard on the left said as he put his hand up.
"Yeah yeah, I've done this song and dance before." Salvatore said, clearly annoyed about being stopped.
"Good, then you will know to shut up and listen, zombie." The guard returned with a dismissive tone. "This is Midway, whatever sort of problems you have out there you do not bring them in here. Midway is a neutral city, you cause problems here you get to have a meeting with us. And I promise you, none of us want to have a conversation." He said like he was reciting a script.
"Keep your safeties on, and your blades holstered. Don't cause a problem and you can come and go as you please. If you understand what I have said then feel free to enter, if you do not or need an interpreter please see the information desk at the center of the city. If you have any questions feel free to turn to your local guards for answers. Now fuck off and dont bother me." He said, continuing to recite from a script until the very end where he clearly ad libbed.
"Thank you." Adam said, not sure how to respond to that.
"Didn't you hear me? I said fuck off, get inside." He said as he clicked his radio on the table next to him once and the guard in the tower responded, the door, a moment later, opened slowly revealing Midway in all its glory.
As Adam stepped through the gate he noticed a few things right away. First off there was, in fact, a lot of unused space at the airport, much of the runways and hangars seemed to be dormant and unused. At least looking at them from a distance. However not all of it was unused. There was a smaller building near the edge of the airport that might have been a private jet company building or something and around that was a number of buildings built in the same way Naper's homes were, of scraps and whatever materials they could find, though this area was notably separated from the main building it even had its own fence and smaller wall around it. On the other side of the airport, opposite to where the shanty town was set up, there was what might be an industrial center. Though it was very hard for him to tell at this distance. Then of course there were a few other buildings dotting the area randomly, and a few moderately sizable crop fields growing all sorts of plants.
And then, lastly, was the airport itself. The sun was just starting to set so he could see clearly the many many many lights visible from inside the glass windows that overlooked the runways. Planes were at almost all the terminals docked like they were ready to take off. Interestingly all the planes looked moderately well taken care of. There were one or two planes that had a broken wing, but they did not appear to be in major disarray. Interestingly there were no Vertibirds present anywhere as far as he could see. Maybe there was one or two in the hangars? Or perhaps there was simply none, they were military equipment after all, perhaps the airport simply had none. It didn't matter too much, as he was already impressed with the sight he was seeing without thinking of random pieces of aviation equipment that were not present.
"Thank you." The woman said to the two of them as the door closed behind them. "I do not think either of us would have made it out without your aid, we will be fine from here, I do hope our paths cross in the future." She said with a light bow, the man offered Adam his hand and he shook it. However Salvatore didn't shake his hand. After a moment the two of them walked off towards the airport.
"Alright Salvatore." Adam smiled. "Let's head inside." Adam said as he started to walk towards the airport too only to realize half a moment later Salvatore wasn't following.
"Yeah… this is as far as I go, kid." He said solemnly.