"Human hunt went good today!" An excited deep toned voice spoke from off in the distance, loud enough that he could hear thanks to it basically being shouted.
"No, not enough meat." Another said, sounding almost identical to the first one.
"We need more meat!" Another complained. By now, Adam wanted to know what he was hearing, and he had a sinking suspicion he knew what was going on, much worse than simple cannibals.
Adam stepped out of the office and over to right before the stairway he took to get to the manager's office. There he looked out a massive window spanning from his belly button to the top of the ceiling that overlooked the factory floor. And what he saw confirmed his fears.
Hulking men, 8 to 10 feet tall, wearing animal skins, hides and loose scraps of armor. They carried makeshift weapons like a club made of a rebar and concrete pulled right from a wall, a sledgehammer which had clearly seen better days and one who held a whole car door like a shield. Most of them were green in color, though a few had a bit more of a red hue to them, and one was blue. The blue one carried what looked like a car bumper but outfitted to be a giant sword? He couldn't tell completely considering he was so far away. But there was no doubt in his mind. These were super mutants.
"Well MAYBE if you stopped KILLING THEM before we can bring them back with us we would have more MEAT." The blue super mutant yelled at the others, exasperated.
"You talk too much. Thinking too hard. Me just smash." Another responded dismissively.
"Arg! If only the Master were still around I wouldn't have to put up with you louts!" The blue one angrily says as he waved the rest of them off.
"Bluey is mad. He funny." Another said who hadn't spoken up yet.
"And you're an idiot." The blue one returns.
"No, he super mutant. I idiot." A different one spoke up defending his friend. The blue one just groaned and facepalmed before he turned to walk away from the others.
This was bad, from what he knew about super mutants they were incredibly strong, bullet resistant, able to ignore radiation, and stubborn to a fault. He had no chance of beating this many of them without a plan. Adam then sat down below the level of the window, he needed a moment to think.
There were 5 of them, 1 blue and the rest a shade of green. It seemed like the blue one was their leader and had more intelligence than the others, but not too much. Still, they would be too much for him if he fought. So he needed to run. The problem was they blocked the easy path to the exit, they were on the factory floor, the path out through the doors he got in through. There were other exits of course, but for the most part they required him to go through the factory floor to get through. Except one.
When he was exploring he noticed that in the section of the factory that had collapsed a part of the ground was also destroyed which had unveiled a large sewer pipe that flowed underneath the factory, it had even gotten destroyed a bit itself so there was a way to get inside by jumping through the broken metal. He wasn't sure where it led but it would make for a stealthy exit. The problem with his plan was that getting to that part of the building might take him through the patrols of these giant men.
Adam then glanced at his protectron guard. The protectron would also draw their attention, it was a rather loud clanky machine, and even if he could sneak out with it, protectrons can't bend their knees so it wouldn't be able to jump down the pipe easily. However it still could serve a purpose. A distraction.
Just like he did when he programmed that Mr. Handy he could send the Protectron in a path so it will collide with, and fight with, the super mutants down below. It would lose, most likely, but drawing their fire and attention was more than enough for him to slip past them and get to the sewers. At least that was the hope.
He regretted having to sacrifice another robot, after all, having a robotic companion for any number of tasks was useful, even just as a bodyguard, but he could lament his loss later, he needed action now.
However, before he sent the protectron to its final duty he decided to hook his pip-boy up to its computer in the back to make some final modifications. If, on the slim chance it survives, he was going to give it a location to go to. Maybe he could get lucky and find it again. The problem was where?
Truthfully he didn't have a great knowledge of the landscape since he woke up, he knew some places but not with confirmation that they were safe. The obvious choice was to send the bot to Naper. It was where he wanted to go after all. But the trip here from there took him a while and he had to avoid some dangers by taking alternate paths. If the protectron was to head there it might die along the way, not to mention it can't navigate as well or as fast as Adam does so getting there might take a while even if there was no danger. The next option was Midway, but not only did no one know him at Midway and get confused why a robot showed up, but Midway was no closer to where he was than Naper was. Furthermore since the path is unknown there's no telling what kind of dangers it could face. Which truly left him with only one option. The Vault.
One day, he knew he'd have to go back there, he could make a list of reasons from loot to answers. But he had put it off, hoping Second Life had the answers he needed. But truthfully he was closer to Vault 42 than he was to anything else he knew about. The protectron might not be able to get inside but it would be mostly safe and hidden if it stood outside the vault door. He could come collect it later, even if that took months to do so.
Of course this was all just for speculation. If the protectron died here it would not be going anywhere, but having plans was never a bad thing. So, with an extra few seconds to program in a location. He had set up the protectron properly. Now it was time for it to do its job.
"Protectron." Adam said with authority to it. "Initiate patrol mode, when Hostiles are clear, report to the location I gave you."
"Affirmative!" The protectron responded with its mechanical tone as it began moving towards the stairs to head to the factory floor. Adam waited as it slowly lumbered its way down the stairs one step at a time, the clanking noise of its metallic feet making an audible sound with every step.
He could hear two of the super mutants in the distance making conversation loudly to each other, but unlike before they were not shouting so he couldn't make out what they were saying at this distance, just that they were speaking. Still, their conversation seemed to mask the sound of the Protectron's footsteps.
Eventually it reached the bottom of the stairs and turned right, down the short hall to the factory floor. Now it was out of sight. Adam then turned to look out the window that overlooked the factory floor and watched as the Protectron slowly came into view, he could see two of the super mutants in the distance sitting on one of the cars still chatting. Neither party had noticed each other yet, but that was about to change.
The protectron's head sensor started spinning as an internal red light began to be emitted from its head. "Protect and Serve!" It loudly announced as it raised its arms and approached the super mutants. It clearly had no subtly.
"Stupid robot, why you come at Super Mutant!?" One of them yelled as he stood up only to be hit with a laser blast right in his chest from the hand of the Protectron.
"RAAAAAAAAAGH!" The other one yelled out in anger as he saw his friend get hit with the laser, although it didn't seem to kill him, just wound him.
"You pay for that puny robot!" He yelled again as he ran forward full speed grabbing his sledgehammer off his back intending to crush the protectron.
Adam would have loved to stick around to see how this fight played out but he had to make his move now, so he did.