The walk to Naper was uneventful. Salvatore kept a steely-eyed lookout the whole time but not even a radrat poked its head out of the ruins. However it was time well spent. Adam had time to chat with Chuck as well as Salvatore, when he was willing to chat, about a bunch of the gaps in information he had. Adam had learned quite a bit.
The great war, the vault experiments, the rise of raiders and the rise of organizations to combat them, settlements springing back up, some of the smattering of creatures he might encounter in the wasteland such as radroaches, deathclaws, berserk robots, super mutants, and a whole lot more. It was safe to say that Adam was already feeling far more acclimated to this century after chatting with Chuck as long as he did.
"So… bottlecaps?" Adam asked as they turned down the path towards aurora.
"Yessir." Chuck smiled. "Been that way long as people crawled out of their holes." He gently patted Bessy who mooed pleasantly at him. "Merchant work requires plenty 'o funds. Figured you for an interested party when you first called out to me. Shame you weren't carrying caps on ya, but a good talkin' partner's none too bad neither." As he had learned Chuck was a merchant. He travelled between settlements and traded various goods, but as he is from Naper, a farming community, he most often traded food.
The idea of trading bottle caps struck Adam as pretty silly, after all paper money was easy to transport in large quantities, to transport bottle caps in a sizable amount it would take a whole brahmin full of crates of them. But even more than that it was bottlecaps. How absurd.
"But like… why?" Adam questioned, now curious.
"Well…" Chuck said, elongating the word a bit as he thought up a proper explanation to give. "Far as I've 'eard there is two reasons. First, back in the day, before there were people living in communities again, there was only really one thing worth trading. Water." He gently pats the 20 gallon drum on the side of Bessy. "I mean food too but let's focus on yer question." He chuckled. "So people were trading round bottles and glasses of water, it was a real tangible thing, 'eryone needed water so it was universal. Then someone got the bright idea that if they were to just trade the bottle cap, it would be much easier to transport. And, in theory, if you needed water you could trade in your bottle cap to anyone to get a glass for yourself." He paused once more to consider. "Well I don't know how true that all is but that's the story I've 'eard. But that's the first reason, second is them's hard to replicate." He reached into his small belt-loop pouch and pulled out a single bottle cap, specifically a Vimm, and then handed it over to Adam for inspection. It was money and did display a modicum of trust Chuck had accrued for Adam, but truthfully it was the equivalent of handing someone a 5 dollar bill. Sure you'd be upset if they stole it, but it wouldn't break the bank. Adam noted it was, just simply, a bottlecap he'd have thrown away after he bought a bottle of Vimm. Not that he would, he was a Nuka Cola kinda guy, but the cap itself had survived remarkably well for two hundred years. A little faded and bent, but not much different than if he found one just laying on the side of the road outside a bar or a Super Duper Mart. Just an everyday, normal, bottle cap. As Adam examined it Chuck continued.
"The means to make more been lost. See, it requires the right metals and a pressin' machine. I dunno much about the metal, but the machines all been long gone. The factories that used to make that stuff been destroyed with age, maybe one or two still around but nothing that could make more easily." He stuck his hand out for the Cap back and Adam obliged, handing it back without delay. "Which means these 'ere are a finite resource. There's only so many in circulation, makes for a stable and reliable economy." He smiled and then laughed.
"But that's the long of it. Truthfully I don't know how much is true. What I do know is, people use 'em for money, and so I do too. That's good enough for me." Adam nodded in response, understanding what he was being told. In truth money was nothing more than a shorthand, a means to conduct trades without the goods being on hand. What use was gold or US dollars if no one wanted them. They have value because people are willing to use them as an intermediary. So it wasn't too strange for people to use bottle caps if everyone else did. It was a system built on the concept that people would always use Bottle Caps as currency, not much different from the old world.
"Smoo-" Salvatore started to speak up before catching himself from referring to Adam as smoothskin. Even he had decorum when he cared enough. "Adam." He started again, this time with a less gruff tone and more curious. "They way you've been talking… Do you remember the world before the bombs?" He asked, almost suspiciously.
"Yes… My last memory before waking up in the vault was getting ready for a… admittedly probably boring halloween party at work. I had just finished in a department store looking for a cheap costume and was heading home for the night." Adam said, only now noticing how… abrupt and rather suspicious the jump in time was in his head, but again, there could be hundreds of explanations. For all he knew Vault-Tec could have kidnapped him and then put him in that tube for 200 years. Who is to say? He knew now that Vault-Tec was anything but on the up and up, they were about as shady as they came.
"Ya don't say…" Salvatore responded slowly, studying Adam more seriously now.
"Why?" Adam said, turning to face him now, not having any idea why he was asking.
"I just…" Salvatore pauses, seeming less uptight at the moment, almost vulnerable. "I don't meet many people who remember the old days… us pre war ghouls are a dying breed." Salvatore finished, looking away almost bashfully. Chuck cut in, turning to look at Salvatore himself now.
"Sal! I didn't know that!" He said with surprise and a smile, as if he had just learned a new bit of lore about a good friend.
"Yeah well I don't exactly go around advertising it. Not my favorite topic." He returned, now more defensive.
"So you remember the world before the bombs!?" Adam said in shock.
"And the world after." Salvatore finishes. "Been a long 200 years kid." He said, now with a more somber tone, he still hid it behind a strong exterior, but it was clear the 200 years had put him through a lot, as one would expect.
Adam considered responding to that but found himself at a loss for words. He could only imagine what surviving that long in a world like this had put him through, and empty condolences were sure to be shrugged off. However his considerations were interrupted as they turned past a collapsed building and saw a wall made of various materials, from scrap iron to wood to brick to even the ruined buildings themselves. It stretched all the way from the side of the ruined building to the river in the distance.
The wall itself seemed sturdy, despite its mishmash of construction materials. About 30 feet from them there was a break in the wall where there was a gate made from a car door, a garage door, and patched up with various other metals such as sheet metal, all on a roller that would let it slide open to the right if needed. Standing off to the left of the Gate was a man who stood above and behind the wall, probably on some sort of elevated platform. The man next to the gate seemed armed and armored, but to a significantly lesser extent than Salvatore was. It was also a mishmash of various gear but without a color scheme and only a single worn rifle to protect himself. Adam was also quick to notice that there was more than one bullet hole in the side of the wall as he scanned his eyes across it. These people were no strangers to a fight, regardless how undefended they may appear at first glance.
"Welcome to Naper, friend." Chuck said with a smile as he directed Bessy towards the gate.