"Finally," he said aloud in the still air.

Stood on a mountain of rubble and concrete, Isaac Storm looked on the vista of New York, his home.  It'd been a long trek back from the Commonwealth. The young hero had volunteered himself to be part of the massive trade caravan that was built to send aid to [i]The Minute Men[/i], who'd finally taken back control of Boston in the name of the people.  'The Good Fight was winning' - that was the chatter on lips.  Slowly but surely, evil powers were being vanquished and this once-great country was getting back on its feet.  And so, Isaac had been a bodyguard on the long road to the Commonwealth, stayed for a week or two, then headed back on his own.  And now he was back, on the edge of New York, in the wake of familiar sights.

There was still a few nights of camping ahead of him, before he'd get back to the settlement of New Brooklyn, so he looked about for a suitable building to settle down for the evening. It was about to get dark and there was no point in travelling through the night, unless you were ready for trouble.

Tomorrow would be a precarious part of the journey.  Just a little south of him was a known raider town, home to some big-time gangs.  This was their territory.  And he'd be brushing close by as he headed for New Brooklyn.  He could've gone around - given the town a wide berth -  but to hell with it, he'd just have to be extra careful.

He found shelter in a two storey building with boarded up windows, setting up his bedroll on the second floor.  After making a small fire and charring some squirrel meat for dinner, he spent 20 minutes cleaning his trusty pistol.

[center][img]https://preview.redd.it/al4xbb3ji6b71.jpg?width=640&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=b66679a82eface70341b16563aefa5cc0ced2f50[/img][/center]

Taurus P90 aka The Raging Bull.  50 cal.  Isaac's most prized possession.  He'd gotten it as a present from Katie Wensdale.  She'd modified it herself, and even put little aesthetic touches here and there to remind the young hero that 'Big Sis' was always thinking of him.  He disassembled it smoothly, shined it up real nice with some oil and a rag, then put it back together, checked the slide and tested the trigger action before giving it a kiss.  Once it was loaded, he lay down with a single airpod in his right ear, and listened to the radio until he fell asleep.