Adam drove along the bank back and forth a few times, uncertain if he just was missing the way on or if there truly was no way to get on board The Raft. He knew they pulled up their bridge but he assumed there would be some indication of where it was supposed to be. However he found nothing even after driving in plain sight of it for a while.
Eventually though Adam saw a man in a sailor's outfit mixed with combat gear and holding a gun approach the edge of a boat near the bank of the lake. Adam pulled up with his APC and then popped out of the hatch.
"Hey! Is there any way I can come aboard?" Adam shouted over. The guy in the armor seemed to look Adam over for a moment before shouting back.
"No one is allowed in or out of the Raft right now. You gotta go elsewhere." The guy shouted back, honestly pretty casual all things considered.
"Any chance you can change that? The horsemen are dead, there's no reason to be closed off anymore." Adam shouted again, tired of all this shouting already. As he spoke he watched as another man, in similar garb, walked over to see what the commotion was about, stopping next to the first one. It was pretty safe to assume these were guards.
"No." The first man shouted back quickly. "Rules are rules. We aren't letting-" He started before the other man took a look at Adam, squinting as he did, and then whispered something into the first man's ear that Adam couldn't hear. Then again, he might not have even heard what he said if he spoke with an inside voice. Adam watched the exchange curiously and watched as the first man seemed to look surprised, examined Adam again, and then spoke up after a moment to confer with the second man. "You Adam Baxter?" He asked, an eyebrow raised.
"Yes?" Adam shouted back. Confused why he was asking. There was another pause as the two men seemed to speak for a minute before the second man walked off back towards the largest boat while the first man turned to Adam again.
"Alright. You can come in. Give us some time to get the boats in place." He said before walking off himself to do something elsewhere on the Raft.
Adam was curious why he specifically was being allowed in, but he was grateful that his name seemed to proceed him. All he had to do now was wait. And wait he did.
It took almost 45 minutes for them to organize some help, grab some boats, untie them from the flotilla, grab some oars and then slowly bring them into position. It was efficiently done, for what it's worth, but the fact it took so long was proof that they had no intention of making it easy for people to get on The Raft. Adam also noticed that the bridge connecting the edge of The Raft was a series of boats with rope bridges strung up between them. While it would not have been impossible to swim the distance it would have taken a noticeable amount of time. More than enough time for him to be spotted. Besides, he would be wet.
As the final rope bridge was stretched out to connect to land where Adam was standing, its anchors were shot into the ground with what looked to be a modified shotgun. It was an interesting way to create anchor points.
"Alright, we are all set…" One of the guards said as he finished setting up the bridge, looking a bit apprehensive but still polite.
"I appreciate it." Adam said with a smile to him.
"Yeah…" He said, studying Adam for a moment before he sighed. "Just stay out of trouble, we got enough of that right now. I just hope this wasn't a mistake." He said, half in warning, half with a wistful tone.
"I appreciate it. I promise I'm not here to make trouble, just sell some things and see a new settlement."
"Yeah well…" The guard began before sighing and shaking it off. He seemed to change his mind after considering it for a moment. "You can leave your car here, no one will touch it. But we are going to pull up this last bridge here so if you need to come and go you'll have to ask one of us."
Adam nodded to him, and grabbed bags of guns from his APC so he didn't need to make the trek back later. Considering how much work that would be for him and the guards if they had to deal with the bridge every time, and then headed onto the boats.
Adam was first struck by how labyrinthian the Raft was. While it was easy to know which direction he wanted to go, the biggest boat at the center of the flotilla, it was hard to get there. It was not as if there were bridges leading right there. Instead there was a mess of a network connecting various boats together that only vaguely helped him head in that direction. The only saving grace was that there were signs that directed to points of interest, but they were mildly confusing and indirect. It didn't help that the boats were gently bobbing in the water which Adam was not used to so he was not exactly walking easily.
However Adam noted that, as far as he could tell. The boats near the "entrance" were mostly just used as bridges and were not used for anything but as they got deeper into The Raft they entered a shopping and restaurant district. Luckily this was the area he was looking for so he diverted from the path to the large boat and instead began to look around this section. It took some time, considering how the boats were not especially well labeled and seeing the wares in the strange geometry of reinforced and altered boats did not make it easy to make out which was which at a distance, but eventually he found a weapon's salesman.