Chapter 33.2: A Salt and Some Batteries

The afternoon wore on and many things had happened. Scott had dragged Ashton all over town to discuss terms with various groups of people that they had heard about. The sheriff had mentioned some people holed up in the down town area, and those people had mentioned others. Many people currently lived in isolated sections of town and existed in large numbers. Places with fences, or apartment buildings that had been upgraded by the landlord were the most common locale.

A lot of people had died, and some had stayed dead, but the town had continued onward. Most people who had their own sanctuary area merely stayed in their own homes. It protected them from random monster strikes, but it did nothing to stop the home invaders who saw such places as something that they wanted.

Scott and Ashton had run across looters several times in their travels across town, and on more than one occasion those opportunistic individuals had taken shots at them. On one occasion, they had witnessed a small three-man band attempt to steal a van outside of the Shadetree Retirement Center. It had not ended well for those men. As it turned out, some of the old people had family members who actually gave a damn about them. Those family members had come to stay with their elders and brought weapons, supplies, and a lot of dislike for looters.

The Shadetree Retirement Center became one of eight major points of light in the area, and Ashton had made them a very good deal on food and supplies. The old people had money, and were not afraid to spend it. That would prove to be quite useful in the near future.

As the day had worn on, they had mapped out the new hotspots in town as well. There were several places that monsters seemed to swarm. It was at one of those places, an old warehouse near the train yard, that the dynamic duo decided to hole-up for a while. They needed to rest and plan their next move.

Scott checked his bag and brought out a few items; two bottles of fortified apple juice and a few sandwiches he had procured for them from the old folks earlier. They were nice people, and some of them were still feisty enough to kick a little ass.

Ashton took her mid-afternoon meal and smiled. “Apple juice and a sandwich, such extravagance.”

“Only the best, baby.” he remarked with a smile.

She chuckled slightly then tore into her early dinner. Food was quickly coming to a premium in town. Something would need to be done about that soon. They would hit Archers after midnight, when their experience penalties ended. That would allow them to gather a lot of supplies and move under the cover of darkness.

“So, about those friends of yours in the junk yard?” asked Ashton.

“Not really friends, just acquaintances who don’t mind shady dealings.” replied Scott.

“Right, so they offered ten junk cars for a month’s supply of food for eight people. There’s more than enough stashed in Archers to make that happen, but how are we going to move the cars?” she asked.

“We won’t. I’ll just slowly salvage them down on the day we get things together. The raw materials from those vehicles will probably end up as several hundred pounds of high-grade steel, and a few other things. That would be enough to heavily reinforce a few armor sets and maybe something else.”

“Something else?” she asked.

“Well, the worst part about our situation is our lack of power. Even if we spent every waking moment trying to increase our skills and levels, they won’t increase quickly. I could probably be level ten in another week after the penalties end, but then what?” asked Scott.

“Hmm? What do you mean? That’s good isn’t it?” asked Ashton.

“Strong is good. Skill levels are better than racial levels, but even my development is starting to slow down. We need an edge.” said Scott.

“I’m all for that, but what are you thinking?” she asked.

“Equipment is the edge, but we need better stuff. Raw materials help, but we need a more substantial base to work with. We need high-powered weapons and combat vehicles I think.” said Scott.

“Why would a dragon need a combat vehicle?” asked Ashton with a smile.

“There are stronger dragons on the world. One at least works for the guy who ordered our deaths.”

“What are you thinking?” asked Ashton.

Scott bit his lower lip then sighed. “I’m not sure yet. We need a lot of money if we are going to do things legitimately, but we need to become scumbags to do it the other way.”

“Money? How will that help?” she asked.

“I can use it to upgrade our base, for one thing, but I think that property works in a way that might allow me to do similar things to a vehicle. If I could find the right base vehicle, I could possibly use money and raw materials to simply upgrade it directly through the system. I know it works that way for houses.” said Scott.

Ashton rubbed her chin. “Archers might have money in the registers and the vault still? We’re going to be looting the place for parts and supplies anyway.”

“True, might as well clean the whole place out, but even so there won’t be that much there.” said Scott.

“Well, the security company only comes by twice a week to make a pick-up. Monday and Thursday. The world went to hell on the weekend, didn’t it?” she asked.

Scott’s eyes lit-up. “Right! How likely was it that they drove an armored car over there the morning after monsters started roaming the streets? The registers might have been jacked by looters, but the vault was behind three secured doors.”

“Everything since Thursday night should be in the vault. At least three days’ worth of weekend profit.” said Ashton.

Scott rubbed his chin. “If no one hit the vault, there would be well over a hundred thousand in there.”

“Maybe as much as twice that, remember the sale that we were going to run over the weekend? I don’t know how it went, but it would have been big.” said Ashton.

He shook his head softly not long after she said that. “It’s weird, you know? When I think about ransacking Archers I feel perfectly fine about it.”

“What’s weird about it? We need food, and other things, and it isn’t going to do anyone any good sitting there.” said Ashton reasonably.

“Well, yeah. I get that. I even agree with it. The thing is, that really it is no different than any other looter. I see them trying to break into houses or steal cars and I become so angry it isn’t even funny. If I even consider doing the same, I feel like absolute garbage. Yet, with Archers it feels like the right thing to do.” said Scott.

Ashton thought about that for a moment then drank some of her apple juice. A thought occurred to her that made sense in the situation. “I think maybe, it has to do with the victim of the crime.”

“Oh?” asked Scott.

“Yeah, if you break into someone’s house or steal their car then you are directly harming someone. If you loot Archers with the intent to distribute the merchandise inside for a reasonable amount that covers your effort, and further helps the town then it is actually helping many people.”

“If you say so…” said Scott. He had been struggling with the concept all afternoon.

“I do say so. Yes, it’s still theft but everything takes from something else to live. Are you doing this to get rich and gouge people?” she asked.

“No, the materials and supplies are badly needed.” said Scott.

“Exactly. If the situation were much worse, say most people in town were dead, would you still feel uncomfortable going house-to-house to find whatever you could?” she asked.

“Probably not. The town has lost a lot of people, but most of them are still alive. They’re just too scared to come out.” he said.

Ashton nodded then finished off her sandwich before she continued. “You know, unless someone decides to start rounding these people up and building a dedicated safety area, there’s going to be a lot more people dying.”

“True, but you heard Ansen. A lot of things aren’t happening because of the mayor. I get the impression that setting up any dedicated large scale evacuation center isn’t happening until the mayor and the town council get off their ass and do something. There probably isn’t a large enough area that can be claimed as abandoned to house everyone.” said Scott.

“Well, maybe not everyone…” said Ashton.

Scott glanced over to her. “What did you have in mind?”

She smiled. “Well, I know it isn’t the safest plan of action, but it occurs to me that we have a large amount of space and only a handful of people to guard it.”

“You seriously think bringing people to our place is a good idea?” asked Scott.

“Not everyone, but there has to be people out here who can be trusted and who have useful skills.” said Ashton.

“Skills maybe. Trusted, no.”

Ashton rubbed her chin. “How about people we know then?”

“Like who? I rarely got out. Hell, the only people I really spent any time with were the idiots at work, and the occasional person running the register at the funky chicken.” he said.

“That’s who we’ll get then.” said Ashton.

“Seriously?” asked Scott.

“Sure. We’re going to need a lot of people aren’t we? I bet the workers have family in town, and they probably want a safe place.”

Scott nodded to her. “True, but I want to run that by the others first. It was bad enough that I invited my mother without talking to you girls.”

“Fair enough. I kind of like the idea, too.” He did not trust people much, but if it was in their own self-interest it might be possible. Besides that fact, he would need more people to build a strong faction. Plans began to form inside his draconian mind. Ideas, thoughts, and schemes worked their way forward. There was a time when he was a man alone, someone who wanted nothing to do with other people. That was still largely the case, but people could be useful.

A single man, hell a single dragon, might not be able to withstand the pressures of this new world and the evil minded assholes upon it. No matter how much he raised his level, those who had a large number of followers could bring him down. It was time to stop doing things like the world was just a single-player game. It was not a game at all, despite the stats and the system information. It was reality. As long as humanity remained divided by greed and fear they would be prey to both monsters and men who acted like monsters.

“Ashton?” asked Scott softly.

“Yes?”

“Would you like to conquer the world with me?” asked Scott lightly.

Her eyes widened slowly. “Seriously.”

Scott laughed then smiled a little. “I don’t know about the world, but this town needs leadership. I’m not good with people, but fuck it. The mayor’s a greedy little dick and I’m tired of this shit. People are assholes, but not all of them deserve to die.”

“Do you think we could do it?” asked Ashton.

Scott shrugged. “I’ll give people a choice. If they choose not to go along with us, fuck ‘em. We don’t have time to baby-sit assholes. No trade, no aid, no damn given for their plight. Join us or they’re on their own.”

“So confident.” she said, a slight gleam in her eyes.

He nodded. “This is something I’m good at.” Scott chuckled darkly then grinned.

“What’s that?” asked Ashton.

“Getting shit done.” He replied cryptically. Already, he could feel some of his self-inflicted burden rising up from is shoulders. He looked out across the land and nodded. Once someone gathered the people, the items in town would become community property. They could make a real go at surviving and any corrupt assholes would have to deal with a unified town instead of picking off the weak one-by-one or murdering people in their sleep.

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