I opened my eyes to Ava blinking rapidly in front of me saying my name quite loudly.

“Robert, someone is outside and stopped beyond the border set by the turrets. I think you should go out and deal with it before it becomes a bigger problem.”

I hastily jumped out of bed, ignoring Greta’s complaints about my movement. I exited the library and approached the control room to get a better view of what is going on. Once I was able to peer through the cameras, I saw my friend Tom looking quite frightened beyond the perimeter I had set up.

I used the audio function of the turrets to speak out loud to him.

“Tom, I will be right out there don’t move for now.”

I deactivated the system in the area he was in before heading out to meet him. Opening the gates, I yelled over for him to approach and that it was safe now.

I saw him hesitantly start heading my way as he looked around to make sure he wasn’t in any danger.

“Tom! It’s good to see you, I hope you didn’t have any troubles getting here!”

“Robert! What is going on!? Nothing works anywhere else in town and none of this was here the last time I visited you. What is going on!?”

“Sorry Tom, let's go inside and I will try to explain things a little bit.”

Tom followed me through the compound as I closed the gates behind him and spoke the audio phrase to reactivate the system.

We entered the house and I got out a couple bottles of tea that I still had saved up in the kitchen. We sat down at the table and I tried to explain things to the best of my knowledge to Tom.

“Wait, so what are you, like a wizard or something now?”

“Nah, I wouldn’t say I’m really a wizard. I don’t have magical powers to use spells or anything, yet. However, I can create anything that I’ve got sufficient enough knowledge about and the mana to fuel it.”

“Wow man, that’s a trip for sure. I always thought you were crazy for collecting all of those books when you told me why you did it. Looks like that really paid off for you in this situation.”

“Yea ha-ha, I guess it did. Told you it never hurts to be safe than sorry!”

“Dude, the town has broken down completely. There is a group of people that have taken control of the entire town. I struggled just to leave, they were blocking entrances and exits. They’ve either had all of the police officers join them or killed the ones that wouldn’t submit. It’s a madhouse out there.”

“I’m glad you’re alright man. You probably made it to one of the safest places in the whole world right now.”

“I’m still kinda blown away by all of this. What are you going to do now? I don’t think the people in town would be any match for this compound you’ve built, but they will definitely notice some time. Are you just gonna kill all of them if they come here?”

“Tom, we’re in a different kind of society now. I can’t afford to be merciful if someone threatens my safety or what I’ve built here. If they approach the compound and don’t listen to the warnings, they’re going to face problems. I don’t have the turrets set to kill on sight, they will start with rubber bullets if someone doesn’t listen to the warnings. However, I won’t feel sorry for anyone that continues after that.”

“Sounds unlike you man, but I can understand where you’re coming from. I saw the group in town raiding homes and collecting people together while they looted everyone’s property. I left as soon as I saw an opportunity through them and wanted to come check on you. Obviously, you didn’t need any help.”

Tom seemed pretty shaken after what he had seen and been through over the past few days. I hoped to offer him some solace here and let him rest for a while before we continued.

“Hey man, why don’t you rest here for a little bit while I’ve got some things to work on. You can have my bedroom while I’m out of the house.”

“Thanks bro, I appreciate it. I’ll just go lay down for a while, I’ll be here when you get back.”

“Alright man, if you need any food or water, the electricity still works and there is plenty of food stored in the basement for you to pick through.”

I headed out of the house and moved towards the rear of the compound. I had secured a defensible position and plenty of food for a while, but the water was an inconvenience I didn’t want to have to do without. The water still worked for a little bit as pressure remained in the plumbing and storage tanks, but that was all gone now. If I was going to make this place self-sufficient, I would need a reliable source of water.

I created a seismic waterfinder to measure the aquifer in the area, attempting to find the most suitable location for a well. Once I found a place I was comfortable with, I confirmed the depth and visualized a solid well shaft that ran down to right above the aquifer. After that, I added in a corrugated shaft that ran 5 feet through the thickest part of the aquifer. The system still surprised me by replacing the ground with the well as if the ground had never been there in the first place. I created a well pump big enough to handle all of my needs in the compound and ran the piping up to the surface.

Wanting to have a significant supply of freshwater available at all times, I created several water storage basins and connected them all together. Finally, I ran the piping inside through the ground and into the basement right beside my grid-connected water lines.

I went through the basement and removed my water main connection, replacing it with my new well connections. This should allow the house to utilize the current piping and hot water tank without having to replace everything.

If I needed to expand in the future, it should be fairly easy to connect new lines to the water storage and run them from there. I would just need a water pressure tank to maintain pressure across the new connections.

I ran a short electrical connection out to the new pump and wired in the breaker for it. Once everything was completed, I flipped the breaker and went upstairs. It would take a little bit for the new pump to fill up the storage tanks, but I should have fresh water in no time.

I went to the kitchen and popped open a bag of chips while I sat at the table. It was going to be a lot different now that I had someone else here relying on me. I would need to make things comfortable for Tom, and from what it sounded like, I should probably work on something to deal with the force in town. It was most likely the same force of people I ran into while scavenging the store.

I didn’t want to leave all of the people in town up to their mercy, but I wasn’t exactly prepared to take down an entire group of people while maintaining the safety of the citizens. I could create pretty much whatever I wanted, but that didn’t replace the need for human work, or eliminate the fact that they were being suppressed by a violent force right now.

I wouldn’t feel right just leaving them alone, and I could use the help growing food and developing the town again. I could create facilities to restore many functions of the town, but installing the infrastructure would take way too long by myself. If I can provide safety and a semblance of normality to people’s lives, I think they would be willing to help me.