Chapter 19

Daniel flipped the sword over in his hand curiously. Now that he knew what the feeling was, he could sense the self-healing, and he was sure it was stronger than before. He moved it up and down and frowned despite himself.

“What?” Borris asked, worried.

“Nothing. I was hoping it would get heavier.”

“Doesn’t work like that.” Borris said cheerfully. “I reckon that’s an asset most of the time.”

Daniel thought about it briefly and agreed. If the magic used in a shield, staff, spear, armour or even for old-fashioned fortifications, then keeping the wood light would be a positive. It was only for traditionally heavier weapons like swords, maces or axes that weight was an advantage. “True.”

“I’ll see whether this improves the seed weapon after lunch.”

They headed upstairs to eat, and the cooks had created a warm stew.

“Cirano, I swear this is the best stew I have tasted.” He yelled out.

The cook chuckled from where he was serving the food. “Not me, mate. This one’s all Judy. She used some of her skills on it.”

“It’s incredible, isn’t it?” Daniel asked, making eye contact with Tamara.

She had been shovelling food into her mouth. She stopped and shook her head. “It’s okay, but my mum’s was better.”

“Liar,” Cirano accused. “I don’t care how good your mum was pre-event food can’t compete with this.”

“I’m telling you.” Tamara insisted, then her face crumpled as she realised she was never seeing her parents again.

“Do you know the recipe?”

Tamara looked at him. “Yes.”

“Well, someday you can cook it for us and we’ll prove Cirano wrong.” She smiled. “In the meantime, I’m getting seconds.”

“Do you want your third and fourth bowl now as well?” Cirano asked.

“What? I don’t eat that much.”

Tamara poked him. “You might as well at least get a third. You know you’ll eat it.” She passed her own bowl to Cirano.

“Full or half.”

Tamara looked embarrassed. “Full.”

The cook laughed heartedly.

They finished their meal in silence and then Ivey waved to him from the door. It was time to have a full group meeting.

Tamara linked arms with him. “I heard Trudy was okay?”

“Yes.”

“I felt guilty about distracting you,”

“You shouldn’t of.”

They exited out into the corridor and she unlinked her arms.

“This morning. How was upstairs?”

“I didn’t have to do much just babysitting.”

There were the sounds of a baby crying. It didn’t sound like Trudy’s so it must have been the toddler. “Better than actual babies.”

Tamara wrinkled her eyes and then laughed. “Only marginally.”

Everyone was in the corridor and Judy came up with two plates. “Sponge cake?”

“Dan!”

“What?”

“You had three bowls.”

“And now I’m no longer quite as resentful that I didn’t get a fourth.”

Judy was smiling. “Dear?” She held the second plate out to Tamara, who accepted it.

Daniel took a bite. “Wait. Cream? There’s no way any cream would still be good, and we don’t have a cow.”

Judy grinned. “We found some long life milk and then used another of my skills.”

“And it’s a proper cheat,” one server called out as she passed. “All the cream on the entire cake, required like a teaspoon of milk, some fat, and water.”

Daniel took a bite. It did not taste like anything other than real cake. “How many skills do you have?”

“A fair few,” Judy admitted. “I’m still working out how best to stretch them.”

“Don’t hold back.” Daniel ordered. “This is amazing.”

“Wait till we get access to more exotic ingredients. I’ll blow your socks off. Not literally, unless you annoy me.” She winked at him. “There’s literally a recipe for it.”

“There isn’t?” he protested.

She laughed and walked away without answering.

“This isn’t is there?” He asked Tamara.

She took another spoonful of cake to avoid answering.

By the time the cake was finished, everyone had finally converged. Daniel looked at them all. There were so many people gathered only slightly less than a hundred, according to his quick estimate. It felt intimidating.

Vaughn who had been Beau’s henchman came by and gave him a box to stand on. With a thankful smile, he stepped up onto it and he felt everyone’s eyes turned to him. The loud thrum of conversation dropped.

“Ok,” Daniel yelled out and then realised yelling was unnecessary. Everyone had already stopped talking. It was strange being packed into the corridor and he looked proudly at the group they had gathered together. Thirty classed fighters, another six or seven fighting without class supporting abilities and an equal number of non-combat classes and then, of course, a couple of dozen kids. They seemed to have survived the transition better than everyone else. “Thank you for coming.”

There were a few grunts.

“I know this is hard on all of us. I’m sure you’ve looked out the windows. Listened to the stories that are communicated each night by the survivors out there. I understand how scared everyone is. Hell, I’m scared.” He paused, and there was a subdued murmur. “We can’t ignore it.”

Silence greeted him.

“We could defend what we’ve got, but I don’t think pretending the outside chaos doesn’t exist is helpful. The world is what it is and all we can do is carve out our own part of it. I… We,” he corrected in embarrassment. “Are going to fight down to the ground level and accept survivors from the surrounding areas.”

“Are you sure about this?” Alex asked.

“Yes.” Daniel answered, staring down at the other man. Is this when the other guy tried to take over?

“We’re safe now.” A woman he couldn’t see called out.

“It’s not our job to save them.” This was a grizzly man who was carrying one spear Daniel had crafted. He recognised him, non-combat classed, but he had been putting in and deserved respect.

“Good, I heard there were kids.” That was from behind him.

A babble of conversation broke out. Daniel raised a hand to stop them. “I’ll not cower here safe, while people die outside.”

“It’s too dangerous,” an unfamiliar voice from the back yelled out.

“Enough,” Alex cried. The middle-aged ex business owner stepped forward. “May I?” he asked politely, indicating that he wanted to stand on the crate.

Not quite knowing how to respond to Alex’s action, Daniel acquiesced.

“Hi all, my name is Alex Parker. I previously owned and ran a chain of adventure clothing shops. Alpine Rough wear, you might have even shopped there.” From the babble of conversation, everyone knew the shop at least. “I owned the top two floors of the building and I’m alive because of Daniel.” He held up his hand to stop the conversation. “What Daniel has done is incredible.” This time, there were actual cheers.

And now for the but, Daniel thought to himself.

“We are all alive because of him. And not just me, from what I’ve learnt this morning, all of us.” Silence deadened. “And while consolidating here might seem the safest option. I personally don’t think it is. You all know about the octopod fight last night.” No one said anything. Everyone had lost someone they knew in that fight. The entire community was affected. “Eight people died to save five and we’re going to have a funeral in a few hours. I’m very happy as I was one of those five that were saved, but that seems like a poor trade. Just mathematics, yeah.”

There were questioning muttering from the crowd.

“Wrong!” Alex declared. “Daniel’s decision probably saved you all. It took all of us fighting the octopod in favourable conditions to win. If it had chosen the battlefield… if it had picked us off small group by isolated group, where would we be?”

“Dead,” Tamara said quietly, her voice perfectly cutting through a silent moment.

“Exactly.” Alex continued. “Daniel could have waited and I’m sure people counselled him to wait, but he came anyway and it was the right choice. And when a leader with a history of making good decisions says we need to fight downwards and help consolidate I agree. We fought the octopod to a stalemate for days. I know there are deadly monsters out there. Hiding away will not work.”

Alex indicated to Daniel that they needed to switch. Daniel replaced him on the crate. He was not sure how Alex’s speech had been, but the other man had clearly been trying to support him. He was still waiting for the other foot to drop, but for now. “Alex is right. We can’t afford to hide away.” Daniel waited to see if anyone would object. “And nor can we afford to think that when we get down to the ground floor that we will be greeted by rainbows and unicorns. It ain’t going to happen. There are worse things out there than the zombies.”

“Feral mutated humans,” he heard Ivey protest in annoyance.

Inside, Daniel chuckled and was amused to hear some quickly muffled laughter elsewhere. “The zombies are hard to fight but they’re the least of the enemies we face, both the termites and the octopod were more deadly than the zombies so far and on street level it will be worse…” Daniel let that sink in for a moment. “Everyone, whether you’re a fighter or a craftsman, needs to challenge yourself to improve. No one is going to ride in and save us. We need to save ourselves.”

“Cut to the point,” Jayden yelled suddenly.

“We need to fight our way down.”

“Slow and systematic so we don’t risk what we have gained,” Jayden interrupted again. Daniel felt like hitting him as he saw the surrounding men and women nod as the other man’s apparent mind control abilities went to work. Even he could feel the desire to go slow and steady filling him.

Anger rose almost on command to overwhelm the artificial emotions Jayden had been pushing into him. He would not let Jayden do this again. “No! That way will doom us.”

“Agreed!” Alex said firmly.

“A hundred people are not enough to survive what’s coming. A thousand might not be. If we play it safe, we’re all doomed.”

“I am not…”

“Shut up!” Daniel snarled at Jayden to stop him from interrupting anymore. After this talk, they were going to have a talk, and he doubted Jayden would walk away from it.

“We are…” Jayden stopped talking and gulped visibly. Daniel had not realised that he had raised his club and taken a half step towards the other man, though he was still on the large crate.

No one was meeting his eyes, and everyone was trying to avoid attracting his attention. He imagined they were all wondering if he was about to break, whether he was going to lose his temper and if he did, they did not want to be who he targeted. Daniel ignored how self-conscious he was feeling and jumped off the crate, landing next o Jayden. He leant forward till his mouth was right next to the other man’s ears. “Jayden you will not use your mind control to sway this argument.”

Daniel was watching closely. He was expecting annoyance, fear or anger at being discovered, but instead confusion ran over the other man’s face.

“Anyone else can talk,” Daniel said louder. “but not you, Jayden. If you want, Tamara can talk on your behalf, but if I hear any noise from you, I’m going to react badly.”

“What mind..” Jayden whispered in furious.

“No.” Daniel interrupted, and he realised Alex had moved to stand next to Jayden. Priscilla, unsurprisingly, was watching Alex and Michael, his son.

Jayden swallowed heavily. There was a glint of light, and Daniel could see a naked blade being pressed by Alex into Jayden’s stomach. Alex whispered something into Jayden’s ear.

“Sounds good,” Jayden said, his voice squeaked.

“What mind control?” Tamara asked quietly, having overheard the hushed conversation.

“Later.” Daniel hissed. Alex pushed indicated that Daniel needed to be standing on the crate. Daniel followed the suggestion. Took a deep breath and looked up at the gathered group. Before there had been an optimistic air, but now almost no one was meeting his gaze. “I want to be clear. I’m happy for anyone to speak up if you’ve got a concern.”

There was a snort. “We saw that with Jayden. Are you silencing dissent?” Borris asked openly challenging him. Daniel was surprised he had expected the older man to support him given the conversations that they had below.

“No.”

“Because it sounded like you were with Jayden.”

Daniel sighed. “It’s his class.”

“Bullshit,” Jayden snarled and then gasped, shying away from the knife, but Alex followed him and that shut him up nicely.

“No, it’s not bullshit.”

“I agree with Daniel,” Ivey said abruptly.

“As do I,” Alex concurred.

“What evidence do you have?” Borris asked. “Mind control is a huge accusation.”

Damn it, everyone had heard Tamara’s question, even if they had missed the original whispers. He had been hoping to make this private. “Personally, several times I argued with Jayden and then suddenly wanted to agree with him.” Daniel paused to pat the mouse on his shoulder. “Priscilla here bit my ear last time. He was making me consider things that went against my core beliefs and when she bit me, I could overcome the compulsion.”

“He’s ly–” Jayden jumped. “Ow.”

“Be silent.” Alex hissed.

“I still–”

“Borris.” Daniel interrupted gently. “I think you’re great, but we’re not discussing Jayden. Anyone else apart from him may express an opinion. He’s not allowed because I have evidence that he uses mind control. And I’ll deal with him after this meeting.”

“I agree with you about the fighting. You’re the commander, but you can’t just victimise someone.”

“Can’t or shouldn’t?”

Silence deadened for a moment.

“Obviously you shouldn’t.”

“And I haven’t. Beau attacked me in front of others and I warned him not to attack me again. Then he followed me downstairs to kill me. I’m sure you’ve all talked to Beau’s followers who followed him down there and they would have told you want happened. You know everything I’ve said is accurate. You might not agree with me letting him die on the noose, but he tried to kill me and Ivey. I don’t regret it. If he had gone after someone weaker, they would be dead. And Borris.” Daniel forced eye contact. “Exactly who else have I victimised? Alcohol ban? Not really everyone is pulling their weight? So everyone is getting alcohol if they want it. Who did I force to fight? Force to work? Absolutely bloody no one.” Borris looked thoughtful. “Jayden is the first person and I’ve given my reason. Considering my track record, I should be cut some slack.”

“But–”

“Think about it. If you’re jumping to Jayden’s defences, why?” There was a bubble of noise with lots of protest. “Stop. Apply logic. Think it through, you don’t need to make a conclusion now. Consider what I’ve done and said. For a moment, put aside the whole Jayden is a nice guy and focus on what he has done to earn that trust.”

“He’s a good guy.” Borris said defensively.

“Is he?” Daniel asked. “Or…” He did not finish the sentence. He could see people’s minds working. “I had wanted to do this behind closed doors but.” Daniel shrugged helplessly.

“Has he really been mind controlling us?” Trudy asked.

“No.”

Daniel sent a harsh look Jayden’s way. “If you say one more thing, I’m gagging you.” The other man swallowed hard. “To answer your question. I know he used his magic when we were discussing using the kids as bait. It might not have been deliberate, but it was definitely used on me. I have no doubts in my mind.”

“I–” Borris started up again.

“Let’s park this.” Daniel interrupted him again. “As I was saying. We need numbers. We need to go fast, because every day we are delayed people are going to die and there is a group of survivors from a childcare and a school trip that we need to save. They are on a deadline and have maybe two to three nights of safety left.”

“Maybe you should write them off then,” Ingrid said quietly. “Rushing to save them might doom us all.”

“Agreed,” Daniel said. “We’ll go as fast as we can safely. But the aim is to have the presence on the ground by tomorrow night.”

“Do you know what a sunk cost fallacy is?” Ingrid asked him.

“Yes.” Daniel answered. “It is that each new investment decision should ignore all the previous ones you have made. I don’t however know how it’s relevant.”

“That group of kids might already be dead. It might be impossible to save them.”

“It’s not just them. There are almost a hundred small groups near us struggling to survive. If we make contact with them, then they’re saved.”

“Providing we do it carefully?” Ingrid said without backing down.

“I’m not arguing with you,” Daniel said helplessly. “We need to rush but not take unnecessary risks.”

“That easy, hey.” someone else called out.

Daniel shrugged. “All we can do is our best. We’re going to fight our way down and save as many people as possible.”

“I’m with you, but…” Ingrid started.

“There is no but. I’m not proposing this out of the goodness of my heart.” Daniel hoped his annoyed tone was not coming out too obvious to everyone else. What troubled him the most was who he was arguing against. If it was some crafter he had never met, Daniel could have ploughed right over him. Borris and especially Ingrid, was a different matter. “The only way we are surviving long term is to keep growing. We need numbers to survive what’s out there.”

“I agree with Daniel,” Alex repeated. His fervent support was almost a negative at this stage. Through his knife on Jayden’s stomach was clearly acting as a good deterrent. “You all know what is on the streets.”

“We could just stay up here and keep ourselves safe.” The guy in the crowd called out and Daniel caught who was speaking. It was Jacques, a guy who worked with the leatherworkers.

Daniel shook his head and relaxed immediately. Arguments from that sort of person were something he could cope with. “Till something notices us and starts hunting us and then.”

“If we’ve entrenched ourselves,” Jacques said. “We will be able to…”

“No,” Daniel interrupted again, shaking his head furiously. “No. Something like the octopod could go around my traps. Not to mention flying animals. Turtling is death.”

No one said anything. Daniel cleared his throat. “Anyway, that’s our strategy. I’m going to do it and I won’t force anyone to join me.”

“Of course, we’ll join you even if you’re rushing.” Ingrid interrupted.

“I thought you were against the idea?” he asked cautiously.

The archer nodded and then exhaled sharply. “I am, but I’m not stupid. The only way turtling could work is if you led it.” Half the room nodded at that. “Which in some ways means it’s your prerogative to do what you wish. But I personally would prefer a slower pace.”

“I’m not going to be stupid.” Then he caught her eye before letting his eyes sweep over the larger audience. Most people, excluding the kids, were watching him. “And thank you for your support. But that was not why I wanted to talk to you all. First, on level twenty one I have set up some traps to allow people to grind some experience, including non-combat classes. Ivey will look after them. In addition, the octopod gave us a loot chest.”

Silence deadened at his words and when he looked at everyone gathered, he could see that they all had an unfocused expression as they studied the information about what a loot chest meant.

“That’s unexpected,” Alex said finally. “What did you get?”

“Basic memory stones, tools, metals weapons.” Daniel answered. “The stones were grouped into fighting, simple magic spells and the base skill for a couple of professions. Ten of each for thirty in total. Unless there’s objections we’re splitting it like this. Current non-combat classed individuals who have been fighting will get first choice. Then non-combat classes who want to help fight. The professional stones will go to those with the highest merit points.”

“What does that mean?” Ingrid asked.

Daniel laughed tiredly. “There aren’t many stones. The bulk of them are going to fighters and then the high contributors to our society mainly Judy, Cirano, Alisha and Hua Chua.”

“That’s…”

“My decision. Those four have done by far the most for this community.” Daniel paused to see if there were any objections but thankfully there weren’t any. “We’ve done great. We own everything from level twenty up, but there are still some scattered monsters around. For the next couple of hours, let’s keep consolidating. Later this afternoon, we’ll discuss how we’re going to start our attack on level twenty. Questions?”

“Who do we see for stones?”

“Ivey.”

“Are we expanding living quarters?”

“You can do what you want, but the more spread out we are then the more exposed you’ll be to roaming monsters. Have a vote. Internal most of them are dead, which reduces the risk, but some magpies attacked this morning. What happens if something bigger attacks and we’re spread over multiple floors?”

No more questions came up. “Okay, thanks for your time. I know this is hard for everyone, but all we can do is get stronger.”

Daniel stepped off the crate and Alex caught his eyes.

“Jayden, let’s have a talk.” Daniel said.

Tamara moved to intercept. “Dan,”

“You can come too. Jayden let’s go downstairs to somewhere private.”

“Start walking boy,” Alex growled. “You say a thing I’m skewering you.”