Chapter 28 Safe!

Rick looks at me like I have gone crazy,” Rob banks Scott? Are you out of your mind?”

“Where do you think the money will come from Rick? It sure as hell does not grow on trees. Even you admitted it, the old ways are gone now, we need to move forward. As such, we need money plain and simple. And not just the banks, all the store registers in the area too.” I say to him understanding his side of things.

Being the Sheriff and going into a bank or store to “liberate” the funds for our sake would be a hard pill for him to swallow, but I am sure I can make him see my way here. At least I hope so, not going to be easy by a long shot.

“Scott, we can not just walk into a bank and take the money, you have to understand that.” he pleads.

“And why not Sheriff? Cindy asks

“It is stealing Cindy, you should know that!” He says a little annoyed now.

“And whose money is it Rick? Who does the Money actually belong to?” I ask of him.

“Well it belongs to the people to deposit and withdraw as needed, and the stores, you can't just rob a store!” he replies matter of fact.

“I understand your hesitation, but let me lay this out there, the power is out, no banks are open, the people have no way to access their money at this time and we are about to lose our only safe zone. Given the choice do you think everyone would worry about their money in the bank or their own safety right now?” I ask

“I know what you are saying Scott, believe you me, I know already. It is just tha.......”, he trails off. “How about this, you go and do what you have to ok? Take whomever will listen, and I will ignore this for now. I can not take part in this, but I will not stand against you, that is my best offer here.” he finally says.

I look at him and see the conflict on his face, this is very hard for him.”Sounds fair Rick. And this will be a one time deal, one day only, after that we will play by the rules ok?”, I say to him.

He just nods”I will be in the Library if you need anything of me” and then walks away.

I watch him leave and understand him. I then look at the two girls with me, ”well you two, are you with me on this?” I ask

“Do you even have to ask Tiger?” Cindy says with a smile.

“Sweetheart I told you already, I am here for you.” Julie says and wraps herself onto me.

“Ok we have a 1km radius safe zone, so we can safely hit any shops within that zone for money, hopefully we can collect enough to at least repair the current Barony zone.” I say to them, “ let go see who of the Elite Guard will join us.”

We check and find all, but Mackers, Charles and Torrez are willing to go, those 3 are under Doctors orders for 1 week bed rest no exceptions.”

Having 23 people assembled, including Julie and Cindy in that count, I begin, “Ok we will all split up in teams of 2 and go on foot. Each of you have inventory access. We will hit each of the stores and banks, also grab any batteries flashlights, candles, matches and lighters you find. Grab all the money from the registers, use your Rifles to cut open the safes.” I say to them. “Be careful out there, safety first no heroics. The monster may not be spawning here, but does not mean they are not out there.”

We break up into our groups, Cindy and Julie are with me. As we go we, come across the occasional Worg, and blast it away, Julie with her hand gun and I with my AR-15, Cindy incinerates them with her fire magics.

She has improved a lot, not only can she throw fireballs, but she can shoot steams of fire from her hands, two different directions at once, she now has a flame aura around her, like she herself is on fire. Very handy indeed I observe and think to myself.

She is dispatching Worgs even before we can shoot a times. The Worg infestation seems to be coming to an end tho, less and less show up and are becoming scarce. No reports over the radio have come so far for help, so far so good.

We get to a road that is lined with shops, we split up each taking one shop entering the store careful, I have to trust Cindy and Julie are now to be able to handle themselves, Cindy is no problem with her fire magic, but Julie is just healer, no offense except her hand gun, so I am naturally more worried about her.

I get into the shop and spot the register and force it open with my hands, the steel bends easy. I add the cash and coins to my inventory. I then hear gun shots from the shop next door, and quickly run to the sounds and see Julie holding off 2 Worgs, a third lay dead, but they are not even getting close to her. I see she is surrounded by a slight greenish field, like a shield of some kind. She fires again and one of the Worgs fall dead to the ground while the other is still clawing at the shield.

“Oh hi sweetheart, did you need something”” she says with a smile noticing me..

I look at her with a dumb expression, “Uh, Julie, no, I heard shots and came as fast I could......” I am surprised not only by the shield but her calmness and confidence.

“Oh no worries sweetheart, let me finish this really fast,” she says, then aims and fires off 2 more shots at the Worg clawing the shield, Both shots are true and the Worg dies as well.

A sudden relief hits me for some reason seeing her shield, the confidence and the calmness about her.

The shield dissipates and I rush forward and hug her tightly,” I am so proud of you kitten” I say to her.

“Why thank you sweetheart!” She smiles and hugs me back,”Maybe I should do this more often huh?”

“Lets not get carried away Kitten” I say to her smiling, just then Cindy comes running into the store, "I heard shots!” She says. Cindy had been in one of the shops across the street.

We explain to her what happens and she smiles at Julie, then gives her hug as well. We then break back up and hit the remaining shops on the street we are on.

We collect the money from each store, I go to each safe that is discovered and add them to inventory for later, as opening them is not an option for me right now, the steel is too thick, but prying them from the floor is no problems as the cement breaks easily when I apply my strength and pull the safe away.

This goes on for part of the day we hit a total of 28 shops in our zone before heading back to the school, no more Worgs were spotted. Sadly no banks were in our zone either.

We get to he School and see others are returning too. We are all gathered out in front of the School. I take the safes out of my inventory, to have the others use their rifles to cut them open. After everyone returned safely, some saying they too, encountered a few Worgs, but were easily dispatched, we begin to hand the money to Cindy, no counting needed as she just adds it to her Treasury skill. At the end we came up with $80,700.00.

I look to Cindy and say” and is that enough?”

She looks and does a few things with her fingers in the air. Then she says “ we now have 3228gold in the treasury. Our current conversion rate is 25 to 1”

Thank god it is not 1300 to one like in our current monetary system. I think to myself.” good let me access the Barony then."

I then access the Barony and see an option to pay current expenses to restore the Barony and click yes.

BARONY NOTICE!Your Barony has been restored to its original 5Km Radius

Funds are now avaiable to upgrade your keep do

you wish to pay the 1000 gold to uprade now? Yes or No?

I click yes and am excited now

BARONY NOTICE!You have begun the Upgrade of the Keep

You have sufficient funds to upgrade walls,

would you like to upgrade the walls? Yes or No?

I click yes again

BARONY NOTICE!You have begun the Upgrade of the Walls.

Sufficient funds are available to add up to a max of 4 Watch towers.

Would you like to add 4 Watch towers? Yes or No?

I click yes once again.

BARONY NOTICE!No more upgrade are available as of this time.

Time for completion of upgrades:

Keep: 40 days no further upgrades can be done until

current upgrade is complete.

Walls 22 days no further upgrades can be done until

current upgrade is complete.

Watch towers 15 days each. no further upgrades can be

done until current upgrade is complete.

Huh? It is not automatic? I do not fully comprehend what is going on and 40 days?? Woah that is a long time, well compared to accepting the Barony and the school upgrade the first time.

Lights appear all over, people once again gasp and begin to panic, I too am uncertain what is going on. “Remain calm everyone we just upgraded the School, Walls and added Watch Towers, Stay calm.” I yell out loud.

Materials, Supplies and workers appear. The workers quickly start grabbing the materials and supplies and head towards their areas and being working. Now I scratch my head not sure what to make of this. They are like robots, just doing with no word or instructions, not like the other NPC's, I am really confused now. I was almost certain that NPC's were human like, am I missing something here?