After ten minutes, he felt better. Though his makeshift bandages were soaked through, he didn’t see any blood dripping anymore. Bending to lift just the bundle of weapons, he walked it to the top of the stairs before returning to retrieve the chest of ammo. Back on the ground level, he set the bundle atop the chest and lifted both, walking slowly out to the trailer. When they were securely stowed, he took some time to look around again. He noticed as he stood there that his health bar was moving slowly back toward full on its own. He was now at eighty percent health.
Where the garage used to be, he found the chest freezer they stored their meat and ice cream in. It was still closed and latched, though one side was dented. It had been a full day since the power went out, but Allistor figured if the freezer had remained closed, the meat inside should still be good. Opening it, he quickly pulled out the melted canisters of ice cream. A few pokes at the meat on top showed it to still be mostly frozen. He closed and latched the freezer.
Looking around in the debris, he found an old metal hand truck. Sliding it under the freezer, he tilted it up and wheeled it out to the trailer. Not having the strength to lift the full freezer, he put down the ramp and wheeled it up on the hand truck. Stowing both safely in the middle of the trailer bed, he folded up the ramp and sat down. The sun had moved across the sky, and he estimated it to be about three o’clock. As he thought about the time, a clock appeared on his interface, the numerals stating it was 2:38 pm.
Resigned to the job ahead of him, Allistor took a deep breath and got back to his feet. He moved to the front of the trailer and donned the chain harness. When he leaned into the chains and pushed with his legs, nothing happened. He backed up a step, then lunged forward, the chains jerking taught as he strained to get some momentum. The trailer rocked forward slightly, then settled back again.
Turning to face the trailer, he crouched down and grabbed hold of the hitch. Leaning back, he pushed with his legs while pulling with his arms and torso. This time the trailer moved slightly, rolling toward him. He backpedaled, pulling with all he had until the trailer was rolling steadily. Then he let go, turned back again, and picked up the slack as he pulled against the harness, keeping the momentum going.
Slowly but surely, he kept the load moving as he threaded his way back the same way he’d come. When he left the street to cut across the grass behind City Hall, the soft earth slowed his progress. But he dug in and kept pulling until the trailer reached the cellar doors of their new shelter.
With his stamina nearly drained, he unhitched himself and sat on the stairs. Producing a water bottle from his pack, he took a few big swallows and leaned back on his elbows. As he was resting, Sam appeared from the tunnel.
“Hey, Allistor. I was just going out to look for you. We gathered all the food we could from the diner, but it wasn’t much. Some hot dogs, prepackaged pies…”
When Allistor grinned at him, he stopped talking. “What?”
“I found some stuff. Anybody else down there that could help unload? I’m kinda beat.” He jerked a thumb over his shoulder. Sam climbed a few of the stairs and looked at the trailer loaded with salvaged items.
“You… pulled that thing? From where?” Sam’s mouth hung open.
“Found it at the car lot. Pulled it to my house. That part was easy. After I loaded it up, well that was not so easy.”
“No shit.” Sam shook his head. “I’ll fetch the others. Be right back.”
Two minutes later, Sam returned with Robert Edward, Meg, Sean, Amanda, and Lilly. They all made astonished noises as they saw the load and realized what Allistor had done. When Meg opened the freezer, she started to laugh. Looking at Sam, she said, “Get that grill and this freezer down there first. We need to cook all of this meat right now before it goes bad. This is… this is two weeks’ worth of food for all of us if we mix in some vegetables and things.”
Allistor sat and watched as the group unloaded everything and moved it inside. The hand truck was a big help when moving the freezer down the stairs.
When Sean lifted the still-dripping bundle of weapons, he gave Allistor a disappointed look. “All of these will have to be cleaned now.”
Allistor shrugged. “Yeah, I’m sorry. The basement was flooded, and a canid attacked me as I was bringing those up the stairs. I dropped them in the water.”
Sean looked at the shredded condition of Allistor’s front and nodded. “No worries. We can share the work. Have them all cleaned and ready by morning.”
Ten minutes later, the trailer was empty, and everyone was inside. Amanda had returned to demand he come to the medical bay and get looked at. “We don’t want any of those getting infected. Though they already look like they’ve been healing for days.”
“Yeah, it seems like my health bar fills up more quickly than I actually heal. Like, I’m at one hundred percent now, and these wounds have closed, the bleeding stopped. But the scars are still healing. And when I lose a lot of blood, it takes a while to replenish, even after my health shows one hundred percent.”
“We’ll figure it out.” Amanda patted his shoulder. “Just like everything else.”
Not wanting to be surprised by any more monsters for the day, Allistor closed and barred the metal doors. As soon as he did, another message popped up on his interface.
Congratulations! You have created and secured a Stronghold.
A secure Stronghold is vital to survival. Claiming a property as a Stronghold prevents any new monsters from spawning within its boundaries. In addition, the structure itself can be improved to increase its defense rating, resource production, and available facilities. Facilities may include sleeping quarters, dining hall, kitchen, market interface, tavern, merchant shops, defensive weapon emplacements, et cetera.
Would you like to claim this Stronghold? Yes/No
He looked at Amanda. “Are you seeing this?”
“Seeing what?”
“The system is offering me a chance to claim this place as a stronghold. Like a home base. Keeps mobs from spawning inside, among other things.”
“Well, hell yes! What are you waiting for?” She put her hands on her hips and looked at him as if he were stupid.
“I’m… I mean, nobody elected me boss or anything. I’m no leader. I’m not sure I should be the one to claim this place.”
She continued to stare at him, making him feel like a child who insisted Santa Claus was real. “It was your idea to come here. You’re the highest level of any of us so far. And you’ve just brought us two weeks’ food and the means to cook and store it.”
When he didn’t respond, she turned and shouted down the tunnel, “Hey, guys! Anybody get that message about making this place a stronghold?”
“What!?” Several voices echoed back down the tunnel. Followed by footsteps. A minute later most of the group joined them. All but Nancy and Chloe, who volunteered to watch over the grilling.
Sam asked, “What’s this about a stronghold?”
Allistor filled them all in, reading the message that was still displayed on his interface.
Amanda jumped in as soon as he was done. “He’s concerned that he’s not the one to claim it. Doesn’t think he’s leader material.”
Meg snorted. “Just do it, Allistor. For one thing, I trust you. I think everyone here does, too. You took the time to save Nancy and Chloe, fighting monsters in a tunnel when you could have just kept running. Coming here was your idea, and it was a good one.” She waited while heads nodded. “You are the one teaching us how this new world works, and you’re the only one who got the message. So clearly the system thinks you’ve done something to merit your own stronghold.”
Sam added, “It may be that we can create more strongholds in the days to come. Or expand this one so that the whole town becomes one. But for tonight, I’ll rest a lot better knowing no beasties are going to appear in my cell and murder me in my sleep.”
Allistor grinned, feeling better about the choice. He mentally clicked “Yes” on his interf
ace. Then all hell broke loose.
Horns sounded out of nowhere, scaring the pants off of everyone. A golden glow surrounded them, the floors, walls, and ceiling all going nearly transparent. Meg grabbed hold of Sam’s arm to steady herself as the others lifted their feet one at a time as if to reassure themselves the floor was still there. Chloe’s squeal and Nancy’s voice echoed from the tunnel, “What the hell is happening?”
Meanwhile, Allistor’s interface was flooded with new information. There was a screen with basic stronghold summary information. Name – which was blank – rough size, number of people, and rough resource listing. At the bottom were a bunch of tabs for detailed descriptions.
“Whoa!” Allistor said. “This is like a guild management tab for guild leaders. It’s asking me for all kinds of information.” He was mentally poking at tabs as he spoke. The others looked at him, waiting for more information.
Meg bit her lip for about half a minute, then with a slightly snarky tone, asked, “I see. Anything in there about why this place is suddenly see-thru?”
Allistor was hitting tab after tab looking for precisely that. When he opened the Physical Structure tab, his eyes widened. After a quick read through the information, he said, “It looks like I can change the structure of this place. Move it above ground or deeper underground. Add walls, buildings, assign spaces. All of it costs something called system points. And I have the ability to open a market interface. It says we can sell resources for system points to make improvements.”
The questions started rolling in all at once. “What kind of buildings? What resources? Can you build a decent bathroom with a shower?” That last one had been Meg.
Allistor was feeling a little overwhelmed. He sat down on the opaque stairs behind him, causing a few of the others to flinch for a second as if worried he’d fall through. He was mumbling to himself as he read through the list of facilities available and their point cost. “I wish I could share this with all of you, so I don’t have to read it all off.”
As soon as he said it, another tab opened. It was an authorization screen.
Do you wish to allow other citizens to access the Stronghold interface? Yes/No
He instantly selected “Yes” and another message popped up.
Please list the citizens you wish to authorize and indicate their access level.
A list of all the people inside the stronghold popped up. Next to them were columns of boxes. The first column was labeled Review Only. The next columns from left to right were Review and Recommend, Review and Modify, and Full Authority.
When he read these choices to the others, Meg was first to speak. “Just mark all of us for the recommend one. Can’t have everybody making changes and spending points all willy-nilly. We need to agree as a group and have one person make any changes. Anybody got a problem with that?”
When nobody spoke up, Allistor checked the Review and Recommend boxes for everybody but Chloe, whom he wasn’t sure could even read yet. When that was done, he said, “How ‘bout we go take seats at the table and review these choices?”
They all filed back into the tunnel and returned to the main room. The furniture had not faded out like the rest of the structure, and it looked kind of funny just hovering in space. Nancy was moving the half-dozen burgers that were on the grill onto a paper plate and turning off the grill as Amanda filled her in.
When they were all at the table, the discussion began.
Allistor started it off. “Okay, it says here on the summary tab that we currently have one hundred thousand system points that we earned by creating the stronghold. Then there’s a listing for Possible Individual Contributions. I don’t know the source for those, but it says there’s another six thousand and change available.
Lilly spoke up. “I’ll start checking on that. Keep going. I can multitask.”
Allister smiled at her and continued. “Thank you, Lilly. Let’s tackle some easy stuff first. We need to name this place. Do we want to go with the town name? Or if you guys plan to create individual strongholds, we can go with a different name.”
Meg shook her head. “I have no plans for my own stronghold. Though I’d eventually like my own house, if we can expand this place. But I don’t want to use the town name, either. This town died along with most of the people that made it what it was. This is a new world, with new rules. I say we find a new name.”
Nancy raised a hand. “I second that. Everybody?” They all raised a hand, and the vote was unanimous. Even Chloe’s hand went up, though she looked confused as to why.
Sean spoke next. “Not to derail things, but those burgers smell amazing, and I’m starving. Can we eat while we talk?”
Meg and Sam jumped up. They had located some unopened loaves of sliced bread and buns, along with bottles of ketchup, mustard, and relish. There were also two tall stacks of paper plates that they’d used for catering and some plastic ware. In moments they’d set the table and began passing out warm burgers for everyone.
“Alright,” Allistor said around a delicious mouthful of beef. “I’m open to suggestions for the name. Maybe New Haven or Base Camp? Or… anything that doesn’t have a number like UCP 382 or whatever they’re calling earth now.”
Sam snorted. “How ‘bout Terra”? We call this place something that’ll piss them off.”
Nancy shook her head. Looking at Chloe as she spoke. “I understand your anger, but I don’t think purposely pissing them off is wise. We’re trying to survive here.”
Chastened, Sam nodded his head. “Sorry.”
Lilly offered, “I’ve always liked the word Utopia.”
A few around the table nodded their heads. Sean wasn’t one of them. “This place is far from that. At least, so far. Since we’re underground, how ‘bout something like The Anthill or The Warren?”
“Warren! Like the cozy houses where fluffy bunnies live! I like that!” Chloe clapped her hands together.
Everyone looked at each other and sort of shrugged. Allistor smiled at Chloe. “The Warren it is, then.” He mentally filled in the name next to the appropriate prompt. The interface updated accordingly.
Sean, showing his bent toward Engineering, went next. “Speaking of underground, I’m thinking that for now at least, we should keep this place underground. If that titan is still walking around, having the only standing building in town would make us an obvious target. And we wouldn’t have to spend points on walls. That way we can maximize what we build down here. We can always move above ground later.”
Meg agreed. “As long as we can build all we need down here, that’s fine with me.”
Lilly cried “Aha!” then looked embarrassed as everyone stared at her. Blushing slightly, she said, “I figured out the contributions thing. It seems that we can contribute by converting our experience points into system points at a rate of two to one. That’s one system point for every two experience points. The max experience points we can trade is the amount we’ve earned toward our next level. And the contributions can be structured as a donation or a loan.”
“Awesome. That explains a lot. Thank you, Lilly.” Allistor thumped the table with a flat hand. He was beginning to get into this whole base building thing. “Okay, so for now, let’s just focus on the points we already have. I don’t want to ask for contributions yet. I think we all need to level ourselves as quickly as possible. And there has to be a way for this place to earn its own points. We just have to figure out what that is.”
He smiled as he saw Lilly’s eyes go vacant again.
He located the tab Available Plans that listed the possible structures and their cost. Calling everyone else’s attention to it, he waited while they all reviewed the options. He sincerely wished they had pencils and papers to make lists of their own. Then a thought occurred to him.
“Hey guys, I want to test something. Look near the top left, where the Underground option is listed. If you would, everybody but Sam and Sean, check that box. You two, check the Surface Structure box.
&nbs
p; He watched his own interface as they all did as he requested. As each person voted, the number of votes for each would increase. They were color coded yellow, which according to the key at the bottom of the screen, was for recommendations.
“Can you all see this?” he asked.
Amanda chuckled. “That’s cool. The votes show up next to each choice. That’ll make things easier, especially if we ever expand to a much larger group. We won’t have to gather everyone together and count hands.”
Allistor leaned back in his chair, relaxing slightly.
“Okay, folks. There are a few things we have to have, that I think we all agree on.” He mentally ticked the boxes as he read them off, so the others could follow along. “We need a clean water source. When I went to my house, the broken pipes had flooded the basement. I assume every building in town is hemorrhaging water as well. Unless we cover the whole town and shut off all the water meters, the supply in the tower won’t last long. The cost listed for water is five thousand points.” The others all nodded their heads or made agreeable noises.
“Next, we need places to sleep. Each sleeping quarters costs two thousand points. I say we make a dozen for now. There are ten of us here now, but we may find other survivors. And I’m guessing Sam and Meg will pair up? Same with Nancy and Chloe?” Both pairs nodded again.
“So that’s twenty-nine thousand points spent. As somebody who, as Chloe put it, keeps letting things bite me… I would also suggest a proper infirmary. That’s four thousand. We need a kitchen, obviously. And cold storage for all that meat and whatever other food we can find. Together those are also four thousand. We can make the kitchen bigger later if we need to.”
He looked around the table. Nobody was speaking up or making faces at him. “Please guys, if you have opinions, speak up. Especially if you disagree.”
Shadow Sun Survival: Shadow Sun Book One Page 8
