Shadow Sun Expansion

by Dave Willmarth

  George sat back down and was silent for a while. Allistor retook his own seat and sat there, petting Fuzzy while he waited for the old man to work things out. Finally, the bear cub, who understood something was wrong if not the details, padded around the table and gently placed his Fibble doll in George’s lap.

  The old man broke down and cried, burying his face in Fuzzy’s furry head as he hugged the cub. Allistor sat patiently, allowing George to get it all out. He really did know exactly how his friend felt. He’d agonized over too many human deaths. Amanda and Helen had both been there for him, helping him to work through it. And, of course, Fuzzy too.”

  Chapter 14

  Where the Deer and the Lakota Roam

  As spring continued to melt the snows, Allistor’s people resumed regular foraging trips. Now with their higher levels, better weapons, and everyone having spells for both damage and healing, they felt much safer. More groups went out, and went farther out, often spending several days outside the safety of the walls before returning.

  Though they had billions in gold to convert to klax or system points, Allistor never let them relax when it came to finding ways to earn money. They still gathered rare cars, weapons, vintage wines, anything that might earn big bids on the open market. The difference was that now Allistor granted them half of what their items sold for, split evenly among the party members who brought it in. This incentive proved quite effective, as it was simple human nature to accumulate as much wealth as possible, and his people were as human as any others. The cowboys were sent out to round up more cattle, and a team was assigned to the herd of buffalo as well. Helen said she knew of a great valley within Allistor’s parkland where the massive creatures would thrive during the spring and summer, and be reasonably protected in the winter. It was on their agenda to go check it out and clear it of any dangerous predators.

  One side effect of his people ranging farther and farther out was that they ran into more pockets of survivors. Some of whom had suffered through difficult winters. Well fed, healthy looking high-level survivors showing up at their doors with advanced weapons and food to share did a lot to recruit more people.

  It had been August when the apocalypse struck Allistor’s small town and he’d gathered his first dozen or so survivors together. By the first week of April, his total population was over four thousand, and growing quickly. Word was spreading, and it seemed new people were showing up at one Stronghold or another almost daily. Just a few at a time, a family here, a group of fifteen there. But the numbers were adding up. Each of them swore the oath before being allowed through the gates, and the system bound them to Allistor.

  Nancy asked Allistor to visit the Warren so that she could show him something. Helen, Fuzzy, and Amanda joined him before they all left to head to his Thunder Basin parklands to check out the new buffalo grazing grounds.

  When they arrived on the teleport pad, Chloe was waiting for them.

  “Allistor!” She jumped into his arms, hugging him tightly. He immediately noticed she was taller and stronger than he remembered. It had only been a month or so since he’d been to the Warren, but he couldn’t remember when he’d seen Chloe last.

  “Wow! Look at you. You got big!” He grinned at her, booping her on the nose with his own. “What has Nancy been feeding you?”

  She frowned at him as she answered. “Mostly vegetables. Ugh.”

  Allistor laughed and set her down, but her feet barely touched the ground before she leapt up into Amanda’s arms. “Amanda! You look so pretty!” Chloe kissed her cheek and wrapped her arms around the woman’s neck. After a moment, she let go and reached for Helen, getting passed from one woman to the other.

  “Oof!” Helen said as she took hold of the girl. “You’re getting too big to hold. Picking you up is like trying to pick up Fuzzy!” she teased.

  Chloe rolled her eyes. “I’m not that big!” She disengaged and dropped to the ground to wrap her arms around Fuzzy, who licked her face. She backed off and made a disgusted face for a moment – Fuzzy’s breath wasn’t exactly minty fresh – but decided to ignore the odor and resumed her hug.

  “I’ve been leveling up!” she boasted, getting to her feet and taking Allistor’s hand. She began to pull him toward the greenhouse as she talked. “You know we’ve been breeding the bunnies and the chickens. Ramon taught me how to slaughter them so they don’t feel hardly any pain at all. At first, I didn’t want to, cuz they’re so cute and I helped raise them all. But if they need food, then so do we. And if we don’t eat some of them, pretty soon we wouldn’t be able to feed ourselves and all of them too. And we’d all starve. So, I learned how to do it right.” the girl had gotten all of that out in one breath, and paused to inhale deeply before continuing.

  “So anyway, now it’s part of my job to kill the ones we’re gonna eat. And I’ve killed so many of them that I’m already level three!”

  Allistor froze where he was, causing Chloe to jerk at his arm when she continued on, then turn back to look at him. “What’s wrong?”

  He got down on one knee and pulled her to him, gathering her into his arms. Tears rolled down his face as he said, “Nothing’s wrong, sweetie. I’m so very proud of you. I wish we didn’t live in a world where you had to learn what you have. I’m doing my best to make sure you’re safe, and you can have the kind of life a little girl should have. I wish…” He didn’t finish the sentence, not having words that this special little girl would understand.

  Amanda saved him.

  “Hey Chloe… since the last time I saw you, Allistor has let like… fifty different monsters bite him, stab him, knock him down, throw him through the air, and stomp on him!”

  Chloe’s eyes widened for a minute as she pushed away and looked at Allistor’s face. She was prepared to scold him about letting stuff bite him again, but when she saw the tears and mistook their cause, her face softened. She patted his cheek. “It’s okay Allistor. Not everybody is good at fighting. Someday you’ll learn how to do it the right way, and it won’t hurt so much.” She appeared to think for a moment, then grinned and added, “At least you have the prettiest doctor in the whole world to take care of you!”

  Everyone laughed, and converged into a group hug that lasted until Chloe complained about being, ‘smothered and smushed’. Allistor composed himself, and they continued on toward the greenhouse. To everyone’s surprise, Chloe kept on going, right past the greenhouse and around the side of the main keep building. Last time Allistor had been there, it had still been paved parking area. Now the ground was broken up, cleared, and sported row after row of tiny trees.

  Nancy was standing in the middle of the field, maybe four acres total. Her eyes were closed, and her hands out to either side. As they approached, she hummed a little tune and slowly raised her hands, palms upward as if she were conducting an orchestra. The trees in a wide circle around her grew visibly taller and thicker before she stopped singing and dropped her hands.

  “Wow!” Helen said as Nancy turned toward them. “I saw those saplings grow! Nancy that was awesome!”

  Nancy smiled, looking tired as Chloe came and put an arm around her leg. She ran her fingers through the girl’s hair. “Thanks. I’ve had a lot of practice over the winter. I’ve leveled the Grow spell so high that it branched off into two other spells. It’s really very exciting!”

  Allistor took his focus off the trees for a moment. “Nancy, I know you enjoy your work. But you need to get some rest, too. You look like you’re about to pass out.”

  She waved off his comment. “I’m fine. Sleeping quite well, actually. It’s just that growing so many trees at once takes a lot out of me. I’ll be back to normal in fifteen minutes or so.”

  Allistor didn’t look convinced, but he changed the subject. “Are these the reason you summoned me here, m’lady?”

  “Ooh la la. Summoned. How fancy.” Chloe teased. Allistor stuck his tongue out at her and crossed his eyes, earning him a giggle.

  “I’m an Earl now, didn�
�t you hear? I AM fancy!” He struck a ridiculous pose with one hand on his hip and the other pretending to hold a fancy cigarette.

  Amanda mumbled, “Damn. Wish we still had working phones with cameras. Maybe I can get someone to paint you in that pose. Hang a life-sized copy of it in every Stronghold.”

  Chloe giggled again, and the ladies laughed while Allistor pretended to be horrified. He was enjoying this time with little Chloe, being able to relax and unwind a bit, and just be silly.

  Nancy began to walk toward another section of the field, and they all followed along as she pointed to different sections. “Over there are apple trees. They take up the majority of the space, because they’re hardy and the fruit can be preserved. Plus, Michael and Ramon put their heads together and figured out how to make apple brandy.” She smiled just a touch when she spoke Ramon’s name. Allistor was betting Chloe would have a little brother or sister soon.

  “Over here we’re trying oranges. This isn’t really the climate for them, but if we can make it work by tenting them in plastic during the cold months, the vitamin C will do us all a world of good. Over here we’ve got some pecan and walnut trees. And there’s a small peach grove back in the corner over there. We also planted a row of banana trees inside the greenhouse. Along with some raspberry and blueberry bushes that we’ll plant along the outer edges of this field.”

  “This is great, Nancy.” Allistor offered her a hand to shake. “I’m grateful to you for all your efforts. Without you and George, and your people, it would have been a hard winter indeed.”

  They chatted for a bit longer, Allistor catching them up on the happenings at their other properties. When Helen told her they were heading out to Thunder Basin, she asked the ranger to bring back any interesting herbs or mushrooms they might run across. “My Herbology and Alchemy skills have gone way up as well.” She paused for a moment, giving Amanda a wink. “Having Ramon around so much has its benefits.”

  Allistor snorted at that. Ramon must be feeding her all the scrolls and training manuals that he found matching her skillsets in the library. He didn’t mind one bit. In fact, that was exactly what he wanted. Nancy’s efforts were helping to feed his entire little nation.

  “We’ll bring back as much as we can.” he promised. Helen added that she’d make sure of it.

  Leaving the mother and daughter after another round of hugs, and a promise to Chloe that he’d try and let stuff bite him less, then headed directly toward the motor pool. Allistor’s pulse quickened slightly. One of his favorite bits of tech that he’d purchased from the open market was a small fleet of vehicles. They had lots of scavenged trucks, buses, RVs and such at each Stronghold, but these were special.

  These ran on hydrogen.

  The vehicle they were taking on their trip today was long and sleek, with a rounded front end and a tall body. It was longer than their usual ranger truck, and had three axles. The thing most resembled a bullet train car. It was made of a lightweight metal alloy that was stronger than steel and doubled as an insulator of both heat and sound. Its windows were very nearly indestructible. They’d learned that on a previous trip when some hostile humans fired at them without warning.

  But the best thing about this type of vehicle, which he’d nicknamed the Juggernaut, was its engine. Nearly silent, it produced more power than a semi-truck diesel engine. And it ran on hydrogen. He’d purchased a small motorcycle with a similar engine for his people to take apart and try to reverse engineer. Allistor didn’t quite understand the mechanics himself, but he knew the thing literally converted hydrogen molecules into energy. The engine was efficient, powerful, and all you had to do to gas up was pour water into the fuel tank. There were fancy removable battery packs that could run the thing for up to two days, but so far Allistor hadn’t had to use them.

  Water was literally everywhere around them in the form of snow, rain, condensation in the morning, and the thousands of rivers, creeks, and streams they passed. On the roof was a fold-out tin-foily thing that you could use to collect rainwater directly into the tank. Or it could be raised vertically and would harvest moisture from the air as they drove slowly. Allistor had tried setting it up once, and it made the Juggernaut look like a sailboat with wheels.

  The vehicle had taught him some things about their new reality. For one, the interior systems were light years beyond Earth tech. There were sophisticated sensors that could detect life forms from a mile away. Some kind of superior radar that could provide 3D images of targets in the air. A wide array of communications options, from basic voice to real time 3D hologram images. In the event of a crash or an attack, there was some kind of foam that would fill the vehicle to prevent impact trauma, but still allow the occupants to breathe. He’d added an optional plasma gun mounted on a swivel on the roof that could be fired manually or operated from the cockpit. And the thing could hover for a short time, but that burned through the fuel tank in about ten minutes. The fact that it could run under normal conditions for most of a day on a single gallon of water suggested that at least some of the worlds out there suffered a shortage of water, thus the efficiency.

  And the vehicles weren’t that expensive, compared to some of the other available tech. He imagined that they were as common as pickup trucks in the system. The small fleet of Juggernauts had cost him two million klax. He’d gotten a discount by buying in bulk direct from a dealer named Harmon, of Harmon’s Mahoosive Munitions & Emporium, who had contacted him via the market’s messaging system soon after he’d begun spending large amounts on other items. That right there taught him that someone was tracking big spenders. He’d purchased ten of those vehicles, along with the motorcycle, a larger transport similar to an RV that could comfortably seat thirty people for long trips, several of the smaller hover pads, and the two industrial sized ones. Along with plasma rifles and pistols, and other items. The dealer had given him a twenty percent discount for such a large order, and a flowery-worded blessing nearly a page long that covered him, his people, his family, and future generations on into eternity. Allistor actually wished he had a way to print the thing and put it on a display somewhere. It was pure poetry.

  When they reached the vehicle, Allistor laid a hand on the ‘hood’ and stroked it lovingly. Amanda rolled her eyes and looked at Helen. “Boys and their cars.” He just grinned and moved to the back. Opening the back hatch with a touch of his hand, he retrieved one of the small hover pads that the hunters normally used to transport kills back to their vehicles. He slid it into the back and connected it to a handy port for charging. Fuzzy hopped into the seat behind the driver’s seat, sitting upright like a human. The more the bear leveled up, the smarter and more anthropomorphic he became. Allistor had a bet with Amanda on whether he’d eventually learn to speak. He’d modified the seat from human dimensions to more of a bench configuration to accommodate the growing bear.

  After a quick check of the vehicle’s system via Nigel, who had taken over as the Juggernaut’s AI, they were on their way. The gates closing behind them, they headed north along the mostly deserted Highway 59, which would take them directly into Thunder Basin, one of the former National Parks that Helen had semi-accidentally awarded him when they’d first met.

  It was maybe forty miles from the Warren to the southern edge of the parklands. Helen drove, as she knew the way. They took it slow, averaging about twenty-five miles per hour up the back road. There were occasional fallen trees, abandoned cars, and a jackknifed semi trailer that blocked most of the road about thirty miles up, which they stopped to investigate. After breaking the lock on the back doors, they found it was stocked with what seemed like an entire general store’s worth of merchandise. There were hardware items – tools, rope, boxes of screws and nails – as well as pallets of canned goods, boxes of blankets and clothes, boots, fishing poles and tackle, stationary, cleaning products, and a hundred other things. Allistor made a note on his map and used Nigel’s communication link to call back down to the Warren and have a foraging party sent up.
With luck, they could get the truck running and just bring the whole load back to the Stronghold.

  Just in case they were out longer than expected, the survivor in him caused him to grab some cans of beans and several boxes of pop tarts before they closed the truck up again.

  Less than a half hour later, Helen pointed out a sign that said they were entering the Thunder Bluff grasslands. And it wasn’t kidding. As far as Allistor could see there were rolling hills covered in the green of spring grass. Thousands and thousands of acres of it. In the distance to the west there were higher hills that could even be considered small mountains.

  When he asked, Helen responded, “Those are the Bighorn Mountains to the west. They extend up from the Rockies to the southwest. There’s a great big national forest there, too. If you want, I could sell it to ya real cheap.” She winked at him. Then she pointed east at another set of rolling hills in the far distance. “Over there are the Black Hills. You know, Indian country?”

  Amanda and Allistor both nodded their heads. Native Americans had been a big part of both of their lives growing up. The whole area had originally been Indian country, and there were still a lot of reservations nearby. Allistor himself had a little Lakota blood in him from a distant ancestor.

  Helen continued. “Pretty much everything you see to the north and northeast of us is your land, Earl Allistor.” as she spoke, she hit the gas and continued forward up the highway for a ways. When they reached an intersection labeled with a sign that just read ‘450’ she turned east. “Up ahead is a spot I was thinking about. For the buffalo, I mean. There’s a coal mine there. Plenty of cover when the wind is whipping across the plains in the winter.”

  Amanda looked confused. “Uhm… You think our cowboys could herd a few thousand buffalo into a tiny mine entrance and keep them in there?”