Rapture (Apocalypse Gates Author's Cut Book 1)

by Daniel Schinhofen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Dinner turned out to be beef stew, as Susan was using up as much of her currently perishable food as possible. As they ate, Alvin asked her for a rundown of her day, with giving the production buildings samples of things.

  “All the buildings took everything I could get them samples of. I can’t start any of the production, only the Settlement Owner or the Overseer can,” she told him between bites. “I could see how long it would take to get something produced, though. For instance, in the butcher shop, ground beef currently takes a full day to produce three pounds. If I wanted Filet instead, that goes up to two weeks. The ore processor will give us a five pound bar of copper in a day, or titanium in two weeks.”

  Alvin noted all of the frowns around the table except for David, who nodded. “It’s kind of like an RTS. It’s about base management to a degree. What’s the scrap used for?”

  “The little bit I could find says it’ll speed up the production buildings,” Alvin replied after swallowing. “Susan, how many blocks of scrap did we end up with?”

  “A bit over twenty,” she sipped at her drink. “It looked to be about one block per square foot of trash that we put in.”

  “Okay. After dinner I’ll go check how the scrap can speed up production time. I also need to see about upgrading the living arrangements. This bunker is going to be a bit crowded tonight, and it’ll only get worse if other people show up.”

  “Are you going to appoint an Overseer?” Susan asked, taking another bite.

  “I’ll see what the table can tell me,” Alvin replied. Alvin glanced down the table just in time to see David’s eyes widen as he stared at Bridget, who was sitting next to him. Alvin hid his smirk as he figured out what Bridget was probably doing. Shaking his head, he took another bite just as a hand stroked his thigh gently. He managed to swallow without choking and looked at Becky. She wasn’t looking at him, though her hand did stay on his leg. His eyes flicked to Will, who was eyeing his son with a severe frown.

  Alvin finished his meal first, gently disengaging Becky’s hand surreptitiously from his leg before he stood. “I’ll put this in the kitchen. If anyone wants to know more, feel free to join me outside.” He dropped his bowl off in the kitchen and was going back through the dining room as Becky stood up with her own empty bowl. He didn’t look at her as he went past Will, who was watching him with narrowed eyes.

  Out in the yard, Alvin picked up a block of scrap for each building, shoving five of them into his fanny pack, as they thankfully stacked. He walked to the quarry first, as it was the closest production structure. The quarry was a five-foot diameter pit with a small table just outside the roped off area. Touching the table, Alvin found he could make several types of stone, one of which was concrete. He started that producing, which was going to take a full day. As soon as the clock started ticking down, he put a block of scrap on the small table. He got a pop-up asking if he wanted to speed up production. Accepting it, the scrap vanished and 144 minutes vanished from the clock. Alvin did some quick math and nodded, 10% of the production time went away. He dropped a second block on the table and another 144 minutes was removed from the production timer. That led him to believe that each block of scrap was worth 10% of the overall time, not time left to go.

  He went to the lumber mill next and set it for pine, which would again take a day. The block of scrap took away the same 144 minutes as it had with the quarry. The butcher shop was next. It was already producing chicken from his earlier poking around with it. A block of scrap took away the same amount of time as it had at the other buildings. Next up was the chemical plant. There he found they could make a very wide variety of items, including fuel and plastic. He set it for pure isopropyl alcohol, which would take eight hours. The block of scrap took away 48 minutes out of the 480 minutes required to make it.

  “What have you found out?” Becky asked as she came up behind him.

  He replied without turning around, “That this is going to be interesting. The scrap takes a flat 10% off the total production time of whatever is being made.”

  “Rebecca?” Will’s voice came from the yard.

  Becky rolled her eyes, muttering under her breath, “Fucking Christ, Dad, just leave me alone.”

  “He always this bad?” Alvin asked quietly.

  “Yes, but he’s gotten worse ever since mom left him,” Becky replied before she raised her voice. “In here,” she stepped out of the building, which was illuminated by a single bare bulb in the ceiling.

  Alvin followed her out, holding a block of scrap in each hand, so maybe Will wouldn’t jump to conclusions. “Finishing up in the buildings. Why don’t you fill him in on what I told you, Gothy?”

  “Her name is Rebecca, not Gothy,” Will barked. “Go back inside the house, Rebecca.”

  “No,” Becky said simply as she walked off towards the next building. “I want to know what our new home is all about.”

  “This isn’t our home, Rebecca,” Will snapped at his daughter, his voice louder than necessary, as he stepped in front of her.

  “It can be if she wants it to be,” Alvin said as he went by the father and daughter. “Every survivor who doesn’t cause problems will be welcome here.”

  “Stay out of this, this is a family matter,” Will hissed at Alvin.

  “Fuck you, Dad,” She snapped at him. “I’m going to stay here. Alvin there saved me and David at the school. You were at home packing, as if that was more important than your children.” Her voice rose and her hands planted on her hips. “Which is about what I would expect from you, anyway. You always do think of yourself over your children.”

  Will’s hands twitched as he took a step closer to his daughter, “You will give me the respect I am due, Rebecca, or so help me god…”

  “Or what? You’ll beat me again, but maybe worse this time like you used to mom?” Becky spat at him even as she stepped backwards. “You never cared about us as it was, and we would rather have gone with her. If the judge hadn’t been your drinking buddy, she would have won custody of us.”

  Will raised his hand as he stepped forward, “I’ll teach you respect, you disrespectful little bitch.”

  “What in the fuck…” Bill began to say as he rounded the corner of the bunker, taking in the scene.

  He was cut off by the single gunshot that hit the ground next to Will. Alvin spoke in a cold anger, his voice strangled with the emotion. “If you so much as lay a single finger on her or your son, so help me, I will put a bullet through your empty skull.”

  Will spun on Alvin, spitting the words out with a snarl. “I told you to stay out of this. You only want to fuck her, it’s not like you care about her. She’ll end up a whore, just like her mother. Her and my useless son, utter disappointments the both of them.”

  “You should be leaving,” Bill told Will in a calm tone, but his hand rested on his own 1911.

  “Don’t,” Becky said to them, her hands held out pleadingly as she stepped forward, towards her father’s back. “I’m sorry, Dad, but calm down, okay?”

  When Becky reached out and touched Will’s shoulder he spun. His hand caught the side of her face, the slap sounding like a gunshot.

  Two shots rang out in quick succession. One took Will in the back, punching through his heart. The other one went right through his head, removing his deranged mind from his body. As Will collapsed, other people came around the corner to find both Alvin and Bill holding their guns.

  “Dad!” David yelled as he rushed forward to check his father, only to find a dead body. He met Becky’s eyes as she lay on the ground, one hand held to her discolored cheek. “He hit you?”

  Becky nodded, her words slightly slurred due to her injured jaw, “They warned him not to. He slapped me just like he used to do to mom.” She wiped at some of the gore that covered her, her eyes full of a perverse joy briefly before they became blank.

  David looked at his dead father, tears spilling from his eyes. “You stupid son of a bitch…
” he sobbed. Reaching for Becky and pulling her into a tight hug, the blood and brain that covered her squishing between them. “Fuck. Now what do we do?”

  Alvin holstered his gun as he watched the siblings, glad that another abusive fuck had died. “You can both stay here as long as you follow the simple rules that Bill puts in place. I’m sorry this happened, but I will not stand by while people are abused.” He walked away, his face devoid of emotion.

  Alvin didn’t hear what happened next as he walked away. He went over to the Draftsman table and brought up the interface. The Overseer position turned out to be in the job section of the interface. He tapped it to pull up what information he could about it. He was only vaguely aware of people moving past him as he worked at the interface.

  Overseer: The job of the Overseer is to oversee day to day operations in the Settlement. (Go figure.) The Overseer is granted access to the production buildings and the Draftsman table. The Overseer is able to assign jobs to other settlers, as well as building new structures and upgrading existing ones. The Overseer also has the authority to establish diplomatic relations with other Settlements and to set up trade caravans.

  Alvin didn’t need to think about it as he tapped the job then slotted Susan into it. She had been the most levelheaded of all of the people he had met to this point, and it was her house that the Settlement was based on. After he assigned her, he looked the options open to him with the current Settlement XP. The total currently sat at 30,000, which would allow him to expand the current bunker, set up a new housing structure, or build various buildings like a medical facility or an inn. The walls could be changed, or expanded to gain more ground inside of them, all at varying costs.

  He pushed the walls out, sliding the processing buildings out as well to keep them on the outskirts. When he finished that, he built an inn with a dozen rooms. It contained a large kitchen and a big common area, as well. He added two extra rooms to the Bunker, along with another bathroom, to give them more room.

  The inn said it needed a person to run it. The job was obviously called Innkeeper. He put Terry into that position. Before he stopped, he noticed all of the projects had time listed for them to complete but none of them were ticking down. Frowning, he checked the table more and found they needed a Builder. He assigned David to that spot and the timer began to slowly tick down on the walls.

  He added up all the time required, sighing as he saw that it was going to take a week for all of the projects to finish. That would be less than optimal. He played around with the table some more and learned that the time for building projects could be reduced by using items produced by the other buildings. The amount of the time reduction would depend on whether they used raw materials or finished materials.

  A single copper bar would reduce the time needed to build the inn by a quarter of an hour, but a copper pipe would knock it down by a full hour. But it had to be a copper pipe produced by a metal worker, which meant he would need a Smithy. Shaking his head, he closed the interface, “Well, it’s going to be a long project.”

  “It is our life now,” Susan chimed in softly from behind him.

  Alvin turned to her, “True enough, shitty as that might be. People like Will are going to end up more and more common. I can’t let that kind of issue go on. Abusers deserve a special place in hell. That is one thing I can’t look past.”

  Susan met his cold eyes, she swallowed at the obvious lack of remorse he felt for killing another man. “Any other things we should be aware of, then?” Her voice was calm.

  “Not that I can think of.”

  “James is going to start playing, will you be joining us?”

  Alvin shook his head, “I’m going to shut myself into the chemical plant and see if that will get me back to my cell. You’re the Overseer now. David will be working on expanding the compound for the next week and Gran will be in charge of the Inn when it’s built. A dozen rooms should help alleviate the sleeping arrangements. The table will tell you everything now that you have full access.”

  Susan gave him a small smile, “I don’t blame you for what you did, just so you know. David and Becky just told me some of what they’ve dealt with. Why me as Overseer?”

  “You’ve been the most levelheaded person so far,” he shrugged. “No other reason. Go ahead and enjoy your boyfriend’s music.”

  Susan’s lips ticked up slightly as he called James her boyfriend, “Thank you, Alvin. You helped us get out of the hospital, you made this growing Settlement possible, and you’re willing to do more.”

  His lips turned up ever so slightly as he felt a brief wash of emotion, before it faded away. “You’re welcome.” He walked away as he felt the ice start to crack over his emotional core. He shut himself into the building and sat down as he considered what he was.

  “A killer. Cold hearted, ruthless and pragmatic,” he whispered to himself as he waited for the light to take him back to his cell.

  “Welcome home, sir,” Jarvis greeted him. “Things look like they have gotten complicated.”

  “Life always is, Jarvis,” Alvin replied as he used the facilities. “Just going to get some sleep before going back in. Wake me at six in the morning.”

  “Of course, sir,” Jarvis replied as the lights dimmed.

  ~ ~ ~

  Waking on his own Alvin stretched as he sat up. “Time?”

  “It is a few minutes before six, sir.”

  “Okay,” Alvin got dressed, used the bathroom and bought a regrowth kit. “I want to make sure I remember this right, the regrowth kit replaces any damaged body part, except the head and torso?”

  “Correct, sir,” Jarvis replied crisply. “It cost 2000 XP, but that is worth the cost of an arm or leg we think.”

  “The Healing Potion for 5k though, it heals the entire body while also regrowing all limbs except the head?”

  “That is correct,” Jarvis answered.

  “Well, a medkit and regrowth kit seem like a good compromise for now. I’ll be back later Jarvis. I plan to stay here every night, at least until the inn is built.” He purchased the items he wanted.

  “Very well, sir,” Jarvis intoned. “Please don’t forget to save up for the AI Hologram Power.”

  “I know, Jarvis,” Alvin grunted as he hit the enter world button.

  He appeared in the chemical plant and walked over to the bunker door. When he reached the main room, almost everyone else in the Settlement was there. They stared at him as he entered. “Is there a problem?”

  “Are you going to kill us?” Barbara asked, her voice trembling slightly.

  “Are you going to abuse someone?”

  “Of course not.”

  “Then you should be safe.” He turned to Gran, “Any idea how long until breakfast is ready?”

  “Another minute or two,” Terry told him as she rocked in her chair. “How are you holding up?”

  “Fine,” he looked around the room, not seeing David or Becky. “How are they doing?”

  Bill walked in from the dining room, “Becky is helping Susan in the kitchen. David just woke up a minute ago. They’re both coping. Better than I had expected, actually.”

  “Good,” Alvin leaned against the wall. His eyes closed before he spoke again, “If you could all stop looking at me like I’m a rabid animal, that would be nice.”

  “We just don’t know what you might do next,” Betty added. “It makes us uneasy.”

  Sighing, Alvin shook his head, “Look, unless you’re going to abuse someone or try to kill someone inside the compound, you’re safe. I don’t just kill people at random, so stop it.” The words came out cold, devoid of any emotional warmth that would normally be in a person’s voice.

  “Food is up,” Becky called from the doorway, her words still a little slurred due to her damaged jaw.

  Alvin opened his eyes to look at Becky. She was watching him. He couldn’t read her expression, but she stepped out into the main room as the others went by her. Once it was just the two of them she came o
ver to stand before him, her eyes searching his face.

  “Why did you do it?” she asked as she met his gaze.

  Lips turning down, he gritted his teeth for a second before he told her. “I was an abused child. I can’t let another person end up like I did. I killed my abuser at the age of eight. It took them a while to find out that I was just a victim. I warned him, but when he hit you I reacted.”

  She kept her eyes on his, “You saved me and David once before. When he turned on me, you reacted to save me again.” She licked her lips as they quivered slightly, “You have been my hero twice now.”

  He met her conflicted gaze with his mostly emotionless one. “I’m no hero, Gothy. I’m a very flawed person, deeply scarred and broken.”

  “We all are to some degree,” she said as she leaned into him. “Will you hold me for a minute?”