A few of them raised their hands, and Allistor moved among them handing out more food. He made a mental note to get a resupply from Meg.
“While you’re eating, any questions you want to ask me?”
“I have a question for your people.” a man next to Juanita spoke up. When Allistor nodded for him to go ahead, he continued. “Sort of the same question he asked about Jesse. I can’t tell if this guy is for real, or if he’s jerkin’ our chains. How does he treat you?” He was looking at Amanda as he spoke.
She laughed, and smacked Allistor’s butt. “I’m not the best person to ask, because he’s my… boyfriend? I guess. We smooch and stuff.” She winked at the guy. “But I’ll tell you I’ve fought beside this man, and watched him risk his own neck time and again to save strangers.”
Helen spoke next. “Yeah, might be better to ask this when we take you to the other building. Lots of people to ask there. Allistor’s my best friend, and I’m one of his Ministers. We have been together nearly every day since… what? About two weeks after the apocalypse? He’s a young man of character, with a big heart. He bends over backwards to make sure we’re safe, and thriving rather than just surviving.”
Fuzzy just snorted and continued sniffing at the humans.
Kira put her hand up, then quickly lowered it, blushing. “I’m Kira. My husband Gene and I just met Allistor a few days back. We were sent to him by one of those asshat leaders he was talking about. The man left us stranded in a remote Outpost with no supplies. We were barely feeding ourselves. He was so bad, his own men killed him a few days ago, and then partnered up with Allistor and company to clear a dungeon. This morning, Allistor trusted me to pilot his new ship here. Then left me and Gene alone with it while he went to clear buildings. I don’t think it even entered his mind that we might steal it. And for good reason. I’d trust him with my daughters the same way.”
This seemed to have an effect on several of the prisoners. Their shoulders relaxed slightly, and their faces brightened a bit.
Ramon shrugged. “I don’t much like him. He’s often quite smelly, and constantly bleeding all over the place. The day I met him he got all up close and huggy with a void titan, got covered in slime, and smelled like burnt anal leakage. And look at that face. Only a mother could love that face.” He winked at the crowd, getting a few laughs.
Allistor blew a kiss at Ramon, who returned the gesture. “All of you will get a chance to ask that question of others soon enough. Anybody else got a question?”
“How did you get to be a Prince?” a woman near the end of the table asked.
“Well, there were a couple of stages. But long story short, Helen here was a park ranger. For the national parks. She sort of gifted me all the parks under her jurisdiction, and the amount of land involved, combined with the number of people who’ve joined me and the resources we have managed to gather earned me the title.”
“So you weren’t some kind of royalty or anything before the apocalypse?”
Allistor snorted. “I was a college student from a small town in Wyoming, who spent most of my life playing VRMMORPG games.” He paused and raised his hand. “Any of you gamers?” Six of the ten put up tentative hands. “The knowledge I absorbed from those games helped me keep some of these folks alive in the early days. You all know what I’m talking about. I’m sure you had similar experiences. From there, things just kind of snowballed. Part of it was pure luck.”
Several of the gamers nodded their heads, and there were even a few smiles. “So anyway, most of my Strongholds are in the west, up and down the Rockies. I have a pretty new set of Strongholds out on the west coast, and as of today I’ve got this City here on the east coast. We have allies in Strongholds scattered across the south, midwest, and southeast.”
“Damn, you’ve been busy.” Juanita begrudgingly complimented him. “I don’t think any of us have been outside about a ten mile radius of Central Park since it happened.”
“Where’d you get the spaceship?”
“That was a reward from the system after I built the first Citadel on Earth. They delivered it earlier today. You guys want to check it out?” Everyone got up and exited the fort, walking to the ship and following Gene as he gave them a tour. He’d had plenty of time to explore, and Allistor was impressed with how much he knew about the ship’s layout and systems already.
Fifteen minutes later, they walked down the ramp back into the park. “Alright, let’s head over to the new Stronghold. Newer Stronghold, I guess. You guys can look around, mingle, ask more questions. But if you get hostile with any of my people, things will go badly for you. Everybody understand?”
A few of them put hand to heart and bowed their heads, the others simply nodding. Allistor led them onto the teleport pad. “We’re now going to teleport to the other building. It’s safe, trust me. I’ve been through these things about a thousand times in the last half-year. But if any of you are uncomfortable using it, one of us can drive you in the Juggernaut.”
Nobody spoke up, so Allistor said, “Nigel, if you please?” and they disappeared. A moment later they appeared in the lobby of the new high rise, several of them grabbing onto each other for balance. Allistor smiled kindly at them, remembering his first time.
“Sorry, I should have warned you about that. Forgot how it is the first time. It gets easier, I promise.”
The prisoners looked around, eyes wide at seeing battle droids scattered through the building and humans walking past as if they were the most natural things in the world.
“Okay, folks. I am sure Meg has set up a dining hall around here somewhere. I don’t know where it is myself, since I left to meet you before this place was set up. But feel free to look around. I ask that you don’t leave this floor, or go outside without checking with me first. Other than that, roam around and talk to folks. Explore. There’s a market kiosk over there if you’d like to order something. I’ll be right here, if one of you will let me know when Jesse is close?” He took a seat on a sofa that had been part of the lobby furniture, after brushing some broken glass off the cushions.
Juanita nodded, “I’ll find you as soon as I hear from him.”
The visitors initially remained clumped in a group, taking in their surroundings. But eventually they drifted apart and left the lobby.
Allistor opened his interface and the red file he’d tagged. Sure enough, there were notices about Jesse’s Stronghold and four Outposts that were all within his new City. There were three other Strongholds inside his lands as well, with accompanying Outposts for all but one. He spent a couple minutes zooming in on their locations on his mini-map and putting blue stars on each. Maybe Jesse could give him some information on the others, or even reach out to them, so that Allistor wouldn’t have to approach potentially hostile walls yet again.
He’d finished with the red file and was starting to read some of the legal language in his City tab when Juanita approached. “Jesse’s five minutes away.”
Allistor thanked her and got up, walking out through the main doors to await their arrival. Juanita followed him out, along with two of her people. All but one of the Juggernauts were still parked in the street along with several ranks of idle battle droids. Allistor noticed upgrades on several of them.
It wasn’t long before a black SUV with bars welded to the windows and a cowcatcher on the front pulled up. Allistor gave a friendly wave and took a few steps forward, but he stopped dead when a rifle barrel poked out of the front passenger window.
“That’s close enough!” a voice called from inside the vehicle.
“Put that thing away, Henry!” Juanita shouted. “You fire that weapon and we’re all dead in five seconds or less, you grumpy old futz!”
There was a delay of about five seconds or so before the barrel retreated. Then all four doors opened, and four men stepped out. Juanita whispered, “Jesse is the one with the short brown hair. Behind Henry.”
Allistor looked at the man. He appeared to be in his forties, with a f
it build and short brown hair that was going grey. He wore a pair of sunglasses that kept Allistor from seeing his eyes, but he moved with calm assurance.
“Welcome, Jesse, and companions. I’m Allistor. Please come inside. You’re safe here.” He motioned for the men to step past him, and Juanita gave them a reassuring smile before leading them inside. They moved to the same sitting area Allistor had just occupied, and took seats. Allistor took his seat last, this time in a chair with a high back. He’d decided to meet with them alone, but Helen, Amanda, and several others were nearby. Unsuccessfully pretending not to be paying attention.
“Thank you for coming. I’m sure I’m not the most popular guy in your book right now, but I’d like the opportunity to introduce myself, and explain what’s happened today.” Allistor began, leaning forward and putting his elbows on his knees, his hands together almost in a gesture of prayer.
“I’m listening.” Jesse replied, his tone neutral.
“First, I want you to know that I claimed this area of Manhattan on the spur of the moment. It wasn’t planned. I didn’t come here intending to displace any of you. I came to claim the Federal Reserve depository. One thing led to another, and the system offered me the chance to create a Capital City that covers basically the lower half of Manhattan.”
Jesse’s expression and tone didn’t change. “We’re aware. We saw the notice, and the walls that popped up across the park.”
“Okay, good. You’ve built yourself a Stronghold and several Outposts, so you know how it works. I won’t waste time on the logistics. What I will spend a little time explaining is my reasoning.” He paused looking around at all the faces. A few more of Juanita’s people had joined them, and Allistor’s people had drifted a little closer. Nancy and Chloe had come in and positioned themselves behind Allistor.
“The aliens are here. And more are going to be coming every day for a while. They’ll claim as much of this planet as they can. I don’t want that. I want Earth to remain a human planet. But there simply aren’t enough of us left to hold it all. So I’m claiming what I can, and making safe places for my fellow humans to gather and get stronger. I’ve been doing that all year, and in a little while several groups are going to take off in my spaceship to go claim some more places like this.”
“Oh, forgot to tell you. He has a spaceship.” Juanita grinned at Jesse, who seemed to resist grinning back.
“A space yacht.” one of the others corrected her. “It’s all fancy ‘n’ stuff.” The man rolled his eyes. This time Jesse did crack a grin.
“Anyway, I wanted to meet you because I’d like to talk to you about joining us. We have a large number of facilities across the country now…” Allistor went into his pitch, outlining all the benefits of becoming one of his citizens, and talking about some of his experiences with other leaders, both good and bad.
When he was finished, Jesse leaned forward and mimicked Allistor’s pose. “And if we tell you to screw off? That we were here first?”
“Well, if you’re not interested in swearing the oath and joining us, I would hope your refusal would be more polite than ‘screw off’. That way we could maybe be friends, and work out some kind of way where you stay in the Stronghold you’ve already claimed. Or you could choose to be unfriendly, in which case things would go downhill from there. I’d offer you a park or someplace to resettle outside my City, and invite you to leave. Maybe even send my battle droids to clear the building you choose so you don’t risk your people. I’d even make sure you have the resources to build a new Stronghold. If you refuse, then we’ll move you. How difficult and dangerous that gets would be up to you. But I’ll tell you now that you don’t want to take me on.”
The guy who made the joke about the yacht spoke up. “I was talking to the droids before you got here, Jesse. He has fifteen thousand of them. He could wipe us out without spilling a drop of his people’s blood.”
Allistor grimaced. “Let me emphasize. I would sincerely prefer the scenario where you join us. Barring that, I hope for friendly relations. Every human life is precious to me, and I’ve had to end too many of them already. The burden of that is heavy, and I don’t want to make it heavier.”
Jesse looked around at his people, his face still revealing no emotion. “You mind if we take some time to think about it? Maybe look around a little, then talk it over?”
“Feel free! It’s a big decision to make, I know. Meg should have the evening meal ready in about half an hour. I’ll ask the same of you as I did Juanita and the others. Please don’t leave this floor, or exit the building, without checking with me first. Otherwise, poke around, speak to whomever you like, ask questions. This building covers the entire block, and I haven’t even explored it myself yet. So I look forward to hearing what you find. I’ll be right here until the dinner bell rings.”
As everyone got up, he added, “Oh! If you get lost, just ask Nigel for directions. He’s the AI that runs all of my properties. He can hear you and speak to you from anywhere in the building. Please say hello, Nigel.”
“Good afternoon, human visitors. I am pleased to make your acquaintance. Simply call my name if you need assistance.”
Juanita snorted. “So you’ll be watching us wherever we go?”
Allistor thought about that for a moment. “No, I don’t think Nigel has cameras. Nigel, do you have cameras?”
“There are antiquated visual observation devices still mounted to the ceilings of this structure. However their input is far inferior to my own sensors, so I have disconnected them. I do not ‘watch’ the sentients within my sensor range, I am simply aware of your locations and identities, should Prince Allistor need to reach one of you. Your activities within the building, provided they are not hostile, are of no concern to me.”
“Or to me. Except as I mentioned before, I’d like to hear about any cool places you discover.” Allistor added. “Thank you, Nigel.”
“Of course, Sire.”
Allistor spread his hands wide, motioning for the folks to feel free to wander. Everybody but Jesse got up and either wandered away, or approached someone to talk to.
“You have more questions.” Allistor stated, leaning back in his chair.
“I do. Mostly personal questions, if you don’t mind.”
“I’ll trade you. You ask me some questions, and answer mine.”
Jesse nodded. “How many humans have you killed?”
“Me personally? Or including the ones my people have killed as well.”
“Let’s start with you personally.”
“Somewhere between twenty and thirty.” Allistor responded, not needing to think about it. “There have been a few times, like in Denver when we attacked Paul’s people, that I was firing mostly blind into a building, and do not know who I hit.” He watched Jesse’s face as he spoke. Still no indication of what the man was thinking.
“And the ones you know you killed?”
“Every one of them was either trying to kill me and mine, or had hurt, imprisoned, or killed others. Earl and his men had trapped a group of survivors inside their Stronghold, killed several of them, stolen their food, and prevented them from getting more. They were starving the residents out. There was a group of three tweakers on a rooftop in Denver that opened fire on us when we refused to give them our truck. An entire group of survivors in Laramie were killing, capturing, and enslaving other humans across the city. Those are the types of humans I’ve killed.”
“And how many humans have you saved?” Jesse asked, his voice just as deadpan as before.
“Well, saved is probably an overstatement for most of them. But there are close to ten thousand survivors living in my various properties at the moment. Some I kept alive personally, others were doing okay on their own, but chose to join me in order to do better than okay.”
“And if I join you? Where would I fit in?”
“Well, for the most part, Stronghold leaders who chose to join me have continued to run their Strongholds as part of my larger�
�� well now I suppose it’s a nation. Most of them also serve as my advisors and Ministers. We obviously just met, but I already know you have some strength and leadership qualities. If we get along okay once we know each other better, I would offer you a similar position, assuming you’re interested. Or you can just go off and craft, hunt, tinker, whatever it is you like to do. I only require that everyone contribute, I don’t care how.”
“Contribute?”
“Some of my people have salaried positions that serve the others. Teachers, builders, mechanics, laundry, cooks, gardeners, cowboys, custodial staff, et cetera. Others contribute by crafting useful items, which they can sell to fellow survivors or to me at a discount from what the buyers would have to pay to purchase the same quality item on the market. Some of the items I buy for distribution to raid parties, hunters, and the like. The people out there risking their lives.”
Jesse nodded, thinking. After a moment, he asked, “Where’d you get the bear?”
“Ha! Fuzzy here is my bonded companion. I met him in the woods after we both got a little lost. He was just a tiny cub, and his mom was nowhere around. We sort of adopted each other.”
“So you can bond with pets just like in the VR games.” Jesse observed. “Didn’t know that one. We don’t have a lot of wildlife around here. And what we do find, we generally eat.” He held out a hand, and Fuzzy went over to give it a sniff, then headbutt it, demanding scratches.
Allistor laughed. “Fuzzy is different than your in-game pets. He definitely has a mind of his own, and only listens to me when he feels like it. Lately I’ve been having trouble keeping him from charging into boss fights when I’ve told him to stay out of it.”
Jesse scratched the bear’s ears for a minute or so, not speaking. His next question surprised Allistor.
“What about laws around here?”
Allistor sighed. “I haven’t spent a whole lot of time on that. We’ve operated pretty much on a common decency basis. Combined with a little eye for an eye. You get caught stealing, you get sent away. Banished to live out in the wild. You kill somebody, you die. But I suppose with the way we’re growing, we’ll have to establish a clear set of laws. Or just continue to use the ones we already had in place before this all started. I’ve only met one surviving lawyer among all my people.” He thought about it a little bit more, then added, “Also, all my people swear an oath not to harm me or mine, and the system enforces it, or so I’m told. So far that hasn’t been tested, and I don’t know what the penalties would be.”
Shadow Sun Rebellion Page 8
