Vice Bunker 58 (Patreon)

Vice Bunker

Chapter 58

-VB-

The fusion towers worked their magic, and there was now a noticeable temperature difference in the Eastern New Hampshire area compared to its surrounding areas. 

Hell, there were smaller pockets around the fusion towers where temperatures rose up to 33 degrees fahrenheit or 0.5 degree Celsius. For everyone who’s been either underground or suffering the winter apocalypse’s tender cold mercies, half a degree above freezing outside of the cramped hallways and bunkers was a blessing. 

People were immigrating into my city faster than before as well. 

There were actually enough people that I needed to start assigning them housing based on … whatever criteria I made up. 

I would have left it to Kali, Danny, and their administration, but I didn’t want to have them shoulder the blame if they fucked up. 

I wasn’t being soft about that. There were very few people that I trusted, and Danny was only trusted because he was my only-father-in-law. If my only trusted people got too stressed, too hurt, and too weak from the constant fighting they had to do, then they would eventually have to step down for their health. Aside from the fact that this would be hurting them, it would deprive me of good administrator and subordinates.

Unacceptable.

So I will be the merciless ruler who takes the blame and allow my capable family and subordinates keep the wheels of civilization turning. 

There was a clunk, and I turned my main body’s focus toward the circular bunker door that kept people out. Only people who would have access to it were people I trusted. 

And the door opened. Not long after, Danny Hebert stepped through the door, through the short corridor, and stopped at the edge of my pool of body. 

“... alright, I’m here. Don’t know why or how he got an underground lake,” Danny muttered to himself, not understanding - still - that the very black pool in this dimly lit chamber was me. “Holy shit, how big is this place?”

The cavern looked natural. And should be. I made it that way. 

“Ah, Danny,” I spoke up, making my voice emanate from everywhere at once. I wanted to see his reaction! “Welcome to my home.”

Danny jolted and looked around. He didn’t panic or even look too surprised.

Damn. The man was too used to my antics when I got playful. 

“Alan? Where are you?”

I grinned. “In front of you.”

He turned around.

And then he stopped and stared at the lapping water mere inches from his boots. He stared at the “water.”

“... No way,” he muttered to himself as he slowly looked up from his feet and “beach” of the “underground lake” and toward the horizon.

With his Mark 1 eyeballs, he couldn’t see the end of the lake. 

“Oh yes, that is me,” I drawled as I slowly raised a body up from the lake. Instead of my usual octopus legged butler uniformed appearance, I chose something far more … visceral. 

Danny almost took a step back when I rose up not as a human but a serpent. A big, thick serpent oozing the same black liquid as the lake that dribbled down slowly from its entire length. 

My serpent head was as big as a school bus and the entire length that I was showing Danny was longer than three football fields right now, just coiled up into multiple spools in front of Danny. 

“First time seeing the true me, Danny Hebert?” I asked him as I lazily slithered around until I was the only thing in his vision. I was probably the largest moving thing he’s ever seen, and the man must have seen oil tankers before. 

Danny’s comically wide eyes behind his glasses told me that I’ve had the impact on him that I have been looking to make. 

“Y-You’re… big,” he said without whimpering. 

If I appeared on the surface as I was now back before the moon-pocalypse, then I would have been declared an Endbringer right there and then. And considering that I could convert any matter into more nanites at this point, they would have been right to declare me an Endbringer. 

But I wasn’t in that timeline and wasn’t on the surface. 

“Yes, I guess I am,” I hummed before I dropped the goofy snake-smile. “But time is wasting. Let’s get down to business. You know what I called you here for?”

“To … discuss new policies for your … state.”

Danny was still getting used to the fact that the USA was no more. Honestly, if I wasn’t in a position of power myself, then that would sting me, too. But I had a family to protect now. Sentimentality had no place among my duties and responsibilities. 

“Yes. And the current problem is the influx of migrants, isn’t it?” I asked. 

“It is.”

“And no one wants to make the bad decision.”

“... I don’t understand.”

I slithered down until I was looking at Danny with one of my snake eyes. “Are you sure you don’t?” I asked. When he remained silent, I shrugged and lifted my head up so that I was staring down at him again. “Very well. Let me spell it out for you. Many of the migrants we have in the city are useless fucks who came here because they couldn’t make it out in New York City under Alexandria and her strict rules. Half of them don’t have skills of any kind and the other half have skills that I don’t particularly care about.” Because who cared about how well they once managed a company of a thousand employees? “But they want the same thing you and the original residents have now but even with me providing a lot of the resources, it’s starting to strain, isn’t it?” Both logistically and socially. America may be dead and dying but most of its people had yet to catch up.

After a long moment, he nodded. “Yes.”

“Then the solution is simple. Tiered residency. Those who help are helped in return. Those who loiter and laze are given the scraps. Enough to live but not enough to … have ideas,” I hissed, even making a forked tongue just for the show. “Why should I provide excellent food to people who shit talk me on the surface? Why should I allow them to live easily where they can see the sun without the blizzards freezing them to death?” I leaned back down. “So this is my decree, Danny. Those who help are allowed to live where they want and eat what they want. Those who do not help are to stay underground and given only nutrient pastes.”

He grimaced. “Nobody wants the pastes.”

They were vile things that I concocted up. Just in case I needed them. 

“Then they better start helping, hmm?” I asked. “And since I am taking care of so much stuff… perhaps able bodied migrants can all don on some armor and guns and be my soldiers. If not, well, they should be thankful they don’t have frostbites and have something to fill their stomach. I’ll even be gracious and offer them pizza sunday.” I let out a hissing laugh before cutting it off abruptly. “But make no mistake, Danny. This is not a suggestion. I am not going to tolerate division not of my making in my city. They will eat like pigs and live quietly or offer something and be better off for it.”

He didn’t reply for a while. And when he did…

“What about people with special needs?”

He was the better man between the two of us. 

“If you can’t take care of them, then just send them down to my humble abode,” I eye-smiled. “I’ll be sure to make their ends painless. A gentle sleep where they play their favorite games forevermore.” 

The way his face changed was both a delight and a little sad. 

Because I think it was at that moment I became something truly monstrous in his eyes. 

But what was that quote? 

To fool your enemies, fool your allies first. Or something.