Amazon Apocalypse: Chapter 13 (Patreon)

"Murder?" I asked.

It hadn't even been a full day, and we'd  gone from a society of law and order to plotting the death of a fellow  human. I would've liked to say it was wrong, but I'd killed those  escaped prisoners a few hours ago in full view of the survivors we were  rescuing. I didn't have room to talk.

"That's right. Cold,  premeditated murder," Ben said. "It's best to put it out there here and  now. That's what we're going to do. Craig's a problem, but now that we  have guns of our own we've finally taken his advantage and matched it.  Before he was able to push us around and pluck people from our ranks as  he pleased. What if he starts demanding part of our supplies? Are we  just going to let him and his gang leech off of us?"

Sakura  frowned. "You said it yourself. You have guns now. Why would he even  think he can push you around still? Yes, Craig's a pushy, arrogant  asshole. But he isn't suicidal."

"He used to hold the advantage,  and he pushed it as hard as he could," Ben replied. "Now we hold the  advantage, but who's to say that will hold? What if Craig and his gang  get lucky and stumble across an army supply depot? If he's driving down  the street in a tank we'll be right back to square one. No, we need to  nip this problem now when we have the chance to do so."

"Hold on,"  Michael Thompson the exterminator said. "I said I was prepared to kill  whatever ugly monster reared its head at humanity. I didn't sign up to  plot murder. I don't know who this Craig guy is, but I want no part in  killing him." His cheeks flushed red and he scowled at the rest of the  group, as though unable to believe he was sitting before a bunch of  fellow humans. He put his hands on the table and pushed himself to his  feet. Reaching down, he picked up his bottle of pesticide and looked  like he was about to storm off in a huff.

Ben's lips drew thin, and he glanced at Margaret with a look that probably meant 'I told you so' or something along those lines.

"We're  going to do that too, trust me," Margaret held her hands up. "Just wait  awhile, please. If you don't want to talk about Craig, then don't  forget we'll be doing the settlement quest too."

Michael grumbled  something under his breath. "I'll be here for that. But for now, I'd  rather wait outside. Come and get me when you're done with this little  conspiracy of yours. I don't want to hear it."

He left the conference room, and Ben closed the door behind him.

"Sorry, hun," Margaret said as she gave Ben a hug. "I really thought he'd see reason."

"It's alright, dear. Michael there hasn't met Craig in person. Once he talks to the man, he might change his opinion on murder."

I chuckled. "Craig has that effect on people."

Ben  turned his eyes to stare at everyone left in the room. "I take it that  by remaining the rest of you are open to the idea of eliminating Craig  before he becomes a liability?

Stacy nodded. "Of course."

Brett  tapped his fingers against the table for a moment before nodding as  well. "I've asked around. Like Michael I don't work here and don't know  this Craig from a horse's ass. But if this many people hate his guts bad  enough to want him dead I doubt he's the kind of guy I'd want to make  friends with. I'm in."

Caleb nodded immediately. "One time about a  year ago when I was getting a drink he thought I was Bridget and  slapped my ass by mistake. I told him I'd kill him for that one day."  Caleb drained his cup of steaming hot tea in one gulp. "I'm no liar."

Sakura  sighed. "He is a danger to the rest of the office. And if he was out of  the picture, my old employees would be free to seek safety with you  guys. I imagine they're starting to realize their error in their choice  of leadership by now."

All eyes turned to me. Ben spoke with a  grim face. "Carter, you're probably the key to all of this. Nobody is  closer to him in level than you, and you'd understand best if it's even  possible to take him down. As people gain levels, we've seen them do  some pretty inexplicable stuff, like that finger attack of yours."

I  drummed my fingers against the table. I couldn't help but feel that  we'd be crossing a line if we did this. If we killed Craig, we'd be  setting a prescedent that we could just kill anyone who was  inconvenient. Was this the end of Ben's promised democracy before it  even began?

But Craig was a threat to us all, that was undeniable. The only question was if it really had to come to this.

I  saw the look in everyone's eyes. They were doing this one way or  another. I didn't like it, but I could see why they thought it had to be  done. And if I wanted to make sure it was done right, I'd have to get  my hands dirty as well.

I nodded slowly. "It is possible to  kill someone at a high level. He might have a way to deflect firearms,  but if you use enough bullets you should still be able to overwhelm his  defenses."

I was talking mostly about my own Deflect ability,  though I didn't plan to divulge the details of that spell. The main  value it had was in stopping surprise attacks, and it couldn't do that  if people knew how it worked. They'd just have two people shoot me at  the same time.

No. I trusted Ben, but it seemed to me that special  lifesaving spells like Deflect should be kept as secret as possible.  And I was willing to bet that Craig had come to the same conclusion. If  he had a secret ability that would save him from a surprise attack, he  wouldn't have told anyone about it.

Ben sighed in relief.  "Good. It'll would be a big help to all of us if you would join our  little conspiracy, though. If he's got unknown unique abilities, we'd  like someone with unique unknown abilities of their own on our side."

I  met each of their gazes. "Alright, I'm in. But I want it done cleanly  and quietly. I don't want anyone outside this room to know what we  plotted here today. Let them think Craig died to monsters or something."

Ben  nodded. "Then we're of one mind. We need plausible deniability,  otherwise we won't be able to build a shelter based on a government of  rule and law."

***

When Margaret and Ben explained their  plan, I had to thank myself that they were on my side. I knew the  couple hadn't built a law office as successful as the one they had from  nothing by being pushovers, but to hear their plots myself was something  else.

They weren't taking any chances with Craig. He probably had  multiple ten stat point skills and maybe one twenty point skill, since  he was the highest level of anyone. When we made our move, we had to be  certain to take him down, since there was no telling if one of those  abilities would let him slip away. I'd never shared the details of my  vitality ability, but if Craig had something like my power to convert  mana into health points, he'd be tough to kill.

"Rumors is  he's close to reaching level ten," Ben said. "We need to take him out  before then. Just like with skills, level ten is supposed to be a  threshold."

"That's when you can get a class," I said. "We don't know what kind of bonuses that'll give him."

"Exactly," Ben nodded. "But we also can't just gun him down in the  street. There are a lot of people who think like Michael, and the story  will hurt us when we try to absorb Craig's splinter group. There will  probably still be rumors going around when we start meeting other  survivor groups. No, we need to make this look like an accident. Maybe  we can even give Craig a glorious death and claim he sacrificed himself  to complete the settlement quest. He'll certainly be more helpful to our  cause that way than if we leave him alive to stir up trouble."

"You  want to exhaust him in the fighting," I realized. "You'll invite him to  join in on the quest, then when he's out of bullets and low on health  points, we attack."

"He'll soften up the monster waves we'll have  to deal with for the quest too. And forcing his men to fight alongside  ours again will go a long way to quickly reintegrating his group. I  heard he picked up more survivors on his last food run, and some of  those guys look tough. A couple of them are even escapees from the local  prison," Margaret explained.

I drummed my fingers against the  table. "I still think it's a bit risky. You said he was close to level  ten? What happens if he levels up during the quest?"

Ben frowned.  "We'll just have to keep someone with the Examine skill on him. If he  levels up, we'll spring our plan early. Besides, it takes time to  allocate stat points and make System screen selections. It isn't like  he'll stand there fiddling with his menu in the middle of a battle."

I  wasn't entirely convinced, as I'd allocated stat points in a hurry  before. But most of the others nodded along, and presumably the class  selection screen would be even more complex. What were the chances Craig  would know he had to make his choices in a hurry?

So with the  plan in place, we invited Michael back in and talked about the quest we  were about to complete to establish a settlement.

"Shouldn't we  wait the full three days? We don't think the monsters have the Blessed  of the System title, which means they aren't getting the free bonus stat  points. That means us humans will be a lot stronger even if we don't  level up in that time," Michael argued.

Everyone looked at one  another. The real reason we were in such a hurry to complete the quest  was because it was part of our plan to deal with Craig. But given  Michael's earlier reaction, we couldn't exactly say that out loud.

Ben  came up with an explanation that didn't mention Craig at all.  "According to the quest description, the monsters we'll be facing will  probably be the same creatures we've been fighting on the streets, just  more of them. They probably have their own bonus that we're unaware of. I  don't know how, but they're definitely getting stronger with every  passing hour. We might be stronger in three days, but the monsters might  be as well."

I nodded along. "And we want to leverage the power  of those firearms. Some of those monsters at levels five and up took  three shots to kill. I imagine that is only going to increase as average  levels go up. We want to take full advantage of the power boost the  guns are giving us, and we want to exploit them to their fullest as  quickly as possible before it's too late to level with them."

Between the two of us, Michael yielded. He wasn't completely satisfied, but since everyone else was convinced yielded the topic.

After  that, we went into preparing the specifics. Mostly, that meant  assigning roles and combat leaders. It turned out Ben, Brett, and  Michael were all military veterans, so they would take the lead in  drilling our motley band of civilians into a group that could hold a  line with guns and defensive positions.

"Carter, I'm afraid you're  on your own. Officer training didn't cover how to use men who can shoot  bolts of magic or women who are frighteningly dangerous with a baseball  bat. If you don't mind, we'll give you the rear wall to guard. It's the  only part of the office we couldn't convert into a star fort," Ben  said.

The strange layout of the office was starting to make more  sense. Ben had been preparing for this all morning, and most of the  furniture and debris laid out was all meant to create kill corridors and  cover for people with guns.

"We'll hold," I promised. "And we'll help out those to either side of us if they're getting overwhelmed."

We  went through a lot of stuff about logistics and tactics. Ben was pretty  certain the quest would last about six hours, which would probably take  us just past sunset. That wasn't idea, since we still didn't know how  well high perception improved night vision. But Margaret had a solution  for that.

"The construction guys have an electric generator and a  bunch of floodlights for night time work. The only problem is the  generator doesn't work," Margaret said. "It's just like with the guns."

My eyes lit up. "You think taking them apart and putting them back together will fix whatever's wrong with them?"

Margaret shrugged. "It's worth a try. Otherwise we're going to have to fashion torches and lamps."

We  went through an itinerary one by one. Ben and Margaret had clearly put  just as much thought into completing this quest as they had into killing  Craig, though I had a bit of advice to add in here and there,  especially with regards to system-related topics.

"No, you want  people to be able to step back at any time and have their position  covered by an ally," I said when we were talking about combat shifts.  "That way they can allocate stat points before jumping back into the  fight."

"Hmm... that makes sense. We'll do it your way, Carter,"  Ben declared. "This means everyone needs to be in pairs of two. More  likely three if we want to be safe. I'm not sure we have that many  guns."

"The people on the front can share. If they're stepping  away, they can hand off what they're wielding to someone else while they  work on their stats."

The meeting lasted nearly an hour, and  after it came more meetings with all the army veterans Ben would be  relying on to command the various walls. We were losing daylight with  every moment wasted though, so Ben expedited things. I was impressed by  just how quickly he'd set up a chain of command in the shelter. One by  one, Ben took his most trusted people and had them wrap a strip of  orange cloth around their arms to signify that they were someone others  should listen to. Sakura and Caleb both got one. Ben gave me a white  one, which was the same color he and his wife wore.

"It doesn't mean anything right now," Ben said. "But maybe it will be once the shelter truly gets going."

"There's one last thing we have to do," I reminded him. "Craig."

Ben sighed. "Want to draw lots on who has to get him?"

***

In  the end, the two of us sent Margaret to get Craig, though I heard her  recruiting someone else to actually make the trip across the hall and  get him. For a while, I was worried Craig would ignore our invitation.  Ben and I were looking at one another ominously, since him simply  ignoring us was something we hadn't prepared for.

But our fears  proved unneeded a few minutes later when he appeared. Not just him  either. He had two dozen rough-looking men at his back, all tough and  strong. A pair of them were even wearing the same prison uniforms as the  two we'd run into earlier.

I was usually against judging people  based on cursory examinations of their appearance. Not everyone in the  local prison was a murderer. In fact, the local newspaper said most of  them were in there for minor non-violent drug related offenses. Sakura  had hired some staff from the local prison once and besides one  troublemaker they made fine employees.

But if I were a director  hiring a pair of street thugs, these two would have been perfect for the  job. From the scars on their cheeks to the missing teeth and the  ruthless gleams in their eyes, I knew those two were the kind of people  you wanted to stay away from.

And yet Craig kept the both of them  right behind him and in front of his other recruits, as though the two  of them held virtues he wanted the others to aspire to. The rest of  Craig's people seemed to have done their best to imitate them. The  sleeves had been ripped off their shirts, they discarded their work  clothes in favor of jeans or camouflage pants, and they walked with a  wide-legged aggressive gait. Craig wanted his people domineering,  assertive, aggressive, and one wrong word from turning to violence.

I didn't agree with his methods, but I couldn't argue with his results.

Human - Level 7

Human - Level 8

The  two wearing prison uniforms were the strongest of the bunch, with the  rest somewhere between levels four and six. That was as strong as  Sakura, Caleb, and Bridget were. Except instead of just three, Craig had  a dozen people at that level, eleven men, and one who might have been a  particularly masculine-looking woman, but that was up for debate.

I  was suspicious. There weren't that many high-level monsters in the  city. How had those two prisoners reached such a high level?

I was  pretty sure I knew the answer. The other prisoners Sakura and I took  out leveled by killing other humans. These two had probably gotten their  levels the same way. After all, I doubted the warden and guards let the  prisoners escape willingly. Nor did I think the prisoners all liked  each other and joined hands to help everyone get free. There had  probably been quite a blood bath that resulted in a number of  high-leveled individuals.

But the followers paled before their leader, the man himself.

Craig (Human) - Level 9

"Hello, Craig," Ben held out his hand for a shake.

Craig  accepted the gesture and gripped Ben's hand tight with a cocksure grin.  I saw Ben wince, though he hid the look quickly and broke the handshake  as soon as he could.

"Come over to our meeting room," Ben  gestured to the very room we'd been plotting Craig's murder in less than  an hour before. "Your men can wait outside."

"Nah. Anything you  have to say to me you can say in front of my boys here," Craig gestured  behind him. His followers chuckled, though the laughter had a dark  undertone.

Ben straightened his jacket. He'd tossed his tie aside and undone the buttons on his shirt, but the kept the coat.

"Alright  then. I have a unique quest I want to share with you," Ben began. A  moment later he shared his System screen, and it became visible to all  onlookers. Craig studied the screen, reading it over quite carefully.  The description for the settlement establishment quest wasn't long, but  he must have been reading it awfully carefully to take three whole  minutes to go through it.

"So you want me to be part of this quest. What's in it for me?" Craig asked.

"Use of the Obelisk if we win. The same as everyone else," Ben offered.

Craig snorted. "Do I look like everyone else?" He looked to his companions behind us. "Are any of us the same as everyone else?"

They responded with hollers and heckles.

"Hell no!"

"Fuck that!"

"Old man, you better offer us more than that or we'll just take it!"

"You  heard the boys." Craig turned back to Ben with a smug look on his face.  "Ya' know, I'm thinking this office isn't big enough for two survival  groups. You seem half-decent at managing the bullshit, so how about I  put you in charge of the campsite while I take care of the fighting. To  be honest, I was hoping Bridget would take the job, but since she's  being a bitch I'll offer it to you."

Ben scowled. "I'll pass, thank you very much."

Craig  snorted, looking Ben up and down. He was probably examining him, and  from the expression on his face he was unimpressed with Ben's current  level, which was just five. It was impressive for most, people, but it  put him a clear step behind Craig and his elites.

Craig turned to his companions. "Well boys, which of you lads wants to be the camp housewife in his place. Hands up!"

None of Craig's followers raised their hands.

"Well that sucks. Guess we're going to--"

Ben raised his hand and interrupted Craig in the middle of his next sentence. "I wouldn't if I were you."

A  dozen men and women armed with the firearms Sakura and I had just  acquired popped out of hiding and leveled their guns at Craig.

"Shit." One of Craig's followers took a step away from his boss.

"Guns?" Craig rolled his eyes. "Don't try to bluff me. I know they don't work."

"A  demonstration, then. Honey, my rifle." Ben held out his hand, and  Margaret placed his rifle in it. He pointed the rifle at the ceiling and  fired off a single round, loud and clear for all to see.

Craig  chewed on his lip as he examined the hole in the ceiling. Dust wafted  out of it and drifted to the floor below. He turned his eyes back to Ben  and the rifle in his hands, and there was a combination of hunger and  anger there. I watched his fingers twitch, and knew that Craig was on  the verge of making a very poor decision.

Sensing the direction talks were going, I realized it was time to make my presence known.

The  moment I stepped out of the crowd, Craig's eyes turned and snapped to  me. I stepped up to Ben's side, and his tense shoulders slumped when I  was standing there with him against Craig.

I felt the familiar tingle up my spine as Craig examined me, and I knew he was looking at my level.

"You've  leveled up." The smile fell from Craig's face and was replaced by a  scowl. He was still higher level than me, but he probably didn't have as  big a lead as he expected.

"I did."

Craig's hand stopped  moving, and his gun stayed where it was. My presence had changed his  mental calculations. If he thought he could take us before, he changed  his mind once he realized I was here and I was only one level below him.

For  all Craig's faults, he had been quick to adapt to the arrival of the  system, and he knew power when he saw it. He backed down, and the crisis  was averted.

"Now, about Ben's offer," I began, gesturing to Benjamin's screen on display.

Craig  fan his hand along his chin, nodding. "I see it. But my complaint from  before still stands. I want more than access to this obelisk thing. I'm  not getting a damn job when I can just kill things."

"See something else of interest, then?"

"Yeah.  This government thing. It says High Sword gets to be in charge of the  military and gets free shit? Sounds badass. I want that position. Make  me High Sword and me and my people will help you."

"I can't." Ben shook his head. "I promised that position to Carter."

Craig's eyes darted to meet mine. "I see. Well, shouldn't the position go to whichever of us is the strongest."

I shook my head. "A position like this one should go to whoever the most competent at the job."

Craig  grinned. "Yeah. And it sounds like the job is about kicking ass. What  do you say you and me take this outside, just you and me. My boys will  hang back, and you can't hide behind Sakura's skirt."

I grimaced. I  was a lot more powerful than I was before, but Craig was still a level  ahead of me. I knew how much every level was worth. Could I beat Craig?  It wasn't impossible. I could sacrifice mana to heal myself every time I  was shot, then hit him back with mana bolts. Assuming Craig didn't have  any special abilities to save him in that scenario, it would work. But  there were decent odds that he did have such abilities, and I wasn't  about to roll those dice.

"How about an alternative battle. The  two of us complete this quest and compare kills at the end of it.  Whoever took out the most enemies for the quest wins the position," I  suggested.

Craig scratched his chin and rolled his shoulders. "Sounds interesting. But--"

A message flashed up before our eyes.

Settlement Contribution Points unlocked!

Earn early Settlement Contribution Points by killing enemies in the Settlement Establishment Quest!

Points will be awarded according to enemies slain during the completion of the quest.

At  user suggestion, the position 'High Sword' will be available for  purchase at auction after the successful completion of the Settlement  Establishment Quest!

"Huh. Looks like the System thinks my idea has merit."

One of the prisoners behind Craig whirled around, looking left and right. "Shit man, is the damn thing spying on us?"

A few others were having a similar reaction. I played it cool though, as though I'd known this was exactly what would happen.

"Fine.  Deal. We'll hold our side of the office building," Craig huffed. Though  I could see a hint of fear in the corners of his eyes. That System  message suddenly appearing had frightened him, and he was starting to  think I might know something he didn't.

In truth, I was just as surprised as he was, but I wasn't about to admit it.

Craig  held out his hand for a handshake, but I sealed the deal with a fist  bump instead. I'd seen what he tried to do to Ben's hand, and I knew  Craig was petty enough to break a few bones just to prove he had more  strength points than I did.

With a glare, he turned and parted, marching back the way he'd come.

The  moment he was out of sight, Ben clapped me on the back. "Beautifully  done. I wish I had you at the negotiating table for some our our more  difficult clients."

I turned, and to Ben I gave a real handshake. "Let's get this quest started before we run out of daylight. Good luck."

***

The  office itself would be our rear line, and that's where the  noncombatants would hide. The actual battlefield would be around the  office, and we'd hopefully hold the barricades Ben's survivors had  constructed without needing to fall back to the office building itself.

The  rear front which I would be commanding and defending was the most  difficult to defend of the four sides. There were brick and mortar  buildings on all sides before the integration, and after the System  copied and pasted new buildings everywhere there were blind corridors  left and right. That meant people with guns would have far less time to  spot an enemy approaching and fire on them. For any other group that  would be a problem.

But I had Sakura, Caleb, and Bridget. The  three of them had all been putting points into physical stats, which  meant unlike everyone else they didn't fear getting up close and  personal with a monster and clubbing it to death with whatever  improvised weapon they had on hand. It made us far better suited to  guarding this front than any other group.

I'd expected it would just be us, but it turned out Benjamin was giving me a few extra people to help out.

"Hello,  sir! I'm Marcus. Mr. Fisher said that we were supposed to help you  however you needed." A young man saluted me. The clumsy way he did it  told me he probably wasn't one of Ben's army veterans. But Examine  showed that he'd proved his worth so far in the integration.

Marcus (Human) - Level 4

"Good  to meet you, Marcus. And I'm pleased to accept help from you and your  friends," Marcus had a half dozen friends, most on the younger side.  There were five men and three women, and they all seemed to be in better  shape than I usually expected of office workers, but that could have  just been the effect of the free stat points the System had distributed.  All in all, I'd be pleased to have them as backup, but I wasn't  completely confident in their ability to hold their own like I was for  Sakura, Caleb, and Bridget who stood beside me.

We were still introducing ourselves when a message flashed before all of our eyes.

Settlement Establishment Quest Initiated!

Would you like to join in the Establishment of Miyamoto Offices Shelter?

I selected yes, and several new features appeared before my vision.

Earn  Contribution Points for your participation in the settlement  establishment quest! These contribution points will be tradable for  rewards at the Obelisk upon successful completion of the Settlement  Establishment Quest.

Current Contribution Points: 0

Six hours remaining until quest completion.

I dismissed the quest and the counter began moving. I saw others peering away from their screens and into the shadows. In the dark alleys between the buildings we guarded, a thousand glowing eyes lit up and stared back at us.

<Note>

Whew, long chapter. Not sure I'll be able to swing a bonus chapter this week. I've analyzed output from a bunch of top novelist patreons and got roughly 12-16k words released a week on average (Shirtaloon, FirstDefier, Zogarth, etc.) So I'm pushing to just do the same output, only in fewer novel-sized chapters instead of more frequent webnovel sized chapters.

So basically, bonus chapters will definitely come when I've published less than 12k that week, but more only when writing is going good for me. Otherwise, it will be three per week as usual.

Things are a bit slow right now, mostly because 17-18 are very crucial chapters for the story. This early arc is going on about twice as long as I thought, but once we catch up we'll hit on some of the stuff we covered in the previous version of the story. Then we'll have the promised bonus chapters!

Carter Smith (Human, Level 8. Rank F)

Strength: 8

Agility: 6

Perception: 10

Vitality: 13

Intelligence: 23

Willpower: 8

Charisma: 8 (+4)

Luck: 0

Proficienciesroficienci:

Caster: 5

Neutral Mana: 2

Improvised Weapons: 2

Titles:

Forerunner of Earth, Integration Survivor,  Chivalrous Pervert, Mechanical Master

Temporary Titles:

Blessed of the System, Hero of Sakura Miyamoto,