Amazon Apocalypse 2: Chapter 53 (Patreon)

Following my victory, the people of the Settlement threw a party.

"This is a little much, isn't it?" I chuckled as someone handed me a drink. "All I did was cast one spell and use one class skill."

"One spell that laid low a terrifying mobster who wanted to take over the whole settlement!" Margaret grinned, swirling a cup of wine in her hands. By the flush in her cheeks, it looked like she'd already had several.

"You don't understand what this means to everyone, Carter. You didn't just kill Cromwell. You showed everyone on the Shard that this settlement is under the protection of one of the Shard's strongest—that not even the Three Kings can cause trouble here. It will bring a lot of shelters who've been warry of associating with us under our influence."

"There are really that many avoiding us, for fear of Cromwell?" I asked.

Margaret nodded. "I've talked to plenty of them on the radio. When he announced he was taking this place over, everybody got real skittish. Most of the shelters have had some rough encounters with raiders from the Crownhill County Prison.”

Her mouth twisted up into a grimace, as if speaking the name of that place left a bad taste in her mouth. “They've been a bigger menace to most of the survivors than the non-human factions. But now that they know you are strong enough to stand up to someone like Cromwell, I bet they'll change their minds real quick."

I returned her bright smile. "I'm just glad I could help. If you think word of my victory will be that valuable to everyone, then I'm happy to drink a beer or two in celebration."

"I had no idea you'd gotten so powerful. Just what have you been up to in that little farmhouse of yours?" Margaret shook her head in wonder.

"Interplanetary tourism," I replied.

After Margaret was pulled away to begin her preparations for her radio show, Kyle, Marcus, and Frank all came over to congratulate me.

"Way to go, man!" Frank grinned. "That mobster is paste. Normally, I'm not one to celebrate death, but I've seen that guy on the news before. Apparently, everybody knows he's had hundreds of people robbed, swindled, or executed—but the only thing they could get him on was tax evasion.” He gave me a fist bump. “A lot of people would have loved to watch you pull off what you just did."

"And you showed everybody else not to mess with us!" Kyle grinned. "And that shark monster of yours made quick work of everybody he brought with him."

"Sharky is a hungry boy." I raised my glass toward the gates, towards where Sharky patrolled the city for more monsters… for more food.

"I'm sorry we ever doubted you." Marcus held out his hand in apology.

"No apologies needed. Really. I'm flattered you were all so worried for me, but I'm pretty sure that the System would have forced me to fight him eventually. The notification I got when it assigned this place to me said as much." I shrugged.

The four of us chatted for a while longer before Bridget and Sakura tried to drag me away, but I reminded the two of them that we'd celebrated preemptively the night before and if they’d earned enough levels to celebrate again, it hadn’t been before the duel, like we’d agreed.

Bridget kept herself busy in the kitchen. She only had the one power-source that I'd made, but people were already gawking at the ability to fire up any electrical gadget they could plug in. Through the window to one of the buildings, I watched a bunch of people cheer over a running microwave.

I wasn't really sure what all the excitement was about. I knew for a fact that they'd dug up more generators to get electronics in these buildings up and running. Perhaps there was something exceptional about a device that could turn mana into electricity. It did say something about the future of Crownhill. Maybe someday I'd make a giant one of those and get the electrical grid back up and running again.

Midway through the party, I left to find Margaret so I could make a guest appearance on her radio show again.

"And here's the man himself!" Margaret waved me over to sit down when I entered her office. "How would you say that fight went?"

I took my seat next to her and she pushed the microphone to me. "Well... let's just say that Cromwell won't cause problems for Crownhill anymore. Or anyone, really… ever again."

"He's dead, folks," Margaret added. "I saw it with my own eyes—as did hundreds of other people. Him and most of his organization. There were about a dozen survivors who surrendered to us and will face a trial for whatever crimes they've committed out of the fifty odd bandits he brought with him. If you, or anyone else, has been wronged by Cromwell's minions, please come and testify for, or against, the people we have in custody."

I spoke up. "And let me just add that we take the law over here very seriously. Cromwell broke it, so now he's dead. That's going to be true for anyone who breaks the law in the city. This may be the apocalypse, but that doesn't mean people can run around like wild savages murdering as they pleased,” I growled.

“It starts here,” I promised, “but going forward I'm going to be cleaning up this entire shard."

Margaret smiled. "You heard it here first, folks. Law and order is back in style in Crownhill. Once again, we're located in the old downtown. There's plenty of real estate up for grabs, but we're going to start deeding places in the near future, so pick up a place in the heart of law and order in the city while you still can!"

I left Margaret to close out her show. I suspected we were going to have a whole lot of new people coming to check out the obelisk. Safety, law and order, and food were things people would be eager for after just about anything that could have been considered a government organization had been wiped out.

The next thing I had to see to was the prisoners. I'd taken them captive on a whim, but offering them a chance to surrender had felt like the right thing to do. Unfortunately, I hadn't thought through what I was supposed to do if they accepted. It seemed I'd suddenly created a whole lot of work for myself.

We needed a jail, a judge, and maybe an executioner. I supposed Sharky would be suitable for that last job, but we definitely needed a judge… and a jail.

I found the prisoners all tied together near the center of the settlement while the party moved on around them. People occasionally stopped and stared, like the captured bandits on display were proof of my victory.

"So… I’m just checking, but do you guys all want a trial by a jury of your peers? If you want to waive that right, Sharky and I can get you judged right now," I offered, jerking a thumb back over my shoulder towards Sharky outside the gates.

"Jury! Definitely jury," replied one of the bandits. The rest of them all nodded in agreement.

I sighed. It had been worth a shot.

"Alright, trial by jury it is. Now, since Crownhill County Prison is fully occupied at the moment, we're going to have to get a bit creative about where you're going to stay until we can line up a judge and pick a jury."

I had to ask around a bit, but eventually I found a building with a row of small offices. They'd actually been nice enough for upper management before the integration—since each office was a small private space complete with a little bathroom that had a toilet and a sink.

But throw a lock on the door and put a pillow on the executive desks, and they instantly transformed from a private office to a prison cell. It was a remarkably easy conversion. I suppose that said something meaningful about life before the System.

"Now,” I instructed the prisoners before I shut them into their pseudo-cells, “somebody is going to come by and ask you a few questions about Cromwell, his organization, and what's going on in Crownhill County Prison. I expect your full cooperation, understood? Lie to us, and it will be noted in your records and be used against you when you go to trial."

There were nods all around.

I glanced behind me to Terrance. He'd seen me hauling the prisoners away and had come out to help. He had actual training and experience doing interrogations, so I let him run the show. The only reason I was here, was because a lot of these guys were higher leveled than Terrance and I didn't want them thinking they could try something.

I simply crossed my arms and stood menacingly in the background as Terrance asked question after question, jotting their answers down in his notebook. After going through each of the prisoners, one by one, he pulled me out of the last pseudo-cell to share his findings with me.

"Well, I've got good news and bad news," Terrance began as he laid it out for me.

We both took a seat as he flipped his notebook around. "All but one of them claims that they were just normal citizens before the integration, not convicts at the Crownhill County Prison. After the prisoners slaughtered the guards, the convicts started spreading their influence to the nearby town. Since the prisoners had higher levels than anyone else, they naturally made the civilians they found do as they ordered."

I drummed my fingers on the desk of the empty office we were in. "I’m not sure I believe it. That might be the case for some of them, but we'll have to recover the prison records to sort out the liars from those who are telling the truth."

"Well, true or not, we do know that they're holding a lot of women and children captive. The men they were with are either dead or joined Cromwell, but the prisoners will be able to sort out who's who if we rescue them."

My eyebrows rose. "They're not all at the Crownhill County Prison?"

Terrance shook his head. "No. Cromwell had an apartment complex he was using for people storage. Apparently bringing women into the prison was his main source of power and influence there. He didn't want to keep the goods where he was trying to sell them, so to speak.”

I grunted, my mouth twisting into a scowl.

“Apparently he's got several such places for his captives to stay, based on how cooperative the women in question are,” Terrance continued. “The ones he liked get to spend their days leveling up job skills, cooking for the prison, and assembling makeshift weapons. The ones he doesn't like end up taking care of… less savory activities.”

Terrance pursed his lips, reading over his notes. “He also kept the wives, girlfriends, and sisters of any of the men working for him under lock and key. He claimed it was for their protection, but in reality it was one of the ways he kept his own troops in line."

I grimaced. "We're going to need more food and more housing. There are a few apartment complexes nearby, but I don't think the women will appreciate us keeping them the same way Cromwell did. It sounds like the ones doing jobs will integrate into Crownhill just fine. Those who were tasked with the less savory activities will need help getting back on their feet."

I sighed. I was going to have to put up a job offer for a psychiatrist or a therapist… probably several such offers. I knew there had been a few places that had provided psychological counseling in Crownhill. Some of them had to have survived the integration.

"I would reckon so. I think I know a lady who can give you a hand. She's been working as a cook lately." Terrance shrugged. "As for the rest of it, I'll make it an official council security matter. We'll set a building or two aside for these captives."

With Terrance's help, I made arrangements to set aside food and housing, and to provide therapy for the kidnapped women. With a place for them to stay secured, Terrance gathered a group of the militia to bring them back to the Settlement.

I went with them, though as soon as we left the gates, I traveled on ahead. Odds were good that Cromwell had some of his remaining men still guarding these places. They wouldn’t know that the organization they worked for had been completely decapitated unless they’d heard it on the radio—and these two didn’t appear to have a radio.

The building we went to appeared much as I’d expected it would. It looked run down, consisting of old brick walls, broken windows, and it had a few rough-looking guys standing out front. The apartment complex might once have been fairly nice, but the integration hadn't been kind to it.

I approached the guards on foot. Both of the people at the doors had the same class and level.

Bandit Enforcer (Level 10)

"Is this where Cromwell keeps all the women he's taken?" I asked.

"Who are you? This place belongs to Cromwell, and I don't recognize your face," one of the guards demanded.

"I'm the guy who just killed Cromwell; this place doesn't belong to him anymore."

One man snorted with laughter. "Listen here, you little shit. If Cromwell hears you came here trying to break into the playpen with a line like that, you'll end up on one of those posts."

He pointed at the rows of severed heads and mangled corpses that dangled from fence posts across the street. They made the whole area smell like a charnel house.

I glanced at the severed heads and mummified bodies, then back to the guards. "And how many of those did the two of you put up there?"

"Lots. And it's looking like I'll put one more up there right now," he snarled as he reached for the machete at his waist.

I was faster.

My short sword was in my hand in a flash, and an instant later his head rolled on the ground. "Looks like you were right," I replied as I punted the guard's head toward the fence.

The other guard was frozen, like a deer caught in the headlights. "I... uh... is Cromwell really dead?"

"He is,” I replied. “I'm Carter, and I killed him. Go to the Obelisk downtown. It's a giant black pillar—you can't miss it—and surrender yourself to the militia there."

I reached for the door. It was locked, but I used Eldritch Blast to tear the lock apart. The door swung open a moment later. Seeing this, the guard scurried backward, dropping his weapon as he fled for his life.