CHAPTER 15 - Exchange

I find myself coming back to base earlier than expected. I was planning to stay the day scouting and exploring the area to map out the entrance of the city. That way I could be prepared at all times for ambushes and obstacles and ready to change paths at the sight of anything weird. My luck however, decided that it would be fun for me to find that group of lesser-orcs and now I am retreating with all my loot in the trunk.

I did ponder about staying for a while and map the bare minimum, but in the end I chose not to. I will come back tomorrow to do the same with renewed strength, that way there will be less chances to get attacked without knowing. 

I am pretty sure that staying near the place where a big fight occurred is not a good call, even more when the fight just happened to involve you and one of the strongest groups roaming around.

I have no idea how much do these monsters value their same breed, but I am pretty sure they will not take it lightly that a random weakling of another race is picking them up when they leave to hunt or explore in smaller groups. I wouldn't like it either and that's why I am leaving for the day. I dont even know how many of those guys there are so I prefer to not mess with them too much.

After a few minutes of driving back to base I get to the crossroads where I need to take the sand and dirt road, if it can be considered that. I was already informed when leaving the base that I needed to show that it was me when entering this trail as to not get "taken down" whatever that means for them. Probably something that the person in charge of this place gets to choose. 'Would love to see them try.'

I do as they told me and stop the pick-up just as I enter the path, showing my clear intentions as I leave the driver seat with both my hands up in the air. That's when the group of people that ambushed me the first time I came show themselves, probably in charge of this entrance. Actually, I got no idea if there are any other entrances, I should ask about that too.

"Hey, glad to see you came back alive! We were told that you would come later on at night." 

"Guess so, I got a pretty good haul, but I was forced to leave earlier due to the ruckus caused in the process. You never know what may happen if you fuck around." I answer. He is the leader of this squad. Probably the person in charge of the security of the area, there is no reason to not have a good relation with him, one never knows. His name should be Nick if I remember correctly. 

"Hey Nick, can I go on then?" I don't beat around the bush, I am not feeling like wasting time.

"Yeah, Jake told us to let you pass without an inspection. You are a lucky one so feel free to go." Nick doesn't seem all that sure about letting me through, I can notice that. 

"You know, you can make a keep sweep if you are worried, I have nothing to hide." I follow with my plan to earn the trust of the important people here, it means nothing to do a simple check every time I get back. It definitely has nothing to do with me being curious about his reaction whenever he gets to behold what lies beneath the tarp that's covering my haul, not at all!

I can see him pondering for a second if is really okay before deciding on what to do.

"Excuse us then, we will be fast. It really helps me keep our base secure if I am keeping track of what goes in and out so thanks for your understanding."

"No need to be a douchebag I guess." I grin as I watch one of his little squad go check on the trunk. I can't help showing a little bit of a smile as the astonished underling calls Nick to watch for himself what I am gonna be trading inside the base. Things that will probably be of some use for them as I hadn't seen that many fighters last time I left, namely this morning.

I could swear that for a second they nearly drool as they probably are thinking just the same, that their leader will buy it all from me to make some decent gear for all of them and the other members of the base. Guess I was right and I am going to get filthy rich just as fast as these guys can keep up with me, this is only my first trip!

Minutes pass and I find myself inside the base, with quite a few people surrounding me and Jake as some people start downloading the goodies from my new vehicle. Jake seens as taken aback as he seems happy by what I accomplished. 

They even called the blacksmith to come here, I am sure he will be happy to see the state that the bodies are in. Most of them are dead from clean cuts and at most there is one which I don't know how much they will be able to salvage, obviously I am talking about the armless one. 

Some time passes and I decide to strike up a conversation before it becomes awkward. I can already see both James and Martin, the blacksmiths, running as fast as they can here with clear anxious expressions too. 

"So, what do you think? Are you interested?" 

"Leo, you did an amazing job. I would like to have a look at everything that you plan on selling and then you and I will need to talk, in private." He leaves no room for denial, I probably know what he is planning on discussing with me though so I just agree with a nod.

"Oh shit! You really did it!" James doesn't even wait for us to say a thing before we crunches and start inspecting the loot. Starting from the bodies that are in the best shape.

"Wait James, we need to ask him first which things will he be alright to part with."

Well, I can imagine him being curious about what he can archive with all this so I can't even get angry. "It's okay, you can inspect all of it, but I will probably keep one of the bodies myself."

"Thanks" He doesn't even face me while talking, already engrossed in his task. However, Jake's interest seems to be picked by me wanting to keep one, but not enough to ask I suppose. 

"You guys help move the bodies, I will be talking with Leo for a while in the meeting room." 

Jake doesn't waste time and signals me to follow after leaving someone in charge here. He also tells one guy to go bring the other leaders to the conference room as fast as he can. 

We arrive at the conference room and take a seat while we wait for the other leaders. 

"I will give you some information that I am sure you will be asking for later on. I don't plan on wasting time here, I know you value it." As he says so he starts taking some papers out from the drawer.

"As you are well aware it hasn't been really that long since we moved here, yet we already accomplished a lot of things. We are proud of what we accomplished in what little time we got."

I mean, he is not wrong, they have done great things taking into perspective that I haven't even seen any signs of other bases. Their work must be recognised, but I will let him talk for now. Let's see how much they are planning on giving me for free.

"We are now advancing with our plan at a good pace and we will want you to be part of it and that's why we were planning on letting you in on some details from the moment we saw what you were capable of."

I nod as I prod him to go on.

"Here, this is the last report we have about our base, you should already know that it's a lot of trust that I am putting on you now and I would want for you to not leak anything if possible." He passes me a paper with some tables that express their managing skills and some comments on each row. 

I kind of gloss over it to get some idea of what they are doing.

-Population is increasing, 283 people as of now: 230 workers, 33 fighters, 16 children and 4 scouts. In need of more specialists and scouts to map out the area, too much risk of dying for scouts. Needs in regard to security and fighting force…

-Water canal in construction…

-Recruiting and training of novice fighters and scouts to add to our fighting force…

-Good number of electricians and plumbers.

-Scarce of medics and gun experts.

-Upgrade and fortification of exterior walls and building of a second one.

…

The list goes on for a while, describing all kinds of things and showing that they have at least someone who really cares about it going on around the base. I take it, that's for the better, by the time the other leaders arrive I already have a clear view of it all, but in all honestly it doesn't matter that much, I have already chosen to bet on these guys a while ago. I mean, I haven't even spotted anoher base as of now anyways.

"Well, now that we are all here we can talk about how we are gonna proceed." 

Jake gets my attention from the summary and they start a short speech that compiles most of the important things going forward for both parties.

"We have a lot of potential seeing that our people haven't found any clues about any other settlements in this part of the city. We got a good plot of land to work with around us and we got the basics needs covered already."

Then Josh chimes in too. "We've got enough food for a few months or even years if we get some more from supermarkets. We have enough animals and seeds to be up to a good start up on our own supply of food. More importantly, we have secured a spot near the river for further use where we are planning on planting on a larger scale and even sell nearby settlements if we do find in the future."

Huh, I did have some notion of them having a lot of food, yet they must have done a pretty good job if they are already thinking and preparing to sell it at a larger scale.

"As Josh said, any food problem should be unthinkable at this point even if we do mess up somewhere. There won't be any issues either in relation to the water supply, once we finish up the canal that is being constructed as we speak there will be no shortage of water, be it drinkable or not, we already got all that is needed to make it work once the canal is done."

"Yeah, I already caught wind of the construction of the canal and kind of imagined the food issue being solved." I can't really say much about what they are telling me apart from how good they did it.

Jake however goes on. "Not only that, but we are planing in a easy way to get our hands on a electrical supply that will last us for a few years till ge get our hands on a better way like a power plant of some short."

"In fact, even if it is hard to imagine, we are still able to find some people in the surroundings, and most of them are joining us. We have a good increase in both population and capable people."

"And?" I try to get a hold of what he is trying to get too, by the way he is speaking they are probably in need of something, probably more than just protection.

"To be honest with you, the only thing that we are really scared of is the monsters. We are making all kinds of traps, defenses and preparations to try and protect ourselves from them, but I can't be sure that it will be enough."

"You are right, each day that goes by I get to see new threats that keep getting worse and worse for us. There doesn't seem to be any kind of counterattack from our side so we can assume that our main institutions, the likes of police and the army, are either occupied elsewhere that they deem more important or worse yet, annihilated." I prefer not to think about it, but I can help but agree with them and tell them so.

Cassandra takes my pause as her time to try and convince me.

"We all think the same or something similar, and that's why we all agreed that we needed some way to deal with the monsters ourselves in the meantime. We can try to search for the truth and solutions, but only if we can survive another day."

"That's why we all chose to recruit you the moment we saw you in action, we know you are our best shot at doing something meaningful that will last. Leo, what will you need from us to get you to join our cause." There we go, Jake throws the bait at me and waits for me to bite, here is where I choose what will be my approach to getting things done. 

I am the one in power in this situation, I could choose whatever I prefer. I can go with a trade-like way of doing things, where I sell them my services which could be the best one if I only wanted to live a "peaceful" life on my own. 

I could help out of my free will too, but not delving too much in one base or another so that they won't be tied to me. In that case I would be dividing the chances of success, the problem is that I will be dividing the commitment of the people involved too so that one is out of the way. 

Just as I thought before, I will need to be selfish and humble at the same time. I am not a fan of doing things half-heartedly either.

"Sure, let's do it." 

I drop appearances and enjoy all their dumbfounded expressions.

"Are you saying that you will do it?"

"Will you really join us?"

"What do you mean sure!?"

"You are not pulling our leg right?"

They all express their opinion, but now that I made my decision they better be up to the challenge. 

"I will be joining, but we won't be just surviving, we are going to be reconquering our damn homes. Even if the government and the big organizations plan on letting the monsters do as they please, we are not doing it!"

They keep looking at me, still bewildered by my quick choice and grand plans. "Don't you look at me that way. We are gonna arm ourselves, cull their numbers, plan it out, and at some point we are getting back our fucking city."

I ignore their complaints and nagging for a while about the scale of my plans, however, at the end of the day, they will be riding this wave with me. 'That reminds me' . There was once a song I liked when I was a child where the singer talked about his life as if it were a film. I do like the concept if I say so myself, and following that pretext, we are gonna make the best trailer ever for generations to come.