Convincing Sam

Sam was still thinking hard about my explanation. After sometime, she responded. 

Sam - " Even if everything you said is true, why should I join you. I can just easily choose to be a settler and create my own shelter. Then I could protect my brother and no one could command me. " 

I chuckled at her sentence which seemed to make her irritated. 

Me - " Yes that might be true when your shelter has only you and your brother. What happens when your shelter expands and your responsibilities towards the people in the shelter start to overshadow your responsibility towards your brother. "

Sam responded almost instantly.

Sam - " NEVER "

Me - " Oh!! so you will not upgrade or expand your shelter to keep on protecting your brother. "

She did not seem to understand my trap and responded as was expected of her.

Sam - " YES, YES I will do exactly that. See, I do not need anyone. "

Me - " You did hear in the explanation provided to us, that the zombies we have faced are only of the white tier, yes? So what do you think will happen, if in the future you do not progress and your shelter is attacked by a higher tier zombie. " 

She thought for a moment and said confidently..

Sam - " Even if I do not level my shelter, I will strive hard to become powerful by going out and killing zombies and this way I will be strong enough for any threat. "

Hook, line and sinker. 

Me - " Exactly my point. Instead of worrying about an entire shelter, all you should worry about is your brother. To do that, it is much more beneficial for you to join my shelter. There you will be free to increase your personal strength and spend time with your brother without worrying about managing anything. "

Seeing that she was caught in her words made her speechless. She looked at me thoughtfully and replied. 

Sam - " How would I ensure mine and my brother's safety. What if after submitting to you, you do something immoral or worse, make me do something immoral. "

I shook my head. 

Me - " First of all, I am not interested in doing immoral things. Second, both of us will be too busy and third even if you willingly become my subordinate, you would still be protected by the system. After all it would not do any good to whoever is controlling this play to have such imbalance. 

There must be a reason to create the divide between settlers and wanderers. If they give such a broken power to settlers, like enslaving wanderers, what is the point of making a different category, just name them slaves and get it over with. "

She seemed to agree with me and finally agreed to my proposal. 

I urged her to get her brother so that we can leave soon. 

She did not argue and quickly brought her brother downstairs. We made our way all the way to the campus parking. I searched for any buses that had their keys and quickly found one. The bus was in such a position that it was not difficult to guess that someone was using it to run away during the hour but was unlucky enough to be attacked. 

Sam asked me why we were taking a bus instead of a faster small car. I told her to trust me and drove away. 

The additional information that only someone way into the apocalypse would know, was now going to help me set a strong base for the future. 

What none of the earthlings, except me, knew at this point of time was that you can only choose a spot for your shelter once in your life. This meant that you can only settle down once. Countless shelters had suffered destruction just because of poor planning. In a week this world would be filled with not just human zombies, but every other living thing will have the potential to turn into zombies creatures. 

In this week, many would find a pleasant or easy place and be smug about creating their own little paradise. The reality however would give them a very rude awakening. Only after this, would the settlers become more sensible in setting their shelter locations. 

I however would not make the same mistake. 

Only I knew the buffs I had received for all my efforts in the bonus hour. I was confident of safeguarding my shelter for at least the first three months without any major effort. So, while others were busy looking for cozy places I was going to find a place with enough potential to transform into a shelter city. I knew it was a tall ambition, but even with a second chance if I did not dream big then this chance was truly a waste on me. 

As I parked the bus inside the mall parking, Sam looked at me puzzlingly. It was then that I explained her my reason to look for a truck. I unlocked the staff entrance and we entered the now empty mall. For the next hour we transported all the food, essentials, clothes, some games for her brother, crockery, cold weapons, camping gear and any other stuff we found that could be useful for survival. The huge bus was now packed to the brim and we exited the mall. The last stop we made was at the petrol pump where I not only filled the bus but brought along two huge empty barrels with me. 

Sam thought that I was taking them back to the orphanage since there was no one there and it seemed a good place to safely build a shelter. After noticing that the bus seemed to be moving outside the city, she questioned me once again. I calmly explained my thoughts to her.

Me - " What do you think will happen once this week is over? "

Sam - " The zombies will return and we will have to fight to survive. "

 Me - " Exactly. Most of the population is situated in the urban areas and once the zombies return where do you think will be their highest concentration and in turn the highest danger. "

She seemed to understand where I was heading with this. 

Sam - " The cities. " 

Me - " Yes. And while it may be beneficial in the short term to increase one's strength quickly, I am sure that over time it will become overwhelming for most. Do not forget that it was never said in the information we were given that the number of zombies will remain constant. This might indicate that the zombies can increase in number even without harming the non-infected group of people. "

Sam - " Then won't we all eventually die? "

Me - " Honestly, even I don't know. Maybe yes, maybe no. But I am sure that if we give our best we can delay the inevitable longer than most and that's exactly what I tend to do. " 

She agreed.