18. Expansion

The small army of skeletons marched back into the camp with Sam and his group in the middle. Chris, Jenna and the knights left with the fallen knight as Sam and Truth went to find Tom to tell him the good and bad news. Bane and Sevrus took the 50 over skeletons and split Bane would be the shield of Sam and Sevrus the sword. As Sam searched for Tom the two Wraiths planned the rise of Sam's empire unbeknownst to the latter. Truth found Tom first calling over Sam, Sam broke to news of the stocked warehouse and the giant tortoise and monster apes.

"Blasted mutations fucking Apocalypse" Tom cursed out before going into a coughing fit.

"Calm down old man before you croak. We need a new plan or find someone who can replace the materials we need with a skill or spell" Sam begain to talk to Tom about what's next.

"It all boils down to population and materials" Tom shook his head at the current problems as Sam was stuck in his thought.

"What's going on over there" Tom said as a crowd gathered near the garden area. Sam looked up as he saw Chris and his knights putting the fallen knight on a funeral pyre.

"One of the knights died to the apes" Sam told Tom what had happen with the failed mission. Tom sighed as he walked to the gathering crowd and paid his respects to the dead knight. Sam moved to the front of the crowd as Chris lit the funeral pyre.

"Today a hero fell doing what he could to keep the community going and I take full responsibility of his death. I am not strong enough to protect all of you no matter how hard I try. This world used to be man's but now it belongs to the monsters and the mutated. Now is the time we must grow stronger so we can take back our world and not lose our loved ones to these creatures. Hail to the fallen may you rest eternal"

Sam gave a speech as some of the crowd cried over the loved ones lost at the start of the Apocalypse. Truth held on to Sam as a tear fell from her cheek and Chris held a sobbing Jenna. AJ lead all the knight to kneel as the fire burned as another solemn day passed by. Sam called the camp leaders together for a meeting. Chris, Jenna, AJ, Truth, Tom and Kelly all stood in front of Sam as the sun had barely started to rise.

"I asked everyone here early because we need to go over our plan for the next few weeks" Sam asked everyone's input on the small camps plan's.

"We need to get renewable food growing and carts or something since anything electric doesn't work" Kelly was the first to bring problems to the meeting.

"If we have to worry about giant animals we need better defenses and a standing army besides the undead ofcourse" Tom stated his worries.

"I can focus on the army with my knight but we need guards for the camp and more survivors if we are going to do anything" Chris solved one problem but put forward two more.

"I will lead the guards" AJ said as he looked to Chris who nodded his head.

"I will train scouts to look for more survivors and places of importance" Truth offered.

"Me and Joey will handle a defensive force with archer's and mage's" Jenna talked out her plan for ranged guards with AJ.

"What does the fearless leader want" Tom asked as he held his cane with a glint in his eye. Sam stayed quiet for a few minutes as he went over what he wanted in his head.

My job quest want me to establish a town and that's honestly what I want to do. I will lead the skeletons and the army to expand and find survivors. Tom get with Jenna and Joey to improve the defense's of the wall. Truth get your scouts trained and Chris your with me brother. Kelly how are the seeds growing right now?" Sam told everyone their tasks before asking Kelly a question.

"They grow but with out me they would just die. We need to find mutated plants that are safe for humans and grow them here" Kelly told Sam about how precarious their food situation was. Sam promised to keep an eye out as he cleared the outlying areas of the new town he planned to build. Sam ended the meeting as he and Chris moved to gather the knights and Sevrus and the skeletons. Sevrus was waiting with his skeletons as the knight started to gather with the skeletons.

"Master we are ready to march at your command " Sevrus kneeled and spoke to Sam.

"Chapter Master Chris we are gathered and await your orders" the female knight Vera saluted Chris and said.

"We are to make our way down to the apartments to the north of us and see if anyone survived and bring them back" Sam told everyone the plan for today's mission. Everyone made there way down the road heading to the apartments as they killed cannibals and mutated animals. Moving past a fastfood place banging could be heard as people could be seen waving at them.

"I got it" Chris said as he and 2 knight moved to gather the survivors. 6 people followed Chris back from the restaurant with boxes of food and seasonings on carts.

"Nice haul" Sam gave Chris a thumbs up as he ordered Sevrus to send the survivors back as they search the area and wait for the skeletons to come back. Watching the skeletons guide the survivors back to camp Sam started to look around as a loud crash sounded out. Sam looked to the sound as he saw Spencer on his mutated cat Saber and what looked to be 2 dinosaurs following behind.

"SAM look at these new monsters I tamed. This is Fint and Steele" Spencer introduced the raptor like creatures.

"What are they" Chris asked.

"Ground Drakes" Spencer told Chris as Sam's jaw dropped at the mention of drake's. Looking over the two Sam and Chris were geeking out as Spencer puffed up in pride.

"Are these the ones your going to breed" Sam asked as spencer nodded his head.

"I can't wait to ride these" Chris continued to geek out at the thought of raptor calvary. An hour passed as Spencer told Sam of some of the monster to look out for as he left and Sevrus came marching back.