CHAPTER 35 - ONE BRICK

As the sun began to sink for the third day since the Event, Gideon watched his minions carrying out their assigned tasks with a sense of satisfaction. It wasn’t pleasure; he wouldn’t allow himself that, not so soon after the death of his family. He had done well, though, killing scores of undead and gaining their crystals.

There was still much work to accomplish, but it was coming together well. The cemetery was enormous—hundreds of undead wandered the grounds, ranging from ancient skeletons to newly minted zombies. Most of the residents at St. Joseph’s were already undead before he arrived. He’d allowed the few survivors to flee the dead. Gideon didn’t want to kill if he didn’t have to, but this was his home, now.

He’d selected the central building, oldest of the lot, as his base of operations. The newer residential building was in the process of being torn down by twenty skeletons wielding heavy hammers. Brickwork was coming apart as they rained down blow after blow. Undead laborers were not precision workers. Many of the bricks were shattered by their efforts. But enough came apart intact that he had other undead carrying the bricks in wheelbarrows to specific points around the central compound.

Tomorrow, his army would begin using those raw materials to build a wall. There was cement mix in the storage garages, and he intended to put all of it to good use. Gideon walked from pile to pile, observing the work. He wanted a good, high wall around the place, sufficient to protect him and his troops from attack. Tearing down the building to get the bricks for the wall seemed the most expeditious manner.

“You’re doing it wrong,” a voice called from across the street.

Gideon’s gaze snapped up to observe a man standing there. He looked forty-something years old, with a short salt and pepper beard, and no visible weapons. That didn’t necessarily mean anything anymore, though, as Carver well knew. He readied a Drain Life spell, one of the one’s he’d newly acquired and ranked up from his efforts in the graveyard all day. If this man was a threat, Gideon would kill him without hesitation.

But the man held his hands up, palms facing Gideon. It didn’t truly mean he was defenseless, but that was what the gesture was intended to imply. “Sorry, couldn’t help but notice you’re plunking the bricks down all over. Building a wall?”

“Something like that,” Gideon replied, annoyed. Who was this man, and why was he here?

“Won’t work. Not like that, anyway,” the man replied. “Worked in construction my whole life, and it’s pretty obvious you haven’t. You look more like a college man. Professor?”

“Doctor, actually,” Carver replied, arching an eyebrow. “What makes you think it won’t work? Brick walls aren’t that complicated.”

“They are if you want them to be taller than a man, and if you want to make this place defensible, I imagine that’s the goal, right? You’ll need thickness, and you’ll need to build supports,” the man said. “Ideally, sink rebar into a cement or concrete base, and then use the rebar as support for the bricks above. Although to be honest, you could do better just building a poured concrete wall inside a wood shell.”

All of which made sense, although Carver wasn’t sure how much of it was essential. He prided himself on being an educated man, and he knew something about engineering, if only the barest bits. What the man was saying rang true. His undead lacked the knowledge to accomplish this sort of complex task well, though. At least, on their own they did.

“What do you want?” Gideon asked. He gestured to the road between them and the unbuilt wall. “Why are you here? Why bother me? You must see my minions. I could have them kill you and they’d feel no remorse, nor hesitate a moment.”

The stranger swallowed hard. “Reckon you could. But if you were of a mind to, you probably would’ve already. I watched you at a distance earlier, while you mopped up the monsters in the graveyard. Then I watched you do things I’d never seen any man do, like shoot black fire from your fingers and raise dead bones back to life.

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“If you can do all that, I figure you might be one who’ll survive all of this, who can keep people alive, even when I don’t know what the hell is going on,” the man went on. “My name’s Brian. I ran my own construction firm before all of this went on. Now? My trucks are dead, my workers are who knows where, and I’m left with just me, my wife, and two kids who I want to keep alive more than anything else.”

Wife. Children. A pang stabbed at Gideon’s heart. This man still had what he’d lost, and it hurt. But at the same time, he fully understood Brian’s desire to keep his family safe. Wasn’t that what had motivated him, too? He’d fought so hard to get clear of the college, raced home to save the ones he loved…

He’d been too late, and that shame would be his to bear, forever. But he understood all too well the fear and need which drove this stranger. Strangely, he found himself wanting to…help.

“You want my protection,” Gideon replied, wavering between offering and rejecting the man.

Brian nodded. “Yup. But I don’t want to freeload. You need a foreman, someone to direct your critters in their work. I’ve worked hard all my life, sir. I can do what you want. I can make your critters do the job, direct them in ways that will make it happen. All I ask in return is a place to keep my family that’s safe, and to keep us fed.”

It was a fair offer. If the man was lying, or proved to be a poor worker, it would be simple enough to remove him. Gideon had plenty of undead now, more than enough to keep him safe from one family. As he thought it over, he realized that hiring Brian on would have other benefits as well. The man could direct some of his undead here at the base, while Gideon took others elsewhere to gather resources and additional crystals.

Gideon stepped into the street, two skeletons following close behind him. He kept the Drain spell at the ready, prepared to blast the man if he twitched wrong. But Brian stood tall. His eyes betrayed fear, but his spine was straight. He didn’t back down or flee, even when Gideon stopped just a few feet away and stared into his eyes.

That was enough to make a decision. Gideon nodded. “All right, Brian. If you’ll become the foreman I need, I will defend you and your family from harm. You should bring them here, to me. I have plenty of housing in the main building. I’ll send a pair of my skeletons with you to help you carry any belongings you want to bring along. There’s plenty of basic supplies in the assisted living building—mattresses, dishes, food, and so on. But feel free to bring any touches from home you want to keep.”

Gideon reached out a hand. Brian took it and they shook.

“Thank you, sir,” Brian replied. “You won’t regret it. I’ll help you get this place turned into a right fortress. And more than that, I can help in other ways as well. I killed a few goblins, got a couple of those crystals. Weapon and armor making, which I thought was odd, but starts making a lot more sense now. I can build your army weapons, shields, and armor. Make them ten times as effective.”

Gideon laughed. “You should have led with that! Very well. Take the skeletons as guards, and return soon. I’ll be waiting and ensure my minions don’t harm you when you arrive.”

He gave mental commands to the skeletons to follow Brian, protect him, and obey any simple commands—but also to return before full darkness fell no matter what.

Brian rushed off, the skeletons in tow, leaving Carver wondering what he ought to do next. He hadn’t planned to build a community of humans, but Brian’s arrival had been fortuitous timing. If he hadn’t shown up, Gideon’s undead would have begun constructing the wall tomorrow, and it probably would have collapsed soon after. They’d have needed to begin anew, and if there was one resource that felt most threatened it was time.

Gideon would do almost anything for more time, but the world was racing ahead regardless. New monsters had spawned today, more powerful ones. He could only imagine that would continue, and eventually the creatures attacking would be much stronger than his basic undead. The fortress had to be complete before that happened, he needed supplies stockpiled before then, and most of all he had to grow stronger as well.

Not just for himself, now. There would be children within his walls, minors that he had taken on an obligation to protect. Gideon took such things seriously. He’d promised to defend Brian; assuming the man was true to him, he would be the same in turn.

This wasn’t what he’d planned, no. He hadn’t created plans beyond a needto gain strength and power. But this new shift had the feeling of being something important, like he’d begun a thing that would become more valuable to him over time.

The world was changed. Everything old was falling down. It would be replaced by something new, but who would decide what that new order would look like?

He would, Gideon decided. He would rebuild a world that made sense to him. One brick, one monster, one crystal, and now one human helper, at a time.