“So what happened to the Safe Zone?” Jake asked, having shown up at some point without Letisha.

“We abandoned it,” Pam said. “We didn't have the stone to fix the wall. We didn't even know fixing it was an option until Jo told us.

“We couldn't carry everything with us, but we could bring a lot. All of our inventories are full of food, a lot of it from the frozen and refrigerated sections, because Jo told us your kitchen has cold storage inventory. And as you can see, we brought as much more as we could carry and push in carts. We actually had to abandon a couple of full carts on the way here because they broke too badly to roll.”

“Were there any rock formations near your Safe Zone?” Jake pressed. “Any nearby source of stone?”

“Nothing moveable. We picked up all the small rocks we could find to build the guardian.”

“Jake, are you thinking about salvaging the other Safe Zone?” Karl asked.

Jake nodded. “If we can get them the stone to expand, or even repair the wall, there must be other survivors who would want to stay there. Building a Safe Zone is hard; it seems a terrible waste to just let it fall if there's any way to save it. Plus all the food they had to leave behind.”

“It's about seven miles from here, though,” Alain pointed out. “Not great for mutual defense, and would anyone here want to move there? Somebody would have to stay there.”

“And how would they stop the mammoths from coming back and breaking in again?” Doug asked.

“We could send enough firepower to kill them all,” Madeleine suggested.

“Then they wouldn't be here to defend Endurance. Plus that only deals with that spawn. What about the next one? We need to keep working on our own defenses,” Paul put in.

“We should at least make another supply run there. All this food you've brought is absolutely fantastic, but if there's even more just sitting there, I think it's worth a day trip.”

“And cooking gear!” Patty called out. “Dinner is going to be delayed, folks, we've got a lot to deal with back here. We'll work on getting a bit of a buffet going soon.”

“Thank you, Patty!” Karl shouted back. “We all appreciate you and your crew!” Then he had a thought and stood up. “Folks, we're working on some traditions here, one of them being introductions. Friday night we had over ninety adults, so everybody got about a minute to talk about themselves. It seemed to go well, so I suggest we do it again with the twenty-six new people. As far as introductions the other way, you all know Jo and Tabitha of course; I should also point out the people on the Town Council so you know who to ask about things. People, wave or something when I point you out.

“Paul Goodman is our head of Defense. Jake Cook is our Quartermaster. Maria Sanchez is our Treasurer. George Ritter runs the information gathering. Katherine McPhee is our Sheriff. Sarah Jackson is dealing with Labor and Housing.There are plentiful jobs around here, so if you want help figuring out how to pitch in, Sarah can probably set you up.” Karl sat down.

Sarah Jackson shouted, “New people please come see me after dinner. The simplest thing for housing at the moment is to put all of you in the barracks for tonight like Jo said. You can look for space in apartments, roommates etc tomorrow. Sir Karl, I can't believe I'm saying this, but I hope you can build us more housing soon.”

Karl tilted his head back dramatically and stared at the ceiling before he looked at Sarah and nodded acceptance with a smile. Then Jake suddenly jumped to his feet.

“EVERYBODY! Everybody, I have an important safety announcement! The egg is starting to hatch! For your own safety, everyone stay well away from the mews until Letisha says it is safe!”

“Jake, how far is a safe distance?”

“Earshot!”

“Thank you. New people, a brief explanation: on Friday, we defeated a powerful uncommon spawn, a giant hawk with dangerous abilities. It had three eggs. We destroyed two, but Letisha Jones asked for and received permission to try to hatch the last one, get it to imprint on her, so she could raise it to be a force helping us. She has some unique skills for dealing with it, but everyone else needs to stay well back. Understood?” He got a lot of nods, then sat back down. So did Jake.

Pam's eyebrows went up, but she visibly set her questions aside for the moment. She started the ball rolling on the introductions. While Pam was the only fourth level person, the new group had ten people at level three. Karl found his mind wandering.

There's too much going on. I need things summed up for me in a Town Council Meeting. Or another intelligence briefing. Or maybe I just need to write up a list for myself. Rude to leave now while introductions are happening, though.

Let's see...there's defense of Endurance; taking the recycler out so we can work on expansion; expanding the housing; getting more levels for people; the egg—hatchling now, I guess; foraging parties; food production; intelligence on local threats like the marsh folk; getting more people's things from home; mapping the area; clearing the spawns before they proliferate; studying the aliens...That's a dozen things and I'm sure I'm forgetting some.

Karl's gaze roamed around at the cafeteria walls and he noticed a new addition; it looked like a leaderboard. It showed the major categories of classes, and listed the highest level people in each. Sarah was updating it as the introductions continued.

Scouts: Terry (7), Letisha (5), Jim(5), George(4), Kat(4), Christine(4)...

Healers: Sir Karl(7), Chenelle(6), Valerie(4), Murray(4), Annie(4)...

Mages: Tabitha(6), Alain(3), Paul(3), Oscar(3)

Archers: Michael(6), Christine(4)

Warriors: Sir Karl(7), Jo(6), Doug(6), Barbara(5), Clyde(5), Pam(4), Debbie(4), Chad(3), Duncan(3)...

Crafters: Jake(4), Madeleine(3), Laura(3), Patty(2), Vernon(2), Maria(2)

The list took Karl somewhat by surprise. Have we actually gotten ahead of the curve? That's a lot of people. We have enough people to get things done. Maybe Paul was right; a group of fours and threes should be able to handle any commons except maybe a swarm, and would have a fair chance against a lot of the uncommons. And Jo and Tabitha just accomplished a huge amount on their own.

Maybe I'm not doing enough delegating.

Karl got his first cold cut sandwich in almost a week and it was heavenly. He wanted another, but made a different selection for his second sandwich so as not to hog the experience. He told his brain to take a break, and sat back eating and listening to the adventures of the people of Bradley Supermarket Safe Zone.

* *

When the last of the new people had introduced themselves, Karl stood up again. “Welcome, one and all! I just want to make a few brief announcements.

“First, tomorrow I will need a team of people to go out with the recycler and gather materials. The immediate goal is to get the materials needed to expand the lodgings, rather than the entire Safe Zone.

“Second, instead of trying to organize all the parties leaving the Zone, I am going to ask you to pick your own teams, form yourselves into groups, and then volunteer for any of the long list of tasks. I only ask that you run your roster past Paul or myself so we can make sure you have enough firepower for whatever you're planning to do. Paul was reminding me a while ago that we have to take some risks to get everything done, and if that has to be so, then I want you all choosing your own acceptable levels of risk.

“Third, a reminder to avoid the mews until we get word. Jake, will you be able to let us know?” Jake nodded. “Great, thank you.

“Fourth...we normally have a Town Council meeting after dinner, but given the sudden influx of new residents, I suspect a lot of you will be very busy helping new people get settled in and organizing and so forth. Given that I'm the only one on the Council who tends to go running around outside the Zone much, I'm willing to stay in and hold a meeting tomorrow midmorning or so, if you are amenable?”

Karl looked around and saw only nods from council members. “Great. Thank you all! Welcome to Endurance, and thanks to everyone for all their hard work!” Karl led a round of applause while smiling at everyone the way Terry nagged him to.

And where has she gone off to, I wonder? And is she okay? And what, if anything, can I do about it if she isn't?

Karl found himself up on the wall late that evening. The pair on duty was Duncan Monroe the deputy sheriff, and Betsy, one of the unclassed from Kat's group. He told them he was simply looking around at everything just because a leader should. “I wouldn't want to be one of those out of touch politicians who doesn't know how much a gallon of milk costs,” he explained. Then he stopped and thought. “Wait, how much does a gallon of milk cost now?” he asked, exaggerating his alarm at not knowing.

“Eighty copper, Sir,” Duncan answered with a grin. “A silver if you want it to be cow milk from Earth.”

“Dare I ask what the alternatives are?”

“I decided I didn't need to know the answer to that and starting looking something else up,” Duncan reported.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Karl did his best not to show he was worried when he asked, “Oh, I'm not sure when Terry's getting back in, but when she does, could you please have someone let me know right away? It doesn't matter what time it is.”

“Will do, Sir Karl.”

“Thank you.”

Karl descended to ground level, and looked across the way at the mews, which was no longer tucked into a corner now that the Zone had expanded. Instead it was next to a low stone wall buttressing the second, higher level terrace, which currently had nothing on it. He scanned to see that no one was anywhere nearby before walking on.

Then he stared at the lodgings, and imagined them with more stories. He'd have to remember to ask Jake how many stories it was possible to add. But even one more story on each would be another twenty apartments, half single and half double occupancy. It should be easy enough to get the materials tomorrow.

He walked back to his apartment, and found that there was one bookcase waiting for him, plus a note from Madeleine that she would get to the others as soon as she had time and materials. A contractor for less than a day and already she's behind schedule, Karl joked to himself. He was actually very happy to have even that much of a start.

He brought the bookcase inside, found a spot for it, and proceeded to load it with some of his books. He'd want to plan the layout of his personal library carefully at some point, but for now simply getting books onto shelves was a good beginning. He looked for the books he had thought would be particularly useful first. He pulled out The Art of War and started looking at different passages.

As he was reading, there was an odd chime, and Karl realized it was a doorbell. He also got a System notification that someone was asking for admittance, and another about door settings. He tried thinking, System, open the door please. The door gave a quiet click and swung open. Chenelle was standing in the hall.

“Hello, Sir Karl. May I come in?”

Karl's mouth got a bit dry, but he said, “of course, please do.” She smiled, stepped in, and pushed the door shut behind her.

“Books first,” she observed. “A man after my own heart.”

Karl didn't know about hers, but his own was starting to race. God damn it, I thought I'd left behind feelings like this years ago.

He said the first thing that came to mind. “You completely flummox me.”

Chenelle grinned. “Oh good. I'd hate to be boring.” She was slowly walking towards him across the room.

Karl rubbed his forehead. “What am I going to do with you?”

“I can't wait to find out.”

“Chenelle, stop, please.” She stopped, with a disappointed look on her face. “I'm not...this isn't...” God damn it, Karl, you were a professor of linguistics, how can you be this bad with words? “I don't know what to say to you.”

Chenelle nodded with a neutral expression. “Well...let's break it down, shall we? I would like to date you, or at least have a date and see where it goes. We had a very nice kiss, and I'd like to do that again at the very least. You seem to be stuck on deciding whether to have a date with me. So I'd like to ask you a simpler question.” Karl waited, until she asked, “Do you find me attractive?”

“Chenelle, you are a beautiful woman.” For the love of God, Karl warned himself, don't say something idiotic like calling her a 'ten' when the System is shoving judgments on that in everyone's faces.

“That's always nice to hear, but that wasn't what I asked.”

Karl attempted to re-engage his brain now that they were having an actual discussion. “Chenelle, I cannot deny that I find you immensely appealing as a person. It has been a joy to know you—even when you're laughing at me. I have really valued your company and advice, and...and...why did you have to go and kiss me!?”

Chenelle looked hurt. “Poor impulse control, I suppose.” She frowned. “Karl, if you don't find me attractive at all, please just say so, so I can stop embarrassing myself.” Karl let his mouth hang open as he failed to think of any words. “Seriously, Karl, just tell me if you're not interested. It will hurt less than dragging it out.”

“Yes, I find you attractive! God!” Karl shouted at her in exasperation. Chenelle smiled, and it was like the sun coming out from behind the clouds. He hung his head in despair. “I don't want to get your hopes up. I don't want to hurt you.”

“Karl, so far you've said nothing but nice things to me. You could have a lot of reasons to say yes and a lot of reasons to say no. Could you...please...talk to me about it? Can you help me understand? Even dating aside, I care about you, Karl. I don't want to hurt you either.”

Karl was about to gesture her towards a chair but realized he didn't have any yet. He reluctantly waved her towards the bed and pointedly positioned himself a bit farther away. He took a deep breath, sighed, and tried to collect his thoughts and force them past his mental filters.

“I loved Jane,” he blurted out. “I still love her. I talk to her every day. I miss her every day. She was the love of my life, the sun over my world. The day I married her was the happiest day of my life.

“We were married for forty-one years. I lost her three months ago to cancer. She was sixty-four, and feisty to the end.

“I loved her in every way. We were partners. We were a team. I loved her deeply, Chen.”

“I can tell,” she said quietly.

“What I'm saying is...I don't know if there's any love left inside me. I thought it all died with her. We had no children, no close surviving relatives. We'd moved up here to get away from the city late last year, just before the last diagnosis. I wasn't the most outgoing person to begin with, and I wanted to spend every minute I could with her, so I had basically no friends and found no new ones. And after she passed...I barely wanted to live at all.

“I was sitting at home, alone, when the System hit, just as I had every day for weeks. I was pretty sure that I was going to die right away. I thought I was okay with that. I surprised myself by actually fighting to live.

“What I mean is...I'm faking it. All of it. I'm not a people person, I'm not outgoing, I'm not a leader, I'm not insightful or noble. I'm not a fighter, and I'm damned well not a tactician! I'm empty, Chen. And I'm tired.

“And then you show up, and breathe on the dying embers of my humanity and drag me back into the pain of living and all the awkwardness and bother and embarrassment and...Do you know how little I've laughed in the past year?” He tapped his cheek. “My muscles hurt, when I smile. You make my smiling muscles tired.” Chenelle looked both sad and pleased at that.

“But I don't know if there's any...romantic feeling left in me. Any capacity for love. And there's certainly no capacity for sex. I think I lost the ability to think and feel that way long ago.

“And it all seems so inappropriate anyway. Here I am, leading this community, and probably most of the people in it are like me and have never even heard of polyamory, or if they did, they probably made a sex joke and then forgot all about it. If they see me kiss you, they'll assume I'm cheating, or you are, or...”

“We could kiss right in front of Doug in public if you want...” Chenelle suggested.

Karl shook his head. “And it feels wrong to me to...to be unfaithful to Jane.”

“What do you think Jane would think about this?”

“Oh, she'd be laughing so hard at me I don't think she could get a word out.”

“Really?” Chenelle raised an eyebrow.

“Oh yes. She said after she was gone she wanted me to go out and find a nice librarian to flirt with and—” Chenelle's hand flew to her mouth and her eyes got big. “What?” Karl asked.

“Karl, I am a librarian!”

Karl blinked and stared at her suspiciously.

“Well, I mean, I was, before I married Doug and we had Danny,” she added honestly. “I've been a homemaker for about seven years because Doug made such good money with his business we decided,” she put a hand to her breast, “not to subsist on the princely sum I was paid by the town every month.”

Karl shook his head in exasperation. “And I can't even accuse you of bullshitting me with that because my damned paladin radar tells me you're not lying.”

“I've got an MLS and everything. Think Jane would approve?”

“Maybe I'll ask her after she stops laughing uncontrollably in the back of my head!”

“I think that's a yes.” Chenelle leaned back on the bed with her arms supporting her. “Karl, as much as you insist that you hate people, I think you're just scared of them.”

Karl was offended. “There are plenty of reasons to hate human beings, I think!”

Chenelle nodded, conceding the point. “And plenty of reasons to love them too.”

“People are irritating!”

“And funny. And caring. And sometimes very noble.”

Karl sighed, not wanting to argue about that.

“I don't expect you to be in love with me, Karl. I'm not in love with you. Not yet, anyway. But we have chemistry. I like you. I like you a lot, Karl.”

“I like you too,” Karl reluctantly said in barely above a mumble.

“And it was a really good kiss. I mean, you weren't faking that and neither was I. I really liked kissing you.”

You want me to admit that I really liked it too. “Chenelle...I'm very sorry, but my answer is no. I'm not going to date you. Much as I'm tempted.” Goddamnit why did I add that?

Chenelle stared at him for a couple more moments, then smiled sadly. “All right.” She lifted herself erect and stood. “I'll respect your wishes, on one condition.”

“What condition?”

“Kiss me one more time.”

He hissed air in through his nose. “Out.”

“Kaaarrrrrlll...?”

“Out.”

“Karl, kiss me right now or I'm going to steal a kiss from you in front of the whole town,” she lied.

“Liar.”

“God damn it. I'm going to need a counterspell for that radar of yours.”

“Have fun hunting for your magical fuzz-buster. Out.”

“I'll bust your fuzz, you—”

“My fuzz was busted a long time ago, woman. I'm all out of what you want. Out.”

She stood there, smirking at him. God damn it, I'd grab her and kiss her right now just to knock the smirk off her face but I can't reward her for this behavior. “Out or I'll call the sheriff.”

“Well, if I'm going to do the time...” Chenelle rushed forward. Karl grabbed her by the waist and lifted her bodily, holding her up while she squeaked and her arms and legs swung for a moment. Damn but a thirteen strength is convenient!

Unrepentant, she immediately reached up and started unbuttoning her blouse. After a moment of shocked disbelief Karl tossed her into the air with a half spin and caught her around the waist again with her facing away from him. She squeaked again.

“Oh my...” she breathed.

System, open the door. Karl marched forward, lowering her just in time to avoid banging her head on the door frame and deposited her in the hall. She whirled around, red-faced, but Karl shut the door quickly.

“What the hell?” he gasped once the door was safely shut. “What century was that from?” And why do I want to drag her back in here like a caveman?

Karl fell back on his bed and stared sightlessly at the ceiling for a long time.