Seren and I talked into the evening, with me occasionally heading onto the factory floor to send materials from one processor to another, slowly grinding out the sheer quantity of materials I’d need to finish the project. I also gathered up some resources to build some more smelters, since that seemed like the main production choke point so far, and considering the ubiquity of ore as raw material and ingots as ingredients, more smelters would remain necessary indefinitely.

We didn’t talk about anything important, not about our pasts or our futures, not about the pressure on all of us, or the plans that needed to be made. Instead, we talked about food and drink and massages and vacations and a thousand other little things that added up to much, but whose details were ultimately unimportant.

We finally returned upstairs when the autorifles themselves were being assembled. The machines would run overnight and spit out a nice big stack in the morning. Hopefully there would be no attack in the meanwhile, because that would find us all quite unawares. We found the rooms packed with people, along with the hammocks and the makeshift bedding on the floors, and we crept quietly to my room.

There, Seren paused with a faint frown etching onto their features. “I should go downstairs, I guess, grab a couch in the lobby.”

I froze there, standing in the doorway to my room, the enormity of the moment coming to crash down onto my awareness, pushing away the small things, to coalesce into the big thing.

“No.” My voice came cracked, and I felt the heat of a blush all over my body. “Stay.” Seren looked at me wide-eyed, but not reluctant. They murmured briefly before I lifted my hand up. “I’ll sleep on the floor.”

Seren nodded repeatedly at that, and we quickly stepped inside. I found a t-shirt to sling on, grabbed a pillow and one of the extra blankets, before curling down to sleep at the foot of the bed. I kept my eyes dutifully closed as Seren stripped down to their underwear and then covered themself up with the sheets.

The next morning, light creaked in through the window with the coming of dawn, and I crept into the bathroom to prepare for the day, emerging fully dressed. Seren remained on the bed, the sheets now in disarray, snoring loudly. A smile flickered over my face before I stepped out. There was a lot of work to do today.

Before heading down to the factory floor to check on the autorifles, I first took a detour to the Research Lab. There, I opened up the comms unit and made some configuration alterations. Specifically, I fused in Automated Procedures and incorporated my knowledge of chat programs, expanding the comms to include multiple channels of communication, along with a priority announcement channel. That way, people could have specific discussion groups, but also anything important could be broadcast to everyone. This expanded the materials from an Air Ingot to an Air Ingot and an Air Cog, but it was worth the cost.

I then went down to the factory floor, collected the autorifles, and started up a total of eighty air ingots, only possible thanks to the returns from the Air Mine that I had sunk before the rescue mission. I’d check in shortly and hopefully be able to start up the cogs and once both of those queues were complete, I’d be able to give everyone a comms unit, which would be extremely useful in keeping open lines of discussion.

While waiting for the ingots to process, I went back upstairs, stepping into the Survey Chamber to get an eye on things. I found an only vaguely familiar person sitting in the chair, but she smiled as I entered. “Oh hey there, I’m Sarah. You must be Placid, we’ve heard so much about you.”

A few things clicked as I stepped over to Sarah, offering her a hand. “And you must be one of the moms. What are you doing on survey duty this morning?”

“Artemis needed someone to take over when she went to bed, and Yolanda, Tina, and myself aren’t really going anywhere. Plus, I have those two to help pick up my slack if I’m too tired.” She leaned back again and looked up at the projected map. “This is important work.”

“Yeah,” I said simply and turned my gaze up as well. “They’re not in the town.” The dots representing human erg signatures in Chad’s settlement had scattered from the town, filling out the surrounding woods.

“They’ve been out in the surrounding woods, not entirely sure what they’re doing, but they’re not coming this direction, not yet at least.”

“That’s good,” I said softly. “They must be doing something though. There’s no reason to just abandon that defensive location.”

“They’re still using the town as a center of operations. I’m guessing they’re going out hunting, but they’re doing a lot more of it than they used to.”

“Grinding for levels.” At Sarah’s slightly confused look, I continued. “They’re trying to become more powerful as quickly as they can. This is good because it gives us time, and I wager that thanks to the factory here that we can grow more powerful faster than they can.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“It’s bad because with their head start, we might not have enough time to catch up.”

Sarah sighed, lifting a hand up to pinch her nose. “Well, the only thing we can do is all that we can.”

I nodded slowly, taking that in for a moment. “Mind if I take a look at the map for a bit? I want to check out a few things.”

Sarah agreed and rose to her feet, stretching out her legs a bit as she did. “I’ve been sitting for a couple hours already, could use a chance to move around for a bit.” She started walking slowly around the perimeter of the room, as I took a seat.

“How are the kids adjusting to things?” I started my examination of the map by zooming in onto the crater, taking some time to figure out the best place to expand the walls. The north was decently clear, but I didn’t want to clear closer to the town. The west, though, we had already cleared a path through the woods there, and the path I laid down would make for an useful initial thoroughfare. The space could make for a good farm or residential district.

“They’re doing as well as you might expect.” She sighed softly. “They’ve been so much already, and that’s even before all of this started. The divorces, the moving in together, that’s already a lot of change for a kid, and they were so little when that happened.”

I nodded and mentally noted the lines where I could most effectively deploy the walls, in accordance with the elevation of the terrain. The space might even be enough for some mines to be sunk. “How long have you three been together?”

“Yolanda and I got together about eight years ago. My separation had been relatively painless, we both realized things about ourselves that made our relationship not really sustainable. Yolanda’s had been worse.” I glanced over to see her face creased in the memory.

“You don’t have to talk about it, if you don’t want to.” I turned my gaze back to the map and pulled the zoom further and further out.

“No, it’s just that he man, Jack, reminded me a lot of those guys following Chad. Wanted to be a big, macho guy, but ultimately just fell under the influence of whoever was feeding their testosterone.” A faint smile cracked her features. “Still, it was nice to be able to be there for her, she’s really just the sweetest person I’ve ever met.”

“I hope I’m not prying too much, but what about Tina?” As the map pulled out to its full zoom out, I watched as more spaces continued to be filled in, while marveling at how much had been added since I first built it. I pressed the ping button.

“Oh, well, about five years ago, when she was still pregnant with Ive, her husband just disappeared. We never found out what happened to him, but she moved in with us, supposedly until she got back on her feet, but one thing led to another and well.” She laughed joyfully there. “I love them both so much, and the kids are so great together, it really was very nice. At least until the world ended.”

I could only nod at that, while the map began to repopulate from the new spread of information. How long had it even been since the system integration? A week perhaps, two at most, but yet enough time for so many new social structures to come into existence. The vacuum of power was such a radical one that everything moved with it.

“The kids are loving it here though,” Sarah said, “but they’re already starting to want to get out and go exploring.”

“Well, as long as they stay within the walls, they should be safe. And I’ll be expanding the walls soo-“ I cut off suddenly as the map finished updating.

“What’s up?” Sarah looked up as well, blinking at the sheer quantity of dots that had appeared at the map.

I pointed up at one cluster of them. “That’s my old college. There’s still survivors.” A breath caught in my throat. “There’s survivors.” I repeated, feeling my eyes moisten. “I need to go down there, once we’ve taken care of Chad.” My gaze moved out to all of the other clusters, all of the other places where people still lived, where people were fighting and struggling and striving.

I wiped at my eyes and said, “This is big news. This is a lot more survivors than I thought. More than I could have imagined.” I stood and offered the chair back to Sarah. “I’m going to need to think on this, quite a bit.”

Sarah nodded to me and moved to reclaim her seat. “If we can link up with all of these people, it’ll mean the world.”

Again I remained silent, the hope caught in my throat, my eyes growing wet once again. I could help them all, make up for my failures, I could do something to make these lives better. And if I was able to link everyone together, perhaps I wouldn’t need to be in charge anymore, not that I was really in charge now. Finally, I nodded to Sarah and stepped quickly out of the chamber.

I gasped for breath as the tension finally escaped from my chest and once more wiped away my tears, taking some time to steady myself there in the foyer. I considered my options carefully, before heading into the library.

The librarian sat at his normal spot, leafing through books, and looked up as I entered. “Manager, is everything well?”

“Oh, I’m fine, I’m fine. Just, there’s a lot more people alive than I expected. I have a big responsibility ahead of me.” I moved in and took a seat at the front row, taking a time to run my fingers through my hair, falling quiet for a moment. “It’s a lot.”

“It is, yes.” The librarian’s voice was soft as he closed his book. “Being chosen is not an easy thing, nor is being Chosen. You have continued to exceed my expectations though, and the expectations of the other planners of this operation.”

I looked up, eyes wide. “I’ve been doing a good job?”

“Yes!” The librarian laughed gently. “You’ve been doing a very good job. You have gathered allies, aided the oppressed, built structures, advanced your own understanding of the world. I know it can be hard to see the metrics, but you’re doing very well on all of them.”

I nodded again, once more taking the moment to find my center, to seek calm inside of myself. “Okay.” I let out a heavy breath and looked up to the librarian. “I have questions.”