Sheriff Brody Claire was sitting at his desk. His desk and chair face the only door to his work office. He picked this office because it was originally assigned to be the prison warden's office before the world went to complete shit.

He often turned his chair around to face the wide window behind him. The wide window provided an overview of the most active part of the prison yard. The whole settlement is securely protected within a large octagon-shaped prison complex, and large fields surrounding the main building in the center. The main building, marketplace, and farm fields were protected by tall double-sided fences that had vehicle-wide walkways between each tall fence. Perfect for patrols. A guard occupied each of the six corner towers. The guards were carefully selected, to be either some sort of undead, immortal, or any other type of super-powered individuals. Those who are generally hard to kill, usually make for great guards.

Usually.

Brody would've considered the newcomer Tellie to be part of the guard watch, as she was a cyborg. However, he sensed that she wasn't going to be easy to break. He knew the type. She was going to try and try again to evade his command.

He turned to his left, towards the wall of security feeds. He had decided to relocate all security systems into his office. He felt this was the best route to complete complete control. When he couldn't watch the feeds, he'd send in one of his most trusted employees to watch the feed. There were enough feeds to fully watch the entire complex. There were little to no blind spots.

He had to maintain total control of the complex. He had to keep up a level of fear and authority. He had to make sure that no one dared to disobey him.

Sheriff Brody Claire never told anyone his weakness. His power is maintained and grows through leadership. If his leadership is doubted or ignored enough by enough individuals, his power declines. The pain from resistance to his orders decreases as well.

Brody won't allow that to happen.

He had the power he believed was gifted to him by God.

He looked away from the screens and walked up against the window. Looking out towards the marketplace. It took many years to get this place built into what it has become today. One by one, he found people to build it into the busy settlement it is today. To be the only successful settlement for miles.

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Throughout the many seasons during the early years of construction, occasional travelers would ask for permanent residence but more often than not, it was weary travelers asking for temporary food and shelter. He found himself often ordering people to stay when he found their skills valuable. From there, they never left. At some point, he just recruited, not caring if they had valuable skills or knowledge, he just wanted his settlement to grow. Sarah reminded him to be more selective, so now he allowed temporary stays for visitors.

He had to make an exception for thieves. He often ordered the swift execution of thieves.

Unless he was in a good mood.

To the luck of the three thieves he had recruited recently, he was in a good mood that day. They were discovered scavenging through his inventory in the small town formally known as Coolidge. His settlement-made resupply runs a few times there as well as other small nearby vacant towns. When his field scouts notified him of individuals taking his inventory. It irritated him but it didn't entirely ruin his mood. It was his settlements inventory. He decided to take care of it. No one had the right to steal from him or his people. He went to confront them. When he saw that they were in their teens or early twenties, just scavenging for survival, he decided to recruit them instead of punishing them.

It wasn't common for scavengers to be spotted in the area much anymore. As the towns nearby were essentially ghost towns before he even arrived to set up shop at one of the many abandoned prisons in the area. The mass desertion of the towns was the direct result of the Second Great Depression that occurred a few months after Wish Day. The majority of residents of those small towns had fled to the nearby cities of Phoenix or Tucson. When first scouted the area of what was formally Pinal County, he forced any lingering residents to be part of his settlement.

He tapped the glass with his knuckles.

There were so many people. His people.

He stared at the farmers, the merchants, the families walking throughout the market, and the guards standing at their posts. He stared at the former inmate windows of the nearby building that used to house inmates. The cells were repurposed to be small homes. Curtains covered most of the window now, they moved with the breeze.

The settlement was nearly at the point of being fully sustainable without needing to rely on outside resources. Soon, his settlement will have its own locally grown food sources, solar-powered electricity, and water purification system.

These are significant milestones for any settlement.

And yet…

Brody wasn't satisfied.

He wanted to expand his control.

Brody wanted more.

He dreamed of building an empire.