42.

“My…reservations about Santiago and his compatriots is well known. He is young and inexperienced. And in my mind those are not the qualities we want to be leading us in our time of need. In a time of emergency. Santiago has proven his skill though, his passion, and his dedication. I too agree that this is a blatant power grab by those who huddle behind walls to chain our protectors to their desires. I detest this.” Abraham sat down, his quick but impassioned speech having caused dozens of heads to bob around and nod.

Santi looked him up and down and had to wonder what his angle was going to be. Abraham was too self-absorbed and self-conscious to really back him. He wouldn’t take a back seat to Santi and the others even if his life depended on it. His ego wouldn’t allow it.

So what exactly was he thinking? Planning?

With Abraham’s endorsement the wind went out of Marisol’s and Helena’s sails. Their democratic coup had failed by a single unlikely ally and now they were all standing around looking awkward. Santi was tired of this. He was tired of what was to come too. He had wanted Tank to take the roll, but he realized that was wrong. It wasn’t on his friend to take command and lead. It was his duty. His responsibility.

“Thank you for all coming here. Now that that is out of the way, we can move on to the next part of our agenda. As Abraham has stated, this is a state of emergency. We are beset on all sides by dangers. By monsters. We need a clear and simple line of command. It starts and ends with me. This council will remain as an advisory council,” Santi was cut off by the cries of outrage and Marisol and Helena leaping to their feet protesting.

“This is the true outrage. This violates the sanctity of our democracy!”

“Naked power grab! You bleeding hypocrite. You declare yourself king?”

“Madness!”

“Napoleon wannabe!”

“Fascist!”

All of it came like a stream of vitriol and none of it was wrong. The fascist was wrong, there were no rail lines to control after all.

Santi let it all roll over him like a wave as he stared down his opponents. Even Tank stirred uncomfortably behind him, but Cam and Bianca didn’t even flinch as he basically said he was going to declare himself a quasi-dictator.

“Enough. We have tried this council working as a leadership group and it has been a failure. We’ve lost lives, lives that did not need to be lost because of the failures of members of this council. Their failures to adapt to our new world is a major detriment to the security of our long term survival. I have succeeded at every step. We have only grown stronger. Our enemies are dead and we are safer. Now, with this new riftheart we’ve acquired, we can fuel a massive evolution of our support personnel. The cooks, farmers, blacksmiths, tanners, and anyone else who isn’t a frontline fighter.”

The crowd behind Helena and Marisol quieted down as Santi offered them the bribe. Evolutions weren’t cheap and there were plenty of people waiting. [Survivor] was a great class for easy levels. You just had to stay alive and keep doing things that counted towards surviving.

They had seen the qualitative jump in their fellows and enough time had passed that everyone was looking forward to taking that second class. There was just a bottleneck currently with the amount of treasures available to be used for evolutions.

The heavy softball sized riftheart could produce a large-scale, low quality evolution that would be perfect for the non-combatants.

“We will expand this council and fill it with voices to be heard and listened to. Just no longer will they be allowed to throw away lives in vain.”

Santi watched the reactions carefully. The hardliners were pissed, but the fence riders, who they had brought in to fill out the room, were wavering. The blatant bribe was working in his favor and he didn’t think it needed much more.

“In the future there will be challenges that a council will not be fast enough to react to. You will not be pushed to the back into the shadows or forgotten. You will not be repressed or subjugated. This is not permanent. Once we have secured a town, secured our food and water and are safe, we will revert back to a representative democracy. In the meantime, we will be moving forward with myself leading us. Your councilors will be your representatives, any complaints, suggestions, or observances should be forwarded through them. Thank you. You’re all dismissed. Councilors, stay behind.”

The crowd stood there for a moment and Santi could feel the moment teetering on the precipice. If they went, it would break the weight of the coup attempt. If they stayed, it was worse than square one.

They trickled out and Santi had to fight not to let out a sigh of relief. He wasn’t comfortable standing in front of crowds and telling them what was going to happen. It grated at him like a cheesegrater against his soul. A whisper in his mind said he should be off to the side, watching what was happening. Waiting for his orders.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

Marisol, Helena, Abraham, and Tank stayed behind. Cameron patted his shoulder as he passed while his Dad offered a sympathetic smile. Mom kept a straight face but her eyes showed concern. Santi could read the microexpressions on everyone’s faces who hadn’t evolved. They lacked the body control to hide their inner thoughts from showing up on their faces.

The moment the door shut, the shouting began. Helena and Marisol were livid, their voices mingling as they began to shout at him and Abraham. As Santi pieced together exactly what the intent of the verbal assault was, it was mainly directed at Abraham. He was supposed to have sided with the two older women, instead they had been shoved to the side.

He was getting his own share of flack, but their anger was directed at Abraham. The man stayed quiet as he endured it. Santi watched him carefully, something was off about him. The normal fire he had, the rage that he kept stoked at at the forefront of his thoughts and personality were restrained.

When the two women finally ran out of steam, Santi started to pay attention. Behind the ire, the heat and rage, there was fear. In the way they stood, the creases around their eyes, the smell wafting from their pores. It was all too obvious to him. They were scared of him, of what he was and represented. And in all honesty, they were right.

A brute could have taken the lead. A person of violence and ruled by base pleasures. There’d be plenty of them. They’d fill the small towns and empty plains and run their own small fiefdoms. Santi would kill them where he found them. Their type had no place in this world and those who suffered under their rule would become strong supporters for him.

He knew that what he was doing was wrong. In the traditional sense of Western democracy, what he was doing was wrong. It was a betrayal. He was going to become a dictator in every sense but the title. And it was the only way he could think of to preserve his people’s lives.

Over the years he had seen a thousand and one forms of government. If there was a time of peace, of stability without a fractured world filled with monsters and levels and people who could become demigods, then democracy and equality of man might work. This was the best he could do and he finally knew that he was going to have to step in. He couldn’t just push it off any longer.

“I’m not a dick. Most of the time. It’s not going to be some shithole labor camp bullshit. There will be rules and I will enforce them. A bill of rights for our people that will be followed and respected. People will be paid for their labor. Truthfully, most people won’t notice the difference.”

“Except they won’t have real power. They won’t have the ability to change how they are governed.”

“Sure. That’s true.”

“And? You don’t have anything to say about that?” Helena was incredulous.

“No. What you said was factual. I think you’re an honest person. You want to be in charge of writing up our bill of rights? Rules that are to be respected above anything else?”

“You’re just trying to use me to legitimize your power grab.” Helena’s eyes were wide and there was a vein pulsing on the side of her head.

“Also correct. You both are well respected and have plenty of supporters. You don’t have enough to throw me out. Not while I’m the strongest person here. Not when I’ve led us to so many victories.”

“So, since you’re big and strong and can just kick all of our asses, you get to be in charge?” Marisol let the venom drip from her words.

“Yes. That is the world we live in now. The strong can decide the fates of everyone else. Would you rather have it be me, who you know. Or the next person who rolls in and just takes what they want? Which would only happen after they kill me and my friends.”

Silence filled the room as the two of them stared at him. Tank looked a mix of exasperated and concerned while Abraham looked unbothered by everything happening.

“Do we have a choice?” Helena asked quietly. Marisol let her head drop as the weight of what was about to happen overwhelmed her.

“No. But I’d rather have you two with me than sidelined. You stood up when others stood to the side. I respect that more than you know. Standing with me will help our community more than opposing me.”

“Fine.” Helena had a bitter edge in her voice but Santi couldn’t help with that. With time, with his effort, he could prove them wrong. That they could trust him.

“Excellent. First order of business will be defining roles. Yesi has a powerful class that will help us organize better. Tank, I want you to expand the hospital and medical settings. Start looking for others who are willing to do that type of work. Marisol, we need to start working on hunting parties for food. Acolyte’s can’t eat the same food as Initiates, it doesn’t have the proper nutritional values. We’re going to need some way of storing meat and getting some type of grower class for food.” Santi began to rattle off his commands.

Marisol was in charge of finding and securing them an upgraded food source. Helena would be organizing a better version of the patrols and internal security. Tank would work on expanding the medical care and trainees. Abraham would be in charge of far ranging expeditions to find more people outside of the town limits. More people would need to be found to fill council seats for food production, crafting, and town maintenance.

It was getting to be a headache that Santi was not eager to deal with. When Yesi upgraded her class she wouldn’t be a [Planner] anymore and would need some type of new classer to step into that role. Hopefully it would be Marisol or one of her helpers.

“When are you planning the mass evolution?” Abraham asked, his eyebrows raised with a hint of curiosity.

“As soon as possible. Tomorrow would be preferable, but likely in two days. Need to find those most likely to get classes that work towards food production and help deal with water scarcity. Probably take a day or two to get a list of the most likely to get that evolution.”

“I’ll have my people start looking for any more of those treasures. See if we can get more people in on it.”

“Thanks, Abe,” Santi offered the olive branch. Abe just nodded back and the meeting dwindled down to nothing as Santi ushered everyone out to start doing work. He finally had the settlement under his thumb fully. All he had left was dealing with the downtown area.