“Thank you Rajesh. That will be all,” Troy dismissed him imperiously.

Rajesh hesitated for a moment, but only a moment, before nodding his head in what might have been a bow.

“Yes Sir, call me if you need me sir,” he said as he gestured for his cronies to follow him.

Troy turned to look at Mike and saw Yunah. He tilted his head in her direction meaningfully. Mike shook his head no.

“She’s with me. Whatever you have to say I trust her to hear it too.”

It wasn’t strictly true. Mike didn’t exactly trust anyone in the current situation. But a show of trust was necessary for their new alliance. It helped that insisting he trusted Yunah let him deny something from Troy and his rising power trip.

“Very well,” Troy snorted sounding somewhere between amused and annoyed. His hands began to glow red and a cone of red colored magic formed above the three of them.

“There. No one can hear what we say now.” Mike gave the cone a funny look, which Troy interpreted as asking for more information. He obliged, “I bought a couple of basic spell books. Nothing too fancy. I didn’t have the credits. But now I can do more than start a fire by touching some wood.”

Mike didn’t feel like beating around the bush. Troy’s cone of silence or whatever it was called seemed excessive. He couldn’t figure out why they needed it. So he asked.

“I don’t know for sure that we do, if I’m being honest,” Troy said. “But people are acting weird and I don’t want to take any chances.”

“You mean Rajesh?” Mike kept it blunt. If a megalomanical Troy was bad. The confused – possibly scared  – Troy in front of him was somehow worse.

Making everyone see him as the man with the answers had calmed them down. The problem was they expected him to actually have answers now.

He was playing with fire. No. Maybe it was more apt to say he’d mounted a tiger. He couldn’t get off without the tiger turning on him. Not unless he somehow gained control of the tiger first.

In other words Troy kept playing at being a mysterious and powerful leader, or he became one in truth.

In his heart Mike was glad Troy had taken credit in the beginning. Otherwise he would have been the one everyone saw as a savior.

In his brain he cursed that anyone had to have that roll. It made sense psychologically for people to seek out leaders in times of crisis. But things would have been easier if everyone stood firm on their own and worked together.

“Maybe the army or the national guard are handling things out there.” Yunah suggested to the other two.

Troy looked a bit hopeful at that. It was too early to rule out the possibility of an intact government. The appearance of a more familiar, or traditional, authority figure would also get him off the hook.

His newfound optimism only lasted a few moments.

“I’m not sure that will happen,” he said. They moved to the edge of the roof. The cone of silence followed them.

“Look down there and tell me what you see.”

The streets weren’t exactly empty. Here and there lone zombies wandered.

In a few windows Mike could see zombies moving through the surrounding buildings. No where did he see living people. Or moving vehicles.

They couldn’t see far. Mike only had eyes on a third of the block, maybe less. But it was, dead out there, pun intended.

There wasn’t so much as a hint of response from local government. No gunfire or police cruisers, and definitely no sign of a mobilized national guard.

Which wasn’t that strange given the unusual nature of the problem and the short time they’d had to react. Local governments were rarely known for quick responses in time of crisis. They didn’t generally get much practice in such areas.

That didn’t make the lack of coordinated response any more comforting.

Mike realized he had adapted to the new reality unnaturally fast. Part of that was becoming a system user almost immediately after the change. But that couldn’t account for it all. There was a certain flexibility to his mind manybothers lacked.

Given real decision making power Mike knew what his basic plan would have been. It had three stages.

Stage one was simply to gather as many survivors and supplies into a defensible position as soon as possible. His choice for such a stronghold would have been the college campus. There were several decent options around but the campus was the best.

Large open spaces. Numerous walls and buildings built in a sturdy architectural style easily adaptable to medieval level fortification. An intact infrastructure including machine shops, generators, dorm rooms and a preexistent food supply capable of supporting several thousand people for weeks possibly months.

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

Stage two was a combination stage, recon and recovery. Once fortified he would send teams out to recover survivors and supplies. Their obvious secondary mission being to gather any possible information on the monolith, zombies, old government, and the system that he possibly could.

Bringing them to stage three. Eventually something to counterattack had to appear. The monolith would show a vulnerability or its creators would show up. Something would show up worth attacking.

That was Mike’s basic plan. For one thrown together, between bashin zombie heads in, it was fairly decent. Unfortunately even if he’d had the power finding his family meant more to him then saving a chunk of the city.

Having been sidetracked by his own dark thoughts Mike cleared his throat.

“Okay. Tell me what I was supposed to have seen?”

“Don’t even want to guess huh,” Troy mumbled like he was annoyed. The guy liked his showmanship and setup. Mike on the other hand preferred to cut the bull. “Its simple. There is no one out there. No cops. No soldiers. Not even other people like us, using the system.”

Troy paused expectantly but Mike let him down. He had noticed those very things. But his conclusions had apparently been different to the wizard’s own.

Sighing in exasperation Troy made his point.

“I don’t know how bad things actually are yet. But at this point we are it. I’d guess quite a few people managed to kill a zombie or two. We’ve been conditioned how to deal with them from decades of movies.

But how many of them thought to pick up the crystal covered in brains? My guess? Not too freaking many.”

Yunah nodded. “I wouldn’t have touched it without you guys telling me to, even if I had thought it looked strange.”

“See,” Troy said excitedly, “that’s what I’m saying. We have a leg up on everybody else out there. That means we have a duty to start building a foundation. We need to save as many people as possible.”

Mike didn’t disagree exactly. He did feel Troy was a bit erratic. A few minutes ago he’d been sure the guy was looking for a way out. Now he was clearly recruiting for some sort of tribe or kingdom scheme.

Mike wasn’t against the idea – not really. Especially not considering he’d be on top of the social order. His problem was he wasn’t planning on sticking around the city for long. He had to get to his family as soon as possible. Sticking around to establish a base made it more likely his family wouldn’t be there to save.

Weighing his options for a moment Mike decided to make an offer.

“I have a basic plan for exactly what you seem to be proposing. But I’m not a big picture guy. I want to stay in the field killing zombies and saving people.”

It was a total lie. Once his family was safe he would be fully capable to settling down and ignoring the world’s problems.

Troy didn’t need to know that. He also didn’t need to know what exactly Mike planned to do in his own. He only needed to feel they were on the same side.

“So why don’t you setup the base camp and lead it, while I take control of an elite foraging team. I’ll take Yunah and her friend Sara for starters and we’ll clean out this building of zombies. Then using the credits well outfit ourselves from the system and head out to hunt.”

Troy smiled, “leaving me here with a cleared base and a known safe zone to build around while we slowly hunt the surrounding buildings focusing on the apartments and grocery/convenience stores for supplies.”

“Sounds about right. You might want to add sporting goods and any sort of pawn or gun shops you can find. Guns might ruin some of the crystals but they’ll also be safer to use than this crap,” Mike said, hefting his ax. He actually enjoyed using the ax, but that was partlybhis physical stats talking. Not everyone was part orc.

Just when Mike was starting to feel good Yunah spoke up.

“That leaves Rajesh. When Mike isnt around he might just challenge you or something like that.”

Mike, for one, was surprised when Yunah spoke up. It was a little surprising she was willing to accept their kingdom plan. She was the one who’d mentioned the government saving them after all.

Regardless of her real feelings, she had an obvious point. One Mike felt stupid for ignoring. There was something going on with Rajesh.

It might just be hero worship that kept him acting stiff and sneaking glances. That was unlikely. It was far more likely he’d also adjusted to the new world and decided he didn’t like taking orders now that he was “strong”.

Mike being stronger still, was evident, so he’d stay behaved – at least in his presence. But he was almost certainly looking for a chance to strike.

“You could take him in your team,” Troy suggested.

Mike snorted.

“Two problems with that. First it’s obvious and if I do ‘deal with him’ before I come back, or even if I don’t and he manages to get himself killed anyway, we look like the bad guys. Second, I don’t want him at my back. Maybe I’m misreading him and he’s a great guy. But I don’t rhink i am, and I don’t want to give him unlimited chances to set me up.

I’m not saying I won’t take him out for you if it needs to be done. I have a feeling that’s exactly the kind of world we live in now. But its too early for everyone else to see it that way. Frankly in the long run it would be better to wait for some other group to demonstrate the fact our new world lacks rules. The people under you won’t forget that you didn’t go there first.”

“So he doesn’t go with you then… Can I trust him with his own team?” Troy asked, but his question didn’t seem to be directed st either Mike or Yunah.

After a few moments he shrugged, “I guess I have to give him a team. You’ll take alpha team and he’ll get bravo. A subtle reminder to his pride that you’re better than him. And potentially a target on your back. Sorry.”

Mike shrugged they both knew Teoy wasn’t sorry. It was a calculated move to direct Rajesh’s attention away from the vulnerable base group under Troy.

“And in the mean time you’ll be doing what?” Mike asked.

Troy smiled vaguely. “You clear the building while Rajesh guards us first. Giving you a bigger head start. Then i let him loose to explore down the block for groceries and weapons etc. That leaves my group the surrounding apartment buildings.

A large number of trapped zombies for harvesting in relative safety. I’ll directly monopolize the crystals on the pretext of growing my magic to lay down wards and other magical safeguards. Hopefully it will let me keep pace with you guys out in the shit.”

The honesty was almost as shocking as the plan’s simple efficiency. It gave Troy a legitimate chance to keep him as strong or stronger than everyone else with considerably less risk. The perfect Coward’s plan.

Clearing her throat Yunah said, “if were done for now I’d like to check on Sara.”

“Fine. Let me know how she is. The minute she can move around on her own I want to get started clearing this place. Giving her a few levels should only make her improve faster.”

Yunah nodded and Troy dismissed the magic cone so she could walk off. Together the two guys stood stsrign kcer the edge of the rood in silence for several minutes before Troy sighed.

“You know even with everything I’ve said, and all our plans I’d still rather see a column of armored vehicles coming down the road. Or better yet  to suddenly wake up in my room knowing this was all a dream.”

Mike didn’t respond. He didn’t have to. They both knew what was real and what was a fantasy. False platitudes wouldn’t change anything.