Coop, Camila, and Charlie left the country club behind and headed back toward the coast. Coop used his hand to shade his eyes as he glanced up at the shining sun while they strolled along the state road. It was still high in the sky, relentlessly beating down on them, and warming the pavement so that Coop felt the heat coming from above and below. He missed the steady ocean breeze of Ghost Reef.
They still had most of the evening to make it to Crane Point. Hopefully, the Eye of the Storm had already returned from its scouting mission up the coast. They wanted to get their infiltration plan started and they needed to coordinate with the pirates ahead of time to arrange their escape. Charlie was doing a good job keeping it together, but she was clearly worried about her parents.
When they passed Peacock Park they noted that there was someone lingering at the main entrance, where Coop had waited for the girls. Since Coop had inadvertently turned the park into a rallying point, they paused their trip to see who it was.
They found a man carrying an infant while holding the hand of a toddler, packed like he was going camping with a huge pack on his back. When he noticed the trio approaching, his relief was palpable.
“Oh thank god. I was worried I was too late. Are you heading to Crane Point?” He asked while gently goading the toddler forward as she tried to hide behind his legs.
“We sure are.” Coop confirmed with a friendly smile to the toddler. He wasn’t sure if she was scared or shy.
“What a relief, I thought I’d have to go alone.” The man looked at the two kids, “It’s not easy wrangling them.”
“I bet!” Camila agreed before asking the man some questions about why he was there. Coop was distracted by the toddler beckoning him with a waving hand.
He kneeled down to her level. “Hi there,” He greeted her.
“Hello… My name is Hana! What’s yours?” She squeaked before grasping a doll in front of her face.
“My name is Coop.” He answered the shy kid. “And who’s that?” Coop asked, pointing to her stuffed doll.
“This is Hana!” She raised the doll to her ear, “She says hello.”
“Hana? Well, that’s a cute name. But where have I heard it before?” Coop teased, tapping his head like he was wracking his brain to recall.
“‘Cause that’s my name!” Hana announced, beaming a smile at Coop calling her name cute.
Coop smiled at her reaction and realized the others had stopped talking to watch him interact with Hana. Charlie was smiling like she had momentarily forgotten her worries and Camila was mockingly fanning herself. Coop just rolled his eyes at Camila.
“So, do you know anything about this guy that’s supposed to have a settlement for us?” Hana’s father asked the three. “I only heard a little bit and it sounded fair, but I still have worries.”
Before Coop could admit that he was that guy, Camila interrupted him. “Sure, we know some stuff, but what did you hear?”
“Well, I heard his pitch was that he had a factionless settlement that was open to anyone that would work in it. I also heard that he was really strong, people claimed he was defeating a hundred of those monsters at once, but, c’mon, I don’t really believe that.” He frowned. “It’s pretty thin to stake my family’s life on,” He glanced at his children, not wanting to unsettle them. “But their mother… you know… so I think we should go before the same thing happens to me.” Hana looked up at her father, clearly suspicious. Coop guessed she was around four years old, but kids understood more than adults gave them credit for.
Coop wouldn’t be leaving them behind. “Let’s walk and talk.” Coop wanted to make sure they made it back to Crane Point early enough. Hana lifted her arms up for Coop to carry her. He glanced at her father who nodded to give him permission, so he lifted her up and they walked. Camila chatted away with Hana’s father while Charlie walked behind Coop making faces at Hana. Coop was glad to note that Charlie was making herself laugh just as much as the little girl.
Hana’s father was a high school teacher that was hoping there would be room at a school for him, otherwise he would volunteer to help build things. He had done some carpentry while he was in college and he wasn’t above some manual labor. He just needed someone to watch the kids. Coop made a mental note to look into building a school now that they were gaining some more residents, including more children to add to Olani’s grandkids. The Clumsy Shark wouldn’t cut it for every type of gathering, though he didn’t think Maeve and Desmond would turn anyone away.
Hana’s father was quite the chatterbox, especially with Camila goading him, and he regaled them with his experiences in the city. Immediately after the apocalypse, people in the area banded together, treating it like the days after a hurricane, making sure people were alright and supplied while seeking out their own missing loved ones.
Things were looking up as people cooperated to understand what they had collectively experienced. The first people to return from their sponsorship bids were those that declined to become Chosen or those that didn’t have particularly invested factions, like Jones, and they joined the neighborhood in organizing and rebuilding.
It wasn’t until more Chosen started to return that the situation truly devolved into an apocalyptic scenario instead of just a natural disaster. Not everyone was above using their boosted levels to take advantage of other people.
People started avoiding each other for fear of violence breaking out. The neighborhood had to form a militia that was meant to keep the peace. Things briefly stabilized as the militia outleveled the monsters and outnumbered the troublemakers.
The civilization shard had been discovered elsewhere in the city and people were slowly moving into its territory, but things fell apart when skirmishes over the shard broke out. People couldn’t agree on how to move forward. Eventually, the Endless Empire violently took the shard for themselves and used their significant numbers to stabilize their own control of the territory.
After the Empire took over, there was no more organizing. Plenty of people were still outside of the settlement’s influence, but they all knew it was only a matter of time before they were absorbed by the Empire. As the settlement grew, its territory expanded as well, so unless they ran for the wilderness, it was inevitable. The Empire was also militant about confronting other organized groups, so people limited their interactions to small communications to keep each other updated, in fear of being hassled by the Chosen soldiers.
Most of them were holding out hope that something would change before they were added to the local settlement. They didn’t want to trade the danger of monsters for the often more unpredictable danger of humans. That was why Coop’s vague offer was appealing enough to get some takers. Hana’s father confirmed that plenty of people were still hiding out, though most of them weren’t interested in joining any settlements at all, the idea was thoroughly poisoned by exposure to the Empire.
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Eventually, Camila finally cleared up that Coop was the guy recruiting for Ghost Reef and Hana’s father had a brief moment of panic as he tried to remember if he said anything that might have been offensive. He obviously put some stock in the rumors of Coop fighting hundreds of monsters.
The moment of fear faded and he ended up interrogating Coop about the state of his settlement, learning how much development had already taken place despite a general lack of residents for most of the time. Coop promised they would keep working on it, but also wanted everyone to take leveling seriously as there was no way they could keep everyone safe otherwise. He wanted the residents to be self-sufficient so he wouldn’t need to micromanage everything. Hana’s father seemed agreeable and promised to both help build a school and then help run it.
When they arrived at Crane Point the Cleary brothers were waiting at the marina’s guardhouse. They let him in with a nod, but remained at the entrance like makeshift sentries.
“Any trouble?” Coop checked in with Buck.
“Not even a peep from the mean dogs. I’m guessing you did a number on them.” Buck gave a quick update.
One of the other brothers leaned out the window of the security booth, “We’ve been watching the leaderboards. Crazy stuff.” He reported.
“Shut up Tiny, that’s a secret.” Junior scolded his brother with a smack to the ear.
Coop shook his head, “It’s fine. There was one really big one that I’ll tell you about later. I’m gonna go arrange the ride outta here first.” The brothers nodded, letting him continue inside.
The brothers stayed at the security gate while Coop walked down the entrance way of the marina, toward the parking lot. He led the way across the pavement past the two wrecked cars before his arrival was noticed.
“He’s finally here!” Elly shouted from the end of the parking lot, gathering the attention of the groups of people scattered around the marina.
It looked like a bit more than 50 people had decided to take their chances and seek out his mystery settlement from the two main groups. Charlie went to say hello to Mr. Gibson and find out who was coming. Hana’s family went to greet a group of parents with tiny children.
Laurie waved at Coop from a wooden bench that faced the water with her infant in her arms as he went to the end of the dock. He stopped to ask if everyone she was expecting had arrived and she confirmed that no one else was missing that had expressed interest in going. Unfortunately, not everyone had agreed with her own reasoning, though, and they would be taking their chances in the city. Coop felt bad, but there was only so much he could do, and he had his own promises to keep.
The Eye of the Storm had been anchored offshore, but as soon as Coop was spotted, the anchor pulled up and the oars came out. Coop watched the galleon approach and Captain Kayla greeted him from the bow with one foot planted on a crate looking exactly like a pirate captain should. The ship expertly coasted to the edge of the dock.
“All set?” Kayla wondered as her crew set up the gangplank.
“Not quite, we still have a few more to collect, but they were captured. We wanted to arrange a getaway before we went after them.” Coop explained.
“Now that sounds fun.” Kayla grinned. “One of my corvettes would have been better, but we’ve commandeered some worthy vessels.” She pointed to a variety of sailboats that were grouped offshore.
Coop hadn’t noticed the black flags they were flying until she pointed at them. When he raised his eyebrows, Kayla grinned even wider. “I’m meant to be the commander of the Tempest Fleet. Can’t call it a fleet if it’s just one or two boats.”
“You sure they’ll all make it?” Coop asked skeptically. He noted that a few sailboats were leaning precariously, and at least one had a group of phantom pirates bailing water to keep it from sinking.
“They’ll make it if the crews don’t want to swim the rest of the way.” She gave a ruthless laugh. “I’ll have the fastest one ready for you, just tell me where you want it.”
Coop explained where the main port of the city was and Kayla guaranteed to have a ready crew rendezvous there. They would wait for Coop’s party before leaving. As for the rest, she would take the people who gathered back to Ghost Reef on the Eye of the Storm with the stolen sailboats as an escort. Coop explained who the passengers were and asked her to relay a message to Shane’s party about how to handle them. Coop would need to return and use the shard to purchase more buildings before they were fully situated, but they would be made comfortable in the meantime.
He left her to ready the ship and went back to the marina to let all of the gathered people know that their transportation was there. Many of them were still skeptical of him, but they had already taken the first step in trusting him by heading to Crane Point in the first place. It didn’t take long for them to be convinced to keep going. Laurie’s confidence in him was a big help.
He watched as they all boarded the pirate galleon with varying levels of hesitation. The huge ship represented the first time many of them had ever been sailing, and the fact that it was an old vessel that had been sunk hundreds of years previously gave them a few reasonable concerns. Coop noted that roughly half of the group was either children or the elderly, but he didn’t think that was a problem with the presence of mana. Laurie and Gibson were more than happy to help organize all of the people that had received his invitation.
It wasn’t too much longer before everyone was boarded and Coop was waving to Elly as the ship sailed into the growing night, followed by a dozen white sailboats that did their best to follow. It seemed like the pirates were quickly adapting to the modern ships. A single catamaran broke away to head toward the port and await Coop and the rescue crew. Even in the dark, Coop noted the distinct form of Sharkbait aboard the getaway vessel. He appreciated that Kayla wasn’t messing around when she sent her right hand man.
The girls led Coop toward Empress City. They would be approaching from the inland side, to confuse anyone that tried to guess where Coop came from. Since the plan involved him getting access to the settlement by admitting he came from a different settlement, they anticipated the Empire to attempt to triangulate its location based on his approach.
A nighttime walk into the gently lit city, thanks to the waning moon, brought them near their destination in less than an hour. Without monsters, bandits, or traffic to slow them down, they made surprisingly good time. Coop found the most surprising thing about the post apocalyptic city was how much vegetation had taken over. It was like mana had given most of the plants a 50 year boost in growth. Creeping vines clung to the facades of the buildings, grasses had broken through the pavement of the roads, all while trees had claimed the curbs and sidewalks.
As they got closer to the settlement they started taking side streets and alleys to avoid prying eyes. Camila confidently led the way, ponytail swaying back and forth. Coop joined Charlie in watching windows for enemies.
Once they were within blocks of the edge of the settlement’s territory, they settled on waiting the rest of the night inside a former hotel. They were close enough to look into the airport’s property but far enough away to be beyond the detection of the borders. One of the city’s checkpoints was just a block away and unless they had been spotted by a random patrol, they didn’t think anyone knew they were there.
The trio chatted in one of the top floor hotel rooms, but the mood had turned a bit anxious. It felt like the night before game day to Coop. The girls would be leaving first, in order to sneak into the settlement and move to the nearby checkpoint from the inside. Coop would approach the settlement openly when morning came. The girls should already be in position to follow along and take advantage of any distractions that he provided, if that’s what it came down to.
He settled down to sleep. He wasn’t 100% because of his rib injury, but he wanted to at least be mentally fresh when playing the role of ambassador of an unknown settlement. He had been grinding monsters through the last several nights and he didn’t want to keep neglecting sleep. The girls kept an eye on the settlement and discussed their plans.
Coop affirmed his next goal, which was to leave Empress City with Charlie’s parents. Best case scenario, they could openly walk out of the settlement. It would still be good enough if they could just sneak them out. He might be able to negotiate for their release somehow, and in the worst case scenario, he would fight his way out. One way or another, he’d get everyone back to Ghost Reef
He was hesitant to resort to tearing the settlement down because of the impending settlement events. He didn’t want to be responsible for crippling their forces and leaving the innocent residents exposed in one way or another, and he really wasn’t in any position to take responsibility for them himself.