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  It only took a moment to discover that down on one knee he couldn’t get a good angle on the approaching vehicles. So he stood up again, and leaned over to sight through the rifle. It wasn’t an ideal posture, but he could now see his target.

  Sighting in on the third truck, he asked, “What does Barden look like?” There were men in both front seats of the truck, and he thought at least two more in the back seat.

  “Pudgy guy, maybe fifty. Grey hair at his temples.” Daniel answered. Allistor checked both the men in the front seat carefully, but neither matched the description.

  “He must be sitting in the back. Which means I’ll probably have to wait until he gets out.” He turned to look at Daniel. “Swear to me this is a bad guy, and not just a rival.”

  Daniel raised his right hand. “I swear to you that Barden is a sick, murdering asshat who has killed several of our people, captured and taken our women, and should die a slow death.”

  A green swirl of light surrounded Daniel, and Helen chuckled. “Seems like the system or whatever agrees with you.”

  “Nigel, loudspeaker please. Full volume.” Allistor waited a moment, then called out.

  “Barden! Stop where you are. If you approach any closer you will be destroyed.” his voice boomed throughout the Stadium, startling many of his people, and even Allistor himself a little. The lead vehicle slowed to a stop, as did the others behind it. Except the third vehicle, Barden’s truck, which pulled out of line and continued forward until it was even with the lead vehicle. The doors opened as Allistor began counting. There were six vehicles in all, and at least four people emerged from each. A quick check of his interface showed there were actually thirty-two people down there.

  Helen called out loud enough for their people to hear. “Everybody with a rifle, pick a body and get ready to shoot. But do not fire unless Allistor says so.”

  Allistor was laser focused on the truck in his scope’s field of vision. The doors had opened, but only the two men from the front seats had emerged. After a good half minute, the driver opened the back door behind him and a man stepped out that fit the description of Barden.

  The man stepped a few paces forward, standing just in front of his truck. “Who is that up there? And who do you think you are? Laramie is my city!” Barden yelled up at the wall.

  Allistor’s voice boomed back. “I am Viscount Allistor, and this is my Stronghold. Your time of killing and stealing is over! I’ll give you one chance to leave Laramie, right now, and keep your miserable life. Any of your people who have killed or hurt other humans get the same offer. You leave, or you die.” Allistor took aim through the rifle’s scope even as he spoke. He didn’t expect Barden to give in, and to be honest, he didn’t want him to. Letting him leave would only mean he’d have to deal with the man later, when he might be stronger. But he had to at least give the appearance of trying to work with the man, rather than just outright murdering him.

  Barden played right into his hand. “Ha! Screw you, mister fancy Viscount man! I’m gonna kill you slowly, as a lesson to the others! You-”

  Allistor squeezed the trigger, ending Barden’s boasting by putting a large hole all the way through the center of his chest. Blood, bits of spine, rib, and heart tissue exploded out his back and liberally coated the two men behind him, as well as his fancy truck. The others on the wall took that as a sign and opened fire. Within two seconds more than half the men and women that had emerged from the vehicle caravan were dead or wounded. The rest had mostly fled, but a few had taken cover and were returning fire.

  Allistor chambered another round and was about to put down another bad guy when a cry of pain next to him caused him to look over. A woman he hadn’t spoken to yet was holding her hand over one eye, blood pumping between her fingers as she fell backward. Bullets pinged off the wall nearby as the enemy fire zeroed in.

  Allistor quickly cast Restore on the woman, hoping it would keep her alive. He couldn’t see the wound, but he hoped it was just a bit of shrapnel or something, not a bullet in her brain. A moment later Virginia was there, grabbing the woman’s hand and pulling it aside to pour a health potion directly into the wound. Allistor left her to it.

  Angry now, he turned back to the fight. There were still seven red dots within range of Nigel’s sensors. A quick look over the wall showed several people firing semi-automatic rifles in his general direction. A few more had fallen, and were either lying dead on the street, or writhing in pain as they bled. He selected one man whose burst of fire corresponded with a scream up on the wall. That guy was way too accurate to live. The man crouched behind a sedan with its windows already blown out. But he’d made the mistake of not hiding behind the engine block, or even a tire.

  Allistor took aim, the target within easy range of the sniper scope’s sights. He placed the red dot where he estimated the man’s torso would be behind the trunk of the car, and fired. What happened next surprised even him.

  The .50 caliber round smashed through the trunk of the car, and must have struck its gas tank on the way through. There was a ping of impact, followed by a loud thump as the tank exploded. The car lifted up into the air slightly, and the shock wave shattered any glass in a thirty-foot radius. There was no sign of the man’s corpse, but Allistor hoped he’d died screaming. Anyone who’d waste precious human life at this point deserved no less.

  The explosion had the bonus effect of knocking two more of the shooters out from behind their cover. A volley of shots from the wall put several rounds into each of them. There was a lull as everyone either reloaded or reassessed their situation. On his right, Helen let out a breath and fired, taking the top off the skull of a woman hiding behind a newspaper stand.

  Allistor checked his interface. There were no more red dots. Those who had been injured in the first few volleys had either bled out, been finished off by the explosion, or picked off by additional shots from his people. He quickly counted twenty-four grey dots, indicating dead enemies. That meant eight of them had gotten away.

  Unfortunately, he immediately noticed a couple grey dots on his side of the wall as well. The woman that Virginia had tried to help lay dead where she’d fallen. Another citizen had fallen backward off the parapet, the bullet wound in their shoulder not fatal, but the landing had snapped their neck.

  Another regrettable result of the fight was that several of his people had leveled up. They’d received experience points both for defense of the Stronghold, and for their kills. There were quiet murmurs along the wall as people checked in with each other, comparing the experience they got and talking about their newly available points, as well as Fame Points. While leveling in itself was good, the fact that they’d done it by killing other humans, not so much. Plus the award of Fame Points… And they were discussing this while two of their companions lay dead nearby. He was going to need to address this. The last thing he wanted was for his people to start thinking murder was a good way to level up.

  Austin and another young man Allistor didn’t know came rushing up. “We need to go after them! If they get back and tell the others, they’ll come back with a hundred guys!” He was pumped up on adrenaline and yelling without realizing it.

  Allistor put a hand on his shoulder. Breathing deeply to calm his own adrenaline-fueled heart, he shook his head. “We’re not going after them. They could be setting up an ambush already. We’ll stay safe behind these walls for now.”

  Both youngsters looked disappointed, and Austin looked as if he might argue, until Virginia called his name. “Austin! Come over here and help me.” She was directing another man to take hold of the dead woman’s legs and prepare to move her off the wall.

  As Austin moved toward his grandmother, his friend’s face brightened. “That first shot, the way you took out Barden, that was awesome! You were all like ‘pow!’ and his back exploded like ‘bwah!’.

  “Stop.” Allistor growled. The boy, who was maybe fifteen or sixteen years old, clamped his mouth shut and looked confused.

&nbs
p; “Taking another human life is never a good thing, do you hear me? There are too few of us left already. Barden and his people chose to kill others for profit, or greed, or just for the fun of it, I don’t really know. So they had to be put down. You heard me offer him a way out, and he refused it. Killing him was the best possible outcome of a horrible situation, and it cost twenty-six human lives, including two people I just last night swore to protect!” He felt Helen’s hand on his back and realized he was yelling at the kid. And that everyone else was watching.

  Taking a deep breath, he said, “I’m sorry. This isn’t your fault. But don’t ever let me catch you celebrating the death of another human. Any of you. This had to be done, but that doesn’t make it any less horrible.” The kid nodded, tears forming in his eyes. He dropped his gaze to his feet and retreated.

  As Allistor looked around, several of the adults nodded at him, or gave him a thumbs up. Helen rubbed his back a bit more before giving him a comforting pat on the shoulder. Fuzzy, who had remained on the ground level with a small group of children, chuffed at him in an inquiring tone. Allistor climbed down the nearest stair and went to his bear companion. As he approached, several of the children backed away in fear, their eyes wide.

  Allistor spoke softly. “I’m sorry, kids. I didn’t mean to scare anyone. The bad guys are gone, and I’m just upset that some of our people got hurt. Please, it’s okay.” he scratched Fuzzy’s ears as he spoke, and the bear leaned against him. A few of the kids stepped closer, and Allistor tried to smile even as he realized Fuzzy’s vouching for him did more to put the kids at ease than his reassuring words or soft tone.

  A few adults came and claimed the kids, herding them away somewhere, offering Allistor a few words of encouragement as they did. Every survivor had experienced death and the emotional roller coaster that came with it over recent weeks.

  Allistor picked a spot on one of the stairs and sat for a while. As he calmed himself, he mechanically cleaned his rifle. Something his father had drilled into him as a kid. “You fire your weapon, you clean it as soon as you’re done. Don’t wait for later, because you never know what might happen between now and later.” Fuzzy sat next to him, sniffing at the gun oil then sneezing and shaking his head. Helen sat above and behind him on the steps, observing him and nodding as he cleaned.

  When he was nearly done, she spoke quietly to him. “We should open the gates and go loot the dead. If for no other reason than to claim their weapons and keep them out of the hands of those who might use them against us.”

  Allistor smiled as she used his words from their conversation about the nukes at the Silo. “Good point. Smart thinkin’, right there.” He flashed her a small smile as he got to his feet. “Nigel, can I have loudspeaker again, please. About half volume this time?”

  “Certainly, Lord Allistor. It is now active.”

  “Attention people. Anyone who was up on the wall and fired a weapon, please report to the gate. Armed and ready.” Allistor followed word with deed and began to walk toward the gate himself. It wasn’t far, and in just over five minutes all the fighters had joined him.

  “We’re going out to loot the bodies. All of you know about loot, yes? Anyone who doesn’t, please raise your hand.” He waited, and no hands went up. “Okay good. When we go out there, find the bodies you hit. There should be a sort of… glow that you’ll be able to see. It tells you that you participated in the kill, and are eligible to loot. There will be several bodies that more than one of you hit. Loot every body that you can. When you’re not looting, watch each other’s backs. There were eight more of them, and we don’t know for sure they ran all the way home.” He paused to let that sink in.

  “Another thing. I know you all got experience and probably Fame Points for killing these men and women. And you’re about to get loot. Some of it might be exceptionally good loot. I know a few of you were already aware, and the rest of you are just learning this now. We need you all to keep this to yourselves. I can’t have you encouraging others to kill humans for the xp and loot. That’s murder, and will be dealt with quickly, and brutally. You all saw how Barden died. I will not hesitate to do the same to any murderer. Am I clear?”

  “Aren’t we already murderers, then?” a young man near the back spoke up. He had a smirk on his face, and was looking around accusingly at the others.

  Allistor began walking toward him, and the crowd parted. He stopped two feet from the man, who was puffing out his chest and still smirking.

  “Do you feel like a murderer?” he growled at the man. He was taller than Allistor by a good four inches, but with a much less muscular physique.

  “No. But then, I didn’t hit anything. I just fired my gun in the air. I don’t believe in murder.” There was a grumbling from the crowd behind Allistor.

  “If you know you didn’t hit anything, why are you standing here?” Allistor was quickly losing patience. The man was still smirking, and challenging him with his eyes.

  “You said everyone who fired a weapon. I fired my weapon. So here I am. Not my fault you’re unclear in your directions. Maybe you shouldn’t be the leader after all. You don’t seem to be very good at it. You got two of us killed the first day.”

  Allistor had been holding his shotgun in one hand. He raised that hand and holstered the weapon on his back. Clenching his fists, he turned his back on the man to gaze at the rest of the crowd. He saw a lot of hard faces, but couldn’t tell if they were for him, or the idiot behind him.

  “What’s your name?” Allistor asked without turning.

  “Me? My name is Justin. Shouldn’t you know that?” the man practically spat the words out.

  “Justin, how many attackers were there?”

  “There were, uhm… thirty.” Justin hesitated before answering.

  “There were thirty-two. How many died in the first volley?”

  “How the hell should I know?” the retort came quickly. Allistor still hadn’t turned, as he was watching the faces of the others. Each time Justin spoke, more and more of them looked disgusted.

  “More than half of them went down in the first volley. There might have been one more, if you’d actually aimed at the enemy instead of firing into the air. That one enemy that you let live could have been the one that killed the lady standing near me. Or the man that fell to his death.” his voice was very quiet, and dead cold. He watched as the others gripped their weapons more tightly, and there was some grumbling in the group.

  Justin took notice of it. “You can’t put that on me. I’m not killing someone over a house in a stadium. It’s not worth it! You’re a bunch of murderers, no better than them!”

  Allistor finally turned toward him, seeing what he’d needed to see in the crowd. “That’s good to hear. I’m glad you don’t think a safe place to sleep is worth killing for. What about the children inside these walls? The other men and women. The ones who’ve already been taken away by Barden’s people. Are any of them worth killing for?”

  Justin’s eyes began to dart around, looking for a friendly face and not finding any. “What? N-no!”

  “So, despite the fact that the people lying dead outside this wall were here to kill you, or steal your food so that you starve, you accuse all of us of murder for defending ourselves?”

  “Yes!” Justin raised his weapon and pointed it at Allistor. “You’re a murdering piece of shit, and I’d be doing the world a favor if I shot you!” Justin’s face had gone scarlet and spittle sprayed as he spoke.

  Helen raised her rifle, and within two seconds so had everyone else in the crowd. Every barrel but his own was pointed at Justin.

  Allistor continued. “Daniel, did Justin here come to your group late?”

  Daniel answered with one word. “Yes.”

  “Justin, you’ve been working for Barden since before you joined the group, haven’t you?”

  “What? No! Of course not!” Justin began to panic. He pulled his rifle tighter against his shoulder and raised it so that it pointed at Allis
tor’s face. Helen’s rifle fired, and Justin’s body was knocked backward even as the back of his skull exploded.

  Allistor turned to the others. “Anybody have a problem with that?”

  “Hell no.” Bob’s voice was first to answer. “He was about to shoot you.”

  The others all lowered their weapons, muttering words like ‘traitor’ and ‘coward’. Helen bent down and looted the body, taking Justin’s weapon when it didn’t transfer as loot.

  Allistor spent a little time looking each one of them in the eye, searching for any sign of resentment or malice, or doubt. Not finding any obvious indicators, he said, “Nigel, please open the gate. Just enough for a person to pass through. Be prepared to close it on my command.”

  The massive bolts that held the gate shut disengaged, and the twenty-foot tall metal doors parted slightly, leaving an opening about three feet wide. Allistor stepped out first, shotgun back in his hands. He led the procession of fighters around to the east side of the wall and the collection of corpses. As they spread out to loot their kills, Allistor walked directly to Barden’s corpse and looted it. He received several thousand klax, as well as a key ring, three handguns, two grenades, and a pair of fancy snakeskin boots. Looking around, he found what was left of the man who’d died in the explosion, and looted him as well.

  Apparently, the explosion also counted as an attack, because he was able to loot four others that had been killed after the explosion impacted them. When he was done, he looked around. The others were either standing guard over fellow looters, or walking back toward him.

  “No point in exposing ourselves by walking back. Get in the cars that have keys.” He held up the key ring he’d looted, which had Barden’s truck key on it. “Or some of you may have looted keys. Let’s load up as many as we can into the vehicles and we’ll take them inside.”