Chapter 13 – Loyalties II (Patreon)

After Marcy’s coup de grâce, there was no move for Luke to take that wouldn’t seem unreasonable or petulant. That was her superpower. She could make you feel like such a horrible person that you bent yourself into knots.

She didn’t have to torture you if you did it to yourself.

So he gave curt responses when necessary and otherwise kept his space. His thoughts moved towards his next move, where he might go off to hunt monsters on his own. Surely this place had more than just these barren ruins to explore.

The sun dawned on a new day that found Luke and his group joining Marcy-via-Henry’s group. There was cause for celebration, promises of friendship, fairness, hunting parties to organize, secrets to share, training to be had.

It sounded so bright and shiny on the surface that at times, Luke found himself falling into old habits and hoping that maybe this time it was true.

Maybe he had been a little unreasonable. Why would Marcy need to tell him she was going to sleep over at a house full of five guys and stay the weekend? He was being paranoid.

Luke snorted. Yeah, right.

That’s what she wanted him to think. She had the 3 G’s down pat: Gaslight. Gatekeep. Girlboss.

Then she’d publicly post racy pictures at their house parties and “accidentally” tag him in them so he would be sure to see them on social media.

Even Alice was swayed by her charms. Luke once more headed up the rear, this time with John, who refused to leave his side.

“Listen, I know this is hard, but you’re doing the right thing,” John told him. “You’re being the bigger man. This is more than just our past, this is about our future. Our survival. If this seems sketchy, we’ll bug out, promise, but just give it a chance?”

The pleading puppy-dog eyes were too much for Luke. He knew, deep down in his heart-of-hearts that this would all end in tears, but he couldn’t say no.

“I’ll do my best,” Luke said tiredly. “Keep an eye out though, all right? She’s crafty. She’ll make it seem like an accident or even that it was my fault.”

They passed through a half-collapsed tunnel that was so well-hidden, Luke realized they had already passed it yesterday. His group had chalked it up as too dangerous to venture into.

That must be how they found us. We walked right past them.

“Make what seem like an accident?” John asked in confusion.

“When she kills me,” Luke told him quietly.

John gave him a look. The same look Luke had seen hundreds of times before when he brought up something horrible Marcy had done to him.

It was always the same.

“Not Marcy, surely?” They would say.

“Are you sure, Luke?”

“That doesn’t sound like Marcy. Maybe you heard her wrong.”

He’d heard it all before. Eventually, he stopped trying to warn people or ask for help.

“I swear to whatever gods this place has, John, if you say ‘that’s silly’ or anything to that effect, I will punch you square in your handsome mouth.”

John looked shocked, but then grinned. “You think I have a handsome mouth?”

“John.”

He lifted his hands in surrender. “Right, right. Joking. Listen, nothing’s going to happen, all right? If you’re worried, we’ll bunk up all right? I’ll watch your back.”

“No,” Luke said, shaking his head. “That’d just risk you as well.”

It sounded paranoid. He knew it sounded paranoid. That was what Marcy did. And yet… he also knew that look in her eyes.

She had tormented him, nearly destroyed him in the end. He had thought he was at rock bottom when Emma dumped him out of the blue, but that was nothing compared to the depths Marcy had taken him to.

He still didn’t know why Emma left him. Or why she disappeared off the face of the Earth. Not knowing why still haunted him.

Emma had been the love of his life. Nothing had ever been the same since.

They passed through the tunnel guarded by several more members. They gave Marcy and her guards a curt nod while watching Luke’s group as if they were under armed guard.

Considering the amount of muscle on display, they likely were.

Passing through the tunnel exposed them to the core of the little bustling settlement. Which was little more than a wide bridge that ended in a tower.

“No wonder they’ve managed to set up so quickly,” John muttered to himself. “They won the lottery on real estate.”

“Of course she did,” Luke muttered darkly.

In stories, the evil queen would get her comeuppance. The big, horrible villain would fall to the hero’s righteous blade, and things would be put right.

The real world wasn’t that clean. Villains got away with things, even got stronger and profited from their wicked ways.

It hardly surprised him that Marcy’s spawn location had been at the top of a tower connected to the ruins with a colossal bridge that looked down onto a forest far below.

Perhaps the Company played favorites. She had practically been handed the start of a new kingdom.

“Looks like something out of Dark Souls,” Ed said, hanging back. “Look at how high up we are, but then there’s also a massive forest down there! This bridge is gargantuan.”

“And it’s very defensible,” John pointed out. “There’s only one way in and it’s easy to hold against countless people. The drop to the forest is so far that there’s not likely much hope of monsters climbing up to attack. The only issue is flyers.”

At that word they all looked up, scanning the cold morning sky for any shapes, but there was nothing more than a few scudding fluffy clouds.

Luke looked around, craning his head to take it all in. They were outside of the ruins. The tunnel they had just exited ran right through a staggeringly large wall at least 200 feet tall, if not more. It spread to the left and right until it disappeared from view.

People on the bridge moved around with purpose, hauling blocks of stone and clearing the bridge of debris. This must have been a fairly important bridge because there were small buildings clinging to the edge of it so that a small town could easily squat there comfortably.

They passed a group of men lashing together rope and bits of wood into makeshift ladders that they threw over the side of the bridge.

Luke leaned over the edge as he watched a young wiry man climb down the rope ladder like a spider and inspect something beneath one of the arches of the bridge.

He had to admit, it was an excellent location. Easy to defend against a much bigger and stronger group, not to mention monsters, while having a lot of amenities.

Despite himself, he wanted to pitch in. Explore what was below even. If this System had stats, surely there were treasure chests too. Maybe he could find a weapon stronger than common-rarity.

He had that dagger as a backup in case his scimitar broke, but he wanted to stick with swords. Preferably curved too. The enchantment wasn’t the only reason he picked a scimitar over something else, like a longsword.

“What’s down there?” he heard Janet say.

Marcy looked to the side. Mister Beefy Tin Can looked back at her, then at Janet. “Storage rooms, miss. Whoever had been here before us had stockpiled it well. There’re all sorts of things down there. You’ll be safe here.”

“I heard there was fresh water,” John chimed in, hurrying to catch up to the front. Luke begrudgingly followed in his wake.

Marcy beamed at him. “You heard right!” She walked backwards and pointed up behind them.

The group turned around to see the odd plateau-like shelf that the majority of the ruined city was perched on. An aqueduct ran alongside the plateau from further up in the mountains to the left, from the direction that Luke had originally come from.

It would have been impossible to see from their tower, and if it was hard to see from there, then that meant other groups likely didn’t know this place existed either.

Not until Marcy brought them into the fold.

“So, as you can see, we have just about everything we need here,” Marcy told them, giving them a tour. “Space is a bit of an issue, but it’s nothing like back on Earth. We could house at least ten times our number and we’re working hard on getting the first professions so we can make permanent additions to this section of the ruins. We’ll get a gate, some more housing…”

Marcy gave them the whole spiel.

Luke let his attention drift in and out, listening just enough that he wouldn’t be caught flatfooted if she decided to ambush him.

Which predictably happened just as a strapping older man with a broad, muscular chest appeared from a small stone building to the side. He had close-cropped salt-and-pepper hair above a surprisingly well-trimmed beard. His cold blue eyes pinned Luke to the spot like he was something to be scraped off his boot.

He was all smiles a moment later.

“And I would like you to meet the man of mystery himself, Henry!” Marcy said excitedly, leaping the last few feet into the man’s large arms and snuggling against him.

He was old enough to be her father, but Luke could see the angles there. He was older but also had a sort of power surrounding him. If he was a decade younger, he probably would have put John’s good looks to shame.

As it was, he looked refined and wise, but not old. Never old. The man looked like he bench-pressed cars.

“So, Luke, what do you think? Do you love it, or do you love it? Can you see yourself having a life here?” Marcy asked, all smiling and twinkling as she all but groped the large statue of a man.

Luke had been ready for this. He smiled politely, refusing to give in to the hunted little boy he felt at his core. If Marcy thought she could still play with his head, he was going to show her just how wrong she was.

“It’s very nice,” he said calmly, motioning. “A little run down, but I think with a little work, we could really make this into something special. We’ve got water, that’s important. An easily defended portal in and out.”

Luke leaned over the stone railing and into the distant forest below. They must be at least 500 feet up. “There’s nothing that’d approach from below, so our only concerns are the sky and whatever might try to crash through the tunnel. Which I’ve noticed you blocked up with rubble that would force anything into several tight killing spaces with blind turns.”

Henry’s cold gaze lightened with interest as Luke rambled on, laying out everything he had seen about this place on the table. This wasn’t the time to be petty and belittle the place. It really was good.

He was going to keep the few weaknesses he had spotted to himself, though.

Observe, orient, decide, act, wasn’t only just for moments of danger and crisis. He had to be prepared.

“Who is this observant young man?” Henry asked smoothly. His voice reminded Luke of rich mahogany, aged whiskey that cost more per glass than his monthly salary, and patent leather furniture.

In other words, everything that he wasn’t.

“This is Luke,” Marcy told him, a hand splayed out on his broad chest. “I told you about him, remember?”

Henry’s gaze told him that what she had told him did not match what he was currently seeing.

Maybe he’s not as wrapped around her finger as I thought.

Unfortunately, that didn’t make things any better. If anything, that complicated matters immensely.

“Well, I’m glad to meet you all,” Henry said, suddenly turning on the charm. “We’ve found quite a few rations in the storerooms beneath the bridge. Come, we’ll have something to eat and get to know one another! I am afraid it is not much compared to what you are likely used to, but food is food and I always find it is best to greet new family while breaking bread.”

Oh great, he used the f-word.

That was always a bad sign.

Now Luke couldn’t help but see him in a smart three-piece suit, pacing up and down on a black Italian marble floor as he addressed some Fortune 500 company’s board.

This was going from bad to worse fast.