410 Stench of trouble
“Okay, let me get everything straight,” Mathew muttered while looking at the list people brought out from the media building.
Apparently, over the course of the mere last two days, Daniel gave up on his role as a leader of the entire group, ceding his responsibilities to yet another person whose name Mathew never registered.
As it turned out, this unknown guy came up with a set of improvements to the maze Daniel created before that.
Once the improvements have been implemented, the rate at which the media building could dispose of entire hordes became something…
Something that could suddenly explain several changes that I’ve noticed in the area.
“It’s because of this improved maze that all the hordes in the proximity got wiped out,” Mathew spoke, raising one of his hands above the small table and erecting his forefinger. “You found out that keeping a huge number of cores out in the open attracts zombies like nothing else,” Mathew raised a second finger.
ραndαsnοvεl.cοm “And that’s how you obtained so many cores, you can easily spare over a thousand of them,” Mathew finished his list before moving his eyes from the piece of paper in his left to the raised fingers in his right hand.
His eyes jumped as he overestimated the movements of slowly counting his own fingers.
“Okay, I think I get nearly everything,” Mathew nodded his head before once again focusing his eyes on the piece of paper containing all the nitty-gritty details that the young man honestly couldn’t be bothered with.
‘I didn’t create such a huge organization to be the one keeping tabs over every tiniest bit of everything!’ he thought, more than happy to cede this responsibility to one of his allies.
With no talent in the area of finances whatsoever, Mathew was a poor choice of treasurer for the group from the very start. He ended up as one simply because the situation called for centralized leadership, with all the power amassed into his own hands.
“So, just one question,” Mathew slowly raised his eyes and looked at the messengers with vivid curiosity. “Why am I only learning about this all now?”
The distance between the school compound and the media building wasn’t all that great.
‘Heck! We moved thrice as far with the newbies today!’ the young man thought while watching the group from the allied area.
And if an hour was all it took to pass on a message, there was virtually no reason for Daniel not to do so!
That is, assuming he had an interest in keeping us informed about the events.
“You said Daniel stepped down, so, what is he doing right now?”
The face of the envoy from the media building twitched a little.
‘Right, because I just couldn’t get some time to rest, even though we only have a moment to recover before moving out again…’
I struggled to hold back a deep sigh for a moment, knowing full well how childish it would look at this precise moment.
Even before the trio could answer, I could guess the general idea of what was going on.
Daniel, the man who stood up to me and earned a command over the very second area my group attempted to take over. And mere days after becoming the leader and proving his worth, he was already ousted by someone no one heard about before?
Adding the strange delay when it came to passing the news and how a new ruling party was already established enough to send out envoys with tribute while clearly expecting weapons in return…
“Officer Daniel decided to focus his energy on managing the maze,” the envoy reported with a smile. “He claimed that his talents can be put to better use fighting zombies over debating the development of the area.”
Mathew’s eyes opened up a little bit wider, creating a long yet narrow wrinkle across his entire forehead. His face then tensed up, his eyes squinting as his cheeks slightly pumped up.
“That’s pretty… like him,” Mathew commented with an exhausted sigh. He then shook his head before bowing slightly in an apology. “I’m sorry, it’s quite the bomb you are dropping on us, right when we came to get a mere moment of rest.”
This wasn’t a topic that could be decided in the heat of the moment.
‘It’s either a coup or someone exceptional somehow managed to stay low-key and now started to bare his fangs,’ Mathew thought, massaging his chin as he took a moment to analyze everything.
‘But why does the wording those guys used to sound so… familiar?’
It wasn’t the specific words that the envoys used. It couldn’t be heard in their voice, nor deciphered from the rhythm of their sentences.
What Mathew detected couldn’t be classified in any real category.
A mere feeling, that’s all it was.
But for some reason, a third possibility flashed in the young man’s mind.
‘What if he’s one hell of a geek?’ Mathew shook his head. ‘At this point, would that even be at all surprising?’
They were all in the middle of the apocalypse. A time when obscure or generally sidelined knowledge could shine. Although only in a few cases and to a limited degree, one’s knowledge of how to build and maintain a bunker, how to survive in the wild, how to scavenge fallen cities…
All the things that only geeks would be interested in before the apocalypse now turned into the golden tickets of knowledge that could transform one’s life from a mere misery to a proper existence.
‘The rapid pace of improvements proves he had some sort of a direction in mind when he started,’ Mathew thought, still considering his options.
But this topic was simply too much. Too much for him to handle on the go.
“For now, I will have you excuse us, as we need to prepare several drills,” Mathew spoke as he stood up from his chair and reached out while offering his hand to the main envoy. “As we are going to leave for a mission soon, I will discuss your requests with my officers and eventually drop off what you asked for at the media building…”
Mathew put a wide smile on his lips while shaking the envoy’s hand.
“Ourselves.”