System Escape, page 25
She nodded, her fingers twitching as she scratched and petted Beggar.
“He is, he's something else.”
“Well, if you're staying at the Safe Zone we're going to, then he'll be around and I'm sure he'll stop by to visit sometimes, won't you Beggar?”
“Yah,” came the response, once again from thin air.
Katie's grin looked like it might be permanently stuck to her face now.
“I've got to go back up front,” Marc said. “But we should be back to my Safe Zone in just a couple more hours.”
* * *
As the zeppelin closed in on the mooring dock, which was now completed, Marc saw a small group of people headed out from the Safe Zone. There were already a few people at the dock that he could see, two down on the dock itself and two Legionaries up in the hot air balloon keeping watch, but there were another five coming down from the Safe Zone.
Marc recognized his mother and father in that group, but he wasn't sure who else was with them. At least one was a wood elf, their distinctive build standing out from the others, and he assumed it was either S'Tharin or Fah'reen, although he really couldn't tell which from this height.
He could see either of the wood elves needing to talk to someone in the group. S'Tharin to him, for anything regarding the grove he was building, or Fah'reen for Ella if it was something regarding the spiders they were raising.
The other two, Marc was pretty sure, were Legionaries, at least they were wearing Legionary armor.
Ah, I bet one of dad's other officers insisted on dad having a guard or something, that could be who the others are, Marc thought.
He knew that he'd find out in just a few minutes. It looked like the zeppelin would be docked before the small group got to the mooring platform though, so Marc took a moment to speak to their passengers.
“I'll want you to stay in here for just a minute or two. Chris, Brian, I'll need you two up front. You've got someone to report to. Once you do, we'll unload the children and find places for them,” Marc said.
The zeppelin docked. It wasn't exactly as smooth as silk, but with a tiny bump that Marc barely noticed. He found himself glad that Jeff was getting good at this, but hesitant about Jeff's current apparent change.
Because he's gotten better for a while a number of times, but always backslid. Hopefully Ella can keep that under control? At least he's behaving himself for the time being, I should be grateful for that much at least.
Then the two people on the mooring dock were snugging the lines down and pulling the zeppelin in to its docking spot. There was a wooden platform beneath the zeppelin that it would rest on so they didn't need to keep the bag inflated at all times and could keep the gaseous generator's hours of use down to just when they actually needed to use it.
Once the zeppelin stopped moving, the last movement noticeable by a tiny thump as it settled into its dock, Marc opened the door. The small group he'd noticed were just coming up the stairs onto the dock now and Marc waved them over.
“Hey dad, I've got some people you'll want to see,” Marc said.
His father cocked his head to one side.
“Do we have diplomats already?” he asked.
Marc shook his head, then stepped out of the zeppelin and motioned the two Legionaries to come out. As they did, they stood to attention and saluted Sean. Marc's father stood there, dumbfounded, and Marc was pretty sure he saw his father's eyes glistening with unshed tears.
“You're alive?” he asked them. “I saw you go down under the monster attack, I was sure you were dead.”
Brian and Chris dropped the salute before speaking.
“We thought we were too, but we managed to get out of that mess. Unfortunately, we didn't manage to save the entire group of children, sir. Those we did manage to save are with us now though, waiting in the zeppelin,” Chris said.
Michelle's eyes snapped wide open at that.
“You're keeping them stuck in the zeppelin? Why would you do that? Get them out here.”
Brian pointed towards Marc.
“It was his orders, ma'am.”
“We only finished docking two minutes ago, mom. As soon as the kids calm down a little, we'll get them out. They were all rather excited when they saw the Safe Zone they'd be living in,” Marc said. “Dad, can I continue to borrow Brian and Chris to get the kids settled? They've been working with them all this time, so it might have a calming effect on the children.”
Sean nodded.
“Sorry boys, I'm incredibly glad to see you and if you've been working straight through all this time, we'll get you some down time soon, but would you mind helping with the kids for a little bit longer?”
Brian and Chris both grinned.
“They kind of grow on you after a while,” Brian said.
“A lot like a fungus,” Chris added, “but sure, we'd love to help them get settled.”
“Alright then,” Marc said. “If you can get them to come out and go right down the stairs there, we haven't stress tested the mooring docks yet, as far as I know, and twenty plus kids probably wouldn't be the best way to do that test.”
“Kids, groups of five, alphabetical. Let's go,” Brian called out.
He led the first group out, then after they were on the stairs, Chris took the second group. They alternated until all the children were off the zeppelin.
“So many kids,” Michelle said. “I think that's more than we had here already.”
“Those are only the ones that Brian and Chris managed to save,” Marc said. “There were a few more at the Safe Zone we found in the city, ones that had a relative or someone to look after them,”
“There's a Safe Zone in the city?” Sean asked.
Marc nodded.
“Several, a main one and a few outliers. They had a bit of a dungeon problem also, but we helped them out with that,” Marc said.
Now the rest of Marc's group was coming out. They'd waited until the mass of kids were off the zeppelin to disembark themselves, although Marc wouldn't guarantee that Beggar hadn't followed the kids off first.
The two Legionaries Sean had sent to guard his son were with his group and they stopped to salute Sean as well.
“Good to see that the two of you kept him safe,” Sean said.
“No thanks to your son,” Roger replied. “He kept us guarding the zeppelin while he did crazy stuff like clearing dungeons.”
Sean looked over at Marc.
“Sorry dad, they didn't have the levels for it. I did take Chris in with us though, one of the holders there assisted us in clearing the dungeon so he brought Chris as a tank and one of their own healers so as not to throw our party balance off.”
Sean just shook his head.
“Dismissed you two, take forty-eight hours of leave, then report in for duty.”
“Yes, sir,” the two Legionaries replied, saluting again. Then they dropped their salutes, turned and headed for the Safe Zone.
* * *
It had been Fah'reen with the group and Marc heard part of her conversation with Ella as they headed back towards the Safe Zone, he didn't hear a lot since he was also speaking with his dad, but he heard enough to know that some of the spiders Fah'reen had used her magic on were now at a stage where they could start breeding, and Fah'reen wanted to know if Ella wanted to do that or not.
Meanwhile he was filling his dad in on everything they'd discovered on their trip.
“Well, it's good to know that we've got more friendly Safe Zones out there,” Sean said. “Plus, with your zeppelin we can keep in touch with them. A lot faster than walking, even if we used to be able to drive it more quickly.”
“Yeah, it's two hours to Pete's place and another two hours after that to the Uni Safe Zone and its satellite Safe Zones,” Marc said. “So all of those are easily in reach. I'd guess that the Andres' Safe Zone is less than half an hour by zeppelin too, probably more like five to ten minutes. So, already, we can get to a bunch of places all on the same day if we need to do that.”
“I've had someone working on some maps of the surrounding area. Including the area you covered in your trip for your System quest. I had them base it off of an old atlas I picked up from the shop. I'll want you to look at it and see how close we got with the Safe Zones and dungeons you told me you saw,” Sean said. “Plus, I've scouted out areas for a few new outpost Safe Zones so we can expand our Captured areas and overall land claim.”
Marc grinned.
I should've known that dad would be doing those things, Marc thought. I worried that being away might slow down expansion, but evidently I've made enough of an impression with my thoughts about how much land we want by the end of the first year that he's following through on it also.
“That's great, dad. I'll look at them later on today. Tomorrow I've got a new building to construct here, assuming we have the materials.”
“Materials are doing well. I've been using some of the metal on progressing the firearm chains, but not nearly all of it. Plus, with the new software you put in those recyclers, they've been pulling in all sorts of miscellaneous things as well. We had to buy a bunch of small containers for storing gas, or we would've wasted that stuff. There's a big one we can build, but I wanted your input on that before we did,” Sean said.
“Good, probably we'll go for it. I'm sure some of the higher tier items for the industrial age will require gases of some sort,” Marc replied.
“Plus, Earl wants some of them,” Sean said, shaking his head. “How you found a mad scientist after the world fell apart, I'll never know. I do admit that he has some good ideas though.”
“Hey, he's not a scientist, he's an engineer.”
“Could've fooled me, he may be an engineer also, but my prior statement stands.”
“Why, what did he do?”
“He's making golems, well he calls them robots, but they Analyze as golems. He doesn't quite have the process down yet, but he's working on it still. That's what he wants the gasses for, plus some specific fluids he wants to use for hydraulics.”
Marc chuckled.
“Well, he did come up with the spring ballista and the other stuff. I told him he could research whatever he wanted as long as he didn't endanger the Safe Zone.”
“He almost did. He wanted to put up a hundred foot tall lightning rod, because he needs large jolts of electricity for some of the golem work. Fortunately, we were arguing about it at lunch and one of the Mages from an adventuring group heard us. He came over, got interested, then offered his services to Earl. Evidently the Mage has a shocking touch type of spell and the two of them found out that it was sufficient for what Earl was doing.”
“Good, I'm glad he's getting on with the others in the Safe Zone. I worried about that,” Marc said.
“Didn't you hear me? He wanted to put up a hundred foot tall metal rod. In the middle of the Safe Zone.”
“I don't know how dangerous that would be, but it doesn't sound that bad,” Marc said.
Sean shook his head.
“Never mind, you don't understand OPSEC.”
“Actually dad, I do understand Operational Security, but we're not trying to hide here.”
“Good thing too, since we had a bunch of walk-ins while you were gone.”
“What?”
“A bunch of people just walked on up to the gates and asked for entrance. Settling in nicely in most cases now.”
“How did they manage that?” Marc asked.
“Oh, most of them are leveled and a lot of them were combat classes. They heard the train whistles in the distance and came to check it out. Didn't have Safe Zones, so were happy to move into yours.”
“Hah!” Rob said. “I'm glad he listened to me and kept using the whistle. It might pull some spawns, but that's what the guards are for. It definitely pulls people who hear it. It's a familiar sound that carries.”
“Are you sure they're trustworthy?” Felicia asked. “It tore Marc up to toss out some people not pulling their weight before, I'd hate for that to happen again.”
“I'm pretty sure they are. If they weren't willing and capable of pulling their weight, they wouldn't have lasted this long,” Sean said. “We are keeping an eye on them though, for at least another week or two, just from the people they're working with, so nothing really obtrusive, but still.”
“Good, good. Now, let's get the kids some lunch, then somewhere to stay, and then I can look at the stuff you wanted me to check over,” Marc said.
By the end of the day, Marc was worn out. He slumped onto the couch in his room with Felicia beside him, only to hear the scratch at the door in the outer wall of his room. As that door opened and Beggar wandered in, Marc shook his head.
“It's a good thing I put a full door in for him. I don't think he'd fit through the window any more,” Marc said.
“Yeah, it was a good idea. I do find myself wondering something though,” Felicia replied.
“What's that?”
“I wonder if anyone ever looks up at the outside wall of the keep and wonders why there's a door in it so high above the ground,” she replied.
* * *
Chapter Nineteen
Marc woke early the next morning, it was still predawn when he did. He'd gotten five hours of sleep, which was far more than he needed as of late, so he was good to go. He knew he had a lot of things he had to take care of today, in addition to trying to catch up with everything that had happened while he was gone.
So, I may want to go out exploring, he thought, but I've got this nagging sense of responsibility that makes me want to keep an eye on everything going on here, too. Fortunately I trust mom and dad enough that I can push that off for a while. Two whole weeks this time, which doesn't sound like much, but nowadays an awful lot can change in that small span of time.
He'd been talking with Brian and Chris the evening before, catching them in the cafeteria near dinner time. The three of them had decided that for now, the children they'd brought back from the Uni Safe Zone should stick together. It was what they were used to from the other Safe Zone, and Sean had agreed that Brian and Chris could be housed with them for the time being. They'd slowly get some other adults to take their places, but the two Legionaries were what the kids were used to, so for now they'd bunk with the kids like they'd been doing.
In order to accommodate that, Marc was going to put in another Barracks style building. This time, he'd make it closer to the original specs. There would be two rooms for the Legionaries, and eventually those rooms would be taken by whatever other adults started watching the children. Then, instead of one large room with bunks running down either side, Marc would make the large room, but section it off so there were two long barracks style bedrooms with beds lining the outer walls. They'd have a little less room than they would with an open floor plan since a hallway would fill what would normally be the middle of the room, but this way they'd be able to separate the boys and girls from one another.
The kids were all in the ten to thirteen range for age and Marc knew that keeping them all sleeping in the same room was a recipe for disaster, at least if he remembered what he and his friends were like back then. He might not have had the guts to approach a girl directly at that age, but Jeff and Rob would've had no problem with it, and Marc himself would've quickly assented if there had been a girl who'd made the first move with him.
After the new barracks, Marc also needed to upgrade at least one of the manufactories. His dad had gotten the firearms research up to a level that allowed rifled weapons, but the process required machinery not currently in the manufactories so they'd yet to produce any rifled weapons except for by hand. At the same time his father had also gotten them up to breech loading weapons as well. So he had to create a new building that would produce cartridges for them. His father was planning on the next firearm he worked on to be both rifled and breech loading. Essentially a single shot bolt-action rifle.
Sean had thought the upgrading of the manufactories and the creation of a building simply for making cartridges was of sufficient import that he'd waited for Marc to get back before it got done, so now Marc had those things on his list.
After the barracks, the manufactory upgrade, and the cartridge manufacturer building, then Marc would be able to get to what he really wanted to do and use the blueprint given to him by Octavius. That one he wanted to watch as it built and explore it thoroughly as soon it was done, so he'd save that for last.
With a sigh, he got out of bed.
It was nicer to not have my days totally full, but at the same time it was kind of irksome. I think I might be becoming a workaholic, at least if you include adventuring as a form of work, he thought.
He got up and dressed, careful not to disturb Felicia. She'd increased her endurance a couple more points with Nick's workouts, but she still needed more sleep than he did and since he'd gotten to sleep in, he wanted her to have the same option.
When he got into the cafeteria, he smelled the coffee brewing and grinned.
Old habits die hard, he thought. Because sitting here sipping a cup of coffee and smelling them cook breakfast sounds like a great way to start the day.
When he got over to the counter, he didn't recognize the person working it. They knew who he was though, and his habits.
“Coffee, Marc?” the middle-aged lady asked.
“Please, if you don't mind.”
“It's no problem at all. Breakfast should be ready in another fifteen minutes or so.”
“Eggs and?” Marc asked.
He could smell the eggs and he could also smell some sort of meat cooking, although he couldn't identify it.
“Eggs, sausage, and flatbread,” she said. “We've also got some oatmeal for those who'd prefer something else.”
“Eggs, sausage, and flatbread sounds perfect to me,” Marc said. “Are there enough eggs for everyone now? I know we only have fifty chickens, unless that operation got expanded while I was gone.”
“Never enough for everyone, but we've made sure people know it's first come, first served. There's a lot more when one of those big chickens lay. Breed a flock of those up and there'd be more than enough eggs for everyone, all the time.”
“He is, he's something else.”
“Well, if you're staying at the Safe Zone we're going to, then he'll be around and I'm sure he'll stop by to visit sometimes, won't you Beggar?”
“Yah,” came the response, once again from thin air.
Katie's grin looked like it might be permanently stuck to her face now.
“I've got to go back up front,” Marc said. “But we should be back to my Safe Zone in just a couple more hours.”
* * *
As the zeppelin closed in on the mooring dock, which was now completed, Marc saw a small group of people headed out from the Safe Zone. There were already a few people at the dock that he could see, two down on the dock itself and two Legionaries up in the hot air balloon keeping watch, but there were another five coming down from the Safe Zone.
Marc recognized his mother and father in that group, but he wasn't sure who else was with them. At least one was a wood elf, their distinctive build standing out from the others, and he assumed it was either S'Tharin or Fah'reen, although he really couldn't tell which from this height.
He could see either of the wood elves needing to talk to someone in the group. S'Tharin to him, for anything regarding the grove he was building, or Fah'reen for Ella if it was something regarding the spiders they were raising.
The other two, Marc was pretty sure, were Legionaries, at least they were wearing Legionary armor.
Ah, I bet one of dad's other officers insisted on dad having a guard or something, that could be who the others are, Marc thought.
He knew that he'd find out in just a few minutes. It looked like the zeppelin would be docked before the small group got to the mooring platform though, so Marc took a moment to speak to their passengers.
“I'll want you to stay in here for just a minute or two. Chris, Brian, I'll need you two up front. You've got someone to report to. Once you do, we'll unload the children and find places for them,” Marc said.
The zeppelin docked. It wasn't exactly as smooth as silk, but with a tiny bump that Marc barely noticed. He found himself glad that Jeff was getting good at this, but hesitant about Jeff's current apparent change.
Because he's gotten better for a while a number of times, but always backslid. Hopefully Ella can keep that under control? At least he's behaving himself for the time being, I should be grateful for that much at least.
Then the two people on the mooring dock were snugging the lines down and pulling the zeppelin in to its docking spot. There was a wooden platform beneath the zeppelin that it would rest on so they didn't need to keep the bag inflated at all times and could keep the gaseous generator's hours of use down to just when they actually needed to use it.
Once the zeppelin stopped moving, the last movement noticeable by a tiny thump as it settled into its dock, Marc opened the door. The small group he'd noticed were just coming up the stairs onto the dock now and Marc waved them over.
“Hey dad, I've got some people you'll want to see,” Marc said.
His father cocked his head to one side.
“Do we have diplomats already?” he asked.
Marc shook his head, then stepped out of the zeppelin and motioned the two Legionaries to come out. As they did, they stood to attention and saluted Sean. Marc's father stood there, dumbfounded, and Marc was pretty sure he saw his father's eyes glistening with unshed tears.
“You're alive?” he asked them. “I saw you go down under the monster attack, I was sure you were dead.”
Brian and Chris dropped the salute before speaking.
“We thought we were too, but we managed to get out of that mess. Unfortunately, we didn't manage to save the entire group of children, sir. Those we did manage to save are with us now though, waiting in the zeppelin,” Chris said.
Michelle's eyes snapped wide open at that.
“You're keeping them stuck in the zeppelin? Why would you do that? Get them out here.”
Brian pointed towards Marc.
“It was his orders, ma'am.”
“We only finished docking two minutes ago, mom. As soon as the kids calm down a little, we'll get them out. They were all rather excited when they saw the Safe Zone they'd be living in,” Marc said. “Dad, can I continue to borrow Brian and Chris to get the kids settled? They've been working with them all this time, so it might have a calming effect on the children.”
Sean nodded.
“Sorry boys, I'm incredibly glad to see you and if you've been working straight through all this time, we'll get you some down time soon, but would you mind helping with the kids for a little bit longer?”
Brian and Chris both grinned.
“They kind of grow on you after a while,” Brian said.
“A lot like a fungus,” Chris added, “but sure, we'd love to help them get settled.”
“Alright then,” Marc said. “If you can get them to come out and go right down the stairs there, we haven't stress tested the mooring docks yet, as far as I know, and twenty plus kids probably wouldn't be the best way to do that test.”
“Kids, groups of five, alphabetical. Let's go,” Brian called out.
He led the first group out, then after they were on the stairs, Chris took the second group. They alternated until all the children were off the zeppelin.
“So many kids,” Michelle said. “I think that's more than we had here already.”
“Those are only the ones that Brian and Chris managed to save,” Marc said. “There were a few more at the Safe Zone we found in the city, ones that had a relative or someone to look after them,”
“There's a Safe Zone in the city?” Sean asked.
Marc nodded.
“Several, a main one and a few outliers. They had a bit of a dungeon problem also, but we helped them out with that,” Marc said.
Now the rest of Marc's group was coming out. They'd waited until the mass of kids were off the zeppelin to disembark themselves, although Marc wouldn't guarantee that Beggar hadn't followed the kids off first.
The two Legionaries Sean had sent to guard his son were with his group and they stopped to salute Sean as well.
“Good to see that the two of you kept him safe,” Sean said.
“No thanks to your son,” Roger replied. “He kept us guarding the zeppelin while he did crazy stuff like clearing dungeons.”
Sean looked over at Marc.
“Sorry dad, they didn't have the levels for it. I did take Chris in with us though, one of the holders there assisted us in clearing the dungeon so he brought Chris as a tank and one of their own healers so as not to throw our party balance off.”
Sean just shook his head.
“Dismissed you two, take forty-eight hours of leave, then report in for duty.”
“Yes, sir,” the two Legionaries replied, saluting again. Then they dropped their salutes, turned and headed for the Safe Zone.
* * *
It had been Fah'reen with the group and Marc heard part of her conversation with Ella as they headed back towards the Safe Zone, he didn't hear a lot since he was also speaking with his dad, but he heard enough to know that some of the spiders Fah'reen had used her magic on were now at a stage where they could start breeding, and Fah'reen wanted to know if Ella wanted to do that or not.
Meanwhile he was filling his dad in on everything they'd discovered on their trip.
“Well, it's good to know that we've got more friendly Safe Zones out there,” Sean said. “Plus, with your zeppelin we can keep in touch with them. A lot faster than walking, even if we used to be able to drive it more quickly.”
“Yeah, it's two hours to Pete's place and another two hours after that to the Uni Safe Zone and its satellite Safe Zones,” Marc said. “So all of those are easily in reach. I'd guess that the Andres' Safe Zone is less than half an hour by zeppelin too, probably more like five to ten minutes. So, already, we can get to a bunch of places all on the same day if we need to do that.”
“I've had someone working on some maps of the surrounding area. Including the area you covered in your trip for your System quest. I had them base it off of an old atlas I picked up from the shop. I'll want you to look at it and see how close we got with the Safe Zones and dungeons you told me you saw,” Sean said. “Plus, I've scouted out areas for a few new outpost Safe Zones so we can expand our Captured areas and overall land claim.”
Marc grinned.
I should've known that dad would be doing those things, Marc thought. I worried that being away might slow down expansion, but evidently I've made enough of an impression with my thoughts about how much land we want by the end of the first year that he's following through on it also.
“That's great, dad. I'll look at them later on today. Tomorrow I've got a new building to construct here, assuming we have the materials.”
“Materials are doing well. I've been using some of the metal on progressing the firearm chains, but not nearly all of it. Plus, with the new software you put in those recyclers, they've been pulling in all sorts of miscellaneous things as well. We had to buy a bunch of small containers for storing gas, or we would've wasted that stuff. There's a big one we can build, but I wanted your input on that before we did,” Sean said.
“Good, probably we'll go for it. I'm sure some of the higher tier items for the industrial age will require gases of some sort,” Marc replied.
“Plus, Earl wants some of them,” Sean said, shaking his head. “How you found a mad scientist after the world fell apart, I'll never know. I do admit that he has some good ideas though.”
“Hey, he's not a scientist, he's an engineer.”
“Could've fooled me, he may be an engineer also, but my prior statement stands.”
“Why, what did he do?”
“He's making golems, well he calls them robots, but they Analyze as golems. He doesn't quite have the process down yet, but he's working on it still. That's what he wants the gasses for, plus some specific fluids he wants to use for hydraulics.”
Marc chuckled.
“Well, he did come up with the spring ballista and the other stuff. I told him he could research whatever he wanted as long as he didn't endanger the Safe Zone.”
“He almost did. He wanted to put up a hundred foot tall lightning rod, because he needs large jolts of electricity for some of the golem work. Fortunately, we were arguing about it at lunch and one of the Mages from an adventuring group heard us. He came over, got interested, then offered his services to Earl. Evidently the Mage has a shocking touch type of spell and the two of them found out that it was sufficient for what Earl was doing.”
“Good, I'm glad he's getting on with the others in the Safe Zone. I worried about that,” Marc said.
“Didn't you hear me? He wanted to put up a hundred foot tall metal rod. In the middle of the Safe Zone.”
“I don't know how dangerous that would be, but it doesn't sound that bad,” Marc said.
Sean shook his head.
“Never mind, you don't understand OPSEC.”
“Actually dad, I do understand Operational Security, but we're not trying to hide here.”
“Good thing too, since we had a bunch of walk-ins while you were gone.”
“What?”
“A bunch of people just walked on up to the gates and asked for entrance. Settling in nicely in most cases now.”
“How did they manage that?” Marc asked.
“Oh, most of them are leveled and a lot of them were combat classes. They heard the train whistles in the distance and came to check it out. Didn't have Safe Zones, so were happy to move into yours.”
“Hah!” Rob said. “I'm glad he listened to me and kept using the whistle. It might pull some spawns, but that's what the guards are for. It definitely pulls people who hear it. It's a familiar sound that carries.”
“Are you sure they're trustworthy?” Felicia asked. “It tore Marc up to toss out some people not pulling their weight before, I'd hate for that to happen again.”
“I'm pretty sure they are. If they weren't willing and capable of pulling their weight, they wouldn't have lasted this long,” Sean said. “We are keeping an eye on them though, for at least another week or two, just from the people they're working with, so nothing really obtrusive, but still.”
“Good, good. Now, let's get the kids some lunch, then somewhere to stay, and then I can look at the stuff you wanted me to check over,” Marc said.
By the end of the day, Marc was worn out. He slumped onto the couch in his room with Felicia beside him, only to hear the scratch at the door in the outer wall of his room. As that door opened and Beggar wandered in, Marc shook his head.
“It's a good thing I put a full door in for him. I don't think he'd fit through the window any more,” Marc said.
“Yeah, it was a good idea. I do find myself wondering something though,” Felicia replied.
“What's that?”
“I wonder if anyone ever looks up at the outside wall of the keep and wonders why there's a door in it so high above the ground,” she replied.
* * *
Chapter Nineteen
Marc woke early the next morning, it was still predawn when he did. He'd gotten five hours of sleep, which was far more than he needed as of late, so he was good to go. He knew he had a lot of things he had to take care of today, in addition to trying to catch up with everything that had happened while he was gone.
So, I may want to go out exploring, he thought, but I've got this nagging sense of responsibility that makes me want to keep an eye on everything going on here, too. Fortunately I trust mom and dad enough that I can push that off for a while. Two whole weeks this time, which doesn't sound like much, but nowadays an awful lot can change in that small span of time.
He'd been talking with Brian and Chris the evening before, catching them in the cafeteria near dinner time. The three of them had decided that for now, the children they'd brought back from the Uni Safe Zone should stick together. It was what they were used to from the other Safe Zone, and Sean had agreed that Brian and Chris could be housed with them for the time being. They'd slowly get some other adults to take their places, but the two Legionaries were what the kids were used to, so for now they'd bunk with the kids like they'd been doing.
In order to accommodate that, Marc was going to put in another Barracks style building. This time, he'd make it closer to the original specs. There would be two rooms for the Legionaries, and eventually those rooms would be taken by whatever other adults started watching the children. Then, instead of one large room with bunks running down either side, Marc would make the large room, but section it off so there were two long barracks style bedrooms with beds lining the outer walls. They'd have a little less room than they would with an open floor plan since a hallway would fill what would normally be the middle of the room, but this way they'd be able to separate the boys and girls from one another.
The kids were all in the ten to thirteen range for age and Marc knew that keeping them all sleeping in the same room was a recipe for disaster, at least if he remembered what he and his friends were like back then. He might not have had the guts to approach a girl directly at that age, but Jeff and Rob would've had no problem with it, and Marc himself would've quickly assented if there had been a girl who'd made the first move with him.
After the new barracks, Marc also needed to upgrade at least one of the manufactories. His dad had gotten the firearms research up to a level that allowed rifled weapons, but the process required machinery not currently in the manufactories so they'd yet to produce any rifled weapons except for by hand. At the same time his father had also gotten them up to breech loading weapons as well. So he had to create a new building that would produce cartridges for them. His father was planning on the next firearm he worked on to be both rifled and breech loading. Essentially a single shot bolt-action rifle.
Sean had thought the upgrading of the manufactories and the creation of a building simply for making cartridges was of sufficient import that he'd waited for Marc to get back before it got done, so now Marc had those things on his list.
After the barracks, the manufactory upgrade, and the cartridge manufacturer building, then Marc would be able to get to what he really wanted to do and use the blueprint given to him by Octavius. That one he wanted to watch as it built and explore it thoroughly as soon it was done, so he'd save that for last.
With a sigh, he got out of bed.
It was nicer to not have my days totally full, but at the same time it was kind of irksome. I think I might be becoming a workaholic, at least if you include adventuring as a form of work, he thought.
He got up and dressed, careful not to disturb Felicia. She'd increased her endurance a couple more points with Nick's workouts, but she still needed more sleep than he did and since he'd gotten to sleep in, he wanted her to have the same option.
When he got into the cafeteria, he smelled the coffee brewing and grinned.
Old habits die hard, he thought. Because sitting here sipping a cup of coffee and smelling them cook breakfast sounds like a great way to start the day.
When he got over to the counter, he didn't recognize the person working it. They knew who he was though, and his habits.
“Coffee, Marc?” the middle-aged lady asked.
“Please, if you don't mind.”
“It's no problem at all. Breakfast should be ready in another fifteen minutes or so.”
“Eggs and?” Marc asked.
He could smell the eggs and he could also smell some sort of meat cooking, although he couldn't identify it.
“Eggs, sausage, and flatbread,” she said. “We've also got some oatmeal for those who'd prefer something else.”
“Eggs, sausage, and flatbread sounds perfect to me,” Marc said. “Are there enough eggs for everyone now? I know we only have fifty chickens, unless that operation got expanded while I was gone.”
“Never enough for everyone, but we've made sure people know it's first come, first served. There's a lot more when one of those big chickens lay. Breed a flock of those up and there'd be more than enough eggs for everyone, all the time.”
