The survivor managed to fire a panicked three-round burst. The bullets struck Jake in the chest, causing little damage. Before the survivor could shoot again, Jake crashed into him, sending him sprawling to the floor. Jake wrenched the assault rifle from the survivor’s grip and tossed it aside.
In his peripheral vision, he saw so of the others freeze in horror. They must have thought Jake was going to tear them apart, just as he had done to the bandits two minutes earlier. Those who weren’t paralyzed with fear scrambled for the weapons scattered on the ground.
Fortunately, before the situation could escalate, Catalina shouted, “Calm down, everyone. Everything’s fine.”
The survivors cast apprehensive glances at her, unsure of what was happening. After all, from their perspective, she was one of Los Demonios. Realizing she needed to put them at ease before soone else lost control and opened fire, Catalina said, “We’re free now. There’s no need to fight.”
“What do you an, ‘we’”? sobody asked. “Aren’t you one of them?”
“Yeah,” another added. “What the hell are you talking about? You’re the leader of this base. You’re one of Los Demonios, not one of us.”
The survivors were distrustful of her, which was understandable. It was going to take so convincing on her part to make them trust her.
“That’s not true,” she argued and proceeded to recount how she had been forced to join the gang under the threat of having her friends at the other base brutally killed. She explained that she didn’t have a choice but to pretend to be one of Los Demonios while secretly nurturing plans to eventually rebel against them.
Jake quickly lost interest. Her motives and human affairs held little appeal for him. As he looked around, he noticed most survivors were listening to Catalina, having seemingly forgotten about him for the mont.
He spotted a machine called a mana constructor on the other side of the base. Curious to check it out, he began to move toward the contraption. A few nearby survivors noticed him and imdiately went tense, not sure what was on his mind.
“What about that thing?” sobody interrupted Catalina, nodding at Jake. “Is it your pet or sothing?”
“Yeah, can you put it away?” another chid in. “Seriously, that mutant freaks
out.”
“You don’t have to be afraid of him,” she said. “At one point, he was a human survivor, just like us. His na was—” Catalina paused, struggling to rember. She looked at him and asked, “It’s Jake if I rember correctly. Is that right?”
Jake nodded.
“See?” Catalina addressed the survivors. “It has a na and understands everything we say. It’s on our side, so you don’t have to be afraid of it—him.”
A murmur rippled through the survivors. Gradually, they seed to calm down, and Catalina resud speaking. But Jake wasn’t really listening. While he could hear her voice, he didn’t pay attention to the details. To him, whatever humans did held little significance, as long as it didn’t concern him directly.
He noticed so of the gathered survivors watching him with suspicion as he made his way toward the mana constructor.
“What’s it doing?” he heard soone say, fear palpable in their voice.
“I dunno,” sobody else replied. “But that thing seriously creeps
out.”
“Sa here.”
They whispered to keep their conversation from his ears, but his enhanced hearing let him catch every word said around him with ease. He paid the humans no mind, though.
He approached the control pad attached to one side of the mana constructor. He already knew that this machine could combine several mana items of the sa type into a mana item of the next tier. He scrolled through the available options displayed on the screen.
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However, he was dismayed to see that a mana crystal appeared to be the final product the mana constructor could produce. It was truly disappointing. He knew he needed a mana orb to start creating his own lair, but he had no idea where to find one. Perhaps the mana constructor needed to be upgraded to a higher level before it could produce a mana orb?
“I’m with you,” Jake suddenly heard sobody yell.
Others quickly joined in.
“I’m too!”
“Yeah, count
in!”
“Absolutely! It’s ti we stopped those bastards from bossing us around!”
Jake looked around. Initially, most people were doubtful of Catalina, but more and more seed to accept that she was genuinely on their side, not aligned with Los Demonios. It seed she had earned their trust and was now seen as their leader.
Jake noticed so of the survivors stealing glances in his direction. It seed that while most of the people weren’t afraid of him anymore due to his non-aggressive deanor, a handful still eyed him with suspicion.
“What are we gonna do now?” sobody asked Catalina. “What if Los Demonios find out what happened here?”
“I was officially promoted to the leader of this base,” Catalina replied. “So it should be easy for us to pretend nothing happened here. We’ll take turns caring for the base: so will maintain the machines while others stand guard. We’ll dispose of the dead bodies, taking anything red the bastards possessed. Those on guard duty will always wear sothing red. This way, if Skullface suddenly visits our base, we’ll easily have him fooled since other than , he doesn’t really know anybody else by face here.”
The survivors exchanged nods, united in their support for her proposed plan.
“Weapons will be kept in one of the storage units, within easy reach,” Catalonia continued. “And if we’re suddenly attacked by sothing—or soone—we’ll all grab weapons to protect this base as if it were our own,” Catalina declared. “In fact, it is ours—yours, to be more accurate. You built it, you maintained the machines—you did almost everything while all Los Demonios did was bark orders at you. This base belongs to you!”
“Yeah!” sobody yelled in agreent.
“That’s true!”
“I’m with you!”
When the shouting quieted down a bit, Catalina continued, “But we should be ready because eventually, Skullface will learn what actually happened here. When he finds out, he’ll be furious. He’ll want to take this base back. We need to be ready for that.”
Catalina stepped closer to the survivors gathered before her.
“That’s why I’m telling you right now: you need to be ready to defend this base when push cos to shove. Skullface won’t give it up easily. If you’re not ready to fight against him, you’re free to leave now. I won’t force anyone to stay. If you don’t wish to remain here, you can walk away. But let
warn you, if you leave, you’ll be on your own out there. Los Demonios will continue to hunt you down, and you’ll have nowhere to hide from them. Also, with the recent city upgrade, all the mutants are now much stronger than before. Keep that in mind too. If you stay, however, you’ll beco part of a big family. Everyone will be treated fairly. Together, we’ll continue to reinforce and upgrade our base. We’ll craft equipnt, gather resources and weapons. Together, we’ll grow stronger and eventually liberate this city from Los Demonios. So, what’s it going to be, folks? Are you with
or not?”
There was a mont of silence, then a chorus of agreent erupted. Most of the people seed encouraged by her speech and promises. Jake noticed a few individuals sharing doubtful glances, though. They would probably decide to leave and take their chances out there. It was understandable. Los Demonios was a huge and formidable organization, and taking it down wasn’t an easy task for these survivors.
It was none of his business, though. He approached another machine called the fabricator. On the control pad, he scrolled through the list of items the fabricator could create. One of them caught his attention. This item could be really useful to him.
Suddenly, he heard footsteps approaching. He glanced over his shoulder and saw Catalina walking toward him. Her face was flushed, and her eyes sparkled with excitent. It was clear that her little speech had resonated more powerfully with the survivors than she had expected.
Before she could utter a word, he thrust his finger toward the fabricator’s screen, pointing at the item that had captured his attention. Catalina leaned in to examine it more closely, her curiosity piqued.
After a mont, she turned her gaze back to him, her brow slightly furrowed. “You want
to create this thing for you?” she asked, her voice a blend of surprise and intrigue.
Jake nodded.
“What do you need it for?” she asked.
He just kept staring at her.
“Alright then,” Catalina said and then punched a few buttons on the control panel. However, the fabricator didn’t start working.
“Aw, shucks,” she said with a sigh of disappointnt. “It looks like it requires so rare resources that we don’t currently have. It may take us a little while to gather everything.”
She looked up with a hopeful expression. “Why not pay
a visit tomorrow? By then, we should have all the materials ready for you.”
Jake nodded. There was nothing else to do at the base, so he turned to leave.
However, Catalina suddenly grabbed him by the arm. “Wait, wait,” she said urgently. “Could you stay for a mont? I have a favor to ask of you.”
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