Chapter 125: The Price
After confirming that the Poison King was dead, Megan, Jack, and Henry got back into the Tesla. The surrounding CUEVs turned around one after another and followed them toward the shelter.
Headlights cut through the darkness as the thirteen CUEVs gradually regrouped into a convoy. The Poison King's body was soon left behind, disappearing into the night.
The refugees were still gathered outside the shelter entrance.
After the Poison King fled, the scene had briefly fallen into chaos. Some were still cursing the murderer who had deceived them, while others watched the thirteen CUEVs disappear into the darkness and began eyeing the entrance again.
Several refugees tightened their grips on their metal pipes and slowly edged forward.
Elias immediately led those who had stayed behind to block the entrance. Vane, Reed, Cass, and the others picked up their weapons as well.
The two sides faced each other from a distance.
Neither made the first move.
The refugees had the advantage in numbers, but no one wanted to be the first to charge forward. The two gunshots from earlier were still fresh in their minds. None of them knew whether there were more guns inside the trading post, or when the convoy would return.
Then headlights appeared again in the distance.
Everyone turned toward them.
The Tesla emerged from the darkness first, followed closely by all thirteen CUEVs. As the convoy approached, the low hum of electric motors grew steadily louder.
A stir quickly spread through the refugees.
Some searched instinctively among the vehicles for the Poison King, but even after the Tesla and the CUEVs came to a stop, he was nowhere to be seen.
Megan switched off the headlights. Jack stepped out, and Henry followed with the gun still in his hand.
The refugees who had been edging toward the entrance immediately stopped.
The others fell quiet as well, all eyes settling on Jack.
Jack walked up to the entrance and glanced over the people still holding metal pipes and brackets.
"The Poison King is dead."
Murmurs broke out again. Some visibly relaxed, while others kept a tight grip on their weapons and watched Jack warily.
Jack ignored the whispers.
"So, you still planning to rob us?"
Silence followed.
Most of the refugees avoided his gaze. Metal pipes and brackets slowly lowered toward the ground. Whatever ideas they'd had while the convoy was gone had vanished the moment it returned.
But their leader still refused to back down.
He gripped his metal pipe and shouted, "What the hell does the Poison King being dead have to do with us? I'm about to fucking die out here!"
He turned toward the others and raised his voice.
"We've got nothing left! You really want to go back there and wait to die?"
A few of the refugees who had tried to approach the entrance earlier muttered their agreement.
The rest said nothing.
Some even took a few steps away from them.
Seeing this, the leader immediately pointed at Jack.
"Don't let him fool you! It's all bullshit!"
Jack ignored him and addressed the others instead.
"I told you I'd reopen trade once we found the Poison King. Believe me or don't."
The leader froze for a moment before shouting again.
"We're not falling for your bullshit again!"
Jack scoffed.
"I give you a chance, and this is what you do with it."
He looked directly at the leader.
"I said I'd reopen trade, and I will. But don't think I'm letting tonight slide."
His voice hardened.
"As for you, you're not welcome here anymore. Get the hell out and don't come back."
Jack turned away from him.
"The rest of you can still trade. But from now on, anything you bring can only be exchanged for food or water. Pick one."
Low murmurs spread through the crowd. Quite a few of them looked surprised.
Jack pointed at the pipes and metal brackets in their hands.
"If you're okay with that, drop the weapons and move aside. If you're not, leave."
The refugees looked at one another.
Finally, someone loosened their grip.
A metal bracket dropped into the sand with a dull thud.
Then came a pipe.
A wrench.
More parts stripped from the agricultural supply center followed, one after another.
Before long, the only person still holding a weapon was their leader.
He glared at Jack.
"You're really just going to leave me to die?"
Jack didn't answer.
He simply stood at the entrance and watched him.
The other refugees had already moved away. No one remained behind their leader.
The silence only made his position more awkward.
After several seconds, he clenched his jaw.
"I won't forget this!"
He threw down the pipe and stormed off into the darkness.
Jack watched until the man disappeared, then turned back to the remaining refugees.
Silence settled over the entrance again.
One refugee licked their cracked lips. Another looked down and shook an empty water bottle.
After a moment, Jack turned to Elias.
"Get some water ready. One bottle each."
Heads immediately lifted.
A little life returned to the refugees' eyes, but Jack gave them no chance to cheer or thank him.
"Don't thank me. I just don't want you dying of thirst out here. Take the water and leave. If you want food, bring something to trade."
Elias quickly had the others bring out drinking water.
The refugees formed a line outside the entrance and collected their bottles one by one. No one shoved. No one tried to take more than their share.
Once they had their water, they gradually headed back the way they'd come.
Some twisted off the caps immediately and drank in small sips. Others clutched their bottles tightly, saving the water to bring back to the agricultural supply center.
Before long, nothing remained outside the entrance except the pipes, wrenches, brackets, and other parts they had abandoned.
Elias led the others outside to clean everything up.
No one noticed Mort standing at the back of the group, looking in the direction the refugee leader had gone.
The man had long since disappeared into the darkness. Only his fading footsteps remained.
Mort said nothing.
He quietly slipped away from the group and soon disappeared into the darkness as well.
There was quite a bit left behind. It took some time to move all the pipes, wrenches, metal brackets, and other parts back under the canopy and clear the area around the entrance.
Too much had happened that night, and everyone was exhausted.
Once everything was mostly taken care of, Jack sent those on guard duty back to their positions while everyone else gradually dispersed.
Night settled over the shelter and trading post once more.
The entrance slowly grew quiet.
Later that night, Vane came by to check the guards.
A figure slowly emerged from the darkness in the distance.
Mort returned alone, walking toward the entrance as if nothing had happened.
When he noticed Vane watching him, he stopped briefly and gave him a smile without saying a word.
Vane glanced in the direction Mort had come from.
He understood.
He didn't ask.
Mort walked past him and headed straight for the trading post.
Vane remained there for a moment before continuing his inspection around the entrance.
By the time Jack and Megan returned to the convenience store, dawn was approaching.
They entered the storeroom through the back door. Megan removed her protective mask and went to wash her hands.
Jack leaned against one of the shelves for a while. Only after the tension that had kept him going all night finally began to fade did he drag himself toward the stairs.
He had barely set foot on them when the system's voice sounded in his head.
"Human, a hidden mission has been detected."
"Hidden Mission: Eliminate a potential threat to the convenience store."
"Time limit: Seven days."
"Failure: Reclamation of resources already converted to unlimited supply."
"Success: One existing resource within the convenience store may be selected and converted to unlimited supply."
A moment later, the system spoke again.
"Mission completion detected."
"Mission reward unlocked. Please select one existing resource within the convenience store to be converted to unlimited supply."
Jack stopped on the stairs.
The Poison King, now lying dead somewhere out in the wasteland, immediately came to mind.
He didn't claim the reward yet.
The convenience store, shelter, and trading post needed more and more resources. He couldn't waste an opportunity like this. At the very least, he needed to think about what would be most useful.
Jack started upstairs again.
After a few steps, he couldn't resist.
"LOSS, feeling helpless?"
The system didn't respond.
Jack hadn't expected it to.
He went back to his room and went straight to sleep.
By the time he woke the next day, it was already noon.
Jack stayed in bed for a while. Only when the smell of food drifted in from outside his room did he slowly get up.
After washing up, he stepped outside and found Megan preparing lunch in the kitchen.
The water in the pot was already boiling, and Megan was adding the ingredients she'd cut up. Jack walked over, picked up what was left, and started helping.
He told her about the hidden mission.
"What do you think?"
Megan continued stirring the pot as she thought for a moment.
"Lidocaine."
Jack looked up.
"The clinic should be finished soon," Megan said. "I've been thinking about whether to use that dose on the refugee when we operate. But there's only one. Once we use it, it's gone."
She stirred the pot again.
"If we can make it unlimited, we won't have to worry about that anymore. And if someone else needs surgery later, we won't have to put them through it without anesthetic."
Jack didn't need much convincing.
"All right. Lidocaine it is."
The system's voice immediately sounded in his head.
"Specified resource: Lidocaine Local Anesthetic."
"Confirm selection?"
"Confirm."
A moment later, the system spoke again.
"Human, resource conversion complete. The resource is located in the medicine cabinet on the first floor. Please verify it yourself."
Jack couldn't resist teasing it.
"LOSS, you're awfully considerate when it comes to Megan."
The system ignored him.
Jack told Megan where the lidocaine was.
She nodded, glanced at the bubbling pot, and continued stirring.
Jack went back to preparing the remaining ingredients.
It wasn't long before lunch was ready. They each served themselves and sat down at the table.
After eating and cleaning up the kitchen, the two headed for the trading post.
As soon as they stepped beneath the canopy, Jack spotted Leonard nearby with the latest data from the Precision Agricultural Climate Monitoring Station.
Leonard came over immediately.
"The peak of the heat wave should start today."
"When I went out to collect the data this morning, the outside temperature had already reached 82.3 degrees. Surface soil temperature was almost 97. It's barely past noon, and both are still rising."
Jack immediately asked, "What about inside the shelter?"
"34.1 degrees," Leonard said. "About two degrees higher than before. Still manageable for now. But the outside temperature hasn't peaked yet today, so it'll probably keep getting hotter inside too."
Jack frowned.
"Add another PCCU to the shelter."
Then he turned to Elias.
"And one here at the trading post."
Elias nodded and called Vane and Reed over.
The two quickly loaded a PCCU onto a CUEV along with the necessary tubing and tools, then headed for the shelter.
At the trading post, Gordon and Harvey handled the second unit, moving it beneath the canopy and connecting the power and tubing.
Jack also told Susan and Ray to keep making ice and to send filled coolers to the shelter and trading post in rotation.
Even with the additional PCCUs, the cooling systems in their protective gear and the ground around the canopy still required large amounts of ice. The Polar Pulse Ice Synthesizer couldn't be shut down yet.
Leonard glanced down at the data in his hands.
"The next two or three days could stay like this. Everyone needs to be ready."
"Then nobody goes out during the day," Jack said. "Unless there's a problem at the shelter or the trading post, everything else waits until after sunset."
As they were talking, the sound of an approaching CUEV came from outside.
Dale pulled up beside the trading post.
Henry got out and walked over.
"The injured refugee wants to see you."