Camp Relocation

After coming to the decision, Grant didn't bother waiting any longer and immediately went to get the four people who had been waiting outside.

Once they had returned to the room, Grant started to discuss his plans without delay. He didn't want to spend any more time than necessary dealing with this issue so he knew the sooner he convinced these people to get on board with his plan, the better, since it would take days if not weeks to move the vast amount of people to the dungeon.

After explaining to everyone about the dungeon, and what it was exactly. They were all justifiably caught off guard. They found it hard to believe but after Grant spent a good half hour answering all of their questions, they finally seemed to calm down and accept what it was that he was telling them about.

"Now that you four know exactly what kind of protection I can provide, I have one simple request if you decide to accept what I am offering.

I believe that putting Jerrod here in charge would be best for everyone. He has the desire to do what it takes to provide for his family and I can tell he cares for all of the people here."

Scott, Carly, and Toby were all caught off guard at first, but they quickly understood why Grant was making the decision he was. Clearly their answers to his questions were what he had based this decision on.

The one who was the most caught off guard, was Jerrod himself. He just sat there with a ridiculous look on his face. Clearly he didn't know how to react to everything he was hearing.

Scott was the first one to speak up and encourage Jerrod to take the responsibility.

"I know you are overwhelmed by everything Jerrod, but you are honestly the best man for the job. Carly, Toby, and I are nowhere near the leaders that we should be. And you have done more than the three of us combined to make sure that everyone in this settlement is healthy and happy."

Carly followed shortly after, encouraging Jerrod even more. It was actually the first time she had spoken during the entire meeting and it was to convince someone to take her position.

"He's right Jerrod, if it weren't for you, we would have never been able to organize the food distribution and the work orders like you did. The only reason we were ever considered leaders is because we protected the people. We never actually provided them with any guidance or directive, you were the one who did that."

Toby didn't say anything, he just nodded his head to give his approval. Apparently he was a man of few words because he had literally never said a word during the entire time they had been in the room. Even in the first half of the conversation.

Hearing everyone's words of encouragement, Jerrod reluctantly stood up and gave a short speech.

"I thank you guys for the faith you are placing in me. I will accept the post, but I need to know that you three will be there for me when I need it. I can't do this alone, and the people have faith in you that they don't have in me."

Knowing what he meant, Grant stood up to interject before it went any further.

"Ahh about that Jerrod. I plan on, as the kids say, "power leveling" you. The leader can't be weak and the current strength of the fighters in this settlement is not nearly enough for what is to come.

I will explain more later, but humanity needs to start advancing quickly. We need to invest more time in strengthening the people and making sure they can protect themselves during what is to come.

And the only way we can safely increase the strength of the average person, is to make sure that the people in charge of safety are strong enough to keep them from doing anything stupid."

Not just Jerrod, but everyone in the room was surprised by what Grant said. Not because of the desire to strengthen the average person but because they needed to be strengthened for something that was inevitable. They wanted to ask more questions but it was pretty obvious that Grant wasn't going to explain any further at the moment so they decided to bite their tongues.

The group spent the next few hours discussing the details of the move the dungeon and the logistics that would be involved. It would be a massive undertaking and there were many details that needed to be worked out.

Grant told them that he would take all of the fighters, except for a select few that would be left behind to guard the walls, out to kill monsters while the rest of the people got prepared to move. He wanted to make sure that the people guarding the normal citizens would be strong enough to protect them no matter what situation arose.

And since the monsters had become progressively stronger over the period during the storm, he knew it would both be easier and harder to level the fighters. Easier because they would gain more experience from the monsters they managed to kill but harder because the monsters would be more of a threat to the fighters.

It was decided, that switching the leadership role to Jerrod would have to wait until after they reached the dungeon because they didn't want to send the people into a frenzy considering they were already being asked to uproot themselves.

After a lot of the details had been worked out, they decided that at the food distribution in a few hours, they would break the news.

Once everyone was happy with where things stood, they decided to take a little break and reconvene before the announcement was to be made.

Grant spent the free time hanging out with Ally and the kids. They didn't talk about anything in particular, they just talked about whatever came up. It was a nice reprieve for Grant who hadn't had any down time over the past few weeks.

The drive to be better and stronger than he was the day before was what had kept him alive up until now, but every once in awhile, you had to take some time to refresh the mind. And for Grant, these three people were his greatest escape from the pressures he was facing every day.

As much as he didn't want to talk about business at the moment though, the topic of Skit and the dungeon kept coming up. Ally and the kids were too caught up with the idea that Earth was now somehow connected to other planets.

That curiosity though, turned to concern when they realized that if Earth was connected to all these places, it meant that there would be enemies they couldn't even imagine appearing in the future.

When that realization struck, they understood why Grant was so determined to strengthen the people around him.

Once again, the reverence that the kids had for Grant increased and Ally just looked at him like a mother looking at their child when they did something to make them proud.

Unfortunately, their peaceful time came to an end when Jerrod walked back into the room a few hours later and told them that they would be serving dinner shortly.

After a few groans of annoyance at having their peace broken, the four of them got up and joined Jerrod in walking out to the courtyard.

When they arrived at the courtyard they saw that Scott, Carly, and Toby were already there waiting. Unlike during lunchtime, none of the people who had received food had left to return to their temporary lodgings. Everyone was seated throughout the open area in any place they could find.

Once the last person got their food, Scott walked up in front of the crowd.

"Everyone, we have an announcement to make! The day after tomorrow, we will be relocating the settlement!"

Before Scott could continue speaking, a torrent of voices came flying at him from throughout the courtyard.

"What do you mean we are relocating?! We just got here!"

"Are we in danger here?!"

"I don't want to leave! It's not safe out there!"

Scott just raised his arms in the air and gestured for everyone to calm down. After a few more moments of discontent, eventually the voices died down so that Scott could continue.

"I understand that you have a lot of questions! What you need to know right now is that we have found a place that is much safer than here! We will have to brave some dangers to reach our destination, but when we get there, things will be far better! I promise you!"

To the surprise of Scott and the rest of the leaders, apparently some people chose that moment to disobey and go against there decisions.

"To hell with that! I won't leave! Who's with me?!"