Too Much Work!

A resounding cheer rang out throughout the crowd after Grant's announcement which made him frown almost imperceptibly.

Yeah, Andrew may have been a horrible leader and person. But Grant didn't like the idea of cheering the death of any human being. Each human lost, was one less person to help the world in the upcoming struggles that they were bound to face.

Grant raised his hand to quiet the crowd which resulted in a silence quickly overtaking the area.

"I will keep this short. Their are far too many things that need to be done and I don't like to waste time.

I will be taking over this camp."

Once again, the crowd began to make noise. Unlike before though, it wasn't pure joy and elation from the crowd, it was apprehension and concern for their futures.

"That being said, we will not remain here.

Before you start arguing, I am the leader of a settlement south of here in Tempe. We have found a location that is easily defensible and provides us with a safe place to rebuild.

I will not force you to come along, but I recommend that you do so. I will be taking anyone and everyone who wants to come along, so, if you choose to remain, you will have to fend for yourself.

We will be leaving in one weeks time. In that time, I will distribute food and water to every member of this camp so that everyone can regain as much strength as possible before the journey southward.

Also, we will be recruiting people that would like to fight against the monsters, gain levels, and improve their strength.

Lastly, I will have Old Man Tom and my buddy Ethan here set up a recruitment center in the hospital.

You are welcome to join if you want, but I will not force anyone.

If you have questions or concerns, you may come to the hospital so that they can be addressed.

That is all."

Ignoring the cacophany of questions and sounds that immediately assaulted Grant from the crowd, he walked off the stage and stood in front of Ethan.

"Ethan, I need you to work with Tom and the rest of the leadership to set up a forum to address the concerns of the people. I will handle the gathering of food and subsequent distribution.

Also, their are a large portion of individuals located on the third floor of the hospital that need immediate assistance. Have Tom gather a group of people to take them food and water. They will most likely need not just physical assistance, but mental assistance as well.

Try to find someone who can help you with that.

Any questions?"

Ethan just stood there in a daze for a second, "Yeah, I have one question, since when did I become your personal assistant?!"

Grant just gave Ethan a few pats on the shoulder with a smile on his face before he turned and walked away without answering his question.

Ethan could only let out a sigh watching Grant walk away, 'That's too much work you jackass! I knew I shouldn't have followed him here... Too late now I guess.. lets get too it!'

While Ethan started to go about handling the issues that Grant had assigned too him, the man himself walked over to Tom to figure out where they had locked up Zach and the rest of Andrew's goons.

Grant found the Old Man surrounded by a large number of people who were bombarding him with questions about the speech that Grant had just given.

Not wanting to deal with the people, Grant merely waited until he caught Tom's eye before gesturing to the Old Man that he needed to speak to him.

After Tom managed to break away from the group of people, he walked over towards Grant while complaining, "You could have at least told me ahead of time what your plan was, you know? What you are planning to do is a massive undertaking young man. Can you really pull it off?"

Grant just laughed at the skepticism of the Old Man, "Of course I can. I've done it once, I can do it again.

But that's not important right now, where did you imprison Zach and the rest of the guards? I need to talk to them."

Rather than direct Grant towards the location, Tom decided to lead the way personally, so the two of them set off towards the direction of the hospital.

After a few minutes of walking, Tom and Grant finally reached a makeshift house that was built not far from the entrance of the hospital.

"This is my home. It's nothing much, but it's more than I deserve. Some of my men are watching the 'prisoners' inside."

Following Tom's explanation, the two of them entered the home and sure enough, sitting back to back on the floor, with their hands and feet tied, were the remnants of Andrew's guards.

Standing around the group on the floor were four men wielding guns that were pointed at their prisoners. When the four of them saw Grant and Tom enter, they immediately gave a haphazard military salute before returning back to focusing on the prisoners.

Tom greeted the guards before deferring to Grant on what to do next.

Grant just quietly observed the group of prisoners to see if he could glean anything from their facial expressions or body language.

Out of the entire group, only one person didn't look scared or nervous, and that was the very person that Grant had made come all this way to talk too, Zach.

Grant pointed at the guard who was standing closest to Zach and, "You, please cut Zach there out of his bindings. I want to have a conversation with him."

The guard hesitated for a moment and looked at Tom for confirmation. When Tom gave him a small nod of approval, the guard finally took a small fold-able knife out of his pocket and cut the bindings on Zach's hands and feet.

"Thank you. Zach, come with me. We need to have a talk."

Zach readily got to his feet and walked towards Grant before the two of them walked out of the house and onto the street.

Since Grant didn't seem interested in talking just yet, Zach kept quiet as well and the both of them walked towards the entrance of the hospital.

Once inside, Grant headed in the direction where he knew the human resource offices had been. When they reached the area, Grant entered one of the conference rooms that, surprisingly, was in the exact same condition it had been when Grant had seen it on the final day of construction.

Their were two chairs separated by a table so Grant gestured for Zach to sit on one side, before Grant himself sat in the other chair.

After the two of them were seated, Grant didn't say anything for a few minutes and just observed Zach.

Zach however, had the sense that he was being peered at by some apex predator and he slowly but surely began to lose control over his mental state. The pressure that was being exuded by the man across the table for him was becoming increasingly unbearable.

Moments before Zach completely lost it and ran out of the room, Grant finally spoke, which quickly eased the tension in the room, at least momentarily.

"I am going to ask you some questions about what you have done and what your role in this camp was, if you answer honestly and the answers are not too despicable, I will take you under my wing and train you up. If you lie to me, I will know, and this conversation will end with your head on the floor.

Please do keep that in mind."

Zach couldn't help but take a few deep breathes before he gave he expressed his understanding.

"Good, first question. Have you killed anyone from this camp?"

"Yes.."

"Were they innocent or had they committed a crime?"

"They stole food. Whether that..."

"I don't need long winded explanations, just answer the question I asked.

Next question, have you forced yourself upon any women, or men for that matter, in this camp?"

"I have not."

"Next question, why did you join Andrew's crew?"

"I have intimate knowledge of the workings of this building. I was once the head of the maintenance department here at the hospital and when The Path emerged, I managed to survive by hiding in the maintenance closet where I had been at the beginning of it all.

A young woman had managed to clear the hospital and rescue all of the survivors, which is how this camp started..."

"I said to keep your explanations short. What does this have to do with why you worked for Andrew?"

"My apologies, I was just trying to explain how we reached that point. The short answer to your question, is that my family was being held captive to force me to keep the hospital running the way it had before The Path's emergence."

"Makes sense, in a twisted way.. Last question, what the fuck was Andrew thinking leaving that zombie on the third floor?"

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A/N: We got second place in the writing contest, and frankly, I can't believe it!!! I started this book as a way for me to get some ideas I had while reading other stories, down on 'paper'. I never really had any faith in my own writing skills, and frankly never expected anyone to enjoy my story. So the fact that you guys have voted and supported me to the degree that you have already, is absolutely amazing and I am very grateful!

Onto the more exciting part, things at work have finally calmed down and starting next week I am back to my normal job with less work than I have had for the past few weeks.

Which means, that I will be releasing at LEAST two chapters a day for the foreseeable future. If we get enough power stones, lets say.. 150, I will release an extra chapter a day for a week.

I will also be creating a disc for the story, since I would like to have a more convenient way to interact with you guys rather than doing it through the chapter comments.

One last thing, JJ (One of the WebNovel editors) made a comment in his review that the pacing could be sped up a bit. Are you guys happy with the pacing of the story, or should we kick things up a notch. Let me know! Thank you!