It’s Not Easy Making Money In the Apocalypse - It’s Not Easy Making Money In the Apocalypse – V5 - Chapter 2

The walls were high and thick, and they had added barbed wire at the top making it even more difficult to pass them. A small spark erupted from one of the wires as I passed by giving me the opinion that this was likely electrified as well. It was no wonder that the Twin Elms had managed to keep itself going after all of these years.

I wasn’t sure what I was suspecting as I was walking in, but it was only after I passed the gates that I realized I was expecting a bit more than this. The rink had a similar appearance. It was run down. Most of the buildings were assembled from scrap metal and looked like they would fall over if there was a bad enough storm. The concrete was cracked and damaged as if they never bother to fix any of it no matter how much time passed. There was sour and a generally unpleasant smell that permeated the entire place.

“Ah… feels good to be home.” Tom took in a deep breath.

I couldn’t help but give him a side look. “Home?”

Tom turned to me and smiled. “Just because I travel a lot doesn’t mean I’m homeless. It cost me quite a bit, but I have a small place in Twin Elms. It isn’t much but it is cozy and safe.”

I opened my mouth, but then I closed it again. I didn’t want to spoil the mood. He wasn’t the only one who seemed to become relaxed as soon as he walked through the doors. A good deal of the rest of his party let out cries of relief as stress that had built up for weeks finally could be put aside. Perhaps safety was a bigger need than I always gave it credit.

In my culture, we always said it was better to be free than to be safe. Certainly, the raiders of this world believed similarly, but their idea of freedom included drugs, exploitation of others, and violence. Couldn’t there be a place that was both free and safe that didn’t smell like spoiled milk? That was the world that I planned to build. In the meantime, I would just have to live with these turrets and armed guards while the populace wasn’t allowed to carry weapons in the city.

I saw our weapons being dragged into a locker. They were numbered and stored. You gave how long you were staying in the city, and if you stayed longer then you’d need to have the guns stored longer. At the least, they didn’t charge you for storing guns. However, they did add a disclaimer that said that in the event of an attack, your weapons could be used to protect Twin Elms. Thus, anyone who stored guns with Twin Elms contributed to the defense of the city indirectly.

I didn’t care about it. Very few people had Perco and even fewer had a digitizer. It was an extremely rare commodity even before the country fell. Thus, no one bothered to check or ask about the storage, and I didn’t bother to mention it. Thus, I had weapons hidden on me as I entered the city. It might get me in trouble if I was caught, but unless I was in a situation where I needed them, there was no way to catch me, and if I was in such a situation, I’d be beyond caring about being caught.

“I suppose this will be where we part ways.” Tom declared as we reached the end of the defensive perimeter.

This area was mostly dedicated to protection. Other than the turrets and armed guards, there were numerous guard houses and trenches designed to hold ground, and the main housing didn’t start until another less solid wall. I had been looking around with enough interest that I didn’t see that the rest of Tom’s party had already dispersed. Tom had only remained behind to say farewell to me.

I gave him a nod. “Thank you for taking me along. You’ll be heading away from here?”

He nodded his head. “I’ll rest a few days, and then I’ll be heading to Maple Street. It’s the next city. They’re opposite sides of Argos so it’s not easy to exchange between the west and east.”

“What about these slavers?” I asked. “Will I need an introduction from you?”

Tom winced slightly. “It’d be best if you didn’t call them slavers. I already told you. It’s indentured servitude. It’s the councilman who set’s these rules. The councilman rules Twin Elms, so any business you want to do is going to have to go through him anyway.”

“Ah… I see…”

Tom bit his lip, and then pulled out a piece of paper and pushed it toward me. “Here’s a map of Twin Elms. It’ll tell you where you need to go, and more importantly, where you shouldn’t go. Just remember that you’re dealing with people now, not monsters. This is seriously all of the help I can provide you. Whether you can strike a deal with this councilman or buy those prisoners depends on you.”

“Thanks, this will be enough.” I lowered my head again, feeling a bit sheepish this time.

Perhaps, I was asking for a lot from Tom. This was the wasteland. Tom had already put out his neck for me quite a bit on multiple occasions. I couldn’t expect him to just make my deals for me. It also seemed like he wasn’t exactly close with the councilman or anything. However, in a way, he had introduced me to them. When it came to my food, they were familiar with it. Even the guards were excited when Tom mentioned I was the supplier.

I watched as Tom walked away, and then I pulled out the map. I started to match my position with the map, getting a feel for distances. It wasn’t nearly as clear or a map as I could get on the Perco.  In certain circumstances, Cecelia could even geolocate me and I’d have a little curser letting me know which direction I was going. My plan was only to stay until the next day in the city, and then start heading back. Everything I wanted to resolve needed to be done by then. I still had an appointment with Jacques, and being out of the city made me nervous in the first place.

After a few minutes of going over the map, I put it up and picked a direction. I wasn’t heading for the councilman’s house though. Instead, I was heading for the marketplace, or at least what constituted the marketplace in this city, if it could be called that. The only thing I could say about this place was that it was more active than the Rink. The Rink was a dark, stuffy building. Florescent lighting flickered overhead creating a constant buzzing noise. Few people were walking around or doing much of anything. They merely sat, stood, or laid in place, conserving their energy and letting the world pass them by.

Twin Elms was bright, or at least as bright as the cloudy irradiated sky allowed the city to be. People were walking down the broken cluttered streets. They still had this somewhat dirty look to them, and they moved with little vigor or purpose, but they were at least moving here. My eyes scanned around as I looked for a restaurant. I was looking to sell some of my goods and get myself some crystals. I had nearly exhausted my supply on the way to Twin Elms, and it was my biggest problem.

In this city, I didn’t have a stall or the rights to sell. The mayor had given me that permission in the Rink, but I would probably get arrested if I tried it here. That said, I should be allowed to do some trading. I could trade with a store, but they’d be looking to buy cans of food with the hopes of selling them off one can at a time. Restaurants, on the other hand, made their money through preparation. Having better tasting food and higher quality, a restaurant could raise the cost many times over what a simple store could, and thus I determined I could probably make more money selling to restaurants over supply places. The only problem was that bulk orders and the big money couldn’t be earned that way. However, I wasn’t quite there yet.

“Good afternoon.” I sat at an outdoor bar. “Are you getting your dinner ready?”

A gruff older man with a thick period and dirty hands watched me suspiciously. “I’m serving barbeque thorax.”

“Thorax?”

“Comes from the mud flies.” He spat on the counter, and then wiped it with his dirty washcloth. “With you crack open the shell, the insides are warm.”

He nodded to the side, where I was several bugs nearly the size of two heads hanging from a hook. They were dripping with brown stuff which I could only guess was the so-called barbeque sauce. I kept myself from gagging by looking away.

“I see… looks appetizing.”

He shrugged like he didn’t care. “They’ll be done in an hour. First come, first serve. They always sell out though, so you can weight in line here. 5 large crystals.”

“How many… um… mud flies… do you have today.”

“Catch has been good, ten.” He grinned, showing a missing tooth.

“How interested would you be in adding a side to your… barbeque? I can double your profits, guaranteed.” I forced myself to smile.