Getting settled in for the night Ilulu glued herself to my right side wearing only one of my t-shirts. Telling me that the bed was very comfortable, she further explained that it was ten times better than the grass she had made into a bed before. Patting her on the head, she giggled and buried her face in my chest.
"May I inquire what specifically makes her enjoy head patting?", Red Queen asked me, "I don't understand."
"It's affectionate, and that's what she wants.", I informed her.
"Understood", Red Queen replied, "If affection is what she wants wouldn't inter-"
Grabbing her by the mouth, I shot her a glare that shut her up.
"One step at a time, I won't take advantage of her emotions because she wants to be spoiled. When the time is right I will introduce her to that.", I told Red Queen with an angry smile.
Nodding her head, she laid back down on the bed and shutdown for the night. Wriggling up on my left side, Shizuka wanted some headpats to while she drifted off to sleep. Soon after her the others drifted off as well as exhaustion took them. Giving Shizuka and Ilulu a kiss on the forehead, I went to sleep myself while keeping my mind active in case the storm got even worse.
---3am, Next Morning---
Hearing my satellite phone start to ring, I slipped out of bed and walked out to the wheelhouse. Answering the phone with a yawn, I asked who it was. Saying that it was George, it sounded like he was in trouble for some reason.
"George, what's going on?", I asked.
"Victor, the defenses were breached!!", he said in a panicked tone as the sound of an engine roared in the background.
"What do you mean it was breached!?", I questioned, "Did the Dead and Demons overwhelm the defenders?"
"No, some fucking freakshow showed up and started shouting about needing the world to feel more fear and despair.", George told me, "Victor, he literally tore the defenses apart with his mind!! My sources say he is the leader of some group called Shadaloo."
"It's M. Bison, isn't it.", I stated with annoyance.
"So you are aware of him, I am not surprised given his history with some of your people.", George shouted as gunfire rang out, "Move it cocksuckers!!"
"How bad is it?", I inquired.
"Damn, Victor I can't talk and drive at the same time. Your Highness, this is the boy you met several years ago. You can trust him.", George said handing the phone off.
"H...He...Hello?", a sobbing woman cried.
"This is Victor, George called you Your Highness. Can you give me your name?", I asked.
"It's...it's Gwendolyn, George and you met me when you were in England.", she sniffled, "We...we had tea together, and...you...you said you liked my cookies."
Putting a face to the name, I remembered that she was the Third Princess of England. George introduced her to me one of the nights we got a bit carried away. That was the night that George got kicked in the nuts when he stumbled into the women's restroom while blindfolded. It was the Princesses birthday, and we were swinging at a piñata...that was a good memory.
"Gwen, can you get me up to speed on what's going on?", I inquired.
"The...the Undead are only a few miles behind us. They are tearing everything to pieces, and...and people are running for their lives.", she sobbed, "My sisters and baby brother were given to George for safety. Mother and Father...they stayed behind to fight."
"I see...I am sorry.", I told her.
"George...George said you might be able to help us.", she pressed me.
'God damn it George, I am not running a charity here! I am half way around the world, there isn't much I can do from here!', I thought, "Gwen I am currently on the far side of Russia, I am several thousand miles away from you."
"Please Victor...we don't have anywhere to go. The mainland is a warzone and Ireland is overrun by those Demons. We don't have anywhere to run too...I...I don't want to die!", she cried, "George said you would know a safe house or maybe a safe place we could run!! Please don't just leave us here to die!!"
Opening my mini map, I moved over to their location to get an idea of what was going on. True to what she described the Undead were pouring into England and the military wasn't going to stop their advance. Fortunately M. Bison wasn't near them, he was currently moving around the area near where the Chunnel came into England. Seeing an approaching threat barreling down a side street towards them, I shouted over the phone to George.
"George, you got to floor it!! You got a boogey inbound from the East, I count two vehicles heading towards you.", I shouted.
"Shit, his fucking henchmen caught up to us!!", George growled.
Trusting my words, I heard him shift the car and put the pedal to floor. A few moments went by before the sound of squealing tires could be heard over the phone.
"God damn it!!", he shouted as the sound of gunfire filled the speaker, "Why won't you fuckers just die!!"
Screaming in response, his lovers and his charges cowered in fear as bullets struck the back window.
"Hang a left at the next street and floor it!", I ordered.
"Got it!", he replied putting the car into a power slide.
Trying to catch back up to them, the two pursuing cars crashed into parked cars by George a few moments. Looking at the map for any means they could use to loose their pursuers I found a place that could buy them more time. Seeing a bridge out of the village they were in, it would buy them about thirty minutes head start over their pursuers.
"George, did you bring any explosives with you?", I asked.
"How big of a bomb do you need?", he replied.
"A few sticks of TNT would be sufficient.", I told him.
"If it's that size, I have something.", he answered, "What's your plan?"
"Northern end of town, there is a bridge called Saint Henry's Crossing. If you blow that bridge on your way across the next crossing point is nearly ten miles away. It will give you about a thirty minute buffer between you and them. They appear to be Shadaloo agents, probably after the royals with you.", I said.
"You able to give me more than just directions?", he questioned, "I could use some cover, and buffer against the larger threat behind Shadaloo."
"I can see what I can do...I was really saving using the UN Defense Network for my groups needs.", I sighed.
"Dude I don't have many allies right now. The lion's share of the military is down by the Chunnel fighting to stop the enemy.", he apologized, "I owe you big time for this!"
"Yes you fucking do.", I groaned.
Grabbing my laptop out of my storage, I booted it up and connected to the UN Defense Network. Bypassing several layers of security within their systems I managed to gain access to several silos in England with non-nuclear warheads. Choosing non-nuclear options would ensure England's enemies wouldn't launch a nuclear strike assuming they were being targeted. Getting the silos online and ready for launch, I picked the phone back up.
"I have several missile silos on standby, as soon as you get clear of that bridge I will launch the missiles. To buy you the most amount of time, one of them will be launched at the French side of the Chunnel.", I stated, "It will help the military some, but I don't know if it will let them win. I would usually target England's side, but M. Bison is there so the missile would likely be stopped.
"That would be wonderful!! Damn politicians wouldn't make the damn call to blow it up completely!!", he spat, "They kept talk about trying to retake the Chunnel for an offensive into Europe, but that wasn't ever going to work."
Watching them cross the bridge in a hurry, I heard the explosion go off behind them. Launching the missiles at key points behind them, the best I was going to be able to do was buy them a few hours buffer. Confirming the missiles launched successfully, I let George know the small amount of time I bought him but he was grateful for every second he got.
"Buddy that is more than enough to get us far away from this nightmare.", he said, "I got to ask, is this what it was like everywhere in the world? I never really took you seriously till I saw it for myself...I guess seeing pictures versus in person really is different."
"You didn't believe me? Dude there are horde that are larger than the population of Britain roaming Asia right now. All of you had it easy as you were able to stem the flow to a trickle, most places weren't that lucky.", I told him, "There are whole countries that are gone forever now, there is no coming back from this for them."
"Alright, so you got any suggestions for places we can hideout at?", he inquired, "I am open to suggestions because this wasn't in my playbook for today."
"I do...it's going to require you get yourself a boat though.", I stated widening the view of my map, "You are going to want to head for the Faroe Islands or the Shetland Islands, both are relatively cutoff from the rest of the world. Neither of them have direct access via land routes either so you should be safe there for a while. Shetland Islands probably work the best as the Royals have a home on the island if I remember right."
"Where are you headed?", he questioned.
"The Alaskan Islands, planning on taking one over to make a permanent settlement.", I responded, "Nice, clean, and isolated from the world so I don't have to stress about the enemy swarming us."
"When you get setup, we are coming your way.", George said like I had already accepted them, "I don't have the manpower to protect everyone here nor is anyone coming to back us up."
"You weren't able to take any guards with you?", I questioned with confusion, "You are saying that they just handed you their children, and told you go?"
"Victor, we were literally going about our daily lives just an hour ago...", he told me, "There were no plans in place to evacuate the royals, the King literally pushed them on me and said to keep them safe. I have no guards, maids, or even a janitor with us, the three year old prince and I are the only guys here."
Acknowledging that pushing them on him was a stupid decision, he didn't understand why they thought he could protect everyone himself. Sure he has Secret Service training, but he was used to working with a team along with having backup nearby. Telling me that he would call me back when they reached their destination, he thanked me for my assistance before ending the call. Deciding it was best to tell Ryu and company what was going on immediately, I went to their rooms and woke them up.
"You know what time it is?", Ken complained
"I hope this important...", Guile yawned.
"Something happening?", Ryu questioned.
"Don't tell me you are here for a night call?", Cammy laughed.
"Oh my.", Chun-Li snickered along with Karin and company.
"No, I just got off the phone with George...you will want to hear what happened.", I stated, "Follow me so we can talk."
Gathering everyone in the mess hall, all of them looked a bit frustrated with being woken up so early. Telling them about what happened in England though, their facial expressions changed to anger upon hearing M. Bison's name. Each of them had their own bone to pick with him, now they really wanted to end him.
"How long do you think they will hold?", Guile inquired with a serious look.
"Maybe a few hours...he's tearing apart the defenders so they can't muster enough firepower to suppress the enemy.", I told them, "George managed to take his group and the royal children away from the conflict, but Shadaloo agents are still chasing them."
"Grr!!", Cammy growled slamming her fist into the table, "That bastard is dooming millions of people just for a power rush!! Now isn't the time to be trying to take over the world, there won't be anything left for anyone!!"
"Why England though?", Ken questioned, "I am sure there were better places to strike hand a small country."
"England was the last nations that had control of their borders.", I said showing him the documentation, "They had the densest population of survivors left anywhere on the planet, it was the perfect place to strike that would increase his Psycho Power. He wasn't going to find a place like that anywhere else."
Seeing my point now, Ken sat back with a disgusted look. He hated the fact that M. Bison chose now to strike when humanity needed to come together now to survive. It was just like him to not give a shit, and do whatever suited his end goal. Up till now they all had been hoping that Bison would be done in by the Undead or Demons, but it was wishful thinking.
"There has to be something we can do to help!", Karin stated, "Could you and Jeong potential hack the defense network too-"
"I already did, and used what non-nuclear options I had.", I informed her, "I bought them time, not victory."
"Where will he go next?", Sakura asked.
"He will be coming after us.", Ryu said with certainty, "He wants me and the power hold within."
"When we see him, we will beat the piss out of him!", Chun-Li shouted, "He took far too many lives before this started, and now destroyed an entire nation just gain more power!!"
Giving them the details I had on the situation, I said that first thing tomorrow we would be leaving this place and planning our attack strategy. Leaving things there for now, I sent them back to their rooms and went back to mine to sleep.
---A Few Weeks Later---
The morning after the call with George, we set out again for the Alaskan Islands. Our journey was rather dull as we didn't encounter a single soul on our voyage there. Yuko and Yuriko took it upon themselves to teach Ilulu the basics that she would need to know to live. They taught her about cooking, how use a few weapons for self-defense, and above all else explained to her what it meant to be a couple. The last one was a tall order as to her the feelings she felt towards me were more instinctual over emotional. That said she opened up a lot during the voyage when it was just her and I in the wheelhouse.
Other than that the voyage was pretty uneventful...aside from a few unsurprising announcements from couples on the ship. It wasn't all that surprising given the current situation, but the pressure came down hard on me to start having children from my lovers. Luckily for me they accepted waiting a bit longer till we had a comfortable home on the island. After that though...there was no putting it off anymore for them. They were adamant on making a proper home, and trying to be a family.
The morning that we arrived on Unimak Island, everyone was very excited to stop moving around all the time. Docking at one of the harbors near the only bridge connecting the island to the mainland, I sent JSDF to secure the bridge and the small town nearby. The benefit of coming out here was that the cities were incredibly small and wide open so I wasn't concerned about them getting ambushed by the enemy.
"Finally, no more voyages!!", Jeong shouted as he walked off the ship, "So this is where we will be setting up shop?"
"Correct, as you can see this place has been almost completely untouched by humans. We should be very safe here for the time being, we can work on building homes and setting up defenses here.", I replied as I helped unload our farming supplies off the ship, "Saya, I have a job for you."
"What do you need?", Saya asked with excitement.
"To stand the best chance of survival, we will need several greenhouses to grow food.", I stated, "Take Rei and Saeko with you, and pick out some prime locations to build them."
Smiling with excitement, Saya was over the moon to have her first task that she could excel at. Taking the two girls with her, they head off into the surrounding area to locate twelve places we could build the greenhouses. While they were doing that, I had workers busily repairing existing homes and laying the ground work for future homes by getting water and sewage lines plotted out. A lot of work needed to be completed before winter came as once it hit we wouldn't be able to work as easily because the ground would become frozen solid.
"Victor, do you have a place selected for the medical center?", Shizuka asked carrying a box of medicine down.
"No, did you see someplace that you wanted to take over?", I questioned taking the box from her.
"It looked like there was a medical building already setup in town. If we could, we'd like to take over that location.", Yuko stated.
"Go for it.", I chuckled.
"Something funny?", Shizuka said.
"It's nice to see everyone in such high spirits.", I told her with smile.
"Well of course, this is our home now!", Ilulu shouted jumping off the ship and onto the pier, "What's our home going to look like?"
"We are going to put cannons on the roof, right?", Oriha asked, "We need home defenses obviously."
"Cannons are a bit excessive...", I sighed.
Following me into the small town, we walked around to visually inspect the area. The locals had long since abandoned this place so not a soul was left here. Those morons abandoned one of the safest places to head inland for the protection of the military.