Glen strolled around his town, nay city, on top of his new mare Gisebelle.
She was Jester's foal and she was only a 1 year old, this year. So she was still a little too energetic.
It had been three years.
In these three years, Rionel's keep's population had reached five thousand!
He was sure that it might even be bigger than some officially approved cities. Most importantly, people here were happy.
Yes, there was still a zombie threat. Yes, they had lost connection with the outside world but his people were happy.
Thanks to the copper mine they didn't need to worry about the bullets. They had reclaimed some land when the town got too big at first and using this opportunity they had reclaimed some farmland as well.
The town was not even at full capacity yet. With Glen's input, the town was big enough to house at least ten thousand people. And with the inclusion of the sewage system, the town was generally clean.
If need be, the sewage system could also be used to escape in times of emergency. It was really good thinking on his part.
Now, he just needed to weather this apocalypse along with his people. Once everything was over, he was sure that he would be pardoned by the new government and probably reinstated as the governor of Rionel's Keep.
He still didn't know if he should accept that post as he was not sure if he wanted to put down his gun yet but he was sure that his town would be able to survive the apocalypse.
He wondered if Wiley was watching him down in hell?
If he did, Glen was sure that he would be proud of him. He didn't let him down. He did everything in his power to protect his family. And he had succeeded.
All his life, he had avoided expectations but now, he was happy with it. He didn't have to be afraid of trying because he was not alone anymore. There were people around who would share the burden together with him.
"Mayor Rhodes! Another raid is happening!"
One of the Rionel's Keep watchman approached Glen on horseback. This was one of his rules in the city. Whenever there was a raid going on he had to be informed as soon as possible.
"Where?" Glen asked.
"The east gate sir!" The watchman said before returning.
Glen didn't wait for long either. He rode Gisebelle towards the east gate. Whenever there was a raid happening, he would always participate in the defence to boost the watchmen's morale. If they had a leader who fought alongside them against all odds, they would at least not have to worry about their families. After all, the big boss was there, so if something really were to go wrong, they would at least die together.
This was one of the ways to cultivate loyalty he had learnt from Wiley. Never order a man to do something you yourself wouldn't do. As a leader he had to show the way and his men would follow after him.
As soon as he arrived, Glen dismounted Gisebelle and gave her a slap. She knew the way home so she could go by herself.
Glen could hear the nightmarish sounds of the zombie horde as he climbed up the wall. Countless watchmen were shooting their rifles in unison.
Glen grabbed the highest-ranking watchman "What's the situation?"
"Everything is as usual, Mayor Rhodes! However, this horde is too big so we might use up close to six thousand bullets, sir!" The officer answered as he gave Glen a salute.
He dismissed it. Wasting bullets was fine. They still had a surplus of bullets in their vaults thanks to the constant production. The only problem was the mine would eventually run out. Even now he was getting reports that recently the quality of the copper in the mine had gone down.
If they were to run out of copper, he didn't know what to do.
These zombie raids were not going to stop anytime soon. If Glen was not wrong, they could sense the general direction of people in their area. So they would gather to form a horde when they find a lot of people living together.
Considering Rionel's keep had close to five thousand people, this place was like a giant lighthouse for the zombies. So they would face countless raids like this quite frequently.
Ugh, if those crackpot scientists he funded could find a cure to the virus everything would be solved. However, the technology of this era was too backwards to find a proper cure.
At this point, Glen was even okay with them discovering something that could hide the town from the zombies' senses. That way, at least, they would not have to deal with raids every so often.
"Sir! Sir! I got urgent news!"
As Glen was conversing with the officer about the situation another watchman came to find him. That was weird. What was going on? He was already at the raid site. What could so important for a watchman to come find him specifically.
*Gong* *Gong* *Gong* *Gong*
Glen started to hear the sound of bells ringing amidst the rifle shots.
Huh?
But that signal is only supposed to be used when-
"Sir! Zombies have breached the West Gate! The town is getting invaded!"
WTF!?
Glen didn't say anything and he immediately took the officers horse to make his way towards the town.
How could this be possible?
His system was perfect. They didn't have any accidents up till now and fended off every raid with ease. There weren't even any signs of zombies on the west gate so how could they have breached it?
That was not important!
For now, what's important was to evacuate the town's people to the nearest safe place and check what happened at the west gate.
*Clop* *Clop* *Clop* *Clop*
As Glen ran through the town he could see children crying in their mothers' arms, old people getting shoved around and getting stomped to death. Everything was in chaos!
"Iyaaaaa!"
Glen heard a high pitched scream coming from somewhere. Everyone was either shouting or screaming but for some reason, this one felt different.
When he turned towards the origin of the scream he could see big bloated zombies attacking a woman.
*Bang* *Bang* *Bang*
He didn't know if she was bitten yet, but this was the best he could do for her.
Glen kept riding towards the west gate while killing zombies he encountered on his way.
When he reached there, Glen couldn't believe his eyes.
Everyone!
Every one of his watchman was dead. And not by the zombies' hateful claws. They were killed by fellow humans.
Glen couldn't wrap his head around this. Why? Why would they do such a thing? Weren't they all living happily together in here?
The culprits were believers from the Church of Night!
Glen had let them into the town last year as they were refugees. He found their belief that they were going through rupture a little weird.
They were preaching that this was a test from God and after these hard times were over, all the survivors would ascend to heaven. Like what happened after the great flood.
He didn't personally believe that this was a test from God but he allowed them to stay inside the town, because he thought during these hard times people would need religion. Or rather, they would need something to believe in and this religion was perfect for that. It preached that they just needed to suck it up and survive till the end to ascend to the heavens. Perfect for giving common folk hope.
Now, every one of their believers would try everything they had to try and survive. They wouldn't give in to their despair.
So he allowed them to stay.
BUT WHAT THE HELL WAS THIS!?
"Father Allen, I hope that you have a good explanation for your actions," said Glen trying to hold back his fury.
Father Allen smirked and his believers gathered around him.
"Ah, here comes the heretic. The one that stands at the way of God!" said Father Allen as he pointed towards Glen.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!? Father, please give me an explanation. Otherwise, don't even think of leaving here alive!" said Glen as he pointed his navy towards Father Glen.
Seeing him draw his gun the believers also drew their weapons against him. There were about thirty of them.
Hahahaha!
So this was how he was going to die!
So be it!
He was at least going to take down the one responsible for it together with him.
"You sinful heretic. You can't even see the truth when it's right in front of you. God is judging us. He is going to turn all the sinners in this world into his soldiers and then the survivors will ascend to heaven. If you stop the soldiers from achieving their duty, how can we even ascend to heaven!? It's because of you! If not for you, there would not be so many people surviving here" shouted Father Allen with spit flying off his mouth.
His face was so red that Glen could even see the veins that were about to pop on his forehead.
As Glen was ready to take down the father and die together with him, he heard horses.
*Clop* *Clop* *Clop* *Clop*
*Ba-dump*
Along with the sound of reinforcements, Glen's heart started to beat again. He was going to survive once more.
"Boss!" Glen could hear Wesley's shout.
*Ba-dump* *Ba-dump*
"Are you sure about that, Father? It seems like you will be the one dying today" Glen said with a confident smirk as his men lined up behind him pointing their rifles against the believers.
*Ba-dump* *Ba-dump* *Ba-dump*
"You blind, heretic. I have been telling you, time and time again. You are too dumb to see the truth in front of your eyes!" said Father Allen as he started to laugh like a deranged maniac.
*Ba-dump* *Ba-dump* *Ba-dump* *Ba-dump*
"We will see about that, Father. I will kill you first. Then I will protect the remaining people inside the town. Goodbye"
*Ba-dump* *Ba-dump* *Ba-dump* *Ba-dump* *Ba-dump*
As his heart beat faster and faster Glen pulled the trigger in his hand.
*Bang!*
A bullet pierced right through his chest!
*Ba-dump* *Ba-dump* *Ba-dump*
As his heart started to calm down. Glen turned back and looked towards Wesley.
"...Why?"
*Ba-dump*
Wesley laughed as Glen slowly slid off his horse and fell down to the ground with a bloody hole in his chest.
That was the day his heart stopped beating.