The Revenant Mutation

Chapter 8: Black Axe Brigands

The Council was a group of important figures within King Moon. They were the base's Management. Their meeting hall had a table, with Uche sitting at the head of the table. Paul, Solomon and Richard sat one after the other on the left side.  

On his right was Mrs. Titi, she was still in her apron, beside her was a man with dark fingernails, he was the leading mechanic Femi. A few more people sat at the table, each of them was a leading figure.

The hall was rowdy, apart from Paul and Uche who watched as the council members argued on the pros and cons of a large population, the others were engaged in the discussion.

“We don't even have enough to keep ourselves afloat. You want to bring in more people?! What will we eat then? Huh? Huh?!” A chubby man in his fifties argued with spittle flying everywhere. 

“You will prefer to pump yourself with food rather than save more lives. Mojeed, are you not ashamed of yourself? We need the workforce”

“Basit is right, more workforce means more mouths to feed. We don't have enough to handle a larger population. If only we can get arable land, then perhaps we won't have to suffer as much. If our current situation keeps going, everyone will be forced to start eating eggs as food”, Mrs. Titi interjected.

“Exactly! We are already rationing food so much! How am I pumping myself with food? Ehn? Ehn?!” the chubby man, Basit challenged.

Solomon smacked the table, causing the others at the table to jump.

Uche cleared his throat, “It is true that we don't have enough food. We have a good poultry farm, but our crops are failing. If we bring in new people, we can increase our workforce, which can in turn help us cover more grounds with our raids. But… we can't survive on raiding.”

“What is wrong with reaching out to those small settlements? They can’t protect themselves, not against the Brigands. If we can call them to join us, we will be saving their lives and increasing our own numbers, this will strengthen us.”

"Our major issue right now is the fact that we will get refugees whether we like it or not. The brigands are very active nowadays, we can't risk not being prepared. We need to prepare,” Paul added.

“I say we send a message to them, informing them that we will be happy to have them. In the meantime, we can try to find new locations we can move our base to.” Richard advised.

Paul nodded, “There are five locations we can try, but there are powerful monsters in those locations or on our way to those locations.”

“So that won't work?” Uche asked.

“More workforce, means more people to join our raiding teams, we can increase our ability to fight off those monsters. But we still need food and clean water. We are running low on both.”

“Any ideas?”

Femi proposed, “The lower Niger Basin is a good spot to get clean water, but it’s too far away and there’s that accursed monster that has taken residence close to the Basin.”

Everyone shuddered when Femi said that, they could all remember the monster he was referring to. It was a scorpion that could contend with buildings in size, almost impervious to all weapons they had and it had made the base lose a number of people in the past. The earliest months of the base’s establishment was a learning period that many would never forget. 

Some monsters aren't for humans to challenge!

“We could get some petrol to chase it off”, Paul thought out loud.

“That could work”, Solomon replied, rubbing his chin. “I remember that there is a depot close to the General Hospital. We can do a few runs and get a tanker, should be enough.”

“That's good. That's good.” Uche was satisfied. “Let's all work together to make this a success. I will put out some tasks for you to complete. Hopefully, we can solve our current problem.”

—--

A few kilometers from King Moon Base, 

Three armored vehicles drove down a desolate road in a convoy, a machine gun was mounted on top of each vehicle. The vehicles had been modified with metal railing and floodlights. On the left side of the two lane road was an abandoned supermarket. 

From up ahead, five trucks were driving towards the convoy, when they reached the front of the supermarket, the trucks stopped and several men dressed in white shirts, black pants, a yellow tie, and headgear consisting of a yellow ribbon dropped out of the trucks. Two men walked out of the group, the first was a man with a scarred and rough face, making him look tough. His beard was full and he had a turban over his head. Rings with colorful stones adorned his fingers, and one of his canines was discolored, almost black. He spat out phlegm to the side as he walked.  The other was a thin man, like a shriveled corpse, his white shirt was hanging on his frame. An ax hanging from his waist.

The convoy of armored vehicles stopped when they saw these men block their passage. The men stationed on the mounted machine guns aimed at the men in yellow.

Men in bulletproof vests and rifles dropped out of the armored vehicles, leading them was a young man with a sleek sword hanging from his waist, unlike the others armed with guns. He wore a dark blue cotton kaftan suit embroidered with gold patterns and long black boots.

His attire and confident strides made him look like the son of a rich family. He didn’t seem to be annoyed by the fact that their convoy had been stopped by a group of brigands, instead he curiously studied them.

A bald man in camo rushed to his side from among their group, “You don’t need to get involved, young boss. These brigands are Black Axe, their Capon is ruthless, just let our men take care of them.”

“If my men are going to fight, I should fight beside them, besides, it isn’t as if these lowly thieves can hurt me.”

On the other side, the rough looking man spoke to the thin man beside him, “What do you see, Olumide?”

From the dressing of the leader of the convoy, Olumide could tell that the young leader of the convoy was rich.

“A rich kid with a taste for foreign fashion, barely in his twenties. If he is the leader of this convoy, then we might be in luck, Capon”, Olumide replied with a slight smile and a little bow to his leader. “Shall we rob them, boss?”