Chapter 70: Humility

Dean found Brooke sitting alone at the table with her head low. Her cheeks were rosy, and there was a glass of beer in her hand that she didn’t seem to enjoy, yet drank nonetheless.

He had just come from storm outside and was shuffling the loose snow off his pants when he noticed the woman looking depressed.

She didn’t seem to look up at him, and was instead too focused on the flooring, sighing in between sips. Wincing at the taste every time and yet drinking it all the same.

“You know you’re not the first fiancée I’ve had that hated my guts, right?”

Brooke twitched when she heard Dean’s voice and nearly choked on her beer, glaring at him after recovering from her coughing fit.

“Asshole! You scared the shit out of me! Also, what kind of crap is this? It tastes terrible!”

Dean chuckled as he poured himself a cup. Shaking his head as he took a sip and sighed in relief.

“It’s my own special brew… That taste you don’t like is wheatgrass juice. I’ve been experimenting with how to recycle food waste. We use intermediate wheatgrass to brew it, and then add in wheatgrass juice from what remains. Its alcohol content is relatively low, but it’s filled with vitamins and probiotics. Plus, it takes the edge off after a day’s work. Once it is finished, it will add to our closed loop food and water system. I plan to open a community center with the labor, instead of using the tents and tarps we currently used to serve rations to Elysium. That will be the beverage served with the noodles we ate last night for dinner.”

Brooke suddenly understood why it didn’t taste like a normal beer. And why it was green…. She placed the cup down and stared at Dean, ignoring the statements he just made, and instead focused on what he had said just a few minutes before.

“Right… Yuki said something about that last night. Whose this mysterious fiancée of yours that isn’t me or your current ’wife?’ Her name was Avery wasn’t it?”

Dean finished taking off his boots, socks, and the outer layer that was his snow pants. Sitting down in front of Brooke, dressed in his mid-layer clothing. He didn’t immediately say anything, instead he sipped from his beer.

He was silent for a long while, not looking at Brooke, but instead the green beer in his cup. And then suddenly he said the words that made Brooke’s heart sink.

“Avery was my fiancée before the snows fell. I loved her, she betrayed me, and I put a bullet in her. Anymore questions?”

Brooke was stunned by Dean’s admission. I mean she had known when she came here that he had killed people, after all she only found out about this place because bandits were afraid of it.

Even she had blood on her hands. The world often now demanded it for survival. But killing your own fiancée, that was something she found absolutely bone chilling.

She was about to rise to her feet in protest, especially since the way he said it seemed so detached.

But she saw the reflection of his eyes in the glass he was drinking from and realized instantly that it was something Dean clearly held to heart still.

“I see… When you say she betrayed you… You mean?”

Dean sighed and looked over at Brooke, his expression as cold as the dead.

“I mean she tried to rally this community against me over a petty grudge. And after giving her warning, she got a lot of them killed. She then sided with the raiders when they came to kill us all and take what we had. At that point, mercy would have meant death. So I acted accordingly. I tried to let her go, but she refused to walk away. There are no restraining orders to sign, no police to call, and no courts to appeal to. Not anymore….”

The words hit Brooke with the weight of finality. She had of course realized it and had already been living with the consequences of this reality for months. But now… This, this was a far deeper understanding.

She suddenly replayed the words Katherine had spoken to her half an hour ago. And she realized if she had been in Dean’s shoes, she may not have done what was necessary. She lowered her head once more and sighed.

“So, what are we going to do?”

Dean’s attention shifted from the past to the future, as he nodded his head in agreement.

“First, we finish building our defenses. The manpower you brought with you has doubled our efforts. The barriers should be fully erected by the end of the week. Once we have secured every entrance in and out of Elysium, I’ll dispatch my Peltasts to survey the area around your factory.”

Brooke nodded her head silently in agreement with Dean’s direction. And when he finished speaking she had one simple question.

“And then what?”

Dean didn’t speak immediately, he finished off his beer and placed the cup back down on the table. Looking out the windows into the frozen wasteland beyond their borders. He sighed heavily before speaking the dreaded words that Brooke knew in her heart but didn’t want to admit.

“Then we kill the men who have stolen what is yours and begin expanding our domain. If we want to survive this brave new world, we need to be the ones with a monopoly on force. Lest we just wait for the day when the barbarians outnumber us and finally manage to break out gates. And I don’t know about you, but I’m not the kind of man to wait for death to find me.”

Dean stood up and took both of their glasses to the kitchen. He washed them clean before putting them aside for later use. He looked over at Brooke briefly, saying his last thoughts before leaving the room entirely.

“In the meantime, it would be best if you begin coordinating efforts with Yuki. She could use your organizational skills. She has managed just fine until now, but the amount of people we have to look after is starting to overwhelm her, and you’re the one with expertise on logistics and supply, right?”

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