The Zombie Knight Saga

XXI. | Ch. 21: 'Alliance of calamity, capitulate not...'

She stiffened, but nodded. "As you say. Please follow me."

"Oh, and bring me a new pair of glasses."

Gina immediately retrieved a pair from her vest pocket.

He took them. "Ah, finally!" He looked around, blinking happily before cocking an eyebrow at Gina. "Why did you have my glasses on you?"

"Because you are very needy, sir."

He shooed her away, and Lynnette followed. He showed Helen to the kitchen and began scrounging for food.

"I still do not know who you are," the Queen said. "Or why you decided to help me."

Roman tossed her a premade sandwich. "My name is Roman Fullister," he said, biting into his own. "As for why I helped you, eh... I suppose that'd be part national pride and part business."

"Business," she said. "You mean thievery?"

Voreese gave a snort. 'Roman is to thievery what you are to Atreya.'

Roman's brow lowered. "That'd make me the queen of thieves, Voreese."

'Oh, you know what I meant.'

"Please, just let me do the talking."

'No, fuck you! Roman only steals from the super wealthy! And nobody knows it, but he takes care of the poor, too! He's a great guy!'

Roman scratched his head. "I don't know about that. I do live pretty comfortably, as you can see."

'Psh! You're talking to the fucking Queen, Roman. She's not impressed by your shiny floors and fancy sinks. This place probably looks like a crack house to her.'

It was Helen's turn to furrow her brow.

Roman sighed and leaned against the refrigerator. "Point is, I have an organized operation here in Atreya. A number of highly-skilled people work under me. And while I might be able to take advantage of the chaos that Abolish's plans will bring, it would only hurt my business in the long run."

'And Roman grew up in Atreya, so he has a soft spot for it.'

"Yeah, I guess I do."

'He was an orphan, too.'

"Well, I don't see how that's relevant..."

'Lived on the streets for a long time, he did. It's a real rags-to-riches story.'

"Voreese, what the hell? They don't care about any of that."

'Well, they should! Our previous allies obviously didn't care, and look at what dicks they turned out to be!'

"We knew they were dicks when we aligned with them."

'Yeah, but we didn't know how much! They were mega-dicks!'

"You'll have to forgive Voreese," said Roman. "She tends to hold grudges. Not that I disagree with her on this one."

Mehlsanz floated behind Helen. 'What should our next move be? We've been run out of the capital. And it doesn't seem like we have the power to take Sescoria back.'

Voreese nodded. 'And we definitely don't have the power to keep Sescoria. Even if we killed the ones already there, more might show up like Gerald said.'

"Then we require more power," said Helen. "Where might we find it?"

A brief silence fell.

Roman's expression soured. "Can anyone think of something that isn't the Vanguard?"