POV Fred

  Only three days have passed since we cleared out Lagia of alien red people once again, And obviously that’s the amount of time that has passed since Grandpa received his dressing down.

  Thankfully, the family had a good relationship, and it isn’t the first time Grandpa was essentially voted out, although it happens on very rare occasions. And for the most part, Grandpa usually gets his way.

  There have been times such as this where it was unilaterally decided that the old man was wrong, but that did offer him a way out where he could still kind of get what he wanted, but we didn’t suddenly become tyrants while putting a whole bunch of pressure on the backs of the Williams family at the same time.

  It was simple, and I think it was a stroke of genius from Dad. Basically, after verifying that Lagia was safe, at least for the time being, we went back into the dungeon and announced just that. We killed everybody that needed to be killed, and Lagia was safe.

  We made it very clear that it was the Williams family who did it. Our blood, sweat, our tears, we did it. No cutting shortcuts regarding that part. We saved Lagia. Point blank. Period.

  Now there were quite a few people who had opinions of their own regarding that little comment of ours or not comment but that little announcement of ours I should say, but we weren’t having any of it.

  Considering no one in that room could yell louder than Grandpa could, it was quite easy to shut them all up so we could continue our little announcement from there.

  We told everyone that it was safe for them to get out and go back to their homes or do whatever it is they wanted to do, but Lagia would always be protected by the Williams family. Now we didn’t ask them to give us anything or do anything for us. We didn’t tell them that there would be rules and regulations.

  We didn’t put any sort of expectations on the people of Lagia. All we said was that it would always be protected by the Williams family. Period.

  Now they were free to interpret that statement however they wished, and some of them did take it negatively, but who cared. Definitely not anyone of the Williams family.

  We went out there and accomplished something great, and then we came down here and let them know that it was us. We accomplished it, and we will continue to accomplish things of a similar nature should the need arise again. Some of them took it negatively, but nobody was brave enough to cause a problem.

  Not when they were all turning down here away from the problem while me and my family went to handle things.

  But that was it for the negativity, and even though it was only a small crowd murmuring their negative sentiments, the vast majority of them on the other hand were pretty grateful. So much so that we received plenty of thanks, and some of those thanks even included tears of gratitude.

  It was kind of odd to be thanked like this by so many people, but we all took it in stride, mainly because we were still dealing with our own heavy hearts from the loss of a few family members.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  After our little announcement was over, we gathered the members of our family and simply left. And of course, the list of members included Miss Vera and the few kids that were still with her.

  What was funny about the situation though was that not a single soul moved to leave until we left.

  Then, after a few minutes of us exiting the dungeon and verifying that the area was still safe as we had left it, people began to trickle out. Sometimes just one person, other times an entire group that went in there together. Eventually, we left the area of the dungeon and went back to what was left of our compound.

  Bodies were still all over the place, and that didn’t help to improve the mood of the family, but we did what we could. We cleaned up only what was absolutely necessary and returned home.

  Once folks were settled, we began burning the bodies or at least attempting to burn the bodies. It seemed even in death they were impervious to fire, so that began what turned out to be a pretty large undertaking.

  The bodies couldn’t stay on the compound and just dumping them in the neighbors’ yard didn’t make much sense either. So we decided as a family to take them all back to the dungeon. We could bring stuff in there or not bring these bodies in and leave them. From my understanding, once we leave the floor, things get reset in a way, so when we came back through, the bodies we left there would be gone.

  Eventually, what we were doing was noticed by the remaining citizens of Lagia, and the large undertaking became citywide as everyone began working together without any plans, without any shouting, without anyone propping themselves up as a leader, and just working as a community to gather all the bodies, whether it was human or alien, and bring them to the dungeon.

  It took a while. We eventually, through multiple trips, got everything in. And while the city was still full of rubble and destruction, it was at least free of the bodies of both friend and foe, which is a win we’ll all take.

  The thing is, the community togetherness didn’t really end there. Even after that task was finished and we all returned to wherever it was we were returning to, for us it was the compound, where we wanted to plan our next steps, the rest of the community wasn’t done with us.

  Slowly but surely, people came over, asking for things.

  Perhaps it would be easily understood if they were just asking for help, whether it be money, supplies, or something else that is easily quantifiable.

  But no. While there was some of that, what really surprised us as a whole was the fact that people were asking how best they could help protect the community. Where should they be placed to help keep the community safe, and whatever else they could do to help.

  We were genuinely shocked by these types of questions. Even Dad, who kickstarted all of this, didn’t really expect this follow up.

  All he was going for was just to have the rest of the community respect the Williams family a little bit more, so that whenever they thought about good things happening in the community, they would think about the Williams family.

  This would lay the foundation for us to eventually become officially in charge of the community when we were in a better position to handle it in the future. Not this. Whatever this was.

  Anyway, I made the personal decision to stay clear of all that was happening. I let Grandpa and the rest of the adults take care of, again, whatever this was. Me, I’ll take this opportunity to do what they used to say when I was younger. Yeah. Stay in a child’s place.

  Grandpa is the one who craved this sort of leadership, and based on all we know about the man, he’s been bred for it. So I’m sure he’s reveling in this role where he’s somewhat of a soft leader for the entire community.

  Not really going around and dictating what people should do but at least pointing the people who came to us in directions he thought best. Thankfully, even with the little hiccup he had the other day, I was confident he had a good head on his shoulders and he wouldn’t steer the family in the wrong direction.

  And let’s say he was about to steer the family in the wrong direction, Mom, Dad, and the rest of my aunts and uncles wouldn’t hesitate to put him back on the right path.

  We’ll be fine, I think.