Outside Heathrow's Admin Office stood a line of Undead hunters, receiving their payments one at a time. Clayton stood at the end of the line, beads of sweat slowly dripping down his collar. Behind him Eddie, Vincent, Diana and Nathaniel talked animatedly about how their hunt had gone. Normally Clayton would simply issue a voucher for the group, however he was limited to giving a maximum of five thousand credits per hunting group. Which was a perfectly reasonable limit, the previous record for most captured Undead was forty four - performed by ArmSys Elites. However Clayton now had to explain that one single group had captured 260 Undead in just over three hours. [Fuck this better go smoothly], thought Clayton as he stepped up to the admin desk.
One of the admin clerks, Penny, greeted the man with a smile "Oh Hello Mr Clayton, how can ArmSys Admin help you today?"
"See the two old geezers, the wannabe cop and the cripple girl behind me?", whispered Clayton, poking a thumb over his shoulder towards Eddie and his group.
"Yes… I do… What about them, Mr Clayton?" asked Penny, her smile starting to contract.
"They captured two hundred and sixty Undead. I can't issue a voucher that fucking big and frankly I don't want to run the risk of upsetting these… people." replied Clayton in a hushed tone, glancing over his shoulder and smiling at a waving Eddie.
"Surely there is some kind of mistake, Mr Clayton there is no wa-" began Penny however she was cut off by a hiss from the ArmSys operator.
"I don't fucking make mistakes Penny, check your damn logbook." hissed Clayton, leaning forward on Penny's desk.
Penny's smile vanished entirely, leaving only the scar of a frown. She opened a heavy binder on her desk and flicked through the daily reports. Her eyes widened as she read the Undead Hunting report - a report created by Mr Sharpe's most trusted employee Romeo. Slowly the lady looked up at Clayton, only now seeing the beads of sweat on his neck and tensed muscles. [He's not mad,] she realised, [he's nervous].
"I uhhhh…," began Penny, "I'll speak to my supervisor."
Penny then stood up and power walked through a door behind her, out of sight. Almost immediately Eddie walked over to Clayton. "Customer service is shitty even in the apocalypse, huh?" said the old man.
Clayton nodded, "Uh, yea it is. It's just a lot of credits. Shouldn't take much longer."
"Alright," replied Eddie as he strolled back over to the rest of the group who were discussing manga.
Penny returned to her desk, sitting down promptly and adjusting her shirt collar. From underneath her desk she opened a safe - producing twenty six coins worth a thousand credits each. "Please give the credits to the hunters and come back, Executive Romeo wants to meet you personally." instructed Penny in a monotone voice. Clayton scooped up the coins and walked over to Eddie.
"Here's your due, twenty-six thousand credits. Each coin is worth a thousand and uhh enjoy the rest of your day." said Clayton nervously as he gave the coins to Eddie. The old man nodded, thanking the younger man before turning to his party and walking away. Once the group had left the area, towards the market Clayton presumed.
"Follow me," instructed Penny as she walked into the backroom behind the admin office. Clayton followed, rounding the corner and walking down a long corridor before a guard let the pair into the room.. He had never been inside the admin backrooms before. Rows upon rows of filing cabinets lined the walls, towering upwards towards the ceiling. Dozens of clerks sat at desks, typing on typewriters to transcribe, copy and create various documents. At the end of the room sat a long wooden table, covered in reports and maps. The room had no windows and only one entrance - it was completely secure.
Slowly, Clayton's eyes trailed upwards to the warm yellow of the overhead light bulbs that illuminated the area. Widening his eyes, Clayton realised that somehow ArmSys had managed to get electricity working again.
"I have heard a lot about you Clayton, your commanding officer is very impressed." called out a voice from behind. Clayton turned around to find a man wearing SWAT riot combat gear standing before him. The man was tall and seemed to wear skin tight gloves. [No], thought Clayton, [his hands are the gloves, he has neuroprosthetic robotic limbs - he is Romeo].
"Thank you Sir," replied Clayton militantly, raising his left hand in salute.
"I appreciate the respect and formality but I would much rather you just call me Romeo," said Romeo as he sat at the head of the table, "Take a seat".
"Yes Si-, Romeo." answered Clayton, taking a seat at the table. Almost immediately clerks started to clear the table and spread out a map of London and surrounds before the pair. The map had been altered to include the Heathrow Settlement among other notable developments.
"Now, I suppose you are curious about how electricity is working again and why I wanted to speak with you." started Romeo, gesturing towards one of the clerks to fetch the pair some refreshments.
"Yes, not a single electrical device has worked since the apocalypse, aside from neuroprosthetics like your robotic limbs. Everything else has been dead, every car, every phone and every battery." replied Clayton. One of the clerks placed a tray of ham sandwiches and mugs of coffee on the table as Clayton spoke.
"You are completely correct." complimented Romeo as he took one of the coffees and took a long sip, "Funny you mention batteries - since they're the problem."
Clayton's brow furrowed, "How so?" he asked while taking his own mug of coffee and taking a sip.
"The initial wave of the apocalypse shut off all electrical devices, like an electro-magnetic pulse or EMP." began the ArmSys Executive, "However it seems the Gods pulled a cruel trick to spice things up. They have changed the chemical composition of every battery on Earth, even the ones in my limbs. My batteries seemingly never run out of charge, as long as they are only used with my prosthetics. However every other battery aside from neuroprosthetics has been rendered useless. None of them can hold any charge at all. Our Engineers opened hundreds of batteries to find that all the vital chemicals, like lithium, were simply missing."
Clayton nodded slowly before asking, "I understand - that makes a lot of sense. However how is ArmSys generating power and why hasn't this been released publicly? The amount of new settlers would increase exponentially if we advertised we had power. Everyone's dying for a hot shower in this freezing weather."
Romeo chuckled, "I see why your commanders speak highly of you - you are indeed very observant. Currently Mr Sharpe is buying power and discharging it into industrial batteries. However this costs my master money of course, so our engineers are working on a sustainable way to generate power in the apocalypse. It does not have to be green, just efficient and long lasting. So for now power is reserved for special activities and Executives such as myself. May I now explain why I asked to speak with you?"
"Does it have to do with the hunters breaking the previous record?" inquired Clayton, taking another sip of his coffee.
"No, not at all." answered Romeo, "You may have heard rumours that Sharpe wants to expand ArmSys, these rumours are true. Our founder has very bold plans, most of which I cannot yet disclose to you. However he is planning to setup more settlements, managed by our most competent and capable operators - the ArmSys Executives. And you, Clayton, have made the shortlist to become an Executive."
Almost immediately a clerk rushed over with a bottle of champagne complete with a pair of crystal glasses.
"I… I don't know what to say, Sir." stuttered Clayton.
Romeo chuckled again, "You should ask for a glass of champagne. Or whatever you like, you are in the big leagues now. Also as I said earlier, you can drop your formality." smiling he continued "Although I am a Senior Executive and you are a Junior, we are still colleagues. Now let's celebrate and discuss the details of your promotion!"
Clayton grinned, "I look forward to it."