The Winter Tyrant-Chapter 51: Restrained Recklessness

Brooke stood in the center of the foundry. She was taking daily count of rations, medical supplies, fuel, and just about everything she and her employees needed to survive.

Due to the current circumstances of the world around them, Brooke had introduced strict rationing very early on and locked up their critical resources so that nobody could in an act of desperation, plunder them.

The clipboard in her hand kept perfect notes of how much they had, how much should remain at the end of the day, and how they would be distributed based on everyone’s individual needs and the current size of their stockpile.

She sighed heavily and shook her head. She was alone... and the fact that she was alone gave her a moment where she could be honest with herself.

"This can’t last much longer... We need new supplies. We need to send people out there to gather what they can find and bring it back. But the world outside is...."

As if on cue, gunshots echoed in the distance. They weren’t rapid in succession, nor were they abundant. But they accompanied the buzz of snowmobile engines and the howling of those riding them.

For the last 72 hours, the would-be raiders outside the premises had begun a daily campaign of harassment.

Probing the foundry’s security measures. Taking potshots at the guards, who kept their heads down and returned fire just long enough to send the raiders scurrying off.

It wasn’t so much an assault as it was an intimidation tactic. And she knew it was working. While Brooke had the resolve to endure, many of her employees were already anxious. There had been no police, no fire department, no National Guard... No relief.

Now here were clear signs that the world outside had utterly collapsed, when men on snowmobiles could open fire on them repeatedly with impunity. It meant the world outside these walls was no longer civilized.

And that idea caused fear and panic to spread. Things would have been much worse if Brooke hadn’t immediately acted once the snow began piling up to an unreasonable degree by evacuating the families of the workers to the foundry for their own safety.

It was Brooke’s will alone that kept her employees safe and restrained from recklessness. But as the pressure continued to mount, there was only so much she could do to prevent those who were desperate and fearful of running off to their own deaths.

She came back to the facility’s center and saw that a riot was about to break out. The security guards were in a scuffle with several laborers who demanded an exit. Shouting in each other’s faces, they were grabbing and throwing one another around.

"God dammit! You can’t just keep us here! If we want to go outside and brave the snow, then that is our right! I have a family to look after, and I won’t just keep them here waiting for their deaths!"

The security guard broke the grip of the agitator who was screaming in his face and shoved him against the wall, while the others created a protected circle around him, all the while those more desperate employees began to throw empty cans, and other refuse at the security guards, shouting at them all the same.

"Let him go! You fucking pigs! We’re sick and tired of waiting here!"

Luckily Brooke had arrived just in time, her voice shouting over the ramparts, echoing across the factory, causing every man to cease their agitation.

"What is the meaning of this? Stop this madness at once! You’re going to get yourselves killed!"

The security guard who had pinned another man to the wall with his baton around his neck, let go reluctantly, the aggrieved laborer casting his gaze to the floor, not in resentment but shame.

One man stepped forward and was quick to speak for the others like him.

"With all due respect, Miss Carver, we have been here for over a month, keeping the foundry running, and continue to produce supplies that are not shipping out any time soon. How long can we reasonably stay here, especially now that criminals are threatening us daily?"

Brooke sighed and shook her head. Not everyone was aware of how dire things were outside. The idea that this man had even said the word "criminals" as if these were just normal hooligans or gangsters really drove the point home.

She was quick to calm herself before posing a single question to everyone present.

"Honestly, I was hoping to avoid asking you all of this. Because I thought by now it was obvious. But how many of you are actually aware of our current reality?"

There were quite a few people who had more or less guessed what was happening, but they remained silent and awkward. Others, however, were quick to protest.

"What do you mean? Clearly there is an unusually cold winter and prolonged snow storm, but once the snow begins to melt, the authorities will be here to relieve us?"

This naïve comment forced Brooke to confront the fears she had been trying to ignore for over a month. Some people were simply too optimistic for their own good. And she had not wanted to put them into panic.

But the more they clung to the idea that civilization still existed outside their walls, waiting to save them. The more they would behave recklessly and in ways that endangered their refuge as a whole.

She had no choice...

"There is nobody coming to save us... The Union of Columbia is buried beneath the snow. The National Guard was, for whatever reason never deployed. There is no power outside of our walls, we are relying solely on feeding our own generators to keep the lights on. Making sure we have fresh water and removing waste is becoming an increasingly difficult concern to manage."

Those who were already aware of what was happening looked away, they knew all too well the difficulty of their situation. They just didn’t like thinking about it.

But for those who clung to the fantasy of salvation, a silent horror crept across their faces, especially as Brooke drove the point home.

"Do you really think that there is a functioning society outside these walls if we are forced to live like this for nearly two whole months? Face it, we are all alone, and those men who keep firing at us every day aren’t simple criminals. They’re barbarians who have come to take what we need to survive! We must fight them... We must endure. We must hold this ground. We cannot allow ourselves to be cast out, if we do, there is no telling what will happen to us."

The speech lingered in the atmosphere long after Brooke had spoken the words. One thing was certain: she had defused the riot before it could explode into something more significant.

But in doing so, she had also dealt a mortal blow to the morale of the plant and the people inside its walls.