Leveling Up Wives In The Apocalypse

"Is everyone ready?" Mathew asked as he climbed up some sort of heavy-duty equipment to look at the crown gathered in the main hall of the camp.

It was considerably smaller than the one that Marcus gathered before. And given how Mathew knew the precise number of people gathered, he could now estimate the total number of people left within Marcus' camp.

'He still has around one hundred sixty people left to take care of,' Mathew thought when he realized the crowd gathered now was only about a third of the total crowd he saw just a few hours earlier.

"Are you really going to move out now?" Marcus asked as he approached Mathew at the very front of the entire crowd. "There is only about an hour before the sunset," he then added.

It was a fun little change that happened in just the last five days. From people that were addicted to their clocks and who knew not how to care about the daylight… People shifted from using the general time to just how their ancestors judged it, by looking at the position of the sun in the sky.

"It's okay, our camp is not that far," Mathew replied leisurely. "And to be honest, while the zombies get more dangerous at night," he smirked, "so do we."

"I see," Marcus muttered. He then lowered his head as he thought about something. "Hey, now that I think about it," he raised his eyes, "I think I should go with you."

Mathew ever-so-slightly squinted his eyes.

"And why is that?" he asked while doing his best not to let his dissatisfaction show on his face.

"You know where my camp is, it's only fair for me to know where yours is," he revealed while looking directly into Mathew's eyes.

For a moment, the two of them stared into each other eyes, as if they were some sort of greatest rivals or greatest lovers in the world.

"Haaa…" Marcus was the first one to avert his eyes. "Actually, I just want to make sure that all those people will not only be safe but get the perks that you told everyone about," he then revealed his true intentions.

"You don't strike me as someone who would actually care about it," Mathew pointed out while raising his right eyebrow.

"I'm just doing whatever I need to do to keep all those people safe," Marcus replied, squinting his own eyes in response to Mathew's honest yet slightly rude remarks. "Be it sacrificing some strangers to keep the zombies away, or sending a huge chunk of people under me away if they can have better chances to live away from my camp."

"That's…" Mathew hesitated.

He expected Marcus to somehow try to bite a bit more than was agreed during the earlier negotiations.

But for the man to wish to accompany them personally?

'Is he trying to take my camp over? Or maybe see how it works so he can plan for it?'

Mathew closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"Listen, man, I respect your intelligence and craftiness," he honestly admitted. Then, he opened his eyes and looked Marcus straight in the eyes. "But at the same time, I can't help but be worried about those qualities of yours."

"Or, in other words, you don't trust me," Marcus simplified Mathew's words.

"Exactly," Mathew agreed, ignoring the fact that they were having this kind of conversation out in the open and for everyone around them to freely listen to. "I don't mind cooperating with you as long as we both benefit from such cooperation. But I'm not sure if I can keep you in check if this cooperation grows bigger."

This was the first time Mathew to open up so much to the other party.

He was wary of the man because of what he saw him do back in his original life. And it was this wariness that allowed him to get out victorious from several traps and situations Marcus already put him through.

"I'm not asking for a greater degree of cooperation," Marcus then said. "Not yet, at least," he then added only to follow up with a shake of his head. "But didn't you say that it's something that could happen in the future?"

Mathew pulled his eyebrows together.

"I…" he hesitated for a bit. "I did," he then admitted.

There was no use trying to take his words from before back. And to be perfectly honest, he saw a lot of benefits in potentially recruiting Marcus and his men.

They were normal people who didn't appear to have any sort of system at all. And with their mortal strength alone, they managed to survive as long as Mathew while building a camp that was actually more populous than both of the camps that Mathew established combined.

Mathew took yet another deep breath before slowly releasing all the air from his lungs in one go.

"Fuck it," he cursed before raising his eyes and looking straight into Marcus' face. "I just hope you won't make me regret it," he then added before turning around. Yet, before he could leave, Mathew suddenly came to a stop.

"Just don't forget," he added in a whisper as he glanced back over his shoulder. "Whatever schemes you might be cooking in your mind right now, they are worthless when faced with the overwhelming strength of my wives."

Mathew gave out his last warning before moving ahead and climbing the same piece of heavy-duty equipment that he got on before.

"Everyone, we lingered here for long enough. While my camp is not that far, it will still take us some time to get there safely," he announced out loud before lowering his eyes and locking them on Marcus.

"Give the order," Mathew mouthed before glancing over to the very same gate that the zombies of the recent horde were working so hard to break through.

And with a single wave of Marcus' hand, Mathew accomplished what over a thousand zombies failed to do.

"Let's go!"