I couldn’t believe it, but James here was about to continue on with his little plan without even acknowledging the fact he just volunteered our property.

  It’s one thing to have it in your plans and then ask us if it was alright, but it’s another thing to put it there and just assume we will go along with it. That’s a different type of entitlement.

  One that Grandpa didn’t agree with.

  “Wait one.”

  James paused and turned to Grandpa. The other people in the room did the same thing.

  Grandpa continued.

  “I don’t believe I gave you or anyone else permission to include my property in any plans of yours.”

  That’s the thing about Grandpa. He was always direct.

  James didn’t back off though.

  “Ah, Mr. Williams, as you can see, times are a bit different now. I don’t think this is time to be arguing about what’s whose and all that. But I’m willing to play ball. Is it possible for us to use your property as our standing ground for attack?

  “Not only is it the closest stronghold we have to the rest of the town, but it is also easily defensible in case we gotta retreat for some reason. It’s the perfect spot, Mr. Williams.”

  You know, maybe if he apologized for what he said, then there might’ve been a chance for Grandpa to change his tune, but he chose to suggest that Grandpa was trying to argue over who owned the property.

  …Is he an idiot?

  “The answer is no. No one comes on the property and that’s final. Figure something else out.”

  All eyes turned back to James who stayed silent for a few awkward seconds. I’m not sure why he would just assume that we would go along with every and any idea he put forth, but Grandpa clearly wouldn’t.

  “…I understand, Mr. Williams. We’ll figure something else out.”

  Grandpa didn’t bother responding.

  Honestly, I was a bit shocked James backed down so easily. Like suspiciously easy. Earlier in the conversation he made sure to look in our direction when he brought up the Lagia Castle, but shortly afterward he followed that up with hinting that the ownership was a point of argument.

  This was already a silly conversation in my eyes, but if that’s the path he was going down, then after Grandpa firmly said no, the most likely decision for James to take would be one of conflict.

  James threw a punch, Grandpa followed up with one of his own. James then countered and Grandpa blocked and threw another. Now at this point James countered again in some way, but instead he retired from the fight.

  Something about that just screams suspicious behavior.

  …It was almost like testing just how much shit Grandpa would put up with. Again, I could just be paranoid about all of this, but it was rubbing me the wrong way.

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  Though since Grandpa didn’t say anything else, the rest of the meeting progressed as James went back to explaining what all the different points of interest on the dry-erase board were.

  I’ll admit that he and his team were being particularly thorough about all of this. The area from our family compound all the way to the center of the town was drawn out. Of course, it wasn’t to scale at all, and we all knew that there were many destroyed locations and new water features all over the place.

  Yet they managed to showcase most of it on the board. It pretty much matched what I remembered from my own little scouting mission over a month ago now. Good on them.

  Anyway, once he finished explaining everything we were looking at, he moved to the actual plan.

  “As you all can see by this board, most of the new water features are on the north side of town. Obviously we will avoid them. With that in mind, I think it’s best we do a two-fronted attack. One group will go straight down the same street they been coming for us on, while another group will approach from the south.

  “We gonna hit ‘em hard and hit ‘em fast. The attacks will happen at night so be prepared for that. Now this isn’t the army or anything like that, but both groups should have a leader. It will be easy to coordinate things if there is one central voice.

  “Too many cooks in the kitchen won’t produce a good meal.

  “I’m willing to handle the central group, but someone else is gonna have to take care of the southern group.”

  Before anyone else could speak up, Grandpa beat them to the punch.

  “The Williams family will handle the south, and we will also send a small team to the north. When exactly is the battle?”

  “Now who made you king? You already got your family to worry about, old man, let someone else handle the leadership role.”

  This time it was another dude who spoke up.

  Grandpa responded calmly though.

  “The Williams family will handle the south. You can do whatever it is you would like. James, was it? When is the attack kicking off?”

  “Three days from now. And although we can’t set up shop on your compound, it should be no problem if we gather just outside of it, right?”

  “No problem with me.”

  After saying that, Grandpa simply got up and left. Of course, both Dad and I were right behind him. The dude from earlier seemed like he had more to say but had to bite his tongue.

  Hm.

  I’m not sure how I feel about all of this. It would always be family first, and I was wary of James and his people from the beginning, but I don’t think it’s a good idea to get off on the wrong foot with all the fighters in the community.

  While I don’t think we necessarily need to be friends with everybody, we definitely didn’t want to be ostracized either.

  So once we left the house in full and walked some distance away, I couldn’t help but ask…

  “Was that a good idea, Grandpa? I think we probably rubbed a lot of them the wrong way with how we left.”

  “I agree, Dad. Probably not a good idea to risk isolating the whole family.”

  “Y’all worry too much, you should leave that to old people like me. Just know that meeting had too many rats in it to worry about making friends. I think we’ll be able to get rid of these aliens barring any surprises in a couple days.

  “Immediately after that, the family needs to get ready to handle whatever happens after. I got a feeling we’re gonna have to deal with people a whole lot more than before.”

  Well, I can’t argue with that too much since I agreed with him.

  I was skeptical about the meeting from the beginning, and James only confirmed those suspicions after everything he said. The random guy calling Grandpa an old man didn’t help the situation either.

  Alright, best not to worry about it too much for now. We got a big battle coming up in a couple of days, and my focus needs to be on that.

  …

  POV James

  “Well, what y’all think?”

  “They’re going to be a problem. If we want to take control of Lagia, then they need to be a part of this. If not, then we’re going to have to do something about it.”

  I understand her, but… it ain’t gonna be that easy…

  “I get you, trust me I do, but as y’all could see, the old man wasn’t going for anything. If we push them too hard, they’re going to push back. It wouldn’t be a problem if all we had to worry about was the old man, but they’re all crazy.

  “Did you not see the other two? Both of them looked like they were just itching to fight if we made one wrong move. I’m not sure going toe to toe with them is a good idea.

  “At least not yet.”