You continue to lead the settlement. Peaceful life has been restored. Probably...

Months of normal life after the elimination of the feral ghouls threat allow you to immerse yourself in the organizational work of managing the settlement, the number of inhabitants of which has already reached about 700 persons. This is a fairly large settlement by wastelands standards.

Among the local inhabitants there are not only windriders from different tribes (although they are the majority here). There also live ordinary humans, reasonable ghouls (there are few of them; after the attack of the feral ghouls, the rest of the inhabitants of the settlement avoid and fear them) and various types of mutants. Most of these mutants are distinguished by a larger (an average height of almost three meters) and muscular build, greenish or orangeish skin tones, a complete lack of hair on the body, wart-like growths on the face; the appearance of these persons awakens in your mind painful memories of how you were ambushed and maimed... These persons clearly belong to the same species of creatures as the cruel green-skinned mutant monster that maimed you... What did it call itself? "Grun"?

You try to restrain your emotions and not to show bias towards these creatures just based on the fact that they belong to the same biological species as the scum that tore off your wing.

But...

The memories of your pain and the scars in your soul will not go away.

Sitting in a chair on the second floor of your house (the house is made of several large containers that your subordinates found near the settlement) and looking through a journal with a list of useful things that they managed to pull out of the ancient underground bunker, you try to distract yourself from sadness and think rationally.

"These muscular giant-like creatures can be useful to the settlement. Their strength is useful... Besides: most of them, judging by the stories, were savages-nomads before coming to our settlement and had no relations with **** traders..." - this is approximately what you think, continuing to look through various documents.

Over the past months, you have been able to realize another advantage of the diverse composition of the population of your settlement - among the ordinary humans who came here, there were quite smart and skilled persons. Some of them taught you to read and explained the benefits of keeping records of the settlement's resources. Of course. your literacy leaves much to be desired. But, thanks to these innovations, it has become easier for you to manage the settlement.

Settlement.

Your settlement.

A unique place among the vast expanses of arid steppes, deserts with strange orange sand, lifeless canyons and hills with thorny bushes.

The Green Oasis.

This is how it was decided to name this settlement at a meeting of local inhabitants.

According to the stories of some who have had experience of long and extensive wanderings in the wastelands, your settlement is truly unique. This oasis is different from the usual. **** fertility of the soil. Amazing purity of water. Greenery of many lush plants.

You and everyone who lives here are really lucky.

So, you continue to count the resources, thinking about what you saw in that underground bunker, which was located on the ancient ruins of a military base.

These gloomy ruins of a lost ancient civilization concealed hordes of bloodthirsty feral ghouls, which broke free and attacked the inhabitants of your settlement.

Fending off this threat was not easy at all.

There were many wounded...

There were also dead...

And what is the reason for this?

Is it just an accident?

Did a group of greedy scavengers simply open the doors out of avarice?

Or did someone give this group information about the location of this underground bunker and give them the means to open the doors?

Someone malicious...

"I think I'm starting to feel a little paranoid..." - you think, massaging your temples.

"Mister mayor! I apologize for distracting you... But there is something important..." - you hear a trembling old voice behind you.

You turn around and see a slightly hunched human old man with a grayish mustache and a bald head. He is dressed in an old shabby cloak, a shabby gray shirt and leather pants. His brown eyes look at you ingratiatingly and he bows even lower in a ritual bow. This is Gregory the Scribe. He is one of those who helped you learn to read and write. He is probably the most educated person in the settlement. You use his services to keep records of documents and to calculate the settlement's resources.

His flattery irritates you to some extent. But his valuable skills prompt you to use him as a kind of assistant, which in ancient times would have been called a "secretary".

"Mister mayor..." - Gregory addresses you again.

You, distracted from your thoughts, put aside the resource log and look at him.

"Excuse me, please, mister mayor..." - the old man continues to mumble.

Mister mayor.

This is how most of the settlement's inhabitants call you now.

There are few exceptions.

One of the exceptions: your old friends from your squad of windriders warriors (ten warriors... how few...). For example, Ben or Tina, who can call you by the old name - "captain Dar" or simply "Dar".

But for the vast majority of the locals, you are now none other than "mister mayor".

Dar Vanlu captain of the windriders from the Skyblooded tribe is now... "mister mayor"

A year ago, you could not even imagine such a thing.

You nod tiredly to the old man and say: "Gregory... Get to the heart of the matter..."

"As you say, mister mayor... Among the useful things that we took out of the underground bunker, in addition to ten boxes of ammunition, twenty-five M16 automatic rifles, two boxes of medicine, thirty bulletproof vests..."

"I've already read the logbook and given orders for the distribution of things! Get to the point..." - you say impatiently.

Indeed, you have already distributed useful things among the inhabitants of the settlement. You remember how joyfully Ben began to examine his new weapon - an M16 rifle. You appointed Ben to the position of the head of the elite squad of your personal guard (the squad consists only of windrider warriors), but doubts do not leave your mind (maybe he is too young and impulsive for this...). Tina was much more reserved when examining the new weapon - but you are not sure that she is suitable for the position of the leader due to her excessive kindness and gentleness with subordinates.

"Sorry, mister mayor... I wanted to say that in addition to all these things, a group of our scouts found something else... Something that they did not consider important because they did not understand the purpose of this thing..." - Gregory the Scribe says hastily.

"What is this?" you ask tiredly.

Gregory the Scribe takes a large piece of paper from under his cloak, folded several times to make it more compact.

He then unfolds the paper, carefully unbending it.

You see that the edges of the paper are burnt and crumbling.

Your gaze looks at the partly dirty symbols, many of which you do not understand.

However, you immediately understand what this is...

"I'm sure you guessed it right away, mister mayor... It's a map... A map of that underground bunker..." - Gregory the Scribe confirms your thoughts.

You examine the symbols and diagrams of the underground corridors.

Gregory carefully runs his finger over the worn paper, pointing to a certain sector of the ancient map.

"Our warriors were not in these corridors..." - he says.

"I remember Ben's report... He said that these corridors are impassable due to the collapse. Everything there is littered with stones and rusty metal. Do you doubt it? You think they missed something important?" you say.

"Please forgive me, mister mayor... The problem is different... I have carefully studied this map and several other half-rotted documents brought from the bunker... And I have found out that... these corridors, located deep underground, lead in the direction of our settlement. This is absolutely certain. Long underground corridors, two kilometers long, lead to a place under our settlement. This means that at a depth of about 400 meters under our settlement there is something... This worries me. That is why I immediately came to you with this information. Perhaps we should continue exploring that bunker and gradually dismantle the rubble in those inaccessible corridors... If, of course, you deem it necessary, mister mayor..."

You ponder these words, feeling a growing anxiety in your soul.

What is hidden deep underground, beneath the surface of the settlement The Green Oasis?

And do you consider it advisable to find out?

Or is it better to leave this secret and not disturb the ancient underground corridors hiding echoes of the distant past of a deceased civilization?