Building a Safe Zone with My Harem In The Post-Apocalyptic World

Percy took a slow step back, tension tightening his shoulders as reality settled in. He knew exactly who he was dealing with. If Elaine wanted to, she could snap his neck before he even realized what was happening.

"Does it really matter if I don’t have one?" he said, his voice shaking, though whether from anger or grief was hard to tell.

"My wife, my child... none of that changes just because I have some kind of skill. So why help us at all if you’re just going to treat her like she’s worth more than the rest of us?"

The pain in his eyes was raw, unfiltered. Even Gideon felt it. What Percy had gone through wasn’t something a person simply moved past.

And Elaine’s question hadn’t been fair either. A life was still a life, whether it was useful or not.

At least, that belief didn’t hold much weight anymore.

"Of course it matters," Elaine replied, her tone calm, almost detached. She tilted her head slightly, the warmth she showed earlier gone without a trace.

"We’re helping you, so naturally we expect something in return."

Her gaze shifted past him. "And don’t misunderstand the situation. We’re not treating her kindly. Take a proper look at her. Her face, her body... Do any of you look like that?"

One by one, their attention turned toward Piggy. The anger that had been building in the room didn’t disappear, but it faltered as they understood what Elaine meant.

Piggy lowered her head, shrinking under the weight of their stares.

"She’s a captive," Elaine continued, as if stating something obvious. "Not someone who gets to live freely in his territory."

She gave Gideon a light tap on the back, casual but deliberate, making it clear who stood in charge.

"She’ll work for us for the rest of her life and she’ll give us everything she knows."

Murmurs spread through the group. Gideon let it linger for a moment before stepping forward. This was where he needed to step in. Elaine had no interest in easing them into reality, and if he didn’t take control now, the tension would only worsen. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

"I understand why this feels wrong," he said, his voice steady but not cold. "Even I can admit that."

"But that doesn’t change the situation. She’s useful. She knows things about the Skull Fangs, and they’re not a threat we can ignore. If you want us to deal with them, then for now... You need to hold back."

His gaze moved across each of them, firm but not harsh. "Keep your anger if you need to. Just don’t act on it yet. When she’s no longer useful... then you can decide what to do with it."

Percy exhaled slowly, "If I come with you... Do you think I’ll still have a reason to live?"

The question settled over the room, pulling it into silence.

Most of them felt the same way. They just didn’t know how to put it into words. Only the child looked lost, too young to understand what was truly being asked.

A younger man stepped forward then. Gideon recognized him after a moment. They called him Charlie.

"Percy and I are from the same place, the Skull Fangs took us while we were on our way to the Climber Rift. We thought we could start over there."

He hesitated, his jaw tightening. "But some of us didn’t make it through the ambush... my brother included. So what are we supposed to do now?"

Gideon didn’t answer right away. Because the truth was, he didn’t have one.

If he had lost everyone important to him, if he had failed to protect them... would he still be able to find a reason to keep moving forward? Or would everything simply stop there?

"Of course you can," Elaine said, her voice steady but firm.

"Everyone here has lost someone. Since the apocalypse began, people have been dying nonstop. But giving up isn’t an option. I was already a coward once. I couldn’t protect my mother."

"I’m not going to end up like that again, lying on the ground and waiting to die at the hands of the thing that took someone important from me."

She let out a quiet scoff. "But if that’s what you want, go ahead. No one’s stopping you. Lie down and cry. See where that gets you."

Charlie’s face turned red. He tried to argue, but nothing came out. As harsh as she sounded, she wasn’t wrong.

Gideon exhaled slowly. "What she means is, the world doesn’t stop just because you do. It’s cruel, but that’s how things are now. It’s okay to grieve. It’s okay to cry."

His voice grew firmer. "But you still have to stand up. Otherwise, their deaths really will mean nothing."

"...We understand," Percy said after a minute of silence. "But just this once, can you take us to them? They deserve a proper burial."

Elaine’s expression darkened, her lips parting as if to refuse, but Gideon spoke before she could.

"Sure," he said easily. "Why not? I’ll get you there. Anything we run into, I’ll take care of it."

It was a good opportunity. Earn their trust, secure his place as a leader, and more importantly, raise his level.

***

They decided to move out. None of them remembered what had happened to their vehicles, but Piggy did and told them the location right away. They didn’t even need to give her a map, she remembered every nook and crook of the Deliric Desert.

Because of that, Gideon had to take position at the turret, gripping the machine gun with visible excitement, while Piggy and Elaine took the front seats.

He already knew this was a bad idea. Their relationship was strange, hovering between irritation and something close to affection, with hatred dominating most of the time. Still, it didn’t stop them from arguing and trying to kill each other.

The moment the truck suddenly swerved, he could already tell Piggy was trying to wrestle control of the wheel from Elaine or Elaine was trying to stab or punch Piggy, which made him roll his eyes.

"Ugh, women."

He didn’t understand why they complicated things like that. To him, it was simple. You either loved someone or you hated them. Anything in between felt pointless.

His attention shifted forward as movement emerged from the sand. The aberrants came into view, shaped like wolves but formed entirely from dry, twisted vines.

Their bodies carried a dull brown tone, brittle and lifeless, and their hollow eyes gave them a disturbing, empty stare. They moved unnaturally, gliding across the sand as if their legs were submerged beneath it.

Fortunately, Gideon had prepared for this. He had filled the truck with cubes that emitted heat similar to the human body, making it appear as if the vehicle was packed with people.

The aberrants took the bait immediately and only surrounded their truck and left the rest alone.

"Focus!" Gideon shouted. "We’re under attack!"

His voice carried over the sudden eruption of gunfire as he pulled the trigger. The sharp sound seemed to snap Piggy and Elaine back to their senses, and the truck quickly stabilized.

Gideon kept firing without pause, cutting down the aberrants as they approached. Each one disintegrated into dust the moment a vital spot was hit, while system notifications of exp and cores kept appearing in front of him. He ignored them and kept his focus ahead.

"Damn it, how many are there?" he muttered.

They kept coming. No matter how many he killed, more rose from the sand, as if the ground itself was spawning them endlessly.

Sweat began to form on his face. This was far more exhausting than fighting a single powerful enemy that could simply be defeated and finished.

"Are these just the smaller ones? Is the real one hiding somewhere?" he asked under his breath.

There was no response. The gunfire drowned everything else, and even if Piggy or Elaine were shouting, he wouldn’t be able to hear them.

If he stopped shooting, even for a moment, the wolves would immediately close the distance and overwhelm the truck. Facing dozens of them with only one machine gun would make things far worse.

Then he remembered the old man’s words, to be careful with what he said.

Almost as if triggered by that thought, the sand ahead suddenly burst open. The impact sent a tremor through the ground, forcing the truck to stop so abruptly that Gideon nearly lost his balance.

From beneath the surface, a massive wolf’s head emerged, far larger than the others he had been shooting.

It shared the same vine-like structure, but this one was denser and more grotesque, and a faint purple mist seeped out from its body. Gideon immediately realized it was poisonous.

Elaine leaned out of the window, her voice sharp and urgent. "Gideon, get back inside! That mist is toxic! We need to retreat or we’re all going to die!"

Gideon raised his arm to cover his mouth. "What is that? Is it stronger than the Devourer?"

She frowned, clearly irritated. "Of course not. Just get back here!"

Instead of listening, Gideon jumped down from the turret and landed on the sand. The smaller wolves had already disappeared, as if they had merged with the massive head.

A sword formed in his hand as he walked toward the driver’s side of the vehicle, his gaze fixed on the creature.

"You go with the others," he said calmly. "Take my residents and leave. I’ll handle the big one."