Apocalypse Queen: My Space, My Rules Chapter 120: The Strong Prey on the Weak

Black Bear didn't hesitate. He waved his men forward and kept the momentum going with a shout "Split everything with the bodyguards, and they get first pick of the women!"

That settled it for the two who'd been wavering. They turned on their employer without another thought and joined in the beating.

Black Bear took his first wealthy household at minimal cost. When they finished stripping the place, the haul was so good he could barely keep the grin off his face.

He was a man of his word. He stepped aside and let the three bodyguards go first with the beautiful lady of the house they'd been eyeing for so long.

He had someone film the whole thing, and made sure they also caught the moment he counted out half the haul and handed it over to the three of them.

The security captain posted the video to the neighborhood's resident group chat himself.

"Black Bear is a man of his word. Help us from the inside, and you get half of everything, plus first rights to the women. He's not playing games."

The chat erupted. Every wealthy homeowner in Elmgrove Estates suddenly looked at the men they'd hired and saw a bomb with a lit fuse.

The paranoia set in fast. Employers locked their weapons away and kept their bodyguards posted at the doors, nothing more.

At the slightest perceived threat they screamed at them, hit them, pressed gun barrels to their heads and promised a bullet if they even thought about switching sides.

The bodyguards had been sitting on a slow burn of resentment, and when the gang finally came to the door, they didn't hesitate to turn.

When Black Bear's crew finally came knocking, the bodyguards opened the doors themselves. They walked the gang through the house, beat their employers to the ground, assaulted the women of the house, and divided up everything worth taking.

Black Bear swept through Elmgrove Estates in under a week. He came away with a mountain of supplies and a significantly larger crew, his ranks swelled by the guards, bodyguards, and desperate survivors who'd joined along the way.

He settled his people into the villas and let them enjoy it. Days of eating and drinking whatever they wanted, the complex filled with the sounds of men laughing and women crying.

Any women taken went to Black Bear first. Whatever he was tired of, he passed down to his lieutenants.

Prison had given him broad tastes, and his worst habit was making couples perform together. Husband and wife, boyfriend and girlfriend, it didn't matter. He found it entertaining.

After a few days of that, the crew was ready for more. They'd gotten a taste of what the wealthy districts had to offer, and Celestine Ridge was the obvious next target. It was the most prestigious address in Liraelith by every measure.

The storms, the flooding, the power outages that had guttered the rest of the city had left it completely untouched. The lights still burned there at night like nothing had changed.

The complex had its own high-end shopping center and Greenfield Organic Farm, both closed to outsiders now but still running internally, still supplying the residents. While the rest of the city scraped for scraps, the people of Celestine Ridge were still eating well, still shopping, still living normally.

That was more than enough to make Black Bear's men hungry.

He had his gang recount the crew. Three hundred and some, it turned out. A little over a hundred of the original escapees, with the rest made up of survivors, security guards, and defected bodyguards.

Add in the firearms they'd taken from the Elmgrove Estates households, and the group was a real fighting force now.

The disaster had been nothing short of a golden age for men like him.

Black Bear let himself imagine it. Give him enough time and he could take the whole city. He could be its ruler.

But first, Celestine Ridge.

The fall of Elmgrove Estates had already sent shockwaves through the wealthier enclaves.

The lesson landed hard and fast. The real threat wasn't the gang outside the gates. It was the men inside them, the ones on the payroll, the ones who knew the layout and the codes and had every reason to flip if someone made a better offer.

The wealthy moved quickly. Security captains were replaced with people they actually trusted. Unreliable guards were let go on the spot.

Bodyguards were scrutinized and tested, and anyone who didn't pass was handed their wages and shown the door.

But the dismissed men had nowhere to go.

The flooding had barely begun to recede. Two or three stories of standing water still filled the streets, with alligators moving through it.

Everything that had been submerged was caked in foul-smelling mud, stripped of any recognizable shape.

The civil order was gone. Official channels were overwhelmed. Looting and violence were everywhere.

The wealthy and the well-connected managed to hold onto something resembling a normal life. Everyone else had been left to fend for themselves, with no protection and no recourse, at the mercy of whoever had the power to take what they wanted.