A few of my workers and friends heard the conversation and some of them decided to volunteer. I thought everyone would be in their assigned rooms by now but most of them decided to lounge around for a bit more.
"Hey, we could do it for you. It's just standing guard, right?"
"We'd be able to do it, especially if we have some of that coffee."
"Why am I hungry again?"
"Because you're a fucking glutton?"
"Shut up! What are we talking about again?"
"We're talking about guard duty, and I'll volunteer for the first shift."
"I bet you'd nod off at the first hour—"
Olivia interjected, "You have CCTVs installed all around the compound, right? Aren't those enough?"
"It's good if all you're after is to get information to review tomorrow but we'd still need people watching the cameras and the gate at all times. Well, watching the gate could be enough for tonight because if anything happens at the gate and we're all sleeping, it'd be trouble once morning comes. If one or two people are watching the gate, they could easily take care of it without waking everyone up. Also, it would be good if we have people in rotation," Oscar said as he walked up to the group having a small discussion.
I nodded as I tapped Oscar's shoulder, "That's the idea but I thought it'd be better to have a proper schedule tomorrow, so I wanted to do it alone. But since everyone's pretty enthusiastic about doing it, who wants to volunteer?"
As soon as I said that, several people raised their hands and it included Kaley, Jared, Russel, and a few of my uncles. If I put them all on watch duty, they'd only have 10-minute shifts so I decided to only pick from a few of them.
"Here's the plan: it's almost 10:00 PM so let's have 2-hour shifts until 6:00 AM. Kindly form 2 pairs and I'll accompany everyone throughout the night. I'll bring out a few more guns and I'll make more coffee to bring with us and Russel, could you grab a box of mosquito coils from the basement?"
"Why me?" Russel replied.
"Just go, want me to drag you there?" Unc Zeidrick, his dad, leaned over with an imposing aura.
"Uh, s-sure…" Russel immediately agreed and walked with little steps toward my house.
"Jeez, how long would that take? Hmm~ What if the first person to get here with a box of mosquito coils gets to pick their own gun? I wonder~" I slyly mentioned as I trailed my sentence.
"Really?" Russel's ear perked up from a few feet away.
"Oh boy," Unc Zardon chuckled.
"Smooth," Ken added.
Russel started to widen his stride but Jared suddenly sprinted past him. Now, the two were racing down to the basement and Zeus followed them with great enthusiasm as if they were playing tag. However, right when they disappeared from view, Lois came up to me with a cheeky smile and handed me a box of what I was looking for.
Turns out, Aunt Sharon asked him to grab the same item a few moments ago but he happened to hear the conversation. The winner couldn't be more obvious but it was a fun sight seeing Jared and Russel coming up from the basement with ripped clothes and torn boxes of mosquito coils that barely had any mosquito coil that was intact.
Lois greeted them with a cheeky smile, "Why did you guys take so long? I was here for a while—"
"Hey! He's not included in the race!" Russel protested.
"Yeah! I was first too!" Jared shouted as well.
"What? He said to whoever gave him the box first. So technically, I won." Lois defended himself with the same cheeky smile.
"Better luck next time guys." I started to chuckle because Lois was right, technically speaking.
The two had no choice but to give up, but they were staring at him menacingly.
However, Lois didn't give a single fuck as he skipped his foot while he followed me to my room. He picked the same gun that I took out but It had different properties like the stock having a different material and the scope having a different brand and level of magnification. He hung it proudly after attaching a sling and he started parading it around Jared and Russel to tick them off even more.
"So, who's gonna start watch duty with me and Lois?" I asked the people I picked out.
Unc Zardon raised his hand first then I handed him the rifle in my back. He asked what I would be using then but I revealed the pistols on my torso. I then told everyone to rest up and that we will call them later after the first shift has ended.
With that said, the three of us climbed to the barn's roof and made it a little comfortable by bringing a few hay bales with us so that we could lean or sit on them. After that, we placed all of the items by our feet before Unc Zardon lit up one of the mosquito coils and put it right next to us.
Lois was just playing with his gun at first but we saw him fast asleep after a few minutes.
"This kid…" Unc Zardon sighed.
"Pfft! Just let him sleep, we're still here."
The two of us were quietly staring in the distance but I noticed that Unc Zardon was in deep thought. His face was ashen and he was slightly uncomfortable but I already knew what he was thinking about so I decided to open up the subject.
"You're not gonna bring them here? It's fine with me, you know, considering what they did."
"Why? They had already made their choice. After all I've done for them..." Unc Zardon shook his head as he poured himself a cup of coffee.
"How about Kenny and Hannah though?"
"…"
"Any idea where they are? The DDR Camps?"
"No, Kenny still messages me. He said they were still staying at Mr. Chang's place and his mom's relatives were also there with them. They're fairly safe in Mr. Chang's care but I'm just worried when their supplies run low. He's not particularly generous like you."
"We could drop by there tomorrow?"
"No. They'll be safe there, for now. Sorry, I need more time to think."
Unc Zardon dropped the subject and we continued to stare into the distance. Aside from the light coming from the DDR Camp, we saw a Red Cross Helicopter landing on top of the hospital they were occupying. A few flickering lights from houses all around could still be seen and it confirmed that not everyone decided to go to the camps as recommended. Gunshots and flashes of light would come every now and then from different directions, and there were even a few near our location.
We were sitting in silence but I suddenly woke up in my bed.
I was confused for a good moment but I immediately checked my watch and it was now 7:00 AM. I headed down and I saw Unc Zardon outside, still up, chatting with Aunt Sharon and the others.
Day 2
"Morning, kid. Slept well?" Unc Zardon teased.
"Sorry, I fell asleep. How did the watch go?" I asked, embarrassed.
Unc Zardon explained, "Heh, no worries. You're really tired from yesterday so it's understandable. Also, it doesn't help if you're just staring at the distance doing nothing. When I took over your post, more than half of them also fell asleep! Trust me, I tried waking you up but you're sleeping soundly. Anyway, when I failed to wake you up, I woke Lois up so he could guard the barn momentarily while I carried you back to your house. Surprisingly enough, you also didn't wake up from that. Kaley there saw me carrying you so she decided to tuck you in. I didn't realize she was on the second shift so it all worked out perfectly."
"You still snore, did you know that?" Kaley interjected as she chuckled from the side.
I just scratched my head in embarrassment but Unc Zardon started to tease me even more, even attempting to replicate the sounds I made when I snored in my sleep.
"That doesn't sound like that at all!"
"How would you know?! You're asleep!"
A series of laughter occurred after that but Aunt Sharon interjected, "Better rest now 'Don, you're awake for the whole night. I know you could stay up for longer but you don't need to push yourself."
"Yeah, but let me grab some breakfast first. Are you guys done cooking?" Unc Zardon said as he yawned.
I suddenly yawned when I saw him yawn and now everyone suddenly yawned when they saw me yawn, even Zeus.
"That's really weird, hahaha! I'll check the ladies if they're done. Some of them volunteered to help me cook, it's nice," Aunt Sharon said before she excused herself.
After a short moment, Lois came striding in with a huge smile on his face, "Hey there, sleepy-head!"
"Same to you, you little shit! We weren't even there for 5 minutes and you were already hugging the gun like a pillow!"
"C'mon! It got really comfy lying on those hay bales!"
"Comfy, huh? Let me change your mattress to a bunch of hay bales then!"
"What?! No! The atmosphere is just great!"
"Atmosphere? You like being surrounded by goats and chickens that much?"
"What?! No— That's not what I— Fuck! Nevermind! I forgot my phone in my room…"
Everyone started laughing but we soon gathered in the pool area to eat our breakfast. We had scrambled eggs with chopped vegetables eaten over fried rice with green onions and chopped mushrooms on top of it. Coffee and hot chocolate were also served and the milk and sugar were just by the side of the thermos.
Oscar and I gave instructions to prioritize cooking the food items that would spoil much sooner. Even with the rice, we used the fanciest and most expensive ones right away because it would eventually spoil faster than the regular kind. Also with the vegetables, we prioritized using the fresh ones that Jo's family brought instead of the canned ones and the frozen kind.
We would start using some from the greenhouse if they were available to be harvested but for now, we would plan our meals accordingly.
"What's the plan today, kid?" Oscar asked while we were eating.
"Hmm? Oh, we're gonna go outside."
"But why? We're pretty much secure here. Why don't we just wait this out?" Manilyn, Jo's wife, chimed.
"Sure, but that's not advisable. We can't just wait for everything to be over, those deadheads can't just magically disappear. We need to scout outside to check which places had more supplies we could scavenge and recruit people that didn't go to the DDR Camps… Also, we need to take down anything that shouldn't be moving so everyone here would be safer."
"..."
"Yesterday night, I marked the places where the lights were turned on and off. Most of them were turned off—meaning that there's a high chance that there might not be people living inside anymore—but we still need to make sure once we start knocking. On the other hand, the places where the lights were on were fewer—if we're talking about the road to the right that would lead to the Radio Station—but again, we still need to make sure if there were people there or it's just that the people that lived there forgot to turn it off when they took off…"
I continued, "With that said, Ken flew his drone in the area and we have a total of seven houses that had their lights on. It'd be a lot of work to check each house but if we build some sort of barrier to the left side of our gate, we could secure the whole right side of the area without worrying about what's coming from behind. And by the time we're done with that, we'd have a larger place to ourselves. We would have access to more land, houses, vehicles, supplies, a scrapyard, a radio station, two basketball courts, and a few fishing areas."
Jo interjected, "Woah there, wait a minute. From here to that place? That's kinda a lot to clear, right?"
I pulled out a map from my phone, "Let me show you this map then. After we pass the last house here, it would just be a huge canal system and the road we have is a few feet higher than the water. It's a natural barrier and also a dead end so it's impossible for the infected to come from that side. If they tried, with their motor skills, they would just get washed away by the current. But yeah, I didn't say that we do it in a day. We'll slowly make our way up the canal system for a few days."
"How do we do that again?"
"As I said earlier, we need to build some sort of barrier on this side while a scouting group secures the other side, but we'd need guards stationed by the barrier so they could take care of stragglers that wandered a little too close. We'll do this for a few days until the whole right side is cleared up and we'll go from there. Let's do small things first before we do the bigger projects."
Everyone understood my intentions and they nodded a few times.
"What about the people still in their houses though? How can we be sure that they aren't up to no good?" Kaley asked.