Chapter 16: 16
“Hey, we could do it for you. It’s just standing guard, right?” Dong said. A few of my workers and friends also stepped up to volunteer.
“Isn’t the CCTV enough for that though?” Olivia asked a few people nodded in agreement.
“It’s good but it would be useless if anything happens at the gate and we’re all sleeping in the house. It would be good to have a few people in rotation.” Oscar said.
“I want to make you guys do this tomorrow so we have a proper schedule but let’s start now since all of you are enthusiastic, who wants to volunteer for watch duty?” I said.
Zardon, Zeidrick, Mark, Malong, Dong, Jo, Conrad, Nicole, Arnel, Ken, Russel, Jared and Kaley raised their hands.
“Here’s the plan, it’s almost 10:00 PM, let’s have 2-hour shifts until 6:00 AM 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. Russel, grab a box of mosquito coils from the bas.e.m.e.nt yeah?” I said.
“Why me?” he said.
“Just go, want me to drag you there?” Zeidrick, his dad leaned over.
“Uh, sure…” Russel walked toward the bas.e.m.e.nt.
“I’ll let someone pick their own gun on watch duty to whoever gets it here first…” I slyly mentioned.
“Really?” Russel’s ear perked up.
“Oh boy.” Zardon said.
“Smooth.” Ken said.
As Russel was about to turn around, Jared sprinted past him and now the two are racing down my house as Zeus followed them. As they disappear from view, Lois comes up to me and hands me a box of mosquito coils. His dad raised his eyebrow as he chuckled. Everyone laughed when the two came back and saw Lois, they both gave looks of disdain. Turns out his mom asked for a box and he overheard the conversation.
“Hey! He’s not included in the race!” Russel protested.
“Yeah! And I was first too!” Jared argued.
“Sky said to whoever gave him the box first, so technically I win.” Lois defended himself.
“Better luck next time guys.” I said to the two while they are still glaring at Lois.
Lois skipped his foot while he followed me to my room, he picked an M70 the same as Kaley’s rifle, though it has a different colored stock and the scopes are different. He hung it proudly around the two as we walked back and he started parading it.
“So, who’s gonna start watch duty with me and Lois?” I told everyone present.
My uncle Zardon raised his hand then I handed him the rifle in my back. He asked what I would be using then but I showed the pistols in my torso and I pointed to the binoculars at my neck. I then told everyone to rest up and we will call them later after the shift ends.
We climbed the roof of the barn and we sat down and started to glance around. Lois was playing with the gun but he fell asleep after a few minutes.
“This kid…” my uncle sighed.
“Pfft! Just let him sleep we’re still here.” I said.
My uncle was about to wake him up but he decided to light the mosquito coil and placed it near us. He seems deep in contemplation so I talked to him.
“You’re not gonna get them here? It’s fine with me you know. Considering what they did.” I said.
“Why? They made their choice; they don’t even give a f.u.c.k about me anymore after all I’ve done for them.” He said as he sips his coffee.
“How about Kenny though? And Hannah?” I replied.
“…” he keeps quiet.
“Any idea where they are? The DDR camps?” I said.
“No, Kenny still messages me. The kid said they went to Mr. Chang’s place. He said he’s uncle is also with them with his family. I think they could hole up there for a time.” He said.
“We could drop by there tomorrow. I’ll come with.” I said.
“No, they’ll be safe there for now. I need more time to think.” He said as he pours himself another cup.
He drops the subject as we continued to stare into the distance. Aside from the light coming from the DDR camp, it appears that they also occupied the hospital behind it as we saw a Red Cross Helicopter land on top of it. A few lights from other houses can still be seen everywhere though a few flashes of lights from muzzle flashes would appear here and there.
We were sitting in silence as I suddenly woke up from my bed. I checked my watch it says 7:00 AM. I immediately headed down as I saw uncle outside still up, chatting with my aunt and the others.
Day 2
“Morning kid, slept well?” he teased.
“Sorry I fell asleep. How did the watch go?” I said.
“No worries kid, don’t sweat it. You’re really tired from yesterday. I took over your post for a while, some fell asleep too. I carried you down and brought you up to your room. Kaley there tucked you in as she went outside her room for the second shift.” He said.
“You still snore, did you know? Hahaha!” Kaley said.
“Better rest now ‘Don, you’re awake for the whole night.” My aunt said.
“Yeah, let me grab some breakfast first. You guys done yet?” he said as he yawned.
I also yawned as I saw him yawn, now everyone made a yawn when they saw me, 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.” My aunt said as she left for her house.
“Hey there sleepy-head.” Lois said. He started walking towards the tables and he looked at me. Everyone laughed at his remark.
“Same to you man, we weren’t even there for 5 minutes and you were already hugging the gun like a pillow.” I rebutted.
Everybody laughed at the banter and soon, everyone was now at the tables in the swimming pool having our breakfast. Today they cooked rice with vegetables paired with scrambled eggs.
Oscar instructed my aunt to prioritize on cooking the food items that will spoil much sooner. Even the rice we used, we used the fanciest ones right away because since it’s so soft when you cook them, after a while, the grains would start to darken and it would eventually spoil faster than the other kind. Even with the vegetables, we prioritized on using the fresh ones that Jo’s family brought instead of the canned ones and the frozen ones. We’ll start using some at the greenhouse if they are available to be harvested.
“What’s the plan today kid?” Oscar asked while we’re eating.
“We’re gonna go outside.” I said as I took a spoonful of rice.
“But why? We’re pretty much secure here, why don’t we just wait this out?” someone in the group stated.
“We need to scout outside. Yesterday night, I marked a few places where there were no lights turned on. A few people are still in their houses, but on the road here on the right, going to the DZRH radio station, most the lights are turned off aside from the few big houses.”
“Ken here flew his drone at the area and there are seven houses there who only had their lights on, though were not entirely sure if there are more people. Some of the residents that are actually squatting in the area left and probably headed to the DDR camps yesterday though I still saw a lot of them not leaving.”
“If we could secure this part of our gate and build some sort of a fence to the left side, we could have a big part of this street to reclaim if we start on clearing the right side after that. We then would have access to more land, houses, vehicles, supplies, the radio station, two basketball courts and fishing areas.”
“Woah there, wait a minute, that is a big area. From here to that place? Can we even secure the place? And could even our numbers could do that?” someone said.
“If you check the end of the map here, 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 waters, so it’s a natural dead end and it’s impossible for the infected to come from that side. Even if they did, they would first get washed away. I didn’t say that we do it in a day, I did say we’re just going to scout the area for now.” I replied.
“To secure that place, we need to have a few people guarding this side of the gate at all times. We eliminate the infected that comes from the left side and we build a small barricade for it for now. That’s when we start to sweep the area on the right or we do it a bit for now as they start to build the barricade.” I added.
Everyone slowly understood my intentions as they nodded a few times.
“How about the people still in their houses?” Kaley asked.