Chapter 32
Chapter 32
Merle passes me a spiral notebook open to a list at breakfast. It's mostly addresses or shorthand notes with numbers beside some with blank rows between each listing. It starts with a number one next to the words 'base/farm'. The second on the list has 'woods/centaurs' as it's shorthand. The third says 'camp and lake'.
"I figure we aughta keep track of yer walled in land an such," Merle comments around a mouth full of biscuits and gravy.
"Looks good," I offer, reading through other things listed.
The next several don't have numbers by them. Many just have an address. I tap on the first one, throwing a questioning look at Merle.
"Thas a farm down tha road a ways," he answers, "so's tha next three. Figured you'd wanna save animals first an all."
"Definitely," I agree, turning to Danny who is distractedly eating his breakfast, "We can sent out two more groups today. Each of us take a farm and surround it with containers to keep the animals safe."
"Aughta leave a warning or put yer name or such on em so folk know they better not fuck with em," Daryl offers from where he leans against the kitchen counter, plate in hand.
"Who's going out?" Danny asks nervously.
"We will go for one," I motion to the brothers, "and I'll have Ebon and Chris organize two more groups. They agreed to be team leads, right? If we each pick a farm we can get three done today."
"We can't make gates like you," he frowns back.
"I can make gates later but the important thing is protecting as many animals as possible before the dead get to them."
Merle reaches over to point at an option near the bottom of the list, "This here is a zoo. Tha Yellow River Ranch is a sanctuary outside of tha city. I figure ain't no way tha city zoo survived but this one may be good."
"We should get it first then."
"Will you be able to handle a zoo?"
Sometimes I worry for the magicals of our group. They've seen the permanent wall I created. They've seen me tranfigure a gate and shrink hundreds of containers and yet they still give me disbelieving looks when I talk about big projects. They're not squibs but they can't be as powerful as the average wizard.
"Why don'tcha go fetch the rest of tha mutts," Merle orders Danny who pushes away from the table with an annoyed huff.
Carol stands, passing Easton to Daryl who scrambles to put down his plate and carefully cradle the tiny scrunched baby to his chest. Merle cackles at his brother who snarks back, adjusts his hold and pats the baby soothingly. Carol grins at the byplay, pulling containers of food out of the fridge and loading up the cooler that we brought back last night.
Ebon comes strolling through the back door with a bakers dozen following him. Chris is the last through the door, shutting it behind him and throwing a friendly smile towards Carol who offers a kind 'Thanks' in return. I quickly explain the plan for today. If I go for the zoo, which is the largest, and they split evenly and pick two farms, we can get it done before supper. Especially since they can take turns so no one gets exhausted.
"Don't forget to take food and drinks with you," I remind them.
"An put his name on em too," Daryl adds.
"His name?" Maddie questions.
Daryl nods, "Yeah, so folk know these ain't up fer grabs."
"Want us to put 'Property of Harry Potter' on the containers?" One of the guys asks.
Daryl shrugs, "Or 'HP safezone'."
I pass the notebook to Merle who tears out the next two pages and scribbles two addresses onto each with a snarky, "Jus in case yall manage half the work Boss man gets done, I'll give ya two farms a piece."
A few frown back at him but most don't seem to take offense to that which is good, I guess. Ebon grabs both pages, passing one to Chris while keeping the other.
"If the farms are lost or too dangerous, don't risk it," I warn them which they take as a dismissal, heading back out the back door.
I stop Ebon, calling him back. He turns with a smug smirk, stalking back around the table to lean against the wall behind me. His bare arms are crossed over a strong chest and while his shoulders are leaning against the wall, his hips are slanted forward distractingly. Merle snorts loudly, shaking his head and throwing an amused look at his brother.
I turn in my seat, meeting Ebon's eyes, "I know the full moon is coming up and I wanted to discuss the pack's plans."
Considering the confused blink he responds with, this wasn't what he thought I meant to bring up. He pushes off the wall, taking Merle's seat when he gets up to put his empty plate in the sink. Merle shoots him a glare but Ebon doesn't seem to notice it.
"The full moon is two weeks away," Ebon says, leaning his forearms on the table and leaning close as if imparting a secret.
"Yes and I would like to have everything set up ahead of time so we don't have any accidents."
"What do you want us to do?" He asks, flicking his hair back when it falls forward.
I lean back, looking away from his warm brown eyes, "I was thinking of using the leftovers from the wall I had up to wall in some of the land across the way. Give you all a place to run out your energy safely."
"We figured we'd be locked in one of the basements," he says, leaning back in the seat and letting his hands fall to his lap, "but having a place outside to run would be very nice."
"Would I need to create bars for the top or would walls be enough?"
He rubs at his beard before answering, "I doubt we would be able to jump the wall so leaving the top open won't hurt."
"Then I'll work on that when I get the time," I tell him, letting that be the end and adding it to the top of the list page since it will be a part of our main safe zone.
Merle clearing his throat is what prompts Ebon into leaving. I pass the notebook back to Merle and get ready. Asher asks to go with us but I have to tell him that it's just too dangerous to take him out there.
We pack up and head out, waving to Antonio and one of the teens from near the campgrounds who opens the gate for us. I really need to learn everyone's names. I feel like I'm failing them when I don't know who they are since I'm supposed to sorta be in charge here. Isn't the leader supposed to know everyone's names?
It's a long drive out to the wildlife ranch. We have to reroute twice due to streets being full of vehicles and its nearly noon when we find it. When we reach the parking lot for the wildlife ranch, it's full of hungry dead. There are thick plywood boards up over the entrance backed by what lookes like large dumpsters to support the wall. Amazingly, we can still hear animals within the zoo which must be what has drawn the dead in.
"Someone must be here."
"Guess others had tha right idea," Merle agrees, flicking away the nub of his cigarette as he drives the truck to circle the lot.
It distracts some of the dead but not all of them. Most still slap hungrily at the walls of the zoo. We won't be able to lead them away. Not with the animals making such a racket. But there can't be more than thirty dead. We have enough bullets if we use what I found at the cdc which I thankfully should still have in my backpack that I always keep with me on runs. I ask Merle to stop and we climb into the back of the truck for more room. Daryl takes out the two dead closest to us but the rest still don't pay us any attention. A quick 'accio' gets the bags out of my pack. Then I resize the first, opening it to show boxes of bullets. The second one is a long bag with long guns within.
"You can take them out," I offer, passing one of the long guns to Daryl, "while I work on resizing the containers to keep more out."
What follows is noisy but effective. Merle and Daryl take out the dead while I move quickly to set up the wall of containers. By the sixth container, the gunshots have stopped. Merle drives us along the road that circles half of the zoo for me to place the wall but it doesn't fully circle the zoo. When the road ends, we get out and walk. Merle and Daryl stay close, killing any dead that approach us while I hurry to finish. Where the ground is uneven or clustered with trees, I cast cutting curses or bludgeoning hexes to level the ground. Thankfully, it's only 24 acres for the zoo and while it isn't any particular shape, a rectangular wall surrounding it is a little more than a mile. It takes about three hundred containers to enclose it, along with part of a river that I tranfigure one of the containers into a grated thing so the river can continue to flow without letting dead inside. I'm sweating but not exhausted when we're done.
Daryl runs back for the truck while Merle and I sit and rest near the main gate. When he gets back to us we eat, resting in the bed of the truck. There hasn't been any movement from the zoo so if people are there they are not showing themselves yet.
I'm not sure if there are more moving dead inside the perimeter so I only vanish the plywood blocking part of the gate and replace it once were through. Merle and Daryl enter first, sweeping to either side of the door for threats. I follow behind them, keeping close. Picnic tables sit to the left while a pavilion sits to the right. The entrance has a long trail down that then spilts. To one side are large turtles. To the other is a small herd of healthy deer. We follow the central trail down past the wolf enclosure to a barn. It's there that we find the survivors. Three men and one woman, all in tan trousers and sweat stained shirts.
"Hello, friends," I offer a wave even though they are already watching us with wide startled eyes. "We are only here to help."