Chapter 128: 128
“About that… the 3rd road is clear but we found something on the wooden houses on the bridges.” He said while he’s scratching his head.
“That’s good then. What’s the problem on the wooden houses?” I asked.
“Yeah. Not on the houses, the problem is that there’s a lot of them below. The place under the houses is filled with garbage and all of them remaining fell on it. We could see a few hands sticking out of the garbage while a few walks around.” He reported.
“Now that is a problem.” Oscar said.
“We’re gonna need a dump truck and a back hoe. It’s gonna be a problem if it started raining heavily. It’s still a silver lining since we could save up a lot of our ammo since they’re stationary and could be reached by other means. The garbage they dump under their houses is a problem before and we’re the ones to clean them. If any of the residents came back, I’ll be smacking their heads hard if they try to do that stuff again.” I said while I rubbed my glabella.
“I think a back hoe can’t get to those houses. We had to walk inside the alleys to get to the wooden houses atop the poles that Jay mentioned. There’s a lot of squatter houses just built randomly on the way there.” Bing chimed.
“I know, we disassemble the houses like what we did near the covered court. Once we’re done with that, we get a back hoe and take care of it. It would take a few days but it would be worth it in the future. The causes of the floods here is because the dump there clogs the creek leading to the 1st road onward.” I explained.
“Oh, I see. How about the dead below?” Bing replied after nodding pensively.
“What we’re going to do is kill everything that moves in that dump by other weapons. We could use the harpoon guns and the crossbows and bows I have on the armory. We’ll attach those to a string so we could pull the arrows and bolts back if we shoot them towards them.” I said.
“I could make long pointed poles where we could poke some of them from a distance and pick up some garbage as well using those. I finished the barn with the guys and I helped Anthony with the smelter. It could definitely melt a lot of stuff and it’s fun to look at. I could make a simple spear from the scrap metal though it wouldn’t look as good. Maybe a simple long wooden pole could do the trick.” Zeidrick chimed.
“Right. That’s good too, long poles will work just as fine. Just be careful on stabbing them from a distance in case they managed to grab ahold of the poles. They’re still strong and might pull you down.” I replied.
“I could lube them up maybe?” he asked.
“What’s lube?” Kenny interjected.
“Not important *snort* Anyway, we could also start on dismantling the houses first but it would take a fair amount of time.” Zeidrick said.
“That’s okay. We’re not in a rush.” I said.
“Will it be bad if their blood dumps on the water?” Russel asked.
“Not exactly, the water there is connected to a creek towards the 1st road. If we clear the garbage there, the water would start to flow and bring the other muck with it to the sewers. Besides, they’re already in there. We can’t do anything about it. We just don’t get our drinking water from that place.” I explained.
“Where are we gonna get those two vehicles then?” Johnny asked.
“There is a small construction company a few blocks after the DDR camp near a high-end preschool. The priority is the back hoe not the dump truck. There are several dump trucks at the old city hall but we could use a truck from the construction company as well which is a few times better and larger.” I said.
“Anything else?” I asked.
“Umm, can I borrow your bench grinder?” Anthony said.
“Sure, why?” I asked.
“There are different scrap metal on the yard and I can’t Identify all of them by eye. I might need to do a spark test for each of them.” he replied.
“What’s that?” Zeidrick asked curiously.
“Unc really likes to learn new stuff.” I said to myself.
“Oh! It’s a method to learn or to determine what type or a classification of a material is. An inexpensive way to check scrap metal.” Anthony replied.
“Oh~ It could check anything just by the sparks?” he asked.
“Not exactly, just a general idea of what it might be. We need to perform a chemical analysis of it to be 100% sure.” Anthony replied.
“That’s cool. Teach me later!” he replied.
“Sure.” Anthony replied.
“You don’t have to.” I said, smiling.
“What? Why?” they were confused.
“I have a handheld XRF Analyzer.” I said with a grin.
“What?! Those things are expensive!” Anthony exclaimed.
“I’m rich.” I replied.
“Show off.” Kaley was shaking her head.
“Hold on, what is that now?” my uncle is curious.
“That thing is much better than the grinder. Just point it to the material you’d like to be identified and it identifies it after a few moments. It’s faster and it won’t remove part of the metal when we grind them.” Anthony explained.
“That’s cool but teach me the spark test later!” my uncle said as Anthony nodded.
“Okay then. Rap, the SUV?” I asked.
“I still need more time with the SUV, maybe a few more days and it will work perfectly. Tell me, what other tools do you have in stock?!” Raphael replied.
“Everything is in the workshop. They were all just stacked nicely so you might have missed some of them. I just don’t have those huge powertools though I know a few places here that are close where we could procure them.” I said.
We discussed a few more items and we started on our run yesterday.
“Okay, now that you have reported yours, we’ll report our part as well.” I started.
“We went to three places in the afternoon yesterday. Mainly the fire station, PLV and the police academy. We found several items that we are using now and even the records for the school and the academy so we could match the records there with the drive from the camp. We could start Project Fishing though I’d like to visit a few more people that I know.” I said.
“Anyway, before I continue, can someone guide the kids outside or to another room first?” I said as Hannah and Alicia stood up and guided them towards the catwalk.
“We encountered people in the academy. I’m not sure if the others told you yet but we took care of them.” I said.
“W-wait… you guys killed people?” Jay said.
“Bad people.” Oscar chimed.
I told them the story of what we did in the 3rd floor of the academy and they have a mix of expressions. The people I’m with at that time seemed to have coped with it well since they have time to digest the information.
“Wait, does that mean that there are more of them?” Johnny said.
“We should be careful when we go out then!” Bing said.
“Not exactly.” I replied.
“Tell us what happened when you went out without me. You should’ve told me at least when you’re taking my daughter.” Matthew chimed with a cold tone.
“Sure. The plan first was just me and Oscar going there first. Kaley, Jared and Tatiana decided to go with us as well. What happened there was…” I then told them the story but I paused when it’s about the victims inside. I looked at the people I came with and initially, I thought I would keep it a secret from them for now but Oscar chimed.
“I think we should tell them everything kid.” He said.
“It’s your decision bro.” Jared said.
“It’s fine with me even if you don’t tell them. Some of them might not take it as well as we do.” Tatiana said.
“I’ll trust on what you think is best.” Kaley said.
I thought for a while before I came to a decision.
“What I’m gonna say next is something you may not want to hear or also something you may not need to hear but for the sake of transparency, I’ll tell it to the people who’d stay here. I’ll give you a few moments to leave this area if you think what we did earlier is already too much for you. Not everyone could handle what I’m about to say next.” I said as I took a solemn look at everyone.
“But if it was you, what would you decide on?” Marisha asked.
“I’d hear it all. I’d like to know that’s happening around me even if I’m inside these walls. I could take it no problem. I’m just worried about the others.” I said honestly.
As expected, a few of them stood up though most of them are the elderly.
I cleared my throat and started to tell everyone each detail I’ve set my eyes on. After I’m done, there was a huge mix of expressions in front of me.
“Well this is reality. Not everyone can just adjust on the same speed as the others though I hope they could do it faster.” I said to myself.