Chapter 21: 21

I looked back to see who’s calling for me and it was Ken speeding up towards the catwalk.

Ken’s wheelchair now has been modified by Oscar and Zardon. They successfully managed to place the electrical parts to Ken’s wheelchair. Although a few wires are sticking out, it could be said to be a job well done. The controls are on his right-hand side because he’s left-handed and he asked it to be placed there since he wants to hold a gun with his dominant arm.

Rin told me Derek’s family are resting in their rooms for the moment and she also told me my aunt is preparing lunch. The supplies we got from their house is also placed in the storage area and the perishables are to be used as much as possible or stored in a cool area. I talked to the four I was with today and Kaley is the one visibly shaken on the encounter. Her eyes are still red when Olivia came to her and the sisters are up on their room.

I went up and saw Olivia trying to comfort her while Zeus is sitting next to her leg.

“Hey.” I said after I made a few knocks on the open door.

“Olivia, can you let us talk for a minute?” I said. Olivia nodded as she took Zeus with her.

I entered their room and I closed the door. She lets out a few tears as she sniffles. She wipes her eyes and her nose with a towel as I sit in front of her. We both looked down on the mattress and we shared a moment of silence.

“Hey, umm, I came here thinking of cheering you up by saying something but this time I really don’t know what to say. All I can do for you now is share this moment with you by being here and listening to what you might want to say.” I say as I look at her.

She looks at me and she pats the place next to her with her hands, motioning me to sit next to her. I obliged then we laid our backs to the wall behind us. I sat a few inches away from her but she leaned over to me. She rested her head on my shoulder and I did the same thing and I rested my head on her as well. We just sat there in silence next to each other as we hear Olivia knocking softly on the door.

“Hey guys, Aya came and said that aunt Sharon is calling us, they said we need to eat. Everybody is below at the pool area.” she said.

“Woof!” Zeus also called.

I raised my head to look at her and we went down the stairs as Kaley left her rifle on their bed. Kaley seems to have cheered up a bit despite what happened earlier. Derek’s Family also went down from their room and was welcomed by everybody. They still have this look on their face but they seem to be coping well. Jo’s family was also there and my aunt said that they’ll be fine, Manilyn seems to be smiling and talking to others.

We had lunch and what they cooked today was called ‘Pansit’ it’s a combination of different noodles mixed together with vegetables and meat where it was stir fried in soy sauce and other ingredients. While we eat, I also saw Kaley look for the cat that she brought in earlier to be fed, he was named ‘Rio’ by the group because we never saw a tag anywhere. Derek also introduced his kids Demi and Jun as they were approached by Aya and the other kids.

We talked a lot while were eating though we agreed to not mention the incident earlier in the meeting later.

Derek mentioned that he used to work with animals and has experience tending to them so I showed him inside the barn where you could see a lot of chickens and a few goats roaming around. He pulled his sleeves up and tended to them after we ate while her wife helped with the household work. They let their kids do other chores to be done around the compound.

“Don’t they need to rest after what happened?” Mark said.

“I told them to rest earlier but they insisted so they would have something to occupy their mind.” I replied.

Mark nodded as I gathered the team again. We went for the other gate this time with the most houses. Aside from finding out that no one was there and everything is accounted for, we found a small cage of rabbits hopping around from one of the houses. Kaley’s eyes lit up when she saw them. She looked at me with pleading eyes as the group laughed at me at being in such a precarious situation.

“Can we take them? We’ll take them, right?” she asked.

“Of course, we will.” I said.

“Are you asking or saying?” I said to myself.

“Really? Can we take them all?” she asked again.

“Yes, we’ll put them in the 2nd floor of the barn.” I said.

“Yes! Wait, why the barn though?” she asked again.

“We’ll eat them.” I said with a straight look in my face.

The look of shock, anger and despair she gave me when I said that was definitely memorable.

“Rabbits are a good source of protein; they can be easily cared for and they reproduce fast and-” I was cut off by Kaley with a pleading look.

“B-but! They look so cute! How can you eat that?” she protested.

“Is that a rhetorical question or are you looking for a recipe? I know tons.” I said again with a straight look in my face.

“No~!” she exclaimed.

A few laughs from the guys and after a few rounds of debating, we agreed that she could keep one that she named ‘Bugs’ and I told her not to name the other ones because it will be harder to let go when we start to eat them.

I marked each door appropriately then we headed to the four houses at the end of the gravel road. The houses are atop wooden poles stuck on the ground where the fishing area starts. There are a few wooden boats that could be driven by oars and there are also a few cages on the ground that is meant for roosters.

“The houses are built fine but I’m worried about these wooden poles submerged in the water. Give this time and it would start to rot and eventually collapse.” I said to myself.

I let them scout the houses as I stand guard outside. They quickly learned the procedures and though there is some corrections for the markings, everything was running smoothly. The trip to the small scrapyard was even more easy, after unlocking the gate, aside from all the different metal parts lying around, nothing seems to be out of place. The shack inside has a few scales for weighing the materials and a few logbooks for each shipment. We marked the gates as we lock them with our own locks and we went back to the compound to grab a few pushcarts that we also got from Puregold.

We first went back to the furthest house as we started to scavenge the place, Zardon followed us with the truck so we can grab more things for the compound. Jared stood guard with my uncle outside as we four started to rummage around.

“This is kinda exciting.” Kaley said.

Dong and Mark also smiled as they took item from item.

“Grab the essentials first, okay?” I reminded them. I first took the food and water available from each house. After that I checked the cupboards and the cabinets for any type of medicine. I also unhooked the gas tanks from their stoves and I took a few clothes and household supplies. We also took the roosters and some feed that is left outside their houses. We packed everything on the truck as I take a look at everything.

We managed to collect 37 cans of assorted food products ranging from sardines, corned beef, tuna, peas and corn. We haven’t found much water because only one of the houses drink mineral water, we only got two gallons. That’s understandable since most folks here get their waters from the tap which came from the dams. We didn’t find any medicine. On the gas tanks we found 8 in total since most families would always keep a backup and four of those are actually full. I took a few articles of clothing mainly socks and shirts and Kaley found a few that could fit her and her sister since they’ve only brought a few weeks’ worth of clothes. The roosters are five in total so we could bring them back for the other chickens to breed. There was a total of 10 sacks of feed for the chickens so that’s a plus. We folded their cages and we placed them on those cartons with holes so we could transport them easily.