Chapter 41: 41

The food for today was then placed on the tables. For lunch we have Stuffed Bangus with Salted Eggs. The fish is stuffed with tomatoes, onions and peppers then it could be fried, baked or grilled. We ate it over rice and my aunt made iced tea.

I noticed that the fish has still bones on them so I meticulously removed each one as I always do before eating it. Kaley saw and she smiled and then she tapped on my shoulder. I looked at her while my eyebrows are raised and then she pointed at Rin.

I looked at Rin and noticed that she’s also removing the bones one by one while the rest are eating a mouthful and they would just remove the bones that they encounter by pushing it out with their tongues and getting picked by their hands.

We both smiled at each other as we continued on removing the bones. My family members just smiled at what I’m doing since they already know why, though they were surprised at Rin.

The rest who haven’t known me that long are so confused as to why I’m doing it and to why was Rin also doing it.

Charlotte has a confused look on her face and then she kept on asking Chris why but Chris doesn’t also know. They kept on squabbling but Chris gave in and asked me.

“S-Sky, Charlotte wanted me to ask you about why the two of you are eating them differently.” Chris said.

The rest with confused looks also looked towards me if I would answer or not. I said, “It’s not much of a secret, I’m kinda sure on why Rin does as well but I do it for convenience. I just don’t like the feel of the bones in my mouth so I remove them first before eating. Also, I do the same with other foods like watermelon, sunflower seeds, etc. I’d like to see them neat and ready before I start to eat them.”

“What? Really? I think our teacher once told us about that, it’s…” Chris trailed.

“OCD, one form of it.” I said.

“Yeah! That’s what she said! Did a doctor told you that you have it or did you just notice it yourself?” Chris said.

“I noticed it by myself when I was younger. Even when I walk, I would plan where I place my foot, where I’ll turn, where to stop or how fast I’ll go. Even with these guns, I’d like for them to always be in pairs, I’ll get an itch if one of them is missing. How about you Rin?” I said.

The group then turned their heads towards her.

“Umm, that sounds about right in my case too. Before I met Boss Sky, I worked in a store and I was tasked on organizing inventory in the customer help desk. Mrs. Thelma, the owner, left that post for me and she said that I was perfect for the job. Boss saw me on the store and also noticed it, he even talked to my former boss to let him take me here.” Rin said.

The group made different expressions when they heard the story. Kaley looked at me and she pointed at my wakizashi, I nodded at her look that means, ‘Same thing with that blade, right?’

“The only bad thing that comes out of it doing this is that the food gets colder, that’s why I only grabbed the fish and I will just add the rice later so it would still be hot when I eat it.” I said laughing while they continued to eat.

I finished removing the bones on my fish and then I started eating. To their surprise, I even managed to finish eating faster than them. I grabbed a cup of the iced tea in the pitcher and I drank half of it, I refilled it again and I brought an extra cup for Kaley.

“Thanks.” she said as she gave me a smile.

“How about me? Won’t you take care of an old man?” Oscar said.

I rolled my eyes and I grabbed another cup for him.

“Thanks kid!” he said while laughing heartily.

We all finally finished eating and I handed my case to Rin to be included in the inventory along with the guns in my torso.

I stretched for a moment and we headed out. Allan and Jenny are still on the catwalk because they also ate their lunch there.

I checked our loadout and I refilled the ammunition for the M9s that I gave Mark and Dong. I also gave them a belt for a holster and I handed the combat knife to Mark. On Oscar’s group, he also gave them a couple of pistols and he handed my uncle a shotgun. Each of us now are equipped with a ranged weapon and a melee weapon.

Before we left, Charlotte and Zeidrick walks up to me and said, “Hey, I’m thinking of postponing on building the fence to the other side of the wall. We’re thinking of dismantling the wooden house next to our place and filling it up with more soil so that we could have a bigger place to plant crops. We could till the soil inside and make isolated farms but if we make a small farm outside just next to our place, it would yield more crops in the long run. You guys are sweeping the area now and there will be no zombies coming from your side and on the other side since the fence there is already been built.”

I contemplated for a moment and then I agreed. “That sounds good, we could think up of other ways to build inside the compound other than more farms. We’ll discuss it in the meeting later. Do you need more people in helping you guys?” I asked.

“No, the house there is pretty small and the less people helping the better since there’s not much room inside. I think my kid and someone else could do for now. I’m going to borrow some of those big rubber boots for the water.” he said.

“Sure, we’ll be going now. Grab some of the work gloves too yeah?” I said.

He nodded and we left for the small houses in the center of those fishing areas. All places are pretty barren and nothing is there except for a few household supplies and a couple sacks of fish food. It went faster than expected so we headed to the last place of the job today, the radio station.

Big letters that spell ‘DZRH’ adorned the small building. It’s two-stories tall and there is a huge antenna on top of it. Oscar’s group guarded the entrance and then we went inside after unlocking the gate first.

“Know how to operate this thing Sky if we get this thing running?” Kaley asked.

“No, I mean not yet. I’ve stocked up on many manuals and I’m sure that I have one for this thing. It just might be as simple as flicking a switch and talking to it but we might need a real tech here for maintaining the place. I’ve been preoccupied in building the compound I’ve only done a few readings on these things. Also, we have Sat Phones so I think broadcasting on a radio will not do us much good at the moment although it’s nice to have something like this place.” I said.

Mark is the one starting the routine while I point out things that they have missed. Everyone is learning fast and we need to adapt fast in this situation. Fortunately, the place is already abandoned. There were no more vehicles in the parking area and all that’s left from the radio equipment are a few boxes of instant food, few gallons of water still in the dispensers and a few medicinal supplies in their medicine cabinets. Mark saw a fire axe next to a fire extinguisher and he contemplated on switching it with the knife.

“What do you think?” he asked me.

“Why not keep both? Just holster the gun and the knife and mainly use that one. The knife is very versatile but that fire axe is something similar to the way you use that sledgehammer, the bonus is that blood splatter can be reduced to a minimum.” I explained.

He gave a pensive expression and he followed my suggestion.

We finished early and we took two trips in hauling the essentials. The rest helped in hauling everything in the truck and when we’re done, a few also helped on dismantling the wooden shack. I showed Charlotte the list of the seeds in the inventory and she’s now planning on what to plant on that plot of land when we finish it.

A few zombies are starting to wander around the fence that we built and Jenny quickly dispatched some of them while Allan carried the bodies to the place where we usually burn them. There’s now a basket near the gate that we call the ‘Random Trinket Bag’ where we place items that we found on the dead in there. Now, there’s a few watches, jewelry, wallets, cash, knives, cigarettes, bags and footwear. No one seems interested at first but I left it there because I knew we would find a use for those someday.

I looked at my watch and it’s a few minutes short of an hour before the broadcast. I called over Mark, Dong, Nicole and Alicia. They wondered why I called them but when they saw what I was carrying they understood.

I was planning to teach them a few hours’ worth about properly using guns.

“Hey! Can you take me too?” Allan chimed.