TWD: Saving Merle First - Chapter 49: The Growth Initiative (Patreon)

By the time Wade and the others returned to camp with their vehicles loaded to the brim, Rick was helping Jim and Andrew drive wooden posts into the ground. From the looks of it, they were setting up a place to hang clothes out to dry.

As soon as the vehicles rolled into camp, Rick paused and turned toward the people climbing out.

The first thing he noticed wasn't the dirt covering them. It was the blood on their clothes and the bullet holes punched through one of the vehicle doors.

Rick hurried over and looked them over carefully. Only after making sure no one was injured did he ask, "Run into trouble?"

Shane nodded. "Ran into a group of roaming thugs. Nothing we couldn't handle, though. We took care of them."

"Nobody got hurt?"

Shane shook his head, looking surprisingly relaxed. "Nope."

Rick's deep blue eyes lingered on his old partner.

Something about Shane seemed different after this trip. Yes, that brooding, violent edge around him seemed to have faded somewhat.

"Good." Rick smiled and patted him on the shoulder.

Shane returned the smile, but his eyes drifted involuntarily toward Lori and Carl in the distance.

Wade opened the door and climbed out. As if something had just occurred to him, he called out, "Andrew, figure out a way to make a few noise generators. Preferably something we can set on a timer. They need to be loud enough to attract walkers."

Andrew frowned slightly in thought, then nodded. "No problem. I can pull a few horns out of some cars. That should do it."

"When can you have them ready?"

"Tomorrow morning."

Wade nodded. "Alright. Sorry to make you work late."

Andrew waved him off with a good-natured smile. "It's nothing."

Shane spoke up. "You planning to go back tomorrow and finish hauling everything out?"

Wade nodded. "It isn't ours until we've actually brought it home. Anything still sitting there can be taken from us."

Rick paused for a moment, then nodded. "You've got a point, buddy."

Merle and Daryl headed toward the tents together to change before coming back out. Merle especially needed it. He still had quite a bit of blood on him.

Marcus had some too, though not nearly as much. Most of his was just blood spatter.

"Alright, quit standing around and give me a hand. Let's get all this stuff unloaded."

Standing beside the vehicles, Wade hooked a thumb toward the pickups packed with supplies behind him.

Rick raised an eyebrow. "Where are you planning to put all of this? If we use tents, we'd need at least five or seven of them just for storage."

Wade grinned and pointed toward Hershel's barn. "Maybe our friendly neighbor can help us out."

Rick followed his finger toward the barn, and his eyes lit up.

"Alright. You go convince our friendly neighbor, and I'll get some people together to clean the barn out."

"Okay."

Wade smiled and headed toward Hershel's house.

As for how Rick would organize everything, Wade wasn't worried in the slightest.

Just as he trusted Daryl to roam through the woods and hunt on his own, he also trusted Rick when it came to organizing people and assigning jobs around camp.

After a brief conversation with Hershel, the old man weighed the situation for a while before eventually agreeing.

"Wade, there's one more thing. The wheat will be ready to harvest in two months at most," Hershel said with a raised brow and a faint smile.

"I know. I've had that in my plans for a while now."

Seeing that Wade had already thought it through, Hershel didn't press the issue.

Wade brought up something else instead.

"I was thinking about having an icebreaker tonight. Over at our camp. What do you think?"

Hershel looked Wade in the eyes, a hint of surprise flashing across his face before he nodded.

"That's fine. We'll be there on time."

"Then how about lending me two people? I need Otis and Jimmy. We should get some fresh meat ready."

"I'll let them know," Hershel replied, neither agreeing outright nor refusing.

Wade wasn't surprised.

He smiled, nodded, said goodbye to Hershel, and returned to camp.

After giving Rick a few more instructions, Wade went to find Daryl. They spoke briefly, and after Wade reminded him to be careful, Daryl took Otis and Jimmy into the woods.

Wade stood in the middle of camp with his hands on his hips, sunlight warming him as a light breeze brushed past his shoulders.

For some reason, it felt as though everything was slowly getting better.

But Wade knew it wasn't enough.

Not even close.

The farm's defenses might be able to withstand a small group of walkers now, but if more than three hundred came at once, those defenses would be little better than paper.

The camp didn't have enough firepower either, and they didn't have enough proper fighters.

The only people who could really carry the load when things got dangerous were the three strongest fighters on his side and Shane.

Maybe it was time to start accelerating the growth of the other camp members.

Glenn had already proven himself. His temperament was solid. All he needed was some proper training and experience before he'd be ready for real combat.

T-Dog and Jim could be trained too.

Wade wasn't asking for much. At the very least, they needed to be able to pick up a gun and shoot when it mattered.

As Wade considered the possibilities, his eyes unconsciously drifted toward Carol.

This seemingly frail woman who spent so much of her time crying had terrifyingly sharp combat instincts.

Put it this way.

If Carol's individual combat ability was an A, then her combat awareness and battlefield instincts were easily S+.

As for when she'd finally awaken that side of herself...

With Sophia still alive, even Wade couldn't say.

While Wade was thinking, the cheerful laughter of children caught his attention.

Carl, Sophia, and Cathy were sitting together on the grass, the three little kids whispering about something and occasionally breaking into happy laughter.

The longer Wade watched them, the more the corners of his mouth rose.

He'd almost forgotten.

There was also a young prince here with S-level growth potential who hadn't seen blood yet.

Maybe he could include Carl in the accelerated growth plan too...

"Bro, that smile of yours is looking pretty damn creepy. You look like some creep getting ready to kidnap a bunch of kids..."

At some point, Merle had wandered over and stopped beside Wade, grinning as he teased him.

Three imaginary black lines appeared across Wade's forehead.

He took a deep breath.

Forget it.

There was no point trying to explain a plan to an idiot like this.

As for who should be the instructor...

Was there anyone more suitable than Shane?