TWD: Saving Merle First - Chapter 54: Successfully Clearing Out the Supermarket Warehouse (Patreon)

By noon, the entire camp was awake.

Under Hershel's decidedly unfriendly stare, Wade managed to "borrow" Otis, Jimmy, and Maggie.

The old man stood in front of the house with a dark expression, his eyes shifting several times before he finally nodded in silence.

It wasn't that he thought there was anything particularly wrong with Wade.

It was simply that no father was going to look kindly on some punk making moves on his precious daughter.

Once everyone was gathered, Wade began explaining the plan.

"Daryl and I will go in first and clear out every walker around the warehouse.

"At the same time, Shane, Glenn, and Andrew, you three will set up the noise generators. Make sure you set the timers properly. Don't screw it up and end up surrounded by a horde yourselves.

"Once the noise generators go off and draw all the walkers away, everyone else drives in and enters the warehouse. The women pack the supplies, the men haul them, and Rick oversees everything."

Merle stood off to the side, exhaling a cloud of smoke as he shook his head.

He didn't insist on joining the front line this time. He knew his own condition better than anyone.

Manual labor was fine. Shooting a gun wasn't a problem either.

But if he tried using a knife or club to quietly clear walkers at close range, that was another matter entirely.

One mistake and he really could get himself killed.

Merle was reckless, not stupid.

Once everything was settled, the whole group set out for the supermarket warehouse.

After using the walkie-talkie to confirm everyone's position and status, Wade and Daryl got out of the vehicle and began clearing the walkers around the warehouse.

Yesterday's commotion had drawn nearly half the walkers in town toward this area. At the time, the streets had been packed with them, which was why Wade's group had immediately retreated.

After an entire night without finding whatever had caused the noise, the walkers had gradually scattered and gone back to wandering.

That meant there weren't many left around the warehouse.

At a glance, there were only twenty or thirty.

Before, that would've counted as a small horde.

Now?

It was barely worth mentioning.

With enough distance between them, Wade was practically a walking cheat code. His bow moved in a blur, arrows streaking through the air like meteors as walker after walker dropped.

By the time he finished, he wasn't even breathing hard.

Daryl silently went forward to retrieve the arrows while Wade picked up the walkie-talkie and called the others in. At the same time, he urged Shane's team to finish what they were doing as quickly as possible.

Plans never survived contact with reality.

The moment the first gunshot had gone off on Shane's side, walkers had already started gathering toward the sound.

Shane cursed under his breath while lugging the ridiculously heavy devices around.

He found a low rooftop, placed one there, and set it to activate in twenty minutes.

Then he found a large balcony on the fourth floor of another building and placed the second one there.

As for the last device, the agile Glenn stuffed it into a backpack and hung it from a tree.

Shane checked the time on his watch, raised the walkie-talkie, and called out, "Wade! We're done over here. All three things should go off in about three minutes!"

"Copy that, Shane. Bring everyone over and meet up with us as soon as possible. Stay safe."

"Okay, we're already moving!"

Shane responded and led his group away.

Meanwhile, Rick had already entered the warehouse under Merle's lead.

The moment everyone saw the mountains of supplies stacked inside, they fell silent in shock.

"Wow... no wonder you guys kept saying one haul could give us years' worth of food."

"How long would all this even last? Five years? Eight?"

"Probably not that long. I'm guessing we'll keep taking in more people later," Rick said with his hands on his hips.

Then he turned toward the others, who were still staring at the supplies, and clapped his hands.

"Alright, everyone. We can talk about that later. Right now, let's focus on getting all of this home."

Under Rick's direction, everyone began packing the supplies by category and prioritizing what needed to be moved first.

Food naturally came before everything else.

Especially food with shelf lives measured in years. Calling it an emergency reserve wouldn't have been an exaggeration.

Wade and Daryl made a quick sweep of the surrounding area.

After confirming that they'd cleared all the nearby walkers, they returned to the warehouse and joined the exhausting work of hauling supplies.

Outside the entrance, Dale once again stood guard.

The same familiar sight.

One man, one gun, one old-timer.

Inside, everyone worked in increasingly grim silence.

At first, faced with mountains of supplies, they'd talked excitedly and chatted nonstop.

But as their strength gradually drained away, the chatter disappeared.

Eventually, no one had the energy left to say much of anything.

The convoy made three full round trips.

It wasn't until late afternoon, with the sun already close to setting, that they finally completed the fourth and last trip.

Only then did Wade call it and lead everyone back home.

Back at the farm, Hershel, Beth, and Patricia had been doing their best to organize everything as it arrived, dividing the supplies into separate areas.

Anything with a long shelf life was separated from food that would expire sooner, with labels added so the shorter-lasting supplies could be used first.

Food that was more vulnerable to moisture and spoilage was stored on the second floor of the barn, with dry hay spread beneath it to help reduce dampness.

Vacuum-sealed and tightly packaged goods were kept downstairs, also resting on hay to protect them from moisture.

As for the children...

Prince Carl had sacrificed far too much.

He'd spent the entire afternoon entertaining two younger girls all by himself.

By the end of it, the poor kid had already reached the point where he didn't even feel like talking anymore.

The sun gradually sank toward the western horizon, staining the sky blood-red.

Wade and the others returned to camp beneath the fading light of sunset.

After getting out of the vehicles, they still had to haul all the supplies into the barn and sort everything into the proper areas.

By the time they finished, even a physical monster like Wade had started feeling genuinely exhausted.

As for everyone else...

Even Otis and T-Dog were panting heavily and showing clear signs of wanting to go on strike.

That alone said plenty about how brutal the workload had been.

After sending everyone else off to rest and prepare dinner, Wade dropped down beside the campfire and started gulping down water mixed with salt and sugar.

It wasn't particularly refreshing, but it helped restore what he'd burned through faster than plain water.

Merle didn't use alcohol to take the edge off today.

He simply sat on the ground smoking in silence, his eyes somehow both clear and unfocused at the same time.

"Holy shit... Tomorrow... no. Forget tomorrow. I'm never joining one of these damn operations again. I'm fucking exhausted..."

Wade grinned and handed him the canteen.

"Yeah. We'll rest tomorrow. Day after tomorrow, we'll do something else."

The men around camp immediately breathed sighs of relief.

Then, almost just as quickly, they tensed up again.

"What the hell are you planning now? Bro, even a damn workhorse needs a break."

"You are getting a break. Besides, we're not workhorses. We're survivors trying to stay alive in the apocalypse."

Wade shrugged and smiled.

"Look at what we've got now. Our supplies are piled up like mountains. Even the barn is packed with food. We could probably eat comfortably for three to five years.

"But if we don't build proper defenses and a bunch of walkers or some hostile group sets their sights on us, are you really willing to hand over everything we just worked our asses off to collect?"

Everyone sitting around him froze at almost the exact same time.

Then, one by one, their eyes turned toward Wade.

So this was an "open strategy"—no tricks, just a move they couldn't refuse.

Terrifying...