TWD: Saving Merle First - Chapter 56: The First Watchtower Is Complete (Patreon)

The next day.

After breakfast, the group headed to the western side of the farm and started figuring out how to build a watchtower.

The good news was that everyone had a basic idea of what one should look like. Four upright posts, crossbeams and diagonal braces between them for support, then a small one-square-meter shelter on top with a waterproof roof.

The problem was that no one had a clue about the proper spacing, angles, or actual construction process.

Wade stood there thinking for a moment before smacking himself on the forehead.

To hell with it. They could just start building. If it didn't work, they'd tear it down and try again. They had plenty of time and enough supplies to afford a few mistakes.

With that decided, Wade sent Merle and a few others into town to bring back another load of hardware and construction supplies for the camp. Everyone else stayed behind to start experimenting with the build.

They first dug four foundation holes half a meter deep. Into each one went an oak log more than twenty centimeters thick and five meters long, with the bottom end charred beforehand. They packed crushed stone around the logs, then prepared to tamp the soil down firmly.

But the moment Wade explained the plan, Hershel questioned it.

"Wouldn't the cement we have here be stronger than packed dirt? Once you pour it in and let it set, you won't have to worry nearly as much about the tower leaning or collapsing."

Only then did Wade realize the obvious.

He smacked his forehead again and immediately launched into a round of shameless praise, flattering Hershel so thoroughly that the old man's grin nearly reached his ears.

"Such a suck-up~"

"Pathetic~"

"Brown-noser~"

Wade turned around and rolled his eyes.

"There's no explaining this stuff to guys without girlfriends."

Everyone burst out laughing.

Once the cement and gravel had been mixed properly, they poured it into the foundations, occasionally stirring it with lengths of rebar to make sure the mixture settled tightly and left as few air pockets as possible.

With the main support posts secured, they added horizontal and diagonal crossbeams, forming triangles wherever they could to make the structure more stable.

Next, they laid logs across the top to form the floor and began building the shelter above it.

That turned out to be the most tedious part.

They didn't have a sawmill, which meant they had no proper wooden planks to work with. Instead, they had to lay smaller logs one by one and nail every single one into place.

As Wade kept swinging his hammer, his thoughts somehow drifted to Tyreese.

That man had once fought his way straight through a crowd of walkers with nothing but a hammer, only to eventually die from blood loss.

His sister Sasha was a pretty damn good shot too, if Wade remembered correctly. She was no slouch in a fight either.

He wondered where the siblings were now...

Just thinking about it gave him a headache.

Recruiting more people really was becoming a serious problem.

If they accepted just anyone, they risked letting traitors or rotten apples into the group. But refusing to recruit anyone wasn't an option either.

For one thing, all the wheat fields around the countryside would eventually need harvesting.

Wade had been eyeing that grain supply for a long time.

Harvesting even the current crop would give them enough food to support a group numbering in the thousands.

Why else would he have chosen a farm like this and poured so much time, manpower, and resources into developing it?

It wasn't as if he had nothing better to do.

When it came to basic defensive infrastructure, this place couldn't even compare to a prison.

The sound of hammering continued throughout the afternoon as log after log was fastened securely into place.

Finally, they stretched waterproof tarp across the roof.

Their first watchtower was completed just as the sun began to set.

Wade climbed back down, grabbed one of the support posts, and shook it hard.

It didn't budge.

Only then did he nod in satisfaction.

They would still have to see how well it held up against wind and rain, but there was no problem putting it into use immediately.

Alarm systems, searchlights, and other equipment could be added once they had the means. Adding several layers of steel plating to the tower's protective panels for some degree of bullet resistance, however, should already be manageable.

Nearby, Rick stood with his hands on his hips, his clothes still covered in specks of mud and wood shavings.

After studying the tower for a moment, he nodded appreciatively.

"Looks pretty good."

"Yeah. From up there, you've got a clear view for at least a kilometer, including the entire road. Put someone with a good rifle up there, and this thing would be a nightmare for anyone trying to come at us."

Rick ran a hand over the rough surface of one of the logs and smiled.

"This is going to be one of our most important sets of eyes."

"Hahaha, exactly. Which means we need to build a few more."

Wade looked up at the watchtower thoughtfully.

"Maybe we should keep some weapons, ammunition, and food up there too. If a walker horde ever breaks through the outer defenses and the sentry doesn't have enough time to retreat, at least they'd have a better chance of surviving."

Rick paused and raised an eyebrow.

Then he gave Wade a firm pat on the shoulder.

"Wade, you're always thinking about everyone else, and somehow you're always looking farther ahead than the rest of us. You're almost like some kind of prophet for the group, always pointing everyone in the direction we need to go."

Wade gave him an easy smile.

"I've said it before. We're going to survive this goddamn apocalypse together."

Rick smiled back.

"Yeah. Survive together."

"Come on. I'm getting hungry."

The two of them headed back toward camp.

Today's work hadn't been nearly as exhausting as the day before.

Most of it involved building spiked barricades and setting them along the eastern fence. They dug foundation holes, secured the barricades in place, and reinforced them as much as possible so they could better withstand the pressure of a mass of walkers pushing against them.

Because the workload was lighter, dinner was naturally prepared earlier, and there was more food than usual.

Everyone had been doing heavy physical labor day after day, so they were burning through a tremendous amount of energy.

Aside from the three little ones, everyone's appetite had noticeably increased.

Fortunately, the camp had more than enough supplies to handle it.

If anything, Wade was glad to see everyone eating more.

All this grueling work was rapidly improving everyone's stamina and overall physical condition.

Granted, they were basically forcing that improvement by pushing their bodies far harder than was healthy...

Whether that trade-off was worth it was something only people who managed to live into their seventies or eighties had the luxury of debating.

For now, their food intake had to keep pace with their workload.

Wade had even shamelessly started going to Hershel every day to ask for eggs and milk so he could add them to everyone's meals.

Once all this construction work was finished, they would move on to Phase Two of combat training.

Those who couldn't fight would become reserves.

The reserves would become combatants.

And the combatants would become elites.

That was Wade's plan, one step leading directly into the next.

Merle and the others had also returned with their second load of supplies.

One corner of the camp was now covered with all kinds of hardware and construction materials.

Merle hadn't bothered making anything resembling a proper inventory while gathering them. He'd gone through town like a bandit, finding one place after another and practically cleaning each one out.

Dale was currently leading several people in setting up wooden stakes and stretching waterproof tarp across them, creating an extremely crude shelter from the rain.

It wasn't much work, but everyone seemed happy doing it.

They were enthusiastic, and smiles rarely left their faces.

That was simply the kind of person Dale was.

He handled all the small, unremarkable jobs that needed doing, never looking for praise or trying to draw attention to himself.

He just kept working in the background, patching things here, fixing things there, holding everything together.