TWD: Saving Merle First - Chapter 80: Well, Look Who Has a Plan Today Too?! (Patreon)

By the time Wade brought Beth back to camp, it was already noon.

Merle was standing there with a plate of food when he let out a loud wolf whistle, a teasing grin plastered across his face.

Who said Wade was clueless?

The guy clearly knew exactly what he was doing.

It was just...

Merle glanced toward Hershel, whose face was practically black with anger. Even from a distance, the veins standing out along his arms were clearly visible.

Well, after spending the past month building up the camp, the old man probably never imagined that at sixty years old, he’d still find himself getting this worked up.

Wade deliberately drove a little slower as they entered camp. He glanced toward Hershel near the watchtower and immediately felt his confidence slipping.

Beth was reclined in the passenger seat with her head tilted to one side, catching up on sleep after staying up far too late.

As the pickup slowly came to a stop, Wade rubbed his nose and tried to force a smile onto his face in preparation for the judgment awaiting him.

The moment he opened the door, Hershel was already standing nearby.

He looked at Wade, who seemed perfectly refreshed, then at Beth, who was still asleep.

Even though he had already suspected how things would turn out and had spent the night mentally preparing himself, seeing the young man who had completely won over his precious daughter still left him irritated.

In the end, Hershel simply snorted and headed back toward the cabin.

What was he even supposed to say?

The two clearly cared about each other. Was he really going to become the stereotypical overbearing father and stand between them?

Forget it.

As long as they treated each other well, that mattered more than anything else.

Wade scratched his head and gave an awkward smile before turning around.

Merle was walking toward him with a plate of food, which he promptly held out.

“Rough night, huh? Better eat something and get your strength back. Hahaha!”

Wade took the plate and immediately kicked at him.

Merle casually dodged to the side, the same mocking grin still on his face.

Then he seemed to remember something.

“Oh, right. That group we brought back before. You remember the fat guy with the long hair?”

“Eugene?”

“Yeah. Says he’s some kind of scientist who can develop a serum for the virus.”

Wade snorted but offered no comment, continuing to eat.

Merle had always been naturally suspicious of outsiders. Seeing Wade’s reaction, he seemed to understand immediately and chuckled as well, though a trace of disappointment passed through his eyes.

While eating, Wade suddenly remembered something.

After swallowing, he asked, “Has Dale picked up any more distress calls from outside?”

Merle shook his head.

“What? One little date and now you’re thinking about becoming the savior of mankind?”

Wade rolled his eyes and stopped paying attention to him.

“Wade, how did your scouting trip go?”

Wade turned toward Rick, who was wearing an equally teasing smile.

“Great. Couldn’t have gone better. In theory, we should be able to get somewhere between ten and eighteen thousand gallons of gasoline, plus another four to five thousand gallons of diesel.”

The moment they started talking business, Rick’s teasing expression disappeared.

“Is there a tanker truck?”

“No. If there were, I would’ve driven it back already.”

Tsk.

Good news, they had found the treasure.

Bad news, they had no way to bring it home.

“So what are you planning? Transfer it into fuel drums?”

“A tanker truck is the first choice. If we can’t find one, then we’ll have to search several places and collect enough fuel drums to move it in batches.”

Wade finished the rest of his food in a couple of bites.

“Also, call everyone together later. We need a meeting.”

Rick nodded.

“Sounds like you’ve already come up with another plan.”

Wade looked toward the neglected wheat fields in the distance and tilted his chin toward them.

“Those are our next objective.”

“With the number of people we have?”

“Yeah. Which means everything’s going to be rushed. We don’t have much time.”

Wade shoved the empty plate into Rick’s hands, then returned to the pickup and carefully lifted Beth out.

He carried her into his tent, laid her down, and gently covered her with a blanket.

Before long, everyone in camp had gathered beneath the shade of a large tree.

Wade looked around and smiled.

“Good afternoon, everyone. I’m not going to waste time with a speech. Let’s get straight to the point.”

He pointed toward the wheat fields in the distance.

“We have one major job coming up. In ten days, we need to harvest as much farmland as possible, dry the grain, process it, and get it into storage. That food could feed us for years.”

“So I want everyone thinking about how we can make this work as efficiently as possible.”

Hershel looked toward the fields, where the wheat was already turning a deep golden color.

“Wade, we don’t have ten days. That wheat has a week at most before it’s fully mature.”

Wade didn’t question the old farmer’s judgment.

Hershel was the expert here.

“Okay. Then first thing, harvesting.”

“Doing it by hand with sickles isn’t realistic. We need proper harvesting machines. I already know where we can find some, and I’ll explain that later.”

He looked toward Merle.

“So, Merle, getting those machines back here is your job.”

Merle nodded.

“Okay.”

“Andrew, go with him. If you find damaged machines, repair them if you can. If you can’t, leave them behind.”

“And I need you to make sure the machines we do bring back stay running once harvesting starts. Can you handle that?”

Andrew nodded.

“No problem, Wade.”

“After harvesting comes drying, winnowing, and screening.”

Wade turned toward Hershel.

“Hershel, can I leave that part to you? Pick whoever you need.”

Hershel nodded seriously.

“I’ll do my best.”

This part would depend heavily on the weather, so even he wasn’t willing to make any promises.

“All right. Last problem.”

“Storage.”

“How do we store all this grain and make sure it lasts at least a year, preferably longer?”

Hershel instinctively looked toward the barn that had already been converted into their food warehouse and sighed.

At that point, everyone understood the problem.

Merle’s eyes widened.

“Holy shit. You’re planning to build another barn?”

Wade nodded without hesitation.

“I was considering it.”

That was exactly why he had felt so pressed for time.

“There’s another option. Grind all the wheat into flour and vacuum-seal it.”

Hershel immediately shook his head.

“Forget it, Wade. My farm alone has seven acres of wheat.”

“If we ground all of that into whole-wheat flour, we’d end up with roughly ten thousand pounds. Even if every bag held ten pounds, we’d still need a thousand sealed bags.”

“That’s not realistic.”

Wade looked slightly disappointed.

“So building another granary really is our only option?”

To everyone’s surprise, Eugene raised his hand.

“If sealing is the main concern, why not weld together sealed steel containers?”

Everyone immediately turned toward him.

Eugene instinctively lowered his hand again, dropped his head, and stared at Rosita’s legs as she sat cross-legged nearby.

Wade’s thoughts immediately opened up in a completely different direction.

Looking at the timid Eugene, he had to admit something.

The guy really was smart.

If they could just find enough...

“Then why not use open-head steel drums with locking rings?”

Dale asked with a puzzled expression.

“...”

Wade stared at the completely innocent-looking Dale.

Well, damn.

Look at you.

You’ve got a plan today too?!

Hershel raised his head.

“I remember the agricultural supply store in town having some. Whether we can use them for grain storage depends on what they were used for, though.”

Most drums like that were normally used for mixing pesticides, preparing fertilizer, storing granular fertilizer, animal feed, or discarded chemical packaging.

There probably wouldn’t be many that were safe enough to use.