TWD: Saving Merle First - Chapter 95: A Day in the Life During the Summer Harvest (Patreon)

On the third day of the summer harvest, Crane briefly regained consciousness, but Wade didn’t get to see him. Abraham was the one who told Wade about it.

Marcus conducted a follow-up examination on him. The guy’s body was recovering rapidly, but Marcus soon noticed something wasn’t quite right.

Normally, antibiotics and fever reducers should have brought an infection-induced fever under control. Crane’s temperature, however, was like smoldering coals. It did come down over time, but not by much, and it remained in the danger zone...

When Marcus told Wade, Wade did not make a big issue of secrecy. He only told Marcus not to spread it around.

Marcus did not know the reason, but Wade did. It was the Harran virus.

It was altering Crane’s genetic makeup, pushing him in the direction of becoming a Volatile...

The only good news was that when the survivors from the Tower broke out of Harran, they had brought a batch of Antizin along with Dr. Zere’s research materials and data. There was enough to support later treatment and research.

On the seventh day of the summer harvest, Wade received a message from Shane. They had found three dairy cattle on another farm, one bull and two cows.

Likely because of prolonged starvation and the presence of walkers, all three were extremely agitated. The moment Shane, Wade, and the others approached, the cattle became aggressive and tried to gore them.

Wade looked at their dry, rough coats, filthy bodies, and the unidentified scraps of tissue hanging from them. His first thought was to cut his losses and slaughter them, however painful that might be.

But Maggie stopped him, saying she had a way to bring the cows back.

Wade hesitated for a moment, but seeing the determination in Maggie’s eyes, he agreed.

After all, he knew the difference between a one-time feast and a steady supply of food, and it would indeed be a shame to kill those two milk-producing cows.

Maggie first used sedatives to knock all three cows unconscious. She washed them down with water to remove the source of their odor, then made some minor adjustments to their living environment.

She hauled a batch of hay from their own farm, and after several days of feeding and soothing them, she finally managed to gradually calm the agitated cows, bringing them back to a state where they would accept being kept in a pen.

The whole performance made Wade give Maggie a few extra looks. His future sister-in-law really knew what she was doing.

Over at the threshing floor, Hershel looked up at the sun high in the sky, then glanced at the wheat spread out on the ground, and grinned from ear to ear.

In a world like this, nothing brought more peace of mind than weapons and food.

He bent down, scooped up a handful of wheat, rubbed it between his fingers, then pinched open a few grains, nodding in satisfaction.

The wheat from Zones 1 through 3 had all been harvested on the first day. Now it was all laid out to dry, weighing approximately 12,000 pounds.

Next, they could proceed with sifting (to remove weeds and shriveled grains) and storage.

On the evening of the seventh day, after a day of harvesting had ended, everyone returned to camp and loaded all the wheat ready for storage into barrels.

They did not fill the barrels all the way. Instead, they left some empty space, placed several candles that had been cut short inside, lit them, then sealed the lids.

They waited for about ten minutes, estimating that the candles had burned off all the oxygen inside the barrels, before beginning transport. Using pulleys and levers, they loaded the barrels one by one onto the pickup truck and finally stored them all in the warehouse.

On the first day, forty-one barrels were stored, weighing approximately 12,000 pounds.

Wade stood outside the makeshift warehouse, scratching his head.

After today’s first batch of storage, only six of the usable steel barrels he’d collected earlier remained.

This meant that the over 10,000 pounds of wheat to be sun-dried tomorrow couldn’t be stored directly!

For Wade, having mountains of grain and being forced to watch it rot in the fields was practically the same as killing him.

“Why is he scratching his head? Is he trying to yank his brain right out of his skull?”

“A monkey... no, with a build like that, he should probably count as a gorilla. Same difference. Neither one has a brain.”

“Sigh, that’s truly tragic…”

“Wouldn’t ‘pitiful’ be more accurate?”

Tolga and Fatin exchanged remarks, their expressions serious yet tinged with pity.

Before Wade could say a word, Andrew had already slipped up beside them, his expression calm, but his gaze fixed on the backs of the two brothers’ heads.

“So, you two great inventors, do you have any brilliant ideas?”

“Brilliant ideas? No, no, no. We’re only pointing out something any normal person could see. Food-grade IBC plastic tanks.”

“Plastic inner tanks, sealed top lids, large capacity. A 1,000-liter tank can hold roughly 1,500 pounds of wheat.”

“They’re lighter than steel drums and resistant to rust. All you need to do is haul them here, fill them with grain, then move them into the granary. See? Very simple.”

Fatin continued, “If you’re strong enough, you could also consider horizontal metal storage tanks. The modification work would be difficult for you monkeys, but for us, it’s a piece of cake.”

The brothers traded comments back and forth, successfully offending practically everyone in camp. Even Jade’s expression grew darker by the second.

Wade turned back to look at the two brothers, gave a soft click of his tongue, but didn’t say much else.

“Shane, Daryl, tomorrow each of you pick two teams and head into the two county seats to see if you can get your hands on these items. Merle, you lead a team to check the surrounding towns as well. In short, get as much as you can.”

“As for tomorrow’s harvest, I’ll lead it. Rick, you’ll be in charge of camp security.”

After everyone nodded in agreement, they gathered the wheat from the threshing floor and returned to camp to prepare dinner.

Jade walked over to Wade and said softly, “Sorry. They weren’t trying to single you out...”

“I know. They just look down on anyone who can’t keep up with their way of thinking.”

Jade fell silent for a moment, unsure how to respond to Wade.

Because Wade’s words had hit the nail on the head…

“It’s fine. I can overlook that. After all, geniuses are always a bit eccentric, aren’t they?” Wade shrugged, saying it casually.

However, regarding the establishment of the R&D center, he had already moved it from the back of the third-phase project to the top of the priority list.

There was no deeper reason. Wade was genuinely afraid those two brothers would get beaten to death one day...

After a simple dinner, Shane pulled Merle and Daryl aside to discuss matters, while Rick chimed in with his own suggestions from the sidelines.

Wade was heartened by this. The ice between the two of them was melting, and their relationship was gradually returning to what it used to be.

But Wade did not dwell on it, because someone was about to come collect a debt from him, and the amount owed ran into the hundreds of millions.