TWD: Saving Merle First - Chapter 111: Arrangements for Carol (Patreon)

The following evening, Wade and the others made it safely back to camp.

Marcus, who had been driving, let out a long breath of relief. The road back had been rough, but none of the primers in his vehicle had been jolted hard enough to ignite or explode.

Definitely worth celebrating. At least two drinks tonight.

The moment Wade stepped out of the vehicle, Beth came running over like a bird returning to its nest, jumped up, and wrapped herself around him.

Princess spread her arms wide and grinned theatrically. "Wow, wow, wow! Is this what a romantic reunion looks like?"

Wade held Beth and laughed without explaining. After telling Merle's men to unload the cargo into the temporary tent warehouse, he turned to Rick and asked, "How are the materials for the storage buildings coming along?"

Rick pulled his eyes away from the heavily loaded pickup trucks. "We pretty much got everything today. We can start building tomorrow. How did things go on your end?"

Still carrying Beth, Wade answered as he walked:

"Heh, we made a huge haul. Both M2s still work, but we do not have ammunition or reloading dies for them, so those will need to be developed and made. We brought back five reloading presses, four sets of pistol dies, and two sets of rifle dies. Pistol and rifle cartridge cases together come to almost seventy thousand, but in theory we can probably only load a little over forty thousand rounds. The real number may be even lower."

"We also got twelve modified AR-15s, seven Remingtons, three Mosin-Nagants, two old Springfields, one Remington 700 sniper rifle, and a bunch of other guns I did not count."

"We did not add much ready-made ammunition. Maybe just under two thousand rounds of 5.56mm rifle ammo and fifteen hundred rounds of 9mm, plus more than one hundred fifty .357 Magnum rounds. That should keep you supplied for a while." Wade tipped his chin toward the Colt Python at Rick's waist.

Rick's eyes went wide, all his attention locking onto one number. "Holy shit! More than forty thousand rounds? Are you sure you did not raid an armory? That is enough to last us for years!"

"Do not celebrate too early. With our current production capacity, loading all of it will take close to a year."

Rick was speechless. Wade had a point, but the sheer number was still staggering.

"And this is only the first batch. There will be more. Glenn has grown a lot lately, so I am planning to have him put together a team dedicated to scavenging this kind of stuff."

"You are going to keep going? Are you trying to start a full-scale war?"

Wade stopped and looked at Rick. "This already is a war, Rick. Only one side gets to survive, us or the walkers. Atlanta alone had hundreds of thousands of permanent residents. How many of them do you think are walkers now, and how many are still human?"

Rick's face lost even more color, and a low buzzing filled his ears. "You mean..."

"I do not know. But I am going to prepare ahead of time and make sure we survive." A different light flickered in Wade's eyes.

"By the way, that girl is Juanita. You can also call her Princess. She is an average fighter, but she is warm and energetic. She can be weird sometimes, but she is sane and she is not a bad person."

"The sick-looking guy beside her... well, he actually is sick. His name is Sanier. He is an architect and barely a fighter at all. He will handle the camp's construction planning from now on, but... Merle beat the hell out of him, so put him on the watch list."

Rick pulled himself out of that bottomless sense of dread and looked toward the two newcomers heading for the food line. "All right. Leave it to me."

Wade looked at straight-laced Rick, nodded once, and said nothing more.

In truth, Rick was not well suited to surveillance and cleanup work. Suspicion did not come naturally to him, and when the time came, he might not be able to go through with it.

But there was actually one person in the camp who could handle it.

Wade looked toward Carol, who was preparing dinner, and his expression turned conflicted.

She was a very good fit.

Carol spent every day in camp moving between the stove, dirty laundry, and Sophia. Her presence was easy to overlook.

Her appearance was disarming too. She was thin, always wore a gentle smile, and looked like the kind of harmless person nobody would think twice about.

The last piece was not there yet. Sophia was still alive, life in camp was comfortable, and Carol had not been pushed to that point.

Prison-era Carol was different. The moment she sensed a threat, she would shoulder the guilt herself and quietly act to protect everyone else.

Still, that part was easy enough to solve. Carol could watch people. Merle could handle the dirty work.

But work like that, practically taking attendance for the Grim Reaper, was mentally exhausting and came with a crushing sense of guilt.

The Carol they had now might not be able to carry that burden...

Without realizing it, Rick and Wade had reached the dining area. Wade looked at Carol's gentle expression, sighed, and said, "Carol, can we talk later? There is something I need your help with."

Carol paused, looked at Wade, and smiled. "Of course. I would be happy to help, Wade."

Rick turned toward Wade and caught the brief flash of conflict on his face, leaving him puzzled.

Conflict? What could possibly involve Carol and make Wade look that conflicted?

Was it something about Sophia?

He knew the inventor trio also had a little girl with them, Sherry.

She was a very quiet child who rarely came out and usually stayed inside that tent.

Wade noticed Rick's confusion. "I will explain later."

Rick nodded without pressing. "If you run into any trouble, let me know."

Wade hummed, patted Beth's smooth thigh, and said, "Time to eat, Beth."

Beth loosened her arms, gave him a quick kiss on the lips, hummed in reply, and hopped down.

Wade ruffled Beth's hair and smiled warmly.

Engines roared at the camp entrance, and several pickup trucks drove in.

Shane jumped out of one truck and spotted Wade immediately. The corner of his mouth twitched, then quickly flattened again.

He was glad Wade had come back safely. He was less glad to see the heartless capitalist himself.

Sure, Shane liked the busy, fulfilling life. But even a workhorse needed rest.

After handing the remaining food over to Leon, he strode toward Wade. "How did it go on your end?"

Holding his tray, Wade repeated what he had already told Rick.

Shane nodded, visibly brightening. "Then it looks like we will not have to be stingy with ammunition anymore. We have plenty of weapons and gear too."

Wade nodded. "After you eat and wash up, do not go straight to bed. We will have a meeting later and figure out our next move."

Shane and Rick exchanged a look, then nodded together. "All right."