Seemingly satisfied, Rachel resumed her position cuddling up against me. I noticed the tension had been released from the atmosphere, and I was grateful that even for a little bit we could have some respite together. We had just been so distracted over the past few days, it had been difficult. It was a brief moment we both sorely needed.

---

Rachel and I stayed like that for about an hour before I knew it was time for me to get back to work. Even if I was tempted to forget about all the challenges we faced ahead of us, I was well aware that we needed to get those defenses built as soon as we could. She understood though, and I promised her we would talk more tonight after the Council meeting.

As I put on my winter gear and wrapped a cloth around my face to protect it from breathing in the ash, I went outside. The first person I saw was Jackson, already trying to manufacture a makeshift forge. He had managed to, with a shovel and the bricks we had retrieved for him, built a functional forge. I waved to him and he nodded back as I continued away from the house.

Halfway up the driveway towards where the others had been processing the wood for the barricades, I began to hear a commotion coming from just up the driveway out of my view. "Please no," I whispered to myself as I began to run up the remainder of the driveway. The first fear to cross my mind was that the undead had begun to advance early.

When I got to the end of the driveway and saw what had happened I was more perplexed than anything. There were three corpses on the ground, obviously dispatched undead, but in front of the corpses were two men. One large, heavyset one, and a younger thinner bespectacled man.

The thinner one spoke first. "Oh, you idiot, just let us in! We weren't trying to get them to attack you!" the man said.

In response, Alex placed his hand across his shoulder, only for it to be slapped away. "Touch me again and I swear to god I'll sue you for assault! I'm a lawyer you know!?"

Alex only laughed, "being a lawyer is probably the most useless profession anyone could have right now. You don't even realize what's going on, do you?"

This seemed to only infuriate the lawyer even further.

At least, that was the case until my Father jumped in. "Why don't we all just calm down here. We can ignore whatever happened with the undead since nobody got hurt. What do you want?"

"Oh! Finally, somebody with some sense!" The lawyer yelled out in exasperation as he turned towards my father. "Just let us stay here and when the government comes back we can easily be on our way!"

At this point, Alex just stepped away to continue chopping some wood, and so while my father continued to talk with the lawyer and his quiet companion, I made my way over to Alex.

“What was all of that about?” I asked.

Alex remained silent for a little bit as he stripped branches off of a recently cut-down tree. Then he responded, “They saw us working on the barricade, and then the smaller one started yelling at us. Sure enough, they began attracting nearby undead. We were lucky to have taken them out before they could’ve attracted more...” He paused as he moved to the next log and began to strip it of some of its branches. “The lawyer pisses me off, Thomas. I remember the two of them from the day this all started. I didn’t realize it at first until the guy started yelling, and of course, that brought back the memory of the same man yelling at his brother, William. He’s the bigger one. I don’t like that kind of person. He’s the type that’ll get somebody killed, and I don’t want him near my family.”

I was surprised that Alex had even known the two men prior, but I knew that we weren’t exactly in the business of turning people away, especially if my father had anything to say about it.

“Alex…” I began. “I for one believe that I speak for the community when I say that once we start turning people away who need help… Well… That’s one slippery slope to go down. I’m sure father particularly agrees. Of course, if they end up doing something while they’re here, then that’s one thing… But not before they’ve at least had the chance to show whether or not they might be useful to the community.” I finished.

I could tell that while Alex understood what I said, he didn’t feel it. His response was still acceptable though. “Fine… But if ever, someone does anything that endangers the wellbeing of my family, they will not be staying here.”

Alex’s adamant statement took me by surprise, but I sympathized with how he felt. “Of course,” I said as I got up and turned back to where my father had apparently come to some sort of agreement with the two men. “Alright, if you two help out around here then we will let you stay with us.”

The Lawyer smiled, looking as though he was pleased with himself for getting his way.

“Hold up,” I said as I joined back in the conversation. “Dad, we don’t have room in the main house for any more people.” The Lawyer instantly frowned.

“Hold up, he just said-“ he had begun before I cut him off, something which he was definitely not very pleased about happening.

“I’m not saying we’re not letting you stay with us. We can have you use one of the adjacent buildings. I’m sure you’d prefer having your own space anyway, wouldn’t you?” I said, and with the last part of my statement, I could feel my charisma attribute flaring up as it went to work, the tones of my statement changed as I worked the man’s ego.

“Well… Of course, as long as there’s nothing wrong with the place?” he asked in turn while raising a brow.

We offer him somewhere to stay and he instantly becomes skeptical? I internally sighed. “Nothing at all. There’s nobody living there right now, but we’ll have a barricade up and around the place by the end of the day anyways.” I spoke.

“Wonderful!” he yelled out. “William come with me, and make sure you take my stuff with you! I don’t want it getting scuffed again.”

I just silently shook my head as the two of them made their way over to the home I had pointed out.

“You think this is a good idea?” I said under my breath to my dad.

He hesitated, “look, Thomas. We can’t get into the business of-“ he started.

“Turning people away? Right?” I finished for him.

My dad looked proud for a moment there, “exactly.” He continued, “plus… even if the talkative man is… difficult… the other one, on the other hand, he’s the one I want to help the most. He seemed to be struggling a bit.”

“William, right? The larger one?” I asked.

“Ah, so that was his name then. William, huh?” My father said.

“Anyways, how are we looking as far as the trees go?” I asked my dad.

“Right! We are doing pretty well kiddo. Honestly, I think everyone was pretty skeptical when you put forward the plan to barricade practically the entire neighborhood by cutting down the trees. But… Since we’ve started, we’ve been working surprisingly quickly. You were right about the… The system, or what you’ve been calling it, making it easier on us to get things done.” He finished.

“I noticed. When Kevin and I got back with Priscilla it had looked like already quite a bit had been done.” I stated.

“And at this rate, I’m sure we’ll get the entire perimeter barricaded within the next few days, just like you said. Though, it all really depends on how Jackson manages to get all of the nails made…” he finished.

“I saw him on my way over and it looked like he was just about finished setting up the forge. I’ll have to check in on him later though.” I spoke.

He nodded, “Well, do you care to help us at all?”

Smiling, I picked up one of the spare axes and went to work.

Cutting down a tree surprisingly only took two swings for most of the trees. After a few hours, the sun began to set. Looking over the clearing we had made I couldn’t help but be pleased with our work.

We managed to clear a section of forest extending in a fifteen-foot zone parallel to the road. Even though the ground was littered with stumps, we did not care much for the beauty of the job. Plus, the stumps may even serve the function of tripping anything that comes charging towards the barricade.

Regardless we had cleared the entire section of forest netting us over two thousand logs after they were all processed and cut up.

The work did not come without its own price though, and our axes had begun to dull by the end of the day. Luckily, Alex had a tool sharpener stored away in his shed, so one of the first things we had Jackson do outside of forging nails was to sharpen our tools. We were going to need them quite a bit over the next several days regardless.

To my surprise, as Dante, Alex, and my father made our way back to the house we were greeted by both Jackson as well as our resident National Guard member, Harrison toiling away at the forge.

“Oi! How’s it going there, Thomas!” Harrison called out, which drew Jackson’s attention away from the forge. It was actually quite the sight. With the rudimentary materials we had gathered for him, he had managed to get something reasonably functional crafted together.

It looked like a large box with bricks piled around it, apparently, he had managed to lay down some cement Alex had stored away for a flag pole project he never got around to. In addition to that, he had grabbed a metal pole salvaged from a chain-link fence. It had been sawed off and then placed in-between some bricks towards the bottom of the construct. It was apparent it served the role of allowing the forge to intake air from the makeshift bellows.

Interestingly enough they had requisitioned a tire pump and were using that to pump air into the forge.

Once Jackson noticed me, he called out, “Thomas! Wherever the hell ya got this wood from I’ve never seen anythin’ like it!” he animatedly said, “It burns like nothin’ I’ve ever seen before! It slow burns, but the heat from the thing is almost enough to shatter even the fire bricks!”

I could only smile at his excitement, “I’m glad you’ve found a use for it!” I laughed.

He nodded, “we were just testing it out for now, but figured it’d be best not to waste the bit of wood while it's burnin’!” he called out as he pumped the bellow once more before grabbing a piece of rebar and throwing it into the forge.”

In a matter of a few minutes the metal was glowing hot, obviously, the material from the [Treant] was burning extremely well. Once the entire piece was red hot, Jackson grabbed it with a pair of tongs that we had found in the storage. He placed the metal on top of what looked like a segment of a car door they must have scrounged up.

After placing it on there he grabbed a small chisel along with a hammer. After positioning the chisel he slammed the hammer down. After several clangs, a piece of the metal rebar was cut off. He deftly moved down the rebar and made several more similar-sized segments. All in all, from the two-foot rebar he had made six 4-inch long segments. After which he placed them back into the forge to heat up, this time pulling them out as soon as they began to burn up again.

This entire time I kept watching in fascination. He said the only time he had ever worked with metal was at a blacksmith camp, but from what I could see the man was working as well as I ever could have imagined.

With the bars hot enough he began slamming the hammer on them, forming a crude pointed end. The nails, despite their crude nature and the obvious hint of the rebar metal still there, were sure to be functional enough for our means.

As he finished and set the nails on the dirt ground to cool, he turned back to me and wiped a bit of sweat from his forehead.

Both Harrison and I were staring at him, with obvious complexions of amazement as he turned away in embarrassment.

"Sorry bout that... I get sorta taken up in the hobby sometimes," he said.

I laughed, "Dude, don't apologize, that was amazing!"

"Really?" Jackson asked seriously. "It's honestly crude, but... I think it'll work, right?"

I nodded, it definitely should.

The fire appeared to be dying down slightly, and the three of us were keen to let it run its course as the sun finally dipped below the horizon, plunging our small gathering in an eerie twilight.

"By the way, Jackson, Harrison. We're going to need to have another council meeting tonight, there's something we've got to discuss going forward." I announced.

"I finally get to join in, huh?" Harrison smirked. "About time!"

I laughed, "Well, as long as you don't feel like sleeping through it again."

He brushed me off, "Ya, right. I sure don't plan on missing something as exciting as planning to build an entire goddamn wall around the neighborhood again."

This produced another laugh from both Jackson and I. "Anyways if the two of you can go ahead and round everybody else up, we can try and make this quick so we can get rested for what'll surely be a long day tomorrow for all of us."