A couple of hours later.
A group of men had left the prison and made their way into the forest and started cutting down trees.
Twak! Twak! Twak!
Tom is aggressively hacking at this tree alongside others around him, and they would take turns in doing it.
"Why are we even doing this when we can just look for a hardware store or a lumberyard and take whatever type of wood is left and use those instead?" One of the men complained to them
Tom turned to look at him and responded. "Because if we do what you're saying, then we'd just be wasting time looking for those damn stores when we could've used the time wasted logging these trees. Besides, almost all of us don't even live around here and are not familiar with the area."
"But the others have said that the supply teams have been going out a lot, so they should've mapped out most of the areas around here, right?" The man argued. He figured the supply teams must have a detailed map of the area around them and had been wondering why Michael did not make use of it and opted for the current task at hand.
"Then why don't you go tell him that?" Tom responded in between hacks on the tree.
Tom's friend thought for a moment and responded. "You know what? I'll do just that"
Tom immediately paused and turned to look and saw him taking a deep breath before he started making his way over towards Michael.
On Michael's side, he was already on his fifth tree, whereas the others had just started on their second or third ones.
Twak! Twak! Twak!
Thud!
With one final hack of his axe, another tree fell under his hands.
Michael wiped the sweat on his forehead and finally turned his attention to the man who came over a moment ago and had been quietly watching him from a distance.
"Can I help you?"
The man flinched for a moment, he opened his mouth, but no sound came out.
Twak!
Michael raised an eyebrow before planting the axe on the stump of the tree he had just cut down. "If you have anything to say, just say it. Stop wasting our time."
Feeling the stares around him, the man felt a little suffocated. He does not understand why the man before him is giving him such a suffocating feeling, like he's gonna be devoured in any second.
The man took a deep breath to steady his nerves before finally getting his courage back. "Uhh.. I'm..I just wanted to ask why we need to cut down these trees when we can just go and look for an abandoned store that sold construction materials. The supply runners must have at least found one or two in the time they were gone for days, right?"
Michael smiled. He quite preferred survivors like this man who would come up to him and question his decisions. After all, who would want to lead a mindless group of people who just listens and follows every decision he makes?
It's no different from living with the walkers, the only difference is that you will not turn if they bite you.
"Finally, there's someone who has the guts to ask why we're doing such an arduous task when we can be out on the road instead and looking for a lumberyard or something similar to raid for construction supplies." Michael was being sarcastic.
"Alright, let me be clear to all of you. I'm sure some of you also had the same question like this guy..." Michael paused and gestured to the guy standing on the side..
"Arthur." Arthur hurriedly answered.
"Like Arthur here, we're not only cutting these trees because we have a wall to build. There's also another objective for this, it's extending the area or distance we can see. Why? Well, this forest is indeed protecting us but at the same time, it's also limiting our response during emergencies. An example would be a horde suddenly springing forth on us. Another example are hostile groups of survivors ambushing us or watching us from within the forest. Does this all make sense now?"
Michael looked around him, and seeing that no one was raising any more questions. He smiled. "Alright, back to work! We're only cutting down trees along the treeline! Don't go further than ten meters from it, got it!?"
"Yes, sir!"
"Okay!"
"Good!"
Following that, everyone resumed cutting down the trees while another group would carry them one by one towards the prison and set them down along the fences. Where another group is also busy digging one meter or more onto the ground.
There's also another group, consisting mostly of teenagers as young as Athena. Scattered in groups of three over the area on the side of the prison where the loggers and diggers are located. These young kids are tasked with picking up stones to be thrown on the foundation of the palisade after the logs are planted.
Lastly, there's also the sentries scattered around the area to keep the site secured.
Except for the group digging for Well, almost everyone present within the compound was mobilized for this operation. No one was spared on this except for the kids and the elderly who can't do this kind of activity that requires physically fit people.
Even Lori and Maggie who are pregnant are also helping out with picking up stones.
"Come on, people! Let's double time, we need to finish this within this week" Andrea is working among the diggers and would constantly motivate them from time to time. Since she's Michael's woman, the survivors working with her were all feeling motivated, hoping to leave a good impression on her and hopefully get some kind of "promotion" in the community, like possibly joining one of the Supply Runner groups.
"Do you think we can complete the wall within a week?" Jacqui, drenched in sweat while digging beside Andrea, couldn't help but voice her thoughts.
"If the other two convoys return today, then we have a higher chance of achieving it. After all, we can work faster with the addition of more people." Andrea responded while she continued to loosen the ground with the digging bar on her hands.
"But I wonder where Rick and the others are now, since they should have been back around this time already," Andrea added.
The weather outside is nice, probably just past eight in the morning.
Jacqui paused digging and turned to look at Andrea. "Do you think they got into some kind of trouble out there?"
"I certainly hope not since our radios only have a limited range for communication. Requesting help from us will prove difficult." Anread immediately replied, now a little worried about the remaining convoys that still haven't returned.
Meanwhile, somewhere in Georgia.
"Greed really leads to disaster."
Glenn, Cole and Alan are currently trapped on the rooftop of a three story building. The three stood over the edge, looking down at the swarm of walkers surrounding the building, accompanied by the constant banging on the door a distance behind them.
Glenn turned towards Cole and glared at him. "Shut up man, at least we got a truckload of supplies."
Cole rolled his eyes and responded. "We indeed got a truckload of supplies, but what good use of it if we're trapped here?"
"Come on, you two. Instead of arguing here, we should think of a way to escape this place. Arguing with each other over something that already happened is useless and a waste of energy. Direct those emotions on how we should solve our current crisis instead." Alan immediately got between the two and calmed them down.
Glenn sighed. "We could use the rocket flare, but since we're over fifteen miles away from the Prison. We don't know who will show up and whether they'd even bother helping us."
"Worse off, they'd probably just steal our truck and ignore us." Cole added.
Alan released a sigh, he really can't think of anything good at the moment. He's extremely tired and hasn't had a good night's sleep since last night.