Sasuke opened his eyes, seeing the faint dark-grey sky visible from the plastic-covered window.
The action of moving his neck made him aware of the sticky feeling that was on his nape, and the guilty party for that was the girl lying by his side, hugging his arm like it was her stuffed toy.
Her soft breaths suggested that she was having a deep slumber now.
'And hopefully a beautiful dream,' Sasuke thought.
The sticky feeling, on the other hand, was her drool.
He turned to the side, seeing a straggle of blond hair covering half her face; she looks funny sprawling like this with no care.
'For all the energy she had yesterday...she looks so peaceful now.'
He remembers how she bickered with her sister yesterday about who would have the upper bunk with him, and it was decided with rock-paper-scissors.
one that Katniss lost, and honestly...he was happy she did because Sasuke knew he needed all the sleep he could get, and that would have been absolutely the last thing to do if it was Katniss who crowded this bed with him instead of Ciri.
Sasuke then took his arm that she was hugging from her grip slowly not to wake her up. And jumped away to the floor with agility no human just waking up should have.
He looked back, seeing Katniss sleeping blissfully too. Minus the drooling thing...
Wiping off the drool and taking the jacket from the nearby chair, he dropped it around his shoulders and opened the door of the cell quietly, stepping into the dark corridor outside.
"Morning," old man. Dale greeted Sasuke with a smile, seeing the messed black hair tangled in a soft mess while he was reading a book by the gate of the cellblock.
The other gate is already reinforced with metal plates. And needing no one to watch.
"Good morning, thanks." Sasuke took the cup of coffee that Dale had poured for him, taking a seat beside him.
Dale checked the watch, and as expected...
"You are up early; why don't you sleep more? It's still 5 am." He himself will go back to sleep after an hour. While Carol takes his shift.
"There's work to do, three machines to bring back, and I'm already rested enough." Sasuke, who washed his face, told him, poured the remaining warm coffee into a closed cup, and left, taking it with him and telling him he will be back soon.
Dale can only sigh at that; he can't even be angry at him anymore after seeing how hard the boy is working for everyone here.
And certainly not after what he heard from Adam—what happened and was about to happen to his daughters if not for Sasuke. That thing made him spend the whole two nights after that thinking things over.
In the end, he came to understand why Sasuke was saying and doing all he did; people are no longer the same, and the worst of it is, you wouldn't know who is good and who isn't...maybe that's why Sasuke focused on that point.
He was trained to distinguish, as in the end, the one who got the short end of the stick in this world would now only mean he gets either death or worse.
Thus, Dale just wished him luck and packed him something quick to eat from what he had. Seeing him off.
It was drizzling, and fortunately Jenner and others had already made an enclosed livestock pen for the few chickens and other livestock here. Covered and warm with what they can.
Unfortunately, no one here was really an expert at this, ranching, breeding animals, and all... Sasuke, Dale, and Jess, whose grandpa owned a farm, have some experience and knowledge, which worked somehow.
Sasuke simply disappeared to the nearby forest and started cleaning it of any walkers, setting alert systems that would shoot a senbon straight to a designated spot on the building's upper corner.
The sign only he can see with his enhanced sight; in case someone ever walks those places, be it walker or human, he will know.
It took him half an hour with his speed to clear the 31 walkers that were around this part of the forest. He ran back to the field, activated his Sharingan, and observed the place and surroundings for any presence. Confirming none, he then walked up the courtyard again and unsealed the remaining things he will need, mainly machinery.
Like the pallet jacks, compacted excavators, front-end loader/skid-steers, saws, grinders, shovels, pickaxes, wheelbarrows, sledgehammers, winches, chains, and heavy-duty cables. And of course safety gear for others when they come (gloves, helmets, and eyewear).
Another thing he confirmed is that his sharingan picks some useful things from the experiments he did on the 18 assholes.
A safe person shows no abnormalities.
One who is injured, fatally or seriously, would be surrounded almost by a glitching aura, and one who was recently dead or bitten, like the one he forced a walker to bite him, would have that black miasma seeping all around him like searing fire.
His sharingan was nothing like he used to have, as he still can't see at a cellular level like he used to, but it was understandable considering it was only one-tomoe.
Sasuke unrolled the planning sheet he got from Adam. The fresh breeze and sound of the drizzle calmed his thoughts as he peered at the map, focusing on the outermost part.
The first step was simple: digging.
For the inner wall around the inner courtyard, he needs to dig a 1-meter-wide, 2~3-meters-deep trench around this place that is outside their cellblock.
And next, the same thing outside the outer fence. Only wider and deeper.
Once the trench is dug, they will bring tools to set the foundation for the wall with the steel rebar and concrete, starting with corner pillars and then connecting them with the walls.
Daryl, Adam, and others will work on mixing cement using the portable mixer and all later, while meanwhile Sasuke figured that he can start digging.
They had the machinery and all, but in all honesty, Sasuke just thought an earth jutsu would do just fine, not at raising a wall, but at digging the trench.
The former was much harder to explain.
He picked up the pickaxe and the whole compacted excavator, which will be his excuse tools. Ran toward the perimeter of the yard and made sure everything was okay.
Doing hand seals, he crouched, putting his hands on the ground, emptying 120 threads from his overall 124. And with a rumble, the ground parted centimeters away from his palms; a trench of 1 meter in width, 3 meters deep, and 5 meters in length was made just like that.
'Jutsu for the win,' he smirked, waiting around a minute for his chakra to replenish and redoing the process all the way to the other corner of the yard, circling around the building they were in and back to the start point.
Finished with the digging, he ran to make the outer fence; he didn't want them to ask him and want to see how he dug it this fast. He can do the same as the jutsu physically, but that would just be a waste of precious time.
If everything was already made, no one would have the juice to ask for that.
By 7:13 am, after the befuddled Dale went back to sleep, still unable to process how the fuck Sasuke dug all that in such a short time with some tools. The foundation trench was already made.
Sasuke had the whole perimeter ready for the next step...building.
Daryl walked outside thinking that Sasuke may be doing his morning exercises, just to see him walking toward the building lifting the damn excavator, and even more was the fucking trench that was suddenly around the yard. And even the outer fence.
"You did all that alone? Damn, man, Well, thanks, I guess. Go have breakfast; I will set things up for the mixing." Daryl had nothing else to say; he just chalked the morning run and went to retrieve cement sacks, calling for Jim and William to help move the sandbags and blocks, ready for another long day of labor.
Sasuke exchanged a few more words and went inside, seeing people already waking up and starting their day.
"Morning," he waved at Alena and Katniss, who were busy making breakfast.
"You were training?"
"Digging, Alena. You said you can paint."
"Yeah, why? Found what I asked for?"
"Mhm, we will spend at least the next five months here, and I'm sure no one wants to have those grey peeling walls as our interior view. We will deal with wires and electricity first before leaving the paint to you guys; it should be fun."
"Of course, light blue, beige, white...those are the colors I think are good. Got any? Others are fine too."
"Yeah, a whole set."
"Shouldn't you rest today? You guys can work on the wall tomorrow, and we can help."
"Nah, I'm good, Adam. Maria and Dale will help with seeing to the heaters inside the cells. I already refilled the generators, and they will later deal with the doors. You girls also need to help each other to count our food, medicine, and other stocks; record it; and help with measurements. I, Daryl, Jim, Jenner, William, and Duan will deal with the wall."
"I don't know why, but that sounds like a lot of fun," Katniss chuckled, anticipating the work.
"And exhaustion—just don't force yourself; we will work at an easy pace. There's still the gun exercises later at noon; combat is and will stay the focus." He took a seat beside Katniss after washing her hands.
The breakfast was brief, and soon everyone went to do their jobs.
Sasuke joined Morgan and others who were with Adam, talking about how and what to do.
"We have massive loads of concrete foundations; with some work we will have them laced with thick rebar grids and poured here for the base. That can prevent many troubles, one of them being tunneling, in addition to providing an unshakable base for the walls' heavy weight.
As Sasuke suggested, since we have materials, the walls themselves will be reinforced with steel plates. We have prefabricated reinforced concrete sections that can be lifted into place with some cranes."
"No need, I can do that myself."
"What? You know what I'm talking about, Sasuke? They are heavy and need machines."
Sasuke didn't answer; he left behind a corner where they unloaded the materials. Adam almost felt that was disrespectful, just to see him coming back lifting the fucking concrete section that should weigh at least more than 200 kg (440 lbs) on his shoulders.
"Those? I'm sure my friends here told you some things about me, and yeah, I will be doing the heavy lifting; machines produce too much noise, and I'm more efficient. Sorry for cutting your talk. What's next?" Sasuke put it aside and told the dumbfounded man to keep going on; they don't have time to waste...they actually do, but that wasn't the point.
"What the...alr--ight, so yeah...where was I? Next we will build the wall with reinforced solid concrete, which can reach 4 meters up. Like I said, the prefabricated reinforced concrete sections are lifted into place by...Sasuke." He still can't believe what he just witnessed; the boy looked like he just moved a bag of rice, not winded at all.
"And then we will bond them seamlessly with poured concrete, adding steel bars in between, making it a single, sturdy structure. If we have time and energy, we need to make the top angled inwards, embedded with jagged rebar and multiple layers of razor wire. This design is specifically to make climbing impossible and lethal to whoever may try."
"Amazing, let's get to work then."