Chapter 29: Reinforced Pineview Base
Over the past few days, Rick had been doing exhausting, repetitive, and dangerous work. Every day, he went out with Fulmen to map and loot various locations around Pineview Base. It wasn’t something urgent in the base’s schedule, but someone would have to do it at some point, and it was best to do it before winter arrived and before the Level 2 zombies started swarming out of the big cities.
Rick also remembered all the details of these locations, because in his other life, he had also done this work... Among the looted locations were isolated hunters’ cabins in the dense forest, summer homes of wealthy individuals, public and private clubs, and camping sites.
There were also small diners and restaurants on the side of the roads. However, that wasn’t all; this area also had numerous lumberyards and factories, which were located further away from the city due to the heavy pollution. No matter how insignificant the location, Rick would pass through them and fill his space bracelet with everything, leaving nothing behind.
While on these patrols, the little wolf had grown rapidly and was now the size of a horse. His gray fur resembled his mother’s, but the black lightning bolt mark on his right eye now stood out more. Needless to say, with his enormous size, he now had the strength of a true level 2 beast.
Despite his intimidating size, Fulmen now had his tongue hanging out and was breathing heavily. Anyone who looked at the wolf would feel sorry for him and try to pet his beautiful gray fur and give him water. The reason he was so tired was because he had to follow Rick as he moved like a blur, looting resources in the morning, and then rushed back to work in the afternoon to reinforce Pineview Base.
But today was a special day, not only had Rick looted and mapped the entire surroundings of the Base, but everyone’s hard work was coming to an end... As he slowly approached the old Village, the first thing he saw was a huge moat. Even a level 3 mutant like Rick would have a hard time jumping over the moat. And one of the reasons was that in addition to the huge moat, which was several meters wide, there was a wall made of logs and stones that was almost 4 meters high, blocking the entrance to the village.
In addition to the mighty wall, strategically placed watchtowers stood on the inside of the walls, keeping an eye on anyone who approached the base. As he crossed one of the drawbridges over the moat with Fulmen, Rick saw several villagers from the Village still digging inside the moat, trying to further increase its depth, which already exceeded more than 5 meters.
At first, Rick suggested a small moat, with the sole purpose of letting the snow fall during the winter without blocking the view of the towers, and preventing large animals from gaining a speed boost and easily crashing into the walls. But the villagers took this defensive measure seriously, and with everyone now being level 2 mutants, they used their renewed strength and almost infinite stamina to continue widening and deepening the moat whenever they could.
Inside the Base, fully enclosed high walkways connect the second and third floors of most of the houses and other important places like the hospital, all of which were also reinforced, eliminating the larger windows and replacing them with smaller ones, since sunlight was a luxury that no one else in this world would enjoy in the coming years...
All of the houses in the base also now had power, thanks to Ethan and his brother. It was also thanks to them that the installation of the hot water hydraulic system*, which also worked as heating, had already been implemented in 50 houses. And more would be implemented as time went on. After this, the focus of the builders’ workforce shifted to reinforcing the houses and the new elevated platform that ran across the base.
As for why only 50 houses had water and heat, it was because only 43 houses were occupied. Either because they had lost loved ones and didn’t want to live alone, or because they felt safer that way. Many people now live in a single house, so there was no urgency to create more...