Chapter 21 - Upgrade - Rabbits! (2/2)

”Are you asking or saying?” I said to myself.

”Really? Can we take them all?” she asked again.

”Yes, we'll put them in the 2nd floor of the barn.” I said.

”Yes! Wait, why the barn though?” she asked again.

”We'll eat them.” I said with a straight look in my face.

The look of shock, anger and despair she gave me when I said that was definitely memorable.

”Rabbits are a good source of protein; they can be easily cared for and they reproduce fast and-” I was cut off by Kaley with a pleading look.

”B-but! They look so cute! How can you eat that?” she protested.

”Is that a rhetorical question or are you looking for a recipe? I know tons.” I said again with a straight look in my face.

”No~!” she exclaimed.

A few laughs from the guys and after a few rounds of debating, we agreed that she could keep one that she named 'Bugs' and I told her not to name the other ones because it will be harder to let go when we start to eat them.

I marked each door appropriately then we headed to the four houses at the end of the gravel road. The houses are atop wooden poles stuck on the ground where the fishing area starts. There are a few wooden boats that could be driven by oars and there are also a few cages on the ground that is meant for roosters.

”The houses are built fine but I'm worried about these wooden poles submerged in the water. Give this time and it would start to rot and eventually collapse.” I said to myself.

I let them scout the houses as I stand guard outside. They quickly learned the procedures and though there is some corrections for the markings, everything was running smoothly. The trip to the small scrapyard was even more easy, after unlocking the gate, aside from all the different metal parts lying around, nothing seems to be out of place. The shack inside has a few scales for weighing the materials and a few logbooks for each shipment. We marked the gates as we lock them with our own locks and we went back to the compound to grab a few pushcarts that we also got from Puregold.

We first went back to the furthest house as we started to scavenge the place, Zardon followed us with the truck so we can grab more things for the compound. Jared stood guard with my uncle outside as we four started to rummage around.

”This is kinda exciting.” Kaley said.

Dong and Mark also smiled as they took item from item.

”Grab the essentials first, okay?” I reminded them. I first took the food and water available from each house. After that I checked the cupboards and the cabinets for any type of medicine. I also unhooked the gas tanks from their stoves and I took a few clothes and household supplies. We also took the roosters and some feed that is left outside their houses. We packed everything on the truck as I take a look at everything.

We managed to collect 37 cans of assorted food products ranging from sardines, corned beef, tuna, peas and corn. We haven't found much water because only one of the houses drink mineral water, we only got two gallons. That's understandable since most folks here get their waters from the tap which came from the dams. We didn't find any medicine. On the gas tanks we found 8 in total since most families would always keep a backup and four of those are actually full. I took a few articles of clothing mainly socks and shirts and Kaley found a few that could fit her and her sister since they've only brought a few weeks' worth of clothes. The roosters are five in total so we could bring them back for the other chickens to breed. There was a total of 10 sacks of feed for the chickens so that's a plus. We folded their cages and we placed them on those cartons with holes so we could transport them easily.