novelraw Chapter 313: Joining
Chapter 313: Joining
To get to Immeasurable Mountain, they had to bypass the ruins of Fairgate. The path wasn’t easy, and there were no villages nearby. Everyone took out machetes and hoes from the shipping container to start clearing the way. The group of refugees behind them had actually followed.
Seeing this, Taylor Vance and Zion Lowell went over to speak with them.
When they returned, the six people had come over with them.
"They’re asking to follow us into Immeasurable Mountain."
Evelyn Ford frowned. "Why?"
Their group was made up of four men and two women: a man in his forties, two young men in their early twenties, a boy of thirteen or fourteen, a woman around thirty, and a young girl of seventeen or eighteen.
"We’ve been following you for a while. We can tell you’re all good people. We don’t want to go to Frelia, so we’d like to go into the mountains with you. The six of us just met on the road and formed a group, but I can guarantee we aren’t bad people."
The older man explained hurriedly, then pulled out an ID card that was broken in two and handed it to Evelyn Ford.
"Even though ID cards are useless now, this can prove my identity. I’m from Aeridor. My name is Chet Lawrence, and I used to be a lawyer."
"There’s plenty of open land around here. Why do you insist on following us?"
"We’re all refugees. If bandits come to rob us, or patrol soldiers come to make trouble, it would definitely be dangerous. The risk is lower if there are more of us. The age range in your group is very wide, so I believe you’re all good people."
Evelyn Ford sized up the people before her. They did seem rather honest. They hadn’t made any suspicious moves along the way and had, in fact, been even more cautious than her own group. After weighing the pros and cons, Evelyn didn’t reject them outright.
"How much space do you need?"
The older man glanced at the others behind him and held up one hand.
"Five hundred square meters?"
"No, no, fifty. Fifty square meters is enough."
Evelyn Ford narrowed her eyes but didn’t speak. She looked at Taylor Vance, handing the decision over to him to handle.
A glance at the time showed it was already three-thirty.
It was unclear what Taylor Vance said to them, but soon the group of six was taking tools from their pushcart and helping to clear the road. Everyone was fired up, wanting to reach Immeasurable Mountain before dark.
"What Chet Lawrence said earlier made a lot of sense," Taylor said. "Once we settle here, patrol soldiers will definitely come to collect supplies, and nearby bandits might come looking for trouble, too. With more people, the risk is lower."
Evelyn Ford understood his reasoning. She hadn’t planned on stopping them from entering the mountains anyway. Besides, she wanted to start a farm, and that required manpower. With just their group of ten, they couldn’t manage a large-scale operation.
"They can come into the mountains, but we still need to keep an eye on them. If anyone has ill intentions, they must be dealt with immediately."
At six-thirty in the evening, the road from Fairgate to Immeasurable Mountain was cleared. The large party marched into the mountains. Seeing the twenty-mu plain nestled behind two peaks, everyone was thrilled.
"From now on, this will be our home."
The twenty-mu plain was covered in fir and pine trees over ten meters tall. Because the high mountains in front blocked the wind and snow, there was very little snow accumulation here.
They unloaded the truck beds and the shipping container, planning to rest there for the night and start logging the next day.
Chet Lawrence brought his team over. Since they would all be living on Immeasurable Mountain from now on, everyone made simple introductions.
Chet Lawrence, forty-eight, former lawyer.
Drako, twenty-eight.
Nathan Xavier, twenty-six.
Raymond Shepherd, thirteen.
Yunnis Denton, thirty-six, former elementary school teacher.
Joelle Finch, eighteen.
"Do you want to build your own houses, or build with us? If you want to build your own, we’ll give you two hundred square meters on the south side, and you can move over there now. If you build with us, we’ll assign rooms after the houses are finished." Evelyn Ford ended up giving them an extra one hundred and fifty square meters to use for planting and raising animals.
"We’ll build with you." Chet Lawrence was especially excited to be able to join them.
"Good. Work starts tomorrow. We’ll gather at eight-thirty in the morning. We need to clear one mu of trees to the north to fence off a temporary living area. All the trees that are cut down must be stacked properly and not cut into smaller pieces."
"Ronan Kendrick and I are going out for supplies tomorrow. We’ll be back in ten days at the earliest, half a month at the latest. If any bandits show up, deal with them directly."
Everyone nodded immediately. "Understood."
Although they had joined, they still ate and slept separately. While the others were cooking in the camp, Evelyn Ford took a walk around Immeasurable Mountain to get a general sense of the terrain.
"There’s a swamp in the back. It’s frozen over, but if we clear it out, we can turn it into a pond. But don’t touch it for now. A frozen swamp is very dangerous; you could fall in."
Evelyn Ford mentally listed the things she needed to bring back from this trip: chainsaws, gasoline, saws, scrapers, pipes, faucets, a micro-tiller...
She had some of these items in her dimensional space and could take them out after putting on a show of acquiring them. But some things she would still have to trade for at the borderlands or the base in The Southward.
After dinner, everyone gathered around the campfire and began planning the construction project for Immeasurable Mountain.
"My idea is to turn this place into a farm, developing both livestock and crops. On this trip, I’ll trade for some cold-resistant grain seeds. If any of you need anything, you can tell me."
Hearing that Evelyn Ford wanted to start a farm, everyone except Officer Graham and Taylor Vance was a little surprised.
"Is twenty mu of land enough?"
Evelyn Ford smiled. "That’s twenty mu of flat land. We haven’t even counted the surrounding steep slopes yet."
"Miss Ford, I’d like to trade for some things, but I don’t have anything to offer right now. Could I write you an IOU?" Joelle Finch asked quietly, raising her hand.
Evelyn Ford nodded. "You can. If you want to work on the farm in the future, you can use your work hours to pay off the debt."
Joelle Finch nodded. "I’m willing. I can do anything."
"What do you want to trade for? Clothes? Toiletries?"
Joelle Finch’s face turned a little red, and Evelyn Ford understood instantly.
"I know what you need. How many?"
"Three packs."
"I’ve noted it down. Anyone else?"
"Miss Ford, I’d also like to trade for three packs." Hearing Yunnis Denton also call her Miss Ford, Evelyn Ford smiled and nodded at her.
"Of course."
The men didn’t seem to have anything they needed to trade. After chatting for a while longer, Evelyn Ford was about to head back to the truck bed when Chet Lawrence suddenly called out to her.
"I’d like to trade for a razor."
Chet Lawrence’s beard was indeed thick, and his hair was even longer than Evelyn Ford’s.
Evelyn Ford figured a razor would be easy enough to trade for, so she agreed.
Back in the truck bed, Evelyn Ford checked the supplies in her dimensional space. The micro-tiller, gasoline, and chainsaws wouldn’t require any extra trading.
The true purpose of her trip was simply to get a feel for market prices and, while she was at it, to investigate the situation in The Southward and Frelia.