"Are we going to burn the bodies?"
Daryl asked Rick while the two loaded another body onto the back of the truck.
"No, we'll just bury them." Rick responded with a strain in his voice due to what they are carrying.
Bam!
Roughly throwing the dead body onto the back of the vehicle, Daryl looked at Rick and asked after. "Why not?"
"Too dangerous, the smoke might attract unwanted guests to our location and we don't want that. Not until we finish building the wall and cleaning this place up. This place needs more fortification than just a wall. We also need to add wall walks and possibly watch towers along the ramparts." Rick explained while grabbing another corpse through its shirt.
Daryl bent his body down and grabbed the legs while asking. "The heck is a wall walk?"
"It's the walkway on top of the walls, man. How do you not know this?" Rick smiled as they threw the corpse onto the pile.
Bang! Bang!
Rick smacked the back of the truck and yelled. "You're good to go!"
The group is working with two pick up trucks, picking up at least ten bodies depending on their size. So far, the two trucks had already made four or five trips each and transported over eighty bodies to the dumping site.
"We would have finished this faster if that bastard Shane hadn't stolen the red truck." Daryl complained out of exhaustion.
Rick just chuckled and lightly shook his head. "Forget it, what's done is done."
Daryl remained silent after that and the two continued working in silence. Though that silence did not last long as what Daryl said next made Rick obviously uncomfortable.
"Would you be able to kill him when you see him next time?"
While sorting out the bodies according to their size, Rick did not immediately respond to Daryl's words as it's clear that he's thinking deeply about it.
"I..I think it would depend on the circumstance at that time."
"What if he killed one of us, and the people demanded for his life? If you're not able to do it, just ask me. I won't hesitate to drop him if it conflicts you." Daryl suggested without any hesitation. He has a good impression of Shane, but his departure left a bad taste in his mouth when he abandoned them and even joined another group that might potentially become their enemies in the future.
Rick wanted to say something when Daryl interrupted him. "Even if you won't do it, Michael would not let Shane go if he causes harm to this place."
His words made Rick pause in his tracks as he remembered the report he received when they arrived not long after Michael left to look for them.
Some idiot once tried to assault a woman two days before his return. When the news reached his ears, he captured the culprit and fed him to the walkers, who died screaming in agony.
"You remember what happened to that guy I told you before, right? It did not even take long from when he returned and he did such a crazy thing. Everyone was on edge that day, even those of the unruly bunch became well behaved. It was truly crazy back then, I've never thought he had such a crazy side of him" Daryl chuckled. He wasn't really bothered with the action Michael took that day. He is someone who knows that the only answer to violence is also violence.
Since a lasting peace can only be achieved if you answer them with the same treatment, or something way worse.
"Yeah, I still remember that man's scream to this day. Shit terrifies me." Oscar suddenly joined the conversation when heard them.
While this group is discussing something related to Michael, the excavation group on the other hand are still busy digging deeper into the earth, and those trucks coming from the other group just kept dumping the bodies on a corner until it turned into a small hill.
The excavation had a lot more people compared to the other one, and their large number boosted their digging speed as they had already managed to dig a three meter deep and five or so meters wide hole and it's still expanding.
"Everyone, let's make the hole wider this time. It will be easier and less tiring." Hershel ordered after he and T-Dog dropped another body near the hole.
"Got it." Jack answered, and along with those carrying pickaxes like him. They immediately started working on scraping the walls while the rest dealt with the excess dirt and out of the hole.
"I never thought I would have a day where I'd bury bodies in huge numbers. It's like we just committed a mass genocide you know." Said the survivor to his companion and with an uncomfortable chuckle along with it.
"Yeah.." His companion replied casually, but then a thought crossed his mind. It made him pause in his work and turned to look at his friend. "How about I write about what happened today? Maybe even major and minor events that will happen in the future."
Jack, who's overhearing the conversation between the two couldn't help but raise an eyebrow in interest. 'That's actually a pretty good idea.'
"If you want to do that, then you'll need Rick's or Michael's approval on that." T-Dog happened to overhear them and immediately advise them what to do.
"Why do we need to do that? It's just writing down possibly what might become history in the future." Asked the survivor who brought up the subject, looking confused.
T-Dog shook his head at her and responded. "It's because that thing you thought of.. was already in the plan before you even got here. They were already working on it, so you might want to have a talk with them and if you're lucky, they might assign you to work as the librarian on the library that Michael is planning to establish. I'm just not sure when that will happen though."
Jack, who was working quietly, immediately raised an eyebrow when he heard what T-Dog said. It wasn't just him who was listening, the others in the group were too and had their interest piqued by the job title.
A job that many people weren't even the least bit interested in pre-apocalypse, but now, they feel like becoming a librarian suddenly sounds pleasant in their ears.
'A library huh. It seems like he's someone who also values knowledge. It is a good step in establishing a new society. A library will become very important in the future, especially in established safe zones since the internet won't exist anymore. That is if there's still someone out there who'd be interested in powering it up.' Jack feels more and more satisfied that their decision to come here was a good idea, though he somewhat does not like Michael's ruthless method of punishment, but he understands that they're necessary in establishing order.
'Michael… such an interesting lad indeed. I keep hearing good things about him, especially the story of how he fought off a herd by himself. Makes you wonder if there's any truth in it at all. I'd like to see him in action to see if they're just boasting his achievements or if he's the real deal, favorably side by side of course.'
Though he still does not trust him since they never really got to know each other since Michael kept leaving camp all the time.