Doomsday America.

Chapter 292 A Lord's Day

It was 6:52 a.m. that day.

Gavin gently stroked Nikita's belly in the hall, his heart pounding with excitement.

Even with all his excitement, Gavin still had a lot to do. He gently rubbed Nikita's tummy one last time, then leaned close to her ear and said, "Nikita, you rest here. I still have some things to do."

"Um... umm, I understand."

Nikita blinked in confusion, watching Gavin leave the sofa and walk towards the front door.

On the second floor, a group of workers who had been transferred from Ranch 6666 to Gavin's Farm were solemnly carrying Granny Anne's body out of the room and placing it in the hall. Gavin then left the manor and went to Steve and the others who were tending to the horses at the manor gate, and said...

"Steve, Edward, Li Qing, come with me. We're going to... find some suitable coffins to make one for Annie." "Okay."

Steve nodded silently, then mounted his horse.

Gavin also came to Octavian's side and nodded to Edward, who was already packing up his tools in the distance.

As for Li Qing, he was a little confused; he hadn't done any tree-cutting work in a long time.

However, he happened to be loitering near the door, and Gavin saw him and casually pulled him over to work.

As for Eugene, this fellow was on guard duty from four to six. After finishing his previous tasks, he went home to catch up on sleep, and probably wouldn't wake up again until around 7:40 or 7:50. Anyway, Gavin and his group of four mounted their horses, carrying traditional saws and woodcutting axes, and leisurely headed towards the nearest forest. As they rode, Steve couldn't help but grip the reins of his white horse and whisper to Gavin.

"Boss, even the master and mistress didn't need coffins. Wouldn't it be too much of a formality for us to prepare one for Annie?" "The situation was different then, Steve."

Hearing Steve's slightly dissatisfied words, Gavin shook his head expressionlessly.

He knew Steve's character; it wasn't that Steve was unwilling to prepare a coffin for Annie.

However, Steve's cowboy nature was hard to change. As the Gavin family's chief cowboy, he could handle strangers with ease, but when facing the owners of 6666 Ranch, he couldn't let go of his competitive mentality. "Why doesn't our ranch's old owner even have a coffin, while you, Anne Bonnet, have one? Are we Gavin's family inferior to your Bonnet family?!" That's right, that was Steve's thought. He didn't even bother to hide it, simply turning his horse around and snorting at the 6666 Ranch cowboys carrying Anne's body into the hall. Gavin, watching Steve's childish behavior, shook his head with amusement and said...

"Steve, calm down, you bastard! We even prepared a coffin for Simon, who died at the hands of a bear. Why isn't there one for Annie?" "It's not a question of whether Annie deserves it or not, but whether we have the resources to spare."

"When I buried my parents, the environment was still relatively stable, fraught with risks, and there were only a handful of us. We also had countless emergencies to deal with, so we simply couldn't spare the time to prepare anything for them." "And now that conditions are better, damn it, I can't exactly dig them up again, put them in coffins, and bury them again, that would be a real disturbance and utter disrespect." "As for now, with more and more people in the camp, such a somber and sacred event as a funeral naturally deserves more attention than in the early days of the apocalypse, to appease and unite the camp's members." "Besides, we don't need to carve anything for Annie's coffin; we'll just collect some planks and make a simple coffin." "Stop being so temperamental, you jerk! Wait, we don't need to go any further. How about that oak tree?"

At this point, Gavin raised his hand and pointed to an oak tree not far away.

Upon seeing the location of the oak tree, Steve snorted and then nodded slightly.

Oak is a common coffin material in Texas. Besides oak, other common hardwoods used in Texans include hickory and cherry. Oak and hickory are the most common trees on Gavin's Farm; either type of wood is acceptable, there's no particular preference. Looking at the location of the oak tree, Edward pondered for a moment, then spoke:

"Boss, you made a good choice. That location is exactly where Simon first encountered the black bear."

"If we're lucky, the sound of chopping down trees might lure out other bears. That way, we can not only eliminate one threat, but also kill a few more bears to avenge Simon." With that, Edward stopped his horse at the edge of the forest and tied the reins to a nearby tree.

The others all stopped, while Gavin nodded slightly as he tied up his horse.

"That's what I was thinking too. If we could hunt a few more bears, I could use the black bear's head as a sacrifice and the bear's claws to nourish Nikki." "However, black bears might not even appear. After all, Martin has already explored this forest since Simon died and confirmed that there are no other wild bears on the farm. I trust Martin's judgment more." Gavin shrugged and then took out a long axe from his saddlebags.

Carrying an axe, he approached a Texas red oak tree that was about thirteen meters tall and used the blade of the axe to mark it as ready to be felled. Then, Gavin waved to the three men who approached.

"I'll handle cutting down the tree myself. You guys wait and see how you cut the planks. Oh, and stay away from this tree, or you'll get hit by the falling wood."

"Hmm, we wouldn't do something that stupid, boss."

Edward chuckled and patted Gavin on the back, then walked away from Gavin with Steve and Lee Sin.

Gavin, meanwhile, picked up his axe and began to slowly chop down the Texas red oak tree, which was over 0.6 meters in diameter.

Tap, tap, tap.

The axe fell evenly, Gavin's strength was great, and the position of the axe was also very skillful.

Before long, the red oak tree was already leaning to one side.

With the final few blows of the axe, the red oak tree, over half a meter thick, collapsed completely, creating quite a stir at the edge of the forest, sending countless birds fluttering into the sky. Even Fokkin and Wuni, perched on Gavin's shoulders, soared into the air.

After the tree fell, Gavin put away his axe and stood aside, watching Steve and the other two busily cut the tree into sections and then saw it into suitable planks. While Gavin chopped down the tree, Steve and the other two stood guard beside him.

While Steve and his two companions were busy, Gavin would rest his right hand on his revolver and stand guard for them.

But even after the planks for the coffin were basically ready, the wild bear that Gavin was waiting for did not appear.

Sure enough, Martin, as a hunter, was quite reliable. The bear that killed Simon was a lone wolf, the kind that appeared out of nowhere. It had no family on the farm, let alone a mother bear or cubs.

It's likely that the increasingly active activities of zombies in the wild have affected the original habitats of many wild animals, which is why the black bear abandoned its original territory and fled all the way to the vicinity of the farm, where it ended up dying together with Simon. Therefore, there really isn't a second bear to be found on the farm for the time being.

And so, around eight o'clock, Gavin and his three companions dragged the planks across the increasingly verdant meadow back to the manor. By this time, more than half of the manor's servants had woken up.

Logically, eight o'clock should have been the start of work, but last night's party was too lively, and few of them could get up on time; even the astronauts were still asleep. As for those who were awake, upon learning of Annie's death, they, like every Texan, spontaneously gathered in a corner of the hall, praying around Annie's body. Funerals in Texas are essentially community events; when someone dies, the entire community participates. They place the coffin and body in the main house for the entire night, and then neighbors take turns keeping vigil with the deceased's family to ward off evil spirits trying to possess the body. Of course, evil spirits don't exist; it's just tradition.

In short, when Gavin and his men returned with the planks, the men gathered around Anne's body and prayed.

Seeing the sad expressions on his men's faces, Gavin pursed his lips.

While there are certainly no shortage of carefree guys in the camp, there are even more sentimental ones, which is a good thing.

Together with Gavin and the other helpers who came to assist, they pieced together the wooden planks they had brought back to make a coffin.

They spent extra time giving the coffin a simple polishing and even carving some patterns and designs. Then, they carried the coffin back to the manor, placed Anne inside, and covered her with a soft white blanket.

With Anne's body laid to rest, all that remained was for Corbin Bonnet to keep vigil.

Anne will be buried in the camp cemetery tomorrow, and Corbyn will not be able to sleep from now until the burial.

The dead are still dead, but the living always have their own work to do.

This morning was a rest day, so everyone got up late and ate breakfast in a haphazard way. Even past nine o'clock, some people were still getting up to eat. Gavin sat on the sofa, chatting with Thomas about the progress of various tasks at the camp over the past week, while also dealing with the various minor troubles that had arisen. As soon as there are more people, the troubles increase, and conflicts begin.

Every now and then, people would come to Gavin, asking him to arbitrate certain matters on their behalf.

For example, someone touched a woman's butt, and the woman came to complain.

Or perhaps someone is lazy at work and gets reported by their colleagues.

And then there was someone who saved some fruit at dinner, and someone else secretly ate it, so he came to complain...

In short, this is a tradition in Western culture. As a lord, handling various trivial matters for his people and arbitrating disputes is Gavin's duty. Gavin doesn't find this troublesome, because when his men seek his help, it means they truly consider him their lord. However, Gavin has some concerns.

With entertainment options dwindling, the campers are starting to resemble a medieval lifestyle...

In short, after dealing with the problems all the way until about 10:30, someone in the astronauts finally woke up.

Unsurprisingly, the first person to fully sober up was Ivan, who was used to drinking heavily.

Even when he arrived in the lobby, he was still carrying a bottle of whiskey, taking small sips every now and then. He walked into the lobby with the drink and waved to Gavin from afar.

Good morning, boss!

When he said "boss," he looked a little unaccustomed to it, but he was fine once he sat down.

He casually sat down on the sofa to Gavin's left and looked at Gavin and Thomas.

"I'm almost sober now, but I can't give up the alcohol. Damn it, I'm really worried that if I don't drink enough, I'll eventually turn into one of those filthy, ugly monsters!" "Of course, I'll try my best not to get so drunk I can't work. After all, I need to help out at our camp, boss." "What can I do at our camp? Besides spaceflight, I'm also a good carpenter. All the furniture at Big Goose's house was handmade by me; it's one of my hobbies." "Huh?"

Hearing this, Gavin, who was mediating between the two, looked at Big Ivan with amusement.

Then, he held up his hand to Big Ivan, signaling him to wait a moment, before turning back to his two men. "Even if you two haven't been in the camp long, you should know my rules. After all, from the first day you joined, I laid out all my extremely simple rules for you, requiring you to watch them!" "So, fucking, where the hell did you two get your marijuana?!"

"What's worse, after you two found marijuana, not only did you not enjoy smoking it, but you actually came after me for the distribution of the marijuana!" "How dare you, you bastards!"

At this point, Gavin gripped a small bag of marijuana in his hand and slammed it hard into the faces of the two men in front of him.

These two were newcomers to the Granite Beach camp. They hadn't been there long, but the stupid things they did were so professionally stupid that Gavin had never seen anything so stupid! So, before the two idiots in front of him could reply, Gavin turned to Thomas, who was listening and acting as his advisor.

"Thomas, call William over here!"

"Yes, sir."

Thomas casually got up and went to contact William using a walkie-talkie from a distance.

Meanwhile, Gavin gave the two idiots who had started fighting over marijuana a snort of annoyance, telling them to get out of the way. As the two idiots stood fearfully in the corner of the hall, awaiting the final decision, Gavin turned to Big Ivan and said with a wry smile, "Sorry to make you laugh, Ivan. Since the camp has grown, the number of idiots at home has also increased. It's a real headache." "Haha, boss, that's a happy problem. After all, population represents the camp's ultimate productivity, doesn't it?"

As he responded, Big Ivan raised the bottle and took a swig.

After taking a sip, he exhaled the smell of alcohol and continued speaking to Gavin with a smile.

"So, boss, I'm now part of the camp's productivity too. What can I do? No matter how big or small, all work is for survival, and I'm looking forward to it." After saying that, Ivan looked at Gavin expectantly.

Gavin glanced worriedly at the bottle of liquor in Ivan's hand and rubbed his head in frustration.

The astronauts have indeed returned, that's true, but for a short time, they all need to become heavy drinkers.

After all, their first priority after being infected with the zombie fungus was to prevent themselves from turning into zombies as much as possible.

But how long does it take for the zombie fungus to cause the final mutation?

There's no precise figure for this timeframe yet, but based on the timing of the astronauts' launches, it's safe to assume it won't exceed two months. After all, the time between the last astronauts landing on the space station and the full-blown zombie crisis was roughly two months.

So, for the next two months, none of the astronauts will be able to put down their strong liquor.

I wonder if the astronauts will become complete alcoholics after these two months...