Chương 76: Magical Manure

Enzo walked up the driveway toward Jack's. The Distribution Center was open, the garage door raised, and tables set out front where people could line up. But at this time of day, there weren't many people. He was too late for the early breakfast rush, and too early for any midday supply runs. As he approached an empty spot at one of the tables, the woman seated behind it looked up.

"How can I help you, Mr. Locke?" she asked.

"Late breakfast?"

"Actually, I need to speak to Jack about the supply situation," he said.

"Where can I find her?" The woman jabbed a thumb over her shoulder, pointing into the garage.

"You can head on in. She'll be among the racks somewhere, taking stock."

"Thanks." Enzo stepped around the table and headed for the garage. As he went, he decided that tomorrow was the day. He'd put it off long enough, but the cane needed to be fixed. It wasn't short by a lot, but it was enough to be a nuisance. He should have fixed it long before now, but no day went by where he wasn't busy, almost constantly, with one bit of magic or another. Except he could no longer use that as an excuse.

Crystal mana could solve the problem within an hour, he just needed to figure out what material he was going to use to lengthen the cane. And that presented an interesting opportunity. As a Magus, he would be forced to rely on mana batteries for all the various types he couldn't naturally convert. There was no reason the cane couldn't be composed of individual segments made up of different materials capable of holding different mana types.

The challenge lay in being able to make physical contact with each battery in order to draw from them. Preferably without losing his cane for its intended purpose while doing so. With crystal mana, he might be able to shape each battery so they each had a tail that wound all the way up the cane and into the handle. But that would come later. For the first piece, he could just add the length to where the grip met the shaft. He would be able to reach it with his index finger without any difficulty.

The question was which mana type was the most important addition to his set. He hadn't managed to answer that yet, but he was tired of the cane being the incorrect length. Enzo squeezed between some boxes and started walking the length of the renovated garage. It was about three times as large as it originally had been, with racks of metal shelving set up at intervals. There were clipboards pinned to the end of each shelf, and it only took a glance to understand the system Jack was using.

She tracked the supplies by row, and required her team to sign out anything with a reason and the date and time. As he walked, the state of the supplies answered some questions. The settlement still had plenty of canned goods and kitchen staples. Fruits and vegetables. Fish. Soups. Rice and pasta. Salt, sugar, and spices. Cooking oil and soap. But with over one hundred and fifty people residing in the settlement, he could see why Jack was already beginning to subtly ration supplies.

And they were running noticeably low on other things. Toilet paper and hygiene products. Coffee and tea. Shampoo and conditioner. Chocolate, snacks, and soft drinks. The Doc had also made him aware that they were dangerously low on medications, but there was little anyone could do about that right now. Mill Valley and the surrounding cities, such as Strawberry where the 101s resided, had been thoroughly raided.

Not just by them, but also the Riders and the 101s, along with the many smaller surviving groups that were still holding out. He found the Quartermaster at the far end of the garage. Jack glanced up at him, then went back to counting.

"What do you want? I'm busy." Enzo believed her.

"I don't know if you've heard, but we're going to begin negotiations with the 101s today. While the focus will be on dealing with the Riders, another important topic is going to be trade. I wanted to get your take on what we might have to offer." Jack nodded, but she didn't so much as pause her work.

"Nothing." Enzo hesitated.

"Nothing at all?" She sighed.

"Look, Enzo, while under normal circumstances I would happily trade a bag of rice for a pack of toilet paper, the simple fact is that what we have in abundance isn't going to buy you any points with our new friends." Stolen story; please report.

"Humor me." Jack stood up from where she'd been counting packets of breakfast cereal on the bottom shelf and ran her fingers through her short hair.

"Buckets. Tools. Pig shit. Pelts. Wood. Scrap metal. Kitchen utensils and cookware. Batteries that don't work but our raiding teams still collected for some reason." She took a breath.

"I could go on, but what I can't give you is anything you see around you. Because while we still have plenty of certain things, like soap, that's only until we don't." Enzo nodded.

"And most of those are things the 101s will also have plenty of."

"Exactly." He raised an eyebrow.

"Pig shit?" Jack grimaced.

"Ruth tried to make tracking and storing the pig shit a Trade Guild issue. I shut that shit down hard." She glanced at him.

"Pun intended." That she was calling it the Trade Guild meant Val had already spoken to her about the idea, and that Jack must have agreed. Enzo smiled.

"I understand." He frowned.

"There's no reason we couldn't be making our own soap though." Jack perked up at that.

"We can? How?" Then her eyes narrowed.

"Using what supplies?"

"It's just fat or oil and lye with water. I remember that much from chemistry class." She shook her head.

"We need the oil for cooking—" Enzo raised a hand.

"We can limit it to oil that goes bad. Besides, the hunters should be collecting any leftover animal fat that doesn't get eaten." Jack relented, but the look on her face spoke volumes. It was obvious why she'd been chosen to safeguard the settlement's supplies.

"How do we get lye?" He frowned up at the ceiling.

"Wood ash, I think. I don't remember what type of wood though. Pops would know. I'll mention it to him later." Jack stared at him a moment.

"Well, I suppose we could trade the soap," she said begrudgingly, "as long as you're right about us being able to make more. Doubt they'll need it though." Enzo shrugged.

"Maybe not, but it's something I didn't have a few minutes ago." He paused.

"Now, what do we need most, that isn't food?"

Enzo made his way down the street, heading toward the other end of the settlement where entire backyards had been turned into gardening projects. Jack had started with a very small list. Toilet paper. Toothpaste. Tampons. She'd gone on to include fabrics, spools of cotton, wool, sewing and knitting needles. Fishing line, hooks, and nets, assuming they could spare any. Because even though their own fishing efforts were small, and required hiking all the way up to the lakes of Mt.

Tamalpais, fish still made up an important portion of their own food supplies. And after adding medication, something that came with its own list, it was pretty obvious that the settlement was soon to begin feeling what it really meant to be surviving an apocalypse. Still, they'd done well so far. Enzo crossed the front yard of one of the empty houses and headed down the side of the building.

On the other side of the fence ahead, he could hear people laughing and chatting, along with the occasional sound of a shovel striking ground. Pushing the gate open, he stepped through and found the backyard in chaos. The gardening team had torn everything up, and there were kids turning over the soil with hand trowels, digging out small rocks and roots, before discarding them on the growing pile against the back fence.

He watched for a moment while his mother and a few of the other ladies in the gardening club ran cord in grids across the yard, clearly mapping out spots for whatever they planned to grow once the ground had been prepared. His mother looked up from the far side of the yard and spotted him. She said something to the woman beside her, then made her way around the edge of the freshly turned soil, pulling her gloves off as she went. Enzo met her halfway.

"Sweetie, have you come to help with the yard work?" She looked over her shoulder at the chaos.

"Perhaps you can cast one of those little spells you have and make it all ready?" He held back a laugh.

"Sorry, Mom. I wish I could help, but anything I cast will just make it worse, I'm sure." She smiled.

"That's okay. Do you need me for something then?" He nodded.

"We're leaving in a couple of hours to meet with the leaders of the 101s. I'm trying to figure out what trade opportunities we can present to them. Not necessarily just things we have right now, but anything we think we might be able to provide in the future, too. I also want to get a feel for anything we need that they might be able to trade us."

"Ah, that's right. I heard all about the trip from your father last night." Her smile turned a little mischievous.

"I also heard that Signe stayed over."

"Mom, this is important."

"But I just think it's wonderful that the two of you are back together. Maybe your father and I will finally get some grandkids to take care of." Enzo groaned.

"We are not discussing this right now. I still need to talk to Ruth and Gerald after this." His mom patted his arm.

"Alright, sweetie. I'll take pity on you for now." She turned back toward the yard.

"What do you need to know?"

"Val was thinking that we might be able to offer fruit and veg in the near future, especially if Sumi is able to create a spell or formation to assist with it," Enzo said.

"Is she right?"

"Oh, yes. It's only been a little while, but even just the magical manure is making everything grow much bigger." He paused.

"Magical… manure?" Mom nodded.

"The big pigs produce the best fertilizer. We tested it, and the produce grows bigger if we use it. What we really need are more pigs, but to do that we need more feed."

"Do you have a list of what we should be able to trade within a few months?"

"Tell you what, sweetie. I'll put together that list while you go talk to poor Ruth, okay? She has a plan for the pigs, but someone else needs to organize it. After all, you can't expect a pregnant woman to go running about the settlement every day, can you?" Enzo blinked. He had no idea what she was talking about, but she was already gently guiding him back toward the gate, so he just nodded along.