RBCT Chapter 325: Rumors
Chapter 325: Rumors
At eight the next morning, when Evelyn Ford got up, Taylor Vance and Zion Lowell had already measured out the area needed for the log cabins.
Chet Lawrence was leading a team to dig up tree roots and level the ground. They were starting construction on the houses today, so everyone split into two teams. One team processed the lumber—measuring the required lengths for posts and beams, cutting them into sections with a chainsaw, sawing them into planks, and finally, smoothing them with a hand plane.
The other team was in charge of digging the foundations. The most difficult part of building a wooden house was the mortise and tenon joinery. Once the posts were erected and the beams nailed in place, the subsequent steps would be much easier.
Ronan Kendrick handled the chainsaw, neatly cutting the marked logs. Evelyn Ford used a saw to cut the planks, and Quincy smoothed them with a hand plane.
Everyone had their own role, and the assembly line was up and running.
While Immeasurable Mountain was a hive of orderly activity, Mount Caldera had been taken over by the military. All the bandits were escorted to the mines to dig for coal, and any unclaimed refugees were sent to the base to farm vegetables.
The military searched Mount Caldera top to bottom several times, uncovering hundreds of tons of vegetables, radishes, grain, medicine, and clothing, as well as dozens of cargo trucks and heavy-duty trucks.
But they found no weapons. The officer in charge concluded that the escaped bandits had made off with them and immediately dispatched an elite team to track them down.
In a hidden room in the mess hall, they also found five decomposed corpses. Beneath the hidden room was a massive morgue filled with dozens of desiccated bodies. From that point on, rumors that the Mount Caldera bandits drank blood and ate people began to spread.
In half a month, Immeasurable Mountain had completely transformed. A row of log cabins was already taking shape. All that was left was to lay the floors, install the windows, and set up the chimneys and fireplaces before the houses would be ready to live in.
For the past few days, everyone had been working on the fence. A large number of refugees had suddenly arrived in Fairgate and tried to enter Immeasurable Mountain. Drako and Nathan Xavier blocked them at the entrance. After causing a commotion for two days, they finally retreated back to Fairgate.
A loop of barbed wire was strung along the top of the fence, and Evelyn Ford sprayed a liberal amount of Poison Powder on it. But the powder would wash away whenever it rained. In the end, Evelyn sowed some thorn seeds on the inner side of the fence. The temperature on Immeasurable Mountain stayed between minus thirty-five and minus forty degrees Celsius, but it was relatively warmer here, so the chances of the seeds freezing to death were slim.
At night, Evelyn Ford and Ronan Kendrick would enter the space to till the land and sow seeds. The wheat they had planted earlier had already headed, and the corn had grown cobs. The black soil in the space was about thirty *mu* large. Besides grains and vegetables, Evelyn had also planted some fruit and grass.
Ten *mu* were allocated for rice paddies. Evelyn ran several hoses to channel water from the well into the fields. The well didn’t produce much water; it took three hours just for it to refill. Consequently, she could only plant half a *mu* of rice per day. Planting all ten *mu* was a considerable undertaking.
Working day and night without rest, the dark circles under Evelyn’s eyes grew heavier each day.
Ronan Kendrick had already harvested the vegetables from the garden patch. The medicinal herb field still needed to be tilled. Evelyn watched Ronan work, dozing off as she did.
"Evelyn, I think we could also plant some Dotties over here."
When he heard no response, Ronan glanced over. Evelyn was sitting on the ground, just about to fall asleep.
"Evelyn, you should go out and get some sleep."
"What did you say?" Evelyn jolted awake, her eyes bleary as she stared at Ronan.
"Do we need to sow the seeds?"
Ronan was both exasperated and amused. "No, we’re not. I said let’s go out and sleep. I’m tired."
Evelyn nodded quickly. "I’m tired too. But you looked so full of energy, I figured I had to stay and keep working with you."
Ronan flicked her on the forehead. "Let’s go, you poor thing."
After they left the space, Evelyn rolled over and snuggled into Ronan’s arms. "Alright, now I can sleep peacefully."
"Go to sleep. You can sleep in tomorrow morning," Ronan said, patting her back.
"Mmm, but tomorrow will probably be busy." Evelyn was already drifting off, her voice growing fainter.
"It won’t be. Just get some rest."
Evelyn wrapped her arms around his waist, nodded lightly, and then fell into a deep sleep.
—
Early in the morning, a large group of refugees appeared at the entrance to Immeasurable Mountain. They had come from Wexley in Varden Province. A month ago, an earthquake had struck Wexley, forcing many survivors to flee toward Oakhaven, The Southward, and Frelia. Many bases were at full capacity and had stopped accepting refugees, so the newcomers had to find their own shelter. However, most viable places were already occupied by those who had fled earlier. They had come to Fairgate after hearing that the area was uninhabited.
But to their surprise, hundreds of refugees had already flooded into Fairgate. So, they set their sights on Immeasurable Mountain.
Immeasurable Mountain was already enclosed by a fence and barbed wire, so the refugees couldn’t get in. They began to throw tantrums and wail at the entrance. Drako and Nathan Xavier were close to losing control of the situation and had to ask Officer Graham for help.
Officer Graham took Peter Owens and Miles Vaughn with him, using their weapons to drive away the refugees at the entrance. When the refugees saw the guns, they assumed it was a bandit lair and fled in terror. From that day on, the outside world knew that a new bandit lair had appeared on Immeasurable Mountain. When the military heard this news, they suspected the bandits who had escaped earlier were up to their old tricks again and sent dozens of soldiers to eliminate them.
Seeing the familiar olive-drab uniforms before them, everyone was thrilled. The military demanded to inspect all their belongings and check everyone’s identification.
Evelyn Ford stood beside Ronan Kendrick, watching as the soldiers searched every wagon, truck, and log cabin. They spent several hours turning everything upside down, but aside from some military knives and crossbows, they found no other weapons. Once they learned that the group was comprised of refugees from Rivenia, not bandits, they finally left.
"That scared me to death! I really thought they were going to kick us out of here." Wyatt Vaughn patted his chest in lingering fear. The others had also gotten quite a scare.
"Those refugees are despicable. We don’t let them in, so they call us bandits and bring the military down on us. It’s a good thing they didn’t find the guns."
"They probably weren’t looking for guns. I heard they’re looking for a type of drug," Miles Vaughn said, before glancing around secretively. "The bandit lair on Mount Caldera was actually a human experimentation lab. They developed a drug that could give ordinary people superhuman abilities, but it was stolen."
"I overheard some of the refugees talking about it. Apparently, the ones who were rescued were screaming for blood to drink. The military obviously couldn’t give them any, so a large number of them died. Some people suspect it’s some kind of viral infection."
"How terrifying! Was there really a human experimentation lab? Do you think all the people who suddenly went missing were captured for experiments?"
"Who knows? Anyway, there are a lot of different stories about Mount Caldera out there, and I don’t know which one is true. Some people say it was actually a cult stronghold. They believed the natural disasters were a punishment from the gods, and the bandits were capturing refugees to use as sacrifices to pray for the disasters to end and for good weather to return."
"That’s ridiculous. I’d have an easier time believing it was nature’s punishment," Wyatt Vaughn said, rolling his eyes.