Getting a fire started was easy thanks to the striker in my camping bag, though I did lament not being able to show off how to make and use a fire stick, waiting for the first pot of water to boil was a bit of a harder ask. I did get to spend the time talking and learning about Matilda though, turns out she was the same old lady I'd helped carry in several packages of water about a month before the Event. She also proved to have a far greener thumb than I did, harvesting several onions from her now wild garden as well as several pounds of dandelion greens.
During this time Jerry nervously returned wearing a leg warmer on his tail and sweat bands around his forelegs, I simply smiled and directed him to help Damian recover wood. When the water was finally boiling I poured it over the catfish, using the padded gloves Matilda had provided in my mouth to avoid burning, watching the color change before using the edge of my knife to start scraping off the slime until the skin turned completely white, making sure to pay special attention to the tail. While I did that I let Matilda get started on a second pot of water to start cooking the rice that would eventually get mixed with the beans and bits of fish. I had to stop to go get one of the old towels out of my place to clean both myself and the knife off after a while. I had forgotten just how slimy these bastards got, it was extra unpleasant while you were holding it with your mouth!
With that finally done I got to cutting off the head which sounded almost exactly like trying to cut down a tree when it came to chopping through the thing's spine. I finally removed the liver and put it in a bowl of vinegar to soak for about an hour or so as Matilda finally began to cook the rice. I quickly lopped off the fish's collar and ran my knife down the spine to begin cutting off fillets, the size and lack of hands made it a bit trickier. About the time Matilda began adding the beans to her rice both Jerry and a very tired Damian carried in their tenth load of wood.
"Please tell me that's enough," the little dino panted violently.
"It should be fine for right now guys," I said, we'd likely need a bit more but Damian looked ready to pass out. "Though I might need you two to go gather a bit more later."
"Could you take over for me Damian?" Matilda asked sweetly, "It's ever so hard to properly stir the pot with these bug legs and being so close to the fire is rather unpleasant."
"Yeah, yeah sure," Damian sighed, moving to take over the pot while Matilda flooded the little lizard with thanks and instructions.
"Any more orders for me or am I allowed to finally take a smoke break?" Jerry grunted.
"If you could go check to see whatever is pacing around the parking lot is a person or not that would be great." I stated, as I started a third fire under the cooking tray. Adding oil that was still mostly good by the thanks of being unopened and in the back of a pantry before laying the cuts of catfish fillet on it to cook. "I'm pretty sure it's a person though, I doubt a monster that big would be acting so shy."
It did turn out to be another person, a gecko the size of a flatbed who nonetheless seemed like she'd pass out from making eye contact. Nevertheless, I required her to get dressed before joining the cookout, though I did offer her the robe from an old Halloween costume since it looked like she might cry. After her the sounds and smells of food prep ended up attracting six more people and a group of snake headed jackal things that kept their distance but watched hungrily. I was right on the money of it taking around two hours to properly prepare both fish and all the other fixings, the gar in particular was a hassle as the damned things hide could work as decent Cat 1 bullet proof armor. I was unironically considering trying to tan the thing's hide and turn it into armor for about half the gathered group. I tossed the offal organs to the jackal things that jumped on it without hesitation before finally moving on after eating their fill.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
When everything was done we had a massive feast of rice, mixed with beans, onions, catfish, and liver drizzled with fillet drippings, tomato, fish bone, and onion soup, topped off of course with salted fish fillets with a large salad of dandelion greens and onions. I heard a lot of happy animal noises as our little zoo of people dug in and began to talk to each other. Most of them were from the cluster of apartment complexes, and had been sticking close to their homes either hoping for help to show up or hoping that their roommates/family would appear. A couple of those gathered, like Rumi, a woman who now looked like a shire horse that had been raised on a diet of steroids and whey proteins with teeth like a wolf, had basically been running blind in a panic until they collapsed and followed their nose here. By the time everyone had eaten their fill, and a couple of unexpected surprises such as our shy gecko girl's throat lighting up like a magnesium searchlight, only about a hundred pounds of salted gar was left. Even bones had been crunched up and eaten, or in my case swallowed whole, by our eleven hungry beasties.
It had at least done wonders for spirits as everyone was now behaving much more human with each other, chatting about jobs, family members, 'yesterday's' news, and even the rather nice weather. Even Jerry was having a completely cordial conversation with the gecko girl about books that seemed to be getting her to open up. Sadly there was more to do now that everyone had had a bite to eat and we were burning daylight. Slithering over to the still shining stainless steel poles of the volleyball court I whacked my tail against it several times producing a loud metallic 'tong' each time.
Conversation quickly died as everyone turned to look at me, a bit of the old stage fright hit, but I had more important things to worry about than a group of near strangers I wouldn't even be knowing for all that long. "Thank you all for coming to our little cook out, I hope you all enjoyed the food." a small murmur of mirth and smiles, "However, we still have a lot to get done before the day is over, first and foremost is deciding if we are even going to stay here." A murmur of confusion, "I know a lot of us have been living here for years and these complexes actually have a lot going for them. They are either mostly gated off or fully gated, they are close to both the river, the train tracks and the freeway. They have large courtyards we can easily convert into farms or grazing fields, and they are near large amounts of wood, water, and clay. However, they are all small apartments that some of us might have trouble fitting into, especially if we end up getting bigger down the line. Also being close to the freeway and tracks has the downside that other people, who might not be well intentioned, can find us easily."
"So you're suggesting we just give up on them because of a few maybes!?" Jerry shouted angrily, clearly trying to play office politics and undercut me.
"What I am suggesting," I corrected him with a glare, "Is that we consider other options. About fifteen minutes down the road is those newer rich houses behind proper brick walls that are all easily four times the size of these apartments, they have their own lakes, creeks, and ponds behind those walls, though some of them might have dried up, they are near both River Legends Park and the dump, as well as having plenty of woodlands immediately nearby. However they are likely to have several people who are already living there and might not be pleased to have new neighbors moving in." I could see several excited murmurs as the people who'd been living in small cheap apartments considered living in upper middle class housing."
"Also to consider is Cattle Rustler's stadium." I continued, "It's got space in spades so even the largest of us could easily move about there. It also has a large protected field and nearby water sources, not to mention literally hundreds of shops and malls to plunder for supplies and luxuries. It also has massive underground storage and is fairly defensible, and no one has a home immediately next to it so no one will be living there. However, it is a massive, visible, well known location and may be targeted by others with the same idea so we may end up having to fight people for it." Again some thoughtful murmurs, I specifically heard a couple people mention 'box seats' likely thinking of the luxuries they could have."
"The last possibility is one I personally think has the least potential, but it's a trope in these sorts of situations for a reason, the mall." several chuckled at one even miming being a zombie. "It also has a ton of space for us, a ton of very useful stores for materials nearby, clear sight lines for almost a kilometer in each direction, and lots of luxuries. However it has no water sources, no nearby fields, though we could turn the parking lot into one with some effort, and there are a lot of nearby houses and other apartments as well as the freeway, so we will be getting visitors if we go there."
"Now before we decide, keep in mind all of you are free to go." several blinked as if never even having considered the option, "I'm not going to force you to stay because you ate some fish and rice, if one of those places sounds better to you than whatever the group decides, more power to you, go on and head there, it was nice meeting you. For those who want to stick together I'd hear where you'd like us to set up our home base."
And so the debates began.