Alexis moved on to Bastiaan, it was close to sunset, and they had dressed all nineteen other cattle into parts they could carry to the house for further processing, Bastiaan the last carcass to be dressed. Everyone was partially covered in blood, the more experienced dressing the animals and the rest taking turns carrying the provisionally dressed animals back to the house. Alexis initiated the cut near the bull’s scrotum, struggling to get her knife through the hide that seemed significantly tougher than it should be. Futilely sawing at the hide covering the bull’s belly, she called over John and Mike to inspect the phenomenon and possibly provide some assistance.
Besides his humongous size, Bastiaan’s hide was incredibly tough, in Mike’s opinion tougher than the leathery hide of a crocodile. John also assumed that his Shield had probably been incredibly strong, deflecting or absorbing some of the shots that must have hit him until it failed locally, allowing the storm of fire to ravage his chest area and the vital organs within. Eventually they managed to open the body cavity and Alexis dove chest deep in viscera pulling out the intestines. Here too, similar to all previous carcasses’, the single large stomach was filled with a combination of ground wood, mulch and greens, not remotely resembling the content and form of the multipart stomachs usually part of a bovine’s anatomy.
It had become quickly obvious that the animals had mutated significantly, able to process any vegetation they came across, utilising it to fuel their impressive growth. Alexis didn’t want to contemplate how strong they would have become if the party hadn’t taken care of them today. After removing the intestines she and Mike cleanly stripped the hide, being analysed as valuable, before Mike rolled it up and attempted to carry it to the house, requiring John’s help just to get the heavy bundle onto his shoulder. Alexis considered that they maybe should have processed Bastiaan first, as her belated Analyse showed a very rich glow, compared to the more subdued glow of the cow she had the presence of mind to Analyse initially. “Well, probably good to remember in future that higher Levels means more value,” she thought before starting to cut the hindquarters into manageable pieces.
Processing Bastiaan took the better part of an hour, everyone now helping with the process and well aware that once they had completed the field dressing the real work would just begin. They still had to butcher all the carcasses and prepare them for smoking and drying. Fortunately John had insisted that they loot a major amount of salt, vinegar and spices when they raided the mall. His foresight something everyone in the group could now be thankful for. Provided that they’d be able to process and preserve the literal tons of meat they now had available they wouldn’t want for protein in the near future.
Although everyone contributed to the process, the work remained exhausting due to its sheer volume alone. Every single animal was taken apart, deboned and the various cuts were then allocated by the more experienced butchers for further processing into suitable sizes for either drying or smoking while the prime rump and fillet cuts of some of the animals were moved to the cold room, which Mike and John had modified to run on evaporative cooling, for consumption in the near future. Alexis parted meat from bone, split up cuts along various muscle groups, removed the prevalent sinews and carried the heavy chunks to John, Carmen and Mike, the process repeated again and again, unaware of how many animals she had processed so far.
By the time they had finished preparing all the meat for preservation the sun was rising once again and everyone was beyond exhausted. As if they hadn’t had enough on their plate, earlier during the night Miguel had had the bright idea to carry the offal down to the river and try to bait some scavengers into range for an easy rifle shot. The idea had been successful beyond his wildest dreams, and everyone had to take turns to eliminate the massive variety of mutated carnivores and even prior herbivores attracted to the site. The beasts lacked any semblance of caution and even approached while the sounds of a previous shot still echoed from the surrounding mountains.
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The results were eye opening, the intermittent extermination of the numerous animals showing Alexis that she had vastly underestimated the amount of wildlife present, leaving her to wonder why they hadn’t been attacked at the house so far. A question she would raise to Mike and John after she had a bath and nap, she decided.
As a result of the ongoing killing of the great variety of lower levelled creatures during the night, each member of the party had also received a significant amount of experience. Alexis and Kira had received another 249 experience, Alexis hitting Level 8 and nearly levelling up to Level 9. It was high time that she spoke to John as she really wanted to discuss her way forward and discuss several issues she had been thinking about.
While moving to the pool for her bath Alexis considered that it probably would be better if the whole group could get together to discuss further development of their stats, possibly find out who would tend to what role and maybe coordinate effective specialisation paths for a select few. Was it better for everyone to reach at least reach a solid base of power in each statistic before specialisation could be considered or could they start specialising stat allocation at this early stage already. How effective was personal training, she had gathered a few points in Strength, Will and Energy during the last days, but was unclear if the others showed similar gains, maybe it was time to call another meeting.
Recognising that her thoughts were somewhat muddled due to her level of exhaustion Alexis remembered her current priority was first cleaning up and then getting some sleep. She wasn’t on watch until late in the afternoon and everyone not on watch was currently planning to take a nap after the long night in any event.
Alexis sighed in satisfaction as she slowly slid into the pool, clothes and all. The water was refreshing after the bloody and hot work of butchering all the meat, dissolving the accumulated blood and grime on her clothes to some little extent. She would need to wash them properly later, but for now this would suffice. Alexis stripped off her clothes in the pool, roughly rinsing them before throwing them on a pile outside, luxuriating in the feel of the cold water caressing her limbs. The pool wasn’t heated, but the hot temperatures of a sunny summer morning made the cold water into a luxury she greatly appreciated.
An indeterminable time later Alexis managed to rouse herself sufficiently to begin the arduous process of leaving the soothing waters, her skin less shrivelled than she would have expected. Forgoing any towelling or getting dressed, she grabbed the soggy pile of clothes and strung them over the fence surrounding the pool area before heading off to bed in her undies and bra. Alexis reflected on the question of how quickly she had gotten used to the experience of being partially nude before basically strangers, the communal living and its various restrictions on bodily privacy becoming the norm, the irrelevancy of shame in the context of survival more refreshing than not.
She had always been proud of her body; athletic and toned while still feminine but Alexis couldn’t remember when last she had spared any consideration for her looks, ensuring continued survival taking prevalence over the irrelevant consideration thereof. In retrospect, the time before Initiation, although only a week ago, now felt like a lifetime ago. She hoped that eventually they could once again be able to focus on the finer things in life, but for now their goal would remain to become stronger to ensure their collective survival in this brave new world.
Alexis headed to John’s room, checking whether he was awake. John was lying on his back, pillow over the head and snoring sonorously. The poor man hadn’t had much sleep in the last few days, contributing his part to developing the base and then staying up late combing through the Interface and the Help Menu. Alexis had no idea if he had made any significant findings as John still had to share his insights with her and their group, but trusted him to share any important discoveries in due course.
She left him to his dreams and headed to her bed in the guest room, quietly slipping along the hallway and observing that everyone seemed to be asleep already. Her last thought before passing out as soon as her head hit the pillow dimly registering as important, but not of sufficient urgency to necessitate immediate action, they had to contact Michelle and find out how William was doing and if they were still alive.