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Sounds good, Rezo. I'll get started right away!"

Uncle Lou prepares a healthy meal of grilled venison steaks, mashed potatoes (from instant mix but he uses real butter), and a mixed greens salad with balsamic vinaigrette. For desert, he makes a mixed berry cobbler. The survivors are ecstatic at the amount and quality of the food, and though they know it is a rare event, they appreciate such an amazing meal. During the meal, you ask about the events of the day to garner a sense of how much work was accomplished.

Mindy first voices concern over the lack of anyone on watch duty, and other survivors join in supporting her request to have people assigned to keep watch at all times.

The discussion turns to securing the Alcove. No one speaks up about the task, and you remember no one was assigned to it.

"God, we really need that area secured," Mindy says. "We need to get people over there and working on it soon."

"We all need an extra pair of hands," Uncle Lou states.

Looking around the room, you see the worried faces of the survivors and know the Alcove needs attention soon.

"Let's discuss the mission to find food," you say. " Emma how did it go?"

Emma leans forward and addresses the group.

"Me and Uncle Lou went around the Old Pine Woods heading west, searching the countryside for any hidden paths or homes—basically anything we could find that may have food. The zombie presence has definitely increased. We spent more time avoiding the undead than finding food.

"After a few hours of searching the western area, Uncle Lou spotted tracks of a deer, so we followed the trail through the woods. We found it dead a mile or so deep in the forest with a wolf on it, which we chased away. The deer was killed only a short time before, and I was able to cut away a good portion of meat, maybe ten pounds.

"We scavenged the rest of the area around the forest and found a deserted farm. There we found some canned goods, as well as a crate of dried fruit and several sealed containers of preserved jams and jellies."

"We also searched a vacant gas station and found several cartons of snack cakes, which only expired a few weeks ago," Uncle Lou says.

All of the survivors thank the pair for their good job in finding much-needed food for the group.

"The last topic is fuel. I didn't ask anyone to go out and find fuel, because other tasks took precedence. I will assign people to search for fuel in the near future."