"That's not to say that I know about this camping stuff."
"We're in the same boat. And can I ask you to do something?"
"Sure."
"I'd like it if you also took the time to learn everything that you can."
"I can see how that would be helpful. It would help distribute the load."
"Thanks."
Dave was looking at some portable cooking equipment.
"Anything that catches you eye?" asked Josh.
"I've already got a little gas cooker, but I wouldn't mind more cooking options. This grill uses fire. There's a lot of trees nearby so we have firewood, and if I could save gas then I will. At some point we'll need to boil our our drinking water and that will use up a lot of fuel."
"Should we take the grill then?"
"No, this store is so close that going back and forth isn't an issue. There's no point doing our backs in. Let's take what we already have back and set them up."
Together they walked out of the clothing store and looked at the defensive walls.
"We have to climb these?" asked Josh groaning at the sight of the bus in front of him.
"It's annoying. This clothes shop is directly across the street from the supermarket, but the entrance is on the road heading east."
"So that's two damn walls that we got to climb over?" said Josh knowing full well what the answer was.
"Maybe at some point we can go looking for some ladders or something. Even then carrying things over the walls will be fiddly as heck."
"How about we add walkways to the corners so that we can go from wall to wall easily?"
"I'm thinking that you've got your tasks for tomorrow planned out."
"You got something else in mind for today?"
"Mostly. I first want to get you a place to sleep and then I want secure this intersection some more."
"This looks pretty secure. What could you do to make it better?"
"I'll show you. First take these," said Dave handing over everything that he was carrying to Josh.
"Argh."
"One moment while I climb up," said Dave turning to the defensive wall and climbed up onto a bus. "Hand them up."
"Okay," said Josh holding one item at a time above his head.
Dave grabbed each item and placed them down on the roof of the bus. Once all the items were handed up and placed on the bus roof, Josh climbed up onto the bus roof and stood alongside Dave.
"Just before I came here," said Dave pointing east, "I was on top of a small corner store about a kilometre away. I was camping out on a rooftop there when I heard gunfire in this direction. Obviously this place was the source of the gun fire."
Josh kicked some empty bullet cases from the top of the bus. "Must of been a hell of a fight."
"I agree. There was a lot of shooting and it went on for some time. Then I heard a vehicle, or maybe more, driving down the south road."
Josh looked to the south. "So there are people down south?"
"I'm guessing so. I've not explored far that way. Only to that bridge near the line of trees."
"Is that a river?"
"It hard to see but it's a decent size river so I doubt we'll ever have any water problems."
"This looks like a solid defensive position. So why did they run away?"
"No idea. I'm hoping that we'll meet up at some point and I'll have the events of what happened here filled in. It's my guess that they left for a simple reason: these defences were simply not enough."
"These defences weren't enough? I'm on board with giving them a boost then. Let's get this stuff across and get started."
"I'm rather liking you idea of adding walkways to these walls. Make sure that I don't forget about that idea."
Dave climbed down from the bus and Josh handed their items down to him. Dave placed the items near the bus of the last wall they needed to cross. Once all the items were down, Dave climbed up while Josh climbed down. Soon they were handing items to each other, with Dave placing the items onto the roofs of the buses that made up the south wall. With all the items up, Dave climbed down while Josh climbed up. After transferring the items downwards Josh climbed down to join Dave.
"We are definitely going to need a better solution than that," said Josh.
"Well, we're on the final leg, so grab half and let's get inside."
They picked up about half of the items each and walked to the doors of the supermarket. Dave opened one of the doors and let Josh in. Dave followed Josh and closed the door behind them. Together they walked to the store room and stood at the ladder. Dave put all his items down and climbed up the ladder. Josh lifted the items in turn up to Dave who placed them on the roof. Josh then climbed the roof and joined Dave.
"To think," said Dave, "this isn't half of what I want up here."
"Damn. I can hear my back complaining."
"Well, let's check the hut first."
"We're not moving in right away?"
"As you can see, I slept outside last night. I only washed the insides yesterday and it needed more time to dry out."
Together they walked over to the hut and entered it.
"Looks dry," commented Josh.
"Doesn't look bad at all, but it does have some parts that haven't fully dried."
"Should I set up outside."
"The stretchers don't have much ground contact so I think that we could set up our beds in here and just leave the door open for a few more days."
"So, which is your bedroom?"
Dave grinned. "How about we place a bed either side of the hut?"
"Trying to get us as far apart as possible?"
"If we were right against each other then we'd hear all those small sounds that we make in our sleep. A bit of space might make for a better night's sleep."
"I'll take the far wall," said Josh.
"I wanted the wall nearest the door."
"Wait. Why
