"I don't have that much of a gas problem, but if you want to cook then you'll need to do it outside. Wouldn't want any explosions."
"You dirty bugger," laughed Josh.
"Anyway. The day's getting on and there's still a lot to do. Let's set up as best we can."
"Got it."
While Josh went over to the items left near the hatch, Dave walked to his stretcher and just lifted it all up at once. Dave was worried that he'd have to roll up his sleeping bag and mat but this simpler approach seemed possible. Dave lugged the stretcher into the hut and placed the head away from the door.
"That's bloody cheating," said Josh carrying a foldable bed into the hut after Dave.
"I'll help carrying the other stuff in."
While Josh got to work opening up his stretcher and placing it against the wall of the hut, Dave walked out and over the to foldable chairs which he picked up. As Dave carried them over to the hut, Dave decided to unfold the chairs so they were ready to be placed against the hut wall on the outside.
"Not putting them inside?"
"There's not a lot of space in there, plus we don't have much in the way of artificial lighting. If we do something like reading then it's going to be done outside."
Josh nodded and walked over to pick up a sleeping bag and mat. Josh carried those back to the hut while Dave came over and picked up the spare stretcher. They both walked into the hut. Josh began by unrolling the sleeping mat and then placed the sleeping bag on top of the mat. Meanwhile Dave unfolded the stretcher and placed it against the wall with the door and under the window. While Josh compared the layout of the two bunk beds, Dave walked out of the hut. In a moment Dave was back and placed his backpack onto the spare stretcher.
"With some shelves and some cupboards we'd have a rather cosy home."
"Better add those to the list of chores."
"Anything else?"
Dave looked thoughtful. "Come out the back for a moment."
Together they left the hut and went to the rear of the supermarket roof. Dave looked over the half-wall and Josh copied him.
"What are you looking for?" asked Josh.
"I'd really like mean of getting up and down somewhere about here."
"Are you thinking of stairs? That's a bit of work."
"No. I once spent the night on a place that had a retractable ladder. I'd like a way of going up and down, but which can be put away if we really want to secure the roof."
Josh looked at the ground below. "A ladder is still your best bet. But I'll have to dick about with the best way to do it."
"I'm sure you'll figure something out. I wanted to bring this up now so we'd get this happening as a priority. If we put ladders on the walls in the intersection then we might run out of ladders."
"So we have to ration the ladders."
"I'll leave that for you to work on tomorrow. We've got other work to do today."
"You're a damn slave driver."
Dave nodded - distracted by the details of his plans.
* * *
Dave and Josh were standing in front of the doors to the supermarket.
"My goals are rather simple," said Dave. "I just want to close this part of the street off so that it's harder for visitors to start banging on these doors."
Josh looked at the supermarket doors and nodded. "The doors are made of glass so the less they get banged the better."
"I was thinking of finding some buses and parking them just along here," said Dave marking a line from the southernmost edge of the supermarket on one side of the road to the southernmost edge of the clothing store on the other side of the road with a pointed finger.
"The area that's going to be here is really going to feel a bit small."
"I have another concern," said Dave walking down the road towards the south. He and Josh walked past the supermarket and stood in front of a small parking lot that was put aside for the people using the supermarket.
"That roller door is the access for trucks delivering to the supermarket," said Dave. "If we blocked off the road then that door would still be accessible from this road." Dave then pointed down the road to the south. "The river is down there. If we had a trolly packed with water we could still push it into the supermarket without having to lift heavy water containers over a wall."
Josh looked thoughtful. "I don't know. You've moved the supermarket's weak point from its front door to a different door around the back. And to be honest that roller door doesn't look all that sturdy. I don't think it can hold off more than half a dozen dead if they were to get the mood for breaking in."
"But it's still better than the glass doors."
"The supermarket should be the last line of our defences. I think we should isolate it as much as possible."
Dave frowned. "I like the idea of having multiple lines of defence. I was just thinking that we mightn't have enough resources."
"What do you mean by resources?"
"Things like trucks and buses, we'd need quite a few if we were to make a lot of walls."
"Not a problem, I reckon that within easy walking distance we'd find all the trucks and buses that we'd need."
"I have to admit that I never thought of doing this while I was travelling, so I never bothered to count up how many trucks and buses were around."
Josh walked a little way into the car park. "There's some houses behind the supermarket and they have a continuous fence on this side." Josh walked further into the car spot. "And the fence comes really close to the western side of the supermarket. We'd just have to stuff some junk in there to block that off."
To the left of the houses was
