My jaw dropped as we approached the cliffs. This place was massive. The cliff formed a massive oval clearing and the edges almost met in one opening. I could barely see across the field, that was how big it was. A fairly small palisade would allow us to protect a huge area.

The sun was dipping closer to the horizon as the trucks stopped in the middle of the field. We set up our fence panels just in case a zombie showed up, although we hadn't seen one in over an hour. This area was so remote that zombies weren't drawn here. There were no human scents to lure them.

We let the larger animals roam loose in the fence even though it was a bit crowded. Tomorrow we could start working on another alternative if we had some spare time. Once the sun rose, we could tether them in the field to graze to their heart's content. We would just have to watch where we stepped for the next day.

We had a late supper, and those who had not been fired went to bed. I was quite restless and a flicker of uncomfortable heat lazily trailed up my spine. I knew that this was the warning heat that Diane had spoken of. I had been idle too long and this was my warning.

Anyone else with blue eyes was also restless. We weren't used to sitting for so long. Anyone with blue eyes grabbed tools, saws, and axes before heading towards the cliff opening. There was a forest just to the north, mostly large spruce trees that grew so well in the mountains.

The sun had set at this point, but Diane, Todd, and I could see well enough to pick out dead or dying trees for the others to chop or saw down. They could see shapes, but not any detail yet. It was enough for them to get by if they were careful.

The others quickly set to work, chopping them down and hauling them back to the narrowest part of the opening between the two cliffs. Even if they were left lying on the ground, it would slow most zombies. Each person worked until they tired and could sleep until morning.

People slowly wandered away by ones and twos until it was just Diane, Todd, and me. We had the Heartfire for longer and it took longer for us to tire. Todd wasn't going to last for much longer though. He yawned, "Okay, I will help drag this one back and I am done for the night."

We helped him drag it back, although I wasn't sure how much my assistance actually helped. Diane turned to me, "Are you ready for bed or feel like a run?"

I considered the heat in my blood. The work had probably been enough, but I really liked running in the dark and I would get to be one of the first to do so if I went tonight. I knew that Diane wasn't even tired yet. She would probably run for several hours after being cooped up on the trailer for so long. I still wasn't sure how she managed it considering how hard it had been for me.

"How about a short run with you and I will go to bed so you can run longer?"

She nodded, "Sounds good to me. Todd, can you make it back in one piece?"

He chuckled in good humor as he jogged back towards the camp. Diane took off towards the side of the cliff where it sloped steeply down to the grass near the meadow opening. I was confused since I thought we would have gone towards the forest, but I followed her.

There was a slight trail heading up the steep rocky slope. It took some effort and climbing, but we got up on top of the cliff. We continued up the slope to a higher vantage point. The top of the cliff was fairly flat, but the sides were nearly vertical. It would take an expert rock climber to get up these cliffs. No zombie would ever manage it.

The view was spectacular. The meadow was a huge oval that gently sloped towards the opening. The cliff rose on all three sides of the big grassy area. The opening was maybe three hundred meters wide and was located on the eastern side of the oval. I didn't see any rubble at the base of the cliff, so the rock was strong enough not to break up with the ice in the winter.

The small creek glittered in the moonlight as it made a fairly straight path away from the cliff, flowing out the opening to a lake that I could just make out from here in the darkness. Thick grass, clover, dandelions, and other plants covered the field. The animals were going to love the fresh green leafy stuff.

I tried to estimate the sheer size of this meadow, but failed. I glanced over at Diane who was also examining the view, "How big do you think this meadow is?"

She tilted her head as she looked at the area that the cliffs hemmed in, "The valley is likely around fifteen kilometers long and probably five wide at the widest part if I had to guess. It is more room than we will likely ever need. Simply running from one end to the other will take a bit of time. We will have to set up some sort of sound communication system with a horn or bells or something."

I blinked slowly at the peaceful valley below, "It looks so pretty."

"Yes, I think Roland picked out the perfect spot."

I looked at the cliff opening. I already knew that thick forest spread to the north and behind the cliff to the west. More grassy plains went to the east and south. We had both forests for hunting and fields for crops or grazing. It really was an ideal setup.

I couldn't wait to see what it would look like once we were done.

Those who were fired woke up shortly after we did in the morning. There was one big downside to having other people with the Heartfire virus around. No matter how quietly you moved, someone heard you. It was only 4:30am, but we were awake and had energy to burn after sleeping all night.

We headed back to the row of cut down trees that were going to form the palisade. We let the others sleep, it wouldn't be nice to wake them up just because we couldn't sleep in. I jumped on my shovel, but it barely went into the ground. I swiftly realized that most of the work being done was not something that I would be that helpful with.

The two pregnant women were acting as sentries in case a zombie or predator showed up. Their husbands didn't want them doing any heavy work and they had reluctantly agreed. Heartfire gave a person energy and it was hard to just ignore it.

Dozens of blue eyed people were digging a trench. We could stand the logs up in it and it would help keep them upright. They had worked out a plan, but I didn't understand it. There were actually two long trenches with one untouched area between where the gate would hang. It was going to be a hanging two door gate that would slide on hangers with one gate being able to slide each way.

Diane came over to me, "Can you possibly go to the trucks and set the stew on the fire? It should warm up in time for breakfast. If you could tend it so it didn't burn, that would be great."

"Sure." I took off at a light run towards the distant trailers. Even at a run it took me some time to get to the trailers. I knew that I wasn't heavy enough to get the shovel into the ground and this would free up someone else from cooking. I bet I could even manage flatbread if I was careful. That would surprise Diane.

I grinned in anticipation of her expression and decided to do it. With such a large group there were three stew pots that we had made up last night. I pushed all three on the coals and added more wood. I found the flour and started mixing up the runny flatbread dough.

I sampled the first edible looking piece of flatbread and thought it was pretty good. I had accidently burnt two of my first attempts, but the piglets, chickens, and goats had thoroughly enjoyed my mistakes.

I looked towards the opening in the cliff in the dim dawn light to see that numerous sets of blue eyes were hard at work in the distance. The trench was so deep that if someone jumped in, their eyes were no longer visible. Were they just digging a trench or a tunnel to China? Although if it had to hold up tall trees, the trench would have to be deep and narrow.

I turned my eyes back to the iron cast frying pan and carefully flipped the thin bread to cook the other side. It didn't take long for the thin flatbread to cook and I added it to a large pile that I had near the fire to keep them warm.

The stew smelt really good and it wasn't long after that others above started to stir as the sun started to rise. Those who had been digging returned as the others started dishing out the stew. I watched Diane in anticipation.

She blinked in surprise as a proud grin crossed her face. Her expression made my heart soar. She reached out to ruffle up my hair, "This is quite a surprise. Good job."

I grinned happily at her approval. It meant so much to me, more than she would probably ever realize. We both grabbed a bowl of stew and some flatbread. They may have been digging for over two hours, but none of the fired people appeared tired. They were still raring to go and flying high in excitement of turning this corner of wilderness into a home for ourselves.

I was delegated to watching from a distance. Everyone had joined forces after breakfast to lay out the logs on the ground and bind the tops and bottoms together. They had even built a walkway on the top for extra structure and support.

The wall lay in two long sections, and each section was made of several smaller sections. The gate itself was a separate piece in the middle, made from the biggest logs they could find. They had reinforced the gate section to the point where I wasn't sure if it could ever fall apart. It had to support those heavy gate doors after all.

All of the logs were currently lying on the ground with their bases just in front of the trenches. All five trucks were currently tethered to the top of one of the wall sections. I had never seen such thick chains before.

"Stand clear!" People cleared out as the trucks slowly inched forward. The chain tightened and the boilers hummed as they pulled the heavy weight. The section of wall slid closer to the trench and touched the far side of it before hitting the dirt.

The noise from the trucks increased to a loud whistle as the tops of the logs slowly lifted. I held my breath, if a chain or section of log snapped, it would do serious damage. That section of wall was almost vertical now, and I could hear some wood joints creaking in strain as they were forced to stand up.

Suddenly one corner of the wall dropped into the trench and the entire section followed suit as the bases lost their grip from where they had stuck against the dirt sidewall of the trench. The entire section of wall hit the bottom of the trench at almost the same instant.

It hit the bottom of the trench with a resounding thud, and the shockwave was big enough to actually jolt me slightly off of the ground. The wall leaned against the one side of the trench and swayed slightly. It took several minutes of careful calling and pulling of various ropes, but the entire section stood completely straight up as people raced to fill the trench with a mixture of cement and dirt.

The cement would stiffen the soil so it would never shift and the soil provided stability that newly poured cement lacked. People carefully tamped the soil and I twirled around in a victory dance. The one section of wall was up and not a single screw or bolt had come out.

The chains were removed and the trucks moved to the next section of wall. They kept going, lifting section after section in a similar manner. A different group started bolting and securing each section to the one beside it, in most places, you couldn't even tell there had been more than one section. Once the cement cured, the carpenters would cut out two spots for smaller doors, so we wouldn't have to open the big gate up every time we wanted to go out.

They took a break and I felt like cheering at our good fortune. The wall itself was completely up. All we had left was the gate section.

The gate section wasn't going to be easy either. There were three massive logs on each side of the gate and they acted like gate posts with an equally large log secured to the top, connecting the two sides. The gates themselves were secured to a heavy steel rail that ran along the top crossbeam log. We had needed a truck to simply haul each massive log. Thirty fired people had been unable to budge those ones even once the branches had been removed.

It was going to take three trucks just to raise that small section alone. The chains were hooked up and the trucks started pulling as the boilers whistled. The heavy gate, with the doors already hanging, slowly rose up. With a resounding boom, it slid down into the trench.

People wasted no time in backfilling the hole and carefully tamping it. Others climbed up to the walkways on top and secured long bolts so that nothing could even think of shifting. Roland may be our leader, but he was in the thick of it as everyone worked hard.

Well, technically the two expecting ladies and I had been banned from the heavy work, but we kept sentry and cared for the animals. The gates were tested and rolled smoothly as they closed with an echoing bang. Roland raised his hands in triumph and everyone cheered or hooted loudly. I cheered as loud as I could. My voice was barely audible amongst the noise.

We had secured the entire huge meadow and it was now safe.