"By the way," Wayne said, "I didn't catch your name."

"It's Clayton," the man answered, "Clayton Bell. I was a bank manager for eleven years."

"When we get money back in production, you might get your old job back," Anna told him with a smile.

Clayton's mouth turned up slightly in the hint of a smile, but it faded away almost instantly as he watched a zombie stagger past. Anna noticed Clayton's mood shift and the center of his focus.

"Let's get started on that search," she encouraged.

"I'll be back later," Wayne promised. "I have a project I need to work on while there's still daylight."

"Be safe out there," Anna told him. "Remember, it isn't the undead we have to worry about anymore, it's the living."

Wayne nodded, giving her a quick kiss goodbye before heading down the stairs. He returned to the vehicle parked in the lower level garage, retrieving a small notebook and pen from the pocket in the dashboard. Too many zombies were crowding the garage for him to drive out again, so he walked out, gently but firmly pushing his way through the rotting crowd. His sense of smell had come back with his revival, and the stench of hundreds of corpses standing in the sun was nearly overpowering, but he put his sleeve over his nose and mouth and continued onward.

Once outside, he drew a small square on the first page of the notebook and put a crude illustration of a radio tower inside it. He sketched out the street and other buildings as well while making a rudimentary map of the area. Any landmarks or signs he saw were added to the illustration.

As he progressed down the street, a few zombies trailed after him. Before his infection, being followed by the undead would've terrified him, but now they were comforting as they would protect him from everyone else. Concentrating on his task, he began looking over the various buildings, trying to find out what they'd been before the outbreak and if any contained items he could put to use.

Wayne found a department store which had sold a little bit of everything. The place had been fairly well cleared out by looters during and after the zombies started showing up as security personnel became concerned with protecting things of greater value, such as the lives of family and friends. Despite its ransacked state of being, Wayne did find a few items ideally suited for his plans. He collected a roll of high-strength fishing line, several six foot long sections of metal pipe, a number of large bells from the craft section, an armload of dog collars and a few tools from the gardening department in the back corner of the store. He dumped them all in a wide shopping cart.

On his way out the door he stopped and gathered up a number of shirts, pants, and accessories from both the women's and men's sections, putting them in large paper bags he found underneath the checkout stands and added them to the top of the heap forming in the basket. He didn't know what size to get, so he appropriated some of all sizes as they would eventually be needed as more people were restored.

Checking the position of the sun, Wayne decided he had more time, so he started looking around for a good place to begin his work. He found the location he needed when he discovered an old brick building on a street corner. Collapsed from whatever damage had impacted it over the years, it was nothing more than a mound of broken bricks and shattered plaster, but Wayne saw potential.

Once the ruins of the building were removed, the ground could be prepared and turned toward the purpose of growing crops. To keep it protected from the living and the dead required the other items he'd brought with him.

Wayne dug a hole with a hand shovel. Small in diameter but over a foot deep, the hole was only a test, so he didn't worry about it being perfect. Dropping one of the metal pipes into the hole, he kicked the dirt he'd removed back in to fill in around the base. Once the pipe was standing upright similar to a flagpole, he tied some of the fishing line around it. Wayne took hold of the nearest zombie and guided him over, affixing a dog collar around the zombie's ankle. He threaded the fishing line through the tag loop on the collar to hang one of the bells.

Every time, the zombie stepped away from the pipe, the fishing line would pull tight against the dog collar, causing the bell to ring. The resulting noise caused other zombies nearby to shuffle over to investigate. When they found nothing, they started to wander away until the tethered zombie shifted position and caused the bell to ring again with similar results.

Wayne smiled. His system worked. He knew with enough placements around, he could protect any location from the living, the bells constantly drawing in additional undead to act as unknowing protectors for Wayne and his people.

Setting up the rest of the perimeter, Wayne secured the area with a zombie fence around what would become the first of many farming sites. The restored people of the city would require these for producing the necessary nutrients to revive more of the population and expand operations further.

He realized it would be a slower process than anyone might prefer as the amount of nutrients required for the population was currently unknown, and since it would take time to produce more, they had to hold back reviving too many, lest their limited resources be consumed.

A worrying concern whispered in the back of his mind and refused to be silenced. Raiders and barbarian groups had been witnessed after the outbreak and could still be around, but his greatest threat was from those behind the barrier. If they chose to use their technology to engage in warfare against the revived humans, they could attack the food instead. A few well-placed firebombs would be all it would take to do tremendous damage to the fields and any hope for the future.

Looking toward the glowing red shield in the distance, Wayne realized he would have to find a way to deal with the city sooner rather than later.