Gray walked down to the main gates. A solid crew was already waiting for him: Glenn, Morales, T-Dog, Oscar, Big Tiny, Axel, Merle, Daryl, and Otis.
Noticing that Rick and Shane weren't there, Gray looked at the group. "Where are Rick and Shane?"
"Rick is somewhere deep inside the prison," Daryl replied, leaning against his crossbow. "And Shane is still sulking inside his cell."
Gray nodded, then noticed Otis standing with the men. "Otis? Why are you down here helping?"
Otis offered a warm, tired smile. "Since we are staying here for a few more hours before we make our final decision, I wanted to put in some honest work and help out."
"Thanks, Otis," Gray said.
He pulled up his system menu and bought five iron pickaxes, five iron shovels, a few heavy ground compactors, and one roll of measuring tape. The tools materialized on the gravel right in front of them. The original survivors were still a bit surprised, but the inmates completely lost their minds. Oscar, Axel, and Big Tiny stared with wide eyes, and Axel even closed his eyes and started praying under his breath.
"I have a few unique abilities," Gray told the inmates calmly. "Don't worry about it. Let's focus on work."
Gray picked up an iron pickaxe and gestured toward the perimeter. He explained that they were expanding the prison. Two feet out from the old chain-link fence, they needed to dig a ditch three feet deep and three feet wide.
Glenn scratched his head, looking confused. "Why do we need a three-foot ditch for a fence?"
Instead of answering, Gray opened his inventory. He spawned a single High External Stone Wall from Rust right onto the open grass. The towering four-meter-high stone barrier looked like an absolute medieval fortress wall.
"For this," Gray said. "In order for the walls to line up perfectly and not sink into the mud under their own weight, we need to dig a trench and pack it with gravel first. That's why we're digging."
Morales and T-Dog walked over to the massive wall. They shoved their shoulders against the heavy stone blocks, trying to move it, but it didn't budge even a fraction of an inch.
"Damn, that's solid," Morales panted, wiping his forehead. "I would certainly sleep better at night with a ring of those around us."
Gray opened his shop again and bought a few cans of bright construction ground spray paint. He walked ahead of the group to mark the exact perimeter lines. It took him a full hour to measure out and paint the massive octagon boundary. While marking the distant sides, he noticed the huge, gaping crater and the remains of the blown-up building from the original prison layout, noting it down for future cleanup. [1]
By the time Gray walked back to the gate, the group was already hard at work digging out the first side of the trench. They had divided the labor. One man would use a pickaxe to break the hard Georgia clay and loosen the dirt, and the second man would immediately step in with a shovel to scoop it out. They were moving at a very fast pace.
Gray grabbed an empty iron pickaxe and stepped into the line to help. With his newly unlocked Batman conditioning, his stamina and strength were at peak human perfection. He swung the tool smoothly, his muscles working like a machine, shattering the packed earth faster and deeper than anyone else on the crew.
After a while, the intense manual labor finally caused him to break a light sweat. Gray paused, unzipped his heavy, oversized jacket, and took it off, tossing it onto the grass.
The moment he did, the entire digging crew stopped dead in their tracks.
Everyone stared at him in absolute shock. The men remembered Gray from just a few days ago, he had been a completely average, slightly out-of-shape teenager. But now, with his loose clothing gone, his thin t-shirt clung tightly to his frame. His shoulders were incredibly broad, his chest was solid, and his arms were coiled with dense, hyper-defined muscle. He looked like a world-class Olympic athlete built entirely for combat.
Daryl stopped his shovel, staring at Gray's back with narrowed eyes. The baggy clothes had hidden it perfectly.
The crew kept working, pushing their bodies against the hard earth. After three hours of intense, non-stop digging, they finally took a break. Gray opened his system menu and bought several ice-cold bottles of water along with a massive platter full of fresh, chopped-up fruit. The men sat on the grass, greedily drinking the water and eating the fruit to regain their strength.
After resting for thirty minutes, they got right back to work. By the time the sun finally dipped below the treeline, they had successfully finished two full sides of the massive octagon. A few of the men grabbed the heavy steel compactors and began pounding the loose dirt inside the dug-out trench, packing it down hard to secure the foundation.
Once the baseline was locked in, the exhausted crew finally headed back toward the main courtyard. Before going inside, Merle stopped and looked at Gray with a grin. "Hey, magic boy. I ain't sleeping in one of those cramped cells. How about buying me one of those fancy RVs?"
Daryl stood right beside his brother, nodding silently. Gray didn't mind. He opened his shop and bought two separate RVs, spawning them right next to his own on the concrete basketball court.
"Thanks, kid," Merle chuckled, patting his bag of weed under his arm as he and Daryl walked off to claim their new rides.
Finally, Gray and the remaining men walked inside C-block. Dinner was already waiting for them. The group had completely raided the kitchen area where the inmates had originally been stuck and used the supplies to prepare an absolute feast for everyone.
The atmosphere inside the cell block, however, was incredibly tense. Rick and Shane were both present, but they sat far apart and refused to look at each other. Lori was also sitting nearby, her eyes red and swollen from the hours of crying she had done that day.
After eating his dinner in quiet comfort, Gray stepped back outside into the cool night air. He was walking toward his RV when he heard the rhythmic thumping of footsteps behind him. He turned around and saw Hershel Greene walking down the steps.
"Son, hold on a moment," Hershel called out gently. "I wanted to ask if my family could stay here for the night. It's already pitch dark out there, and I don't want to risk driving them back to the farm in the middle of the night."
"Of course, Hershel," Gray agreed instantly. "Do you want me to get a bigger RV for your family to sleep in tonight?"
Hershel shook his head with a warm, tired smile. "No, thank you, son. The cells inside have more than enough clean beds. We'll be perfectly fine. Don't worry about us."
Gray nodded, then looked closely at the old farmer. "Have you and your family made a decision yet? Are you going to join up with us permanently?"
Hershel kept quiet for a few seconds. He looked visibly hesitant to ask a question that had been weighing heavily on his mind. Gray noticed his shifting posture and stepped closer. "What's wrong, Hershel? You can ask me anything."
Hershel finally looked up, his old eyes searching Gray's face. "Son... do you have knowledge of the future? Because now that I've had time to think about it, your arrival at my farm... everything you've done... it almost feels like it was completely planned."
Gray stood perfectly still on the concrete. He weighed his options carefully in his mind. He knew he could lie, but Hershel was a wise man, and building a foundation on lies would eventually ruin the community. He decided to tell him a version of the truth.
"Yes," Gray admitted flatly. "I have knowledge of the future. But since I've already changed so much of it, it's highly debatable if the exact same things will happen from here on out."
Hershel's face grew serious. "What exactly have you changed?"
"I saved Merle from that rooftop in Atlanta," Gray began, listing his disruptions to the timeline. "I prevented Amy from getting killed at the camp, and I kept Jim from getting bitten. The Morales family would have left the group. In the original timeline, Dr. Jenner didn't want to live. He blew himself up inside the CDC along with a woman named Jacqui. And the only reason I knew about your farm was because of what was supposed to happen next."
Hershel didn't interrupt. He just listened, his breathing slowing down.
"In the original timeline, Sophia was supposed to get lost in the woods during a walker attack on the highway," Gray explained. "She got bitten, died, and ended up locked inside your barn. While the group was searching for her, Otis accidentally shot Carl in the woods while he was hunting. Otis died at the high school trying to get the medical supplies to save the boy's life." Gray chose to leave out the part where Shane murdered Otis to save himself.
"Eventually, a massive horde of walkers overran your farm," Gray delivered the final strike. "Your land was completely destroyed, and Patricia and Jimmy died in the chaos while the rest of the group fled into the wild."
By the time Gray finished speaking, Hershel looked completely shocked. The color had drained from his face, leaving him pale under the moonlight. The brutal reality of what should have happened to his family hit him like a physical blow.
"I'm sorry to drop all of that on you, Hershel," Gray said softly, his voice dropping to a reassuring tone. "But that is the exact reason I want you and your family to join me here at the prison. With my abilities around, I can make this place secure enough that you will never have to worry about a walker herd or a group of raiders ever again. You'll be safe."
Hershel stood in silence for a long moment, processing the terrifying alternate reality he had just been spared from. Finally, he looked back up at Gray, a profound sense of gratitude softening his pale features. "Thank you for being honest with me, son," Hershel whispered, his voice trembling slightly. "I'll have a serious talk with my family once we get back tomorrow."
"Goodnight." He turned around and began walking slowly back toward the dark entrance of the cell block. Gray watched him go, then turned, stepped inside his own RV, and locked the door behind him.
Gray used his time inside the RV to get even further ahead of the plot. He opened his laptop and finally started season four of 'The Walking Dead'. After watching the first six episodes, his eyes drifted toward his system interface. He noticed his gold balance had climbed significantly while he relaxed, so he immediately unlocked the next two available multipliers.
[New Upgrades]
(420,000 Gold) +0.05x ✔
(1.5M Gold) +0.05x ✔
[New Hourly Rate]
657,463 Gold/Hour
With his gold efficiency raised to a clean 1.65x total, he closed his system screen and went to sleep.
The next morning, the entire group resumed work right after finishing breakfast. By lunchtime, the crew had managed to clear out one and a half more sides of the massive octagon's perimeter. They took a quick break to eat and rest up for a bit before getting straight back to work.
By this time, the heavy physical toll of the labor was really starting to show. The group began to feel the deep exhaustion from digging through solid dirt and rock. Gray kept working without a single pause, while the other men had to take turns, taking short breaks just to catch their breath.
Finally, they stopped by the time the sun went down. Overall, they had finished an impressive three and a half sides during the shift.
Gray leaned on his tool and looked at the tired crew. "By tomorrow at noon, we should have the entire trench ready for the gravel."
The men collectively exhaled a massive sigh of relief. None of them were used to this much non-stop, hard physical labor, but knowing the end was in sight kept their spirits up.
After dinner, the yard fell quiet. Gray walked down to the main gate to perform a full perimeter check alone. He took his time to ensure no stray walkers had drifted close to their newly packed trenches. Satisfied that everything was clear, he turned back toward the main gate.
Right as he reached the fence, the sudden rustling of dead leaves broke the night silence. Gray turned around instantly. He reached into his inventory, pulled out his UAC sidearm, and kept his eyes peeled, fully expecting a walker to step out of the shadows.
He waited, but the forest fell completely still. Seeing no further movement, Gray lowered the gun, thinking it was probably just a stray animal moving through the brush. He walked back to the main entrance of the courtyard and pulled the gate open.
The moment the metal rattled, he heard the rustling of leaves again.
Since it was pitch black out, Gray opened his system menu and bought a heavy-duty, high-lumen tactical flashlight. He clicked it on, sending a brilliant, blinding beam of white light cutting straight into the thick treeline toward the sound.
What he saw made him stop dead in his tracks.
The bright light illuminated a human figure crouching in the brush. It was a living survivor. The exact second the beam hit the intruder's face, the person panicked, spun around, and took off running full speed into the deeper woods.
"Hey! Stop!" Gray yelled, throwing himself into a full sprint.
His peak-human conditioning kicked in. He ran across the gravel path and vaulted over the open three-foot trench. He tracked the person with his flashlight, closing the distance effortlessly. But just as he burst through the edge of the treeline, a loud engine roared to life.
Gray skidded to a halt, the beam of his flashlight cutting through a thick cloud of exhaust smoke. A motorcycle kicked up a spray of dirt, accelerating down the empty road and quickly driving off into the pitch-black distance.
Gray stood on the empty road, slowly lowering his flashlight as the sound of the engine faded away.
Someone was spying on the prison.
[1] We don't know what the prison looks like in the show, so I decided to make it an octagon. I will probably try one of those drawing websites and try to make a sketch for future expansions and layouts.