After the cozy breakfast, the "tour" immediately morphed into a "training day." Alex, with his pot of coffee, was in full foreman mode, and the rest of the day was spent breaking down his solo routine into manageable, teachable tasks.
"Mark, you're with me," Alex said, grabbing a set of keys. "Mina, you're on cleanup. Get the kitchen spotless."
He led Mark to the utility shed. "This is the most important part of the farm," Alex said, unlocking the heavy door. "The 'Brain.' Your CS degree makes you the most qualified to be my backup."
He spent an hour walking Mark through the systems. He showed him the solar inverter panel, the massive battery bank, and the server rack that ran the cameras and security.
"Your daily job," Alex explained, pointing to a monitor, "is to check the battery levels and scrub the camera logs. I have them set to flag motion. You'll fast-forward, look for anomalies—a deer, a walker, anything. Your weekly job is to check the terminals for corrosion. If this system dies, the fence, the well, and the freezers go down. It's the farm's heart. Don't let it die."
Mark, who had been expecting a simple generator, was in awe. "Alex... this is a commercial-grade setup. This is... incredible."
"It's practical," Alex corrected. "Now, let's talk perimeter."
He unlocked a heavy steel cabinet—his real armory—and pulled out two short-barreled rifles. He handed one to Mark, butt-first.
"This is the second part of your daily job. After the log check, you walk the fence. Today, you're with me."
They spent the next two hours walking the massive perimeter. Alex was a relentless teacher.
"See that?" Alex would stop, pointing at the base of the fence.
"What? It's dirt."
"It's disturbed dirt. A rabbit burrowing. Fine. You're looking for human footprints, snapped branches, or drag marks. You're also listening. No music. You listen for groans, or worse, silence when there should be birds. Complacency is how you die, Mark. Never get complacent."
While Mark was familiarizing himself with the server, Alex went to find the others. He found Jess in the barn, already making detailed notes in a logbook. He found Jenna and Alice in the vast vegetable garden. Alice, her ankle propped up on a stool, was weeding a raised bed, while Jenna looked confusedly at the irrigation system.
"Jenna," Alex said, walking over. "This is the manifold. See this pressure gauge? It needs to be at this level. If it's low, you have a leak." He showed her the patch kit. "Your job is to walk these lines, find any leaks, and patch them. And weeding. You have to be brutal. If you see it and it's not a vegetable, pull it."
He then moved to Jess, who was checking the feed stores.
"You've got a decent supply," she said, "but it's not balanced. We're going to get deficiencies in the goats if we don't supplement their minerals. I can make a list. And... that cow, 'Daisy'... she's favoring her left hind leg. I want to watch her."
"Good," Alex nodded, impressed. "Make the list. You're in charge of all livestock health and nutrition from now on."
He found Alice and Jenna again, now at the PM milking. He patiently showed Jenna how to clean the udder, how to get the cow to relax, and the proper, firm "squeeze-and-pull" motion. Jenna, squeamish at first, finally got a thin stream of milk and yelped in triumph.
By the time he was done with the others, it was mid-afternoon. He found Mina in the house, furiously scrubbing the kitchen floor. She was clearly bored and annoyed.
"Done?" Alex asked.
"YES!" she said, throwing the sponge in the bucket.
"Good. You're with me."
He took her to the compost heaps. "This is your other job. Everything from the barn, all the kitchen scraps, it all goes here. And it has to be turned." He handed her a pitchfork. "It needs to be turned over, all of it, once a week. You and I will do it the first time. It's... not fun."
Mina looked at the massive, steaming pile of manure and vegetable scraps and her face turned green. "This... this is a 'princess' job?"
"This," Alex said, his face deadpan, "is how we make the soil that grows the food that keeps you alive. It's the most important job. Get to it."
By the time the sun began to set, the entire group was exhausted, educated, and assembled on the porch. Alex, satisfied, leaned against a post. He felt... that same "something's wrong" feeling from the day before. He ran the list in his head. Cows, chickens, garden, power, perimeter, compost...
"Is... is that all?" Jenna asked, rubbing her sore shoulders. "I mean, it's a lot, but... it's really not that much. Not for six of us."
Alex stopped. He thought it over again. He'd planned for an 18-hour solo workday. Now, with six people...
Alpha Shift (Alex/Jess): 2 hours.
Systems & Perimeter (Mark): 2.5 hours.
Garden & PM Milking (Alice/Jenna): 2 hours.
Floater/Compost/House (Mina): 2-3 hours.
Medic/Animal Health (Jess): 1-2 hours.
He was right. They were done. The entire farm, run by a team, only required a few hours of work from each of them per day.
"Yes," he said, a slow, strange realization dawning on him. "That's everything. I... I must have miscalculated. I was always planning on doing it all alone."
Mina, who had been lying on a patio chair, shot up. She'd been doing the math on her fingers. "Wait... so... my only jobs are 'floater' and 'compost'... and the compost is only once a week?" Her eyes went wide.
"So," she beamed, "that means... I can fool around for more than half the day! It is a princess life!"
The next day passed in a similar, quiet rhythm. But this time, Alex didn't participate. He observed.
He drank his morning coffee from the porch, watching Jess, who was now awake before him, cooing at the chickens while professionally checking their health. He watched Mark and Jenna in the garden; Mark was complaining, but he was working hard, and Jenna seemed to be genuinely enjoying the simple, physical labor of weeding. He even saw Mina, under Alice's supervision, correctly cleaning the PM milking equipment.
They were learning. They were adapting. Fast. He was genuinely, deeply satisfied. This... this could work.
So, like any good boss (or parent, he mused), he decided to reward them. When they were all out handling their afternoon chores, he took over the kitchen. He wasn't just making a meal; he was making a feast. He pulled ground beef and cheese from the deep freezer, flour and herbs from the pantry. He started making a proper, multi-layered lasagna from scratch. And while that was in the oven, he decided to make a dessert, too.
A few hours passed. The five "workers" started coming inside one by one, sweaty, tired, and complaining.
"Alex, I swear," Mark said, collapsing on the couch, "that compost pile is a living entity, and it... hates me."
"At least you're not..." Jenna started, but then she stopped. She sniffed the air. "Wait. What... what is that?"
The whole house smelled incredible. They were all surprised to see Alex, wearing an apron, pulling a massive, bubbling tray of lasagna from the oven.
"Is it... is it someone's birthday?" Mark asked.
"No," Alex said, a small, proud smile on his face. "You all adjusted well. Worked hard. Call it a reward." He then gestured to the fridge. "And I even prepared a surprise."
They ate like they hadn't seen food in a year, the jokes and light-hearted complaints flowing easily. When they were finished, stuffed and happy, Alex stood up. "Now, for the surprise."
He took a whole, frosted chocolate cake from the fridge.
Mina, who had just been complaining about the compost, went completely silent. She just stared, salivating.
Alex served them all a large slice. Mina took her first bite, and her eyes instantly watered. "I... I really thought..." she said, her voice thick, "I thought I'd never get to eat something like this again."
The others had similar reactions; it was a profound, powerful taste of the old, lost world.
Seeing this, Alex laughed. "We have the supplies. We have the power. We can have these types of food. Sometimes."
Finishing the cake, a deep food coma kicked in. For a few minutes, the six of them just stared blankly, content and safe.
Jess was the first to move, stretching. "Okay, before I fall asleep. Alex, come upstairs. I need to take a look at that shoulder, see how the stitches are holding."
Alex, feeling lazy but knowing she was right, complied and followed her without a word.
In her room, he sat on the edge of her bed, shirt off. Jess, all business, cleaned the area and inspected the sutures. "Hmm. Healing clean. No redness, no infection." She nodded, clearly satisfied with her own work. "My stitches are perfect. You'll have a nice, clean scar."
"Great," Alex said, standing up.
"Okay, you're all set," Jess said, standing up at the same time, turning to put her supplies away.
They somehow got entangled. Alex, turning to leave, stumbled over her vet bag on the floor. He pitched forward, and Jess, turning back, was right in his path. He tried to catch himself, but his momentum was too much. He grabbed her to stop both of them from falling, but it just resulted in them crashing onto the bed in a heap.
It was over in a second. Alex was lying on top of Jess, his body pressing her into the mattress, their faces only inches apart. One of his hands was under her back, where he'd tried to catch her, and the other was braced on the pillow beside her head, keeping his weight off her.
They were both stunned, breathing hard.
Jess, with clearly more experience in... well, anything... than the non-existent-level Alex, got her breath back first. A slow, teasing smile spread across her face.
"Well, Alex," she breathed, "you somehow ended up on top of me again."
His head, which was already warm, turned a shade redder. "This... neither of these... was my fault!" he sputtered, trying to push himself up.
Knock-knock.
The door opened immediately after the knock. Alice stood there, a laundry basket in her hand. "Hey, Jess, I was wondering if you wanted to..."
She froze.
Her eyes went wide. She saw Alex, shirtless, on top of Jess, on the bed. She saw their flushed faces and tangled limbs.
Alice's own face turned a bright, horrified crimson.
"I... I! Oh my god! I'm so sorry! I... I'll just... I'll come back later!"
She hastily slammed the door shut, leaving Alex and Jess in an even more awkward, heavy silence.
Alex scrambled off the bed so fast he almost tripped again, leaving a stunned and strangely irritated Jess behind. She sat up, smoothing her hair, a frown touching her lips as she watched him bolt out the door without even a backward glance. Why am I annoyed? she thought, crossing her arms. It's not like we were actually doing anything.
Alex caught Alice just as she reached the bottom of the stairs. He grabbed her hand, stopping her retreat.
"Alice! Wait! Please, just listen!"
She stopped, but didn't turn around immediately. Alex, breathless and still shirtless, moved around to face her.
"It's not what it looks like! Seriously!" He ran a hand through his hair, flustered. "I was leaving! I tripped over her vet bag on the floor. I started to fall, she turned around, I grabbed her so we wouldn't crash, and... gravity did the rest. We just landed like that. I swear on the farm."
Alice looked at his desperate, honest face. She took a deep breath, her rational mind taking over. It made sense. Alex wasn't the type to do... that... with the door unlocked, or really at all. He was awkward and practical.
"I... I believe you, Alex," she said, her voice quieter, calmer. "You don't have to panic. I was just... surprised."
She managed a small smile, but deep down, a heavy, unfamiliar knot tightened in her chest. It wasn't anger. It was a sharp pang of envy at how good they had looked together, how comfortable Jess seemed with him.
The rest of the day passed without further drama, the group settling into the rare luxury of free time.
In the living room, the massive TV was finally put to its intended use. Alex and Mark sat on the floor, controllers in hand, engrossed in a fierce, nostalgic battle of Tekken.
"You're spamming that kick again!" Mark groaned as his character took a beating.
"It's called strategy, Mark," Alex grinned, button-mashing his way to victory. "Don't hate the player."
Outside, through the large glass doors, they could see Mina running across the lawn. She was trying to play fetch with Jimbo, but the game mostly consisted of her throwing a frisbee, Jimbo catching it, and then Jimbo refusing to give it back, resulting in a playful tug-of-war between a 100kg beast and a 50kg teenage girl. Jimbo was clearly winning, dragging a laughing Mina across the grass.
Alice, Jenna, and Jess occupied the couches. Jenna was flipping through some old fashion magazines she'd found in the library, while Jess had her nose buried in a medical journal. Alice tried to read a novel, but her eyes kept drifting from the page to the screen where Alex was laughing with Mark, then to the window where Mina was playing, and finally, involuntarily, to Jess.
As night fell, the group dispersed.
Mina, having observed her sister like a hawk all afternoon, slipped into Alice's room just as Alice was brushing her hair for bed.
"Okay, spill," Mina said, hopping onto the bed. "You've been staring into space like a tragic heroine in a romance novel for hours. What happened when you went upstairs earlier?"
Alice froze mid-stroke. "Nothing happened. I just... went to ask Jess something, but she was busy fixing Alex's shoulder. That's all."
"That's all?" Mina narrowed her eyes, leaning forward. "You looked pretty flushed when you came down. And Alex looked like he was about to have a heart attack chasing you."
"He just... wanted to explain the medical procedure," Alice lied smoothly, turning back to the mirror to hide her face. "It was nothing, Mina. Go to sleep."
Mina stared at her sister's back for a long moment. She didn't buy it for a second. Alice was too calm, too dismissive. Something definitely happened, Mina thought, her suspicion growing. And knowing my sister, she's going to bottle it up until she explodes.
"Fine," Mina said, hopping off the bed. "Goodnight, sis."
She closed the door, her mind already racing with new schemes to get to the bottom of things.