Chương 36: Dunbar's Number - Communication

I walked through the screen door and said, "Morning, need help?"

Aunt Sharon and the rest of the folks turned their heads to me and they greeted me with a smile. However, it didn't take long before Aunt Sharon handed me a knife and a few more tools then she pushed me to a pile of Bangus(Milk Fish) that needed to be fileted and deboned.

"I'm already halfway through the last batch. Please continue the rest, okay? You're faster at this than me," Aunt Sharon said as she walked to the sink to wash her hands.

"Sure, give me a few minutes."

Quick pleasantries have already been exchanged so now it was time for cooking.

We made Fried Boneless Bangus on top of Garlic Fried Rice and Tortang Talong. The first dish was Bangus deboned, seasoned, and finally fried until cooked and crispy. On the other hand, the other dish was more or less an Eggplant Omelet made by boiling eggplants until they were soft, mushing them with a fork, mixing them with scrambled eggs, and finally frying them with the stem still attached.

It was easily done and most of the prep work was done before I came in. After that, I just helped them with carrying them to the poolside while they prepared coffee for everyone. I was about to head up to wake up my roommates but I saw the three of them walking down with Zeus. We greeted each other and we went to the other houses to wake those who were not in the pool area yet.

Rin and Olivia went to one house while Kaley and I went to the other. We first saw Ken sleeping soundly with Peanut on the couch. His laptop was on the table but I woke him up while Kaley knocked on Kristine's room.

"Dude… I'm awake… stop plugging my nose with your fingers..."

"Arf!"

"Ah! Peanut! Don't sit on my face— Gackh!"

"Hey, you. You're finally awake. You were trying to cross the bo—"

"SHUT UP!!!"

"HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"

"What are you two doing?" Kaley looked back at us while Kristine was in the process of rubbing her eyes.

After a few moments, we headed to Allan's room but there was a lot of 'rustling' going on. I thought Allan was going solo but we heard a feminine voice that was kinda familiar.

"We'll head down, thanks."

Kaley mouthed at me, "Jenny?"

I just nodded as we smiled, walking to the next room.

"Chris? Charlotte? You guys there?" I said as I knocked.

No one answered for a while then I tried for the knob. I opened the door and I saw their bed with pillows bisecting it in half, forming a boundary. Kaley and I nodded in approval but the door from Allan's room suddenly opened and he really did come out with Jenny. They looked at us embarrassingly at first because they were trying to be inconspicuous, but they linked arms.

"Well, this happened, ahaha... We really like each other and we think that we'll continue to do so… right?" Allan said as he turned to Jenny.

Jenny smiled as she turned to us, "Right!"

Jenny was older than us, already in her mid-30s and that was maybe why Allan was kind of explaining the situation. Despite that, Jenny didn't look like she was that old and I had no qualms with consenting adults being with each other.

"Hey man, you don't need to explain everything. Just do what the heart wants, yeah?"

"That's so cheesy," Kaley said to me.

We all shared a laugh then they told us that the younger couple next to them were probably in the greenhouse. Kaley and I went there and we found them harvesting a few tomatoes. Charlotte was eating one while Chris was carefully placing them in a basket. They saw us come in and they both gave a small greeting.

"Hey! Did you grow this all by yourself?" Charlotte asked.

"Yeah? Why?"

Charlotte handed Kaley a tomato and told her to take a bite from it.

*chomp*

"Hmm! It's good! Sweet too!" Kaley exclaimed as her eyes shot up.

Charlotte smiled as she turned to me, "You're really good with your hands, this garden is well taken care of. I'm happy that you let me take care of it. I promise to do a good job and meet the same standard as this."

"Thanks, I still really find this switch of personality too abrupt. Can't you act a bit more barbaric like last time?" I teased.

"Last time?" Kaley asked then Charlotte shrunk instantly.

"Hah! You should've seen her at the store, you wouldn't recognize her, I'm telling you. In the store..." I told Kaley the story when I met the two at the supermarket.

Kaley was smiling as I told the story while Charlotte couldn't decide on whether to continue shrinking down or stomp her foot and berate everybody. Chris, on the other hand, was laughing heartily and the button on his shirt was already sewn properly.

After a moment, we all went to the pool area to eat breakfast. Chris brought the basket of tomatoes they harvested and he put it on the table. I sliced all of them into equal pieces so we could have something fresh in our meals. At the same time, Aunt Sharon made a dipping sauce made with soy sauce, lime, and some hot peppers for the fish.

Everyone ate heartily and after I finished eating, I made some coffee for Kaley and me.

Oscar then sat next to me, "What's the plan now, kid?"

"We finish reclaiming the area. The goal today is to at least reach the radio station. I'd also like to drop by the families first and you guys double-check the alleys that you went through yesterday. We might be able to finish this thing in 2-3 days."

"What do we do after that?" Chris raised his hands.

"There's a whole lot more to do after that. Reclaiming this side of the street isn't enough, it's just part of the beginning stages. I won't bog you too much but some of them that we'll do soon include having a group make runs outside, teaching different classes, and establishing a partnership with the DDR Camp next to us."

"We're gonna go outside? Isn't that dangerous?" Charlotte asked.

"I'll train a few of you personally, so don't worry. Some would come with me and some would stay here to guard this place. I know it's dangerous but we need to gather more resources and more people."

"More people?" Kaley asked.

"Ideally, I want as much as possible but realistically speaking, I'd like 150 people as a start."

"That many? Why though?"

"Ever heard of Dunbar's number?" I asked everyone.

They gave looks of confusion but Kaley answered, "If I recall correctly, it is the suggested cognitive limit to the number of people with whom a person can maintain a stable social relationship with and those who the person has a relationship with has the same stable social relationship with each other."

"What? That's too many relationships in a sentence. My head spins when you all start to talk like this..." Russel chimed in.

"Hahaha, but what Kaley said is correct. However, it varies between 100-250 people, and I think 150 is a good number for an average. The catch is that we need to be very careful in choosing the people that we let in. If you remember the mob in the video, they're around that same number and in a different state of mind. It would be dangerous if we let people that have let their humanity go or have other intentions for us. We've been pretty lucky that we have each other here. I think I could handle more than the said number but let's just stick to that for now."

The group just looked at each other and smiled.

"Are you trying to make me tear up, kid? Boo~ Hoo~ Is this some slice of life shit or whatever it's called?" Oscar said jokingly then the group started laughing.

I clapped my hands as I shook my head, "Alright, that's enough talk for now. Let's get to work."

I brought the same group as before while Oscar formed his own with Arnel, Chris, Jo, and Unc Zardon. Arnel volunteered to test the waters even though he had some issues. We will be heading to explore the area but I'll head to the families first to talk to them while Oscar will do another run-through to the alleys. Allan and Jenny will be the additional guard on the catwalk during the day while the rest do their usual things.

We set out and Jared saw Kaley's tanto on her hip.

"Hey bro, you gave Kaley the small knife and you're using the short one. Can I use the samurai if you're not using it?"

"Tanto, the small knife is a tanto. The 'samurai' is called a katana..." a small voice from somewhere sounded.

"Wha—" Jared tried to look for where the voice came from but failed.

'That's probably Aya.'

I looked at him and said, "You're lucky I even gave you that trench knife, you can't even peel a potato without losing 50% of it. And it's called a tanto and a katana, by the way. Don't let your little sister hear you say that again. Lois was burned before and she'll keep on correcting you if you don't say it right."

"Ah..."

Everyone started chuckling as Jared scratched his nose. Oscar and his group went ahead to the alleys while I headed to one of the families' homes. It was a regular-sized, single-story house where a family of eight lived inside.

I rang the doorbell and we waited for someone to come out.

After a short while, a kid peeked out but he went inside quickly. I was about to call out to them but who seemed to be his dad peeked out and scanned through us. Half of his body was hiding behind the door and it felt like he was holding something at the ready. However, recognizing Kaley and a few others who visited them last time, he opened the gate for us.

"Can I help you?"

"Hello, I'm Sky from a few gates back, I—"

"What? Sorry. Speak a bit louder, I'm kinda low on the hearing side," he said as he pointed to a hearing aid in his ear.

"Oh, then—" I immediately understood what he meant so I started to sign with my hands.

All I could do was introduce myself and respond with simple answers while mouthing what I was saying, but it brought a smile to his face. He introduced himself the same way I did but once he started to sign more, I told him that I only knew a few more and was about to run out.

"Ah, come in. My wife could translate for us. I could read lips too but it would be easier if everyone's present."

"Sure, thank you for understanding."

'I need to learn everything now. Communication is key as always.'

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Sky2316

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