To settle into life here faster, earn credits, and make sure the base's first biology class went well, Jim had put in a great deal of effort.
He needed to teach the children the kind of textbook knowledge they would have learned in school, while also making it fit the realities of survival in the apocalypse.
For that, Jim had gone out of his way to consult Ming, who knew traditional medicine, and carefully prepared his lesson notes.
Even though he only had three students at the moment.
Alan was the oldest child here. After asking around about the base's system, he had wanted to find a job that could earn credits, just like his older brother, but his brother and sister-in-law refused.
They told him to focus on his studies. The family did not need him to earn credits.
Alan was a little unconvinced. In the apocalypse, who still went to school?
What use were books anymore?
Surviving in the apocalypse was what mattered most!
That was why he had been distracted the whole time. Only after realizing the lesson was not what he had imagined did Alan's wandering gaze finally lock onto the crude drawing on the wooden board.
He remembered that while they were fleeing, his older brother and sister-in-law had once dug up similar plant roots to fill the family's stomachs.
Jim then drew a long, narrow insect covered in tiny spots and wrote "potato beetle" beside it.
"Has anyone seen this before?"
Duane seemed to be drawn in. After hesitating for a moment, he whispered, "At... at the place where Dad and I were hiding before, I saw them on the potato plants nearby. They were yellow, with lots of black spots."
"Very good. You observed carefully," Jim encouraged him. "This is the potato beetle, a devastating pest for potato crops.
If we want to grow potatoes successfully in the future, we have to learn how to identify it and remove the larvae by hand while they're still young, or use natural plant extracts like matrine to repel them. Remember what it looks like."
He went on to explain how to predict changes in the weather by observing animal behavior, and how to judge whether a nearby water source was safe by looking at the types of plants growing along the water's edge and the activity of insects.
Even when he briefly touched on wound infections, Jim again mentioned several common wild herbs with antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties that Ming had told him about.
The biology class was no longer abstract knowledge crammed into their heads, but practical knowledge closely tied to survival.
Using his foundation as a biology teacher, Jim simplified complex scientific principles into survival skills the children could understand.
In this era of collapsed civilization, the crude classroom seemed to have become a small "survival knowledge transmission station."
What Jim was passing on was not just the ability to identify a few plants or insects, but a way of thinking: using a scientific perspective to make use of nature and search for resources that could sustain life among the ruins.
Friction still existed, but these real, practical contributions were quietly changing how others saw them.
When knowledge and technical skills became scarce, those who possessed them naturally earned a measure of respect.
Unlike the classroom in the library, the medical room at Rock Fortress was much busier.
Evans and Harry, the dentist who joined later, were the backbone of the place, while Felipe and Jane, the pediatric nurse, were the main pillars.
As for Sarah, the nurse who had just recovered from her injuries and been cleared to work, she was carefully carrying out her new duties.
The medical room was not large, divided into several areas by curtains.
Sarah was treating a team member who had accidentally cut his arm on a piece of rusty sheet metal while searching for fuel outside that day.
The wound was not deep, but it was full of dirt and needed to be cleaned thoroughly.
"This may hurt a little. Please bear with it." Sarah first rinsed the wound with clean warm water, then carefully used tweezers to pick out the tiny bits of rust and sand embedded in the flesh.
The injured man was a young National Guard soldier. He gritted his teeth, fine beads of sweat breaking out across his forehead.
As Sarah worked, she spoke to him softly to distract him. "It was cold out there today, wasn't it? Did you find anything useful?"
"Fuck... freezing... just found a few bundles of soaked, rotten wood..." the soldier forced out through clenched teeth.
"Finding anything at all is already good," Sarah said gently, her hands never stopping.
She cleaned the wound again with diluted disinfectant, then sprinkled on the medical room's homemade hemostatic and anti-inflammatory powder, a mixture of certain herbs provided by Ming and ground together. Finally, she wrapped the wound neatly with clean gauze, her movements practiced and steady.
"All done. Remember, don't let the wound get wet, and come back at this time tomorrow to change the dressing," Sarah reminded him.
The injured man looked at his neatly bandaged arm, and the pain seemed to ease quite a bit. He let out a breath of relief and said sincerely, "Thanks, Sarah."
That simple word of thanks made Sarah's tense nerves relax a little.
On the other side, Evans was examining a civilian who had developed severe frostbite from working outdoors for too long.
After finishing the examination, he waved Sarah over. "Sarah, come take a look at how this frostbite should be handled."
Sarah immediately walked over and examined it carefully.
The man's fingers were red and swollen, even slightly purple, with blisters forming.
"For early-stage frostbite that hasn't ulcerated, we can clean it with a mild disinfectant, apply frostbite ointment, and warm it slowly while avoiding rubbing. If blisters or ulceration have already appeared..."
She explained the treatment smoothly. "Back at the community clinic, we used to wash it with warm dandelion decoction. It has some anti-inflammatory effect. Maybe we can ask Ming whether he has any similar herbs."
Evans nodded, a hint of approval flashing in his eyes.
"Then we'll use your method as supplementary treatment. From now on, you can mainly handle common cases like frostbite and minor injuries." Evans formally acknowledged her abilities.
Sarah nodded solemnly, warmth rising in her chest.
Here, her and John's professional skills were respected and put to use. They were no longer useless burdens.
Jim's class and Sarah's work were only two examples of the new members integrating into the group.
After successfully repairing the water pipes, David the plumber went on to solve several other tricky pipe-related problems.
Lisa worked quietly in the logistics team. Though she did not stand out, she was gradually being accepted as well.
Calista patrolled the base as usual.
She heard the whispers near the kitchen and also noticed the dissatisfaction among some members at Blackberry Ranch.
Calista did not step in to interfere with those small frictions.
As long as no rules were broken and no open conflict broke out, this tension caused by resource shortages and differences in status was an inevitable growing pain as the base expanded.
Leah and Rickson were keeping those emotions in check, holding them within a controllable range.
"Looks like the overall situation is under control," Calista thought to herself.
Friction still existed, resource pressure remained enormous, and the gap between old and new members would not disappear overnight.
But Rock Fortress was like a machine gradually being improved. As new parts were added one after another, its powerful core of the credit system, armed force, and leadership helped everything slowly mesh together.
The base maintained a dynamic balance, and within that balance, it expanded its scale and resilience bit by bit.
The harsh winter was far from over, and outside was still the apocalypse of the living dead.
Yet life and order were stubbornly searching for a way to coexist and expand in this frozen world.
Still, no matter the time or place, once enough people gathered together, there would always be one or two disruptive "shit-stirrers."