Report - W.Caravan - ... WIC edition

Chapter 15 Eastern Introduction

"Docs, listen up. I'll tell it to you straight and I'll say it only once, so listen carefully. We are out of fruits and vegetables so from this point onwards we are essentially turning to a full carnivorous diet. We will still go on foraging expeditions like we have all this time, but it will be impossible to supply everyone with enough fiber and vitamins and everything else until we reach one of the eastern supply dumps. Now besides that there will be 3 things you must know. The first are regarding digestion. Meat takes far longer to digest so our stomachs will use more energy the second thing is that this long digestion means they won't be able to sleep as easily if the digestion process isn't complete. Both of these things along with the aforementioned reduction in nutrients will lead to not only stomach pain, but will most certainly increase the risk of diseases. Thirdly, we have some vitamin supplements with us, but these will be used in small doses for now. On the way we will see how much we can forage, but there should be at least 1 more meal that will grant them their final bits of fruits and vegetables, and these diet supplements will give them the last boost for all that they will be missing. I give you all permission to ignore the soon to be incoming complaints of stomach pains and feelings of exhaustion, there is nothing we can do about it, save the ibuprofen and such for emergencies. Also, don't worry about stuff like cholera that's mostly based on water quality and that should be fine, keyword should. Also while on the topic of water, chefs, before we leave we will have extra barrels made for you to store water in. We will go on a large hunting trip here and later on, but just know that the furthest we've gone without a freshwater source was 1 day and now we may not have freshwater for 2 days, if we don't stop anywhere. So, any questions? No? Well then whos ready to get yelled at for the soon to be apparent health problems of everyone here?"
"Uh sir... I have a question"
"What is it?"
"And what of the large fat intake?"
"That's actually good for us. Some people have been skipping bits of their meals because of taste and one thing that you will do is check everyones weight to see if anyone's dropped a kilogram or two. For this reason it is good to regain weight for mass, but it will also serve as a source of energy going forwards. I already mentioned that the food wagon will now be primarily stocked with water so until then we will be mainly relying on the one meal that we will have here. Afterwards it should even out up until we reach the border"
"I have a question"
"Go ahead"
"Aren't there any spots where food like... I don't know apples or something grows?"
"There are, but the question is what's left? It's close to winter so most staple foods like wheat are in the process of dying out before the winter and fruits or vegetables are easy pickings for the creatures because they don't have to be prepared. For example there is a swamp down south a few days later, but even if we scour it at best we may find a good bit of rye there. But cooking the rye could be a massive time investment, not talking about the detour we would be making, and to properly cook it, at least into bread, we would need some rather fine stones and for simplicities sake we could only do that many many days later. So in short, no there is no food left remaining for us that is not stolen from the creatures dens or is on said creatures"

The storm doesn't leave us so we spend our days on a windy coast with large swathes of rain. When it's over we have a lot of work ahead of us. While the wagons are inspected and some go off to hunt and forage I instead turn back. Using those boats I used back during the bridges construction I tell the men how to use them with fishing nets to catch large quantities of fish. While they're off on that I gather a group to deconstruct the injured architectural monster behind us. Before that I go for a final swim to see if anything is salvageable from the bottom of the river. The bodies are mainly bone now and the armor is extremely shoddy. At the very least we can retreat their bones and grind them down and pass them off later on.
Despite me spending all of my time to speed up the deconstruction process the fisherman catch really good hauls so we don't go hungry these days. The crew is shaken up, these deaths are a bit more long-lasting since this was a much clearer 'we could die at any moment', but in these days they manage to beat some of the fear and get to work. Personally I am very worried because I know what could lie ahead, but I have nothing but prayers available to me.

I received a bit of joy today. There was a poor soldier whose boot was too small. Over all of these days it has deformed and even split apart in some parts. In 2 spots of his foot there are clear marks where, all the way back in the first day, the shoes dug into his skin and eventually pushed the bones back a little bit. During some free time I sowed together the broken bits and presented him with a slightly larger boot. In the meantime he rested inside the medical tent to let his foot heal. I gave him the shoe there and it fit very well. His face of joy was one that I hadn't seen much of in this whole trip. A shame I couldn't do more with this than hope he tells this to others and they believe him so for now I will enjoy my little accomplishment.