Chapter 18:- Zombies are here [II]

"This lady, who just cooked for us. I would protect her even if she can't fight. At least she has some value. At least she can cook for us. Her existence in the team adds value. What can you do?" The man and other people who were dissatisfied with Aditya's words completely shut their mouths after hearing Selene's long speech. Everything that Selene just said is the truth.

"We're not ordering you. You guys are free to leave. If you want to leave, we will gladly give you food and supplies. We're not holding you captive. But if you people want to stay with us then you must provide some kind of service that will benefit the team." What Selene was trying to say is, that she won't take any waste with her. Since these people don't want to fight, they at least must provide some other form of service.

"Miss Ruoxi, are you going to allow this?" Knowing that Ruoxi had previously stood up for the survivors, they were now looking at her with hope and expectations.

Ruoxi looked at the 10 survivors that she saved. Who would have thought that in times of need, these people would become a chicken?

"What do you were people expecting?" Ruoxi's cold glare shut everyone's mouth.

Aditya finished having his food and looked very Ruoxi. At least this woman wasn't foolishly trying to stand against them. If she had tried to defend the survivors, Aditya would have left these humans to their miserable fate.

Unlike Ruoxi or anyone else in the room, Freya, Selene, and Aditya had some visions of letting humans rise once again. But for that to happen, everyone must work hard. The group cannot afford to have people who think that they will get protection and food without having to do anything. In this world where food production has completely stopped, where even an ant had become powerful and poisonous enough to kill humans, food and protection are the two most utter needed things for humans.

No matter how powerful Aditya, Selene, Freya, and Ruoxi were, at the end of the day their powers were limited. To build a place where they could stand again, everyone must come forward and work hard.

"From now on there will be some new rules that everyone will have to follow. We will not abandon any of the survivors. The new rule is that the people who are not providing any kind of service or help to the whole team will get less food to have compared to the ones who have worked hard and risked their lives to fight against zombies."

"Hey, that's not fair."

"What? Right now you people are nothing but dead weights on our shoulders. We're not obligated to protect you and provide you with food. Right now the whole world is in chaos. Food production has stopped. No matter who you're, regardless of your status, if you become a deadweight, someone who is not doing anything to help the team or the group, then I am sorry to say this but the amount of food you will get will be limited."

In a few more days, the meats or the vegetables will start to root. At that time, it will become even more difficult to secure food. Other than rice, finding meat or vegetables will become next to impossible. The only reason Ruoxi was able to find food for the survivors is that she had gone to other apartments and bought the foods that the people living in those had for consumption.

'Rather than raising pigs, I would rather nurture warriors who will be able to stand up and fight. Most of these people here are cowards Maybe except for one or two.' If a rule is not placed from the beginning then, Aditya can see a future where they have saved up more than hundreds of survivors. If he asks those survivors to accept this new rule, everyone will oppose him. There might be riots, arguments, threats, or even unnecessary bloodshed.

"From now on anyone who joins our group must accept this new rule or they can find their own paths." Ruoxi had no problem with Aditya's words either.

Meanwhile, Freya looked at Aditya with a smile. 'Hehe! This human is clever. Hunger can drive a human to do anything. In a state of extreme hunger, a human would not hesitate to consume another human. History has proven this fact many times. Aditya wants to push the survivors to fight. However, this can also backfire if not executed correctly.'

Freya decided to stay out of all this. Normally she would have just used her passive charming powers to order the humans to fight but Selene strongly opposed her and had repeatedly asked her to not do that.

"I think we should head out while we still have some light. At night times, it will be impossible to travel around." Aditya, Ruoxi, and Freya nodded in agreement. Since others wanted to live, they could only follow what Aditya, Ruoxi, Freya, and Selene has agreed upon. From the earlier discussion, it was clear that Aditya, Freya, Ruoxi, and Selene, held the power to make decisions for the group. They were more like leaders of this group.

"I will go and scout the surrounding." Aditya stood up to leave the room.

"I will also go with you." Selene could only watch as Freya went along with Aditya. Earlier she had used all of her mana so for now she cannot fight. It was better to leave things to Aditya who was going to use his undead.

"Myra, let's start packing up. We will take things that can be used. Everyone will have to carry something with them." No one of the survivors made any complaint this time. It seems Aditya and Selene's words had worked to a certain extent.

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"Aditya, are you single?" While walking down the stairs, Freya asked him this question.

"Yes"

"How was your life before the apocalypse started?" Freya curiously asked. Hearing Freya's question, Aditya stopped walking for 5 seconds before he started walking again. Freya was confused by this act. She couldn't see the blank and ice-cold emotion that Aditya had on his face for those 5 seconds.

"Before the apocalypse, I only had one goal. That was to become very rich. From a young age, I was forced to work. My parents forced me to pay my school fees and even went far as to ask me to pay rent for living in their house."

"I was fed up. My own parents are asking me to pay rent. It's not like we were poor or anything. My family was a middle-class family. My father had a decent-paying job as well. Normally father and mother would shower their children with love and spoil them a lot. What I received was exactly the opposite. While my big brother got all of my parent's attention and their love, I was treated like a slave." Freya could sense Aditya's sadness and anger in his tone.

"Do you want revenge from them?" Even Freya also wouldn't have minded killing her parents if they had done something like this to her.

"Revenge? I never wanted revenge but that does not mean that I don't hate them. I just wanted to get away and live alone. I don't even care whether my parents have died or lived. They can do whatever they want I don't care."

"Did you ever have any relationship or maybe any crush?" Freya asked. She asked this question to light the mood. She knew that every boy of Aditya's age at least has someone on whom they have a crush or Aditya already might have a girlfriend.

"I never had any crush nor did I have any girlfriend. I just never felt attracted to girls in my school." All Aditya did was to study when he was at school. After leaving school, he would spend his time working in a restaurant. He never had time to find any girl that made him feel romantically attracted.

"What about you? How was your life before you sealed yourself? I am sure you and Selene both must have had an excellent life." Aditya was interested in knowing how Freya and Selene lived one billion years ago.

"Since I was the Goddess of love, I was very popular. I regularly blessed couples who wanted to have children. In those times, there were many kinds of different races. Besides humans, Earth also had elves, Dwarves, Dragons, and many other races." Freya also had a faction that she ruled. All of her faction members were blessed by her. If any God or Goddess dared to kill a member of her faction, that God or goddess had to bear the wrath of Freya. Freya had killed many Gods and Goddesses during her life.

"Compared to me, Selene was more like a loner. Though she had a faction, she very rarely blessed the people of her faction. She wasn't popular as I was. Compared to my life, her life was very personally. Only a few of her best friends knew what she did in her free time."