Taste survival

BOOK 2; SHADOW OF A GRAVE

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Smoke floated to the wooden ceiling of a mostly empty room. The room was big, at least a hundred meters in length and forty meters in width. The room had no windows but a an air vent that took out the smoke preventing death from lack of air. The floor was layered with years of dust and the musty smell in the air reeked of neglect. But it wasn't the only smell in the room.

A sweet and tantalizing smell of cooking meat saturated the air and made one's mouth water with anticipation. The source of this smell was a large pot, on a fire in the center of the room. The pot had oily and bubbly contents that hid the deliciousness inside.

A woman stood infront of the pot, muttering to herself and adding bits of this and that. Because of the apocalypse most cooking ingredients are hard to acquire, with low agricultural production in the recent years making it worse for safezoners. However this was not in a safezone but in the zombie infested part of old Grenhit.

That was even less pleasant since most cooking ingredients had been scavenged, horded and used by those lucky enough to steal them first. The woman by the pot was not lucky enough to steal cooking ingredients but she did find a secret stash in that very building. The stash contained spices, salts, vegetables but no meat. She'd had to find the meat on her own.

" A bit of sliced carrots, should do nicely." She said in a low voice.

She was a short woman with messy long brown hair that reached below her shoulders. She wore a brown dress and had a old brown scarf covering her chest. Her face was lined with wrinkles and a few scars from old fights and close calls with death. That was to be expected, this was a zombie infested city after all. But if you asked the woman, she'd tell you that some scars are from survivors like herself.

In the survivor society, you kept to yourself and got picked on or worked together and died from a zombie attack. There was no alternative, survivors hated those who thrived alone and bullied them constantly by sometimes even leading zombies their way. Being in a group meant you were picked on less but you could still be used as zombie bait. It was a dog eat dog world for those people and they didn't give a damn about anything else other than surviving.

" A bit if of pepper, yes, that smells lovely." The woman said with a happy smile, one filled with yellow teeth.

This woman was a solo survivor and that meant she was often the target of attacks by other survivors and zombies. She had no allies, no family and was completely alone.

And she liked it that way.

Some people thrived in groups whilst others thrive alone and she was the latter. She had survived the apocalypse and was surviving the post apocalypse with a smile. Unlike most solo survivors, this woman was very resourceful and sharp.

It's how she'd found the secret room with the cooking supplies and how she'd gotten the meat she was cooking. Of course, it was all stolen but the crime of theft was non-existent and if someone was to call out ' thief! ', they'd be laughed at and fed to zombies.

" Hey!...open the door!"

The woman turned an eye to the metal door behind her, it was large red and shut tight. A voice, low but full of indignation could be heard behind it and a constant tap could be heard as well. This person had been going on for a long time and had worn out their voice. Before they had been shouting bloody murder and bashing the door with strength, but after a few hours, their strength had depleted and they were begging more than demanding now.

The woman ignored it as she had before. Instead she used an old wooden spoon to scoup up a small piece of the soup and taste it. It was a rich explosion of flavour that descended in her mouth and she chuckled with glee.

The meal was done.

She took two bowels, the stash had been a treasure trove, and filled each with soup and one piece of meat. Then she placed hers on a small table that had been in the corner and where she had her Ingridients and the leftover meat. Then she went to open the metal door for whoever was on the other side. Twisting a bolt and pulling a lever, the woman opened the door to the person.

It was another woman with short black hair, wearing a blue dress with multiple holes. The woman was on the floor with her hand raised to further knock on the door. Her eyes, they were an ocean blue, widened when she saw the other woman.

" Where...is...he?" She said in her withered voice.

The woman who had cooked did not speak, but just placed the second bowel with meat and soup infront of the woman on the floor. The woman in the blue dress looked at the bowel and it's contents, her soul almost left her body when she did.

A round, small little piece of meat floated inside the bowel with sweet smelling soup. It was properly cooked, with the skin nice and tender upon sight. One could tell it was crispy and would leave a unforgettable taste just as much as it would leave an unforgettable sight.

It was a baby's head.

The woman on the floor looked into the room and saw the pot on the fire and then she looked at the table. Even from the floor, she could see the left over remains of what was used in the meal. Blood had spilt onto the floor and a scent of slaughter rushed into her nose along with the scent of soup.

" Take a bite. " The woman who cooked said, she walked into the room and took her own bowel," It's delicious."

She slurped up the soup like it was water and before the other woman's eyes, she lifted the piece of meat and started eating it. That alone broke what little light was in the other woman's soul. She turned away and cried out like a cow who was forced to watch her calf being eaten by a wolf. Which she had every right to, after all, the meat in the bowels was her baby.

The woman ate the meat and watched the mother sob and cry in grief. Her eyes, cold and unfeeling crystals, rolled in their sockets. She looked at what she was eating; it was the baby's arm. Her eyes turned to the dead baby on the table, butchered like a fresh chicken by herself and kidnapped by herself. That was one of her most resourceful moments.

She took a deep breath and gave a heavy sigh. She left her bowel on the table and walked up to the weeping mother and squatted to her level. Their eyes locked and she tilted her head to the side with a sad frown.

Then she slapped the mother and shook her head. Her hand took the bowel with the baby's head and she went back inside the room still shaking her head.

" Can't believe I gave her good food." She muttered under her breath with disgust.