Chapter Five - Life and Trade

Brooke's final resting place was amongst the fields and meadows surrounding the ruins of a former village and the walled triple acreage residences that was now known as Haven, her ashes scattered upon the winds. However, her name had been carved in a plaque beside the heavy metal doored exit of the community. Beside her's was the name of the passerby Rolf, who had died in an attack from the air and Eraj, the former I.T guy, who'd suffered from illness every winter and had finally succumbed to it this past one. More than Brooke and definitely more than the man that they'd barely got to know, Eraj's passing had hit them all very hard.

Although the upbeat man was no longer with them, no longer sharing their laughter nor trying to lift them from their sorrows, life had to continue on without him. But in order to never forget him, they carved the first plaque upon the wall for him, a silent decision to add their own names beside him if they were fated to follow him in the future. They never thought that two others would keep him company before the year was half over.

Excess crops, such as courgettes, beetroot, bundles of chard leaves, apples and pak choi were loaded into the back of the small truck along with a few mutant squash and sweet potato that Autumn didn't wish to deal with herself. These mutated vegetables were overly large and didn't taste very good, but they were not inedible and each would fill the stomachs of tens of people for a few meals, so they would not go to waste.

Nan Li Liang passed Patrick the large jar he held, which appeared to be filled with rose petals, while he pulled himself up onto the truck bed holding a smaller jar holding lavender. Tyler slipped into the front passenger seat, while Dexter helped Paul load the last tray of cabbages. After Paul took a seat next to the others, Dexter closed the truck bed up before glancing over at his old friend Winston who was being lovey dovey with his girlfriend.

He coughed a few times to get the man's attention.

"You think we'd be off for a week rather than a few hours," Tyler muttered with a heavy sneer to his voice. Shaun, who also happened to be in the back laughed out loud freely, while the other men just smirked. In truth, with the exception of Dexter and perhaps Nan Li Liang not long into adulthood, there wasn't a man amongst them that didn't envy Winston for finding himself a partner. Kiera had been a survivor of a fallen base along with Rolf and as a straightforward woman experiencing the world after the apocalypse, she was forward enough to approach the man who attracted her. Few would have rejected her advances, Winston soon was ensnared. Still, she was a good woman, got on well with everyone and worked hard in their field plots and helped out wherever else she could.

Another contented man appeared at that moment and leapt on top of the truck itself, anchoring himself above the driver's side showing that traffic laws really no longer existed. In his hand was a gun and on his face was a cats smile. It appeared he hadn't been left out in the cold last night. Tyler made a sound of disgust; Jimmy's expression was just too much for any person to bear! The single men sank into another layer of melancholy.

Winston got into the driver's seat just as Ren Zexian appeared upon the wall above the gates. With sword in hand the ancient man leapt down into the small crowd of gathering zombies and began to remove heads from bodies in swift motion. He was quickly joined by his former charge and the pair quickly annihilated the rambling figures. These zombies were no longer the slow, stiff and blindly charging corpses of the past; each one had evolved to have some sort of ability and their bodies were no longer hindered by rigour mortis. The numbers gathering at their walls did not seem to have decreased, their senses more apt to locate them, but there had seemed to be a significant drop in stray wandering zombies in and around abandoned areas.

Ren Zexian and Chang Min dodge balls of fire and flurries of thorns, outracing with ease the speed zombies and handling the slow but multi-muscled tank-like zombies with their swords cutting through them like butter. Despite their evolutions, they were still not a match for the pair at this time. A strong blast of lightning came out of the now opened entrance way, revealing the current power that Dexter currently held in his own palm. His cultivation had broken through to tertiary a few months ago and now only the children with abilities remained at the lowest level of cultivation in their community. Of course, Ren Zexian and Chang Min were still far stronger than anyone else.

After clearing the nearest zombies, Chang Min retreated to the walls while Ren Zexian leapt lightly into the fast moving truck as it passed. A few blasts of lightning hit a couple of zombies speeding towards them before the gates were closed behind them. Whistles of arrows and a loud crash was heard in the distance before the truck and its occupants sped out into the distance.

"You're coming this time?" Paul question Ren Zexian as the man lowered himself to sit upon a sealed crate as if the truck was not in motion and not on a broken road of potholes.

"En," Ren Zexian nodded an affirmative. With he and Chang Min being Haven's greatest strengths, they would never leave the base at the same time, but one would often leave the base for missions or some similar reason. It was usually Chang Min, however the man had just returned from gathering salt, it would not do to continuously tear him away from his new daughter.

"I bet Nathan was pissed," Shaun stated with evil amusement. His temperament really was one that tended to enjoy the suffering of others, his best friend Paul was his usual target of torment.

Ren Zexian did not reveal any expression of discomfort as he met the lazy gaze of the wheelchair bound man, however that did not stop the delighted smile from appearing on Shaun's face. Ren Zexian closed his eyes to it, inwardly sighing. Indeed, Nathan had been less than pleased that he was to be away for these next few hours. Although he did promise to return by sunset.... He blamed himself. He'd promised not to leave his beloved by himself and while that had promise had intended to regard to long departures and of course denying the final one, in Nathan's mind leaving the area in which his awareness reached was much the same.

They journeyed now to trade with others, exchanging what they did not currently need for the things that they did. This was something they did once in a while, it was either to do this or lose out on the things that would make their lives a little easier, a little more comfortable. When Nathan licked the small dose of honey he had managed to procure for him last time, the younger man had naturally agreed with this, but that was in the moment, a moment that had been either forgotten or pushed aside since. His smiles had likely been as much welcoming Ren Zexian's return as it had been for the sweet treat. A couple of months had passed since then and Nathan no longer acknowledged him leaving for even a short while. No, he probably did, but just did not like it.

Ren Zexian nonchalantly flicked a sphere of heated black flames over his shoulder, where a gust of wind caught it and pushed it towards the zombie hiding in ambush in nearby foliage. The zombie exploded into a pluming pillar of midnight fire.