12.Tyra's sacrifice

The next morning she woke up craving for sweets. Of course, she knew it was not the hunger for sweets than for those stones. She still had few so she slipped one into her mouth and the unusual sweetness spread through her nerves.

She slept with Mina in the same bed so when she ate that stone Mina could see how she enjoyed it.

"Can I try one?" She was really curious.

Jenny thought about it and stood up to disinfect and was the stones. She could dee Mina's questioning expression and smiled. "It seems that I sort off the virus resistant. But I am not sure about you. We better not take chances."

After being quite sure that the stones are clean she gave her one. "Don't swallow. Try melting it in the mouth like candy."

Mina nodded as she knew that Jenny was doing that. So she slipped inside her mouth the tiny stone and spat right away. Her face was literally disgusted.

Jenny took the stone from the floor and just washed it under the water and smiled in her own mouth. It was sweet. "What is the problem? It's sweet."

"Oh, ugh, wait I can't get rid of that taste. It sea only you find it sweet. It taste bitter. And have an aftertaste of rotten meat. Ugh, will be right back." She rushed to the bathroom and Jenny could hear her puking.

"This is somehow normal. But the rotten meat taste?" She couldn't understand. Now is her concern about Mina.

"I will prepare some honeyed water for you. Your curiosity is quite dangerous. Luckily we were at home." Jenny prepared medicine for Mina and went to cook some breakfast.

Outside was not even down when the two went out. The truck was parked in front of the building so they hopped on it.

''Are you OK? If you still bad go back inside I can do this alone as well." When she saw Mina's white face she was worried.

But Mina stubbornly shook her head. "I feel better now after I drunk that honeyed water. You are really strange. You really bought bee stock and have it inside your greenhouse. And those flowers."

Jenny smiled while slowly following the main truck where Mike was. "I planted those flowers on top of everything just for bee's sake until my vegetables don't start blooming."

Mina chuckled when she saw sugar water already prepared for the bees. She looked at the gloomy streets they passed and sighed.

Just a couple of days ago they were filled with people walking around. Mike and his team set up a radio station and gave news.

They gave up on music and repeated their position in case some people were still alive. They still had electricity as the water powerplant nearby was set on automatic. Luckily for them. That way they had water and power. Actually their town was planted on top of the hill, looking down on the flat world. From Jenny's apartment, she could see quite far away.

Nearby towns, villages, everything could be seen on a clear day. It was always a pleasure sitting up there. But she never understood why she had that cage thing.

Later in she found out Jenny's grandma had an old parrot and was worried he would fly away and wouldn't be able to come back.

Mina was suddenly brought back to reality as Jenny started lowering the speed and stopping at the mall. This time they planned to harvest everything they could inside the stores. They all got rolls of the big plastic bags to stuff things inside and bring on shopping carts outside to the trucks.

They were split into groups. Their group was in the food section so they rushed with every two carts and rolled fast there. They stuffed into bags all kinds of things. First, it was line with coffee so they cleated that. Then with noodles. Rice, dry food, cereals, seasonings...

They stuffed it in the bags while the others would quickly drive them out to the trucks. Actually, this time the food will belong to the new arrivals. They all needed to survive. There is no time for greed as others needed to eat as well.

It took them a whole day to clean up the entire store from food. At the end, Jenny thought about it and went to Mike.

"Mike, we did clean up the store from food, but I think we should use the freezers and check the restaurants as well. They should have many things we could use. We should scavenge those places as well. From chairs and tables to the food. Everything that is movable. When we go back we can check small restaurants and use their freezers to store perishable foods like meats and frozen vegetables. Did you check all the pharmacies here?"

Mile stood there frozen. He completely forgot the obvious things. "We still have just two trucks empty. It's first important to get food. Chairs and tables we can scavenge from other places nearby."

She nodded. They had quite a lot of small restaurants I. their neighborhood as well. They can scavenge those places. Suddenly she froze.

Mike followed her gaze and saw on zombie walking towards her. She didn't shoot it and just rose her hand so no one else would.

"He is trying to... communicate with me. How strange is this?" Her words shocked everyone.

She silently stood while the female zombie stopped not far away in an unsteady manner. They just looked at each other and for a long time, nothing happened.

Suddenly zombie reached with her own hand and ripped the heart out throwing it at her and dying.

Everyone was astonished while seeing her shedding her tears. Mina went near and saw the zombie and started crying. "It's our best friend, Tyra. She was always a free spirit. This..."

Jenny gazed at people that clearly were feeling sorry for their friend and felt grateful.

"She was one of the zombies that ate some sort of energy. That energy gave them some of their memories back and most of them choose to kill themselves right away as they realized their situation. But there are few that choose to use the chance and kill as many zombies as they could in their state. Unfortunately, they still crave for human flesh so they don't dare to come near us. She told me they will try to free up as many survivors from zombies. It seems that normal zombies have a longer life than them. After consuming that energy source their life started draining. They asked us to stop coming to this part of town for next week so we wouldn't kill them by mistake. After that, they will die." She went on her knees and opened the heart that had a huge stone.

This time she didn't even wash it and just ate it under their disgusted eyes. She stood up and smiled.

"Tyra ate similar power before and could feel her life waning. That is the reason she came to me." She chuckled while looking at the body making everyone look at her strangely. "She told me I stink horribly to them. It was hard to be even close to me."

Her eyes became misty as she carefully planted the heart again into the body. She then cut herself and a few drops of her blood fell on the body. It started burning and not even a few moments later from the body was left just heap of dust. Mina saw flower pot nearby and they went both on knees and gathered the ashes. As their tears fell and mixed with it the others just lowered their heads.

Mina stood with ashes in hands and spoke to Jenny. "I know Mina. Her wish is probably to be completely free. Let's make her wish come true."

Outside was windy weather so when they released ashes it flew away under their red eyes making them smile.

But Mike was curious. "Why did she give you the stone?"

Mina was curiously looking st her as well.

Jenny sighed. "She told me that before their death the rest of them will do it as well so the rest of the energy inside could be preserved inside, for me. As it seems I am the only one that has powers for now. And zombies fear that power in me. Yes, they can feel. Fear, greed, hunger. No love, compassion or any other feelings. Just those have remnants of feelings. That is the reason why these others are trying to help us."

Mike nodded and then looked at the people behind him. Luckily they brought all the people that already knew about her powers.

"I fear that some people might try to harm her or use her powers for something. Let's keep her powers as secret, at least until we are sure she won't lose them. If her powers become stable we can build save place. For everyone." They all accepted with a nod and agreed that for now her secret should be known just between them.

Jenny gratefully smiled at them. "Let's clean up while city and build a tall wall around it. If there are such changes in their DNA, there is a chance that others might change as well. Let's use my power to make a safe place for the rest of the survivors. This city should be given a new name. Safe Heaven."

Everyone smiled and started making suggestions. One middle-aged man came forward and smiled at her. "We can produce food on every free spot of earth in the whole town. Balconies, cellars, tops if high buildings... and many more. There is so much space. We could use old factories, big stores and malls and use them as planting places. They gave enough space and light. I..."

Mike patted his shoulder to stop him. "You probably have amazing ideas, but let's clear the restaurants of the foods and scram from this place. I want to go back before night. At home write your ideas and we can let survivors do the job. Yours is to scavenge now. Later on, I will give you two floors and the top of one building so you can plant whatever you want. Now let us hurry."

Everyone laughed and with smiles on their lips, rushed to harvest everything they could use...