The storm ended at some point in the night, ending as suddenly as it came. The still of the air seemed to suggest that it had never occurred at all. However, there was obvious evidence that it had. Nathan"s beloved garden had born the brunt of it, though it was in patches, mostly where tender sprouts had been freshly planted and had no protection from the large trees or wide bushes. And they were not all that had been affected. Though there were not a great deal of them, for the ripe ones had already been picked and eaten, yesterday"s green strawberries had "ripened" to an odious dark grey and when Nathan went to poke these ugly fruits, vines from the main house" wall whipped out and grasped his wrist, preventing him from doing so. More vines and ivy and weeds with twisting long stems appeared to steal away the fruits and remove them to where only they knew well.Ren Zexian watched this occur, standing close to Nathan, wary that the yin tainted rain would indeed mutate the plants and affect Nathan"s connection to them. However, apart from a plot of small plants that had been battered by the downpour until flattened upon the earth and the poisoned strawberries, the vegetable garden had weathered not so badly. But that was just a patch of the large garden and not the only land to have been doused in the waters.
Dexter sighed as he saw the damage. It had been some small lettuces that had died in the rain and a couple of ground covering plants he couldn"t identify as well. The loss of the fruit was unfortunate while not drastic as the gooseberries didn"t seem to have mutated, but other fruiting plants and trees might still show similar affects when their fruit began to mature. It made him more determined to complete the large green house he"d begun at the side of the main house using the delivered windows of the half-built property, whose bricks were already forming the few metre stretch of wall outside.
"Hey, Tyler," he yelled out, inside the main property. The man was currently entertaining Lucy or attempting to, with the small selection of children"s books he"d found in the library. They hadn"t wanted to let her out into the garden today for good reason, but her guard dog would likely keep her safe as he had for the months following the beginning of the apocalypse. He and the little girl were the only humans in the house, the rest of the men had resumed work on the wall.
"What is it?" Tyler responded, half distracted. Lucy took this opportunity to run deeper into the house, laughing as she took off on stubby legs. Aslan naturally ran after her. Tyler glared at Dexter, he"d been making good progress getting the little girl to open up to him.
"Come help me with something," Dexter said, rather than asked.
"Right now?" Tyler asked, sullenly.
"Yeah, come on," Dexter insisted. "I need a second pair of hands. I"m building the kid a greenhouse. I reckon we"ll all need it, especially in the winter."
"Alright," Tyler agreed. He didn"t like to get his hands dirty, but he couldn"t deny that a greenhouse would be useful. "You know, there is also a sunroom and conservatory in the property. If we had some shelving units, garden pots and stuff, we could likely grow things in there as well."
"There"s a conservatory?" Dexter frowned. How had he not noticed that?
"It"s attached to the far east of the building, around the side. You wouldn"t really see it from the back garden nor from the front of the property, it"s really tucked away." They had occupied the west side of the property. It was closer to the cottage and the kitchen was located in this part as well. They didn"t need to take up the whole building, after all, just a few rooms, easier to keep clean. And besides, there was rarely a day when they had not been scouring the village for supplies, building things, cultivating or keeping the amount of wandering zombie animals to a minimum. The herd was an exception, for the cows usually kept in their high numbers and they knew not even their combined strength could compare.
"And the sunroom?"
"You meditate on it"s roof every few days, seriously, you didn"t know?"
"Thought it was just another cosy reception room," Dexter admitted. "Tomorrow we should see what we can scavenge from the village and fix up those rooms ready for planting. Nathan shouldn"t be the only one responsible for our food!"
"It"d be useful if we could grow things like soybeans or mushrooms," Tyler said, not disagreeing with Dexter"s thoughts. "Doesn"t tofu come from soybeans? We could do with a meat subst.i.tute in our diet. The tins aren"t gonna last."
"I wouldn"t know an edible mushroom from an inedible one," Dexter responded, slightly dismissively. "Would you?" Tyler shook his head, before muttering;
"I wish I had access to the internet or a library."
"Well, that ain"t gonna happen," Dexter chuckled. The library in town happened to be in the heart of it, somewhere likely teeming with zombies more that anywhere else. They"d stuck to the outskirts of town. "You know, wasn"t there a garden centre on the edge of town?"
Tyler smiled, brightly, his intelligent eyes twinkling. "Yes and they had a gift shop as well. And a pet shop... well, it"s been too long for the animals, poor things, otherwise we could have grabbed some rabbits to breed. We didn"t think about that in the refuge did we." He sighed, while Dexter shook his head.
"We didn"t think of a lot of things other than to grab food and stay alive," Dexter admitted. It was only a small group, a few elderly, children and terrified adults, that had not left to risk their lives scavenging for food and supplies that had started the gardens at the old base, wanting something to do other than fall into despair. "We can only do now what we can. And right now, we can build ourselves a greenhouse."
Tyler agreed and the pair pa.s.sed the cottage garden towards where Dexter had begun creating a wooden frame. As they did so, all of the fine hair upon Tyler"s arms stood on end. Dexter frowned and subconsciously rubbed down the hair upon his thick arms. "Do you feel that as well?" Tyler asked. It was strange. It felt a little like when Dexter had been locked in that room, doing whatever meditation Ren Zexian had insisted he do that painted him black by the time he was finished. Like the air was alive and softly spiralling around that room. This time, the air felt dangerous, filled with static that could spark upon their skins should they touch the wrong thing.
"Go get Ren," Dexter instructed and Tyler hesitated for only a brief moment before agreeing and running off to find the man. In the meantime, Dexter looked through the metal gate that had been left wide open by Nathan as he had rushed through the storm.
He had fallen asleep, last night, while pressed against Ren Zexian"s side, until the older man had gently placed him onto the sofa for the night. Dexter didn"t believe that Ren had left him alone in the living room at all while he slept. Ren"s black eyes were always filled with a amicable kindness whenever he spoke to anyone, but when he spoke to the boy, they seemed softer, kinder somehow. Nathan as well, he never approached anyone, just left the fruits and vegetables he"d harvest in the kitchen and spoke only when he was spoken too, never initiating contact. Except with Ren. Dexter wasn"t sure how Ren felt about Nathan, but he could see that there was definitely something between them.
He shook his head, whatever, that was for them to discover. He wouldn"t interfere. Happiness was something you grasped at the end of the world, not something you waited for. For now, he scanned the cottage garden, which was filled with mostly mature plants now. If there was any damage to the vegetables, his eye couldn"t tell, but he did notice something weird in amongst them; a flickering light like sparks off of a saw cutting metal.
He kneeled down and very gingerly brushed aside the large leaves of one plant, before his eyes widened in disbelief. Flickering upwards, they glanced at the small leafless tree shadowing him, before seeking out Ren Zexian, who happened to be lurking in the garden"s gateway, frowning.
"Hey," Dexter greeted. "I think you need to see this."