Return Before the Apocalypse: The Countdown Only I Remember

Chapter 8 - A Garden Worth Defending

SWISH!

Axel's expression soured as his sword cut through empty air.

“Stay sharp, Axel! They've got room to move. Of course you'll miss sometimes!”

Axel watched Kil's spear strike a throat, withdraw, then snap toward the next attacker before it could close.

“What do you mean, they can dodge easily? You're clearly getting one kill with every hit! This isn't fair!”

Axel raised his shield and set his feet.

A zombie charged straight at him. Axel blocked it with the shield in his left hand, then smashed the shield into its face. Before it recovered, he slashed through its neck.

The zombie's head flew through the air, spraying blood before falling to the ground.

Axel grinned and turned to the next attacker. He brought down three more on his own before he looked up.

Kil had already killed the rest.

Axel lowered his sword, his grin fading.

“Can't you let me enjoy this a little, Kil? I don't get any sense of accomplishment when I'm with you!”

“Then go on your own. Maybe that'll give you some…”

“That's not what I meant!”

Axel checked the empty street. “I'd settle for not needing you every time.”

Kil flexed his fingers around the spear shaft before answering.

“Even in a young body, I can't use my best techniques properly. These muscles can't take the strain.

“I really do need to break through the first limit as soon as possible.”

He glanced at the dispirited Axel and managed a smile. Since returning, he had caught himself measuring every delay against what was coming.

“If only I didn't know, I wouldn't dwell on it so much.”

With that thought, Kil went looking for damaged gardening tools near the vegetable patch. Among the rusty, dusty implements, he chose a small hoe and returned.

“Where have you been, Kil? You had me worried!”

Axel let out a breath at the sight of him, then frowned at the hoe.

“I'm the one who should be worried. Stop standing there daydreaming! Help me move these!”

“Huh? You want to move these tomato and pepper plants? Where are we going to put them?”

“In the rooftop garden, obviously!”

“But… isn't that a flower garden?”

“We're better off growing these than a bunch of useless flowers!”

“All of them?”

“Of course.”

“What? Twenty tomato plants and twenty pepper plants? Are you kidding, Kil?”

“You've got it wrong, Axel.”

“What do you mean?”

Axel raised an eyebrow.

“Besides the tomatoes and peppers, there are carrots and potatoes. We're harvesting those, too! We'll keep the big ones and replant the small ones.”

Axel studied the plants, then Kil.

“I thought we'd be fighting zombies and looking for a base, not digging up somebody's garden.”

“Fighting zombies, finding a base—yes. The part about rescuing beautiful women and getting lucky is still your idea.”

Kil set the hoe down.

“Listen, Axel. Gathering people in a base doesn't mean they'll be safe or happy.”

“Why?”

“Because the old laws don't apply in a world without order. And they'll be gathering under the pressure of zombie attacks and hunger.

“They'll be fighting on too little sleep, thirsty and hungry, with no chance to recover.

“Compared with us, they'll probably be worse off.”

“Even with walls and people to defend them?”

“Most of them, if things go the way I expect.”

“And these plants are supposed to change that?”

Kil stared at him.

“Because food is scarce. A plant that keeps producing food is worth protecting.”

“Wait, Kil.”

“What?”

“This little garden is valuable, sure, but isn't there a huge stretch of farmland south of the city? Couldn't that keep us fed, too?”

“Yes.”

“Then why put all this work into plants here instead of going there?”

“We can keep these inside our walls.”

“And the fields stay outside them.”

“Yes.”

Kil nodded toward the vegetable patch.

“We have a temporary base now. We'll live, train, and develop there until we're strong enough. At least… until we can leave the city safely.

“That's why we need our own food and water sources. We already have the most important thing: water. We've also found zombie meat as a substitute staple. But we'll need fruit and vegetables to meet our needs and build better bodies, too.

“Tomatoes are nutritious and easy to care for. And once we get the potatoes growing well, we can make them our staple food.

“With food growing behind our own walls, we can train instead of spending every trip searching for something to eat.”

Axel looked back along the street. Every house between here and their base was another place something could be hiding.

Most survivors would move whenever attacks or hunger drove them out. Even groups large enough to fight would struggle to stay in one place without a reliable food supply.

Kil pressed the hoe into the soil beside a tomato plant.

A garden could anchor them to a defensible home. It would also give them something they could not carry away at a moment's notice.

“So there must be other groups in the city trying the same thing.”

Kil glanced up from the plant.

“Say this city had a hundred thousand people. Think about it: the five percent left would be five thousand people!

“How could we be the only ones here?”

“Where do you think they'd gather?”

“Most will probably head downtown. The ones looking for better defenses may try the military base.”

“Even without guns?”

“Yes. They may not have guns, but they still have military knives. And the place has good defenses.

“Besides those two large groups, there are bound to be people forming groups of their own. Some will have fewer than five members, like us. Some will have more than ten. There are probably even groups of more than a hundred.”

“Then why don't we form our own group, Kil?”

“We'll form one when we're ready.” Kil shook his head.

“When should we do it?”

“Once the preparations are done. That's our priority.”

“I get it. Then what should we do now?”

Kil held out the hoe, dirt clinging to its blade.

“Stop asking stupid questions. Open your eyes and look! Help me move all these plants, you bastard!”