A large man hovered over a drooling baby, his thick fingers fastening Velcro at the child's round belly. The baby giggled and the man whose expression had been one of care and concentration softened into blissful pride. He kissed the child's soft forehead before teasing him with the stubble on his square jaw. The little ones laughter filled the entire room and beyond, while an infant nearby began to stir for a moment before drifting back off to sleep.
Dexter leaned back to fasten up the baby vest and pull up the small short to cover the child's chubby thighs. He then picked up his baby son and chatted non sequential words to entertain the tot, while wondering in awe; who would have thought this was possible three and a half years ago...
Three and a half years ago, the world as they knew it ended, ushering a new and terrifying age. Human populations around the world reduced drastically and the recently deceased suddenly rose to begin feeding off of the people that had lived. Animal populations also suffered and billions of livestock, pets and wildlife all joined the ranks of the undead. To make matters worse, technology became mostly redundant, with electricity cut off along with other modern conveniences. Water, the liquid of all life, was found to be contaminated and a main cause for the sickness that turned billions into zombies. It was of no surprise that the people who lived through those first few weeks dubbed the suddenness of that change as the Apocalypse.
In those first few weeks, Dexter and several other survivors came together to form one of the earliest bases. That base did not pass over the first obstacles all survivors needed to face. He and his squad, who had been scavenging for food when the base fell, would never really know what happened to cause the small base to become infested with zombies, they could only guess. It was a stranger called Ren Zexian, who claimed to be a 'Cultivator', that saved them from joining their base's altered population.
After that, due to one reason or another, the squad of six men and one cultivator found themselves in an out of the way village and living on a several acre estate owned by a youth, who'd survived alone for several months due to blossoming talent and sheer luck. He had not been the only one to survive in the village, but that was another tale.
The estate became their new base, one they developed and which grew in population over time. They welcomed old friends as well as new, soldiers as well as civilians, people with powers as well as without.
And the Cultivator, Ren Zexian, took those people that had obtained magical powers after the End and taught them the secrets of cultivation, leading them to become stronger and better able to protect themselves and their loved ones. This meant that though they could never return to the reality that they had once known, they could fight for more than just survival. They could fight to create themselves a new home and a new way of living.
It had not been easy, the majority of them knew nothing about food apart from that you could buy it from the supermarket, knew nothing about clothes except that fashions changed every season and were used to being warmed by central heating and having endless supply of water on tap. Fortunately, landlord Nathan had been growing food and flowers within the extensive gardens of his parents estate for many years, having developed an obsessive love of it and the shy survivor Autumn had been a student in cooking in order to step into the culinary world as a career. Several of them were former construction workers and could build and repair structures and Patrick, from his own squad even had basic abilities in sewing, though on a very amateur, hobby level.
There were challenges; zombies did not rest, so neither could they, animals had mutated and many attacked humans as prey just as the undead, those with powers often had to exhaust themselves in order that everyone might live. Dexter's ability was lightening, he was one of the main defender's of their small community, throwing streaks of electricity at numerous enemies to halt their attacks. This was difficult enough, but Tyler had to do this as well as provide water for everyone's daily use, Cole checked and fixed the walls everyday with his earth abilities and Shaun created and shaped crossbow bolts, cross bows, metal shields, plates, roof tiles, knives...
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Cultivator in a Zombie Apocalypse (Book 2)
HorrorThe end of the world led into a new era, one in which humanity must struggle to survive. But the remnants of a different world have offered humanity hope. Nathan has never concerned himself with others outside his immediate family, but in this era...
