Last Peaceful Days for Four

A series of loud crashes echoed in the countryside, only the nearby wandering zombies were there to hear it. And perhaps a couple of nearby survivors that scurried away in fear of the noise that may attract those same zombies to the source of the chaos.

Though, many of the dead that walked on over were quickly decapitated by a duo of women, both of whom were equipped with weapons. The blonde one wielding a knife tightly taped to a metal pole and the brunette used a wooden bat that she "decorated" with embedded nails. They both fiercely took down these zombies one by one, yet they never let their guard down, knowing that the zombies would become even more powerful in the future. Thus, them guarding against zombies was merely practice for the future.

"Uuurrgh!" Shilah used her makeshift spear for support as she massaged her sore arms. Hillary had eyes full of sympathy to her weak friend and gave a consoling pat on the back before being shooed away to concentrate on the task at hand.

Yes, they were put in a little training program by Aiden to improve their physical fitness. Hillary fared off quite well due to her previous life experiences and the fact that she actually played sports. Whereas Shilah, who never stepped outside in her life to actively be healthy, had severely lagged behind in the fitness department.

In this current cruel world, it was best for her to quickly become physically powerful and experienced to kill a few evolved zombies in the future. Or even just the ability to run really fast from zombies.

Unfortunately, from Shilah's own words, she was an absolute slag when it came to her physical well being.

Luckily, or unluckily, Aiden had assigned her to temper herself by "protecting" Oliver from zombies as he removed any cars from the streets and transported them near the base with his space abilities. Quotations were generously put there as Aiden was already there to protect Oliver from any stray pebbles that could harm his beloved.

In the beginning, Oliver had previously gloated at the fact that Shilah had to be trained to be strong, he believed that with his experience and powerful spatial abilities, he did not need to exercise his pale bean pole of a body... Aiden had quickly crushed those thoughts as he also put Oliver into a daily schedule of exercising. The poor man was kicked out of the bedroom, yet also brought in as quickly as he went out (though Oliver had refused to talk to him for a while).

Oliver was not completely devoid of thoughts when he is feeling lazy. He knew that a big part of his death was his physical weakness. If he had been less curious, he may have escaped the confrontation with those thorny "flowers." Curiosity or not, he still got into the confrontation, and with enough physical capability, he could have flat out run away quickly from the situation. Nothing could change the outcome now, and he was lucky to get a second chance at life. So, both parties knew that the tragedy should not be repeated in any way.

Of course, Oliver took a little revenge by ignoring Aiden for a day or so. It did not last long as Aiden simply barged into the room and snuggled into the bed, while Oliver verbally cursed him for being shameless and climbed right into the bed also.

Currently, they were approaching the seventh day of the apocalypse. Clearing the streets would greatly promote travel from other survivors and facilitate them into the base or simply to trade with them. Aiden had kindly decided to have Oliver start exercising later in the month. Shilah had begun her own physical training and Hillary went to accompany her.

Oliver stretched upwards till an audible crack was heard from his arms, he sighed contently from relaxation and (minimal) exercising which was refreshing (as someone that preferred doing things while sitting or lounging about).

"Well, that's all for today! My, what an easy day it was today!" It took a week, but the work clearly paid off. The street, as far as the eye could reach, was cleared of the cars that previously caused that permanent traffic jam.

The scrawny man turned to the other, seeking the slightest bit of agreement.

"Yes. Everyone worked hard and we managed to finish cleaning." Aiden spoke with a serious face as if he was not spouting any nonsense to the people around him. Though, in his eyes, it was worth it as Oliver awarded him with a bright, and extremely smug, smile.

As Shilah and Hillary approached the two men and heard their words, Shilah had deeply sighed to show her usual distaste for Oliver's bad humor. Hillary, on the other hand, was amused at the interactions of the duo. Once again leaning in towards Shilah to mutter excitedly about the couple. This went unnoticed by both Oliver and Aiden as they were discussing further plans.

"Ah, now that we have the cars gathered up, we should collect the gasoline from each one?" Oliver scratched his chin at that thought. In their previous lives, Oliver and Aiden had to approach each car and extract the gas. Their abilities were not quite as refined or powerful as they are now, thus, were in nearly constant danger. But, managed to struggle through together with each other's help.

"We aren't in a rush since no one would really be crazy enough to approach the base to steal some gas. Once more trustworthy people come into the base, especially those that we previously have known, they could work with us to take the gas." Aiden calmly stated as he held the hand of his lover, enjoying the specks of warm felt from the palm.

"Do you remember when good old Gabe comes over? He was trustworthy." Oliver fondly remembered the strict man that was loyal to both him and Aiden. And was also the second subject of Oliver's teasing, right next to Aiden, since both were strong-headed and upright men.

The only difference being that Aiden always showed a warm or extreme reaction to his teasing, giving Oliver a sense of accomplishment of breaking the cold-faced man's facade. Though, with some surface-level thinking, Aiden was simply closer to Oliver compared to everyone else into the base, until that closeness evolved into affection.

Aiden dug through his memory for when his friend, and top subordinate that replaced him in the previous life as base leader, had hobbled into the base.

"A month? No, it was less than that... I believe he came along a week from now on." Aiden nodded to emphasize his confidence in his memory.

Within a month, that was when survivors actually became brave enough to face the reality of their situation head-on, more specifically, with a weapon to a zombie's head.

The more courageous ones ventured out weeks before, some had even joined the early ranks in the base, like Gabe. However, in the first few weeks, those cases were quite rare. They were the type of people more likely to live through the apocalypse and properly thrive without cowering in fear.

The strong and courageous were needed in the base. If the base filled up with only cowards and freeloaders, the system would collapse upon itself due to a lack of support.