It's Time to Eat!

"Oh? Son, you're just in time. Here have a taste of the stew."

His mother peeked out from their kitchen. She returned to the stew she was cooking and took a spoon of the sauce. Jose removed his shoes and approached his mother. Then, he took the spoon and tasted it.

Although it was a bit salty, Jose can't help but smile. He tried to stop the tears that were about to come out from his eyes.

"This..."

"What? Was it ok? I need your feedback. If it is salty, tell me. Your father might complain again about my dish being salty!"

He remembered his memories in the past, into which his father savagely comments about his mother's cooking. It was either lacking in taste, or it was too salty. Hence, his mother often does 'taste samples' for Clarissa and Jose.

"Uhm, it is fine. Father might just find it a bit salty."

"Got it. Go wash your hands and prepare the table. The rice and stew would be ready soon."

Jose nodded as he obediently followed her mother. He placed four sets of a plate, spoon, and fork, and a glass in their dining table. On the side, he placed a pitcher of cold water.

"Mom, everything is ready."

"Thanks. I'll call you when we're about to eat dinner."

"Ok!"

Jose rushed up to his room. He placed his bag on the table and changed his clothes. Then, he sat at his chair whilst scanning through his phone.

"Building a base at this point in time is not ideal. Construction will last at least a month. It would be such a waste if I would use the money that I would win from the lottery to buy food supplies. Because after the apocalypse, all I need is to kill and kill zombies and eat mutart to get stronger."

"I should probably buy four or five floors from hotels in the entertainment district. I could Isolate the last two top floors and make use of the other three floors below it. Other than that, I wouldn't have the trouble to find zombies to kill."

"Also, Though an entertainment district was densely populated, The population on the Housing and working areas were bigger than that of the entertainment district. Hence, lowering the probability of us encountering a wave of zombies."

Jose scanned through the net until he landed on a website of a five-star hotel, Golden Summit. It looked grand inside and outside. It even has its own mall, supermarket, casino, and even a car dealer showroom. Based on the website, The rooms he wanted to rent for some days were already fully booked.

"Sigh. I'll deal with them if I had the money. If it won't be enough, I can only look for another place."

That was the most ideal place he had in mind. Across the hotel was a Police Sub-camp, where it even had two helicopters parked in helipads above it. The police sub-camp was a police station of one level higher. Police sub-camps were meant for officer's offices. This was also where people go in case they needed something in relation to the police.

Hence, the number of firearms in this area was less compared to other police stations and police camps. Jose also knew that Police stations and Police sub-camps had no enough firepower to suppress the zombies at the start. Only Police camps where the majority of the policemen were located, was able to survive like the camps the military had established.

Yet, to Jose, it was still a good location, since there would definitely guns and ammunition in that area. Plus, the most important thing for him was the helicopters. If he could take control of the top area of the hotel, he could place the two helicopters in the two out of three helipads available.

Other than the Police sub-camp, a kilometer away from the hotel was the private hospital, SEADH. South-East Asian Doctors Hospital, SEADH, was a hospital that often cost thrice up to ten times of that of public hospitals. Their equipment and facilities were topnotch and can match amongst the top hospitals in the country. Hence, In case Jose needed medical supplies, SEADH would certainly have a stock of the best medicines available in the country.

"There was almost no appearance of mutated zombies at the start. Hence, I wouldn't fear about them. It was estimated that after three months did the military got a report about them. However, the mutated zombies were smart and still avoided conflicts against humans. And only after a year did the world knew their strength."

Jose leaned back to his chair as he placed his phone on top of his desk. On the phone, was the satellite view of the map around the Golden Summit Hotel. Going to the military camps were a no go for him. His actions may get the officials' attention and bring him trouble. Hence, if he wanted to get strong at the very start, he needed to make a safe stronghold for him and his family.

Knock! Knock!

"Brother! Brother! It's time to eat!"

Just before he could pick up his phone again, a voice was heard outside his room.

"Cla~Clarissa!" He shot up from his seat and rushed to open the door.

"Brother?!" Clarissa was astounded. She was hugged by Jose the moment the door opened. Jose wasn't able to contain himself and tears started to flow on his eyes.

"There. There, Elder brother. I know it's painful but... I know you'll find the right girl at the right time." Clarissa assumed that Jose got rejected by his 'crush' and would have a sad Christmas. So, she hugged back to her brother and patted his back occasionally.

"Sniff! Yeah... Yeah..." Jose just nodded in response. It would be a troublesome matter to explain if he says the truth that he came from the future where she died.

"Mom and Dad were waiting, Let's go and eat." Clarissa smiled.

"Uhm! Let's go. Sniff." Jose wiped his tears and followed behind Clarissa down to their kitchen.