CHAPTER 30 - Safe Haven's New Survivors

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It was now the first days of the second week of the new month of October there in Safe Haven of Z-city. Also, it looked like Eden succeeded in her mission upon returning home and bringing back the new group of people to her safe place, introducing them to her children and dogs, and then settling them in their new secure shelter and home in Safe Haven.

When they were first brought there, they were a little wary at the sight of the abandoned building from the outside but when Eden let them in as they got there by climbing up the dangerous ladder up to the rooftop and bringing them inside, they were shocked by the safe and secure set up she made around and inside the building itself and were astonished to discover that she's been living in Z-city for more than a year since the zombie outbreak and the apocalypse first happened, along with her rescuing and taking in the two children and dogs.

Speaking of which, it looks like the two overprotective men from the new group have stopped distrusting Eden when she guided them to Safe Haven, but now the distrusting role has switched to Luna, for the mother dog kept growling and snarling at them like it knows how they treated her master and was very displeased about it.

Eden tried her best to stop the dog and calm the canine down but Luna didn't stop as it took every chance and opportunity to scare the two men silly by barking at them or snapping at their feet whenever they were not looking or aware of it when it sneaked behind them or so.

Luckily, it becomes docile and politely friendly because of the added children that both groups are delighted to meet with one another and were happy to be close friends, which also excited the growing puppy Archer as the little ones frolicked around Safe Haven, playing games and everything but Michael and Annie still remember about the traps that their guardian Eden has placed inside Safe Haven.

As Eden gave them the grand tour, including showing off the modified home-made traps she had made and set up inside the secure building, the new survivors were astonished and in wonder at how Eden has massively gathered and vastly stored so many supplies and stuff, as well as improvising and creating such lengths to make and get more, like growing indoor fruits and vegetables, inventing equipment for daily use and other important survival necessities, hygienic bathing facilities, and everything else.

Now, in a house-warming welcoming party of sorts, Eden and the young women of the new survivor group are cooking and making up the grand luncheon meals for all of them, and the others also helped them out by setting up the table and room where they all gather to sit and dine in, as the children were distracted on playing on one of their fun games together with Archer the puppy following gleefully after them and Luna was watching and guarding over the children.

Once Lunch was finally finished and set up, Eden went to call for the children, nearly dodging and stepping aside when four of the new group darted past her, almost bumping into the adult woman, and then she almost burst out laughing at the sight when she saw Michael and Annie chasing after their new friends like they didn't want to lose their game.

She softly yelled to them that the food is ready and the children instantly stopped playing upon hearing the calls and ran in the direction of the dining room where the others are Eden watched with a small smile when they went dashing over there.

Then she shook her head and went to the room where she and her two kids shared, and it looks like she didn't mind sharing the same hallway as the other rooms beside theirs with the new people, as she is content and happy that the others trust her and were glad to be taken to Safe Haven and allowed to live there with them.

It looked like Eden needs to work on writing a new entry in her hidden journal before she joins the others for lunch, and it turned out to be true as she looked around covertly like she was making sure that the others aren't around to notice her gone before she got into the room, took out the journal and swiftly went to write a quick entry into it before somebody else comes looking.

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JOURNAL ENTRY: DAY UNKNOWN, 10TH MONTH OCTOBER, YEAR 2XXX

Hey, it's Eden again.

I'm back safe and sound and home in Safe Haven.

Along with the new group of survivors I have taken in and brought them there.

It took almost the whole day before the new second week, for me to convince them that when I shared with them the offer of a more secure and safer place to be real and legit.

And it's all because of the over-protective guardians of the new group, who are the Asian martial-arts fighters, that I now know and named Ryu and Daiyu, respectively.

I did my best and gave out all my efforts into convincing them that Safe Haven was real and much safer and secure than the previous shelters they went through. And even though the two men softened a little, including the other people, when I returned with the new supplies for them as promised before, Ryu and Daiyu didn't want to believe me about my ludicrous offer because they still jump to the conclusions thinking that I have ulterior motives for them or something worse than that.

I felt like reaching out to these two rock-headed China-type guys and bonking their heads together to make them believe me.

But I know better than not to push and keep being nice and polite, and it almost breaks my face upon donning a nice smiley-kind persona until they're fully convinced and believed me in my words and actions that I mean no harm at all and was truly a good person.

I led the way as we drove straight back, returning home to Safe Haven, and once we got there, they almost got nervous and wary upon seeing first glance at the sight of the abandoned slightly-constructed apartment building where my group and I were staying and living.

But when I keep guiding and leading the way for the new group of people to follow me and climb up the dangerous-looking rusty ladder to get to the rooftop.

It didn't take long for about a few seconds or a minute or so, for them to be shocked in wonder at seeing what Safe Haven truly looked like from the inside and everything else that I set up, fixed, and made for our survival in Z-city.

All of them were very amazed and impressed with the work that I've done, and needless to say, they were shocked yet again when I revealed the fact that I have been staying and living in Z-city longer than when I found my dogs and children for about a year since exactly the zombie outbreak and the first stage of the apocalypse just happened.

They started asking me questions about it randomly and almost in rapid succession but I stopped them before they might scare my children or agitate my dogs with the line of questioning, that I promised that I'll answer them all later once I got them settled in.

I gave them the grand tour and Michael and Annie helped me by showing them around Safe Haven inside and out. But I almost had a hard time in calming my dogs when Archer sniffed and snuffled curiously at the new people and Luna suddenly went on overly-protective guard dog as it tried to snap and growl straight at the two men, Ryu and Daiyu funnily enough.

The brothers' child, who is called Haru and turned out to be the youngest brother of the Asian fighters, laughed at the sight of his older adult brothers being slightly scared off by a mere growling protective mother dog.

Though I couldn't help but hold back more on my laughter when the others are also amused at the sight.

Speaking of which, the new group of survivors finally managed to share who they are and introduced themselves to me, when they finally trusted me enough and believe I'm a good person and a fighting survivor like them.

Of the other men, the Asian one with a short haircut is Mark and the elderly Asian woman is his grandmother called 'Mother' Ying.

And the fourth man, the black African is Homer, the one with a bald head and a body built like a football player. And he revealed that he's the oldest brother but with a childish-like playful personality to the other two African young women, who are Sahara the one with long braided dread-lock black hair, and Nadia the one with boy-cut short curly hair. And Nadia's biological children are Natu, the African boy, and Nisha, the African girl.

The last child is an Asian girl, her name is Meiling and she is adopted and cared for by Sahara when she lost her parents tragically from the zombie outbreak when it broke out a year ago.

Finally, there is the last woman who is a normal American named Talia, and she is also protective and takes care of the elderly old African woman named and called 'Ole' Bessie, who also tragically lost her family members when they got caught by the zombie outbreak and died from it horribly without being turned or mutated into zombies.

They introduced each other and exchanged names upon meeting with one another and Michael and Annie were very happy upon making new friends with the new kids, and I was smiling at the sight of them playing happily and content around Safe Haven when they play their games, but I remind my two kids about the traps as well as no more intense rough-housing of the kind inside the building.

They understood and the adults got curious about the traps I mentioned as well as wondering about the building's set-up and everything, so I gave them the whole grand tour around Safe Haven inside and out.

It didn't take me long to do so, and then it was a few days that passed on by that the new group settled in comfortably and felt relieved and content that they were inside a more secure and safer place than the previous ones they went through.

Well, that's all there is to it. With the update of who the new people are in Safe Haven as well as bringing the survivors in as new living tenants in our safe secure home.

Now, it's just a matter of knowing the people more and everything about them. And with the trust completely granted from them, I can relax and probe a little more from them, but discreetly so that the trust won't be misplaced when they noticed that I might be digging too deeply about them.

Hopefully, they won't be able to notice it as I ask them covertly about it and I'll have to watch out and be careful of my line of questioning when it comes to the two men Ryu and Daiyu around, even though they also trust me too and soften their overprotective negatively cold-like attitudes towards me like before.

By the next time, I might find out and discover more about these people and what they went through when the zombie apocalypse broke out and first happened on the time long ago.

But I'll make sure to back off if the questions turn out to be too painful to answer, such as how Ole Bessie and little Meiling went through when they lost their families in horrifying tragic ways.

I wonder how their stories are going to turn out when I ask them about it and get answers and everything. But while doing that, I'll be sharing with them mine too, as a show of good faith.

Until then, this is Eden signing off.

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After Eden finished writing the new entry into her journal, she put it away into a very secret hiding spot in the room with her kids, and then she went back to the dining room to join the others in having lunch together and celebrate the house-warming party to welcoming Safe Haven's new survivors there.

They almost celebrated that small party inside the building in Safe Haven so happily and comfortably, that they're almost oblivious to the known fact that the place is right in the center of a zombie-infested city and there are many hidden dangers and threats around them out there.

But it looks like the new group isn't worried at all, upon seeing that Eden isn't concerned too, because after the tour and showing off the house traps as well as the security alarms and everything else, they couldn't help but feel safer and more secure in their new shelter and possibly their new home, if they want to or not.

Eden seemed to sense that when time passes, the new survivors might not want to stick around and keep staying in Z-city longer than they would want to or not, even though she has for about a year since the zombie outbreak. But Eden guessed that only time will tell in the future and it will depend on the later situation if the time comes or if something else happens or not.

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