CHAPTER 32 - Helping Out

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It was another three days later in that second week and nearing the end of it until the new next week of the month follows later in the future in Z-city. And it looks like Eden is having some sort of fun time in her life than what she experienced before with her children and her dogs, much better than ever with the new people in her group.

Granted, it's not the kind of fun and games that the six children are currently playing as they always do when they enjoy and relax the fun with each other.

No, it seemed that it looks like Eden is getting along more and more with the others in the group, and it seemed it's starting to grow into a good friendship and solid alliance, united together to survive through this zombie apocalypse.

At certain times, during the days as they pass on and go on by, Eden would be seen helping Talia, Sahara, and Nadia out with the chores, especially by being careful with the home-grown plants and ensuring that they won't be harmed or wilt and die, for they needed the growing supplies harvested for them in the later future. As for Mother Ying and Ole Bessie, Eden shared her skills in weaving and sewing new clothes, blankets, and necessities such as female hygiene for the later future when needed in the harsh winters or the supply of napkins runs out empty for the females' monthly use during their periods as so.

As for the men, Eden showed the devices, including the homemade modified ones to Homer and Mark, and got them to help out by working on them more, improvising them to better use, and fixing them up as security and safety measures for Safe Haven.

Lastly and finally then, there are Ryu and Daiyu, which Eden is getting solid ground into gaining more of their trust towards her, as from time to time, during the physical exercises and training, she was not alone anymore up on the rooftop doing them and had the two men joining her, with either both or one of the training with her and the other would stand on guard and watch on the lookout for any dangers to Safe Haven.

It looks like the slightly grown and almost big group has finally established a routine for the entirety of everything there, ensuring their survival and security in Safe Haven of Z-city. And it also looks like Eden's new people weren't anxious at all about making any more plans or something like that to leave and get out of Z-city and explore more out there, since they believed that they were safe and secure for the time being in Eden's safe secure place.

It also shows that they're not willing to leave anytime soon, despite that they knew very well that they are stuck in the middle of a zombie-infested city, staying there for a long while or so. For it seems that they must have made a secret decision earlier before they decided to stay with Eden and her small group.

While Sahara and Nadia are busy cooking dinner for all of them, Talia watching out for the children and cares for them as they play around with the two dogs Luna and Archer that are there with them, the two old women busy with more house-work and chores, and Homer and Mark still working on the security measures and the devices to make them better for the safety in Safe Haven.

For Eden, she is up there on the rooftop, taking the night-watch duties, while trying to make sure that the two men with her on the roof do not notice that she's aware of the training with one another, even though it looks like Eden wanted to turn around from her lookout and watch them train and fight.

She tried to ignore the sounds of Ryu and Daiyu exchanging blows upon their fighting training each other with a katana sword and double-bladed spear that she gathered and made the weapons before, and it didn't take long for about an hour or so for Talia to come up and call for them that dinner is ready.

Ryu and Daiyu instantly stopped fighting from the call and went past her to clean themselves up and join them in the dinner gathering and as Talia turned towards Eden, asking her if she was coming, she gestured and replied that she'll join them in a minute later that she needs to settle things up there first before joining the others.

Once Eden made sure that Talia nods and then left her alone on the rooftop, she swiftly took out her journal she had hidden from herself when she brought it along in a risky chance with the others around her, especially Ryu and Daiyu, but it looks like that she had to take the risk on doing so for she needed to write the new entry into it before she hides the journal away and then joins the others for dinner. So she went on writing the new journal entry about what happened and everything in the previous days.

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

Hey, it's Eden again.

Well, it's official.

The new people are now joining in and staying with my small group here in Safe Haven for an unknown long time, living here in Z-city.

I got to admit, I was surprised at first that some of them didn't demand to leave right now and go out there and explore farther beyond Z-city to uncharted dangerous territory. But then it didn't take me long to realize that they have traveled a long while since the year before when the zombie apocalypse broke out, and I can understand the kind of harrowing ordeals they went through before they got here in Z-city.

When I first saw them, it was like they went through hell like how Dante has gone through the various rings of hell as the literature goes in 'Dante's Inferno' or something similar like that.

So it would make sense that they wanted to stay here now that they're in a safe and secure place in Safe Haven. And I'm glad for that because the winter season will soon be coming when I started noticing the first signs of the cold weather that will soon approach here in Z-city.

We all worked together to cooperate and establish a routine for all of us here in Safe Haven. And it wasn't hard since the simple chores and tasks to do here in our safe place wasn't difficult enough to do so, besides making sure that my homegrown plants in the greenhouse still survive on and grow well in the future, as well as watching out for our food and water rations.

Mother Ying and Ole Bessie were delighted into helping out with the tasks of making more new clothing and blankets for all of us, as I showed them my sewing skills and a few works I've already done and made, and then told them about the necessity for these skills because of the winter seasons or cold weather that comes to Z-city. The old women turned out to be skilled weavers and were very happy to do such tasks as making new clothes and everything for all of us to survive through these kinds of ordeals for the future winters.

As for Sahara and Nadia, they were also delighted in helping me out with the tasks of watching out for our food and water supplies and rationing and using them wisely, as well as looking after and caring for the homegrown plants of fruits and vegetables in the greenhouse units. I showed them the ropes as simple as I can do for them to understand on ensuring that our supplies won't dwindle and deplete for us to survive later on.

Talia, on the other hand, I didn't mind that she wanted to volunteer for the task of watching out and looking after the children as they were having the time of their entire lives, playing with each other with good fun games, and also teach them lessons when they want or need to. I helped Talia to know what is necessary for the children to learn upon teaching them and gave her pointers on taking care of the kids without making them go into tantrums or misbehave whenever it happens or not. I had Luna and Archer pair with Talia in case she needs help in watching and looking after the children, even though Luna still wanted to stay by my side like she was looking after me from the men that the dog still doesn't trust, who are Ryu and Daiyu respectively.

Mark and Homer are still busy with their tasks of improving and fixing up the devices that are used for security and safety measures in Safe Haven. And I had to watch out and remind them into being careful upon handling them in case they might bring trouble to our safe place and endanger our lives.

Homer, the silly man almost did so when one time I caught him fiddling around with one of the monitor alarms that I was planning to place somewhere out there in Z-city to another new spot that I missed on placing it as a security measure against dangers, and then I stopped him just in time when he was about to create some kind of signaling wave through the link and make noise to alert any lurker zombie out there into Safe Haven.

I glared at him for good measure and he apologized profusely for making such a mistake and nearly compromising our safety almost. So I accepted his apology but told him sternly that from now on, he won't work alone, and thus Mark has been with Homer since they've been working busily with the devices and so on.

Finally, for Ryu and Daiyu, they looked to be tolerant enough to designate themselves as guardians and protectors still, taking on and sharing duties with me on guard-watch during days and nights in Safe Haven.

But then I got the sudden surprise of my entire life when these two men also decided to train with me and help me out more with my fighting skills and techniques.

It happened one of those previous days before, when I was up there all alone on the rooftop after insisting to the others that I will be taking watch and lookout duties up there until nighttime comes.

I decided to continue with my training and exercises after telling the group about what I was doing there on the rooftop. And I was focused on spinning around one of the homemade modified double-blade spears, that was already prepared and placed up there, and then I suddenly hit something that made a slightly loud 'CLANG' sound, that I thought I hit one of the poles or something behind me.

When I turned around, my eyes instantly went wide open in shock upon seeing Ryu holding a katana sword that he took from the storage units in the weapons section and had it blocking the turning strike of my spear when I twirled it right behind me.

Ryu just gave me a blank look even as I stared at him silently with surprise, as well as his brother Daiyu standing beside him, with the other end of the double-blade spear poised against the sword weapon Ryu is wielding.

I immediately snapped out of it after a minute or two staring in stunned shock, withdrew the spear from him, and apologized for almost hitting him with it.

Ryu waved off my apologies and requested to join me with my training, further surprising me even more with that, and then Daiyu also asked to join in as well as he gave his slightly criticizing opinion that I needed to learn and hone my fighting skills better than what they have witnessed me doing my training through.

I don't know whether I was blushing very brightly on my face when Daiyu admitted that he and Ryu had been watching me doing my training routine and such. But then I was internally delighted that these two guys are going to help me out with my fighting skills and training so that I will become a better fighting survivor and everything.

Even though…I suffered through more hits, strikes, and many bruises and cuts than I have gotten on myself, much more than before.

Ooh! I've been feeling it since then throughout my entire being as I started training with Ryu and Daiyu.

I can write this here and admit it…seriously, ow…it's so painful and hurtful all the way.

But I'm enduring it as much as I can because I need this to be better and fight through this for our survival here in Z-city.

Ryu and Daiyu were impressed with my determination and fierceness to go through the intense training with them without a few difficulties or so. In return, I let them or one of them also stay with me and share the guard-watch duties during those times, as well as letting them help me out on the training to ensure our survival.

Well, that's all there is to it.

I'm happy that we're all helping out with one another to ensure our survival and stay here in Safe Haven throughout the time in the future in Z-city.

I don't know when I'll be writing the new next entry in this journal, but I'm sure that the next part will still turn out good or something positive since nothing bad has happened yet.

I'll be ending this right here since dinner is ready and someone might come back and call for me, and then catch me in the act of having my journal around. So until the next time, when I find the chance or opportunity to write another entry in this journal.

Until then, this is Eden signing off.

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After Eden finished writing the entry as fast as she can, she hid it again on her person to hide it away later on after dinner. When she went downstairs swiftly and joined them before one of them calls for her and they happily enjoyed their meal together in this gathering, before washing and cleaning up the dishes and then going to their separate rooms to go to bed.

Ryu and Daiyu are on night-watch duties so Eden isn't worried about that and she went with her children Michael and Annie and also her two dogs Luna and Archer into their shared room. Even though the two kids looked like they wanted to sleep over with their new friends, they decide to sleep with their guardian Eden as they missed her as they settle into bed and Eden watch them fall straight to sleep.

When they did, Eden stayed awake a little bit with her dog Luna also staying awake by her side, and she looked up at the ceiling in a daze like she was thinking deeply about something. And it looks like she seemed to be wondering about the future or so in the later time, and hoping that nothing bad is going to happen to them or something like that.

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