Cultivator in a Zombie Apocalypse

Chapter One Hundred and Eleven - Need and Entitlement

The van left with the spare vegetables and two soldiers; having dragged it on far longer than the original intention, those two men were heading back to the army base to report in.  It was not that they didn't miss their comrades in arms from their original base, but that they'd gained so much having Ren Zexian as their Teacher that they had been unwilling to give this up.

However, from the occasional visits from the army squad that had remained in contact with them, the higher ups had been getting anxious for their return.

In actual fact, around a third of the soldiers with abilities now used the basic 'meditation' methods passed on by Ren Zexian through Chang Min and the soldiers they'd been in contact with and results had varied.  Their commanding officers wanted to know why this was the case, but since the episode where they'd ordered squads to infiltrate the smaller base 'for the good of those people', relations had cooled to the point of being indifferent neighbours.  If it wasn't for the fact that the army base had products valuable to them and the friendly communication of individuals from both bases, likely they'd no longer have anything to do with each other.

So the higher ups could only rely on the men they'd originally sent there.  Not that they'd gained much intelligence; with the exception of Thomas who'd remained stubborn in his stance that the 'meditation' techniques were a waste of time, the two soldiers that had returned informed their commanders that while the cultivation methods they used worked for them, they had been told that they wouldn't necessarily work for others.  Of course, not everyone would believe from word of mouth, there was pressure to share and to experiment.  And those who'd volunteered found that the basic method worked better for them.  One even said that Luke's method was too painful and seemed to burn his insides.  If this was not a warning to cease their experiments, who knew what would be.

Fortunately no one seemed to suffer permanent damage to their abilities.  Still, the higher ups craved quick results and resumed making comparisons between the people that didn't practice any meditation, to the people that practiced the basic method and then Faith and Luke and their specific training.  Hungry for more knowledge, they urged their absent subordinates to return whenever they could.

So now they were returning home.

It should be mentioned that they came to regret their decision.  The thick vegetable stews and potato dishes that were what every soldier consumed day in and day out were unappetising, their tastebuds having been spoiled by Autumn and her delicious multitude of dishes.  They were stuck sharing a room with four other soldiers, lacking space and gaining increased difficulties in maintaining hygiene.  Zak could no longer practice drawing talismans for he needed uninterrupted periods of serene quiet in order to concentrate.  And the higher ups became even more demanding wanting his 'miracle' light to fend off encroaching zombies.  Theo found his value once more reduced as he still had a black thumb as far as plants were concerned, despite having more control over his abilities.  So there came a time when they decided to abscond for a bit... but that was in the near future.

*****

A crowd gathered around the stall covered in vegetables, but there was some reluctance to purchase.  Some worried about where the vegetables had come from. Others weren't worried, having eaten these people's apples before, but how to cook the vegetables... Not everyone had the tools to cook, many had never cooked pumpkins and spaghetti squash.  The other vegetables were large and not cheap, they didn't want to spend their hard earned points which might by them an extra portion of food from the canteen or one of the stalls trading in cooked food, firewood, soaps, extra bottles of water... One person's query broke some of the stalemate as he asked for a quarter of one of the large cauliflowers and half of a head of broccoli, naturally reducing the cost straight away.