"Okay everyone this is how we're going to function. I need to come up with a plan to satisfy us all because I didn't think we'd find anyone alive."
After we had got home, Jacob and I took them to the living room and listened attentively as each one of them told us their story. By the time they finished, it was four p.m.
"So basically I've raided almost every house in this compound. I didn't take all the food just the ones that interested me the most. What we're going to do is assign each one of you partners. Each house on this street has two bedrooms and a master suite upstairs. So we'll have three people per residence. Some of the old homeowners like my parents made extra bedrooms outside so that can come in handy since there's going to be a group of two—a pair," I continued.
Organizing these many people was a headache. I want to go back to the time where it was just me. Having Jacob was okay, but eight extra people were just too much.
"Or you can share rooms. Yes! That's better and much safer. Jacob and I will be residing in this house. Elise will stay here temporarily under our care until she's healthy enough to move. Then she will join Kyla, Yoncé, and Joshua in house two. The rest will be staying in house three," I paused and examined the room. When no one complained, I spoke up again. "Let's go pick some houses."
Outside I counted the number of houses in my street. Thirteen in my street. I started walking to the house on the left of mine. I had found the extra key, so I put it in the lock and turned it. "This is house three. You can stay here and settle in. Check the kitchen for food and make an inventory of what's good and what you have to throw away. After, you can go upstairs and pick out your bedrooms. You get to decide who gets the master suite, but if you don't come to sense the older person gets it. Even if he's older by a day," I sounded so authoritative right now, and they were respecting me, something that pleased me a lot.
I left the keys with Zaphire, went outside and started making my way to house two. I opened the door and repeated the same orders to them. I left the keys with Yoncé and didn't bother to go in.
I went back into my house to find Jacob at the kitchen table reading a paper. "This calendar is so well organized. You're very organized. I mean wow! My old group would just go on random supply runs when needed and didn't even bother with counting the food," He scratched his head and looked up to me, "Why do you do this?"
"I'm a slothful person so without my calendar I would never get off my ass. I found that if I distributed my tasks through the weeks, I had a chance of surviving. I combined it with some days of training, and I was ready to go." Now that I said out loud I noticed how much I changed since the beginning of this cataclysm. I would usually put things off for another day and procrastinate until I had no choice but to do what I was holding off.
"That's amazing! So how are they holding up?" he asked regarding my friends.
"They're fine. My friends are glad I saved them before could starve," before I could continue, I heard footsteps behind me. I turned around and saw Elise. "Hey, you need something?"
"Uhm, I was just wondering if I could sleep with them in the other house. I feel so much better," she asked timidly.
"I won't force you to stay here or anything, but I was perturbed about you, but since you say you're fine then the choice is yours."
"Thanks," she said and walked out. I didn't even bother taking a seat because I knew there were things to do. I had told my friends to come back to the house with their inventory. They should be back soon there wasn't much to count.
"Jacob, we have work get up."
"What?"
"Those houses don't have enough supplies for them. In fact, they don't have anything at all. I'm going to sort out the food for both houses, and you get necessities," I barked out the orders
"Necessities?" he asked. He wasn't in his brightest moments I noticed. I rolled my eyes and responded:
"Yes! Toothpaste, toilet paper, toothbrushes, shower gels, shampoos, you know stuff like that!"
"Okay got it," he muttered while getting up and springing to action. I followed suit. I had tons of food. I could feed my whole street if it were full of people. I had a whole supermarket to myself, of course, I was going to make good use of it, so I hoarded on food. I gave them all a bit of everything that could last three weeks for each house and Jacob did the same with the necessities. Luckily I had some shopping carts in the backyard to put all the stuff inside. I've always wanted to have those at home so when the chance came I went for it, the tricky part was getting them in the car. In the end, both houses had two full carts of food and necessities. I saw Jacob putting some flashlights and ropes in there too. Great idea!
"After this, they need weapons," Jacob directed to me. All I could do was cringe. I hadn't even given him weapons. All he had were the ones he had on himself the day we met. The ones we used today were going to be locked up again.
"Not today, though. My friends safe for now," I swerved Jacob's question. The first ones to come in where from house two—they worked quickly. We gave them the supplies and told them to get here after they put the things away and showered. I knew these houses had water in the tanks. When house three arrived, we repeated the same gestures and sent them on their way.
It was close to seven p.m., and the sun had already set. So I started to prepare dinner for everyone. I was surprised that no one asked me about the farm I commenced in the park. Yes, I had a farm. You know how in movies people move to the countryside then they get overrun by a massive horde that appeared out of nowhere, and they have to escape? Well, I went to the boondocks but not to live. I went to pick up some stuff and to rescue the animals.
Since I was little my goal was to learn a bit of every job because in the back of my head I knew we were doomed to an apocalypse. So that's what I did. Whenever I got the chance to practice a new skill, I did it. And I didn't stop until I was okay at it. My dad was obsessed with having stuff growing in the garden, so I had fruit trees all around me. There was also lettuces, tomatoes, and mint near the waterfall in my backyard; I planted those after the world went to shit. In my street, there was a neighbor that had onions, pineapples, carrots and such.
Before the world ended, there was a major crisis here in Angola, so some people resorted to planting instead of buying because of the crazy prices. I also had at home dragon fruit, pomegranate, and annona squamosa. Angola has always been a diverse country regarding fauna and flora. All around the country—my condominium included—different types of plants grew everywhere, and you'd see the most different animals. Regarding flora, we had fruit trees all over the country including the baobab fruit, tamarind, cashew, mangoes, and figs. These were the most frequent to find. You had more luck finding one of these fruits in the streets than an apple. Before my compound was what it currently is, it was wilderness, filled with trees and animals. The constructors wanted to preserve the green, so the built around most trees and planted some more.
~~~~~~
Right now I was slicing some meat for the burritos. I know it's a very unusual apocalyptic food, but hey, it concerns me. The tortillas were about to expire, so I made good use of them. Because of my farm, I had fresh meat which I stored and consumed wisely—cutting up and cleaning the animals was the tricky part. The finding of my friends was a special occasion, though. It probably meant more to Jacob than to me, but it was a good excuse to eat burritos.
After getting the meat ready and seasoning it, I set it aside and took out all the other ingredients. I began with prepping the burrito filling: Mexican red rice, poblano pinto beans, grilled meat, roasted salsa Roja. Step two was to fill the fresh out the oven tortillas and then fold them. Before I started warming up the burritos, I prepared the nachos. I saved a lot of time since I used Doritos instead of making the chips. I then got started on the shortcakes for dessert. Since I didn't have any fresh strawberries, I used dragon fruit and stored them in the fridge. Finally, I told Jacob to set the table while I heated the burritos.
Not long after, I placed the food on the table, everyone arrived and immediately sat down. My friends looked at the food the same way walkers look at us. But I knew how they were feeling. Homemade food was something everyone cherished at times like these.
"I prepared this meal tonight to celebrate our union. From now on we're more than just a group. We're a family. And a family has moments like these; gathered around the table, enjoying a home cooked meal. But eventually I hope more people will join us and moments like these will endure through time. I am grateful for having all of you here and shit and bon appétit y'all," if you noticed that whole speech didn't sound like something I would say because Jacob wrote it. He made me say it against my will! He said I needed to be sympathetic to them because of their condition. As you noticed I forgot the last part because I didn't even bother and freestyled.
"Okay, what the fuck is all this shit?" Yoncé's bitch ass had to ask.
"It's Mexican food you ignorant," Kyla replied for me, saving this girl's ass.
"I know what it is dumbass but I mean...where the fried chicken and asparagus at?" Yoncé asked.
"Can we have a day where you stop being so ratchet? See, this is why white people stereotype us so much. Sorry Elise," I said. Elise was white; I didn't know if she felt offended, so I apologized for either way.
"It's cool," Elise replied while eyeing the food hungrily.
"Anyways, I'm pretty sure you don't eat fried chicken every day."
"No I don't, but it's been long since I've had any."
"I guess that is just too bad. Let's start with the nachos. Then, everyone takes one burrito and put it on their plate," I really couldn't switch off commando mode today.
I sat down and began eating as so did the rest. There wasn't a particular topic of conversation, it was mostly Jacob and I that was asking them questions on their experience with walkers and if they've ever killed any. We came to the conclusion that these people needed practice. Lots of and lots of practice since they've never killed walkers before, all but Yoncé who had to kill her mother.
"Thanks for doing this. I know you know it means something to me. And I know it will do you some good too." Those were Jacob's words to me after dinner. We'd told everyone to go home and get some rest. We had just finished cleaning up, and we were now sitting in the living room, talking. He got up and moved closer to me. Oh shit no! Is what I'm thinking about, about to happen? I mean I won't say I don't want it. "I know we just met, but you're special. You know that right?"
"Special as in retarded? Because I have done nothing but being reckless this week; just kidding, thanks, I guess." Oh my butt no, please no. He inched closer, and I could feel his scent, Christian Dior Sauvage, my favorite. He could have all the perfumes in the world, and he chose my favorite.
"I was going to come with all that crap about taking a leap of faith because this is the end of the world but fuck that. You're different, and I don't want this to happen because of circumstances. I want this to be as real as those biters outside. So please give me—give us—a chance."
He was coming in high with all this lovey-dovey crap. I'm not the most romantic person, and even so, I would have thought it was too soon. I mean we're only at chapter four, take a chill pill. On the other hand, just to be honest, I've been gushing over him since we met. Only I can contradict myself like this, wow! But anyways, what do I have to lose anyways?
"I mean it is too soon, but it could also be too late. Why not?" I said after a long moment of contemplation. This idiot kept silent; he was simply staring at me with his stupid smirk. After a while, his smirk turned into a full smile from ear to ear. And then wham! He kissed me. He.Kissed. Me. HE KISSED ME. Damn, those lips were soft. It was a passionate kiss that unfortunately did not last very long. "Well, that was something, I'm going to bed now. See you!"
What? This Negro is out here acting all Rico Suave. I panicked.
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