Cultivator in a Zombie Apocalypse

Chapter One Hundred and Twelve - A 'Better' Life Often Came at a Price

Over the tables placed in the large living room, platters of food were pouring warm, mouthwatering aromas into the stuffy air of the overcrowded space, causing many to repeatedly swallow their saliva.

Such a feast to the senses began its origins the day before when the army squad known on base as the forth caused confusion within the crowds when they wanted to hire someone to cook a whole deer for them to savour having had nearly no access to any meat in well over a year. The people wanted them to sell the deer instead, but in truth, the one buck would definitely not meet the demand and the squad worked hard everyday for the base and this one thing they selfishly wished to reward themselves with. No one was in the wrong, but many were sent away disgruntled, while the squad still had no chef to aid them.

Until someone offered to help.

Dexter glanced over at his Autumn as she placed a colourful array of vegetables in amongst the three plentiful meat dishes; a venison meatloaf mixed with pork meat and wrapped in bacon and served with a blackberry sauce, slow baked deer ribs glistening with a sticky sauce, huge pots of venison stew with carrots, onions and swede. She was pissed at him yesterday, that he'd volunteered her hand and kitchen to the squad without asking her opinion, expecting her to turn that deer into a feast that could satisfy more than forty people and most of them were men with large appetites. He suspected that he would have to coax her more later, never thinking once that he was forgiven just because her eyes now glittered with a little pride and satisfaction over the reactions to her cooking. He admitted, he'd likely been too impulsive, but if it wasn't that the squad were good acquaintances of theirs, he never would have suggested Autumn's kitchen at all.

Still, he shook his wrist having been rightly subjected to peeling a whole ton of vegetables, he'd paid some dues right?

Her expression, with the smile dropped from her eyes as her gaze met with his own informed him that he'd definitely not paid enough yet. He sighed inwardly as he watched her wander out of the room towards the kitchen. She'd made some 'spaghetti and meatballs' for the younger children, using spaghetti squash, venison meatballs and tomato sauce she'd made a few weeks ago and stored.

"It's like thanksgiving or something," one of the soldier's murmured to his closest comrade.

"Shit and I thought we were just expecting barbecue!"

"Well, Er..." their commanding officer snapped out of his awed trance and coughed to hide his embarrassment. "This is thanks to our friends over in this base and thanks to all of you, men, for your hard work this past year and a half. Our lives can't go back to what they were, we know this, but it doesn't meant there will never be anything good to look forward to. Like this meal. So enjoy." A slender hand fell upon the shoulder of the red faced man.

"Nice speech, Commander Rhodes," Justine smiled, her plate having been filled with a sample of many of the dishes on offer while the man rambled on. She'd invited herself to this small feast of Rhodes' squad, not only to chance a taste of the venison meat before others, but also to satisfy her curiosity about this small base that infrequently had had dealings with her own.

"Oi, oi!" He clicked his tongue, giving her an obvious look of disdain, but she simply laughed in his face and darted out of the room, shielding her pilfered food. She did enjoy teasing that man.

As soldiers and the people from this 'village' base quickly followed her lead, the woman glanced towards the rear room where the kitchen was located and made her way towards it. She had to admit, this large place was decorated beautifully before the end, quite tasteful and clearly out of respect for its previous owners, these people had kept it well maintained. Cute, chubby cheeked children sat about a table, not fussing once over the meal in front of them, but tucking into it without reserve. They were joined by an older man, who was feeding a drooling baby with some purée and the woman chef, who was placing some of things from the served dishes into several of large lunchboxes.