The group consisting of Alice, Zeel, Claire, Luther, and Crystal soon sat to enjoy their meal.

Everyone in the dining hall also resumed eating the moment Alice and Zeel sat down.

Even without meaning to, Alice and Zeel had become a focal point of the group.

Everyone began eating the sludge that passed for a nutritional meal.

Zeel, of course, had one of his energy bars. This was made using the Forbidden Cube as it could convert almost any form of matter into tablets.

Zeel had yet to completely replicate all functions of the Forbidden cube, but the device would also grow along with his nanites.

After all, the cube was birthed from his one-of-a-kind nanites..

Zeel also offered Alice a bunch of energy bars, which she happily took. The duo did not pay much attention to the envious, hungry faces of those around them.

"Why not try my cooking?" Crystal asked a bit downtrodden.

"Could be poi..." Zeel was about to list the reasons he refused to eat Crystal's food, but Alice quickly stopped him with a mouth full of Crystal's special sludge.

"Tasty!" Zeel said after playing with the food in his mouth for a while "The best thing I've had in years,"

Well, Zeel did tell the truth considering he had been eating whatever could be found in the now resource-stripped Apocalypse land.

"You're saying my cooking isn't enough?" Alice joked, but anyone paying careful enough attention could tell she was very serious about this matter.

'Women should always be complimented,' Zeel thought.

He had partially studied the wisdom of John Gray's 'Men are from Mars, and Women are from Venus'.

It was a book Zeel found while exploring the wastelands in the Apocalypse. It greatly added to his understanding of Alice and why they initially broke up.

So, Zeel knew the correct answer in this situation.

"I learned something when I was away, the wife is always right. Wisdom, taken from the bumper sticker on the car I stole from some nearby savages. So I should answer 'yes' right now?" Zeel said as he stared off into the distance.

Zeel didn't want to tell Alice that he searched a couple of continents for a book to fix his relationship since he was too lazy to find his own solutions.

Claire began clapping, applauding Zeel's quick wit.

She truly thought he was dead the moment Alice asked that question "I was really looking forward to you saying 'no',"

"Remind me to thank the savages if I ever have free time," Alice replied playfully.

Previously, Zeel would always get these types of questions wrong: 'Do I look fat?', 'Am I pretty today', 'Does my breath stink?'.

Thinking for a while Zeel said "You can't thank the savages, they're dead. I killed them,"

"Well, ever since the apocalypse, some people have become savages, acting like they are children all over again," Claire said as she began to complain to no one in particular.

Alice had a bad premonition the moment Claire said that statement but was too late to stop Zeel from saying "I killed the children too. I killed the whole bunch of them from all the places I visited. I would say a couple thousands of them,"

This silenced not only those around the table but everyone in the make-shift cafeteria. The casualness with which Zeel stated murder, sent a chill down their spines.

It was the apocalypse so nobody was an angel, but killing thousands of children had to insane even for the apocalypse.

Alice was shocked at Zeel's statement, while she expected him to go off the tracks a little without her guidance.

Alice never expected Zeel would drift this far from her teachings. The entire cafeteria quieted down as everyone let Zeel's statement sink in.

Had he said this before showing off his inhuman abilities, they would have all laughed it off.

But after seeing what he could do, everyone had little doubt in their minds about the authenticity of his statement.

Crystal even vomited the sludge she had just ingested.

After a couple of minutes of sitting in absolute silence, Alice decided it was in their best interests for her and Zeel to leave as soon as possible "There must be another way out,"

"Nope, we have tried everything but nothing was found to be a viable plan," Luther replied as he was also trying to divert the conversation from the earlier mood-killer.

"There is that one thing," Crystal interrupted after moving a couple of feet away from Zeel.

"What?" Zeel asked causing everyone in the cafeteria to flinch.

Kim even pissed his pants right next to Bennet. Of course, the latter was too frightened to even feel the liquid staining his pants.

Not long after eating, the group made their way down the basement area as Luther explained a brief history regarding the place.

Everyone escaped the prison and it turned out there was only one guy left behind, Luther guessed that he must be the monster amongst the monsters for someone to trap him here during an apocalypse.

"When people started eating one other ... Wasn't much fun keeping anyone locked up. We thought the place was abandoned. Until we made a discovery," Luther continued by introducing the guy he put on watch duty "Wendell... It's time to take a break,"

"It's about god damn time. I hate being down here. I hear movement in the walls," Wendell replied.

"Well, let's check it out. We'll be back in a minute" Luther said, dragging Wendell off to locations unknown.

"Alice," Zeel said waiting for her to send out a signal pulse so he could determine the lay of the land.

"The nanites are dormant. I can't do anything much for right now, we'll talk later," Alice curtly replied, almost as if she was dodging the conversation entirely.

"Hi, there! Name is Chris," The guy in the glass cage said.

His face was not that trustworthy, but Zeel had seen worse faces amongst the countless planets The Crawford Household owned.

"We should care because?" Zeel asked.

"I'm not a prisoner. I shouldn't be in here. I was working with a military unit. We were using this place as a staging post.

Things were already pretty bad when the order came through from the Governor to release all inmates. You see, we need as many people on the streets as possible to fight those things.

And it was chaos. We were pulling out and a gang of prisoners jumped me. Guess they thought I was a guard. When I woke up, my unit was gone ... And I was in here," Chris said as he finished his story.

Alice asked one question "Heard you know a way out?"

"You get me out of here and I'll do the same for you," Chris replied.

Zeel stepped forward and looked into his eyes.

Chris did not back down one bit, though his body automatically began trembling when Zeel got close enough.

"He smells like her," Zeel said to Alice, gesturing to the direction Claire left with Luther.

"Who?" Alice replied since her nose was not as keen without the nanites to break down the composition of the smells.

"The poor excuse of a human Claire," Zeel replied as his gaze pierced through the darkness to find Claire, Luther, and Wendell inspecting the nearby walls.

"Claire? Do you know Claire? She is my sister," Chris stated enthusiastically.

"Hmm. He is telling the truth; this man doesn't belong here but he is a killer. And a thief too, long before the apocalypse but hey, I can't judge you as I've been killing since I was ten years old," Zeel stated as he used his hand to break off the handle of the cell box with ease.

Alice was surprised for an entirely different reason. She had rarely ever heard Zeel talk about his time before they met.

When Zeel did speak, it would be vague statements like 'I have a family out there somewhere', 'Yeah, I have a mother', 'My sister is kinda crazy'.

Before Alice had a chance to question Zeel about his childhood, Luther came back only to see a free Chris.

Luther immediately took up a defensive stance "What is he doing out?"

"He is going to show us a way out of here, the story seems legit we'll run it by everyone tomorrow," Alice said, wanting to avoid Zeel speaking and simply saying 'Because I want him to be.'

This would only further complicate things. After all, Zeel always talked as if he was the king of the world, ruling over pitiful mortals.