An expedition was planned and discussed and finally agreed upon. Some of members of the two former squads would leave the safety of the base to see about gathering grain as well as visiting a few places on the industrial outskirts of town that might hold supplies of seed, plants as well as other things that might be useful in the future and the remaining members would remain behind and protect the base.

As the one to propose the mission, Jonah wished to be in charge of it and where he went, his officers followed. Cole wished to go as well; although the base was spacious, there was still a wall of stone, brick and thick hedgerows about it. This, in his mind, was too close to remaining incarcerated and made him antsy. The children were naturally remaining behind, as was Nathan, who despite having the plant ability that would be very useful where mutant plants were sprouting upon every corner, could not be separated from his garden. The two cousins were to remain, Brooke as she was pregnant and Autumn as she was expected to look after Brooke. Harry, Winston and Paul felt that there were enough non-ability users leaving so opted to stay and Paul argued with Shaun until the latter gave him the silent treatment about him staying behind as well.

"Actually, I agree with Paul," Jonah told him, "you should remain behind this time."

"But I have an ability," Shaun insisted, "I will be useful."

"I'm not denying that," Jonah replied. "But we'll be in a field part of the time with weeds and uneven ground. Your chair won't cope well. Next time, maybe."

"You should take Tyler," Dexter advised him. Dexter was a powerful ability user and would have been good to have upon the team, but it wasn't good to have too many cooks in a kitchen or more than one leader on a team. Not that Dexter minded handing the reigns to someone like Jonah, but if some of his people were to go, they'd look to him first, so he was in charge of those staying behind. "And maybe Patrick for some additional fire power."

"Yay!" Patrick cheered, he knew he needed some more hands on experience to continue to develop control over his abilities, so he was okay with this.

Tyler was not so much. "Is it really necessary for me to go?"

"With you there, they don't need to worry about supplies of water," Dexter reminded him. "You can just make it as you go."

Brooke frowned as she heard these words. "Make it? You can make water with your powers?" She'd not been able to do this. She could manipulate it somewhat, like make a bit jump from someone else's cup to her own and she could locate reasonable sized volumes of it (not like water vapour or dew on grass, that would just mean she'd become confused all of the time), but she'd never created it herself.

"Yeah," Tyler agreed, before recalling that Jonah mentioned Brooke had some affinity to water. "Not only me, but Nathan as well. Of course, I can make greater volumes than him having trained well." Both Dexter and Patrick rolled their eyes heavenward due to this statement, but Tyler did not notice.

"Really," The girl smiled and her eyes sparkled. She really was a pretty girl and would have been Tyler's type before the end. But he never went after women who were taken. "Do you think I can learn how to do that?"

"I don't know," Tyler replied, honestly. "For that, you should ask our resident expert."

"Yeah, where is Ren, anyway?" Dexter asked, noticing the oriental man was not around. He was not with Nathan either.

"Meditating on the roof," Patrick told him.

"Meditating?" Jonah scoffed; he was sceptical about such things, though his old sister used to do Yoga and claimed it was good for the body, the mind and the soul. He'd just thought it was embarrassing doing all those weird poses. What 'downward facing dog' pose!?

Dexter tried to explain a bit, about how, as strange as it sounded, Ren had encouraged those with abilities to meditate, which actually improved those abilities and made them stronger. He'd also awakened abilities in Patrick, which is why the flaxen haired man had them now, though he was an ordinary person before the old base fell. Jonah accepted his statement, even if he still found it hard to believe. After all, zombies were getting stronger and gaining abilities, why not people?

"Then, he can teach me to produce water?" Brooke asked, eagerly, her eyes flashing brightly.

"You'd really need to ask him," Tyler replied, bluntly, recalling Ren Zexian's lecture on roots. He wasn't about to get this girl's hopes up when the truth was that she might never be able to do what she wanted.

"Ask me what?"

The gently smiling, oriental man walked into the kitchen, where they were gathered, as smoothly as if he was floating upon air. His long, midnight hair had been deftly pulled through a metal band and kept in place by a golden hair pin. It was as if he had walked off of the set of a Chinese martial arts movie. Dexter's people were used to his appearance by this time, to them, it was of no mind to witness him wandering, silently into view dressed in old-style, foreign clothing. However, there was a couple of Jonah's people who wanted to offer him style tips and a haircut.

Brooke was one of these. He was a man, how was it possible that his hair was so much more luxurious than her own used to be?! However, if he was truly able to help her, she needed to swallow her opinion whole and humbly request his assistance. "They said you can teach me to create water!"

"I would have to ask your permission to check your pulse and spiritual energy before I can confirm such. May I?" He held out a hand that looked pale and ideally formed, like that of a marble statue. She held out her tanned one, feeling that her golden flesh was, at least, more attractive than his, even if her skin was lamenting the lack of available moisturiser at the moment. The man gently pressed his fingers against the flesh of her wrist. A strange sensation trickled along the inside of her arm, causing her to shiver. After a moment, he released her wrist and stepped away. "I am afraid that it would not be possible for you to create water."

The young woman frowned, unhappily. "But why not?" She asked, with a slight whine to her tone. "Tyler has the water ability, like me and can do it!"

"Your root is that of Ice, a lesser root to Tyler's root of water," Ren Zexian explained. "Thus it is not possible for you." Tyler sighed, inwardly. He'd suspected as much. He'd produced water on the day following the appearance of zombies in town, accidentally spraying a person that was about to drink from a suspected contaminated source. If Brooke hadn't created water in these past months, it was unlikely that she ever would.

"Then... I can produce Ice?" Brooke asked in question.

"It is just a name," Ren Zexian shook his head. "A way of distinguishing a minor root from its major one. However, although you would not be able to create your own water nor ice, you could learn to manipulate existing water and turn it into ice or even into steam." There was no condemnation in his voice, no ridicule, but the girl could only hear that her powers were weak. She was not as good as Tyler.

Jonah didn't like seeing his girl so unhappy. "That's still good, right baby?"

"I guess," Brooke said, softly, but offered Jonah a small smile.

"Oh, congratulations on your little one," Ren Zexian added, however his eyes had caught sight of a moving silhouette in the garden and his attention had shifted somewhat. "It's life force is very stable."

"Thanks," Brooke sighed inwardly even as Jonah's grin became so wide it nearly split his face in two.

"You should also take Ren out," Dexter suggested, suddenly. "He's more powerful than me and also uses a sword. If you meet any trouble he'd be a great help." The oriental man glanced back, questioning this statement. Dexter quickly explained; "Ren, Jonah's men are thinking about going out and gathering somethings like wheat grain so we can produce flour in the future and more seeds for Nathan. What do you think, could you help them out?"

The Squad leader only needed to mention the young gardener in his request in order to gain Ren Zexian's attention. Sure enough, the man's black eyes sparkled like gems and a smile appeared upon his face. Brooke's mood became even more sour. His appearance was somehow inhumanly handsome and yet was also ridiculously beautiful! "That should not be a problem," came the reply.

Author's note; not particularly happy with this chapter, but somethings needed to be said and this chapter also sets up a couple of things for future chapters.