Rouse conveyed the words to the outsiders who were waiting in the truck for the base's decision. Dexter turned to glance at Chang Min, who had suddenly become the centre point of these negotiations. The latter nodded his head slightly after a moment's thought and discussions went a little more swiftly. In the end, six hens and one rooster would be exchanged for the containers of meat and lessons for five weeks for five students of the base's choice; these individuals would be taught how to improve their abilities, but they would learn under Dexter's people's roof.

In fact, this was also an exchange about trust and while it seemed heavily in favour of the base, this was in part as the base hadn't much faith that Chang Min could raise the abilities of the five individuals on his words alone. If the five did not improve, the base would take the loss, this was their point of view. The reason that Dexter and Chang Min accepted their terms was different, for while they would reveal their own haven to the base, they could be considered as protecting it at the same time. The more people wonder about their place, the more people might covert it and try find it without the officers' knowledge and attempt to take it or what was hidden within for themselves. Dexter and the others were strong, but they were few. However by proving their worth to the base, people would at least think of the consequences and reprisal if they upset the officers who were in charge of all of the soldiers on base.

As a sort of favour, the base bought the jars of pork stock for points, suggesting that this way, the six men could explore and trade as they will. In addition, Rouse offered to show them around the entire base, even the key areas as a show of faith.

The key areas actually were just the sheds, kitchen and greenhouses, there wasn't much to see in the barracks, which were also used as offices for the soldiers and officers. People could leave their complaints at the barracks for soldiers to deal with, such as theft, harassment and sometimes just that so-and-so had let grass grow outside their front door. It sounded trivial, but in actual fact, letting plants grow outside of a greenhouse or property was a crime in the base. Too many plants mutated in heavy rains and many of those strains were malevolent. A lot of people had been injured due to the blood-thirsty and poisonous varieties of those mutant plants. There had even been a few recorded deaths. So leaving weeds to grow was a crime, people who committed this crime were usually fined points. For more serious crimes, a person might have to do community service, such as clearing out the drains or cleaning up dead zombies outside the wall. For the worst crimes, such as murder or rape, the criminal would be exiled from base. On their own, it would be extremely lucky if they could survive long enough to get to shelter or another base. Fortunately, the latter hadn't happened as yet, but the officers had let it be known the consequences hoping that this deterrent would be enough.

They weren't allowed in to most of the warehouses, those were locked up tight with essential supplies, but from Chang Min's memory, that would be tinned and dried food, toiletries and cleaning products. How many of these were left, only the base personnel knew. One warehouse though was home to the chickens. A mess of fluffy yellow chicks followed around their clucking mothers and five large men, one Chang Min and Officer Rouse looked out of place against this backdrop of cuteness.

The adult hens, mostly brown feathered birds without an apparent strain of mutation, must have numbered around thirty though and Rouse admitted that these were the first and second generation of birds. There were currently three large roosters as the rest had grown up and found themselves on dinner tables as an offering mid winter, when they roughly calculated should be Christmas. The numbers of birds slaughtered really didn't cover the numbers of people on base, so the bones had been boiled and the meat spread thinly amongst dishes such as stew, pastries and curries. But still, most people had more mouthfuls of vegetables each but with just a shadow of the taste of chicken. There were always those that would be ungrateful and grumble about this, though the majority were still grateful.

Dexter and the other's chosen hens would be second generation, not of the first, which already had less egg laying years in comparison. Actually, the originals numbered just over ten, found in the garden of a village house and no one knew how old they were. These ten, however, had given birth to a new generation, allowing the base to be rest assured that they would have this treasured food source for a long time to come.

The greenhouses were of all sizes, it seemed, and all shapes. From small, plastic covered ones that had their sides carefully pinned to the ground to prevent rain leaking in, to huge glass greenhouses the size of a large bedroom. There were plastic tunnels as well, lean-to's that relied on other buildings in order to be usable and simple wooden standing ones with lift up glass covers. This latter was something that might be found in a small garden of a family wanting to grow small plants or lettuces. Dexter noticed in the one they walked past, it contained seedlings and herbs.

Rouse took them into the largest one, this one had rows of barrels and large tires that formed the shape of large pots. "This is one of the places where we grow potatoes and some other root vegetables," he advised. It was warm inside the greenhouse, although the roof skylights were currently open for ventilation. A few people wandered amongst the rows, testing the soil, watering where necessary. The organisation of the matter showed just how dedicated and determined the base was to growing food.

More greenhouses were dedicated to tomatoes, another had walls of vines that could be peas or beans once grown. It turned out that certain types of squash could also be grown in a small place by training their vines to grow in much the same way as the peas. If a plant could grow in a pot, it was placed on shelves, if it needed the ground, it was placed on raised beds so the soil could not be contaminated by the outside world. Seeing as it was April, the greenery was not abundant as many things still needed the time to grow.

"Nathan would be amazed," Cole suggested, aloud, naturally raising Rouse's curiosity over the unfamiliar name.

Dexter shook his head in disagreement. Nathan wouldn't like this. Although he leaned towards growing his plants in an organised way, each was raised with love and care. He treated their food crops with no less energy that he did with the ivies that protected him or the roses he'd once mentioned were his mother's flowers or those strawberries that the boy was really very fond of.

And speaking of Nathan's favourite fruit, there were some strawberries and raspberries in pots in one place and an even a smaller greenhouse with carefully tied brambles so that blackberries could be picked in autumn. But there were not a lot of fruit trees, just some small apple, pear and plum trees. They would not produce a huge crop come autumn. Rouse admitted that the trees, while advantageous due to the fact that they produced fruit year after year, just took up too much room that was desperately needed for other more filling crops.

After they left the greenhouse with corn shoots sticking up in rows within their raised bed, Rouse took them back to the base run shops to look around, perhaps use their points for purchases. The points were in the form of gambling chips, which while simple, were no longer easily replicated. Indeed, if they had continued on their original thought of using pennies, they might have been subject to fraud if a metal ability user became skilful enough.

The shop sold lots of different things; recycled paper, Tupperware, cotton sheets and underwear to name a few. There was also potted plants; herbs, tomato seedlings amongst others. Chang Min mentioned that last year it also sold potatoes and onions, bread rolls and some cans of fruit. Perhaps selling vegetables would become a reoccurrence if the amount of crops produced was good this year as well in order that people could feed themselves rather than rely on the kitchens for filling soups and porridges.

The men discussed it for a bit and in the end picked up a couple of the solar panels for charging phones as well as two established strawberry plants for Nathan's garden; the plants from last year all had to be dug up due to mutation and his new seedlings would not produce fruit this year. It was probably not surprising that the small solar panel devices cost as many points as one plant. As they passed a civilian's store to return to their truck, they noticed some children's hair accessories and a ribbon and couldn't help purchase these for Lucy. They then picked a toy rattle for the smallest member of their happy tribe. They were left with only eight points of their original 500.

At the truck, Randall was waiting for them along with four men and one women. All were dressed in military uniform and all carried backpacks and were waiting with patient, stoic expressions... unlike their commanding officer. The eyes of one sparkled with not quite hidden excitement as he noticed Chang Min and the others approach.

Randall ignored the six and turned to Rouse with a sullen; "These are the ones that Officer Hughes and Justine picked to leave with them." Rouse winced a little when he heard that Hughes had been involved, but inwardly relaxed at Justine's name. She was shrewd, she'd never let Hughes be biased and pick his own loyal men without considering the needs of the base as a whole. It's not that Hughes would specifically stir up trouble, he just had slight control issues and didn't like anything that was out of his expectations and calculations. His goal was still the same as the other officers, no matter his methods, though; to keep the base safe, survive the apocalypse and rebuild the foundations of the human race.

Rouse looked over the four men and one woman with a careful eye, then nodded in satisfaction. While one could produce water, he was severely lacking compared to the others, so they could afford to let him go. Another was the same soldier, Lutz, who originally turned down Chang Min's offer to help him develop his Earth-based skills. If he could improve, they would definitely feel more secure about the walls. Of the other three, he knew the woman could manipulate metal a bit, but this hadn't proven useful as yet and the two other men had shown particularly useless abilities; rotting wood at a touch and the other could make his finger glow in the dark. None of these people's abilities they could afford not to lose, though no one wanted to really lose the water producer nor Lutz, but if they could be made decent or stronger, then no one could deny it wouldn't be a boon to the base.