May Peace Grace Us

Chapter 45: Her people

The next morning, Aila quickly took reign of the whole property. She mobilized Cindy to facilitate the greenhouses as most of the new batch of seedlings are in need of transplanting. Liza accompanied her to exercise her ability as well as experience what she could do.

Gathering the rebels, Aila carefully looked at how they were, as she knew these people were in need of strict discipline to be useful. Unlike those who have a servant background in this place, these people are just too inferior to use. Not to mention they are quite shabby in conduct and postures. Felix needed to round them out first before she could take them out there.

“Are these the people you wanted me to train?” Felix said as he evaluated them from head to toe. “They are too poor in foundation to be ready for any training.”

“I’m not asking for much, they just need them to be in shape to be ready to be used any time.” Aila indifferently said. She could see some of the rebels red-faced and shaking in humiliation as she said her words. Tone cold, Aila continued. “If they continue to like this, they cannot last long outside or if something will happen in the base. Fewer people on our side will result in insufficiency and I want to avoid that.”

“Well, you have a point.” Felix agreed with Aila’s need for these people, no matter how unsightly they are. “With this big of a property, we need all sorts of manpower we have. Though you can ask your servants to train them for you, why didn’t you ask them first? They ought to have much more comprehensive training and exercises that may be suitable for these people. The way I train is the highest intensity the army provides for special forces. These people are just asking for hardship if they are under me.”

When the rebels have heard of an army training, they suddenly feel like they are indeed going to suffer. Most of them are not the kind of people who could take something like rigorous and hard training. Much less the training of a special force, they could imagine painful muscle spasms and even them fainting halfway through the exercises.

“The servants will be soft on them,” Aila said, as she did not say these people are likely to use emotional cards on her servants. She just doesn't want them to take advantage of her people so easily. “Besides, they need stricter practice to live out there. As we speak, those zombies are growing in number and as time passes by, the undead will also get stronger too. I can’t have them unprepared for that.”

“Then leave them to me.” Felix promised as he took the people away.

Done with the matters of those rebels, Aila then searched for her father to discuss how to enhance their base’s defense. She needs the help of his ability to enhance the walls she has ordered to be made. Though they might have to experiment a few times and produce suitable materials for it. Aila is optimistic that they could make the walls stronger in the future.

Aila saw many people bustling their day all over the place as she went all over to find her father. She especially took note of the people’s external expressions to assess their states at the moment. Some were gloomy, perhaps someone in their family had directly turned into a zombie on the third day. Aila has ordered that these zombies not to be disposed of immediately to let people know that those infected are no longer who they used to be.

She ordered these zombies to be isolated at the farthest end of the compound. That place was like a prison, made of the strongest steel and of other durable materials Aila could find. These zombies are still loved ones and they cannot bring themselves to even think of killing them for the sake of their own lives. And as a person, Aila shares the sentiment. To contain these zombies, she had the place constructed to contain them. Her only rule was that these zombies are not allowed to taste human flesh.

From the dark faces of the zombies that needed to be disposed of, they might have personally disposed of their loved ones when those zombies could no longer be controlled. Aila is reasonable enough not to touch their loved ones who have turned into undead if they have not had a taste of human flesh or they have brought them danger. She hopes that at least one of those infected can regain their sanity at a later period.

It was a gamble on Aila's part. However, this gamble did not let her down. This is a future story that will be narrated at the right time.

The most she could do was to console the now grieving loved ones. Manipulative as it sounds, Aila will use this period of vulnerability to be bound to their base. She needs people to keep things running. And low would sound, she would make sure that everything would go well. A base depends on their population and their overall power, so she must care for her people. Ordering her other servants to be accommodating to these people for a period of time.

The others she saw were full of energy. Aila thinks these people have gained an ability of sorts and none of their family has turned into zombies. She remembered telling Cindy to herd these people to be taught. Unlike the offender, these people are indeed very simple and easy going, they are also related or former servants themselves, so Aila has no problem with their characters.

Some were unreadable. Aila does not know what is on their minds, but she can see they are resigned to their current situation. They are obedient to the arrangements made by her. And they are particularly opinionated in terms of their concern for their well-being. The selfish kind whom Aila particularly likes due to them knowing what is the best course of actions for them.

But she is also wary of these people. She has to install some subtle ways to gain their loyalty. Never did she think that the lessons she had learned as a Fortin would be used here. Using people's weaknesses and interests in order to lead the flow in the direction she wanted.

Though in the face of their best interests, some of them might betray the base later on when their interests will rest somewhere else. Aila is confident that she will have a handle on these people when that time comes. But for now, she wants to show them that this place is the best place for them.

Aila then found her father in his mansion. His father was in his private shooting area, cleaning and doing inventory of his arms and bullets. Her mother was nowhere in sight, but she thought that she was rather busy taking care of little Henerick, so it is reasonable that she was not beside her father.

“Dad!” Aila called out to her father who was on the other side of the shooting area.

Stephen waved at his daughter and motioned her to come over. It would be quite inconvenient for him if he went to her. His newly disassembled firearm has a missing piece. He does not remember where he put it and has been looking for that piece. He did not want to unknowingly miss it when it was just near him, so he would rather not move from his general location for now.

“What can I help you with?” Stephen asked as he stepped on the part he was looking for. “All this time it was just here? How the hell did I not find it back earlier?”

“Mind tricks dad.” Aila chuckled. “Anyway, can you help me with a project I need you to help with?”

“What is it about?” Stephen said as he placed the missing piece next to the gun parts, hopefully it would be still there when he returned his attention to it.

“I want to reinforce the walls.” Aila, straightforwardly. “I want to use your flames to reinforce its foundation with the help of Eugene’s metals. And maybe in the future add some features to better defend this place.”

“Well, no problem on my side,” Stephen says. “But perhaps we should start this project of yours after we are more or less in control of our abilities. As you can remember, my flames are on the higher side of things. One mistake can make me melt and obliterate the walls instead of adding something strengthening them.”

“That was the plan and the reasons I am here.” Aila sat on one of the clean tables. “I have already talked with Eugene about it and I have given him sets of exercises as well as ways of strengthening his abilities. For the cooperation to come into fruition, I also had to give you the same treatment as Eugene.”

“Was this something you learned in that past life of yours?” Stephen let out a chuckle at the tone his daughter might knowingly or unknowingly use on him. “Well, no problem little teacher, just teach me well. I am all ears.”

Amused by her father’s joking tone, Aila only shook her head as she began giving him the promised methods. Her father was a smart man, so there was little she had to say before he could comprehend things himself. After an hour or two, she left the mansion and continued on her way to going up to the watchtower to see how things were outside as well as get some breeze up there.

There was no need for her to get up there though. Other than feeling the wind, she could do her surveillance using the cameras she installed in all corners. She could just go to the monitoring room to see it all.

But Aila had another motive for getting up there. She wanted to confirm something she had asked the to do for her. And she hopes what they had agreed on, the has already done its part as she has already done her own.

At the top of the tower, Aila could see so many things at once. But her focus was on the plants at a distance. Hoping to see them mutating in the direction she hopes it will be.

From what she could see, there were little changes to her to the conclusion that it was going in the direction she wanted it to be. Perhaps she could see what she wanted at a later time. Restlessness had let her come here even with the knowledge that it was impossible to see immediate results. Still, the breeze felt good up above.

Just as she was going down, Aila spotted a couple of migrating birds. Nostalgia swelled inside of her as she thought that this might be the last time they would have such a peaceful sight of each other. By next year, the earliest, these birds will be added to threats they need to defend themselves against.

The mutation of every animal is different from species to species. But there was one thing all mutated animals have in common with. It was the fact that all of them will be many times larger and they are lethal creatures no matter how friendly and harmless they were in the past. Birds, for example, both humans and zombies, are like the most nutritional feed there is to them. The stronger the zombie or the person was, the more these mutated animals are attracted to them.

“I better have the metal grids as the next project.” Aila murmured as she noted that there are quite a lot of migratory animals passing by in the area. “It is estimated Bella will get her lightning powers in half a year. She will do a good job of zapping away those who want to come over here.”

Aila did not waste time any more up there and went down in a record time. She then heads to the area where she has ordered the domesticated animals be placed. She has to see if any of them has evolved in a direction that may be harmful to them. Although she had the promise her that these animals would stay in this state as well as their offspring would be, she wanted to see them like she did to the plants she climbed up stairs to observe.

So far there are no great changes to them other than the size of them. She hopes it will continue this way so that they can have some feast when the winter comes. This would be a luxury that the world outside cannot have and she wanted to provide their little population with this enjoyment at perhaps the most idle time of the year. Zombies are less of a threat at that time as most of them are frozen below the towering height of the snow. So it is the right time for them to indulge some happiness in the brief window of peace.