May Peace Grace Us

Chapter 15: Her plans

Logically, Aila did not need to work hard to earn money. She only needs to mobilize her share of shares from various companies to fill her pockets. But doing so will surely make her whole family—extended family included -- check her actions and see what is wrong with her. After all, every year she already has some significant amount of money to spend, therefore moving those will surely invoke attention she does not like.

Aila’s workaholic attitude had already worried them so much, so if she sold or did something of her shares, they would really call professionals to see what with the problem. It might sound absurd about how much they cared, but this is just how the Justine family are, close-knit enough to do something like that. Though considering the number of children in the family, it was not really a surprise though.

In the current Justine family, there are only three living children in her father’s generation. They are not really siblings, but they treat themselves as one. The most accurate description of their relationship is cousins many times removed. Due to how scarce their numbers were, all of them who shared the same blood were eager to reach for each other. Although they kept up with appearances, the Justine family were affectionate people to those they cared about.

Aila did not know what was with the whole Justine Family. It was unusual for any branch to have more than three children. Most of the time, they only have one child for each generation. Like the situation of Aila and her family, even with the eagerness of her parents to have more children, they only had her after all these years. Each of them who shared the same generations is particularly close to each other due to the fact most of them are lone children of their families.

It does not help the fact that her cousins were heirs of big enterprises that finding good friends or close confidants is hard. Having golden spoons in their mouth upon their birth, finding a sincere person who treats them well was very hard. They learned it the hard way when they were younger, therefore making them cling to those they deem safe and reliable to them.

They are often visible in public too. They almost have no privacy most of the time, therefore every getaway of theirs must be carefully planned and hidden and incredibly precious to them. Them being found in places they are not fully protected is just asking for trouble. Like when Aila carelessly took them to the beach when they were younger. They were kidn*pped for three days before they were retrieved by their families and police.

Maybe the way the old generation has lived has influenced the sacred numbers of their clan. There was fierce infighting back then that they limited their children as a way to shed less blood. Though it resulted in outsiders being malicious and wild in place of siblings fighting, this family imposition of certain family rules was quite effective given that there has been less bloodshed in the past few generations among blood relatives. Though there are some who wish for more children, circumstances have made them unable to have more than one or two children in their lifetime.

After deliberation, Aila decided to use this villa of hers as their home in the coming apocalypse. Given all of her family members just let them do whatever she can do on their land, she more or has less free reign on what she does on the property. And other than that point, her place is vast enough for her to do some projects on a large scale.

With the land big enough, it would be more or less enough to accommodate them and to let them be sufficient in terms of food should they farm enough for their consumption. She can also renovate a space in one area on the west wing to be a place for some poultry or some other domesticated animal for them to feast on once in a while. Therefore, it could at least sustain them long enough not to risk themselves going out for food.

Another thing about this place is that this villa can provide them with a natural advantage in terms of geography. The Justine family ancestor is an eccentric person. They had chosen to take root near a lake and a mountain at its back. Taking the area of the lake until to the very mountains itself to be part of their clan’s property, so there is less threat of people staying there and posing some danger to them. Besides that, the place is a mine that is heavily protected by her cousin’s family, so one way or another it is also a form of protection for them.

There is also a smaller population around this area, the nearest bustling town is miles away. Therefore, letting them be safe from the looters and the zombies or at least sometime after the outbreak. A factor that is important, especially if someone intends to develop quietly in chaotic times. Not to mention, areas of their clan's property had well-built walls for privacy and protection purposes.

Finally, she simply does not trust some other place to house her people. It cannot be denied that the one who is most familiar with a community or a house is the one who builds them. It might be her being paranoid or something, but she is not taking chances of these people taking advantage of some parts she or her people do not know of. It does not help that she did hear some tales of the apocalypse of people using their knowledge of the houses and infrastructure they built once upon a time to gain merit and supplies against enemy bases or camps.

Her villa is an old heritage, therefore most of its structures were mostly known to the family as only so few get to stay here. Though it has been renovated a few times, most passages were modified and retained by family members who were engaged in the industry. So, chances of people taking advantage of the existing holes in their homes are practically less than those commercial houses developed nowadays.

As everyone was currently taking a break, Aila took advantage of their absence to relay some messages to the family servants there. These people have served them for generations and at least one of their children followed the tradition of serving the family. With the established relationship between them, she more or less trusts them to hear and know of her plans.

In fact, as early as three months ago, she had already told them what she was planning to do. Together they had already made significant changes around the villa. Like she mentioned, she wanted to allow herself to be sufficient. A greenhouse is already in the making at the back of the villa. There were already some seedlings there ready for transplant and everything.

Although Aila has been fantasizing about planting all sorts of vegetables, the apocalypse has all kinds of inconveniences for the living. Plants did not grow very well after the outbreak, making the already deficient supply of food even more precious. Some of them even mutate in a direction that only a few of them can be eaten by people. They are either poisonous or plain dangerous in ways that they might eat those who intend to eat them.

If she recalled the details of her novel well, this change was caused by the downpour after months of no rain. The virus that had made the mutation was different from that of the one that had caused the undead to move and roam again. She hasn't elaborated on the cause and effect of this phenomenon, but this has contaminated the land and caused the surviving plants as well as animals to be more adaptive to the increasingly dangerous ecosystem.

Due to this, the established bases became aggressive towards feeding their population. When things were slowly turning to the worst of the worst, the plant abilities sprang onto the scene to provide some hope for the remaining humanity. Using their abilities, they raise the plants to be consumed, thus making them prominent people in every group.

So to avoid the plants she planted mutating at least before Jerome, to start exhibiting his plant abilities, she ordered a greenhouse to be made. Thus, far, it is the most expensive project she has spent money on. She chose the most expensive type there is with complete equipment and facilities that will hopefully last for years. Luckily, Felix is a student with electronics studies accompanying his major in civic engineering and is a starch lover of anything related to those things. He will be sent to work to his bones to keep the villa’s electricity-related things working.

Aila actually does not plan to avail the most expensive greenhouse there is. She was thinking of those DIY ones seen on the internet using kits or materials they purchased themselves. But it came to her attention that most of these might not last long and cannot provide the needs the plants will require when the climate turns into a moody pregnant woman. It will either collapse when the deep snow starts falling or kill the crops inside when the summer gets too hot and the greenhouse cannot give enough cooling for the hottest period of the year. So she had to pay extra for the labor and more expensive materials and equipment for their betterment.

“Young miss, how may I help you?” A maid named Cindy asked her as Aila approached her.

“I want to see the inventory and the warehouse I ordered to be had.” Aila said as she recalled she had ordered to have an additional warehouse to house the goods she had been ordering two months ago. The old storage house cannot hold all those supplies she has bought.

“This way, young miss.” Cindy replied as she told Aila about the things she had requested them to do. Aila nodded at their performance and how they handled the sudden influx of things heading to the villa.