Early next morning Arther was woken up by a knock on his door. Getting out of the bed with sleepy eyes he opened the door to find Nanny standing at his door.
"Brother Arther the breakfast is ready. Aunt has asked me to call you.", after speaking she looked at the funny appearance of Arther with a sweet smile.
"Oh, uh, umm. Tell mom I will be there in a few seconds.", the moment he heard that it was his mother calling the sleep in his eyes vanished and he hurriedly closed the door to get fresh and change clothes.
Seeing this Nanny giggled and ran to the canteen area.
After a few minutes Arther walked into the canteen on the ground floor. Since there was a huge surplus of food stored in the canteen for the maintenance team along with same gas cylinder for stove. Arther let his family prepare the food here. Since the food here didn't have high shelf life and even of they take it with them most of this will be spoiled. Instead it is better to use as much of it as possible.
As soon as Arther came his plate was already placed on the table while everyone else were eating happily. The dish contained braised pork, beef, milk, boiled eggs. Such a heavy breakfast if not for the heavy work done by everyone Arther would have to worry about them being fat.
But when the apocalypse struck there was a change in the metabolisn of all the humans even those of the weak ordinary ones. So digesting was not at all a problem in the apocalypse what is an issue is whether one can get enough food.
Arther joined his family to have the breakfast.
"How is the work going.", his father asked while enjoying the food.
"Everything is going fine. We can start our journey tomorrow morning at latest. For the time being stay away from the lower floors.", Arther explained everyone.
"Arther, since we are going to stay here for some time can I go in the vicinity to collect some sample of the forest.", hearing what Arther said Mey asked with excitment.
Hearing this the expression of John sitting besides her changed a bit, he has seen the power of vine monster, and they didn't know how dangerous this forest is. Even if she talked about going in the vicinity it is still dangerous. Just when he was about to refute her Arther spoke.
"Yes, this is what I was going to speak. Since we are going to stay here for today we should know about the surrounding a little bit, I don't want to face any unknown danger at night.", hearing this Mey was even more excited and happy. For her this forest was like a treasure box waiting to be opened.
If she can get some samples from these evolved plants her research might gain a breakthrough. When Arther rescued them from the lab facility in the city all her research and specimens were also left behind which was a great regret for her.
"Is it necessary to go in the forest? Anyways we are going to leave here tomorrow.", John couldn't keep calm seeig that Arther also agreed Mey. So he hurriedly tried to reason out from this.
Hearing this Arther shook his head while explaining, "Even though we are going to leave soon, we still have to spend a whole day and night here. And according to my calculations in this two days will be the awakening time of the beasts. Before dark we need to checkout for any danger in the surrounding, it is better to face the danger at this time than get attacked at night.",
Hearing this the atmosphere at the table was a bit heavy but then Arther cheered them up,
"OK, there is no need to be so worried. This are just my speculations."
"Aunt Mey, Rose, Nanny and Me. We four will check out the forest for any danger along with collecting any sampler for Aunt Mey. While the rest need to rest and remain in optimum state for any emergency while protecting our temporary house.",
After finishing speaking he put the plates in the wash basin and went to get the equipment for all of them. The least thing they were making now were the military grade individual equipment and ammunition.
After all of them put on the gloves, combat shoes, and bullet proof vest and taking some ammunition and rations they were ready to leave.
After leaving Arther led them directly to the checkpost through the asphalt road. When they came here for the first time the condition of the road were pretty good but now it looked like it had been abandoned for a long time with small cracks around the surface and grass shoots poking their heads out from the cracks. The width of the road was also cutout a large portion by the rapidly growing green. The most shocking was the checkpost, except for a little layout no one can recognize it. Two huge twisted trees were growing around the checkpost while vines grew around completely covering it.
Arther and others were really surprised by the power of nature.
"Why does this forest grow so rapidly?", Rose pursed her lips while asking in astonishment.
"Hehehe, ofcourse because we killed the overlord here.", Arther walking in the front spoke with a mocking tone. Being in the apocalypse he has a lot of knowledge about this things.
"What do you mean?"
"It's simple, the only rule of the apocalypse is survival of the fittest. Earlier, the vine monster was the overlord here so all the nutrients and water in the vicinity belonged to it. This made it difficult for the comparatively ordinary plants to grow. But now since the overlord is dead the territory is unowned. So all these plants are competing for the resources here that is the soil nutrients. After some time there might be a new plant that can mutate or evolve and become the overlord here."
Arther explained patiently while carefully chopping off few plants and grass in their way.
"Will it be the same for other living things on the forest.", this time it was Mey who spoke. Being a professional in the field of biology she understood a deeper meaning from this not so important talk from Arther.
"Yes, and it will be even more bloody and cruel.",Arhter spoke with a deep sigh.
'Isn't all this going on for the resources.', Thinking about this Arther smile while shaking his head.
Hearing what Arther said all the three of them behind him were a bit confused.