Chef in the Apocalypse

Jayce began to stir awake from his slumber, hearing the birdsong from outside the window. The chirps and whistles were like a sweet melody which told of the hope of a brighter future.

He sat up slowly, shielding his weary eyes from the bright sun shining through the blinds. Judging from the angle of the light it should be well past morning.

Jayce reached out next to him out of habit, only to notice that there was no one there. He looked around in puzzlement, trying to get his bearings.

In the next moment the sound of the door opening entered his ears, drawing his attention towards it. Lianna waltzed in quietly, obviously trying not to wake him.

He smiled, seeing the caring action of his woman. "Morning beautiful."

Lianna was a startled for a moment before flashing him a brilliant smile, "I think you mean good afternoon."

"Afternoon? Why didn’t you wake me sooner?" He complained. With all that had happened, it did not look good that he was so relaxed that he could afford a sleep in.

After all, there were over 100 people who were waiting for him to build another teleportation array so that they could return home.

She shook her head, moving forwards and sitting on the edge of the bed in front of him. Lianna could instantly tell what was going through his head, causing her to get a little annoyed.

"Why do you always try and do things on your own? Everyone has already returned home by now."

"Huh?" Jayce’s brain was still hazy from just waking up, making it harder to follow the obvious string of logic.

Lianna let out a sigh, a wry smile appearing on her face. "Jackie, Amber and I set up the array this morning and saw off the people remaining from the Summit."

Jayce blinked a few times, comprehending her words. In the next moment his face turned up in an apologetic smile. He felt a sort of warm fuzziness spread through his body as he looked upon his capable woman.

"Sorry. I guess I get a little carried away sometimes." He admitted, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Unconsciously, Jayce had taken all of the responsibility onto his own shoulders, not allowing those beside him to contribute, regardless of their abilities. This was something that he had done early on into the Apocalypse.

It was as if he was disregarding his allies, not thinking of them as capable people. Of course this was unintentional, yet the end result was still the same.

He had thought that he had changed for the better over the past year or so, but the shocking attack of last night had reverted his mindset back to how it used to be.

Perhaps a big part of why this had occurred was because he felt primarily responsible for how things had gone down. If he had not been so easily lured away by the fake Voidwalker, or if he had noticed the people with formation flags it could have been different.

Unfortunately, hindsight would not help his current situation.

Thankfully, Lianna was here to remind him that he was not alone in this situation. In fact, all of his friends and factions members were capable people who did not need him to take upon all the burden.

His awkward smile turned serious for a moment as he gazed at the beautiful woman across from him.

"Thank you..."

Those two words were simple, yet they carried a multitude of emotions.

Lianna smiled widely, moving forward and giving him a deep and passionate kiss. After a moment, she seemed to remember something and pulled back.

"You better go and see Colin. I think he’s taking this harder than anyone." She said, a sullen expression creeping onto her face.

Jayce tilted his head in question, however Lianna did not answer and instead urged him to go.

A few minutes later, Jayce made his way out of his house with a look of concern. He could tell just from Lianna’s expression that Colin must be in a bad way, especially if she had to explicitly tell him to do something about it.

The first thing that he noticed when reaching the Central Square was that most of the debris had already been cleared. There was also a new teleportation array which was set up a few meters away from where the old one had been.

He suddenly felt guilty once again for sleeping in while everyone had been busy, but he quickly shook those thoughts out of his head.

’If I was an emotional Colin, what would I be doing?’ Jayce thought inwardly, looking around the area.

The first thing that popped into his head was the gym, however that would be too counterproductive while there was so much work to do. Yet he was probably on the right track with that train of thought.

Even though he had lost an arm the night before, Jayce had no doubt that Colin was probably responsible for at least half of the clean up that had occurred in Bastion this morning.

Jayce walked over to the place that was most effected by the attack last night, where they had the feast. As soon as he entered the area, he saw townsfolk clearing the debris and putting them into some makeshift wheelbarrows before wheeling them off.

In front of his eyes a large piece of wall suddenly lifted up before it was unceremoniously thrown on the ground. The wall burst into smaller chunks of brick, scattering in all directions.

A large man appeared once the dust settled. He was wearing a tank top and was covered in dirt and grime. However, the muck could not hide the bulging muscles which threatened to burst out of the clothing he was wearing.

This was all true except for the man’s left arm which seemed to be a couple of sizes smaller in girth compared to his right arm. Jayce could instantly tell that this was Colin.

Except when he looked upon the face of the big man, his usual dazzling smile was nowhere to be seen. Instead, his expression was serious, almost ruthless.

This in addition to the stubble etched on his face made him look like a completely different person.