Chef in the Apocalypse

As Colin stood there staring at his furious wife, he began to fidget nervously, unsure of what to do with his hands. He held them together, only now feeling how bruised and sore they were after his adrenaline had worn off.

He also felt a warm and sticky liquid pooling around his knuckles. Colin looked down only to see that it was blood, and not his own. His stomach sank and he didn’t dare look at the damage he had caused to Jayce’s face.

Just as his mind felt like it was going to shut down, he saw movement in the corner of his eye. A figure slowly rose to its feet, and turned in his direction, sending shivers down his spine.

The figures face was unrecognizable, covered in dark red blood which had begun to coagulate. There were the occasional fresh droplets of blood which rolled down and fell onto the broken ground beneath him.

Jayce slowly walked closer towards Colin, who despite not being the one who took the beating was shitting his pants with fear. Now that his mind had recovered, he had finally realized what kind of mistake he had made.

He quickly looked at his wife for help, only to receive a glare in response. It was then that he finally noticed Lianna standing behind Jackie. Guilt and remorse flooded his body when he thought how traumatizing it would be to see Jayce getting beaten to a pulp in front of her.

’No. I can’t be scared here... I need to accept responsibility for my actions.’ Colin thought inwardly, turning to face Jayce who was now standing only a couple of feet away from him.

He clenched his fist and remained perfectly still, waiting for the punishment that would be soon to follow. He deserved to be put in his place after challenging the one man who had protected and led them thus far.

Jayce reached his hand up, causing Colin to flinch and close his eyes, awaiting the impact. Yet in the next moment, instead of pain, Colin felt a hand land gently on top of his shoulder, causing him to open his eyes wide in surprise.

"W-What are you doing?" he muttered, seemingly lost.

"You’re right." Jayce said simply. These words lacked his usual tone, possibly because of the punches which had rearranged his face and torn up his lips.

Colin could only stare blankly, not knowing what to say.

"I won’t let it happen again." This time, Colin felt a tremor run through his body. Despite the odd tone, the words were unmistakably filled with a burning will that would never extinguish.

After these few words, Jayce walked straight past him his steps a little unsteady. All the big man could do was stare at the man’s back as he trudged along, struggling with every step.

"No! Don’t just leave, punish me! I don’t deserve to be spared" Colin yelled at his back, his emotions in turmoil. If Jayce was to walk away now, he wouldn’t know how to face him in the future.

Yet Jayce did not turn around, he stubbornly treaded the path forward despite his injuries, ignoring him.

Seeing her man struggling to walk, Lianna burst into tears and ran forward to help him. Her heart was in pain seeing the man she loved be in such a state, even though he had always been trying his best.

Just as she was about to reach him, Jayce put his hand out and stopped her, causing her to stop abruptly. Tears ran down her face as she watched his figure walk past her and towards his home.

He whispered a few words to her on the way past, causing her eyes to open wide in confusion.

"Meet me back at home after you’re done healing Colin." 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

And with that he trudged along slowly, every now and then stumbling a little. His lonely figure was soon out of sight, leaving the three standing with their minds blank, unsure of what to do.

Lianna looked over at Colin who seemed to be perfectly healthy, despite his bruised knuckles from using her man’s face as a punching bag. However, she dared not to disobey him, even though she didn’t want to.

Just as she was about to head over to him, Colin fell down onto his knees, looking at the direction of the retreating figure with lost eyes. He dropped his head into his hands and cried out in pain and frustration.

"What have I done..."

Jackie who had been quite upset with Colin’s actions earlier currently wore a frown on her face. While what Colin had done was way out of line, she had thought that Jayce would respond in such a way that would end up in mutual understanding.

Once this happened, the two would be able to go back to normal with a renewed sense of respect, or at least this was how she envisioned it. Yet by not fighting back, Jayce had taken all the burdens upon himself, essentially estranging Colin and his feelings.

While there was no excuse for his actions, he thought that Jayce valued Colin more than that. Hence why she was upset with the end scenario. She wasn’t even sure if her husband would mentally recover from this setback.

Yet as she was beginning to chastise Jayce in her mind, Colin spurted out a mouthful of blood and his body trembled before he crumpled onto the floor. Jackie let out a cry of surprise and quickly ran over to her husband and rolled him onto his back.

Instead of a look of pain and misery on his face, Colin was grinning from ear to ear, his dazzling smile returning to its rightful place.

"I knew you wouldn’t let me down... Leader" He murmured.

Then his body went limp as his consciousness faltered.

Both Jackie and Lianna were wide-eyed as they tried to understand what had happened. Lianna quickly ran over and began to inspect his body with her Law of Nature.

It was only now that she had noticed the extensive internal damage throughout Colin’s body. She drew in a cold breath in response before quickly patching up the most effected areas.

"Was it is punch at the start?" Jackie asked, her mind in turmoil.

Lianna shook her head in response, still focused on healing. "It looks like he planted some Qi with that punch and then activated the attack at a later time to deal damage."

"At a later time?" Jackie’s brow furrowed, replaying the last couple of minutes in her mind.

In the next moment she let out a gasp of surprise, remembering that Jayce had placed his hand on Colin’s shoulder before he walked away.

’Then does that mean he had planned all of this? He wanted to let Colin vent out all his frustration so he could answer his feelings and fully clear his conscience.’ Jackie’s mind worked furiously, thinking of the possibilities while Lianna was busy healing.

"He wanted to take responsibility... This attack was probably planned in advance." Lianna stated, fresh tears rolling down her face.

"Jayce told me to heal Colin first. He must have known that the blow would put him on the edge of death..." She said.

Jackie blinked a few times, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. It seemed like she had underestimated their leader this time.

"I guess men aren’t always so simple haha." She said, letting out a clear laugh.

Lianna too began to laugh along, feeling all of the tense and negative emotions flow out of her. Everything had ended well