It took another hour before Shaun felt as if he had the reserves to collapse the metal bars and release those stuck in the gym. He couldn't reform the metal into the weights at that time, the metal became a lump stuck in the corner for quite sometime after the attack.

As soon as the barrier came down, Ren Zexian lost his usual composure and hurried into the room, closely followed by Jonah, who had been pacing the hall behind him. Nathan seemed mostly unaffected by the whole ordeal, just that there were marks over his ears, indicating that the noises had been too much for him. He allowed Ren Zexian to embrace him and check over every inch of him before being embraced again. He snuggled into the other man's hold.

Jonah also took Brooke into his arms, engulfing her in his strong embrace, his eyes wet from relief and the curve of his lips deepened when he realised as he was holding Brooke, she was holding their son. This was his family, he felt complete at this moment, if at no other time.

Not long following, Paul rushed in to interrogate Shaun, who smacked him about the head as he was bent over checking for injuries. "Stop being an idiot," Shaun chided him. "I'm fine, we're all fine. Shaken up, maybe, but alive and well."

"But..."

"Gees, what are you?" Winston teased from the broken door way. "His mum?" He poked at the damage in the door frame, splinters coming away in his finger tips. "Your work, Ren?" He asked, knowing that the oriental man was responsible for damaging the lock on the front door. They'd have to see if they could replace the whole door with one from the village.

"No," Ren Zexian replied, nonchalantly and indicated the culprit. "His."

All eyes turned upon Shaun, who lazily looked at them from his chair, wondering how he'd get past Paul and retire to his room to sleep. He'd wanted to escape without more of Paul's mothering, but he could barely lift a finger at that moment, let alone move his wheelchair. "Well, the zombie rabbit contributed," he drawled, before a yawn escaped him. Paul, sensing his friend's tiredness began to push him out of the room, towards his bedroom, where he would be lifted into bed before being securely tucked in.

Autumn had ceased trembling, the shock and panic catching up with her after the ordeal was at an end and with a firm expression, she approached Ren Zexian. "C-can you awaken my root-things?" She asked him, she'd been uncertain before, her weak confidence pressing down upon her, but she never wanted to feel so powerless ever again.

"En," Ren Zexian agreed and glanced up at Brooke, who was crying her grievances to her man. As she met his eyes, he suggested; "It would be a good time to begin to train Brooke as well, now the baby is safely born and mother is healthy. You can learn together."

"Don't bother," Brooke grumbled, however Jonah whispered something in her ear and she reluctantly retracted her statement.

*****

Autumn, with Ren Zexian, awakened a diamond root. This was a body root, waste root in the eyes of some long dead others, but in Ren Zexian's more open mind, this root was a treasure. While it could not help protect others, it would protect Autumn. She would be able to harden her skin to diamond like quality, encasing herself in a natural barrier that was nearly impossible to pierce, unless she, herself, was careless. This quality of physic could not be obtained by a normal Cultivator until they had completed the senary stage of cultivation, thus completing the body tempering phase. Her diamond like physique would also mean that her fingernails could be as sharp as cut diamonds, should she chose, giving her the ability of being a living weapon. This was unlikely, though, due to her soft temperament. Such would also not be possible until she had cultivated a while, just like obtaining full armour coverage of her plush skin.

Autumn couldn't say how she felt about the root herself, but as the eyes of others were joyful and maybe a bit envious, she understood that her ability was not a bad thing. Ren Zexian had guided her every step of the way, helping her from failing due to apprehension and lack of confidence. It had not been easy. Worse, it took her almost a week to awaken her root and open her meridians, this was pointed out by Brooke, who was just a bit smug that her own had opened without intervention.

At the beginning of this week, Nathan had filled up some pots with soil and placed them by the ivy on the house and by the vines by the bush, while others cleaned away the mess left behind by the zombie rats and fixed the carnage caused due to the small force breaking into the property. There was also talk about increasing the height of the wall, but this had not been completely decided upon. The breach had not occurred due to a lack of foundation, but due to the fact they had not counted upon creatures with the ability to climb the craggy flint and earth walls. Finishing the covering of metal should help to deter this.

At the end of the week, Ren Zexian descended from Autumn's room, leaving the woman to rest after the long time it had taken to awaken her roots. Fortunately, although she had been in deep meditation, he, with the aid of Dexter kept her fed and watered so she remained strong throughout. He yawned, for it was a mentally draining task to assist someone for so long and absorbed the glorious sunshine for a moment before seeking his boy. He had missed him, sorely.

He found Nathan lifting pots from the corner of the house and placing them on a trolley that Shaun had created for him after he had long recovered from battle. "Hey, Nathan," he called out when he approached.

The smile he received was worth the pain of being away from his side, he felt, but he did not wish to be away from Nathan for so long next time. Since this had been their first separation since confirming their relationship, Ren Zexian felt that he had never experienced anything more difficult. And they had only been apart by a few metres, what would a longer distance do?

He glanced at the pots of earth. These six contained ivy shoots and another three contained the thicker vines that grew along and within the surrounding hedges. "What are you doing?" He asked, softly.

"Ah, they want to grow elsewhere," he explained, gently arranging the leaves on one of the ivy shoots.

"Where would they like to grow?" Ren Zexian asked. Nathan's symbiotic relationship never ceased to amaze him. Others might mistaken his ability as a result of a mutation in his plant root, however, Ren Zexian believed the explanation lie with his third root. It was a body root and just like the one that Autumn had come to awaken, this root would only affect Nathan personally. At least, that is how it should be. However Nathan's root could be called Blessed for a reason, his root literally Blessed his other roots, improving the nature of them. Thus he could not only manipulate plants, it was more as if they were an extension of himself. Not adversely, or he would suffer quite painfully when they died naturally due to age or illness, but enough that he knew what they needed and in turn they seemed to know what he needed and acted automatically in his best interests.

His mind could interpret that the plants wanted to move to new locations, when in actual fact, he was instinctively expanding his sphere of influence, planting the mutated ivy and vines where they could help protect him more. In this case, the walls and hedges outside of his garden. It was likely that the mutant rose bush, that had sprayed its thorns to down many of the rodents would have its seeds taken to grow offspring next year, while the dandelion could spread its own vicious seeds itself.

Ren Zexian nodded, understanding completely his meaning and walked the very nervous boy out of the shelter of his garden. In truth, Nathan had not left the grounds in more than a year and that was for a doctor's appointment as his regular doctor had retired and this one would not make house calls. It had been very stressful and his parents had sought to arrange a new doctor for him. That particular thing had never happened in the end as the apocalypse had come, his parents were away...

The ivy wrapped around his wrist in reassurance and he took his first step out into the base. Looking around, he first saw the wall stretching from his garden to cover the road and join with the wall that formed the outer rim of the grounds opposite. This gave him some comfort and he felt more secure upon seeing it. It felt as if his home, his garden had just increased in size and he could ignore the fact that he'd actually just left it. He approached the intersection where the new wall merged with the old and he began to dig a hole.

"Which one wishes to be placed here?" Ren Zexian asked and Nathan pointed to one of the pots of ivy, which the Cultivator placed in his arms. Nathan beamed lovingly and proceeded to plant the offshoot.

They then moved into the garden of the next house and Nathan, nervously glanced about before feeling disappointed that the garden was a bit plain. This house had been due for renovation, the garden probably would have been landscaped afterwards, but now it was a mess of loosely cut grass and weeds. The mutant grass was still amongst this lot, Nathan naturally detected and avoided it, but he did not disdain it. It just didn't need anything from him, it was already satisfied with a zombie vole that had strayed its way.

He noticed the long and wide muddy patch that took up half of the large front garden on the one side of the straight and imposing drive and asked Ren Zexian; "Is that where the rest of the wheat will be planted?"

"Yes, I believe that is the plan," came the reply.

"Good," Nathan nodded with approval. "The plants will like it there." Soon after, close to the field and a couple of other places upon the wall were the new locations for the vine and ivy offshoots.