Chapter 8 Reward
Waking up again after a chaotic day both increased the quality of sleep and comfort of sleep.
When Jack awoke the second time today, he saw his child still asleep. Lilith was still sitting on the chair as if she hasn't moved at all.
Jack thought to himself that he should let Ralph sleep more because he was the reason for Ralph's restlessness.
Jack then looked at Lilith. To him, she appeared the same as a few days ago; always quiet, strong, and dependable. She only showed emotion when she was with people she trusted, so her new quiet persona did not bother him. However, her advice was what he needed most of all right now.
He felt that if it were her in his shoes, she would have never made the mistake he did yesterday.
"Good morning Lilith, are you feeling well?" He asked. He learned from interacting with her so much yesterday that she could understand questions and commands and would respond to them. She would do so in a robotic manner and without emotion but at least being able to speak to her made Jack much happier. She nodded without a single change in her expression.
Jack too nodded with a bitter smile.
Jack took a deep sigh and went to the restroom to wash up. After cleaning up, he started to exercise.
Jack remembered that Lilith would often say that besides making the body more functional, exercising also makes one more aware of how to move and operate the body.
Jack thought, "Since he is getting stronger through the white orbs, he needs to keep exercising to understand how to best use his body."
Lilith's favorite exercise revolved around calisthenics. Jack was embarrassed that he couldn't even do a pull-up while his wife would be doing muscle-ups. He walked to the room where Lilith kept all the exercise equipment. The room was on the right side of Ralph's room, furthest away from his own bedroom. But one needed to cross its door to get downstairs.
He always believed that Lilith did this to both make it hard for himself to ignore their home gym and to work out in between housework.
There was a pull-up bar latched onto the arch of the door, emphasizing the importance of his most hated exercise. Walking up to it, Jack attempted his first pull-up.
Surprisingly, the skinny man's worst enemy was Jack's kind admirer. He did one and felt nothing much, so he stayed a few moments at the peak. Then he pushed himself even higher and did his first muscle-up. After 10 of these, he felt somewhat out of breath. He then went to the squat rack and saw 4 plates on each side.
Jack recalled Lilith's weight was always 120 lbs. Even during pregnancy, the weight only rose by 10 lbs. To be able to squat 360 lbs regularly while doing housework all day was an incredible feat.
If Jack were a normal person, he would have many questions, but his faith in Lilith was nearly absurd, so doing this much was almost normal to him.
He went up to the rack and positioned himself, but after lifting it, he felt nothing. He doubled the weight, and now there were 8 plates on each side, and the bar was bending slightly.
He did another set of 10 and felt slightly winded.
Jack always ran away from working out and was only healthy currently due to Lilith's persistence; therefore, after he found how strong he immediately lost interest.
He showered and then felt a little helpless because he had forgotten that his clothes would still need to be ironed.
*Sigh*
Jack thought to himself, "I should have been more grateful to her. I am so useless without her."
The pain of losing the one you relied on most hit Jack hard at the moment. He dried himself and wore a hoodie and sweats. And returned to the room in surprise.
Lilith was holding a pair of blue jeans and a white shirt that were both creaseless.
He was so shocked he couldn't say anything for a while. At that moment, Ralph returned, who seemed to just woke up and left for his room.
"Morning dad," Ralph greeted cheerfully. He was truly happy his father was better. He was afraid that the same sickness that hit others took to his father as well.
Jack awoke from his stupor and looked at his son and returned the greeting. "Morning, Ralph."
He then couldn't help but ask, "Did you ask your mom to get clothes ready for me?"
Ralph looked at the shirt and pants and shook his head. He then asked with a chuckle, "Dad, why are you asking that? Mom has never forgotten to give you clean and fresh clothes before."
Jack, of course, knew this even better than Ralph, but Lilith, in her hollow state, has yet to perform tasks that she would do daily. This was quite a pleasant surprise to him. The hope in his heart grew slightly more.
Grabbing the clothes from Lilith, he said in a tearful whisper, "Thank you for now and always."
Similar to creaseless clothing was the perfect breakfast that she prepared for him every day before work. The table of three had scrambled eggs, french toast, fruit, coffee, and some orange juice. Jack did not know if Lilith can eat now, but he still requested her to sit down with them.
Jack had sent a mental order for half the hollows to collect resources from the houses they visited the first time he awoke.
"All the supplies must be placed within the garage," Jack surmised.
While scooping up some eggs with a spoon, Jack asked, "Where did the hollows put all the supplies?". Ralph, who was trying to feed his mother the toast that she kept dodging, replied nonchalantly, "In the backyard?"
"Huh, what about the perishables?" Jack asked in a panic. He quickly got up, leaving his food, and ran to the backyard. In the apocalypse, there will be no way to acquire more food; he and Ralph needed food to survive. Lilith only needs the moonlight so he did not have to worry about her .
When he ran outside, he was shocked; the backyard was filled with refrigerators. Cases of water packs and canned food. Ralph ran behind his father and complained, "Dad, you didn't let me finish. I knew the meat and stuff would get bad, so I asked them to bring the refrigerator and put a lot of Ice in them."
Jack looked at the refrigerator and thought, "Ice was a great idea, but we will need electricity soon; we cannot keep living like this."
Jack smacked his head again, and he was really saved by Ralph again. Jack then took a deep breath and rubbed Ralph's head and reaffirmed, "You really are your mother's son, always saving me. Well done, Ralphy."
The small child savior, Ralph, was more than happy to be praised by his father. At some point, Lilith was standing by the back door. They returned to the dining table and had their breakfast. Jack's mind was much more at ease after acquiring food. He now had taken in more than enough food for Ralph and himself for the majority of the year.
Jack still believed he needed to understand the situation better both of the world and of his family's strength.
Jack washed the dishes while Lilith and Ralph cleared the table. Jack glanced at the back and looked at the food and became worried about something happening to the food. "Let's cover it." He thought. He went to the garage and brought back a thick weatherproof tarp. His small 20x20 backyard was now covered.
By the time Jack was done with his work the sun had fully risen. On the opposite side of the sun the moon still was visible spreading its dim red light. The morning air however was still fresh and the quiet of the morning was not hounting like it was on the first day of the apocalypse. Rather it was serene and as calm as an untouched lake besides a forest.
Looking at his work made Jack satisfied again. Now he truly did not have anything to worry about regarding his home. He thought, "Now it was time to clear the rest of the street of flesheaters."
"Hey dad, tonight we can have steak with the black beans and rice? Please." Ralph says with an excited expression.
Jack laughed and rubbed his son's head while saying, "Hahah little hero today we will eat whatever you want. I also want to reward you for what you did yesterday. Is there anything you want."
Ralph looked at his mother the moment Jack asked what he wanted. Ralph looked back at his father and said, "Dad I want mom to get better."
Jack seriously nodded; there is nothing more in this world that he wanted. Currently, he had two ideas to bring back Lilith. One was to make her devour more white orbs, the other was to make himself stronger in the same manner.
Jack then said, "I promise Ralphy, I will make your mom back to normal."
Ralph smiled widely and jumped. "Yeah, let's go get mom healthy again."
Jack then hugged Ralph. Ralph looked back and said, "Mom, you come too."
Lilith came, and the family of three hugged again after a long few days.