18 Floors Above the Apocalypse

Chapter 71

Having slept the day away, Stella was wide awake and ready to continue exploring Arcadia by night.

She had harvested the peppers, eggplants, and cucumbers from her garden, and now the grapevines on the old tree were starting to ripen. The grapes were turning from a vibrant green to a deep, sun-kissed red. She guessed they would be ready to pick in about a month. There weren't many grapes this first year, only about ten bunches, but she estimated she would get around fifty pounds when they were fully ripe.

On a whim, Stella decided to try and pick a grape using her consciousness. She didn't hold out much hope, as she had never been successful at harvesting this way before, but to her surprise, a single, ripe grape appeared in her hand.

This unexpected success brought a surge of joy, and she quickly tried to pull some vegetables from the garden. She was successful in pulling a few, but the effort left her feeling dizzy and drained.

Stella wondered if she could use this new ability to till her garden. After the dizziness passed, she decided to give it a try. She was able to till the soil, but only for a short while before her energy was depleted.

She wondered why she had been successful now when she had tried before without any results. Could it be due to her increased physical strength from her daily workouts?

Overjoyed by her discovery, Stella realized that she could train her mind just like her physical strength, saving time and making full use of her garden.

She planted corn, peanuts, sweet potatoes, regular potatoes, soybeans, green beans - everything she could think of.

Stella practiced this new technique all night, managing to till around 50 square feet of soil before exhaustion forced her to collapse onto her bed.

Cooper, her loyal dog, sensing something was off, came over and sniffed around her. "Woof, woof..." Cooper seemed worried. What was wrong with his owner?

Stella shared her excitement with Cooper, "We'll have more food now, Cooper. Are you happy?"

"Woof!" Cooper spun around in excitement, clearly pleased with the news.

The next day, Stella continued to till the soil with her mind until she was exhausted, then finally got up to have breakfast. She opened the curtains and was shocked to see that it was snowing outside. Snow in the South was a rare sight, usually only seen during natural disasters.

and light, barely noticeable unless you

extremely cold,

they had to deal with snow as well? The floodwaters had already reached the sixth floor. If there

door. A

stayed indoors, huddled around their fires for warmth.

up like snowballs. Their hands and feet still trembled from the cold. "The water tower is frozen. How are we going to get

let the others know that, so she feigned concern. "Yeah, what are we going to

head. "I didn't shower

agreed, "Me too,

a deep breath. "It looks like

his idea. "Are you suggesting that we go

think of

hurried up

opened the door, the icy air flooded in, making everyone

The weather was so cold that the falling snowflakes had turned into ice. She suddenly slipped. Cooper, seeing his

was instantly furious and glared at Jasper. How dare he

could have easily righted herself.

onto the icy ground. Even though he was bundled up like a bear and didn't hurt, he felt wronged inside. Angela, his wife,

them. Besides, Lukas was a grown man. He could handle a small fall. If he couldn't, he would just have to

near fall had caused a stir among the group. Even Angela felt a pang of envy. She looked at Jasper, then at Lukas. Except for his handsome face, Lukas was... well,

go of Stella after

think much

and started to scratch at the