18 Floors Above the Apocalypse

Chapter 155

With the prolonged high temperatures, the water level decreased rapidly. The survivors who had been staying inside started coming out in the morning and evening. Determined to keep her secret safe, Stella made a resolute decision to stop her outdoor excursions.

After several days of working from dawn to dusk, exhaustion took over, forcing her to rest for several days to recover her strength.

Sitting under the cool breeze of the fan, enjoying a chilled watermelon, Stella started to strategize for the 1803 group, planning how to ensure their safe arrival in Lincoln.

She took a batch of fresh vegetables from Arcadia and handed them over to Cody and Lukas to dry on the balcony. "These are freshly harvested. Dry them out and store them tightly. You can eat them whenever you want." Touched, Lukas asked, "Stella, you're giving all your vegetables to us. What will you and Jasper eat?"

"The seeds are meant to be shared," she replied. "We don't know what conditions you'll face there, so we're preparing some for you. We'll just eat less."

Having grown up together, words of gratitude were deemed unnecessary.

Cody and Lukas took the vegetables to the rooftop, where the concrete floor was scorching. The fresh leaves wilted visibly within moments of being spread out.

In less than half a day, the leaves crumbled at a touch. Once packed in bags, they resembled broken crumbs.

Not only did Lukas and Cody not complain, they treasured the dried vegetables immensely. While others were surviving on cockroaches and rats, they were fortunate to have vegetables. Expressing discontent would seem ungrateful. However, they had their concerns.

"Do you think we can survive without Stella?" Lukas asked Cody with a gloomy expression.

"We just have to try our best," Cody replied thoughtfully. "We can't rely on Stella forever, can we?"

Stella wasn't their mother. It was already commendable that she, as a friend, had gone to such great lengths to help them. They knew they would eventually have to fend for themselves.

Both of them understood what this separation implied. It might mean they would never see each other again in this lifetime. Just the thought of it weighed heavily on their hearts.

Having grown up as orphans, they had few close

vehicle and learn auto repair skills on their own, in case the car broke down on the way? Knowing Jasper had

out to search for supplies, Lukas grew

level had dropped to the second floor, and more and more

"It's not time to search for a car

the disaster continued, gasoline would only become more scarce. Even if they couldn't find a good car, having enough gasoline might enable them to

showed interest and immediately sought

to drain every car. Most of the cars were still submerged. To find gasoline, they would have to go to

the large trucks. If there was a large amount of gasoline or if they could identify the type of gasoline, it should be

facilitate Lukas and Cody's mission, so they wouldn't have to use their

happen to have a siphon pump. You guys can borrow

siphon pump, but also the inflatable boat. Japser even taught them how to deal with anti-theft filters. They should use a sharp tool

it was the 1803 group's turn to

"Make some cooling tea

people from 1803 found Jasper and Stella smelly; little did they know that they would return even smellier. The sour stench of sweat could be

choice. Their protective suits were drenched in sweat, and they

tips, they managed to collect a considerable amount of gasoline on

valuable. They decided

as a beacon, and soon people in the neighborhood started to notice their

floor, they were not fools. Seeing the barrels, they understood what was going

two years. Very little was still usable. Of course, they picked the most rare

Cody and Lukas started bringing back less and less. But they had already amassed more than a

city authorities announced that they would start collecting gasoline from the citizens to speed up

kilogram of food, or one liter of gasoline for