18 Floors Above the Apocalypse

Chapter 421

Hans and his buddy Wang Jun racked their brains but couldn't recall Cody Lukas at all. "What about Angela?" Stella asked, worry tinging her voice. "She's a woman."

"Tall, strong, could knock out a grown man with a single punch, and has a deep voice?" Stella nodded eagerly. "That's her."

Female soldiers were rare in the submarine corps. They trained separately in the water and only came together on land for joint exercises. The guys didn't remember many of the other men, let alone a woman. But, as they say, opposites attract. A woman who could take down several men was bound to be memorable.

Angela was pretty well-known; her reputation was solid among the submarine crew.

Clinging to a glimmer of hope, Stella asked, "Do you know where she might be?" Hans shook his head.

The asteroid hit Earth so suddenly. They were out at sea with all their gear for training. By the time they heard the air raid siren, they were already submerged, and their first instinct was to pilot the sub to safety. The thought of the horrific tsunami they survived still haunted them. The force of nature was something no human could contend with.

Giant waves erupted from the seabed, tossing their submarine around like a toy. If they hadn't been in a state of suspension with all their external equipment retracted, their turbines would have been shredded by the tsunami. Their sturdy hull withstood the tsunami's fury, but many of their comrades, even strapped in, suffered through days of torment, surrounded by the stench of vomit.

It was a nightmarish memory they dared not dwell on, feeling as if the grim reapers themselves had them by the throat.

If they hadn't detached the "seed vault" from its moorings in time, the storm could have split their sub in two.

They survived, but the thought of the abandoned seed vault, which could preserve a fragment of their civilization for twenty years, weighed heavily on them. Would it ever see the light of day again, or would it be forever buried in the abyss? The weight of their perceived failure was a heavy one, a hurdle they couldn't quite clear.

"Lost is lost, it'll be found," Stella tried to comfort them, though she wasn't sure what to say. "Even if civilization is lost, as long as humanity survives, it can be rebuilt."

They were supposed to protect the seed vault, but their primary duty was to protect themselves. Cole had hammered that point home time and again.

Yet Hans and the others couldn't shake the feeling of inadequacy.

They were among the lucky ones. Cody and his group, who were on land training, had a much longer distance to travel to reach the deep-sea port. If anything went awry, they wouldn't make it. And if disaster struck, the consequences were unthinkable.

had his mission. He couldn't flee with his family; they had to evacuate

the Earth's crust? Where were they now after the land

disaster firsthand, Hans had a grim premonition, but he kept telling himself his family

had promised his parents and wife that he would survive any calamity and

the words reached

I saw Angela. She was with our group at the deep-sea port. Our nation's subs are top-notch; they can take on a tsunami. I bet she's out there swimming in some ocean right now." His words offered Stella some

again, but as long as they were alive,

were on the same sub,

just maybe, Cody and Lukas were thinking of her

about some

to the world filled

they might bump into 2639 and

come across any

but none

from China, with North Korea tagging

to survive the disaster, Hans's

they were met with hostility. Those submarines, without any honor, launched

his crew warned them thrice, but to no avail. They had

the face of catastrophe,

a battle ensued under the

trusted the subs built by their own factories. Their

them a lesson, to strike hard but

out, was as fragile as

water began pouring

dumbfounded. They hadn't meant for this

have been disclosed. But there was no time

Korean sub fled in