18 Floors Above the Apocalypse

Chapter 523

Rosie wasn't one for idle talk; she always had a plan in her head.

"We could go fishing, dry the fish in the sun to kill off any lingering viruses, and then bury the salted fish in a pit. Before long, we'll have maggots."

That's how they did it at Ocean Point Naval Station, and Rosie had learned the ropes long ago.

Once the maggots hatched, they could use them to feed the poultry, which would then breed and multiply.

A decade of hard work was finally paying off. Rosie wasn't about to just sit back and rely on Arcadia.

Stella was all in.

They started with chickens, ducks, geese, and quail-ten of each, all nestled into the incubators.

After some discussion, Stella and Jasper decided to take to the sea and fish.

With no overfishing to worry about, the ocean was teeming with life.

They rose at the crack of dawn, rowing their dinghy out to deeper waters before bringing out the fishing nets.

Neither had much fishing experience; even casting the nets was a challenge.

They watched instructional videos over and over, and after several tries, they finally got the hang of it.

They cast the net and slowly circled with their boat.

When it was time to haul it in, they were stunned to find hundreds of pounds of fish in their catch.

Several species were represented, some normal, others deformed.

Stella voiced her concern, "Rosie, are these deformed fish okay to use?"

"They're fine," Rosie assured her confidently. "At Ocean Point Naval Station, the fish that looked fine went to the cannery, while the deformed ones were used for maggot fermentation."

She took the opportunity to educate her siblings, "Experts in maggot farming say most viruses weaken over generations of replication. Plus, many infected hosts develop antibodies."

Stella scratched her nose thoughtfully, sensing some logic in Rosie's words.

Whether right or wrong, they would see the results in practice. She couldn't let doubts undermine Rosie's confidence.

ending up with over a thousand

protective rain suits to avoid any

on the beach to dry under the

held her nose and flipped the fish with a stick, whispering to Jasper, "Do these seem less deformed than the ones we found when we first

the different parts of the sea, or maybe, as Rosie said, the ancient viruses

"Would you dare eat poultry

didn't want to quash his sister's

feed them to the wolf pups

could wait to eat the poultry if need

him a knowing look, "Sly, aren't

a smirk, "What about you? Will you

as silk, "I'll follow your

conspiratorial grin, then

labor, they had dried over two thousand pounds of salted fish and

was already a good hundred meters above sea

drizzling rain, the barren, brown earth sprouted some frail weeds, yet they showed a

took the time to water them as she

withered, others stood

pit, lined it with a tarp, and dumped in dozens of pounds of salted fish, mixed with chopped potato shoots, stirring and adding just enough water

carried the pungent

days, the maggots

daily, feeding them to the poultry back at their

of former disasters, yielded impressively

chicks and

built the coops back when the new villa district was still intact, and now they came

blistering sun by day and chilly winds at night, the coops alone

but Stella, ever the pragmatist, fetched a

so abundant they would last

bigger, Jasper fenced the area around the tent, allowing them

fields, Stella busied herself mostly

heat, and as the cooler autumn arrived, the dandelions, though scraggly, blossomed, their fluffy white heads

Having served as maggot feed, the thoroughly decomposed

soil was poor, and the planting season was off, resulting in sparse and weak wheat stalks, but

on the wheat to fill their bellies; just seeing it grow

Jasper's support, she didn't worry about Rosie.