18 Floors Above the Apocalypse

Chapter 523

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.

more times, ending up with over a thousand pounds of

any

fish on the beach to dry under

a stick, whispering to Jasper, "Do these seem less deformed than

different parts of the sea, or maybe, as

you dare eat poultry

sister's enthusiasm. "We

feed them to

supplies; they could wait to eat the

a knowing

back with a smirk, "What about you?

silk, "I'll follow your

shared a conspiratorial grin, then got

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

was already a good hundred meters above sea

a few days of drizzling rain, the barren, brown earth sprouted some

time to

others

it with a tarp, and dumped in dozens of pounds of salted fish, mixed with chopped potato shoots, stirring

the pungent scent

just a few days, the

them daily, feeding them to the poultry back at their makeshift

eggs, a legacy of

chicks and

the new villa district was still intact, and now they came

winds

but Stella, ever the

was a surplus from the Union Base, so abundant they would

poultry grew bigger, Jasper fenced the area around the tent, allowing them to roam

siblings tended the fields, Stella busied herself mostly

the cooler autumn arrived, the dandelions, though scraggly, blossomed, their fluffy white heads dancing

settled nearby, slowly bringing hints of green to the landscape. Having served as maggot feed,

in sparse and weak wheat stalks, but some managed to

wheat to fill their bellies; just seeing it

she didn't worry about Rosie. It was

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