Chapter 112: A Fleeting Hope

As she handed the items over, Stella Sterling glanced at his complexion. Seeing that he looked much healthier than a few days prior, she smiled. "You seem to be recovering well!"

Gordon Ford didn’t look at the bag in his hands. A smile was in his voice. "Yeah. You know me, I’ve always stayed in shape, so I’m pretty tough."

Stella recalled that back when she first knew Gordon, he had also worked out frequently. He looked lean and tall in clothes, but when he wore short sleeves in the summer, his muscles...

Stella shook her head. ’I’m getting ahead of myself,’ she thought, though her gaze still lingered meaningfully on his abs for a few moments.

When she finally looked up at Gordon Ford, she found him watching her with a faint smile. Her expression remained calm, her tone casual. "I brought you two some food. It should tide you over for a while."

’She figured the two of them must be running out of food. After all, they weren’t like the other people in the building who could stretch a single bag of bread over several days.’

’Besides, Gordon was injured and needed energy to recover. It was easy to guess that they wouldn’t be rationing their food as strictly as everyone else. The supplies in their backpack couldn’t have lasted long!’

’She had picked out some food from the supplies Gordon had given her earlier. Since it was originally theirs, returning it wouldn’t be a big deal, nor would it make them suspicious.’

Gordon glanced down at the bag in his hand, then looked up at her. "We still have food. You should keep this. It’s always better to have more supplies, right?"

She was a little surprised. ’Looks like I miscalculated.’

’I didn’t think that one backpack of supplies would last so long!’

She didn’t ask why they still had food, simply nodding. "You gave this to me in the first place. I still have plenty, and I can’t eat that much on my own. So just take it."

With that, she turned and headed back upstairs.

"Okay, I take back what I said before. She might seem a little cold on the surface, but I didn’t expect her to be so generous and thoughtful."

Basil Xavier remarked with a sigh as Gordon Ford came back inside. He had overheard their conversation.

He hadn’t expected that, with food so scarce, Stella would willingly give back supplies she already had. That alone was something most people wouldn’t be capable of.

Basil Xavier felt a pang of shame.

After dropping off the food, Stella Sterling paid no more attention to what was happening on the 27th floor.

To be honest, even though she enjoyed Gordon’s company, she didn’t want to get too involved with them.

’The more contact they had, the more likely she was to slip up. She wasn’t strong enough yet to attract the attention of powerful enemies.’

’She didn’t want to invite trouble, so the best she could do was minimize contact. Once the two of them left, their paths wouldn’t cross again.’

Stella paused by the window, her gaze distant. ’Soon.’

According to her memories from her past life, this terrifying blizzard would have a brief lull before an even more horrific storm hit.

This brief respite was Gordon and Basil’s chance to leave. Otherwise, escaping the residential complex later would be nearly impossible.

Another three days passed. The pile of bodies downstairs continued to grow, but the residential complex itself had been quiet for a few days. The constant chaos and endless screams from before had ceased.

Perhaps it was because Bell and his crew were gone, and the few who remained couldn’t cause any real trouble. They’d been lying low these past few days, not daring to stir things up. They were even afraid of retaliation from those they had previously harassed, so they stayed cooped up in their homes, too scared to come out.

As for Felix Lawrence and his group, their methods were clearly different from Bell’s.

He didn’t prey on the other residents. Instead, he organized people to check the apartments of those who were no longer home. Once an apartment was confirmed to be empty, they would find a way inside to search for useful supplies.

The scavenged goods were then distributed based on how much effort each person had contributed.

While this method of gathering supplies was slower, it was far more acceptable to most of the survivors.

However, since that day, Felix hadn’t come looking for her again.

She and Felix’s group coexisted peacefully in the building, neither side bothering the other.

The tense, oppressive atmosphere that had previously choked the building had dissipated, and occasionally, you could even see people out and about.

One day, Stella was in her medical room, having just finished setting Stephen Lawrence’s bone. It was the third time she had set a bone for him in the past few days.

It wasn’t that his bones were particularly fragile. Rather, after Stella set the bone, she would break it again. She repeated this process over and over to improve her medical skills.

Stella had thought she was ruthless, but she never imagined what cruel things a person would subject themselves to just to survive.

The idea of setting the bone only to break it again hadn’t been hers; Stephen Lawrence himself had proposed it.

When he made the suggestion, he had even looked at her with an expectant gaze, as if terrified she might refuse.

Stella understood his motives. He needed her food, and she needed someone to practice on. It was a perfect arrangement.

Just as she finished and was about to leave, she heard Stephen Lawrence cry out, "The snow outside has stopped! Is the cataclysm finally over?"

Hearing this, Stella turned to look out the medical room’s window, taking a few quick steps forward to see for herself.

The dense, palm-sized snowflakes had finally stopped falling. Light was filtering in from outside!

Though a vast expanse of white still covered everything, the sun was shining brilliantly in a clear, bright sky.

At last, the endless, dense, seemingly impenetrable curtain of snow was gone!

The sunlight pierced through the clouds and shone upon the snow-covered ground, like a newfound hope that made one’s heart leap with joy.

Stella watched, but her expression held no trace of happiness.

She knew this was all just temporary. Soon, an even more terrifying phenomenon would arrive.

In her past life, she had survived the apocalypse for seven years and had experienced all of this before. While the end of the world had come earlier this time, the events were unfolding much like they had before, with only minor differences in timing.

"The sun’s out and the snow has stopped. Aren’t you happy?"

Stephen Lawrence’s excitement faded a little when he saw the look on Stella’s face. His tone was laced with confusion.

Stella glanced back at him. Lately, he had become someone she could occasionally talk to, and he had been cooperative and obedient. As a result, her attitude toward him had softened considerably. "One day is just like the next. What’s there to be excited about?"

Sometimes, she envied those who knew nothing. At least they could still feel happy when they saw a fleeting glimmer of hope.