Chapter 54: High Temperature, Favor

Relying on her memory, Evelyn Ford found several bottles of iodine in a cabinet, while the others began to search meticulously.

The lab also had a storage room where students changed clothes and stored their belongings. After Evelyn went inside, she quickly pulled the water she’d prepared from her spatial storage and placed it in a corner.

"Mr. Graham, Roy, Owen, there’s water in here!"

The three of them heard this and rushed into the storage room. When they saw the five large water jugs in the corner, Roy and Owen hugged each other and cried. Even Officer Graham stared at Evelyn Ford in disbelief.

"There are five of us, so it’s one jug each. But, Mr. Graham, can you carry two by yourself?"

"Yes, yes, I can. Definitely." Officer Graham was so excited he was practically babbling. He stepped forward and touched a jug, carefully wiping away the layer of settled dust on the outside before lifting it for everyone to see.

"Ford, you’re the one who led us to the water," he said. "You take two jugs, we’ll split the other three."

Evelyn Ford waved him off. "Last time, you found supplies and shared them with me, no questions asked. Finding this water was just a happy accident. Let’s not split hairs. We should look for anything else we can find and then hurry back. Wendy’s still at home."

"Alright." Officer Graham nodded emphatically, then turned away. The other three pretended not to see his red-rimmed eyes, tactfully looking elsewhere.

The group pried open the small lockers and emptied them of their contents.

Protective suits for the lab, masks, gloves, instant noodles, hard fruit candies, alcohol, iodine, gauze, glucose...

They had found quite a lot. Officer Graham suggested they divide everything up after they got back. They strapped the water jugs to their backs, wrapped the other supplies in pieces of curtain fabric to sling over their shoulders, and carried the rest in their hands. Once again, they returned with a full haul. It was heavy and exhausting, but everyone was overjoyed.

Evelyn Ford was happy, too. ’Now that I’ve repaid the favor, everyone can feel more at ease,’ she thought. ’No one likes a freeloader.’

And she was no exception.

Back home, Evelyn gave a wry smile as she looked at the water she’d hauled back. ’I’m really something else,’ she mused. ’Taking things out of my spatial storage only to have to lug them back myself from kilometers away.’

’My acting skills are pretty convincing. If I were in showbiz, I could probably win an Oscar.’

The supplies scavenged from the lab were divided evenly, with one share for each person. The extra bottle of alcohol went to Evelyn Ford.

Starting the next day, everyone devoted themselves to learning self-defense from Officer Graham. In the beginning, however, their days were spent stretching, holding horse stances, and doing push-ups, strength training, and speed drills.

Only when everyone started getting the hang of it did Officer Graham begin teaching them actual self-defense techniques. Due to the sweltering heat, they couldn’t train for more than three hours a day, even indoors. After getting home, Evelyn would put in extra practice. She wasn’t alone; Roy and Owen were just as diligent. Compared to Evelyn, the two of them had far more to worry about.

They were terrified of encountering bad people again and of being abandoned for being too weak.

Evelyn Ford dragged her aching legs home. Every movement—squatting down, standing up, extending a leg, raising an arm—sent a jolt of pain through her. She’d been training for so long and thought her physical condition was pretty good, yet against Officer Graham, she was defeated in just two rounds. Without her crossbow, Evelyn was still outmatched by sheer masculine strength, and she knew she couldn’t rely on the crossbow forever.

「In the blink of an eye, it was October.」

Evelyn’s training was beginning to pay off. During this time, Officer Graham would occasionally go out to check on the situation. Perhaps because the temperature had climbed to fifty-three degrees Celsius, there were no longer any signs of people outside.

Evelyn Ford drew a simple map of Corinth for the group, outlining several residential areas on higher ground where they could go to try their luck.

Corinth was simply massive. This top-tier megacity had once been home to thirty-five million people. It boasted towering skyscrapers alongside ancient towers and city walls a thousand years old. A city where history and modernity merged, it remained a beacon in the hearts of countless people, even now in the apocalypse, even after it had become a desolate ruin. As long as the city still stood, there was hope for survival.

The desire to return here was a seed planted in every survivor’s heart.

Leaning on a trekking pole, Evelyn Ford once again embarked on a scavenging expedition. Her heart surged with a boundless sense of strength. Behind her, countless skyscrapers loomed like a forest in the night as her figure slowly vanished into the swirling yellow sand.

Along the way, Evelyn found two vulture eggs. They were slightly larger than her palm, with one end being more pointed than the other. The white shells were thick and felt a little rough.

Evelyn scanned her surroundings. Seeing no sign of any vultures, she quickly stored the eggs in her spatial storage.

’To stop the vulture population from exploding, you have to tackle the problem at its source,’ she thought. ’Once they’re in my storage, there’s no chance they’ll ever hatch.’

Evelyn mentally patted herself on the back for her cleverness. Leaning on her trekking pole, she continued on her way. The ground, cracked and turned to sand, was extremely soft. With every step, sand poured into her shoes. Every half hour, Evelyn had to stop, take off her shoes, and dump out the grit.

Her destination for the day was Corinth’s largest entertainment complex. Back in high school, a rich kid in her class had once bragged that his father was a shareholder. He said that on the top floor, there was a huge garage full of luxury cars—the private domain of the complex’s owner.

Aside from her father’s old commuter car and a Unimog, her spatial storage was ready for more. She wanted to see if she could score some leftovers.

Of course, after the apocalypse began, the wealthy had surely used aircraft to move some of their assets. But Evelyn was confident something would have been left behind. Even if there were no cars, finding a barrel of fuel would be a win.

The road was so pitted and uneven that you could trip just by walking. One wrong step and you could land on a piece of glass or a nail. Evelyn had considered bringing out a bicycle or tricycle, but it looked like they would be useless here.

This route used to be a one-hour walk; now, it took more than two. Exhausted, Evelyn quickly pulled a bottle of ice water from her storage to quench her thirst. She rested for three minutes before pushing onward.

She hadn’t set out with Officer Graham and the others. They were heading to the Elysian Villas, another wealthy residential area on a mountainside in the suburbs. They might be able to scavenge some good supplies there.

But there were advantages to moving alone. Evelyn took out her MP3 player, put on her headphones, and immediately felt her steps become lighter.

An occasional gust of wind would whip up the yellow sand, forcing Evelyn to quickly crouch down. When the wind died and she stood up, she could shake what felt like pounds of sand off her body.

Evelyn couldn’t help but imagine she was trekking through a real desert. ’Maybe there’s even a camel waiting for me up ahead,’ she thought.

In the end, though, no camel appeared. What did appear was the entertainment complex, which looked no different from a ghost town.

This had once been Corinth’s money pit, a city of indulgence where people could blow through tens of millions in a single night.

The white walls were covered with water marks from the flood. The massive pillars at the entrance were cracked, and three of the eight had collapsed. The complex was built to imitate an old European castle. As a fierce wind howled through the night, it really did look like a haunted mansion.