18 Floors Above the Apocalypse

Chapter 216

Afraid of wasting food, he didn't even peel off the purple outer layer of the squid, but washed it several times.

Moreover, Samuel deliberately dawdled, not eating, just hoping his father would eat a few more bites of meat.

Stella watched the squid, picking it up with her fork to examine the tentacles, "Dried squid?"

"Yes, it's a huge piece of squid, about a pound. I used a quarter of it for cooking."

A pound of dried squid? Stella was astonished. Ordinary farmed squid, when dried, was already considered large if it weighed about half a pound. Wild-caught ones, even smaller.

The flood destroyed the seafood farm, and wild squid in the sea couldn't possibly weigh so much. Even if there were any, they would have been caught long ago. After being brought ashore, they would be distributed according to their size, and the best ones would never end up in the hands of ordinary survivors.

Samuel explained, "No, the dried squid they sell is huge. Some even weigh more than two pounds."

Stella furrowed her brow, a sudden fear gripping her heart. She remembered what Jasper had said - extreme heat would cause the polar ice caps to melt, and ancient viruses were likely to invade the sea.

"Where did you get the squid?"

Samuel quickly brought out the remaining dried squid from the kitchen.

Stella was shocked. This dried squid was not only several times larger than what she had previously hoarded, but the purple outer layer was also thicker. There were several raised bumps

on the squid, which were not very noticeable after being dried, but could still be identified upon close examination.

She sniffed it. It was indeed dried squid, but the smell was much worse than her hoarded ones. It had a particularly strong fishy smell.

"There's something wrong with this squid," Stella said seriously. "We need to induce vomiting, right now."

Without a stomach pump, they could only keep pouring water into Christian's mouth. Once he had drunk enough, he would naturally vomit. Then they would continue.

At first, Christian didn't want to believe it. But Samuel was so scared he started crying, almost begging him on his knees, "Dad, please listen to Stella. Mom is already gone, and if you leave too, what am I supposed to do?"

He was only seventeen, and after two years of natural disasters, he had grown up a lot. But at this moment, he was crying like a child.

Christian didn't want to leave his son. "Okay, okay, I'll listen to you."

He drank water and tried to vomit desperately.

Mark asked with a serious expression, "Stella, why do you say there's something wrong with the squid?"

Stella didn't hide anything and explained her suspicions about the ancient virus.

Mark was shocked. Over the past decade or so, the temperature had indeed been rising, and the polar ice caps were melting faster and faster. Scientists' concerns about ancient viruses had been reported in the media from time to time.

But ordinary people thought it was too far-fetched, and they would forget about it once they read it. They never thought that one day, it would really happen, and in a post-apocalyptic world where there was no medicine.

After drinking half a bucket of water, Christian was even throwing up bile.

Mark asked with concern, "Christian, how are you feeling?"

Christian was gasping for breath. His body was still in pain, but it was much better than before. "I, I didn't eat much."

It was not easy to get a bite of meat, so he wanted to save it for his son to eat more. He was in so much pain after only a few bites. If they had eaten the whole thing, his family would have been doomed.

Mark was sweating profusely. The coastal area was different from the inland and the grain- producing areas. The industry here was developed, but the geographical location was not suitable for building strategic grain reserves.

The reason many people still had food to eat after the disaster was that they had asked the sea for help.

Salt, seafood, seaweed... if these were infected with the ancient virus, what would the survivors do in the future?

Mark asked with a trembling voice, "Stella, are you sure?"

Stella shook her head. "It's just a guess."

"But if it's true, won't we lose all hope of survival?"

Stella couldn't answer and chose to remain silent.

Christian’s family didn't have any medicine. After inducing vomiting, he could only bear with it.

Stella had done everything she could, so she decided to leave. But Mark stopped her. "Stella, this is no small matter. So much seawater and seafood come to Griffith every day. If there's really a problem, who knows how many people will die. Shouldn't we report this to the residents' committee?"

Stella replied tactfully, "Mark, this is just my guess, and there's no evidence. If they investigate and find nothing, won't I be spreading rumors and causing trouble? By then, the police will arrest me, and I'm afraid those who sell goods will be the first to jump out and kill me. I’m glad that Christian are okay. I need to go."

After leaving building No. 1, Stella sighed deeply. She didn't expect the virus invasion to be so fast.

In her previous life, she lived a destitute and wandering life, eating tree bark and gnawing at clay. She had no chance to enjoy seafood. She avoided other survivors, fearing being slaughtered like a lamb. So she really didn't know about this.

It had been less than two months since they returned from the seaside, and she didn't expect such a big change. Stella was deeply worried. The 40 tons of fresh goods and several thousand pounds of dried goods and sea salt, could they still eat them?

No wonder in her previous life, a bag of salt could be exchanged for 30 pounds of grain. The situation was probably quite serious.

She was worried, "What will happen if there's a virus infection?"

Jasper didn't know either. In his past life, he was busy every day, running around on the front line of disaster relief. Life and death were commonplace. He would sleep as soon as he had a little free

time, and he really didn't have the energy to pay attention to other things.

"The relief teams have been supplying seafood rice balls all along. I guess it's the goods they hoarded before. In any case, there hasn't been any poisoning or death. I only heard about it from others a few years later in my past life."

Maybe there were, but at that time, no one thought about it that way. There were too many people dying from the disaster, and life was too difficult. No one had the energy to research the real cause of death behind it.

Stella thought to herself, in her last life, three years after the disaster, the salt along the coast became extremely scarce, which was enough to show that the authorities had noticed this problem and therefore banned the consumption of sea salt. But she didn't know whether they had found out about it now. Content rights belong to NôvelDrama.Org.

Seeing her frown, Jasper comforted her: "Stella, we've done what we can. The rest is up to fate."

Stella pondered his words, "Have you told the relevant departments about what will happen in the future?"

Jasper didn't answer and took her hand to go home. When she got home, Stella disinfected with alcohol and didn't forget to change her clothes.

......

At night, Mark knocked on the Christian's door, "Christian, how are you feeling?"

Christian's symptoms were much better, but he felt weak all over. He smiled bitterly, "I was lucky this time. The grim reaper didn't take me."

Samuel felt guilty and blamed himself, "Dad, it's all my fault. I almost killed you."

Christian comforted his son, "It has nothing to do with you. It's all because of this damn end of the world, making us live like walking corpses."

Since Christian had improved considerably, Mark figured it must have been the squid, "Christian, who would have thought that even seafood could be a problem now? It might even spread to our crops on land. We need to be careful with what we consume."

"Tell me about it. Does the big man upstairs even want us to survive?"

"You're lucky to dodge the bullet this time, thanks to Stella." Mark broached the serious matter, "We can't ignore this. Should we report it to the residents' committee?"

Christian pondered, "Would they even handle something like this?"