18 Floors Above the Apocalypse novel Chapter 147

Mikey had brought a new contraption home—a mousetrap. This was a project that had consumed him for months. It worked similarly to an ultrasonic fish trap, emitting sound waves that stimulated the brains of the mice, tricking their nervous system into a state of hallucination, making them sluggish and unable to snap out of it for about two hours.

Stella mused, "Like how cats are attracted to catnip?"

Exactly, Mikey's inspiration had come from catnip.

The apartment had been under a plague of mice, causing much distress. Outside, many survivors had been bitten by these rodents. Although the hospital and health departments were prepared, restoring drug production was not an easy task. Therefore, the situation remained bleak.

Mikey suggested, "Let's continue working together, to wipe out these mice."

Stella had no objections. Even though they had Cooper, he also got tired. Cooper had lost weight and was so exhausted, it snored in its sleep, dreaming of battling red-eyed mice.

The sweltering heat was a disaster for the dog, which could only cool down by panting. Excessive water consumption could also lead to water intoxication. Neither was a sight she wanted to see.

So they decided to test the mousetrap.

They opened the hallway window on the 17th floor, along with the doors and windows of the other two apartments. The mousetrap, once plugged in, emitted a faint hum.

About ten minutes later, a large-eyed mouse crawled up from the sewer.

It circled the mousetrap, squeaking, its movements gradually slowing down, its red eyes full of ecstasy. Uh, like it was high on drugs. A few minutes later, the mouse staggered and fell.

More and more mice began to appear, climbing up one after another. In less than half an hour, there were over a dozen.

Cody and the others were awestruck. This was the power of technology.

The agreement was reached, the 18th floor would be responsible for catching and killing the mice full-time, the Moore family would provide the mousetraps, and both households would take turns to deliver the dead mice to the community committee for registration. The canned food obtained in exchange would be split equally.

The 18th floor was not interested in the canned food, but they were living in constant fear of the mice. They agreed to the plan in order to improve their living conditions.

Thus, the mousetrap was taken to the 18th floor, and the doors and windows of the hallway were opened.

Each person took turns, working in shifts.

By the room number, Jasper was the first. He came out every two hours to kill the hallucinating red-eyed mice and threw them into a sack.

By the next morning, they had killed 106 mice. Over 100 pounds of mice, not something anyone could easily lift.

When it was Stella's turn, she didn't have to do anything, the dog handled everything.

During the day, there were fewer mice, they caught and killed over 70.

Jasper went downstairs with a raft, while Stella carried a sack full of mice. They were both wearing thermal underwear, medical grade protective suits on top, masks tightly secured, and they went to the community committee to hand over the mice.

There was still a lot of floating garbage in the water, but thanks to the efforts of the relevant departments, the environment was much better than in the past. For now, there were no reports of any outbreaks.

At this time in her last lives, an outbreak had already occurred.

There were many people handing over mice at the community committee, but most only had a few, those with a dozen were considered impressive.

When the staff learned that these were from the Sunrise Sanctuary Unit 1, they were amazed, "Are the mice in your area very rampant? This morning, a family from your building came and handed in over 100 pounds."

Stella nodded, "Yes, our area is infested with mice. We can barely set foot on the ground."

Canned food could be exchanged once every half month, so after handing over their goods, they left.

By this time, the sun had set and the heat had slightly dissipated. The survivors started to come out.

They pretended to leave, but actually went around and started working outside the community. Then, a shocking scene unfolded, many drunk mice appeared in the water, swaying as they swam.

The workers simply scooped them up with a net and threw them into iron cages.

However, they were still discovered by the survivors, and some bold ones actually paddled over in their rafts, demanding mice from the workers, their tone extremely agitated, "If you take all of them, how are we supposed to survive?"

The workers couldn't give them, as eating mouse meat had caused a number of deaths. It had to go through a high-temperature sterilization special process.

Of course, they also understood the difficulties of the survivors, and tried to avoid conflict by speaking as gently as possible. If it didn't work, they would retreat.

After more than half a month of mouse-catching operations, the number of red-eyed mice in Griffith had drastically decreased. Even with the mousetrap on, they could only catch about twenty mice in a day.

At the same time, the community committee distributed effective cockroach medicine. Stella picked up a few doses when she went to hand over the mice, and it was indeed very effective. At last, the large cockroaches were eradicated.

The 18th floor celebrated; the only ones not happy were the rabbits. They had to eat grass again.

The extreme heat continued, Griffith was like a pot on the stove every day. The survivors were like half-cooked, spending each day in agony.

Extreme heat, lack of water, lack of food, and hunger... For them, the only silver lining was that they had filtered water.

No one cared about the origin of the water, nor dared to ponder over it. The conundrum was how to get the water back?

They hadn't bathed in a month, their bodies slick with sweat and grime. They couldn't even bear to look at themselves in the mirror.

Life's miseries were manifold, and the cries of despair were incessant.

One day, Stella and Jasper were on rodent duty. As they rounded the corner on the fifth floor, they spotted a snake emerging from the water, slithering its way up the stairs.