18 Floors Above the Apocalypse novel Chapter 292

They used to mock the people in Building 49 and Building 50 for their over-cautiousness, but now, they could only look with envy at their three-meter-high stone walls topped with electric wiring that screamed safety.

Suddenly, many people turned to Austin, hoping to procure some building materials for their own walls.

But Austin was atypical this time, “Folks, I apologize, but all the available building materials have been confiscated by the authorities to build the new city. I really don't have any sources for this. Maybe you could try elsewhere?”

He was no fool. If everyone's home was fortified like a fortress, what would happen when rioters indiscriminately attacked?

Besides, he wasn't lying. With more and more people coming to Griffith, building materials were indeed becoming increasingly scarce.

…

Stella woke up feeling groggy, her hands and feet growing colder. She pulled the blanket over herself, but it didn’t help, the chill persisted.

Stella switched on the bedside lamp, and was surprised to find it was already nine in the morning.

Damn, overslept again.

The room seemed darker than usual, so she pulled back the curtains, only to find it pitch dark outside.

Stella paused, the perpetual night had come early. Two months early.

Jasper stirred awake, “What’s wrong?”

The cold weather made it good for sleeping, and after an passionate night last night, the two of them overslept.

“The eternal night is here.”

She checked the thermometer. The room temperature had dropped to freezing point. The house had been insulated during renovations, so it was probably around 20 degrees below zero outside.

Jasper quickly got up and added blankets to Rosie's bed.

“Why is it dark outside?”

Jasper switched on the light, “Don't worry, it's just the eternal night.”

Rosie, dressed in her thermal clothes, was only cold in her hands and feet, “Will Dylan and the others freeze?”

Jasper paused, “You care about Dylan that much?”

Rosie thought for a moment, “He's really good to me, obedient and helps with work. What if he gets sick from the cold?”

“Contact him with the walkie-talkie.”

Rosie put on her socks and immediately dug out the walkie-talkie.

Jasper put on his clothes and, as per the community agreement, turned on the lights on the balcony of the second floor, dispelling some of the darkness in front of the villa.

Using a flashlight, he went to the backyard to check on the poultry.

The animals, too, had biological clocks. Used to constant brightness, now plunged into darkness, they huddled together in unease.

The glass shed wasn't as insulated as the house, and the poultry were shivering from the cold. Jasper switched on the heating lamp and spread the prepared straw in the shed.

Stella followed him, and feeling that it wasn't warm enough, brought more wooden panels from Arcadia to fortify the glass.

As for the vegetables in the planting shed, they were all stored in Arcadia for the time being.

After dealing with the backyard, the two went to the rooftop to handle the herbs being grown there.

Standing on the rooftop, they could hear the rumbling of engines as lights came on in other villas one by one. The light wasn't broad, and in the perpetual darkness, it seemed incredibly dim and insignificant.

The security guards were still on patrol, and flashlights would light up on the road from time to time.

There was a knock on the door, and it was Samuel and his buddies, all from Eastwood Eden.

“Stella, we're leaving.”

Samuel hadn't expected the eternal night to come so soon, and they needed to rush home.

Stella frowned slightly, “Did you find your replacements?”

A conflict or two would've been okay, but there had been numerous confrontations over the past year. Even the rich families' servants would boss the security around, making them do all sorts of dirty and tiring work. There were even more outrageous instances, where they were called over to take out the trash, or made to walk pets.

The disparity in status was huge, but the security captain was always diplomatic, greeting even the most unreasonable demands with a smile.

How could anyone's psyche be okay after being in such an environment for so long? If an opportunity to turn the tables presented itself, would he take advantage of it?

Of course, all of this was just Stella's speculation, and it may well contain a bit of malice.

Jasper said, “We have no evidence, and what if they mean no harm? And even if we told others, no one would believe us.”

Compared to the security, people were more wary of building 50.

Stella thought the same, “Regardless of what others do, we should take care of ourselves first.”

However, she still warned Austin to not casually open the door during the eternal night, even if the person outside was familiar.

Stella warned him, “Don't ask me to open the door either. I definitely won't do it.”

Austin laughed, “And here I was thinking of inviting you over for a game of poker. If I had known, I would've made a door in the wall, so we could move freely between our houses.”

They were both smart people, so a hint was enough.

After bathing in sunshine daily, Cooper had grown unaccustomed to the dark, pacing restlessly whenever night fell.

With the advent of eternal night, the world seemed to abruptly hit pause.

Mansions, skyscrapers, factories, streets, survivors, crops... Everything was engulfed in the engulfing darkness.

And inherent to human nature was a fear of the unknown lurking within the dark.

Natural light and artificial light - both forms of light, yet they elicited vastly different feelings.

When sunlight bathed everything, pulling back the curtains revealed the entire view. However, artificial light couldn't do the same. When you pulled back the curtains, outside the window might have been a scary face or a villain wielding a knife.