18 Floors Above the Apocalypse novel Chapter 448

After boarding the ship, the couple found a hidden corner to huddle in, shielding their two children tightly with their bodies. The fleet faced countless storms, with some ships scattered, others capsized, and some survivors tossed into the sea. As time went on, only one ship remained.

With barely any clothes and little food, combined with overcrowded conditions, sickness quickly spread. Every imaginable ailment took its toll—starvation, disease, madness. Every day, more people died.

At first, the crew collected the bodies, but as hunger grew fiercer, the survivors' eyes shone with a desperate, hungry light, fixating on those close to death. No one knew who started it, but as soon as a sick person took their last breath, someone would pounce, knife flashing, cutting a piece of flesh from the thigh. Once there was one, there was a second. While the family was still trapped in grief, a crowd would already be upon them. By the time the crew arrived, everything was a bloody mess.

No matter how they tried to reason, warning that eating the flesh could transmit a deadly virus, their words fell on deaf ears. Logical pleas couldn't quell the gnawing hunger, and they were met with cold, sinister stares that chilled the crew to the bone. After a few incidents, the crew dared not intervene.

Monkey had two kids, and one... didn't make it on the ship. Miranda was devastated, clutching her child, refusing to let go. Monkey covered her mouth, "Don't cry, we can't let them notice." The couple huddled in the corner, shielding their remaining child with their bodies, hiding their grief as best they could. But what could be hidden for a day couldn't be concealed forever; the heat from the crowd made it impossible to disguise the smell of death.

Later, Monkey, with his deceased son on his back, and Miranda clutching their other child tightly, ventured out with knives in hand. Still, people approached with curiosity, "Why carry such a big kid? Is he dead?" One man even made a swallowing sound as he spoke. "My kid's sick, I'm taking him to see a doctor," Monkey said, brandishing a plastic gun fiercely, "If anyone dares to touch him, come at me if you're not afraid to die!" The imitation firearm looked real enough, and his ferocious aura froze the crowd, no one daring to move. With great effort, the couple squeezed through and fled the cabin.