18 Floors Above the Apocalypse novel Chapter 503

The snowmobiles the Russians were riding belonged to Union Base.

Stella and Arcadia had brand new ones, while theirs were only about seventy to eighty percent as pristine.

They maintained a cautious distance of 200 meters. Ivan trudged through the thick snow, his breath visible in the frigid air. "Jiang, Ho, how have you guys been holding up lately?"

"Not too bad, Union Base hasn't been pestering us for the past couple of days," Stella played dumb while casually checking in. "How about you? Did those jerks give you any trouble?"

Ivan laughed heartily, his gaze flitting over the pair. "We managed to take out Union Base."

Stella's jaw dropped. "You're not pulling our leg, are you?"

Ivan looked genuinely surprised. "Didn't you hear about what happened the night before last?"

Stella was confused. "What happened the night before last?"

Seeing that they genuinely had no clue, Ivan paused briefly and then laughed again. "The night before last, Union Base was bombed. A lot of people died or got injured. I thought it was you guys who did it!"

Stella couldn't help but chuckle. "Us?"

"Isn't it?" Ivan asked back, surprised. "We managed to free some folks Union Base had locked up. They said two people broke into the cells, but they were wearing gas masks and armed to the teeth."

Stella was amused. "Ivan, if we were that powerful, why the hell would we be up here in the Arctic taking crap? We'd be out saving the world! You don't seriously think we're some kind of monsters with superhuman abilities, do you? Two people taking on three thousand?"

Ivan considered this and agreed. The prisoners had been tortured daily by Union Base; it was no wonder their minds were a mess. Of the hundreds there, the majority claimed they saw nothing, and those who did couldn't agree on a story. Some said it was two individuals in gas masks, others claimed it was the second coming of Jesus, some even said it was King Li leading an army of celestial soldiers, and a few insisted it was the god Shiva himself.

Who else could it be but Jiang and Ho, though? After all, they had once quietly eliminated dozens from Union Base.

Not only was Ivan suspicious, but so were others. That's why he had made the trip today, to try and suss them out. If it was them, they'd need to watch their backs.

Australians might seem modest and peace-loving, but they were a deep and cunning people, inheritors of a five-thousand-year-old culture. They knew how to hide their capabilities and play the fool brilliantly.

But two against three thousand? When Ivan thought about the attack on the underwater fortress and the mysterious disappearance of Union Base members, weapons, and supplies, he realized it was beyond human capability.

Ivan dismissed his suspicions. "By the time we got there after hearing the commotion, the area around the base was littered with Union soldiers and red-eyed crocodile corpses. They probably got attacked by the crocs first, then some higher-ups took the chance to turn on them, causing a massive internal conflict..."

The deaths were varied: trampled, killed in combat, asphyxiated by gas or smoke, friendly fire, suffocated, or attacked by crocodiles or bio-engineered bats. The underwater fortress was a house of horrors, and anyone who didn't know better would think it was the scene of a supernatural crime.

Ivan didn't believe in spirits. If it wasn't Jiang and Ho, then the prisoners must have been hallucinating from gas exposure.

No matter the truth, Russia was the biggest beneficiary.

Ivan was delighted. "Jiang, as you guys would say, 'When the snipe and the clam grapple, it is the fisherman who profits.'"

They had just waited outside, picking off anyone who emerged. It couldn't have gone better.

Stella could hardly believe it. "You really wiped them all out?"

"We did, leaving only a few hundred 'two-legged sheep' behind."

Learning that Union Base had been annihilated, Stella was so overjoyed she nearly jumped for joy, giving Ivan a thumbs-up. "You guys are a force to be reckoned with, a real cleanup crew for the Arctic."

The opportunistic warriors felt a tad embarrassed but couldn't reveal the truth, so they just laughed it off.

"Jiang, Ho, there are many more artifacts on the ship. We can't identify them all, but if you're interested, you can go and choose for yourselves," Ivan offered.

Then, shifting the topic, he added, "With Union Base gone and survivors coming to Antarctica, trouble won't be in short supply. We're planning to move into the Union Base's quarters. The ships are large; if you want to join us, we can set aside a whole vessel for you."

The underwater fortress was in ruins, and living there would be far from safe; they had no desire for a repeat disaster. Living on a ship wouldn't be as warm and would limit their activities, but it was infinitely better than an ice hut.

The fall of Union Base was shrouded in mystery, and despite the lack of evidence, Ivan felt it was somehow connected to the pair.

Human nature is unpredictable, yet through the threads of emotion and history, alliances between nations are not only possible but often necessary.

Ivans and his crew were just ordinary survivors, looking for camaraderie and alliances where interests aligned. They weren't driven by grand ambitions to humiliate or annihilate any potential threats.

To put it simply, today's visit was more of an invitation.

Stella could read between the lines.

Ivans had come bearing a bronze animal head, a gesture that thinly veiled his true intention—to suss things out.

With polite firmness, Stella declined, "Thank you for your generous offer, but we're quite accustomed to living on our own. We wouldn't want to impose."

Ivans didn't press the issue, but he then lifted several boxes from the truck, "These were salvaged from the ship, too. They're hydroponic gardening kits. We tried our hand at it but didn't have much luck. Figured you folks from Australia are like green thumbs incarnate, so we thought we'd pass them on to you."

It wasn't just the kits; there were bags of fertilizer and nutrient solutions, along with a variety of vegetable seeds.

It was hard to resist—gardening was in Stella's blood. Her eyes lit up at the sight, "Wow, thank you so much."