"No. At first, I thought we’d need to clean up after them, but it’s been so long, and they only had high fevers right before they woke up. The rest of the time, it’s more like they’re just asleep. There are no physiological reactions at all."
"That doesn’t sound like a coma. It’s more like hibernation."
Evelyn Ford nodded. "Ronan Kendrick said the same thing. He thinks their bodies naturally entered a state of hibernation after they lost consciousness."
Taylor Vance was quick to accept it. Although he was older, he was forward-thinking and had experienced a lot, so he could quickly come to terms with many things.
"What are the conditions like outside now?" he continued to ask.
Quincy shook his head. "None of us have been out this week, except for Ronan Kendrick."
"Ronan Kendrick has a strong constitution and is resistant to the cold. He goes out every three days to check on things and collect fog water."
"It’s all thick fog outside. The wind is strong, and the temperature is extremely low. A lot of the trees have frozen to death; they’ve become very brittle, and their trunks snap when the wind blows. There are many frozen animals in the forest, and the ground is covered in frost. We can’t go out right now. Any exposed skin quickly starts to itch before cracking and bleeding." After Ronan Kendrick finished speaking, Taylor Vance was lost in thought for a long time.
"After this, humanity will probably face another great migration," he said, glancing at the others.
"The ecosystem has suffered the greatest possible damage, forcing humanity to once again search for a new habitat. But if this cold air has enveloped the entire globe, I’m afraid it will be difficult to find any suitable habitat anywhere on Azure."
Everyone’s hearts sank at Taylor Vance’s analysis.
"Then... what should we do?"
"We’ll have to wait for the cold air to recede. If worse comes to worst, we’ll expand the cave. It’s a good thing we all brought seeds. As long as we have seeds, we won’t starve."
Evelyn Ford had no objection to expanding the cave, if they were going to be living here long-term.
’The cave is large, but its area is still limited. We need space for planting and for raising the chicks, which will shrink our living quarters. Besides, there are quite a few people in our group. It’ll get crowded once the others wake up.’
’But the expansion will have to wait until everyone who’s unconscious has woken up.’
That evening, back in their wooden cabin, Evelyn Ford shared her thoughts with Ronan Kendrick.
"Do you remember what Shane Landry said? The person who tipped him off said the Little Ice Age would last for five years. But after only a little over a year, the weather changed. Now this cold air has arrived, and it’s freezing again. Do you think that when they said five years for the Little Ice Age, it might have included the time the cold air would linger after covering the globe?"
Ronan Kendrick nodded. "That’s possible. But they didn’t go into detail, and Shane Landry was completely clueless. Even under hypnosis, we couldn’t get anything of value out of him."
"If what they said is true, and the five-year Little Ice Age includes this cold air event, then we still have a long time to go before it’s over." Evelyn Ford scratched her hair in frustration. "I really don’t want to migrate again. A great migration isn’t a good thing for human survival."
Evelyn Ford leaned against Ronan Kendrick. "Thankfully, everyone is starting to wake up. If they didn’t, I honestly don’t know what I would have done."
’Abandon them? Could I really be that ruthless? Forget the others—Quincy, Wendy, and Officer Graham—I definitely couldn’t leave them behind.’
’But did I have the ability to take them with me?’
Evelyn Ford didn’t have much faith in her own moral bottom line. She had previously considered that since the others couldn’t enter her space, she might abandon them without hesitation if an emergency disaster struck.
So, the moment everyone started waking up, she had to admit, she felt a sense of immense relief.
"After observing for the past few days, it’s clear the cold air has had a growth-accelerating effect on plants and animals. The cabbages in the vegetable patch have started to head, and all five of the little chicks survived. They’re growing very quickly, too. Wendy and Zoe have been digging up worms for them every day."
"Everyone’s bodies seem to have gotten much better."
Evelyn Ford agreed. "I checked on Mr. Vance. Those old ailments of his are all self-healing."
Ronan Kendrick had said before that every natural disaster could be a double-edged sword. It was like the principle of yin and yang; there was a good side and a bad side.
This cold air event had put everyone through the wringer and left them unconscious for so long, but as long as they could wake up, it meant their bodies had completed the self-healing process.
But Evelyn Ford was also a bit puzzled. "I’m an ordinary person, just like everyone else. Why were they unconscious for so long, while I was only out for an hour?"
Ronan Kendrick chuckled lightly. "Is it possible that your space was protecting you? After you lost consciousness, your mind entered the space, which is why your self-healing was faster than everyone else’s."
Hearing Ronan Kendrick’s explanation, Evelyn Ford thought it made sense.
"Let’s not think about that anymore. Having Quincy’s help lately has really made things a lot easier. He’s very worried about Wyatt Vaughn, though. Wendy and Zoe have been very good, too. Girls are just so well-behaved. Back when I was in Corinth, my next-door neighbor’s grandson was such a little terror."
’So many years later, just thinking about that little terror still gives me psychological trauma. If he were my son, I would’ve slapped him straight into a wall by now.’
’Ugh, no, no, no. There’s no way I’d ever have such an obnoxious child.’
Ronan Kendrick stifled a laugh beside her. "Alright, let’s get some sleep."
「The next day」
Ronan Kendrick went out again. He needed to bring in the barrels he had left outside. Even though Evelyn Ford secretly added water to them every day, they still had to keep up appearances.
Ethan Dawson had recovered and planned to make a few more wooden barrels for storing water. He was also helping out with the large sleeping platform. Quincy had thought his workload would get a lot lighter, but to his surprise, Evelyn Ford sent him off to dig up more ground.
"Evelyn Ford, do you think it’s possible for us to dig a well inside the cave? There should be groundwater down there, right?"
Evelyn Ford mocked him mercilessly. "Absolutely impossible. If the cave doesn’t have a naturally formed water source, we wouldn’t be able to dig one out even if we had an excavator."
"You’re that certain?"
Evelyn Ford nodded. "You’ll have to trust a woman’s intuition."
"Alright then. By the way, shouldn’t we plant some other things? Like corn and sweet potatoes? I have a few sweet potatoes in my bag. Can we plant them if we slice them up?"
"You can’t slice sweet potatoes; they’ll just rot. You can do that with regular potatoes. Ugh, forget it, it’s too complicated to explain to you."
Undiscouraged by Evelyn Ford’s scorn, Quincy pressed on. "Then let’s plant some wheat. I brought wheat seeds."
"On this tiny patch of land? How much wheat would we have to plant to have enough to eat? Planting pumpkins is the most efficient choice. The leaves can be eaten as greens, the stems can feed the chickens, and the pumpkins themselves last a long time and are easy to store. If you were to plant wheat, you could probably dig up this entire cave and it still wouldn’t be enough to feed everyone."
Quincy was speechless.
"No wonder Zoe’s been muttering about going out to dig up tree roots these past few days. Looks like we really will have to resort to eating roots."
Then, as if he’d thought of something, Quincy gave Evelyn Ford a suggestive look.
"Well, we’ve got Ronan Kendrick, anyway. He’s the one with the cheat ability," he said, lowering his voice to a whisper.
"Keep it down."
Quincy quickly covered his mouth. "I won’t say it again."
Seeing a man his age still acting so unreliable, Evelyn Ford was both amused and exasperated.