There weren’t many supplies left in their apartment.
Although they had gone out regularly during this period to scavenge, the surrounding area had long been picked completely clean. On several occasions, they had returned empty-handed. They had managed to survive until now entirely thanks to the occasional aid from Suzy and her group.
Thinking of this, Lucas cast a complex glance at Leonard and the others.
Where on earth did these people get so many supplies?
He hadn’t seen them go out to scavenge once during this whole period. It had to be that they stocked up before the end of the world, or perhaps struck it rich at some point, which was why they never had to worry about food or drink.
Must be nice, Lucas sighed inwardly.
However, he didn’t harbor any ill intentions. They were already boundlessly grateful that these people were willing to share supplies with them. If he dared to entertain any bad ideas after that, could he even call himself human? Besides, Leonard and his group had firearms, and Lucas wasn’t tired of living just yet.
Suppressing the wild thoughts running through his head, Lucas’s gaze fell back onto the bag of supplies, and his nose suddenly stung with emotion. To think that even as they were leaving, they still had to rely on the twentieth floor for aid—their lives really had been quite miserable.
No one noticed his inner turmoil.
Leonard was more concerned with another matter. "How do you plan on getting there? Do you know the exact location of the base?"
Bill pulled a crumpled sheet of paper from his pocket and unfolded it to reveal a simple printed map marked with several routes.
Pointing to a spot circled in red, he said, "The base is right here. Just follow this road all the way down, and you’ll reach it. I heard a lot of people are living around the base as well, so worst-case scenario, we can just ask for directions once we get close."
Leonard looked at it for a moment, then looked up and asked, "Mind if I take a picture?"
Bill paused, then waved his hand dismissively. "Go ahead, take a picture."
Keeping a photo would make it convenient for them if they ever wanted to look for the base later on.
Leonard pulled his phone from his pocket and snapped a photo of the map. With a crisp click, he put his phone away and nodded. "Got it, thanks."
Bill carefully folded the map back up and slipped it into his pocket. He was a bit surprised that Leonard’s phone still had power, but assuming the twentieth floor likely had solar power generation equipment, he didn’t dwell on it.
"When do you plan on leaving?" Derek asked.
He glanced around the room; their belongings were mostly packed. They didn’t have much property to begin with, and they were leaving behind daily necessities whenever possible, as they heard the base would provide them. Their only valuable possessions were their supplies, which were clearly running dangerously low.
"Pretty soon," Bill checked the watch on his wrist. "We’ll head out in a bit."
He looked toward the window, wanting to wait until the sun rose a bit higher so it wouldn’t be quite as cold.
Leonard casually offered a word of advice: "Remember to bring weapons when you step outside. Take whatever tools you can use so you don’t get ambushed on the road and go down before you even reach the base."
Elijah chuckled twice. "Don’t worry, we prepared our weapons long ago. We’re not that stupid."
They were well aware of the dangers this trip entailed. But they weren’t pushovers either—back when they managed to charge their way into the complex, they hadn’t been afraid of anyone. When it came to a fight, they certainly wouldn’t show weakness.
Leonard nodded.
Just as he was about to look away, he noticed Bill staring fixedly toward the window with a strange expression. Following Bill’s line of sight, he realized Thomas had walked over to the window at some point, his brows locked in a tight frown and his expression solemn.
Bill noticed Thomas’s expression as well. As their eyes met, both caught a trace of deep doubt in each other’s eyes.
Thomas was always a man of few words, but it was exceedingly rare to see him wear such a grave expression.
"Thomas, what is it?" Leonard spoke up first.
Hearing the voice, Thomas snapped back to reality and cast a glance at the two of them.
"Did something happen?" Leonard pressed.
Thomas remained silent for a beat, his tone turning grave. "I just caught sight of something outside."
"What was it?" Leonard urged immediately. A sudden prickle of unease flashed through his mind, and seeing Thomas’s current expression, that feeling only grew stronger.
Thomas jerked his chin toward the window. "I just saw a massive flock of birds flying frantically in one direction. And rats—I don’t know where they suddenly scurried out from, but they were all fleeing toward the exact same heading."
That scene just now... was honestly hard for Thomas to even put into words.
Hearing this, Elijah was thoroughly stunned. "Holy crap, there were actually rats left in our residential complex?! I thought they’d all frozen to death!"
"Is that really the point right now?" Bill snapped a sharp glare at his younger brother.
Leonard’s expression gradually grew stern as well. "Is there something behind this? Are you trying to say... something new is about to hit us?"
Lucas, catching on to the implication, quickly hurried over to the window to look outside, but the strange phenomenon Thomas described had already vanished.
"I don’t see anything," he muttered.
"They’ve all run off," Thomas said evenly.
Even though Thomas mentioned that the animals had already cleared out, the others still gathered around, leaning forward one by one to peer outside the window.
"Describe what you saw just now in more detail," Lucas asked.
Thomas briefly reiterated everything he had witnessed—the birds flying en masse, the rats fleeing in long, orderly lines...
Animals possessed far keener instincts than humans. Behaviors like these almost always signaled an impending environmental shift.
As the realization sank in, everyone’s faces turned pale.
"Another natural disaster is coming?" Lucas’s voice sounded tight. "The extreme cold literally just ended, and something new is already starting? Isn’t that way too fast?"
A heavy, suffocating atmosphere rapidly enveloped the room.
Thinking back to the previous catastrophes—searing heat, violent typhoons, torrential floods—they had crashed down one after another, giving humanity zero room to catch its breath. The Earth seemed completely out of control, so the arrival of a fresh disaster was hardly a surprise at this point.
They just had no idea what form it would take this time.
"What do you guys reckon the next disaster will be?" Lucas sighed heavily.
"Don’t tell me the previous disasters are going to repeat in a full cycle?" Elijah’s expression turned quite colorful. "Please don’t tell me extreme heat is going to hit the second the extreme cold lifts. Tossing people back and forth between freezing and roasting—who could possibly survive that? At that point, a giant meteor might as well hit us so all of humanity can just go down together."
"Unlikely," Thomas shook his head.
Everyone turned their eyes onto him. "Then what do you think it is?"
Thomas remained silent for a brief moment before two heavy words slowly slipped past his lips.
"An earthquake."
The moment those words were spoken, dead silence fell over the room.
An earthquake was infinitely more terrifying than extreme heat or cold. Although none of them had personally experienced a major one, they had all seen scenes from disaster movies—the ground rending open, skyscrapers collapsing into rubble, and humans rendered as helpless as tiny ants before the raw power of nature.
If a real earthquake struck, they might not survive it, and even a fortified base might not hold up.
Could it really be an earthquake?
The group remained speechless for a long time.
Lucas was the first to break the silence, his voice low and muffled, "I lived through an earthquake once. It was just a minor tremor, but I’ll never forget that scene for the rest of my life."
He paused, his voice dropping even lower. "If another one hits now, given the Earth’s current volatile state, there’s no way it’s going to be a minor shake..."
Considering the Earth was currently cycling through apocalyptic extremes like intense heat and freezing cold, expecting a potential earthquake to be just a harmless little rumble would be absolute wishful thinking!