18 Floors Above the Apocalypse

 Têxt © NôvelDrama.Org.

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.

The crowd soon gave chase to the cabin door, but Monkey had already escaped to the deck. There, amidst crew and ship security, the crowd hesitated, and the couple took the heartbreaking step of casting their child into the sea. If it weren't for their other child, Monkey and Miranda might have followed their lost son into the depths. It was excruciating.

The crew tried to console them, "This disaster will pass, we must stay strong, and soon we will see the dawn." Monkey, who had been through countless blind dates before finding marriage, had a wife who was stunningly beautiful. She was tough and demanding, but her beauty made him willing to do anything for her. Back then, she barely looked at him, her sharp tongue and biting remarks making it clear she thought little of him. But it didn't matter-she was beautiful.

Despite her disdain, he still managed to have children with her. And after the first, the second quickly followed. He worked tirelessly to provide, hoping for a happy family, but then disaster struck. With young children, life became even harder, and he fought to survive, narrowly escaping being consumed by the darkness.

The end of the world was difficult,

et

but it had its silver linings. His wife, still sharp-tongued, grew warmer, perhaps fearing being traded for food as other men did with their wives. He couldn't bear the thought. If it came to that, he'd rather be sold by Miranda than to force her into such a fate. Ten hard years passed, but by clinging to fortune and with a bit of luck, their children grew, and his wife treated him ever better. But no one could have foreseen the severity of the catastrophe.

Enduring the grief of a sea burial, the couple was shattered but continued to cling to life. They never returned to the lower decks, finding a corner to stay together. Even in death, they wanted to be united. The crew, seeing their humanity, did not

trouble them. Day by day, like to

walking dead, Monkey was unsure how long they drifted until they awoke at Hope Point. He survived to Hope Point, but one child was missing. Despite Miranda's tough exterior, she was half-gray by the time they disembarked. In the face of sorrow, life had to go on. With Miranda's health failing, unable to work, they sought to grow more potatoes. Monkey returned to his old. ways, starting from scratch.

Unexpectedly, he found his sister at Hope Point. Overwhelmed, he tried to smile through the tears, but it was more painful than crying. Understanding his plight, Stella felt a deep sorrow. Surviving all these years and keeping his family intact, he was more fortunate than most. Had she not been sheltered by Arcadia, she might not have fared better. Memories of past suffering surfaced for Stella. Jasper, sensing the mood, sent Rosie and Cooper away. He sat beside her, "What's on your mind?"

Stella's expression was complex, "Old memories." Jasper, a man of few words but deep thought, understood she meant her past life. "Are you worried about Mr. Daniel? Stella, with her concerns laid bare, didn't deny it, "I don't lack food or safety, and I can protect myself, all thanks to the Arcadia he provided." "You know," she mused aloud, her voice tinged with a wistful timbre, "if I had taken him with me when the

tectonic plates of our lives collided, do you think our story would have ended differently from what it is today?"