Chapter 575: The Hooper Family
After getting the password, Ronan Kendrick opened the hidden door. He’d assumed it was a secret room for stashing valuables, but upon entering, he discovered a whole new world inside.
Tossing the half-dead Mr. Hooper back into his space, Ronan Kendrick found Evelyn Ford and pulled her toward the hidden room.
"What’s wrong?"
"There’s an underground shelter here."
Evelyn Ford was a little surprised. "A shelter?"
Before the apocalypse, Evelyn Ford had seen news reports about foreign companies that built shelters and panic rooms. Doomsday preppers also posted survival guides online, and among them were instructions for building family shelters.
A shelter had to be indestructible, capable of remaining intact even through an earthquake. Moreover, during the construction process, the client would have the workers sign non-disclosure agreements. It was like an assembly line—each worker only completed one part of the job, preventing anyone from knowing the full layout.
The Undercity at The Second Base was massive, and the Hooper Family’s shelter was like a miniature version of it.
Inside, there were not only weapons, water, and food, but also all sorts of daily necessities, oxygen tanks, oxygen bags, generators, oxygen concentrators, and even tons of canned goods, compressed biscuits, instant noodles, sausage links, and gasoline.
The shelter had several rooms, a bathroom, and a toilet. At the very back was a cold storage room. When Evelyn opened its door, a blast of cold air rushed out. She looked at the rows of hams on the shelves, the refrigerated beef, and the red wine in a side compartment, and suddenly burst out laughing.
"What is it?"
Ronan Kendrick walked over to Evelyn Ford, looking at her with concern.
"Seeing how thoroughly prepared the Hooper Family was, even building a shelter... I just find it hilarious."
The two of them wasted no time, looting everything inside the shelter. Evelyn even pried the light fixtures off the walls.
The shelter was over a hundred square meters and had three floors. The Hooper Family was large; besides Mr. Hooper and his son, several of his nephews and nieces also lived here. The bedrooms had been converted into capsule pods, so not a single corner was wasted. The top floor even had a hydroponics room, which held a large number of vegetable seeds.
With a wave of her hand, Evelyn Ford took it all.
As for the blankets, mattresses, and clothes in the rooms, Evelyn took them as well. ’All this stuff might come in handy later,’ she thought. ’I’m no germaphobe, and besides, the Hoopers only use high-quality things. All the more reason to take them.’
Evelyn Ford was in high spirits, humming an unfamiliar tune as she gathered everything. Ronan Kendrick even dismantled the range hood in the kitchen. It was safe to say that wherever they went, they stripped the place bare.
Looking at the now-bare shelter, Evelyn couldn’t help but put her hands on her hips and roar with laughter.
"To think the Hooper Family would see this day! This is so satisfying."
"Ronan, we haven’t stripped the bathroom yet! This vanity is marble, and the water heater is new, too. Take the showerhead and pipes. We can leave the toilet, though. That’s a bit gross."
Twenty minutes later, the bathroom looked like a warzone.
After they left the shelter, Ronan Kendrick dismantled the hidden door as well, earning a thumbs-up from Evelyn.
The Hooper Family’s daughters-in-law, grandsons, and granddaughters were all tied up and left on the first floor. Ronan had already stowed away the five cars parked outside. Evelyn glanced around. ’Good, we’ve cleaned the place out.’ The luxurious five-story villa was now just an empty shell.
Before leaving, Evelyn Ford took out a can of red paint, planning to leave a message on the wall.
"The Hooper Family is utterly depraved, and heaven will not tolerate them. Today was your just deserts. If the younger Hooper generation does not mend their ways and learn to be decent people, I will return and take every last one of your worthless lives."
At the end, Evelyn thoughtfully added a smiley face—the same treatment she’d given the Holloway Family.
Once she was finished, Ronan Kendrick led Evelyn Ford away from the Hooper estate.
"I was going to add the five words ’From a Wyrmrest Base survivor’ at the end, but I decided against it. There must be a lot of refugees from Wyrmrest Base at The Third Base, and I don’t want to cause trouble for them."
Ronan Kendrick squeezed her hand. "You did the right thing."
Evelyn shook her head. "They say you should pull out evil by the roots, but I just couldn’t bring myself to harm those little kids from the Hooper family."
"That’s your moral line, Evelyn. I’ve learned a lot from you."
Evelyn smiled. "Like what?"
"Like the difference between black and white, boundaries, good and evil, right and wrong, knowing where to draw the line... Lots of things."
Evelyn was in a great mood on the way back to the tarmac. Mr. Hooper, his son, his nephews, and his nieces were all in her space. Once they were brought back to The Second Base, it would be up to Taylor Vance and Zion Lowell to decide how to deal with them. Ronan had already forced them to ingest a poison that, while not lethal, would torture them to within an inch of their lives.
As for the family’s food processing plant, it would surely be confiscated and become state property. Evelyn was very satisfied with this outcome.
The two of them returned to the tarmac, but Ryan Rowe wasn’t back yet. Several armed officers were standing guard around the plane. When they saw Evelyn and Ronan, the officers simply gave a slight nod, not asking where they had been.
Back in the passenger cabin, a member of the support staff immediately brought them two meal boxes, along with juice and tea.
"Mr. Kendrick, Dr. Ford, we have steam eye masks and neck pillows. Would you like any?"
"I’ll take a neck pillow," Evelyn said, picking a pink one and slipping it around her neck. Ronan casually grabbed a black one for himself.
The staff member then brought over a platter of fruit and thoughtfully put on a piano piece in the cabin.
Once the staff member had left, Evelyn and Ronan exchanged a smile before opening their meal boxes to eat.
The meal was hearty, with a mix of meat and vegetable dishes—four in total. After eating her fill, Evelyn leaned back in her seat and zoned out. Ronan cleared the table and even wiped her hands and mouth for her.
Evelyn’s expression was complicated. "Ronan, when you’re like this, I feel completely helpless."
"Nonsense. Don’t say things like that." It was rare for Ronan to get angry, but he reached out and gently pinched her cheek.
"Okay, okay, I won’t. I like it when you take care of me."
Ronan smiled.
At three in the afternoon, Ryan Rowe returned, bringing four or five truckloads of goods with him.
"It’s jade and gold ore."
Ronan got up to help. Once all the jade and gold ore had been loaded into the cargo hold, Ronan took inventory. After the others left, he moved all of it into his space.
After Ryan Rowe returned, the other officers also came back to the passenger cabin. The pilot came over to ask Ryan for a specific departure time.
"We can depart now. The Fourth Base is pretty far from here; it’s an hour-long flight. We’ll aim to be back at our base before midnight tonight."
"Yes, sir."
After the captain left, Ryan Rowe took out a folder of documents and began to read. Seeing his serious expression, the others didn’t dare disturb him.
The plane took off again, and Evelyn glanced at the time.
3:20 PM on the dot.
Inside the space, the members of the Hooper family groggily began to stir. Ronan had tossed them into a pitch-black mining area, where they lay scattered on the ground, unable to move. Taking in his surroundings, Mr. Hooper trembled and looked at his son in terror.
"Are we dead? This... this isn’t the underworld, is it?"