Chapter 100: Farce
In the past, Jasper Payne would have definitely stroked her cheek and comforted her. Now, however, he merely felt like an idiot who had been used as a pawn. What was worse, both brothers had been equally foolish!
Jasper pulled away from Shay Kramer’s clinging hands. "Don’t make a scene in public."
Staring at her rejected hands, Shay shed large drops of tears. However, the dozen or so people chasing them for crystal cores couldn’t care less about their subtle drama. The crowd surrounded Shay, grabbing and tugging at her until they yanked off her fleece beanie and the hair ties holding her braids. Feeling her disheveled hair, Shay bawled even louder.
Jesse Payne saw the commotion but couldn’t get up. The two bodyguards his brother had brought were busy carrying his stretcher, leaving him no choice but to yell in frustration. "What are you doing?! Jasper!" He glared indignantly at his older brother as he shouted.
Jasper felt a throbbing vein in his forehead. Between his younger brother’s injured leg and the mess Shay had stirred up, the sheer noise was driving him crazy.
"Shut up!" he barked. He then pulled a small pouch of crystal cores from his down jacket and tossed two un-attributed cores to each of the people harassing Shay. His gaze carried a threatening edge beneath his impatience. "Enough. Take the goods and get lost!"
Larry Wright, Luna Dawson, and the rest stood with their arms crossed, treating the scene like a theatrical show. If it weren’t for the freezing weather, Luna would have pulled out a bag of sunflower seeds to munch on.
Seeing that they had profited, the crowd’s hostility eased. They offered a few superficial words of flattery and hurried away.
Jasper gave Shay a long, hard look, then swept his gaze over the group enjoying the show. "We’re leaving," he ordered coldly.
Jesse wanted to say more but was silenced by his brother’s fierce glare. Realizing Jasper was genuinely furious, he obediently kept his mouth shut and let the bodyguards carry him off. Still crying her eyes out, Shay sobbed indignantly as she followed them.
"That woman is so annoying. I can’t believe she brought people over to start trouble," Miles Dawson grumbled indignantly, watching them walk away.
"She’s young. It’s probably just jealousy acting up," Jack Palmer chimed in. Suddenly remembering his manners, he added, "By the way, I’m Jack Palmer. Man, the way you guys put them in their place was awesome! If I run into people I can’t stand and don’t know how to curse them out, can I hire you to do it for me?"
His face was the picture of earnestness, practically bubbling with excitement. The group stared at him in speechless silence.
"If we run into each other again, sure!" Miles replied quite seriously. The group then took a moment to introduce themselves to one another.
Jack jumped for joy and slung an arm around Miles’s shoulders. "It’s so great to meet you guys! It’s rare to find normal people in the apocalypse!"
Larry facepalmed in exasperation. "Jack! Enough. It’s freezing out here, and while we have to stand guard, they don’t. Miss Dawson, you all should head back and get some good rest."
Luna smiled and nodded. "Will do." She felt a distinct sense of security looking at these vibrant, energetic soldiers.
"Alright," Evan Olson said with a helpless sigh. "We’ve clocked in a full day’s work here. Let’s hurry back before our families start worrying."
After bidding farewell to the soldiers, Luna stored all the meat from the mutated snakes they had killed into her spatial dimension. The four of them then walked toward the water plant’s parking lot. They had driven a car here and needed to remember to drive it home.
Watching their retreating figures, Jack muttered, "That lady’s spatial storage seems huge. I wonder if her space is bigger than Miss Quinn’s."
Larry glanced back at his dazed comrade, his gaze softening. "Check when Captain Pierce is coming over. We need to give him the good news that the snake meat is edible." Not to mention, they had collected plenty of crystal cores. Even though they had to hand them in, it was still a massive haul for their squad.
Evan drove at a leisurely pace. The snowy roads forced them to move slowly. Outside, workers and survivors were bustling about, enthusiastically chopping down trees. Piles of freshly cut branches and trunks lined the streets. Rumor had it that the base had major plans for the lumber; they had even issued an announcement promising to fully restore heating and electricity in the near future.
Seeing the base becoming more established day by day, Luna smiled radiantly the whole way back. "The smartest investment I ever made in my life was buying a house in this base!"
Kevin Keane watched her money-minded expression with amusement. "Our villa is yours too. Does that double your happiness?"
Luna’s eyes lit up. "It does!"
The group chatted and laughed boisterously during the drive. However, their expressions changed the moment they approached their neighborhood.
The perimeter of the Dragon Lake Villa Area was littered with piles of unidentifiable bird carcasses. The massive birds were heaped together like slaughtered chickens, and numerous military trucks drove back and forth to haul them away. Several survivors who lived in communities a few kilometers outside the villa area stood by the roadside, watching the spectacle.
"I have a superpower user buddy living in the villa area," one man boasted. "He said they actually have heating in there! Just look at how brightly lit it is at night. He promised that once he performs well for his employer, he’ll bring me inside, too."
When he finished speaking, the people around him shot him envious looks.
Most of the survivors in the base had only trickled in over the last couple of weeks. According to official announcements, the base would provide food for all new arrivals for their first week. Those who needed it could visit the cafeterias in their respective sectors and claim rations twice a day using their ID cards. Once these people were fed and hydrated, they had nothing left to do. They spent all day gossiping, fixating on the military and other survivors, pointing fingers, and whispering rumors.
Meanwhile, some survivors who had witnessed the fierce battle at the water plant earlier that day happened to spot Luna’s group driving into the Dragon Lake Villa Area. The crowd instantly exploded into chatter. They huddled together, eagerly recounting the hunt for the mutated snakes, and the story of the battle at the water plant quietly spread throughout the base.
At the same time, the heroic exploits of the villa area’s residents defending against the mutated birds became another popular topic of conversation.
The villa complex had just survived a catastrophe of its own. Tens of thousands of mutated birds had swarmed from the north like a dark cloud. Each bird boasted a menacing wingspan of one to two meters, and their assault had been ferocious. Fortunately, many base leaders resided in these villas, so military forces were stationed everywhere. With armored vehicles and anti-aircraft machine guns deployed in every sector, the heavy firepower ensured that the overall casualties remained light.
Inside the villa area, every household was currently cleaning up the battlefield around their property. Many exterior walls bore scorch marks from fire and smoke, while other sections were visibly cratered by superpower blasts. The residents temporarily left the bird carcasses on the ground, waiting for the military trucks to haul them away in bulk.
Inside the car, Luna and her companions felt their stomachs drop at the devastated scenery.
When they were attacked earlier that day, they hadn’t dared to contact their families for fear of worrying them. They never expected that their home base was simultaneously being raided. Clearly, their families had chosen not to contact them for the exact same reason. Without either side knowing, both groups had fought bloody battles for the better part of the day.
The closer the car got to their villa, the more bizarre the surroundings became. Countless dark purple and light purple vines intertwined like an impenetrable giant web, tightly wrapping around the entire house. It looked exactly like a massive vine cage.
Kevin pushed open the gate to their courtyard. A mountain of giant black bird corpses immediately spilled out through the opening, causing everyone’s pupils to shrink in shock.