novelraw Chapter 146: Dense Fog 7
Chapter 146: Dense Fog 7
A year passed in a flash, and the dense fog still showed no signs of dissipating.
The wood outside the safe zone had been almost completely gathered, and the temperature remained between thirteen and sixteen degrees.
Rats had long since been driven to extinction by everyone’s vigorous hunting efforts. However, some people had started breeding large numbers of them at home, and several shops selling rat meat had even opened in the safe zone.
Evelyn Ford and Ronan Kendrick continued to keep a comfortable distance from the others. The safe zone’s rules and regulations gradually became more formalized. Though life was still hard, the survivors living here enjoyed a rare sliver of peace.
The light rain still fell once every three days. The stored rainwater was enough for everyone to drink, but only just. Washing one’s face or taking a bath was an absolute luxury.
Over the year, the lonely and widowed elderly gradually passed away. Meanwhile, the young children, under the tutelage of Secretary Hawthorne and Zion Lowell, were growing up fast.
They could travel farther to gather firewood, which could now be sold in the safe zone for a price even higher than vegetables.
Evelyn Ford remained completely engrossed in growing her medicinal herbs. She rarely left her house and even hung a "Do Not Disturb" sign on her door. But if someone needed medical treatment, she would never refuse them.
Her price remained the same: one head of cabbage or half a bowl of wheat.
Ronan Kendrick would occasionally go out to hunt. Evelyn Ford had no idea how far he traveled, but he always returned with a catch.
Having not seen the sun in over a year, Evelyn discovered her skin had become frighteningly pale, as if she were suffering from some incurable disease.
Evelyn Ford cut her hair whenever it got long, never letting it grow out.
Taylor Vance’s group acquired several more pushcarts. They had discovered a coal mine in the nearby mountains and planned to mine it for fuel to replace wood.
The mine was massive and open to everyone. Officer Graham and Quincy went to dig for several days, each returning with a small cartful of coal every day.
Wendy had a stroke of incredible luck. While out mining coal with Officer Graham, she found a nest of wild eggs. Two days after bringing them home, a clutch of thirty chicks hatched. Evelyn Ford traded for two of them to raise on her first floor. Although she had plenty of fertilized chicken, duck, and goose eggs in her spatial inventory, she’d had no way to bring them out before. This was the perfect opportunity to start raising chicks out in the open.
"Ronan, come see what this is."
"A bird?"
"Wrong. They’re chicks. And they’re your responsibility now. From now on, you’ll be in charge of feeding them."
Ronan Kendrick looked at Evelyn Ford, his expression earnest. "Can we eat them once they’re grown?"
"Of course. But we can also keep them for their eggs."
Ronan Kendrick’s monotonous life finally had a little excitement. He began to raise the chicks.
Animals grew quickly in the foggy environment. In about a month, the two hens Evelyn had selected were fully grown. But after waiting a long time, they showed no signs of laying eggs. Evelyn had no choice but to take out some fertilized eggs from her inventory and decided to incubate a clutch herself.
The two grown hens, naturally, ended up in Ronan Kendrick’s stomach.
The eggs, which should have taken more than twenty days to incubate, miraculously hatched in just seven. And not a single one was lost.
Evelyn Ford’s chicken farm was officially established. The manager, of course, was Ronan Kendrick. All forty to fifty chickens were under his care.
When others in the safe zone learned Evelyn Ford was raising a lot of chicks, they all came over with wheat and corn to trade for them. Evelyn didn’t trade away any from the first batch, but by the time the second batch hatched, each family was allowed to trade for two.
Wendy was frustrated. Why wouldn’t the chicks she raised lay or hatch eggs? To console her, Evelyn traded two of her own for two of Wendy’s. Sure enough, the very night of the trade, the new chicks started laying eggs.
Serena Lynch also traded for two chicks from Evelyn, and over time, she developed a little chicken farm of her own.
—
"Mr. Vance! Trouble! We have trouble!" Cherie shrieked for Taylor Vance at the top of her lungs. Thinking something terrible had happened, everyone rushed out to see what was going on.
"Cherie, what happened?"
"A-a lot of people came! They said they want to enter our safe zone! I had the others block their way and ran to tell you, Mr. Vance!"
’A lot of people?’
’People are still finding their way to Wyrmrest Safe Zone?’
Many residents were curious, but Taylor Vance was on high alert. He gathered two security teams, and the large group departed, armed with clubs, hoes, and other makeshift weapons.
At the entrance to the safe zone, a few children holding sticks were blocking a group of people dressed in rags.
"Where did you come from? What are your names? Why are you here? How many of you are there?"
One of the children rattled off a string of questions. The newcomers, with their sallow complexions and emaciated frames, could only answer obediently.
"We’re from Veridia. After the acid rain, our houses collapsed, all the trees died, and we didn’t even have water. We had to leave. We couldn’t see where we were going, so we just wandered blindly in the dark. We walked for six months until we reached Corinth, but Corinth was just another ruin with nothing to eat. We walked for another six months before getting here. My son scouted ahead and said he saw some houses. We thought they were abandoned and just wanted to come inside."
A middle-aged man explained everything. Behind him stood a young man and woman—his son and daughter. The others were all companions who had fled with them.
Just as Taylor Vance and his group arrived, the children all started chattering at once, explaining what had happened.
The man’s face filled with shock when he saw Taylor Vance.
"You’re... Taylor Vance?"
"And who are you?"
The man’s voice was choked with emotion. "I used to work at a factory in Veridia. You came to inspect it once. I remember you."
Veridia Town was a small county under the jurisdiction of Marris. When the man named the factory and recalled the exact year and month of Taylor Vance’s inspection, Vance was mostly convinced.
"How many people are in your group?"
"Twenty-five. Three elderly, and two children. There were over a hundred of us when we left... now only twenty-five of us are left. We can work, Mr. Vance. Can we take refuge here with you? We can’t walk anymore. Everyone’s feet are swollen something awful. We don’t know where else to go. You can check our packs. We don’t have any weapons, just a few hoes and sickles."
Taylor Vance and his companions didn’t give them an immediate answer. After conferring among themselves, they asked the other residents for their opinions.
Perhaps it was because the elderly and children looked so pitiful, but many people felt their hearts go out to them.
"Let them stay. We can have them live over by the shopping mall. Those poor children..."
The children were malnourished, their hair streaked with patches of yellow and white.
The elderly looked to be on their last legs as well. With the safe zone’s large population and its own security force, no one was particularly worried that the newcomers posed a threat.
After inspecting their belongings, Taylor Vance let them in.
Evelyn Ford didn’t find out about the newcomers until Serena Lynch came over to tell her. The very next day, several of them came to Serena with items to trade for supplies.
One look at them and you could tell they had suffered terribly on their journey. Their faces were etched with misery, and their eyes were lifeless.
They wanted to trade their only intact bowl and spoon for some corn seeds. Serena Lynch, soft-hearted as she was, immediately agreed to the trade.
After a period of observation, it was clear the newcomers had no ill intentions. Having finally found a place to call home, they began to build new lives for themselves.
In the safe zone, some people died, while others arrived, having crossed mountains and rivers to escape their plight.