Back home, Evelyn Ford found the power was out again. She set her things down in the living room and quickly turned on an emergency light. After taking off her life vest and raincoat, she stuck on a new Warm Baby and soaked her feet in hot water until her body slowly began to warm.
After a cup of ginger soup, Evelyn started to sort through the things she had bought that day.
This trip outside led Evelyn to a more significant realization: the cataclysm in this life seemed even worse than in her last.
She pulled back the curtains and looked out at the oppressive, dark sky, feeling a suffocating pressure that made it hard to breathe.
With the power out, people in the group chat were wailing again. However, a few had already bought generators and were smugly posting photos of them.
But generators required diesel or gasoline, and with prices for everything skyrocketing, they couldn't show off for long without enough fuel. Their bragging might even attract trouble.
The community's garage was flooded, and all the cars were submerged. People still paying off car loans and mortgages had suffered devastating losses from the torrential rain, filling everyone with anxiety.
That afternoon, Evelyn planned to get out the generator to steam some buns. But first, she needed to sharpen the dagger that had drawn blood earlier that day.
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK... A knock echoed through the apartment. Evelyn thought it was Lauren Keller, but to her surprise, it was Miss Lowell.
"Ford, can you open the door?"
"What is it?" Evelyn asked, studying her through the peephole.
"It's just a small thing. I heard you bought an assault boat, and I was hoping to borrow it. Don't worry, we just need to go out and buy a few things. Two hours should be enough."
'Miss Lowell was a housewife. Evelyn's mother, when she was still alive, had praised the woman, saying she was gentle and easy to get along with.'
"The person on the eighth floor is renting one out. A thousand an hour."
Miss Lowell let out a surprised "Ah!" before she started knocking again.
"Evelyn, just open the door. I'm not coming in, and it's hard to talk like this. I heard you bought an assault boat too, right? Can we borrow it?"
Evelyn's eyes were cold. "No."
'Miss Lowell's expression instantly fell. She and her husband were all about empty gestures, offering thanks with their words but nothing more. An assault boat was a rare commodity now, and for her to come running to freeload the moment Evelyn got back… her greed was just pathetic.'
"Ford, we'll only borrow it for two hours. We won't damage it."
Evelyn repeated herself. "You can rent one on the eighth floor."
"Walter Owens in 801 is price gouging! He's charging twenty-five hundred an hour now. That man has money for eyes. When the rescue teams get here, we're definitely going to report him. Ford, I know you're worried about the boat getting damaged, but don't be. I swear, we'll take good care of it."
Evelyn's mouth twitched into a humorless smile. 'Do I look like an idiot? Why is everyone always trying to take advantage of me?'
"I hear you know how to swim, Miss Lowell. Why don't you just swim there?"
"How can you say something like that? Ford, you're so selfish! When you treated Indy, I thought you were a decent person. I never imagined you were this cruel and cold-blooded. No wonder you drove Holly Lowe and her family away! We're all neighbors. You can't treat people like this."
Evelyn didn't bother to argue. She just slammed the inner security door shut.
Outside, Miss Lowell fumed for a long time. Then, it dawned on her: her daughter wasn't fully recovered yet. Her father-in-law had diabetes, and her mother-in-law had high blood pressure. In her haste, she had just offended Evelyn. What if Evelyn held a grudge and refused to treat her family in the future?
'Forget it. I'll just go knock on the Kellers' door,' she thought. Miss Lowell pulled her down jacket tighter, rubbed her hands together, and went to apartment 901. But even after she knocked for several minutes, the Kellers didn't answer. Unable to restrain herself, she kicked their door, muttered a few curses, and stormed back to her own home.
Evelyn received a message from Lauren Keller. It turned out that before coming to the 10th floor, Miss Lowell had gone to the Kellers' first. They had been about to open the door, but Lauren's grandmother stopped them.
Lauren said her grandmother had once seen Miss Lowell slap a little boy downstairs, just because Indy had bumped into the boy and they had both fallen over.
It was better to have as little contact with such people as possible; otherwise, there would be endless trouble.
Evelyn exchanged a few more messages with Lauren, then put her phone down and went into the kitchen. 'Whatever kind of people Miss Lowell and her family were, it was none of her business. As long as they didn't end up dead on her doorstep, she didn't care what happened to them.'
After a busy afternoon, Evelyn had successfully steamed a basket of filled buns and one of plain buns. Making the dough had been exhausting, completely draining her motivation to cook any more. She ate two of the filled buns and rubbed her stomach in satisfaction.
Even though it was her first time making them, they turned out surprisingly delicious, a testament to her natural talent for cooking.
By evening, the power in the complex was still out. In the group chat, some people, unable to bear the cold, had started burning wooden tables and chairs for warmth. Evelyn guessed that starting tomorrow, people would not only have to go out for supplies but also scavenge for firewood.
Sure enough, the moment Evelyn woke up the next day, she heard a commotion downstairs. She pulled back the curtains to see many people below gathering branches. One person was even trying to drag away a landscaping tree that had been split by lightning and was now floating in the floodwater.
A bolt of purple lightning flashed, followed by a deafening crack of thunder. Evelyn watched, powerless, as the man with the tree was struck. He convulsed for a few seconds before collapsing into the murky water.
A stream of blood bloomed in the water, only to be washed away moments later by the downpour.
Terrified by the lightning, the people downstairs scattered and fled back to their homes. Evelyn watched as the man slowly sank beneath the surface. Just then, an assault boat appeared. The three men on board acted quickly, pulling the man from the water.
Fortunately, the lightning subsided after noon, and people ventured out again to gather firewood. However, those who went out for supplies returned with bad news: the Daxon Mall had closed.
Lauren Keller messaged Evelyn to tell her that Miss Lowell's family had ended up renting the assault boat from 801 yesterday afternoon. They had managed to buy supplies just before the Daxon Mall closed.
That evening, the son and daughter of her next-door neighbors, David Collins and Frances Yates, returned with their families in tow. David's son, Zane Collins, was twenty-nine and worked as a security guard for a private company in the west of the city. His wife, Leah Crane, was a hotel receptionist. The two had been married for two years and did not yet have children.
Zane had a younger sister, Danielle Collins, who was twenty-seven. She worked at a high-end clothing boutique. Her husband, Harvey Sullivan, was from out of town and worked as a sales manager at a furniture mart. They had one son, Jack Sullivan.
With five more people suddenly crammed into the old three-bedroom apartment, it took less than a few hours for several arguments to erupt.
Evelyn found trash outside her door and tossed it back in front of the Collins's entrance. Just then, Danielle Collins, Leah Crane, and Frances Yates appeared from the stairwell, each carrying a bundle of branches. As they walked, Frances and her daughter Danielle mocked Leah for being unable to get pregnant after two years of marriage. Upon seeing Evelyn, Frances remembered the earlier incident where she had lost face. "Well, well," she sneered, her expression instantly shifting.
"Look at Ford, living the good life all alone in such a big apartment. It's a real pity your parents, who took you in and raised you, died before they could enjoy any of it."