18 Floors Above the Apocalypse novel Chapter 237

Around half an hour later, the crowd gradually cooled down.

Mark started to speak slowly, "If you find it too challenging, you can choose to stay in Eastwood Eden. As long as you're willing to take on any potential risks that may come in the future.”

“Mark, are you moving?”

“I can't afford to buy a house either, but I'll definitely find a way to earn points to move.”

“Then, since you're moving, we'll move too.”

“We want to move too, but how do we earn the points?”

Sensing Mark's determination, those who didn't want to move were flustered and reluctantly agreed after some thought. Most of the people had moved in within the last two years and trusted Mark. They couldn’t survive if they hadn’t moved into Eastwood Eden. Thus, even if they had to stick together, they would choose people they knew well.

They all remembered the evil people in the settlement camp who, in order to snatch houses in Eastwood Eden, tossed powerless people from the buildings. They even dared to kill staff members.

Staying or going out alone was too dangerous.

Reality didn’t offer them much choice, they had to agree even if they didn’t want to, just to survive. And so, except for Jasper and Stella, everyone in Eastwood Eden unanimously decided to move.

The next issue was how to earn points.

On the way back, Mark was thinking about this issue and had already come up with a plan. Doing things individually was too dangerous, so he suggested forming teams to earn points.

“We will divide into groups. The young and strong men will go to the ruins to collect scrap metal. Those with less strength will go to the Griffith River to dig sand.”

Eastwood Eden didn't have a vehicle, so he would negotiate with the government to see if they could provide a truck.

The rest, the women and children, would be responsible for farming. They would plant corn, sweet potatoes - as much as they could, to be used for purchasing housing supplies later. Vegetables grew the quickest, so they could plant several batches, dry them and store them for later.

With clear division of labor and tasks, and group leaders chosen, no one had objections. They trusted Mark and hoped that through everyone's efforts, they could settle in the new town. Living in cramped conditions was miserable, but being homeless was even worse.

When Stella returned, the meeting had just ended. Mark stopped the two of them and briefly explained the content of the meeting. Just as he had expected, the two had no plans to squeeze in with others.

“Mark, we won’t participate in this task.”

Mark understood and expressed his gratitude once again, “Anyway. thanks for the seeds.”

Luckily, they had spoken up in time, otherwise the price would have probably gone up several times by now.

The people of Eastwood Eden didn't rest. After the meeting, they immediately set into action – collecting scrap, digging sand, and farming.

Stella stood on the balcony, watching the busy figures by the Griffith River.

After two rainfalls, the drought had greatly eased and the groundwater level had stopped falling.

Afraid that the good sand would be taken, Stella was eager to start digging, “When are we going to dig sand?”

Jasper was watching the figures in the river, “We need to make a sand sieve.”

Doing it manually like them was slow and earned fewer points.

Making a sand sieve was simple – just welding reinforcement bars into a grid, leaving gaps in between. When sand was poured onto the grid, larger stones would be blocked while the finer sand would fall through to the other end.

Arcadia had plenty of reinforcement bars in stock. The two of them cut the bars to the right length and quickly welded three sieves.