18 Floors Above the Apocalypse novel Chapter 242

Before going to bed, Stella pulled out her blanket, "Rosie, if you feel cold at night, you can use this."

The radio had timely notifications, but there was no sound from Mark's loudspeaker. It might be because the radio was out of battery. Jasper relayed the message, "The Weather Bureau has issued a warning: the Polar Day is here, and there will be a significant temperature difference between day and night."

So, the loudspeaker echoed once more, reminding everyone to dress warmly and prevent the cold. It was not a matter to be taken lightly. Once you fell sick and couldn't recover, death was the next stop.

Waking up the next morning, Stella found a blanket on her. She glanced at the thermometer on the wall, 20 degrees Celsius.

The spot next to her was empty. Jasper was nowhere to be seen.

Pulling the curtain aside, she saw him exercising on the terrace with the dog, even Rosie was there. Uh, seemed like she had been slacking off.

20 degrees in the morning, 37 at noon, and 18 at night, the temperature was like a rollercoaster.

The darkness was postponed again, till 9 pm.

Day by day, eating was the only routine. They had become tired of watching TV. They could only study for two hours a day, and reading had become daunting. Living such a life was not as easy as it seemed.

Sensing her boredom, Jasper suggested, "How about we cook something?"

Now that they were living far away from everyone else, they could cook without the smell spreading around. In the future, when they moved to Newtown, the villas wouldn't have such a wide gap between the buildings.

Stella liked this idea, "How about some cookies and bread?"

They were not in a hurry this time; they only cooked when they felt like it. They strived for perfection, every dish looking like a piece of art.

A month later, they had stored a lot of food.

Now, it only got dark at 1 am and the sun rose at 5 am. The daytime temperature was 30 degrees Celsius while the night was only 10 degrees.

Thanks to the Polar Day, the survivors had to change their clothes every two hours. If you had to go out, you didn't need to bring anything else other than clothes for all four seasons. A minor negligence could lead to a cold.

The erratic weather was troubling for Cooper as he didn't know whether to grow his fur or shed it.

Stella put on a thermal coat for him.

Despite the Polar Day, the three of them maintained their routine. If the sun was too bright, they would draw the curtains; they wouldn't easily mess with their biological clock.

If there was any advantage to the Polar Day, it was that the longer sunlight accelerated the growth of crops, and the shortened night relatively reduced crime rate. However, it had nothing to do with Stella, who was leading a laid-back lifestyle.

On the contrary, Rosie seemed happy, "Stella, the peanuts I planted have sprouted."

The little girl had developed a love for planting, not just peanuts but also vegetables.

Cooper was helping by digging the soil, no matter how Luna, from the floor below, called out to him passionately, he didn't pay any attention. Stella realized that it was a classic case of unrequited love.

Standing on the terrace, she saw the carpenter from building no.3 making furniture.

Stella was curious, so she walked over in the evening while fetching water, "Patrick, do you know how to make a boat?"

"A boat?" Patrick, a local, had been an apprentice in a boat factory when he was young, "I can make a small one."

Griffith was a land of abundance, with a complex network of water bodies. The older generation of locals all had wooden boats which they used to navigate through the water bodies.

Patrick was curious, "You want a boat?"

Stella nodded, "My rubber boat hardened during the extreme cold. With this erratic weather, in case there's a flood, I'd have nowhere to hide. Could you make me two?"

"You need old fir for making a boat, and it needs to be coated with teak oil."

Patrick had some teak oil but arranging for the wood was an issue. With the limited tools he had, the wooden boat could be at most 1.8 meters wide and 3 meters long, and anything bigger could cause problems.

Stella thought it was okay. If they ever had to drift in the sea, rubber boats and assault boats were more prone to damage. A wooden boat was sturdier.

Although they had yachts and cruise ships, who would mind having more resources?