He was living well

On the morning of October 15, just as dawn broke, ominous thunder rumbled across the sky, followed shortly by a hailstorm.

The temperature plummeted, dropping from over thirty degrees to just a few degrees within an hour.

Caught off guard by the sudden cold, Liam and Jack wrapped themselves in blankets and curled up on the sofa after breakfast. They switched on a tablet with movies downloaded for offline viewing.

After browsing for a while, they settled on an obscure indie romance featuring two male leads. The plot was decent, although some scenes were rather steamy.

As they watched, neither man could seem to sit still. By the time the protagonists on screen began getting intimate, Liam and Jack had already abandoned the sofa for their bedroom.

Just as it had been during their university days, the two of them could never finish watching anything remotely suggestive when they watched it together.

Honestly, lovebirds like them were better off watching cartoons.

Come to think of it, they hadn't had any proper time alone together for more than ten days. Jack had been exhausted when he returned the previous evening, so they had behaved themselves.

But now, with the early morning passion stirred up again, things quickly heated up.

……

The hailstorm continued throughout the day, finally stopping in the early hours of the following morning.

On October 16, after Liam helped Jack trim his hair in the bathroom, the team headed out again.

Over the next few days, the temperature continued to fall gradually, showing no signs of rising.

Despite the preparations made at the shelters, the sudden cold still caused considerable disruption. Meanwhile, the zombie population continued to grow, with the creatures instinctively gathering around places where living humans were present.

Before long, zombies were lurking outside the wire fences surrounding every shelter community.

The sounds of rescue teams fighting zombies could be heard every day. Unfortunately, gunfire only attracted more of the creatures, making the situation increasingly dangerous.

Zhou Li eventually ordered a ban on indiscriminate gunfire near the shelters. From then on, nearby zombies were to be handled primarily by Superpowered individuals.

People like Jack, whose abilities could reduce zombies to ashes, were particularly suitable for the task. Consequently, his squad was assigned to guard the area around their residential complex.

With the neighbourhood becoming more secure and his teammates remaining close by, Liam finally had time to join them on daily patrols.

……

The weather grew colder with each passing day until snow finally began to fall.

Rescue teams continued transferring survivors to the designated shelters, although the number of personnel assigned to these operations had decreased considerably.

The rescue command centre urged everyone to cooperate with the relocation arrangements as soon as possible, encouraging those who were capable of travelling independently to make their own way to safety.

Emergency alerts were activated across all four zones. The authorities did everything they could to gather supplies and ensure that the people in the shelters could survive the approaching extreme cold.

More survivors eventually agreed to relocate, but plenty of stubborn holdouts remained.

Another ten days passed, and the temperature dropped to minus ten degrees Celsius, with no indication that it would stop falling.

At this point, every district shifted its focus towards surviving the cold.

With manpower stretched thin, Zhou Li called on the survivors living in the shelters to work alongside the rescue teams. Everyone was encouraged to brainstorm solutions and implement every possible method of insulation and heat retention.

The most basic measure was to seal doors and windows properly to keep the cold out.

For a while, the sound of hammering echoed constantly throughout the residential communities. The trauma of the toxic rain was still fresh in everyone's minds. Nobody knew how much worse this abnormal weather might become.

……

By November, the temperature had plunged to minus thirty degrees Celsius, and it showed no signs of stopping.

The rescue command centre officially announced the arrival of extreme cold.

Those who had previously refused to relocate began to panic after losing the assistance of rescue teams. Unfortunately, with electricity and communications cut off, many had no choice but to brave the freezing temperatures and venture outside in search of help.

Their fate was often tragic. Some froze to death, while others succumbed to the zombie virus.

Some people had prepared for the worst. Before leaving home, they wrote messages asking for help on their necks, hoping that if they turned into zombies, someone might notice the messages and rescue their families.

However, Melbourne was a southern city. Once heavy snowfall blanketed the roads, most vehicles and machinery could no longer function properly.

The Superpowered individuals with spatial abilities, who were responsible for transporting supplies, distributed all the available resources to shelters across the four controlled zones.

After completing the deliveries, the rescue command centre, which also served as the central supply depot, announced a temporary closure to conserve heat.

Gradually, the entire city seemed to fall into a deep, silent hibernation.

Even the zombies began to hide away. Those that continued wandering outside eventually froze solid, becoming little more than ice sculptures.

Apart from Superpowered individuals and well-equipped rescue personnel, ordinary survivors rarely ventured outdoors. Those with thermal energy abilities were assigned to guard the shelters, generating electricity and heat to maintain essential energy reserves.

Supplies at each shelter were managed and distributed by official personnel, then delivered by Superpowered rescue squads every three to five days.

Just as they had done when recruiting rescue teams, the authorities offered extra rations to those who volunteered to deliver supplies or participate in patrols.

With the weather now too cold for ordinary people to travel and even zombies struggling to move, the rescue teams had more than enough manpower available.

Many survivors eagerly volunteered as supply couriers or patrol members simply to earn the additional rations.

As a result, Jack and his teammates, who already had plenty of supplies, were more than happy to leave those duties to others.

Apart from Jack, who went to Building One every day to generate and store electricity for heating, the others stayed comfortably at home, concentrating on improving their Superpowers.

Among the survivors living in the shelters, some had previously complained about the small rations and criticised the district management policy.

Now that the extreme cold had arrived, all those complaints disappeared.

Although rescue teams had stopped searching for survivors because of the freezing weather, those who had refused to relocate were effectively left to fend for themselves.

However, survivors who awakened Superpowers continued seeking shelter, so each controlled zone steadily received new arrivals.

People who awakened abilities also experienced improvements in their physical condition, including much greater resistance to heat and cold than ordinary people.

Those with elemental abilities, particularly Jack, Liao Yu and Lu Ningzhou, were especially well suited to extreme weather. The cold and heat that tormented ordinary survivors had far less effect on them.

……

Every day, Jack spent half a day at the supply centre generating electricity before returning home around lunchtime.

He didn't want to exhaust his abilities. After all, he still had people close to him who depended on him.

With Jack serving as a walking generator, his teammates had no difficulty charging batteries and using them to power heaters.

They could even experiment with running air conditioners, but there was little need. Such luxury would only attract envy, and keeping a low profile was always the wiser choice.

With nothing much to do and too much free time on their hands, Jack's teammates frequently visited his apartment for meals.

After awakening their Superpowers, their appetites had increased considerably. Fortunately, there was enough food to feed everyone.

Everything else was fine. Having more people around made the apartment livelier, and everyone enjoyed the company.

There was just one problem.

The extra guests kept interfering with the couple's intimate moments. Before long, Liam and Jack were practically hosting visitors for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day.

It was becoming ridiculous.

Eventually, Hannah, who lived farther away than the others, protested and demanded to move in with them.

That was the final straw for Jack.

He immediately stopped entertaining guests. He offered to deliver supplies whenever anyone needed them, but he firmly refused to let the others move in.

After that, Liam could finally enjoy life in their warm, well-stocked apartment.

He ate, slept, trained his Superpowers and spent his days being affectionate with Jack without anyone constantly interrupting them.

Compared with the same period in his previous life, he was living in almost unbelievable comfort.

While other survivors grew thinner and more exhausted as the apocalypse dragged on, Liam had actually gained some weight.

He had no new scars, no injuries and none of the visible signs of suffering that marked so many other survivors.

For the first time in a long while, he could genuinely say that he was living well.