로그인Hayley and her group were seated in an upscale dining hall.All the accompanying guards were eating in a separate room next door.Hayley sat beside Nathaniel, glancing at the rows of carefully plated dishes Ark Three had served.The food looked decent, but it wasn't especially fresh. Their hydroponic vegetables were pale and thin, nothing like what grew out on the open plains.The meat wasn't great, either. There was seafood and a few rare ingredients, clearly pulled from old pre-apocalypse stockpiles.Compared to her own base, this was honestly pretty mediocre.Edible, though.A moment later, the Ark Three managers who had just finished their meeting filed in.They had just learned the devastating news of Trevor's death. Every face carried a different mix of tension and unease.They took seats directly across from Hayley's group.Hayley's gaze paused on the last person in the row, a young woman. She was clutching her wrist, her expression tight and restless, like her whole b
After leaving the dorm, Max and Ryan headed toward the women's section.They still had five coworkers over there.Two were brothers, whose mother was still alive. The other three all had wives or daughters in that section.They had just reached the corridor when a scream tore through the air."Mom! I'm your eldest son, Chad! Why are you biting me?!"In the middle of the crowd, an elderly woman was straddling a young man's neck, tearing into his shoulder with her teeth. Half his upper body was soaked with blood. The young man's brother beside them tried desperately to pull her off, clawing at her arms and shouting her name. But no matter how hard he pulled, he couldn't pry the old woman off once she latched on.People froze in a circle around them, staring in disbelief.Most of them were locals from the surrounding mountains. When the apocalypse first broke out, Ark Three had taken them in because it needed labor. They had barely seen real zombies before."S-She didn't turn in
Davy shook so hard that his teeth rattled. He stared in horror as the bathroom stall door buckled inward inch by inch.The zombie was about to break through!Davy grabbed the mop he had brought in with him and jammed one end against the back wall, the other against the door.The second he felt it hold, even just barely, he climbed onto the toilet tank and scrambled upward, hands and feet slipping as he hauled himself up.The moment his fingers hooked over the top of the stall divider, the restroom door behind him exploded open with a deafening crash.Piers, now a zombie, snarled and thrashed below Davy, clawing wildly at his dangling legs with stiffened, blackened fingers.Heart pounding, Davy kicked hard, bracing off the slick divider like a rabbit kicking off a hawk, and hauled himself onto the top edge.From there, he saw the body on the floor outside the stall.Gus lay in a pool of blood, torn apart, his body twitching. The convulsions grew stronger and stronger each time.
In a restroom on Level Five, Ark Three."Gus, we've already cleaned this place a few times today. Why are we back again?" Davy Gilbert asked."You think you get to question orders from upstairs?" Gus Ramsey snapped. "Move it! Screw this up, and we're both done.""Okay."Davy grabbed his toolbox and followed Gus inside.The moment he stepped in, something felt off. There was a faint metallic smell in the air."Gus… Do you smell that?""It's a bathroom. What do you expect it to smell like?" Gus said, turning on the mop sink.Water roared through the pipes, echoing across the tiled room. They split up, each taking a row of stalls.Davy pulled open one door after another, cleaning as he went."Hey, did you hear about what happened up in the base today?" Davy asked."Don't talk about things you're not allowed to talk about. Shut up and work," Gus snapped. Davy rolled his eyes. "Okay."He opened the next stall and froze. His face twisted in disgust.What kind of animals were t
Hayley came out of the trash pit and immediately spotted Nathaniel waiting in the bright, spotless main hall.A group of people surrounded him.They were all low-level supervisors from Level One. Each of them stood there respectfully, speaking to him in careful, flattering tones.Standing among them, Nathaniel looked almost untouchable, like someone far above their world.When he saw Hayley return, he waved the others away."You done with the restroom?""Yeah," Hayley replied. "The bathrooms down here are rough. Let's use the ones on Level Two."Nathaniel paused. "Sure."He led her upstairs to Level Two.Hayley actually wanted to recruit people here as well, but the vibe was different.Life on Level Two was noticeably better. People were cleaner, better fed, and more comfortable.She walked around for a bit but didn't spot anyone worth approaching, so she kept moving upward.Level Three wasn't worth touching, either. People there were already beneficiaries of the system. Th
"You just need to grow your own strength," Hayley said."Got it!"After recruiting her first contacts, Hayley straightened up, clearly satisfied.She glanced at what they were eating, then pulled out wrapped sandwiches, hard-boiled eggs, and cups of instant noodles from her inventory."Don't eat that stuff anymore. Eat this."The boy's eyes lit up again the moment he saw it. So much good food, and all for them!"Do you have anywhere to store supplies?" Hayley asked.Max and Ryan exchanged a look."Security's tight," Ryan said. "Almost nothing can be taken out. We can only stash things at the trash pit."Hayley thought for a moment, then pulled out a large bundle of seasoning packets."Keep these. Use them to bring people over to your side."Before the apocalypse, seasoning packets were junk food trash. After the apocalypse, they were treasure. They were high-fat, high-salt, filling, and energizing.These people had been licking grease off the floor earlier. That alone said







