After I Fully Prepared for the Apocalypse, the Ungrateful Cried with Regret

The relocation of Lornwood Base would still take several days.

Nina Jacobs didn’t stay behind, instead returning to Tomorrow Base with the group that was relocating that day.

The number of zombies on the road had clearly increased.

”It seems all the commotion over the past few days has attracted a lot of zombies.”

Silas Crowley remarked after getting out of the vehicle with Nina Jacobs to clear a few waves of them.

”That’s to be expected. The zombies in Keldorn have never been culled, so they’ll probably be a problem in the future.”

Nina Jacobs sighed.

Keldorn was vast, and the base had been established in a sparsely populated area even before the apocalypse. That was the only reason it seemed like there were few zombies.

But based on Keldorn’s pre-apocalypse population, most of the zombies were still concentrated in its more developed cities.

Furthermore, while Anselm Hughes was in charge of Lornwood Base, he never systematically dealt with the zombie problem.

The zombies in those cities and the zombified animals in the surrounding areas would likely start appearing one after another.

Not to mention there was still the ”ticking time bomb”—Crestfall.

After returning to the base, Nina Jacobs brought this up with Felix Finch.

”I’m planning to go check out the area around Crestfall tomorrow,” Nina Jacobs said.

She wanted to find out just how many zombies were inside.

”I’ll go with you.

As for Lornwood Base, Valerius Lucas, Hartley, Reinhard Caldwell, and Grim can be in charge of the relocation tomorrow.”

Felix Finch was a Spiritual Element Superpower User. With him along, they might be able to get a more accurate read on the situation inside.

Besides, Felix Finch had escaped from Crestfall before.

Nina Jacobs immediately agreed.

”By the way, Freya is school-aged now. I know a teacher, and if you think she’s a good fit, you could have her teach Freya a few things.”

Nina Jacobs hadn’t forgotten about Chrysanthe Abbott.

She remembered seeing Chrysanthe Abbott’s work ID at Jared Crawford’s home. She seemed to be an elementary school teacher, a fact that was confirmed when the two of them chatted on the way back.

Felix Finch’s eyes lit up.

He had just been planning to find someone to look after his daughter, Freya Finch, and teach her once things settled down.

He hadn’t expected Nina Jacobs to be so thoughtful.

”I’ll thank you on Freya’s behalf.”

Felix Finch was at a loss for words.

Nina Jacobs had saved his and his daughter’s lives and given him his current life.

”Don’t be in such a hurry to thank me. I just want to make sure my base leader has enough energy to do his job properly,” Nina Jacobs said, half-joking.

And after meeting Chrysanthe Abbott in person, Felix Finch was even more pleased.

”I... I can still teach?”

Chrysanthe Abbott asked, her voice trembling with excitement.

She never imagined Nina Jacobs would find her the very job she had loved most before the apocalypse.

”Yes. Right now, there are two students.”

Nina Jacobs said, pointing to Zoraida and Freya Finch, who were sitting up perfectly straight.

If there were other children of the same age in the future, she believed Chrysanthe Abbott could teach them as well.

”Hello, Ms. Abbott.”

Freya Finch and Zoraida shouted in unison.

Chrysanthe Abbott’s eyes instantly turned red.

She remembered what her late husband, Jared Crawford, had said:

’How could a person’s life be meaningless?’

’Even in death, as long as you’ve done something meaningful, your life wasn’t lived in vain.’

”Thank you, Nina Jacobs.”

Chrysanthe Abbott said, grabbing Nina Jacobs’s hands.

It was Nina Jacobs who had given meaning to what Jared Crawford had done, and who had also given her a reason to keep on living.

Nina Jacobs shook her head.

’Actually, I’m the one who should be thanking her,’ she thought. ’But the reasons are complicated and hard to explain.’

After she returned to her quarters, the four water storage barrels in her room were completely full.

Nina Jacobs put them away in her storage space as usual, then replaced them with four empty barrels.

”Meow.”

Lexy meowed at Nina Jacobs a few times, as if protesting something.

”Sorry for locking you up all day. I’ll take you out tomorrow.”

Nina Jacobs took out some cat food and a can of wet food.

Meanwhile, Wayne Warner continued to ”research” his Thunder Element Superpower, and the unpredictable flashes of light soon had Lexy pouncing and nipping at them excitedly.

The sight of the man and the cat made Nina Jacobs laugh.

However, she didn’t forget to reply to Vera Coleman’s message.

Vera Coleman had written about her two younger twin sisters and some news from City D Base.

This included the good news that the Healer, Paisley Paige, and the Speed Element user, Holden Shaw, had both successfully advanced to become Intermediate Superpower Users.

Vera also mentioned Liam Grant. A commander from Headquarters had been parachuted into City D Base and seemed to place great importance on Liam. The two had even become as close as brothers.

’A commander from Headquarters?’

Nina Jacobs had no memory of this from her past life.

She asked Vera Coleman to keep an eye on things for her. She was waiting for Liam Grant to lead her to what she wanted to know.

’In my past life, Liam Grant had no connection to the Drakonian Command Headquarters. Or was there something I didn’t know?’

Seeing her daughter’s usual reply, Vera Coleman finally felt at ease.

Ever since her daughter, Nina Jacobs, had left the base, she had used the communicator to message her every day, and Nina, of course, replied every day as well.

Reading her daughter’s reply, ”I should be back within a month,” Vera Coleman couldn’t help her eyes from turning red.

After all, everyone had really missed Nina Jacobs these past few months.

This was especially true for the members of ”Stella.” It was as if they were all pushing themselves to their limits to improve their Superpowers, just waiting for Nina Jacobs to return.

「Early Morning」

Under the glaring sun, every brick and stone across the lands of Keldorn had been baked until it was scorching hot.

The original highway lay twisted across the cracked earth like a giant python that had shed its sun-scorched skin.

An armored RV was driving across the land.

Reginald Sutton hadn’t driven a long-distance route in ages. The air conditioning inside the vehicle was blasting, and the long-lost, familiar feeling made the corners of his mouth curl up into a smile.

”I can’t imagine this kind of heat... if we still didn’t have water to drink like before, I wonder how many more people would have died.”

Cordelia touched the car window; the glass was already hot enough to burn.

”Indeed. I heard you also brought back a lot of winter clothes and quilts yesterday? You think we’ll even need that kind of stuff anymore?” Silas Crowley asked.

”Oh, that...”

Cordelia glanced at Nina Jacobs and said, ”Nina told me to pack them. It was all free, so why not take it?”

Yesterday, they had found a large number of quilts and down jackets in one of Lornwood Base’s regular warehouses. When Nina Jacobs heard about it, she had Cordelia bring it all back with her.

”The base needs to stock up on all sorts of supplies. You never know when they might be useful,” Felix Finch said after hearing this.

In fact, when he had previously led people out on supply runs, he had also found a lot of warm clothing and winter supplies. Because they were considered useless, no one at Lornwood Base bothered to collect them.

But he had his people collect it all anyway.

It was part of his routine mindset—better to be safe than sorry.

It was precisely because of this habit that he had escaped the initial disaster.

Nina Jacobs nodded. ”Anything can happen in the apocalypse. First, it was acid rain, then extreme heat. No one can predict what will come next. I did hear some rumors back in City D, so we definitely need to stockpile winter supplies.”

”Rumors? Are they credible?”

As the person in charge of the base, Felix Finch was more sensitive to such things than the average person.

”Yes, there are,” Nina Jacobs said.

Fortunately, the number of survivors in Tomorrow Base wasn’t very large at the moment, but they still didn’t have enough winter clothing.

They also needed to gather more coal and heating equipment.

Felix Finch listened and made a mental note of each item.