Apocalypse Escape: Day One of Survival

September 16th. The indoor thermometer showed the temperature was over thirty degrees Celsius.

Xie Ning poured two glasses of warm water in the villa’s living room. The mother and daughter GULPED down a large glass each.

Afterward, Ningning’s mother looked at the cup in her hand with a puzzled expression. ”Isn’t this... isn’t this the cup I always use at home? When did you go back?”

Xie Ning took the cup back with a deadpan expression, selectively ignoring her mother’s question.

”The weather is starting to get strange,” Xie Ning said, taking a deep breath.

The experience from her past life was completely useless now.

In her previous life, from the start of the apocalypse to the fourth year, the entire world had been in an extremely damp and cold environment.

That was why she had everyone gather as many down jackets and vests as possible from the men’s clothing market in Su City.

But now, on the ninth day of the apocalypse, the power, internet, and water were still out, and the temperature had suddenly soared—a complete reversal of her past life.

”Mom, let’s wash out two clean buckets and make some mung bean soup and lemon honey water.”

Song You’ai sensed the gravity in her daughter’s expression and nodded repeatedly. ”Last time at the pharmacy, we collected a lot of cooling agents, right?”

”Yeah,” Xie Ning nodded. ”Don’t worry, we’re just taking precautions.”

The mother and daughter sprang into action.

Song You’ai continuously generated water to wash the two buckets inside and out. Then they divided the labor: one cut lemons to make honey water while the other used a portable cassette stove to cook mung bean soup, both sweating profusely from the work.

After finishing, Xie Ning moved the honey water and mung bean soup back into the crammed villa dining room.

After generating another half-bucket of water, Song You’ai collapsed onto the sofa, exhausted.

”Sigh, I’m really getting old and useless. I can’t even handle generating this little bit of water.”

Xie Ning smiled and squeezed in beside her mother. ”Mom, you’re incredibly capable! Just think, with your Water Ability, how much water we’ll be able to save from now on. You’re practically our team’s lucky star~”

Cajoled by her precious daughter, Song You’ai couldn’t stop smiling.

”Mom, is this half-bucket of water enough for you to take a bath?”

”It should be enough. If not, I’ll just give myself a sponge bath...” Song You’ai glanced at her daughter. ”Aren’t you going to wash up?”

”I washed up the day before yesterday. You go ahead.”

”No wonder.” Ningning’s mother shot her daughter a look.

”Then I won’t stand on ceremony! I haven’t bathed in nine days. Lying in bed these past two days, I feel like even the sheets are starting to smell sour!”

’So that’s why my daughter looked a bit fairer that day. Turns out she secretly took a bath,’ Song You’ai thought, not knowing whether to laugh or cry as she carried the bucket upstairs.

After lunch, her mother diligently continued to practice her Water Ability until she was exhausted and went upstairs to rest.

Xie Ning tasted the water produced by the Water Ability. It was sweet and cool, like a mountain spring. Her eyes couldn’t help but light up.

’Mom’s amazing.’

That night, the indoor temperature rose to thirty-two degrees.

Even the usually oblivious Song You’ai felt that something was very wrong.

Neither of them had much of an appetite. They just ate two small biscuits with their mung bean soup and went upstairs to sleep.

Unexpectedly, they were jolted awake in the middle of the night by a world-shaking noise.

Xie Ning scrambled out of bed and opened the door to see her mother standing at the top of the stairs in an off-white T-shirt, holding a Metal Knife with a very grim expression.

Two dead rats lay at the top of the stairs, and large beads of sweat dotted Comrade Song You’ai’s forehead.

”They seem to have come in from the stairwell,” Song You’ai said, stepping over the rat corpses and heading downstairs.

She hadn’t slept well all night. She was naturally sensitive to heat; normally, when the temperature hit thirty degrees, she would have turned on the air conditioning in her room.

They didn’t have that luxury now. Plus, she was a little worried about her parents, so she’d been tossing and turning, barely sleeping.

When the huge tremor came from outside, Song You’ai had just gotten up to generate some water to drink, so she immediately heard the SQUEAKING of rats.

The mother and daughter checked the stairwell.

It had long been cleared out, and all the useful tools had been thrown into Xie Ning’s villa living room.

”Why is there a pipe here?”

”Oh,” Song You’ai realized. ”There used to be a faucet connected here, but it wasn’t used much, so it was abandoned.”

Xie Ning used a metal plate to block the chewed-through pipe.

Still worried, the two of them circled the house a couple more times. Finding no other problems, they ran to the balcony to look outside.

”The sound seemed to come from Number 86.” Song You’ai tilted her chin to the left. ”Look, it’s pitch-black over there. Is there something wrong with that house?”

”It collapsed.” Xie Ning’s eyesight was a bit better than her mother’s. She could see at a glance that half of the building at Number 86 had collapsed.

The entire right half had crumbled to the ground, revealing the tattered interior decorations and layers of earth.

”No way,” Song You’ai said, her face paling in shock. ”Should we go down and check?”

Xie Ning shook her head. ”It’s too late now, and it’s not safe to go down in the pitch-dark. We’ll go check tomorrow morning.”

It wasn’t that she was cold, but that one should only take on tasks within their capabilities.

”I suspect that first group of rats was just a scouting party. They might send their main force over in the next couple of days.”

Song You’ai was startled. ”So what do we do now? Go back to sleep?”

”Yeah.” Xie Ning nodded and glanced at her mother. ”Mom, a Superpower User’s overall physical condition will be better than an ordinary person’s, but you still need to train regularly. If you don’t sleep well, how are you going to practice your Water Ability tomorrow? So no matter the circumstances, when it’s time to sleep, you sleep. You have to force yourself if you must.”

”Alright!” Song You’ai nodded emphatically. ”Let’s sleep. I’ll get back to making water tomorrow.”

Just before six on the morning of September 17th, the sound of wailing and howling from outside woke Xie Ning up.

She got out of bed, pulled back a corner of the curtain, and stared coldly out the window.

A crowd had gathered at their iron gate, with more people rushing over from all directions.

Li Dawei and Li Xiang were at it again, hacking at the sharp spikes on their family’s iron gate, the blows ringing out with a CLANG CLANG.

Xie Ning opened her bedroom door and was hit by a rolling wave of heat.

The indoor temperature in the downstairs hall had risen to thirty-three degrees.

Her mother, drenched in sweat, walked over. ”Wash your face, brush your teeth, and have some porridge before you go out.”

The porridge wasn’t too hot. It seemed her mom had gotten up around four or five.

”It’s too hot.” Comrade Song You’ai fanned herself vigorously with a cattail fan used for stoking fires, making a WHAP WHAP sound.

”Under the big sun outside, the temperature is definitely higher than thirty-three degrees.”

Xie Ning finished half a bowl of porridge, drank half a glass of light saltwater, and said, ”I’m going to go see.”

Song You’ai grabbed the Metal Knife and followed her daughter out.

The mother and daughter locked the villa door, reached the main gate, and yanked the large iron gate open menacingly.

Li Dawei and his sister were in the middle of hacking at the gate with a kitchen knife—CLANG, CLANG. They swung again just as the gate was pulled open, causing their blow to miss and sending them stumbling forward.

Xie Ning lashed out with a flying kick, sending Li Dawei tumbling to the ground. He landed on his butt right next to a dead rat.

”AHH!” Li Dawei leaped up in shock, his gloved hands frantically brushing off his pants.

Song You’ai was shocked. She hadn’t expected to see the ground in front of their gate littered with so many rat corpses.

”Xie Ning, why are you bullying my brother?” Li Xiang shrieked. ”The building at Number 86 collapsed yesterday, did you know?”

”The village chief is here.”