Apocalypse: After Being Reborn, I Stocked Up on All Supplies

Chapter 102: Chapter 102 The Desperation of a Man

The nearest to building A was a red rubber dinghy filled with a pile of supplies.

A middle-aged couple and a little girl about six or seven years old sat on it.

The trio seemed well-equipped, all wearing raincoats, with the dinghy’s supplies covered in plastic tarp.

The hailstones ranged in size from as large as fists to as small as grains of rice, pelting down fiercely and relentlessly.

Just as they were nearing their own residential building, the man naturally didn’t think to take cover first, but instead instinctively paddled quickly toward the window of building B’s corridor.

The woman’s swift actions put the paddle aside, rapidly pulling her daughter to guard her tightly under her body, and then lifting the plastic cover to grab two unidentifiable objects to shield their own and her husband’s heads.

“Bang!”

“Bang!”

“Bang!”

Just two seconds after paddling out, the rubber dinghy was already shrouded in a blinding white mess.

The dinghy had been punctured in several places, and icy cold water began to “gush gush gush” into it.

“Smack!”

“Smack!”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated on ƝονǤօ.ƈօ

“Ow!”

“Hiss!”

The woman’s two arms suspended in mid-air were struck and, in pain, suddenly relaxed, dropping the protective items, as various sizes of hailstones rained heavily down on the couple’s heads.

To stop was to die, to keep paddling might offer a slim chance of survival.

The man, with blood streaming down his forehead, could only grit his teeth and continue paddling through the pain.

“Zhang Qi, Liu Fenglei, help us!” The man’s earlier composure was gone, he cried out in panic toward the 16th-floor corridor window.

Within a few seconds, the woman already laid limp atop her daughter, bloodied and motionless.

“Drip, drip.”

“Drip, drip.”

Blood-red liquid slid from her forehead to her neck and then along the edge of the raincoat, dripping drop by drop into the cabin.

She must have used her body to protect her daughter with all her might in the last moment of her life.

“Mom!”

The daughter saw the splashes of crimson blossoms in the cabin and cried out in heart-wrenching sobs.

The man too realized something was awry, and in a moment of total panic, he pleaded, “Zhang Qi, Liu Fenglei, I beg you, help us!!”

The expressions of the people at the corridor mouth were strained.

Some looked on in silence, others with expressions of regret.

With such large hailstones, whoever ventured out would be pelted; no one dared to go.

They were all people who had fished in the water before, taking refuge in the corridor to light a fire for warmth after the downpour.

Thinking to wait for the rain to lessen and continue fishing when fewer people were around, they didn’t go back upstairs.

The man, drawing his last breath, paddled the about-to-sink rubber dinghy to the window.

There were some shelters here, and the density of hail was somewhat less.

He lifted his wife’s body, about to pass the daughter up through the window.

But his injuries were severe, and his hands could not muster any strength.

The man tried to reach for the window ledge but was always just a bit short, “Xiao Yu, hurry, get up first!”

“No, I want Mommy! I won’t go anywhere!! I want Mommy!! Wahhhhh!” His daughter clung desperately to the still-warm body of her mother, completely ignoring her father’s words.

“Please, we’re all neighbors, help me. I’ll share half my supplies with you!” the man pleaded desperately.

No one responded.

“All my supplies are yours! I beg you, just save my daughter!” The man’s pleas grew more frantic and despairing, his head bleeding profusely.

If not for the need to protect his daughter’s head, he would have knelt down before the crowd.

Finally, a man with a triangle-shaped face, shivering from the cold, came out wrapped in a soggy garment over his head.

The man on the dinghy saw him as a savior, “Liu Fenglei, I will reward you handsomely!”

The triangle-faced man pulled a wry smile, “To save you, sure, but you must turn over the keys to your apartment.”

They had all moved from the lower floors to sleep in the corridor of the 23rd floor, and the man with the dinghy happened to live in 2301 of building B.

“Can we not give them… but I promise, you can move right into our home, and we will take care of food and drinks from now on,” the man suggested in a negotiating tone.

The triangle-faced man irritably replied, “Are you giving them or not?!”

“I—”

The man choked for a second, his peripheral vision caught the sight of the quickly sinking dinghy, and after a deep breath, he tremblingly reached into his pocket and fished out his apartment keys.

The triangle-faced man strode quickly to the window and snatched them away.

Seeing the malicious look in his eyes, the man’s pupils constricted, an ominous premonition flashing through his mind, but he still clung to his last shred of hope:

“Liu Fenglei, I beg you, help me.”

As he spoke, he dragged his daughter up with all his might:

His words of gratitude were cut off midway as he saw the other man draw a gleaming fruit knife, a cruel smirk spreading across his lips, speaking savagely:

“Now you know how to beg for help? Where were you when a dozen of us were kneeling before you, begging for shelter? Huh?!”

“Splurch!”

As Liu Fenglei spoke, the blade already pierced Xiao Yu’s heart, but he quickly withdrew it and stabbed toward the husband behind her.

“That’s right!” the others in the corridor echoed in unanimity.

“You—”

Before the man on the dinghy could finish speaking, he felt an icy, piercing pain in his neck.

His hands loosened, and his daughter’s body “plopped” into the water.

Then, he too slanted and fell in.

The water’s surface rapidly turned red.

“Hey, Liu Fenglei, why did you even kill Xiao Yu!” A man stepped forward fearfully, poking his head out of the window, and spoke with regret.

That little girl, before the apocalypse, had been classmates with his son.

During the mask era, she and his son had attended online classes together and shared several lunches at his home.

But to no avail, when they went to knock on door 2301, like always, no one answered.

Liu Fenglei glared at him fiercely, “Without parents, do you think a girl like that could survive in our current world? Besides, if you don’t cut the weeds, they’ll grow back in the spring!”

After he spoke, he turned around, a threatening look on his face to the crowd:

“The official boat is coming tomorrow, no one of you dare leak a word about today’s events!”

Having threatened everyone, he pocketed the fruit knife, leaped out the window, and tossed the woman’s body into the water as well.

Three new cadavers floated on the water outside the window of the 16th-floor corridor of building B in an instant.

Now, the hail outside had decreased considerably, only the size of peas.

Some of the supplies on the dinghy had slipped into the water, but some, secured in woven bags tied to the dinghy, dangled precariously.

“What are you morons standing around for? Come help me quick!”

The others who had been hiding in the corridor quickly got up, grabbed their fishing tools, and helped him salvage the about-to-sink rubber dinghy.

Liu Fenglei glanced at the floating corpse of the man, swam over, removed the golden watch from his wrist, and then, with purple lips, climbed back through the window.