18 Floors Above the Apocalypse novel Chapter 602

Stella was busy inside the tent, while Cole and the others couldn’t really help much. Noticing the curiosity of the camp's residents, Cole started sharing their story. “We’re from the Griffith base, and there’s another national base called Willowbrook, both set up by the military. If you’re interested, you can choose to go there.”

Compared to here, both bases are pretty decent. At least you don’t have to wander around homeless, and there’s some guarantee of food and safety.”

“A home? They still had a place to call home?” Tears welled up in many eyes, as if awakening from a profound dream.

Survival, struggle, the critical nature of love – it had all drained Angela completely.

She sat, numb, watching over Lukas, too exhausted to ask about Stella's past, “Stella, thank you.”

Stella tried to comfort her, “Don’t worry too much, Lukas will be fine.”

But Angela couldn’t help worrying. Death had knocked on their door countless times, and not every escape was a stroke of luck.

She held Lukas’s hand and whispered, “Lukas, please wake up, don’t sleep anymore. Stella’s here.”

He would often mutter, wondering where Stella was and if she was doing alright. Then he would answer himself, considering how tough she and Jasper were, how could they not be okay?

In the face of the apocalypse, perhaps emotions were indeed the straw that survivors clung to in order to keep fighting.

Looking at Lukas and Cody, both unconscious, Stella’s emotions were a tangled mess, the words she wanted to say just wouldn’t come out.

While she kept vigil inside the tent, Cole and the others weren’t idle outside. They chatted with the camp’s inhabitants and quickly gathered the information they sought.

Unexpectedly, the camp’s grudge with China had something to do with the Kindle Chest.

The Kindle Chest was over a hundred kilometers away from the camp and was one of their first discoveries.

It was the culmination of Australia’s efforts to preserve their legacy, and Angela and her group were part of the Seed Project, tasked with protecting this lost treasure.

But secrets are hard to keep, and China soon found out.

Unable to move it, they attempted to force it open. The camp resisted, leading to conflict after unsuccessful negotiations.

The more the camp valued the Kindle Chest, the more China suspected it held valuable contents. After their attempts to pry it open failed, they requested advanced equipment from their base to force it open.

During the chaos, that’s when Cody and Lukas got injured.

If China succeeded in breaking in, the contents would be taken.

Additionally, the camp had over a hundred people captured by China, forced to toil in the open-air oil fields, enduring both mental and physical torture.

The special ops team were all soldiers, with a strong sense of duty.

Learning about the inhumane treatment of their compatriots, a fire of indignation ignited within them.

Angry as they were, they remained rational.

Jasper assessed calmly, “Why don’t you leave?”

“Leave?” The camp’s group leader gave a wry smile, “And go where?”

Beyond the endless ocean was a wasteland. Encountering other survivors meant either hunting or becoming the hunted.

They had oil fields and the Kindle Chest here, at least there was a glimmer of hope.

Initially, they had attempted agriculture.

But the submarine’s seeds were scarce and had low germination rates due to long storage periods, plus with China’s dominance, they were forced to resort to guerilla tactics, abandoning their crops.

They couldn’t keep going like this.

But to watch helplessly as the Kindle Chest was forced open and the oil fields dominated was too much to swallow.

They were waiting for an opportunity, for China to succeed in opening the chest, so they could seize the chance to recover the contents, rescue their enslaved brethren from the oil fields, and then plan their escape.

But fate had other plans. Of the four leaders of the camp, two were injured and in a coma, another was undercover in the oil field camp, waiting and seeking a chance to counterattack.

Only Angela remained, without weapons or food, struggling to keep everything together.

Jasper frowned slightly, the undercover in the oil fields was Kitty.

That fit the character of the four.

The team members dropped the subject, instead focusing on how to retrieve the Kindle Chest.

The Kindle Chest was already under China’s control, and they had brought in special equipment to force it open.

Time was running out.

Now, the situation was like a house of cards—one wrong move could bring it all tumbling down. If they stormed in to seize the Kindle Chest, they could wipe out the enemy on the scene, but back at the camp, with over a thousand souls, Stella’s secret would undoubtedly be exposed.

They could run, but what about the people at the camp?

Would the enemy, in their fury, retaliate even more savagely, perhaps slaughtering the prisoners of the internment camp to vent their rage?

A misstep could trigger a domino effect; they needed to think this through carefully.

Cole suggested, “How about I take a few folks to scout the terrain, get a lay of the land, and then we regroup to strategize?”

It wasn’t just about scoping out the Kindle Chest; the oil fields required the same caution.

Jasper nodded in agreement, “You take a team to track down the Kindle Chest, and I’ll head to the oil fields.”

They divided the tasks, with Stella staying behind to care for the sick at the camp.

In the dead of night, Cody groggily opened his eyes, barely making out a silhouette sitting beside him.

He thought it might be Kitty, but something felt off.

His head spun, and as his vision sharpened, the figure became clearer.

Stella? Was he dreaming, or had he arrived at the gates of the afterlife?

“Ning?” he croaked.

Stella, who had been dozing, woke up to the raspy voice.

Looking at the person before her, so haggard and frail, she offered a reassuring smile, “Chase.”