Jyera World Apocalypse

Lucien's communication with his friends went well, and so far, they spoke every day… This was because those sheltered at home hadn't yet felt the worst of the apocalypse…

And so Lucien continued his normal routine for the next two weeks. Although he was still worried about his mother in the capital, he was too far away and still too weak to reach her…

His routine consisted of taking his feline friend hunting every day, caring for his father, and making his own meals… Something new to young Lucien. But he was getting better at it every day, thanks to the help of his mother's many recipe books and the system that helped her calculate cooking times perfectly…

During those two weeks, all the survivors in the building were also doing well, and Lucien continued to create many items using the Creation skill and now had several bombs in his inventory, as well as many useful and peculiar appliances.

At that moment, Lucien was cutting meat into cubes in an attempt to make a stew. He was using a white knife made of bone, which was extremely sharp. It had a red crystal on the tip of the handle that maintained its durability and constant sharpness. As soon as he finished cutting, he grabbed a pot and went to fill it with water from the sink, but realized that the building's water supply had finally run out.

Since the lack of water wasn't a problem for him, he took some from his supply. Not long after, the pot had already boiled with the help of his new oven, which was somewhat unusual and rustic, with its burners formed of level 1 crystals and black bones. He finished the entire stew in less than 40 minutes. And while he let the finished stew cool a bit, he went to take a shower, still using water from his pool.

While outside, he took out a pair of binoculars and looked at a house far away... Unlike William and Nina, with whom he spoke daily, Laura didn't have a radio, and it was difficult to hear from her. Therefore, Lucien looked in that direction every day, hoping to hear from her. But as always, he saw nothing but the same rooftops...

Shivering from the cold wind, which worsened each day as night fell, Lucien went inside to eat his hot stew in the comfort of his apartment.

***

Far from Lucien's apartment, around 4 p.m., in the event room on the ground floor of the building, chaos began as a group of survivors gathered...

Among them were the six new residents of the building, Ms. Silvia, the building manager, who was now missing one hand and had pale, anemic skin, and six other survivors, all male...

Despite the Building Manager and the Doorman officially being the survivors' leaders in this situation. The man who had called this meeting was the same man who had visited Lucien's door two weeks earlier. Not only had he taken the stage, but beside him were six men who lived in the building. There were also the other five people who had taken shelter in the building with him that same day.

"Well, I'm sorry to call you here in a hurry, but about three days ago, many of us went without food, and now, early this evening, the building's drinking water finally ran out... I think most of you already know what that means, right?"

"How did it run out so quickly? Is it possible someone stored water in the apartments?" asked one of the residents.

"I don't doubt it; most people are only thinking about themselves..."

One of the women looked at Ms. Silvia and said:

"I'm sure some people even used the water to shower, that's the only explanation for thousands of liters of water in the reservoir running out like this..."

"Keep calm, we weren't sure if the reservoir was that full when it all started," said one resident, trying to ease his neighbor's pressure.

Afterward, many others complained and nodded their opinions, and some even pointed out that they had been without food for over three days...

The building administrator and the doorman remained silent. Both were still well fed thanks to Lucien giving them some supplies every week. And they knew that at this meeting, everyone was already on the side of this new leader, and there was nothing the two of them could say about it that would change their minds or the support he had...

Vargas, as the new self-proclaimed leader was called, took advantage of the silence that followed and continued his speech, offering his ideas on how to resolve the current situation.

"Well, without water and food, we won't last long. Besides, it's getting colder every day, and we're not even in winter yet. So we have three problems that need solving: water, food, and heating... Does anyone have any suggestions on how to help us with any of these problems?"

Some people chatted among themselves, but no one offered their opinion... Vargas smiled and continued his speech.

"We have a total of six luxury buildings on this one street... There must be more water or food in one of the remaining five, right? And they're not that far away."

"Are you telling us to go there and ask for food and water?" asked Ms. Silvia.

I don't think anyone will give us water or food in this situation... I plan to lure the zombies from the streets in a certain direction so that at least five people from our building can leave and go to the other buildings. Once there, your mission is to check if they still have a good supply of food and water. After that, light some kind of torch or candle at night in any window of the building, and we'll see which of them still has resources…

"What if there's nothing but dead people there? We acted quickly here and prevented the residents from being bitten… I don't want to end up entering a building full of monsters…"

"I'm not going to force anyone to do this task, but remember that many of us have families, and we need to take responsibility if we want to protect them… I'll do the even harder job myself, which is luring the monsters from the streets. The rest is up to you…"

After that, the group of volunteer scouts soon consisted of three male residents and two male refugees.

"Wait, what do we do if they have the supplies we need but won't give them to us?" asked one of the residents who was part of the scout group.

"Just confirm the supplies are available, we'll leave the details for later..."

The building administrator observed the situation, realizing how manipulative Vargas was... He used the residents' families as an incentive to force them into a dangerous situation voluntarily, while taking on a task that appeared to be the most dangerous, but wasn't. But since he and the doorman weren't planning on participating in anything, they remained silent...

That same afternoon, the scouts began their mission, and although their plan nearly failed due to an unexpected danger, two of them arrived at two different buildings, and a light was signaled during the night. The next morning, their plan began...

And when Lucien realized what had happened the next morning, due to the numerous system alerts... There were only two survivors left in the building besides him and his father...