Chapter 428: Chapter 428: Cold Air 3
The world outside was now enveloped in frigid air, making it impossible to leave. Evelyn Ford planned to build a large, communal sleeping platform inside the cave and move everyone who was hibernating onto it. She had no idea when they would wake up, so her only option was to get them settled for now.
Fortunately, Evelyn Ford had made a habit of stockpiling wood over the past few years. Even while traveling, she would chop down and store any trees she came across.
"Let’s build two large platforms. We don’t need to separate them; we’ll just put the men on the left and the women on the right. We can put the electric blankets away. They use too much electricity, which means burning too much fuel. We can build two heated stone beds underneath the platforms instead. What do you think?"
The generator wasn’t loud, but its hum was still a constant presence. Running it twenty-four hours a day consumed a lot of gasoline, and gasoline was a non-renewable resource. ’We need to conserve it,’ Evelyn Ford thought.
Ronan Kendrick readily agreed. It took them three days to build a simple wooden enclosure. Inside, they constructed two large sleeping platforms with heated stone beds beneath them. Once the clay on the heated beds dried, they could move everyone onto them.
Ronan Kendrick went out to check the conditions every day. The situation was dire. The temperature outside was extremely low, and the rain had long since stopped. There was a wind in the mountains—not strong, but it was so bitingly cold that any exposed skin would quickly crack and start to bleed.
Evelyn Ford made over twenty kerosene lamps and hung one every five meters, making the cave fairly well-lit. She left a small gap at the entrance to allow for air circulation.
The two wolfdogs were let out, and with them for company, she didn’t feel bored.
But a week passed, and the others still showed no signs of waking.
Beside the large sleeping platforms, Ronan Kendrick, feeling idle, built a small wooden cabin about ten square meters in size. It didn’t have deep foundations, so it could be stored in the dimension, ensuring the materials wouldn’t go to waste.
"How many days have we been on this mountain?"
"Eight days."
Evelyn Ford crossed a number off the calendar. "If they still haven’t woken up by the time the sun comes out, what will we do? We can’t take them into the dimension, either."
If they had to leave, she and Ronan Kendrick couldn’t take the others with them.
"If the road down the mountain hasn’t collapsed, we can put them in the vehicles and drive them out. Ugh, I don’t want to think about it. It’s giving me a headache. We’ll figure it out when the time comes."
Ronan Kendrick immediately checked on Evelyn. "Does your head still hurt? Let me take a look."
"It might be an aftereffect. I keep hearing a sound inside my head, like tinnitus."
Evelyn Ford took out a mirror to look at herself. "How about you perform some acupuncture on me?"
Ronan Kendrick had never formally studied acupuncture, but he had read many books and was very familiar with the body’s acupoints.
"Me?" Ronan Kendrick’s brow furrowed. He might be familiar with the body’s acupoints, but he didn’t dare experiment on Evelyn.
"How about I practice on Quincy’s head first?"
Evelyn couldn’t help but burst out laughing at his suggestion.
"Quincy is in a bad enough state as it is. Don’t torment him," Evelyn said, laughing until her sides hurt.
"He’s the one who said he’s tough," Ronan retorted, clearly not having forgotten the remark.
Evelyn chuckled, shaking her head.
"Lie down. I’ll try a couple of needles. Tell me right away if you feel any discomfort."
Evelyn handed him the cloth pouch containing the Silver Needles. "I’m still getting sharp pains on the top of my head, and at the back of my head."
Evelyn lay facedown on a folding cot and took off her hat, giving Ronan clear access to perform the treatment.
An hour later, Evelyn rubbed her head. To her surprise, she felt much better. The sharp pains had eased considerably, and the buzzing in her head was gone.
"Ronan, you should have studied medicine. You’re much more skilled at this than I am."
Ronan smiled and gently pinched Evelyn’s cheek. "Feeling better?"
"Much better."
After their meal, the two of them lay on the folding cots, and Ronan shared some of his thoughts.
He speculated that the cold front had enveloped the entire globe and likely wouldn’t recede for at least a year to eighteen months. Their only choice was to live in the cave for the time being and decide on their next move once the cold spell passed.
"What is going on?" Evelyn sighed. "Are the heavens trying to drive every species to extinction?"
The thought that the land in her dimension had been fallow for far too long snapped Evelyn out of her chaotic thoughts.
"Ronan, our physical bodies can only stay in the dimension for an hour. But what about our consciousness? Once our consciousness goes in, it’s no different from being there physically. It should be able to stay for much longer."
’Even though our bodies can only go in for an hour, it’s enough to evade immediate danger. We won’t have to worry about having no way to escape when a crisis hits.’
"Let’s try it."
Evelyn closed her eyes, trying to enter the dimension with her consciousness. After a pulling sensation, she found herself standing inside it. A moment later, Ronan appeared as well.
"It really did upgrade! Now both our consciousness and our physical bodies can enter. All right, we need to hurry and prepare the fields in the cultivation zone to plant crops. If we let it stay fallow, the black soil might develop some new bugs. I’ve been thinking about it for the past few days. The reason our consciousness was suddenly blocked from the dimension before was probably because too much was happening over the last few months. We were so busy we had no time to farm, so some of its functions must have automatically shut down. In any case, the dimension upgraded and gave us the black soil. It certainly wasn’t so we could plant one harvest and then let the field lie fallow. If we cultivate it diligently, we might unlock the fourth zone soon."
Ronan agreed with her theory. Eager to unlock the fourth zone as quickly as possible, Evelyn immediately went to refuel the rototiller.
While Ronan tilled the fields, Evelyn took a walk around the livestock area. The manure no longer needed to be cleaned, as it had already decomposed into the pasture. The vegetable patch, which had previously been only knee-high, now towered over her.
Mina and Lola were thrilled to see Evelyn, pouncing on her immediately. Evelyn counted the argali sheep and found there were five or six more than before—lambs that must have been born recently.
The argali sheep weren’t actually docile. Not only were they fierce fighters, but they were also omnivores that ate chicks and ducklings in addition to grass. Evelyn had to keep the chickens and ducks separated from them. The water trough was empty, so she quickly fetched a few buckets of water to fill it.
At the sight of water, all the animals gathered around. Evelyn patted the Mammoth’s tusk and stroked the bay horse’s head.
Quincy’s Pallas’s cat was hiding among the Snow Rabbits. It had gotten chubbier, which seemed to confirm how nutritious the pasture in the dimension was. Even the wild pheasants she had brought in earlier had laid several eggs.
After being busy in the dimension for a few hours, the two of them left. Evelyn first checked on everyone’s condition, then added more firewood to the heated stone beds.
Seeing that their breathing, complexions, and lip color all seemed relatively normal, Evelyn felt much more at ease.
The two wolfdogs were in charge of guarding the cave. The first thing Ronan did after they returned was give them some extra food.
"You’ll get chicken legs tonight."
The wolfdogs understood, and they leaped and bounded around Ronan excitedly.
"Ronan, come here! Quick!"
Hearing Evelyn’s urgent tone, Ronan hurried into the shelter. "What’s wrong?"
"Wendy’s temperature suddenly shot up to 102.9 degrees! How could this have happened?"
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