Chapter 458: Chapter 458: Viral Fever
Maisie Lynch shook her head and said a bit sheepishly, "Don’t say that. You saved my life. I wouldn’t even have the chance to be standing here if it weren’t for you... Besides, Miss Summers is a genuinely good person. I was just speaking the truth."
Maisie Lynch had always felt guilty toward Melody Summers. She had helped Joanne White lead the charge in cyberbullying Melody, so standing up for Melody’s mother today felt like a small act of atonement.
Thinking about what had happened on the 15th floor, Melody Summers said worriedly, "That couple is a real piece of work. They’re incredibly malicious... I’m afraid they’ll give you trouble later on. How about I find a way to get you into a different room?"
’Besides, someone died in the spare bedroom of 2305. It must be unsettling to live there.’
May Sherman, who was playing with the dog nearby, overheard their conversation. She looked at Maisie Lynch and offered, "You could move into the spare bedroom in 2304 with us. We have just enough room for one more person."
Maisie Lynch shook her head and replied, "No, thank you. If I moved out, wouldn’t I be letting them off easy?"
"I didn’t do anything wrong, so I’m not the one who should have to move. If they dare to start something, I’ll beat them up! There’s no way they could win against me!"
Watching Maisie Lynch playfully wave her fists, Melody Summers couldn’t help but let out a soft laugh. She felt as if she was seeing the Maisie from freshman year again, the one who had been as full of life as a thriving stalk of wheat.
’It seems like ever since Evan Lawson died, Maisie’s mental state has been getting more and more stable... She’s no longer that resentful person who would ask me if she was like a clinging vine.’
Melody Summers thought for a moment, then pulled a small box of frostbite ointment from her pocket. She handed it to Maisie Lynch, saying, "This is for frostbite. I’ve used it before, and it works quite well. Use it on your face; it will help the wounds heal."
Maisie Lynch’s face had been badly frostbitten, and it had cracked open in many places. Now, the scabs were still weeping blood. It must have been itchy, because she had scratched at the edges of the scabs, leaving numerous marks from which a clear fluid oozed. It looked terrifying.
’Melody remembered that Maisie had always taken pride in her looks. She must be miserable now that her face is like this.’
Frostbite ointment was worth its weight in Gold these days. Maisie Lynch froze for a second, then carefully accepted the ointment. Her eyes glistened with tears as she whispered to Melody Summers, "Thank you..."
None of them in the living room knew that at this very moment, in a corner of the spare bedroom, Frank York was holding a camera, putting on an aggrieved expression for the lens.
He pitched his voice higher, speaking in a choked-up tone. "Hey everyone, it’s Finn and Bonbon here... Today, we experienced an inconceivable act of bullying and witnessed shocking proof of a heinous crime committed by someone from the Emergency Response Office..."
"There’s a worker at our residential complex’s Emergency Response Office who has absolutely no regard for human life. Taking advantage of the fact that the police can’t make house calls, she acts with total impunity, slaughtering innocent boys and elderly men..."
"As righteous citizen journalists, Finn and Bonbon will expose this, even if it means risking our lives! It has come to this; there’s no turning back for us now. The victims were completely innocent, and the murderer must be brought to justice!"
"Our only hope now is that we can survive until the internet and power are restored. We have to release this damning evidence to the world, see the killer stand trial, and let the victims’ spirits finally rest in peace..."
...
******
The days passed one by one. After New Year’s Day came the Lunar New Year. During that time, while occasional friction arose among the residents at the temporary shelter, these issues were always resolved quickly.
Two months passed uneventfully, and in the blink of an eye, it was March.
Melody Summers woke up feeling stiflingly hot. She realized she had once again kicked off her blanket in her sleep. The heating in the room was on full blast, and fine beads of sweat dotted her forehead.
The temperature had been gradually rising since New Year’s Day. By early February, the outdoor temperature had climbed back to around negative thirty degrees Celsius.
Now in March, the temperature continued its steady climb. Today, it was about negative five degrees Celsius outside. While still cold, it was a significant improvement over the previous bone-chilling temperatures that felt like they could freeze you to death.
At this rate, it wouldn’t be long before Anworth welcomed the warmth of spring, the blooming of flowers, and the reawakening of nature.
Recently, the government had begun organizing a joint effort between departments to clear the accumulated snow. Snowplows worked day and night, and traffic on many of the main roads was slowly being restored.
Although the power grid had yet to be fully restored, rumor had it that the government was going all out to mobilize various energy resources. Furthermore, the melted snow was effectively replenishing groundwater and surface water supplies. People believed it wouldn’t be long before water, power, and the internet were completely back to normal.
The Metropolis Residences had also begun organizing snow removal over the past two days, with many residents volunteering to help.
After breakfast, Winnie Summers made a point of telling Melody Summers, "Don’t go out unless you absolutely have to for a while. Just be a good girl and stay home."
Melody Summers was puzzled. "What’s wrong?" she asked, confused.
’Why doesn’t she want me to go out? Did something happen?’
A worried look crossed Winnie Summers’s face. "It might be because of the recent temperature swings," she answered. "A lot of the residents at the temporary shelter have come down with fevers... So you shouldn’t be running all over the place!"
As soon as she heard Winnie Summers’s words, Melody Summers understood. In her past life, a massive fever outbreak had also occurred right as the extreme cold ended and the weather began to warm up.
At first, everyone had assumed it was just a common cold and fever brought on by the drastic temperature changes. It was only after research by doctors and experts that they discovered this flu was viral.
The virus seemed to be linked to the black snow, laced with volcanic ash, that had fallen a few months prior. The temperature had been too low for the virus to spread before, but now that the weather was warming up, influenza was beginning to break out on a massive scale.
Winnie Summers sighed, her face etched with worry. "There are no fever reducers left, and no one can get to a hospital," she said, her voice heavy. "The residents who are sick can only try to tough it out..."
The price of fever reducers had skyrocketed last year, and now they were impossible to find at any price. So, the sick residents could only rely on their own immune systems to fight off the illness, with no guarantee that they would pull through.
After Winnie Summers left, Melody Summers immediately returned to the Arcadian Space.
Having been reborn, she naturally remembered this massive flu outbreak, so she had already planted a large number of medicinal herbs some time ago.
Using the medicinal herb seeds she had stockpiled before the cataclysm, Melody Summers had planted large fields of Isatis root, bupleurum, forsythia, hedyotis, chrysanthemum, and honeysuckle in the farmlands of the Arcadian Space. All of these were known for their fever-reducing properties.
After taking the freshly picked herbs to the workshop to be processed and prepared, Melody Summers looked through a book of herbal formulas and measured out a combination of herbs according to one of the recipes.
’Although she wasn’t sure if the formulas from the book were reliable, Melody thought that since these herbs came from the Arcadian Space, they should be more effective than ordinary ones—just like her loquat syrup, which had been remarkably potent.’
After packing the mixed herbs into a bag, Melody Summers took them to the temporary shelter on the 23rd floor.
******
The hallway on the 23rd floor was crowded with people. Ever since the temperature had started to rise sharply, people no longer needed to hide in their rooms to stay warm. They would come out from time to time to get some fresh air and chat:
"The weather’s really getting warmer. Once the snow outside melts, this whole cataclysm should finally be over, right?"
"Definitely. This disaster has been raging for two years! If it doesn’t end soon, humanity will go extinct!"
"I’ve already got it all planned out. As soon as the snow melts, I’m going home to farm! I’m going to grow my own food, eat rice every day, and have white-flour buns with every meal!"
"..."
Just as everyone was chatting happily, someone came stumbling out of the stairwell.
He said frantically, "That scared the hell out of me! I was just out there clearing snow with the people from the Emergency Response Office, and we actually dug up two bodies!"
