Chapter 23
[Don’t go home. Block the convenience store doors and hide in the little employee storage room.] There was water, food, and the store’s location was usually decent.
Even though zombies had appeared on the streets early in the morning, the numbers weren’t actually that high.
In the apocalypse, it was the crowds you should avoid, not the corpses. Once you blocked the front door and crawled into the narrow storage room, you’d have food, water, and a safe spot. When the rescue vehicles arrived, you’d be among the first to evacuate.
Residential areas, though, were a different story-they were deadly.
Zombies hid everywhere in apartment complexes. If someone came out to search for supplies, a massive zombie outbreak was guaranteed.
Getting out safely meant staying away from crowds. That was where you’d survive.
Hayley didn’t get any more replies to her warning.
Maybe the girl made it home safely, or maybe she died on the way. Either way, there was nothing more to do.
Hayley moved on, put on a relaxing movie, and ate.
She also downloaded everything she could-movies, TV shows, novels-so she’d have plenty to keep her busy later.
After eating, she let herself digest for a bit and took Summer for a walk. She checked the perimeter of her base and looked after her chickens, ducks, vegetables, and sheep.
When she got back, she continued training. The workout went on until late at night, leaving her completely exhausted. She finally went to bed.
The next morning…
As Hayley started her physical training, she immediately felt her strength and endurance improving.
Her muscles ached all over, but she gritted her teeth and finished the session before taking a shower and cooking.
Another huge pot of pasta, but today’s main dishes were roasted chicken and camp stew. These came from the big supermarket raid. Stored in her inventory, none of the food went bad.
She used a little water, some power, and made a huge meal with the stew: beef slices, shrimp, meatballs, chicken balls, fish balls, all kinds of mushrooms-enoki, oyster, shiitake-and plenty of fresh vegetables.
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It was a four-person portion.
Hayley ate it all by herself.
And of course, she added a few golden fried eggs from her chicken coop.
She checked on the chickens this morning-her coop was laying about 20 eggs a day now.
She didn’t eat all of them; some were left in the coop to hatch chicks. Once her supplies were big enough, she could store them in her warehouse.
After the big meal, she sipped some yogurt to help digest before the next round of training.
At a time like this, who else was living as comfortably as Hayley? Everyone else was struggling to get enough food, while she had so much that she had to work it off.
She turned off the halfway-watched movie, bored, and browsed the forums again.
Her comment from yesterday had exploded. Within a day, it had over ten thousand likes. People were calling her a legend and asking for more advice. Some even speculated she must be an insider to know
so much.
Hayley ignored all of it.
She only noticed that the original poster, Always Sunny, replied.
[Mr. Hayden, I made it home safely. Thank you!]
Hayley raised an eyebrow.
So she did go back home.
Hayley didn’t respond. A little later, she noticed Sunny had posted a new status update.
[Today is the fourth day of the apocalypse…]
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