I have to say, Cynthia Grant was proving extrely useful in temporarily concealing Flora’s pregnancy.
After being urged by Jade to go in and check on Flora, she ca out and gave Jade a detailed explanation using her knowledge of Chinese dicine. "Auntie, Flora is just exhausted, and her stomach is a bit upset. She’ll be fine after a while. For now, don’t let her eat any seafood or anything too greasy."
Jade nodded and took note of everything, but a faint unease still lingered in her heart. Seafood, greasy foods—these things kept reminding her of a certain unsettling possibility. However, this matter was soon overshadowed by the events that followed.
When Flora Bloom ca out, she gathered everyone to discuss the move. But of the original nineteen people, one was missing. Lucia was gone.
Not only that, but a flurry of chaotic footsteps echoed from downstairs, accompanied by shouts of, "Soone in this building is infected!"
The building housed a mix of ordinary people and Superpower Users. The appearance of soone infected by a zombie posed an imnse threat to the regular people. And while First-level Superpower Users had a lower chance of being infected, it wasn’t impossible.
Instantly, residents from every apartnt poured out and rushed downstairs, where personnel were guarding the exits, checking everyone who ca out.
Although being interrogated made many people unhappy, they endured it and cooperated for the sake of mutual safety. Besides, the person leading the operation was Heath Holden, one of the three major powers in the base, so everyone had no choice but to comply.
However, nearly everyone from the building was already downstairs. As Heath Holden watched the people at the exit, he still hadn’t spotted the figure he was expecting.
"Is there no one left in the building?" one of Heath Holden’s subordinates asked soone who had just co out.
"I-I don’t know anything."
The Superpower Users and ordinary people driven downstairs by Heath Holden’s n lined up neatly. Yet, they were neither checked nor questioned.
anwhile, after Flora Bloom’s group gathered—eighteen people in total—little Caleb ca down carrying a white goose almost as big as himself, still fast asleep.
"You lot, stop for inspection! Not one of you moves!"
It was only when she saw the crowd downstairs surrounded by another group, with the stairwell exit also blocked, that Flora Bloom saw the person in charge.
"What’s going on?" Caleb Bloom stepped forward and asked.
"I suspect soone among you is infected with the zombie virus. You must be taken away for quarantine!"
Heath Holden spotted Flora Bloom and her group in the crowd and walked over with a faint smile. ’The intel had been right after all—the little white tiger was gone, no longer by this woman’s side.’
’Without that little white tiger, this Flora Bloom is just an ordinary Water Ability User, no threat to at all. If I capture them all now, they’ll be putty in my hands.’
"That’s right! It’s you! We’ve received a report from the public that soone in your team has been infected by a zombie!" one of Heath Holden’s n shouted, pointing at Flora Bloom.
"You hear that? There’s an infected person in your group. They must be quarantined imdiately to prevent them from harming the public!" Heath Holden pointed at Flora Bloom, his face full of smug satisfaction, and continued, "If you know what’s good for you, you’ll co back with quietly. Otherwise, don’t bla for eliminating a threat to the Morhaven safety base!"
As he finished speaking, a dozen or so Superpower Users suddenly stepped out from his ranks and ford a line in front of Flora Bloom and her team.
Before Flora Bloom could act, a wall of fla erupted as Neal Wallace moved to stand in front of her.
After a full night of leveling up, there were no longer any first-level Superpower Users in Flora Bloom’s team, aside from the missing Lucia.
As for Level 3 Superpower Users, besides herself, there was also Caleb.
Caleb’s superpower wasn’t for combat; it was spiritual power control. Although Caleb had only ever tried his superpower on animals, humans were also animals—advanced ones. Unless it was absolutely necessary, Caleb himself would never think of using his superpower to control a human.
Ethan Monroe, Neal Wallace, Sherman Lynch, and Caleb Bloom were all Second-level Superpower Users, with Neal Wallace’s energy fluctuations already nearing Level 3. The n stood protectively in front of Flora Bloom. Flora held her mother Jade’s arm with one hand and Caleb’s hand with the other. Joel Bloom stood beside her, and behind them were several ordinary people like Mark Sterling.
Their team now stood in a standoff against the fifty or more people Heath Holden had brought.
Initially, the other residents of the high-rise area, both Superpower Users and ordinary people, had been wary of each other regarding Heath Holden’s claim that soone was infected.
But now, hearing that the infected person was in the team that had just exited the building, they imdiately turned their suspicious gazes toward the group of a dozen or so people at the stairwell entrance.
This was especially true for the ordinary people. With no superpowers to protect them, they could easily turn into zombies if infected. The terror of the apocalypse had long since made everyone as skittish as birds startled by the re twang of a bowstring; the slightest hint of a threat was enough to set them off.
"Yeah, who the hell is infected? Hurry up and admit it! All of us are stuck out here in the cold because of you!" soone from the high-rise shouted toward Flora Bloom’s group.
"Seriously! Our squad was supposed to go to Point 03 to farm Zombie Crystal Cores today! You’re wasting our ti. Can you even afford to compensate us?"
"Hey, look! There’s a pregnant woman in their group! Don’t you guys rember what happened at that maternity clinic downtown? A pregnant woman was fine one second, and the next, a baby zombie burst out of her stomach!" a man suddenly shouted, pointing at Selina’s belly in feigned shock, his face a mask of terror as if he were reliving the mont.
His words were the spark that ignited the crowd’s emotions. Not only the people who had been corralled, but also onlookers who had co downstairs to see the commotion, joined the ranks of the morally superior.
"I rember that! My classmate was eaten by a baby zombie there!"
"I’m one of the ones who escaped from there! My wife was pregnant, she seed perfectly fine, but then her stomach suddenly ripped open and a baby zombie flew right out and started biting people!"
"I rember too, I rember too! The city was in chaos back then. That clinic was full of pregnant won, and I saw it with my own eyes—several infant-sized zombies crawling on people, eating their flesh. It was terrifying!"
Their words beca the perfect tool to incite the mob, giving the crowd an excuse to vent their fears.
"Who is it? Get the hell out here! You’re a danger to yourself and others! Have you no sha?"
"Get out!"
"Get out!"
Heath Holden and his subordinates stood before their cheering supporters, looking smugly at Flora Bloom’s group. Although Flora’s people were frowning, they showed none of the panic or fear he had expected.
Flora Bloom glanced at Selina, whose face was deathly pale. She squeezed her hand and said comfortingly, "Selina, are you angry?"
When Flora Bloom grasped her wrist, an invisible energy seed to flow into Selina, giving her support. With a pale face, she looked up at the sneering faces that were hurling accusations and curses at her.
"Angry! And a little scared!"
She was afraid that Flora Bloom and the others would abandon her to the angry mob, throwing her to the wolves. If that happened, the fate of both her and her unborn child would be tragic.
She looked nervously at Flora Bloom and the others, her eyes filled with anxiety and doubt. But she saw they weren’t paying much attention to her at all; instead, they were facing the crowd that surrounded them. Cynthia Grant even ran to her side and placed a hand on her wrist, right over her pulse point.
"Selina, a pregnant woman can’t get too emotional, it’s not good for the baby! Follow my lead. Deep breath. Deeper."
Selina looked at the people standing in front of her, forming a protective circle, and her eyes couldn’t help but well up with tears.
When the apocalypse first began, she hadn’t even had ti to cry or grieve for her husband’s death before she was forced to flee into a sterile room. By the ti she processed that the world had ended and she might die, she was too hungry to even cry.
But now, she was crying. She knew that in this apocalypse, it would have been understandable if the group had abandoned her. But they hadn’t. The thought of trading her for their own safety hadn’t even crossed their minds.
"Selina, don’t worry. Flora Bloom won’t abandon you!"
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