Apocalypse Rebirth: Crazy from Day One

The room was filled with people. To make it easy for everyone to hear him, Felix Lawrence was positioned right in front of the floor-to-ceiling window.

Stella Sterling’s sharp eyes spotted a long crack running down the middle of the glass. Just then, a hailstone the size of an adult’s fist, propelled by the frigid wind, came hurtling straight toward that very crack.

She shouted a warning, then quickly rolled to the side to get out of the way.

Felix Lawrence didn’t know what was happening, but seeing Stella Sterling’s reaction, alarm bells went off in his head. He yelled to the crowd, "Spread out!"

Then he covered his head and ran to the side as well.

He was facing the crowd, so he couldn’t see what was behind him. But many people had seen the situation behind him the moment Stella Sterling yelled. By the time Felix Lawrence shouted his warning, everyone was already starting to take cover!

With a loud BANG, the hailstone struck the crack in the center of the glass. The window shattered into countless pieces that flew into the apartment. Driven by the howling wind, more hailstones smashed their way inside. For a moment, the room descended into chaos, filled with the sound of panicked screams.

Stella Sterling, hiding in a corner, looked at the others. Everyone was scrambling for cover. Many had fled the apartment entirely. No one dared to go near the shattered floor-to-ceiling window anymore.

Everyone stared, their eyes wide with terror at the scene inside.

The frigid wind howled its way in, carrying with it a barrage of fist-sized hailstones that smashed into the apartment. The constant, loud BANGING destroyed numerous items, making it feel like the end of the world.

Because Stella Sterling’s warning had been timely, and everyone had reacted quickly enough, most people made it through unscathed. Only a few who were slower got hit by the hail. However, they managed to protect their heads, so the hailstones didn’t strike any vital spots. Not daring to linger, they covered their heads and quickly moved to safer areas.

After a while, the direction of the wind shifted, and the hailstones stopped smashing into the apartment. Still, no one dared to venture back inside.

Everyone’s expression was grim. The very thing they had been worrying about these past few days had finally happened.

Everyone looked at Felix Lawrence with a hint of sympathy. He had been helping everyone all this time, only for his own home to be struck by such a disaster.

But they had barely a few seconds to feel sorry for him before several more loud crashes of shattering glass echoed through the building.

It was impossible to tell which other families’ windows had just been shattered by the hail. Everyone’s face fell, especially those with family members still at home. Worried for their loved ones’ safety, they gave Felix Lawrence a quick word and hurried back to their apartments.

And so, the meeting had to be put on hold. Everyone went to check on their own homes.

"You can break down unwanted wooden furniture, or take the doors off the apartments of owners who aren’t here! Use them to block the windows, it should hold for a bit!"

Just then, Willow Young’s boyfriend shouted to the crowd.

Hearing this, everyone’s eyes lit up, and they immediately rushed back to their homes.

"Hey, that’s a good idea, man! That could work!"

Felix Lawrence said with a laugh, glancing at the man.

Then he turned to Stella Sterling and said, "Miss Sterling, thank you for saving my life. I, Felix Lawrence, will not forget it. This is an emergency, so everyone needs to deal with the current situation first. We’ll continue our discussion tonight!"

Stella Sterling simply nodded without a word and headed toward her own apartment. Even though she knew her place was different from the others, she was still a little uneasy and wanted to check on it.

Back home, she inspected every nook and cranny, inside and out. Only after finding nothing out of the ordinary did she finally relax and let out a sigh of relief.

Then she headed toward the 23rd floor. On her way down, she noticed that the doors of several unoccupied apartments had vanished. ’They must have been taken by others to block the hail,’ she thought.

Among the apartments with missing doors was River Larkin’s—the one she had let Gordon Ford and the others stay in.

Seeing this, Stella Sterling smiled. ’That River Larkin doesn’t dare show his face to me, doesn’t even dare return to his own home. Even knowing I let Gordon Ford and his group stay there, the guy still won’t appear. He really knows how to keep his cool.’ 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

’And now, since so many people think he’s not home, they’ve taken his door. Some of the useful things inside have probably been carried off by others, too.’

’I wonder if River Larkin would just about die from rage if he saw this!’

When she got down to the 23rd floor, Felix Lawrence and his wife were working together to secure a door panel over his shattered window.

Fortunately, the frigid wind wasn’t blowing in their direction at the moment. The hail was just falling straight down, not smashing into the building. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have dared to get near the opening.

They had to take advantage of this brief lull to patch up the hole. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t be able to stay in their home tonight. In this weather, sleeping in the hallway would mean freezing to death.

Previously, they could have moved into another empty apartment, but that was no longer an option. After all, anything useful in the other vacant units had been stripped and taken by others.

Moving to another empty apartment would only make their situation worse.

Felix Lawrence had already arranged for the people who were injured by the hail in his home to be taken back to their own apartments. Now, only his family of three remained; everyone else had returned to their homes.

Stella Sterling didn’t linger on the 23rd floor. Instead, she took a walk through the building and found that most families were in a similar predicament.

Many apartments had broken windows. Luckily, most people had been at Felix Lawrence’s place when it happened. The few family members who had stayed home hadn’t been near the windows. So, no one in their homes had been hit by the hail, and no one had been killed.

And as for those who were at Felix Lawrence’s, because everyone had reacted and dodged so quickly, aside from a few minor injuries, everyone else was safe and sound.

So, after the initial panic, everyone had calmed down and started to deal with the problems at hand.

As she completed her tour, she noticed that everyone was busy working, except for the household across the hall from her.

Stella Sterling returned to her apartment again. She stood at her window, peering toward the building across the way. Through the blurry view, she could see that the people over there weren’t faring any better.

After watching for a while, seeing that they wouldn’t be free anytime soon, she decided to just start making dinner.

Around 8 PM, someone knocked on her door. "Miss Sterling, Mr. Lawrence sent me to ask you to come back down and continue the meeting!"

"Got it."

When she returned to the 23rd floor, the crowd’s mood, while not as spirited as it had been that afternoon, was calm.

By now, everyone was slowly starting to adapt to this natural disaster; they no longer panicked at every little thing.

Just then, Felix Lawrence looked over at her and suddenly bowed. "Miss Sterling, thank you!"