Chapter 39: Chapter 39: Unusual Flour Mill

Hugo Cheney got in the car without a backward glance.

The cars quickly turned around and sped away, each one faster than the last, without the slightest hesitation.

Only after watching the cars disappear from the courtyard did the man wave his hand. "Go on, inside!"

Autumn Lynch knew she couldn’t resist, so she turned and walked into the warehouse on her own without anyone needing to urge her.

As the large warehouse doors shut, everything suddenly went black.

It took a long moment for Autumn Lynch’s eyes to adjust to the dim surroundings.

The warehouse before her was vast, partitioned into different sections by stacks of canned food crates.

The man led the way, and Autumn Lynch had no choice but to follow him into a separate, sectioned-off room.

The room contained a bed, a sofa, and a table.

The moment the man entered, he sprawled onto the sofa and crossed his legs.

He sat while Autumn stood.

Even so, Autumn felt a knot of anxiety as the man stared at her.

"I..."

The man cut her off before she could say anything.

"Alright, enough nonsense. Go make some water."

He said, looking toward the main area, "Get me water for a bath. I want to take a good, long bath!"

Ever since the apocalypse began, even drinking water has been a scarce luxury.

Now that he had a Water Ability User, he could finally take a bath!

Seeing Autumn still standing motionless, the man sneered. "You can’t possibly think that guy—what was his name, Hugo?—is actually coming back to save you, can you? Dream on! You’d better do as you’re told. Otherwise... Heh! I have plenty of ways to make you obey!"

The color drained from Autumn’s face.

The threat in the man’s words was unmistakable.

She didn’t dare to imagine what "ways" he was talking about, nor did she want to know.

Autumn forced a smile. "I understand! I’ll go right now!"

Only then did the man nod, satisfied. "Go on!"

The moment Autumn left, the man’s expression changed in a flash. "Watch her closely! Whether we ever have to worry about water again is all up to her! But remember this: she’s our faucet, not our queen. You can’t go soft on her, understand?"

The other men nodded in unison. "Understood!"

Only after the car had driven out of the cannery did Hugo Cheney’s heart rate begin to return to normal.

In all his years, that was the first time he had ever truly felt what it was like to be on the brink of death.

It was a feeling he had no desire to recall.

’If only I had a Superpower... I wouldn’t have ended up in such a pathetic state!’

Of course, Hugo Cheney knew how to awaken a Superpower.

He had even personally witnessed others awaken their Superpowers on more than one occasion.

And it was because he had seen it that he understood all too clearly that awakening a Superpower was risky.

You were lucky if even one out of ten people successfully awakened.

The other nine? If they were lucky, they simply remained ordinary people.

And if they were unlucky...

Before, Hugo Cheney had been afraid his own luck would be bad, which is why he’d hesitated for so long to awaken a Superpower.

But after what had just happened, one thing became crystal clear.

Inside the base, he could rely on his family and live very well.

But once he left the base, the Cheney Family’s influence meant nothing.

’If I want to live well in this apocalypse, to be respected, I have to awaken a Superpower!’

Having made his decision, Hugo Cheney announced with a grim face, "Back to the base!"

Though the others didn’t know what was going through Hugo Cheney’s mind, none of them dared to object.

...

After leaving the cannery, Sierra Sullivan and her team went straight to the flour mill.

The main gates of the flour mill were also wide open.

The courtyard was filled with vehicles of all sizes—cars and large trucks—parked haphazardly.

The rear doors of several large trucks were open, revealing they were already more than halfway loaded.

Bags of flour were partially visible through the yellow, dusty air.

At the sight, someone in their group cheered.

"So much flour! This trip wasn’t a waste! No need to trade, we can just load it directly into our spatial storage!"

"Yeah, yeah! What are we waiting for? Let’s go!"

"The sooner we finish gathering supplies, the sooner we can head back!"

Unlike their excitement, Sierra Sullivan’s brow was knitted in a tight frown, a deep sense of alarm rising within her.

’Something about this flour mill feels wrong!’

Sierra Sullivan glanced toward Jayce, just in time to meet his gaze.

Their eyes met.

Without a word, they understood exactly what the other was thinking.

"Sierra, you feel it too?" Jayce asked, his voice low.

Sierra Sullivan nodded. "Something’s not right here."

The few who had just been cheering fell silent, their laughter dying abruptly as they heard the exchange, but their eyes filled with confusion.

Dominic Crawford was also confused. "Not right? I don’t see any problem! It’s a flour mill, so of course it’s full of flour. This is just what’s on the trucks; there’s bound to be even more in the warehouse. Flour isn’t like canned food, which you can open and eat right away. If you don’t have water or fire, you can’t exactly stuff raw flour in your mouth! It’s perfectly normal that no one’s around collecting it!"

The others heard Dominic Crawford and nodded in agreement, feeling that Captain Crawford had a point.

Sierra Sullivan shook her head. "That’s not what I mean when I say something’s not right. Haven’t you all noticed? Every building we can see has its doors standing wide open!"

Dominic Crawford immediately leaned toward the window to look outside.

As far as he could see, it was just as Sierra Sullivan had said: every visible building had its doors open.

That wasn’t normal.

It was far, far from normal.

With the dust storms constantly raging outside, if anyone was in those buildings, they would never leave the doors open like this.

For the doors to be standing wide open like this could only mean one thing—the buildings were empty!

A flour mill this size must have employed hundreds, if not thousands, of workers.

You just had to look at the number of people at the cannery to get an idea!

The factories weren’t that far from each other. Barring some kind of major accident, it was impossible for the flour mill to be completely empty.

The same people who had been so excited moments ago were now tense and speechless.

Dominic Crawford’s expression also turned grave. "Mr. Everett, what do we do now? Retreat immediately?"

Jayce was weighing their options.

’Should we pull out now, or risk it for the supplies and then leave?’

But before Jayce could make a decision, countless figures suddenly burst forth from the open doorways. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

They were incredibly fast, charging straight for the vehicles.

By the time Sierra Sullivan got a clear look, she saw that a dense pack of Dune Hounds had surrounded their vehicles.

Seeing this, Sierra Sullivan sighed internally.

’So much for hesitating. The choice had been made for them.’

’There was no getting away now.’

Though they didn’t know why there were so many Dune Hounds in the flour mill, the group quickly composed themselves.

Even the two Space Ability Users had personally fought Aberrant Beasts before.

So, while they were shocked to see this many Dune Hounds, they didn’t fall into a panic.

Sierra Sullivan, for her part, was even less nervous or flustered.

’Perfect. This was a chance to test out the new skill she had developed.’