"It's not your fault. I'm the one who failed to take care of you, and I left this whole family on your shoulders. I'm home now, so leave it all to me. Don't worry or blame yourself." Officer Graham patted Mrs. Graham's shoulder, his eyes still red as he looked toward his parents.
"Ford, you might not know this, but the water levels outside have risen again. The temperature has dropped, and there are gale-force winds. Going out now is a death sentence. I'd be fine on my own, but with my parents, we might not even make it out of the complex."
There was one thing he didn't mention: because all the shops in Corinth had closed, the streets were now filled with robbers.
"Do you have any sugar? Boil some water and make a bowl of sugar water. If you don't have hot-water bottles, fever patches, or Warm Babies, just fill a plastic bottle with hot water—boiling the rainwater from outside is fine. Then, place the bottle against their chests, under their armpits, and near their groins to warm them up."
Officer Graham and Mrs. Graham sprang into action. Evelyn Ford saw Wendy sleeping on the sofa and walked over to check on her.
"Ford, is Wendy okay?"
"She's fine. Don't worry."
Evelyn Ford took out her Silver Needles and treated the elderly couple. Slowly, color returned to their faces.
An hour later, the elderly couple's condition had improved. As Evelyn Ford was packing up to leave, Officer Graham gave her a compressed biscuit, a can of food, and a bottle of water.
Evelyn Ford accepted them without hesitation.
However, she had just reached her front door when she was pulled away by Mrs. Owens from apartment 801.
"Ford, help! It's Mr. Owens! He's been vomiting, has diarrhea, and he just fainted!"
—
By the time Evelyn Ford got home again, it was already five in the afternoon. She organized the supplies she had received for treating patients that day. Of course, two of the families had given her firewood.
Evelyn Ford was in a fairly good mood. 'I won't turn away cases of minor aches and illnesses, but I'll refuse anything more serious. My primary goal is self-preservation, not trading medical treatment for supplies.'
Evelyn Ford switched on the electric heater and held her hands and feet out to warm them. Once her body temperature returned to normal, she went into the bathroom to quickly wash up. After that, she ate dinner and went to bed.
It was destined to be a restless night. The temperature dropped to six degrees below zero, and amidst the torrential rain, lightning, and violent gales, the floodwaters submerged the third floor and were closing in on the fourth.
The next day, Evelyn Ford heard people talking outside. Listening closely, she figured out what was going on.
People had found out there was a police officer in Building D and flocked to his door for help. One person wanted Officer Graham to take their father, who had frozen to death at home, to Sunset Hills Funeral Home for cremation. Others demanded he share his surplus food with them. A large crowd had gathered, blocking the stairwell from the twelfth floor all the way down to Evelyn Ford's doorstep.
'I'm curious to see what Officer Graham will do. If he chooses to be selfless and devote himself to others, it would be in line with his professional ethics, but it wouldn't be the smart play. When you cut off your own flesh to feed an eagle, the one doing the feeding is the first to die.'
After a while, the commotion outside grew louder. Evelyn Ford opened her door and saw that many residents of Building D had come out of their apartments.
"On what grounds should Officer Graham give you his food? How do you have the nerve to say something like that? Officer Graham was busy at the station since the storm started and only got back yesterday! His whole family is sick! You people, it's bad enough you run to the police for every little thing in normal times, but you're still bothering them during a natural disaster? Why don't you go ask the parents who gave you life? If you have no food, go eat tree bark! Get out, get out, get out! Don't you dare come into our building, or we'll beat you!" a woman from the fifth floor yelled, her hands on her hips as she berated the crowd.
"But he's a cop!" someone retorted, unconvinced. "Aren't police supposed to serve the people? What's wrong with giving us a little food? I haven't eaten in two days!"
"So what if he's a cop? Is he responsible for feeding you, too? You might as well ask for the moon while you're at it!" an older man chimed in, joining the fray.
"Fine! I'll remember this. He actually refused to help us. And you people are all in cahoots with him! Just wait until this storm is over. I'm going to file a complaint and make him lose his job."
"You don't have to wait for the rain to stop," Officer Graham said, his voice heavy. "I can tell you right now: I've already resigned. I am no longer a police officer. You have one minute to get out of Building D." The moment he finished speaking, everyone stared at him in shock, including his wife and parents.
"Resigned? You're lying! I heard you got promoted to captain. How could you possibly have resigned?"
Officer Graham's tone was icy. "Go ask at the municipal bureau if you don't believe me."
Unfortunately for them, the bureau was already flooded and had long since been evacuated.
Seeing the situation, the group hesitated.
"But you were a cop before! You still have a responsibility. My dad's body is still in my apartment! You're more capable than we are, so you have to help me get him to a funeral home to be cremated."
The man who spoke had shifty, triangular eyes that darted back and forth.
"Trying to guilt-trip me is useless. We all know what it's like out there. You don't even dare to go yourself, so on what grounds are you asking me to go in your place?"
The residents of Building D voiced their agreement. At a time like this, they were all in unspoken agreement: unite and refuse to let infighting tear them apart.
Left with no other choice, the group left, muttering curses. Officer Graham looked toward the stairwell and said to the residents, "We need to barricade the fourth-floor landing. The situation is dire, and people might try to break in to rob or steal."
His words startled everyone. If people started committing home invasions now, wouldn't that just be making a terrible situation even worse?
After that, Officer Graham took down the rooftop access door. Walter Owens from 801 had a welding machine and a generator, and in less than twenty minutes, the door was installed as a barricade.
"Having a door here really makes you feel much safer. Graham is a capable man."
"That's right. Even if Graham isn't a cop anymore, he'll still protect us. We're lucky to be in Building D."
Everyone lavished Officer Graham with praise, but his expression remained impassive. Once the door was secure, he went home.
THUD!
The sound of something heavy falling into the water echoed from outside. Mrs. Graham glanced at Officer Graham, who was on the balcony drilling drainage holes.
"What was that sound?"
"It's nothing. A corner of the building probably got hit by lightning and a piece fell off," Officer Graham said. After finishing his task, he quickly shut the patio door and went back inside.
Meanwhile, on a balcony on the fifth floor across the way, a man with shifty, rat-like eyes scanned the area. Seeing no one, he glanced down into the floodwaters below. He watched until the dark figure disappeared completely beneath the surface. Only then did he let out a sigh, as if a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders, and calmly walk away from the balcony.
After the sudden drop in temperature, palm-sized moths started appearing outside.
The windows, the hallways, the walls, the doors, the handrails—everything was covered in a dense swarm of the moths. Evelyn Ford felt her skin crawl. She caught one to take home and study, but after examining it for a long time, she still couldn't identify it.
It had a bizarre appearance. Its wings bore horizontal red and black stripes, like the markings on a python. It had two antennae, each about ten centimeters long. Its bulging eyes were round and green, and its face was grotesquely compact, as if it had been run over by a car. Its plump abdomen was covered in dense, fine hairs.
It also emitted an indescribable odor. It wasn't exactly foul, but it was definitely unpleasant. Smelling it for too long made one feel dizzy and nauseous.