Apocaly Utopi apocaly utop

Chapter 9 supermarket

The heat was unbearable.

This kind of heat was something one could hardly imagine without experiencing it firsthand—sweat would break out, only to evaporate instantly, followed by another layer of hot perspiration. Emma felt as though her body had turned into a gasping old dog, struggling for breath in the scorching air.

In comparison, Jack seemed to be holding up much better. Despite carrying Shirley on his back, he appeared far more composed than Emma. He noticed this too and shouted, “Hey, are you… physically strong?”

“What?” Emma shouted back. The noise from the car engines around them was deafening, and even though Jack was just on the other side of the car, she could barely hear him.

“I said—” Jack quickly walked around the car to her side. Shirley, who was taller than him, had her feet dragging on the ground. “Haven’t you undergone any physical enhancement?”

After just two words, Emma felt her tongue dry up, the dryness extending all the way down her throat. She didn’t dare speak again and simply shook her head, gesturing for Jack to hurry.

Jack looked surprised, as if he wanted to say something—but now was hardly the time for small talk. He nodded quickly and began the arduous task of navigating through the stream of cars that were still spewing heat.

Every few steps, Emma had to wipe her eyelids. She was sweating so much that drops had already fallen into her eyes, stinging painfully—she couldn’t help but wonder: Was the “heat resistance” ability temporary? Otherwise, why had she felt less affected earlier but was now drenched in sweat?

At this rate, would they even make it to the supermarket before dehydration set in?

In silence, the two surveyed their surroundings—the road was divided by a guardrail, meant to separate the flow of traffic. But in a crisis, few people adhered to traffic rules, and now cars from both directions are tangled together, some going with the flow, others against it.

If they tried to climb over the guardrail, it wouldn’t just be a physical burden—carrying Shirley would make it even more difficult. It would also mean crossing another wave of scorching heat from the cars—a truly deadly prospect.

Without a word, both of them headed toward the end of the traffic jam.

The driver of the Range Rover was a thin woman; as they passed, Emma noticed she had collapsed in her car, her eyes sunken and unconscious—likely suffering from dehydration and confusion, which had caused her to crash in a panic.

The smaller car that the Range Rover had hit had its air conditioning disabled, but thanks to the earlier cool air, the middle-aged overweight man inside was miraculously still conscious. From the moment they stepped out of their car, his eyes had been fixed on them.

As Emma passed by his car, the man suddenly banged on the window several times.

To be honest, Emma wasn’t heartless—but she was already on the verge of melting from the heat. How long she could last herself was uncertain, and she had no room for any extra sympathy. She simply frowned at the man.

Through the glass, the man’s voice was muffled: “Outside… hot… can we go?”

Emma guessed what he was asking and shook her head, indicating it wasn’t possible, then continued walking. The heat radiating from the cars made the already unbearable situation even worse, and she couldn’t stand being still.

Seeing her leave, the man panicked and pushed the car door open: “I’m talking to you, stop—you’re walking outside, I…” Before he could finish, he let out a piercing scream.

The scream was filled with a bone-chilling pain, even drowning out the noise of the engines. Emma turned around quickly and saw that the man’s exposed skin had erupted in blisters the moment it came into contact with the exhaust-filled air—

Bright red, blood-filled blisters burst open on his skin, his face and hands looking as though they had been scalded by boiling water, with patches of skin peeling off in a horrifying display. His screams continued, and Emma couldn’t take it anymore. She steadied herself with one hand on Jack, raised her foot, and kicked the man back into the car, then slammed the door shut.

The screams immediately softened, and it seemed the man’s burns had stopped spreading—Emma took a deep breath and exchanged a shaken look with Jack.

So, it wasn’t that her ability had weakened—the outdoor temperature had risen to a terrifying level: ordinary people’s skin would blister and burn the moment they were exposed to the exhaust-heated air—

“Don’t think about it, let’s go!” Jack, who was usually talkative, now spoke sparingly.

The two hurried out of the traffic jam, leaving behind the hundreds of engines, and finally felt some relief. Crossing the road, they stepped onto the tree-lined sidewalk and, without delay, headed straight for the shopping mall.

The leaves on the trees had long since lost their green color, now blackened and shriveled, curling up beneath the trees. Sometimes, Emma would see a few people lying motionless on the ground—their skin covered in burns, their bodies no longer rising and falling.

No matter how strong she was, this was the first time Emma had seen so many dead bodies—she swallowed, feeling a mix of fear and nausea, but her mouth was dry, devoid of any moisture.

“Let’s drink the last of the soda!” Jack’s hoarse voice came from behind.

Emma thought for a moment and pulled out the last can of soda. Soda didn’t hydrate, but there was plenty of food and water in the supermarket—there was no need to suffer like this outside. What used to be a drink she couldn’t finish in one go now felt like far too little—both of them didn’t care about the taste anymore and quickly split the scalding soda between them.

After tossing the can aside, they walked for a while longer, and the mall’s entrance gradually came into view.

The once-ever-flowing fountain was now dry and cracked, as if it had never been wet. However, the bodies of several people lying face down in the pool indicated that the fountain had been their last hope. The burned bodies of the dead were scattered everywhere, a horrifying sight.

Emma kept her head down, carefully avoiding the bodies on the ground as she hopped forward. Occasionally, she glanced up and noticed that Jack, carrying Shirley, had somehow gotten ahead of her.

She was about to wonder how he had moved so quickly when the answer became clear: Jack didn’t seem to care at all, stepping on the back of a young mother’s corpse as if it were flat ground, and walked straight into the mall’s entrance.

Emma hurried to catch up and slapped his arm in annoyance: “Can’t you show some respect for the dead?” Just one sentence made her throat ache with dryness.

Jack was startled, his expression slightly confused, before he realized what she meant. “Oh, oh! That… sorry, I’ve seen so many dead bodies that I guess I’ve become a bit numb.” He sheepishly showed a rabbit-like tooth. “I was like you at first.”

Seeing his attitude, Emma, though still uncomfortable, didn’t press further and changed the subject: “Over there, there’s an elevator down!”

Jack nodded, then looked up at the mall and murmured in admiration, “This place really is beautiful…”

Without stopping, he followed Emma as they headed toward the supermarket.

It was said that this mall had been designed by a famous French architect: it was five stories tall, with an open center filled with dense tropical plants. Perhaps because of the layered design, the tropical trees grew all the way up to the fifth floor, near the elevators. Walking through it felt like strolling through a primeval forest.

But there was no time to admire it now. Emma quickly glanced at the tropical garden, feeling that something was off but unable to pinpoint it. She shook her head and rushed down the elevator.

However, when they saw the supermarket, both of them couldn’t help but gasp.

The situation was worse than Emma had imagined—she wasn’t the only one who had thought of this supermarket, but the state of it still caught her off guard.

When the abnormal temperature rise had occurred last night, the supermarket had clearly been open for business, and it was packed with people. Of course, those people were now motionless and silent, lying on the ground like corpses.

The chaos of the previous night seemed frozen in time: empty bottles were scattered everywhere—water bottles, soda bottles… The beige floor was stained with dried patches of juice and other drinks. The drink shelves looked as though they had been ransacked, with the last few bottles lying haphazardly, while several of the dead clutched tightly at bottles stained with blood and bodily fluids.

Most shocking of all, one cashier’s cause of death was clearly not dehydration—the back of her head was deeply caved in, and the cash register in front of her was wide open, completely empty.

Jack clicked his tongue. “The people who were stealing money must be regretting it now!”

“If they’re even still alive,” Emma said, her mouth and throat parched. She pulled a water bottle from the arms of a corpse by the entrance and, without hesitation, gulped down half of it before handing the rest to Jack.

Despite the bodies scattered throughout the supermarket and the chaos that had clearly unfolded, it seemed there was still enough food and water to sustain the three of them for now. Jack, who had been carrying Shirley all this time, was exhausted. He set her down on the floor and muttered, “She’s not even real flesh and blood, so why is she so heavy…”

Emma sat at a checkout counter that wasn’t occupied by a corpse and, unable to contain her curiosity, asked, “I’ve been meaning to ask… Shirley was here earlier, so I didn’t bring it up. What did the Fallen One mean when he said she’s ‘fake flesh and blood’?”

“She’s a personality I’ve split off from myself—in a way, she’s an independent person,” Jack explained as he drank the water. “But how real she is depends on the strength of my abilities… Right now, my abilities are limited, so some parts of Shirley aren’t very… uh, lifelike.”

Emma nodded, not pressing further. After replenishing their fluids and resting for a while, they both felt the gnawing discomfort of their empty stomachs.

“Should we check the food section?” Emma suggested.

“Wait,” Jack stopped her, glancing around. “Is there anything here we can use as a weapon?”