Ginny Kane was incredibly thankful that her father had worked so hard to build such a massive family business. This meant they could stockpile supplies in advance. Otherwise, they wouldn’t even have the sourcing channels, let alone the means to gather everything they needed—especially since she had always lived a laid-back, unambitious life.
Since the orders were placed under the Kane Group, no supplier was particularly strict about the deposit and final payment deadlines. After all, the Kane Group’s market value was over twenty billion!
After doing the math, Ginny realized she wouldn’t even need to pay the remaining three billion or so in outstanding balances. Once the apocalypse hit, no one would care if you had paid your final balance. By then, money would be the most worthless thing in the world.
After placing the supply orders, the siblings headed to the suburbs and rented out an entire warehouse complex. They signed a one-year lease, paying month-to-month. They then told the security guards at the gate to return to work in two months, claiming they needed to renovate the warehouses. The two months off would be considered paid leave.
The complex consisted of ten massive commercial warehouses, each the size of two football fields. Every warehouse was equipped with cold storage that took up about a third of its total space.
The moment the facility manager heard that the Kane Group was renting, he didn’t hesitate to terminate the contracts of several smaller companies. The entire complex was cleared out in just four days.
Following that, they hired specialists to rush-install bank-vault-grade exterior doors and brought in a construction crew to reinforce the buildings. Due to the tight timeline, they directly hired a 1,000-man engineering crew, completing the job in just two days. This reinforcement alone cost 180 million. Ginny was worried about unexpected variables and felt that structural fortification was the safest bet.
With the warehouses secured, the two began picking up goods from various manufacturers.
To ensure they had a safe place to live during the apocalypse, they decided to set up a temporary base. Since Ginny wouldn’t awaken her Space Ability for another day, they initially tried looking around the warehouse district. However, they discovered that the buildings in the area were all made of prefabricated panels—even with reinforcement, they wouldn’t hold up.
"Sean, let’s buy a heavy-duty truck and modify it," Ginny said. "We’ll reinforce everything. Once we finish collecting the supplies, we’ll head home. As for a temporary base... didn’t the Lawson family recently build a new residential complex?"
Sean thought about it for a moment. "Yeah, I actually went to the ribbon-cutting ceremony. It’s not bad. In fact, it’s quite nice. I remember there’s a large park nearby, and no other residential communities around it. It’s a solid choice. I’ll go buy a place there right now."
"Great. I’ll contact the engineering and renovation teams. Thank goodness they’re fully furnished units. We just need to add soundproofing panels, reinforce the walls, swap the windows for bulletproof glass, and install solar panels, a water reservoir, and a sewage treatment tank. Oh, and most importantly, a vegetable garden! This way, we won’t have to expose my Space Ability right at the start. We can wait until we have a better read on everyone before revealing anything."
"Agreed. The less we say, the better. Human nature is unpredictable, after all."
Ginny nodded, and the two went their separate ways to get to work.
They were incredibly fortunate that their photos had never been leaked to the public; otherwise, their plan to pose as truck drivers would never have worked. Every time they went to pick up goods, they drove two semi-trailers, usually hauling everything back in a single trip to save time.
Two-thirds of their supplies had to be transported from out of province. Whenever they encountered highway checkpoints during these long-haul drives, they simply declared that the cargo belonged to the Kane Group and presented the supplier contracts, resolving any issues immediately.
On October 15th, Ginny traveled alone to Sheridan, the city neighboring Breven.
"Miss, this mountain isn’t safe at night. Be sure to head back down early!"
Ginny smiled at the honest-looking cab driver. "It’s fine, my friend is camping on the mountain. You don’t need to worry. By the way, sir, you should stock up on daily necessities recently. A friend of mine who works at the hospital said there’s a severe flu going around. If you have elderly family members or kids at home, it’s best to keep them indoors."
She only said this because she had noticed a family portrait in the car. There were four people in the photo, and judging by their ages, Ginny guessed the driver lived with his wife, their child, and his mother. In families like that, the elderly usually took care of the kids.
The good-natured driver smiled. "Will do! I’ll pick up some extra groceries on my way back. Be careful up there, young lady."
Watching the cab drive away, Ginny shook her head. She was no bleeding-heart saint, especially not after enduring five years of the apocalypse in her previous life. She just hoped the driver would listen to her and stockpile some supplies until the government finished building the relief camps. In her past life, those shelters and safe zones had taken half a month to establish after the zombie virus outbreak. It would likely take just as long this time around.
As Ginny hiked up the mountain, her mind drifted to memories of her past life. She crossed the ridge and headed toward the back peak. The path was lined with massive trees, some stretching dozens of meters into the sky, their roots blanketed in wild grass and flowers.
Two hours later, Ginny arrived at a valley.
"So this is what it looks like before," she murmured, noting the stark contrast to her memories.
Relying on those recollections, she ventured deeper into the valley. Beneath an ancient tree, she found an inconspicuous stone toad and slowly turned it. A hidden door rose from the ground in front of the massive tree, which was so thick it would take four or five people to wrap their arms around it.
"Looks like I found the right place!" Adjusting her backpack, she slowly stepped inside.
Below the ancient tree lay an underground laboratory. As soon as Ginny descended, an unkempt man appeared before her, pointing a paring knife at her. "Who are you? How did you find this place?"
Staring at the man, Ginny felt a sudden urge to cry. He had been one of her few close friends in her past life—in fact, this man had been her best friend. Unfortunately, she had been blind to the truth back then.
"I know your name is Caleb Grant," she said steadily. "You’re a weapons research expert. Your mentor stole your research, and in a fit of anger, you assaulted him. Thanks to his manipulation, you were dishonorably discharged from the military district. You took your entire life savings and hid deep in these mountains to continue your development. And as for your family..."
Ginny rattled off every piece of information she knew about Caleb in one breath.
Hearing this young woman lay bare his entire life, Caleb’s eyes turned sharp and ruthless. He pressed the blade closer to her. "Spit it out. Who sent you?"
"Relax. Just listen to me. In exactly eight days, a zombie virus is going to erupt simultaneously across the entire world..."
After Ginny finished explaining everything, Caleb slowly lowered his knife. Her eyes filled with a soft smile as she stepped past him and into his lab.
"So... you’re saying I awaken three Abilities?" Caleb asked, trying to process it all. "And I lead your group to clear out zombies and settle survivors? Then... what happened to the ’me’ in that world?"
Looking at his somewhat expectant expression, Ginny felt a sharp pain in her throat, like swallowing needles. She couldn’t bring herself to tell him the truth: that to protect her, he had his Abilities plundered by Gideon Lynch and was subsequently thrown into a horde of zombies.
"I don’t know," she lied. "I went out on a mission, and when I came back, I heard you had died."
Unable to meet his gaze any longer, she pointed at the room full of research equipment. "Your things are safe here. In my past life, we came back looking for them two years later, and they were untouched. Right now, we are severely lacking in weapons. Do you have any sourcing channels?"
Ginny hadn’t immediately sought him out because she knew several of Caleb’s close friends were in the military. In her previous life, she hadn’t joined his team until a year into the apocalypse, and three of their core members were soldiers. Their arsenal had always been well-stocked.
But in the end, they had all died tragic deaths at the hands of Gideon Lynch—and it was all because of her.
This time around, she would make absolutely sure to protect them.