Apocalypse Queen: My Space, My Rules Chapter 209: Here's Donald

Yet none of them had expected that the battle would be over before they ever arrived to fight it.

Under Mariella's lead, the Celestine Ridge residents had wiped out Black Bear's entire condemned raider crew, and word had spread fast and wide.

Celestine Ridge's name now carried serious weight across all of Liraelith, effectively making it the most formidable civilian safe zone in the region.

The moment Donald and Mariella's conversation reached a natural pause, the young officer seized his chance to express his gratitude.

"Thank you for the warning that day!" the young officer said, his voice thick with relief and lingering fear. "My family was going out on the boat every single day and night to search for supplies, but that night I stopped them..."

He'd been with Donald on the earlier visit to Celestine Ridge when Mariella had told him she had insider information from the weather station, and that a serious disaster could hit at any time, so staying indoors was the safest bet.

He'd gone home and refused to let his family leave.

His family had complained bitterly about it, arguing that they had a motorboat and life jackets and couldn't possibly be in any real danger. If they didn't get out there and find supplies, someone else would take everything first.

But no matter what they said, he'd held firm and refused to budge.

Faced with his absolute resolve, they'd finally and reluctantly let the idea go.

That same night, a flash flood tore through the area, and everyone who'd gone out searching for supplies didn't come back.

His family had narrowly escaped what should've been a death sentence, and the shock had left them shaking for days afterward.

"You saved my entire family!" He looked at her with complete sincerity. "I can't thank you enough!"

Mariella offered a quiet smile. "I'm just glad everyone made it."

She'd felt some kind of connection with this young officer from the start, which was why she'd said anything to him at all. The fact that he'd actually listened and taken it to heart said a lot about him.

As the group fell into easy conversation, the young officer offered his name. "I'm Terry Wolfe, but everyone calls me Terry."

Mariella took the opening. "How's the unit holding up? And when does the government plan to start distributing the supplies they've recovered?"

Terry scratched the back of his head and looked to Donald.

Donald's expression stayed easy. "Nothing classified about any of that. The unit has government funding and rations, so basic needs are covered for now. But we're being rotated through disaster response operations, base construction support, and general order maintenance. Wherever they need us, that's where we go.

"As for the supplies the government's recovered, a dedicated relief allocation has already gone out to the official aid stations. Each station provides one meal per day, distributed by ID. Adults and children both qualify."

Getting even that much done had taken everything the government had.

Part of the credit, strange as it was, went to the alligators the flash floods had driven into the area. They'd hurt plenty of survivors, but they'd also become a crucial food source.

Human ingenuity had proven far more resourceful than any wild animal. With nothing but rope, wooden clubs, and kitchen knives, groups of four or five working together had managed to bring down full-grown alligators.

The alligator meat had bought them time and softened the worst of the famine.

But as the weeks went on, the alligator population shrank while the number of hunters multiplied, and before long, there were none left to find.

The survivors had fallen back into desperation. Beyond the single daily meal from the aid stations, the resources they could find were dwindling fast.

Celestine Ridge's sudden mass hiring operation had landed in that void like a lifeline, giving people who'd nearly given up something real to hold onto.

A single laborer's eight-hour wage, used carefully, could feed a family of three for a full week. And the pound of cooking oil and half-liter of diesel included in the pay were worth just as much, if not more, since those were a source of light.

Outside of Celestine Ridge, most survivors spent their nights in complete darkness.

With cooking oil and diesel, a person could put together a basic oil lamp and actually see after sundown.

Donald shook his head slowly. "The pay you're offering your workers is genuinely generous. It's taken real pressure off the government's plate."

Mariella blinked at him. "We've got more than ten vacant properties in Celestine Ridge right now. Have you and Terry considered moving your families in?"

She understood perfectly well that as conditions deteriorated, the growing mass of desperate survivors would eventually set their sights on Celestine Ridge.

In her past life, that was exactly how it had ended: a tide of starving people pressing in from all sides until the community collapsed and everyone scattered to the government shelters.

She knew this life probably wasn't going to end any differently, but she was determined to buy as much time as possible.

Inviting Donald and Terry to bring their families inside Celestine Ridge was a deliberate move.

They were law enforcement, which meant reliable access to insider information from the government and police, and their presence alone would give any raiders with bad intentions serious reason to hesitate.

Survivors on the edge of starvation were dangerous, but most of them wouldn't go after officers of the law unless they had absolutely no other options left.