When she came out of the shower, everything outside was quiet. Stella Sterling pulled out her laptop and started downloading all sorts of movies and novels onto some phones. She had the phones from that group of bald thugs and planned to load them all up with things to pass the time. When she was cooped up alone, they would be her mental sustenance.
On her own phone, she made sure to download offline maps and a ton of popular science articles.
When she turned on the bald man's phone, messages flooded in. A quick glance revealed most of them were from Yara Sterling, with a few from his friends.
From Yara Sterling's messages, it was clear she was growing more and more anxious.
Tossing it aside, Stella Sterling paid it no mind. It wasn't time to deal with Yara Sterling yet. She would teach that woman a harsh lesson in due time. She wanted to make her suffer immensely before letting her die.
Outside, there was another knock on the door. Stella Sterling checked the camera and saw it was her neighbor from 2809, across the hall.
She opened the door. "Can I help you?"
"Oh, so you are home. Why didn't you open the door when people were knocking so hard just now? I heard the person who fainted was your mother. How can you be so cold-blooded!"
The neighbor from across the hall was a young woman in her twenties, about the same age as Stella. The moment the door opened, she unleashed a barrage of accusations, all but pointing a finger in her face.
Stella Sterling frowned. "What's it to you? Mind your own business!"
'What a bizarre person.' In her past life, she hadn't interacted much with these neighbors. After the apocalypse arrived, everyone did what they had to for survival; it became impossible to tell who was good or bad.
'And here I was, wondering what she wanted. Turns out she's just crazy.'
Stella silently cursed her bad luck and went to shut the door, but the other woman's hand shot out to block it. "What is wrong with you? I'm not done talking, you—"
Without waiting for her to finish, Stella suddenly shoved the woman hard with both hands, sending her stumbling back several feet. The woman let out a sharp cry. Ignoring her ugly, incredulous expression, Stella SLAMMED the door with a deafening bang. The young woman jumped in fright again. She stared blankly at the closed door and muttered to herself, "This person... how can she be so aggressive, so unreasonable!"
She got up, rubbing her backside, and took two steps forward, about to start banging on Stella's door again. Today, she was determined to lecture her on why a person shouldn't be so cold and heartless.
Just then, a man rushed out of her apartment. He hurried over, grabbed her before she could move forward, and started pulling her back. "Come on, let's go. You can tell those people are trouble. Just stay out of their business and live your own life. Let's go!"
He kept trying to reason with her as he dragged her back home, while the young woman continued to mutter something, clearly unwilling to give up. In the end, her strength was no match for the man's, and he managed to drag her back into their own apartment.
Once it was quiet outside again, Stella took off her headphones. 'What a weird neighbor,' she thought, feeling a bit exasperated.
'She should be grateful we're still living in a civilized society. Otherwise, with that kind of meddling, she'd probably get hacked to death!'
She stretched languidly. 'You know, I'm actually a pretty good person,' she mused. 'To be yelled at like that and still hold back enough to just give her a shove... I have such a great temper!'