Ninety Days Before The Apocalypse

The Endless Void

"Two hundred boxes of fresh pork belly, sixty cases of live poultry, and five tons of frozen beef ribeye," Lin Feng said, leaning against the cold metal railing of the distribution dock. He tapped his index finger against the digital clipboard provided by the logistics manager. "I need all of it packed into sealed insulated containers and delivered to Warehouse 4 at the East Port industrial park by four o'clock today."

The logistics manager, a burly man named Manager Sun, scratched his stubbled chin and squinted at Lin Feng through the diesel exhaust of a idling delivery truck. "Mr. Lin, no offense, but that is nearly seven hundred thousand yuan worth of meat. We do not usually reserve that kind of stock without a fifty percent cash deposit cleared by the central bank."

"Check your terminal," Lin Feng said softly.

Manager Sun lowered his glasses, grunted, and tapped his screen three times. His jaw went slack as the payment notification flashed bright green across his monitor. "Seven hundred thousand... full payment upfront? Are you opening a chain of hotpot restaurants or something?"

"Something like that," Lin Feng replied, taking his carbon receipt. "Make sure the cold-chain trucks are sealed. I will inspect the load myself before offloading."

Twenty minutes later, Lin Feng pulled his rented black SUV into the wide, quiet bay of Warehouse 4. The concrete facility was completely empty, echoing with the soft hum of the overhead halogen lights.

He walked to the center of the dusty floor, reached into his jacket pocket, and pulled out a freshly boiled pork bun wrapped in a paper napkin. He had purchased it four hours ago from a street stall down the road.

Lin Feng focused his mind on the grey void sitting deep within his consciousness. With a silent flicker of thought, the hot bun vanished from his hand.

He waited. He checked his watch, watching the red second hand sweep around the black face twice. Two full minutes passed.

Lin Feng extended his palm again. The paper napkin reappeared in his hand without a single sound. He unfolded the paper and took a bite. Steam billowed from the center of the bun, the meat filling burning his tongue with the exact same boiling juice it had four hours ago.

"No heat loss," Lin Feng muttered to himself, his chest expanding as a quiet wave of relief washed over him. "No decay. Time inside the space is completely frozen."

Anything he stored in that vast, infinite grey void would remain exactly as it was at the moment of entry. Hot meals would stay piping hot forever. Ice would never melt. Fresh water would never grow stale or breed bacteria.

His phone buzzed in his pocket. He pulled it out and saw an incoming call from an unlisted business number in the neighboring province.

"Hello? Is this Mr. Lin Feng?" a woman's voice chimed through the speaker, crisp and professional. "This is Manager Chen from Northern Spring Bottling Operations. We received your online inquiry regarding bulk distilled water shipments."

"Manager Chen, good afternoon," Lin Feng said, walking back toward his SUV. "I need five thousand ten-liter jugs of purified drinking water and ten thousand cases of five-hundred-milliliter bottled water."

There was a distinct pause on the line, followed by the faint clatter of a pen dropping onto a hard desk. "Five thousand ten-liter jugs? Mr. Lin, that is over fifty tons of water. Our standard municipal delivery contract usually takes two weeks to process that volume."

"I am paying double your standard rate for immediate dispatch," Lin Feng said, stepping into his car and pulling the door shut. "If your trucks can reach my East Port warehouse before midnight tonight, I will add a fifty-thousand-yuan prompt delivery bonus directly to your driver team."

"We will have twelve haulers on the highway within forty minutes," Manager Chen said instantly, her tone shifting from polite to fiercely eager. "I will personally oversee the loading manifest, Mr. Lin!"

"Send me the invoice," Lin Feng said, hanging up.

He pulled up a digital spreadsheet on his phone, scrolling through his meticulously drafted master schedule. He had divided his target inventory into four core categories: calories, thermal preservation, medical supplies, and personal defense. In eighty-nine days, the temperature would plunge past minus sixty degrees Celsius. Money, gold, stocks, and real estate would become worthless rubbish. Only tangible goods mattered.

He drove back to his current apartment complex to grab his remaining financial documents before heading to his next procurement appointment at a medical supply warehouse.

As soon as Lin Feng turned his SUV into the driveway of his building, he spotted a bright yellow sports car parked illegally across two visitor spaces near the entrance lobby.

Su Ming was leaning against the yellow hood, his arms crossed over his chest, wearing a thick designer tracksuit and heavy gold chains. Standing beside him were two stocky young men in black leather jackets, their hands shoved deep into their pockets.

Lin Feng parked his car twenty meters away, killed the engine, and stepped out onto the warm pavement.

Su Ming pushed himself off the car hood and spat onto the clean concrete floor. He marched toward Lin Feng, his face twisted into a snarl of pure arrogance.

"You think you are clever, don't you?" Su Ming yelled, stopping three feet from Lin Feng and pointing a finger at his face. "My sister came home crying because you gave her a piece of paper! Who the hell gave you the nerve to talk to my mother like that at the real estate office?"

Lin Feng stood perfectly still, his hands resting naturally at his sides. He looked at Su Ming's face, remembering how this exact same young man had kicked him in the stomach while he lay dying in the snow, laughing while taking the leather boots off his frozen feet.

"Where is my sister's money?" Su Ming demanded, stepping closer until his chest almost touched Lin Feng's jacket. "She said you sold the Grand Horizon flat! That money belongs to our family! Give me your phone and open your banking app right now before I make you."

"The money is spent," Lin Feng said softly.

Su Ming let out a harsh, disbelieving bark of laughter. "Spent? Four million yuan spent in three hours? Do you take me for a fool?" He turned his head and waved his arm at the two leather-jacketed men behind him. "Brothers, grab his hands! Let us see if his fingers still work after we drag him into the basement!"

The two men stepped forward, reaching out to grab Lin Feng's shoulders.

Lin Feng did not retreat. Instead, he stepped forward into the space between them, his eyes fixing on the heavy iron fire exit door sitting just two meters behind Su Ming.

With a swift, fluid motion, Lin Feng turned on his heel, grabbed his backpack from the SUV, stepped past the three men, and walked directly into the building lobby.

"Hey! Get back here!" Su Ming screamed, lunging after him.

Lin Feng pulled the heavy reinforced steel security door shut behind him. He reached out with his right hand, grabbed the thick steel lock mechanism, and turned the heavy deadbolt into place with a sharp, loud click.

*BANG!*

Su Ming slammed his fist against the shatterproof glass panel of the door, his face pressed flat against the transparent surface, his eyes wide with fury. "Open this door, Lin Feng! You hear me? Open the damn door! I know you are in there! I will wait right here until you come out, and I will break every bone in your hands!"

Lin Feng adjusted his backpack, turned his back on the screaming man, and pressed the button for the elevator.

Through the thick glass, he could hear Su Ming kicking the steel frame over and over again, his curse words echoing faintly through the concrete stairwell.

Lin Feng pulled out his phone, ignored seven incoming text messages from Su Yan, and tapped the contact for a high-end defense engineering firm located downtown.

"Director Zhang," Lin Feng said into the phone as the elevator doors slid open with a soft chime. "I need an elite installation team at the top floor of the North Star Plaza building tomorrow morning. I want Grade-4 armor plating, triple-layer thermal seals, and a self-contained diesel generator system."

"Mr. Lin, that kind of military-grade bunker retrofit will cost at least two point five million yuan," the contractor replied over the line.

Lin Feng stepped into the elevator, turned around, and looked out the hallway window at the yellow sports car sitting below.

"I will pay you three million," Lin Feng said. "If your team finishes in ten days."