Chapter 403 Commencement
Nicole had a slight hesitation on her face as she stared at the unfinished work she was holding on to. After thinking for a while, she told them, “I still have a little something to finish up. It will be done in an hour. Why don’t you all go ahead and eat? I will come when I am done.”
Instead of forcibly bringing her with them, they only patted her on the shoulder. “Alright. We will be going first then. Good work, Nicole.”
She shook her head and smiled. “It is my duty. Go ahead. I will be there when I am done.”
The researchers then walked out together, leaving Nicole alone at the wide research table.
Now that she was alone, she stared intently at the thing in her hand, and bent her torso slightly as she started fiddling with it.
Some time must have passed by the time she was done, as her waist felt sore when she straightened it.
Even her neck had started hurting as she had lowered her head for an extended time. She only felt more relieved after she reached out and bent her neck while she lightly pounded her waist.
She then wrote down the result of the research she had just done in her notebook.
After letting a relieved sigh at the completed work, she tidied up the desk and left.
Just as she went out the front foot, the entire medical base behind her suddenly had a power outage.
Not that Nicole realized it.
The location of the medical base was on the more remote side. Built against a mountain, the medical base initially had a canteen and dormitory to give the researchers easy access to rest and meals.
However, due to the heavy rain the day before yesterday, the canteen and dormitory were partially damaged by rocks that were washed down from the mountain.
Even though the building wasn’t completely destroyed as it had a solid build, no one stayed there for safety’s sake. The base had arranged two shuttle buses to pick them up and send them home to rest.
After Nicole left the medical facility, she looked up at the sky to gauge the weather.
It was still the afternoon, but the sky had already turned dark and was showering a dense, yet light drizzle.
There was hardly anyone in the medical base when she came out because of the drizzle. It looked like Nicole was the only one here at a glance of the huge base.
She then quickly jogged back to her car to drive off to the nearest restaurant, which would take her about 20 minutes to arrive.
She would often forget to have her meals while researching the vaccine.
With her stomach empty, she started the engine and headed to the restaurant.
There was only a narrow road leading to the outside, but a layer of cement road had been paved for convenience going in and out.
After she drove out for less than 10 minutes, she suddenly hit the brakes when she saw the tree trunk blocking her path in the middle of the road.
She couldn’t help finding it bizarre.
Why would there be a tree trunk in the middle of the road when it is only drizzling?
On the other side of the tree were the other people from the base. After seeing them, she finally realized why they weren’t back after being out for such a long time. It turned out they were blocked by the tree trunk.
They started waving at Nicole when they saw her. “Nicole!” They then yelled, “We can’t drive over with the tree in the middle of the road. We couldn’t move the trunk at all when we tried earlier.”
As Nicole stepped forward and looked at the root of the tree, she could tell that something was wrong after she glanced at it. The tree didn’t fall naturally—someone had put it there.
After thinking about it for a while, she suddenly seemed to think of something, and she quickly suggested, “Do you want to climb over so that I can take you back to the research facility? We can get an excavator to remove the tree afterward.”
The people on the other side mulled over her suggestion for a moment before they agreed with what she said. Seeing as to how the rain was only getting heavier, they would be drenched if they continued to stay here.
Nicole then took them back to the base, and that was when they found that the power had gone out at some point. The fingerprint door lock couldn’t be opened as well.
When they asked the security guard guarding the place, he also only said that he didn’t know the reason for the sudden power outage. He did reassure them that he had been staying by the door the whole time after the electricity went out, and that no one had entered nor left the place.
