When she heard that, Caroline tapped her chin thoughtfully. A mutant panda—and it was pregnant? That immediately grabbed her attention. And while everyone else was running out of bamboo, she still had a lot of it. Just as Alger started guiding Caroline toward their rooms, a loud commotion came from up ahead. The noise sounded familiar to her. It was like the noise she used to hear downstairs at the shelter she had lived in before. Back then, most fights were over supplies or living space. But this time, it sounded different. These were children's voices. Alger sighed. "This whole disaster changed them. The kids are out of control now. They don't remember how life used to be before the apocalypse." That made Caroline suddenly remember the stack of workbooks and school materials that Francis showed her before. Now she understood what was going on. Their rooms were farther inside, so they had to walk through the residential area. Caroline noticed several parents pushing workbooks into their kids' hands, only for the kids to toss them right away. Unfortunately for the kids, the books weren't made of wood pulp anymore. They were made from a new kind of material that didn't tear or break easily. No matter how many times the children threw them, the books bounced back without a scratch. One after another, the kids started losing it. They cried and wailed, shouting that the world had already ended, yet they still had to study and finish homework. "This is so unfair! Why do we still have to do this?" and other complaints like that. Still, a few children valued the chance to learn. They treated it as a way to feel normal again and quietly worked through their pages. As they moved through the residential area, Caroline spotted a face she knew—Zach Thornton. Zach had lived in that old apartment building, too. After Erica got kicked out, he and some others stayed at the shelter, and they were doing all right. This was the first time she had seen him since coming into the base. When Zach noticed Caroline, he quickly looked away, as if he didn't want to meet her eyes. Caroline frowned a little and studied him more closely. His clothes looked nicer than what most people here wore, and they were cleaner, too. Right now, he was handing out workbooks and talking with a few parents, acting very much like a real teacher. Alger saw Caroline watching Zach and explained that the army had hired Zach to teach math. He was the math teacher for the kids at the base. Caroline gave a small nod and didn't pay him any more attention. Still, the way Zach acted just now felt off. Caroline wasn't the only one who saw it. Tyler noticed it too. Tyler's expression darkened a bit, but he didn't say anything and simply walked after Alger. They passed through a few more sections before they finally reached their rooms. All their belongings were in the storage space, so they only took out the basic items they needed. That was enough for now. When Alger came back, they had already finished organizing. They followed him to the lower floors to check out the mutant panda. According to Alger, the lowest floor of the base was where they kept all the animals, along with the army's farm and ranch. The base kept expanding like stacked building blocks, and it would grow even larger with more functions in the future. In the animal area downstairs, Caroline spotted the mutant panda right away. The second she saw it, she froze for a moment. It was a cyan panda. Her eyes were cyan, and every area that should have been black had changed into that same blue color. When the panda realized Caroline was watching, she stared straight back at her. Those cyan eyes showed anger and a wild, uneasy look. Her belly was unusually large and round. If she were a human, she would look like someone seven or eight months pregnant. But pandas... Their babies are tiny. During their evolution, in order to survive and hide from predators, pandas gave birth to cubs that were only the size of a person's palm—tiny and totally out of proportion to the big, chubby bodies they had as adults.Because of that, the cubs had a tough time surviving, which was one reason pandas had become such rare and highly protected animals. And pandas usually only give birth to one cub at a time, so even when they're pregnant, their stomachs don't normally get this big. So for this mutated panda... Did something change in her reproductive system? Compared to her huge belly, the rest of her body looked extremely thin. In her previous life, Caroline had never seen a panda this skinny. When Caroline and the others walked closer, the panda stayed mostly quiet. But the moment Alger stepped near, the panda shot up from the ground and swiped at him, her claws flashing forward like she wanted to attack Alger.