Chapter 39: The Logistics Park Is the Great Snowfield
1304 Words
For those living in the apocalypse, today's news was a bit of good fortune.
The snow had stopped.
Although the temperature hadn't risen, the cessation of snow meant that many people no longer had to worry about waking up to find their homes buried under layers of snow, or worse, suffocating in their sleep due to lack of oxygen.
Once again prepared, Zhou Lin headed out.
He had just contacted Huang Mengying, and she was ready too.
Dehydrated vegetables might not seem too important right now, but as time passed, their significance would only grow.
After passing through the underground garage, Zhou Lin finally took out his "sled," as the elevator was out of service again. He wasn't foolish enough to carry a suitcase as tall as half a person up the stairs.
"Cold-weather suit, snow boots."
In the empty lobby, Zhou Lin opened the "sled" and took out the supplies he had prepared for Huang Mengying.
"Thank you so much," Huang Mengying said, a little emotional. Although they only had a cooperative relationship, women were often more emotional, easily stirred by acts of kindness, so much so that one might make promises like "I can never repay you in this life, but in the next, I'll serve you like a horse" or "I offer myself to you."
They exited the lobby, and on the way to the community gate, a security guard saw them and immediately notified Shao Hang.
"The Zhou kid, what's his name again?" Shao Hang thought for a moment, "Are they going to gather supplies?"
"Forget it, let's see if they can come back first."
The community gate was locked, but there was a small iron gate nearby that could be opened from the inside.
As they passed through the small gate, Zhou Lin suddenly looked back. Though everything around him was dim, he had the unsettling feeling that someone was watching from the shadows.
It must be Shao Hang, or maybe the property management staff.
Zhou Lin didn't think much of it. He just didn't want to expose himself too much at this moment, but if anyone dared to provoke him or his family, like the last group that tried to block his way, he wouldn't hold back.
Huang Mengying's line of sight was limited. Zhou Lin refused to use a flashlight or emergency lights, as that would expose them.
"How are we supposed to walk if we can't see anything?"
"Sit on this." Zhou Lin pointed to the "sled" on the ground. He had calculated the distance between them and the warehouse, considering Huang Mengying's speed and stamina, and the result was discouraging—without considering the time spent at the warehouse, it would still take at least twelve hours.
That was unacceptable to Zhou Lin.
So the best solution was for him to drag Huang Mengying along. With his strength and stamina, he could shorten the time to eight hours. Then Zhou Lin thought of skis.
As someone from the south, he had never skied before.
It wasn't until the last apocalypse that he learned about survival.
Wearing skis significantly increased his speed, but only someone like Zhou Lin, with both strength and skill, could drag a simple "sled" while skiing quickly.
During the day, the faint light filtering through the dust clouds wasn't enough for an average person to see, but Zhou Lin could make out things within a hundred meters. Forget skiing, with this visibility, he could drive!
The reason he didn't push himself to his physical limits was that the wind was too strong.
Zhou Lin could handle it while moving, but Huang Mengying, who was inside the sled, was nearly buried in it and was still shivering with cold.
"Stop, stop for a moment!"
Half an hour later, Huang Mengying's trembling voice called out. She felt that if they didn’t stop and let her warm up, she would freeze stiff before reaching the logistics park.
"We’ve probably covered a third of the distance." As Zhou Lin spoke, a long stream of white vapor shot out from his mouth like a winding jade dragon, gradually dissipating into the cold air.
"Fast, aren’t you tired?" Huang Mengying asked.
"Not really." Zhou Lin popped a chocolate bar into his mouth. The biggest similarity between evolved humans and those with abilities was their insatiable hunger. When they weren't moving or using their powers, it wasn't so bad, but as soon as they started moving or using abilities, they became like food-consuming machines, sometimes even eating non-stop.
Sometimes, Zhou Lin felt that not everyone should become an evolved or powered person—perhaps that was a form of protection for the world. After all, there weren’t enough resources to sustain all the evolved humans and ability users.
Looking at the map, Zhou Lin figured they were near a commercial center. The iconic two tall buildings were less than fifty meters away, and since they were commercial office buildings, he assumed the people there had evacuated after the disaster. He hadn’t seen a single light behind any of the glass windows.
Suddenly, Zhou Lin thought of the official shelters.
In his past life, he hadn’t been to Jazhou, so he didn’t know the exact locations of the official shelters. However, as a local, he could guess a few likely spots, because those areas had long been famous for their civil defense works. Two of them had even been developed into underground shopping malls.
In addition to these "large" shelters, places like hospitals and state-owned factories had their civil defense works, which, as long as they weren’t demolished or filled in, could still serve as shelters. After all, they were designed to withstand a potential nuclear war!
If they could resist nuclear devastation, surely low temperatures wouldn’t a problem.
Ultimately, the real cause of the large population decrease was the lack of resources.
So, aside from those dehydrated vegetables, Zhou Lin had his plans for this trip to the logistics park.
But he would avoid Huang Mengying when the time came.
As for the space-related matters, the Zhou family kept it a secret—no one knew, not even Wu Xue.
Perhaps, only when ability users began to appear, would others be deemed worthy of knowing this greatest secret.
"Alright, I think I can go on now."
They continued their journey, stopping once more to let Huang Mengying catch her breath. By noon, Zhou Lin saw the row of flagpoles at the entrance of the logistics park.
The thirty-meter-high flagpoles still had less than two-thirds visible in the air. The flags that once flew there were surely gone, but the poles still stood tall, as though they existed solely to mark the logistics park's presence.
But apart from the flagpoles, all Zhou Lin could see was an endless, white snowfield, like the northern landscape described in poetry.
It sounded beautiful, romantic even, but neither of them had the mood to appreciate it at this moment.
"Let me think about the location. How deep do you think it is down there?"
After parking the sled near the flagpoles, Huang Mengying stood up and turned on her flashlight.
"More than ten meters. The height of the logistics park's warehouses is about nine meters."
"I'm curious, how did you see anything along the way?" This was a question Huang Mengying had been curious about for a while.
"Maybe it’s because I like fish." Zhou Lin answered without hesitation.
Who would believe that?
It didn’t matter, Zhou Lin believed it himself.
He certainly wasn’t about to be sliced up by Huang Mengying over this.
"Let’s just check the map."
A few minutes later, Zhou Lin wasn’t sure Huang Mengying could find the dehydrated warehouse's exact location in the vast snowfield. It would be a waste of time and energy if they just randomly guessed.
- Writer
