章 22: Starting a Journey!
編集者: Tehrn
If one only used their naked eyes to look at the scenery, the intense sun that hung high in the sky was no different from any other summer. The dazzling sunlight shined down from the blue skies and only revealed its unspeakable malice when it blazed over the earth.
Shriveled dead bodies covered in burns were found on every single street. Buildings split open under the high heat, and houses made of inferior materials had long disintegrated into small hills of rubble. There were cracks on the ground and occasionally, one could spot a considerably healthy duoluozhong moving around the ruins.
In the short two months, the temperature continued rising every day; and on this day, it was as if all traces of humankind had melted under that heat, it was difficult to believe that this was once a highly developed human civilization.
The air was dry and hot; no one knew where all that moisture went when the lakes and rivers evaporated. As far as their eyes could see, there was not a single bit of greenery left. Every path that it took, the truck would stir up a thick cloud of yellow dust which reached half the height of an adult, making it difficult to see much at all.
Lin Sanjiu was sitting in the driver’s seat and could not resist taking a look at the rearview mirror. Right behind her vehicle was a similar type of large goods truck and then another long public bus, but that was not the focus of her gaze. She narrowed her eyes and looked carefully at the thick column of smoke, in the distance, rising to the air. The place where the smoke rose from was exactly the shopping mall which had housed them for a month.
After living there for such a long time, they finally had to leave… Lin Sanjiu’s train of thought involuntarily drifted back to their situation a month before.
Back then, Lin Sanjiu had unintentionally found the supermarket warehouse which was packed with supplies. They were really ecstatic—even without counting, they knew at one glance that the food and water in the warehouse were certainly sufficient for them to survive for fourteen months. In addition to that, living in that underground supermarket meant that they did not have to worry about the problem of being under direct sunlight, they could even call it a totally ideal situation!
The only problem they had was still that patch of tropical forest in the middle of the mall.
Humans coveted for comfort after all. After the few of them had discussed for a while, they considered their situation and concluded that if there were to lock themselves in the supermarket, that abomination of a tropical forest outside should not be able to do anything to them. Since they had experienced a few days of tense, hair-raising incidents, they had used up a lot of their strength. In the name of recuperation, they decided to make the supermarket their home.
The “recuperation” lasted for two to three weeks. As they did not have to worry about the lack of sustenance, while the shutter door kept out any threats of external enemies, the three of them had the first taste of a somewhat comfortable life in a New World. It was to the extent that after a month, Lin Sanjiu found that she became fatter when she randomly pinched her waist. Honestly speaking, the amount of fats wasn’t that much, but it instantly evoked in her the image of fattened livestock. During that period of time, she did not develop a single new ability, and her movements had also slowed down considerably. Without any sense of crisis, she had even spent a few days just sleeping in the darkness.
If they continued on like this, she knew that it would be detrimental for all of them. After they had discussed about it, they decided that they had to go and patrol the place. Firstly, it was for them to check the situation nearby, and next for them to train themselves. The idea seemed pretty good, but when they opened the metal shutters, the three of them froze.
When the pulled open the shutter, it was around four plus in the afternoon. However, the escalator that led up to the first floor was still shrouded in darkness. Lin Sanjiu looked blankly ahead and asked softly, “Does this mean that the sun sets that early now?”
Luther was speechless. Suddenly, Marcie pointed upward yelling, “Look!” Lin Sanjiu and Luther looked in the direction that she pointed and their guts sunk at once.
They observed a sudden slight movement from the portion of darkness that was covering the escalator as if a reaction from a stimulus. The movement wasn’t their main concern. A little sunlight immediately seeped in revealing the underside of the cover which was an intricate green network of branches, tendrils, and leaves. The three of them finally realized why it was pitch dark outside the metal shutters, it was because the entire area was covered by plants.
Subsequently, there were more movements in the shadow. All sort of large and small, densely-packed green vines started stirring one by one as if they could smell the scent of a human. They crept slowly toward the metal shutter. They did not know who yelled first, but the three of them did not dare to tarry even for a second. They turned and rushed for the supermarket and pulled the shutters down with a clang.
The green vines slammed noisily on the metal shutter. Unexpectedly, multiple bulges appeared on the heavy metal shutter. If they went out a few more times, it certainly wouldn’t hold up much longer.
Once they returned to the supermarket, there was a grim expression on all their faces. None of them expected that their position would change from them making the decision to isolate themselves from the world to becoming trapped here so quickly.
“We can’t stay here any longer…” Lin Sanjiu smiled bitterly, “What should we do now?”
“Even if we leave, we have to bring along the supplies from the warehouse,” Marcie said gritting her teeth tightly.
“It is not difficult to bring those items with us. We can find a few large trucks outside, and we can try to pack as much as we can. The problem now is… how we can actually get out? The only exit had been entirely blocked by those vines,” Lin Sanjiu asked worriedly.
The three of them remained silent for a while. Suddenly, Luther exclaimed, “Ah!” and leaped up like a rabbit. He turned and ran toward the back of the supermarket, yelling at the same time, ”The escalator exit isn’t the only way! Xiao Jiu, bring your keys along! There is still a back door behind!”
His words reminded Marcie of the same thing. She clapped her hands together, and her face brightened, “That’s right! How could I have forgotten!” She pulled Lin Sanjiu along, following quickly behind Luther.
Within a few seconds, they were standing at the back door of the supermarket. Ever since Lin Sanjiu had appeared in the staff room, Luther and Marcie had both completely forgotten about the back door. This was the first time that Lin Sanjiu even knew of the existence of this back door which opened to who knows where.
She prayed silently as she opened the door with her key. The heavens were on their side. The door opened to a narrow slope. Walking down the slope, the few of them found themselves beside a row of large rubbish bins. They were standing at the back side of the shopping mall. Apparently, this was the place where the staff washed their equipment and dispose of their rubbish. After they walked further down, they quickly saw a small road.
When they looked back into the glass windows at the shopping mall now covered in green vines and plants, for the first time in their lives, they could not understand how that small road covered with cracks could look so… cute.
They knew what they had to do next.
Firstly, they had to look for three vehicles. That wasn’t hard at all since 80% of the human population had all died, leaving a city full of abandoned vehicles with empty tanks and working keys in their ignition switch. Without much effort, the three of them found two large freight trucks and a public bus.
They got some batteries from an automobile repair shop and changed those in the vehicles, then they filled up a few jerrycans of petrol. They eventually got the vehicles to work. They drove the three large vehicles into the small road and parked them in a straight line after much difficulty navigating within the narrow confines.
They managed to fill up their vehicles to the brink with food and water. Even after that, there were still a lot of supplies in the warehouse. As the three of them were not greedy, after figuring out that the amount in their vehicles should be sufficient, they laid both sides of the walkway with the remaining supplies for any possible lucky survivors.
Before they left, Lin Sanjiu carried with her a few jerrycans of petrol; Luther and Marcie prepared a full carton of wine.
“Are you ready?” Lin Sanjiu, who had grabbed a piece of brick, grinned at her companions. Seeing their nods, she yelled, “Okay! Let’s start throwing!”
With whooping yells from Luther, bricks, rocks, chairs, and all sort of paraphernalia came falling down like meteor rain upon the shopping mall’s glass windows— enveloped in plants.
A series of bright clear sounds could be heard along half the street as glass fragments fell from mid-air like rain. The dark night was suddenly filled with the shimmering reflections from the glass.
The tendrils and vines that were leaning against the windows suddenly dangled in mid-air as if they were unable to decide who to attack. But before those vines could trace the human scent back to the culprits, bottles after bottles of strong alcoholic beverages, and cans after cans of petrol flew into from the broken windows. In an instant, the plants were splashed with all that accelerants.
The final step of setting the fire required a little more technique. Among the three of them, Marcie was the fastest and lightest. She held four to five lit matches in each hand and raced to the entrance of the shopping mall like a hare. She flung the matches, and they flew and landed into the large patch of greenery.
The flames spread out, hissing and crackling, it was not quick but steadfast. In a short time, the first floor was fully lit up by a sea of red burning flames. Before even burning for five minutes, they heard a sharp shrill from the center of the large hall in the middle of the shopping mall. It sounded as if something was in pain. All the leaves started flailing around crazily.
For whatever reason, Lin Sanjiu suddenly felt a sort of long-awaited ecstasy. She laughed out loud a few time and waved to the two people beside her saying, ”Let’s go!” After that, she turned and was the first person to run out of the road.
After the few of them had ran out of that street, they heard a large “Boom!” The glass ceiling situated on the top floor of the shopping mall collapsed down to the ground due to fire, following which, half the building was totally buried in flames.
They had parked the truck and bus far away from that location earlier. Each of them now drove a vehicle under the remaining starlight just before the sunrise. They hit the road starting on their unknown journey.
Shaking her head, Lin Sanjiu banished the memories of the events that happened last night. She looked at her rear mirror once again with a serious look. She then turned on her tail light, slowed down her vehicle and stopped.
“What’s wrong? Why aren’t we continuing?” Luther winded down his window and shouted loudly in Lin Sanjiu’s direction. Lin Sanjiu opened the truck door and jumped down. She stood in the middle of the road and held a police baton in her hand.
“Someone is following behind us.” She frowned as she braced the yellow dust in the air.
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