The small boats skimmed across the water.
After a long while, the teammate who used to live in Y City said, "Once we reach Y City, there probably won't be any water left. By then these boats and rafts will be useless."
But the Capital city base was still several cities away. The teammate added, "We'll have to reach the base first and find a few vehicles. From there on, we'll probably have to drive."
The real fear was finding no vehicles, which would mean walking the rest of the way. That would be the bleakest outcome.
Captain Zhang thought for a moment, then decided to call the higher-ups on the satellite phone.
Y City's terrain sat higher than the cities they had crossed. When the team from Y City first came to H City, the Extreme Heat had just started and the ice had just melted. Even at low levels, the water was still deep enough for ships to move. Farther bases than that—
There had been none among the teams who came for special training.
Months had passed. Judging by the rainfall then, Y City might really be dry by now. If the water had only recently vanished, that would be alright. It would mean the evacuees had used ships.
A ship could barely carry people from a base, but people plus the base's vehicles would be too much. In other words, if they were lucky, they could still find cars at the Y City base. If unlucky—
Everything outside had been reclaimed clean at the very start of the apocalypse. Even if they wanted to search the open streets, they would have no way to find anything. Without support from above, under this sun, even Captain Zhang himself had no confidence they could reach the Capital city base.
Anything else could wait. But the vaccine they had found in the dense woods—
First, Captain Zhang needed to ask about the road ahead.
—
Captain Zhang's call went through almost immediately.
On the other end, it took a long time before anyone picked up.
He spoke for a long while. Summing up what he learned: every base had evacuated by ship, and at that time Y City still had some water. All subsequent support had been routed through S City.
If things had unfolded that way, then Captain Zhang and everyone else were, in a sense, lucky.
The higher-ups also asked about the creatures in the water. They had expected the team to encounter all sorts of bizarre events and strange things.
Most of those, however, had appeared on the way to the dense woods. On the way back, the water level had dropped, and many creatures were no longer in those waters. Compared to the horrors they had already met, the return trip had been mild.
After a brief exchange, and with confirmation that no assistance could be provided, they had no choice but to make their own way back to the Capital city base.
—
They rowed for several more days. As the waterline fell again and again, the boats finally scraped sight of land.
It was only the very edge of Y City.
The path would be hard, but there was no choice. They abandoned the two boats they could not haul, loaded the essentials onto the lighter inflatable rafts, and pressed forward.
Tasks like that could not fall to Lan Jin. She carried a child. A child could not walk far. After a short distance, Lan Qiaoqiao was in her arms. She had strength to spare, so carrying her was fine. Grandma Ling was another matter. Even if She could walk, no one dared have her trudge the whole way. In the end, Lao Gao carried Grandma Ling on his back.
Everyone else marched under loads.
Daytime marching was manageable. Night made it hard. Even with day and night blurred by the Perpetual Day, people still needed rest, and these were empty stretches of land with nowhere to sleep.
After three more days of misery, they reached an area with houses. Resting there felt like a blessing.
It was only houses. From the far suburbs to the base would still take days.
Lan Jin did the math. From the moment they left the boats to the moment they would reach the base, it would be twenty full days on foot. During those twenty days, temperatures kept rising, with signs they might break eighty degrees.
People were at their limit, and even Nana could not take it, tongue lolling, refusing to move.
They had no choice but to put Nana on an inflatable raft and drag the raft along.
Captain Zhang grumbled more than once. "With this heat, forget the Capital city base. Without a car, we wouldn't even make it to the next base."
Lao Gao sighed. "Exactly. Day and night, the heat never lets up. Forget the Extreme Heat. When does this Perpetual Day end? At least give us cool nights."
Right then Lao Gao was not the one carrying Grandma Ling. Huang Jinghe had switched in for a while. It was not that Lao Gao could not handle the weight, but with another person on his back he was sweltering. Switching with Huang Jinghe gave Lao Gao a chance to breathe.
That was how they moved, trading loads, step by step. Staying alive was hard enough, never mind the number of mutant creatures they ran into along the way.
They came in clumps and swarms. There was not a single quiet day.
They had lived in the apocalypse and would go on living in it. Mutant encounters would become routine. From the first sighting, Lan Jin never hid the creatures from Lan Qiaoqiao. Some things had to be faced sooner or later.
To their surprise, Lan Qiaoqiao was not afraid at all.
Lan Qiaoqiao thought the creatures were adorable.
Lan Jin did not see anything adorable about them. Looking at her own child, Lan Jin felt a twinge of doubt.
The doubt was, of course, about the mind.
Lan Jin had no choice but to trouble Zhou Zhiye again.
Having a psychologist around was, frankly, a blessing.
From then on, Lan Jin allowed her daughter to spend time with Zhou Zhiye. No one was happier than Qiao Qiao about this. Chatting with him during the day wasn't enough; she even wanted to cling to him at night. Only after Lan Jin had coaxed the child to sleep did she finally have a chance to ask Zhou Zhiye, "Does Qiao Qiao have a psychological problem? Is this the fallout from everything that happened before? Can it be treated?"