Chapter 25 Lin Jiaojiao's Family

The hope brought by the broadcast and the shadow of material shortages had not yet dissipated when another, more irresistible and chilling threat quietly bared its fangs—time.

The apocalypse arrived in the sweltering July, and now, nearly two months later, the calendar has silently turned to September.

Although the blood-red sky distorted the normal sunlight, it could not stop the ironclad law of the changing seasons.

Inside the air-raid shelter, the originally stuffy and humid air began to exude a subtle, autumnal coolness.

Especially at night, the wind blowing in from the ventilation vents carried a distinct chill, making the ordinary survivors, thinly dressed and huddled on the cold ground, shiver.

Winter is coming.

This realization is more chilling than any zombie's roar.

In a post-apocalyptic world where order has collapsed and infrastructure has been completely paralyzed, everyone knows what winter means.

That will be an absolute season of death.

Without heating and lacking warm clothing, the air-raid shelter, this huge stone cave, would become an icebox. Freezing to death would become a more direct threat than starvation or disease.

Searching in the wild will become extremely difficult; the ground is frozen, surviving vegetation is dying, and water sources are frozen. The already strained supply lines to the safe zone will be completely cut off.

No one knows what effect low temperatures will have on zombies. Will they become sluggish, or... will they undergo an even worse mutation?

Trekking 500 kilometers through freezing snow? Will the vehicle even start? Are the roads covered in ice and snow? How will you stay warm in the open? This is tantamount to suicide.

"We must leave before winter comes!"

This thought was no longer a choice made after weighing the pros and cons, but a scream of the survival instinct. It was like a cold noose around the neck of every survivor who still had the ability to think, and it was slowly tightening.

In compartment 7 of area B, the restless excitement, tinged with anticipation, that arose from the news from Dawn Base was now replaced by a colder, more urgent panic.

Zhou Min stared at her crudely hand-drawn calendar, her face pale, her fingers clenching so hard they almost pierced the paper: "It's September... at most a little over a month before the temperature drops completely. We must set off within a month, at most a month and a half!" Her voice had lost its usual composure, trembling slightly.

Time has become the cruelest enemy.

Lin Yan suddenly stood up and paced restlessly in the small cubicle, her heavy military boots making a dull thud on the ground.

"Damn it! This awful weather!" She slammed her fist on the wooden plank next to her. "I can't dawdle any longer! Find a car, find gas, find food! Anyone who stops me, I'll chop them up!" The threat of winter had completely unleashed the violence and decisiveness in her personality.

For her, staying to wait for death was not as good as fighting for a chance to live.

Even the hooded woman showed obvious unease for the first time. She wrapped herself up tighter and hugged herself, as if to ward off the invisible chill.

She would occasionally look up, peering through the thick canvas towards the entrance. Her gaze was no longer purely indifferent, but tinged with a hint of fear of the impending bitter cold.

Ruan Ning quietly felt the coolness in the air seep into her skin; her water-based ability made her exceptionally sensitive to changes in temperature and moisture. She sensed more clearly than others that the season capable of freezing everything was approaching step by step.

“Winter…” she murmured to herself. This was not only a test of the environment, but also a proving ground for her water-based abilities.

Water freezes at low temperatures. Will her superpowers be affected? Or... will she gain new insights from this? For example, how to condense water into ice?

This thought sparked a thought in her mind. But right now, survival was more important.

Time has become the scarcest resource. Previous discussions about routes, intelligence, and cooperation must now be subject to a harsh time constraint.

“Zhou Min,” Ruan Ning began, her voice as calm as ice, “we need to get everything we need to leave as quickly as possible. Intelligence, routes, vehicles, supplies… adjust priorities, everything should be lightweight, quick, and cold-resistant.” She looked at Lin Yan, “Lin Yan, for missions, we should favor those that can directly obtain fuel, vehicle parts, and high-calorie food that can be stored for a long time.”

Her plan was clear and calm, as if the threat of winter was just another project on her to-do list.

This composure subtly calmed the somewhat flustered Zhou Min and anxious Lin Yan.

“Okay!” Zhou Min nodded vigorously and immediately unfolded her map and notebook again.

"Understood!" Lin Yan stopped in her tracks, her eyes flashing with a fierce light, already regarding the upcoming search mission as a life-or-death battle.

Compared to the air-raid shelter in the western district where Ruan Ning lives, the situation in the security zone of the logistics park in the northern district is deteriorating.

Management was practically paralyzed, and the law of the jungle, where the strong prey on the weak, was on full display. Lin Jiaojiao's family was at the very bottom of this food chain.

The deepening chill of September was particularly palpable in this area comprised of corrugated iron shipping containers and drafty shantytowns.

They didn't have enough warm clothes, so they could only wrap themselves in layers of rags and plastic bags they had picked up, and their teeth chattered from the cold at night.

Food rationing has long been a dead end. They can only rely on the rotten vegetable leaves and moldy bread crumbs that Lin Wanyun and Lin Jiaojiao secretly hide when sorting garbage, or the expired pet food that they occasionally find that others have overlooked, to fill their stomachs.

Ruan Chenyang tried to go out and find work again, but failed repeatedly due to physical exhaustion and being ostracized by others. He could only huddle in a corner, his eyes growing increasingly gloomy.

The harsh environment, malnutrition, and inner turmoil caused all three family members to fall ill.

Lin Jiaojiao had a persistent low-grade fever and a persistent cough; Lin Wanyun's hand wound, which she had cut while sorting garbage, began to fester and ulcerate, emitting a foul odor; Ruan Chenyang suffered from gastrointestinal problems, experiencing diarrhea and weakness.

Without medicine or doctors, they could only tough it out, feeling their life slipping away in despair.

In order to survive, they had long since abandoned all their past dignity.

Lin Wanyun had to endure even more blatant harassment and groping from the low-level leaders who controlled the supplies in order to occasionally get a small piece of food that was relatively clean. Lin Jiaojiao's once beautiful face was now covered with grime and a sickly flush; her eyes, which had been full of smugness and calculation in her past life, were now only numb and occasionally flashed with resentment.

They even have to argue and shove each other with other people from the same social class over a small, relatively dry place to sleep or an empty can.

Tormented by hunger, cold, and illness, their "concern" for Ruan Ning became even more distorted and desperate.

“That damned girl… she must be dead…” Lin Jiaojiao cursed weakly between coughs, but her tone no longer contained the resentment she had before; it was more like a powerless venting.

She would occasionally touch her empty wrist, her eyes glazed over, always feeling as if she had lost something important that originally belonged to her.

While enduring the excruciating pain from the wound on her hand, Lin Wanyun muttered viciously, "She's our nemesis! If it weren't for her, we wouldn't be in this state! She's probably enjoying herself somewhere, that heartless bastard!"

Her resentment deepened, and she blamed all her misfortunes on Ruan Ning, as if this could alleviate her pain and helplessness.

Ruan Chenyang was mostly silent, but occasionally when he was woken up by the cold or pain in the middle of the night, he would stare at the dark and cold container roof and mutter to himself, "Xiao Ning... Dad was wrong... If you are still alive, please save us..." This was a final flicker of humanity after despair, a plea to abandon all self-respect.

But this faint regret and hope are quickly overwhelmed by the cruelty of reality and one's own deep-rooted selfishness, turning into sour grapes thinking that "she must not be doing well either."

They also gleaned glimpses of news about "Dawn Base" and other large safe zones from the jumbled radio waves and rumors.

“Dawn Base…” A spark briefly ignited in Lin Wanyun’s eyes, but it quickly died down. “It’s so far… how are we going to get there? We can’t even get out of this godforsaken place…”

"What's the point of going?" Lin Jiaojiao coughed, her tone full of sarcasm. "In our condition, we'd just be the lowest of the low! It's better to..." She didn't finish her sentence, but a gloomy feeling of complete resignation permeated the air.

Heading to a large base was not a hope for them at this moment, but a distant dream they dared not even imagine. They were like trapped beasts sinking deeper and deeper into the mud, their strength to struggle rapidly fading away.

The cold winter has not yet officially arrived, but their lives seem to have entered a harsh winter ahead of time.

Unbeknownst to them, Ruan Ning, whom they both cursed and occasionally longed for, was in another safe zone, preparing fervently for a "dawn" they dared not even imagine, and growing ever stronger.

The irony of fate is that just as Ruan Ning was sharpening her claws and preparing to embark on her journey, Lin Jiaojiao's family was about to lose even the right to become an obstacle in her path.

They are slowly sliding towards the edge of complete elimination in this cruel sieve of the apocalypse.