Chapter 27 Chapter 27 Mountain City
*
The right rear wheel burst, like a deflated ball stuck to the wheel, completely deflated.
The repair tools were complete, but the tire was blown apart, with debris flying everywhere. There was no other way to repair it except to replace the spare tire.
Now comes the question, where does the spare tire come from?
Surrounded by an airtight heat wave, with the broken wheels in front of him, Gu Mengran had a terrible headache. He paced back and forth rubbing his temples, with a lot of resentment that he had nowhere to vent, which eventually turned into a sigh.
"Hey! What's going on?"
Liang Zhao put the jack back into the trunk, lifted his shirt and wiped the sweat off his forehead. Hearing Gu Mengran's sad sigh, he pulled out the anti-skid chain from the trunk and walked quickly to the side of the bus.
After just standing on the side of the road for a few minutes, Gu Mengran's exposed skin became red with heat, his T-shirt, which had not yet dried, became wet again, and his smooth forehead was covered with sweat.
Liang Zhao walked over quickly, without even putting down the anti-skid chains, and took out a pack of napkins from his overalls pocket and handed it to Gu Mengran, "Don't worry, the car can still be driven. You get in the car first, I'll take care of it."
"How do we fix it when it's so rotten?" Gu Mengran took the tissue and wiped his face with it. His eyes glanced at the anti-skid chain in Liang Zhao's hand, and he paused and asked in surprise: "You plan to... put anti-skid chains on the wheels?"
Liang Zhao smiled and nodded, "We are lucky. This long-distance tourist bus has six wheels, and the flat tire happened to be the middle load-bearing balance wheel, so the impact was not too big."
Knowing that Gu Mengran was very curious, Liang Zhao laid the anti-skid chains on the ground while explaining to Gu Mengran: "It's impossible for there to be no impact at all. A flat wheel can't be inflated, so -"
"So just put on anti-skid chains to stabilize the tires and drive it. It's not your car anyway, so you won't feel bad if it gets damaged. Just drive as far as you can." Gu Mengran thought he had guessed the correct answer. His frown slowly relaxed and a smile reappeared in his eyes.
Liang Zhao smiled softly, sorted out the messy anti-skid chains, squatted down and laid them under the wheels, "Congratulations, you guessed it right, the reward is to get in the car and enjoy the air conditioning."
It was such a hot day, Gu Mengran couldn't bear to leave him alone, so he quickly squatted down to help.
Anti-skid chains are difficult to install. Two people first lay the anti-skid chains flat in front of the wheels, and then the driver Liang Zhao gets in the car and starts the vehicle, moving forward slowly until the chains completely wrap around the wheels and the chain is linked end to end.
After struggling for ten minutes, Gu Mengran got up from the ground, sweating all over.
The car door slowly opened, and Gu Mengran exhaled a breath of hot air, ready to return to the embrace of the air conditioner. But he couldn't lift his legs the first time, as if someone had grabbed his ankle, and his body moved before his legs, causing him to almost fall straight down.
Staggering back and forth, trying his best to keep his body steady, Gu Mengran looked down, his pupils full of shock.
It was not the ankle that was being held, but the shoe!
The ground temperature was too high, the soles of my shoes melted and stuck to the ground!!
It wasn't as strong as glue, but Gu Mengran lifted his foot and tried to move it. He had just changed into new sneakers a few days ago... and the soles were brushed.
No wonder the car had a flat tire. The surface temperature is high enough to fry an egg, right?
Gu Mengran returned to the car in a rather embarrassed state, slumped in the seat and pretended to be a corpse. However, before he could catch his breath, he saw Liang Zhao release the handbrake and prepare to start again, so Gu Mengran urgently stopped:
"No, don't leave yet Liang Zhao, come here, come here for a moment."
"What's wrong?" Liang Zhao came quickly and sat next to Gu Mengran as soon as he finished speaking.
"Shancheng cough, cough cough cough..." Gu Mengran was choked by the breath just after he said two words. He coughed so hard that his lungs were broken and he patted his chest.
Liang Zhao quickly took a bottle of mineral water from the luggage rack, unscrewed the cap and patted Gu Mengran on the back until he gradually stopped coughing, then handed him the water.
"I want to ask how long it will take to reach the mountain city?" Liang Zhao sat down again.
Gu Mengran nodded like a chick pecking at rice, sipping mineral water.
"It's probably still about 70 to 80 kilometers," Liang Zhao roughly estimated, and said, "At our current speed, it will take at least three hours. Jincheng is a little closer, so we should be able to arrive in about an hour."
Gu Mengran shook his head: "No, let's go to Jincheng. Three hours is three hours. Let's go to Shancheng."
"Why must it be a mountain city?" Liang Zhao asked another question out of rare curiosity.
Gu Mengran's breathing gradually stabilized. Looking at Liang Zhao, who was puzzled, he couldn't help but teasing, "I can see that you don't go out to play much. The topography of the mountain city is mainly mountains and hills. The unique terrain and unique urban construction method made it very popular on the Internet before. People said it was a 3D magic city.
The same devastating earthquake also hit the helpless cities, all of which were devastated. But I think the situation of the mountain city built on the mountain may be better than other places.”
"That's right. Besides, Shancheng is the city with the most air-raid shelters. It should be quite nice to escape the summer heat there."
Suddenly, he heard his grandfather's voice from behind. Gu Mengran turned around abruptly and saw a group of people gathered behind him. Grandpa, Wei Qianlan, Zhou Qin, and all the adults in the car came over and listened attentively.
You came at the right time. I had no intention of hiding it.
Gu Mengran turned his gaze to Wei Qianlan and Zhou Qin, and asked them softly for their opinions: "The car won't last much longer, we can't go on, we need to stop to find another car, replenish supplies, and let the children have a good rest. I personally prefer the mountain city, what do you think?"
"I think so." Wei Qianlan nodded decisively. "I've been to the mountain city before, and it's similar to what Grandpa Meng said. There are a lot of underground air-raid shelters. If we can find one successfully, it would be nice to escape the summer heat there."
Zhou Qin didn't know much about Shancheng, so she nodded and said, "I'll listen to you. You've been traveling in the hot weather these days, you've worked hard, and the children are tired from riding in the car, so we should find a place to rest."
Everyone agreed, and Gu Mengran clapped his hands immediately, "Then it's settled. Let's go to the mountain city!"
*
Three and a half hours later, after losing the right load-bearing balance tire and the front wheel, the bus shook and bumped all the way into the mountain city.
Yellow fog shrouded the city. Its former glory was gone, tall buildings were reduced to ruins, and the smell of death was everywhere.
Obviously, the mountain city did not meet Gu Mengran's expectations. Although he had not yet entered the deep city, all he could see were ruins, with only a few scattered buildings standing in the devastated ruins.
Now that they were here, the bus was already at the end of its strength and they had no other choice. Gu Mengran could only place his last hope in the underground air-raid shelter.
Less than five minutes after entering the city, the bus was forced to stop on the side of the road.
There were more and more building debris on the road, and the empty road was gradually occupied by "zombie cars". The bus could not go on the road ahead, so they could only walk into the city in the high temperature.
It's fine if we have a destination, at most we'll be hot for a while, but wandering in the ruins with a group of children looking for a bomb shelter...
It doesn’t work, Gu Mengran slapped his forehead.
The bus stopped and Liang Zhao unbuckled his seat belt and walked towards us.
Before he could get closer, Gu Mengran stood up and said solemnly, "I have a task for you, Liang Zhao. You stay in the car and take care of the teachers and children. Grandpa and I will get off and find a place to rest."
He deliberately emphasized the word "take care of" and Liang Zhao understood it immediately. But even though he understood it, Liang Zhao refused without even thinking about it: "No."
The two of them spoke in a loud voice, so others could hear and understand them.
As soon as Liang Zhao refused, Wei Qianlan's voice came from the back of the car: "Gu Mengran, there's no need to leave anyone to take care of us. Zhou Qin and I can take good care of the children. You can go together. We are unfamiliar with the place, and it will be safer with more people."
"Yes, we can do it." Zhou Qin nodded repeatedly, "You guys take some tools to protect yourself and be careful on the road. We'll stay in the car and not go anywhere. Just come back to us when you find a suitable place."
The two teachers spoke calmly, but Gu Mengran's frown never relaxed.
A group of kids, two girls, who can feel at ease?
Liang Zhao had similar ideas to his. After a brief thought, he said to Gu Mengran, "Let Grandpa Meng stay in the car and leave the chainsaw in the trunk for them to defend themselves. The two of us will go out, but don't go too far. Just walk around nearby."
There was a big oven outside the car door, so it was nice to let grandpa stay in to enjoy the cool. Grandpa was old, but he was strong and with weapons, he was as strong as a young man.
Without giving the old man a chance to refuse, Gu Mengran nodded and agreed, "Okay."
After taking out the chainsaw from the "trunk" and distributing it to the three people, Gu Mengran also gave some instructions. Then he and Liang Zhao took out their backpacks, put some food and water in them, took some self-defense tools, put on masks and walked out of the car.
The city was shrouded in yellow fog and was in a dead silence. Not a single sound could be heard in the ruins filled with the smell of death. The sultry high temperature continued to bake, and the heat wave invaded. The rats and cockroaches that survived in the cracks were all extinct.
The main purpose of this trip was to find an air-raid shelter, but they couldn't search through the ruins with their bare hands, so Gu Mengran and Liang Zhao discussed it and set their sights on the few buildings among the ruins.
The buildings that had not completely collapsed stood out like a crane among chickens. They could be seen at a glance without having to look for them specifically. But even so, the two of them walked on the rubble and struggled forward in the high temperature. It took them ten minutes to find a building that was barely accessible.
The once bustling and lively square was buried under a large amount of building debris. The shopping mall standing in it was in ruins. Nearly half of the main building collapsed, like a piece of scattered building blocks, and it was shaky and at risk of a second collapse at any time.
The mall has multiple entrances and exits. Even though the main entrance collapsed, there are still side doors.
Gu Mengran walked closer with hope, ready to go into the mall with Liang Zhao to find out what was going on. If they couldn't find an air-raid shelter, a basement or underground parking lot would be a great choice.
It was midsummer, and a transparent windproof curtain was hung at the entrance of the mall. Gu Mengran was the first to lift the curtain and prepared to enter sideways, but at this moment, an extremely unpleasant stench wafted out from the mall and penetrated the protective mask and hit his nose.
It was a smell that was hard to describe, like a mountain of corpses slowly rotting in high temperatures, with corpse fluid and flesh fermenting together. The disgusting stench rushed straight into one's head, making one dizzy.
The body reacted faster than the brain. Gu Mengran dropped the door curtain and dragged Liang Zhao back. When they were about ten meters away from the entrance of the mall, Gu Mengran took off his mask and breathed in fresh air. "No, no, I think this building will collapse again. Let's not go in. Let's look for something else."
The little face was wrinkled and twisted into a ball, and it was obvious that he was extremely disgusted.
Liang Zhao didn't point it out, and said softly, "Your mask is dirty, change it."
Continuing forward on the rubble, forty minutes later, the two men stopped in front of an upscale residential area that they had once dared not even glance at.
Low-rise buildings collapsed one after another, and high-rise buildings were not spared either. However, the way the residential buildings in this community collapsed was obviously different from other residential buildings. The entire building tilted inward, as if it was cut in half. The residential and commercial buildings along the street were lucky enough to escape the disaster.
The two searched the shops in the community one by one, but found no basement or entrance to the underground garage. They finally found a convenience store, but all the goods in the store had been looted.
Obviously, this place has been searched.
It was getting dark, and Gu Mengran and Liang Zhao did not dare to rush into the community to investigate. They planned to continue searching around and use this place as a backup point.
But just as they walked to the opposite street and were about to leave, Gu Mengran inadvertently looked back. The residential grounds gradually shrank in his sight, and a nearly intact two-story villa hidden in the bushes was revealed.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
