Chapter 162: Plateau Destruction
This was a very ordinary day for all the residents on the raft. After more than ten days of living here, the new guests had gradually gotten used to the pace of life on the raft.
Especially Liu Shuang's family and Han Lan's parents, they truly understood why their families insisted on bringing them to settle on the raft, and why they did not explain everything in detail in advance.
This drifting island, made up of several rafts, is a small world of its own.
In this small world, there are no disasters and it is far away from the complicated disputes among people. Although they are drifting in the most dangerous deep waters, neither hurricanes nor heavy rains can attack the raft they are on. This is a paradise far beyond their imagination.
They also don't have to worry about the shortage of supplies, because there are more kinds of vegetables and fruits here than on land, and there are even bookstores and parks. Liu's mother can't remember how long it has been since she and Liu's father took a leisurely walk in the small park near their home after dinner.
Sand City is overcrowded, residential buildings are overcrowded, the sky is always cloudy and rainy, and everywhere is wet. Even newly built houses with moisture-proof materials will still become damp and moldy in a short time. Sand City's original biggest advantage - safety - no longer exists after the previous Sand City riots.
In such an environment, how could they have the mood to take a walk after dinner?
But on the raft, they didn't have to worry about anything. Every part of the raft made them happy and joyful. It was fresh and clean everywhere. They didn't have to worry about any new disasters falling from the sky. They felt like enjoying life again.
The hotel added two new employees, Tang Li and Zhang Jun, who had helped the hotel before. Lu Zheng didn't want them to be employees right away, as he felt it was a bit forced, but they were so hardworking and helped every day that he couldn't persuade them, so Lu Zheng finally hired them.
When Shu Fu released the voice announcement for the entire raft, those who were on duty were working diligently at their respective posts, while those who were resting stayed on their favorite rafts and relaxed.
But Shu Fu rarely issued such emergency meeting notices. They thought that some terrible disaster was about to happen in the nearby waters, so they immediately dropped what they were doing and rushed over.
Half an hour later, after learning about the situation on the Northland Plateau, all the raft residents gathered in the milk tea shop expressed their support for the raft to go to the Northland Plateau.
Now that Shu Fu's raft has a shelter with such a complete protection mechanism, it is easy to use it as a ferry to help people over there evacuate from the abandoned city in the shallow water area to the vicinity of the giant ship.
If it is just a temporary ferry, the survivors don't even need to collect the wristbands. For short trips, they just need to stay in the lobby area of the shelter.
Since everyone had the same idea, Shu Fu quickly ended the meeting and returned to the Drifting Island House to set a new destination.
Fortunately, the raft had no plans for long-distance travel before. At this moment, the waters where the raft is located are about 4,000 kilometers away from the Northland Plateau. At the raft's normal maximum speed, it will arrive in about 40 hours.
She felt that this was just the right time. By then, the "Dawn" and "Morning Star" should have arrived near the Northland Plateau, and the psychic rafts and speedboats that were heading to the shallow water abandoned cities to pick up people must have also been dispatched.
Liu Shuang told her that those who work for the government have very good treatment and freedom. Some of them have different personalities and preferences. The container houses that are usually built on the front deck and can be used to transport freight are all very strange. Some like to make them look like carriages, some like to make them into round "big diesel barrels", and some will paint this part of the building black...
In this way, the shelter behind her raft can be seen to be integrated from the outside and can blend in with the crowd.
As for whether the survivors there would be able to successfully get to the shelter, or whether they would notice something was wrong after entering the shelter, it was not within their consideration, because it was just a temporary ferry, and they did not need to show up. Those who believed in it would get on, and those who got to the shelter would be sent directly to the side of the giant ship to unload the "people".
Moreover, Liu Shuang knew that Shu Fu had worked as a "ferryman" in the Northern Plateau and was very familiar with the area, so this trip could be considered a return to her "old business".
**
Two days later, Northland Plateau.
The location where the "Dawn" and "Morning Star" are now anchored is the former Qinghe waters. Now the Qinghe River has completely disappeared and merged with large areas of deep water to the south and east.
To the north of this body of water is the shallow water area of the Northland Plateau and the remains of the abandoned city. At this moment, in front of a cabin opened at the bottom of the side of the two giant ships, the rafts and speedboats of the psychics are entering and exiting this open hole.
This part of the cabin was originally the ship berthing area, and the inside of the hull was similar to an open dock. The boats and rafts that picked up the survivors could directly enter the cabin from this opening, unload the personnel inside, check and fill up the boat or raft's fuel, and set off again.
In addition, there are some helicopters taking off and landing on the platforms on both sides of the top of the giant ship. They are to pick up survivors with special conditions: patients with limited mobility, elderly people, survivors who lost their limbs in the struggle for power...
This time, the authorities took personal action and put all their efforts into this massive rescue operation, so as to leave no one behind.
The Northern Plateau also knew that this was their most important and only chance to leave the sinking land, so they worked very hard when compiling the list of evacuees and reported many survivors with special circumstances, which led to such a grand rescue scene at this moment.
Somewhere on the shallow waters of the Northland Plateau, Shu Fu's drifting island house was towing the raft and shelter behind it towards a town farther away.
On the tablet in her hand, there was a list of survivors in need of rescue that Lan Lan had obtained not long ago. It was a rough list, mainly listing which abandoned towns still had survivors and the approximate number of survivors.
The list was naturally provided by the Northern Plateau. After Lan Lan got it, she combined the list with the remaining land of the Northern Plateau. What was finally presented to Shu Fu was a very intuitive real-time map of urban rescue.
As long as she is equipped with a satellite network card and connected to the network, this map will continue to update.
Which city is being rescued, which city is waiting, how many people are left in which city...all can be displayed clearly through real-time graphs.
She is not a real rescue team and will not receive operational commands or be deployed in real time, but with this real-time map data, her actions and purposes immediately become clear.
The shelter looked slightly larger than an ordinary raft, but certainly not as big as the string of large and small towing rafts in front. She could not enter some narrow waterways, such as a city that had already been flooded. She could not take this string of rafts through the streets of the city. Only small speedboats like the official rescue team could do it.
Fortunately, the area in need of rescue was large, and she could choose a town that her raft could reach to ferry people to rescue.
Before setting off this time, she contacted Liu Shuang and Cheng Yu Han Lan, but unfortunately both of them were out of contact, probably on a mission. So they didn't know whether the other party would participate in the official migration rescue operation. Liu Shuang was more experienced and felt that they would not.
Although the migration and rescue mission is time-consuming, labor-intensive, and involves certain risks, it is not a high-risk battle after all. With Cheng Yu and Han Lan's abilities, there are other missions in Xizhou Province that require their participation.
Along the way, some friends stood on the second-floor terrace of the Drifting Island House, and some stood in front of the fence facing the outside of the hotel deck, all checking the surrounding situation.
They knew that the situation in the Northland Plateau was dire, but they had not expected such a dilapidated, lifeless, doomsday scene.
Many buildings here could not withstand the long-term attack of wind, rain and hail, and collapsed, with the furniture inside exposed outside, and soon became black and dilapidated like the walls outside. This may have been someone's safe home, but now it is entangled by wild weeds and vines because no one has set foot here or cleaned it.
There were piles of rotting black garbage and wildly growing green plants everywhere, like the ruins of a city on a planet that they had seen in the video before, many years after humans had completely disappeared.
They couldn't imagine that in a place like this, there were still many people trying to survive, which made them suddenly feel that the crowded, cramped, damp and moldy buildings in Xizhou Province were not so unbearable.
Compared with the survivors on the Beidi Plateau, those who evacuated to the Fengshang Plateau early can really be said to be very lucky.
The raft passed through the abandoned city area that had been completely flooded, and then stopped at the water's edge in another area of the city with higher terrain. Not far ahead was one of the official boarding points for the city. Although it was not yet the official boarding time, many survivors were already standing in line in the heavy rain with their luggage on their backs, waiting.
It was quite noisy on the shore, after all, there were too many people. At this moment, the protective cover of the shelter was open, so people on the shore could not notice this uniquely shaped shelter.
Inside the house, Shu Fu and Liu Shuang were doing the final inspection. The shelter has not yet hired an "executive" because it is not needed at the moment.
All wristband redemption machines have been locked by Liu Shuang in the control room, so there will be no situation where someone accidentally receives a wristband and becomes a refugee.
Although the ferrying of survivors this time is a short distance, it still takes one to two hours, so Shu Fu asked Liu Shuang to unlock the drinking water outlet on the food dispenser so that survivors who have not yet obtained wristbands can also get water from it.
It was her custom to provide free water to the ferry survivors.
The source of drinking water in the shelter is purified water. As long as there is water in the water tank, drinking water can be provided continuously.
Shu Fu also put up signs and posted notices at several drinking water outlets, which read: Bring your own cups and use as needed.
Because this time they were in the official rescue raft, Shu Fu was not afraid of someone looking for trouble like she did when she was doing the last upgrade task of the level 5 raft. After all, in the eyes of the survivors, this was an official rescue raft, and everyone had been looking forward to the rescue with great difficulty. They would not be so ignorant as to add another bad record to themselves before registering their identity information on the ship.
In addition, because there was no one to guide them, and they were afraid that the survivors would not be able to figure it out, they posted papers written in conspicuous colored pens on the windows of the shelter rooms, writing down the process of entering the shelter: Go up to the curved deck, enter from the sliding door, full capacity 128 people, leave when full, queue up in an orderly manner, don't crowd to avoid falling into the water. Free drinking water is provided in the lobby!
When Shu Fu was writing these papers, Liu Shuang was laughing beside him: "The inheritance of the sacred mini raft?"
Shu Fu: ...
Liu Shuang added: "But it's good, clear and concise, easy to understand at a glance."
Everything was ready, and the two of them returned to Liu Shuang's raft along the water channel. Liu Shuang entered the attic of the cabin and turned on all the surveillance cameras, intending to grasp the entire situation of the shelter from a God's perspective, as well as control the opening and closing of the shelter's protective cover, fence and sliding door.
Shu Fu was standing next to the fence at the rear of the raft. From this position she could clearly see the shelter behind, but the people in the shelter could not see her because she was in an area invisible to them.
Apart from her, most of the other friends had also come. It was the first time the shelter was used and everyone was very curious.
Shu Fu carried a walkie-talkie with him. When he heard Liu Shuang say that the protective shield of the shelter had been closed, he took out the map panel from the bracelet and controlled the raft to move slowly forward towards the boarding point.
The process of transporting people went more smoothly than Shu Fu had imagined. Just as she herself said, any boats or rafts that appeared nearby would be regarded as official rescue operations.
Although the raft that appeared in front of them looked very different from the rafts of the mutants they had seen before, and the arrival time was much earlier than previously notified, the entire Northland Plateau was now carrying out rescue boarding operations. The survivors on the shore did not suspect anything, but they all stared at the round raft on the water that looked like an Eskimo hut in a daze for a moment.
Soon, some sharp-eyed people noticed the colorful notices pasted on the small windows and couldn't help but whisper to each other.
"Can we go inside? Isn't it said that the cabin on the raft is only open to psychics and their families?"
"What? If we can go in, can't we just stand outside on the deck?"
"No, I contacted a friend from another town in the internet room before I came here. He said that these people with special abilities were officially recruited, so the rafts have been modified and processed. Not only are they fast, but they also have container houses installed on the front deck for people to stay in. But I haven't heard that they also provide free drinking water..."
"Front deck? Uh... is this half-sphere-shaped house the front deck or the raft cabin of the psychic?"
"No, didn't you guys realize the point? The note says it's fully occupied with 128 people! But look at this small round house, it can't hold so many people!"
"No way, the house and the deck combined can hold 128 people at the same time!"
"Then what are you still standing there for? Get on the raft and go inside. Otherwise, it will be full and you will have to stand on the deck! We are far away from the ship. We have been soaked by the rain all the way here, but it is not as safe as staying inside!"
…
While some people were still muttering to themselves, others had already strode onto the wooden deck of the outer circle of the spherical cabin, and quickly found the open wooden sliding door. Then they walked down the steps inside the door, down to the aisle, and finally entered an extremely spacious arc-top hall.
Because the shelter was to be used, the raft at trailer position 7 had already been replaced with an "electric energy" raft, so the lights inside the shelter were all on. In addition to the brightness of the lights, the skylights on the top of the hall also let in the outside light. The combination of the two lights made the entire hall extremely bright.
The hall also has log-colored floors and walls, and every detail is clean and bright, looking as fresh as new.
The survivors walked down the steps one by one into the shelter. No matter what their expressions were before entering the house, they all had the same shock after entering. But this time, because they were on the raft of the superpowers, they didn't even whisper to each other, and they all exchanged glances and sighed with each other.
——The inside of the house is actually much bigger than it looks from the outside! This psychic's raft house is so high-end!
——Is this really the raft of the superpowers? Are we really in?
——It’s so cool and dry in here, Oh my god, I can finally take off my raincoat!
——Did we make the ground dirty?
——This machine really has water! Is it really provided for free?
…
While the survivors in the hall of the shelter were sighing in shock, the survivors standing on the circular deck outside were also sighing in shock.
"The shape of this raft is really unique! It looks like a flying saucer floating on the water!"
"Wait - it's moving! Look - that fence over there is closed! It's automatic!"
"Is it because it's full? But there aren't many people on the deck. Where are the others?"
…
The survivors on the deck quickly found out where the others were. Some survivors who had already entered the shelter found that their companions were still outside, so they went up the aisle steps, walked out of the sliding door, and called their companions.
As more and more people called out, the other survivors who were originally on the deck also followed into the round hut.
Soon, all the survivors on the deck entered the cabin. At the other end of the water passage that they could not see, Liu Shuang, who was sitting in front of the display screen in the attic, drank coffee and clicked somewhere on the screen, closing the sliding doors on both sides of the shelter.
After the sliding door was closed, she used the intercom to notify Shu Fu again.
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