Chapter 78 Chapter 078【VIP】
According to the A City Base Meteorological Bureau's forecast, temperatures will reach 55°C within the next week. Base residents are advised to take precautions against heatstroke and avoid going out during the day. Even if you do go out, please take precautions.
The broadcast sounded over the base in City A three times in total.
As the capital, City A was one of the fastest cities to react to the apocalypse. Today, after years of development, the City A base boasts the largest number of personnel.
There are currently 530,000 survivors. Ordinary people make up the majority, while those with special abilities make up a minority. All of them have joined the army.
On weekdays, they are responsible for protecting the integrity of the A City base and working with ordinary people to collect supplies.
In the A City base, no ordinary people were supported by those with special abilities; everyone worked for free. Even the children had their own jobs.
After the broadcast, the entire A City base remained silent.
Suddenly, outside the base, the originally dark sky suddenly turned red. It was a wildfire.
The situation was urgent, and soon a team of firefighters, mainly composed of water-type and earth-type ability users and ordinary people, quickly left the base and headed quickly towards the place where the forest fire broke out.
Although the wildfire had only been burning for a short time, it spread rapidly and soon the fire line was approaching the suburban residential area.
"Captain! The wind direction has changed!" The team members' shouts came from the walkie-talkie.
The temperature inside the fireproof suits worn by the team members exceeded 60 degrees Celsius, and sweat from under their helmets flowed into their eyes. It was extremely hot, but the team members who came to put out the fire did not retreat at all.
Captain Zheng Yong looked up and saw the fire dragon suddenly turn and rush towards the fire brigade. "Retreat! Retreat immediately!"
As soon as they jumped onto the fire truck, flames engulfed the area where they had been standing. Zheng Yong counted the number of people and discovered that two were missing.
"Where are Xiao Liu and Xiao Zhang?"
"They went to rescue the old man in that house..."
Zheng Yong looked at the sea of fire. As far as his eyes could see, the whole mountain was burning.
"Where's the water-type mutant? Hurry!" Zheng Yong shouted. "Hurry up! Not only the old man, but Xiao Liu and Xiao Zhangdou can't be left behind."
After the tireless efforts of the team members, when almost all the fire and earth-type ability users had used up their abilities and were about to run out of strength, the wildfire was finally put out, and the old man that Xiao Liu and Xiao Zhang went to rescue was also successfully rescued.
There were also several children who lived in the suburbs and made a living by planting. Now the wildfire came suddenly, and all their achievements were burned to ashes. The elderly who were rescued cried loudly, unable to accept this fact.
But what can we do if we can't accept it? Human life in the apocalypse is worthless, yet it is also very valuable. Without the continuation of humankind, the entire civilization will be destroyed.
But the worthless part is that living is too difficult.
"It's gone, it's gone," Zheng Yong said dryly to the sobbing old man. "Once the extreme heat has passed, our A City base will be able to exchange resources with the Taoyuan base. Then, we can plant whatever we want. The seeds from the Taoyuan base are legendary super seeds. They can take root, sprout, and bear abundant fruit in any environment."
The old man stopped crying, but still looked sad.
Although it is always emphasized that the "extremely hot weather" will pass one day, there is no sign of it passing so far.
Not knowing when the fire would end, and with their livelihoods destroyed by the wildfire, how could they not be worried? The elderly and children who were eventually rescued were collectively relocated to shanty towns.
Although it was crude, the power supply system of the entire City A base was not completely paralyzed because the power supply equipment and nuclear power plant of the entire City A base were intact.
But the summer is too hot, and the air conditioner can't be turned on 24 hours a day. At most, it can be turned on for 8 hours. On weekdays, we rely on ice cubes produced in the ice storage room to keep us going.
It can be said that throughout the A City base, the rumbling sound of air-conditioning outdoor units has become the never-ending background music of this summer.
Like Taoyuan Base and many other bases, the people at City A Base now stay indoors during the day and go out at night.
They sleep in the shade during the day and come out to work and move around at night.
Soon, daybreak had arrived. The radio said good morning and stopped playing. Inside a private house, Zheng Yong's wife, Lin Xia, lay in bed. Beads of sweat dripped down her temples, soaking the pillowcase.
Even though the air conditioner was turned up to 20 degrees, the room was still stuffy and unbearable.
Lin Xia reached for the phone on the bedside table. The moment the screen lit up, glaring numbers jumped into her eyes: 5:23 am, the outdoor temperature was 41°C.
"Can't sleep again?"
Zheng Yong, who had just returned home, was feeling very tired.
"Yeah." Lin Xia stood up and hugged her husband, pressing her face against his sweaty back. "The air conditioner in Xiaoyu's room seems to have stopped again."
Lin Xia sighed and walked towards her daughter's room.
Looking back, I was silently calculating this month's electricity bill.
Since the extremely hot weather began, the city was like being put into an oven, and this lasted for more than twenty days.
The power system is overwhelmed, and each household at the base only has 8 hours of electricity per day.
Lin Xia heard Zheng Yong fiddling with the air conditioner remote control in his daughter's room, followed by the hum of the compressor restarting.
She tiptoed to the window and opened the curtains a little.
The sky outside seemed to have changed color due to the high temperature. The streets were deserted, with only the heat wave
"It's fixed." Zheng Yong returned to the bedroom and wiped the sweat from his face. "But I guess the power will go out again in two hours."
Lin Xia nodded and glanced at the power outage schedule on her phone: "Our area will be out from 10 AM to 4 PM today."
"Then I have to go buy groceries," Zheng Yong said, getting ready to go out. "Before the sun comes out completely."
This is the survival rule they developed in this unusual summer - hiding during the day and coming out at night.
But Lin Xia stopped him.
"I'm going to buy groceries, you rest at home."
At 5 a.m., Lin Xia rode her electric bike to the vegetable market. By then, there were already many people like her on the street.
Everyone was fully armed, with sun masks, ice sleeves, and wide-brimmed hats, looking like a group of assassins ready to carry out a secret mission.
Need to keep a low profile, so be fully armed.
Today's vegetable market is much busier than usual.
The stall owners have also figured out the pattern and start business at 2 a.m. and close their stalls before the high temperatures arrive at daybreak.
Lin Xia was squeezed in the crowd, and sweat quickly soaked her back.
She bought some long-lasting vegetables, hesitated for a moment, and then gritted her teeth and bought two pounds of pork ribs - Xiaoyu was growing up and couldn't always eat vegetarian food.
"Has the price of meat gone up again today?" Lin Xia couldn't help but ask the butcher.
The butcher is a super-powered Gold-type psychic. The meat he sells, including spareribs, is all from mutant animals he personally hunts.
"No way." The butcher wiped his sweaty face. "It's hard to catch mutant animals in this awful weather. Besides, meat will spoil in just a few days. We can't afford to slaughter mutant animals on a large scale."
Lin Xia nodded and said nothing more.
On his way home, he saw several elderly people sitting in the small cubicle of a bank ATM machine to cool off - the air conditioning there was on 24 hours a day, and it had become a summer resort for elderly people in the vicinity who did not have air conditioning.
Yes, the banking system at City A was still functioning, but paper money had been withdrawn from the market. Like Taoyuan Base, they used virtual currency. However, there was no exchange of funds with Taoyuan Base.
Soon, Lin Xia arrived home.
When he got home, Zheng Yong had already prepared breakfast, including cold cucumber salad, white porridge and the leftover braised pork from last night.
Xiaoyu walked out of the room rubbing her eyes, her hair stuck to her forehead due to sweat.
"Mom, do we still have to take online classes today?" Xiaoyu asked weakly, lying on the dining table.
"Well, the calligraphy school has announced that we'll continue online calligraphy lessons this week." Lin Xia pushed a bowl of iced mung bean soup in front of her daughter. "Hurry up and eat. If the power goes out soon, your tablet won't be able to charge."
Zheng Yong glanced at the weather forecast on his phone, his brow furrowing even further. "Today's high is 58°C, red alert."
Lin Xia paused. Last week, an elderly man living alone in the neighborhood next door suffered a heat stroke in the middle of the night because he couldn't afford to turn on the air conditioner. When he was found in the morning, he was already dead.
She thought of her mother who lived in the old town. When she called yesterday, she said the air conditioner was broken and the repairman would not come for three days.
"I have to go see Mom," Lin Xia said suddenly. "She just called this afternoon, and it's so hot..."
"I'll go with you." Zheng Yong finished his porridge in two or three gulps. "First, send Xiaoyu to your sister's house. She has unlimited electricity there."
At 8 o'clock in the morning, the whole city began to steam.
Lin Xia called her mother, but no one answered. Anxiety seeped out of her every pore like sweat.
After Lin Xia and Zheng Yong sent Xiaoyu to her sister's house, they immediately rushed to the old town.
The old residential building had no elevator, and the stairwell was as hot and stuffy as a sauna. By the time they reached the fifth floor, Zheng Yong's T-shirt was soaked with water. Lin Xia pounded on her mother's door, but there was no movement from inside.
"Mom! Mom! Open the door!" Lin Xia's voice began to tremble.
Zheng Yong decisively kicked the door open. Heat mixed with stagnant air hit them. They found the old man collapsed on the living room floor, his face flushed and his breathing rapid. Beside him was a pool of spilled water and a broken electric fan.
"Heat stroke! Call an ambulance!" Zheng Yong picked up the old man, while Lin Xia dialed 120 with trembling hands.
The twenty minutes waiting for the ambulance were the longest of Lin Xia's life. She repeatedly wiped her mother's scalding body with a wet towel while Zheng Yong frantically fanned her with cardboard. The old woman's chapped lips moved, but she couldn't utter a single complete sentence.
When the ambulance siren finally blew from a distance, Lin Xia's tears finally burst out. She watched the medical staff give her mother an IV, cool her temperature, and then carry her to the ambulance.
"Only one of you can go with us. The hospital is overcrowded right now, so only one family member can stay," said the medical staff.
Zheng Yong held Lin Xia's hand. "You go ahead. I'll go get some necessities and see if I can find an air conditioner repairman."
Lin Xia accompanied him to the hospital, and the scene there was shocking.
Emergency rooms were crammed with heatstroke patients, and corridors were filled with makeshift beds. Elderly residents, construction workers toiling under the scorching sun, and impoverished families reluctant to turn on air conditioning...the heatwave relentlessly assaulted everyone.
"Beds are tight right now. Give him an IV drip here for observation." The nurse gave a quick instruction and went to take care of other patients.
Lin Xia sat on a plastic chair beside her mother's bed, watching the liquid in the IV drip drop by drop.
The hospital in City A is currently open 24 hours a day, and ice is placed everywhere to keep the room cool. Outside, the sun scorches the earth relentlessly, and the sound of the hospital's overloaded air conditioner sounds like the gasps of a dying patient.
At three o'clock in the afternoon, Zheng Yong hurried to the hospital with the repaired air conditioner, his face looking extremely ugly.
"What's wrong?" Lin Xia asked.
"There's a problem with the city's water supply system," Zheng Yong said, lowering his voice. "The water in the west district has been cut off, and the water pressure in our area has also started to drop. When I came back, I saw that the mineral water in the supermarket was sold out."
Lin Xia felt dizzy.
Electricity, water... these things that we take for granted on a daily basis have become luxuries in this abnormal summer.
"How's Mom?"
"The temperature has dropped a little, but the doctor said he needs to be hospitalized for observation." Lin Xia rubbed his temples tiredly. "You go back and pick up Xiaoyu. I'll stay here."
Zheng Yong nodded and took out two bottles of ice water and a bag of bread from his backpack before leaving: "Remember to eat."
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