It was not yet dawn and the clock had just pointed to five o'clock, but the base had already awakened.
The lights on the roadside were turned on, and the residents took to the streets, heading to their work places with numb expressions.
Their work is very diverse. Except for a few people who can enter the factory, most people can only do low-paying and insecure jobs. Most non-factory employees also have part-time jobs - dealing with the corpses of zombies outside the barbed wire.
Since the base now has limited supplies, it does not burn the zombies that were shot in the head, but instead buries them.
Almost all the residents in the base have done this part-time job. Although it is hard and tiring and involves huge risks, the income is not low.
They have all become accustomed to the occasional influx of zombies, and all their efforts are just to survive, without any hope for the future.
After all, it has been more than 30 years, and not only have the zombies not turned into bones and disappeared, but their numbers have increased, and the tide of zombies has become larger each time.
The scope of human activities is getting smaller and smaller, and the food types are becoming increasingly scarce. There is not a single fat person to be seen in the base. Almost everyone is pale and thin, and many people are suffering from long-term malnutrition.
The average life expectancy is less than fifty.
The residents walked on the road like worker ants. More than a dozen young people gathered together. They were wearing the cheapest and most produced work cloth suits. Their hair was dull and yellow, and they looked less than fifteen years old.
Although they will receive combat training, they will not be paid for the training. They will only be provided with tortillas to ensure that they will not starve to death. On rare occasions, such as when supplies are slightly more abundant, they will also be able to share some benefits.
But even so, they actually still have to rely on their families for support.
"Have you packed everything?" The leader was a skinny girl with a hideous scar on her face, ruining her pretty face. She put on a mask and said, "Do you remember what to say when someone asks you?"
The others nodded: "Just say we're having the fifteenth."
You can only work part-time when you are fifteen.
The girl looked towards the city wall and asked, "Did you bring your ID?"
"I brought them all."
"Can you really fool me?"
Girl: "That's a human eye, not a machine. How could it be discovered?"
The identity certificate is just a piece of paper, the printing factory at the base has long been shut down, and the school only teaches reading. The labor force cannot stay on campus all the time. If they want to study, they can only save money to buy books and study on their own.
But the library in the base is always empty. Everyone is busy making a living and has no energy to pursue spiritual life.
Today is the first day after the zombie tide recedes. Because there may be zombies with injured spines that have not been completely killed, many people are unwilling to be the first batch of people to clean up the zombies. Because of this, the salary on the first day is higher than the ones after that.
People who have stable jobs or enough food at home will not take this risk.
"Lingling, will you join the army when you reach age?" someone asked the girl in the lead as they headed towards the city wall.
The girl said calmly, "They won't want me."
Her health was very poor. She suffered from malnutrition, hypoglycemia, and heart disease. It seemed that she was born to be a burden. No matter how hard she tried, she could not change her fate.
The girl stated the facts: "I couldn't hold a gun. I could only watch the training from the sidelines. The base was just looking for an excuse to give me tortillas so I wouldn't starve to death."
The friends stopped talking.
Feng Ling is an orphan. Her parents ruthlessly abandoned her after they found out she had a heart disease.
They couldn't afford to raise such a child, so they had to give him to the base to raise.
Everyone despised her parents, but also understood them.
It is difficult to support myself, let alone raising a child like this.
They walked to the foot of the city wall, and Feng Ling was the first to hand over her identity certificate to the soldier guarding the gate. After the tide of zombies receded, the soldiers finally had time to rest, so the only ones still on duty here were new recruits.
The recruit glanced at the ID and warned, "Be careful, don't take off the mask, and don't touch your mouth and nose with your hands before disinfection."
"Have you read all the precautions?"
Feng Ling said in a muffled voice: "I have seen it."
The recruit waved his hand and said, "Go ahead, we'll give you tortillas when you come back."
The base officials no longer use "money". The people recognize tortillas, so they use tortillas.
A dozen of them gathered together and walked towards the barbed wire.
Just when they were about to reach their destination, someone suddenly exclaimed, "What is that?!"
The man raised his arm and pointed at a building not far away: "Supermarket?"
He read out the words one by one: "Long, prosperous, super, city."
He said excitedly: "Does it look like the supermarket in the photo?!"
They were all children born after the zombie crisis and had not really witnessed the prosperity of peacetime, but they liked to listen to the elders talk about everything about peacetime and they also liked to look at old photos and drawings.
The supermarket is filled with all kinds of goods, where you can buy a pound of bulk rice, various toys and snacks for less than three yuan. For them, it is like a fairy tale paradise.
Real supermarkets don’t have that many things. They are always just a small room. You need a ticket to buy something, and the supply is limited.
But most people don’t even have the qualifications to enter the supermarket, and the vast majority of people in the base would rather sell their tickets. After all, tortillas are not only currency, but also food.
Young people are always braver, and the team soon started shouting, "Let's go and take a look!"
"It looks like a glass door. This supermarket is so big! It looks just like the one in the photo!"
"I don't know if there are any escalators. The several escalators in the base have been shut down for a long time."
"It looks like there's only one floor. There shouldn't be an elevator, right?"
"Who owns this supermarket? Why is it located here?"
"Maybe it's opened here for soldiers to buy. Soldiers are richer than us."
"Lingling, shall we go?"
"Let's go and take a look. It's inside the barbed wire. There must be no danger."
They quacked like a group of ducks. Feng Ling couldn't suppress her curiosity and yearning for the supermarket. She nodded and said, "Let's go and take a look."
As soon as these words were spoken, more than a dozen teenagers rushed towards the supermarket together.
It was a rare sight to see smiles on their faces. Those yellow and thin faces suddenly became lively. The rising sunlight fell on their faces, making their originally lifeless eyes sparkle.
·
"Are there any guests?" Wu Yan put down his bowl and said, "I'll go out and take a look."
Wu's wife quickly shouted, "The immortal told us to wear masks every time we go out!"
Wu Yan then remembered the mask. He put it on and hurried out.
He saw the people standing outside the glass door. There were more than a dozen people standing together. Even though they were all thin, Wu Yan would not look down on them - people who had experienced fleeing from famine would never look down on any old, weak, sick or disabled person.
Wu Yan took out the walkie-talkie, and the men who were eating in the warehouse rushed out.
The women are also busy. Their job is to serve the guests, and if the men are sure that the customers will not pose a threat to them, they will guide the guests to shop.
The women were a little scared, but also a little excited.
I am afraid that the people outside are bad people, but I also hope that I can actually work.
Feng Ling and her group outside the door were not afraid at all - they subconsciously thought that this supermarket was opened by people in the base and served the soldiers. Although they were not soldiers, most of them were reserve soldiers and were also receiving training. So, they should also be qualified to shop.
Although they didn't have much tortillas on hand, it was good to go in and take a look.
They have never seen such a big supermarket in their lives!
Wu Yan did not open the automatic sensor door directly, but went out through the small door next to it.
After making sure that these people were all young kids, unarmed, and that there were a few sickly people among them, they allowed people to open the door from the inside.
The base's electricity is also limited. Except for street lamps and factories used for lighting, electricity is only available at night. No household can use electricity during the day.
So as soon as they entered the supermarket, a group of people couldn't help but exclaim.
Although the sun was out, the sky was not very bright, but the incandescent lights in the supermarket made the entire supermarket exceptionally clear.
The shelves were filled with goods, and they opened their mouths in shock, not knowing where to look.
"Go in from that side." Wu Yan pointed the way for them. "There is no cashier counter in the back. You have to come out this way after paying."
Feng Ling asked quietly, "Can I pay for the tortillas?"
Wu Yan nodded: "Okay, you can calculate the price yourself, one tortilla is worth fifty."
They all brought rations with them when they went out, and they received their wages after finishing their work, so they still needed to eat while working.
But each person can only bring one tortilla, no more.
Feng Ling hesitated. Such supermarkets and such products must be very expensive. Their tortillas might only buy a bag of sugar or a few bags of salt. She asked again, "Is it really true that we don't need a ticket?"
Wu Yan: "No, if you have any questions, you can ask the shopping guides working inside, they will tell you."
When they went in, Feng Ling said to her friends, "Let's just look around, don't buy anything."
Although they eat tortillas every day and at every meal, tortillas can fill their stomachs after all. If they use them to exchange for something expensive that does not fill their stomachs, it would not be cost-effective.
Don't empty your pockets before you earn any money.
But no one listened to her words at this time, and everyone rushed to the shelves they had already picked out.
Feng Ling sighed and walked to the candy shelf nearby. She looked at the various packages, smelled the sweet scent that didn't actually exist, and looked at the prices below the items in despair.
The blue bag was filled with mints, and the whole package was bigger than her head.
Feng Ling's eyes moved downwards——
Mints for refreshing the mouth: 22?.
Before Feng Ling could even react with shock, she heard her friend shout, “We have rice!!”
"Two dollars and a half a pound!"
Feng Ling's eyes widened.
Are you crazy?
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