Chapter 27 Chapter 27 Mountain City
*
The right rear wheel burst, and it was like a deflated ball stuck to the wheel, and it fell completely downward.
The repair tools were all there, but the tire was blown to pieces, with debris flying everywhere. How could it be repaired? There was no other way except to replace the spare tire.
Good question, where does the spare tire come from?
Surrounded by the airtight heat wave, with the shattered wheel right in front of him, Gu Mengran had a terrible headache. He paced back and forth, rubbing his temples. He had a lot of resentment in his heart that he had nowhere to vent, and it finally 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 dragged the anti-skid chain out of 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 taking off his anti-slip chain, 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 messed up?" Gu Mengran took the tissue and wiped his face with it. His eyes glanced at the anti-skid chain in Liang Zhao's hand. He paused and said in surprise: "Are you going to... put an anti-skid chain on the wheel?"
Liang Zhao smiled and nodded, "We're pretty 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 wasn't too big."
Knowing that Gu Mengran was very curious, Liang Zhao laid the anti-skid chain on the ground while explaining to Gu Mengran: "It's impossible for it to have no effect at all. The wheel is swollen and can't be inflated, so--"
"So just put on some anti-skid chains to secure the tires and drive it. It's not your car anyway, so you won't feel bad if it gets damaged. Just drive it 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, tidied up the messy anti-skid chain, squatted down and laid it under the wheel, "Congratulations, you guessed it right, the reward is to get in the car and turn on the air conditioning."
It was such a hot day, Gu Mengran couldn't bear to leave him alone here, so he quickly squatted down to help.
The anti-skid chain was troublesome to install. Two people first laid the anti-skid chain flat in front of the wheel. Then the driver Liang Zhao got in the car and started the vehicle, moving forward slowly until the chain completely wrapped around the wheel and the chain was 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 at the first moment, as if someone had grabbed his ankles, and his body moved before his legs, causing him to almost fall straight down.
He swayed back and forth trying his best to keep his body steady. Gu Mengran looked down, his pupils shocked.
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 a new pair of sneakers a few days ago... and the soles were pulled.
No wonder cars get flat tires. The surface temperature is high enough to fry eggs, right?
Returning to the car in a rather shabby manner, Gu Mengran sat paralyzed on the seat, pretending to be a corpse. However, before he could catch his breath, he saw Liang Zhao put down the handbrake and prepare to start again, so Gu Mengran hurriedly called a halt:
"No, don't go yet Liang Zhao, come here, come here for a moment."
"What's wrong?" Liang Zhao came quickly and sat down next to Gu Mengran as soon as he finished speaking.
"Shancheng cough, cough cough cough..." Gu Mengran was choked by a breath just after he said two words. He coughed heart-wrenchingly and patted his chest.
Liang Zhao quickly took a bottle of mineral water from the luggage rack, unscrewed the bottle cap and patted Gu Mengran on the back until he gradually stopped coughing, then he handed the water to him.
"I would like to ask how long it will take to reach the mountain city?" Liang Zhao sat down again.
Gu Mengran nodded like a chicken pecking at rice and took sips of mineral water.
"It's estimated to be 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 was curious and asked another question.
Gu Mengran's breathing gradually became steady. Looking at Liang Zhao who was puzzled, he couldn't help but teasing, "I can see that you don't go out 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 destroyed all the helpless cities. But I think the mountain city built on the mountain may be better off 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 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 just in time, and I had no intention of keeping it secret.
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 a new car, replenish supplies, and let the children have a good rest. I personally prefer the mountain city, what do you think?"
"I think it's okay." 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 working hard in the hot weather, and the children are tired from riding. We should find a place to rest."
Everyone agreed, and Gu Mengran clapped his hands immediately, "It's settled then, let's go to the mountain city!"
*
Three and a half hours later, after the right-side load-bearing balancing tire was damaged, the bus lost a front wheel and swayed as it bumped along into the mountain city.
A yellow mist enveloped 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 there, 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 debris of buildings on the road, and the deserted roads were 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 OK to have a destination. It'll be hot for a while at most. But you can't take a group of children to wander in the ruins looking for an air-raid shelter...
It doesn’t work, Gu Mengran patted his forehead.
The bus stopped and Liang Zhao unbuckled his seat belt and walked towards us.
Before he could get close, 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 the car 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 quite loud voices, so others could hear and understand them.
Liang Zhao had just refused when Wei Qianlan's voice came from the back of the carriage: "Gu Mengran, there's no need to leave anyone to look after us. Zhou Qin and I can take good care of the children. You two can go together. We are unfamiliar with the place, and it will be safer with more people."
"Yes, we can." Zhou Qin nodded repeatedly, "You can take some tools to protect yourself and be careful on the road. We will stay in the car and not go anywhere. You can come back to us when you find a suitable place."
The two teachers spoke calmly, but Gu Mengran's frown remained on his face.
A group of kids, two girls, who can be at ease?
Liang Zhao had similar ideas to his. After a brief thought, he said to Gu Mengran, "Let Master Meng stay in the car and leave the oil saw in the trunk for them to use for self-defense. The two of us will go out, but don't go too far. Just walk around nearby."
There was a big grill outside the car door, so it was nice for grandpa to stay in and cool off. Grandpa was old, but he was strong and with weapons, he could fight just as well as a young man.
Without giving the old man a chance to refuse, Gu Mengran nodded and agreed, "Okay."
After taking out the oil saw 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 their self-defense tools, put on masks, and walked out of the car.
The city was shrouded in yellow mist and was in a dead silence. Not a single sound could be heard in the ruins filled with the smell of death. The hot and humid weather continued to bake the city, and the heat wave invaded the city, wiping out all the rats and cockroaches that lived in the cracks.
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 made a plan and set their sights on the few buildings among the ruins.
Buildings that had not completely collapsed stood out like a flock of chickens. They could be seen at a glance without having to look for them. But even so, the two of them walked on broken bricks and tiles, and moved forward with difficulty in the high temperature. It took them ten minutes to find a building that was barely enterable.
The once bustling square is now covered by a large amount of building debris. The shopping mall that once stood in it is in ruins. Nearly half of the main building has collapsed, like a loose building block, and is about to fall down. There is a risk of a second collapse at any time.
The mall has multiple entrances and exits. The main entrance collapsed, but there are still side doors.
Gu Mengran approached 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 great.
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 leaned sideways to prepare to go in, but at this moment, an extremely unpleasant stench wafted out from the mall and penetrated the protective mask and hit his nose.
The smell is hard to describe, like a mountain of corpses slowly rotting in high temperatures, with the corpse fluid and flesh fermenting together. The nauseating stench rushes straight into the head, making people dizzy.
The body reacted faster than the brain. Gu Mengran dropped the 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 the fresh air. "No, no, I think this building will collapse again. Let's not go in. Let's look for something else."
Her little face was wrinkled into a ball, and it was obvious that she was extremely disgusted.
Liang Zhao didn't point it out, and said "hmm" lightly, "Your mask is dirty, change it."
They continued walking on the rubble and debris, and forty minutes later they stopped in front of an upscale neighborhood that they had never dared to even glance at before.
Low-rise buildings collapsed, 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 at the waist. 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 neither a basement nor an 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, so Gu Mengran and Liang Zhao didn't dare to enter 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 looked back inadvertently. The residential buildings gradually shrank in his sight, and a nearly intact two-story villa hidden in the trees showed only the tip of the iceberg.