kingnovel Chapter 84 Extreme Climate
Chapter 84 Extreme Climate
The snow fell heavier and heavier in the afternoon, and the temperature dropped lower and lower. Qin Yuan took the thermometer that came with the RV, got out of the vehicle, walked around, and came back to confirm that the outdoor temperature had dropped to minus seventeen or eighteen degrees Celsius, which was even lower than two days ago.
It was too cold outside, and there was no need to go out. Lin Yun and Gu Nanfeng asked Lu Yuan for some ingredients and started making some simple food in the small kitchen that came with the RV. After they were done, Lu Yuan put them back into his space.
Du Wenqing was still not feeling well, so he leaned against the small bed in the RV and closed his eyes for a short rest. Qin Yuan, on the other hand, played mahjong with the other three. That afternoon, they were as leisurely as a group of friends going on vacation in an RV.
The heavy snow seemed to have affected Gu Nanfeng and his team's satellite phone; he and Pei Sihao tried calling Pei Simin several times, but couldn't get through.
"Still no connection?" Lin Yun saw Gu Nanfeng staring blankly at the satellite phone. Logically speaking, unless it is extremely hot or cold, severe weather on Earth should not have any effect on satellite phones.
"The call didn't go through. I wonder if it's due to some astronomical phenomenon that's not easily perceptible to humans. In this situation, many things are unpredictable." Gu Nanfeng put away the satellite phone and continued to prepare the ingredients with Lu Yuan.
Among them, Lin Yun was the best cook. He was in charge of cooking for most of the afternoon. Gu Nanfeng would occasionally let him rest, but the rest of the time he would work with Lu Yuan to prepare the ingredients they took out from their space.
"It's been more than three months since the virus outbreak, and now there's extreme climate change. It's really a good thing we have Lu Yuan, otherwise I don't know what I would do in the future." Qin Yuan was crushing three college students at the card table next to him. Pei Sihao was doing slightly better, but the other two had small notes stuck to their faces.
Lu Yuan took out his old-fashioned radio and turned it on in the afternoon, but there was no signal. It was basically confirmed that something must have affected these electronic devices.
“My older brother said that the provincial command centers across China reported that the number of survivors was around 8 million. That was shortly after the second wave of the virus outbreak, and our country’s population had already been reduced by half. The situation in other countries was probably similar.” Pei Sihao remembered that when he was on a satellite phone call with Pei Simin, he happened to hear someone on Pei Simin’s end reporting this data to him.
“That 8 million figure is inflated. There were probably around 10 billion survivors in China at that time, but it’s uncertain after the meteor shower,” Gu Nanfeng, who was picking vegetables on a small stool next to Lu Yuan, continued. “After the meteor shower, the zombies we found started to actively attack humans. They no longer hid like before, but actively attacked humans and turned them into their own kind.”
“The radio isn’t receiving a signal right now, so we don’t know the extent of the animal zombification. If the situation worsens after the meteor shower, it will truly be a crisis for the surviving humans.” Lu Yuan chimed in. Actually, according to his previous personality, he would have thought about these issues on his own, but he wouldn’t necessarily have chosen to share them with others. He thought that perhaps it was because he had become familiar with these people that he was now more willing to share his thoughts.
"If animals become zombies, they should be more agile than human zombies. Sometimes, people might not even have time to react before they're bitten." Yang Xiao used to like feeding the stray cats at school and often got bitten and scratched by them. What he said caught everyone's attention.
“Indeed, we’re in the wild now, there are lots of snakes, insects, and rodents, we have to be careful.” Qin Yuan said as he pushed the cards over, then shouted, “I won!”
"How did you win again!" Zhong Qiang's face was covered with small notes, and he was a little discouraged, so he went to pick vegetables.
"Be careful once you enter the city. There are many people keeping pets at home now, and pets are not limited to cats and dogs." Lin Yun ignored the situation at their card table and reminded the students of things to be careful about. After all, if they pass through a county town, they still need to go in and look for supplies. The food they knew in Lu Yuan's space was all from several trips to supermarkets and convenience stores. They were all consumables, and as long as it wasn't too dangerous, he felt they should replenish their supplies in time.
"Aunt Lin, you really worry about everything." Qin Yuan turned around and glanced at Lin Yun, who was speaking earnestly. He always felt that Lin Yun was like a mother to everyone on the bus, responsible for both eating and taking care of them.
Lin Yun glanced at Qin Yuan, who was sticking stickers on Yang Xiao's face, and didn't continue with the safety instructions. Instead, he checked the time, told them to put away the mahjong table, and woke up Du Wenqing to prepare for dinner.
As the group was having dinner, the heavy snow stopped, and the temperature seemed to be rising rapidly. As soon as Lu Yuan and the others finished eating, they noticed that water had started dripping from the eaves of the abandoned gas station. The snow came quickly and melted quickly as well.
"It looks like we can set off earlier tomorrow." The previous snow didn't melt enough to stop the road from being impeded until almost noon the next day. Lu Yuan and his group thought that this time they would be delayed until at least noon the next day, but the snow started to melt that night.
They rested in the RV that night. There were no zombies or animals nearby. The eight people were only assigned to two shifts for night duty. Qin Yuan was responsible for the first half of the night, and Du Wenqing was responsible for the second half. The other six people went to rest and sleep.
DAY98
When Lu Yuan woke up, Du Wenqing was smoking outside the car.
Around 8 a.m., the temperature was already around 30 degrees Celsius. The snow outside the gas station had all melted, forming small streams of water that gurgled and flowed into the roadside drainage ditch.
Following Du Wenqing's instructions, Lu Yuan released the off-road vehicles from his spatial storage. Just as he was about to take out the third vehicle, Du Wenqing stopped him, saying, "Two vehicles are enough. Two vehicles are just right for the eight of us. We can adjust the supplies in the vehicles as needed."
Lu Yuan thought about it and agreed. He opened the trunks of both cars and began to arrange the supplies inside. He had installed car refrigerators in both trunks, put some cooked food he had prepared yesterday in the cars, and also put some heating packs in the cars to make it easier to heat the food.
Looking at the relatively empty trunk, Lu Yuan took out four military overcoats and thick clothes for himself and put them inside, so that if the temperature dropped again on the way, he could wrap himself in them.
After the others got up and washed up, Lin Yun arranged for sandwiches to be made for breakfast. It was simple, quick, and could also help them use up some of the bread that was about to expire from the convenience store a few days ago.
After finishing their meal, Lu Yuan packed up the RV, and the eight of them stood in front of the two G-Class vans. Zhong Qiang had originally planned to put his bag in the trunk, but when he opened it, he was shocked by how full it was with supplies. "Lu Yuan, why did you put so much stuff in there?"
"Better safe than sorry, and shouldn't you carry your own supply pack?" Lu Yuan rolled his eyes at him, stood by the car, and waited for Boss Du to make arrangements.
After Du Wenqing overused his powers and went berserk, he was actually hesitant to put himself in the same car as Lu Yuan and the other ordinary students. However, given their current situation, there was no other way. As one of the team members with offensive powers, he had to ensure the safety of everyone in both cars.
After thinking for a while, Du Wenqing decided that Lin Yun, Pei Sihao, Zhong Qiang, and Yang Xiao would share one car, Qin Yuan, Gu Nanfeng, Lu Yuan, and himself would share another car, Lin Yun and Gu Nanfeng, the two intelligent individuals, would each share a car, and Qin Yuan would share a car with him so that he could be controlled in time if he had an accident. Originally, he wanted Yang Xiao or Zhong Qiang to share a car with them, but Lu Yuan was indeed the weakest of the eight people, so to balance things out, he decided to have Lu Yuan with them.
The eight people quickly got into their respective cars as arranged by Du Wenqing. Since Qin Yuan and Du Wenqing had been on guard duty last night, Gu Nanfeng drove Lu Yuan's car, while Qin Yuan and Du Wenqing sat in the back to catch up on sleep.
Lu Yuan sat in the passenger seat next to him. Since the outbreak of the virus, Lu Yuan has always sat in the back seat whenever they drive. After all, he has no driving experience, so he usually doesn't even sit in the passenger seat. If it weren't for the fact that the two big shots could get a good rest, he would not have wanted to sit in the passenger seat this time.
Lin Yun and his group drove off first, and Gu Nanfeng started the engine and stepped on the gas, quickly following the car in front. His palms were a little damp. He, who usually appeared composed and proper, was unusually a little nervous today. Yes, he was a little nervous.
There's no doubt that Lu Yuan is his ideal type. Before the virus outbreak, Gu Nanfeng saw Lu Yuan worrying about his father's medical expenses and kept thinking about how to help him subtly. He had even planned to confess his feelings after finishing that phase of the new material experiment and then help Lu Yuan solve his father's problem.
However, things didn't go as planned. Lu Yuan suddenly became mysterious in the following days. Although he could guess that Lu Yuan already had that so-called space and had solved his father's medical expenses through it, he didn't expect that the zombie virus would break out.
With the outbreak of the virus, they, Pei Sihao, and the robot policeman Weiguo were trapped in their dormitory. This was hardly a suitable time to confess their feelings.
Now, Lu Yuan is sitting right next to him. Although it's not a good time to confess, Gu Nanfeng, who has been single for 25 years, is still nervous when facing his ideal type who is so close to him.
This feeling was something he had never experienced before.
"...Brother?" Gu Nanfeng seemed to hear someone speaking. Was it Lu Yuan?
Gu Nanfeng glanced at Lu Yuan in the passenger seat. Lu Yuan was also looking at him with a puzzled expression. This was the first time Gu Nanfeng had been so distracted, especially while driving. He blamed himself for acting like a young boy, not even caring about driving safety. Fortunately, there were only the two of them on the road.
"What...did you say?" Gu Nanfeng paused for a moment and asked.
"Brother Gu, I mean, since we set off so early today, could we get to the port a little earlier?" Actually, Lu Yuan didn't care whether they arrived at the South China base sooner or not, but he could imagine Gu Nanfeng and Pei Sihao's families waiting for them there, undoubtedly very anxious and worried. If his father hadn't met with any mishap, he would probably have taken him to a safe place to live peacefully in this space. After all, in the apocalypse, nothing is more important than being with family.
"It's hard to say, it depends..." Gu Nanfeng hadn't finished speaking when he slammed on the brakes, but it seemed the brakes couldn't stop in time. He turned the steering wheel sharply to the right, and the SUV veered sharply to the right, stopping just before it crashed into the mountainside. Qin Yuan and Du Wenqing in the back seat were also startled awake by this.