Knights of the Wasteland Fortress

Chapter 46 The Outside World
Cross the dividing line between the shelter and the "outside".

Cato took a deep breath.

He instantly felt the difference between the "outside" and the refuge——

The smell in the air became cold, dark, damp, with a faint smell of concrete.

The light of the flashlight gradually turned on in front of him, extending far in front of the shelter, like a thin strip of light.

Jiatu rummaged through his pocket, and found the distributed miniature flashlight in the outer pocket.

Snap it on the guide rail on the outside of the closed mask to form a simple "headlight".

When the last team member also left the shelter, the heavy hydraulically driven gate slowly closed.

Jiatu, Hena and Hua Lun exchanged glances, and the three silently followed the team and walked into the darkness.

They seem to be in the depths of a long tunnel, beside the concrete one-way platform, black concrete sleepers can be seen - but the steel rails on it have disappeared.

Thinking about it, it should have been stolen and used by the people in the shelter.

Jiatu and the others walked along the tunnel on the single-person platform for more than ten minutes, and found a collapsed point. The entire single-person platform was buried by falling rubble, which forced them to follow the collapsed path. Go down the gentle slope of the gravel to the track next to the platform, and then walk forward along the hole deep in the track.

Along the way, they could see traces of various tire crushes——

That should be the "bay truck" he had seen on Homecoming Day before.

Except for the places where the delivery trucks could pass, the tunnels were full of gravel. Jiatu and the others had to avoid those more dangerous places and keep moving forward along the tire tracks of the delivery trucks.

After walking for four or five hours, they left the tire tracks of the delivery truck, followed a collapsed platform staircase, and climbed up into a dilapidated subway platform.

Looking at the broken "Zhangjiabao Station" sign on the platform, Jiatu once again confirmed that they should be deep underground in a certain city.

However, Jiatu had never heard of the "Golden City" in his previous life, so this place should be a new city built by artificial intelligence after his death.

The underground pipeline facilities with a depth of more than 500 meters are densely packed in every corner of the city like spider webs.

Jiatu and the others repaired at Zhangjiabao Station, replenished their energy and food, and then walked deeper into Zhangjiabao.

Because of the "travel regulations" learned in the training school, no one spoke to the candidates along the way.

Even when they were resting, Jiatu and Hua Lunhena just sat facing each other, drinking water and eating silently.

After a short rest for an hour, they were on the road again.

Jiatu, who was leaning on a cane, gradually began to lose pace with the team, but Hena and Hua Lun noticed his abnormality, and helped him to walk forward one after another.

In the last two hours of the afternoon, they took turns carrying Jiatu on their backs, and managed to catch up with the team.

"How about it, the first day was so hard, did you ever think about giving up for the next six days?"

During the dinner break, Sun Simiao looked at everyone and said with a smile.

Jiatu and the others were far from the only ones who felt the pain of traveling. Among the candidates in the third round, there were also those who were fatter or weaker in physical strength.

In addition, it was the first time for almost all of them to leave the shelter, and even if they had walked so far in one breath, there were quite a few people with blisters on their feet.

While teaching them how to treat the wound with the Vaseline and fine needles in his pocket, Sun Simiao advised them with a smile, if they could not persist, they could choose to give up——

"If you feel that you can't keep up with the team, you can also choose to rest in this 'safe house', and go back together when we return in six days—anyway, because of the password ban, other people will not know that you are here. I chose to give up halfway."

There was a hint of teasing in Sun Simiao's voice.

But among the candidates present, no one looked at him.

"After all...except Hena and I, everyone has reached graduation age."

"Since 'in order to become explorers', they all chose to face the risk of death in the third round of testing, and mere blisters and wounds are naturally out of their consideration..."

Jiatu thought silently while nibbling on the protein bar in his hand.

After applying the Vaseline-like ointment, Jiatu and the others rested for six hours, and then they were called up by Sun Simiao to move on.

This caught all the candidates who thought they could sleep for eight hours a little off guard.

Fortunately, six hours of sleep is enough for mental rest. Even though the body is still a little tired, the blisters on the feet have been fixed.

Jiatu and the others continued to move forward while yawning. When Sun Simiao announced the third rest, almost everyone fell asleep staggeringly.

This time they rested for another two hours.

Then he was called by Sun Simiao to continue forward.

As they got farther and farther away from the refuge, Sun Simiao's marching pace became faster and faster.

Not only is there no time to eat, but even the time to sleep has been compressed to four hours.

So in a day, they sleep for four hours, and spend the other sixteen hours on the road, with two two-hour breaks in between.

There is hardly any separate time for eating or drinking. If they want to eat or rehydrate, they can only eat while walking.

Every time they take a break, everyone staggers around, replacing rest with sleep, and seize the time to recover their strength.

Before each rest, Sun Simiao would ask them to open the outer shell and let the atomizing robot idle for 10 minutes to help them deal with the accumulation of lactic acid in their bodies.

In addition, there were a lot of protein bars and dry food bars in the pocket, and two apples that were not particularly fresh, so Jiatu and the others finally gritted their teeth and survived the entire 54 hours of underground travel.

When seeing the light gradually appearing at the end of the deep tunnel, almost everyone thought they were dreaming.

Jiatu had almost entered a state of sleepwalking.

He closed his eyes tightly, took Warren's hand in front of him, and handed the water bottle and fanny pack to Hena.

His left hand and both feet were moving mechanically, and his whole body was sore.

It wasn't until Hena shook his body that he opened his eyes, and looked at the bright spot tens of meters in front of him with some confusion.

"We have arrived."

Even someone as indifferent as Hena could not help but tremble a little.

Dim light poured down from the cave tens of meters away, accompanied by the sound of water like a waterfall.

Jiatu was stunned for four or five seconds before realizing that it was the sound of rainwater flowing down from a high place.

"We have arrived!"

Warren next to Jiatu also understood something, the bewilderment and sleepiness on his face disappeared instantly, and he said excitedly.

They quickened their pace and ran towards the cave.

Almost everyone jumped into the rain when they reached the entrance of the cave.

The icy rain washed over their faces along with the humid air, and almost everyone shivered, sweeping away the previous sleepiness.

They suppressed the excitement in their hearts, and opened their arms to embrace the gloomy sky and the rain falling from the sky.

Accompanied by a bright lightning, everyone let out a low exclamation.

It wasn't until countless rumbling loud noises rolled in that they realized that for the first time, they saw a scene that was only described in textbooks——

"spring thunder".

"This is the outside world! This is the rain! This is the sky!"

Jiatu heard someone in front of the examinee suppress his voice, sobbing softly.

He also followed in Hena's footsteps and ran to the edge of the cave.

But just when he wanted to rush into the rain, he suddenly saw the scene outside the cave——

I couldn't help but stop my excited mood and pace.

　I reviewed some rock climbing videos in the past two days, and found that the third episode may be more serious than I thought.

　　It is also the first time I write about this topic, and my brain consumption is greater than I imagined. After about [-] words, my head becomes dizzy.There is another chapter tonight, which should be [-] words.

　　Although it's a bit slow, but without Cavin, it's better to say that I want to finish writing the foreshadowing of the early stage quickly and enter the official plot.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)