You, the apocalypse and me! [YiZhan FF] Fantasy

Chapter 44 - The large valley

After we found by chance an old gas station that works manually and without electronics and there was even diesel in one of the gas pumps, we could make our trip to the place that was known to us as the last known whereabouts of our parents.

We were honestly surprised when we first arrived in this small town and found none, really none destruction there. Yes, there was no electricity or water, but otherwise ALL the buildings were intact. That was at least for us a very good sign. But of course we also knew that we had not yet reached our goal.

We managed to find the bunker where we first thought or hoped our parents were. However, we were not there for long. We talked to some of the people in charge there, let them show us around and Yibo asked them all his critical questions about the lack of drinking water, the lack of diesel and I don't know what all, explaining his curiosity and confusion with the fact that the city itself seems never to have been attacked and everything should still be there in plenty.

However, Yibo did not get a real answer that could be believed. One excuse after the other and therefore Yibo gave it up fast to investigate further. In my eyes, they were all nothing more than a disorganized bunch of people who were just scared and didn't dare come out of the bunker.

The bunker, as was explained to us earlier by Haikuan and Cheng, is indeed completely overcrowded. And again, there is no destruction or evidence of attacks on the city and yet all the residents of the city, have been in this bunker for about 16 months! Many have also left the city and sought shelter elsewhere.

In the bunker itself there was a census only a week before our arrival there. This revealed that in the bunker, which is large enough for 5000 people, there are 12033 people! They have no privacy, lie, stand and sit close together. We were really surprised that they still had food and water.

Yibo and I talked to some of the people living there and asked them why they don't go back to their apartments and houses when their city seems to have been spared? The answer was mostly the same. "We are afraid. There is no electricity and no water." When Yibo wanted to know from them what they would do if in less than 2 weeks, they ran out of diesel, food and water, most just shrugged their shoulders.

Shaking his head, Yibo whispered in my ear, "Let's get out of here. I think all those who live here like this don't want it any other way." And we left again. There was nothing more to say about the bunker and the people living there. Oh yes, and they actually had only one question for us. Namely, how we managed not to fall into one of the sinkholes.

Yibo was really angry about this question. He said, "We have a map and all the sinkholes marked on it that eyewitnesses have told us about. And besides, you can see these holes very well. After all, they are very deep and the snow just falls down. The holes are open and easy to see." Which is somehow also logical and made this question of the inhabitants of the bunker pointless.

With the snow plow we continued until we were at the edge of a cliff. The sun was rising and we could see down into the valley. And it is a really large valley completely covered by snow.

We immediately wondered how we were going to find a handful of people there. Far and wide there were not even houses to be seen. Everything was just white. Moreover, we didn't even see where there were paths or a road. We didn't even know how to get down from this cliff and into the valley. At that moment we were just standing at the cliff and didn't know what to do.

Since we couldn't get any further with our snowplow and Yibo found a narrow path by simply pushing the snow aside with his shoes until he found the way, we grabbed our backpacks and walked as carefully as possible down this narrow steep path into the valley. And in the process, there were several critical situations where we started to slide and almost fell.