His clothes were tattered, and his lips were pale.
He looked like skin and bones, his face bearing a deathly pallor.
This was the state of these refugees.
They blindly followed the crowd in front of them.
The farmland by the roadside was so dry it couldn't be held together, feeling like quicksand.
Some trees had already shed their leaves.
The siblings stopped at a spot on the National Highway outside the base, less than a kilometer away from it.
"It should be around here. Do you remember?" the elder sister suddenly stopped and asked her younger brother beside her.
The younger brother looked at the nearby buildings, then at some of the surrounding farmland. He remembered it was raining at the time, and there were still trees around the farmland, but now after such a long drought, some trees had already withered and died.
Even the weeds by the roadside had stopped growing, having also withered.
"It should be here. But it was raining, so I couldn't see it clearly. Still, it's pretty close," the younger brother said.
The two turned around.
Some men who had been staring intently at them from behind approached.
The mature Da Bei Tou said, "Have we arrived?" His tone was gentle, like a spring breeze.
"We've arrived," the elder sister and younger brother said in unison.
The mature Da Bei Tou curled a slight smile at the corner of his lips: "So we've arrived, then let's look for it?"
The siblings nodded. They were about to leave and search the area.
"Wait. You two stay here; we'll go look," the mature Da Bei Tou said.
The mature Da Bei Tou thought for a moment. He then spoke a few words to the men accompanying him.
Beside him, there were about ten more people following him. These people spoke a few words to the refugees behind them, and the refugees immediately dispersed with a roar.
There were many of them, and they quickly spread out to search for traces of the base.
The siblings remained in place, a little nervous, as they weren't entirely sure if this was the right spot.
Moreover, the most crucial thing was that they weren't sure if the base was in the vicinity.
However, they were also extremely fatigued; their bodies were almost at a breaking point. They hadn't eaten for days, previously only surviving on wild vegetables and tree bark.
If they couldn't find it, then so be it.
These refugees scattered like an Ant nest that had been blown open.
Some people walked in the direction of the base.
Since these refugees were composed of different people, divided into various small groups, but not united into a centralized group, very often no one could control anyone else. Occasionally there would be conflicts, but others would watch with cold eyes.
Inside the base, it happened to be Xiao Lata and Li Yu's turn for duty today. The two of them were on the wall, feeling somewhat bored.
They chatted idly.
"Yu Ge, if the apocalypse ever ends, what do you want to do most?" Xiao Lata asked proactively.
Li Yu heard this and thought for a moment. He couldn't think of anything.
His hobbies were simple: reading books, fishing, painting, and watching movies.
What else?
He didn't know. In his previous life in M City, amidst the fast-paced life of a big city, every day was busy. Although he had visited some scenic spots, been to the most underground bars, and the most exclusive clubs, it all seemed very uninteresting.
In such a noisy environment, everything seemed unreal.
Instead, returning to the countryside, his heart seemed to quiet down all at once.
In this apocalypse, he built this base.
He could shoot arrows, he could fire guns. He could go up the mountain to pick wild fruits, and go down to the pond to swim.
He could watch movies and eat in the basement. He could have a barbecue and drink whenever he wanted.
His parents, friends, and brothers were all by his side.
Although this was a dangerous environment facing zombies, with the wall blocking them, it wasn't that dangerous.
It was considered a pure land in a chaotic world.
It seemed he was already living the life he wanted.
If the apocalypse hadn't come, perhaps everyone wouldn't be so united, gathering to live in one place.
If the apocalypse hadn't come, everyone might be thinking every day about how to take exams, how to improve their studies, then get into a good university, then discover that after university, work was even more tiring. They would discover how difficult it was to make money, how complex the workplace was, how much more there was to learn, and how exhausting it was to be alive.
Besides these basic things, they would also have to consider comparisons between people, worrying about others' opinions, and considering various things.
But the apocalypse came, and it seemed the most important thing was to live, and they could still live well.
Life, not just survival.
The apocalypse, it's pretty good.
Li Yu didn't answer for a long time.
Seeing that he didn't answer, Yu Tong said, "If the apocalypse ends, I definitely want to travel, to go all over the world."
Listening to the sweet voice beside him, Li Yu smiled. He said, "Alright, I'll go with you then. We'll drive an RV! Haha."
Yu Tong looked at the Unimog in the Weng City behind them. Its cold, metallic gleam exuded a powerful sense of security.
She nodded.
Soon, it was twelve noon.
Li Hang came to deliver food. The food prepared today was not complicated: stir-fried cabbage with vinegar, and stir-fried pork kidney. Two corn cobs. The aroma was enticing.
In the base, Lai Dongsheng's wife had previously worked as a cook in a cafeteria, preparing large-batch meals.
It had to be said, the taste was truly good.
Smoke curled upwards. The aroma drifted out of the base.
Outside the base, less than a hundred meters away, some people smelled the aroma of the food, and their mouths watered.
They hadn't smelled this kind of food aroma for a very long time.
Before the apocalypse, during meal times, they would often smell the aroma of food from their neighbors' homes.
This smell, it must be the scent of life.
Some people, upon smelling it, burst into tears.
This scent awakened their pre-apocalypse memories; they hadn't smelled this scent in a very long time.
This nearly one year felt like a dream. It was too difficult.
Yesterday was like the wind, making them infinitely nostalgic.
Following the aroma of the food, they walked towards the base.
In a few minutes, they arrived outside the base.
They saw a gray wall, like a giant dragon, stretching across their view 30 meters away. From their angle, they couldn't see the end of the wall.
The wall was nearly four stories high, with an electric fence on top.
Flashes of sparks occasionally flickered, as if telling others that the electric fence was live.
Refugee A: "This is like fantasy!"
Refugee B: "I want to eat that food, it smells so good, too good."
Refugee C: "It's too shocking."
Refugee D: "Heh heh, those few people in front haven't seen the world. Not like me."
Refugee E: "..."
Suddenly, they were all stunned on the spot. They hadn't expected such a structure in this rural area.
If it weren't for the aroma of the food, they probably would have had a hard time finding this place.
It was hidden too well, nestled among these woods, making it very difficult to find.
