NOVPUBChapter 49: Chapter 49: Alternative Route
Chapter 49 -49: Alternative Route
After closing the door, Gu Pan still respected everyone’s input, “If any of you have different opinions, feel free to bring them up, and let’s discuss them together.”
Chen Shaonan said, “I think your attitude is correct. Speaking of which, we are now the strongest and safest group. Once we form an alliance with others, the value of each of us will be weakened.”
Feng Zhekai said, “I hate war and looting the most. Their way of gathering teams is ultimately going to end up in violent plundering. I don’t want to be part of that filth. I prefer what Xiao Gu said about living comfortably.”
Lu Xuerong added, in agreement with her husband, “Right, we don’t like killing or scrambling for possessions, so we are very glad to be with you all.”
Cheng Yang simply stated, “I have no objections. I’ll just follow you all.”
Standing up, Gu Pan said, “We won’t provoke or scramble for things, but if someone invades, we don’t have to be polite. This Li Dong today isn’t a simple man, so we must be more careful in the future.”
Lu Ruisheng said, “This man is ambitious. Right now, he doesn’t have the capability to confront us, but if one day he does, he will make a move, so we can only make ourselves stronger.”
Though Chen Lang was small, his early experience in the apocalypse made him more adaptable to this era, “I will practice my martial arts more diligently in the future, so I won’t be a burden to everyone.”
Gu Pan smiled at him, “There’s no burden here. Any one of us could be a leader. But for now, our living place needs improvements. After all, once our door is barricaded, the only escape routes are through the windows, and if there are people below the windows, it could become easy for us to be trapped.”
As this was mentioned, everyone grew tense because now the only place giving them peace of mind was this house. But Gu Pan was right, if someone started a fire or smoked out the building, trapping them inside, they would have to escape through the windows—but what if there was an ambush below?
Lu Ruisheng fell silent for a while then spoke, “A zip line could be set up between the outside balcony and the rooftop of the property center near the front door. In case of danger, we could escape via this route, and the snow outside, over ten meters, also adds protection.”
Since the property was previously a sales office, it was a three-story building taller than the residential parts, and the third-floor windows were not yet covered by snow.
Feng Zhekai asked, “A zip line? Where do we get the materials for that? The distance is neither far nor close.”
Gu Pan responded, “We’ll swing by a friend’s place that supplies extreme sports gear later to ask around and figure something out.”
In fact, she had the materials needed in ‘Space’, but it was still better to have an external source.
After everyone further refined the plan, Gu Pan and Lu Ruisheng left.
They swung by Guo Gang’s place, then headed to his store together. Everyone had assumed the apocalypse would just be extremely cold, not anticipating the variety of bizarre climates to come, so they hadn’t thought about getting more escape supplies, meaning his store hadn’t been scavenged much.
Gu Pan and Lu Ruisheng found some ropes and climbing protection gear, and took it all.
Before leaving, Gu Pan said to Guo Gang, “Brother Guo, if this snow suddenly melts, it would lead to a flood, so it’s better to keep things like your kayaks just in case they’re needed someday.”
Listening to Gu Pan, Guo Gang thought it over, “Right, if the snow melts, it will indeed cause the water level to rise. I need to keep more escape gear.”
Lu Ruisheng added, “And other useful escape items, have more of them at home just in case. To be honest, with the weather like this, who knows what might happen?”
“Alright, I will listen to you both. By the way, the ice cream you left in the cellar a few days ago—I saw it, thank you,” said Guo Gang.
“Talking to me about that? It’s getting late, so we’re heading back,” said Lu Ruisheng.
Guo Gang saw them out and then went back to gather some usable items, which he also took with him.
After Gu Pan and his wife got home, they began figuring out how to install their plan.
They had drones of various models which could be fixed in place here, and then use a high-power drone to carry the other end of the rope to the building across, otherwise there was no way to cross the snowy gap in between.
Once the rope was securely fixed, they usually kept it loose and buried in the snow, making it hard to spot, and only tightened it when needed.
Having agreed on their plan, they used walkie-talkies to call everyone to a meeting on the ninth floor, and shared their ideas. Everyone began to act that evening.
They chose to install the escape floor on the external balcony of Cheng Yang’s apartment on the sixth floor, as it was easier to descend from the seventh floor to the sixth floor, which had external balconies and positions for air conditioning units, besides being slightly lower, thus safer.
Once decided, in the middle of the night, when people were in their deepest sleep, they began the installation. Lu Ruisheng, Cheng Yang, and Chen Shaonan went to the property management building—Chen Shaonan knew about electricity and needed to install an alarm there to ensure their belongings weren’t tampered with, and Cheng Yang, being young and strong, was quick with his hands and feet.
After Gu Pan secured this side at home, he used a drone to tie the other end of the rope to another drone and carried it across.
Lu Ruisheng began the installation, quickly securing everything in place, while Chen Shaonan installed the alarm; if anyone tampered with it, the alarm would sound, alerting them.
Everything was set up by late night, and they all went home to sleep.
The next day, everyone had free time as they were all too exhausted from the day before.
Gu Pan and Lu Ruisheng, seeing the resources outside dwindling and the price of rice rising again, decided to visit Shi Liang.
At the entrance to the psychiatric hospital, there were more people than last time.
Now, four-fifths of the population was unable to get enough food, and less than half managed to scrape by, with people freezing or starving to death every day, leaving half the community empty.
Several households in their building had also gone; 902 had fled, 501 froze to death, the top-floor 1101 froze to death, and it wasn’t clear whether 1002 froze or starved to death—but had already been dealt with. An elderly person on the 8th floor died, while the younger ones were barely managing.
Too many people had nothing to eat or burn and could only come here to trade items for essentials, although everyone knew that the valuable things at home wouldn’t suffice for even two days’ worth of food. But what choice did they have? Not trading meant dying faster, and maybe if they could hold out for a few more days, there might be rescue operations or warmer weather?
Gu Pan and Lu Ruisheng headed straight to where Shi Liang was, noticeable by his red scarf.
However, since he was with a customer, Gu Pan and Lu Ruisheng didn’t approach directly but listened from a distance instead.
At the moment, a middle-aged man was negotiating with Shi Liang, “This bracelet cost a good amount of money when I bought it, 50 grams, and yet you’re only exchanging it for half a kilogram of rice, too little.”
Shi Liang sighed, “Brother, if you don’t trade today, you might not even get that half kilogram of rice tomorrow, the price is escalating too quickly. I don’t have a choice either, we have superiors too.”
The middle-aged man hesitated but eventually agreed, “Let’s trade. Otherwise, people at home will starve to death.” He handed the bracelet to Shi Liang.
After confirming the gold was genuine and weighing it, Shi Liang gave him a half kilogram bag of rice, “Take care, brother.”
The man concealed the rice in his embrace, then left.
