Embers Ad Infinitum

It wasn't until the jeep drove out of the silver-white gate that Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong got used to the light outside, lowered their right arms, opened their eyes wide, and cast their gazes out of the window.

After going through the initial, inexplicable and inexplicable fear, they saw a clear blue sky, white clouds of different shapes, flocks of birds in changing formations, and pale golden brilliance shining in the sun. mountain wall.

"The sun...the sun!" Long Yuehong shouted loudly at the huge orange fireball high in the sky.

He stared there, even though his eyes hurt and tears flowed, he couldn't bear to look away.

"Don't look directly at the sun in this state, it hurts your eyes! If you really want to look, here." Jiang Baimian rummaged through the armrest box to find something while driving, and handed it back to Long Yuehong.

Long Yuehong, who was lying on the glass window, looked back and found that it was a pair of glasses with completely black lenses.

"...Sunglasses!" He recalled what he had learned and found the corresponding noun.

"If you don't wear it, I will." At this moment, Shang Jianyao turned around and said.

Long Yuehong looked over and found that Shang Jianyao's eyes were red, as if tears would flow at any moment.

"Haha, you stared at the sun too?" Long Yuehong laughed unbearably.

The next second, he saw Shang Jianyao grab the sunglasses and put them on the bridge of his nose.

"Hey..." For a moment, he didn't know whether to be angry or reflect.

"There's another pair here." When Long Yuehong was about to pounce on Shang Jianyao, Bai Chen, who was in the passenger seat, handed back a pair of sunglasses.

These sunglasses are more delicate than Jiang Baimian's, like two "hearts" strung together, the color of the lenses is not pure black, but a little rose red.

"Don't break it, I spent a lot of things in exchange for it." Bai Chen warned.

"Thank you." Long Yuehong sincerely thanked her, and put on the pair of sunglasses.

With this "equipment", he can finally observe the sun seriously and carefully, and compare the differences between it and the slide.

"This is the sun..." After an unknown amount of time, Long Yuehong sighed, took off her sunglasses, and returned them to Bai Chen.

Shang Jianyao also looked away, and thoughtfully put Jiang Baimian's sunglasses back into the armrest box.

"What are you thinking?" Long Yuehong glanced at her friend.

Shang Jian Yao replied with a serious expression:

"I was wondering, where can I get sunglasses?"

People in the underground building don't need this thing at all, and only a few project teams will use it. Therefore, no matter whether it is the "material supply market" or the small market in the "activity center" on the 495th floor, this thing has never appeared.

Jiang Baimian, who was driving, exhaled:

"I knew your focus was wrong."

Bai Chen smiled and said:

"When you pass by the place where wanderers live in the wilderness, you can go in and have a look. Maybe a compressed biscuit can be exchanged for a good pair of sunglasses."

"That's how I got mine!" Jiang Baimian echoed, "Why do you trade so many things for yours?"

"I bought it from a female relic hunter. At that time, she thought it was very beautiful and wanted to use it for herself, so she didn't have much shortage of supplies." Bai Chen recalled the situation at the time.

Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong didn't listen carefully, and they both lay on their corresponding car windows, staring at the scene outside.

Whether it's the huge trees on both sides or the brown squirrels that run by by chance, they can watch with relish and admire.

"This is different from the gray soil environment I imagined..." After an unknown amount of time, Long Yuehong sat up straight and sighed.

"What do you imagine?" Jiang Baimian asked casually while letting the jeep jump on the bumpy road.

Long Yuehong tried hard to find an adjective:

"That's right, that's..."

Shang Jian Yao turned his head and helped him describe:

"Dark, cold, damp, depressing, the sky is full of dust, the sun cannot penetrate the dark clouds, and it is gray everywhere."

"That's right! That's it!" Long Yuehong fully agreed.

Their textbooks did not describe the environment of the gray soil in detail, but only talked about the state, pollution, disease, and famine, which naturally gave them the impression that the environment on the gray soil was harsh.

And those employees who have been to the surface, due to the confidentiality regulations, can't say much. Even if they occasionally mention that some places are sunny and the environment is good, they will be subconsciously ignored by the listening crowd.

Jiang Baimian pressed his elbows on the steering wheel, looked ahead, and said with a smile:

"Maybe it will be like this when the old world was just destroyed, but it will get better soon, and only some places are still in a similar state."

"And that also means danger, pollution, disease and distortion." Bai Chen added beside him.

"That's it..." Long Yuehong pressed her face to the car window again, admiring the beautiful scenery of the mountains and forests bathed in sunlight.

The same is true for Shang Jianyao.

Jiang Baimian saw this scene through the rearview mirror, chuckled secretly, and pressed a certain button.

In the sound of beeping, the glass windows on the four doors suddenly closed down.

Long Yuehong was startled, and straightened her body:

"It, it...

"Can you still put it away like this?"

"Let you breathe the air outside." Jiang Baimian pretended that he was not playing a prank just now.

Shang Jianyao's posture has not changed at all, he seems to be enjoying the feeling of the glass window sliding across his face, which looks quite funny.

He then narrowed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"How is it?" Jiang Baimian asked with a smile.

Shang Jianyao looked out solemnly:

"It smells like fresh shit."

"..." Jiang Baimian admitted that Shang Jianyao had a keen sense of smell, but he didn't want to talk to him.

Bai Chen, who watched the whole process of Jiang Baimian opening the car window, interjected thoughtfully:

"Leader, what year were you born?"

"The 23rd year of the new calendar, what's wrong?" Jiang Baimian replied casually.

"You are three years younger than me..." Bai Chen was a little shocked.

Long Yuehong was even more surprised:

"Leader, you are only two years older than us?

"You are already D6!"

"This is the advantage of working in the security department. The danger is the danger. The promotion is really fast. After all, your boss, like me, will die at some point." Jiang Baimian joked.

She paused, then added casually:

"Also, I've made some contributions before.

"Ah, I forgot to remind you that it is important to observe the color of the air. Sometimes you must wear a gas mask in advance."

In the next half hour, Jeep stumbled through the mountains and forests. Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong were still like children, watching the scenery outside intently, curious about everything.

Seeing that the soil in front of him gradually turned black, the surrounding trees began to thin out, and the road was no longer rough, Long Yuehong suddenly frowned slightly and said:

"I always feel that the outside environment is not right, something is missing..."

Shang Jian Yao sat up straight, and said in a deep but not low voice:

"nobody."

No one... yes! Long Yuehong slapped her thigh and said:

"Yeah, except for people in a few outposts along the way, no humans have appeared!"

And the people in the outpost are undoubtedly employees of the company.

"The people nearby have either been absorbed by the company, or wandered to places with food, or..." Jiang Baimian changed his voice, "After passing through the outpost in front and really entering the Black Marsh wilderness, there is a chance to meet humans gone."

"But that may not be what you want..." Bai Chen added in a low voice without looking back.

"What did you say?" Jiang Baimian asked sideways.

"Team leader, concentrate on driving!" Bai Chen suppressed his emotions and shouted with a smile.

Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong fell silent, looking at the increasingly open scene outside the window from time to time.

After an unknown amount of time, Long Yuehong suddenly asked:

"Team leader, I haven't told my family that I'm going out for training, and I won't be going home soon, what should I do?"

"The higher-ups will send someone to notify you." Jiang Baimian looked at the road ahead and gently pulled the steering wheel.

Long Yuehong closed her mouth.

Inside the jeep, there was another long silence.

After passing the edge outpost of "Pangaea", the terrain ahead became more and more flat.

The soil here is gray-black and relatively soft, with various criss-cross traces clearly showing on it, some belonging to wheels, some from animals, and some from humans.

The trees around the road are even more sparse, allowing people to see the black swamp in the distance at a glance.

The trunks of these trees are all black, and the leaves are dark green. Some of them are very tall, as long as 20 to 30 meters, and some are very low, as tall as a person. What they have in common is that their postures are twisted and strange, like dead monsters , appear dark in the sun.

"At the edge of the swamp, you don't need to be too careful. After you get deep, you have to slow down and always pay attention to whether the road ahead has been swallowed by the swamp. If you really drive in, then decisively abandon the car and retreat." Bai Chen took the opportunity to give a lecture, "Leader, there is a clean water source over there."

Jiang Baimian nodded:

"Okay, let's take a rest over there and drink some water.

"Then, while the terrain is wide open and it's not dangerous, let's change Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong to drive.

"I hope you can learn it within today."

She turned the steering wheel and let the Jeep drive into a sparse woodland in the wilderness.

An underground river drilled out of the surface here, flowed for hundreds of meters, and then returned to the ground.

Jiang Baimian took the solar charging panel installed on the top of the jeep and a hot water bottle with a large capacity, walked to the river, and said to Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong:

"This kind of flowing groundwater is generally not a problem, but there are still two points to watch.

"One is whether there are obvious distortions in the nearby plants, and the other is whether the creatures in the water look strange compared with their own kind.

"Then, if possible, boil them all and put them in the water bag. If not, put 'biological cleaning tablets'."

After observing for a while, Jiang Baimian squatted by the river and filled a pot of water.

She then placed the kettle on the charged solar charging pad and plugged it in.

During this process, she took out a milky white plastic bottle, poured out a white tablet the size of a little fingernail, and threw it into the water.

This is the "Biological Cleaning Tablet" produced by "Pangaea Biology".

Long Yuehong watched with great interest, as if she wanted to try it herself.

For him who needs to go to the "supply market" to raise hot water every day, this kind of thing is quite new-his family has a large population, and the children's energy rationing is limited, and the hot water bottle is not a cheap thing, so, I can only Take the thermos bottle and go to the hot water room in the supply market to turn on the water.

After Jiang Baimian finished his work, he stood up, glanced at Long Yuehong, and cursed with a smile:

"What you should do at this time is to take out the 'ice moss' to prevent creatures from attacking us or robbing us of supplies.

"It goes without saying that Bai Chen is very sophisticated. You see, Shang Jianyao is also guarding his surroundings."

Pulling out the "Ice Moss" pistol, Shang Jianyao, who was looking at the "source" of the river, suddenly said:

"Team leader, there is a figure flashing over there!"