Chapter 166: Arrival at the First District of Shenhai Island
Translator: Liu_Kaixuan Editor: Valvrave
Driving from the downtown area to Shenhai Island, it would usually take several hours before doomsday. However, after doomsday, they had to stop and resume several times, so they could only reach their destination after the next day’s afternoon.
After arriving at the first district of Shenhai Island, they found that it was just a small town and in its central area there were only crossroads.
Buildings with more than five floors could be counted on one hand, as for other buildings, they followed the Southern architectural style with green tiles on the roof and fresh dyed white walls.
From Jiang Liushi’s perspective, it looked like a construction site as a few kilometers away, towering concrete walls could be seen spreading over the horizon. Even though the five-meter-thick wall’s construction, which acted as the foundation, had been completed, a large number of steel bars were still exposed.
Before the virus’ escalation, the government had commandeered the railway and expressway to transfer resources; that’s why Jiang Zhuying had no way to come home.
After doomsday, many skilled craftsmen along with ordinary people had been called to design and construct the towering city wall. They kept working night and day to build the city wall, which was Shenhai Island’s last lifeline.
In the future, it would reach up to fifteen meters, forming a concrete wall to defend them against mutant beasts and countless zombie hordes, and protect hundreds of thousands of people on the island.
Towers had been built on the city wall at 10-meter intervals. Although not all towers were complete, weapons had already been placed on them. Seeing the 130 mm howitzer with two large-caliber anti-aircraft guns could give people a sense of security!
Under the walls, powerful patrol soldiers equipped with live ammunition were standing watch. Each soldier was equipped with automatic rifles, grenades; some people were even carrying rocket launchers. There were about nine units along the road, which composed a garrison unit. Actually, the city’s defenses had already been as strong as iron.
However, no one was sure about what the future would bring.
Even though the city wall had not been completed, in the city entrance, several large iron doors had been installed. Those steel doors had been welded with thick steel plates, which could withstand a howitzers’ direct hit.
On each side of each gate, there were heavily armed guards who would inspect whoever entered the area of the first district of Shenhai Island. Those waiting to enter the city were lined up, many of whom were ragged and skinny looking like ancient famine victims. They were all ordinary survivors, gathered together from other places, armed with whatever weapon they could find; some lucky ones were under a paranormal’s command.
Although many people died on the way, the island's food production was extremely limited, so it was impossible to feed everyone. As a result, ordinary survivors could only get some limited rations by working hard on constructing the city.
Hunger and fatigue, coupled with lack of medicines, would lead many of them to death. In fact, plenty of corpses would be shipped out every day from the island. In order to prevent plagues from breeding, those corpses would be cremated and buried. Let alone the absence of tombs and monuments after death, the ashes were all mixed together.
After doomsday, that was the worst fate awaiting ordinary people.
Everyone, no matter what status they had, was forced to be tested for wounds and virus infection before they entered the city!
Even after the virus’ outbreak and all living people’s bodies had developed antibodies, average people could still be infected by zombies as the virus in zombies’ bodies had mutated and evolved; that rendered the antibodies useless. Once bit by a zombie, the possibility of infection could reach more than 90 percent.
Shenhai Island’s rules stated that all those who had wounds should be isolated for observation and everybody had to accept the inspection. People infected by the virus, in the process of mutating to a zombie, could be found easily from their eyes.
At the city's gates, eight quarantine sites had been set up and quarantine personnel at each location were loaded with live ammunition. They were all on guard and once there was something wrong with the one being checked, they would kill them immediately; no virus strain could be allowed to enter.
Six of the eight quarantine sites were prepared for ordinary people, because of the strict inspections, there were long queues at every quarantine point. Standing under the sunshine without any shelter for about three or four hours, it was quite a difficult task to those hungry refugees. A few people had even fainted because of hypoglycemia.
In order to quarantine the wound, sometimes it was inevitable touching the body, so the ones responsible for quarantine were all women; most of them were impatient because they had to repeat the same process over and over. Sometimes they would pull the survivors heavily, and in some cases, some survivors would be thrown on the ground. Encountering that kind of behavior, the survivors were silently cursing but no one would dare to be disrespectful because of their attitude. They would always quickly stand up with great momentum and continue being examined.
However, the remaining two of the eight quarantine points had a totally different treatment. For the two quarantine points, one was prepared for combatants, the so-called combatants were actually average people in combat squads, who were required to carry a rifle or a mighty pistol, and carry more than 100 rounds of bullets. As for the last quarantine point, it was prepared for paranormals, and they didn’t have to wait.
The inspectors in that quarantine point were six beauties and two major-level military officers. The six beauties originally were literary and art soldiers, skilled in singing and dancing. Moreover, they were very gentle with sweet smiles. They asked some questions from time to time, and then they would write the registration form.
Shen Tao had got off, looking at the refugees, and then said with a sigh, "Ordinary people are indeed unlucky. They are not allowed to bring any vehicle into the city, so every vehicle is parked outside the city, while all their gasoline and diesel will be used up by the military. Of course, the military will give them some food. Later, they have to get up early every day to work in tantrums, barely satisfying their hunger, living in some temporarily shared houses, or even some tents. In winter, it is indeed cold…"
"As for paranormals, they are much better… They are allowed to drive their vehicles into the city, and they can also get a small area apartment. If he or she has a little stronger ability, they can even live on Shenhai Island, where there are modern high-rise apartments, and behind these high-rise apartments is a hill, in which some villas are located." Shen Tao made a brief introduction to them.
Jiang Liushi nodded his head. Suddenly, he remembered something and then asked, "How about the elites? What kind of places do they live in?" He actually wanted to know where Li Yuxin was living. After all, in terms of probability, Li Yuxin should just be an ordinary person.
Translator's Thoughts
Liu_Kaixuan Liu_Kaixuan
Valvrave's corner; They've finally reached their destination. Let's see what will happen next ^_^ {To answer yesterday's questions; Yes the chapter was indeed short, about 700 words. You should know that the novel's chapters are about 700-1200 words, with some special occasions reaching 2000.}