Flowers Blooming in the Wasteland

Fu Yunlan stuffed the food and ammunition left in the car into his backpack. Hummingbird Town, where the Hurricane Mercenary Corps is located, is only more than 100 kilometers away from the Republic of Merced. They originally planned to drive within a day Back and forth, so I didn't bring much to eat.But now it takes more than three days to walk back, and the shortage of food and water has suddenly become a big problem.

There was no time to stop and bury the dead teammates. Fu Yunlan just collected their weapons and ammunition and other things that could be used, packed them into a bag, and buried them near the front of the old truck, ready to come back to pick them up later. , in the last days, these are very important resources, and they cannot be discarded in vain.

Celeste followed him silently while doing these things, and Fu Yunlan also paid attention to Celeste's physical condition.

He could feel that Celeste was a bit abnormal, and the crow's crow's beak still made sense. Although Fu Yunlan didn't have any equipment at hand to detect the concentration of nuclear radiation nearby, he could judge based on experience alone. What exploded was only some miniature nuclear bombs. After staying so close to the center of the nuclear explosion without protection for more than half an hour, Celeste will probably die of acute radiation sickness in the next few hours or days. Perhaps with better luck, the wind blows to the other side, and the radiation concentration in this direction is not very strong, so he still has a high probability of dying from radiation sequelae such as malignant tumors in the next few years.

Fortunately, Celeste doesn't look like he's going to die soon, let's not talk about whether he will die in the future, the important thing is to complete the task now.

After cleaning up the mess as quickly as possible, Fu Yunlan walked in front with his modified assault rifle and a heavy backpack, and Celeste quietly followed behind the only person who could protect him at the moment.

In fact, he also felt it himself. After waking up from the nuclear explosion, his whole body including his brain was a little abnormal, and he couldn't even control the balance of his body.He didn't dare to tell Fu Yunlan, so he could only try to keep up with the opponent's pace and try not to let himself fall.

The road has not been maintained for many years. In some places, the concrete pavement has cracked, and the large and small cement blocks are raised and sunken. However, in general, the road is much easier to walk than the wilderness.

But Celeste fell down on this flat road more than once.

He was a little worried that Fu Yunlan would leave him as a burden at any time, or simply shoot him to death, and go back and pretend that no one was saved at all.Anyway, he is just a "patient" who is likely to die soon, even if he is brought back alive, he may not be able to make a good job with his father.

But Fu Yunlan never did this. Every time Celeste fell, Fu Yunlan would stop and wait for him to get up to keep up, and sometimes he would turn back to help him.

Because Celeste had been falling down in various unbelievable ways, the two of them didn't walk fast, until the sky began to darken, and they only walked a distance of more than ten kilometers.

---

Before Merced was destroyed, it was almost as prosperous and orderly as some pre-war small cities. The towering walls protected this beautiful city on the wasteland, and also isolated the danger and desolation of the wasteland, although Merced Germany also faces problems such as food shortage and environmental pollution, but for the people in the wasteland, Merced within the high walls is simply their ideal Eden.

Now, the Garden of Eden no longer exists, and Celeste, who has been living with her mother in the laboratory building, finally sees the world beyond the high walls for the first time.

The outside world was much more desolate than he had imagined, because of the extreme lack of sunlight, even though it was midsummer, the weather was not too hot, and they didn't even sweat much in the impermeable protective clothing.

After the outbreak of a full-scale nuclear war, the huge power of the nuclear bomb caused hundreds of millions of tons of smoke to float in the air, and even rose to a height of more than [-] kilometers into the stratosphere. These smoke and dust that lingered all year round blocked the sunlight and completely changed the global climate .

Celeste once saw in some photos and videos the spring with a hundred flowers in full bloom, the summer when you can wear short sleeves and play in the water by the beach, and the blue sky like silk and satin. He was particularly impressed by the vitality In the wilderness, towering trees cover the entire surface like a green blanket, and shrubs and some shorter vegetation fill every corner of the forest. Animals of all sizes live and multiply in this forest.

Although I feel a little unbelievable, the wasteland I see in front of me is indeed the once vibrant forest in the video data. In less than 20 years, almost all the towering trees have died, leaving only a few The coniferous plants that originally grew in high-latitude areas are still tenaciously lingering. In some places, the forests have been cut down in large swaths and become fuel for keeping out the cold and fungal beds for cultivating edible mushrooms. Only the most tenacious plants are left on the open land. The weeds are still sparsely stretching their branches and leaves.Some forests have not been cut down due to geographical location. The forests that once covered the sky left lifeless branches pointing at the gray sky. From time to time, dead trees fell down, and the dry branches Dry smashed on the land where there is not much green left.

Fu Yunlan wasn't in the mood to speak, and Celeste didn't want to speak either. In the oppressive silence, the night gradually fell.

After the nuclear war, the moon is almost invisible in the sky, let alone the stars. Although Fu Yunlan carried a flashlight, walking with a flashlight in the dark without any other light source is equivalent to telling the nearby creatures within a few kilometers "There are living people here".

Of course, Fu Yunlan would not take this risk. He knew that his situation was not very optimistic. Although he hadn't taken off his protective clothing to check the wound, he could roughly estimate that there should be large bruises and bruises on the chest and abdomen at the moment. He would feel pain if he breathed a little harder, and he didn't know if his ribs were broken, and his physical strength was also exhausted, so he had to stop and rest after sunset.

They rested behind a big rock near the road. From here they could notice the movement on the road, but people on the road couldn't see what was going on behind the rock.

Fu Yunlan opened the mask and ate some food and water as quickly as possible. This would undoubtedly expose him to some radiation, but he couldn't control it anymore.

In the past ten years after the outbreak of the war, nuclear explosions and leaks of various sizes have continued to be staged all over the world. Just like the nuclear explosion that happened in Merced not long ago, the radiation dust was scattered around with ocean currents and monsoons. , it can be said that nuclear pollution has already spread to every corner of the world.

In some seriously polluted places, such as old ponds, or dumps piled up with nuclear waste, just passing by unintentionally may kill people, so as mercenaries, they always carry a set of Radiation suits to avoid restricted movement.As for the less serious nuclear pollution, people have long been used to it to the point of numbness. They eat radiation-containing food, drink radiation-containing water, and work hard on the radiation-containing land every day. A ticking time bomb, maybe it will turn into cancer or organ failure at some point, but people still have to eat, drink, and work. Even if every dozen newborns have a congenital disability or deformity, more than half of the children will not survive In adulthood, people are still having children, and they are struggling to reproduce.

Before Fu Yunlan swallowed the food in his mouth, he put back on his protective mask. The other mercenaries felt that his cleanliness was a bit serious, because it is basically impossible for mercenaries like them to survive to be exposed to radiation On the day of her illness, Fu Yunlan persisted in these habits that others thought were unnecessary.

Celeste reluctantly ate the food allocated to him, Fu Yunlan only gave him less than a third of a cup of water, and dryly compressing the biscuits really made him lose his appetite .

Seeing his loss of appetite, Fu Yunlan asked worriedly: "What's the matter, is there any discomfort in your body?"

Celeste replied, "No."

Fu Yunlan frowned: "Tell the truth."

"A little thirsty."

"Be patient."

"Oh……"

Fu Yunlan and the others didn't bring much drinking water before they set off. The bottle of water Celeste brought out was definitely not enough for two adults who had to walk back to Hummingbird Town on their feet. Most of the water sources are not drinkable at all, and a small part of them will not drink to death immediately, and they are also seriously polluted by heavy metals, chemical pollution and nuclear pollution. No one wants to touch such dirty water unless it is a last resort.

So Celeste could only endure the dry mouth and lay down with his back against the stone. He heard Fu Yunlan say, "Go to bed early, I'll keep watch."

If the coma time is not counted, Celeste has not slept for a long time, so despite being thirsty and cold, wearing a stiff protective suit, lying on the uneven ground, he fell asleep quickly .