The drifting city of the last days

"Brother, you pinch me?" Wu Fei blinked and bumped Shao Yunfan with his elbow.On the left and right sides, there is still the familiar world. On the roof of the commercial building next to it called "Xin'an", there is still a huge light board advertising a certain brand of cosmetics endorsed by Sister Hua.Tens of meters ahead, there is an open sea. This must be a nightmare that has not yet woken up, right?

Zhang Junjiu touched the tortoise shell in his arms with a wry smile, hesitating whether to make a divination immediately.Unless they passed through the gate of Tongtiancoin, how could this be the case?But it's fine to take the yacht through, it's impossible to take the whole city of S through the gate, right?

"Could it be...the houses over there were collapsed by the tsunami or earthquake, so..." Lan Shan was silent for a long time before he gave a reason that even he didn't quite believe.

"No, even if the buildings that can be exposed to the water are destroyed, the color of the water surface will be basically the same when the depth of the water is basically the same and the suspended matter in the water is similar. But over there," Qi Liang pointed to the boat solemnly The vast expanse of dark water about ten meters in front of their heads, there is a sharp difference in color from the water under their feet, like sandwich layers, "The color of the water is obviously very dark, the biggest possibility is the depth of the water there It is several times or even dozens of times more than the accumulated water under our feet. This kind of vastness and depth should be the deep sea."

"deep sea?"

Everyone was crowded on the deck, and the conversation between Lan Shan and Qi Liang was naturally heard clearly. Xia An continued solemnly, "I'm sure the opposite is the deep sea." This scenery was actually very familiar to him, but Put it here and now, it's hard to understand.

"But, aren't there all shallows near City S?" Shao Yunfan frowned in confusion.

"That's right, it's because the house in front of us accidentally collapsed into the stagnant water!" The restless people whispered to each other, discussing in succession.

Luo Zhen didn't speak, but frowned and lowered his eyelashes in deep thought.

When everyone was guessing wildly, the water surged in front of the bow, and a person wearing a bright yellow respirator and an air tank emerged from the water. It was the strengthened person Xia An sent down to investigate.

Seeing him appearing, Xia An spread his wings and flew towards the water, directly carrying him to the deck.The man took off the wet respirator on his head, his face was as pale as paper, he bent down tiredly and put his hands on his knees, panting for a long time.All the people on the deck focused on him, anxiously waiting for the result.

"Danny, what's going on down there?" Xia An was silent for about 30 seconds before finally speaking.

The man straightened up and let out a long breath, "Less than ten meters ahead, the ground seemed to be cut off by something, and it was completely broken. Outside the fracture layer was sea water, which looked like a cliff sunk in the sea. I dived vertically along the fault layer for about 200 meters, but I still couldn’t see the end of the cliff. Further down, the light was too dark to see clearly, so I inferred that the water depth was at least 1000 meters.”

In the depths of the ocean, there is another wider world, colorful and bizarre. The deep-sea creatures are usually huge in size and scary in appearance. Even in the past, they were beautiful and dangerous, making people daunting.

1000 meters!

Shao Yunfan looked at him in shock, so, as Qi Liang and Xia An said just now, what they are facing now is a deep sea?

"Can't you see any collapsed buildings or submerged land ahead?" Xia An asked.

The man shook his head, "Even if it is an earthquake, it is impossible to cause such a large area and such a deep collapse."

"But why? So where are the residential areas on the opposite side? They won't disappear out of thin air, right?" The crew scratched their hair anxiously.

"Maybe it's a rupture of the continental shelf?" Qi Liang blinked, "According to the theory of continental drift, earthquakes and tides would have caused the rupture and drift of the continental shelf."

"?" Wu Fei frowned and looked at him in confusion. Continental drift?Will the mainland float away like a ship?

"This is a hypothesis, which is not exactly the same as plate tectonics. The theory of continental drift believes that in ancient times, the entire earth had only one Pangea continent, surrounded by Pan-Oceanic waters. The interior of the earth is basalt, while the surface is granite Therefore, the continent is like an iceberg floating on the sea, floating on the molten basalt. About 2 million years ago, the Pangea continent was fragmented and drifted due to tidal push and earthquakes, until 300 million years ago The broken and drifted continents basically formed the basic appearance of the seven continents and the five oceans before. Geologists have studied and confirmed that many mountain ranges in Africa, America, and Europe do belong to the same source; Africa and South Africa on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean In the Americas, the continental margins can also fit together completely; in addition, there are various evidences such as climate, paleontological fossils, and ancient magnetic fields to support the theory of continental drift, proving that in ancient times, all the continents on the earth were connected together." Seeing Wu Fei's puzzled expression, Qi Liang tried his best to explain it concisely, "The tsunami a few days ago was likely to be a catastrophic destruction to the continental shelf of Eurasia, just like a piece of ice floating on the sea. The block was suddenly smashed to pieces by some force. And we should be on one of the floating pieces of ice."

Qi Liang's words silenced the surroundings, and no one spoke for a long while.

"So, you mean, we are likely to be on a piece of drifting continental debris?" Shao Yunfan asked this sentence with difficulty, his eyebrows tangled.

Everyone on the deck showed a "don't pay attention to me, let me be quiet" expression.Forget about floods and tsunamis, what about the fragmentation of the continental shelf?

Qi Liang nodded, "This is the most reasonable explanation I can think of. Of course, the speed of this kind of drift should have been very slow. However, in only twenty days since the tsunami, we have already seen the deep sea. This shows that the fragments of the continent we are staying in may be very small, which is why the drifting speed is so fast. I guess that the force that can destroy the continental shelf should be extremely powerful, not only the tsunami, but even the phenomenon of biological mutation that is now appearing. It might also come from that."

"Is it possible that the huge earthquake shattered everything on the opposite side, and the surface collapsed to a depth of 500 meters underwater, so Willy couldn't see it?" someone raised an objection.

"Of course it's possible." Qi Liang nodded, "What I just said is just a hypothesis."

"It's not difficult to confirm this. We can take a look along the fault layer. If what we are standing on is really a small fragment of the continent, we should have the answer soon." Luo Zhen raised his head and raised his eyebrows. To Xia An.

Xia An's complexion was also not very good-looking, he hesitated for a while, nodded, and said to the flat head next to him, "Notify Xiao An, drive to the left, and walk in the direction of the broken line below." If it is a flood, it will last forever , They can also rely on the yacht to return to a safe place.What would they do if the entire continent was reduced to pieces and floated on the sea?He was more worried about the emotions of the crew members on board.People's sense of security comes from familiar things and principles. If there is a crack, anxiety is likely to lead to extreme behavior or even collapse.

For the next two days, the atmosphere on the entire yacht became extremely heavy.Except for stopping at places where there are gas stations, the yacht has been advancing along the edge of the fracture layer.Except late at night, Xia An and Qi Liang had been standing on the observation deck to observe the surroundings. Qi Liangbi was looking at the map with advertisements printed on the back in his hand, and made marks with a pen from time to time.Two days later, in the early morning, they saw the huge cosmetics billboard standing at the intersection of Xin'an Commercial Building and the roof again.

"It seems that the piece of land under our feet is only this big. The area is about [-] to [-] square kilometers. If calculated proportionally, it is about one ten-thousandth of the entire Eurasian continent." Qi Liang sat In front of the table in the leisure cabin, he was gesturing with his fingers on the map of City S spread out on the table. Xia An and Luo Zhen sat on both sides of him, and Shao Yunfan, Wu Fei, the flat-headed and the enhanced person who released the poison sat in the L-shaped corner. On the sofa, the rest of the people on the boat are still up.

"It's not a piece of debris, it's clearly a piece of debris." Wu Fei complained sadly, and fell back limply on the back of the sofa.

"So what should we do?" Xia An, who was sitting next to Qi Liang, slapped his arms on the map and clenched his fists.He hadn't closed his eyes for almost two days, his eyes were bloodshot, and his body smelled like tobacco.They walked around the current remaining area of ​​S City, but the result was only to push themselves into an even more flustered situation.Regardless of whether the land really turned into a pile of debris, there is no doubt that the place under their feet has become a piece of debris.They can't even know their exact location and how far they are from the land.Except for a few small islands to the south and east, surrounded by the vast sea, the feeling of isolation and helplessness makes people more and more desperate.Two Augments on board are extremely irritable and on the verge of losing control.

The six people on Qi Liang's side were relatively better. After all, they had already judged that what they encountered was a global catastrophe or even doomsday, and they were somewhat prepared. It's just worse.A person's nerves are both fragile and strong, and they get used to blows and blows.

"Our purpose is to survive, and the place we are used to is also land." Luo Zhen gently clasped the knuckles of his right hand on the table with the map in between. "So we still have to find ways to find land as much as possible."

"Land? Is there still land now? Will it be the same as the place under our feet, all submerged in the water after we find it?" Flathead scratched his hair irritably, his eyes were also red.

"There are two situations. One is that the entire continental shelf has been torn apart, and we are a relatively small piece of it. The other is that most of the continent is still there, and only a few of them have been shattered and thrown out like the place under our feet. "Qi Liang said seriously, "If it is the former situation, we should try our best to find a fragment with a larger area. The larger its land area, the more likely it is suitable for survival. As for the latter situation, we should Let’s find a way to get back to land.”

"There is another option, floating in the sea all the time or choosing a small island nearby, and then being isolated from the world." Luo Zhen added.

The flat head rubbed his forehead, "Then let's go to the mainland." At least he can go back to find his relatives and friends.

"What do you think?" Qi Liang looked at Xia An inquiringly. He is the boss of this ship and has the highest decision-making authority.

"Go back to the mainland." Xia An frowned and nodded heavily.

"If it is determined to return to the mainland, we have to prepare in three aspects. First, I need Xiao An to study the ocean currents and directions with me to determine the approximate direction of the destination. Secondly, due to the uncertain sailing distance, we have to consider Can a speedboat survive the various impacts encountered on the road. The last is fuel. We need to collect as much fuel as possible. In order to avoid lack of power." It would be better if Xia An could fly nearby to investigate, but if Without a suitable foothold, he is likely to be in danger due to exhaustion.Qi Liang thought about it, but he still didn't say anything for the time being.

The communicator hanging at the door flashed red light, and Xia An picked up the microphone, "Boss, a pirate ship with a skull and skull flag appeared 500 meters away!" Those in the lounge can hear clearly.

What?pirate?

Everyone in the leisure cabin straightened up like a reflex.