Chapter 311: Hope City (I) (1/2)
Chapter 311: Hope City (I)
Translator: EndlessFantasy TranslationEditor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The burning campfire seemed to move cheerfully in the dark beneath the pot.
”So were there a lot of people who departed before the earthquake?” asked Luo Yuan.
”Yes, the train was originally supposed to be carrying goods, but the signs of the earthquake were really obvious, so they changed their minds,” a middle-aged man said quietly as he hugged his daughter. He had been fortunate enough to survive the tragedy.
The girl in his arms looked about three or four years old. She was already tired and falling asleep. When she finally did, her brows were furrowed and her body was tense. It seemed like she was having a nightmare.
Luo Yuan looked away and asked, ”Do you know how many people escaped from Desert City?”
”I’m not sure. It was pretty hectic at the time. Time was wasting, and the train was seriously overloaded. There must have been twenty or maybe thirty thousand people on it,” the middle-aged man said, remaining silent for a while. His name was Cui Weichuan. Before the earthquake, he had been a basic level government employee. When the migration had taken place, almost all civil servants had been required to maintain order, so he had somewhat understood the situation.
There was a total of nine survivors rescued, including the children. Fortunately, aside from an unlucky person whose left arm had been cut off by a rock that had collapsed, the rest of them were not injured. Luo Yuan used his Will to heal the injured survivor. The man had stopped bleeding, but his left arm was not going to grow back.
”The soup is ready, let’s have it first,” Huang Jiahui changed the topic. She and several other women served each person a bowl of soup.
”Thank you!”
”Thank you!”
The survivors accepted the soup with a look of gratitude. After drinking it, their faces quickly flushed and they started to look less tired. Luo Yuan talked to them for a while before he gave them two tents so they could rest.
...
Late at night, Luo Yuan was lying in his tent with his eyes open, staring ahead of him blankly.
From their conversation, he had gathered that the situation was better than expected. Assuming that the train had departed at eight and the earthquake had happened at four, that eight-hour gap should have been enough for them to escape the impact of the earthquake.
This meant that at least one-fifth of the people had managed to flee from the catastrophe, including students, researchers, engineers, and the part of the military that had maintained order.
Luo Yuan was slightly relieved. At least Zhong Chujiang and Deng Chao would not have died, but the status of Huo Dong, Cao Lin and Mo Wenwen was still unknown. He admired Mayor Song’s decision and the fact that the majority of the public servants had chosen to stay back and face the earthquake.
”Do you think we would still have survived if we’d never escaped?” Huang Jiahui asked suddenly.
Luo Yuan was silent for a moment before he said, ”Don’t think too much. Go to sleep while it’s still early.”
”I can’t sleep. Whenever I close my eyes, those familiar faces appear in my brain, except now they’re corpses. We don’t know whether Huo Dong and Cao Lin are still okay or not,” said Huang Jiahui with sadness in her voice. As she uttered that last sentence, her voice sounded choked.
Luo Yuan sighed and said, ”This is the apocalypse. We have been through a lot these past few days.”
”But we are in the Reconstruction Area,” Huang Jiahui said weakly.
”We were, but now it’s collapsed,” Luo Yuan said with a heavy heart. ”Go to bed. We have to get up early tomorrow.”
...
The vast grassland was restless. Countless mutated beasts were running around. After a while, two giant mutated beasts gradually appeared on the horizon, quickly walking towards their destination.