Hyperthermal Hell || Apocalypse Paradise #1 [Complete]

22: Starting a Journey!

With the naked eye, the intense sun that hung high in the sky was no different from that of any other summer. The dazzling sunlight shined down from the blue skies and only revealed its unspeakable malice when it blazed over the earth.

Shriveled dead bodies covered in burns littered every street. Buildings were split open under the intense heat, and houses made of inferior materials had long disintegrated into small hills of rubble. There were cracks on the ground, and occasionally, one could spot a considerably healthy duoluozhong moving around the ruins.

In the short two months, the temperature continued rising every day. And on this day, it was as if all traces of humankind had melted under that heat; it was difficult to believe that this was once a highly developed human civilization.

The air was dry and hot; no one knew where all that moisture went when the lakes and rivers evaporated. As far as their eyes could see, there was not a single bit of greenery left. Every path that it took, the truck would stir up a thick cloud of yellow dust that reached half the height of an adult, making it difficult to see much of anything.

Lin Sanjiu, sitting in the driver's seat, could not resist glancing at the rearview mirror. Right behind her vehicle was a large similar goods truck and then another long public bus, but that was not the focus of her gaze. She narrowed her eyes and looked carefully at the thick column of smoke rising into the air in the distance. The place where the smoke rose from was the very shopping mall that had housed them for a month.

After living there for so long, they finally had to leave... Lin Sanjiu's train of thought involuntarily drifted back to their situation a month before.

Back then, Lin Sanjiu had unintentionally found the supermarket warehouse, which was packed with supplies. They were absolutely ecstatic—even without counting, they knew with a single glance that the food and water in the warehouse was sufficient for them to survive for fourteen months. In addition to that, living in that underground supermarket took care of the problem of being under direct sunlight. It was an ideal situation.

The only problem was still that patch of tropical forest in the center of the mall.

Humans covet comfort. After the trio had discussed for a while, they considered their situation and concluded that if they were to lock themselves in the supermarket, that abomination of a tropical forest outside couldn't do anything to them. Since they had experienced a few days of tense, hair-raising incidents, they had used up a lot of their strength. For the sake of recuperation, they decided to make the supermarket their home.

The "recuperation" lasted for two to three weeks. Since the shutter door kept out any threats of external enemies and they did not have to worry about the lack of sustenance, the three of them had their first taste of a somewhat comfortable life in the apocalyptic world. It was to the extent that after a month, upon randomly pinching her waist, Lin Sanjiu found that she had become fatter. Honestly speaking, the amount of fat wasn't that much, but it instantly evoked an image of fattened livestock in her. During that period of time, she did not develop any new abilities, and her movements had also slowed down considerably. Without any sense of crisis, she had even spent a few days just sleeping in the darkness.

If they continued on like this, she knew that it would be detrimental for all of them. After discussing things, they decided to go and patrol the place. Firstly, it was for them to check the situation nearby, and secondly, for them to train themselves. The idea seemed pretty good, but when they opened the metal shutters, they froze.

It was around four plus in the afternoon, yet the escalator that led up to the first floor was still shrouded in darkness. Lin Sanjiu looked blankly ahead and asked softly, "Does this mean that the sun sets that early now?"