Abnormal Era

When the army-green jeep finally staggered closer to the checkpoint in front under the guidance of the lights, the three people in the car all showed difficult joy.

"We're finally here." The younger soldier sat in the co-pilot, holding the rifle in his hand, and said sincerely with the joy of surviving the disaster: "How many days have we been walking along this way? I feel like I haven't slept for more than ten hours."

"Not that long, far from it. "So long." The man sitting in the back seat said: "The sun is gone, and all the watches are broken. We are no longer sensitive to the passage of time - only about four hours have passed."

"How do you know?" The younger soldier said unconvinced: "You don't have a watch."

"Lao Liu was driving. I had nothing to do in the back seat and no mobile phone to play with. I kept pinching my fingers to count the seconds." The man replied: "It's probably accurate."

The younger soldier exclaimed: "You are so boring."

"Okay, Pan Shuai, I'm also keeping the time in mind, just like what reporter Li said." The driver, Lao Liu, interrupted the conversation. Compared to the younger one, he looked calm but much tired, with deep dark circles around his eyes.

"Why do you all remember this?" Pan Shuai muttered.

"To make sure I'm still alive." The man in the back row, whom Old Liu called Reporter Li, replied. He looked gentle and was wearing a shirt. The shirt was stained with unknown things, but he still looked more relaxed than the two soldiers overall, and he could still smile a little - it would be okay if the corners of his mouth were slightly curved. It was a smile: "These past few days, I don't know whether I am in the world or hell."

The two soldiers fell silent and did not answer, but judging from their faces, they obviously agreed with reporter Li's words. The car drove near the checkpoint and was stopped by two sentries with guns.

"Password."

"We don't know the password. We came from Jiangcheng. The radio can't be used outside at all now." Old Liu took out his ID: "Go and report, we are sending reporter Li to see Professor Chen."

The sentry saluted, took the ID in Old Liu's hand and walked to the duty room nearby. Inside, another sentry talked to them: "Are you from Jiangcheng? So far away? What's the situation there now?"

What the sentry did seemed to be undisciplined, but now it is a matter of conscience to insist on standing guard under such circumstances.

The accent sounded familiar to Reporter Li: "Are you from Jiangcheng too?"

"Yes." The sentry nodded and smiled roundly: "If it weren't so far away from home, I would have gone home. You are brave enough. Only three of you dare to walk such a long way."

"When we first set off, there was one class with three cars." Lao Liu replied.

"Oh." The round-faced sentry's expression became serious: "Were you attacked?"

"No, most of them died of sudden cancer." Old Liu said: "We encountered some weird things on the road. "

The round-faced sentry looked sad: "It's the same here. Someone suddenly fell to the ground and died while walking. Then an autopsy revealed that the person who was fine yesterday was filled with tumors today. "

Pan Shuai looked a little surprised: "Isn't this the base of the Fire Project?"

"How is it different?" Another sentry walked out of the duty room and handed back Lao Liu's ID: "Those who came here all the way and were supposed to save the Fire suddenly died. Professor Chen's health is relatively better, and he will walk out of the base when he still has time. I was walking around."

The sentry looked carefully at the face of Reporter Li sitting in the back row: "Reporter Li Xingyuan, right? You guys came three days later than scheduled. If Professor Chen hadn't insisted on not sleeping until he saw you, you wouldn't have been able to see him... Okay, Professor Chen is waiting for you, I have already notified someone to pick you up."

Then he looked at Lao Liu and Pan Shuai: "You go to report first, and then see whether to stay here or return to the original army."

"It seems it's time to say goodbye." Li Xingyuan opened the car. He opened the door and said a simple farewell to the two soldiers who escorted him: "Goodbye, friends."

Lao Liu said nothing, just nodded, and Pan Shuai waved to Li Xingyuan and made a face. Soon the military vehicle disappeared from Li Xingyuan's sight.

Li Xingyuan stood on the sentry post, took out a crumpled pack of soft-packed Zhonghua from his pocket, and pinched out the only two cigarettes left in it.

"Brother, do you want to smoke?"

He himself does not smoke. In this situation, it is not for health reasons, but simply because he is not used to smoking. However, passing cigarettes is a powerful tool to open up the topic. As a reporter, he has long been familiar with this matter.

"I don't smoke in the army."

Li Xingyuan nodded. He admired those who have principles, especially in this case, those who can stick to their principles are the minority among the minority. He stuffed the two cigarettes back into the cigarette case, then carefully folded the cigarette case and stuffed it back into the inner pocket of his clothes.

"Fellow fellow." It was the round-headed and round-faced sentry who took the initiative to talk to him: "How are we over there in Jiangcheng? Have you ever heard of a community called No. 1 Homestead?"

Li Xingyuan knew that community, and a strange brilliance seemed to appear in front of his eyes, an indescribable and subtle brilliance. The tip of his tongue was slightly bitter, as if he had been whipped by his own memory. Li Xingyuan trembled, and then replied: "No, I haven't heard of it."

"Oh." The round-faced sentry nodded, not looking disappointed: "My home is there. I live in a community, and I don’t know what’s going on with my mother now, and my wife, who works as a social worker in that community.” When he said this, the expression on the round-faced sentry’s face made Li Xingyuan glad that he had subconsciously lied.

"Hmm, really?" Li Xingyuan responded vaguely.

Fortunately, the person who came to pick him up finally arrived.

As he walked towards the Fire Base, Li Xingyuan could feel the round-faced sentinel's eyes following him, hoping that he didn't notice anything wrong from his silence.

There are six fire bases in total, scattered in various parts of the country. Each fire base was transformed from the previous nuclear defense fortifications immediately after the disaster. The main body is buried deep in the mountain made of thick concrete. It is a place where only the fire seeds selected by the country can go. Today, it is not an exaggeration to call it a holy place of hope.

"Is that the main body of the Fire Base?" Li Xingyuan asked the soldier leading the way: "The one against the mountain?"

"Yes, I heard some scientists say that the high-energy particle beam from the universe can be blocked there." The soldier leading the way seemed not to expect that Li Xingyuan would talk to him, but he still answered his question readily: "Most of the fires are already in the base and have gone dormant."

Li Xingyuan said with emotion: "It will be hundreds of years later when they wake up again."

"It may be a long time, maybe thousands, tens of thousands of years later - you are a reporter, right? Were you not selected for the Tinder Project?"

"No." Li Xingyuan smiled and shook his head: "Most of the people who entered were workers, then soldiers, teachers, scientists, etc. What's the use of me living into the future? People in the future may not use mobile phones for a long time."

Both the soldier and Li Xingyuan laughed.

In times of peace, Li Xingyuan was just a tabloid reporter with a strange name. Even in the future, what use would a person like him be?

He is very self-aware of this and has never expected this.

But I still can't help but be curious. Look here and there. This is a holy place for the reconstruction of human civilization in the future. But from the outside, it looks no different from an ordinary military base.

"Be careful, Reporter Li." The soldier leading the way grabbed Li Xingyuan, and then kicked out something that was barely visible in the darkness: "There are many snakes here. Although most of them are not poisonous, you still have to be careful."

"Oh." Li Xingyuan calmed down and followed the sentry forward.

He originally thought that the other party would take him to a room or some other place, but in the end the soldier took him to a place built on the side of a mountain, similar to a lookout, where a man in a suit was smoking. The fire was bright and dim, and he could not see clearly.

The soldier leading the way saluted and stood aside.

"It is stipulated above that outsiders can only talk to Tinder for ten minutes - go ahead, Professor Chen is waiting for you."