"Da Yong! Da Yong, help me, Da Yong!" Mrs. He screamed herself hoarse, reaching out for her son.
With one arm around his son, He Xiaobao, He Dayong sprinted forward frantically. He couldn’t spare a thought for the mother he had left in his wake.
"Da Yong!" Mrs. He’s world-shaking scream was quickly swallowed by the chaotic din of the shantytown.
Trembling all over, she stumbled and fell. Her lips quivered, her face drained of color as she stared in disbelief at the fading shadow of her son’s retreating figure.
All around her, the crowd fled in a chaotic, desperate scramble.
Screams of terror, the thud of trampling feet, curses, and wails of despair wove together into a death march.
The darkness deepened.
Mrs. He looked back in utter despair, only to see a shimmering green light flooding the horizon.
It painted the ink-black night with a brilliant, shimmering green.
Yet, this was the color of death’s approach.
Mrs. He sat slumped on the ground, her face caked in soot and grime. Staring blankly at the horizon, she suddenly broke into a deranged laugh.
’So this was the fine son she had raised.’
’He abandoned his own mother to save himself when disaster struck.’
’Her wonderful son and wonderful grandson.’
It was hard to tell if Mrs. He felt more regret or more pain. She just sat there in a daze, like so many other helpless elderly people, staring wretchedly up at the sky.
Until the brilliant, brocade-like clusters of green light... completely devoured her.
"Ah!" He Shufen screamed, glancing back as she dragged her son along, her heart pounding with terror at the sight of the green light consuming the sky.
"I can’t run anymore, Mom! I can’t run!" her son, Ren Dabao, wailed, struggling to keep up with his mother’s frantic sprint.
But as a ten-year-old boy who had always been pampered and had never exercised, twenty minutes of running had pushed him to his physical limit.
Ren Dabao tore his hand from his mother’s grasp and collapsed onto the ground, panting heavily. "Mom, carry me! I can’t run anymore!"
He Shufen herself was on the verge of collapse. How could she possibly have the strength to carry her son?
She stared in horror at the swarms of green light drifting ever closer, then glanced at her son, collapsed on the ground and throwing a fit.
Hardening her heart, she gritted her teeth, spun around, and ran, leaving Ren Dabao behind.
The boy was stunned. His wailing mouth fell open as he froze on the spot. "Mom??"
He Shufen ran without a single glance back. She knew that if she paused for even a moment, she, like her son, would be rapidly consumed by the waves of green light rushing toward them, devoured until not even a speck remained.
"Mom!" Ren Dabao let out a heart-wrenching scream.
He Shufen pretended not to hear. Fueled by a fierce will to live, no matter how wretchedly, she pumped her legs and sprinted for the north gate of the base.
Zhao Jianjun was roaring into a megaphone, "Get on! Get on the trucks!"
"Go, go, go, go, go!" A few young soldiers, their faces streaked with sweat and grime, frantically waved at the convoy, urging the fully loaded military trucks to get moving.
One after another, buses and large trucks sped away from Lanshan Lake Base in a frantic exodus.
Having survived this disaster, all the survivors stared blankly into the night, completely lost as to where to go or what to do.
Song Guang pulled his wife along, constantly looking back at his son, Song Xiaolong.
Drenched in sweat, Song Xiaolong followed behind the couple with Grandma Song on his back.
The north gate was getting closer, but the sight of truck after truck speeding away created a heavy, oppressive sense of urgency.
’It felt like they were going to miss the convoy.’
The number of buses and trucks at the gate was dwindling, yet in the distance, people from the shantytown were still desperately running to reach them.
"Prepare for demolition!"
"Everyone evacuate the north gate within five minutes!"
Zhao Jianjun continued directing people onto the trucks with his megaphone, beads of sweat dripping from his forehead. His spiky hair was completely soaked through.
Song Yufu ran behind his son and grandson. When he glanced back and saw a small wisp of green light tailing them, a bitter taste filled his mouth.
’We’ve made it this far, and we’re just about to leave the base, but these mutated insects still won’t let our family go.’
"Grandpa, hurry up!" Song Xiaolong, still carrying Grandma Song, called out over his shoulder to the old man.
But the old man slowed his pace, smiling warmly at his grandson. "Xiao Long, take good care of your grandma, your dad, and your mom. Survive!"
"Grandpa!!" Song Xiaolong whipped his head around, his face a mask of disbelief.
"Old man!" cried Grandma Song from Song Xiaolong’s back, her voice filled with anguish.
But Song Yufu just waved them on emphatically. "Run! Don’t look back!"
Tossing his backpack at Song Xiaolong’s feet, Song Yufu hefted a shovel and, gasping for air, charged straight at the green light.
He was a kind-hearted man, the type who, even after the apocalypse, always did inconvenient things and caused his family no small amount of trouble.
But some old, deeply ingrained values were planted so firmly in him that they could never be changed in a single lifetime.
Qualities like benevolence, compassion, and the desire to help others were perhaps no longer needed in the apocalypse. But an old man like him could never change.
At the very least, before he left this world, he could do one last good thing for his family.
"Grandpa!" Song Xiaolong cried out, his face a mess of what he couldn’t tell were sweat or tears.
"Go, go, go! Get on! Get on the truck, hurry!" A few young soldiers hauled Grandma Song onto a large truck and then dragged Song Xiaolong up after her.
"Move out!"
At the command, the military truck packed with survivors tore away from the north gate.
Inside, everyone huddled together, their bodies curled up, their gazes lost and helpless against the vast, empty night sky.
"Jianjun, you have to go!"
"Go? Where would I go? With you all still here, how the hell could I leave?"
"Come on, light ’em up!"
"Don’t let them get out!"
"Let them be buried here forever with the Lanshan Lake Base! HAHAHAHA!"
"Let’s take ’em on!"
"BOOM!"
"BOOM! BOOM!"
"Platoon Leader..." The young man driving the truck saw it in his rearview mirror. Zhao Jianjun and his men, covered in explosives, lit their own fuses and leaped into the swarm of insects. Tears and sweat streamed down the driver’s face.
Raging infernos erupted at the north gate, and in moments, thick smoke was billowing into the heavens.
In the passenger seat, his equally disheveled companion, eyes red and teeth clenched, roared, "Faster!"
In bus after bus, the survivors stared through the windows, watching from afar as Lanshan Lake Base was consumed by roiling waves of fire and smoke.
Someone broke down and began to sob, and soon the sound of weeping filled the truck, rising and falling in waves.
It was impossible to tell if they wept for their own uncertain futures or for the friends and family they had lost.
Tonight, the safe haven that had given them a moment’s respite, the base they relied upon for survival, had shattered.
From its founding to its fall, the entire base had lasted a mere two weeks.
’Is this the fate that awaits humanity?’
Xie Ning squeezed her mother’s hand. "Mom?"
"We need to get stronger, and fast," Song You’ai said, her expression grim but resolute as she looked up into the dark night outside the window.