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1. Black smoke

It was just dawn, and Lin Shuang was already standing behind the parapet on the roof of the factory.

On the skyline of Qingquan Town in the distance, a column of thick black smoke soared straight into the sky, like a stiff black finger shrouded in gray-yellow radiation clouds.This is no ordinary campfire smoke. It is the toxic smoke billowing from the violent burning of tires, plastics, and construction wood. It is pungent and depressing.

"Su Lin." She didn't look back, her voice was clear and steady, "Come up and have a look."

Su Lin leaned on the steel pipe and limped up to the roof.After resting overnight in my left leg, the swelling subsided slightly, but there was still a dull pain in the fractured bone.Following Lin Shuang's gaze, his face suddenly turned pale.

"That's Qingquan Town?"

"The directions marked on the map are accurate." Lin Shuang handed over the telescope, "The thick smoke has been rising since the middle of the night. At two o'clock in the morning, I vaguely heard the roar of a large number of engines. Now at six o'clock, the fireworks have still not stopped."

Su Lin held up the telescope and stared for a long time, her fingertips trembling slightly, and the chill soaked into her limbs.

It’s not the wind that’s cold, it’s the chill that’s deep in my heart.

"The town is still burning. If it was an ordinary fire, it would have been extinguished long ago. Someone set the fire deliberately."

"To put it more bluntly, someone has invaded Qingquan Town and is burning corpses and ruins." Lin Shuang's tone was calm, as calm as if he was describing the changes in the weather.

Su Lin put down the telescope and turned to look directly at her: "You want to go there?"

“We must go and investigate.”

"What to explore? To see dead bodies everywhere, or to wait to run into those looters?"

"See if there are any survivors who have slipped through the net." Lin Shuang jumped off the parapet and dusted off the palms of his hands. "Qingquan Town is the largest settlement of survivors in this area. Once it falls, the survivors will definitely flee in all directions, and a large part of them will flee in our direction."

"You plan to take them in?"

"I want to find out the truth from the survivors: who did it, how many troops there are, and whether they are still entrenched in the town." She carried the gun on her back and walked towards the stairs. "Su Lin, you stay at the stronghold and guard the house. Completely block the door of the factory on the first floor. No one is allowed to open the door except me."

"You want to go on an adventure alone?"

"If two people are walking together, your legs will only slow down the progress. Right now, we don't have a third person to accompany us." Lin Shuang stopped at the top of the stairs and looked back at her deeply. "If I don't come back before dark, you lock the third floor and go through the underground passage. Don't worry about the supplies, just stay alive."

Su Lin opened her mouth, wanting to say not to go, but she swallowed the words firmly.

In the wasteland, there is never the right to say "no" willfully.

"I'm waiting for you to come back. You must come back before dark."

Lin Shuang did not respond, turned around and walked down the stairs, disappearing into the shadows of the corridor.

​​ ## 2. On the road

From the abandoned factory to Qingquan Town, the straight-line distance is eight kilometers.

Lin Shuang deliberately avoided the broad roads.The avenue is flat but unobstructed. If the forces that conquered Qingquan Town are still wandering around, it is very easy to bump into the patrol team head-on.

She specializes in walking between ruins.The gravel path between the collapsed buildings is narrow, but more concealed than the main road.Walking part of the way, hiding part of the way, we moved eight kilometers in 40 minutes.

The surrounding ruins gradually became sparse, and a desolate and cracked wilderness spread out in front of them.

This was once farmland before the war, but now only cracked loess and a few dead trees remain.The ground is printed with brand-new wheel ruts, the lines are clear and deep, densely packed with at least twenty tracks, all extending in the direction of Qingquan Town.

Lin Shuang squatted down and measured the tire width and dent depth with her fingertips.

"Wide tires with deep tread, heavy-duty off-road vehicle, weighing no less than two tons.Twenty off-road vehicles, each seating four to five people, at least 80 people.Including logistics and escort, the total number is over one hundred.

"System, scan ruts."

"Heavy off-road vehicles, no markings. Among regional forces, only the Reapers can gather twenty tanks."

It’s the reaper again.

Lin Shuang stood up, with a cold look on his face, and quickened his pace again, galloping towards Qingquan Town.

​ ## 3. Qingquan Town

The scale of Qingquan Town is larger than expected.

Looking from afar, the entire low-rise building complex is scattered and surrounded by a wall made of masonry and steel plates, which is more than three meters high.There are several watchtowers made of angle steel and wooden boards standing on the wall. Most of them are now tilted and dilapidated.

A huge five-meter-wide gap opened on the south side of the wall, apparently caused by a blast.The masonry at the edge of the gap collapsed in a radial pattern, and black blasting burn marks remained on the ground.Lin Shuang knelt down and picked up a piece of metal shrapnel embedded in the soil.

Thin iron sheet with curled and hot edges.Homemade explosives, ammonium nitrate and diesel, are enough to blow up walls.

She leaned over and slipped into the town through the gap.

The moment you step into the town, everything you see is purgatory on earth.

The exterior walls of the building were covered with bullet holes, the doors and windows were all shattered, and the furniture was dragged to the middle of the street and burned. This is where the billowing black smoke started.Bloodstains can be seen everywhere on the ground, some have long dried and turned black, and some are still glowing dark red, which are the traces left by the fighting last night.

The whole town was deserted.

There are no living people wandering around, and not a single corpse remains.

"System, full-area 100-meter scan."

"Scan completed. There is no living heat source within 100 meters. A large number of organic residues were detected: blood stains, human tissue, and clothing fragments. The estimated number of victims is no less than fifty. "

The bodies were all taken away.They were either buried, fed to mutant beasts, or taken to do some kind of deed that they dared not go into.

Lin Shuang walked along the street and went deep into the center of the town.

Both sides of the street are mostly self-built two or three-story brick-concrete houses, which still retain traces of pre-war fireworks: faded signboards, broken glass, and debris piled up at the door.A four-story building is particularly eye-catching. The exterior wall is painted with white paint. The plaque above the door is blurred and mottled, and the four words "Community Center" can be vaguely recognized.

The door to the community center was leaning on one side and its hinges were broken.She entered sideways, and the tables and chairs in the lobby on the first floor overturned, and the promotional boards on the wall were torn off and trampled to pieces.A simple stage was set up at the back of the hall, which was piled with quilts, pillows and shabby clothes.

It can be seen that before the attack, a large number of survivors took refuge here.

Now the building is deserted and there is no trace of it.

She walked up the stairs to the second floor.The second floor was filled with offices and conference rooms. The doors were violently opened and documents were scattered all over the floor.In the corner of the floor, a yellowed photo came into view.

There are more than 20 people in the photo, mostly women, mixed with a few elderly people and children.Everyone stood in front of the community center with bright smiles, and some were holding garlands of wild flowers in their hands.

On the back of the photo, the pencil writing is faded and blurred:

**Qingquan Town Women’s Mutual Aid Association, autumn 2049.We are still alive.**

We survived.

He survived the catastrophe of nuclear war, survived the dark ages, took root in the wasteland and lived until 2049, but he failed to survive the bloody night of 2050.

Lin Shuang folded the photo carefully and put it into her inner pocket.

It’s not that you are moved by compassion, but that you keep this hatred and misery in your heart.

​ ## 4. Traces

Lin Shuang searched carefully for a whole hour in Qingquan Town, walking through all the streets and alleys.

The looters looted all the available supplies, leaving behind only junk, blood-stained junk, and worthless items.

But she found key traces.

On the north side of the town, there are large signs of temporary parking: dense ruts, messy footprints, and obvious signs of heavy objects being dragged.Drag marks stretched from the door of a warehouse to the parking lot, eventually disappearing under the wheel marks.

She walked into the windowless warehouse, the iron door ajar.The air was filled with a strong and pungent mixed smell: urine, sweat, blood, and the smell of fear that penetrated into the bones.

The ground is covered with small bare footprints, slender in size, all left by women.Feces and vomit were piled in the corner, and a few torn clothes were scattered.

“System, scan this room.”

"One hundred square meters, airtight, with a single exit. Traces on the ground show that many people were detained for a long time. The number of people detained was between 30 and 50, and the length of stay was no less than six hours. "

Lin Shuang knelt down, the flashlight beam swept across the ground, and a crumpled and bloody piece of paper came into view.

It is a page torn from a notebook, with scrawled and chaotic writing:

​ **They were loaded into the car and headed north.A few of us escaped and hid in the woods east of the town.If anyone sees the note, please come and save us.We had no food or water, so we couldn't last long.——Qingquan Town, Zhang Xiaomei.**

Lin Shuang put the paper and photos together, turned around and headed straight to the east side of the town.

The so-called forest is not a dense forest before the war, but a forest of dead trees that died due to radiation.The trunk of the tree is gray and white and bare, and the dead branches stretch ferociously toward the sky. It occupies a small area, but it is enough to hide.

"System, scan the dead wood forest."

"Scan completed. Four living female heat sources were detected in the southeast corner of the woodland, with weak vital signs, accompanied by symptoms of severe dehydration and hypothermia. The distance is 150 meters."

Four people survived.

Lin Shuang tightened her steps and rushed into the dead wood forest.

​​ ## 5. Linzi

The floor of the dead wood forest is covered with dry leaves, making a soft rustling sound when stepped on.Lin Shuang held the gun in her hand, the safety on the arrow was turned off, and her fingertips were on the trigger, ready to fire at any time.

The four heat sources are hidden behind a fallen thick tree trunk, half a meter in diameter, lying on the ground, forming a natural shelter.

As he gradually got closer, subtle and suppressed sobs came from the wind, intermittent and full of despair.

Lin Shuang slowly poked his head from the side of the tree trunk and saw clearly the four people inside.

“ Four women were huddled at the angle between the tree trunk and the ground, wrapped in shabby clothes, with tears on their faces mixed with blood, lips that were chapped and peeling, and eyes that were empty and unfocused, a typical state of dehydration and hypothermia.

The short-haired woman on the outermost side was the first to notice the person coming. Her pupils suddenly tightened and her body instinctively shrank back. However, her right arm was frozen in mid-air and she did not dare to use force. She only used her left hand to fumble around her waist - her weapons had already been taken away by the plunderers, leaving only a futile defense.

"Don't move." Lin Shuang's voice was low and steady, without hostility, "I am not a predator, my name is Lin Shuang. I picked up the note you left."

The woman was startled, and her hoarse voice was almost inaudible: "The note... I stuffed it under the door. My name is Zhang Xiaomei."

Lin Shuang took out the water bottle from her backpack and handed it over: "Drink slowly and swallow in small sips."

Zhang Xiaomei took the kettle, her hands shaking so much that she could hardly hold it steady.First, he took a small sip to moisten his throat, swallowed it slowly, and then dared to take a big gulp of water. Then he handed it to his companions behind him in turn, in a tacit and orderly manner. It was obvious that he was already used to helping each other to survive. Page (1/3)