Fallout Shelter 071, located in Hucheng, stood in the barren land south of Wuyang Town near the small hill by the Fu River. It had a depth of 1000 meters.
Precisely speaking, the geological formation of the area wasn’t suitable for building deep fallout shelters, but the project was approved before 2150. At that time, the global situation was trending positively with rapid developments in aerospace technology. All the countries were working together and no one believed in war. The local government only built the shelter in order to meet the targets set by PAC. It wasn’t until 2155 when the local government realized the fallout shelter project was no joke that they reinforced some of the poorly-made ones used to meet the target. By 2160, Hucheng finally built enough fallout shelters with a capacity of ten million people.
On the way to the fallout shelter, the abandoned maglev train was still visible.
The place was covered in grass and weeds with thorns tangled around the track. The wolves hiding in the dark scratched their sharp claws and exposed their fangs at the approaching NAC soldiers.
“Is this the hometown of Sun Jiao?” Jiang Chen asked nonchalantly while staring at the stone sign corroded by acid rain.
The letters <Fallout Shelter 071> and <PAC> were no longer clear. The sheds around the train station still showed the marks of bullets and combustion.
“You could say that since we were born in this fallout shelter.” Sun Xiaorou’s face was pensive as she gently caressed the stone sign.
Just like touching a tomb of the deceased.
The tomb belonged to a civilization.
“General, be careful.”
Li Wang noticed the wolves hidden among the bushes. He raised his rifle along with two other private force soldiers and stood in front of Jiang Chen and Sun Xiaorou.
“Awhooo—”
The pack of wolves realized they were noticed. They jumped out howling with their bloody mouths wide open.
The soldiers pressed the trigger calmly and turned the wolves into nothing.
“Good job.” Jiang Chen patted Li Wang on the shoulder. “But make sure you remember to call me captain here.”
“Yes!” Li Wang nodded.
“Guard the door. We’ll be out before night.” Jiang Chen noticed it wasn’t noon yet and instructed the soldiers behind him.
Li Wang looked troubled at being left outside.
“I have to disobey the order – I’m responsible for your safety.”
“What danger could there be in an abandoned fallout shelter? There will probably only be a few mutated cockroaches at most?”
“But—”
“No buts. This is an order.”
Seeing Jiang Chen’s decisive attitude, Li Wang had to comply. He organized the soldiers to position the vehicles in front of the door and created a temporary blockade. He agreed with Jiang Chen that if Jiang Chen wasn’t out by six in the evening, he’d bring people down for support.
The reason why he didn’t take people down wasn’t because of his confidence in his own abilities but because of considerations.
The secret to immortality was destined to only be controlled by a few.
…
Fortunately, the elevator was still functional.
It took half a minute before the elevator stopped at the bottom. Jiang Chen then saw the gate to Fallout Shelter 071.
Every fallout shelter had a different design, but the structures were mostly the same.
The gear-shaped gate was wide open. From the thick dust on the ground, the place had been deserted for a long time. A body against the door was wearing a blue uniform. From the bloodstain on the chest, the person must’ve died of a gun wound.
“The raiders’ attack was unexpected. The director ordered security to attack back, but a manmade fire made everything turn into chaos. Sister ran outside and encountered a PLA female warrior when she wandered around the shambles… Sister must’ve told you all this.”
“That’s right.” Jiang Chen nodded.
“Retro ideologists” in the Hua area, they were organized under the previous flags and strictly forced themselves to abide by glory and virtue. They attempted to recreate the magnificent country in these shambles. But up until now, Jiang Chen still hadn’t seen them.
“What about you?”
Sun Xiaorou shook her head.
“It happened too long ago; my memory of that incident is cloudy. I just vaguely remember… it was the Dusk Church who took me in.”
“If it’s a sorrowful past, don’t think about it,” Jiang Chen said quietly.
“Brother-in-law is so gentle.” Xiaorou smiled,”I’m so envious that sister met you first.”
“Let’s get moving.” Jiang Chen dry-coughed to mask the awkwardness. He raised his gun and walked into the fallout shelter first.
With her finger tapping her lips out of habit, Sun Xiaorou’s mouth was curved up with joy. She then slid down the graphene glasses on the helmet and followed.
The fallout shelter was completely dark inside without even basic lighting. The nuclear fusion fuel rod was used up a long time ago and the two could only use the headlights on their helmets.
“The layout is similar to Fallout Shelter 027.” Jiang Chen picked up a diary and brushed the dust off.
<Last entry. Looks like we bombed UA back to the Stone Age. Unfortunately, we are in the same boat.>
He put the diary on the table nearby. With his rifle loaded, he continued to press forward.
“Screech—”
A sharp screech broke out through the darkness. Jiang Chen immediately turned his rifle to lock onto the source of the sound only to discover a few fat rats squeezed into the corner.
“They’re mutated rats. Unless they’re very hungry, they typically won’t attack humans,” Sun Xiaorou said.
“We should still be careful.” Jiang Chen let out a sigh and opened the life signal detector on the helmet. “The big crab even ate people.”
While it was in the distant past, since she lived there for a long time, Sun Xiaorou still had memories of the layout of the fallout shelter.
Due to a lack of electricity, the elevator inside the fallout shelter wasn’t functional. The two of them chose to use safety stairs instead.
The dark corners hid unknown dangers, but they were lucky to encounter merely a cow-sized mutated spider and nothing more dangerous.
Their kinetic skeletons were too strong for the fangs of the spider. Its giant mouth suddenly attacked him from the darkness, making Jiang Chen jump before the unlucky spider’s head was chopped off by Sun Xiaorou’s dagger. After taking care of the fluid on his arm, he discovered only shallow teeth marks on the armor covering his left arm.
To prevent accidents from occurring, when he passed by the spider web, Jiang Chen crushed all the spider eggs.
Finally, the two of them arrived at the office of the director in the deepest part of the fallout shelter.
Everything related to the fallout shelter was recorded there.
As the brain of the fallout shelter, the electricity system was independent from the exterior; it was supplied by a separate battery.
“I don’t understand one thing – how did Federation know the password? It was obtained by a small parliament member and their president felt the need to shut him up,” Jiang Chen said while typing the password into the terminal.
“Yet Federation’s president, who knew the password, didn’t come here after all this time.” Sun Xiaorou pondered.
“Could it be that they don’t know the location of the fallout shelter?”
“It doesn’t look like it.” Sun Xiaorou shook her head.
The moment the door of the office was opened, a light on the wall lit up and sent the darkness away.
At the same time, a gentle female voice entered their ears.
“Thank you for using Fallout Shelter Technology. Fallout Shelter Technology will do its best to serve you.”
“What’s going on?!” Jiang Chen pulled out his rifle and cautiously pointed at his surroundings.
“The power system reactivated? That’s impossible – the fallout shelter should be out of power already…” Staring at the screen on the wall, Sun Xiaorou muttered.