“That’s my sister.” Sun Xiaorou shook her head with a smile. “Although we do look alike.”
Doctor Sun paused for a second before a smile appeared on his face.
“Oh? I do apologize.”
“It’s okay.” Sun Xiaorou shook her head. Her eyebrows had a hint of reminiscence present. “People often mixed up the two of us when we were young, even when we’re not twins.”
“Let me introduce myself. I’m Sun Boyi.” Doctor Sun extended his right hand to Jiang Chen.
Jiang Chen shook his hand, looked at him and also briefly reintroduced himself.
“Jiang Chen, the NAC General.”
Doctor Sun gave Jiang Chen a friendly smile before he continued.
“Because we share the same last name, my memory of that little girl is quite vivid. Since her younger sister is here, you should know her sister, right.”
“Mhmm.” Jiang Chen nodded.
She was the first person he met in this world.
Sun Xiaorou put a finger on her chin and asked the question troubling her mind.” But… even if you saw my sister, she was just a baby. You shouldn’t have seen her as an adult right? So how could you have mistaken me for my sister?”
Doctor Sun smiled. “There was a flood of babies in the fallout shelter. Due to the lack of doctors, I was the doctor who completed the procedure. With the help of DNA replication technology, before you were all born, we already knew what you would look like in the future. But unfortunately, I didn’t get to see you grow up.”
Sun Xiaorou nodded.
Jiang Chen took out a diary from his pocket and placed it on the table. “Did you place the diary on the table of the director’s office?”
“The diary was there from the beginning. I just moved his body back where he was supposed to be.”
Sun Baoyi must’ve been referring to the deceased fallout shelter director.
“There are a few pages ripped out from the diary.”
“Pages from the diary were already ripped out from the beginning by its owner… Of course, I think you wouldn’t be too interested in Fallout Shelter 071’s past.”
“On the contrary,” Jiang Chen shook his head, “If it’s convenient for you, I hope you can tell me what happened afterward. Including the history of Fallout Shelter 071, as well as the observer… the experiments you conducted.”
“The observer? You know this word…” Melancholy surfaced on Sun Baoyi’s face. “Even I almost forgot.”
He paused, looked at Jiang Chen, and invited him to sit down.
“Feel free to sit. This story is quite long.”
…
When I woke up from the hibernation chamber, it was already the tenth year.
Eight years prior, the director ordered security to attack my lab and made all my efforts go down the drain. He also stole the Golden Apple. He didn’t kill me, but instead, he said, “Once the fallout shelter opens, people will punish you for your crimes.” He shut me into the hibernation chamber.
His arrogance made me uncomfortable.
It wasn’t because the punishment would never arrive, but it was because of the unrealistic fantasy he had of the outside world.
With this fantasy, his naivety would inevitably kill everyone in the fallout shelter, much more than the people I killed.
And it would be for an extremely boring reason…
I sat in the chair trembling while blankly staring at the propaganda poster in the fallout shelter. I tried to empty my mind in order to get accustomed to the unnatural time difference.
Eight years. It was just like a dream.
My eyes closed, eyes opened, and everything outside the glass window was covered in thick dust. Time muddied everything, but it didn’t muddy me in the mirror.
The Golden Apple was destroyed; the arrogant Mr. Director destroyed it after he pressed the button to start the hibernation chamber.
Regardless, my mission ended.
When I stepped over the security line, just like I expected, everything here was abandoned.
When I stepped through the metal door, just like I expected, everything outside was destroyed in the nuclear war.
The ending could’ve been foreseen, but most people always maintained an unrealistic fantasy before finally drowning in their dreams.
Someone said a long time ago that only two nuclear bombs were needed to destroy the world – the first being fear, and the second being vengeance.
I don’t remember his name anymore, but I’m certain about one thing. He was elevated from a sociologist to a prophet.
There were a few metal shacks on the surface. I remember those things – they were strategic reserves in the fallout shelter. The PAC flag burnt to dust fitted satirically well with the propaganda posters on the train.
Once the door opened, the survivors would have to rely on those tools to rebuild their home in the ruins.
But from the bones and bullet marks, I already guessed their fate.
How could trained forces lose to refugees with primitive weapons?
My guess was that they didn’t die because of the force’s shooting skills; it must’ve been due to comical humanitarianism as well as courtesies extended by the civilized.
I dug through the shelves in the ruins to search for anything useful.
A pistol, a picture belonging to god knows who, and a diary with many pages ripped out – they were all the supplies I could gather.
I considered going back to sleep.
Ten years was too short. If I “time traveled” to 1000 years later, the situation would probably be much better.
Whether it was just a barren field outside or a city built by the new humans.
If it was the former, I could use the human clone technology in the other fallout shelters to restart the PAC civilization. If it was the latter, museums created by new humans could provide with a well-paying job to teach elementary students participating in social awareness activities about how the people before the war lived, how they tarnished themselves…
Regardless of the choice I made, there were urgent matters I had to take care of first.
There was no power and no food; I had to find useful things among the ruins.
I had to at least gather enough nuclear fusion cores needed for the hibernation chamber and a few nutrient supplies.
Before I searched for other survivors, I had to replace the blue skin I was wearing.
If all the newbies who just left their nest wore similar clothes, I had enough reason to believe this blue skin would bring me trouble.
Just like how a civilization naturally attracted barbarians.
It took me quite a while to find well-fitting clothes. Finally, I chose a suit whose color was fading and wore a bulletproof vest inside.
Along the highway, I walked all the way into the city.
Zombies, mutants, raiders, mutated humans… and cannibals.
There was danger everywhere, but I only had 14 bullets – 2 clips.
Hospitals, schools, automated factories… all these places could have nuclear fusion cores, but they had all been rummaged by scavengers. There were survivor gathering spots where human activity could be seen, but out of safety considerations, I didn’t dare to approach them.
Since this was the apocalypse.
Later on, I incidentally saved a merchant from zombies and used the crystals I had to trade for some useful items.
He took me to Zhonghe City and told me that as long as I had crystals, I could buy anything there, whether it was men or women.
If it didn’t exist on the market, I could just go to the bar.
After reaching out to survivors, my life became a lot easier. When I knew they lacked doctors here, I opened a clinic to treat patients in exchange for crystals. Then with those crystals, I placed orders for nuclear fusion cores at the bar.
A lot of things happened in that year, but I managed to collect ten nuclear fusion cores.
The nuclear fusion core batteries were highly efficient. If they were just used to maintain the hibernation chamber, one would be enough to last me 100 years of sleep.
I closed the clinic and refused the president’s, parliament members’, and friends’ invitations to stay. I returned to Fallout Shelter 071.
But the second before I laid in the hibernation chamber, I hesitated.