Flame Country has re-cleared all the air-raid shelters dug years ago and carried out maintenance and repair in the shortest time possible. They have also upgraded and expanded them in the following period to ensure that refugees have a greater chance of survival inside.
At the same time, the underground transit systems in major cities are also being swiftly modified—spare lines activated, subway stations renovated and expanded, and underground networks connected...
A series of tasks are being carried out intensively. Even though the news of the asteroid impact on Blue Planet has spread without restraint, the overall societal conditions remain relatively stable under the country’s implementation of curfews and a series of stringent controls.
At the very least, Chen Xin’s refuge was smoothly excavated, and because he saw the signs early, he was able to stockpile enough emergency food to last him at least two years.
However, he was able to store much less drinking water. Even though he designed large water tanks and sewage recycling systems in the shelter, considering that humanity is about to face a century-long extreme cold dark night, he still felt immense survival pressure.
But under such circumstances, he could only do his best to collect storable bottled drinking water. Storing a bit more was better than none at all.
Only, at this time, everyone was scrambling for supplies. Bottled drinking water and emergency food had become the most sought-after commodities, and all supply channels were unable to meet demand, making it quite difficult for Chen Xin to restock more.
Fortunately, Chen Xin had previously joined a small group formed by outdoor enthusiasts. After the news of the asteroid impact spread, members in the group began self-rescue using their resources; many, like Chen Xin, were preparing to dig their own shelters.
A group member proposed storing tap water using empty water barrels, allowing Chen Xin to stockpile a lot of fresh water resources.
Though barrelled tap water definitely doesn’t store as well as bottled purified water and has issues for consumption, in extreme conditions where even drinking urine or extracting water from feces is necessary, a bit of unclean tap water is trivial.
Chen Xin’s city is located on the banks of Dongting Lake in the midstream of the Yangtze River, with not a large population density. For personal reasons, he doesn’t live in the city but rather on the outskirts alone, where digging a hole is quite convenient since his residence is near forests and mountains.
With the help of engineering machinery, digging a large enough underground shelter to withstand natural disasters wasn’t difficult. Added to that, Chen Xin hired a relatively professional engineering team. The shelter was quickly excavated using small excavators, and Chen Xin moved all his stockpiled supplies inside.
This engineering team was an old connection of Chen Xin’s, and his relationship with the foreman was fairly reliable, ensuring the quality of the project, which left Chen Xin very satisfied.
Considering the high temperatures and extreme cold that will follow the asteroid impact, Chen Xin wanted to dig the shelter very deep, ideally about fifty to sixty meters underground like a subway station.
But this wasn’t realistic. The engineering team could do it, but the time and labor involved were too significant, so Chen Xin decided to dig a sloping tunnel at the base of the mountains near his home, leading to a sufficiently large shelter.
This is also a common practice in constructing air-raid shelters worldwide. Using the mountain as a shield effectively saves labor while providing enough protection for the shelter.
Chen Xin’s shelter isn’t too large, totaling less than three hundred square meters. After accounting for the garage, water tanks for storing fresh water, fuel tanks, and other related equipment and supplies, as well as a greenhouse for post-disaster crop cultivation, only about thirty to forty square meters are available for living.
But for Chen Xin alone, this space is more than adequate for a possible apocalypse.
As for living conditions, Chen Xin’s shelter isn’t just some hole in the ground. He buried a set of custom container homes in a large enough pit after excavation.
Besides having good insulation and thermal efficiency, all the necessary living facilities are included, allowing Chen Xin to live warmly and comfortably even in extreme hot and cold environments.
In fact, technology for this kind of container home is quite mature now; even during the disease outbreak earlier this year, the emergency hospitals built by the state employed this type of container structure.
Compared to traditional steel and concrete buildings, these container buildings can be prefabricated in factories and simply assembled on-site, offering significant advantages in construction speed, as well as being cost-effective and economical.
Even so, the cost of this entire set of container homes and the construction of the shelter exhausted all of Chen Xin’s savings.
However, upon moving into the finally completed shelter, a sense of security made Chen Xin feel that it was worth the cost.
He took a few photos of the completed shelter and shared them in a small private group with friends. Instantly, Chen Xin received a lot of envy. Having a well-equipped shelter before the disaster greatly enhanced his chances of surviving the apocalypse.
There were even girls in the group who privately messaged Chen Xin, asking if he needed a girlfriend and offering to move in if Chen Xin agreed, some even proposing to bring a friend if one wasn’t enough for him.
Looking at the photos of two pretty girls he had hardly any contact with before, Chen Xin was almost tempted to agree.
But in the end, Chen Xin restrained himself. Although the conditions here are good, the supplies he has stockpiled are already quite tight for just himself. Bringing two more girls would undoubtedly greatly reduce his chances of survival.
Based on his estimation, after the disaster, mammals and plants would likely die in large numbers, leaving only rats, cockroaches, and mushrooms as the possible food sources, species that would not disappear even if humanity were to go extinct. These reserves are his only means of survival.
As for the greenhouse, it can indeed provide some food, but maintaining it consumes a vast amount of resources, and Chen Xin is uncertain how long his stored resources can sustain its operation.
Therefore, minimizing consumption and surviving until environmental conditions stabilize for post-disaster reconstruction is crucial for Chen Xin’s survival in this disaster.
Even though he made all possible preparations, when the time came, Chen Xin still hoped all his preparations would go unused, earnestly wishing that nations could avert this crisis.
After all, who wouldn’t prefer living under the sun to hiding in a hole, gnawing on mushrooms?