Don’t raise unruly people in extreme cold weather

Chapter 721 Snowstorm Strikes

"Hurry up! Get into the underground shelter as soon as possible!" Standing on the energy tower of the shelter, Shay felt that his body had been frozen by the wind and snow, but he still stood still and shouted loudly to others, asking them to go underground quickly.

This was the last group of people to seek refuge. Before this, most people had already entered the underground shelters to avoid the sudden snowstorm.

“Shay! Everyone has entered the shelter, and you’re the only one left!” Shay’s brother stood under the energy tower. After helping the last group of people enter the underground shelter, he shouted to Shay on the high tower.

Although his voice could hardly penetrate the wind and snow as he was not a superhuman, Shay still heard his cry.

Looking around, Shay saw that there was indeed no one else left outside, so he jumped down from the top of the energy tower. After falling into the snow on the ground to relieve the impact, he stood up and shouted to his brother, "Brother!"

Shay's brother walked through waist-deep snow and came to Shay, pulling him up from the snow. The two men supported each other and walked towards the door of the underground shelter.

"There are only two of you left! Come in quickly!" A middle-aged man guarding the door saw the two of them and hurriedly pulled them in. Then he completely closed the door of the underground shelter to keep the wind and snow out.

"Wow! This snowstorm is really fierce!" Shay shook off the snow on his body and moved his arms and legs, trying to prevent himself from freezing.

Just now on the energy tower, he had been exposed to the wind for too long, and the cold wind had made his stomach feel frozen.

A bowl of hot soup was soon delivered to him, and after taking a sip, Shay felt that he was finally alive.

"Who said it wasn't! It was fine yesterday, but it started to blow and snow in the evening!" The middle-aged man next to him also started complaining. The sudden snowstorm really caught everyone off guard.

After drinking a bowl of hot soup, Shay felt much better. He looked at his brother and asked him, "How is the shelter? Is there enough food and fuel?"

"The food we have currently stored is enough to last for half a month, and if we only count the compressed biscuits, it can even last for three months." Shay's brother has always been in charge of the shelter's supplies, and it was he who answered at this time: "But the fuel may not be enough. We have never stored too much fuel, and usually only have a stockpile that can last for about ten days.

The last time we refueled was a week ago, so the fuel level is now at a critical level, probably only enough for one week."

"Why is it only this much? I remember asking you to make some emergency reserves, right?" Shay frowned, feeling that the number his brother said was somewhat beyond his expectations.

Shay had no doubts about the numbers his brother reported, and he didn't think his brother had embezzled anything from them.

After all, this is the northern border, and various resources are mostly exchanged through barter, and money is very little used. How much can one gain through corruption?
Shay also has great confidence in his brother's abilities. If it weren't for the help of this former government official from Langton, Shay alone would not be able to manage such a large settlement.

But the number his brother reported still made Shay frown, feeling a bit unbelievable.

My brother quickly explained, "It's mainly due to two reasons. One of them is that it's been a week since the last supply.

As I said earlier, our fuel reserves generally only last about ten days.

The caravans basically come once every ten days or half a month, and each supply trip can fill up our storage depot, so there is no need to store too much fuel.

After all, our storage warehouse is really small, and filling it up too much at once will affect many things. But if we encounter extremely bad weather, like now, it will be more difficult to endure.

More than half of the fuel reserves have been used up, and the remaining half must be used sparingly to sustain for a week."

"This is really a grim situation!" Shay felt difficult and helpless. Although the underground shelter and energy tower seemed to be able to withstand the invasion of the blizzard, this was based on sufficient fuel.

If the fuel runs out and they don't receive any support, they will face extremely serious survival problems.

In addition to causing insufficient heating, the shortage of fuel also means that food can only be eaten cold due to lack of fuel, which cannot provide the human body with enough calories to maintain consumption.

If you want to resist the cold, eating hot food to get extra calories is a very effective way.

But if there is no fuel supply and people cannot eat hot food, they can only eat cold compressed biscuits.

Not to mention what frozen compressed biscuits would taste like, the cold caused by the fuel shortage alone was enough to kill everyone.

"When will the supply caravan arrive?" Although Shay was worried at this time, he did not show excessive worry on his face. Instead, he looked calm.

As the leader of the shelter, anyone can panic, but he absolutely must be the calmest one.

Otherwise, if the leaders themselves are panicking, how can we expect the people to maintain order?

“If nothing goes wrong, they will be able to reach us in three days at the shortest and five days at the longest. This is also the normal time for a caravan to tour,” Shay’s brother answered him.

"What if something goes wrong?" Shay didn't believe that the caravan could patrol normally in this weather.

“It would be fine if they were just delayed on the road. But if something goes wrong with this caravan, all the people and equipment will be buried in this kind of weather.” Shay’s brother showed obvious worry on his face.

According to usual practice, in three to five days at most, a supply caravan will arrive and bring enough fuel to the shelter to keep the energy tower running.

But the current situation is not normal. The raging blizzard is almost burying the entire shelter in snow. Shay is very worried whether the caravan will be able to arrive on time under such a severe blizzard.

After all, if they were really delayed for ten days or half a month, the shelter would really run out of food.

It is still acceptable to be out of food, after all, the worst that can happen is to eat compressed biscuits, but if there is no fuel, the energy tower cannot function properly and the temperature of the underground shelter will drop sharply.

Once the temperature drops, it will trigger a series of chain reactions.

The various problems brought about by low temperatures made Shay's head ache just thinking about them. He really couldn't figure out how to deal with this worst-case scenario.

(End of this chapter)