This is apocalyptic

Chapter 77: Twenty Years Late
For ordinary people, it is indeed a road to death.

Bai Xiao felt that if it were Lin Duoduo, the road would have come to an end when they encountered that small group of bats.

"Don't you have a destination?"

"Yes, but I can't get there." Zhang sighed, "Maybe you can get there if you're lucky."

“Our endpoints are not aligned.”

"Is such that."

Zhang Tan was holding a stick in his hand, a very simple wooden stick, which made it easier for him to walk.

Bai Xiao saw this and picked up a stick on the way to save energy. When he climbed the Great Wall once, he bought a walking stick from a roadside stall. He also climbed the Great Wall with the help of that walking stick and took away a souvenir called "The Book of Heroes".

I picked up the crutches again, but in this strange world, under the vast sky, walking with a reveler.

Bai Xiao walked ahead, and Zhang Tan walked slowly behind.

The young man's energy and vigor are reflected at this moment. His back is straight and he walks with his head held high, making people feel that he is a piece of iron that will not fall or become soft. Even if he is holding a stick in his hand, it is only a little auxiliary.

The kettle around his waist was out of water, and there was no river nearby. Fortunately, it had rained a few days ago. Bai Xiao saw a village in the distance and turned off the highway.

Regardless of whether there are people in this kind of village or not, there will always be many things left before the disaster. Rainwater will be stored in water tanks in the yard, or in stone troughs, and broken basins.

It's not very clean, but simply filtering it and putting it in a jug is always a good supply.

There were no zombies in the village, which meant that there might be people living there. Bai Xiao had no intention of disturbing them. He just looked around in the outermost courtyard and used the filtering method, which he had a vague memory of but had reviewed in the survival guide left by Lin Duoduo's father, to get some drinkable water and see if there was anything edible.

There is a big green clover outside the yard.

Legend has it that finding a four-leaf clover represents luck. Bai Xiao filled it with water and pulled it up by the roots. He did not look for the four leaves, but was lucky enough. Under the three-leaf clover were radish-shaped roots, one in a bunch. Bai Xiao smiled.

Bai Xiao dug out some by sticking his butt out. Suddenly he looked up and saw a pair of black eyes appearing at the corner of a house in the distance of the mountain village. It was a little boy.

The little boy was thin and looked about seven or eight years old. When he saw Bai Xiao looking up, he immediately hid behind the house again.

Bai Xiao was stunned for a moment and slowed down his movements of digging clover.

He didn't expect to see a child in this apocalypse.

The boy didn't hear anything and quietly poked his head out again, looking at the fully armed man.

"What are you doing?" A voice came from behind the boy, and then a man came out. When he saw Bai Xiao squatting there, he subconsciously protected the boy behind him.

"Just passing by." Bai Xiao said. People after the apocalypse were all cautious. He didn't want to cause unnecessary misunderstandings. "Just getting some water... Did you grow this?"

The man looked at his attire and shook his head slowly after a moment, "Pull it out."

"Thank you."

Bai Xiao did not continue digging. He plucked off the tassels of the crystal radish roots that he had pulled out from the ground, tidied them up and stood up.

"He was really passing by and was about to seek help." Zhang Tan's voice sounded at this time. It took him longer and he arrived here when Bai Xiao was about to leave.

He looked at the dark and thin boy and said to the man, "Maybe you can ask this young man for help. If he really finds the child, he can take a message to the shelter. There are children here."

The man looked at the two outsiders who were wearing helmets and wrapped tightly with caution. He was a little hesitant and cautious, and looked at Bai Xiao again.

"Go find it now?" he finally asked.

"Yeah." Zhang sighed, "Twenty years late... but he's only in his twenties."

The man didn't say anything, but looked at them with suspicion. "Young people are always full of hope and courage, and only young people would do such a thing." Zhang sighed and looked at the boy.

"What do I need to pay?" The man was still in doubt.

"Nothing is needed." Bai Xiao said, and turned away. He was not capable of taking a child on the road and keeping him safe. In fact, he could not even protect Lin Duoduo. He survived by fighting the infection himself. "But if I find them, I will tell them that there are still survivors scattered here, including men and children."

"Look, hope lies with them." Zhang sighed.

“The shelter is long gone,” the man said.

"It's just that Linchuan's shelter disappeared, so he has to go far away."

"It's almost impossible to find it. The road is too far."

"Maybe?"

"Are you going too?" The man listened to his vicissitudes of life voice.

"He and I are on different paths."

Zhang Tan shook his head, pulled up some clover from the ground, brushed off the dust with his hand, gestured to the man, and left.

Two people, one in front and one behind, walked away from the man's sight.

The highway service area is a good place to rest, except there is no water or food.

There were abandoned cars crowded around, green grass shoots growing all around, and dry vines on the wall that could be torn off to start a fire.

Bai Xiao doesn't like this kind of ruins before the disaster. There is always a sense of desolation hitting his heart, trying to erase his hope and make him return to that small mountain village to live an ordinary but satisfying life with Lin Duoduo.

After all, humans are social animals. He believes that he is not as strong as Yu Ming, who can live for many years holding a bunch of figures, but he is not weak either. If there is no other way, he can go back and be Lin Duoduo's neighbor. However, if the environment continues to deteriorate, Lin Duoduo may not live for many years.

On the road, they had to rely on these ruins to shelter from the wind and rain, resist the erosion of nature, and have a place to stay and a peaceful rest at night.

It was getting dark, and a figure slowly appeared in the distance. Zhang Tan caught up in the dark and also stayed in the service area.

"That's not something you would do." Bai Xiao watched him take off his helmet behind the firelight.

"You have a deep prejudice against me." Zhang sighed, "Don't look at what they said, but what they did. If Chenjiabao hadn't brought the survivors together over the years, they might have died a long time ago, but now they have lived for many more years. Some people wanted to leave, and they were never stopped."

"Why doesn't he go find a settlement? For example, if you really do as you said, help people survive." Bai Xiao changed the subject and pointed to the way they came.

"Because he has children." Zhang sighed.

"Don't having children make us live together more?"

“So, you young people who grew up after the disaster are happy.” Zhang sighed, “He would rather die with his child in that mountain village than let his child go through what he went through.”

He sat on the ground and leaned against the wall to rest. This body was no longer young. The long journey was a challenge. It was also the last journey of his life.

Zhang Tan looked at the young man in front of him. Meeting a person who was looking for hope on this journey made him feel that fate was unpredictable. If it was twenty years ago, perhaps they would have been good friends.

He remembered the family of three he met in the observation area of ​​the shelter. The two adults were also not qualified to enter, so they decisively chose to leave and left their names with each other. The man was very similar to the young man now, wearing glasses and with a determined face.

Bai Xiao lowered his head and watched a spider crawl up his trouser leg and bite his ankle.

Then it died and fell down.

(End of this chapter)