Chapter 185: Evacuation

Lv Ping had already returned to the sea; his animal instincts made him sense the approach of a great disaster. He was even more anxious than Liu Mu, and he immediately decided to return to the Mother Nest's growth site to first escape the calamity before reuniting with Liu Mu.

Despite his massive size, his speed in the water was surprisingly fast, though this also caused him to stir up rolling waves along the way.

Some elderly people, seeing the constant, strange waves along the way, mysteriously told the young people beside them—this is a "dragon-walking," and in a year of great disaster, monsters are bound to emerge. The prolonged Black Rain had finally awakened the spirits in the mountains, giving them the chance to enter the sea and transform into dragons.

Therefore, for many years afterward, the residents along the river would insist that they had seen a dragon-walking with their own eyes, and that after the dragon entered the sea, the giant waves churned, revealing dragon horns...

As for whether the dragon horns could have been the tips of a split octopus leg, who would believe that? The difference in taste is just too great.

This night, Liu Mu did not sleep either; just like the day the Burning began, she was quietly busy.

The ten-thousand-ton freighter on the river occupied too much space for the Recovery Space to hold, but that did not mean she could not take away the mechanical equipment at the Mine.

While loading the equipment into the space, she also tried her best to load some high-quality ore.

If it weren't for the fact that dismantling the freighter was too time-consuming, she would, of course, have preferred to take it back as scrap metal to be melted down.

Just as she was packing up by herself, the members of Sea Soul Team One were already leading all the workers at the Mine to pack their things.

Except for people, items that could provide warmth, and enough food for the road, nothing else was allowed to be brought.

Zheng Tian said directly to them: "Someone will help pack the remaining things later; let's get on the trucks and go first. Oh, Ma Dajie, don't bring that big pot; the Boss will have someone bring it for you, alright? And you, just bring your bedding; don't bring the folding bed, it won't fit in the truck and you can't use it on the road..."

Facts proved that evacuating the masses was really not an easy task, especially since everyone had developed feelings for each other.

Ma Dajie still wanted to look for her son, but until the Truck departed, she didn't see him.

The reason for the evacuation was also explained for a long time, and then, there was no need to explain anymore.

Everyone felt it; before it was even dark, a layer of thin frost had formed on the ground, even though there had been a big sun during the day.

Added to the abnormal sunset glow, people who had experienced the great disaster did not need many hints; the abnormality was the best reason for persuasion.

The trucks drove fast, and everyone looked back with reluctance at the place where they had lived peacefully for several months; they really didn't want to leave.

In this day and age, could they really find another place with food, drink, and work like this?

Another kitchen helper named Hu Lili wiped her tears and asked Zheng Tian.

"Brother Tian, where are we going? Is it a place belonging to the church?"

Before, Zheng Tian and the others only mentioned evacuation and did not say where specifically.

Now that they were on the trucks and people couldn't run away, he finally told the truth: "It's the Boss's factory elsewhere. As long as you work hard and don't have extra thoughts, life will go on just the same."

Hu Lili immediately asked, "Where is it? Is it just us?"

"In Haicheng; you've all heard of the Haicheng Barrier, right? The Boss has a factory over there." Zheng Tian, of course, would not reveal Liu Mu's position at the Haicheng Barrier, fearing that these people might use her status to cause trouble for Liu Mu later.

Others might not be clear about Mu Liu, but Ma Dajie had been in contact with people all the time, and at this moment, she couldn't help but be suspicious: "The Boss has a factory at the Haicheng Barrier? Is Pastor Kamp going too?"

"You'll know when you get there; our Boss's business is very big," Zheng Tian said vaguely, fearing that these people would covet the benefits given by the church. "Pastor Kamp trusts the Boss, and they surely have their own arrangements. Hey, let's not ask too much; we're running for our lives now, who knows how much the temperature will drop."

With twenty-some people in one truck and a canopy overhead, everyone could feel the chill while huddled together; who would dare say they wouldn't follow?

For a moment, everyone fell silent.

When Liu Mu caught up, the three trucks had just encountered a giant rock blocking the road.

Everyone was digging, but it had started to snow lightly from the sky, and the big rock hadn't moved a bit.

"Move aside," Liu Mu stepped forward, followed by the black lizard covered in black scales. "Get on the trucks; use all the clothes you can wear and all the quilts you can wrap yourselves in. It's still cooling down; the road ahead will be even colder!"

"Great, Boss Mu is here; we're saved!"

"What is that? Heavens, Boss, where did you catch such a big turtle?"

"That's a dinosaur, how is it a turtle? It doesn't even have a shell."

Someone was about to cry: "Are there dinosaurs now?"

"Stop guessing, get on the trucks; aren't you cold?" Liu Mu was also helpless and waved for them to leave quickly.

The black lizard was highly aggressive and had eaten people before, so she was afraid that someone in the crowd would be blind enough to provoke it.

The Black Glutton Miao Cuihua was carried onto a truck by her younger sister Black Mamba, wrapped entirely in thermal foil; her face was pale from the cold, and she was still shivering.

Miao Hentian's situation was no better than hers; she was a cold-blooded animal, and as soon as the temperature dropped, she would get sleepy and always wanted to find a place to fall asleep.

The two got on the truck and had no strength left to help Liu Mu.

However, Miao Cuihua still had to control the black lizard to clear the big rock, and before long, there was almost no color left on her face.

The big rock was cut with several deep lines by the black lizard's sharp claws; Liu Mu placed gunpowder along the cuts, lit it, and burned a circle, and it soon split open.

The rock, divided into several pieces, was much easier to move, and it took no more than an hour in total to clear a passable road.

The temperature dropped another three degrees, already reaching -5℃.

"I'll clear the way in front; you follow."

At this moment, she especially missed her Gouzi; if Niu Boyi were here, he could easily find a passable route and clear away the debris.

After the system upgrade, Niu Boyi's hearing and vision were still stronger than Liu Mu's, especially at night, and his sense of smell also proved very useful.

The black lizard's situation was not good either; to maintain his body temperature, Liu Mu fed him raw meat several times along the way and draped a large quilt over him.

The mountain road was difficult to travel; even though Liu Mu had recently been careful to have people clear the route, three hours had already passed by the time they walked out of the mountain area.

Perhaps some thought that letting everyone walk thirty-some kilometers might be faster, but that was simply impossible.

Not to mention the low temperature, the Mutated Plant along the way would be enough to give ordinary people a hard time.

At midnight, the three trucks finally reached the highway leading to the Steel Mill.

Liu Mu asked the workers to squeeze in, put the black lizard and the Black Glutton in the same truck, and gave the three of them an oil-burning stove.

"Boss, there is a layer of ice on the road; we still can't go too fast."

Li Fei and two other veterans were responsible for driving; their driving experience was solid, but the journey was still shaky.

They thought they could go faster once they reached the highway, but the road surface had frozen.

The snowfall was not heavy, but it melted as it hit the road, and then this water froze into ice, which was gradually covered by a layer of thin snow; it was brittle and slippery, a disaster for vehicles.

"Stop first, put on the tire chains."

Although the highway surface was not as good as before the apocalypse, its hardness was sufficient; putting on tire chains now meant they wouldn't have to worry about getting stuck.

Liu Mu took an arm-thick chain out of her spatial storage, and the members of the Sea Soul Team got off their vehicles one after another to help; very quickly, they reinforced all the wheels and fitted them with anti-skid chains.

By this time, the steam exhaled by the people in the vehicles had already condensed into white frost, and many were so cold they could not sit still.

Liu Mu had no choice but to take out some thermal tin foil, letting them wrap themselves in it a few at a time and huddle together.

"Hold on a little longer, the road ahead is getting easier to travel; if you have food on you, eat it, don't save it, there will be plenty of food when we reach the destination."

Liu Mu put on a down jacket herself; it wasn't that she was afraid of the cold, but mainly because she had been watching the road conditions outside the whole way, and facing the wind had frozen her like a dog.

Continuing forward, they finally saw lights after another two hours had passed.

Wrapped in a military overcoat, Luo Sanlin waved from far away, "You've finally arrived! I've been waiting ever since I received word from the Barrier; hurry, come into the factory first and have something hot to drink!"