Ch 70: Apocalypse Star House Hoarding

Three days later, in W City.

Ya Tong squeezed through the crowd and came out from the ticket office. Yu Qi and You Xi, who were waiting outside, immediately approached her.

“How did it go?” Yu Qi asked.

Ya Tong shook her head.

The second meteor shower had come almost thirty hours earlier than predicted. Even though everyone was aware of it, it had been nearly fifteen days since the first meteor shower, and people still had to go about their daily lives. So, when the meteor alarm sounded, it hadn’t yet reached the majority of the public’s planned avoidance time. Many people were still on the surface and only frantically sought refuge in various underground structures after realizing the danger.

This meteor shower was indeed much smaller in scale than the first one. Those who were lucky just had a scare, while the unlucky ones, like those in that villa area, saw their entire place turn into scorched earth.

Later, the three of them learned that the most severely affected area in the second meteor shower across the whole M country was precisely the region where they were.

In contrast, neighboring J country experienced only minor impacts from both the first and second meteor showers, leading to a surge in the number of people trying to buy tickets from W City to U City in J country. Ya Tong had already inquired, and the earliest available ticket for a ship was fifteen days away. Currently, J country, fearing a large influx of refugees from M country, had closed its land border crossings, only keeping a few ports and train stations open, making tickets scarce and hard to obtain.

If their destination were merely J country, they could wait in W City for fifteen days. However, U City in J country was only their first stop; they couldn’t afford to spend so much time at the very beginning. There were still three months until the next predicted date, and based on previous experience, the meteor shower might come early. Although it was unclear how much earlier, a three-month interval sounded much safer than six days.

They couldn’t be sure if there would be a normal interval before the fourth predicted date, making this a rare opportunity they had to seize.

After leaving the ticket office, the three drove back to Ya Tong’s friend’s place.

This friend was a man around forty years old, living in an ordinary apartment in W City. Fortunately, there was a subway station under his building, making it relatively easy to seek refuge.

W City had been quite lucky, avoiding the first meteor shower entirely and only experiencing a few meteor impacts in the suburbs during the second one, resulting in minimal casualties. This luck attracted many people to migrate north.

Their journey had been relatively smooth, although they encountered a few places where roads were blocked by meteor damage, causing traffic jams. They drove to other side roads, hid the car in secluded spots without cameras, walked through the damaged roads, and then retrieved the car from another hidden place.

During these walks, Ya Tong always held a gun, mainly for deterrence.

Fortunately, most people heading north were seeking refuge. With a clear direction, there were not many people causing trouble along the way. This was also because many areas in M country had not yet reached the point of severe material shortage. If one dared to go out and drive to a slightly better area, they could still buy supplies.

Of course, where there were clear-headed people, there were also those who took advantage of the chaos.

This happened when they detoured to avoid a heavily affected area and found a road leading to a large warehouse-style supermarket that supplied several nearby small towns. The area was relatively unscathed, and the supermarket was still open.

With plenty of cash and gold they had brought from the apartment and a significant amount of money in their savings cards, they planned to convert as much money into supplies as possible before leaving M country—as long as their space could hold it.

Seeing the supermarket open, they drove over to stock up.

Since it was daytime, there were quite a few shoppers, all rushing with their carts full of goods to their cars.

They locked the SUV, each took a shopping cart, and started navigating the aisles. In broad daylight, with many eyes around, they planned to buy only what the SUV could roughly hold to avoid attracting too much attention.

Looking at the long-term future, food remained the most critical commodity. The meteors had destroyed farmland and would later affect the ecosystem, severely impacting both agriculture and livestock farming, leading to significant reductions in production.

This time, all three of them focused on buying food. Yu Xi, being strong, took care of staple foods: rice, flour, grains, pasta, instant noodles… Yu Qi handled fresh produce: vegetables, fruits, eggs, milk, sausages… and Ya Tong was in charge of frozen items: various meats, fish, and frozen foods.

Currently, the supermarket had limited fresh produce and a narrow selection, but fortunately, in such circumstances, few people had the patience to cook slowly. Most people grabbed convenient foods, and since Yu Qi wasn’t picky, she still managed to fill an entire cart.

The three moved quickly, filling three shopping carts and then discussing grabbing more daily necessities, especially women’s products—they could never have too much of those. As for medicine, they had already stocked up a lot last time and hadn’t touched those supplies yet. However, vitamins and calcium supplements were worth getting more of.

As they came out of the pharmacy section with enough nutritional supplements, they heard a commotion and chaos at the supermarket exit, followed by gunshots.

Yu Xi reacted quickly, pressing Yu Qi and Ya Tong down. The three of them pushed their shopping carts and hid behind the shelves, cautiously observing the situation outside.

Other shoppers were either lying flat on the ground in panic or hiding behind shelves. Once the area quieted down, a man’s agitated and rough voice at the exit became clear.

He had come to shop but realized at the checkout that his wallet was missing. He kept explaining that he had driven a long way, had children waiting at home, and hoped the cashier would give him the items first, promising to pay later.

The cashier refused, and they couldn’t come to an agreement. Given the unstable emotions in today’s world, the man pulled out a gun to prove it wasn’t fake, even firing a shot into the air.

He was now hurriedly putting the bags of goods into his cart, preparing to steal them. Someone took advantage of his distraction and tackled him from behind. In the ensuing chaos, the man fired again, accidentally hitting another customer nearby, who fell in a pool of blood. The cashier screamed, and people around backed away in fear.

The man seemed stunned, standing there with the gun, while the person who tackled him acted again, successfully taking the gun this time.

Others rushed over to subdue the man, planning to call the police and an ambulance.

People who had been lying on the ground or hiding behind shelves stood up, many praising the heroic person who acted. In times of disaster, such acts of justice gave everyone the courage to strive to survive.

“There are still good people…” Yu Qi’s comment was interrupted by another gunshot.

Everyone ducked again, only to see the man who had been praised for his heroism now holding the gun, forcing the cashier to put all the money in a bag for him.

Yu Qi: …

The man pressed the gun to the cashier’s temple, took a bag full of money, and quickly left the supermarket, leaving a crowd of stunned customers behind.

Such incidents were not uncommon, especially in heavily affected areas, where people constantly lowered their moral limits to survive.

The three women became even more cautious and low-key. They took turns driving day and night, always keeping two people awake—one to drive and one to navigate and stay alert, while the third rested in the back with earplugs and an eye mask, wrapped in a blanket.

Meals were mostly eaten in the car. Fortunately, during their time at the villa and the bunker, they had cooked extra portions of every meal and stored half in the containers Yu Xi provided. Whether it was hearty meat dishes, small side dishes, rice, noodles, or soup, they had everything. Even if they ate in the car, they still enjoyed fresh and delicious meals.

The further north they drove, the better the conditions became, but the traffic increased, slowing them down. A journey that should have taken over ten hours stretched to more than three days. Along the way, they found three self-service gas stations by chance, filling Yu Xi’s 10,000-liter fuel space and several 30-liter and 50-liter portable fuel tanks in Ya Tong’s space as backups.

With the influx of people into W City, the city’s population surged, causing all hotels, motels, and inns to be fully booked. They called over ten hotels but couldn’t secure a room.

In the end, Ya Tong’s friend took them in, and the three of them slept on the floor in the living room.

This friend, named Feynman, was a former actor, now married. Ya Tong had met his wife, Sheila, a few times before. They also had a daughter who was over ten years old.

Sheila was very hospitable. Knowing they had traveled from the heavily affected S Peak area, she prepared a welcoming feast for them.

Hearing that they couldn’t get a ship ticket, she suggested trying the airlines.

Some travelers who had been stranded in W City due to the meteors had rebooked their flights. However, after learning about the conditions in their home cities, some decided to stay in the relatively safe W City, freeing up some seats.

Ya Tong was puzzled, “But isn’t the situation in J country better than in M country? Why wouldn’t they go back when they could get a flight?”

“J country does have some severely affected areas, and some of these people come from those areas. Their homes are gone, so why go back? They can stay safely in W City for now and reassess the situation later. And since they’re J citizens, they can return anytime they want by land. It’s only an hour’s drive from here, and the land border closure doesn’t apply to them,” Feynman patiently explained.

Ya Tong thanked him, and after lunch, the three of them prepared to try their luck at the ticket office again.

This time, they encountered several people from J country.