Chapter 90: Global Nuclear Explosion 2
What could she do?
She could only get away from the City Center before the explosion and then pray that her luck wouldn’t be so ridiculously bad.
Chu Yian immediately pulled up the city’s subway map, finding the furthest subway station from the City Center in each direction: east, west, north, and south. Niubing Station to the east was the furthest and the optimal choice.
Besides a place to hide, supplies were also very important.
First, water!
Second, thick clothing to make protective gear, and she also needed goggles.
Third, food. Instant noodles, self-heating rice, self-heating hot pots—none of these would be useful anymore. Buy canned compressed biscuits in tin boxes, various canned goods, salt, and white sugar!
Fourth, medicine. Tremella Polysaccharide Capsules, Potassium Iodide Tablets, Aluminum Phosphate Gel, Compound Soy Protein Powder.
Fifth, batteries, lighting equipment, and a radio… Chu Yian wrote down everything she learned on the paper she borrowed from the internet cafe manager as she looked it up. The more she read about nuclear explosions, the more nervous she became. As she wrote, she even found her hands trembling uncontrollably.
That’s about it!
Chu Yian checked the time; she had been sitting there researching for over half an hour.
She took her prepared notes, left, and hailed a taxi to a large supermarket.
Mineral water was the most important, so she directly stocked up on four L-sized cases of mineral water.
For food, she stocked up on one 900g tin of compressed biscuits (200g * 20 packs), 10 cans of meat, two bags of iodized salt, and two bags of white sugar (she put both of these in sealed tin boxes).
After a nuclear explosion, radiation is the biggest killer.
If possible, buying nuclear radiation protective suits is very important. But unfortunately, there were only six hours left, and she didn’t have the means.
If she couldn’t buy a protective suit, she had to buy thick clothes.
Gas masks could still be bought, two or three, at large pharmacies.
Besides these, there were all the medicines she had just looked up!
Tremella Polysaccharide Capsules, Potassium Iodide Tablets, Aluminum Phosphate Gel, Compound Soy Protein Powder, and Vitamin Tablets—she bought a lot of each, only stopping when her treasure box was completely full.
Based on her long experience playing games, medicine would be even more important than food and water in the later stages.
Stocking up on medicine was like stocking up on gold.
She ran all over the city to gather these supplies. By the time she had bought most of the items, she only had a little over two hundred yuan left.
It was now 19:21, with 1 hour and 39 minutes remaining until the nuclear explosion.
As Chu Yian left the pharmacy, she heard the whirring sound of airplane propellers overhead, and several planes flew in a direction away from the city.
“There are so many planes today. In just half an hour, 8 or 9 have already passed,” said a passerby looking at the sky. “This is a bit unusual.”
“Hmph, what would a commoner like you know about what’s normal or not?”
Another passerby said dismissively, “When the sky falls, there’ll be taller people to hold it up. It’s just a few planes. Even if it’s unusual, it’s not for us commoners to panic.”
…Most people didn’t pay much attention to the planes in the sky.
They must be fleeing, right?
There are always some people who know the news earlier than ordinary people and react faster.
Chu Yian lowered her gaze, knowing it was almost time for her to leave too. She rushed to the nearest subway station and bought a ticket to Niubing Station. It would take 40 minutes to get to Niubing Station from her current location.
There was still an hour and a half until the nuclear explosion, plenty of time.
Today was Thursday, and the subway station was crowded at 7 PM.
Chu Yian struggled to squeeze onto the train, standing by the window and watching the scenery outside recede quickly.
As the subway moved further and further away from the City Center, the number of people in the car gradually decreased. Chu Yian looked at the route map above the subway station; there were still three or four stops left until the terminal station.
Current time: 8:03 PM.
One hour remained until the global nuclear explosion.
At this time, there were still a few scattered passengers on the subway. Most of them were looking down at their phones, and some were resting with their heads tilted. People were going about their daily routines as usual until the phone signal suddenly went out.
Whether they were playing games, making calls, or watching TV, everyone looked up at that moment.
However, before people could figure out what was happening, the subway suddenly stopped, emitting a harsh screeching sound.
The people in the car lost their balance, and many toppled sideways. The overhead lights flickered on and off, and then the emergency lights came on.
“What’s going on?”
“What happened?”
“I’ll go check outside!”
“Damn it, why aren’t any calls going through?”
…People’s chattering voices erupted in the previously quiet car. The bewildered crowd thought it was an electrical malfunction. In reality, this was the first batch of intercontinental missiles launched into the atmosphere, exploding at an altitude of three hundred miles. Most people wouldn’t feel their presence, but the electromagnetic pulses created by these missiles would cause all electronic devices to fail.
Not only the subway and mobile phones, but most communication networks were already paralyzed at this time.
On the ground, traffic came to a standstill as many circuits in cars were burned out, and widespread chaos caused traffic incidents of all sizes. Two helicopters that had just taken off spun in the sky, then collided with each other.
The two planes exploded upon impact, and shattered pieces of metal flew in all directions like bullets.
Many vehicles below and around the planes were accidentally damaged or even directly destroyed. On the main road leading out of X City, a group of people screamed and fled in all directions.
And at least ten meters underground, inside the subway station…
Chu Yian and her group were lucky; more than half of their subway train had already stopped at a station.
The staff stationed there came to help open the subway doors, and the trapped passengers were evacuated one by one. The staff told them to leave and prepare to inspect the subway. Chu Yian watched the crowd being sent to the surface, then turned and jumped into the tunnel.
She had gone to such lengths to get here; how could she go up now?
“Hey, passenger, what are you doing?”
“Come back up!”
Chu Yian didn’t listen and ran even faster.
Three staff members jumped down behind her to chase, but in the dark tunnel, Chu Yian was running for her life, and the three staff members couldn’t catch her.
“How can she run so fast?”
“Her stamina is really good.”
The three of them were panting, looking at the darker tunnel and not daring to go further. “Let’s go back up first and notify the police and fire department to come find her.”
Chu Yian watched the three lights recede further and further from her, finally stopping to catch her breath.
She checked her phone: 20:39. Only 20 minutes remained until the nuclear explosion.
