On top of that, the J City base still had Lao Shi's girlfriend. If something happened to the young girlfriend while Lao Shi was away, what then.
Two worries combined. Lao Shi would be anxious. That was only human.
But no matter how human the worry, distance could not be rushed. What had happened had already happened and could not be changed. Better to wait. When they got there, they would deal with whatever they found.
…
They had just been busy on deck, yet it was still the middle of the night.
Inside the space, thinking of Grandma Ling and Lan Qiaoqiao sleeping, the four of them kept their voices and movements soft, nibbling a quiet late snack.
No matter how quiet, they could fool the elders and the child, but not the dog. Nana always ate a lot. Hearing the small sounds of snacking, Nana joined right in.
The food in front of them vanished fast. After sleeping soundly again, their ship finally entered the J City area.
They looked out through the cabin glass. The streets were almost painfully familiar.
Ling Jiang pointed at a building up ahead. "J City. When we left, we thought we would never come back. And here we are. See that building. Did we take shelter there back then. Leaving and returning feel worlds apart. But has it really been that long."
"Of course not," Huang Jinghe said with a sigh. "Only a few months. But if you think about everything in between, it feels unbelievable."
Lao Gao said, "What if we had never left J City and just waited here for the extreme heat. Would everything be different. At least our mood would be. Thinking that way makes me feel old."
Lan Jin said, "What was meant to happen would not be reduced by a single thing. The ice hail kept coming in waves. Look carefully. Many top floors are already rotten through. With freezing and soaking, these buildings are no longer fit for living. If people stayed, the water might not even finish receding before the buildings collapsed. Add what lives in the water… leaving back then was the right choice."
To go further, not staying in the J City base had also been the right call. The disaster ahead was unknown. Even surviving the flood here would not have been easy. People could be inside a base and still run into trouble.
"As long as we chose right, that is what matters," Ling Jiang said.
…
Ships traveled faster than vehicles. Before long they could make out the J City base buildings.
As everyone looked that way, they remembered their route in. They had not seen a single person. And none of those fleeing small insects either.
That was odd. There had been so many small insects. There should have been stragglers.
For safety, at Captain Zhang's order, no one could leave the rest area without the high tech protective suit. Otherwise, no going out.
Once the suit was on, everyone looked nearly identical except for height. To help people recognize each other, Captain Zhang had name vests made to wear over the suits.
When all was ready, a crowd headed up to the deck.
As the ship drew closer, they finally faced the J City base main gate.
The great heat had lowered the water that once smothered the gate. Yellow earth showed at the entrance. Real ground gave a sense of safety that ice never could. One thing was strange. The base gate stood open and no one was out on watch.
Open gates were not strange. Bases were full of people. Some stayed in, some went out. In daytime the gate was usually open.
But when a gate stood open, there were always guards. They watched outside, and they relayed news inside.
Lan Jin and the others had seen this at both the J City base and the H City base.
Today, the ships were already close, yet no one had come out to check. Was the ship not obvious enough. Or had the watch already fallen silent inside.
Lao Shi said tensely, "No. Why is no one coming out. Do not tell me something really happened in there."
Captain Zhang tried to steady him. "Do not panic. Once we dock, we will go look. If something really happened, forget the H City base. Even the military base would not ignore it."
After a while, the big ships finally docked one by one. When everyone had disembarked, Captain Zhang and Lao Shi counted off a team of a little more than forty and led them toward the base to scout.
…
Captain Zhang's group.
From outside looking in, you would not see anything wrong.
But stepping inside, the first thing they saw was a wrecked protective shield. Next were shattered glass on the floor and drag marks in dried blood. All of it said the same thing. There had been a brutal fight here.
But where were the people?
No living people. No corpses either. That made everything feel even more wrong.
Bang.
A light above their heads burst, adding another layer of menace to an already eerie scene.
After the startle passed, Captain Zhang crouched to study the dried blood. "This was not yesterday or the day before. Where is the J City base safe room."
Every base, whether military or civil, had a safe room besides the living areas. When something happened inside the base, people could hide there to ride out the disaster. It was built to withstand a lot. Looking at the mess, if there were any survivors, they would most likely be in there.
Lao Shi frowned. "Underground."
Just then, after a long stretch with no danger signals, Brother Li led the rest of the team into the base. Back in a place they knew, after months away, they moved easily, and could not help thinking the base had truly seen trouble.
At the doorway, hearing the two men, Ling Jiang cut in at once. "A safe room."