21 The Meteor Strikes!

The Russians did not succeed in their mission. The interception had failed, or only part of it succeeded.

As predicted, the nuclear blast shattered one of the three meteorites. Although it also hit the other two, it did not destroy them. It only burnished their surfaces. Those remaining meteorites were still falling toward the Pacific Ocean.

According to astronomers' estimates, they would fall between Australia and Hawaii.

Even so, that had nothing to do with Chen Xin. No matter where the meteorites fell, with a diameter of five kilometers, they were large enough to cause a global disaster. The impact would set off a cloud of dust, obscuring the sky, and drag the whole world into a long and cold night.

All that Chen Xin could do at that point was to take one last look at the bright, sunny world, and then quickly seek refuge in his bunker.

He had to do so because there would be no more sunlight on the surface for the next dozen or even hundreds of years. It was very likely that that would be the last time Chen Xin would see the sun in his life.

At that time, in addition to the sun, there were two huge fireballs blazing through the sky at a very high speed, flying toward the east.

Along the trajectory of those huge fireballs, little like sparks flew out from time to time, leaving a long, bright trail across the sky.

Chen Xin knew that those were the two meteorites that were about to hit the Earth. Those sparks that the meteorites gave off were nothing more than fragments that peeled off from the meteorite burning up due to atmospheric friction.

When those two meteorites crashed, the Earth would face another mass extinction, just like the fifth mass extinction that occurred at the end of the Cretaceous period 65 million years ago. More than 80% of the life on Earth would die, and the entire ecosystem would collapse.

Whether the fate of mankind would be the same as the dinosaurs that ruled the Earth back then, Chen Xin did not know.

If human beings could survive that crisis, then there was still a chance to rebuild their homeland.

If not, then humans would become a stepping stone at the feet of a new generation of terrestrial overlords, much like the extinction of dinosaurs gave way to the mammals' dominance.

However, matters that pertain to the fate of the entire mankind were too far out for Chen Xin to consider. What he needed to do then was to quickly enter his bunker and try to survive.

"Hey everyone, I have entered the bunker. If everyone manages to survive, let's keep in touch using the shortwave radio, and please use the channel that we agreed on before." Chen Xin sent the last message in the survival group chat as he saw everyone talking about the same thing. He thought about it, then added another message: "Live long and prosper."

That was a Vulcan salutary greeting from the movie "Star Trek", but then Chen Xin felt like there were no words of blessing more suitable.

Faced with the imminent crisis, what mankind needed the most was the vitality and resilience to prosper again after the disaster.

Just as Chen Xin sent that message, everyone in the group chat reciprocated similarly and planned to enter their bunkers with their belongings. Suddenly, there was a roar in the sky similar to the sound of a jet engine flying overhead.

Chen Xin quickly looked up, only to see a red flame in the sky approaching his location.

It was a meteorite!

Chen Xin picked up his pace, hurriedly put away his mobile phone while holding the TV set wrapped in a layer of bedding, and ran towards the bunker. He could not help but regret it, why did he take his own sweet time!

Could humans outrun meteorites?

That question was difficult to answer.

The fastest record for men's running speed at that time was 36.86 kilometers per hour. That was not considered slow, but the velocity of meteorites could easily change the unit of time into seconds. Many objects in the universe traveled at a velocity of tens of kilometers per second.

Unless you were a superhero or cartoon character with special abilities such as The Flash or Quicksilver, there was no way human beings could even come close to outrunning meteorites.

However, if one simply avoided the impact of a meteorite, as long as the volume of the meteorite did not exceed a certain limit, one could still travel out of the impact range and avoid being pulverized.

Chen Xin was a little unfortunate. When he was approaching the entrance to his bunker, the meteorite that was en route to his location had landed.

Fortunately, Chen Xin was not hit directly. The shockwave of the impact swept him off his feet, and he fell to the ground along with the bedding-wrapped TV set that he was carrying.

The blast caused an uncomfortable ringing in Chen Xin's ears. He held his head firmly, and it took a long time before he recovered.

Looking at his scratched palm, feeling the pain of his whole body from the shockwave, he was not in the mood of cursing or rejoicing.

A little embarrassed, Chen Xin got up from the ground and checked whether the TV set was broken, and he was relieved.

As luck would have it, there were pillows wrapped inside the bedding, and the TV was not damaged.

Chen Xin wrapped the TV up again and opened the door to the bunker. He stood at the door and hesitated, then put down the TV, turned around, and stumbled toward the direction of the crash site.

Since the meteorite hit the ground and caused an impact, there was a huge chance it did not completely burn up in the atmosphere.

At that time, the meteorites that could crash into Earth were fragments of the two larger meteoroids in the sky, even if they were not part of the original meteoroid that spanned a diameter of ten kilometers.

To Chen Xin, it seemed like a good idea to pick up a fragment of that meteorite as a souvenir, since it was going to bring about the end of the world.

If it were under normal circumstances, Chen Xin would have not followed through with that idea.

However, that one in million chance scenario would only happen when the whole world was going to be hit by meteorites. Since that meteorite just crashed in front of him, Chen Xin was not sure if the same opportunity would present itself again if he did not obtain a fragment of it as a souvenir then.

The meteorite that hit the ground looked small. Except for a trail plowed out by the meteorite about several tens of meters in length, it left behind a crater that was about ten meters in diameter.

The impact lifted all the soil near the landing point and pushed it aside. At the bottom of the pit, there was a slightly burnt trace, which seemed to still be steaming from the heat.

Chen Xin climbed down, and the heat from the impact could still be felt at the bottom of the crater, but all he was concerned about was whether the meteorite could be found.

To his surprise, Chen Xin saw something at the bottom of the crater, but it did not look like a meteorite.

That was because meteorites could not be standard spheres anyway, nor could they emit light.

What the hell was that? Chen Xin stopped in his tracks in fear.