What’s Left from the Catastrophe

Safety first. Chen Xin should have turned on his car lights. However, he hesitated because he did not want to expose his location. He drove in the dark with the lights off to avoid any trouble.

Thankfully, it was like late evening. Chen Xin could still see the roads clearly.

Chen Xin lived in the suburbs, in bigger cities they would call it the countryside suburbs. His home was in a small town toward the south, so compared to big cities he was living in the middle of nowhere. There was not a lot of residences around, only a few farmers, it was like a quiet Townsville.

Chen Xin loved the quiet of the countryside. He initially away from the city so he could focus on writing novels.

Thankfully, Vermillion was great at building roads. The place where he lived was near a railway station so the roads were well constructed making his drive all the way to the city worry-free.

The city streets were empty. It was not like those Hollywood apocalypse movies where cars were abandoned everywhere.

This was what the apocalypse looked like in real life. Humans were informed of the meteorite three months prior to impact, everyone was evacuated into the government shelter. Why would the streets be filled with abandoned cars?

If abandoned cars were seen, it meant that someone encountered a roadblock or a trap.

There were no cars on the road, so Chen Xin did not face any problems driving to the city area. 

He left two tire tracks on the road due to the was white dust everywhere. Chen Xin looked at the cloud of ashy dust and felt a heavy pull in his heart.

It was the ashes of the firestorm caused by the meteorite impact.

Usually, he would pass by a river when heading towards the city area. It was not as beautiful as mother nature, but it was still an eco-friendly city and was even nominated as a great environmental city. 

It was all gone.

The green mountains on the side of the roads were pitch black and covered in ash. It looked like charcoal with sprinkled snow on it. The plants were twisted like a horror movie, it was ugly and terrifying.

The river was dried up, revealing a huge ditch. The bottom of the ditch had a blackish yellow tar. It looked like the infamous Deatholme in World of Warcraft.

Chen Xin was familiar with this river. It was near his house, he used to come here on summertime nights to chill, he even walked with girls here too.

The river was nigh unrecognizable. The high-quality wooden sidewalk was completely burnt with a few cement columns left.

Chen Xin slowed down and looked at it sadly.

The river was dried up, what about the things around the river? Chen Xin did not need to check it out to know everything was burned to the ground.

Thankfully, the bridge connected to the city was still intact. The fire did not affect it, or else Chen Xin would not be able to enter the city.

The city area did not fare any better than the suburbs.

The beautiful eco-constructions were burned until there were only cement vases and uncharred trees. Road signs were burned until there was nothing left, even metal was burned to the ground, forming puddles of melted steel.

A few stores Chen Xin used to frequent were also burned. The doors were melted and charred black.

Chen Xin now felt the effects of the end of the world. It was like he time-traveled to a dystopian future.

All the things he used to know, the lights, the busy streets, the skyscrapers, were all gone. The things he was familiar with, seemed so fragile in the face of the apocalypse.

It was like a beautiful china vase. It was so stunning until it was dropped on the floor.

Chen Xin always looked at war photos and documentaries for novel material reference, he was indifferent to a world in chaos. However, now that it happened to him in real life, he did not know what he had until he lost it.

It was too late now, everything he knew was gone. A new generation of survivors was needed to rebuild their homes on this charred apocalyptic ground.

Too bad it was only possible under non-apocalyptic circumstances. The temperature would only get colder. The world would stay in the dark and freeze eventually, it was the new ice age.

Rebuilding was harder than it sounds at that point.

Cement would freeze up before it was stirred, the ground could not be dug into, all the rivers and oceans would be frozen into ice…

Earth was like a big refrigerator if there was no sunlight. Humans might not survive this after all.

Rebuilding their home… might be something Chen Xin would never witness for the rest of his life.

However, Chen Xin should not think about that, it was not completely the end of the world despite doomsday already being here. It could be said that this was the last resort for humanity.

As a survivor, he should try his best to gather supplies and resources. He needed to secure his bunker before the world froze completely.

Chen Xin had a safe underground bunker and he picked up the survivor system. Staying alive was his number one priority.

He needed to survive and needed to live more comfortably. That was all he needed to think about.