Chapter 49: Backup Route

Chapter 49: The Backup Plan

After closing the door, Gu Pan still respected everyone's input and said, "If any of you have different opinions, feel free to bring them up at any time. We can discuss together."

Chen Shaonan responded, "I think your attitude is right. To be honest, the people we have here now form the strongest and safest group. If we ally with others, each person's value will be diminished."

Feng Zhekai said, "I hate war and plunder the most. Their way of gathering followers is ultimately for acts of robbery and seizure. I don’t want to be complicit with them. I prefer what Xiao Gu said—living a peaceful life."

Lu Xuerong echoed her husband, "Yes, we dislike killing and fighting over things, so we feel fortunate to be with all of you."

Cheng Yang was straightforward: "I have no objections; I’ll just follow you all."

Gu Pan stood up and said, "We won’t fight or grab what’s not ours, but if someone invades us, we won’t hold back. That Li Dong today isn’t a simple man, so we must be more cautious in the future."

Lu Ruisheng added, "That man is ambitious. Right now, he can’t compete with us, but if one day he gains that ability, he’ll make a move. So we have to make ourselves stronger."

Though Chen Lang was young, he had been living through the apocalypse from an early age and was thus more adapted to this era. "I will train twice as hard from now on and won’t be a burden to anyone."

Gu Pan looked at him and smiled. "There’s no burden here. Everyone here is a talent; you could take any one of us out, and we’d be a general. But looking at our current place, we need to improve it. After we block the door, the only escape route is through the windows. If there are people below the windows, we could easily be trapped."

At this, everyone grew tense. This house was their safe haven, but Gu Pan was right—if someone set a fire inside or smoked them out, blocking the exit, they would have to escape through the windows. And what if there was an ambush beneath?

Lu Ruisheng fell silent for a moment, then said, "We could set up a zip line between the outer balcony and the top floor of the property management center at the front gate. If there’s danger, we can escape that way. Outside, there’s nearly ten meters of snow, which serves as extra protection."

Since the property center was originally the sales office, a three-story shared building a bit taller than the residences, its third-floor windows were still uncovered by snow.

Feng Zhekai asked, "Zip line? Where do we get materials for that? It’s not exactly a short distance."

Gu Pan replied, "We’ll go ask that friend who deals in extreme sports gear later and see what we can do."

Actually, she had usable materials in her storage space, but it was better to have a proper source.

After refining the plan, Gu Pan and Lu Ruisheng left.

They went to see Guo Gang and then visited his shop. Everyone had assumed the apocalypse meant only extreme cold; no one expected such bizarre weather changes, so they hadn’t thought to prepare more escape supplies. As a result, Guo Gang’s shop hadn’t been heavily scavenged.

Gu Pan and Lu Ruisheng found some ropes and climbing safety gear and loaded everything up.

Before leaving, Gu Pan told Guo Gang, "Brother Guo, if the snow suddenly melts one day, it’ll cause flooding. So you should keep your kayaks and similar gear stored safely—you never know when they might save lives."

Guo Gang thought about it and agreed, "Right, with so much snow, if it melts, water levels will rise. I should keep more escape gear."

Lu Ruisheng added, "Prepare more escape supplies at home too. Honestly, with the way things are, who knows when the situation might change?"

"Okay, I’ll listen to you. By the way, I saw the ice cream you left in the cellar a few days ago. Thanks," Guo Gang said.

"Talking about that now? It’s late; we should head back," Lu Ruisheng said.

Guo Gang saw them out, then went back to gather more usable items and took them away.

After returning home, Gu Pan and Lu Ruisheng began figuring out how to install the setup.

They both had drones of various models. They could secure one end here and use a powerful drone to carry the other end of the rope to the opposite building, since there was no other way to cross the snow in the middle.

Once the rope was fixed, it would usually be slack and buried under the snow to avoid detection. When needed, it could be tightened.

After agreeing on this, they called everyone to a meeting on the ninth floor using walkie-talkies to share their plan. That night, everyone began the work.

The escape route was set up on the sixth floor balcony of Cheng Yang’s apartment because it was easier to get down from the seventh floor to the sixth, and the outer balcony and air conditioner platform on the sixth floor made it safer since it was lower.

After finalizing this, they started installing in the middle of the night when everyone was sound asleep. Lu Ruisheng, Cheng Yang, and Chen Shaonan went to the property building. Chen Shaonan understood electricity and needed to install an alarm to detect tampering. Cheng Yang was young and agile.

Gu Pan secured her side first and used a drone to carry the rope’s end to the other side.

Lu Ruisheng quickly fixed the rope in place. Chen Shaonan installed the alarm, which would sound if anyone touched the rope, alerting them immediately.

Everything was done by the early hours, and they all went home to sleep.

The next day, everyone rested freely, exhausted from the previous day.

Gu Pan and Lu Ruisheng observed the steadily decreasing supplies outside and noticed the rising price of rice, so they went to see Shi Liang again.

At the entrance of the psychiatric hospital, there were even more people than last time.

Now, about eighty percent of people couldn’t get enough food. Less than half were just barely surviving. Every day, people froze or starved to death. Half the apartments in one neighborhood were abandoned.

Several households in their building were gone—902 had fled, 501 froze to death, 1101 on the top floor also froze, and 1002 either froze or starved to death; in any case, they were all dealt with. The elderly on the eighth floor had died, and only the younger residents were barely holding on.

With no food or fuel, too many had to come here to trade what little they had. Everyone knew their valuables wouldn’t even buy two days’ worth of food, but what choice did they have? Not trading meant dying faster. Maybe if they held on a few days, rescue or warmer weather might come.

Gu Pan and Lu Ruisheng headed straight to Shi Liang’s location. Because he wore a red scarf, he was easy to spot.

But he had customers now, so Gu Pan and Lu Ruisheng didn’t approach directly; they just listened from nearby.

At that moment, a middle-aged man was bargaining with Shi Liang: "This bracelet cost quite a bit—50 grams. You want to trade it for only half a catty of rice? That’s too little."

Shi Liang sighed, "Brother, if you don’t trade today, you might not even get half a catty tomorrow. Prices are rising too fast; I have no choice. There are people above me too."

The man hesitated but exchanged the bracelet. "Alright, otherwise my family will starve."

He handed the bracelet to Shi Liang.

Shi Liang confirmed the gold was genuine, weighed it, and gave him a half-catties bag of rice. "Take care, brother."

The man hid the rice in his arms and left.

(End of chapter)