Chapter 139: The appearance of all living things in the dark age (Part 1)
January 18, 1949, in southern England, the city of Bath was in ruins
Two years have passed since the dawn of civilization extinguished from this land. The Anglo-Saxon nation spent hundreds of years with great hardships, adventurous expeditions and plundering all over the world, while desperately squeezing its own civilians. The rich wealth accumulated with blood and tears was almost wiped out. Countless factories, towns, mines, ports, buildings and industrial facilities that condensed the efforts and expectations of countless Europeans were all reduced to ashes in the brutal war and famine, leaving only a devastated area. Today, the island of Great Britain has almost returned to the Dark Ages, and the light of hundreds of years of civilization from the Renaissance to the Industrial Revolution has been extinguished. Scholars and experts who possessed knowledge died of hunger and cold, leaving only a group of lonely ghosts with nothing left, who continued to desperately survive in this land that had been repeatedly burned by wars and nuclear explosions.
Bath, a spa city that used to be clean and elegant, picturesque and crowded with tourists, is now almost nothing but a dirty, ugly, fire-scorched ruins - after the collapse of the British Empire, the island of Great Britain suffered for two full years After the civil strife and famine, 99% of the original population of this scenic tourist city has disappeared without a trace. However, some foreigners from far away are still wandering in the ruins of the city.
——Just like after the collapse of the Roman Empire, various foreign barbarians, from the Anglo-Saxons to the Vikings to the Norman conquerors, crossed the sea and landed on the island of Great Britain, occupying the magpie's nest and seizing the fertile soil of England, driving out the old landowners, the Celts. It's the same situation in the Scottish Highlands.
Of course, in this nightmarish dark age, those who really live a difficult life in the ruins of Bath City will not have such poetic and philosophical associations in their hearts at this moment, but will only have the simplest desire to survive. , apart from that, there is infinite confusion, numbness and confusion...
※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※
"...Today...seems to be a nice weather! Ah! At least it won't snow anymore!" Quinta Kim, a dark-skinned former US captain, got out of the basement of a dilapidated house and looked through the incomplete Through the glass window, he looked at the sunlight piercing the clouds not far away from the horizon, and murmured in a low voice.
In high latitudes like the UK, winter nights are particularly long and mornings come very late, so although it is still only dawn, Kunta Kim has been awake for a long time. I was just afraid of the cold outside, and had been shrinking until now, and then I managed to get out.
In the past two years, the weather in the UK has been extremely cold. Starting from late November, the entire island of Great Britain was enveloped in overwhelming wind and snow. Especially shortly after the New Year, just like the frost giants in Nordic mythology coming to the world, a violent storm suddenly swept across the sky and roared for seven consecutive days and nights. Many people died at home due to the collapse of their houses by the falling snow. The snow near the city of Bath was also as deep as one or two meters, and it only barely subsided in recent days.
But the cold winter is not the most deadly thing. The climate anomalies that last throughout the year are even more desperate. Since 1947, the weather in the UK has almost never been normal, and it rains from time to time in the summer. There were a few blowing snows, and the temperature fluctuated from warm to cold without any pattern. Human beings with strong environmental adaptability can naturally withstand such strange weather changes, but the crops in the fields cannot do without the warmth and sunshine of summer...
You must know that once there is no assistance from industrial civilization, the most primitive farming is really about relying on the sky to make a living. No matter how diligent the farmers are, a drop of sweat will fall into the ground and eight pieces of land will be broken. If the sun doesn't shine for a few days, or if there's a late spring cold, the harvest will be greatly ruined.
As for this weird weather with snow falling in June and disordered seasons, that's not to mention for agriculture - it's unreasonable to stop harvesting!
——Even the crops that have been domesticated by humans for a long time and have adapted to the alpine zone cannot grow in the darkness, cold wind, ice and snow of winter!
As a result, British agriculture, which had already degraded to a medieval state due to the collapse of the fertilizer industry, the shutdown of agricultural machinery due to lack of oil, and the disrepair of water conservancy and irrigation projects, further degraded to the Ice Age in such an abnormal climate - except for a few fast-growing and cold-resistant crops. Besides, basically all harvests are gone. Even if there is no complete harvest, the yield has dropped to medieval levels. The harvest amount is at most four times the amount of sowing, and in some cases it is only twice.
To be honest, Captain Quinta Kim hardly knew how he and his black brothers survived these two years of purgatory.
Although he had captured a large amount of coal, flour, cans, biscuits and grease when he united with several groups of broken troops to attack the city of Bath, no matter how much supplies were seized at that time, if he just sat there and ate nothing, It is impossible to survive the full two years no matter what.
However, the harsh environment can really train people. Driven by the survival instinct, Kim, who was not very good at farm work, turned into a modern version of Robinson, trying every means to create something in the ruins of Bath City. A small farm and survival base. They fished and fished in the River Leven that flows through the city, opened up abandoned gardens in the city into farmland and vegetable gardens, and took advantage of the short and intermittent warm weather to grow potatoes, radishes and onions - although the yields were pitifully low. There are still no harvests from time to time, but after all, there is a small harvest, which can replenish the increasingly depleted food reserves. In addition, they also raised a group of chickens using grass seeds, earthworms and insects collected from the wild. Unfortunately, no one paid attention and the chickens were wiped out by the fox who stole the chickens...
However, as England returns to the Dark Ages, the biggest threat is not the unstoppable natural disasters, but other human beings - the United Kingdom during the World War III era not only had its government collapse, order disintegrated, and agricultural harvests failed, but also its trade with overseas countries Also broken. With the pitiful output of this land during the disaster years, it was impossible to feed tens of millions of people. And those extra people, if they don't want to starve to death quietly, can only become hordes of refugees, robbing homes and homes to make a living - before being transferred to settlers, Captain Kim and his men were actually considered One of the armed refugees.
Driven by hunger, these refugees are like locusts, eating all the way along. If they can't find anything to eat, they will eat bark, grass roots or eat themselves - directly eating human flesh. In particular, fishermen and fishing villages that are less affected by the disaster climate and stock a lot of seafood are their key targets for robbery. And those settlers who occupy fishing villages or manors also attack and fight each other from time to time in order to compete for territory, food, women or other things - in this dark age without law and morality, the only thing that determines survival is The simplest violence was committed.
As the remaining humans fight against each other, the already scarce resources are further wasted, causing the population on this land to decrease.
Although the city of Bath is not directly adjacent to the sea, it is located on an important traffic artery, and crazy refugee gangs pass by from time to time. Therefore, in the past two years, Kim and his black men who are entrenched here have also been attacked by armed refugees or gangs many times - strictly speaking, there is no difference between the two. The potatoes and radishes that had not grown yet were snatched away, and even the seedlings were eaten up. There were also a few unlucky black American soldiers who were accidentally caught by refugees in their sleep, skinned alive, cut into flesh, boiled and eaten... After learning from the painful experience, in order to protect their own lives and hard-won food, Jin Tom and his black men They worked tirelessly to remove bricks, columns, and stones from the ruins of the building, and built a fortification consisting of stone wall barricades and trenches. It looked very much like an early medieval European cottage or an Eastern dock, so it was finally a little safer. Son.
Of course, don't think Captain Quinta Kim and his black men are too kind - during the previous food crisis, in order to save food consumption, they also mercilessly executed the remnants of Bath City. Citizens; in order to snatch land and food, they have also had armed conflicts with other settlements near Bath City. However, so far, they have not been extremely hungry and have not eaten human flesh...
What's even more terrible is that despite struggling to survive, fighting against the sky, the earth, and people, the group of black people in Bath City continued to lose their numbers. Some were beaten to death, some died of illness, and some died of freezing. Some were accidentally burned to death... As of now, there are only about twenty people left in total.
——In the British Isles in the Dark Ages, every person who survived was a dead remnant who was said to be as hard-hitting as a cockroach...
※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※
Thinking back to all the hardships and sufferings she had experienced in the past two years, Kim couldn't help but sigh. She wrapped herself in a greasy and dirty coat, got out of the cellar where she slept, and walked through most of the doors and windows blocked by snow. The first floor, which looked very dark, walked up the rickety stairs to the second floor.
——In order to keep warm and safe, Captain Quinta Kim and his woman usually sleep in the basement during winter.
In an empty room on the second floor, a haggard-looking redhead had lit a bonfire and was cooking a pot of turbid soup. The contents of the soup include potatoes, dried fish and a little meat - the meat comes from an unlucky wild cat that Kunta Kim caught in a trap before the recent heavy snowfall. Although the cat meat is fishy and sour. It was hard to swallow, and it would emit a stinky smell when cooked. However, in these difficult times when people cannibalize people, there is no room for waste, so Kim hid the cat in ice cubes. Cut off a few pieces of meat from time to time to replenish nutrients.
The red-haired woman who was making a fire for cooking was named Annie. She was kidnapped by Kim when he conquered the city of Bath. At the beginning, she was not willing to be ridden by a black man, and she was looking for life and death. A few times, he even tried to escape. But as time passed, especially after witnessing several tragedies of cannibalism by refugees, I gradually became numb - in today's extremely harsh and cruel world, even if a weak woman like her could escape , and it is impossible to find a way to survive on your own. It is normal to starve to death and freeze to death, and they may even be used as food for hungry people.
But here, she is the personal favorite of the black leader, and she can enjoy special treatment. She can at least eat half full every day, and she will not be cooked and eaten... And at this moment, red-haired Anne's belly It was already slightly bulging, so it was obvious that she was pregnant with Kim's child - so she accepted her fate.
Quinta Kim whistled and went to the pot to take a look. The soup in the pot had just begun to steam, and it was still far from being edible. I looked at the place where the firewood was piled and found that there was not much firewood left before the snow started. It would be used up after two or three days of burning at most.
But winter will last for a long time. If you don't take advantage of the short sunny days after the snow stops and brave the cold wind to go out to collect some firewood and come back, then when the terrifying storm and snow come again, you will never be able to go out, but the house will be full of firewood. If there is no fuel for heating, there is a risk of freezing to death in the bed - last winter, many of his slackers froze to death together with their women.
If it was normal, he would have kicked Annie's ass with his leather shoes and urged this lazy girl to go out to collect firewood. However, now this red-haired white girl is carrying her own baby in her belly, so she has to take more care of her. So after hesitating for a while, Kim turned around and picked up an ax by himself. Then, he didn't bother to dig a hole out of the door buried in snow. Instead, he jumped directly from the balcony on the second floor and stepped two meters away. High snow drifts out.
As soon as I left the house, the strong wind blew fine pieces of snow foam towards my face, hitting my face painfully. Kim had no choice but to lower her head and wrap her coat tightly, and continued to move forward with difficulty through the snow. After walking a few steps, she saw a rough barricade made of furniture, gravel, bricks, broken cars, etc.— —This is the fortification of Captain Kim's little settlement. The entire settlement happens to be located on a small promontory surrounded by rivers on three sides. The roaring river water forms a natural defense barrier. As long as you spend some effort to build a wall on the only side connected to the land, you can defend it decently.
However, Captain Quinta Kim couldn't help but frown at this time, because he discovered that because the snow was falling so hard, the snow was up to two meters thick, and anyone could easily step on the snow and pass from one side of the barricade. Walking to the other side, the trench outside was also filled with snow. In addition, the river behind is also frozen so solid that even cars can run on it - which means that the current settlement has become completely defenseless!
But even if he knew about this kind of thing, he had no way to solve it. He thought that it was freezing now, so there should be no enemies to attack - the refugees were half-starved to death, dressed in ragged clothes, and covered with abscesses. With regard to his physique, he probably wouldn't be able to walk more than a few kilometers in this kind of weather before he would be frozen into a popsicle.
So, Quinta Kim just said hello to the shrunken black sentry in the barricade guard box, and went out carrying the ax.
※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※
Outside the barricade guarding the black settlement in Bath City, separated by a small open space, there are still abandoned houses with no trace of people.
In the first days, in order to be lazy, Kim and his black men directly looked for combustible materials from the ruins of the city - wooden doors, floors, books, newspapers, everything was dry and good fuel for the fire. However, as more than two years have passed, the wood and books that are easy to collect and resistant to burning have been almost burned out. Those things like cloth, clothes, and other better uses such as keeping out the cold, The remaining small amount of coal and fuel oil are the last reserves treasured by Kunta Kim. They must not be used lightly unless absolutely necessary.
Therefore, now Kunta Kim can only use an ax to cut branches like an ancient woodcutter - without having to walk too far. As a tourist city with a high degree of greenness, in the urban area of the hot spring city of Bath There are enough trees in Li and the outskirts of the city to provide firewood.
After working for more than an hour, and just feeling a little warm, Kim collected two large bundles of firewood. He tied the firewood with ropes, then used a steel pipe as a carrying pole, and carried it back... The abandoned city after the heavy snow felt extremely quiet. The sky and the earth seemed to be a bleak white, and the only sound in the ears was the whistling of the strong wind. Kim felt that all the heat in his body was being blown away by the cold wind. His limbs, nerves, and senses were almost numb from the cold. He just relied on instinct to step on the snow and carry the load back. Walk.
It wasn't until he accidentally noticed a flash of metal on the corner of the street that his frozen mind suddenly started working again, and he suddenly became alert.
However, by this time, it was too late for Captain Quinta Kim.
"...Bang!"
Along with the flames spurting from the muzzle, a hot bullet shot out and penetrated Captain Quinta Kim's abdomen before he had time to dodge. The next moment, because of the impact, his body bent into an arch shape and flew backwards, falling heavily into the snow... The pole and firewood were thrown to the ground in pieces, and warm blood flowed from it like a fountain. The wound in his abdomen gushed out, turning a large area of white snow red in the blink of an eye.
"...ah——"
The fatal pain caused Captain Quinta Kim to almost lose the ability to move in an instant. However, he still struggled and tried to pull out the M1911 pistol from his waist to fight back. However, at the next moment, he was severely hit by a wooden stick. He was hit on the head and finally passed out unwillingly.
Then, two homeless people, covered in rags and stinking dirty, like moving garbage dumps, jumped out excitedly, looked around Kim for a few times, and one of them pulled out a dagger from his waist, "... Good job, John, you can have a big dinner of nigger stew tonight!”
But another guy named John stopped him, "...Wait! William, now is not the time to do this kind of thing! Have you forgotten what we are here to do? Follow Boss Goodman to attack the riverside That stronghold is the real deal! It is said that there are a lot of potatoes, biscuits, flour and canned food there, as well as women! If we delay here and get there late, others will snatch up all the good stuff there! ”
"...That's right. Alas, let's just leave this nigger here for now! I hope that when we come back, he won't be picked up by wild dogs..."
So, these two dirty and smelly refugees just took away Kunta Kim's pistol and axe, then turned around and walked along the street, leaving him lying in the snow stained red by a pool of blood to fend for himself. Extinction... After a while, the dying Captain Quinta Kim woke up again before dying, but he seemed to vaguely see black smoke and fire rising in the direction of the settlement, and vaguely heard a violent explosion. Sounds and heart-rending screams...
——In this way, the already extremely weak light of civilization on the island of Great Britain was once again extinguished...
※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※
PS: The anime mentioned at the end of the previous chapter is "GOSICK" whose heroine is a blue-eyed blond lolita Victoria de Blois. There is a plot that on the eve of World War I, a small fictional Mediterranean country held a bloody festival, kidnapped girls and boys from various powers around the world, put them on a slowly sinking ship full of murderous traps, and forced them to kill each other. A cruel divination to determine the winner of the world war by the identity of the last survivor. Although the background and process are different, it is still reminiscent of the mysterious Sewol shipwreck in South Korea - from the boss to the captain to most of the crew members, they are cult believers. It is said that there were students in the cabin 48 hours after the ship capsized. Li used his mobile phone to call for help from his family, but no one was rescued. Afterwards, the female president also banned big-ticket artists and the media suppressed the news. Hey, the female president of South Korea who worships indescribable things, and Mrs. Clinton who likes to organize groups to go to Loli Island to play and imprison young girls, the world is really getting more and more immoral. I bet even the best screenwriters would be shocked by this kind of plot. Who says that art comes from life but is higher than life? Facts tell us that life is the top art! If Hillary really plans to launch a nuclear war to play in the radioactive wasteland as soon as she takes office, as the rumors say, and use a world war to get rid of the burden of the financial bubble, I might also believe it. After all, countless facts over the past year have proven that we are far from understanding how low the moral integrity and IQ limits of political figures in this world are.