The monitoring system had gathered dust for years. When they started it up, it let out a creaky groan, buzzing intermittently for a while as if huffing and puffing before settling into a long, steady hum.
That also made the startup take an extremely long time. The screen mounted on the wall flickered to life now and then, proving it was still working.
But at least it could still start.
The system was clearly lower quality than the computer in the office, which had basically been fine.
--Though once they turned on the computer, it was completely empty and of no help to Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei.
After a long wait, the screen finally lit up completely, displaying twelve panels in a 4-by-3 grid.
One at the tunnel entrance, one at the bend, one in the middle, and one at the far end.
Two in the shelter's outermost lounge, positioned diagonally across from each other, and two in the corridor, one on each side.
Then there were two in the kitchen, one in the office, and one in the meeting room. There were none in the dormitory, the manager's office, or the bathroom.
Apparently, in the shelter's management team's eyes, the areas most in need of monitoring were the common areas and the kitchen.
The system had no password, so Lu Xi'an easily opened the admin interface and looked through the surveillance footage.
The recordings were kept for three months. Lu Xi'an went to the earliest footage, where two people were already wandering around.
The kitchen was a mess, but at least it wasn't as bad as when they'd seen it.
The older recordings had apparently already been overwritten.
The two people went out every day, heading to the tunnel entrance with all sorts of tools. They pushed with their hands, shoveled, and hammered, but nothing worked.
Even after finally giving up in vain, they still went to the tunnel entrance each day to take a look, then returned disappointed.
Lu Xi'an noticed that the two people in the footage had stopped going to the meeting room to write down numbers. The meeting room camera couldn't make out the numbers on the blackboard, but he could see that there were two rows of them.
Clearly, the two had been trapped there for a long time.
The footage played at sixteen times speed. When Lu Xi'an saw nothing happening, he sped it up even more by dragging the progress bar.
By the sixth day of the recordings, the food stored in the kitchen had run out completely. The two tried turning the combination lock on the metal door, but it was no use.
They moved all the food they had left into the dormitory.
After that, they came back to try every day. Sometimes, they tried several times in a single day.
On the tenth day, neither of them went into the kitchen again.
On the twelfth day, one of them came into the kitchen with a hammer and began pounding on the cold-storage room's metal door, but it was useless.
On the thirteenth day, that person died by suicide at the metal door. When they fell, their face struck the door, then slid down, smearing blood across it.
The other person came in and looked, but said nothing and showed no reaction. After taking a glance, they turned and left, returning to the dormitory.
That person never appeared again.
After that, everything in the footage went quiet, until the screen turned black.
"Whew--"
Lu Xi'an watched all of it as quickly as he could. Although he hadn't found anything useful, he still couldn't help feeling a pang of sorrow.
He sighed and said, "Let's go."
He had the dog come down, then used it to light the way out.
Yao Wei nodded and followed Lu Xi'an and the dog.
At the kitchen, they each carried out two bags of rice and one bag of millet.
Since the bags were vacuum-sealed, they weren't very large. Four bags of rice and two bags of millet would easily fit in the car.
After carrying everything to the tunnel entrance and setting it down at the top of the stairs, Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei went back the way they'd come and brought out one and a half boxes of dehydrated vegetables and half a box of meat sausages.
Unfortunately, Yao Wei's car wasn't very large, and it was already filled with plenty of other things. There was no room for much more, so they had to make do with this.
Lu Xi'an also took a frying pan, a spoon, and a jug of oil. He put a bag of salt, a bag of sugar, and a jug of soy sauce on top of the pan and carried them along.
All of these things were still sealed in plastic. According to the labels, they were past their expiration dates, but Lu Xi'an had had the dog check them, and they were safe to eat, so they had to take some.
--If expired food were inedible, they would have starved to death long ago in this apocalypse.
It was a shame there was no cumin. They could have taken some of that, too.
After collecting these things, the two left the cold-storage room. Lu Xi'an closed the metal door behind him and made sure it was locked, while Yao Wei took out World Atlas Volume One and circled Tan Village Entrance.
This would be their supply base from now on. If they needed to come back in the future, they could restock here.
Then Lu Xi'an picked up a hammer and tucked it into his waistband. Laden with their haul, he left the shelter with Yao Wei.
--The hammer had been lying around in the kitchen. According to the footage, the cook Li Xun had once spent ages trying to smash the metal door with it.
It couldn't break through a metal door, but it could still smash other things. In a pinch, it could even serve as a projectile.
Lu Xi'an thought it would come in handy, so he took it along.
When they reached the tunnel entrance and set everything down, Lu Xi'an suddenly remembered something and asked Yao Wei:
"Do you think we should take a couple of sets of bedding from the dormitories? We could use them to keep warm while we sleep."
"Mm, we should."
Yao Wei nodded at once. It seemed she'd already thought of it, but hadn't had the chance to do it or mention it to Lu Xi'an.
Thinking about it, Lu Xi'an agreed. Anything that could keep them warm was among the most important supplies in this world. How could Yao Wei have overlooked that?
The two went back again. Once inside the shelter, they took two sets of bedding from the nearest dormitory, but didn't take anything else.
Yao Wei really couldn't fit much more in the car.
Fortunately, the bedding wasn't too thick. Its solid-blue covers held a thin layer of filling, making each set very light. The material felt like down and should be quite warm.
Bedding like this was exactly what they needed.
It really had been a hugely successful trip to the shelter.
Back at the tunnel entrance once again, they went up the stairs. Lu Xi'an had the dog scan through the wall to make sure there was no danger outside, then moved a stone aside to check.
Only after confirming that everything was clear did they move the stones they'd used to block the entrance.
"I'll carry the stuff out. Hurry and bring the car over."
After checking the area again once they were outside, Lu Xi'an said.
Yao Wei nodded. She had no objections. "Mm," she said, then ran off to get the car.
Lu Xi'an moved all the supplies out of the tunnel, then blocked the entrance again, sealing it tightly. Just as he finished, Yao Wei drove up.
Lu Xi'an had put plenty of effort into sealing the entrance. He'd wedged stones firmly in place in three layers, inside and out, and camouflaged the surface as well.
He was certain that without someone to show them the way, nobody could easily find this place.
Even if they did, they wouldn't find the right spot to open the entrance. And even if they found it, anyone who wasn't one of the New Humans wouldn't have the strength to move the stones.
Only then did he feel at ease.
The trunk was nearly full, so they had no choice but to put the bedding, two boxes of dehydrated vegetables, and the meat sausages on the back seat.
Looking at the car packed full of supplies, both of them felt their spirits lift.
"Let's go! We'll fill up with gas and keep going until nightfall, then find a safe place to stop. I'll make you a feast!"
"Mm."
Before you continue