“But they were in the village. Why did we survive? We were in the mine. The blast or whatever it was did not reach us. Others may have survived in the Hunan area where the gold and uranium mines are. Maybe in the other coal mines in the Shanxi region, as well. We didn’t even look around Shanxi. Our military must have survived. Maybe they even retaliated.”
“Or maybe they started it,” one of the others said quietly.
“That is not the issue. What we must do now is to find others and try to figure out how we are going to live.
“And how do we do that?”
“We wait here. Anyone that survived will make their way here. They will want to know what happened to Beijing. Eventually the military will come. All we have to do is survive until they arrive.”
“If it was an attack, why are all the buildings still standing? Wouldn’t there be bodies?”
“There are,” Ky said, pointing to a glob of the green slime they could see everywhere.
“I think those were once the people of Beijing and that is all that is left.”
~~
Ky and the others stayed in the small hotels along Liang Me He Nan Lu. It was a good place to wait because of the abundance of small restaurants and cafes in the area. They could find food and water nearby and if the Military came first they would not be accused of being decadent. The last thing they want to do was to be found in a luxury hotel that foreigners visited.
By the third week they had scavenged most of the food in the nearby restaurants and Gong Ren Ti Yu Chang Bei Lu, where the workers stadium was located. It was also just outside of the Second Ring Road close to where Tiananmen Square was located. They were sure that if anyone was left, they would eventually make their way to Tiananmen Square or the Temple of Heaven. A lookout would stay each day at both locations and come and tell the others if anyone arrived. Almost a month passed before the first additional survivors showed up.
“They are here. People are coming.”
“Where?” Ky asked excitedly.
“The Temple. I saw them coming.”
“I’m going. Get the others,” he said and raced off on his bicycle. When he arrived at the Temple of Heaven several hundred men, women, and children were sitting on the ground. It was totally silent. Ky watched for several minutes before he came forward. He realized they had been praying.
“Where did you come from?” he finally asked.
No one spoke, they all just looked at him as if he were some mystical god that had suddenly appeared.
“Please. Do not be afraid. I am Ky Kinjo. I came from the Shanxi region near Jincheng City. Where are you from?”
Finally one older man spoke up, “Most of us are from Dezhou.”
“In Shandong?”
“Is there another?” the old man said.
“Where were you when the attack took place?”
“Where? In our homes.”
“And you survived?”
“We are here are we not? Have you lost your mind as well as your sight?”
“No, no. I mean...I don’t understand how you survived.”
“You do not know much about our region do you?”
“I have never been there and know little about the region.”
“We have many poor that live in the hills. Mostly in abandoned mines that are no longer of any use. They are habitable now because we had no place else to live. Dezhou was once a prominent city but now the mining has moved on to other areas and we have little work and even less food. The only way we could survive was by pooling our resources.”
“Then you know nothing of what happened?”
“Only a little. One of our people went into Dezhou to see if he could get medicine for his child. When he got there, everyone was gone. Vanished. We did not believe him at first but eventually we went to see for ourselves. It was true. They were all gone. Nothing but pools of a substance was left. We talked among ourselves and decided we should report it to the authorities, but no one was in the next town or the one after. We kept going from one town to another. Big cities and small villages were all the same. Everyone was gone. Finally we came here to see what the government could tell us but it seems they are gone as well unless you are from the government.”
“No, no. I am a survivor like you. A few of us from near Jincheng City survived and came here in search of answers just like you,” Ky said.
As he finished speaking the rest of the men from the mines came riding up on bicycles.
“These are the other survivors?” the old man asked.
“Yes. We were all together.”
“And you were all from the Shanxi region?”
“Not originally but that is where we were when this all happened.”
“I know of the Shanxi region. It is where they send criminals to work in the coal mines, is that not so?”
“Yes, but I was falsely accused. I committed no crime.”
“No doubt. I believe that is the common phrase used by most criminals,” the old man said and walked back and knelt down and began to pray.
“Now what are we going to do?”
“I will wait until he has finished and try to talk to the old man again,” Ky said and sat down on the stone steps.
Ky made several more attempts to talk to the old man or the people he led but to no avail. They chose to stay near the temple, sleeping on the ground rather than seeking shelter indoors.
Everything changed a week later when the military began to show up in force. At first only a few trickled in but then it turned into a torrent. They started arriving in large groups from different regions. Ky found out that all had been in various secret underground facilities. He had no idea that China had so many hidden military bases. Suddenly Beijing was beginning to come alive again.
By the end of the month over three thousand soldiers and almost as many civilians were once again in the city. The army immediately took control and banished all non-military survivors inside the Second Ring Road. They were not allowed to leave without permission. No reason was given for this unexpected move but anyone attempting to leave was immediately dealt with harshly.
More survivors, both military and civilian, steadily streamed into the city and soon the civilians began to run out of food. Unlike America where a grocery store is readily available, only a paltry amount of food could be found and the survivors began to clamor for more freedom to find food.
The military held fast but made some attempt to deliver quantities each day. Still many went hungry and the tension between the military and civilians began to escalate.
“Look,” Ky said. We survived the attack but now we are being starved to death. Are we just going to let them slowly kill us off?”
“They have guns, we do not,” someone said.
“Yes, they do but we are as many as they are in strength. If we pick just one area and rush it, we can escape before they have a chance to send reinforcements. We would be long gone by the time others arrived to help.”
“That is only if you are young and can move fast enough. What about the children and older men and women. They will surely suffer for the ones that escape.”
“So you want to just stay here and slowly starve to death? I found myself in this same situation just a short time ago. I know if we do nothing it will only get worse.”
“They will feed us. They can’t let us all just die,” another argued.
“Why not? Has that not happened many times in our history? Why do you think it will be different this time? The army only takes care of its own. We mean nothing to them. We are nothing more than mouths to feed. The only water we have to drink is from the Temple garden. At some point, unless it rains, even that will be gone,” Ky pointed out.
“You may be right but trying to overpower armed military soldiers is nothing short of suicide.”
“I would rather die trying than to be starved to death. It is our only option of living.”
“Have you attempted to talk to them about our plight?”
“No. But I can tell you this, it will do no good. I have attempted to talk them on other matters in the past and ended up in the coal mines for my efforts,” Ky said.
“Criminals often try to talk their way out of situations.”
Ky looked at him but decided it wasn’t worth arguing about. If they didn’t want to go, so be it. He would not consider himself responsible for what happened to them later. He had given them a choice and they had decided on starvation.
He returned to his group and several other groups of recent arrivals to see if they were more amenable to his plan. He spent several hours talking to the various leaders of each group and was able to enlist close to a thousand survivors that were willing to take the risk. They decided the best option was to attack the south section where the army was the thinnest and replacements were farthest away and would take the most time to react. Once through the line they would split into two groups, one heading toward the Hunan Region and the other to the Gansu Region. Ky was sure that the military would not waste much effort in trying to track them down.
Once they were free, they would then regroup in Wuhan in the Hubei Region. They would continue to search out other survivors and try to persuade them against going to Beijing. Ky knew it was a long shot at best but he had suffered under their system once and he was not going to go willingly a second time. Too many memories of the treatment of the workers still lingered in his head.
“Is everything set?” he asked the nine group leaders. They all nodded they were ready.
“We want to be as quiet as possible to keep the alert to a minimum. Remind your people to keep still when we charge them. No outcries. Once we attack there will be no turning back. We must keep going or they will kill us like dogs. There is no moon tonight so we will not have a better chance than tonight for another month. If we wait, more will starve so it must be tonight. One last chance. Does everyone agree?”
Again they all nodded agreement.
“Good. We go in two hours. They will be starting to nod off by then and we can take them by surprise. Do not go too near the attack point until it is almost time. We do not want to alert them by gathering in too large a group at that time of the night. Good luck to all of you. We will meet in one month in Wuhan,” Ky said as they broke up and headed back to give final instructions.
Ky’s only worry was that the old man or one of his group had alerted the army in order to gain favor with them but there were no signs of extra security or movement. It had to be tonight or they would continue to lose more and more people to starvation.
At exactly 2:00 A.M. they rushed the guards stationed on the Second Ring Street. They caught them totally unprepared and were able to subdue most of them before the first shot was fired. Once through, they began to scatter down the various streets and spread out over the south portion of the city. Shots rang out behind them but the largest segment was already clearing the danger zone and heading towards the outskirts of the city. The army followed, taking shots occasionally but as Ky had predicted, they did not put much effort into to actually giving chase.
Ky ran until he felt like his lungs were going to burst and finally he was forced to slow. He looked around. A few others had kept up with him but no one from the military was in sight as far as he could see.
He did not know exactly where he was but he knew he had to keep moving away from the Temple. He eventually found himself at the Lugou Bridge and knew he was at least headed in the right direction. He now could begin his long journey to the Hunan Province. It would be a long walk but at least he could scavenge food and water along the way.
~~
The group he was traveling with continued to grow and that made foraging for food more difficult. One day he decided that he would get up early in the morning and head out while everyone was asleep so he could travel alone and at his own pace. It turned out to be a lifesaving decision.
As Ky started to leave, two others were awakened and asked him where he was going. He told them that he was going to go on ahead and try to scout out food and to find the easiest way to get to Hunan. They decided they wanted to come with him. At first he rejected the idea but finally decided that they had as much right to leave as he did.
They crept quietly off into the night. No one spoke until they were several miles down the road.
“Is what we’re doing fair?” one of them asked.
“They can all leave at any time they want. We have no set rules about when we stop or who decides to go on. So far it has just worked out the way it has by chance. It is getting harder to find food and takes too much time when we are in a large group. Smaller groups would have been a better idea but I didn’t think about it at the time. I was too intent on just getting away,” Ky replied.
They walked on for another mile before they heard a noise up ahead. It sounded like several people talking.
“Survivors?”
“I don’t know but I think it would be wise to wait and see before we show ourselves,” Ky said.
They moved off the road and hid in the tall grass. A few minutes later a long column of soldiers came down the road. They were talking and laughing. Ky heard one of them say something about a group of survivors that they had confiscated food from and then shot. It sent chills down the spines of all three of them. If the army stayed on the same road they would find the others still sleeping. They would be slaughtered and robbed. There were several women and small children in the group but Ky knew it wouldn’t matter to the soldiers.
As soon as they passed Ky said, “We must get word back to the others to hide. If they are caught they will surely be killed. You can go on but I am going to go back and try to warn them.”
“No. I will go,” one of the others said. “I was once a long distance runner and I can pace myself better than you can. I will go and warn them.”
“Maybe we all should go,” the other said.
“No. You would only slow me down. I will go,” he said and took off running before the others could even reply.
“Please, be with him,” Ky said looking up at the sky.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
RUSSIA
“What has happened,” Matryona Mihailvo, said while they were headed to Moscow.
“Some kind of attack must have taken place. I can only surmise that we were somehow spared because of our location at the time. I do not think it was a nuclear weapon. We would have seen signs of destruction. Even a biological weapon could not have done all of this. I have a very uneasy feeling about what we will find in Moscow,” Yegor said.
“You don’t think that the same thing happened in Moscow do you?”
“Let us say that I would not be surprised.”
“All of Russia?”
“I would say that stands a good chance of being true. Others will have survived but I feel many, if not most, may have perished.”
“Who could have done such a thing? The Americans?”
“I doubt it. They have no reason to attack us. I know we still argue like little children but nothing that would cause this. If I had to guess, I would say possibly China.
“They are close enough and would love to have our oil and minerals. Even the food we produce, which is certainly not abundant, would be of benefit to them. By eliminating us they could march in and take whatever they want. What could we do to stop them?” Yegor replied.
“This is crazy,” Matryona said.
“It is a crazy world.”
“My God, think of how many people could have been killed.”
“Millions upon millions I am afraid. Probably even billions. The survivors would be those who were in places much like we were. We will go to Moscow as planned but if we find the same thing, we should go to Yamantaw Mountain.”
“Why?”
“We have a huge military base there and it would have survived.”
“Is it in the Ural’s?”
“Yes, near Al’kino.”
“That is thousands of miles from Moscow. How
are we going to ever get there? Where will we sleep and eat? And gas. How will we get gas?”
“You are worrying about the wrong things. All of that is the easy part. We can sleep any place we want when we get tired and food should be abundant for the time being. As for gas, I guess we will have to drain it from other vehicles since there was no electricity in Sverdlovsk when we were looking around there.”
“This is so unreal.”
“I’m afraid this is just the beginning. It will get a whole lot worse before it gets better.”
They rode in silence mile after mile. Every once in a while, Yegor would have to drive on the shoulder to avoid other cars but he knew it would get much worse when they neared Moscow.
“I am going to have to stop and get some gas from another car. We are just about on empty,” he said.
“Good. I need to pee,” she said and laughed, “Sorry that just slipped out.”
“I could stand to pee myself,” he said, chuckling as well. Yegor pulled alongside of another car and stopped.
“I will get the gas while you take care of your business,” he said.
Matryona, walked around to the other side of the car while he cut a long section of the heater hose from the abandoned car. He siphoned the gas from one vehicle to the other. When he checked the fuel gauge it was only slightly more than half full. He would need to find another car. He looked up at the angry sky and figured that they only had a couple of more hours of daylight. He was also starting to think about something to eat. When Matryona came back he went and relieved himself.
“I’m starting to get hungry,” she said as he returned.
“Yes, me too. We should be about thirty kilometers from Bronnitsy. We can find something to eat there. It is still a long way to Moscow.”
“Then let’s hurry. I get real grumpy when I get hungry,” she said.
It took almost an hour to cover the thirty kilometers but they saw a small shop that said Bakalyeya.
“Look, a grocery store,” Matryona said.
“Good, I am starved,” Yegor said.
THE BEGINNING Book Two (THE EVENT) Page 12