The World Ends In 27 Days

Zeyu’s inspection of all the Flood shelters were scheduled began at Jinhai Tower.

The fifty-eight-story building looked finished from the street. Glass covered its exterior, the lobby contained polished stone and several occupied commercial floors gave the impression that nothing unusual existed above them.

The protected section began only on the thirty-eighth floor.

Everything below it could and would eventually be sacrificed to the Flood.

Zeyu followed Zhiyi out of the private elevator while Hanchuan, Jingwei, Shichen and Qinghe emerged behind them. The elevator would become useless once floodwater entered the lower mechanical levels, but it remained convenient while the city still possessed a functioning electrical grid.

Two reinforced stairwells and a sealed internal lift connected floors thirty-eight through forty-six. Their motors, controls and power supply existed entirely above the projected waterline.

Shichen opened the structural plan on the wall display. "The vertical service shafts are sealed between floors thirty-seven and thirty-eight. If the lower tower floods, water cannot use the elevator shafts, plumbing or ventilation ducts to reach the protected levels."

Zeyu looked toward the windows.

From the thirty-eighth floor, the city extended far enough that he could see the river cutting through the basin. In two years, most of what stood below them would disappear beneath water.

Assuming Hanchuan and Zhiyi were right.

He had finished asking himself that question every time he entered one of the shelters. The answer didn’t change the quality of the work.

Jinhai was ready.

Zhiyi entered the first storage floor and opened its inventory on her tablet. She didn’t accept the totals displayed by the system. She selected cases from different shelves, scanned their internal codes and compared the physical contents with the quantities assigned to the tower.

She really wasn’t leaving anything to chance.

Zeyu leaned against a shelf while she began with grains.

Jinhai contained 3,600 kilograms of rice, 2,400 kilograms of flour, 1,200 kilograms of oats and 1,800 kilograms of pasta and noodles. Another 1,500 kilograms of dried beans, peas and lentils occupied sealed containers along the rear wall.

The canned inventory included 14,400 portions of meat and fish, 21,600 portions of vegetables and 10,800 portions of fruit. Cooking oil had been divided among 720 one-liter containers so losing or contaminating one wouldn’t affect the remainder.

Zhiyi checked the seal date on a container of rice.

"Oldest stock forward," she pointed out. He didn’t know if it was a question or a comment, but either way, she was nodding her head.

The storage supervisor pointed toward the first two shelving rows. "Everything with the earliest rotation date is positioned closest to the freight lift."

Zhiyi verified it herself before marking the category complete.

The quantities weren’t intended to provide identical meals every day for four years. Staples, canned food, dehydrated ingredients and field rations overlapped.

If one category spoiled or became inaccessible, the others still supplied enough calories and nutrients to prevent immediate dependence upon outside food.

Qinghe checked the vitamin and mineral supplements stored beside the powdered dairy and eggs. He confirmed that the rotation schedule accounted for losses in potency rather than treating every printed expiration date as an absolute boundary.

Zhiyi moved to water.

Jinhai contained 24,000 liters of potable emergency water inside reinforced tanks distributed between two floors. That amount wasn’t expected to last four years. Roof collection systems, atmospheric condensers and filtration units would supply the long-term requirement.

The stored water existed to keep them alive while those systems were repaired.

She counted 48 complete replacement-filter sets, 12 portable purification units, six distillation systems and enough testing chemicals to perform daily checks for more than five years.

"All filter types are physically separated?" she asked.

Shichen showed her the divided shelving. "No cartridge can be installed in an incompatible system without removing a keyed adapter."

That precaution had been added after the supplier spreadsheet error.

Zhiyi marked the water system complete.

The Flood equipment occupied most of the forty-first floor. Six rigid inflatable boats hung from ceiling-mounted storage frames, with 12 electric outboard motors protected inside sealed cases. Another 12 inflatable emergency rafts could be carried through the stairwells if the main boats became inaccessible.

Zeyu had supplied 36 personal flotation devices, 18 dry suits, climbing harnesses, waterproof radios, emergency beacons and enough rope to make Jingwei question whether he planned to tow the tower somewhere else.

Zeyu had considered it, but the answer still remained no.

Four exterior loading platforms could be extended from the tower after water covered the surrounding streets. Boats could reach two directly, while the others provided protected access if debris blocked one side of the building.

Jingwei inspected every platform lock and camera before approving the floor.

Qinghe did the same with the medical level. Jinhai contained a complete treatment room, dental equipment, diagnostic imaging, surgical instruments and medications divided between secure storage and a small independent refrigeration system.

Nothing required the tower’s residential freezers to remain powered.

Those were empty.

Zhiyi checked them only long enough to confirm they weren’t drawing unnecessary electricity.

By noon, she had verified every floor between thirty-eight and forty-six. Food, water, medicine, hygiene supplies, repair components, boats and living systems matched the inventory.

Jinhai Tower was complete.

Their next stop was Beichen Tower that stood 20 kilometers across the basin.

It served the same disaster without sharing Jinhai’s failure zone. Floodwater could isolate one side of the city, debris could destroy a bridge or an evacuation route could collapse without cutting them off from both towers.

Beichen’s protected floors began slightly higher, but its layout followed the same principles. The lower structure could flood while the sealed upper section continued functioning independently.

Its inventory matched Jinhai’s quantities.

Zhiyi didn’t assume matching records meant matching contents.

She scanned the grain containers, selected canned cases from the middle and rear shelves and compared the water tanks with their measured levels. She checked all six boats and made Zeyu open three motor cases chosen at random.

"They’re new," he told her while removing the third sealed motor.

"The label says they’re new," she agreed, nodding her head.

"The fact that no one has used them also suggests it," he added with a smirk playing at his lips.

"That doesn’t establish whether all required components are inside."

Zeyu, knowing when he was fighting a loosing battle, opened the case completely.

The battery, control unit, propeller, mounting hardware and waterproof manual occupied their assigned compartments.

Zhiyi marked it complete.

Beichen contained a second protected communications system and independent satellite equipment. Its western loading platform had been designed to receive the amphibious mobile base if the water level and debris conditions allowed it.

Zeyu looked at the dimensions.

The clearance was adequate by 40 centimeters, but he would have preferred more.

Shichen refused to remove part of the tower to accommodate his preference.

They left Beichen after three in the afternoon and traveled to the Qingshan Building.

It wasn’t a tower.

The privately owned building sat above the projected flood line on elevated ground, with the surrounding slopes directing water away from its foundations. Its independently reinforced basement had been divided into storage, mechanical and protected residential sections.

The two underground water tanks that didn’t appear on municipal records had been cleaned, repaired and filled.

Each held 120,000 liters.

Zhiyi reviewed the test results before descending to inspect them. Separate wells could refill the tanks, while filtration systems allowed either one to be isolated if contamination entered the other.

The southern retaining wall had been reinforced. The electrical system no longer depended entirely upon the regional grid, and the disputed eastern access road now belonged to Pei Holdings through an amended boundary agreement.

Zeyu had widened the narrowest sections for the mobile base.

The primary western entrance approached from the city. The eastern service road reached higher ground without crossing it, giving them a second route if floodwater or abandoned vehicles blocked the first.

Unlike Jinhai and Beichen, Qingshan didn’t require boats to enter the living area. Its elevation kept the building itself above the projected water.

The boats stored there were for leaving it.

Four rigid inflatables, eight emergency rafts, 24 flotation devices and sealed navigation equipment occupied the vehicle bay. Elevated fuel tanks and charging systems remained protected behind reinforced walls.

The food inventory matched the other Flood shelters, but the storage configuration was different. Qingshan’s supplies spread through the basement rather than multiple upper floors.

Zhiyi walked every aisle.

She checked rice, flour, legumes, canned proteins and water-testing supplies. She compared the physical fuel reserves with the operating estimates and verified that every pump had three complete sets of replacement seals.

When she reached the eastern access inventory, she found 400 meters of portable roadway panels, two compact loaders and enough barriers to create a temporary route around damaged ground.

Zeyu watched her calculate what the equipment could support.

"The mobile base can cross the panels," he assured her. "Fully loaded."

"What is the margin?"

"Twelve percent above its maximum operational weight."

Zhiyi considered it before marking the access equipment complete.

The final inspection ended in the Qingshan control room.

Three property summaries occupied the display.

Jinhai Tower could survive by remaining above the water.

Beichen Tower provided the same protection on the opposite side of the basin.

The Qingshan Building avoided the projected flood line entirely and gave them a ground-level alternative with two independent approaches.

Each property contained four years of food for six people.

Each had independent water, power, medicine, sanitation and transportation.

Each could fail without causing the other two to fail with it.

Zeyu looked around the control room while Zhiyi checked the final item.

He had expected her to show some reaction when the list reached zero.

She only closed the Flood inventory and opened the schedule for the Freeze shelters.

"The inspection at Beiyuan begins at seven tomorrow morning," she said.

Zeyu laughed. "You could pretend to be impressed first."

Zhiyi looked around the completed building.

"I am impressed," she told him. "But that doesn’t alter tomorrow’s start time."

Her tone remained as mechanical as ever, but Zeyu had learned that the words mattered more than the delivery.

He smiled as Hanchuan placed his hand against the back of his wife’s neck and guided her toward the exit.

All three Flood shelters were finished.

Five days remained before the Heat began.

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