The World Ends In 27 Days

The pressure warning changed Jingwei before anyone else reacted.

He moved between Zeyu and the corridor leading to the vehicle level while drawing his phone from his pocket. By the time Shichen opened the western tunnel controls, Jingwei had locked every door between the garage and the residential section.

Hanchuan arrived with Zhiyi less than a minute later. Qinghe followed them carrying his medical bag, although whatever had breached the exterior seal had entered air hot enough to kill a person.

"What happened?" Hanchuan asked.

"The western tunnel lost pressure," Shichen explained. "The center sensors are showing a rapid temperature increase."

He transferred the security feeds to the communications wall. The camera nearest the concealed entrance showed nothing except black smoke. Its lens had darkened until the image resembled night, despite the morning sun.

The second camera revealed the inside of the vehicle tunnel.

Heat distortion moved through the passage as smoke pressed along the ceiling above pieces of concrete and burning vegetation scattered across the floor.

The outer security door remained closed, but the center of it had bent inward.

"The door didn’t open," Zeyu pointed out, his brows furrowing.

"It no longer seals," Shichen corrected. He enlarged the image and traced a section along the upper frame. "The mountain above the entrance shifted. Rock and burning trees struck the camouflage panel, then drove it into the security door."

Zeyu stared at the warped metal. "Can it be repaired?"

"Not while the tunnel is 76 degrees," Shichen scoffed.

The damaged entrance provided the mobile base with its only route out of Xiling. The administrative level couldn’t accommodate vehicles, and the eastern service corridor reached the generators without connecting to a usable road.

They had entered the shelter less than two days ago.

Now one of their exits were blocked.

Shichen pressed a button and activated the tunnel’s fire-suppression system.

Water sprayed from ceiling nozzles, striking the burning debris and turning instantly to steam. The cameras disappeared behind a white cloud while drainage channels carried the heated water away from the inner doors.

"The suppression tanks are limited," Zhiyi stated, her mind already going through the long list of possibilities that could happen next.

"I’m not trying to cool the entire tunnel," Shichen told her. "I need to extinguish anything still burning before I seal the middle section."

He closed the intermediate barrier.

The thick door descended from the ceiling between the damaged outer entrance and the underground garage. When it met the floor, locking bolts drove into both walls and restored pressure on Xiling’s side of the tunnel.

After what seemed like forever, the temperature near the garage stopped rising.

Shichen shut off the water and watched the pressure reading for another minute. The barrier held, although the outer half of the western tunnel remained exposed to the Heat.

"How many barriers are left between that and us?" Hanchuan asked.

"Three before the residential section," Shichen answered. "The intermediate door, the inner vehicle door and the decontamination barrier. The garage can also be isolated from the rest of Xiling."

Jingwei kept the security lockdown in place. "Could someone enter through the damaged door?"

"If they survived the exterior temperature, crossed the fire and moved the debris," Shichen replied, "they would reach the intermediate barrier and stop."

That appeared to satisfy Jingwei more than it satisfied Zeyu.

The mobile base could withstand fire, floodwater and impacts that would crush an ordinary vehicle. It couldn’t pass through several tons of collapsed rock or a reinforced door that no longer opened.

"We aren’t permanently trapped," Shichen told him. "When the temperature falls, we can clear the entrance from inside and replace the damaged assembly."

"When will the temperature fall?" asked Jingwei, arching an eyebrow.

Unfortunately for him, no one knew that answer.

Not even Zhiyi or Hanchuan.

Zhiyi returned to the main table and opened her reconstructed records. Everything had changed, which meant that nothing from before could be considered a constant.

In the previous Heat had fluctuated. Even during the first year, temperatures had fallen low enough for brief travel periods.

However, this Heat had already exceeded those records.

Zeyu looked toward the sealed elevator doors. The mobile base sat less than 100 meters away, fully stocked and entirely useless until they were able to dig it out.

"You said the other properties have separate routes," he reminded Shichen.

"They do," the other man assured him.

"Then I want their current status."

Zeyu opened the network he had built to monitor their nine shelters. Each property contained independent environmental controls, security systems and protected communications, but only Xiling displayed a complete set of green indicators.

Luming Mountain Hotel had stopped transmitting during the forest fire. Its final report showed the northern storage section sealed and the backup generators were still operational, but the main residential renovation remained unfinished.

Jinhai Tower continued sending data from the city. Its upper floors had retained power after the surrounding grid failed, although the exterior glass temperature had exceeded the range of several sensors. No one occupied the prepared rooms.

Beiyuan Geothermal Station remained stable. Its power and cooling systems were operating, and the stored supplies appeared undamaged. It was hundreds of kilometers away.

The alternate Heat property had switched to backup power before midnight. One of the Flood shelters reported smoke damage to its exterior ventilation, while the second had lost communication without identifying a failure.

The two Freeze properties remained online and unused.

Nine shelters had seemed like an excess when they bought them. Now each green indicator represented food, water and safety waiting where no one could reach them.

"Can any of the properties control the others?" Jingwei asked.

"No," Zhiyi answered. "They exchange status reports, but each network is isolated. A breach at one location can’t provide access to another."

Zeyu selected Jinhai Tower and opened its internal cameras. Bright emergency lights illuminated empty rooms filled with supplies. The residential section had furniture, water and functioning air conditioning. Several floors below it, the rest of the tower was dark.

"There could be people inside the building," Qinghe said.

"Not in the shelter," Jingwei argued with a shake of his head.

Jinhai’s private levels were protected by locked elevators and reinforced stairwell doors. Hundreds of people might be sheltering in offices below them without knowing that years of food and working cooling systems existed overhead.

Zeyu closed the camera.

At Beiyuan, the geothermal systems could maintain safe temperatures almost indefinitely. At the Flood shelters, boats, water purifiers and sealed supplies waited for a disaster that hadn’t begun. The Freeze properties held heating systems and fuel that no one needed yet.

The preparations hadn’t failed.

The people who needed them were simply in the wrong place.

"We’ll recover the properties when movement becomes possible," Hanchuan stated. "Until then, we treat Xiling as our only shelter."

Zeyu understood the decision. He also understood what it meant.

They weren’t staying underground because it was safer than leaving. They were staying because the western tunnel was blocked, the roads were destroyed and every vehicle outside would fail before carrying them anywhere else.

They were trapped inside the safest place in Yunzhou.

A notification appeared on the shelter network before Zeyu could close it.

REMOTE ACCESS REQUEST

The request had originated from Jinhai Tower.

Someone had found the locked upper floors.

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