Chapter 101: Moon Journey
On the desolate and silent, uneven lunar surface, 15 astronauts wearing spacesuits stood like rocks, heads held high, always gazing at that blue planet in the sky, arms raised high, unwilling to lower them for a long time.
A unique sentiment surged in Jiang Yang’s heart.
He knew that just before, in less than five minutes, from the appearance of the first text and the birth of civilization, human civilization that had lived on that planet for thousands of years had perished.
All the love, hate, passion, and enmity, all the joys and sorrows of separation and reunion, all the righteousness of family and country, personal joys, angers, sorrows, and pleasures, as well as the countless brilliant cultures created, all the art and thought, turned to ashes together at this moment.
Although he had long known about the current situation, a bone-deep sense of loneliness still instantly assaulted Jiang Yang’s entire mind.
Because at this moment, the 14 astronauts standing beside him, plus himself, were the only remaining population of the entire human civilization.
Apart from here, there were no more humans in the entire vast universe.
“Ceremony complete!”
Tong Zheng’s voice came into his ears again. Jiang Yang keenly noticed that his voice was even lower than before, and carried a nasal tone.
He knew that if he spoke at this moment, his voice would probably be the same.
The astronauts lowered their arms but still stood solemnly.
“Depart!”
“Yes!”
A total of 15 people, the 14 excluding Jiang Yang, immediately began preparation work.
The three electric scooters, modified and assembled with flat-panel thrusters and proven usable through prior testing, were brought out again.
These board carts were open-topped, with simple structures: nothing more than a steel plate plus four wheels underneath, along with a simple control system and a battery.
Their load area was about 8 square meters, and sitting several people on them along with some supplies posed no problem at all.
Various supplies that had been packed in advance, including several hydrogen bombs and munitions, as well as a temporary simple tent, were quickly placed onto the board carts. Then three astronauts took charge of driving, while the rest, including Jiang Yang, all sat in the back.
Tong Zheng, responsible for driving the first board cart, fiddled with the navigation instrument, confirmed everything was normal, and then firmly stepped on the accelerator.
The board cart trembled silently, roaring, its wheels slowly turning in the thick moon dust, raising large amounts of moon dust while also starting to move forward.
Jiang Yang gripped the handrail tightly, securing his body to ensure he wouldn’t be thrown off.
The distance here to that underground passage was too far. Relying solely on walking with their legs would probably exhaust them to death. Advancing with these electric scooters was the only feasible plan.
The lunar ground had no roads, and the complex terrain didn’t matter.
The satellite operating in a 50-kilometer orbit had its control fully transferred from the ground base to the astronauts at this moment.
Even before departure, those satellites had planned the route from the temporary camp to that underground passage through multiple surveys.
Even if an accident occurred midway, they could mobilize the satellite at any time to find a new route.
Jiang Yang looked up and clearly saw the satellite’s silhouette with the naked eye.
It hung quietly in the vast space like a shining star, quietly emitting light, illuminating the route forward for the astronauts.
At this moment, Jiang Yang suddenly felt that it wasn’t actually the light produced by the satellite reflecting sunlight, but light from that distant blue planet, from the human civilization that had already gone extinct.
Although civilization had perished, it was still illuminating the path we came from, and also the path to our future.
At this moment, it was slowly moving at a speed imperceptible to the naked eye, expected to move out of their field of view in a few dozen minutes.
But it didn’t matter; when it moved to the lunar far side and could no longer provide guidance, its companion would come from the lunar far side to take over its duty and continue illuminating their future path.
In the darkness, jagged lunar rocks were like hidden monsters.
The thick moon dust underfoot extended to the invisible distance, as if endless.
A “cliff” suddenly appeared ahead, about a meter high, which the electric scooter alone couldn’t cross.
The navigation satellite’s precision was limited, so failing to detect the obstacle here was normal.
Glancing at the navigation map, Tong Zheng found that the nearest route bypassing this would extend the overall route by several kilometers.
He quickly made a decision.
“Everyone, dismount!”
“Yes!”
According to the plan drafted earlier, all 15 astronauts dismounted and began manually carrying the items of supplies from the board carts to before the cliff, then their companions manually moved them to the top of the cliff.
Gravity on the moon was lower, so this work that was very difficult on Earth was much simpler here.
Of course, it would still consume a lot of physical strength and energy.
Jiang Yang tried to join in this work, but as soon as he moved, he was stopped by an astronaut.
“Comrade Jiang Yang, please stay in place and conserve your strength.”
Jiang Yang was stunned for a moment, then nodded silently.
He just watched as the astronauts manually moved all the supplies to the top of the cliff, then several people together used rope and tools to haul the board cart up to the top of the cliff.
With a single jump, Jiang Yang’s body easily reached two meters in height, then slowly landed on top of the cliff.
All the supplies were loaded back onto the board carts, and the journey continued.
In this way, after spending a full three-plus hours, this lunar journey of 65 kilometers in straight-line distance and about 96 kilometers in planned route length was finally crossed by the three electric scooters.
Ahead was the boundary of the special area scouted during previous cycles.
According to Professor Lu Zhaoming’s speculation, if the negative matter field disappeared after the apocalypse, the factor in the special area that caused their electronic equipment to malfunction should also disappear.
In that case, the spacesuits they were wearing at this moment should still be usable.
Otherwise, they would have to set up a temporary camp and switch to those mechanical spacesuits to enter this area.
The three board carts stopped, and under Tong Zheng’s order, Astronaut No. 2 Zhao Jianguo stepped forward, wearing a spacesuit full of precision electronic equipment, slowly advancing.
He reached the edge of the special area but didn’t stop, continuing to move forward.
As he went deeper, Jiang Yang’s heart slowly rose.
If that factor was still present, Zhao Jianguo should have lost contact with them by now.
But the next moment, a steady voice without any fluctuation came back.
“Report to the captain, report to Comrade Jiang Yang, spacesuit operating normally, communication normal.”
“No. 1 received.”
Jiang Yang suddenly breathed a sigh of relief.
That special influence had indeed disappeared, which also meant the negative matter field had very likely disappeared as well!
