"Move quickly! Everyone hurry into the underground shelter!" Standing on the Energy Tower of the shelter, Shay felt that his body had already been frozen by the wind and snow, yet he remained where he was, shouting at the others to get them to enter the underground faster.
This was the last group of people seeking refuge. Before this, most people had already entered the underground shelter to escape the sudden blizzard.
"Shay! Everyone's in the shelter now, it's just you left!" Shay's brother was standing under the Energy Tower, helping the last group into the underground shelter and then shouted up at Shay on the tower.
Even though he was not Extraordinary and his voice struggled to cut through the storm, Shay still heard his call.
Looking around and confirming there was indeed no one else outside, Shay leapt down from the top of the Energy Tower, landed in the ground's snow to absorb the impact, and stood up, shouting to his brother, "Brother!"
Shay's brother waded through waist-deep snow to Shay, pulling him up from the snow, and the two of them supported each other as they walked toward the shelter's entrance.
"You two are the last! Get inside quickly!" A middle-aged man guarding the door saw them and hurriedly pulled them in, swiftly shutting the shelter's door, keeping the storm outside.
"Phew! This blizzard really hit hard!" Shay shook the snow off himself while stretching his arms and legs, trying to prevent himself from freezing.
He had been in the wind on the Energy Tower for so long that the cold felt like it had frozen his insides.
A bowl of hot soup quickly made its way into his hands, and after taking a sip, Shay finally felt like he ca back to life.
"Right? It was fine just yesterday but started snowing and blowing at night!" The middle-aged man beside him also began to complain, as everyone was caught off guard by the sudden blizzard.
Feeling much better after a bowl of hot soup, Shay looked at his brother and asked, "How's the shelter's situation? Do we have enough food and fuel?"
"The food we currently have stored could last for half a month, even longer with just compressed biscuits, up to three months." Shay's brother, who was in charge of managing the shelter's supplies, responded, "However, when it cos to fuel, we might not have enough. We never really stored much fuel, typically only keeping a ten-day supply.
The last fuel replenishnt was a week ago, so right now, our fuel reserves are at a sowhat critical level, only sufficient for about a week."
"Why so little? I rember asking you to make ergency reserves, didn't I?" Shay frowned, thinking his brother's numbers were sowhat beyond his expectations.
Shay had no doubt about his brother's report and never suspected his brother of embezzling anything.
After all, this is the Northern Territory, where resources are mostly traded through bartering and money is seldom used, so there's not much room for corruption.
And Shay had great trust in his brother's abilities. Without this forr Langton governnt official's help, Shay could never manage such a large settlent alone.
Still, the numbers his brother reported made Shay knit his brows in disbelief.
His brother hurried to explain, "It's caused mainly by two reasons: first, it's been a week since our last resupply.
As I ntioned earlier, our fuel reserves usually only maintain about a ten-day stock.
Moreover, convoy visits typically occur every ten to fifteen days, and each restocking fills up our storage, so we don't need to store too much fuel.
After all, our storage is quite small, and overfilling it can cause many issues.
But if we encounter extre weather, like now, it's really tough to endure.
The fuel reserves are already more than half consud, and we need to use the remaining half sparingly to last a week."
"This is really not an optimistic situation!" Shay felt it was troubleso and helpless. Although the underground shelter and Energy Tower seed to withstand the onslaught of the blizzard, this was based on having sufficient fuel.
If the fuel runs out before help arrives, they will face an extrely dire survival challenge.
Lack of fuel would not only result in insufficient heating but more importantly, food would have to be eaten cold for lack of fuel, unable to provide enough heat to maintain bodily functions.
Consuming hot food to gain extra heat is a very effective way to resist the cold.
But if no fuel replenishnt is obtained and people can't eat hot food, they'll have to chew on icy compressed biscuits.
Not to ntion how bite-resistant frozen compressed biscuits are; the cold alone from a fuel shortage would threaten everyone's lives.
"When will the supply convoy arrive?" Though worried, Shay maintained a composed appearance, showing no excessive concern.
As the leader of the shelter, everyone else might panic, but he absolutely must remain the calst.
Otherwise, if the leader himself loses composure, how could he expect the people to maintain order?
"If all goes well, they should arrive here in as little as three days or five at the most, as per their usual patrol schedule." Shay's brother responded to him.
"What if sothing goes wrong?" Shay doubted the convoy could patrol normally in this weather.
"If they're only delayed on the road, it's fine. But if this batch of convoy runs into trouble, in this weather, it could just bury people and equipnt all at once." Shay's brother showed obvious concern on his face.
According to the usual routine, within three to five days, the supply convoy would arrive, bringing enough fuel to the shelter to sustain the Energy Tower's operations.
But this is not a normal situation, the blizzard's rampage makes it look like the entire shelter will be buried by snow, and Shay is very worried whether the convoy will still be able to arrive on ti under such a severe blizzard onslaught.
If they're really delayed for ten days or two weeks, then the shelter will genuinely face a food crisis.
A food crisis might still be manageable since they could always munch on compressed biscuits, but without fuel, the Energy Tower can't operate, and the underground shelter's temperature would plumt.
Once the temperature drops, it would trigger a series of chain reactions.
Shay felt a headache just thinking about the myriad issues caused by low temperatures and couldn't figure out how to deal with such a worst-case scenario.
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