Even at the worst times, it was hard for Hayes to imagine that there was such a wasteland under the nest capital, which was like a battlefield that had experienced the end of the world.
The ground here is as hard as bones, and it is not a tree or some other metal bare pestle on the ground. They stand straight under the gray sky - the sky here seems to be the bottom of the huge steel structure of the lower nest.
Everyone wrapped themselves tightly to resist the cold, and even the streets that looked pretty neat were silent, with only the cries of unknown creatures echoing in the air.
In the dim twilight, narrow houses are tightly clustered together, rows of jagged rise from the twisted streets. Some of them are metal structures, but most of them are piled up of mud or stone. The most exquisite building is a church with a unified slate roof and metal frame, while the others are the most poor and look weathered and dilapidated.
But having a house here is even a luxury, more of a tent or an open shack, those weak, dirty, thin people are crowded by the faint fire, alert to the swaying shadows.
The air is always filled with odor, the smell of excrement, the smell of burning things, and the smell of dead people that Hayes is most familiar with in recent years.
The empire basically has no management agency in the bottom nest. The law enforcement officers of the Ministry of Justice would rather stay in their legal fortress to watch surveillance equipment for most of the year, and would rather be lazy to wander around this barren land. Only when there was a "big mess" would they drive here to solve the problem. Therefore, the bottom nest is generally the sheriff they appointed.
In contrast, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Governors would not care about this place. Instead, the State Church has shown extraordinary tenacity and patience and can maintain it in such a harsh and bad environment. So if there is any "administrative unit", then only the State Church and the various associations or mutual aid associations they organize.
So even in the bottom nest of extremely scarce supplies, the differences still exist. Bishops or senior priests live in relatively luxurious churches, ensuring that they are isolated from the dirtiest believers. Those who can afford the high land prices will build their own residences as much as possible in areas close to the church, and isolate them with towering walls and guards. Of course, most people can only squeeze in dilapidated houses.
This also gave birth to a common feature of Dichao Town, that is, most of the settlements are built around the church as the center.
Hayes and the other two came to a settlement called Linhu Town. You can tell the location of the town by listening to the name. It is near a huge wastewater discharge outlet in Chaodu, and a large amount of wastewater formed a huge lake in the low-lying land.
As the saying goes, relying on the mountains and water to eat water. Even wastewater is a huge treasure house in the bottom nest of extreme poverty and scarcity of materials. A large number of salvagers gathered here first. They made a living by salvaging garbage from wastewater and formed the earliest residents of Linhu Town. In the thousands of years, more and more people came here to settle. When the Mechanical Education established a resource recycling station here, Linhu Town was truly developed. The priests brought the Sky Eagle Emblem to build churches here. Gangs and clans gradually grew, and more industries emerged, including fishery-
Although the quality and health of organisms born in wastewater are really worrying, for residents of the bottom nest who eat soil all year round, even the worst protein is the best food. As for heavy metal pollution or bacterial diseases, people must first live to consider it.
Fitz grew up in such a place. The clan he lives in is called the Puff Eye Clan. As a group of people who have been living in Linhu Town for a long time, they have obvious deformities and mutations due to pollution, so they are rejected by most of the townsmen.
However, there are quite a few people who know them. Hayes found out when he asked about them. It was on the west side of the town, a place called Lanni Bay.
It was a shallow beach and a safer area on the lakeside of Linhu Town. After all, in the unfathomable wastewater lake, there were not only various small fish and shrimps, but also terrifying predators with a length of more than ten meters. Many creatures rushed down from above, and alien pets that were tired of being played by the nobles, have become fishermen's nightmare after generations of mutation.
As a main food source in Linhu Town, Lanniwan is not remote. There is even a special road leading there. Hayes hired a simple car and took ten minutes to reach the destination.
As soon as he got off the car, he was filled with a stinking smell that made Hayes difficult to adapt to. The air here was also very humid. His two wives had already put on a prepared breathing mask and put on one for Hayes.
Looking around, the huge black lake looks like an endless sea, with rows of huts scattered on the soft ground by the lake. In order to support the house, the locals inserted pipes into the mud and then built the structure of the house.
Walking to the pedal paving road or bridge, Hayes could feel the decayed and wet board bent at his feet, as if it could break at any time.
Dead shellfish can occasionally be seen in the gray-brown mud. Most of them are as big as the palms of their hands and emit a foul odor. In addition, various forms of garbage and filth can be seen in the mud. They are washed to the shore by the lake water and piled up into colorful "coral reefs", but they are not beautiful. At a glance, you can see glass bottles, jars, and even newspapers and publications of unknown dates.
Even Hays, who grew up in the lower nest, could not imagine that humans could survive in such an environment without witnessing it. (The world's unevenness is not limited to warhammers. Lagos, the capital of Nigeria, the "novel" in Africa, has the world's largest and most dirty water slums. If you are interested, you can search it.)
Most of the residents here were wearing wet cloaks and hunched. When they saw Hayes and the others, a man who was only as tall as his waist limped over, carrying a basket of water dripping in his hands.
"Sir, the fish is delicious, do you want it? It's cheap."
The other party has a strong Gothic accent and is very vague as if he is talking in the water. He can't understand it if he doesn't listen carefully.
Hayes looked at the other party's basket and the "fish" inside made him feel a little nauseous. It was very different from the fish in his cognition. It was more like a worm, with a hazel carapace, nauseous tentacles on the head and tail. Many of the auxiliary limbs crawled on both sides of the body, and it was very disgusting to be crowded together.
"Uh...thank you, no need for the time being, do you know where the Fitz's family is?"
"Fei...Brother Fiez?"
The man raised his head, and in an instant, both Hays's wives were so scared that they took a step back.
At this time, a face that makes people instinctively disgusted has almost no hair, and its hair is only a few sparse, its skin is light gray with ugly fish-scale white spots, its eyes are small and protruding, its mouth is large and deformed, and its nose is almost deeply trapped in its face. If the other party is not able to speak, it will not look like a human at all.
It's more like Hayes has wiped out many monsters on the battlefield.
"fine."
Hayes turned to comfort the two of them, then bent down and asked kindly:
"Do you know Fitz? I am his comrade-in-arms."
But the other party did not answer him, but suddenly turned around and shouted.
Chapter completed!