Even in the worst of times, it was hard for Hayes to imagine that there was such a wasteland under the hive. It was like a battlefield that had experienced the end of the world.
The ground here is as hard as bones. It cannot be said that they are trees or other metals that are bare on the ground. They stand upright under the gray sky - the sky here seems to be the bottom of the huge steel structure of the lower nest.
Everyone wrapped themselves up tightly to resist the cold. Even the seemingly neat streets were silent, with only the screams of unknown creatures echoing in the air.
In the dim twilight, narrow houses were tightly clustered together, rising unevenly in rows from the twisting streets. Some of them were metal structures, but most seemed to be made of mud or stone.
The most exquisite building is a church with a uniform slate roof and metal frame, while the others are the poorest and look weathered and dilapidated.
But having a house is even a luxury here, more often than not it is a tent or an open shack, where those weak, dirty, and thin people huddle around the weak fire, watching for the swaying shadows.
The air is always filled with stench, the stench of excrement, the smell of burning things, and the smell that Hayes has been most familiar with over the years, the smell of dead people.
The empire basically does not have any management organization in the bottom nest. The law enforcement officers of the Ministry of Justice would rather spend most of the year in their legal fortress watching the surveillance equipment than wandering around in this barren land. They only go out "
When there is "big trouble", they will drive armored vehicles here to solve the trouble, so generally speaking, the bottom of the nest is under the responsibility of the peace officer appointed by them.
On the contrary, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the governors will not care about this place. On the contrary, the state religion has shown unusual tenacity and patience and is able to maintain it in such a harsh and terrible environment. Therefore, if there is any "administrative unit" in the bottom nest,
, then only the state religion and the various associations or mutual aid societies organized by them are left.
So even in the bottom nest where supplies are extremely scarce, differences still exist. Bishops or high priests live in relatively luxurious churches, ensuring that they are isolated from the dirtiest believers, those who can afford the high land prices.
People will also build their own homes as close to the church as possible and isolate them with tall walls and guards. Of course, the vast majority of people can only crowd into shabby houses.
This also gave birth to a common feature of Dichao towns, that is, most settlements are built around churches.
The three Hayes came to a settlement called Linhu Town. You can tell the location of the town by its name. It is located near a huge wastewater outlet in the nest city. A large amount of wastewater formed in the low-lying land.
A huge lake.
As the saying goes, people who rely on mountains and rivers rely on water. Even wastewater is a huge treasure house in the extreme poverty and lack of materials. A large number of salvagers first gathered here. They made a living by salvaging garbage from wastewater, forming a temporary community.
Linhu Town was the earliest resident of Lake Town. In the following thousands of years, more and more people came to settle here. When the Mechanicus established a resource recycling station here, Linhu Town achieved real development. The priests carried the Sky Eagle.
Hui built a church here, gangs and clans gradually grew, and more industries emerged, including fishing——
Although the quality and health of the organisms bred in wastewater are really worrying, for bottom nest residents who eat soil all year round, even the poorest quality protein is the best food. As for heavy metal pollution or diseases caused by bacteria,
People must be alive before they can think about problems.
Fitz grew up in such a place. His clan is called the Buyan Clan. As a group of people who have made a living by fishing in Linhu Town for a long time, they all have obvious deformities and mutations due to pollution, so they are called
Most of the townspeople reject it.
However, there are quite a few people who know about them, and Hayes found out where they are after a little inquiry. They are on the west side of the town, in a place called Mud Bay.
It is a shallow beach, and it is also a relatively safe area by the lake in Linhu Town. After all, in the unfathomable wastewater lake, there are not only all kinds of small fish and shrimps, but also terrifying predators with a length of more than ten meters. Many
The creatures that rushed down from above, those alien pets that the nobles were tired of playing with, after generations of mutations, became a nightmare for fishermen.
As a major food source in Linhu Town, Lanni Bay is not remote. There is even a special road leading there. Hayes hired a simple car and it took ten minutes to reach the destination.
When he got out of the car, he was hit by a stench that was hard for Hayes to adapt to. The air here was also very humid. His two wives had already put on the prepared breathing masks and put one on Hayes too.
Looking around, the huge black lake looks like an endless sea. Rows of shacks are dotted on the soft ground beside the lake. In order to support the houses, the locals inserted pipes into the mud, and then
Build the structure of the house.
Walking onto the paved road or bridge, Hayes could feel the rotten and damp wooden boards bending under his feet, as if they might break at any time.
Occasionally, dead shellfish can be seen in the gray-brown mud. Most of them are as big as a human hand and emit bursts of stench. In addition, various forms of garbage and filth can also be seen in the mud. They are absorbed by the lake water.
It washed onto the shore and piled up into pieces of colorful "coral reefs", but it was not beautiful. At first glance, you could see glass bottles, cans, and even newspapers and magazines of unknown date.
Even Hayes, who grew up in the lower nest, could not imagine that humans could survive in such an environment until he saw it with his own eyes. (The differences in the world are not limited to Warhammer. The "new star" of Africa, Lagos, the capital of Nigeria, has
The world’s largest and dirtiest floating slum, if you are interested you can search it)
Most of the residents here were wearing wet cloaks and were stooped. When they saw Hayes and the others, a man only as high as his waist limped over, holding a dripping pot in his hand.
basket.
"Sir, the fish is delicious. Do you want it? It's cheap."
The other party's Gothic accent was very thick, and it was very vague, as if he was talking in water. If you don't listen carefully, you can't understand it at all.
Hayes looked at the opponent's basket. The "fish" inside made him feel a little nauseous. It was very different from the fish he knew. It was more like some kind of worm, with a light brown carapace and nausea on the head and tail.
The tentacles and many appendages crawling on both sides of the body, crowded together are very disgusting.
"Uh, thank you. I don't need it for now. Do you know where Fitz's house is?"
"Brother Fitz?"
The man raised his head, and in an instant both Hayes' wives took a step back in fright.
At this time, there is a face that makes people instinctively disgusted. There is almost no hair and only a few sparse hairs. The skin is light gray with ugly fish-scale white spots. The eyes are small and protruding, the mouth is large and deformed, and the nose is
His face was almost sunken, and if the other person hadn't been able to speak, he wouldn't have looked like a human being at all.
It's more like Hayes has destroyed 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."
But the other party did not answer him, but suddenly turned around and shouted.