There was only a bright light that suddenly lit up the sky above them before explosions rang out.
The beasts in the sky that were fire based had started shooting fireballs down onto the ground without aiming, blasting anything that they could see.
Since there was a town here, naturally it was one of the targets that the beasts in the sky chose to fire at.
There was a long barrage of fireballs that rained down and it lasted a long time before the last explosion finally stopped.
When the first fireball had fallen, Lin Fan had immediately grabbed Qiao Qiao and protected her with his body. However, he was only able to do this as the fireballs were just too strong for him to move.
When the fireballs had finished falling, Lin Fan looked up to see that there were craters and burnt or half burnt corpses all around him. There was no blood at all since all their blood had been evaporated by the flames of the explosions.
This was a grim scene for anyone and they would be disgusted by what they saw, but Lin Fan had his experiences from the war, so he was able to quickly move on from this.
The first thing that Lin Fan did was look for his family, but as he looked around, he couldn't see anyone that he recognized. Most of the corpses had been completely charred, so it was hard to recognize who they were before they had died.
Still, Lin Fan didn't give up since he knew that his father had been with his family.
Second to him, his father had become the best hunter in the town after learning a few tricks from him, so he wouldn't be killed that easily.
There were survivors around, so Lin Fan was certain that not everyone had died and that was the hope that he needed.
Turning back, Lin Fan looked at Qiao Qiao who was trembling from seeing the scene of apocalypse in front of her.
Lin Fan knew that it was a dangerous time for her mentally, so he held her by the shoulder and turned her to face him before saying, "Look into my eyes."
When Qiao Qiao heard this voice, she suddenly snapped back into reality and her eyes focused as she looked into Lin Fan's eyes.
When Lin Fan saw her eyes clearing, he then said, "It'll be alright, I'm here with you."
Qiao Qiao stood there in a daze for a bit before suddenly giving a nod.
When she had come back to her senses, the first thing she thought of was her family as she asked, "What about everyone else? Are they alright?"
Lin Fan shook his head and said, "I don't know, I haven't found anything yet. However, we can't stay here, it's too dangerous. We have to get to the shelter at least."
Qiao Qiao gave a nod to agree to this since she knew that Lin Fan was right.
They would just be sitting ducks if they sat out here, they should find a safe place to hole up in and slowly look for their family members. After all, if they died, it would all be meaningless.
So without any hesitation, Lin Fan took her by the hand and they started moving through the crowd of corpses and people who were still dazed by the sudden attack. At the same time, they kept their eyes out for anyone who they recognized.
As they headed along, there were a few of the soldiers who had recovered faster because they were more experienced who came over to Lin Fan. The first thing that these people did was ask about their family, but Lin Fan shook his head as he told them that he hadn't seen anything.
After confirming this, there were a few that chose to head to the shelter with them while the rest decided to go around the area looking for their families.
Lin Fan wished those that left good luck and urged the ones that followed him to move quickly.
When they arrived at the shelter, Lin Fan didn't bother knocking on the door since he knew that it wouldn't open for him even if he did knock.
The shelter was designed in such a way that if there ever was a need to hide in it, the people inside would never open the door of their own volition unless it was absolutely necessary. The shelter door had a second method of being opened, one that only a few soldiers of the town knew how to operate, which was how they could keep them safe if anything happened.
Lin Fan moved over to the tree where this mechanism was hidden and quickly opened the door.
When the door opened, he saw that the shelter was already filled with people.
When those people saw Lin Fan standing at the entrance, their faces immediately filled with joy since he was someone that everyone in the town trusted.
The first person to come over wasn't the mayor of the town, but rather one of the elders who was on the advisory board.
Lin Fan knitted his brows when he saw this elder and he asked, "Where's the mayor?"
The elder revealed a difficult look as he hesitantly said, "The mayor…"
Lin Fan could guess what he was about to say, so he patted the elder on the shoulder and said in a comforting voice, "Alright, let's not talk about that now." Then just as quickly, his voice turned stern again as he asked, "What's the situation?"
The elder also changed tones and said in a clear voice, "We've already taken a count of everyone who made it into the shelter and it seems like more than half of the town is missing."
Lin Fan knitted his brows again when he heard this, but this was about right based on the estimates that he had made.
As he headed along the path to the shelter, he had counted the number of scorched corpses that he had seen.
Seeing that Lin Fan wasn't saying a thing, the elder asked, "Xiao Yu, what do we do now?"
Lin Fan was pulled back from his thoughts when he heard this.
He looked around the shelter and then looked out the entrance before making his decision, "We'll lock the doors of the shelter for now and if anyone comes, we'll see if we can bring them in. But for now, we will hide in here and see if we can weather the storm."
The elder didn't say anything in response to this, he just gave a nod since he felt that this was the right decision.
After bringing everyone in, Lin Fan let them go look for their families while he went off looking for his own.
The people in the shelter were all separated into their own groups based on their families, so it was quite easy to search through them.
At first, Lin Fan didn't find anything and as he came to the end of the shelter, he started getting worried since he wasn't able to find any traces of his family. However, when he reached the end of the shelter, he finally found something familiar.
It was a ribbon, a bright ribbon.
This was the bright ribbon that had been attached to the dress that his little sister had worn to the wedding and attached to it was the rest of the dress, along with his little sister.
Along with his little sister, there was the rest of his family who were sitting there in the corner.
The moment that he saw his family, Lin Fan felt the stone in his heart fall down.
It was the same for his family since they had turned to look at him the moment that he came over.
His little sister broke out in tears, but these weren't tears of sadness, they were tears of joy since she was able to see him again.
Without any hesitation, she ran forward and jumped into his arms.
Lin Fan was caught off guard by this sudden move from her, but he still firmly caught her before walking over while holding her.
His mother said, "Xiao Yu, you're alright." As she said this, there were tears that were pouring down from her eyes.
His father looked at him with a calm look, but from the tear in the corner of his eye, it was clear that he was also relieved.
After spending a few minutes to catch up, Lin Fan left them to their own matters as he moved around the shelter looking for Qiao Qiao.
It was a completely different scene on Qiao Qiao side since she was bawling her eyes out while her brother held her.
Lin Fan immediately knew that something was wrong and when he looked around, he figured out what it was.
Qiao Qiao's brother was here, but her parents weren't…
Lin Fan looked at Qiao Man and he shook his head in response.
He had hopes that perhaps they were still outside at first, but seeing that look from Qiao Man, it seemed like their fates had been sealed.
Looking at the expression on Qiao Man's face, he could tell that he must have seen it all happen.
Qiao Man helped his little sister up and when she saw Lin Fan, she immediately threw herself into his arms.
He didn't say anything about what had happened nor did he try to comfort her with his words. All he did was hold her in her arms as he patted her back and said, "I'm still here."
Qiao Qiao cried even louder and held him even tighter, but Lin Fan just took it all.
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