Doomsday rat

Page 143

But in fact, the gold diggers also have to be skinned, and it is achieved through Gao Boss and Kurbanjiang, but the interests involved in the latter may not only be the logistics officials of the Redeemer, but also the local garrison and supervisors. Ascetic monks who enforce the law are also involved.

Anyway, the gold diggers exchanged items, except for bartering with each other, if they wanted to sell them to the base, they could only sell them to the shops opened by Gao Boss and Kurbanjiang.Prices will be given for long-term purchased items and temporarily added items by the Penance Order, and will be posted at the entrance of the base purchase point.

But very few people can go to the purchase point to sell goods, and they are stopped as soon as they pass by the refugee settlement, and they have to let you sell at a lower price.Sell ​​it or not, it's just a loss if you sell it.If you don't sell it, if you dare to leave the sight of the sentry, no one can guarantee your personal safety.

In fact, the sentry is not a good thing, and many of them were bought by these two groups, and they were beaten and robbed in front of them, and they had no right to see it.In this environment, the vast majority of refugees have chosen to submit.

Hong Tao was stopped by Boss Gao's people, and he knew what was going on after a few words, and then he gave in, obediently selling the meat according to the price they gave.

What is it called?The ancients gave several good-sounding adjectives, such as a man who knows current affairs is a hero, another example is that a hero does not suffer from immediate losses, and there is no need to worry about no firewood to keep the green hills.Anyway, it sounds quite philosophical, so less and less people dare to resist, and the exploitation becomes more and more severe.

When you don't want to know the current affairs, you can't afford the losses in front of you, and you can't keep the green hills. When you want to resist, you realize that you are surrounded by very tolerant philosophers. Whoever resists will become a different kind. Not only will you be attacked by the enemy, It will also be ridiculed by philosophers who are also victims.

Hong Tao is not a philosopher, and he is very narrow-minded. He doesn't even understand the principle that it is never too late for a gentleman to take revenge.You are at a disadvantage during the day, Cheng, you have a lot of people, and there are sentries with guns, we can't beat them.It doesn't matter, it will be dark sooner or later, and I have weapons too!

Taking the shopping coupons in exchange for mutton, I left from the main road through the sentinels, but I didn't go far. I went back to the place where the weapons were hidden, ate something, and then put on the cloak and stared for a few hours.As soon as it got dark, Hong Tao, who was fully armed, came back again.

It must be difficult for people to sneak into the garrison base unknowingly, but it should not be too easy to enter the ruins of cities where refugees live.The sentinels and bunkers were on the main road. Equipped with night vision goggles, he would not even be alarmed by a weasel, so he touched Boss Gao's shop according to the point he stepped on during the day.

Chapter 442 The Righteous Yura

The next day, the early risers were shocked to find that Boss Gao and the four subordinates who lived in the house that night were all lying neatly on the street. Thoroughly.

The most interesting thing is that there is a large wooden board next to it, which seems to be the bed board they slept on, with a few words written on it with a woman's lipstick: if you do many injustices, you will kill yourself, bully the market, fish and meat neighbors, help the evil, sentenced to death, executed Author: Yuro of Justice!

Who is Yuro?No one knows, vendetta?It's too possible, none of the refugees living here have been bullied by them.Gang Rush?It is also possible that these two groups of people want to monopolize Kuitun at all times; it cannot be said that they will not be able to kill for money, and most of the valuable goods in Mr. Gao's shop have disappeared.

Anyway, hundreds of refugees in Kuitun have criminal motives, and even the officials of the Redeemer who have friendship with Gao Boss can't completely get rid of their ties.

To be able to kill people so cleanly and calmly, the refugees probably don't have the ability, the most likely ones are the local garrison, or the group of fake monks in the Penance Society.

But no one complained for Boss Gao, even his younger brothers who hadn't died hurriedly packed up their belongings and ran away on the oil train bound for Yining that day.

The Redeemer will certainly not launch a large-scale investigation for the deaths of a few refugees, but after a period of time, the Redeemer soldiers and ascetic monks will strengthen the management of the refugee settlements, severely crack down on the gangs, and let the refugees live. The last period of exploitation was less and lighter.

Of course, this period will not be too long. When another gang rises up and communicates with local officials, Boss Gao will be revived again with a different name, such as Boss Sun and Boss Wang.

The soldiers of the Redeemer and the monks of the Ascetic Order would also disappear in due course. Their previous actions were not at all for the sake of making life easier for the refugees, but for fear that too many deaths would lead to criticism from the officials of the main base.

After all, there are not many survivors now, and there are still a lot of jobs that refugees need to do. If they are squeezed to the point of being unable to survive, or large-scale riots are triggered, the unlucky ones will be the redeemers in the end.

Hong Tao also disappeared for a while, not because he was afraid of being recognized. In fact, the refugees have neither official household registration nor fixed residence, and their names are not just made up.Usually, he always uses a cloak and a hood to cover himself tightly, so he looks the same, even if his own father comes, he will not be able to recognize him.

The main reason for his disappearance was that he met the owner of the tea stall and learned a lot about the current situation from him, so he didn't need to sell goods to contact survivors, since he had nothing to exchange anyway.

What's more, the Redeemer Base is not rich in what he lacks. Instead of spending a long time and being exploited by others, it's better to find it by yourself.So he also made a living as a gold digger, but most of them went to the abandoned cities outside the human-controlled area to search for supplies for his own needs.

If you have nothing to do or just pass by, you can take some items to go around the Kuitun base. If you exploit him, you can exploit him. If anyone bullies him, the righteous Yuro will show up, and he will not stay overnight!

In the past three years, relying on his original abilities and the field survival skills he learned from Crimea, Hong Tao has traveled all over the ruins of cities and towns in northern Xinjiang, and even ran to Kazakhstan, Russia and Mongolia .

During this period, he rescued many refugees, and also killed as many survivors who took advantage of the fire.In a hurry, even the Redeemer's sentries and patrols will not be safe.And every time after saving or killing someone, a sign with Yuro's signature will be left on the scene.

This time it's not about making a name for yourself, but hoping to pull up the team.He lived quite comfortably by himself, and when he was tired, he would go back to the lake to enjoy the beautiful scenery quietly, and when he was free, he would go out to wander around, and pass the hero's addiction by the way.

In several lifetimes, he has been a rich man, a pirate, an emperor, a fool in the market, brilliant, low-key, and ordinary, but he has never had any wanton grievances.It's all right now, except for God, no one can do anything to him, so don't hurry up to make up lessons.

Don't even talk about what to do if you meet a zombie. A zombie can stop others but not him.Come on, where are you going to bite?The buddies don't even hide, just bite casually.Even if the zombies don't want to bite them, when the situation is urgent, he still has to chase the zombies and press their heads to let them bite them.

Take a bite, and the zombies will treat him like air, and will ignore him for at least 24 hours.Then he will be able to feel like no one is in the city occupied by zombies, and he can do whatever he wants, even if he dances with the blue devil in his arms, the other party will not respond at all, let alone run away.

Their brain capacity may not be able to calculate why there are always the same kind of people who are tired of being around, and they can't figure out what is the point of walking around.If you have a lot of free time, it is better to bask in the sun more, so that the evolution will be more intense.

Speaking of evolution, Hong Tao discovered a new phenomenon during this period, zombies that were not irradiated would also turn into blue devils.The exact proportion is unknown, but there must be, because he has found traces of the blue devil in many cities that have no nuclear power plants at all and do not have a lot of radiation.

Originally, this was not a good thing, and the blue devil was more harmful than ordinary zombies.It doesn't take much, if a living corpse can gather thousands of blue devils to launch a surprise attack on any survivor base, no one can stop it.

Fortunately, the number of transformations of the Blue Devils is not so many, and the number of living corpses is even smaller, so there is no such threat yet.But the survivors were aware of this and began to plan ahead.

Last autumn, the owner of the tea stall suddenly took out a notice from the Redeemer Base, which clearly stated that anyone can take the body of the Blue Devil to Yining, Kuitun, Nalati Town, and Barentai Town to complain to the local suffering. For sale by monks of the order, the price is quite high and very attractive.

As a result, many refugees who wanted to get rich overnight began to play the idea of ​​the blue devil, and formed a team of several or even dozens of people to march towards the zombie-controlled area.

Don't say that ordinary people can't do the blue devil. The tiger is no worse than the blue devil in terms of agility and strength. What will happen in the end?As long as they are worth a certain amount, humans without guns can still kill them all.

Compared with the tiger, the blue devil's only advantage is that there are a lot of zombies around him.But as long as the thinking is not slippery, there are always more ways than difficulties.

The refugees tried every means to catch the Blue Devil.For example, use a drone to search first, and after roughly determining the location of the blue devil, use people to lure out the zombies and kill them bit by bit.

Make a breakthrough, and then find a way to lure the blue devil to chase, and eventually fall into a trap or trap pre-set by humans, or be shot to death by a large-caliber gun.

Which method to use depends on the wealth of the team.Those who have the capital to buy large-caliber firearms and powerful ammunition will naturally save more trouble and be much safer.Those who have no capital can only dig traps, and the success rate is lower. Once the blue devil hides, the person who is the bait is basically dead.

Hong Tao didn't go to this muddy water at first, but at the beginning of spring, he found that some power batteries could not be charged. After searching, he found that the number of spare power batteries was seriously insufficient, so he went to WLMQ and wandered around for half a year. In January, a target was finally spotted and successfully captured.

As a result, it was only when they were sent to Kuitun that almost every refugee team used drones to search, and now there are very few special batteries for various types of drones, so they can only be replaced by power batteries.So... the price of power batteries has increased, more than three times higher than before last fall!

What made him even more depressed was that the group of unlucky things that were designed to squeeze the refugees had become popular again, suppressing the price of the Blue Devil, which could have been worth more batteries.

Not to mention, Hong Tao sold a loophole and didn't leave right away after the exchange. He deliberately chatted with the owner of the tea stall, just to let those bastards have a chance to find someone to rob him again on the way.

Then... of course the righteous Yuro reappeared.Four people must have died all at once. The managers of the Kuitun sub-base must have had a hard time. In addition to strictly investigating suspicious refugees, they had to restrain the gang members for a while.

Chapter 443 The Biggest Rat

It's just that in this way, I won't be able to come again for a few months.I wanted to take advantage of this time to go to a small nest in Russia, and bring some daily necessities for storage.

Be prepared. Hong Tao doesn't know how long he can live in Sailimu Lake. This matter is not up to him.

In the past few years, he has traveled all over the towns in northern Xinjiang, not just wandering around, let alone chasing the zombies, but looking for a second, third, and fourth spare nest.

If you want to say who is the biggest mouse in the world, it must be him.At any time, as long as he is free, he will not listen to digging holes to store food and prepare for the escape. It is no longer deliberate, it is simply instinct, and he is also a very particular big mouse!

Is it enough just to have a place to live?Still a long way to go.What he said to Chu Qiu back then was really not bragging, it was much easier and more comfortable for him to live alone in the last days than to bring a group of people.

Food, daily necessities, weapons and ammunition, warm clothes, vegetable seeds, necessary tools, including electrical facilities, and even mattresses and recliners must be fully prepared.This can't be considered qualified, and places without more than two escape routes are still unattractive.

So tossing back and forth between several small nests to stockpile supplies is the only serious thing he has done in the past three years, and he has been unremitting.Even in the winter when the mountains are covered by heavy snow, they are constantly drilling, and the farthest nest has entered the territory of Russia.

That place was an outpost of the Russian border guards. There were a lot of weapons and ammunition stored in it, but there was no food or living items.If you want to go from northern Xinjiang, you need to cross the Altai Mountains at an altitude of nearly 4000 meters. Most of the way is no-man's land, and some places have snow even in summer.

But what the tea stall owner said made him cancel this plan temporarily.It is not too urgent to perfect the small nest, but there is not always the chance of being able to be safely close to the Yining base and not being easily bullied.

It has been seven years since he came to Xinjiang, and he has been wandering around for more than three years, but he has never been to the Yining base, or even been close to it.The reason is very simple. It is the main base of the Redeemer, with a large population and relatively strict management.

You said that you don’t bring enough weapons and equipment, just go with a machete or a self-made crossbow like a refugee, he really feels insecure, who has the addiction to being slaughtered.But if you go there fully armed, you don't need to be happy, and you will be found as soon as you reach the checkpoint, and it is not easy to run away.

Without any foundation or acquaintances to get in rashly, there is nothing but suffering.Hong Tao didn't believe that the refugee settlement in the Yining base didn't have the scourge of bullying the market and buying and selling by force.To the sky, it's a little milder on the surface, but it's actually more fucked up in the bone.

I don't have a good impression of the management of the Redeemer, just look at the virtues of the Kuitun sub-base to get a general idea.There is no rigid need for the exchange materials they can provide, and you can find what you want by yourself.

But it's different now. If the owner of the tea stall can establish a relationship with the people in the Yining base and gain a foothold in the refugee area, he can reduce a lot of worries.Try to go over there to see that at least you won't be too bullied. If it doesn't work, you can leave.

In addition, Hong Tao also wants to visit southern Xinjiang. The shortest way is to go east from Yining to Bayinbulak Town, HJ County, and then go south along the Duku Highway to Kuqa.

Since there is no human-controlled area in southern Xinjiang, Bayinbulak Town is the southernmost stronghold of the Redeemer. If you want to pass through here and go south, you must have a pass from the Yining base.

Why do you have to go to southern Xinjiang to see it?Isn’t Hong Tao curious? He listened to the sentinels who had been stationed in Bayinbulak town chatting while drinking tea at the Kuitun base. After nearly ten years of natural transformation, the endless Taklimakan Desert has become a wetland swamp, desert and Gobi intersecting. Echoing the complex landform, many wild animals have made their homes there.

In addition, in some places in southern Xinjiang, there is still a group of survivors who are called rebels by the redeemed and called rebels by the refugees in private.

It is said that they were also part of the Redeemer at the beginning, but because of their different ideas, they might have failed in the power struggle, so they had no choice but to escape from the Yining base.But facing the savior's pursuit and interception, he had nowhere to go, so he plunged into the zombie-controlled area in southern Xinjiang.

Surprisingly, not only did they not fend for themselves, but they gradually grew stronger. From time to time, they made surprise attacks or infiltrations into the Redeemer-controlled area. The year before last, they almost blew up the Kuitun oil refinery.

Although there are many people on the Redeemer's side, there is nothing good to do with them.Unable to attack, we can only strengthen the defense forces of Bayinbulak Town and Barentai Town, and prevent the rebels from infiltrating as much as possible.

Hong Tao wanted to find a chance to get a pass to see what the completely changed Taklamakan Desert looked like, and by the way, set up a few small nests in southern Xinjiang.There are unpredictable things in the sky, whoever waits until death which cloud has rain, maybe it will be used someday.

It would be even better if you can see what kind of virtue the rebels are, don't get me wrong, I don't want to join them, just purely curious.Now he has lost confidence in all survivor forces, and he doesn't feel that anyone is much better than whom, including the revival alliance he established himself, which is now called the East Asian Alliance.

Yili is not a city, but a region, its full name is YLHSK Zhizhou.This place has been famous since ancient times. In the Western Han Dynasty, the Wusun Kingdom was here, and it was under the jurisdiction of the Protectorate of the Western Regions.In the Tang Dynasty, the Kunling Duhufu was established to govern the ethnic minority tribes east of Suiye City, including the Yili area.

Later, Genghis Khan destroyed Xiliao, and here became the fiefdom of Chagatai. Its capital was Alimali, which is near today's Huocheng. It was the largest city in Central Asia during the Mongol and Yuan Dynasties.

After the Qing Dynasty pacified the local government of Junggar, the whole territory of XJ was unified, and a general in charge of Yili and other departments was set up to take charge of things in XJ, referred to as General Yili.Nine cities, including Huiyuan, Ningyuan, Xichun and Suiding, were built successively, with Huiyuan as the center, forming a trend of stars arching the moon.

All in all, all in all, the history of this area is very long, not at all shorter than that of the ancient capital of the Central Plains.For a long time, the center of XJ was not WLMQ, but Yili.

So the question is, why did humans regard this place as an important city from so long ago.Throughout history, there are no more than three situations where cities and capitals are established.First, the transportation is developed; second, it is easy to defend but difficult to attack; third, the climate and geographical environment are suitable for development.

The Ili area, also known as the Ili River Valley, flows through the Ili River and goes westward into Kazakhstan, forming a long and narrow basin, or plain, between the mountains.

In ancient times, human beings did not have the ability to fight against heaven and earth. If they wanted to eat enough, they had to find a place suitable for farming and grazing to live together. The Yili River Valley is such a fertile land and has a less harsh climate.

As far as the Xinjiang province alone is concerned, the area is more than 160 million square kilometers, accounting for more than one-sixth of the country's area, but the population is only about 2000 million, which is on par with BJ City.Why is the population so small?Is it because of the remoteness?Not all, the main reason is lack of water.

On the whole, most areas in Xinjiang Province are deserts, Gobi and mountainous areas, with relatively low precipitation, and the main source of water is rivers formed by melting snow.Human farming, grazing, and domestic water cannot be solved by rain here, and they can only live next to the river.

People who have been to and walked through most of the Xinjiang provinces should know that wherever there are rivers, they are already full of people and full of land.Once away from the river, less than tens of kilometers, or even a few kilometers away, is the arid and barren Gobi Desert, or a desert full of yellow sand and no grass.

The Yili River Valley area has been a natural treasure land with dense forests, green grass, moderate climate, abundant water and rich products since ancient times.Not only the ancients thought so, but the survivors also thought so, and did it at the same time.

As the largest group of survivors in Xinjiang Province, the Redeemer was mainly divided into two parts at the beginning, Yining part and WLMQ part.After several years of development and changes, it was finally decided to merge the two into one, choosing Yining as the main base, and at the same time giving up WLMQ.

Chapter 444 Go to Yining

In fact, there was another main reason for the merger of the two parties, which Hong Tao himself did not know.In addition to water and climate factors, safety is more important.

Ever since he raided Sanyuan County with paratroopers and annexed the Northwest Alliance overnight without bloodshed, the survivor groups in various places have been a little nervous, for fear that one day he will become a rubber stamp in the council.

Although Xinjiang Province is far away, it does not dare to underestimate it. In the long run, the Ili River Valley area is far more complex than WLMQ in terms of geographical environment, and the distance is farther away and better defense.

There are only four roads to enter the Yili River Valley by land; the first road is from Kuitun to the south along the Duku Highway to Nalati; the second road is from WLMQ to the south to Barentai Town, and the east to Nalati; the third road , turn west from WLMQ to Sailimu Lake, turn south, pass through Huocheng, turn east, and go around to the back of Yining; the fourth railway from Hami to Yining.

Of these four roads, the first and fourth roads have been tightly controlled by the Redeemer. Not only are there guards stationed in Kuitun, but there are also guards in several tunnels on the northern section of the Duku Highway.

The tunnel here is very interesting, with a door, a cement gate.The defenders don't have to do anything, as long as the tunnel gate is blocked, the world will be in balance.

There is a cliff on one side and a cliff on the other, with an altitude of more than 3000 meters. In summer, it rains when it rains, and it snows when it snows. It's either mudslides or landslides.

The second road is also not easy to walk. The road near Barentai Town is built in the middle of the valley. Due to the surge of rain in recent years, the river has washed away a section of the roadbed.

The Redeemer built a chain bridge, which can only pass small vehicles and pedestrians. If they are facing an enemy attack, they don't need to fight. They destroy the chain bridge, and then hide in the fortifications on the mountainside and shoot coldly.

Catch up with summer, maybe the flood will come at any time, and in winter, a heavy snowfall can block the road, and you don't even need to fight, just don't go out or come in.

The third road is easier to defend and harder to attack, and it is also the longest detour, hundreds of kilometers longer than the first two.Not far from Sailimu Lake, there is a bridge across the mountains, called Guozigou Bridge.

Unfortunately, an earthquake occurred here in the fifth year of the outbreak of the zombie disease, and the bridge was broken. Not only could outsiders not get in, but people in the Ili River Valley couldn't get out either. This road basically existed in name only.

This refers to entering the Ili River Valley from northern Xinjiang. If you go from southern Xinjiang, there are still two ways to enter.The first one is from Kuqa to the north along the Duku Highway, or to Nalati; the second one is from Ruoqiang to the north, passing through Korla and arriving at Barentai Town.

See, no matter if you go from northern or southern Xinjiang, you have to go through Nalati and Barentai towns.These two original tourist check-in resorts have now become battlegrounds for military strategists.

If it wasn't for oil extraction from KLMY, the Redeemer would not have to station troops in Kuitun. As long as the tunnel on the Duku Highway was blown up, even the town of Balentai would not be guarded. As long as Nalati is controlled, the All those who come by land in the three directions of north, east and south.

To the west is Khorgos, and beyond that is Kazakhstan. The survivors there have basically come here, so there is no need to worry about any large-scale survivor groups.

Can't get in by land, what about air?Since the Redeemer decided to establish a base in Yining, they spent more than three years sending people to destroy the airport runway east of Wuwei, including the west of Qinghai.I dare not say 100%, anyway, as long as there is one that can be found on the map, it counts as one.

In this way, the nearest airport is 2000 kilometers away from Nalati, and there is no place to land or refuel midway. Even if the U.S. Air Force is called in, all C130s that can land at a field airport for a short distance are not too bad. Easy to handle.

And as time goes by, aviation kerosene is basically cut off, and the highway is also covered by dust. Even if the C130 really came, it would not dare to land on the grass.The field airport is also an airport. For a big guy weighing dozens of tons, the ground may not be flat, but the hardness must be guaranteed, otherwise everyone will eat shit.

"Go back, I can walk the road ahead by myself." Hong Tao wanted to go to the Yining base, how should he go?Ten days later, three horses carrying two people and several large packages appeared in the valley below the Guozigou Bridge.

The bridge is broken, and ordinary people may not be able to cross it, but for the Crimea, who travels back and forth between the mountains at least twice a year, the presence or absence of the bridge does not affect his passage.Even if there is a bridge, it is impossible to drive sheep and vehicles to run on the highway together.

In the experience handed down from the grandparents year after year, there are small paths to cross every mountain and every valley.Of course, it is not allowed to drive a car, nor to ride a motorcycle or bicycle. You can only ride a horse, and in many places you have to lead a horse on foot.

Today is the day when Hong Tao went to Yining base. Not only did Krimin prepare two slaughtered sheep and two horse intestines, but he also packed two large packages of sheep cheese and horse cheese in sheepskin bags.

Hong Tao didn't ask what these meant, some things didn't need to be communicated with words.Ever since he told Crimea that he would buy a Kazakh or Kirgiz woman from the Yining base to be his wife, this lonely shepherd became extraordinarily diligent, secretly sewing new leather jackets and new felt tents, what he meant was clear at a glance. .

"I know you are a Han Chinese, and you are here to avoid your enemies. We are brothers, be careful of the Han people, they are bad!" Kerim was a little bit reluctant. In previous years, he would go away for several months without showing such emotion.

Because he knew that this weird Han man was not afraid of wild animals and bandits, and he was a snow leopard in the wild, so he, a shepherd dog who lived and slept in the open since childhood, had to bow down.But there are too many people in the Yining base, there are all kinds of clans, and there are too many guns. No matter how strong a person is, sometimes they can't handle it.

"Don't worry, I'm really there to sell goods. There are acquaintances there, and I won't be bullied. If I can't find him, I will throw these things away and come back immediately. By the way, you don't want to go fishing on a sailboat, think Eat fish and wait for me to come back. Drive...drive..."

The reluctance of the two old men made Hong Tao's eyes a little hot. In order to avoid revealing his true feelings, he hurriedly yelled at the old draft horse under his crotch to walk away on the grass that had just turned green.

In the blink of an eye, we have been together for seven years, and we are still the only partner. No matter who loses the other person, they only face loneliness.Even a shepherd who is used to loneliness still needs someone to accompany him, regardless of whether he is of the opposite sex or the same sex. This feeling is beyond the scope of ordinary emotions.

In fact, there is no road at all, and the so-called sheep trails are places where sheep can find their feet more easily when they rely on their instincts to climb over the mountain.If there is no guidance and a simple road map from Crimea, if you want to climb over this mountain ridge and then go around the mountain in front, you will be able to tire out Hong Tao's shit.

In this way, he still walked for a whole day, and had to make do at night on the branch of a big tree on the mountainside.That taste... All kinds of animals are scurrying around, and there is a biting cold wind blowing from time to time. It is strange to be able to fall asleep after a few years of adaptation.

In fact, there is a closer path that can bypass the Broken Bridge, but it will eventually return to the southern end of the Broken Bridge.Crimea said that there was a garrison of the Redeemer there, and those guys had robbed his sheep, so it is not recommended to go. It would be better to walk around the mountain for half a day than to be killed by someone and just throw it into the ravine.

Hong Tao took this suggestion very seriously. Although he could kill them first, he didn't want to continue to be Yuluo this time when he went to Yining.