Chapter 15: Searching for Supplies

Chapter 15: Searching for Supplies

By the time Guan Yuanfeng woke up from a short nap and came back over, Zhou Yun had already showered, changed into clean clothes, and looked refreshed and clear-headed. He no longer appeared weak and listless, like when he had been delirious with a high fever.

Guan Yuanfeng raised an eyebrow. "Are you really better? You had a fever for three days; don’t push yourself."

Zhou Yun smiled. "I'm a doctor, of course I'm better now. Let me check your pulse." Having anticipated that he would soon fall into a coma due to awakening his psychic abilities, he had deliberately inserted ear needles into Guan Yuanfeng earlier. Now it was time to replace them.

Guan Yuanfeng noticed that Zhou Yun stood tall, moved lightly and quickly, and was clear-minded. His complexion seemed to glow, his skin smooth as jade, looking even healthier than before. He was somewhat astonished. "Could this fever actually lead to a rebirth?"

Zhou Yun couldn’t help but laugh and picked up a radio to turn it on.

The radio continued to broadcast various announcements, repeatedly urging survivors to go to rescue bases, though the location had changed to the city hospital. It also played information about the weaknesses and characteristics of zombies, methods to avoid them, and the specific symptoms of fevered individuals turning into zombies.

Guan Yuanfeng frowned. "It seems they can no longer maintain multiple rescue bases and have had to consolidate into just one."

Zhou Yun said, "Since a fever can lead to infection, it's likely that rescue personnel are getting infected too. One zombie can infect countless people." Soon, the base in Danlin City would also become unsustainable, forcing a retreat to the provincial city, falling back again and again, until psychics were discovered and their powers developed, giving humanity a chance to fight back.

Guan Yuanfeng said, "Yes, at this point, the more we gather, the more dangerous it becomes. So, we should wait here for the situation to change."

Zhou Yun looked at him, relieved that he wasn’t going to leave. He still wondered how his comrade had contacted Guan Yuanfeng in his previous life and persuaded him to join the psychic powers activation experiment.

In any case, things had gotten off to a good start now.

He checked Guan Yuanfeng's pulse, removed the ear needles, prepared the medicine, and then chopped up a cucumber. First, he needed to regulate Guan Yuanfeng's physical condition before performing a core implant to activate his psychic powers.

Guan Yuanfeng wasn’t the type to sit idle. "I want to go down and check out the neighborhood."

But Zhou Yun was already prepared. "We still don’t know the situation outside, and the zombies are too fierce out there. I heard on the radio that they’re as strong as beasts, faster than ordinary people, and carry zombie venom. Don’t act rashly. Wait, I have a drone; we’ll use it to check out the neighborhood first."

Guan Yuanfeng was startled. "A drone?" His spirits lifted. This was indeed better than venturing out in person, especially since he was in a wheelchair.

He was used to knowing the situation when things were unclear, so he wanted to go down and check the surroundings while the elevators were still functioning normally.

Otherwise, if the power were cut off, he would really be trapped on the roof, relying entirely on Zhou Yun, a doctor with little combat experience.

This felt like an unspeakable shame to him, his pride and his disability always at odds. But he hadn’t expected Zhou Yun to not point out the limitations of his wheelchair, instead calmly proposing another very reasonable solution.

Zhou Yun said, "Yes, I used to play with them and control them with my computer. I even set up a radio base station back then. Let’s eat first; I’ll get it working in a bit. I’ve been busy planting medicinal herbs lately and haven’t had time to play."

Guan Yuanfeng said, "You sure have a wide range of hobbies." It was hard to connect drone flying with being a doctor.

Zhou Yun sliced the cured meat and sprinkled it into the bamboo shoot soup, then turned to look at him with a smile. "It’s not strange for young people to have these hobbies. From high school to university, drone interest groups were common. I’m not into singing and dancing, so I stuck with these hobbies."

Guan Yuanfeng caught Zhou Yun’s bright eyes and warm smile as he turned. Being someone who observed details carefully, he was surprised to find Zhou Yun seemed even more handsome after his illness. He smiled. "You must have been quite the heartthrob in school."

Zhou Yun smiled and served the fresh and delicious cured meat bamboo shoot soup. He then poured the large bones from the pressure cooker into the dog bowl, and the two of them, along with their dog, began to eat.

After dinner, Zhou Yun indeed went to the study, opened his computer, and brought out the drone.

Guan Yuanfeng took it and examined it with praise. "Satellite positioning, built-in new energy battery, infrared night vision, light sensitivity, infrared thermal imaging, temperature measurement, night mode, intelligent cruise, wireless charging—so many functions. This is the latest configuration."

He sighed again. "This must be expensive. Even the general configuration of military drones isn’t as good as this. And you even set up a base station yourself. You’re truly a high-end player. No wonder you can’t save any money; your hobbies are quite costly."

Besides planting and medical skills, there were also drones, bows and arrows, knives, and other survival gear. Although he looked young, he really did have broad interests.

Zhou Yun asked him, "This also has a mobile base function. It can be installed on top of a car, intelligent cruise, and intelligent return to the nest. Think you can handle it, Brother Guan?"

Guan Yuanfeng said, "I’ve taken specialized communication reconnaissance courses. I know a bit, but not enough to be proficient. It will take some time."

Zhou Yun replaced the battery in the drone and made some adjustments. He then opened the window, placed the drone on the windowsill, and turned on the computer to activate it. After setting some parameters, he handed the drone's remote control to Guan Yuanfeng, saying, "Give it a try. The images from the drone will sync to the computer."

Summer was nearing its end, and the sunlight in the neighborhood was blindingly bright at noon.

The drone lifted off, and after a while, Guan Yuanfeng got the hang of it, slowly maneuvering it out of the window and up to the rooftop, where it circled around.

Under Zhou Yun's guidance, Guan Yuanfeng flew the drone around the solar panels and rainwater collection facilities to check if the equipment was intact. Then he slowly ascended higher, getting a bird's-eye view of the entire neighborhood.

The two of them huddled in front of the computer, watching the drone's feed.

Zhou Yun pointed out, "Looks like the zombies don’t seem to enjoy the sunlight either. Or maybe they just don’t like open spaces. They’re probably hiding inside the buildings, possibly on different floors. Should we check the roads and public facilities first?"

Guan Yuanfeng maneuvered the drone over the fountain square in the neighborhood. "Let's circle the public roads from the entrance and check the power distribution room and other spots to see if there's anything usable."

With a serious expression, he said, "We're likely going to be here for a long time. We need to gather every available resource." Although they had stockpiled some daily necessities, food, and medicine, if they were to be trapped for an extended period, they would need to find opportunities to collect more supplies. Social order would likely collapse, but people still needed to eat, drink, and live.

Knowing that Guan Yuanfeng's survival skills and leadership were exceptional, Zhou Yun readily agreed. "The property office, power distribution room, underground parking lot, and the community cafeteria—these public areas should all be checked. You talk, and I'll take notes. Let’s make a list first and then figure out the priorities."

The drone soon reached the foot of the hill and flew up the slope. Guan Yuanfeng's sharp eyes quickly spotted something unusual on the drone's infrared thermal imaging screen. "There are zombies in the small grove of trees."

He carefully controlled the drone to approach the grove by the roadside, slowly entering the path through the woods.

The trees in the grove were peach, plum, maple, crape myrtle, and oleander—ornamental flowering trees with dense summer foliage.

Within the grove, hunched and shuffling back and forth, were gray-green-skinned zombies with bulging eyes, tusks, and long claws.

The drone buzzed past, causing a slight commotion among them, but upon realizing it wasn't flesh, they wobbled on.

Guan Yuanfeng said, "They have hearing, but their vision doesn’t seem very good. They seem to rely mostly on their sense of smell."

Zhou Yun nodded and placed a cushion behind Guan Yuanfeng's lower back on the wheelchair.

Guan Yuanfeng shifted slightly to allow the cushion to be placed, but his attention remained focused on the screen, fully concentrated on maneuvering the drone through the woods and slowly flying it to another small grove. "There are about two hundred zombies in the small grove," he counted.

Zhou Yun found a colored map on the bookshelf and unfolded it, marking it with a pen.

Guan Yuanfeng glanced at it in surprise. "Where did you get the map of this neighborhood?"

Zhou Yun said, "It was from a brochure when I bought the house. They distributed a lot of design brochures to encourage relocated households to move, and the layout is mostly the same as it is now."

Guan Yuanfeng sighed again. "Do you keep everything without throwing anything away?"

It was as if Zhou Yun had hoarding tendencies. Guan Yuanfeng remembered seeing him bargain with a vendor for pineapple peels to make fertilizer, and that's when he first realized Zhou Yun was quite different from ordinary people.

Nowadays, any leftover food either went to the dog or got turned into fertilizer.

Zhou Yun couldn't help but laugh. "Are you holding back praise because you think I’ll get too confident?"

In the midst of his busy work, Guan Yuanfeng took a moment to give Zhou Yun a thumbs-up.

The drone soon inspected the underground parking area of the neighborhood. The signal became weak once it entered the underground parking, so Guan Yuanfeng didn't linger too long and turned back, but it was enough to see that the door to the underground area had been destroyed, with numerous zombies wandering below.

Several cars were still parked in the lot, but many had clearly been driven out. The exit was blocked by cars, inside which were a few zombies. Apparently, a family had attempted to escape but had undergone a tragic transformation. The zombies, lacking intelligence, couldn't open the doors and were merely clawing from inside.

Guan Yuanfeng frowned. "I’m not sure if the charging stations down there are still working."

Zhou Yun said, "The neighborhood has gasoline and diesel generators, probably in the power distribution room. But the signal there is poor, and the drone can't go inside. Let's mark it for now."

"If we run out of electricity later, we can check it out. We can also collect all the gasoline from the cars in the underground parking lot, giving us a stockpile of gasoline for backup power generation."

Gasoline, diesel, and other fuels are incredibly valuable in this apocalypse.

Guan Yuanfeng’s face was grim as he guided the drone toward the public shops near the community square.

Several shop doors had been ripped apart, clearly by zombies, leaving deep claw marks and large holes as if torn by wild animals.

It seemed someone had taken refuge inside but was eventually surrounded and killed by zombies.

Even though most survivors had already evacuated with the main group two days ago, and those who hadn’t were likely devoured by zombies within these three days, seeing the once bustling community square now overrun by zombies from the drone’s perspective was still a shock.

Meanwhile, Zhou Yun was jotting down notes and counting aloud: "The fruit store—when we have time, we can gather some long-lasting fruits and any seeds we can plant."

"The convenience store—we can pick up some everyday supplies. This store has an ice cream freezer; we should bring it back."

"The print shop—we can collect the printers, computers, and copy paper. These items might be hard to find in the future."

"The pharmacy—this is important. We need to find time to gather all the medicine, including the refrigerated drugs. The flower shop… we can take the potted plants, but that’s not urgent."

"The fast-food restaurant—there should be plenty of rice and noodles we can gather. I remember they have a freezer and some gas and alcohol stoves."

"The baby store—there should be useful items like baby formula, rice cereal, vitamins, and fish oil for Comet. We should carefully collect these supplies."

"The internet cafe—it’s full of computers. We can mark it for now; there might be servers or some power equipment we can use. There might also be instant noodles and bottled water, sold by the owner to the kids who played games there."

"There’s a package pickup point here. It probably has many unclaimed packages; we should go through them carefully later for any useful supplies."

Zhou Yun wrote furiously, while Guan Yuanfeng, though feeling heavy-hearted watching the apocalyptic scene of rampant zombies with no survivors, gradually felt a bit lighter due to his optimistic attitude as Zhou listed the useful supplies.

Even though he knew in his heart that, in the short term, the two of them would not be able to gather these supplies with zombies everywhere, having advance knowledge of these resources was still a great psychological comfort.