Chapter 98 Zombie: Inventorying Supplies

Chapter 98: Zombies—Taking Stock of Supplies

There's good news and bad news right now.

The good news is that the sightseeing boat's control console is foolproof—kind of like driving an automatic car. A steering wheel, a few gauges, plus buttons for "forward," "reverse," and "stop." Once you figure out what the buttons do, even a total newbie like Everly could handle it without much trouble.

The bad news is that, according to the gauges, the boat only has 18% fuel remaining. Everly searched the whole boat but couldn't find any fuel cans.

If they wanted fuel, they'd have to find it somewhere else.

The Chatta River originates in Kitka State, fed by snowmelt from the peaks of the Abanayazi Mountains. Flowing from north to south, the current is still pretty fast when it flows through Radyard City. Everly's original plan was to head upstream to Sandy City to put as much distance between them and Radyard as possible.

But with this little fuel, there was no way the boat could make it more than a dozen kilometers upstream.

Sure, she could let the boat drift downstream, but that meant floating past the eastern and southern parts of the city first. Everly couldn't rule out something going wrong along the way, because she remembered that some zombies in zombie movies could swim.

Plus, if they went downstream, after leaving Radyard, the river would cut through a huge stretch of uninhabited land, and they wouldn't hit another city until they got close to the river mouth. And once they were downstream, the current would slow—without enough fuel, who knows if the boat could even get going again!

Everly checked the control panel and found the boat ran on diesel.

Diesel is pretty widely used in America—lots of vehicles and big industrial machines run on it, and in places without natural gas lines, people use it for home heating too.

Remembering the hot dog stand she'd seen earlier, Everly gritted her teeth and decided to head there while the park was still clear of infected, to look for diesel and grab some food to fill their stomachs.

Just to be safe, she pulled Misha into the driver's cabin, handed her the keys, and told her to watch the boat. Then she stuffed some cash in her pocket and hurried along the road to the hot dog stand.

The hot dog stand was super close to the dock—less than 200 meters away, just walk to the end of the road and turn a corner. That was also why Everly felt okay going alone.

The stand sat at the junction of several paths in the park, and business was pretty good. Even at six-something in the evening, six or seven tourists were still sitting out front, chatting and laughing, chowing down under the festive string lights.

Everly ran up to the stand and asked the owner if he sold diesel. She said her car was out of gas and wouldn't start. The owner thought it was a little weird that someone would come to a park to buy diesel, but he was still helpful and pointed her toward the park warehouse, and the manager was still on shift—the warehouse would definitely have what she needed.

"Thanks... can you also sell me some bread and sausages? No need to cook them—I'll make them myself at home."

Everly thanked him and pulled out a wad of hundred-Mido bills.

The hot dogs at the stand were "pre-made"—the sausages and buns were all ready to go. When someone ordered, the sausage went into a machine to heat up, then got tucked into a bun with sauce and veggies like lettuce, and boom—hot dog done.

What Everly wanted was the uncooked sausages and the plain buns. She was willing to pay full hot dog price, so the owner had no reason to say no. Plus, it was hot out, and ingredients went bad fast—he could also unload some stock before closing.

Unfortunately, the stand had been open all day, and the ingredients were running low to begin with. He dug around and could only scrape together about 200 Midos' worth of stuff.

So before long, Everly was holding a bag of frozen sausages and two bags of unopened hot dog buns.

"I still owe you 5 sausages—hang on, let me see if I can dig up more..."

The owner bent down and kept rummaging through the freezer.

Everly was about to tell him she was in a hurry and to forget the rest, when suddenly, from the direction of the park's main gate, a terrified scream rang out.

"Ahhhh! Help!"

"Run! Someone's killing people!"

Right after the screams came the chaotic sound of footsteps and animal-like roars.

Since no gunshots were heard, the people at the stand weren't scared. Everyone figured it was some kind of prank. Including the owner, most people stood up, totally relaxed, and turned to gawk at the gate, their faces practically screaming "I want the tea."

Only Everly's nerves went on high alert.

—It was spreading way too fast. It hadn't been that long, and the infection had already reached the park!

In most US states, including Dwight State, you had to be at least 21 to legally own a handgun. Neither Everly nor Misha was old enough, and since they'd taken public transport instead of driving, they hadn't brought any guns to avoid unnecessary hassle.

Under these circumstances, going alone to a warehouse who-knows-how-far away—possibly with infected nearby—to buy diesel, then hauling a heavy fuel can back to the dock, was way too risky.

After a quick moment of thought, Everly decided to ditch the fuel plan and run.

"Tell everyone—those are zombies. They have great hearing, they eat people, and anyone bitten gets infected and turns into one of them. Only a headshot kills them. Tell everyone to run!"

She quickly whispered the situation to the owner, grabbed her bread and sausages, and sprinted back the way she came, vanishing in no time.

By the time the owner finally saw a blood-soaked, staggering zombie shambling nearby and realized Everly was telling the truth, she'd already untied the dock chains and made it onto the boat.

"Misha, start the boat!"

"Got it!"

In the driver's cabin, Misha had already figured out how to operate the sightseeing boat. Hearing Everly's instruction, she pressed the start button, turned the steering wheel, first engaged the propeller to push the boat away from the shore into the middle of the river, then adjusted the boat's orientation so the cabin faced forward. Once the boat had drifted a good distance with the current, she shut off the engine and let the boat float along on its own.

In just that short time, the fuel gauge had dropped from 18% to 17%.

Looking at the numbers on the dashboard, Everly felt uneasy. But going back ashore to find the park warehouse the hot dog stand owner mentioned and haul back the diesel she needed—she wasn't willing to do that either. It was too risky, and unless it was a do-or-die situation, Everly wouldn't make such an irrational choice.

Well, take it one step at a time...

Hearing the cries, roars, and screams drifting from the shore in the distance, Everly let out a long sigh. To shift her mood, she decided to organize the supplies on the boat while there was still enough daylight.

The boat's electrical system was powered by a diesel generator. To save energy, after dark, only a bow light would be lit to illuminate the water ahead, avoiding suddenly appearing rocks and keeping the boat from being pushed off course onto the shore.

While Misha drove the boat, Everly sat by the window, taking inventory by the last light of the setting sun.

First, she counted the drinking water. Americans really love high-sugar, high-carbonation drinks, and the vending machines on the street were basically all full of them.

Misha had emptied that vending machine, scoring a total of 8 bottles of 500ml mineral water, 7 bottles of 500ml soda water, and 14 bottles of various carbonated drinks, juices, and other sugary beverages.

Among these, the soda water was the high-fructose-corn-syrup kind that not only failed to quench thirst but actually increased blood osmotic pressure, making you thirstier. So strictly speaking, the only truly hydrating drinks were those 8 bottles of mineral water.

Radyard was at a fairly southern latitude, with temperatures currently staying above 30 degrees Celsius. In this weather, two people splitting 8 bottles of water wouldn't last more than a few days.

Of course, in a pinch, river water was drinkable too.

Everly had brought an outdoor water purifier. It was a small pump-like canister with a pull handle that could draw dirty water into the chamber. Inside, multiple layers of filters and membranes could remove most sand, bacteria, and microorganisms, expelling clean water from another outlet.

But this type of purifier's filtration precision was tied to its size. To save backpack space, Everly had brought a portable version with a smaller filter cartridge, which couldn't filter out some bacteria, viruses, and microorganisms. Plus, the cartridge had to be replaced periodically—otherwise, instead of producing clean water, it could cause secondary contamination.

Moreover, generally speaking, zombie outbreaks were caused by viral infections, and Everly couldn't guarantee that the zombie virus wouldn't dissolve into the water.

So theoretically, bottled water was definitely safer.

Compared to drinking water, food was actually more abundant.

From the vending machine and the ticket booth, the two had scored 4 bags of chips, 1 bag of cheese balls, and 1 bag of cheese crackers. Everly had spent 200 Midos to get 28 hot dog buns (the owner threw in 3 extra) and 20 hot dog sausages from the stand owner. In addition, both Everly and Misha had a military-style compressed biscuit the size of a piece of dried tofu in their backpacks. With all this food, they wouldn't go hungry anytime soon.

But the weather was hot, and the sausages would spoil quickly.

Everly examined the sausage packaging carefully in the remaining light.

Luckily, these sausages were already cooked, just frozen for preservation. The storage instructions on the packaging said they needed to be kept at minus 18 degrees Celsius for long-term storage. Everly figured that once the sausages were opened, they wouldn't last long—maybe she could dry them into jerky.

But that's a problem for tomorrow; it was too late now, and there was no way the sausages could be taken out today.

To extend the sausages' shelf life as much as possible, Everly removed the cushion from the cabin seat, sandwiched the frozen sausages, still in their packaging, inside the thick cushion, covered them with a few dust sheets, and weighed the cloth down with heavy objects. That way, perhaps by tomorrow morning, the sausages inside would still retain their cold temperature.

After organizing the food and water, Everly began searching the sightseeing boat for supplies.

Unfortunately, likely to prevent theft by looters, the sightseeing boat had nothing useful on board except for the orange life rings hanging on both sides of the hull, a pole with a small net at the top, and a bucket of unclear use.

The boat's toilet was even just a board with a hollow hole, not even a water tank for washing or flushing—what a rip-off!

Walking from the stern to the bow, and finally into the cockpit, Everly finally made a new discovery—she found a fire axe stored in a fire extinguisher cabinet, a freshly opened box of dental floss, and several packs of disposable rain ponchos!

Made of clear plastic, these things, besides keeping off rain, could also be used with the bucket and the blazing sun to get distilled water.

Distilled water is way cleaner than filtered water!