Chapter 56: No Supplies Left
Having not eaten last night, everyone woke up very early in the morning. Apart from Lu Weiyi still feeling weak, only Xu Sa looked a bit frail, but his spirits were good.
Having just recovered from a serious illness, Lu Weiyi threw two packs of bread and a bottle of water from his bag to him. “Remember to pay me back.”
Xu Sa gave an OK sign. He had been sick before, not eating well and not resting well, so his body was indeed a bit weak. He didn’t stand on ceremony now and gave one pack to Liu Rui.
After Xu Sa finished one piece of bread, Liu Rui handed the other one back. “You… you eat.”
“Won’t eat anymore.” Xu Sa stretched lazily, not urging him to eat, and put the bread in his bag. This kid was stubborn. When food was scarce, he wouldn’t eat a single bite and would save it all for him, no matter what anyone said. The most urgent thing was to find more supplies. Just this one pack of bread being passed back and forth felt pathetic.
Lu Weiyi ate half a piece of bread weakly and couldn’t eat any more. Lin Yimu was very worried and had Gu Qingyue check him, but they couldn’t find anything wrong.
“It’s okay, maybe the recovery is just slower,” Lu Weiyi said. Today, he could at least pick up a bottle of mineral water himself, proving that he was indeed recovering.
“Looks like we need to be careful in the future and try not to exhaust our abilities in unsafe situations,” Li Zhuang said.
Antonio and Liu Rui nodded.
Lin Yimu took out the tablet in Lu Weiyi’s backpack and opened the map. “We can’t go this way, but we have to cross this river to get to Qingyuan. We can either go around this side, but that also involves crossing a bridge, and we don’t know if the bridge is okay. Or we can go directly to Guyang City. It’s close to the lake, so we should be able to find a motorboat to cross the river directly.”
“With the earthquake and yesterday’s flood, the chances of the bridge being okay are slim. I suggest we go directly to Guyang to avoid a wasted trip and having to go back around. Besides, going this way also involves going around a mountain, which is a long distance and all wilderness, so there won’t be much in the way of supplies,” Xu Sa said, looking at the others. After a few people expressed their opinions, they all agreed to go to Guyang.
There wasn’t much to pack, so they immediately prepared to set off. In addition to the off-road vehicle they had been driving, they had also found two more cars yesterday, which was just enough for everyone.
Li Zhuang picked up Lu Weiyi and put him in the off-road vehicle, assigning, “Lin Yimu and I will take our delicate Little Lu. The rest of you can divide yourselves, four people per car.”
“Let’s go.”
With more people traveling, the number of zombies on the road naturally increased. They had no supplies and even had to consider the car’s gasoline. Along the way, they would basically stop whenever they encountered a vehicle to check and siphon out any remaining gasoline, which wasted a lot of time and resulted in killing a lot of zombies.
Lu Weiyi rested in the car, using his mental power to collect the zombie crystal cores from the killed zombies along the way. The number of zombies increased, but the cores were still pitifully few. Sometimes, there wouldn’t be one even after killing dozens of zombies.
There were many villages on the way to Guyang City, but almost no food. They did come across a few fruit trees that had been picked over, with a dozen or so left at the top. The group picked them, but most were reluctant to eat them and saved them. At most, they would divide one in half as a gesture.
They finally arrived in Guyang City when it was almost evening.
Going a day without food was okay, but in the July-August heat, only drinking a few sips of water a day was not enough at all. What’s more, not everyone even had water. The group discussed that even though it was almost dark, it would be best to search for food.
After a day of rest, Lu Weiyi could walk on his own, but that was all the strength he had. He couldn’t even lift a knife, let alone fight zombies. The group chose a partially collapsed building, cleared the first floor, had Dean guard Lu Weiyi, and the others went to find food together.
They chose such a building because people would definitely not choose to continue living in a collapsed building after an earthquake, so the possibility of zombies would be lower.
“Young Master, we’ll be on the street downstairs. If anything happens, shoot, and I’ll come back as soon as possible,” Lin Yimu anxiously instructed Dean before leaving. “Don’t open the door for zombies or living people. Please take care of him.”
“Don’t worry,” Dean said, standing beside Lu Weiyi like a little guard, stammering, “Wi… will pro… protect Lu.”
“You also need to be careful, I’ll be back soon,” Antonio kissed Dean, locked the door, and then carried a cabinet from next door to pile against the door.
Zombies were ignorant and unaware. Even if they sensed someone in the room, they wouldn’t know how to move obstacles. With a cabinet there, it could at least buy the two of them some time in case something happened.
In the early days of the apocalypse, human abilities were really no match for the rampaging zombies. That’s why it hadn’t been long before zombies were everywhere.
Lu Weiyi stood by the window and looked out. He could see one or two wandering figures everywhere. The high temperature was causing them to decompose rapidly. Rotten flesh covered their bodies, and with missing limbs, they no longer looked anything like they did in life. Thinking that they had been living people not long ago, an unspeakable anxiety welled up in his heart.
Three days since they set off.
They hadn’t encountered Zhuang Mingxu.
Along the way, Lin Yimu would always leave a mark at each place they stopped. Anyone who had been there would definitely recognize it, but there was nothing…
Lu Weiyi didn’t want to think about the reason, and of course, he didn’t dare to think about it.
The shops on the street had been mostly ransacked. Li Zhuang and the others went into several, but there was nothing to be gained. Moreover, it wasn’t a familiar place, so it was purely luck.
Obviously, their luck wasn’t very good.
There were only three convenience stores on the whole street. One had collapsed, leaving only the facade. The other two had been completely ransacked, with not a single edible item left. The others were printing shops, clothing stores, and restaurants. Seeing that it was already dark, without lighting, encountering zombies would be a greater loss than gain. So, the group simply searched through a few restaurants, finding a few bags of flour and rice, as well as a few undamaged potatoes and sweet potatoes. But without water or fire, these things couldn’t be eaten directly.
On the way back, everyone was a bit dejected. Xiong Jie looked at Xi Shi’s dry lips beside him, feeling both heartache and anxiety.
Xi Shi smiled at him and whispered, “I’m fine.”
He hadn’t had a sip of water for a day and a half and had only eaten two apples. But in this hot weather, eating sweet, greasy fruit actually made him feel even thirstier. He must be both hungry and thirsty now. How could he be fine?
Xiong Jie’s gaze returned to the collapsed convenience store. There were no signs of it being searched. The things in the convenience store must still be buried inside…
“We’ll go dig tomorrow when it’s light,” Li Zhuang said, noticing his gaze.
As soon as he said this, the others also looked over. Gu Qingyue, seeing that he wasn’t planning to give up, said, “It’s already dark. If there’s a zombie lurking in the shadows, we won’t even see it. It’s too dangerous. Why don’t we find some supplies here first tomorrow before we leave?” He looked at the others for their opinions.
“Agreed,” Antonio replied, “especially drinkable water.”
The others also agreed.
Xi Shi also pulled Xiong Jie’s arm and persuade, “Xiong, I’m really okay, don’t take risks.”
“I won’t,” Xiong Jie smiled and patted Xi Shi’s hand, but his eyes still held some reluctance.
“Xiong, you’re all I have. If anything dangerous happens to you, have you thought about how I’ll live alone? I finally waited for you to come out, and I’m already very content. This little hardship is nothing at all.” Xi Shi had known him since childhood and naturally understood him. Worried that he would sneak out when he wasn’t paying attention, he simply stated the seriousness of the situation clearly.
Of course, this was also the truth. He himself was weak-natured. From the apocalypse descending to their escape, if it hadn’t been for Xiong Jie, he would have died several times along the way. This wasn’t an exaggeration.
He said these words to Xiong Jie, but they also touched the hearts of the others. Gu Qingyue and Gu Qingji had relied on each other since they were very young. Antonio had brought Dean to a foreign land. Liu Rui and Xu Sa’s relatives might as well not exist. At this moment, they looked at each other without speaking, but everything was understood.
“I know, let’s go back first. I saved one of the apples from this morning. Go back and eat it, then bear with it a bit more,” Xiong Jie naturally understood the truth in his words, but he just couldn’t bear to see him suffer.
“Dean, we’re back,” Antonio said first when they reached the door.
Dean, who was vigilantly holding a gun inside, breathed a slight sigh of relief and trotted over to open the door. “So fast, how was it?”
Antonio shook his head and stepped aside. Li Zhuang and Lin Yimu carried two large bags of flour, Xiong Jie carried a bag of rice, and the rest of the people held various half-empty or scattered bags of dried goods. There wasn’t a single ready-to-eat item.
“Don’t worry, we’ll definitely find some tomorrow,” Dean comforted Antonio.
Antonio himself didn’t feel anything. When he used to carry out missions alone, he had escaped death countless times and encountered all kinds of difficult situations. This wasn’t anything. But when he thought about his little boyfriend having to endure these hardships, Antonio felt bad.
He kissed Dean’s forehead, hugged him, opened his backpack, and found only a bottle of water with a few sips left and an apple, which he had saved from noon. “We’ll go find supplies tomorrow. Make do with this for now.”
Dean nodded, took a sip of water, and bit into the apple, then immediately handed it to Antonio.
Antonio didn’t move. “You eat.”
Dean took another bite and directly put the bitten piece into Antonio’s mouth. Antonio was helpless but felt extremely sweet inside.
While the two of them shared an apple, the others weren’t much better off. The Gu Qingyue brothers only had half a bottle of water and a palm-sized piece of bread, which would crumble into a ball with a squeeze. An adult wouldn’t necessarily feel full after eating three or four of those. Xu Sa and Liu Rui also had half a bottle of water and an apple. As for Xi Shi and Xiong Jie, they had nothing but one apple between them.
“Young Master, have some bread,” Lin Yimu handed the bread he had saved to Lu Weiyi.
Lu Weiyi shook his head. “Brother Mu, you eat it yourself. I don’t want to eat.”
“Little friend doesn’t want bread, would you like a piece of candy?” Li Zhuang actually pulled out a piece of fruit candy from somewhere.
Lu Weiyi shook his head, his gaze still fixed on the window.
“Young Master…” Lin Yimu didn’t know what to say. The longer they traveled, the more silent Lu Weiyi became. Apart from necessary communication, he wouldn’t even say a word for a whole day. Lin Yimu knew he was worried about Zhuang Mingxu, but he didn’t know how to comfort him.
When people were eating each other, without definite news, any words seemed too pale.
I really hope they are reunited soon