Yue got the spare tire from the totaled car, and they swiftly got the jeep ready.
Then they ran into a small problem. The jeep was made to fit only four or a maximum of five people. Now there were eight people there.
"We can adjust." Yue peered at the road ahead. The fog had cleared up and He could see the end of the cornfield just a few meters from here. "First let's clear the pathway."
They got to work, clearing a small way for the car to travel in.
After doing so, they all got in. Yue sat in the driver's seat. The soldier who was previously driving the vehicle glanced at him with a pitiful look.
"I can drive through this terrain much better. Don't worry."
"But... but didn't your jeep...."
Hary patted his back. "Go sit in the back," he tried getting in the passenger seat but Tian beat him to it. She sat there comfortably. "I'm not sitting on anyone's lap."
Pouting Hary and Fan Xui got in the back.
Fan Xui sat on the right side and Hary sat on the left. Since the jeep did not have a top, the two soldiers remained standing with their guns ready. The middle seat was occupied by the technician trembling still.
There were no seats left.
Hary jokingly glanced out at the scientist. "Looks like you've got no seat left. What will do? Maybe I can tie you up in the back and let the zombies chase after you,"
"Who said I've got no place? I see a perfect seat right here," he opened the door
"Where? There's no space dude. You can stand. I'm not letting go of my….."
Prisitsky happily hopped in and sat on Hary's lap.
"Yah! Go sit somewhere else,"
"Where else?" he glanced to the side. The technician trembled even more and Fan Xui gave him a cold stare. "I think this one will throw me off if zombies come in and that one will freeze me with his cold stare. You're the best option. Just deal with it. I'm not even that heavy," he happily settled in.
Sighing, Hary leaned back, putting a lot of space in between them. "You're intolerable."
Prisitsky glanced back with a smile and shimmed his butt.
"Don't move, your bones are poking me.."
Hary sighed slightly, peering at his slender neck. His spine was poking out slightly. The man weighed nothing. He was nothing but bones.
'Does he even eat?' he gently touched his spine.
Prisitsky glanced back. "What? are you attracted to my neck?"
"Nope, I thought a skeleton was sitting on me. Just wanted to check."
Prisitsky awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck. "Ah that. I don't have much of an appetite..."
'He must be super immersed in your work...'
Hary shook his head. 'This guy must have a higher metabolism than others,'
The car swiftly dove out of the cornfields out into the open.
Hary vigilantly glanced around them. Both sides of the road were barren lands with dried-up grass-like vegetation.
"The paddy fields...they must have dried out before the second meteor," Yue whispered softly.
A few zombies were seen roaming here and there in the cleaning. They all were dressed in small straw hats.
Hearing the sound of their jeep, they all rushed towards them at high speed.
Yue shifted the gear and sped up. The road was shitty, but it was not that bad, like what was inside that cornfield.
The soldiers started to shoot at the zombies that were getting close.
Hary took his machine gun but with a person on his lap it was difficult to handle it. "hey go sit on the floor of the car,"
"Why should I? I don't like it." Prisitsky mumbled.
"I can't use my gun!"
"I have an idea," he leaned back fully, pulled his arms over his head so that they were tightly wrapped around him. "Now you can comfortably shoot,"
Hary was too stunned to speak. "Darn it Yue next time bring Qian. I prefer him more."
"boohoo, you have hurt my feeling immensely." Prisitsky whispered, glancing up at him. "By the way, I talked to Yue. I told him you like him."
"w-what. Why did you do that?"
"Isn't it productive this way? he knows how you feel about him. Besides our lives are at risk every day out here. So you have to learn to express your feelings much openly."
Gritting his teeth, Hary squeezed his arm around him.
"hisss... is that payback?"
"You should have kept your mouth shut.." while shooting, he threw worried glances at Yue's way. He seemed completely normal.
"Curious about what he said~"
"No, just shut your tramp," he shot a zombie that came close by to their side. "Yue speed up,"
"It's the maximum speed it can go." Yue shouted back. "Hold on guys. We'll drive past the clearing soon..."
This road leads directly over to the bridge that goes into the city. But their aim today was not to cross the bridge but the drive parallel upstream to the reservoir.
Yue bit his bottom lips. 'Can we even hurt those mutated fishes without grenades and guns?'
He remembered Hary mentioning the naked mole-rat. it was capable of eating the explosive without any trouble.
If the fishes were just like that then they were in great danger.
'The fishes... I hope they won't come offshore... I hope so that's the case.'
The familiar bridge was getting close by. It was still jam-packed with cars that were trying to get out of the city. A lot of zombies were just standing there.
As soon as they got close, they all growled loudly and charged at them.
Yue swiftly took a sharp right turn and drove off through the road that led that to the reservoir. "Guys, don't let these things follow us. Kill them here if we have to. Use silencers. Don't use grenades or anything that attracts more."
The soldiers and Hary started to shoot at them. Even Tian turned over in her seat and started to shoot down the hoard of zombies.
These zombies were surprisingly fast.
One of them, in particular, was hopping faster towards them
'Tian, take out that one. It's an ability zombie!"
"Got it," Tian shot at it. The zombie dodged it and hopped up higher and faster.
Its moves were like that of a grasshopper.
Through the rearview mirror, Yue peered at its physique. Its thighs looked much more fat and full of muscle.
"Shoot its thighs first. It will slow it down a little,"
Hary and Tian worked together to shoot the zombie's things.
Yue glanced back. "Fan, try shooting them,"
Fan Xui hesitantly took the gun.
"They are not human anymore. Shooting them is putting them out of misery,"
Fan Xui stood up and started to shoot at them.
One shot and the level one zombie collapsed to the ground.
Fan Xui glanced at him with a bright smile. "Did I do good? Will I get a reward,"
Blushing Yue smirked. "Just get the job done we'll talk about that later,"
They drove by the river bed passing by a lot of broken-down cars and zombies.
Yue was adept at driving at these places. he easily squeezed their jeep through small spaces and even dodged the zombies with ease.
"You drive very well," one of the soldiers mumbled.
"Thanks..." his eyes slightly focused on the river that was flowing peacefully nearby.
The Yangtze river. This river flows through many major cities and smaller town. It was the major source of freshwater for drinking as well for irrigation purposes the smaller towns nearby flourishes.
Since the outskirts of g city was very close by to it, the land here was very fertile and major corporations wanted a piece of it, to make a huge range of villas. uncle wen did not allow this beautiful place to be destroyed. He brought all the land and dedicated it to the small farmers to continue crop production.
This was the major reason that is settlement did not suffer much from the food shortage. But even so… after ten years, the food became scarce. People struggled a lot to even find a small scrap of food.
Yue tightly clenched the steering wheel.
The dam was just right ahead of them. Even from this distance, he could see how majestic it was.
It was as wide as five football fields. It stretched out from one end of the river to another in a slightly curved manner. The beauty of it all was that it had twenty spillways with hydroelectric generators placed underneath. The generated power was supplied to the city.
But only two of the spillway were open free-flowing gushed out copious amounts of water.
Yue frowned slightly. "Hey the dam, why are only two spillways open?"
The technician who was trembling in the middle asset finally leaned forward. "t-those gates.... it looks like they.. they were broken."
He did not understand even a bit of it. "It's broken? it looks fine…,"
"No, the mechanical gate system must have broken. It's.. It's usual that we open at least four spillways to protect the dam..." he mumbled in a very rural accent.
"You worked there?" Tian glanced at him peculiarly.
"Hmm.. I did miss... I was on a vacation to my grandmum's when it all went down." He anxiously peered at the dam. "if we don't repair the flood gates, the dam will collapse."
"Where is our town water supply coming from?" Yue got to the main point.
He was not even least bothered that the dam. Even if it did collapse, this river was never going to dry out. Even in ten years, it was flourished with wildlife and mutant fishes.
"Distillation and distribution center is little up ahead. Sir... do you not want to check on the dam? If it breaks, it can flood the nearby city,"
Yue glanced back with a raised brow. "There are only undead livings in the city. I don't care about the dam. Let's focus only on the distribution center. Did you work there? You know how it operates?"
"It's a very simple process sir…. the plant takes water for the reservoir cleans it and distributes it."
Yue silently thought about it. "hmm then we'll go and take a look at it. see if you can fix it. if you can't or any parts are missing we'll find it for you,"
"yes sir... but... those zombies... they..."
"Don't worry about them. you just do your job. We'll take care of those things," Tian assured him.
The distillation center was just a few minutes' drive from the dam.
Zou Yue frowned slightly. The place looked run down. 'I hope nothing is majorly damaged…
If this plant does not work the settlement might not get water at all…
'I hope and pray to god.'