Rotting Land: Survive

Chapter 532 - 525: Second Stop – Medicine Run (Part 1)

Entering the county town, the survivor convoy traveled eastward, a route planned before departure to avoid Liu Fugui’s factory.

Thanks to Tang Xiaoquan’s direction, the convoy moved smoothly, with their next stop being the pharmacy.

Hence, the members widened their eyes, carefully observing the situation on both sides of the street, hoping to find suitable storefronts.

Scanning the streets in a post-apocalyptic world is indeed a heart-wrenching task, especially four months after the apocalypse, the desolation of the streets and the mess on the roads stir up a sense of sorrow even in the most resilient individuals.

Once upon a time, human civilization was immensely prosperous and strong, yet a mere virus took just a few months to bring this once arrogant civilization to such a ruined state.

Is humanity truly heading towards extinction? Is humanity truly going to perish in this calamity?

No one knows, but if developments continue like this, human civilization is indeed not far from those points.

After the convoy drove for about half an hour, the survivor convoy moved from the more "decaying" county outskirts into the town.

This place is obviously much livelier than the outskirts, with the empty streets gaining some vitality due to the increase in "passersby."

The reason for entering the relatively bustling town is mainly to acquire a comprehensive array of medicines and antibiotics.

Moreover, Old Xu also wants to supplement the base with some materials for modification, as after several rounds of vehicle and house fortifications, the iron plates, nails, etc., previously brought from Bieyuan District, have almost been exhausted.

Hence, it is indeed time for restocking.

Soon, Xu Renjie luckily found the location where he needed to replenish supplies, which was a hardware store. The store wasn’t large, but it was quite crowded inside, and just from the items displayed outside, there were several things Old Xu desperately needed.

Not only that, adjacent to it was a store specializing in selling renovation materials, and similarly, Old Xu deemed the cement, yellow sand, and other items inside this shop were necessary to acquire.

After parking the car in front of the store, before the survivors could disembark, Hu Xiaodong felt the car body shake, several runners had indeed followed and were charging towards them.

Wei Dazhuang, with a blank expression, pushed open the car door; being fearless and armored with a stab-proof vest, he now appeared exceedingly fierce.

After getting out of the car, he wasted no words, kicking the beast charging at him, and after succeeding, he withdrew two knives with a cross motion, snapping the beast’s neck.

Simultaneously, Old Xu also led the team out of the vehicle. He lifted his eyebrows and looked around, evaluated the situation, and ordered Hu Xiaodong to park the car side by the store entrance.

He then took a few steps to the front of the car body, opened the car door, and as the side door opened, numerous packages fell to the ground due to loss of support.

Old Xu was indifferent to this, after all, the full car of packages were foreign goods, simply put, it was a gift from heaven.

Since it was a gift, naturally it was divided into useful and useless things, but the store’s supplies were different, those were what the survivors urgently needed.

Thus, Old Xu immediately ordered, "Hu Xiaodong, Dazhuang, Wang Qiang, guard with me! The rest of you enter the house to transport the supplies!"

Upon receiving the order, Tang Xiaoquan immediately called Zhang Zhicai and Li Zhong into the shop.

Upon entering the house, they immediately smelled a rotting corpse odor permeating the air.

Fixing their gaze, it was indeed a skeleton scattered on the ground, after being scavenged clean behind the cashier’s counter, with many crusted meat and rotten remains splattered on the surrounding tools.

Li Zhong couldn’t help but retch, time was pressing, Tang Xiaoquan had no time to comfort him. He grabbed a black plastic bag hanging above and started picking up the nails, nuts, and other supplies inside.

Zhang Zhicai entered the storage room in the back alone to search for large items such as iron sheets.

The inside was bustling; outside, the fierce battle was intensifying.

The first batch of three blind beasts had already perished under Wei Dazhuang’s double scythes.

But as the battle commenced, the killing sounds quickly attracted the attention of other beasts in the alleys, so they started to gather, attacking the survivor’s position in groups.

"Xiao Hu, get on the rooftop, take the high ground to fight the enemies!" Old Xu shouted loudly as he first climbed onto the city management vehicle rooftop, then scrambled onto the SUV roof.

His purpose was very clear: to use the long-range advantage of his bow and crossbow to first snipe the runners charging fiercely.

Because this breed of beast is extremely fast, once they arrive in large numbers, the survivor’s formation will definitely be disrupted, and the consequences will be unimaginable.

"Whiz whiz whiz!" The sound of breaking through the air continued to echo, Old Xu knew his shooting technique was not as good as Hu Xiaodong’s, so while Hu Xiaodong could shoot from a hundred steps, he could only manage fifty steps.

Thus, one distant, one close, formed two natural barriers, easing the pressure on ground-level combat in the short term.

After all, ordinary pacers move slowly, coupled with the survivors now having protective stab-proof vests, even if scratched and scraped several times, there will be no significant harm.

However, Old Xu still soberly realized that prolonged stalemate is no solution because once the beasts gain numerical superiority, even if the survivor’s side can hold off for a while, the breakout later will be a problem.

Reflecting on this, Xu Renjie couldn’t help but loudly remind, "Xiaotang, Xiaozhang, Xiaoli, you have 5 minutes, after which we must retreat!"

Upon hearing this, Tang Xiaoquan knew the battle outside had reached a fever pitch, so he no longer bothered to pick and choose, and quickly shoveled things into the plastic bag.

After all, they were items from a hardware store; he believed as long as they were taken, they would find a purpose.

Once a bag was filled, he left the hardware store and, seeing Xu Renjie moving towards the adjacent decoration store, worried for his safety, he gathered the remaining few crossbow arrows, jumped off the car rooftop, and together with the protector Tang Xiaoquan, dashed into the decoration store.

Yellow sand, cement, and respective wall paint glue were all scattered messily on the road surface, it seemed this shop had also encountered a fierce battle.

However, at this moment, Tang and Xu had no time to investigate; they bent over and started moving things outside.

Without Xu Renjie’s firepower support, Hu Xiaodong’s sniping noticeably weakened, with the original two lines of defense now shattered into a single prone position, thereby allowing occasional runners to break through the bow and arrow coverage net and launch surprise attacks.

Standing on the frontline, Wang Qiang and Wei Dazhuang’s jackets were already tattered, and the scars from corpse claws tearing and pulling were eerie.

At times, zombies were killed by the duo, but more beasts were clustering together with low growls, encroaching towards the survivor convoy.

The situation had reached a moment of extreme crisis! (To be continued. If you like this work, visit qidian.com to vote for recommendation or monthly tickets; your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please read on m.qidian.com.)