This is apocalyptic

Chapter 28: Even an old salted fish will go bad after 028 years
Bai Xiao was so surprised that he wanted to find a mirror to observe himself.

"Zombies that have been exposed to the wind and rain in the wild usually become nothing more than skin and bones after ten years. They are rotten and no longer a threat, just like skeletons. Zombies in the city are better. They have become like this after more than ten years." Lin Duoduo pointed to the zombie downstairs with a small grass growing on its head:

"But they are not rational, unlike you who eat and drink and maintain normal habits." Lin Duoduo thought about it seriously, "Maybe you can take good care of yourself, unlike them." Especially when they are just infected, they are fierce and strong. The stronger they are, the shorter their shelf life.

"Um……"

This is indeed true. Zombies wander around all day long, their bodies like the embers after burnt firewood, without roots or sources.

Just like the garlic sprouts in the kitchen, without soil, the longer they sprout, the faster they wither.

"You scared me." The more Bai Xiao thought about it, the more he felt it was possible. If it was well maintained, it might even live longer than this human.

Lin Duoduo put on her hat and drank some water.

The surviving humans were in panic at first, but later slowly realized that as long as they held on and survived the initial horrific disaster, as time went by, humans would still be the ultimate winners, just like their ancient ancestors faced nature.

It was just discovered a little too late. Too many people died in those ten years and victory was still a long way off.

Disasters are never just one thing. It’s not just zombies, but also order, food, water, medicine, and animals. In my family’s description, the winter when the zombies broke out was another disaster.

Fortunately, it's calm now.

"The place where you live is Aunt Qian's former home in the city," said Lin Duoduo.

"Oh."

Bai Xiao looked back at the bedroom. He remembered the photo hanging on the wall of the room. It showed a young couple who had an apartment in such a good location. They must have been happy before the disaster.

Now there are only some traces of life left in the house, and even the bathroom and kitchen retain their original appearance.

Lin Duoduo ate something to retain her strength, and with a rope hanging around her waist, she slowly descended to the eighth floor, then opened the window and climbed in.

A family of three used to live here, and there was a photo frame on the table, but she didn't touch it. She just wiped the dust off and looked at the layout of the room, then looked in the kitchen and cabinets to see if there was anything that was still usable.

She knew that the original residents of this building, or even this community, would probably never come back, and only scavengers would come to look for some supplies left before the disaster. But it was also possible that the owner of an empty house would come back one day, just like Aunt Qian asked her to come by when she was scavenging.

In the eyes of the survivors who returned, these photo frames were more valuable than a bag of salt, a can of coffee, or even a box of wine, because those things could be found in many buildings, while the former were only found here, in this room.

So she didn't destroy anything, but just searched for some useful supplies and moved them out.

Before a disaster, many people would store some things at home, especially in communities like this one. Unlike apartments with many tenants, you can often find things like salt, wine, honey, etc. that don't spoil easily. If you're lucky, you can even find a whole box of canned food.

——That was the most delicious thing she had ever eaten. She remembered it was canned beef. It was not as hard as the beef from the animals she caught herself, nor was it dry and tough. As soon as she opened the iron box, the aroma overflowed.

Lin Duoduo secretly hoped that she could find another box.

The things found in the houses are different depending on their location. The rooms of the residents downstairs are prone to dampness, so most of the things found there are unusable. Sometimes it can also be damp if the building is too high. Things in houses that are neither too high nor too low are better preserved, especially in better buildings with better decoration.

Bai Xiao and Lin Duoduo were busy on the lower floors of this building.

There are still two zombies trapped in a house on the seventh floor. It seems that they did not escape that year and were infected and stayed at home, and have been trapped here ever since.

The two zombies were locked in different rooms. They were skinny, with their ribs clearly visible and a layer of skin covering their skeletons. Bai Xiao finally found the source of the noise he heard when he was climbing the stairs yesterday.

"Be careful, there may be more in other rooms." Bai Xiao reminded Lin Duoduo.

He saw a corpse in the previous house. It didn't look like a zombie. It seemed that the person had starved to death while hiding at home. It had been twenty years and the body had already turned into dry bones.

Unlike the thriving vegetation downstairs, among the lush plants, entering the building are the people who were destroyed when the disaster struck that year.

——Time froze the building at the moment the disaster struck, while the zombies outside protected it from being disturbed. It was not until twenty years later when the zombies decayed and grew old that scavengers set foot on the ruins again.

Bai Xiao did not participate in the search because he did not find anything useful. He saw Lin Duoduo even found a home first aid kit. Although the iodine in it had long evaporated and the band-aids had long since expired, the thermometer and safety scissors were useful, as well as a clip-on tourniquet that looked barely useful. He also found an old salted fish in a kitchen, but it was a pity that it could not be eaten.

Bai Xiao stuffed a bag of various candles into his bag and continued to pick up junk with Lin Duoduo.

"What is this?" Lin Duoduo turned out a strange thing.

"It should be called a jumping pole?" Bai Xiao recognized it. "If you step on it, you can jump up and down, and jump very high."

Lin Duoduo studied it for a while, handed it to him and said, "Try it."

Bai Xiao was about to take it when he suddenly felt that it was not right for a zombie to play on a jumping pole. It seemed a bit outrageous, so he waved his hand to refuse.

"It seems that the owner of this house used to love sports." He said that there is not only jumping poles, but also dumbbell and skipping rope. He hopes that the family did not turn into zombies back then, otherwise it would be too dangerous.

Seeing Lin Duoduo taking out some even stranger things from the bedside table, Bai Xiao said, "What is this..."

"Shut up, I know." Lin Duoduo threw the things back and closed the cabinet.

"It seems that it is still the mistress of the household." Bai Xiao felt a little embarrassed for some reason and left the bedroom.

Lin Duoduo continued searching. There were a lot of clothes and two big dolls in the closet. She took a look and closed the closet. There was nothing left in the bedroom, so she went out to the kitchen.

Zheng~
Hearing the sound, Lin Duoduo turned around in surprise and found that it was Bai Xiao tinkering with a guitar.

Bai Xiao lowered his head. The guitar had been slightly deformed and the strings were loose, but they could still make sound after being tightened.

"It scared me." said Lin Duoduo.

Bai Xiao smiled and said, "This is a wealthy family, so it will be easy to find one." This guitar is very expensive and most people can't afford it.

What Lin Duoduo wanted to say was forgotten when he interrupted her. She lowered her head and saw the sugar in her hand. Her eyebrows started dancing again and she waved the sugar in front of Bai Xiao.

Both white sugar and brown sugar were found, but the brown sugar had gone bad, while the unopened bag of white sugar was still good.

"Look at you, you can't find anything in the three rooms!" Lin Duoduo scolded him. The zombie's luck was extremely bad.

"If you can, find a whole box."

Bai Xiao had already accepted his own uncivilized physique, and used the sheets he found to pack many things into a bundle. He asked, "How about I go and send these back to the car first? I guess it will take two or three trips."

"Let's move them together once we have collected enough. It would be bad if they were picked up by other scavengers."

"I didn't see any other traces of humans except that piece of paper. Maybe they left." Bai Xiao guessed, but he also agreed with what Lin Duoduo said. It would be bad if they were picked up.

"It is more likely that they will go to the hospital. Such teams usually have a clear purpose."

Lin Duoduo put forward a more reliable conjecture.

Bai Xiao agreed even more, "But...won't the medicine expire?"

"Who knows, maybe there's something useful out there, like this can of coffee."

"Haven't thrown it away yet?"

"In case of any unexpected events, maybe this will fill my stomach."

It doesn't take up much space anyway.

(End of this chapter)