Doomsday America

Chapter 171 Floating Corpses on the Lake
"Shit!"

Slightly shocked by the sight of the large buttocks, old Bert covered his nose and sat up.

Gavin and his group quickly came over, straightened old Bert's wheelchair, and helped the old man into it.

As for Madison.

Seeing the shocked Tara, he covered his head in frustration and yelled at her.

"Those were all stupid things I did when I was young, don't hold a grudge for so long, okay? Besides, you almost killed the doctor, do you still want to save that patient?!"

"Shit, sorry, doctor, I wasn't paying attention..."

Tara quickly apologized to old Bert, who shook his head with a wry smile and continued driving the wheelchair toward the medical room, saying to Tara as he did so.

"There's nothing to apologize for, it's all trivial. But if you're going to throw that little girl in your arms at my face again next time, I hope it's her butt that hits me. That way I'll feel a little better, both for my face and my mood!"

"Uh……"

Upon hearing this, Tara rolled her eyes dramatically in exasperation, then looked at Nancy in her arms.

Nancy was in excruciating pain. After all, old Bert's face was quite fleshy, and the impact had made her head ache and she couldn't breathe. You can imagine how painful that was.

Seeing that Nancy was about to start convulsing, Tara panicked and quickly took Nancy to the medical room and placed her on a hospital bed.

Seeing this, old Bert dodged Tara's strong body and pointed to the chair not far away.

"Don't let her lie down. Lying down won't help an asthma patient at all. See that chair over there? Have her squat on the chair, hug the back of the chair with both hands, and press her knees firmly against her chest!"

"Whether this little girl has an acute or chronic condition, this position should make her more comfortable. The rest is up to fate. After all, I can't magically cure an asthma patient without medication."

At this point, old Bert gestured for everyone to get moving.

Upon hearing this, Steve quickly helped Tara put Nancy to a chair and settled her in the way Old Bert had described.

Nancy felt a little better after that. Although she was still having difficulty breathing, she was at least not completely out of breath.

After confirming that Nancy's condition had stabilized, Gavin nodded, then patted Tara on the shoulder and said softly.

"Tara, Nancy is fine for now. Let's talk about your situation."

“Okay, Gavin, my God, I never expected to see you in the apocalypse, and you’ve even built such a huge camp, it’s a miracle!”

Tara perked up slightly and spoke to Gavin.

Upon hearing this, Gavin nodded in understanding, then interrupted Tara and continued speaking to her.

"This is hardly a miracle, and now is not the time to talk about such things. I have things to do and don't have time to stay home and settle you in. But you know Madison, right? If you need anything, just go directly to Madison."

"The patient you brought needs medication. Even if we don't have that kind of medication at home, my partner and I will try our best to bring it back. Don't worry."

"That's all for now, I have to go out and do my work. By the way, among the two children you brought, is one of your own?"

At this point, Gavin turned around and glanced at the two little devils waiting at the door of the medical room.

Following Gavin's gaze, Tara glanced at the two of them and quickly shook her head, saying to Gavin.

“No, they are not my children. The little black kid is my neighbor. I’ve seen him a few times before. As for the little white kid, I found him three days ago. He was hiding on the edge of Barry Town, and he even set up a tent and lived there.”

As soon as she finished speaking, Tara couldn't help but give the white kid a look of admiration.

Hearing Tara's words, Gavin couldn't help but be surprised, because the kid looked only seven or eight years old. How could such a child be able to pitch a tent by himself? Could he be Sheldon Cooper?
As for Barry, Gavin had heard of the place. It was a small town with a population of just over two hundred. With such a small population, combined with the sparsely populated nature of American towns, the chances of survivors escaping were indeed quite high.

However, now was not the time to discuss the children, so Gavin patted Tara's arm as a final gesture.

“I’m glad that the child is very hands-on. I’ll leave the two of them in Hela’s care. Hela is the children’s teacher at the camp. You can take the children to see her when you have time.”

"I'm leaving now, Tara. I hope you have a good time at the camp, and I wish your patients a speedy recovery!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Gavin waved to Steve, and the two of them immediately left the room, leading all the field agents to the center of the hall.

Just as Gavin arrived in the hall.

Adele and Li Qing happened to come out of the garage.

Seeing Gavin and his group not far away, Adele immediately raised the medicine bottle in her hand high and shouted to Gavin from afar.

"Boss, it's salbutamol. There just happens to be salbutamol in the medicine I brought back!"

"That's great! Quickly, get him to the medical room. It seems the patient Tara brought can be saved!"

Gavin waved to Adele, who then went with Li Qing to take the medicine to the medical room.

Meanwhile, Gavin spoke to the field staff at home.

"Guys, Steve will be flying the helicopter later. Anthony, Nikita, and I will go with him. The four of us will take the helicopter to the vicinity of the large zombie horde and see if we can distract them!"

"At home, Eugene, you are in charge of managing the field personnel. If you believe there is an unexpected situation at the manor that necessitates evacuation, then you must evacuate immediately."

"Of course, this situation is actually very difficult to occur. After all, our manor is sturdy enough that even if hundreds of thousands of zombies danced on the roof of the manor, they would not be able to break through the manor's defenses."

"But I mean, if we are faced with a situation where we have to evacuate, then we will head northeast to the area where the zombies have already moved!"

"Fortunately, we cleared the prison of zombies in advance, so the prison is another good option as a camp. However, there are not any supplies prepared in advance in the prison at the moment."

"In short, Steve and I will go see if we can lure the zombies away. If we can't, and if Richard Town is destined to become a gathering place for millions of zombies, then we should prepare to relocate!"

At this point, Gavin felt a pang of heartache without showing any emotion; after all, this was his home!

And the farm environment is really amazing!
But in any case, once Richard Town truly gathers a million zombies...

Therefore, the manor is definitely not suitable for a long-term stay!

The number of zombies is simply too large, and Richard Town is not far from the manor. If too much time passes, the zombies gathered in Richard Town will become active again.

That farm was destined to face countless risks.

Therefore, no matter how much Gavin felt sorry for him, he had to prepare for the worst.

Even if they can resolve the immediate crisis, the zombies gathering around Richard Town can be lured away.

Reserve bases, such as those in Indian reservations, must also be properly arranged, for example, by stocking them with basic food and medicine, and storing some weapons and ammunition.

To avoid the team having to come up with a solution on the spot when they need to use them!
In conclusion, Gavin clapped his hands at the end.

"That's settled then, guys. You stay home and keep watch, check the surroundings, inspect the vehicles, and prepare some supplies. Even if we don't need them, we'll get those supplies to the reserve prison in the next day or the day after."

“Let’s go, Steve, Nikita, Anthony.”

After saying that, Gavin led the three of them in a Raptor, leaving the farm and heading towards the resort area.

With the zombie migration still ongoing, Gavin didn't want to launch helicopters near the base camp, increasing the risk of the base camp being discovered by zombies!
While looking out the car window at the horde of zombies that had just left the direction of the horse farm, only the tails of the zombies were still visible.

Nikita took a deep breath and asked Gavin from the passenger seat.

"Gavin, do we really need to consider evacuating? Our house is hard to breach, and the supplies inside, even without replenishment, are enough to feed our forty-odd people for at least six months."

"We have six months. Even if we're hiding in the basement, we should be able to figure out a way to get out of being surrounded by zombies, right?"

"Besides, even if a million zombies surrounded us, they couldn't possibly surround us for a whole six months, could they?"

"Maybe by then, zombies will encounter a similar situation to today, where they get lured away by other aggregates!"

At this point, Nikita looked at Gavin, waiting earnestly for his reply.

In the back seat, upon hearing Nikita's words, Steve couldn't help but nod in agreement; he felt that Nikita made sense.

While driving, Gavin kept an eye on the surrounding zombies and whispered to Nikita.

"Indeed, I know what you're thinking. While we have top-notch protection, we can indeed rely on it to deal with most troubles."

"But I don't want everyone to become dependent on our current environment in just a few days. You know, dependency is a terrible thing. It can easily lead us into danger without us even realizing it."

"Whether it's today or in the future, no matter how our manor develops, I want everyone to understand that the manor is still something we can abandon at any time!"

“We are human beings, Nikki. We must move around to have a better chance of survival. Hiding in one place is indeed an option, but it can never be our only option. Do you understand that?”

"Although the manor still needs to be fortified and well-hidden, we must be prepared to leave the manor at any time, just like the safety knowledge that children learn in elementary school."

"It's like what elementary school teaches children: how to avoid gunfights and how to avoid crises like earthquakes."

"Only by being prepared at all times will we not panic when we actually face that situation!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Gavin drove into the resort area and carefully approached the vicinity of the bridge across the lake.

After they drove the car onto the bridge...

Steve suddenly widened his eyes, pointed to the lake below the bridge, and said to Gavin in a horrified tone.

"Wait, boss, look at the lake!"

"what?"

Gavin looked in the direction Steve was pointing and immediately felt a chill run down his spine.

It is located upstream of Lake Richards, about seventeen or eighteen kilometers away in the lake water from the Richards Dam.

There are at least a thousand zombies floating around right now!
"Fuck!" Anthony gasped in shock upon seeing the zombies in the lake.

"What the hell are those things? They weren't here when we first arrived at the camp. How did they suddenly appear?"

"Damn it!"

Hearing Anthony's words, Gavin couldn't help but take a breath, then frowned and looked at the zombies in the distance. He slowed down the car slightly and said to Anthony.

"Don't forget the thunderstorm and tornado a few days ago, Anthony. That heavy rain might cause events like mudslides in the area near a river."

"Central Texas has fewer mountains, but it doesn't mean there are no mountains, much less that there are no floods. There are still quite a few floods here!"

"If a river or a town is hit by a disaster, it's normal for some zombies to emerge. But look at the state of those zombies in the lake, they've been soaking in the lake for at least a day or two. They're all white and fat, and they're practically floating!"

“If they hadn’t been completely soaked and turned white, I might have suspected that they were also zombies attracted by Richard Town. After all, quite a few zombies have crossed the river during their migration. Didn’t we have a zombie that was swept away by the river right next to our farm?”

"As for the zombies, I guess they'll have to be washed downstream to the relatively calmer river basins before they can get up and move around again!"

At this point, Gavin let out a nauseous gasp; he was somewhat afraid to face the series of rivers downstream of Lake Richard.

Clearly, if zombies appear in Lake Richards, all the downstream river water will be polluted.

But Gavin was actually a bit confused about this, because it seemed that the zombie fungus in each of their bodies was difficult to be activated by the fungal dead bodies.

The zombies that have appeared in Lake Richards now are just the ones they have seen. In fact, as early as the first day of the apocalypse, when Gavin and his group met Bella, they already knew that there were zombies in the lake!
But these days, they still frequently use the river water downstream to wash their hands or clean their cars.

Of course, the water used for cooking at home is all groundwater. Every farm has its own pump to draw groundwater, and the same is true in the basement of Gavin Farm.

Even something as simple as washing hands has resulted in countless close contacts between the survivors and zombies.

Eugene even had several close encounters with zombies.

Gavin himself had been splattered with zombie blood more than once.

But in the end, at least for now, we haven't seen any survivors turn into zombies because of this.

In short, Gavin brushed aside the question of close contact with the zombies and took one last worried look at the floating corpses in the river.

The zombies were drifting aimlessly in the lake, occasionally splashing around before continuing to float along the current without any sense of direction.

This is similar to Gavin's earlier estimate regarding the zombies' situation when facing water.

Zombies can't swim, so once they enter deep water, they're bound to exhaust all the air in their bodies through instinctive roars.

In that case, the zombies, without extra air in their bodies, will sink to the bottom of the water.

But they will eventually float away, because zombies can float in buoyancy.

After the zombie's internal organs and filth have completely decomposed and fermented.

When a zombie's body absorbs too much water, it becomes swollen and soft.

They will, of course, float to the surface, just like they are now, drifting aimlessly on the water, following the direction of the current.

Lake Richards is a medium to large lake, and the water in the lake only circulates once every long time. It would take more than a day to float from one end of Lake Richards to the other.

Who knows how long these zombies will drift before the lake carries them there, and then they spread throughout the area near the resort.

And all over the world, damn it, probably everywhere is like Lake Richards and the Manor Camp now.

Even as a survivor, I have led my team to avoid the zombies' activity areas as much as possible.

However, the gradual expansion and spread of zombies remains an unstoppable fact for humanity!

Even without the Richardtown incident, the area around the future camp would certainly not be considered safe. There are probably very few places in the world that can be considered absolutely safe at this time!
Hey……

Gavin couldn't help but sigh softly.

In the passenger seat, Nikita looked at the body in the lake, then couldn't help but shake her head.

She simply shook her head and said that.

"Gavin, darling, will we never have the chance to eat fish again?"

"I don't know, but I definitely don't want to eat fish again unless I'm starving. But I bet that fisherman Kelvin doesn't want to give up his hobby, so remember to remind me not to eat any fish he brings back, damn it!"

Gavin cursed, then drove across the lake bridge and plunged into the resort airport.

There are about thirteen helicopters at the airport here. Most of the helicopter keys are on the helicopters, since these helicopters were used almost every day before the apocalypse.

With the field crew having already cleaned the resort in advance, Gavin easily found the key, had Steve pull them into the air, and then flew towards the farm town.

Meanwhile, inside the manor, as Gavin and his group began their flight...

Watching the field staff coming and going in the garage, Cao Xinyan, who was going back to her room with Lao Feng to change her child's diaper, couldn't help but say to Lao Feng with concern.

"Old Feng, look at them, they look like they're about to run away?"

"I don't know, I'll go ask. Maybe the boss told them something. But don't worry, no matter what big operation it is, Boss Gavin will always let me know. Your husband hasn't been lying around these days!"

After calming Xiao Cao down, Lao Feng came to the hall, raised his hand to stop Diana, who was carrying two boxes of canned goods, and asked in a low voice.

"Ahem, Diana, what are you all busy with? Is this your own fieldwork?"

"Ha, Feng, didn't you know? Oh right, you weren't here just now. Before the boss left, he told us to be prepared to evacuate at any time. That's why we're preparing supplies."

"What?!!"

Upon hearing Diana's answer, Old Feng was completely stunned.

Why are you preparing to evacuate already?
The key question is, if everyone here is preparing to evacuate, why didn't they receive any news?

Were they isolated without their knowledge?
Or did Gavin's new recruit reveal some sudden news that necessitated the camp preparing for evacuation?

Thinking of this, Old Feng asked Diana with great concern.

Before the two could exchange more than a few words, Thomas came out of the garage with the repairman Wells and the blacksmith Manus.

Seeing Lao Feng's nervousness, Thomas quickly realized what Lao Feng was worried about and hurried over to explain.

“Feng, what did Diana say to you? You look like you’re about to explode.”

"Nothing, Thomas, why didn't I receive any news about the camp preparing to evacuate?"

Having lived in the camp for so many days, the outgoing Lao Feng had already integrated into the camp's atmosphere. Faced with the situation before him, he immediately abandoned his inherent humility and politeness and gave Thomas a low growl without any politeness.

Upon hearing this, Thomas smiled slightly and then shook his head in response.

“I guess Diana didn’t explain it clearly to you, because we were preparing for our safe evacuation at any time, not actually preparing for an evacuation. You can hear the difference in those words, right?”

"This……"

Upon hearing Thomas's words, Old Feng finally understood.

Isn't this just a drill?
Thomas wasn't boasting; he was truly a professional butler because of his excellent communication skills. He got straight to the point and calmed Old Feng down with just one sentence.

Old Feng asked a few more questions, then said goodbye to Thomas. But he was still worried, so he went and chatted with William at the sentry post for a bit.

After saying goodbye to William, Old Feng even went into the medical room and chatted with Madison for a bit.

Shortly after, in the medical room.

Watching Old Feng leave, Tara couldn't help but turn to Madison and say something.

“Wheat, there’s more than one Asian in your camp. I also see Irish people. Your camp…”

"Wait, Sister Tara, this isn't our camp, it's our camp! Didn't you already join the camp?"

At this point, Madison's expression turned somewhat helpless.

In this world, there are really not many people who are qualified to call him Wheat. His elders count as a few, Gavin counts as one, and this Sister Tara in front of him can actually be counted as one too!
Tara did work as a fitness instructor for the Cowboys, but she did so quite early, a full five years ago.

When Gavin won his first championship, Tara was already the Cowboys' fitness coach, but after Gavin won his second championship, Tara quit.

So Madison and Tara had only known each other for a year, and Madison, who had just joined the Cowboys, was indeed not a big shot in the team.

The Cowboys have no shortage of defenders, and Madison faced strong competition to finally secure his position. Before he established himself in the Cowboys, he was just another player on the team.

Didn't you see even Tara calls him that...?

By the time Madison truly became a leader on the team, it was already Gavin's season of striving for his fourth championship.

That season, the Cowboys owner cleared out more than twenty veteran players, and Madison suddenly became one of the team's veterans.

In short, the name "Wheat" represented a period of humble experience for Madison in the past.

That's not a good memory.

But now, Madison doesn't feel angry at all; instead, she feels an inexplicable warmth.

Looking at Tara at that moment, he actually felt like he was looking at his older sister.

Because Madison really did have more than one older sister!
And Tara was indeed a bit taller and bigger than Madison!
(End of this chapter)