Doomsday America

Chapter 61 Dead Horse, Forest, Crow
Hearing the horse neighing, Gavin pursed his lips and continued to observe through his binoculars.

He said softly as he looked at it.

"Originally, I was more worried about the horse farm than the dairy farm."

"After all, racehorses have much bigger tempers than cows, and their frequent neighing makes them more likely to attract zombies. In other words, I'm prepared to face more zombie horses."

"But the current situation at the horse farm is... too clean. Not to mention zombie horses, you can't even see any zombies."

At this point, Gavin handed the binoculars to Old Mike and started the car.

"Let's circle around the perimeter of the racecourse a few more times and find a few different angles to confirm."

"If we can't find any problems, then we'll go and check the site directly."

"I don't believe that zombies and zombie horses at this stage are capable of using hunting techniques and strategies against us."

"Perhaps someone really came here before us and lured the horse farm zombies away. Maybe it was that person!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Gavin drove slowly around the racecourse.

Eugene and Madison watched every detail of the racecourse with bated breath.

"While observing," Madison said, swallowing hard.

"Isn't this a good thing? It's always good to see living people. And after thinking about it, since this is your farm, those who survived should be people you know."

At this point, Madison patted Gavin on the shoulder, and Gavin shook his head noncommittally in response.

"Maybe so. I wish him peace."

After that, the three people in the car fell silent and continued to observe the horse farm.

After walking nearly seven kilometers around the large circle, taking in the countless tracks of the entire racecourse, I realized that I had covered the distance.

Gavin patted the steering wheel and said.

"Still no results, right?"

"That's right, nothing at all. This shitty horse farm is as quiet as a horror movie!"

Eugene responded with a string of curses.

Upon hearing this, Gavin nodded and stepped on the gas.

"We should head over there now. Be careful and avoid using melee weapons. If we encounter any emergencies, just shoot them with our most powerful guns!"

“Okay!” Madison hugged the sprayer tightly.

"Roger!" Eugene gave a comical military salute.

The raptor abandoned its circling route and charged straight towards the core area of ​​the racecourse.

As the car drew closer, horses began galloping alongside it from the stables near the vehicle.

Accompanied by the sound of horses' hooves, Gavin parked the car in an open area and pulled out his Colt Python, sticking it out of the window.

He turned to Eugene and Madison and said.

"See your surroundings clearly."

Immediately afterwards...

boom!
The Colt Python's loud gunshot instantly echoed throughout the entire horse farm, and the nearby horses began to neigh in response.

The moment the gunshot rang out, Eugene and his companion felt their hair stand on end.

They had to admit that the current environment, where not a single zombie could be seen, was actually more terrifying than an environment teeming with zombies!
After the shooting, Gavin sat there quietly, silently awaiting any possible developments.

A full minute passed, and the racecourse remained completely still!
Having confirmed this, Gavin took a deep breath, opened the car door, and got out.

"Eugene, get to the driver's seat. Old Mike, come down with me and take a look."

"Okay boss."

Madison, carrying the shotgun, jogged up behind Gavin, while Eugene moved to the driver's seat, started the car, and got ready.

Listening to the faint sound of the car engine, Gavin approached the cowboy barracks at the horse farm and immediately noticed the messy footprints on the ground.

“Someone did come here. Let me see. The zombies were chasing eastward, not towards the manor, but towards the town.”

Gavin followed the footprints forward, speaking into the intercom as he went.

"I am Gavin. Is anyone still alive? Has anyone been to the racetrack?"

I don't expect an answer, I just want to confirm.

After speaking, Gavin planned to go into the dormitory and take a closer look inside.

But at that very moment, on a Ford Raptor in the distance.

Eugene suddenly shouted at them.

"Boss, you'd better take a look at the grass in the distance; there seems to be some bloodstains on it!"

"Bloodstains?" Upon hearing this, Gavin turned around and led Madison toward the Raptor, asking as he did so.

"where?"

"That!"

Eugene fired a shot at the bloodstain, which landed on the grass about 240 meters to the east.

Gavin jogged a few steps and followed to the vicinity of the bullet marks, where he indeed saw two clumps of weeds stained with blood.

Apart from two clumps of weeds with more blood, there were only a few drops of blood splattered on the nearly dry grass leaves in other places.

Gavin and Madison continued searching along the bloodstains, finding not only more and fainter bloodstains in the direction leading east, but also two shell casings.

Holding the spent cartridge from his revolver, Gavin searched the surroundings again before turning on the intercom and speaking.

"Eugene, drive straight over here."

"receive."

Eugene parked his Raptor next to the two men, got out and went to the back seat to set up his gun, while Gavin took over the driver's seat.

Gavin said as he started the car.

"There were no wheel tracks, only hoofprints that are often seen at the horse farm, so the visitors probably came on horseback."

"He hadn't even gotten close to the horse farm, only stopping a little further away from where the bloodstains appeared, when he was attacked by the zombies at the horse farm."

“I’m not a forensic pathologist, so I’m not sure if the blood on the ground is human or horse blood, but the bloodstains are more than 300 meters away from the horse farm dormitory, and the location where the attacker fired the shot…”

At this point, Gavin parked the car where he had found the bullet casings, pointed to the grass that had been trampled and broken by the horses' hooves, and continued.

“He fired the shot here. This place is further away from the dormitory, about 380 meters away. At this distance, there is no reason for the zombies to rush out hundreds of meters in advance to meet him and fight at this distance.”

"So, there must have been zombie horses already. The zombie horses were the first to spot him. The people who rode to the farm encountered the zombie horses and opened fire. I suspect the blood was all horse blood!"

"Perhaps the gunshot attracted the zombies in the horse farm dormitory, causing them to all come out to chase him, but I think the zombie horses are his biggest problem."

“He was obviously chased by zombie horses and forced to leave the paddock; we have to check in the direction they went.”

Without waiting for their response, Gavin drove slowly in the general direction and gave chase.

The car drove silently for two kilometers across the grass, and along the way, we saw two or three streaks of blood and more marks of horses' hooves trampling the grass.

After traveling two kilometers, the markings seemed to shift, moving from the east towards the direction of the road.

Gavin continued his pursuit in his car, and after driving onto the highway, the scattered bloodstains on the road became even clearer.

Following the trail of blood, Eugene held his gun for a moment, then whispered.

"Boss, I suspect they've crossed the river. What do you think?"

As he spoke, he pointed to a river about 600 or 700 meters to the west of the road.

That river is one of the rivers that extend from Lake Richard. There are more than one river on the farm, and further west of the river is the flood discharge area downstream of the reservoir, which is the area occupied by forest.

Looking at the river and the forest, Gavin nodded and said.

"Go over and have a look."

"Wait, I see it! There's a dead horse over there!"

Suddenly, Madison shouted through his binoculars, pointing to a spot about 700 meters west of the river, at the edge of the forest.

There, a flock of crows circled in the sky, and below them lay a black and white racehorse that had been dead for some time.

Gavin was startled to see the crow and quickly yelled at Madison.

"There are crows! Look closely at those crows! Observe their behavior!"

Upon hearing this, Madison and Eugene immediately looked over, and then Eugene shook his head uncertainly and said.

“There are already crows eating the meat of the dead horse, but... the crows don’t seem aggressive; at least they haven’t flown over to peck out our eyes.”

"Just because it doesn't look dangerous isn't enough!"

Gavin immediately interrupted Eugene and lifted the Colt python out of the car window.

"Be prepared to fire," Gavin continued.

"I should have evacuated here. After all, once the crows have turned into zombie birds, the trouble they cause us will be far greater than that caused by zombie cattle and horses."

"But I hope you understand that as zombies gradually spread throughout the world, no matter how terrifying it is, we will eventually have to face it one by one."

"Therefore, I must fire a shot to test them, both to test the crows and to test our future."

"What if the crows hadn't been scared away by the gunfire, but instead attacked us..."

"If we manage to escape, we'll have to be prepared to dig tunnels to survive from now on!"

(End of this chapter)