After leaving the base, Wen Le and Xiao Wen sat in the lead car with the predetermined route in their hands.
Chen Ye was in the passenger seat, constantly looking at the compass in his hand.
It’s easy to lose direction on the grassland, and this time their route was different from the previous one when they entered Tibet. Everything on the road ahead was unknown.
“We need to find a way to collect more gasoline. Even if nothing unexpected happens, we’ll still consume most of the reserve gasoline on the way back,” Wen Le thought about the remaining gasoline in the vehicle and compared it to the round-trip consumption of nearly a hundred vehicles in the convoy. He was worried.
Xiao Wen nodded. If they could collect gasoline along the way, they certainly wouldn’t miss the opportunity, but they were afraid that the gas stations along the way had already been emptied by others.
“If we could run into an oil field along the way, that would be great,” Han Yi Feng, who was sitting on Wen Le’s other side, muttered.
Wen Le was speechless. Could all the good luck be on their side?!
“The nearest oil field to us is the Yumen oil field in the north of Qinghai Province. Apart from the rampant zombies, our current gasoline reserves may not be able to support us getting there,” Chen Ye turned around and said when he had a moment.
Chen Ye’s words made Wen Le anxious. The consumption of gasoline was very serious. Even if they succeeded in returning this time, if the base didn’t have enough gasoline, many things might end up being in vain. Moreover, the armored vehicle was a huge gasoline guzzler. They didn’t know if the target arsenal could produce armored vehicles on its own. Even if they could produce them, without gasoline, the big guy would just be a decoration.
Xiao Wen also furrowed his brows and started thinking.
They hadn’t thought about this aspect when they were at the base. Now that it was mentioned, they realized that the gasoline reserve was already urgent.
“Chen Ye, do you know the locations of any other oil fields?” Wen Le asked.
Chen Ye thought for a moment. “I can remember the general distribution of oil fields in China. Yi Feng, you look at the direction, Wen Shao, give me a map and I’ll mark it down for you.” With that, Chen Ye handed the compass to Han Yi Feng behind him and took the map that Wen Le handed to him, and began to mark it.
Chen Ye is a car enthusiast and has a kind of inexplicable love for all kinds of car models. As a result, he had also specifically researched the domestic gasoline reserves and had a relatively deep impression in his mind.
After finishing the marked map and handing it back to Wen Le, Xiao Wen and Wen Le began to examine it carefully. As Chen Ye had said, according to the straight-line distance, the Yumen Oil Field was the closest to the base, followed by the Qinghai Oil Field and the Sichuan Oil Field which were a bit further away. Relatively speaking, Qinghai Province has much fewer people than Sichuan Province, and the number of zombies would also be relatively scarce. If they were really going to take action, the success rate of targeting the Yumen and Qinghai oil fields would be much higher.
‘There must be few people there. After handing the compass back to Chen Ye, Han Yi Feng also leaned over to look at the map in Wen Le’s hand and suddenly pointed to the westernmost location.”
“‘Tarim Basin?” Wen Le looked at the words Han Yi Feng was pointing at.
The Tarim Basin does indeed have a sparse population, and it is a combination of deserts, Gobi, and the Lop Nur region, with very few environments suitable for human habitation. From a safety standpoint, the population there is even lower than that of Qinghai Province.
“If we could collect enough gasoline to support us on the way there, it would be a good choice.” Wen Le nodded, agreeing with Han Yi Feng’s words.
On the other hand, Xiao Wen was looking thoughtfully at the map and suddenly said to Wen Le, “Give me a map of Xinjiang.”
Wen Le didn’t understand, but still brought out a map of Xinjiang.
For the next period of time, Xiao Wen studied the map in silence. Until nightfall, the convoy stopped to make adjustments.
Because the decision to go on this trip was made at short notice and there was not enough time for Huang Yao and her team to prepare sufficient food for them to eat on the road. Wen Le had people start a fire on the spot to cook. The food that Huang Yao had hurriedly prepared had to be kept for when they had no chance to rest after entering the Central Plains and needed it to satisfy their hunger.
After dinner and a brief rest, the convoy set off again. Each vehicle had an average of two or more drivers taking turns behind the wheel. They planned to reach the location of the arms factory as quickly as possible, so they needed to travel day and night. Each jeep was filled with eight people seated according to their assigned positions, and they rested directly in the vehicle.
Due to a different route, their journey out of Tibet this time was much farther than their initial entry. After traveling day and night, on the tenth night, Xiao Wen instructed the convoy to rest in place for one night.
The location where Tibet and Sichuan Province met was right in front of them. After the convoy set off again, they drove for six hours and could already vaguely see clusters of buildings.
“Stay alert, everyone. Be ready for danger at any moment,” Xiao Wen picked up the walkie-talkie and spoke to all the vehicles behind him.
Repeated “received” replies came through, and Wen Le also sat up straight, ready for any danger.
As expected, as they approached the cluster of buildings, they could see shaky black figures walking out of the buildings from far away as the convoy approached.
“Chen Ye, you drive,” Mo Yan suddenly stopped the car, pulled Chen Ye over, and put him in charge of driving. Mo Yan, on the other hand, picked up his assault rifle and leaned out of the car window, shooting one headshot after another at the distant black figures.
Previously, Wen Le had already reminded his companions to try not to let the zombies get close to the range of their abilities, because the caravan was too large and his psychic power couldn’t cover the entire caravan while also paying attention to the secondary zombies near the caravan.
However, the number of zombies here was not very high, and the caravan passed through the building group without any slowing down while attacking.
Wen Le noticed two secondary zombies, but there was no time to get off the car and collect the crystal nuclei, so he could only leave the bodies there. If they were lucky, they might be able to dig them out on their way back.
The road ahead was not as easy as before, with buildings becoming denser and the number of zombies increasing. The caravan’s speed was getting slower.
Wen Le kept an eye on the surrounding zombies while constantly telling Chen Ye which way to go. Although sometimes it took a slightly longer route, it was much faster than breaking through the zombie crowd.
As night fell again and danger filled the surroundings, the caravan did not stop and rested for the last time before entering Sichuan Province. Wen Le put plenty of food and water on each car, enough to support them for three to four days.
However, while food could be easily solved while traveling, the caravan couldn’t avoid stopping for refueling.
On the third day after leaving the Tibetan area, the entire caravan found a small village at ten o’clock in the morning. From the regional map, there were no large living areas near this village, and the surrounding area was all terraced fields, which was very suitable for staying.
After arranging people to enter the village to clear out the zombies through the walkie-talkie, when Mo Yan drove the car into the village, Wen Le’s psychic power could barely cover the entire village.
From this perspective, it is the safest approach. Everything is under Wen Le’s control, and even in the event of an emergency, they can be ready at the first moment.
They found a house in a densely populated area and everyone in the caravan got out of their vehicles.
One person from each car stayed behind to get gasoline from Wen Le, while the rest of the people were divided by Xiao Wen to prepare food or clean the house with around twenty people, while the remaining people were dispersed around the area where the caravan was parked according to their team formation to collect supplies and scout the situation.
Wen Le finished giving out gasoline and didn’t go into the house. Instead, he followed Xiao Wen out of the village.
Before entering the village, everyone noticed the yellow terraced fields surrounding the entire village. Wen Le and Xiao Wen walked up to a nearby terrace.
They could reach out and touch the entire wheat field. The soil beneath their feet showed signs of cracking, perhaps due to a lack of rain for a long time. The crooked wheat spikes on the field seemed to suggest that the heavy snowfall from before had not spared this place either.
Wen Le pinched a wheat spike and unlike the dry and withered ones that have passed the harvest period, he could feel the fullness of the wheat grains with just a light squeeze of his fingertips.
“We can harvest this,” Wen Le said to Xiao Wen, pinching the wheat spike.
Xiao Wen was stunned and looked down at the small wheat kernels that had been pinched open in Wen Le’s hand.
“When do they harvest this stuff?”
Wen Le scratched his head, recalling the agricultural books he had read in the space for farming.
“It seems like they harvest wheat here in April or May.”
Xiao Wen looked out at the golden fields around them and asked, “It’s almost July now, can we still eat this stuff?”
Wen Le was speechless, “It probably won’t kill us if we eat it, but do you want me to look it up in a book?”
Xiao Wen shook his head, “Forget it, we’ll deal with it when we get back. For now, we need to conserve the team’s energy. Let’s rest here for a day and head straight for F City tomorrow. We should be able to reach the mountains where the armament factory is located by tomorrow night.”
Wen Le nodded and followed Xiao Wen back to the village, where Xiao Wen would hold a meeting with everyone to discuss their action plan.
On the way back, Wen Le couldn’t help but look back at the wheat fields on the terraced hillsides and sighed to himself.
Last year, the farmers who planted these fields were probably hoping for a bountiful harvest this year. Who would have thought that they would lose their right to a harvest so quickly?
As they entered the village, a soldier approached them.
“Leader, a section of the terraced fields on the east side has been harvested.”
Xiao Wen and Wen Le became alert when they heard this.
“Are there any other places?” Xiao Wen asked.
The soldier shook his head, “Many people haven’t returned yet. I rushed back as soon as I found the harvesting marks.”
Xiao Wen paused for a moment and asked the soldier to estimate the area that had been harvested, and to see if there were any similar situations when the others returned.
“After all, they’re probably the people who survived in the village,” said Wen Le, walking over to Xiao Wen after the soldier had left.
Xiao Wen nodded. Wen Le had mentioned that the wheat should have matured in April or May, which meant that these survivors must have experienced the Red Moon event.
“This afternoon, send troops out to search and see if they can find anyone. If they do, let them stay in the village and bring them back to the base with us when we return. If they can’t find anyone, forget about it,” Xiao Wen instructed.
Wen Le nodded. When everyone returned to the village, apart from the area the soldier had investigated earlier, no unusual traces were found anywhere else.
After lunch, Xiao Wen sent four teams to search deeper along the direction of the harvested wheat. If they hadn’t found any survivors by nightfall, they would lead the team back and give up the search.
The remaining people stayed on the open ground, and Xiao Wen officially announced the mission. When everyone found out that their ultimate destination was a munitions factory, they were all stunned.
Regardless of their thoughts, Xiao Wen was determined to go there, no matter the danger.
Everyone rested in the village as per Xiao Wen’s request, preparing for the possible battle ahead after tomorrow.
“I don’t think Captain Yan has told his soldiers about this,” Wen Le said as he walked into a room that had been tidied up. Thinking back to the shocked expressions on everyone’s faces, including all the soldiers, it didn’t seem like they were faking it.
Xiao Wen didn’t care whether these people knew or not, and he didn’t care whether Yan Wei Guo had given orders or not. The military factory was his target, and he was determined to get it no matter what.
“Boss!” Mo Yan suddenly pushed open the door.
Xiao Wen had previously sent him to lead the four teams to search for survivors. This time, when he saw Mo Yan’s serious expression, Xiao Wen and Wen Le looked at him seriously.
“What’s up?” Xiao Wen asked.
“We didn’t find any survivors, but we saw a monkey’s corpse,” Mo Yan reported.
Xiao Wen was momentarily stunned, not understanding why Mo Yan was so serious about a monkey’s corpse.
Wen Le’s face changed, and he exclaimed, “Zombie monkey!”
In Xiao Wen’s shocked gaze, Mo Yan nodded, confirming Wen Le’s words.
Xiao Wen furrowed his brow and sat down. The news brought by Mo Yan made their journey tomorrow even more difficult.
Wen Le was grateful for Mo Yan’s discovery. Although there was no way to prevent the monkeys from attacking, they could at least be more vigilant.
Tomorrow afternoon, they would be entering the mountains, where there were many monkey groups. Before the apocalypse, this was common knowledge, but Wen Le and the others hadn’t thought of it before.
When Wen Le talked about animal mutations, he mentioned that several types of animals could be infected by the virus, and monkeys were one of them.
Compared to agile primates, mutated animal zombies posed a greater threat to humans after becoming zombies.
Based on what they had seen in the past few days, the zombie’s mobility was approaching that of an ordinary human, and it was no longer the stiff movements seen at the beginning of the apocalypse. Moreover, those monkeys could move nimbly on the trees.
It seemed that the journey to the military factory would be even more difficult!
Thanks for the update! 😩😩