Since entering the apocalypse, even those who had never set foot on the land before the apocalypse, who had no experience with farming, and the urban white-collar workers who used to stock up on winter vegetables and grains in the past, have gradually learned how to live in this world where they have to do everything themselves.
Now, in late autumn, people in various bases are harvesting crops such as potatoes and carrots that they planted everywhere. The crops that were originally planted on rooftops, in roadside corners, and on room corridor windowsills have also turned yellow.
In addition, there are restrictions on daily water use in all the bases, and when a strong wind blows, the loose soil on the surface is blown away, leaving the streets and alleys of the bases covered in yellow dust.
The people living in the bases are no different. In the current world, green vegetation is extremely rare. Apart from the potatoes and carrots they deliberately planted, there are hardly any crops near the bases. When a strong wind blows, everyone is covered in dust. Even the cities that used to have relatively lush greenery now have the appearance of desert cities.
Near the gate of the base, there were shouts, sighs, and children’s cries. Curious onlookers rushed over when they heard the noise. They soon saw several large trucks entering from the gate, and on the trucks was a huge mutant beast that was still dripping with blood and at least twice the height of the vehicles.
“Oh, look, we’ve got some good stuff again!”
“Is it a military vehicle? We’re going to have meat again!”
Upon hearing his companion’s words, one person sneered, “When have you ever seen the military bring meat into our meals? In the past year, we’ve hunted several times in our base, but have you ever had minced meat?”
His companion gave him a sidelong glance and said, “Hmph, even if we can’t eat meat, at least the soup and water we get every day has a bit of a meaty flavor. It’s much better than eating tasteless potatoes every day.”
The official bases have rules. People are required to either do some official work regularly, contribute some of their own planted crops like potatoes and carrots, or go out to find supplies and hunt animals. In any case, everyone living in the base needs to contribute in some way.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
At the same time, the base authorities provide housing for the residents, oversee the construction of protective walls, and provide meals once or twice a day based on different contribution levels and ranks. They also provide two sets of clothing each year, one for winter and one for summer.
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Initially, those who received potato sprouts and carrot seeds from the base had to submit a certain amount of potatoes, dried potatoes, carrots, and dried carrots at the first harvest. If someone was able to harvest more and produce seeds for the future, they wouldn’t have to buy new potato sprouts and carrots from the base.
Therefore, in order to survive in the base, as long as you’re not stupid and can protect your own belongings, you can still get by without leaving the base.
Because the food provided by the base is communal, sometimes when the base has an extra harvest and needs to consume food quickly, they will improve the communal meals.
For example, last year, the base somehow acquired a batch of canned meat, and at that time, some minced canned meat was mixed into the mashed potato and carrot mixture, which was considered a rare treat for the survivors in the base.
Furthermore, what excited everyone even more was that after this official convoy arrived, there were actually two more vehicles following behind, and they were carrying several smaller mutant animals!
Although the appearance of these mutant animals was…familiar enough to make people from the pre-apocalyptic era absolutely not want to take a bite, in these days when even a fat person would make someone’s eyes light up with a desire to take a few bites, not to mention the meat of mutant giant rats, even the meat of mutant giant insects would be devoured without hesitation!!
Deep within the military residential area of the base, several base leaders were sitting in a slightly smaller room, having a meeting. The number of top officials inside was much fewer than in the previous two years. Although news of the successful hunt for prey had reached their ears, their expressions showed little change.
After hearing the news, everyone nodded and continued discussing the previous topic. “So, if a person’s body temperature drops below 30 degrees, there are two possible outcomes: they either turn into zombies or remain unchanged, with their body temperature gradually decreasing. Is that what happened to Minister Lv and the others?”
The only man in the room wearing a gray overcoat nodded solemnly in response.
“Yes, we reached this conclusion over the past year by monitoring body temperature and heart rate. Before, we could attribute the sudden zombification of those who showed no changes to them suddenly falling ill and dying. But now…”
One person rubbed his face with his hand forcefully, “Now, the body temperature of the majority of people in the base has reached the critical point of 30 degrees…”
If only a few people were changing sporadically and turning into zombies, it would be manageable. But if the majority of people in the base were on the brink of this critical point…
“Heh, I suddenly remember, didn’t we receive a communication from Base 224 a few days ago? They mentioned unusual zombie activities in their nearby city. The zombies were gathering and coordinating their actions in the city, appearing to be led by an intelligent zombie resembling a Zombie King.”
“They wanted to use heavy weapons or even small nuclear weapons for a decisive strike and sought assistance from bases like ours. But look at our situation now. If the issue of body temperature erupts en masse, who will bother with these intelligent or not-so-intelligent zombies…”
The people in the room fell into silence once again. Similar situations had been observed multiple times in the urban areas near their base. After all, even if people couldn’t enter the city, they could use drones or other means to observe the city’s situation.
However, before they could make a decision, a small-scale outbreak of zombification due to body temperature issues occurred in the base.
“I remember that some of the zombies with lowered body temperatures… didn’t attack the people around them after turning into zombies, but chose to flee, right? Has any research been conducted on those zombies?” one person suddenly changed the topic.
The man in the gray overcoat, whose attire had turned gray over time, shook his head. “Because the incidents happened suddenly, we were unable to capture those zombies during the few occurrences. Their combat abilities after zombification are far superior to regular zombies. We suspect… these might be what they call intelligent zombies or semi-zombies. Moreover…”
He swallowed hard, glanced at the people who were staring at him intently, and spoke in a very low voice, “What I’m about to say is just a possibility, but I personally suspect that those fleeing zombies might… still retain some human memories or instincts…”
As he spoke, he closed his eyes deeply, “My assistant turned into a zombie right in front of me due to low body temperature. Even now, I remember the look in his eyes after zombification… I know no one will believe me, but I truly saw a struggle, a sense of pain in its eyes…”
“Hmph! It’s utter nonsense! I think you’ve done too many experiments and it’s making you dizzy! Zombies are just zombies, a group of inhuman creatures! They can’t even be considered living beings. Why do you have any fantasies about them?! They should all be killed outright!” Suddenly, one person’s face changed dramatically, filled with anger, and they angrily left the room, slamming the door behind them.
The people in the room watched the man leave, and then someone suddenly sneered, “I heard Zhu’s secretary say that a few days ago, after Mrs. Zhu turned into a zombie, she seemed a bit strange in her actions. It seemed like she didn’t immediately pounce on Secretary Zhu, but Secretary Zhu immediately pulled out a gun and shot his wife dead… Haha.”
Once again, silence fell over the people in the room. Each of them seemed to recall some difficult memories, and not a single one had a pleasant expression. Each of them had directly or indirectly killed numerous zombies…
Earlier, this possibility had appeared in documents before them, but no one wanted to believe it. However, as the number of zombies that didn’t immediately attack and instead fled after zombification increased, they had no choice but to reluctantly accept deep down that this might not be a mere “possibility,” but a genuine, objective reality.
“…It would be nice if we could find a zombie that doesn’t want to eat humans,” someone murmured quietly.
“Heh, finding a person who can avoid zombie attacks would be even better,” another person laughed, making a joke.
However, no one took it seriously. If such people existed, they would have heard about it long ago. In the current base, fewer and fewer people were willing to go out into the zombie-infested cities.
Even when a team did venture out, everyone gathered together, and the zombies naturally swarmed them, only to be mowed down by the heavy firepower from the vehicles. Who would dare to approach zombies one by one to see if they would bite them?
Haha, just take detour when passing by near the ruined Tech building where the crazy duo live or where Wei Xuan’s community resides.