From the current material reserves, Xiang An didn't necessarily need to rush to the convenience store to collect supplies. However, in the apocalypse, one must prepare for the worst, and expanding reserves is always beneficial.
Furthermore, he had another important goal for this trip—to obtain the fire axe equipped at the community's mini fire station.
Compared to a crowbar without sharp edges, a fire axe is clearly more lethal against zombies.
Shen Xia was still organizing important supplies inside the store, while Xiang An went out and knocked on the window frame on the second floor.
Ye Dayong jumped up with a start: "B-Brother!"
Xiang An frowned and raised his hand, signaling him to be quiet.
"What, still waiting for us to feed you?" He raised an eyebrow slightly and asked.
"Uh..." Ye Dayong looked a bit embarrassed, "My doorstep is full of zombies, I really can't get out."
"It seems you didn't listen to what I said yesterday at all." Xiang An sighed, "Guarding a natural resource library like the supermarket downstairs, yet only waiting for others to provide relief, don't you feel too pathetic?"
"Pathetic, yes." Ye Dayong lowered his head and rubbed his hands, "But I really don't dare to fight those monsters head-on. Yesterday, I saw a police car pass by, and just as I wanted to call for help, they didn't even dare to slow down..."
"You saw police?" Xiang An's pupils contracted slightly.
"Just yesterday, before you came." Dayong nodded like pounding garlic, "But there were at most two or three people in the car, it didn't look like a rescue team sent by the authorities."
Xiang An pondered seriously. Witnessing police vehicles was indeed a positive sign, but as the other party said, such scattered forces could not form effective rescue. Survival in the apocalypse ultimately depends on oneself.
"Brother, can you give me some more food?" Ye Dayong's voice was weak, "Yesterday's food is all gone."
Xiang An almost laughed out of anger. If that food was eaten sparingly, it wouldn't be a problem to last three days. Ye Dayong finished it in one day?
"Do you think we're an infinite supply station?"
Ye Dayong was speechless at once.
"Now you have two choices." Xiang An held up two fingers, "First, I'll give you food one last time, as a reward for the information just now; second, before we leave, you come find us, and I'll take you with us."
As a technical talent with mechanical repair skills, Ye Dayong was worth recruiting.
This kind of technical talent, if they could be included in the team, would definitely be useful.
But in the collapsed order of the apocalypse, a burden with only skills but no guts to face the crisis would only become a hidden danger for the team.
Without waiting for a response, Xiang An turned around and returned to the convenience store. Faint conversation could be heard from inside:
"Should we take him?"
"Let's see, given his state, I'm afraid..."
The intermittent conversation was like sharp thorns piercing Ye Dayong's eardrums.
He stared intently at the horde of corpses wandering downstairs, his fingernails digging deep into his palms, and finally gritted his teeth and made a decision.
...
Ten minutes later, Xiang An was leaning against the convenience store counter, his fingertips rustling inside a potato chip bag. The fresh scent of cucumber-flavored chips floated in the stench of zombie blood.
A slight landing sound came from outside the door.
Ye Dayong stumbled in, clutching a wrench, the rusty anti-theft iron bars leaning crookedly against the wall. He supported his knees and gasped for a few breaths, his gaze eagerly sweeping over the two people in the store:
"Brother, I... I'll go with you."
Xiang An chewed the potato chips in his mouth, raised his wrist to check the time, the cold light of his watch reflecting in his eyes: "Twelve minutes, I won."
Shen Xia supported her forehead and sighed softly: "That shouldn't be, based on his usual slow pace, it should take him half an hour to move."
Ye Dayong awkwardly rubbed the soles of his shoes: "You already calculated that I would come?"
"After saying that much, anyone with a bit of backbone left wouldn't shrink in the house waiting to die."
Xiang An crumpled the empty packaging bag into a ball, "But you were right to be anxious. If you hadn't come out in half an hour, we wouldn't have bothered waiting either."
These words caused Ye Dayong's tense shoulders and neck to relax—
For Xiang An to say this almost meant accepting him, considering him part of the group.
"My name is Xiang An, just call me by my name from now on." Xiang An casually put the gum from the counter into his pocket.
Ye Dayong quickly waved his hands: "No, no, that won't do, call me Brother Xiang."
He stole a glance at Shen Xia, hesitating to speak: "Then Sister-in-law..."
Seeing Shen Xia's embarrassed expression, Xiang An cut him off: "She's my tenant, her name is Shen Xia. Don't look down on her just because she's a girl, she's better at handling zombies than you."
Ye Dayong nodded repeatedly at the long-haired girl: "Sister Xia, please guide me."
After a brief introduction, the three began to stuff supplies into the backpack Ye Dayong had brought out.
Ye Dayong's backpack was quite good, its capacity not inferior to Xiang An's hiking backpack.
Xiang An stacked compressed biscuits into the inner layer, utilizing the backpack space to the fullest, then looked up at Ye Dayong and said: "You wait here in the store first, we'll come back to pick you up later."
Upon hearing this, Ye Dayong, afraid that the two would leave him behind, quickly patted his chest and promised: "Don't worry, since I've come out, I definitely won't chicken out!"
"It's not questioning your determination." Xiang An shook his head, "But you have no experience, taking you with us would be irresponsible to you."
The mini fire station is not far from here, but there are zombies nearby, so getting the fire axe won't be easy.
Although Ye Dayong had joined the team, letting him come along at this time, if any accidents happened, he might even implicate him and Shen Xia.
"It's like the tutorial in a game's Novice Village , you have to start leveling up from basic operations." Shen Xia also explained to Ye Dayong, "If you go fight the BOSS right from the start, dying a hundred times wouldn't be enough."
Leaving Ye Dayong in the store, Xiang An and Shen Xia hugged the wall, moving along the building's shadow, sneaking to the side window of the fire station.
Shen Xia crouched down, peeked inside, and immediately pulled back:
"Xiang Ge, no... there are still zombies inside, we can't get in." She said seriously, "Even if we force our way in, as long as we fight the zombies, we'll be surrounded outside."
Xiang An's expression was solemn.
When observing from the rooftop earlier, he never expected this damned place to hide so many zombies, the original plan was ruined on the spot.
It seems they'll have to choose another time to come back.
He shook his head at Shen Xia, turned around, and retreated.
"You're back so soon?"
Ye Dayong was peering over the shelves, and seeing them return empty-handed, he said in surprise.
Shen Xia waved her hand and briefly explained the situation to him.
"Can't you use your previous method? Luring the tiger away from the mountain." Ye Dayong pointed to the opposite side, where the phone hanging in the air happened to start playing music again.
"The terrain is locked." Xiang An drew a simple diagram on the ground with a shovel, "That's the Second Unit, with buildings on both sides. The zombies lured out cannot move to the side of the building."
Shen Xia also added: "And we don't have any more phones. Even if we did, they could only be fixed in the same position. If the sound is too loud, it attracts too many zombies; if it's too quiet, it's a waste of effort."
Ye Dayong's wrench spun twice in his palm, the cold metallic light reflecting his flushed face.
"I have... a remote control car in my room." He swallowed and squeezed out the latter half of the sentence, "If we tie a phone to it and drive it over..."
Two gazes suddenly fixed on his face.
