Extreme germ phobia

Chapter 209: Zhu Ge's Style
Ouyang continued to hide behind Unit 6, patiently observing with a reflector.

Zhu Yiming curiously peeked out and asked, "What are we waiting for?"

“Villains don’t just die from talking too much; they also die from their opponents’ dying counterattacks.” Ou Yang gestured to the control room with his eyes, “We should learn from this.”

Zhu Yiming objected: "No, when did we become the villains?"

"Shut up!" Jiang Yuwei glared at him, annoyed. "Why do you have to say something like this at a time like this?"

Zhu Yiming immediately surrendered: "Okay, okay, I won't say anything, alright?"

He readily agreed, but turned around and kept pouting: "This couple is quite in sync? Fine, I can't afford to mess with them."

A few minutes later, Ouyang felt everything was alright, and suddenly got up and ran outside: "Wait for me a moment, keep an eye on the passage!"

Zhu Yiming looked bewildered: "Where is he going?"

Jiang Yuwei shook her head in confusion: "I don't know!"

Zhu Yiming...

Where did your perfect understanding go?
A moment later, Ou Yang returned, carrying a long-frozen corpse in his hand. He held it up in front of him as a human shield and carefully squeezed through the narrow gap, approaching the control room step by step.

Zhu Yiming rolled his eyes wildly; this wasn't just being cautious, was it?
But to be fair, only this guy has the strength to carry a meat shield around so easily. Who else could do that?
Ouyang didn't think he was being unreasonable at all, after all, his own safety was the top priority.

He moved to the window, knelt on one knee, raised the meat shield, and waved it by the window, making it look like someone was coming closer.

There was not a sound in the control room.

He moved to the doorway and continued to use his human shield to lure the enemy into firing.

Still no sound.

Ouyang then used his body as a shield to push the door open, first seeing a person lying face down on the ground, and then seeing another old man lying face up.

Then he saw the burning campfire.

A rusty iron basin, filled with several pieces of wood, was gleaming with a dark red light.

Looking further in, there was another one in the corner.

The walls and floors were covered with shallow pits left by steel balls, densely packed and layered.

The three corpses were also riddled with holes, especially their hands and faces, which were covered in tiny bloody holes due to the lack of clothing covering them.

Their eyeballs were smashed.

The rifles around him were riddled with holes and were definitely unusable.

Ouyang had a toothache. How many steel balls were there? Old Mi's grenades were insane!

He still had a grenade on him, and the thought of it suddenly exploding inside him sent a chill down his spine. He had an urge to immediately take it off and throw it under the dam.

Ou Yang gently put down the meat shield, put his hands together above his head, and recited a few silly words such as "thank you for the protection of the remains of our international friends" and "when I return to China, I will definitely burn more joss paper on Qingming Festival." He then turned and left the control room: "Alright, it's all over. Search all the rooms, check everyone's body, and find all the car keys!"

"Roger that!"

The three men immediately sprang into action, searching the place inside and out, and found more than a dozen car keys, several magazines, a few boxes of ammunition, a small amount of canned food, and emergency rations.

In addition, there were some warm clothes and several used sleeping bags.

Jiang Yuwei was extremely disgusted and repeatedly asked Zhu Yiming to move the clothes and sleeping bag further away.

She was studying medicine and was particularly sensitive to hygiene. Although the clothes she was wearing belonged to a stranger, they were clean inside and out.

This is not surprising. Black market customers are all rich and powerful. If you don't take care of your personal hygiene, it will affect the customers' impression of you. Wouldn't that be a case of penny-wise and pound-foolish?
The dam was different; there weren't so many rules and regulations. The guards and staff all had messy hair, unshaven beards, and their dirty clothes looked like they hadn't been washed in ages. Their sleeping bags even smelled terrible.

Old White had a strong body odor, but Old Black had an even stronger one. It was a smell that was hard to describe. If you had to describe it, it was like wearing socks for months, throwing them in the trash to rot, and then having them dug out by a septic tanker truck and placed directly on your face.

The smell made Jiang Yuwei's eyes and nose wrinkle up, and every pore on her body seemed to scream rejection.

Seeing Jiang Yuwei's uncompromising attitude, Ou Yang advised her that conditions were limited during this special period and that she should just bear with it and it would pass.

If you're always around abalone stalls, you won't notice the stench anymore; you'll get used to it after a while.

But Jiang Yuwei was resolute: "I'd rather freeze than compromise!"

Ouyang wanted to persuade him again, but as soon as he got a little closer, he was deterred by the pungent stench and quickly ran away. He took a few deep breaths before he felt a little better.

He looked at Jiang Yuwei with empathy: "No, this stinks! Old Zhu, how did you manage to stand it?"

If he hadn't spent several months with Zhu Yiming and known what kind of person he was, he would have thought that this guy had a fetish for smells.

Zhu Yiming laughed wickedly: "I also think it smells bad, but it'll be fine after washing it off, right?"

"Bullshit, I know you too well!" Ou Yang immediately retorted, "You're doing this on purpose!"

This guy must have found Old Mi's bedroom, and after being suffocated by the stench, he felt resentful and deliberately brought out Old Mi's bedding.

"How can you look at me like that?" Zhu Yiming stubbornly denied it, speaking with aggrieved words, but in his heart he was thinking that they should share the good times and the bad!

Ou Yang and Jiang Yuwei, unable to bear it any longer, simultaneously kicked Zhu Yiming, who laughed and dodged, finally ending the farce.

While scolding Zhu Yiming, Ou and Jiang loaded the empty magazines with bullets until they were all full before returning to the guard room, bringing over the snowmobile, and taking all the spoils back to the parking lot.

The heavy snow that lasted all night left all the vehicles buried under a thick layer of snow.

Zhu Yiming stared speechlessly at the snowdrifts of various shapes on both sides, unable to tell what kind of car was buried in the snow. He could only barely identify the car model from the shape of the snowdrifts.

“Let’s get started,” Ouyang said. “RVs are the first choice, SUVs are the second, and sedans are the only option if all else fails.”

"What about the trucks?" Zhu Yiming pointed to the distance, where there were two large trucks that were not buried by the snow.

Only the height of a large truck could prevent it from being buried.

Ou Yang glanced sideways at Zhu Yiming: "You can drive?"

"No!" Zhu Yiming immediately shook his head.

“I don’t know either,” Ouyang said.

Zhu Yiming looked at Jiang Yuwei, who glared back fiercely: "Why are you looking at me? I don't know either!"

She was still angry, so naturally she wouldn't give Zhu Yiming a friendly look.

"Hey, is it really that serious!" Zhu Yiming immediately put on a smile. "It's all about the brake, accelerator, and clutch. If you don't know how, you can learn!"

"Stop fooling around, hurry up!" Ou Yang said. He had considered trucks, but driving wasn't the only problem; such a large vehicle would have ridiculously high fuel consumption. Where would he find that much fuel?
Besides, small vehicles are smaller targets and are less likely to be spotted.

Driving such a large truck on the road will make everyone think there's something in the cargo bed, and the chances of getting into trouble are much higher than with a smaller vehicle.

Road conditions and culverts impose many restrictions on large vehicles, and since Ouyang has no problems, it naturally knows how to choose.

The three people found a total of fourteen car keys, half of which were traditional remote controls.

Remote control is easy. Just walk around a bit, press a button every few steps, and if any car makes a sound, just put a big checkmark on the snow in front of the car.

The key is a problem. First, you have to wipe the snow off the front of the car to expose the logo and see if there is a key of the same brand.

If there's no match, skip it. If there is, clear out the car door, insert the key into the ignition, and try it. If it opens, draw a checkmark on the hood; if it doesn't, draw an X.

Finding the car is only the first step. Next, you need to start it to see if it can start, if the engine runs smoothly, and if the exhaust fumes are noticeable.

The engine is the heart of a car. From a common sense perspective, the better the engine is, the more complete the combustion of fuel will be, and the less exhaust gas will be emitted.

Unfortunately, lacking professional knowledge, I can only use indirect methods to assess the vehicle's condition.

Thirteen keys were used to locate seven vehicles: three sedans, two SUVs, and two pickup trucks.

Of these, two sedans and one SUV are new energy vehicles, which were directly abandoned by Ouyang.

Traveling south through countless mountains and rivers, where can I charge my phone when it runs out of power?

Ouyang's gaze kept shifting between the SUV and the pickup truck, and soon settled on the SUV.

"Alright, this will do." Ouyang patted the hood of the engine, which had just been cleared of snow. "Hurry up and fill the gas tank, then find a few more gas cans and bring as much gasoline as possible!"

Although there was a motorhome in the parking lot, it didn't have a key. The SUV had a larger interior space, making it slightly better than the pickup truck.

Zhu Yiming shook the remote key hanging in his hand: "I have another one here!"

Ou Yang took it and saw a logo he had never seen before engraved on the key: "What kind of car is this? Don't bother with that, just take this one."

After saying that, he casually threw the key away.

"No!" Zhu Yiming quickly stopped him. "What if this one is more suitable?"

As he spoke, he pressed the unlock button, and a large truck's turn signal flashed.

This is the same Mitsubishi-style locomotive as the one used by Brother Zhu, but only the locomotive is here; there is no carriage.

Zhu Yiming exclaimed with delight, "What did I tell you? We should choose trucks... Don't rush to argue, Ouyang, this is a Mitsubishi truck, not the cab-over type we have in China. Come on, come on, come up with me and take a look, and you'll see what's going on."

Zhu Yiming didn't give Ou Yang a chance to refuse and pulled him towards the truck.

I opened the door and got in the car. The spacious driver's seat came into view, and I discovered that this car was actually an automatic!

But the dashboard was densely packed with instrument switches, none of which had any meaning, and it was dizzying to look at.

"You know how to drive this thing?" Ou Yang asked.

Zhu Yiming gestured towards the back of the driver's cab: "You don't know what the rear compartment of a Mitsubishi truck is like, do you?"

"Tch, what's the big deal..." Ou Yang turned his head and took a look, but the rest of his words immediately got stuck in his throat.

He then noticed that the rear cabin was actually larger than the cockpit, with two bunk beds, a refrigerator, a microwave, and a wardrobe on both sides. It was simply the car of his dreams!
Seeing Ou Yang's blank expression, Zhu Yiming chuckled.

Jiang Yuwei curiously leaned closer: "What are you two looking at!"

Ou Yang slapped his thigh: "This is the one!"

"What? This is the one?" Jiang Yuwei was completely confused until she boarded the truck and realized what had happened. "That's right, this is the one!"

With bunk beds, what more could you ask for?
The three men immediately turned into fuel thieves, prying open the fuel tank of another truck and emptying it to pour diesel fuel into Brother Zhu's fuel tank.

All the extra oil was put into oil drums as reserves.

Ouyang got into the driver's seat and tried to start the car.

The engine groaned reluctantly a few times, then suddenly emitted a deep roar.

Good heavens, it actually hit!
Ou Yang jerked the steering wheel and lightly pressed the accelerator. The large front of the car slowly drove out of the parking lot. He quickly discovered that although the handling of this thing was not as good as that of a small car, it was not as difficult as he had imagined.

He really wanted to drive the car into the base, but there was no road leading there, so he had to give up as a precaution.

They parked the truck on the side of the road, the three of them got out, locked the doors, and drove the snowmobiles straight to the base.

This time, we took a straight line instead of detouring around the frozen lake. We hadn't driven far when we saw a parachute hanging on a big tree and a person lying under the tree, their body mostly buried under the snow, with only one arm and half a leg sticking out.

Ouyang stopped his snowmobile, walked over to the man, and dug through the snow, immediately seeing a face with a strange smile.

Jiang Yuwei quickly checked him over: "He must have been injured in the fall, then dragged here by the parachute, and finally froze to death here."

Ouyang didn't care how the man died. He quickly dug through the snow and removed all of Old Mi's equipment.

It has everything you'd expect: a rifle, a pistol, a radio, and a night vision device. And just by looking at the workmanship and style, you can tell it's not cheap.

Without a doubt, after some picking and choosing, we brought everything that was usable and left the rest to keep Old Mi company.

The snowmobiles continued on their way and soon arrived at the base.

Many intelligent zombie guards had fallen here before, but now not a single one can be seen. Trails of drag marks stretched from the helipad all the way to Warehouse 2.

Ouyang parked his snowmobile next to the crashed helicopter, jumped into the cockpit, and after a few moments, successfully found a similar survival kit!

Upon opening it, the contents—rifles, magazines, food, medicine—were exactly the same.

Ou Yang took out gold coins, threw the survival kit to Zhu Yiming, and climbed onto a fully functional helicopter, adding another survival kit!

Things are different now. Even outside the epidemic area, the US dollar is not as useful as usual. Gold is the real hard currency. It can be used anywhere and its value is much higher than before the epidemic!
In just over ten minutes, Ouyang had thoroughly searched the helicopter parked there and found a total of six survival kits.

Putting everything else aside, the food alone is enough to feed three people for four or five days.

Ouyang cleaned out all the survival kits, keeping only one rifle as a spare and throwing away the rest. He also kept a reasonable amount of various tools and discarded the excess. Only the food was kept without exception.

The gold coins were divided into four portions, with each of the three people carrying a few coins, and the rest were used as public funds. For example, if there were any needs such as refueling or buying water along the way, they would be resolved using the public funds.

After throwing all the collected supplies onto the snowmobile, Ouyang's gaze returned to Warehouse No. 2.

The food in his survival kit was just a small part of his plan; the food stored in the warehouse was his real goal in returning to base!
(End of this chapter)