Extreme germ phobia

Chapter 235 Rendezvous
Ouyang had planned to rush through the combat zone in one go, but what he saw was only the tip of the iceberg; the actual situation was far more serious than he had imagined!
Due to the effects of the phagocytic fungus, the war zone is no longer a battle between local residents and foreign forces, but a complete chaotic war. Everywhere you look, there are intense gunshots, and you may encounter unexpected situations at any time.

Attacks on armored vehicles were frequent. The car collisions were just the appetizer. Ouyang was still worried about whether the armored vehicle was damaged when suddenly a hail of bullets came from one direction, hitting the driver's cab with a series of loud bangs and leaving two bullseye-sized cracks on the window. Ouyang was so frightened that he shrank back.

Before his wildly beating heart could settle down, another Molotov cocktail, its flames flickering wildly, was thrown from the roadside. Ou Yang reacted swiftly, slamming on the gas pedal and simultaneously jerking the steering wheel. The Molotov cocktail grazed the rear of the armored vehicle and crashed to the ground, shattering with a loud crack as flames erupted from the road.

After dodging the Molotov cocktail, Ouyang immediately reversed direction, but in his haste, he didn't see the direction clearly, and the heavy armored vehicle crashed head-on into the garage of a house on the side of the road.

Ou Yang's vision went black, his ears were ringing, and there was a muffled thud. The armored vehicle had crashed into something, and he was thrown forward uncontrollably.

Luckily, I was wearing a seatbelt, otherwise I would have hit my head on the glass.

With a slam on the brakes, the armored vehicle finally came to a stop. Ouyang looked up and saw the broken and deformed garage door pressing against the windshield. Through the crack, he could barely make out a badly deformed car inside the garage.

The repair tools hanging on the wall were wobbling, and some of them had already fallen down.

Ou Yang silently apologized, shifted into reverse, exited the garage, and immediately sped away once back on the road.

The attack continued, which greatly annoyed Ouyang. He wanted to fight back, but he was alone in the car and had no way to concentrate on operating the weapon.

Fortunately, the Mi-type armored vehicles were sturdy enough that after enduring various attacks, only some marks were left on the surface of the vehicle, and the vehicles were not damaged.

When Ou Yang saw this, he was excited. What was there to be afraid of?

He couldn't help but yell, "Come on, come on, all of you come on—"

Normally, he would never be so arrogant, but under the influence of the phagocytic hormone, Ouyang is extremely emotional at this moment and is already showing signs of losing control.

He was lucky that the biochemical protection system on the armored vehicle was always on, keeping the hallucinogens in the air out of the vehicle. Otherwise, even if his tolerance to hallucinogens was higher than that of ordinary people, he would inevitably fall into hallucinations if he continued to inhale them.

Ouyang was completely unaware of his abnormality, driving the armored vehicle recklessly. After surviving several attacks, he finally broke out of the combat zone.

That's not entirely accurate, because there was gunfire everywhere in Kamed; he simply rushed through the area where the fighting was most intense and reached the vicinity of the city's southern exit.

This is where the conflict first occurred and where the damage was most severe. Damaged vehicles were everywhere on the roads, corpses lay scattered throughout the streets, and burned-out buildings lined the roadside.

Even now, the burning buildings are still engulfed in flames.

Ouyang was used to similar scenes and felt little emotional, continuing to drive the armored vehicle forward.

The road south was littered with abandoned vehicles, and Ouyang had no choice but to drive at full speed, squeezing a path through the crowd.

The speed was indeed a bit slow, but fortunately there were many cars on the road, but no one was around.

Ou Yang guessed that the reason there was no one behind was because these Americans all came from areas where the epidemic had broken out on a large scale. They found that the confrontation had suddenly turned into a chaotic battle. Anyone with a brain would be able to guess what had happened.

At this point, a normal person's first reaction would be to immediately retreat, but the road was already packed with northbound vehicles, making it impossible to drive away.

In order to survive, these elderly people who had come from afar had no choice but to abandon their vehicles and flee.

It took Ouyang a while to finally leave the city.

The southbound highway was still crowded with vehicles, and many more had driven off the road and were scattered along the sides. Some were stuck in the mud, some were overturned, and some had managed to drive dozens of meters away, only to be left there for some unknown reason.

There was only a car, no body, and no one was found hiding in the shadows.

Ouyang was genuinely worried that someone might suddenly jump out from some hidden corner and attack the armored vehicle.

He glanced at the situation beyond the road, hesitated for a long time, and finally gave up the idea of ​​taking a shortcut. He continued to move forward slowly on the road, at an outrageously slow pace.

Fortunately, it wasn't a long journey, and we finally arrived at the place where we parked the RV a little after four in the morning.

Cars can drive on the roadside here, and you can see several cars parked on either side of the RV from a distance.

Ou Yang's heart skipped a beat, and the hairs on his body stood on end. He drove the armored vehicle off the road, opened the car door, and immediately smelled a faint spore odor.

He didn't have time to think about anything else; he immediately shouted, "Sister Wei—"

"I'm here!" Jiang Yuwei stepped out from behind the RV, holding a rifle in her arms.

Ou Yang rushed over in a few steps: "Are you alright?"

Jiang Yuwei shook her head: "It's nothing."

"Where's Lao Zhu?" Ou Yang asked again.

"He's in the car." Jiang Yuwei couldn't hide the exhaustion on her face. "He's much happier than me."

The words were spoken lightly, but anyone could hear the resentment in their tone.

Ou Yang feigned ignorance: "It's good that you're alright, it's good that you're alright..."

He suddenly stopped mid-sentence, looked down and rubbed the dry grass under his feet with the sole of his shoe: "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have been so impulsive."

Jiang Yuwei remained silent for a moment before replying, "It's okay. If we leave directly, we'll run into them."

Her gaze fell on the highway, where empty cars stretched as far as the eye could see.

It's impossible to say that they didn't harbor any resentment, but as soon as these people entered Kamed, they got into a brawl with the local residents. If they had run into each other on the way, who knows what would have happened.

It was a blessing in disguise, but a stroke of good luck.

Ou Yang looked around sheepishly and changed the subject: "Um, did you drive these cars off the road? I hope I didn't make things difficult for you?"

Jiang Yuwei shook her head: "Everyone in the car ran away, no one cares about the RV at all."

"Oh, I see!" Ou Yang breathed a sigh of relief, but imagining Jiang Yuwei and Zhu Yiming being besieged by a group of old Americans before he even returned, his guilt deepened.

But he wasn't good at expressing himself, or rather, Chinese people aren't good at expressing their inner thoughts, so he didn't say it.

Jiang Yuwei didn't intend to make things difficult for Ou Yang, and her gaze fell on the armored vehicle: "Where did this vehicle come from?"

"I found it." Ou Yang said without blushing or panting.

He subconsciously avoided the conflict with the police and did not want to admit that he had killed someone.

“The equipment in this vehicle is definitely not as good as that in a motorhome, but it’s sturdy and durable, much stronger than a motorhome!” Ou Yang turned to look around. “We’d better move to an armored vehicle and find a safer place to park.”

Actually, this place is safe enough, but it's too close to the highway, and Ouyang is worried that the evacuated Lao Mi might return.

Jiang Yuwei nodded in agreement.

Inside the RV, at least one person must remain awake to prevent accidents.

Switching to an armored vehicle would eliminate all the hassle. When the outside world is unstable, someone needs to stay behind; if the environment permits, three people can rest together. Besides the significant difference in safety, the off-road performance is worlds apart!
The two men immediately got to work, first moving Zhu Yiming onto the armored vehicle. Although they were careful, they couldn't avoid some bumping and jostling. But Zhu Yiming didn't make a sound at all, sleeping as soundly as a dead pig.

"Is Old Zhu alright?" Ou Yang asked worriedly.

I didn't feel anything wrong when I touched it, but after all this fuss, it still didn't wake up, and something just didn't seem right.

"It's alright," Jiang Yuwei said. "I gave him some medicine, and more sleep will be good for him."

Ou Yang suddenly realized what was going on. After settling Zhu Yiming in, he immediately moved the rest of the supplies.

The main supplies were weapons and ammunition, followed by food and water.

The whole process took only about ten minutes. The two of them drove one vehicle, with the armored vehicle in front and the RV behind. When they encountered places that they couldn't drive through, they used the armored vehicle to tow the RV over.

After struggling for about twenty minutes, they finally stopped in the woods two or three hundred meters away from the road.

The fields in early spring were still barren, with snow still covering the ground and bare branches covering the treetops.

Such a large armored vehicle and a motorhome parked here are like lice on a bald man's head.

However, from the beginning, Ouyang never expected to be able to hide the armored vehicle. This place is open on all sides, and anyone approaching from any direction can be identified at a glance. It is a good place to temporarily settle down.

After parking and turning off the engine, Ou Yang breathed a long sigh of relief and relaxed completely.

Looking back at Zhu Yiming, he was still fast asleep.

"You go to sleep first, I'll stay here and watch over you," Ou Yang said.

Jiang Yuwei shook her head: "I'm not sleepy yet."

She herself didn't believe what she was saying, but although she was a little tired, her mind was very clear.

The car fell silent, with faint gunshots coming from the city and occasional explosions. Looking around, the city was ablaze with burning houses, flames reddening half the sky.

Old Mi's house is all made of wood; if it keeps burning like this, Kamed will be destroyed.

The burning of the camps was a success.

Recalling everything that had happened before, Ouyang was suddenly filled with emotion: "Sigh, it was clearly a plague, a conflict between humans and Pneumocystis pneumonia, how did it turn into a conflict between humans? What's more terrifying, the human heart or the virus?"

Jiang Yuwei turned her head to look at him: "What else could it be? To put it bluntly, it all boils down to two words: humanity!"

These two words sound simple, but they are actually extremely complex. The scenes they experienced from the beginning of the pandemic to the present flashed through their minds like a slideshow, and they both felt a sense of vicissitudes.

“We definitely can’t go to the airport now. Have you thought about what to do next?” Jiang Yuwei asked.

Ou Yang said sullenly, "With so many cars on the road, we definitely can't go south. Once the situation calms down, we can turn back a bit. There's a fork in the road to the north that leads to Xiongzhou. We can take a detour from there and continue south."

"Xiongzhou?" Jiang Yuwei's mind immediately flooded with many unbearable memories. "Isn't there any other choice?"

Ouyang, who never smoked, suddenly felt like lighting one: "Head north to Lion State, and take a boat south as originally planned; or continue north and then turn west."

What's the safest way to get there?

Ou Yang looked constipated: "Don't make things difficult for me. At a time like this, neither side is safe."

Needless to say, Bear State is the worst affected by the outbreak; Lion State is experiencing multiple outbreaks, making it no better than Bear State; Mule State is slightly better, but a large-scale outbreak has occurred in the southern part of Mule State, meaning that whether you go east or west, you could easily run into an epidemic area.

Pneumococcus itself is not a big problem; the old rice residues in various cities are the biggest destabilizing factor!
Unfortunately, the old American highways have a particular fondness for running through cities, which is enough to make one's scalp tingle just thinking about it.

"Why don't we go back and see what Luo Hui has to say? He definitely knows more accurate information," Ou Yang suggested.

"Then let's wait a little longer," Jiang Yuwei said. "Anyway, it will take Lao Zhu some more time to recover."

Ou Yang pointed behind him: "He's like this, is that alright?"

"Not at the moment," Jiang Yuwei said, not daring to give a guarantee.

The best option is to send Zhu Yiming back to Kamed and have him readmitted to the hospital.

But with the fighting so intense in the city, there were no facilities to send patients to the hospital, so they had to make do with what they had.

Ou Yang scratched his head hard. For now, all he could do was pray that Zhu Yiming was tough enough.

The two chatted idly about trivial matters, neither of them mentioning resting anymore. They talked from the pitch black of night until dawn.

The morning light illuminated the city's outline, and the sounds of gunfire and explosions continued unabated. The flames were barely visible, only plumes of thick smoke billowing and rising.

It looks like things will remain chaotic in Kamed for a while longer.

As dawn broke, Ouyang's stomach rumbled with hunger. Jiang Yuwei opened a packet of emergency food, and the two shared it.

While eating, Jiang Yuwei reminded him, "There's not much food left, and it's all emergency food. Lao Zhu needs something more nutritious and easier to digest."

Ou Yang felt another headache coming on, but then an idea popped into his head: "I'll go back and look for it!"

“I’ll go with you!” Jiang Yuwei said.

"I can do it alone!"

Jiang Yuwei played her trump card: "Trying to leave us both behind again?"

Ouyang was speechless.

Indeed, separating could lead to unpredictable consequences, while acting together can provide mutual support.

While the city was still in chaos, the two abandoned their RV and drove the armored vehicle back to the highway. After observing for a while and confirming that there was no danger, Jiang Yuwei stayed in the vehicle to oversee the overall situation, while Ou Yang grabbed a rifle and rushed onto the highway, searching for supplies in one vehicle after another.

It was clear that Lao Mi was in a hurry when he abandoned the car, leaving many daily necessities in it. Ou Yang didn't have much trouble finding two jars of peanut butter, several cans of meat, some bread and biscuits with a long shelf life, as well as salad dressing, butter, and the like.

The majority of supplies are emergency food.

Ouyang was immediately discouraged.

Which of these foods is the most nutritious? Which is the easiest to digest?

He had to turn his attention back to the city.

(End of this chapter)