Extreme germ phobia

Chapter 240 Pickled to taste

Ou Yang suddenly remembered a saying: You can say the US military is bad, but you can't say the US military is bad!

Despite its various problems, the U.S. military is still a formidable force, and even severely impacted by the pandemic, it remains one of the world's top military powers.

Although there was only one understrength battalion, with a maximum of only four or five hundred people, there were tens of thousands of old Americans stranded in Kamed, making the two completely disproportionate.

But the US military's equipment level is undeniable: dozens of armored vehicles, dozens of machine guns, more than ten mortars, plus ample ammunition. With such a luxurious formation on display, who wouldn't get leg cramps looking at it?

In terms of firepower, protection, and logistical support, they are not on the same level.

To say that dealing with a group of armed civilians is like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut is to flatter the US.

The stranded Americans were not a complete mob; many of them were veterans with extensive combat experience. But even the most skilled cook can't cook without rice. Even if they were willing to risk their lives, they would need a bomb to charge forward.
Unfortunately, they didn't.

In terms of organization and discipline, they are worlds apart. Expecting a disorganized group to break through the US military's defenses is simply ridiculous.

The result was that the attack turned into a one-sided massacre.

Even after securing victory, the US forces did not stop there. Instead, they continued shelling until all buildings within a 500-meter radius were destroyed, creating a clear buffer zone between the outpost and the city.

The American soldiers were also ruthless; not to mention people, even a dog would be hit by two shells if it entered the quarantine zone.

The wealth of the US military is evident.

It was probably the ruthlessness of the US military that made the remaining Americans see the military's determination. Many Americans who were hesitant gave up their idea of ​​going north and left Qamd with heavy hearts.

The world is vast, yet no one knows where to go; an indescribable sense of desolation and sorrow permeates the entire city.

The departing Americans went their separate ways. Some returned to their homes, ravaged by the pandemic, and resigned themselves to fate. Others chose a direction randomly, going wherever the road took them, surviving if they were lucky, and dying if they were just unlucky. Still others bypassed the checkpoints and walked north.

The US troops at the checkpoints only focused on guarding the road and not allowing vehicles to pass, ignoring the US troops who took detours.

Little did the Americans heading north know that the military's blockade was not a spur-of-the-moment decision, nor was it limited to Kamed; continuing northward, every important transportation hub was also tightly sealed off by the US military.

Kamed was at the forefront of the blockade. Because it directly faced a large number of fleeing Americans, it only provided obstruction and did not use any other drastic measures, except to retaliate fiercely when attacked.

The situation was different at the later outposts. The further north they were located, the more drastic the measures became, to the point of being completely unreasonable. Anyone who dared to appear within the outpost's line of sight was shot without question.

Is it cruel? Is it heartless? Is it cold-blooded?
The US government didn't want to do this either, but after more than six months of development, half of the US has already seen cases of infection. If this continues, the entire US will be overrun in just a few months, becoming the first country to be destroyed by the pandemic.

Across the United States, countless people have criticized the White House for its inadequate response and weak measures, demanding that George W. Bush come up with effective methods to control the spread of the epidemic.

The pressures of the pandemic, the wave of opposition, external voices, and even internal betrayals have left the entire Rice Palace in a state of utter chaos, from George down.

After much painful reflection, George resolved to implement the most drastic measures across the United States to control the spread of the epidemic.

If that still doesn't work, he'll be completely out of options and will have no choice but to resign and hand over the heavy responsibility of dealing with the epidemic to his successors.

To be more specific, this means creating a quarantine zone that is tens or even hundreds of kilometers wide between epidemic areas and non-epidemic areas through a progressive approach!

Studies have shown that spores are slightly heavier than air. Although they can float in the air, their spread distance is only tens of meters, and at most a hundred meters, in a windless environment.

In light wind conditions, about 700 meters.

The breeze is just over three kilometers away.

Strong winds of 11 to 14 kilometers per hour.

However, it's hard to say what will happen if the wind is stronger. If there is severe convective weather, even a distance of tens of kilometers is not safe.

Therefore, the Miyako Palace established strict isolation standards, requiring that the isolation width in the direction of the incoming wind be no less than 60 kilometers and the leeward width no less than 100 kilometers.

All personnel located in the epidemic area, regardless of whether they are infected or not, or whether they are immune, are not allowed to leave.

A blanket approach can easily lead to unexpected situations. Many Americans are not in the infected area but are in the quarantine area, where there is an extremely small chance of infection.

However, these people can only stay in the quarantine area; they cannot enter the epidemic area, let alone the safe area.

In addition, the protection of the safe zone has been greatly strengthened. Air purification equipment from all over the world, especially from Tokyo University, is widely used. All uninfected people must wear masks when going out and install filters at home.

Devices for detecting and killing spores are ubiquitous.

The Mikawa Palace was well aware that it was difficult to reverse the situation in areas where infections had already occurred. No matter how much manpower and resources were invested, it would be a drop in the ocean. Therefore, they had no choice but to make the difficult decision to completely seal off the affected areas.

Ultimately, talent is the foundation of a country. Only by controlling a sufficient population can a country continue to sustain itself after the pandemic ends.

Otherwise, what use is an empty shell if everyone dies?

Old Mi has been in power for so many years, offending countless forces. When he can no longer maintain his position, he will surely be the one everyone pushes when he falls from grace.

Not only did the isolation law strictly enforce itself in the areas controlled by the Miyako Palace, but even the second-in-command, who had established his own faction, agreed with the resolution and also created isolation zones in the areas under his control.

The two sides even took this opportunity to gradually begin contact and saw hope of getting back together.

As a result, in just a few days, the entire United States was blockaded and isolated by the U.S. military, and the vast territory was divided into isolated islands that were not connected to each other by isolation zones.

Only vehicles and means of transporting supplies can travel between the isolated islands.

However, no matter where they go, they must follow strict disinfection procedures, and drivers and passengers are not allowed to put on or take off protective equipment at all times.

These measures have caused widespread discontent among the American people.

Humans are so contradictory. When the Minister of Justice had many concerns and was unwilling to take drastic measures, a group of people stood up to criticize him for inaction. But when he actually took action, another group of people jumped out to accuse him of violating human rights.

It is unconstitutional!

Of course, nobody paid any attention to these guys.

Standing up at this time is either stupid or malicious!
Due to the communication disruption, Ou Yang and the others lost contact with Luo Hui and were completely unaware of the changes in the outside world.

Two days later, at the temporary camp.

Ouyang was using a drone to monitor the highway, watching the Americans coming from the south and going to the north pass by, and lamented that at this time there were still irrational Americans continuing to rush to Kamed.

Jiang Yuwei came to the outside of the armored vehicle and gently knocked on the door: "Ouyang, we don't have much food left."

Ou Yang was taken aback: "How many more days can we eat this?"

"Two days, three days at most!"

Ou Yang rubbed his face, feeling a headache coming on.

The food they are eating now is still brought from the New Eden; although the variety is rich, the quantity is not large.

Ou Yang has been focused on ensuring safety lately, leaving the distribution and use of food entirely to Jiang Yuwei, and hasn't paid any attention to how much is left.

"How is Old Zhu?" Ou Yang asked.

"It's much better than the previous two days."

"Can I leave?"

Jiang Yuwei shook her head: "It's best to rest quietly."

Now Ouyang not only had a headache, but his teeth also ached: "I understand."

Jiang Yuwei's eyes were bitter: "Ou Yang, I know what the situation is, and I know I shouldn't have dumped this problem on you alone..."

"Hey, hey, alright, alright, let's stop with this nonsense, let me think about it." Ou Yang couldn't stand it and quickly stopped him.

Jiang Yuwei left silently, while Ou Yang rubbed his temples vigorously.

Solutions can be found by people; he already had several plans in mind, but none of them were very reasonable.

The simplest thing to do is pack up and leave this awful place immediately, and get to another city within two days. The epidemic is raging in the Liangluo South area, and it's hard to say whether we'll be able to find food.

Another option is to infiltrate Kamed; Old Mi definitely has food, so we could just steal it. However, Ouyang doesn't want to do that unless absolutely necessary.

Finally, the natural environment here is quite good. Playing the role of a hunter and bringing back some wild game shouldn't be a problem until Zhu Yiming recovers... Wild animals are hard to find, but fish resources are surprisingly abundant. You can catch a large number of Asian carp in any river.

However, he had neither a boat nor suitable fishing gear, so this method could only be used as a backup.

In contrast, Ouyang prefers to make the trip to Kamed.

The old Americans stranded in the city probably don't have much to eat, but the tram wolves aren't just made up of old Americans, they also have American soldiers!
Once the idea popped into my head, it grew wildly like weeds that had been fertilized, and I couldn't stop it.

Seeing that it was still early and not the time to take action, Ouyang took out a toolbox from the car and began to remove the police lights from the armored vehicle.

Wearing that thing, many people mistook him for a police officer fleeing Kamed. The structure of the police light wasn't complicated, and it was easily removed and tossed aside.

That's not all; the word SWAT is also painted on the car in white.

Ouyang really wanted to get some spray paint and scribble all over the car. As long as it didn't look like a police car, he could accept it whether it was abstract or impressionistic.

But the flea market had already gone out of business along with Kamed, so there was nowhere to buy anything. He had no choice but to give up on this tempting idea, pick up a very rough stone from the ground, and resignedly began to polish the car body. He quickly wore away the letters, but you could still make out what they originally said.

Ouyang scratched his head a bit, then simply tied a torch to it and burned it black.

Coughing, well, it's an armored vehicle, so what if it burns? With a little care, it certainly won't cause serious consequences.

Don't try this with a regular vehicle; it will damage the car.

After a busy period of time,
After his busy work, the imposing armored vehicle was completely wrecked and looked awkward no matter how you looked at it.

But that's exactly the effect Ouyang wanted. Even though Old Mi could recognize it as an armored vehicle at a glance, he couldn't connect it with a police car.

Although I'm not satisfied yet, this is the best I can do with the current conditions, so I'll just have to make do.

It was just past noon when Ouyang Hu Luanmin ate something and, for the first time ever, went straight to sleep. He didn't get up until almost evening: "Sister Wei, I'm going out for a bit."

Jiang Yuwei was completely confused: "At this time? What are you doing?"

"Get something to eat." Ou Yang chuckled and got into the car to tidy up.

Instead of the conspicuous M27, he took an APC-9 with a silencer and two Glocks.

Finally, he even put on a mask to cover his face.

Instead of going directly onto the highway, he walked a little further away and chose an inconspicuous spot to join the northbound flow of people.

Although some Americans still went north, many more left, many with their families, looking pale and sickly.

As we arrived at the south exit, before even entering the city, we saw several men who didn't look like good people standing by the roadside, their malicious gazes constantly sweeping over the crowd.

Ou Yang didn't want to cause trouble, but trouble came knocking on his door. When those black men saw Ou Yang, they jumped onto the road like cats that had seen fish. One of them approached Ou Yang without saying a word: "Hey, brother, long time no see!"

He opened his arms, as if to give Ouyang a hug.

Ou Yang dodged aside: "Get lost, don't fucking get in my way!"

This guy hadn't showered in ages; he reeked of an indescribable stench, like he'd just crawled out of a sewer.

Old Hei's smile froze, and in an instant, dark clouds gathered on his face: "What the hell did you say?"

If it were someone else, their face would definitely turn dark, but Lao Hei's skin was already almost black, so there was no change in his complexion at all.

The other black men burst into laughter, and one of the tall, thin guys whistled in a very indecent way: "Hey, Tommy, you can't even handle a yellow-skinned monkey. My three-year-old daughter is better than you!"

Ouyang immediately retorted with the middle finger: "You're the monkey, your whole family are monkeys!"

There's no reasoning with these troublemaking black men; the more you back down, the more they'll take advantage of you.

"Fuck you!" Tommy's eyes flashed with malice as he reached for his waist.

Before he could even touch the gun handle, Ouyang had already drawn his Glock with lightning speed. Without uttering a word, he grabbed Tommy's arm, pulled him in front of him, and used him as a human shield to block his own path.

At the same time, he flipped his wrist and spewed flames, firing several short bursts that knocked down all the troublesome black men.

Finally, he kicked Tommy over and shot him in the head.

Without even glancing at the corpse on the ground, Ou Yang calmly changed to a new magazine, quickly entered the city, and disappeared from everyone's sight.

He has his own things to do and doesn't have time to waste with these scumbags.

Anyway, the city has been in complete chaos for a while now, so the deaths of a few more black men are no big deal!
But he didn't go far. Instead, he circled around and came back, finding a secluded spot to observe the intersection.

Anyone who dares to cause trouble at an intersection must have done so on a whim; there must be some force supporting them behind the scenes!
As expected, a group of old Americans arrived in a hurry not long afterward, along with a whole bunch of black people.

Ouyang felt that the leader looked familiar, but he couldn't remember where he had seen him before.

He didn't care who the other person was, set up his submachine gun, and took him down with a short burst.

The remaining old rice scattered and fled, like a group of frightened rabbits.

Knowing he had the upper hand, Ou Yang immediately left the area and found a half-burned house near the cordon, climbing up it in a few quick movements.

Only half of the house was burned; there were still intact rooms on the first and second floors, which were crammed into by more than twenty old men.

The attic is mostly intact, but the ladder leading to it is broken, so it is empty.

Whether there was a ladder or not made no difference to Ouyang. He silently hid in the corner, quietly observing the American positions.

At the front was a row of armored vehicles standing ready, followed by several other rows of armored vehicles, crowding the already narrow road.

Behind the vehicle formation, there were more than a dozen military vehicles with different functions, and a row of tents were set up. Some American soldiers were moving back and forth between the vehicles and tents.

It was lunchtime, and by observing the actions of the American soldiers, Ouyang quickly determined which tent was the barracks and which was the kitchen.

Further away, there was a row of wooden houses, which should be the toilets.

There are several layers of barbed wire around the camp.

Although the distance and darkness made it impossible to see the specific details, Ouyang believed that there must be other defensive measures in the camp.

Ouyang hid for a while longer, and then quietly left the attic later in the evening. Throughout the entire time, no one, including Lao Mi, noticed him hiding up there.

Upon reaching the edge of the city, they joined a group of elderly Americans who were about to walk north, and the group left the city.

After arriving at the rear of the US military camp, Ouyang quietly broke away from the group and sneaked into the vicinity of the camp under the cover of night.

The camp was surrounded by two layers of barbed wire, with a gap of about five meters between them. Warning signs were erected along the edges, depicting a skull representing death and warnings about landmines.

Ouyang couldn't help but chuckle. The sign for the temporary camp was fake, but the one for the US military was definitely real!
He had no idea what other tricks were behind the barbed wire, and his gaze suddenly fell on the field toilet.

There shouldn't be any detectors near the toilet, right?

Ouyang found a half-meter-high rock, stepped back a short distance, aimed carefully, and suddenly took a running start. Just as he was about to hit the barbed wire, he leaped up, like a nimble swift, soaring over the minefield.

It even flipped in mid-air upon landing, just managing to avoid the barbed wire.

He practiced this skill in the snow outside Baifeng Town, and even Jiang Yuwei and Zhu Yiming had never seen it before.

In the camp, the monitoring equipment suddenly emitted a short alarm. The American soldier on duty glanced at the screen but found nothing unusual.

"What happened?" the sergeant asked seriously.

“Nothing there!” The American soldier shrugged. “You know, this thing is too sensitive. It’s probably a rat or some other small animal.”

"Don't get distracted!" the soldier said, leaving with displeasure.

An American soldier gave the sergeant the middle finger from behind. The sergeant suddenly turned around and saw what happened.

The American soldier awkwardly withdrew his finger, replacing it with an innocent and clear look.

The sergeant revealed a malicious smile.

Ou Yang was unaware that he had almost been exposed, and quickly hid near the toilet, where a stench hit him.

Upon closer inspection, it became apparent that beneath the wooden shack lay a row of gasoline drums, each sawn in half, with a line of words painted in white on them: "Abandon hope all you who enter here!"

Does everyone who comes here give up hope?
What kind of bad taste is this?

Just as I was about to leave, a swearing American soldier suddenly walked towards me from the direction of the camp.

With nowhere to hide around, Ouyang simply slipped into a cubicle.

Instead of going into the toilet, the soldier reluctantly dragged out the gasoline can filled with excrement, poured some gasoline into it, and then set it on fire.

Thick black smoke immediately billowed from the bucket, and an indescribable stench filled the air.

Ouyang was completely dumbfounded. What's wrong with these Americans? Coming out to burn shit in the middle of the night?
That smell was absolutely incredible, it was simply unbearable!
However, he soon discovered that this was just the beginning; the American soldier wasn't just burning it with gasoline, he was also stirring it, stirring it, and stirring it again...

Every cell in Ouyang's body was filled with resistance, and his heart was filled with the urge to escape immediately—if he hid any longer, he would surely be pickled!
(End of this chapter)