Extreme germ phobia

Chapter 378 Heading West, Heading West!
The waves, as large as small mountains, crashed down, and Ou Yang and the others immediately dove into the water to avoid them, only emerging again after the waves had passed.

Taking advantage of the gap between the passing of the old wave and the emergence of the new one, Ou Yang removed the artificial cheek from his mouth: "Old Tooth, how long will it take for the typhoon to pass?"

He was very worried that the radio would malfunction due to water damage, but fortunately it didn't.

Lu Wei answered without hesitation: "One or two days at the shortest, three to five days at the longest!"

"What about the hurricane?"

This time, Lu Wei didn't respond immediately. Instead, he carefully recalled the data he had noted down before setting off and said uncertainly, "Two days, two days should have passed."

Ouyang was speechless.

It'll take two days to finish? We can't all stay in the water for two days, can we?

Humans are terrestrial species. If you stay in water for a long time, you will either die or be severely damaged.

You can manage for a short time, but soaking like this indefinitely isn't a good idea, is it?
"Old..." He had barely uttered a word before he had to dive back into the water, only able to continue once he surfaced. "Old Ya, waiting like this isn't going to work. We have to save ourselves, or call for backup!"

“Ouyang is right!” Luohan wholeheartedly agreed.

“I’ll give it a try!” Lu Wei readily agreed and immediately began calling out, “Albatross calling the nest, please respond…”

Ou Yang was immediately filled with question marks. The code name used today was too strange! It didn't fit their usual habits at all!
Lu Wei called several times in succession, but received no response. After dodging one wave, he continued, unwilling to give up.

This time, it only took one call to receive a response: "Bird's Nest received, Albatross, please speak!"

Ouyang...

So, the difference between success and failure is just a single wave?
"Bird's Nest, Albatross requests backup! Repeat, Albatross requests backup!" Lu Wei practically shouted. "Please send a helicopter over immediately!"

The helicopter only needs to hover above the three people and lower a cable, allowing them to climb onto the helicopter and escape their predicament.

However, the other side fell silent.

Lu Wei panicked: "Bird's Nest, can you hear me?"

"We can hear you, but we can't provide support right now; the helicopter hasn't returned yet."

"Didn't go back?" Lu Wei was puzzled. "Then just have the plane turn around and fly back. That would save you a lot of trouble."

"It's not that the plane didn't return to base, but rather that it suddenly lost contact en route. Calls went unanswered, and we have no idea what the situation is..."

Lu Wei's expression changed drastically: "Bird's Nest, Bird's Nest, please respond—"

There was only hissing noise on the radio.

He continued calling, but this time, even after two waves passed, he still received no response.

Ouyang and Luohan's expressions grew increasingly serious, and the former asked urgently, "What happened?"

Lu Wei: "The helicopter has lost contact, and its current situation is unknown!"

Ou Yang's heart sank, and Luo Han asked in alarm, "Won't something bad happen?"

Lu Wei responded: "We're out of contact now too!"

Nobody wants a plane to crash, so they don't want to call it a crash, they just say it's out of contact.

Ou Yang was a little confused: "Why did it have to happen now of all times, either earlier or later?"

Lu Wei explained, "We went too far, almost beyond the permitted area, and the environment was so bad, it's not surprising that we lost contact."

"What should we do then? Is there any other way, one that doesn't require a helicopter?" Ouyang regretted his actions once again.

This is a total trap, a complete disaster! How did I even step into it?
Lu Wei pondered for a moment, then suddenly became excited and pointed sharply westward: "I have a way, let's head west!"

"Where to?" Ouyang asked, puzzled. Saint Václav Island is in the north, what do you mean by going west?
“Saint-Noh Island!” Lu Wei said, “It’s only sixteen nautical miles to the west, not far!”

Ou Yang was taken aback and asked in surprise, "How did you know?"

Lu Wei's head was buzzing: "Is this the time to ask this?"

Ouyang was incredibly curious, but he could only suppress his curiosity: "Then what do we do?"

Lu Wei pointed to the lifeboat in the distance: "Get on the boat first, then head west!"

He knew very well that Saint-Noah Island was closer to the eye of the storm, with stronger winds and heavier rain, but he couldn't just stay on the cruise ship until the storm was over.

The three of them struggled to climb onto the lifeboat.

Ou Yang had intended to squeeze into the ship, but when he finally managed to open the cabin door, he was immediately overwhelmed by the stench emanating from inside. He quickly closed the door and took several deep breaths to clear the stench from his chest.

"Go in, what are you waiting for!" Lu Wei urged.

"It smells too strong, I'd rather hang it outside!" Ou Yang said.

If you leave it inside to marinate, won't it be fully flavorful by the time you take it out?
Actually, the people inside also wanted to get out, but they weren't confident they could stay outside like the three people, so they had to stay in the cabin and endure the sour smell.

After a while, you get used to the smell, and it doesn't smell so bad anymore.

Lu Wei glanced at Ou Yang disdainfully: "Can't you even endure such a small difficulty?"

Ouyang was on the verge of tears. Was this a minor difficulty? He'd rather fight zombies!
"Luohan!" Lu Wei changed tactics. "Let's set an example for Ouyang!"

Luo Han shook his head without hesitation: "Forget it, I want to stay outside too!"

Lu Wei...

Fine, if we don't want to go in, then we don't want to go in!

Despite a brief hiccup, the three managed to return to the lifeboat, and everyone felt they had found their anchor.

Ouyang moved to the front of the lifeboat and gestured for people to follow his directions, but there was no response from inside the boat.

He immediately realized that it was too dark inside to see his movements clearly.

So he turned on the tactical flashlight hanging under the gun and turned the brightness down, pointed to himself, and then pointed ahead.

Song Rui understood instantly and immediately started the engine.

Ouyang didn't want to drive forward. At first, he used a tactical flashlight to indicate the direction, since the battery was enough. But after a short while, a dark shadow suddenly darted out of the water. Once it entered the range of the light, he could see that it was a big fish that was more than half a meter long.

The fish crashed headfirst into Ouyang, nearly knocking him into the water.

Lu Wei quickly reminded him, "Turn off the lights, turn off the lights right now!"

Ouyang realized that the lights had attracted the big fish, so he quickly turned off the switch.

Without lights, hand gestures couldn't be used to direct directions, but no problem, Ouyang quickly came up with a new method.

In short, just keep tapping the bulkhead on the side that you're turning in, and stop tapping as soon as you're in the right direction. That way, it doesn't matter if it's pitch black.

And so, the lifeboat sailed further and further away in the wind and waves, slowly disappearing into the storm.

We were frequently washed by the waves along the way.

During the journey, Ouyang finally found an opportunity to ask the question that had been lingering in his mind for a while: "Old Ya, how do you know where Saint Nor Island is?"

Lu Wei rolled his eyes: "You haven't forgotten yet?"

"No, can you just give me a straight answer?" "Simple." A smile appeared on Lu Wei's face. "Communication is indeed down, but satellite positioning is working fine, isn't it?"

"Latitude and longitude?" Ou Yang was even more confused. "How did you figure that out?"

To him, latitude and longitude were just a string of random numbers, and he couldn't connect them to any point on Earth.

“It’s mainly the latitude,” Lu Wei said. “I remember the latitude of Saint Nor Island!”

How was the 16 nautical mile determined?

"The Cannon Islands are right on the equator. One degree of latitude corresponds to 111 kilometers, one minute is about 1.85 kilometers, and it's almost a nautical mile. Our position is exactly 16 seconds away from Saint Nor Island, so it's 16 nautical miles."

Ouyang could hardly believe it was true: "It's that simple?"

"Only the equator is simple; the closer to the poles, the shorter the distance. To be more specific, it's 1.85 multiplied by the cosine of the latitude..."

A wave crashed over and capsized the lifeboat. It took a lot of effort to find the right direction again.

Having received the answer, Ouyang didn't press the matter further, and Lu Wei, who had choked on two mouthfuls of seawater, also lost interest in continuing the conversation.

Sixteen nautical miles may not seem far, but the journey takes much longer than expected.

The reason is quite bizarre: although the fully enclosed lifeboat is equipped with a propeller and can navigate autonomously, its speed is only six knots, which is six knots per hour, or a little over 11 kilometers per hour.

It's practically crawling like a tortoise!
What's even more troublesome is that there was a headwind all the way!

Waves crashed in one after another, and it felt like the lifeboat wasn't moving forward at all, but rather moving backward. It was simply outrageous.

Fortunately, the ocean currents in this area flow from east to west, which can provide some assistance to the lifeboats.

Braving the wind and rain, after a full five hours, they finally covered the mere 16 nautical miles, averaging 6 kilometers per hour, only slightly faster than walking.

Saint-Noah Island was right in front of them, but the island was somewhat abstract, with cliffs everywhere. The lifeboat dared not approach rashly, otherwise a big wave would crash into it and smash it against the mountainside, shattering it to pieces.

Under Ouyang's command, the lifeboat circled the island while maintaining a safe distance, taking a full half hour before finding a suitable beach to land on.

As a result, the boat was constantly affected by the waves while heading towards the beach, and unexpectedly veered off course, with the lifeboat heading towards the rocks on the left side of the beach.

"Jump!" Lu Wei shouted suddenly.

Ouyang lost his grip and fell into the sea, but with the help of the waves, he quickly climbed back onto the beach.

And then, lo and behold, the lifeboats have come aboard too!
However, the location was a bit off, already at the edge of the beach, and it was just a hair's breadth away from crashing into the almost vertical cliff.

Fortunately, it still fell short in the end.

The people on the boat had no idea what had happened and were still relieved to finally be ashore.

Xu Zhou pulled open the sixth cabin door, and fresh air, full of moisture, rushed into the cabin.

Then a wave crashed over, immediately filling half the boat with seawater. This happened several times, eventually washing away most of the filth in the cabin.

Ou Yang and the others arrived together. They shouted a call, and everyone got off the boat. Together they pulled the lifeboat ashore, drained the seawater, and then went into the cabin to take shelter from the wind and rain.

Lu Wei asked in surprise, "Why aren't the lights on?"

Everyone was puzzled. There were lights in the lifeboat?
Lu Wei groped around above his head, found the emergency light, and turned it on, instantly dispelling the darkness.

The emergency lights weren't very bright, but they were enough to illuminate the cabin.

Everyone looked at each other; they were all soaked to the bone, their clothes covered in sand, and they looked quite disheveled.

No one felt embarrassed; in fact, some people laughed.

The people next to them were puzzled and didn't understand what was so funny, but they didn't realize that getting to the island meant escaping danger. Shouldn't they be happy to have survived such a disaster?

Everyone was soaked, and there was nothing to hide at this point. Immediately, someone took off their wet clothes and wrung them out as much as possible.

The others followed immediately, and soon a dozen shirtless men appeared in the lifeboat.

Ouyang and his group were in a more troublesome situation. After all that work, their exoskeletons were running out of power, so they had to take them off and put them away, leaving them with only their underwear on.

Having this wet thing on your body is incredibly uncomfortable. If there were only men present, it would be much simpler; you could just strip naked.

But there were four girls on the boat, and no matter how uncomfortable they were, they had to maintain basic politeness.

To be honest, those girls were in a really awkward situation. The cabin wasn't very big to begin with, and they had to endure it in front of so many men. Even though they were soaked to the bone, they had to grit their teeth and bear it.

Times have changed, and it's not a big deal to take off your outer garments, but in this environment, it's safer to be a little conservative.

However, instead of avoiding their gazes, they stared intently, looking at one person and then at the other.

The others were just average, nothing special. But Lu Wei and Luo Han were professional soldiers, and their physiques were absolutely top-notch. Just looking at them made the girls drool.

Ouyang is not bad either, and is even fairer.

Even the boys were filled with envy and jealousy when they saw it.

However, although Ou Yang and the others took off their clothes, they never parted with their weapons, and they would never hand them over to anyone else.

Lu Wei found a plastic box in the lifeboat and said it should contain emergency fresh water and food, which immediately perked everyone up.

However, the box was empty; there was nothing inside. Everyone was struck dumb and utterly disappointed.

They were all clutching their rumbling stomachs, their eyes filled with resentment.

The group hadn't eaten for a long time, and if the issue of food hadn't been brought up, it wouldn't have been difficult to keep going. But telling a hungry person that there was food, only to receive nothing in the end, was a truly disheartening experience.

I didn't feel anything before, but then my stomach started acting up.

Water is easy to find; it's raining outside, so we can collect some rainwater to tide us over. But food is a different story; if there's no food, there's no food.

That scene made Lu Wei extremely embarrassed.

"How about we go out and get something to eat?" Luo Han suggested.

Upon hearing this, everyone's eyes lit up.

"Let's forget about it," Fu Yao said weakly. "With this wind and rain, where are we going to find something to eat?"

Lu Wei reminded him, "This is an island; it may not have much else, but it has plenty of coconuts!"

Everyone immediately perked up: "Let's go! Let's go!"

"Go together, go together!"

He was about to open the hatch when he said that.

Lu Wei quickly stopped them, leaving Luo Han to guard the boat while he and Ou Yang, along with several men, left in the rain.

We hadn't gone far when we found many coconut trees near the beach.

Initially, some people were worried about how they could climb the trees to pick coconuts in such strong winds and rain. When they arrived at the site, they found that not only were most of the coconuts on the trees damaged by the wind and rain, but many coconut trees were also blown down by the strong winds.

Climbing trees? That's rough work!
Just pick them up!

(End of this chapter)