Doomsday America

Chapter 181 Dangerous Building
With their thoughts on the zombies in mind, Gavin and Nikita continued their work, opening up all the stables around the suspected Howler.

If Gavin found a single zombie in the stable, he would kick it over, tie it up, and throw it on the ground.

If there are two or more zombies at the same time, Gavin will swing his longsword and kill a few of them, leaving the last zombie to tie up.

After killing five zombies and tying up three more, Gavin walked out of the stable and happened to hear gunshots and curses coming from more than 200 meters away.

The sound made Gavin chuckle to himself, and he casually asked Nikita.

"What's going on over there? Eugene got pounced on by a zombie again?"

"I don't know, but it's definitely not Eugene. Eugene is very close to us."

Nikita responded while pointing to the stables about eighty meters to her right.

Eugene stomped on the zombie's head, then looked toward the source of the cursing.

Following their gazes, more than two hundred meters away...

Gavin saw Father Hogan take off his coat and hand it to Steve.

The person cursing was Steve. He was quite far away, so Gavin couldn't see the details clearly. He could only see Steve take the clothes and wrap them around his waist.

"What happened? His pants are ripped?"

Gavin casually remarked, to which Nikita responded by spreading her hands and rolling her eyes.

"That must be it. I'm actually quite glad I didn't see it clearly."

"That's true. After all, if Steve's pants weren't badly torn, he wouldn't need to cover them up. They're probably torn to the vital parts, haha!"

After confirming that Steve was not in any further danger, Gavin responded to Nikita while finally bursting into laughter.

His laughter carried far, and Steve could vaguely hear it too. So Steve shook his head helplessly, rubbed his backside which was covered by Father Hogan's shirt, and said to Hogan with a bitter face.

"I think I've put on the wrong pants. These pants look like Gavin's dad's. If they were Gavin's, they would be a bit too big for me, but they're too tight, damn it!"

As he spoke, Steve suddenly moved his right hand, and the silver Colt Python fired a bullet that burrowed into the head of a zombie a dozen meters away.

Steve continued speaking while watching the scene of zombies splattering blood.

"And I shouldn't have been so stingy with my bullets, damn it, I kicked that zombie a little too hard!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Steve couldn't help but lift his left leg and loosen his hip.

After a moment of silence, Father Hogan spoke softly to Steve.

"In any case, the fact that your pants didn't tear when you were facing the zombies and affect your fight against them is already a blessing from God, isn't it?"

"Ha, then I really have to thank God for tearing my crotch open. Should I stick my butt out and wait for His visit?"

Steve immediately spoke to the priest, clearly annoyed.

He grew up with Gavin and his personality was influenced by Gavin to become an atheist.

Upon hearing Steve's words, Hogan remained silent for a moment, then quickly shook his head and responded to Steve with amusement.

"You're really getting on my nerves, young man. I've never been so eager for my father to show himself so that the men in the house can all see your ass in purple underwear!"

"Stop joking, you piece of shit. I don't want my family to see my butt. You win, you've made me revere the Almighty again!"

As Steve spoke, he gave Father Hogan the middle finger.

And the family members he mentioned...

At the manor, Thomas showed the two women who had been rescued by helicopter around their rooms, then taught them a series of camp rules, and finally handed them a zombie survival manual.

He finally stood in front of the two women's room and spoke elegantly to them.

“That’s about enough, Ms. Greta and Ms. Meryl.”

“As per the orders of our leader Gavin, you have a whole day to rest and think about your future, but tomorrow you will have to make a choice.”

"Besides that, I have one more request, which is... please hand over your weapons to me, whether they are daggers or firearms."

"After you make your choices tomorrow, I will assign you the weapons and equipment provided by the camp according to your assigned roles."

At this point, Thomas reached out his hands to the two women, waiting for them to hand over their weapons.

Faced with Thomas's urging gaze, the two women looked at each other, and then Greta, who had dyed her hair blue, spoke to Thomas.

"Uh, Mr. Butler, if knives and chair legs count as weapons, then we've thrown all our weapons onto the rooftops of Dallas. We have nothing now!"

"Oh?"

Upon hearing this, Thomas couldn't help but frown and asked the two of them to confirm.

"Are you sure you have nothing? This isn't the answer I expected. I thought the apocalypse would teach everyone to use weapons to protect themselves."

At this point, Thomas looked at the two women suspiciously.

Facing Thomas's undisguisedly suspicious gaze, Greta and Meryl exchanged a glance, and then the freckled Meryl spoke softly to Thomas.

“Mr. Butler, we are not lying to you. We, including Manager Anna who is still undergoing treatment and Ling, have been staying in the hotel since the beginning of the apocalypse!”

"Yes, Mr. Butler!"

Greta then took over Meryl's words and continued speaking to Thomas.

"In the first few days after the apocalypse, we all hid in our own rooms. It was Ling who found us while exploring and gathered us on the eleventh floor of the hotel."

"It wasn't until four days ago, when a helicopter affected the zombies in the hotel, that the zombies started gathering on our floor and the floors above it, and we were driven to the roof by the zombies."

"In short, we have been struggling to survive in the hotel, which has virtually no firearms. The few security personnel who are always armed are located on the first floor, which is too far away from us."

"I do own a handgun, but I keep it in my car. Not everyone likes fiddling with guns in a hotel room, believe me!"

At this point, Greta gave a helpless look and turned around to stick her butt out at Thomas.

"You can search me if you don't believe me, but I have nothing on me, Mr. Butler!"

"There's no need for a body search. Since you don't have guns, come find me tomorrow to get them."

Thomas did not dwell on the issue, since what the two said made sense.

Thomas himself had a pre-apocalyptic gun license, but he didn't carry his gun 24/7. Most of the time, the gun was kept at home and in his car, and he only carried it on his person on rare occasions.

Since this group of survivors was trying to survive in the upper floors of the hotel, it's understandable that they didn't have guns.

Just as Thomas was thinking this, new footsteps sounded in the hall, and Martin's lazy voice also came from the hall.

"Hehe, I thought you guys had already started eating, but what's going on? I got back late enough, but the others still haven't returned. What are they doing?"

At this point, Martina, who had just returned home, looked towards the second-floor guard post and sought an answer from Madison with his eyes.

Before Madison could answer, Horst, who was vacuuming in the hall, looked helplessly at the new footprints left by everyone and replied to Martin with a bitter face.

"Martin, Gavin is leading a group to support Eugene's team. They should all be at the horse farm."

"Really? Eugene is really terrible; he dawdles like a tortoise!"

Martin gave Horst a casual reply, then raised his hand and waved towards the sentry post before speaking to his team members.

"Let's go to the horse farm and see what's going on with Eugene!"

With that, Martin, along with the enormous Tara and two others, drove off towards the horse farm.

When they arrived, the workers at the horse farm were still busy.

Seeing the car stop nearby, Gavin stopped what he was doing and stood with Nikita in front of what appeared to be the Howlers' stables, heading towards Martin and his group.

As Martin got out of the car, he asked Gavin a question.

"Boss, why haven't you eaten lunch yet? Eugene, that bastard, must be slacking off, otherwise why would he be so slow!"

"It's alright, it won't make a difference. How about you guys? Tell me about the morning's operation later."

Gavin casually said this to Martin, then waved to the others.

"And you guys, since you're here, go help out. Kill every zombie you can see in the horse farm, and while you're at it, capture a dozen or so live zombies for me!"

"Of course, we must capture the zombies alive while ensuring safety. Compared to the zombies, each of you is ten thousand times more important!"

"As for the zombies you captured alive, tie them up and scatter them in the stables near me. Go."

Gavin waved to the crowd, and they immediately left. Even Nikita and Tara formed a temporary duo and departed.

Gavin nodded in satisfaction as he watched Nikita and Tara walk away.

After so many days, the guys at the camp have come to understand and instinctively follow the rules.

He forbids solo operations, so everyone teams up in pairs. This way, even if some unexpected things happen during the operation, at least someone can come to the rescue in time.

At that moment, Martin, following Gavin's gaze, glanced at the two women walking away, then whispered to Gavin, "..."

"Boss, which one are you looking at? Is it your own Angela (angel), or that old acquaintance with the big butt?"

"Mazefak, stop your fucking nonsense and tell me what happened this morning!"

The reason Gavin wanted to focus his questioning on Martin was because the guy's most important task that morning was to scout the road to the Indian Reservation jail.

Faced with Gavin's question, Martin made a helpless expression and spread his hands, saying, "Boss, I really don't want to say that I'm in trouble, but that's the truth. My path to prison is blocked."

"The good news is that Farm Town is still safe. Yesterday's zombie migration happened to avoid the location of Farm Town."

"But this good news is nothing compared to the bad news, because the bad news is... the horde of zombies has undoubtedly run into our herd of cattle, and I suspect they've encountered more than one herd."

"In short, the cattle have run away from the zombie cattle and are heading in the direction of the farm town. They are getting further and further away from our farm. I am worried that if the zombie cattle are around for too long, the cattle will feel threatened and migrate even further away from the farm until they disappear from our farm completely!"

"So, I need to apply for more team members this afternoon, or you could bring more guys, including me, to handle it together, boss."

"We must kill the zombie cattle as soon as possible, then burn their carcasses to restore the herd's sense of security!"

At this point, the laziness and leisure in Martin's eyes disappeared, replaced by caution and anticipation.

Upon hearing Martin's words, Gavin narrowed his eyes and pondered for a moment before nodding and speaking to Martin.

How many zombie cows did you encounter this morning?

“I’ve encountered too many, at least forty, but most of them were far away. Only six of them actually spotted us.”

Martin replied to Gavin.

"Boss, you should understand, right? After we found the first zombie cow, we didn't dare to approach any other lone cows."

"In short, we started encountering zombie cows about fifteen or sixteen kilometers from the manor, and we kept running into scattered herds of zombie cows on the way from when my squad scouted the farm town to the airport in the east."

"The largest herd of cattle is about twenty or so, which is already beyond our capacity to handle. Even though we're using the Battle Shield, I still don't dare to use the vehicle to challenge the charge of a dozen or so mad bulls."

"In short, we only made it to the airport this morning. It took us a lot of time to avoid the zombie cows. Those things would run towards us from a great distance, and they could cover 100 meters in almost eight seconds, as fast as the wind."

"Besides, the existence of the zombie cows made me hesitant to set foot in the farm town, so a thorough reconnaissance of the farm town took us a lot of time."

"This is only the farm area. Once we leave the farm, I suspect there will be more trouble on the way. It will probably take at least until the day after tomorrow to reach the reservation prison safely."

"That's the situation. Boss, what do you think we should do? Should we take action after lunch and take out the zombie cow first?"

"Of course!"

Gavin responded to Martin without hesitation, then worriedly stroked the handle of his revolver and continued.

"You scouted from the farm town all the way to the airport before you spotted the cattle. They're really about to leave the farm."

"This afternoon, Eugene's team will operate with you. I'll take Steve and you guys to take down the zombie cow. Then your team and Eugene's team will head to the reservation prison together. Eugene's super long range will be a big help to you."

"After we take down those cows, Steve and I will leave you. I have other work to do!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Gavin patted Martin on the shoulder to comfort him.

Martin nodded and smiled.

"That's good. With Redhead by my side all the way, even if I die out there, I won't be afraid of having no one to bicker with in hell~"

"I'm not in the mood for arguing with you. It's more meaningful for us to go to the bathroom and compare whose penis is bigger than arguing, you idiot!"

Just as Martin finished speaking, Eugene arrived near Gavin, dragging a zombie with him.

Seeing this, Gavin took the opportunity to explain the afternoon's tasks to Eugene.

Meanwhile, the other men kept bringing back zombies, and soon, at least one or two zombies were tied up and packed in each of the dozen or so stables in the vicinity.

Gavin thought the number was enough, so he told his men that they didn't need to keep any more zombies.

While the men continued their work, Gavin and Martin arrived near a rather unusual stable.

This stable even had more zombies than the others; when Gavin approached, four zombies suddenly rushed out.

Unfortunately, their numbers did not exceed six, so even the four zombies combined could not last a second against Gavin.

Watching the four zombies fall almost simultaneously after a gunshot, Martin was once again deeply impressed by Gavin's rapid-fire revolver skills.

After recent days of recovery training, Gavin's shooting speed has become increasingly faster, approaching the peak he was in when he repeatedly won rapid-fire championships.

While Martin sighed, Gavin stepped over the zombie corpses, frowned, put on his mask, and went into the stable.

Martin followed Gavin into the stables and looked at the dilapidated wooden walls of the stables.

"Tsk tsk, this house is much more damaged. This is obviously the zombies' main target. So who are they after? The mushroom-grown zombie, or the one tied to the pillar?"

At this point, Martin walked up to Gavin, pulled out his survival knife, and plunged it into the head of the zombie tied to the pillar.

Gavin shook his head regretfully as he watched the cult members who had been killed again after already being dead.

It's a pity, he originally wanted to recruit a slightly more normal cult member to deal with the doomsday cults that are destined to spring up like mushrooms after rain in the future.

Before he could even recruit any members, the cult members were all killed. Sigh, maybe even God doesn't like cult members.

As Gavin pondered this, he moved closer to José of the Holy Fire Church and examined José's body.

José had a huge laceration on his neck, apparently from a zombie biting off a piece of flesh, but apart from that, he didn't have many other injuries.

Clearly, the infection rate of the zombie fungus is still extraordinary. Before the zombies even had a chance to eat a few bites of meat, Jose had already become their ally.

As for Martin, after killing Jose, he walked over to the zombie whose hands and feet had been broken and who was tied up in the corner a long time ago, and squatted down to observe it.

A moment later, Martin reached out and twisted the rope binding the mushroom zombie, then said to Gavin with concern.

"Boss, it's only been a few days, isn't the rope used to bind this zombie a bit too rotten?"

"indeed!"

Hearing Martin's words, Gavin squatted down beside Martin, picked up a piece of rope, and said.

"This is even the second set of ropes I used to tie him up. The first set was long ago corroded by the fungus on his body. Although zombie fungus does not have the super-fast corrosiveness of strong acids and alkalis, it can still destroy things around them at an extremely fast speed."

"Moreover, even without aggregates, a considerable number of mycelia will appear near ordinary zombie corpses, which is quite dangerous. I guess the cities on our land will be completely destroyed by this fungus before long!"

At this point, Gavin reached out and touched the mushroom zombie, then scooped up a cluster of beige mycelium that resembled a spider web connecting the zombie to the corner of the wall.

After glancing at the fungus in his hand, Gavin reached out and rubbed his gloves on the stable floor.

Martin then stabbed the wooden wall covered with mycelium with his knife, then knocked off a piece of soft, rotten wood, and looked at it for a moment.

After glancing at it twice, he handed the piece of wood to Gavin.

Gavin glanced at it, then shook his head dejectedly and smiled wryly.

"Not only was the wood too damp and rotten, but the cross-section of the wood was also full of milky white mycelium. The color of this mycelium inside the wood was much better than on the outside, but that didn't change the fact that it was no good. Damn it."

While cursing, Gavin took the piece of wood and crumpled it hard in his palm.

The wood instantly shattered into dust.

While Gavin's excessive strength played a part, the wood was ultimately too soft and rotten, so Gavin looked up at the roof and continued.

"Martin, when you have time, come back with some paint and put an X on this house. I'm worried it will soon become a dangerous building."

At this point, Gavin stood up, went to the wall about a meter away from the corner covered by mycelium, pulled out his longsword, and pried up a piece of wood shavings.

After confirming that the sawdust also contained mycelium, Gavin continued walking away, cutting off a piece of wood every half meter to examine it, and finally stopped about three and a half meters away from the corner where the mycelium was abundant.

"In just a few days, the mycelium has spread more than three meters through the wooden wall. At this rate, it won't be long before the mycelium completely takes over the entire house. To hell with it!"

Gavin couldn't help but curse, while Martin followed suit, digging into the soil with his dagger, observing as he dug, until he finally dug out soil with no visible mycelium at a distance of nearly five meters from the core of the mycelium.

As Martin threw the clean soil onto the ground, he shook his head and said worriedly.

"Boss, the mycelium spreads underground almost twice as fast as it does in wood, or even faster."

"If this continues, in just a few years, the land beneath our feet will probably be completely covered by mycelium!"

"Yes."

Gavin, feeling immense pressure, gave a firm reply, then remained silent for a long time before pointing his longsword at the dead cultist José in the distance.

"Fortunately, Jose used his life to verify some things for us. Since he didn't turn into a zombie because of the thick spores and mycelium in this stable, we at least know that we won't be affected by the spores and mycelium!"

"Perhaps, as the astronauts told us, even if we eat the mushrooms growing on zombies, we might not get infected and become zombies."

"Thinking about it, that makes sense. After all, we've already been infected with the zombie fungus. Right now, we're just asymptomatic carriers."

"After the zombies bit us, the reactions we experienced were more like the activation of fungi within our bodies!"

"So, if we run out of food in the future, maybe we can use zombie corpses to grow mushrooms. I'm actually quite curious about what these mushrooms would taste like, maybe..."

"Wait, boss, please stop talking!"

Upon hearing this, Martin couldn't help but interrupt Gavin, then put on a wry smile and said to Gavin.

"Please don't talk about mushrooms anymore! I really don't want to lose a delicious ingredient from my recipes. God, I just can't stand looking at mushrooms anymore!"

Just as Martin finished speaking, Eugene and Steve arrived in front of the stable where the two were, and Eugene called out to Gavin.

"Boss, it's almost all done. Come take a look. If everything's alright, let's go home for dinner. My stomach is rumbling!"

"OK, it's time to eat."

Gavin nodded, then got up and left the stable. After checking everything, he led his men home.

(End of this chapter)