Wasteland Survivalist: A Scientific Guide to Post-Apocalyptic Survival

The heavy rain in the Ten Thousand Mountains showed no signs of stopping the next day.

The temperature dropped further after a night of wind and rain.

This area is normally warm year-round, with most years having no winter.

But as December draws to a close, daytime temperatures have finally dropped below 10 degrees Celsius.

If this situation continues for more than 5 days, the area can be declared to have met the meteorological criteria for the onset of winter.

Drones cannot take off in the rain, and the risk of going out is too high.

After discussing it with Bai Lang, Gu Lang decided to postpone their plan to go to the beach to move and repair parts.

However, he did not waste any time and made good use of this free time.

I obtained a detailed local traffic map from Bailang, which is better than the offline map on my phone.

Paper maps are much more detailed, clearly marking every county road, rural road, and farm road.

Gu Lang planned several travel routes on it.

The first route is the one we took last time, from the hydroelectric power station through the county town directly to Baisha Bay Wharf.

The road conditions are the best, but the entire route is exposed, making it easy to be targeted.

The second route detours along the old coastal defense highway along the Beilun River, although it adds more than ten kilometers.

However, the route is surrounded by farmland and coastline, with open terrain, making it difficult to be ambushed.

The last alternative route passes through a quarry and uses internal roads to reach the sea.

Bai Lang said that the roads inside were ruined by heavy vehicles and the road conditions were extremely poor.

Fortunately, it is extremely hidden without any road signs, and most people wouldn't even be able to find the entrance.

After discussing it, the two decided to take the coastal highway first, and then explore the quarry area after the ground had dried completely.

After determining the route, Gu Lang called He Ping over, and the three of them began convoy formation and anti-ambush training.

On the morning of December 28, the rain finally stopped.

Bai Lang called out to Gu Lang, and they went out to check the road conditions.

It was discovered that the access road to and from the hydropower station had turned into a muddy road due to the heavy rain.

The area was full of potholes and severely flooded, with several shallow ditches eroded into it.

"The lynx can get through, but an off-road vehicle will have a tough time."

It's even more dangerous if you're hauling cargo; a heavy truck crossing a muddy road would probably cause it to swell up.

Bai Lang squatted down and pressed the mud on the road with his hands, and mud squeezed out from between his fingers.

"Let's fix the road. Bring out the excavator and clear away the fallen trees and silt first."

The two returned to the base, and Gu Lang emptied half a tank of diesel fuel from the Lynx assault vehicle and poured it into the excavator.

Bai Lang's father drove an excavator to clear silt and fallen trees.

Gu Lang and his two companions drove a Lynx to the downstream riverbank of the hydroelectric power station to collect gravel, fill potholes, and improve road conditions.

The other people at the base helped with odd jobs and trimmed the vegetation along the roads.

It took two days to clear the road.

On the morning of December 30, Gu Lang, He Ping, and Bai Lang set off again, leaving the others at the base to continue maintaining the road surface.

He Ping drove the Lynx assault vehicle, while Gu Lang sat in the back and operated a drone for reconnaissance.

A thick fog rolled in the mountains, and with the dense forests, visibility was very poor.

Switching to thermal imaging mode for the search revealed no signs of human activity.

Bai Lang's Formula Leopard trolley followed at a safe distance.

As we passed the previous incident point again, the two bicycles that had fallen to the side of the road had disappeared.

The bloodstains on the ground were washed away by the rain, as if nothing had happened.

After leaving the mountainous area, He Ping followed the plan he had made before setting off.

Following the old coastal defense road, we arrived near a logistics park.

Footage transmitted by the drone showed the empty park in a state of chaos.

The ground was littered with overturned forklifts and scattered pallets, and the wreckage of several burned trucks lay crookedly across the middle of the road.

It's clear that this place has been visited countless times by heroes from all walks of life; even the phrase "scraped three feet off the ground" doesn't fully describe its current state.

There was even an explosion at the grain and supplies depot; the walls were riddled with bullet holes, and the floor was littered with spent bullet casings.

Judging from the remaining sandbag fortifications, an army was once stationed here.

"We don't see any heat source, let's go straight in."

Gu Lang picked up the walkie-talkie and pressed the call button. The two cars drove into the park gate one after the other.

When passing by the express delivery transfer station, the road was almost submerged by the scattered snakeskin bags and cardboard boxes.

Gu Lang could already imagine the grand spectacle of opening blind boxes back then.

Even so, he remained convinced that there were still some good things left untouched here.

After circling around the park, Gu Lang finally found his target.

He Ping stopped in front of the gate of a warehouse, where a sign read "Dongxing County Water Conservancy and Flood Control Materials Warehouse".

The warehouse's iron gate was half-open, and the padlock that had been smashed lay quietly on the ground.

Gu Lang approached the gate with his rifle in hand, confirming that no one was inside.

He then opened the gate wide and directed He Ping and Bai Lang to drive the car in.

The warehouse shelves were completely empty, as could be seen from the few remaining material receipt and dispatch cards.

There should have been a lot of good stuff stored here, such as protective equipment, rescue tools, power generation equipment, lighting equipment, and life-saving equipment.

They were all hard currency in the apocalypse, and have long since been looted.

Gu Lang did not linger in the shelving area, but went straight to the deepest part of the warehouse.

In the far corner, there were a large number of neatly stacked black cylinders, each roll tightly bound with thick hemp rope.

He excitedly stepped forward, pulled out one of the rolls, untied the ropes used for binding, and unfolded a corner of it.

"Haha, I knew nobody wanted this thing."

Bai Lang curiously leaned over and reached out to touch it.

This thing looks like some kind of huge, heavy fabric, with a black plastic outer layer that is tough.

The inner layer is made of colorful felt material, as if it were made of pressed scraps of cloth.

"Holy crap, how can it be shoddy cotton!" Bai Lang abruptly pulled his hand back and wiped the fiber fragments off his fingertips with his pants.

"Please don't be disgusted, this is the geotextile I mentioned before."

Gu Lang unrolled the cloth and began to explain it to the two of them.

"This thing can be used to reinforce dikes and riverbanks to prevent soil erosion."

I saw locals using this thing for flood control and disaster relief when there was a major flood in Northeast China.

It is also used extensively in engineering construction, for isolation, reinforcement, and protection.

It has many uses, so it has many names: waterproof felt, membrane felt, engineering fabric, thermal insulation fabric, they all refer to this thing.

They can be taken back and used as linings for explosion-proof walls, or used to cover greenhouses for insulation.

"If your dorm building ever leaks, just lay down a layer of this stuff and then weigh it down with gravel, and the problem will be solved."

After hearing this, Bai Lang's gaze towards the pile of "black-hearted cotton" was noticeably different.

He walked over, picked up a roll, and tried it out. It felt quite heavy, but he could manage to carry it by himself.

At this moment, Gu Lang had already turned around and moved to a corner at the other end of the warehouse.

There were piles of metal cubes there, each about half a person's height.

Its surface is made of countless stacked steel wire meshes, which gleam with a dark gray metallic luster in the dim warehouse.

"Is this a galvanized steel wire mesh cage?"

He Ping followed behind and immediately guessed that this was another key raw material for the explosion-proof wall.

"That's right, to be precise, it should be called gabion mesh."

Water conservancy projects often use it to reinforce slopes and embankments.

Once unfolded, it becomes a metal cage filled with stones, which can resist the erosion of water flow by their own weight and interlocking.

All we need to do is lay the geotextile fabric inside the cage and then fill it with sand.

It can then be transformed into a military-grade blast wall, a poor man's version of the Esco Wall.

Gu Lang patted the gabion net in front of him happily.