Wasteland Survivalist: A Scientific Guide to Post-Apocalyptic Survival

The main building of the service area is a single-story antique-style building.

The building is long and narrow, with a floor area of ​​approximately 5000 square meters.

The exterior features red walls and black tiles, and there are also some Qing culture sculptures around it.

The so-called Yongling refers to the ancestral tombs of the Manchu emperors.

It is located in Yongling Town, just north of the service area and across the Suzi River.

The highway service area is located in the southern part of the town.

The surrounding area was desolate, consisting entirely of farmland.

This is also why Gulang chose to stay and rest here.

The main building's doors were tightly closed, and the windows were covered with reflective film.

Even with the beam of the headlamp shining on it, you couldn't see what was inside.

Instead of trying to pick the lock, he went directly to the public toilet at the back of the building.

He picked up a piece of gravel from the roadside, weighed it in his hand, and then smashed it against a window.

"Clang—!"

The sound of shattering glass was particularly jarring in the silence.

Gu Lang held his breath and focused intently, the crossbow already in his hand.

The arrowheads gleamed with a cold, eerie light under the headlamp.

Five minutes passed, and apart from his own heavy breathing, there was no response.

He carefully cleaned away the remaining shards of glass from the window frame, but did not immediately climb in.

Instead, he continued to stand outside the window, carefully listening for sounds.

There were no footsteps, no shouts, only the faint sound of wind blowing through the broken window.

After confirming it was safe, he used both hands to push himself up and nimbly flipped into the toilet.

A foul odor of excrement penetrated the mask.

He pushed open the toilet stall doors one after another.

In the innermost compartment, I saw human feces that had not yet completely dried.

Gu Lang's heart suddenly tightened.

Someone did it, and just recently!

Without hesitation, he immediately turned around and jumped out the way he came.

After landing, quickly step back a few paces to create distance.

Then he shouted at the broken window.

"Listen up, you people inside! I mean no harm. I'm just passing by and looking for some tools!"

The sound echoed in the enclosed space, then was absorbed by the thick fog.

There was no response from inside, so Gu Lang had no choice but to call out several more times.

After a brief silence, a slight movement emerged in the darkness.

A long mop handle slowly extended from inside the toilet entrance.

A small square mirror was tied to the top of the pole, reflecting the light from the headlamp.

The mirror rotated a few times at an angle.

It seems to be trying to reflect Gu Lang's figure and his surroundings.

Gu Lang put down the crossbow and waved his hand, indicating that he posed no threat.

After a while, an old male voice came from inside.

"Where...where did you come from? How's it outside?"

"They came from the north, from Nanzamu Town! It's a complete mess, I barely managed to break out."

Gu Lang tried his best to make his voice sound as kind as possible.

"Uncle, are you the only one inside?"

"...Not only." The voice hesitated noticeably for a moment.

"There are several of us here, how can you prove you're not sick?"

"Illness? What illness?"

Gu Lang's heart stirred, and he continued to ask, following up on what he had said.

"You mean those madmen who kill anyone they see, howl in terror, and even eat people?"

"Yes! It's that kind of madness!" The voice inside carried a hint of urgency and fear.

"You encountered them too? Did they hurt you?"

"No, I drove right through. When did the madness start? How long have you been hiding here?"

The other party did not answer immediately, and a rustling sound arose.

"Don't come in yet, let's talk from a distance."

"agree."

Gu Lang immediately nodded in agreement.

After waiting a while longer, a figure finally appeared at the toilet door.

First came two men, one old and one strong.

They gripped the sharpened steel pipes tightly in their hands, warily eyeing Gu Lang and the conspicuous weapons and equipment on his body.

After confirming that he didn't seem to be crazy, he gestured for the woman behind him to come out as well.

Judging from their similar facial features, the two should be a father and son.

The only woman present should be the daughter-in-law.

"On the day of the nuclear explosion, some people saw something fall into the county town to the east, but it did not explode."

Everyone says it was lucky to have encountered a dud.

Not long after, some people there started going crazy…

Through the three people's intermittent and complementary accounts, Gu Lang roughly pieced together their experiences.

On the third day after the outbreak of nuclear war, the county town suddenly descended into chaos.

Many people suddenly become extremely aggressive without warning, and they specifically target those around them.

Even if the victim survives the attack, they will quickly become infected and develop the disease after being injured.

Subsequently, the disease began to spread, centered in the county town.

The impact eventually spread to other surrounding towns and villages.

Seeing that something was wrong, Zhang Tieshuan immediately found his son Zhang Chao and daughter-in-law Su Xiao, and drove away from the city.

"The hospital was probably the first place to descend into chaos."

This time it was Su Xiao who spoke, her tone filled with the shock of surviving a disaster.

"I had just finished a night shift when, on the afternoon of the third day, the county hospital brought in several injured people with violent tendencies."

"The entire county town fell that day; disaster relief sites, police stations, schools... everywhere people gathered became slaughterhouses."

"I own a hardware store, and we have some stock in our warehouse, so we made some weapons ourselves."

Zhang Tieshuan showed off the weapon in his hand.

It is made up of various metal tubes and accessories, and looks quite cool.

"We originally intended to stay in the shop and wait for rescue."

But it was impossible to hold them back. Those people... though crazy, they weren't stupid!

They'll lie, they'll ambush! And they'll even cooperate!

Su Xiao took over the conversation, trying to analyze the situation calmly, but she couldn't hide her trembling.

"They're even scarier than the zombies in Train to Busan; they can use weapons."

Moreover, it seems there's not much peace between them; they sometimes fight.

But if they encounter normal people like us, they'll definitely rush over and attack first!

"Isn't the government responding? What about the military?" Gu Lang pressed.

Zhang Tieshuan let out a cold laugh: "The army? They're even more terrifying when they go berserk, spraying machine guns everywhere!"

Later, they drove along the highway, chasing after the fleeing vehicle.

"Wait a minute, are the hospitals, military camps, police stations, and schools you mentioned very close to each other?"

"They're about ten kilometers apart, but the military camp is on a mountain, so it's even further away."

Gu Lang sensed something was wrong.

The "madness" got completely out of control in just one day; the speed of its spread was too fast.

He opened his phone and looked at the map.

The nearest military camp is isolated in the mountains dozens of kilometers away, which indicates that there is definitely more than one potential flashpoint.

Then Gu Lang briefly recounted his various encounters along the way, reminding the other party of the dangers of radiation and floods.

When the other party learned about the situation around the Shenyang metropolitan area, they clearly showed a disappointed expression.

The two sides exchanged information and pieced together what they already knew.