Chapter 15 Water Outage

On the 27th day of the zombie outbreak, Nanhua City experienced a water outage following a power outage.

She had been worried about the water outage ever since the power went out, and she never expected it to happen.

The impact of a water outage is felt in various ways, including drinking water, cooking, washing, laundry, and flushing toilets.

When storing supplies earlier, Lin Xi didn't stock up on large bottles of mineral water, focusing only on food. The amount of liquids she had at home, including milk and various beverages, wasn't much.

But there are ways.

Nanhua has a subtropical monsoon climate, and it's June now, which is the plum rain season. There will be continuous heavy rain in the next two months, so Lin Xi plans to collect some rainwater to filter it.

It just so happened that a torrential rainstorm struck in the middle of the night.

Lin Xi was awakened by the sound of the rain hitting the glass. She took her flashlight, turned the light down to the lowest setting, and tiptoed to the sunroom on the roof to fetch water.

The sound of opening the skylight in the sunroom was swallowed up by the heavy rain.

Lin Xi wrung out her rain-soaked pajamas and squatted down to watch the water level in the basin slowly rise.

Soon, the three basins were filled with water. Using the dim light of the flashlight, Lin Xi took a washcloth and filtered the rainwater. She poured the filtered water into the bathtub to store it, and then took another basin to collect water for filtration.

After repeating this process several times, Lin Xi finally filled the bathtub.

This simple filtration method can only remove dust and impurities, far from meeting drinking water standards. However, in times of crisis, there isn't enough fire available for boiling to sterilize, let alone distillation and filtration.

Lin Xi still has some drinks to enjoy, while the simply filtered water in the bathtub is used for washing and laundry.

After finishing all the clean drinking water at home, Lin Xi had no choice but to drink this kind of water.

Lin Xi collected three basins of natural rainwater and placed them in the bathroom. This was for flushing the toilet and did not need to be filtered.

Having temporarily solved the water problem, Lin Xi lay back on the bed, listening to the rain, and fell asleep from exhaustion.

-

The next day.

Lin Xi ate milk and bread for breakfast, and then planned her supplies in her notebook.

We only ate one bag of rice; the rest couldn't be cooked because of the water and power outages. The refrigerator hasn't been opened since the power went out, so the meat and frozen food stored inside are also inedible.

She stocked up on a lot of instant food, but almost all of it required boiling. Rice noodles, instant noodles, and vermicelli were not suitable for normal consumption. If necessary, she could eat instant noodles dry.

There is a sufficient stock of snacks such as bread, biscuits, and canned goods. It is not a problem to eat three full meals a day for two years, and if you are frugal, it can last for four years.

These things have little nutritional value, so you need to stock up on vitamin tablets in advance and take one every now and then to maintain your health.

Even if you eventually run out of food, you can still eat protein powder for a long time.

The most important issue right now is water.

If drinking water sources run out, people will have to rely on rainwater to survive.

Nanhua is located in a place where there is no shortage of rainfall, so there is no need to worry about water sources.

Thinking of this, Lin Xi suddenly became curious about the situation outside. She took out her phone, which had only 13% battery left, and decided to check some messages.

There are almost no new messages from contacts in the green bubble.

Most of her contacts were in South China, and many of them have died in the past month.

My WeChat Moments is no longer flooded with posts from various personal shoppers and merchants, but the content posted by everyone still reflects a wide range of emotions, from joy to sorrow.

-Gu Yixuan

Staying at home is so boring. All I do every day is watch TV and bake. When will the zombies outside be cleared out?

[Oven-baked cookies.jpg] [Homemade muffins.jpg] [Projected movie.jpg]

Gu Yixuan was Lin Xi's college classmate, and her father was a renowned professor of biological pathogens. Back in college, Gu Yixuan had boasted about how her father, a research fellow, had installed solar panels at home and even a small ecological recycling system.

They practiced environmental protection and conservation in normal times, and in the event of the apocalypse, they happened to play a role in providing energy resources.

Besides being envious, Lin Xi was also surprised. She thought that the survivors of Nanhua who had experienced the apocalypse for a month would post messages of distress or negative complaints. She didn't expect that the first post she saw on Moments would be so relaxed and carefree. Gu Yixuan was still as glamorous as ever, and the background of the photo inadvertently revealed the villa courtyard and luxurious decoration.

Unfortunately, no one liked or supported it.

The next post was from three days prior on WeChat Moments.

-Lucy Desserts

The last piece of cake.

Goodnight, world.

[A small cake with slight mold.jpg]

This dessert shop is located in Block B of Nanhua City. Lin Xi often orders afternoon tea from this shop when she goes to work.

When the zombie outbreak occurred, the shop owner, Lucy, was probably still in the shop. She didn't believe the announcements from the relevant authorities and went home to take refuge in time. Fortunately, the dessert shop was not destroyed, and there were still some ingredients stored inside that could sustain her. However, due to the water and power outages, she eventually couldn't survive.

Lin Xi secretly felt a sense of sympathy for her. Even if she had survived the water and power outages, who knew what new challenges might lie ahead?

-Chen Yi'an

[Video: Horde of zombies swarms in]

If nothing unexpected happens, this is probably the last video Chen Yi-an filmed before his death.

Even through the screen, Lin Xi could imagine the pain of being bitten, and a chill ran down her spine.

Scrolling back further, the news was from a week ago. Not many people posted about it on social media because the riots had lasted for a month. Many people, even if they weren't attacked by zombies, were struggling to survive due to depleted supplies. Even those who survived were mostly like Lin Xi, conserving their phone battery.

Most of the other messages were requests for help or to borrow supplies, but the survivors were too busy to help others and no one dared to go out to rescue people or pass on their meager remaining supplies.