◎Happy 137th day: I feel so safe◎
With the topographic map in hand, the group soon came across a small hill that was not completely submerged by water.
When we say it is a small hill, the word “small” is really true.
There was only so much space above the water, and it looked okay when it was blocked by the trees, but when they all got ashore, it was a different story.
A group of eight people and three dogs stood on the mountain in unison, and the poor piece of land became full.
Jiang Muyun leaned against a tree, glanced at the water less than two meters away from the tip of his shoe, and reluctantly said to comfort everyone: "It's, it's acceptable. It's the only place like this that no one lives in now."
That being said, some things are just for fun.
Jiang Muyun looked around and found Professor Chen among the crooked tree trunks. He suggested sincerely, "Why don't you go back to the boat? Let's clear the trees on the mountain first."
The vitality of these mutated plants is really a bit outrageous.
During the severe drought in the past, all I could see was a gray mass of dead branches and leaves, as if all vegetation had disappeared from the blue planet.
But now, as soon as the rain falls, regardless of whether there is flooding or sunshine, these plants quickly regain the strength to grow vigorously.
The tree that Jiang Muyun was hugging now did not look noticeable from a distance, but when he got closer, he would find that clusters of small buds had already sprouted on the branches of the tree, and even the ground under their feet was dotted with light-colored seedlings.
There was no other way. The place was too small and there were too many people to maneuver. Professor Chen and Chen Cheng took a few cubs back to the boat and waited for others to clear all the trees on the mountain.
What Jiang Muyun meant by reinforcing the hull could strictly speaking only be considered as adding a layer of protective shell to the hull.
The inspiration came from the small raft of the survivors I met today.
According to the survivors from Qi City, there are three things that make those mutant fish difficult to deal with.
One is that it can jump high. It can jump more than one meter out of the water and bite people unexpectedly. Unless you hide in the cabin, it is impossible to defend yourself.
Secondly, the wound after being bitten will fester and will not heal at all. At least, the survivors in that family have never heard of anyone whose wound healed after being bitten by a mutant fish.
According to the injured woman, she tried to cut off the infected rotten flesh after being bitten, hoping to prevent the wound from festering. The result was obvious, it had no effect.
Although the toxicity of the mutant fish is not fatal, in the current medical environment, if the wound rots to the point of death, the only way out is death.
The last point, and the most important reason why the survivors in Qi City and surrounding cities were forced to flee, was that the fish could come ashore.
In this dark and humid environment, no matter what species they were in the past, now that they have come ashore, they are all like mudskippers possessed, jumping around on the shore and carrying out hunting operations for several days without any problem.
It looks scary and has obvious flaws.
The bite force is not good.
The speed of running in the water is probably quite slow.
If the bite of these fish could match that of the mice and their speed were a little faster, the survivors who escaped on the raft would have been wiped out.
So Jiang Muyun planned to put a layer of wood under his own raft.
The best solution is of course to get a big raft, put all four kayaks on it, then remove the outboard motor and install it on the raft, and push the raft forward.
But there are too few trees on the top of the mountain that meet the requirements.
Even if all the trees above the water were cleared, there wouldn't be ten usable pieces of wood left.
To get enough wood, they either had to drive their boat to other hills that were not completely flooded, or go into the water and cut down trees.
It all looks unreliable.
So Jiang Muyun came up with a dirty trick.
Anyway, we don't really need to make a proper raft. Traveling is done by machines anyway. It doesn't matter whether it is easy to row or not. As long as we keep it balanced and don't let it sink, that's enough.
They simply pieced together a wooden platform of similar size, then put the kayak on it to prevent the mutant fish from biting the bottom of the boat. Then they erected a few pillars around the platform as fulcrums, and weaved a few rope nets around it to prevent the fish from jumping in. That's it.
It's like putting four kayaks in a sieve. They float along and keep all the debris out of the sieve, and only water can seep in.
As for how to fix those scattered pieces of wood of different lengths, thicknesses and shapes together?
Jiang Muyun and Chu Buwen could only be thankful that they brought a handful of nails with them.
In order to prevent the original one from being insufficient, Jiang Muyun took out another bag from the space under the cover of the travel bag.
First, four pillars of suitable length and thickness were left as pillars, and the others were nailed together, pieced together bit by bit to form a large rectangular wooden platform.
If some tree trunks are too thick, they can be split in half with the flat surface facing downwards so that the fish cannot find a place to bite.
It doesn’t matter if there are not enough big pieces of wood. You can just gather small branches with thin arms and legs together and nail them into a pile in several layers. They will be just as sturdy as big wooden stakes.
It is just that it will be more difficult to remove the nails after crossing the polluted waters.
Iron nails are hard to find nowadays, so the nails they bring out are to be reused.
Zhou Fei neatly arranged a bunch of branches, each as thick as an adult's thumb, and nailed them down with nails. He held the wood with a distressed look on his face and said, "If these nails become difficult to remove later, we can just chop the wood into small pieces and take them with us. When we have nothing to do on the way, we can pry off as many nails as we can."
Gao Liang used these scattered branches to nail a wooden board that was more than one meter long and ten centimeters thick, and waved to Xiaoguai to come over.
Xiaoguai squatted down and jumped without thinking, jumping directly from the boat to the land, looking at Gaoliang with anticipation.
Gao Liang passed the wooden board in his hand to Xiaoguai's mouth. Xiaoguai took a bite without thinking, and then a long and shrill wolf howl suddenly resounded through the world.
Several survivors who were passing by in a small wooden boat thought it was a wolf, so they stood up from the boat and almost capsized it.
Gao Liang showed the finished product to the others with satisfaction: "Look at how sturdy it is. Even Xiaoguai's teeth can't do anything to it. Those fish definitely can't bite it."
Xiaoguai, who was tricked by his owner into becoming a tester, immediately became unhappy. He raised his front paw and slapped Gaoliang on the back of the head.
While the people on the shore were chopping trees and nailing planks, Professor Chen and Chen Cheng were sitting on the boat weaving a rope net with parachute ropes.
In the apocalypse, weaving rope nets has almost become a necessary skill for survivors. Under the torture of life, they not only learned how to weave rope nets, but also learned how to dismantle rope nets, to ensure that these parachute ropes can be woven into various things next time after completing their mission.
Bring a rope with you when you go out and the possibilities are endless.
The few of them found the small hill at around 11 o'clock in the morning. They spent the whole afternoon cutting trees and weaving rope nets. By the time the large sieve was successfully assembled, it was already completely dark.
"Let's install the outboard motor tomorrow." Jiang Muyun said, "Let's put up the awning first. We can warm ourselves by the fire and have something to eat. Then we can filter some clean water and take a shower."
Jiang Muyun looked at them and thought for a moment, "Professor Chen and Chen Cheng will sleep on the mountain today, and the rest of you will sleep in the kayak. Everyone, get a good night's rest. It's okay to sleep a little later tomorrow, but you must make sure you get enough rest. After we enter the polluted waters, the boat will not stop except to refuel until we reach a safe area."
"No problem." Captain Yu replied.
There are two people in a shift to keep watch at night. Except for Professor Chen and Chen Cheng who do not have to take on the night watch duty, there are only four people sleeping on the two kayaks at the same time.
These kayaks all have eight seats, so two people can squeeze into one and lie down.
Jiang Muyun slept well.
She and Chu Buwen were the first to be on night watch tonight, and it was only a few hours later than their usual rest time, so they could still get a full night's sleep.
After sleeping for a few days, either sitting or leaning, Jiang Muyun felt that there was nothing happier in the world than being able to lie down and sleep.
But Chu Buwen didn't think so.
He thinks there is still some.
For example, now.
Not only could he sleep lying down, but the person sleeping next to him was Jiang Muyun.
Chu Buwen closed his eyes and listened to the sound of rain, his mind full of thoughts about whether he had any bad habits when sleeping at night, whether he would smell since he hadn't changed his clothes in the past few days, and whether the soap he used in the bath still had fragrance.
He had specially chosen that soap when he was stocking up. It had the legendary sunny scent that only appears on a boyfriend's white shirt.
When Chu Buwen was taking a shower just now, he rinsed himself from inside to outside with soap several times, hoping that Jiang Muyun could smell it tonight.
Chu Buwen listened to Jiang Muyun's breathing so close to him, and tentatively changed from lying on his side to lying flat on his back, tilting his head to look at Jiang Muyun who had his back to him.
Chu Buwen stared at her back in a daze for a while, then carefully lifted half of his body and stretched out his arms to make a vague hugging gesture.
Chu Buwen's action lasted less than a second before he quickly withdrew his hand.
If you don't look at Chu Buwen's hand that is at least half a meter away from Jiang Muyun, their posture looks like a pair of lovers sleeping in each other's arms.
This fantasy made him purse his lips in the dark to control himself from laughing out loud.
Before he could turn over to hide his little thoughts, Jiang Muyun turned over in a daze with his eyes half open.
"What are you doing? Aren't you sleeping yet?" Jiang Muyun's voice was a little hoarse.
Chu Buwen's smile froze on his face.
He stumbled back, "Uh, I, I'm thirsty."
Jiang Muyun yawned, turned over again, and mumbled, "Then be quiet."
Chu Buwen was so scared that he broke out in a cold sweat.
Jiang Muyun was still sharp even in his sleep, so Chu Buwen didn't dare to be presumptuous a second time.
He obediently turned over, closed his eyes with his back to Jiang Muyun, and continued to wonder whether Jiang Muyun could smell the sunshine on him, and... did she notice?
Jiang Muyun didn't notice.
This was the conclusion Chu Buwen came to after observing for several hours the next morning.
He didn't know whether to be relieved or sad.
The beef jerky he had eaten in the morning tasted bitter in his mouth.
Tang An and Captain Yu, who were on the last shift, were still catching up on their naps. Professor Chen and Chen Cheng had just slept enough, so they let them go to sleep on the mountain.
Jiang Muyun and Chu Buwen took this opportunity to study how to install the outboard motor on the wooden platform.
When they bought the boat, they downloaded a bunch of tutorials. Back when they were at the transfer station, they had the idea of dismantling the outboard motors of the boats they had stolen and selling them separately, so they naturally studied those tutorials.
The installation of the outboard motor is actually quite simple. Find the keel line, nail the wooden board reserved for installing the outboard motor, adjust the height to the appropriate level, and secure it with the steel cable ferrule and clamping screws that come with the outboard motor. The motorized wooden platform is then installed.
Jiang Muyun tried it, and how could he describe the speed of its movement? If there was a Mechanical Life Protection Association, there would be a high probability that this group of people would be complained about by this outboard motor for abusing mechanical labor.
Logically speaking, with such a large platform and the horsepower of their outboard motors, at least two should be installed to make the boat move without sounding too weak.
Unfortunately, the tutorials Jiang Muyun and Chu Buwen had read did not teach them how to install two machines. Even if they had a general idea, they would not dare to say that they could find the right balance in the installation positions of the two machines.
If An was wrong, it would be a good thing if the boat capsized directly. But I was worried that the mistake was not obvious and it would capsize only when it reached the mutant fish school, giving these half-baked people a big surprise.
Jiang Muyun straightened his laziness again and measured the speed of the boat, roughly estimating that it was less than five kilometers per hour.
Jiang Muyun touched the warm outboard motor and apologized to it solemnly: "I am sorry for being so presumptuous. How can the speed of our motor be described as fading?"
Chu Buwen squatted beside her and nodded in response: "Five kilometers per hour, the normal walking speed of an adult. Our machine is in its prime."
Without any remorse for exploiting older employees, Jiang Muyun turned to confirm with Captain Yu, "Including the one we're using now, we have a total of four outboard motors, right? The other three are intact, right?"
"Yes, there are three more, three lively and energetic ones." Captain Yu sniffed and turned his head away, unable to bear to look any further.
Captain Yu's heart was bleeding.
He bought all these outboard motors with his own personal savings.
Seeing that one of the machines was about to die, he almost cried.
After Jiang Muyun finished his inspection, he stood up, patted Captain Yu on the shoulder, and comforted him, "Don't be afraid, it's okay."
Captain Yu thought she was going to say that the outboard motor would not break down if it ran overloaded for a short time. He also thought that even though he knew that this was mostly just comforting, as long as Jiang Muyun said it, he would definitely believe it.
Who knew that Jiang Muyun just gestured for him to look up at the sky, and then said: "Don't be afraid, it's raining so hard, the rain will cool down the machine. Even if the machine breaks down, it won't explode directly."
Captain Yu wiped the rain from his eyes and said, "Is that so? That makes me feel really safe."
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