Chapter 24 Chapter 24 Preparation

*

After taking a nap in the tent, Gu Mengran and Liang Zhao got up early around ten in the morning, ate something to fill their stomachs, and then put on their backpacks and prepared to go out.

The city is not like the deserted wilderness. Gu Mengran was actually worried about his grandfather staying alone in the camp. But the weather was too hot. The old man couldn't sleep yesterday because of the heat. Today, he had dark circles under his eyes, as if he had stayed up all night and ran ten miles. He looked haggard.

Gu Mengran couldn't bear it, so he had to let his grandfather stay in the camp to rest. He left an oil saw and a bottle of anti-wolf spray, and also took out the few neck fans and gave one to each of them.

The breeze brushes against my neck, bringing a slight coolness.

Being in the heat wave, this breeze is of little help.

It was hot, unbearably hot. They struggled to move forward in the high temperature, from the fork in the road to the busy main road. The T-shirts of Gu Mengran and Liang Zhao were almost soaked.

Traveling requires transportation. This trip was mainly to find a car. They needed a car with air conditioning, which could carry at least 15 people, with seats that were not too hard and could be used for sitting and sleeping...

All right.

It is actually a bus, a bus that meets all the requirements.

There are few buses in the city, but I saw many public buses along the way, but I didn't see a single bus. The hot weather made Gu Mengran feel like he could take the bus, but when he looked through the window at the hard seat, his butt hurt.

Large areas of collapsed buildings make it impossible to tell east from west. The city has been completely changed and even locals will get lost, let alone outsiders who are unfamiliar with the area.

Gu Mengran also wanted to go find the bus station, but considering his grandfather who stayed in the camp, he gave up and didn't dare to go too far. They tried to avoid detours and walked slowly along the main road.

Hard work pays off. After walking for nearly an hour or two, the two were exhausted and out of breath. Finally, they found an intact bus near a collapsed overpass.

The blue and white medium-sized tourist bus was long and not very tall, and it could carry 35 people. The cars parked randomly on the roadside were not locked, and it was obvious that they were in a hurry to escape when the earthquake occurred, and even the doors were not closed.

After the inspection, the two entered the car through the front door with strong flashlights. Whether a car can be used depends not only on its appearance, but also on whether it can start successfully.

The doors and windows were not closed, and the car was filled with thick fog. The two of them groped their way to the driver's seat in the dim light, and Liang Zhao sat in the driver's seat and tried to start the car.

Gu Mengran knew nothing about buses and was unable to help, but he had nothing to do anyway, so he walked into the carriage with a flashlight and checked it for potential hazards.

The 35-seat bus, except for the driver's seat, the remaining 34 seats seemed particularly crowded in the cramped compartment. The aisle was narrow, and Gu Mengran leaned inward, scanning the light in his hand back and forth, and actually saw a lot of personal belongings on the seats.

The luggage rack above the seat was also packed full with suitcases, backpacks, woven bags...almost nothing was left to be taken away.

Gu Mengran couldn't help wondering, are the tourists on the bus still alive? With supplies so scarce right now, if they are still alive, why don't they come back to get their luggage?

"Bang!"

Gu Mengran came to his senses when his toes kicked something hard. He thought someone had put the luggage in the aisle, and subconsciously moved back to the light source and looked down.

However, just this casual glance made Gu Mengran's stomach churn and he almost vomited his breakfast.

A bloody male corpse was lying in the aisle, his legs were stuck in the gap between the seats, twisted like a pretzel, and his body was lying in the aisle in an extremely distorted posture.

There were messy footprints on his light blue shirt, and it was obvious that he had been trampled to death in the chaos. There were multiple wounds on his exposed skin, and his head and face were not spared.

After high-temperature fermentation, the corpse was highly decomposed. Its belly was swollen like a ball, its rotten and melted skin occasionally rose and fell, worms could be seen wriggling, and thick mucus spread along the aisle, leaving no part of the cramped carriage unscathed.

The protective mask seemed to be ineffective instantly, and the strong stench was pervasive, continuously pouring into the nasal cavity. Gu Mengran's legs went weak and he almost fell to the ground.

"What's wrong?"

After struggling for a long time, the bus started successfully. Liang Zhao was about to call Gu Mengran to take a look when he vaguely heard a strange noise coming from behind.

Without waiting for a reply, he hurriedly stood up and went to the carriage to check, but before he had taken a few steps, Gu Mengran ran towards him, grabbed his arm and staggered out of the door.

He rushed out nearly a hundred meters in one breath until the car merged into the thick fog and completely disappeared. Gu Mengran took off his protective mask and squatted on the side of the road, unable to help vomiting.

"Gee, geez, cough, cough, cough..."

Frightened and vomiting continuously, Gu Mengran's face turned pale. Liang Zhao frowned, quickly took out a bottle of water from his bag, unscrewed the cap and handed it to him.

Gu Mengran took it but didn't drink it. Liang Zhao took off his mask and squatted beside him with a worried look on his face. He put his hand over his shoulder and half-embraced him, gently patting his back, "It's okay, it's okay."

No need to ask, the faint stench of corpses in the air already tells it all.

Gu Mengran felt extremely uncomfortable, as if someone was pinching his throat, and he couldn't help but vomit. He couldn't vomit anything, which made him feel very uncomfortable, and the smell was very persistent, like a corpse lying on his back——

Wait, Gu Mengran paused and looked down at his shoes.

Sure enough, the sneakers that were originally just a little dirty became shiny, especially the toes, which were covered with a layer of light yellow transparent mucus.

Seeing this, Gu Mengran miraculously stopped vomiting. He hurriedly took out a pair of clean shoes from the space, changed them with the help of Liang Zhao, and threw them far away.

It's not like he hasn't seen corpses in his two lifetimes, but he's never worked in a funeral home, so his mental state isn't that strong.

A corpse in a state of advanced decomposition is disturbing no matter how many times you see it.

Gu Mengran gulped down half a bottle of water, and used the remaining half to wash his hands and face. The sticky heat was driven away, and the fan around his neck brought a thin coolness, and Gu Mengran finally regained his life.

His overly pale face could not hide his haggardness. Gu Mengran stood up, waved to Liang Zhao, and put on his protective mask again. "Let's go. We can't take that car anymore. We need to find another one as soon as possible."

He raised his foot and was about to leave, but his wrist was suddenly grabbed.

Gu Mengran turned around and saw Liang Zhao looking at him very solemnly, his deep eyes concealing an inextricable sorrow.

After staring at each other for a moment, Liang Zhao lowered his eyes and looked away. At the same time, he let go of Gu Mengran's hand and said softly, "We have been gone for too long. It is not safe for Master Meng to stay in the camp alone. You go back first and check the camp. I will go find the car."

This person is really... exactly the same as in the previous life!

Liang Zhao was worried about him, guessing what he had seen in the car, but this man was always like this. He would not embarrass him, would not show his concern openly, but would only find ways to keep him away from danger in a roundabout way.

Gu Mengran is no longer the Gu Mengran of the past. He chuckled and agreed immediately, "Okay, I'm tired too. But how are you going to bring the car back after you find it? Carry it back or drive it back in the thick fog?"

Liang Zhao pursed his lips, thought carefully and said softly: "I can remember the location and come back to find you."

"It's so hot, aren't you tired from running back and forth?"

“Not tired.”

"Okay, then I'll go back first. Bye!" Gu Mengran said as he walked back.

The footsteps continued. After walking a few meters, Gu Mengran turned around and saw Liang Zhao following closely behind him. He chuckled and said, "What? Do you regret it?"

"No." Liang Zhao looked at him seriously, "I'll take you back first."

A wave of heat came, and the sticky heat was like sweet honey. Gu Mengran's heart trembled slightly. He no longer had the intention to tease Liang Zhao and turned to walk in another direction.

"You're kidding. I don't want to go back. I can walk and jump. I can go find a car with you and I can go forward and backward with you. Liang Zhao, now I am..."

No longer a burden to you.

*

At 4:30 in the afternoon, Gu Mengran and Liang Zhao arrived at the camp safely.

Meng Gaoyang had been waiting for a long time. Just as they entered the tent and hadn't even had time to put down their backpacks, the old man came rushing in with news: "Teacher Wei has been here, and they have made an agreement - come on, come with us!"

With this sentence, today's efforts will not be in vain.

After returning to the space, taking a shower and having a simple afternoon meal, Gu Mengran put all the sleeping bags and tents into the space, and walked out of the city with his grandfather and Liang Zhao, carrying their backpacks.

The vehicles were successfully found: a bus, an off-road vehicle, and a mountain bike.

There were too many wreckages of buildings in the city, so the road out of the city was definitely not driveable. Gu Mengran couldn't take out the car in front of others, so he could only take some effort to park it on a smooth road outside the city in advance.

After crossing the mountains and ridges and leaving the city, the three of them walked for more than half an hour, and finally bypassed the congested road and came to a wide and flat national highway.

Seeing that there was no one around, Gu Mengran got on the national highway without any hesitation, parked the SUV and the bus on the side of the road, and asked them to take a detour.

They were not in a hurry to leave. They filled up the two cars with gas. Then Gu Mengran took out two outdoor power supplies and two air purifiers from the space and asked Grandpa and Liang Zhao to install them in the cars.

Other items include induction cookers, electric kettles, pots and pans, rice, flour, grains, and oil...

Stuff them all into the trunk.

Since we are in a hurry, the food is mainly fast food. But after all, we are traveling with a group of children, so we can improve the diet occasionally, in case they need to drink some hot water or something, and we can't do without it completely.

Food is easy to spoil in hot weather, so Gu Mengran only took out a small amount of instant food and milk to show off. Others were not allowed to search their trunks out of courtesy. They just needed to know that there was something there, and the specific amount... was enough!

Besides that, water.

There is not much mineral water in the space, so Gu Mengran took out five bottles of mineral water and two bottles of orange juice. When you finish drinking the water bottles, don't throw them away, just wash them and fill them with spring water in the space.

One has to prepare some snacks for children. Gu Mengran didn't know what the children could eat, so following his grandfather's suggestion, he put together two full boxes of nuts, candies, preserved fruits, seaweed...

The trunk was almost full, but Gu Mengran still felt like something was missing. His eyes glanced at the yellow orange juice, and his eyes lit up instantly. Fruit, there was still a lot of fruit in the space!

Apples, pears, grapefruits, cantaloupes... Gu Mengran picked out some long-lasting fruits and put them in the carriage. With the air conditioning on, they should not go bad in a short time.

When I was preparing supplies, I had never thought about meeting children. There was not a single piece of clothing that children could wear. In the summer, you have to change when you sweat. Gu Mengran thought for a moment and took out a box of adult T-shirts.

At worst, I can wear it as a skirt! At worst, I can use it as a blanket when the air conditioner is on.

With all the food, clothing and daily expenses taken care of, Gu Mengran got off the bus contentedly, "Grandpa, please take good care of the bus! Let's go Liang Zhao and pick up the kids from school."