42. Tentacle monsters
The main frame of the drone's video capture was switched to the camera directly in front of it. Duan Whale raised the height of the drone while following the corpse tide forward.
It can be clearly seen that there are more and more zombies on the ground. They walked alone or in groups of three or five, and soon they filled the streets, looking like schools of migrating fish in the ocean
After flying about a hundred or two hundred meters forward, the drone finally captured the source of the gathering of corpses.
It was an ordinary storefront on the street, with five big red characters written on the signboard "Jiajie Dry Cleaners", and a courtyard door opened on the right side of the store. The yard is small, maybe only a few dozen square meters. But it's dark inside, and it's actually crowded with hundreds of zombies!
ββ¦β¦ Is this a temple fair or a red envelope? β
The drone flew to the top of the small courtyard, and Su He readjusted the picture to the top view. In this way, it can be intuitively seen that all the zombies are slowly turning in circles towards the center point of the small courtyard.
"Old Duan, can you lower the height a little more?"
As the drone slowly descended, Su He manipulated the mouse frame to select the image of the discharge center and enlarge it locally, and something that had never been seen before entered everyone's sight.
"It's ...... What the heck? β
In the center of the picture is supposed to be a plant, with lush red leaves growing on top, which at first glance looks a bit like maple maple. But it's only April, and maple can't be red.
Su He asked the drone to continue to lower its altitude and observe from the side instead. When the camera refocused on the plant, everyone was stunned.
This tree has no trunk at all, and those red leaves are actually floating in the air!
In addition to being stunned, it was Lu Rulan who first told the truth: "There is a tree trunk...... But transparent! β
Su He zoomed in on the picture again, and only then did he see that this plant did have a trunk, but the body of the tree, which should have been rough and black, actually became transparent like an ice sculpture.
"Impossible, impossible...... When pigs fly! β
Su Helian said three times that it was impossible - in his memory, there were no trees in nature with completely transparent trunks. Even the famous crystal orchid is translucent. Not to mention the fact that saprophytes simply cannot reach such heights.
So, what exactly is this?
Under Duan Whale's nimble operation, the drone continued to boldly approach the corpses. Su He soon made another astonishing discovery-
Even among the dark red branches and leaves of this strange tree, there are some slender and transparent "tentacles" hanging from it. The "tentacles" are connected to the zombies that surround them. If you look closely, the transparent tentacles should be pipes, and a dark red liquid that appears to be blood is slowly flowing in the pipes.
"Could it be that this tree is absorbing the bodily fluids of zombies?"
Even Lu Rulan, who didn't know anything about biology, could see it: "Could this be a mutated form of some kind of insectivorous plant?" β
Haichen also coaxed: "Yo, want to play Plants vs. Zombies?" It's good, it's good, then it's none of our businessβ"
Before he finished speaking, he saw a sudden flash of red light in front of him. The strange tree in the shot shook violently. The blades stood upright, and many transparent spikes poked out from below, sticking into the drone in mid-air!
Fortunately, Duan Whale has good eyesight and quick response, and an emergency pull up saved the low-flying drone. At the same time, the tentacles of the strange tree fell off the zombies one after another, and all the zombies in the small courtyard raised their heads, and countless pairs of lifeless eyes stared at the drones in the sky!
Despite being more than 20 kilometers away from the place of the incident, such a scene is still terrifying. There was no need to negotiate any further, and everyone unanimously decided to end this test flight.
The drone with super maneuverability adjusts the direction of propulsion on its own and immediately begins to return along the same path. In the urban village below, hundreds of zombies began to chase on the ground. Tirelessly, they are like a black torrent, pouring into the narrow streets and spreading over the vast mulberry fields.
The drone on top was not worried about being chased by zombies, but coldly, Su He reminded loudly.
"Don't! Don't come back! At sea, go to sea!! β
As soon as he roared like this, the others also understood-although the urban village was still more than twenty or thirty kilometers away from Foguang Island, it was too risky to lure the zombies over. What's more, the defensive wall on the Foguang Island Bridge has not yet been installed with a gate.
Duan Whale immediately corrected its course, allowing the drone to draw a crisp arc in mid-air and go straight to the coastline to the east. The horde of corpses continued to chase after each other until they reached the edge of the seawall full of breakstones.
The drone flew over the sea, and two or three zombies jumped into the sea with it. Almost all of the remaining zombies stopped at the beach, raising their heads to observe the direction of the drone's flight.
"Why do you seem to be getting smarter?" Haichen gasped, "Obviously, when we first came to the island, we still had a touching IQ." β
Lin Youqing also remembered something: "Speaking of which, Duan Whale and I have also encountered particularly smart zombies. β
ββ¦β¦ They are evolving. Du Yunfei expressed his guess, "Maybe it has something to do with that tree." β
"I don't know what kind of plant it is." Su He was a little frustrated, "The next time I have the opportunity, I must study it well." β
In any case, the crisis of drones has been temporarily resolved. Duan Whale controlled the eight hearts and eight arrows to fly endlessly on the sea, until he could no longer see the zombies on the shore, and then returned to Foguang Island in a big circle.
At the same time, the rest of the people began to prepare weapons and tools, and went to the bridgehead of the sea-crossing bridge to install the large iron gate.
Thankfully, the zombie rampage just now did not affect the side of the cross-sea bridge. After a day and a night of drying, the walls have been solidified. The crowd immediately began drilling holes in the brick walls, inserting door axes and other accessories. The huge iron gate was soon successfully erected.
In order to prevent people from climbing over the bridge, after discussion, everyone used the remaining materials to thicken the wall by about half a meter on the left and right sides.
Looking at this tall and solid defensive wall, everyone has more or less regained some sense of security, but thinking about the terrifying picture just now, they are a little apprehensive in their hearts.
Lu Rulan banged on the wall with one hand: "Defending against a dozen zombies scattered and scattered, I think there will be no problem." But what if the black press crushes hundreds of them together? β
"What else can I do?" Haichen shrugged his shoulders, "Run!" β
Lin Youqing is still more down-to-earth: "Most of the current construction site warehouses are equipped with infrared anti-theft instruments. Maybe Duan Whale and I can try to move the equipment here. At the very least, this will give us early warning and give us time to flee or fight. β
It was windy on the bridge deck, and after standing still, it was shivering with cold. Everyone hurriedly jumped into the car and returned to the villa.
Leave the apocalypse on the shore behind for a while, and according to the plan that was made at the beginning, it is time to move into a "new home".
Taking into account various factors such as visibility, moisture protection and living lines, everyone decided to live on the second floor of the villa, and use the first floor as a place for work and living.
There are a total of thirteen large and small rooms on the second floor, of which there are halls at the left and right ends, and there is another room, which was used as a pharmacy warehouse by Du Yunfei in advance, so there are only ten rooms that can really sleep people, and it is enough for now.
Lu Rulan gave Su He the "Tianzi No. 1 Upper Room" with a glass skylight and not far from the toilet and stairs that he snatched from Haichen. He slept next door to Suhe. Haichen's room was across the hallway from him. Du Yunfei naturally guarded his pharmacy. On the left of Duan Whale's room was his son Duan Xingze, and on the right was next to Lin Youqing.
Once the rooms have been assigned, the next thing that needs to be solved is the interior layout.
Because the villa has been converted into a restaurant, these rooms have their own serving room with cupboards and wall cabinets for storage. But there was only a round table and a lot of chairs in the room, and the bed was not to be thought of.
Fortunately, they still have a universal construction site.
The model worker's construction vehicle drove back to the construction site with a carload of people and began to "ransack" the living quarters of the construction site. The high-shelf beds were quickly dismantled and placed on the cart one by one.
In addition, some of the bedding in the shed has also become the object of looting. It's just that these bedding are often stained with blood, and everyone picks and chooses, but they can't take much away, but they have gained some work clothes, rubber shoes and labor protection gloves, and they will not wash clothes often when they work in the future.
All these things were loaded and transported back to the villa, and they were used and assembled by individuals - of course, Duan Xingze's was also in charge of Duan Whale.
After two or three hours of intense work, the beds of each family were reassembled one after another, only Duan Whale's progress was a little slower. Su He, who was full of curiosity, opened the door and leaned in to look, and suddenly shouted.
"Cunning!!"
It turned out that Duan Whale took two high and low bunks by himself and put them together. One of the top beds has been removed from the slats and combined to form a double bed with storage functions.
When several other people saw this, they immediately blushed and wanted to follow suit. Only Lin Youqing, who was standing on the side, blushed faintly.
After another trouble, the room was finally simply arranged. It's about five or six o'clock in the evening, and it's time to relax and do something interesting by locking the wrought iron fence outside the villa's garden.
Since the outbreak of the zombie virus, everyone has been so tired that they have barely paid attention to their personal hygiene. Even washing before going to bed is a formality to save water. But now that they have settled down, have time and water, taking a good bath has become the common wish of almost everyone.
The fly in the ointment is that although there is a special water heater in the kitchen of the villa, it can only release boiling water, and it is completely impossible to realize the shower function, let alone take a bath.
Fortunately, such a small thing could not be difficult for the new owners of this villa at all.
The person who proposed the solution was Du Yunfei, who has rich "experience in the struggle" with water.
The large storage boxes used to store spices in the site canteen warehouse begin to serve a second function. Du Yunfei drilled a hole in the bottom of it and inserted a plastic pipe to connect it to the water valve. The outlet of the water valve is covered with a plastic pipe, which is connected to a hard plastic bottle with holes. Place the storage box filled with warm water high in the restroom, open the water valve, and a rationed shower system is complete.
The storage box has a capacity of 170 liters, but in order to save water, it only fills half of the water at a time. But it's also enough for one person to wash for about fifteen to twenty minutes. As for the other toiletries, they were also very complete - soap and shower gel provided by Su He, Du Yunfei brought razors and shaving water, and Haichen found new towels from the docks. Coupled with the toothbrush, toothpaste and slippers that I have been using, it is no different from my usual life.
Everyone decided the order of the baths, and those who didn't have their turn went to the kitchen to prepare today's dinner - considering that everyone was tired all day, no one was assigned to cook the dinner. Everyone prepares the ingredients together and then takes them to the roof to barbecue.