Chapter 341 341 - New Defense
That evening everyone rushed about fixing the tires. The damage done by that mutated tree was not minimal. Most of their tires were torn to shreds. They had to take out all the spares from Juda and Jamie's space.
Tires are not a rare commodity in the apocalypse as so many vehicles were spotted abandoned in the road. But the only issue was it has been two years since the world ended. The cars that were parked around recklessly in the roads were all in various stages of damage. The tires were no exception.
The spare tires took a few hours to completely fix by then the others in the camp started to set up tents for everyone to sleep in. food rations were distributed in an orderly manner by uncle wen and tian.
As for Qian he was still stuck in disbelief. he kept mumbling that he can't die.
Yue was in the same stage as him. he sat nearby the campfire gazing into the darkness. Even now he could hear the creaking sound of the tree and a few wails as the zombies were devoured. 'how powerful is this thing? Is it very hard to defeat? What if we can take that out of Prisitsky completely? Would it harm him in any way?'
The tree that was in front of them was only a part of the creature that was living in Prisitsky. He was unsure if the young scientist would even survive if they took it out completely.
"Wonder how he was still alive till now?" he thought out loud.
Qian, who was close by glanced his way. "I wondered about that too, I went ahead and asked Hary. He said that Prisitsky used to feed on the meteor shards," he answered in a whisper.
Yue snapped his head towards him. "Meteor shards? Like the real virus samples?"
"Hmm he used to eat only that. one small stone about a finger's width was enough for a few days, it seems. We did find a lot from the farmlands around my pop's land. All of that was submitted to Prisitsky. I even asked him for a few back then. He refused with a cold look on his face. it turned out it was his food. Wonder if the plant is acting out because it's hungry?"
Yue nodded. It sounded like a good guess. "What if we feed him with meteor shards?"
"We can maybe get that tree in his body under control," Qian smirked his way.
Yue lost his smile after a while. "But where do we find meteor shards?"
"Dunno," Qian slouched back down. "I don't like that guy but I just want to do something to save him, you know. Without him, I would not have anyone to bicker with,"
Peng Peng let out a small chuckle. "Just admit it, you will miss him,"
"of course not. Why would I miss that guy? I don't even like him," Qian mumbled, hugging Peng Peng close. "You have become much more naughty. Are you teasing me?" he kissed his small cat ears.
Peng Peng giggled.
Yue glanced away with a small smile. His friend really found a great lover. And so did he. He thought, looking up at Fan.
Fan Xui smiled and hugged him close as well. "We will get through this as well,"
"squeak!" Trexa struggled out of Yue's pockets and climbed onto his shoulders. "squeak squeak."
"Are you hungry?" Fan took out a small piece of candy and handed it to Trexa.
Without a second hesitation, she devoured it and started to squeak even more. She then put her hand inside her mouth and started to struggle with something. 𝐟r𝒆ℯ𝘄𝑒𝒃𝚗𝒐𝘃e𝗹.c𝘰𝐦
Yue noticed this small motion. "What is it? did it get stuck in your throat?" he hurriedly touched her soft neck. he didn't feel any lumps there. "What is it Trexa? Does it hurt anywhere?"
Trexa shook off his hand and pulled out a lotus seed from her mouth. "squeak~" she offered it to him.
"Thanks, dear… but no thanks…" he handed it back to her. To be honest, Trexa had been offering him food often nowadays. He never knew where she would randomly find a popcorn or a piece of candy now he knew… Trexa had been storing the food in her mouth.
It was slightly off-putting.
Trexa looked at him with a squeak. She shoved the lotus seed to him insistently. 𝐟𝘳𝑒𝗲𝘸e𝒃𝘯𝒐𝐯e𝚕.c𝒐𝒎
"I don't want it dear. I think I'm full with corn," he held up the can of cooked corn he had heated up.
The little rat shook her head and jumped off his shoulders. She suddenly darted away, leaving only a small dark shadow behind.
"don't run far! Stay close okay!" he shouted behind her.
He was unsure if she heard him not but he continued to eat his food. Zi Chen had already had cooked corn and was asleep on his grandma. His father was holding zara and feeding her a bottle of formula milk.
She seemed to be very happy sucking away at the tasty milk.
"how far away from the prison?"
"We are only a few kilometers away. If not for those cows, we could have reached there by evening." Fan Xui mumbled with a slight tone of regret. "but now we have found something very important,"
"That Prisitsky is dying. Its sad…" Yue whispered softly.
"That and something else. We have this," Fan held up the small spiny seed. Some of them had torn into the tires and were stuck in there. He had retrieved them and collected them all safely. "if we can find a way to germinate these seeds, we can plant them around our new base and let the plants deal with our wall security. Even better, if we can manage to tame the tree, we will be able to reclaim our base with this,"
Yue hands trembled slightly at the possibility, he placed the corn can down and scooted close to him. "is it really possible?"
"it is. If we can germinate it and plant it in the few places in the base, they can devour the zombies, and grow. And by the end of it, we can reclaim our base. But there are two problems. Germinating this and taming it. I believe we only have to depend on you, dad," he handed it to Yue's dad.
Zou Wei looked at the seed curiously. "I can try. But not here. we can try it when we are in a safe spot."