An extremely noisy, hypnotic hum. The visible danger: zombies. For plants, it was a feast.
An extremely quiet, heart-pounding silence. Hidden within it was a great crisis: a lack of water, which for plants was a disaster!
An old saying used to be popular among farmers in the countryside: “Five days without rain, a small drought; ten days without rain, a big drought; a month without rain, the ground smokes.”
This meant: during the dog days of summer, if it didn't rain for five days, the fields would start to dry up; if it didn't rain for ten days, the drought would become severe; if it didn't rain for a month, it meant a major drought was coming.
In this silent, hot, and dry weather, people were still out and about.
Although it was hot, the danger from zombies was greatly reduced. Taking advantage of this season, many people began to come out to search for basic supplies.
The hot weather continued for another 5 days.
It had been 15 days without rain, and not only that, but it had also been 15 days of bright sunshine, with no overcast days.
In a county town not far from them.
A small group, which had previously been exploited by the Salvation Army. The leader was someone who used to work in catering in the county town.
Bringing their family and friends, there were barely 12 people in total. Originally, they had over thirty people, but then they encountered the Salvation Army, and several people were killed, forcing them to submit.
Later, they encountered heavy rain, some people starved to death, and others were bitten to death by zombies.
From over thirty people, their numbers plummeted to less than one-third of their original population.
They had endured the heavy rain, survived the zombie horde, and even after the rain, they were constantly on edge, fearing that the Salvation Army would come again to rob them and demand protection fees.
What they didn't expect was that after the heavy rain ended, the Salvation Army didn't come, the weather outside was hot, and there were very few zombies. This made them happy for a while.
However, their happiness didn't last long, as the continuous hot weather dealt them a heavy blow!
The high temperatures caused many previously undiscovered foods in the city to rot and become infested with insects.
The high temperatures forced them to walk outside under the scorching sun, facing the risk of heatstroke.
Today, one person suffered from heatstroke.
It was the leader's daughter. The leader of this small group was Tan Guohua. In this apocalypse, he deeply understood that humanity was the most terrifying thing.
He was quite mature and experienced, having worked in hotels and catering for half his life, he had seen all kinds of people and his methods were extremely ruthless.
When the apocalypse first broke out, he immediately led a few of his catering subordinates to his home to pick up his family members.
Then they barely survived for a period of time.
No one who has survived to this point in the apocalypse is simple.
However, under such natural and man-made disasters, even he was starting to break down.
Today, they were still out searching for supplies. The place they had been staying in was discovered by zombies last night, so they had to find a new place to live today.
While walking during the day, his daughter, Xiaoyu, suffered heatstroke from exposure to the sun.
They searched many places but couldn't find any water.
Finally, after running 3 kilometers to the river on the other side of the city, in the opposite district, they finally managed to get some water.
But the water was very murky.
The weather was hot, and even this Gongjiang River was almost dry.
The water level had dropped to its lowest point. Even in previous years, there had been times when it didn't rain for over ten days, but the daytime temperature never reached over 40 degrees Celsius every day.
In the past, hot weather would at most reach 38 degrees Celsius, and only for a few days. Sometimes, water would even be released from upstream to ensure the river would not dry up.
But now, this river was already starting to dry up.
They barely managed to get some water from the murky river, and they took this opportunity to collect more water, because they didn't know if the river would dry up completely next time.
“Xiaoyu, Xiaoyu. Open your mouth.” Tan Guohua gently pried open his daughter's chapped lips.
Xiaoyu was in a coma, but her forehead was still hot and covered in sweat.
A woman next to him said, “Hua Ge, don’t hold her anymore, put her down. Ah, the child is really suffering.”
Tan Guohua's wife survived the initial outbreak of the apocalypse, but she didn't survive the encounter with the Salvation Army.
Because he had a daughter, he gritted his teeth and endured, he had to live for his daughter.
If it weren't for his daughter, he would have fought the Salvation Army to the death long ago.
But now, his daughter was also suffering from heatstroke and unconscious.
They had searched many pharmacies in the city, but the apocalypse had already broken out for almost a year, and medicines had long been snatched up.
Now, they couldn't even find a bottle of Huoxiang Zhengqi water (a traditional Chinese medicine for heatstroke).
Tan Guohua looked at his daughter's pale face, and tears, large as beans, fell from his eyes, though he had not cried before.
He could do anything for his family. When the Salvation Army arrived, he told them everything he knew about Li Yu.
Because he had no direct contact with Li Yu, he knew very little, and didn't even know where they lived. When the Salvation Army asked, he could only tell them what he knew.
But even so, the Salvation Army still killed his wife. It wasn't until five people were killed and Tan Guohua still said nothing that the Salvation Army finally believed him.
His wife was dead, and now his daughter was unconscious from heatstroke, and he didn't know her condition.
After their team of 12 people filled their water containers, they had to quickly go to a new place to find a new shelter.
Their food would only last for two more days.
In fact, they had already reduced their daily food intake by half a week ago.
One of the men with Tan Guohua, also with some family members, was a middle-aged man. At this moment, he saw Tan Guohua holding his daughter and looking sad.
Although he understood, he couldn't help but say, “Hua Ge, we need to find a new place to live quickly. Also, we don’t have enough food.”
“What does that have to do with me?! Damn it! Don’t bother me!” Tan Guohua suddenly erupted in anger, like a furious lion. This time, his daughter’s heatstroke made him unable to hold on any longer.
Upon hearing this, the middle-aged man also felt a surge of anger. His own relatives had died in the last zombie horde, but he hadn't said anything.
As the sky grew darker, the other few people also wanted to say something, but they saw that Tan Guohua was completely out of sorts.
So they walked over and started discussing with the middle-aged man where to move next.
“Brother Sun, Hua Ge’s situation is a bit off right now. We still need to find a place quickly.” The young man speaking had a face full of worry.
“That’s right, Brother Sun, we need to make a decision quickly about where to go, and we need to leave quickly, otherwise if we stay here, zombies will still come out at night. It’s dangerous.”
Brother Sun was worried, and he looked at Hua Ge with some concern on his face. He nodded and said, “Then let’s go to the wholesale market across the river. Maybe there are still some things there.”
He then looked at the people around him, all of them emaciated, with hair like straw. They had no spirit at all, and Hua Ge was holding the dying Xiaoyu.
Brother Sun sighed, “Living is truly difficult.”
