Chương 55: Fuel

Immediately after the deafening roar of the generator, the warehouse lights flickered to life, followed by the canopy lights illuminating the entire gas station. Vince stared at the scraped metal casing of the generator, barely able to make out the faded letters: [50kW] How the hell is a 50-kilowatt generator this damn loud? Although he had anticipated a loud noise based on the students' description of what attracted the horde, this racket was completely absurd.

Back when he worked at the zoo, he had seen heavy-duty 100+ kW generators that didn't make even half this much noise. Most likely, the Mutated Hounds had frantically attacked the machine, severely damaging the internal muffler or the exhaust manifold. Not only was this behemoth physically impossible for him to haul away, but even if he could get it back to his apartment, it would be utterly useless.

If he ran this thing downstairs for an extended period, the ungodly racket would likely summon every single zombie he had just spent the entire morning kiting away right back to his doorstep." Dage! What happened?!" Vince had just twisted the dial to kill the generator when he saw Zoe Chu sprinting nervously toward him. Because the warehouse doors had been completely blown off, she could see his silhouette from outside and had run straight in.

"B- Dage... URGH!" Before Vince could even reply, Zoe instinctively glanced around the interior of the warehouse. The moment her eyes registered the scattered, severed limbs and shredded chunks of human gore, she instantly whipped around, faced the doorway, and began violently dry heaving. The other two boys were only halfway across the forecourt, jogging over at a sluggish pace. It seemed the deafening roar of the generator had startled them awake.

Fortunately, they hadn't eaten breakfast yet; otherwise, it would have been a tragic waste of good rations. Having been tempered by days of brutal survival, Vince had grown completely desensitized to these gruesome scenes. He had momentarily forgotten that the most traumatizing thing Zoe had seen up until now was likely just the intact corpses of the Mutated Hounds. But this was a necessary rite of passage. If she wanted to survive in this world, she had to adapt to the gore.

"Done throwing up?" Vince walked over to the doorway and looked down at Zoe, who was bent over wiping her mouth, asking with a hint of teasing.

"Done... throwing up..." Zoe replied, still clutching her stomach, her voice laced with lingering trauma.

"If you're done throwing up, get in here and get to work." Vince waved her in, gesturing for her to follow as he turned back toward the depths of the warehouse.

"Ah? What kind of work...?" Hearing that she had to step back into the slaughterhouse, Zoe's eyes widened in disbelief. She hesitated for a second, but eventually put on a miserable, pained expression and trailed after Vince. She kept her eyes glued firmly to his back, absolutely terrified to let her gaze wander to the sides. A moment later, the two boys finally reached the warehouse entrance. Seeing Vince and Zoe inside, they stepped through the doorway... And instantly bolted right back out. URGH! URGH!...

Pfft... Hearing the synchronized dry heaving behind them, both Vince and Zoe couldn't help but burst out laughing. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

"Ouch!" Vince had suddenly stopped in his tracks as if remembering something. Unable to brake in time, Zoe smacked her forehead directly into his back and let out a surprised yelp. He turned around, lightly tapped her on the top of the head, and looked past her at the two boys outside.

"Hey, Cody... actually, never mind. Seth Xu, you come in here and help Zoe work. Cody Chu, head back to the front. Keep watch on the perimeter. If any zombies get close, come tell me immediately." He had originally intended to have Cody come in and help with the heavy lifting, but remembering what Zoe had told him yesterday, he swapped him out for Seth. Given Seth's cowardly, freezing-under-pressure personality, Vince didn't feel comfortable trusting him with perimeter security.

"O-oh, okay, Vince..." Cody hastily agreed, turning around and jogging back toward the front of the gas station. Hearing Vince's orders, Seth was eight hundred times unwilling to step back into the blood-soaked warehouse. But lacking the courage to outright refuse, he simply stayed bent over, pretending to be too nauseous to stand up straight. Seeing this, Vince didn't waste his breath. He casually raised his long spear and swung it brutally into the concrete wall of the warehouse. BANG!

Concrete fragments exploded outward. Startled out of his wits, Seth instantly took a step back and stood bolt upright.

"Get in here and get to work." Vince didn't even bother looking at him. He simply dropped a cold, emotionless command and turned to walk deeper into the room. Seeing the situation escalate, Zoe hurriedly jogged out and whispered frantically to Seth:"Stop dawdling! If you piss Dage off, you can figure out how to get back to the university by yourself!" With that warning delivered, she jogged back to Vince's side and asked, " Dage, don't lower yourself to his level. What do you need done? Just tell me."

In that brief moment, Seth seemed to have finally realized the gravity of his situation. Covering his mouth, he slowly shuffled inside. The three of them walked over to the far wall. Vince did a quick count. There were exactly eleven 40-liter industrial jerry cans. Three of them were knocked over on the floor, bearing deep claw marks; they had been punctured, and their diesel contents were leaking all over the concrete. He pointed at the intact cans and said:"I saw some hand carts on my way in.

You two load these cans and wheel them up to the front forecourt. We're going to fill them up later. These three leaking ones are diesel. It's fine, they won't spontaneously combust. Just drag them outside and leave them by the door for now." He finished speaking and pointed back over his shoulder toward the hand carts leaning against the wall near the entrance.

"G-got it, Dage!" Zoe agreed immediately. But as her peripheral vision followed his pointing finger, it inadvertently swept past the scattered severed limbs and shredded meat. Her voice betrayed an unnatural tremble. Having received her orders, she turned and marched toward the hand carts. After taking two steps, she realized Seth was still standing there frozen. She marched back, shoved her elbow brutally into his back, and hissed, "Move!" Grabbing his jacket, she physically dragged him toward the exit.

Listening to the commotion behind him, Vince remained silent. How a small group managed their internal friction was their own business. He had zero interest in providing psychological counseling for every straggler he met. If they could adapt to the apocalypse, it was fate. If they couldn't adapt and died early, that was also fate. There was undeniably strength in numbers. For this kind of mindless manual labor, having three people was several times faster than working alone.

In just two trips, they had moved all the intact oil drums next to the fuel pumps. Vince simply drove his cargo van straight to the warehouse entrance. He systematically loaded up all the usable supplies he could find inside: rubber boots, heavy-duty work gloves, electrician's tools, automotive repair kits, motor oil, fire extinguishers... everything went into the back of the van. He even found a heavy fire axe and a steel crowbar in a storage locker.

Though Vince had no personal use for them right now—for hacking down zombies in open spaces, a fire axe was vastly inferior to the reach of his long spear—he tossed them into the van as well. Seeing that Zoe and Seth had finished hauling the final three leaking drums, Vince waved them off, signaling that they could rest and eat something. He walked back over to the massive generator and twisted the ignition dial. CHUG-CHUG-CHUG-CHUG... The battered behemoth roared to life once more.

A few seconds later, the bright canopy lights above the fuel pumps flickered on. Vince parked his van directly in front of the pumps. He took out the employee magnetic swipe card he had looted from apartment 401, inserted it into the machine, and began filling up the van's gas tank. He then directed the two students to grab five of the empty 40-liter drums and fill them completely with gasoline. The remaining three intact drums were filled to the brim with diesel.

With each drum holding 40 liters, that gave him a total reserve of 200 liters of gasoline and 120 liters of diesel. It was just a shame that modern safety regulations strictly prohibited gas stations from selling loose fuel in non-approved containers, meaning they no longer stocked massive stacks of empty jerry cans. The eleven in the warehouse were all they had. However, this was more than enough for his immediate needs. Besides, the gas station wasn't going anywhere.

If he needed more fuel later, he could always just drive back. Cody was still patrolling the perimeter, while Zoe and Seth helped Vince load the heavy, fuel-filled drums into the back of the van. Just as they were loading the final drum, Zoe suddenly leaned in close and whispered timidly to Vince:" Dage, can we maybe... fill up our car too...?"