Chương 72: Ben's Visit

"?" The two women stared at Vince, who was bleary-eyed and arched defensively behind the sofa, practically projecting question marks from their heads.

"Vince, what's wrong? Do you have a fever?" Claire pulled out a tissue, wiped her hands, and walked over to feel his forehead.

"You don't feel hot..."

"Is that... Zoe?" Vince carefully scrutinized the girl standing across from him. He crooked his finger, gesturing for Claire to lean in, and whispered his disbelief into her ear.

"Who else would it be?" Claire looked at him, completely baffled. Vince suspiciously eyed the [41/100] green Health Bar floating above the girl's head, then glanced at the [100/100] green Health Bar above Claire's... Vince called out tentatively:"Zoe...?" A clean, pretty little face peeked out from behind Claire.

"Dage! What's wrong with you?!" It really is her...

"No... how is this possible? She doesn't even look like the same person..." The person standing before him simply couldn't be reconciled with his memory of that filthy, foul-smelling girl with a literal rat's nest of hair and mud caked all over her face—even if she did have big eyes and a bit of a baby face. It left Vince's brain, still reeling from his nightmare, struggling to process reality.

"Are you okay?" Claire leaned in and gently pressed Vince's head against her chest, asking softly.

"I'm fine... I feel much better now..." Vince mumbled, his voice muffled against her chest....

"So, what are you two up to..." Even accepting that this was indeed Zoe, Vince still couldn't resist suspiciously leaning over and sniffing her hair. Uh... she smells exactly like Claire's shampoo...

"Slicing meat... Figured we should get ready to eat while it's still light out..." Only then did Vince notice the dining table laden with various meatballs and the few remaining vegetables from the fridges.

"Where are the three guys?" Vince asked, looking at Zoe.

"What three guys? Aren't there only two?" Zoe replied, bewildered.

"They crashed after their showers. I just woke them; they'll be down in a minute." It really is Zoe... Seeing that he couldn't trip her up, Vince finally cemented the reality in his mind.

"Alright, give it a rest..." Claire rolled her eyes at him as she carried a plate of meat to the table.

"Talk about a drastic makeover... That haircut actually looks really good on you," If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Vince said, appraising Zoe.

"Looks good, right?! Claire cut it for me!" Zoe beamed, grabbing Claire's arm. Having finally recovered from the shock of Zoe's transformation, Vince suddenly noticed that Claire's hair was also significantly shorter. Her long, flowing hair had been trimmed into a sleek, shoulder-length cut, swept neatly back. It added an undeniable edge of crisp capability to her already beautiful, alluring features. Her entire aura felt... More radiant and open.

"Vince..." Just as Vince was leaning against the back of the sofa, admiring the two beautiful women bustling around prepping dinner, a voice called out from the entryway. It was Cody. Seeing Vince turn his head, he continued:"I went out to the RV to grab something and saw Ben downstairs in the clinic... He's hauling a bunch of stuff."

"Oh?" Vince stood up, let out a massive stretch, and replied casually to Cody,"They finished distributing the loot? Alright, let's head down." He gave Claire a quick heads-up and made his way downstairs. Stepping onto the first floor, he saw Ben standing in the lobby alongside another man whose face Vince vaguely recognized but couldn't put a name to. The two men had a pair of hand trucks. One was stacked high with various cardboard boxes, while the other held several jugs of water.

"Dr. Lin..." Seeing him come downstairs, Ben quickly stepped forward, offering a slight bow and a smile.

"Hey, Ben, no need to be so formal. What's up?" Vince waved a hand dismissively. He turned and grabbed a stack of plastic stools from the back room. Seeing this, Cody immediately took them and set them up in the clinic lobby. Once the four of them were seated, Vince pointed at the hand trucks and asked directly:"Is this for us?" Ben nodded vigorously, his voice laced with excitement:"Yes, Vince. You have five people in your group, so I brought up exactly five standard rations for you...

The warehouse had way more stuff than we imagined! Combining the rice and flour, there are nearly a hundred massive sacks. We found almost a hundred boxes of instant noodles, dried vermicelli, and ready-to-eat meals. There are over thirty large jugs of cooking oil, and easily four hundred bags of salt and sugar. Plus, over a dozen boxes of various condiments and spices."

"How many people are left in total?" Vince asked, while simultaneously signaling Cody to go grab the others to help haul the supplies. Hearing the question, Ben immediately pulled a small notebook from his pocket and offered it to Vince.

"We just finished the census. Including our own people, there are exactly 52 survivors who made it out of their apartments. 34 men, 18 women. No one over the age of 60. There are 5 minors under 18, the youngest being 14."

"It's entirely young, able-bodied adults. Several of them are absolute hardasses who physically fought and killed the zombies trapped in their stairwells just to get out."

"My brothers and I put together a distribution plan for today's rations. Please, take a look..."

"Ah... no need to show me. How you distribute the supplies is entirely up to you. Just tell me how much water there is..." Seeing Ben pull out a densely written ledger, Vince immediately waved it off.

"Oh, understood," Ben quickly put the ledger away and referred back to his notebook.

"There are 168 sealed jugs of purified water, plus 26 cases of bottled mineral water. Following your exact instructions, we distributed one jug per person, making it explicitly clear that this is their strict ration for at least a week. We currently have 111 jugs remaining in reserve. We didn't touch the boxed bottled water; if we need to organize excursions in the future, bottles are vastly easier to carry..." The more Ben spoke, the more energized he became, his tone brimming with newfound confidence.

"After this initial distribution, the panic and tension have completely stabilized. Now that everyone has a guaranteed food source, morale is incredibly high. They're all highly motivated and explicitly stated they're willing to follow orders and contribute labor!" Listening to Ben rattle off the numbers, Vince did some quick mental math. The supplies were undeniably abundant. He nodded in satisfaction, then looked through the gap between the two parked RVs at the street outside. Dusk was settling in.

The scattered pools of dark crimson blood on the asphalt had oxidized into pitch black. The sky was taking on a hazy, overcast gray. For some reason, there had been an abnormal amount of rain this summer.

"So, what's next? What are you planning?" As if perfectly anticipating Vince's question, Ben answered with unshakeable confidence:"The zombies' only weak point is the head. They possess terrifying physical strength and bite force. Once they grab or bite you, breaking free is nearly impossible. Plus, a single injury means infection. For a normal person, even with good protective gear, engaging them requires long-reach weapons..."

"Since we have the angle grinder, we're in luck. After I handed out the food, one of the survivors mentioned his EV has an external power discharge feature. I traded him some extra rations for it. This means we don't need to bother you for your RV's power anymore. His car still has plenty of juice. My plan is to organize a production team first. We're going to manufacture a batch of long steel spears, exactly like yours.

Then, we're going to systematically pry open every single empty apartment in these street-facing buildings. At most, there will be one or two zombies trapped inside. We swarm them together and just poke them to death. We should be able to scavenge a lot more supplies this way..." Listening to Ben's plan, Vince had to admit it was highly viable. With this many able-bodied adults, arming them was the obvious priority.

If they could organize a few dozen people with spears, small clusters of ten or so zombies wouldn't even be able to get close. Let alone inside an apartment—five or six spears could completely lock down a doorway.