Chapter 144: Attraction Hypothesis

In the early morning, Zhang Su pointed to the four zombie corpses lying at the gate and asked Lu Yubo: "Did you lure them over for entertainment?"

The grain sampler in Lu Yubo's hand was still stained with dirty blood. He shook his head: "They were all wandering zombies. I was setting up the wire mesh earlier."

Zhang Su squatted down and looked at the zombie corpses through the branches, saying: "The zombies' ability to sniff out living people is definitely stronger than before. Otherwise, there's no reason for these zombies wandering on the road to break into the glass factory."

"Brother Su, is there a possibility..."

Liu Tianji walked to Zhang Su's side and tentatively said: "I have an immature idea, can I say it?"

"Speak freely. We don't do that workplace stuff here." Zhang Su signaled for Liu Tianji to speak.

Liu Tianji nodded and said: "I will analyze it in the direction I can understand. Could it be that the zombie virus doesn't just react to living things nearby, but can subconsciously sense living things in a very wide range? And the more living things there are, the clearer the sensing."

Zhang Su was stunned after hearing Liu Tianji's words and said: "You mean, we are all signal transmitters, and zombies can detect the signals we emit and then move toward places where the signal source is dense?"

"Yes, yes, yes, Brother Su, your summary is very vivid, that's exactly what I mean. My language expression ability is not very good, hehe."

Liu Tianji hurriedly offered a compliment.

Lu Yubo stood by and listened blankly, muttering: "Holy crap, if that's really the case, then the safe base that gathered a large group of survivors is in big trouble..."

Speaking of this, he looked at Zhang Su with shock: "Brother Su, do you remember the zombie horde we encountered on the street at the Yileiwen convenience store?"

Zhang Su nodded, his face solemn: "If Little Liu's guess is true, that zombie horde was moving toward a large survivor gathering place!"

Discussing this, the three looked at each other, and a feeling of horror spread from the bottom of their hearts.

For some reason, a bizarre idea suddenly arose in Zhang Su's heart. The whole world seemed to have become a human body, and zombies were the immune cells in the human body, while they humans, or living things, had become viruses and bacteria, and the immune cells were frantically looking for and preying on them...

"Time to eat! Sister Tan and Brother Zhuzi cooked a big pot of noodles, it's so fragrant! Hm? What are you three plotting? So serious?"

Zheng Xinyu ran over to call them to eat, but found that the three of them had strange expressions.

"It's nothing, let's eat first."

Zhang Su waved his hand and then walked toward the factory building.

A bowl of hot noodle soup with instant noodle seasoning, plus an egg poached in the noodle soup, made everyone feel warm all over. The taste of happiness made some people's noses sore.

While cleaning up the bowls and chopsticks, Zhang Su clapped his hands and said: "Um, Little Liu mentioned something earlier, and I think it's very likely. Let's discuss it together."

Zhao Dezhu was picking his teeth happily, leaning against the wall with great satisfaction, and said: "Big brother, what's the matter? You look very serious."

"That's right, it's a very serious matter, so I chose to tell everyone after eating, otherwise I'm afraid you won't be able to eat well..."

Zhang Su's words made the slightly lazy crowd nervous immediately.

Immediately after, he made the conjecture that Liu Tianji had told him public.

"This, impossible, right?"

Many people subconsciously chose not to believe it, and some were silent and thinking.

"We know too little about the zombie species. Not to mention anything else, we don't even know how zombies came about. We always thought it was because of the virus, but we don't know if it really is. Based on a period of observation, I think Little Liu's attraction hypothesis holds."

Attraction hypothesis, the name Zhang Su gave it.

"Then..." Zhang Ya raised her hand and said: "Then if this hypothesis holds, doesn't it mean that the larger the safe zone with dense personnel, the more it will become the target of zombie attacks?"

"Humans are social animals, and huddling together for warmth is our weapon against the apocalypse. The appearance of zombies is like targeting us, and it seems to make sense that there is behavior that restrains our behavior."

Yu Wen was thoughtful and said slowly.

"I also think it's possible. Otherwise, why would the zombies in the city center run in groups to the suburbs? I guess it's because there are more survivors in the countryside, and they gather together, with a higher density, so they attract them."

Zheng Xinyu expressed her conjecture.

Yu Qing raised her hand and said: "I'll add a sentence. Actually, I don't just teach chemistry. I also took biology courses before. From a biological perspective, it is entirely possible for zombies to evolve the ability to sense humans, or they may also target other living things, who knows."

Just like that, with one word and another, everyone gradually enriched this attraction hypothesis.

"Do you think there are still surviving research institutions doing research? Is it possible for our society to return to normal?"

Tan Huajun asked with worry.

"It's definitely impossible to return to the past. People who have become zombies should be completely dead. Even if the virus is cleared, they can't be saved, which means it's irreversible... Calculating this way, at least ninety percent of people have died. Qincheng had a permanent population of one million before, and now there isn't even one hundred thousand. How could it return to the past!"

Wu Lue said very pessimistically.

"How could there be such a high survival rate? There might have been in the early stages of the outbreak, but later it was at most three percent. The technical college that Pei Lan and I escaped from didn't even have three percent!"

Chen Hanzhou said with his arm hanging. After experiencing the amputation of his arm, his personality gradually returned to the past, and he began to be willing to talk.

Pei Lan followed up: "Chen Hanzhou is right. There weren't many people in our school, probably about eight thousand, definitely less than ten thousand. There were no more than two hundred people alive. The most critical thing is that after escaping the school, many people couldn't hold on for long. Aren't we examples?"

When they escaped from the college, there were more than a dozen people together. Now only the two of them are left, and Kuang Miao and Song Yijun don't know if they are dead or alive, at most four people.

If calculated according to the school's survival rate, it fell directly below one percent...

"Discovering the habits of zombies is to let us solve them more actively. Why is the more we talk, the more hopeless it sounds?"

Zhang Su felt that the atmosphere was wrong and hurriedly opened his mouth to change the tone: "We have to think positively, and at the same time not slack off. Even if zombies are awesome, as long as everyone works together, one plus one is far greater than two. Gathering sand into a tower and gathering rivers into the sea, we can definitely survive in this dog-fucking apocalypse, and live better and better!"

Woof!

A passionate speech caused Lucky's strong dissatisfaction. Speak well, why do you want to slander my kind?

Everyone knew that Zhang Su was inspiring people. From the recent encounters, they could tangibly feel the change. From not even daring to go out of the door at the beginning, to now having food and drink and being able to shower, and having an activity area to chat with people, the change was quite large.

Everyone had positive confidence in the future.

As a temporary camp, Zhang Su planned to rest for three days at the Nonghua Glass Factory, let everyone recover to a full state, and then consider returning to the city center. He had been planning with several people how to go to the military camp on Wenhua Road to get guns.

It's a pity that the information known was too little, only the general layout of the military camp provided by Zhao Dezhu. As for the current situation of the military camp, nothing was known, and the plan seemed very empty.

Although the time was leisurely, no one really enjoyed the warm winter sun. Everyone was training, and the sense of urgency was full. Only those on sentry duty could get a moment of respite.

One day passed in a hurry, very peacefully. No one or vehicles passed by the highway in front of the glass factory. Instead, zombies occasionally attacked the fence and the wall behind the factory, which further confirmed the attraction hypothesis.

At night, after Pang Dakun finished watching the cartoon, he took the initiative to climb onto the roof to keep watch, and the tired crowd fell into a dream.

"I feel that everyone has rested enough, and we can set off tomorrow."

Zhang Su lay on the bed and muttered to Zhong Xiaoshan beside him. Zheng Xinyu was on the first shift tonight.

"I know you want to go to that military camp to see, but you said three days before, so let everyone rest for three days."

Zhong Xiaoshan suggested.

"I only said to rest for two or three days, I didn't say it must be three days..." Zhang Su grinned and turned over, saying: "If possible, I just want to live this kind of peaceful life forever, but unfortunately the defense here is too weak, and I worry every night that someone will break in."

Zhong Xiaoshan also turned to look at Zhang Su and said: "We have sixteen people now, there shouldn't be many teams stronger than us, right?"

"Not many?" Zhang Su stretched out his dishonest hand from the quilt and said: "Don't be arrogant, and don't underestimate the people outside. Not to mention far away, just say the Beiliang Village across the river from Shuwa Village, they accommodated other survivors from other villages, and the number of people far exceeds us!"

"If they return here to collect supplies, is it possible that they will have conflicts with us? These are all possible things, so establishing our own safe base as soon as possible is the key!"

Zhang Su hugged Zhong Xiaoshan into his arms. The hair that had just been washed yesterday had a long-lost fragrance.

"I suggest staying for three days, because everyone feels from the bottom of their hearts that you plan to stay for three days. If you say you are leaving tomorrow, it will seem hasty. But you decide for yourself, I am just making a suggestion from everyone's psychological level."

Zhong Xiaoshan said softly.

Zhang Su had excellent hearing. He wanted to listen to others chatting, and many words could not escape his ears. Naturally, he also knew how everyone considered it. He nodded slightly and said: "Okay, then stay for one more day, and set off the day after tomorrow morning!"

After speaking, there was no chatting sound in the bedroom, replaced by another kind of sound that everyone didn't like to hear, so I won't describe it.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 145 =====