Chapter 204

"Damn..."

Lu Yubo sat on the ground, throwing the cigarette butt and fork aside, looking at the flaming corpse that had lunged to within two meters of him in terror. If it weren't for everyone acting together to save him, he would have been either bitten to death by the zombie or burned to a crisp!

"Told you to stop showing off, damn it. Almost lost your life, aren't you going to thank Old Tan!"

Zhang Su was also startled; the zombie in its frenzy had moved quite swiftly.

"Thanks, thanks, Sister Tan. If I weren't a bit old, I'd want to be your godson. Holy crap!"

Lu Yubo wiped away cold sweat and rambled. He had really been scared just now. An accident is different from a battle; all kinds of hormones hadn't had time to secrete before the change occurred. It was too terrifying.

"Forget it, forget it, I have Dakun as a godson, that's enough..." Tan Huajun waved her hand.

Mo Qianlan stood to the side watching her mother show off her power, and then saw the brother who had saved her from the mall acting silly, and couldn't help but smile slightly.

Yu Wen looked at the burning zombie lying on the ground, pushed up his glasses, and analyzed: "The zombie seems to be able to draw energy from the flames, just like injecting a large amount of stimulants into a human who has been starving for days, instantly erupting with incomprehensible speed and strength. It's too terrifying!"

"Zombies being afraid of fire is relative. It is indeed flammable, and you can use fire to eliminate it, but before it is eliminated, you have to withstand a rainstorm of attacks!"

Although it didn't continue running while burning just now, one could see from its brief movements that its speed was extremely fast!

"Normally, human corpses are hard to burn. This thing is rare; it's both flammable and resistant to burning. If it could be used to fuel a stove for cooking, that would save a lot of trouble!"

From the time the zombie was ignited until now, about ten minutes had passed. The zombie's body tissues began to melt slowly, like a wax figure deforming under high heat, gradually turning from a solid into a highly viscous liquid, similar to asphalt, collapsing from a human form into a large mass.

Zhang Su was glad he hadn't rashly used fire attacks in battle; otherwise, without a single chance for trial and error, the entire camp would have been buried under the onslaught of flaming zombies!

"Everyone look, it's changing!"

"It really seems possible."

The materials used to make mummies have a fragrance when burned, but the zombie had an indescribable smell, different from the rot when it was alive. It was very unique; no one could describe it, as they had never smelled it before.

"Before the pigment 'mummy brown' was invented, locals in Egypt would dig up mummies from the ground and use them as firewood. Resources were limited; as long as there was utility value, who cared about so much else."

Zhao Dezhu, as the camp cook, looked at the burning zombie corpse thoughtfully.

Liu Tianji shared a piece of trivia.

Zhang Su shook his hands and said helplessly: "It seems that using fire to deal with zombies isn't very reliable... unless you create a special environment or trap. Otherwise, you might have been able to win, but once you light a fire, it's over—you get slaughtered!"

"This is a double-edged sword, killing the enemy and yourself!"

Yu Qing pursed her lips and said: "Some heating companies in Nordic countries cooperate with crematoriums; the incinerators can provide a certain amount of heating for citizens..."

Imagine if a hundred flaming zombies charged at the camp collectively; if it weren't for a dozen or twenty rifles firing simultaneously, it would be hard to resist!

Zhang Su walked to the downwind side, sniffed, and walked back to the crowd with a frown: "There's a strange smell, not pleasant. Otherwise, one could really treat zombie corpses as firewood; it's more efficient than wood..."

"Hey, don't say that, you really shouldn't say that..." Zhang Su felt this suggestion was quite plausible.

"Brother Zhuzi, your taste is too heavy. Burning zombie corpses to cook? What would that taste like!" Qi Xiaoshuai's face twitched; he didn't even dare to imagine that scene.

While everyone was discussing, Tan Huajun pointed at the burning zombie on the ground and shouted.

Everyone nodded one after another. After witnessing the madness of the flaming zombie, everyone had lingering fears. This was a tactic of mutual destruction, of burning everything to the ground...

"If cooking doesn't work, then... heating should be okay, right?" Zhong Xiaoshan asked.

Zhao Dezhu grinned: "You bet. This damn thing is covered in fire; who dares to fight it? Once you get close, your hair gets burned off. You can only use guns, and you must have obstacles to block it, otherwise, you don't even have a safe distance to shoot!"

"Heating?"

"Holy crap, are there souls roaring in the heating pipes?"

Wu Lue had a very strange smile on his face.

"This is not a joke." Zhang Su said seriously: "Winter has arrived. Starting tomorrow, we will burn the furnace for heating. You all arrange the rooms and concentrate on living in the Little Fortune and Wangshan homestays to avoid having to burn an extra heating furnace!"

Except for the most rudimentary Qingfeng Cottage, the other homestays had installed their own heating equipment.

"Zombies wander into the camp almost every day. Not to mention whether two or three are enough to burn, but it can greatly alleviate the pressure on coal! I'll write a list tonight and arrange the shifts for burning the boiler. You all should familiarize yourselves with it when you have time."

Everyone nodded one after another, indicating no problem.

"By the way, how long can this one zombie burn?"

Lu Yubo calmed down at this moment and lit another cigarette. He noticed that after the zombie turned into a sticky state, it didn't seem to change much after burning for several minutes.

"Just wait and see!" Zheng Xinyu brought the Corgi, Lucky, close to the fire and stretched out her hands to warm up.

Lighting the zombie didn't mean the experiment was over; at least they had to wait and see how long one zombie could burn. As a result, after waiting for an hour, the black viscous substance melted from the zombie had only shrunk by half...

Pfft.

Zhang Su poured a basin of water on it; he really couldn't wait any longer. He reached a rough conclusion: one zombie could burn for two hours.

A night passed, and by the time he got up the next day, Zhang Su clearly felt the temperature had dropped again. He glanced at the electronic clock with a thermometer on the bedside; it showed only eight degrees.

The temperature in the room was eight degrees—this was the temperature with three people keeping the doors and windows tightly closed, so the outdoor temperature at night must have reached zero, or even lower!

After getting dressed and pulling back the curtains, sure enough, there was a thin layer of ice where water had accumulated by the well in the courtyard.

In the morning, everyone in the camp was busy with their respective duties. Zhang Su still led people to Xiangzhuang to haul supplies. There were still some places in Niujuan Town that hadn't been cleared, but there was no rush for that side.

In the afternoon, Zheng Xinyu put away the meals left for Zhang Su and the others, and was just about to ask when Zhang Su would be back when she heard a sound from the walkie-talkie.

"Everyone pay attention, there is a vehicle approaching, there is a vehicle approaching. I don't know if it's people from United Village, everyone pay attention!"

Tan Huajun was in the monitoring room, watching an SUV slowly driving on the self-built road on the screen, and relayed the news to everyone in the camp.

Down the mountain, in the passenger seat of the Tiguan, Wang Xingui poked his head out to look around, his face filled with envy.

"Brother Guizi, the environment in this area is really nice, with mountains and water. Why didn't we think of coming here before?"

A bald young man sat in the back row, his face pressed against the car window, looking fierce but speaking in a simple-minded way.

"I don't like to hear you being called simple-minded. Think about it, who doesn't know that a place like Tianmayu is good? Is it possible that those bosses who opened homestays on the mountain came here before the disaster broke out? Yama can occupy this place; do you think we can too?"

Wang Xingui lectured his subordinate with a stern face.

The middle-aged man driving the car laughed: "Little Bo, your Brother Guizi is right. What kind of thing is this? You can't see others succeeding and think you can do it too. Your wife can have a baby; can you?"

Little Bo winked and said: "Uncle Zhong, your analogy is too ridiculous. Can men and women be the same..."

"Fine, let's not talk about men and women. Just talk about a few years ago, the old village chief saw that Xigezhuang got rich raising raccoon dogs and also organized our villagers to start raising them. As a result, everyone lost 100,000 on average. Later, we found out that a boss in Xigezhuang had a factory in Cang City, a one-stop shop from production to sales!"

"Then we can also go to Cang City to build a factory..."

"Enough, enough, I regret bringing you out. Stop nagging. If you don't know how to speak in a moment, don't speak; you're embarrassing me! By the way, absolutely do not call him Yama. If Yama really gets angry, just wait to be beaten!"

Wang Xingui didn't want to bring Little Bo out at all, but Little Bo's sister had been getting cozy with him recently, whispering in his ear, saying to bring Little Bo out to see the world. There was no other way.

Is that seeing the world? That's seeing Yama. If it weren't for the Green Dragon Legion matter blocking the way, he would be very unwilling to come here.

In a short while, the car stopped in front of the mountain gate, and the three of them got out of the car nimbly.

"Handsome guys and beautiful ladies, I am Wang Xingui, Guizi. I have an appointment with your boss, Big Brother Zhang, to come over this afternoon. Where is Big Brother Zhang?"

"Mm-hmm, Brother Su knows. He is still at Xiangzhuang and is on his way back. You guys go inside and sit for a while, have a cup of tea!"

Zheng Xinyu had dealt with Wang Xingui on the day they annihilated Beita Zi Camp and remembered him.

"Eh, eh, alright! Uncle Zhong, please drive the car in. I'll take Little Bo and follow everyone."

"Okay!"

Uncle Zhong jumped into the car and slowly drove it into the camp.

Wang Xingui and Little Bo followed Zheng Xinyu and the others up the path. The many facilities they saw made him marvel: walls, barbed wire, roadblocks, nail strips, and the holes reserved for killing zombies...

This was what a safe camp should look like. Compared to Tianmayu, United Village's defenses seemed crude and shabby.

(End of chapter)