Chapter 414: Chapter 414: Poisonous Rats Spreading (3)
After finishing her call with Ethan Dawson, Evelyn Ford walked over to Ronan Kendrick.
"Ronan, I think these poisonous rats are just like the beast tide from before. They’ve appeared all over the Northwest, and we probably won’t be able to wipe them out anytime soon."
"There’s another possibility," he said. "This *is* another beast tide."
Ronan Kendrick’s words made Evelyn Ford’s scalp tingle. "I have a good idea, though. We can dig a trench outside the quarantine fires. We’ll fill it with wood and gasoline and set it on fire. If the rats come, they’ll fall into the trench. At night, everyone stays inside the cabin. As long as they fall in, they can’t cross the firebreak, and we’ll be safe."
The others gradually finished washing up and came out. Meanwhile, Aunt Crane and Claudia Schultz had breakfast ready. Everyone was starving after a fierce night of fighting. The grain, stored in the kitchen cellar, hadn’t suffered any losses.
"Evelyn, what do we do tonight? Will the rats come back?"
"They probably will. We’ll do the same thing: light the quarantine fires and make them bigger. We’ll dig a trench outside the fires. We have tillers, so digging it will be fast, but it needs to be deep. This trench will be a trap. We’ll set it alight, and everyone will stay inside the house. No need to go out and chop up poisonous rats anymore."
"Is it like the last beast tide? The rats are very aggressive. They can dig burrows and chew through wood. Just hearing that ’SQUEAK SQUEAK SQUEAK’ sound makes my skin crawl now," Quincy said, casting a worried glance out the window.
"The ground outside the quarantine fires is covered in rat corpses. It’s even more terrifying than the cockroach carcasses from before."
Everyone was worried. Besides the immediate crisis, they fretted over whether this would happen again. The greenhouses and the livestock pens were mostly destroyed. Rats had broken through the fences and swarmed in. The ground was contaminated with all sorts of viruses, and they might have already inhaled them.
Whether it was psychological or they were truly infected, several people started showing symptoms of nausea and vomiting after the meal.
Evelyn Ford led everyone to start digging the trench. It was one meter wide and one meter deep. Two micro-tillers ran simultaneously. Everyone was working except for Zoe. They toiled from morning until afternoon, drenched in sweat. Christina Thorne and Joelle Finch both suffered from heatstroke, but after drinking some cold water, they had to get back to work.
After the sun set, Evelyn Ford had everyone hurry to fill the trench with wood, douse it with gasoline, and light it.
At 9:30, as night fell, a RUSTLING SIZZLE began to rise from all around. Then, a dense swarm of rats surged in from every direction. Evelyn Ford told everyone to get inside quickly.
The rats charged toward the cabin. They hesitated for a moment when blocked by the flames, but then they plunged through the fire without a second thought. The next instant, the rats fell into the trench like dumplings being dropped into a pot.
Because of the gasoline in the trench, the fire was immense. The rats shrieked chaotically as they burned, but the ones behind them kept charging forward. They seemed to have lost all reason. Besides the "SQUEAK SQUEAK SQUEAK" from their throats, they would occasionally make a strange, teeth-grinding noise.
Seeing that the rats couldn’t get past the quarantine fires, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. After returning to the cabin, Evelyn Ford poured herself a glass of cold water. Officer Graham, however, was still worried about the situation outside and wouldn’t come in to rest.
Evelyn Ford and Ronan Kendrick also kept a close watch on the quarantine fires. If any rats managed to jump over, Ronan Kendrick would immediately fire a Crossbow Arrow from the Crossbow in his hands.
The night was relatively easier. Because they had dug the trench trap, most of the rats fell in and burned to death.
At dawn, the surviving rats swiftly retreated. Evelyn Ford went to the fire line and tossed a rat that wasn’t quite dead into the trench.
"Their objective is clear: charge the cabin and attack us. Is there something about humans that attracts them? Something that makes them so crazed they’ll throw themselves into the fire like moths to a flame, even with a firebreak in their way?"
Evelyn Ford thought for a moment. "Maybe it’s our blood. Animals are very sensitive; they can tell if blood is fresh. These rats fed on the refugees in the mountains before, so they must be very familiar with human blood."
"Alright, everyone, check the perimeter. Throw any rats that aren’t completely dead into the trench to burn."
Evelyn Ford adjusted her mask. "I’ve prepared some disinfectant powder. Sprinkle it all around the cabin. We can only take our masks off when we’re inside. Also, even with gloves on, wash your hands frequently. With so many of us living together, if one person gets the plague, everyone else will suffer."
At noon, the walkie-talkie crackled to life again. Evelyn Ford was busy, so she had Ronan Kendrick answer it.
"What did he say?"
Ronan Kendrick’s expression was placid. "He said the five people at their farm who were bitten by rats have all died."
Evelyn Ford was startled. "All of them died? Didn’t they treat the wounds?"
"I didn’t ask. The mortality rate is that high, and it’s so fast. The virus must enter the bloodstream immediately after a bite. I asked about the symptoms before death. Ethan Dawson said their hands trembled, they sweated, and their throats were so dry and hoarse they couldn’t speak."
"I’m going to check on Austin Moss." Evelyn Ford’s brow furrowed. She was worried; after all, the plague was contagious.
The two of them found Austin Moss. Evelyn Ford got straight to the point and asked to see his wound. Austin Moss’s face paled, and his lips trembled for a moment, but he still revealed the injury.
The wound was festering slightly, the surrounding area red and swollen. The skin had darkened. Evelyn Ford’s expression remained neutral, but she had a sinking feeling.
"Leader... am I... am I infected? Am I going to die?"
Austin Moss’s eyes were filled with terror. He didn’t want to die. He couldn’t die. ’If I die, what will happen to my daughter?’
Evelyn Ford raised a hand, gesturing for him to calm down. "We don’t know anything for sure yet. Don’t panic. Did you apply the anti-inflammatory medicine I gave you?"
Austin Moss nodded. "I did. I’ve been applying it every two hours, but it’s so hot that I sweat a lot, and the wound still gets inflamed."
"It’s probably just an inflamed wound. If it comes to it, we’ll have to debride it and clean out the pus."
"Okay." Hearing it was just an inflamed wound, Austin Moss let out a huge sigh of relief.
Evelyn Ford then checked on everyone else. Any wound had to be treated immediately. Even an injury the size of a pinprick could be fatal.
Disinfectant powder had been sprinkled all around the cabin. The air, already filled with a foul stench, now also carried the acrid smell of the powder.
Everyone had been on edge for the past two days. When Aunt Crane accidentally cut her finger while cooking, she secretly wiped away tears, convinced that having a wound meant she would contract the plague.
「On the third night of the rats’ siege on the farm, their numbers had significantly decreased.」
The farm’s stockpile of wood was down to only two or three tons. Evelyn Ford had been periodically making more Poison Powder. Even if it couldn’t exterminate all the rats, it could at least ensure they couldn’t reproduce.
But the farm was already devastated. All of their hard work had been reduced to nothing.
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