Chapter 794: Chapter 779: Curiosity (Part 3)
An outstanding driver not only needs solid driving skills, but最好 also needs an excellent sense of direction and a great memory.
Wang Zhongyu was holding the ballpoint pen Wen Quanxin had brought over, scribbling away on a blank sheet of paper.
For both Wang Zhongyu and Wen Quanxin, this was their first time coming to this town, so obviously they were completely unfamiliar with the roads inside.
However, the route they took coming in was firmly etched in Wang Zhongyu’s mind, it’s just that because the Zombies had blocked it off, they could no longer use that road to get out of town.
So he had no choice but to spend time and energy to find a route for the two of them that, relatively speaking, had fewer Zombies and a higher safety factor.
Standing on the top floor of a three-story residential building, peering through the binoculars, the road layout around the explosion site and the activity of the Zombies were all laid bare before his eyes, which greatly improved Wang Zhongyu’s efficiency in finding a way out.
The roads might be easy to spot, but trying to memorize them was another story. So Wang Zhongyu came up with the idea of sketching the route to help his memory.
Wen Quanxin stood silently by Wang Zhongyu’s side, watching the latter sometimes raise the binoculars to scout, sometimes lower them to write and draw, sometimes stop altogether to bow his head in thought—fully focused and busy as hell.
In no time at all, the white paper in his hand had been covered with all kinds of little squares drawn in red ballpoint pen.
Without asking, Wen Quanxin could tell this was Wang Zhongyu’s hand-drawn map of the town.
The strokes were a bit rough, sure, but as long as it could help them get out of town, it had fulfilled its purpose.
After doing one last check and confirming there were no mistakes, Wang Zhongyu finally let out a breath. He rolled his sore neck from side to side, then turned back and said solemnly to Wen Quanxin, "Xiao Wen, things are a bit tricky right now. That explosion made way too much noise, all the Zombies in town are heading that way, and that damn blast site just happens to be right at the town entrance. So in a bit we’re gonna have to risk our lives again, but I checked—there’s a road with fewer Zombies on it, and I’ll punch through from there."
Seeing that Wang Zhongyu seemed a bit worried, Wen Quanxin spoke up boldly, "No biggie, Xiao Wang, just do your thing. We’ve already died once, that shows our lives are tough enough. King Yama doesn’t have the guts to take us yet, so I’m sure this time we’ll pull through again."
To be honest, Wang Zhongyu was indeed feeling a bit jittery. As a container truck driver, he knew very well how dangerous repeated collisions were, and with the road now thick with snow and slick as hell, one careless move could mean fishtailing, skidding out, or even rolling the damn truck.
But Wen Quanxin’s carefree attitude rubbed off on him hard. The hesitation he’d still been clinging to got dumped completely—since you, Wen Quanxin, aren’t afraid of dying, I, Wang Zhongyu, sure as hell am not some softie: "All right then. I’ve been saying all this just so you’d be mentally prepared. Let’s move."
The container truck had already been trashed during their last breakout. Constantly on the run for their lives, this was the first time Wang Zhongyu actually had a chance to take a good look at the metal hunk that had just dragged him and Wen Quanxin back from the brink of death.
The entire body of the container truck was covered in claw marks and splattered blood. The front bumper had been smashed in and warped, and the headlights on both sides—those had long since been shattered into useless shards.
Looking at the truck in this miserable condition, Wang Zhongyu frowned hard. In its current state, the container truck clearly wasn’t up to the task of what lay ahead.
Wang Zhongyu had no intention of handing his life over to a busted, unreliable vehicle like this. Asking him to drive this wreck into a horde of Zombies was no different from making him gamble with his and Wen Quanxin’s lives.
So he had to do some repairs on the container truck, get it back to a level of reliability and safety strong enough for the tough job he was about to assign it.
Seeing Wang Zhongyu circling the truck, shaking his head over and over, Wen Quanxin asked, confused, "What’re you doing? Hurry up and get in so we can get the hell out of here."
The latter just waved his hand and ordered, "Out of the truck. We’re working."
"Working?"
"Fixing the truck! You planning to ride this piece of junk to your death?" Tossing that over his shoulder at the dumbfounded Wen Quanxin, Wang Zhongyu bolted back into the building without looking back, going to scavenge the supplies and tools he needed to repair and improve the truck’s condition.
A few minutes later, when Wang Zhongyu reappeared, his arms were loaded to the brim—quilts, towels, ropes, screwdrivers, packing tape, and so on. Wen Quanxin stared, dumbfounded. Grabbing screwdrivers and the like to fix a truck, that he could understand, but what the hell were the bedding and mattresses for?
"Hey, Xiao Wang, are you fixing the truck or moving house?" Wen Quanxin’s slightly mocking description was pretty spot-on. If someone who didn’t know what was going on saw Wang Zhongyu like this, they’d really think he was getting ready to flee town with his whole family.
But Wang Zhongyu had no mind to joke with him now. He was worried that if they wasted too much time, something unexpected might happen, and if the relatively safe route out of town he’d worked so hard to find got blocked by Zombies, then everything he was doing right now would have been for nothing.
So he kept his face set, tossed a towel to Wen Quanxin without explanation, and barked, "Wipe all the blood and gunk off the windows, clean them up!"
With Wang Zhongyu leading by example, even the disgruntled Wen Quanxin couldn’t bring himself to complain, and had no choice but to obediently take the towel and get to work.
The first problem Wang Zhongyu had to solve was the truck’s protection. Because of the earlier consecutive impacts, the front bumper was clearly totaled and unusable, and the front end was directly tied to the lives of the driver and passenger, so it had to be the top priority for repair and reinforcement.
The solution Wang Zhongyu came up with was actually pretty simple—he planned to take the rear bumper and move it to the front.
After all, most of the ramming would be done from the front. As for protection at the back, in Wang Zhongyu’s view, the solid cargo container was more than enough.
Not only that, to reduce the discomfort caused by the impacts, he planned to use hemp rope and packing tape to lash quilts onto the windshield as a makeshift shock absorber.
He believed this should effectively reduce the heavy jolts from collisions and lessen the strain on their bodies.
Once the idea was there, he got straight to it. With a clear goal, Wang Zhongyu immediately got busy: disassembling, tying, then re-installing. Each step went in an orderly, steady, and efficient way. In less than twenty minutes, he had finished the reinforcement work.
An ugly-looking but shock-absorbing protective bumper had been successfully mounted to the front of the truck. As for how well it would perform, that would have to be tested in real combat.
Wang Zhongyu lifted his foot and pressed down on the bumper, testing it. It felt solid enough, and only then was he satisfied, silently praying that when they clashed with the Zombies later, he could perform just as well as he had now.
"All done. We can hit the road this time, right?" Wen Quanxin had long finished his own task. He’d been quietly staying beside Wang Zhongyu, partly keeping watch, partly curious about what the guy was doing. Only when he saw the finished product did he finally understand his intention. (To be continued. If you like this work, you’re welcome to visit Qidian (qidian.com) to vote with recommendation tickets and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please go to m.qidian.com to read.)
