Rotting Land: Survive

Chapter 821: Chapter 806: Luo Baocun’s Memories (2)

"Hey Lou, with all due respect, from what you said, it sounds like you were living in a place where supplies were fairly abundant and life was relatively safe. If I’m correct, why would you abandon such a stable life and take such a big risk to go to a refuge you yourself deemed impractical? These are all my guesses, if I’m wrong, don’t take it to heart, haha." Tang Xiaoquan forced a slightly awkward smile, but his eyes were fixed on Luo Baocun in front of him, afraid of missing anything.

Tang Xiaoquan’s words genuinely surprised Luo Baocun. If it weren’t for the fact that this was their first meeting today, he replied, quite incredulously, "Brother, your judgment is really impressive, your guess is pretty spot on."

"Haha, Lou, once you get to know Tang a bit more, you’ll realize, his intelligence isn’t just limited to this." Old Lin seized the opportunity to lighten the atmosphere.

In just a few minutes of conversation, Old Lin had gained some understanding of the chubby-looking young man, and his relatively honest personality earned him some extra points in Old Lin’s estimation.

"Yeah, Lou, why exactly did you leave your base?" Old Xu was also intrigued by Tang Xiaoquan’s question. To be precise, he was more interested in the other’s past because he was the leader of the team, responsible for the lives and safety of the entire group. To him, Luo Baocun was ultimately a newcomer, regardless of how well Wen Quanin got along with him. In his eyes, until he figured out the other’s background, he was an unsettling factor. Moreover, now that Tang Xiaoquan had asked, it made Old Xu subconsciously more cautious.

To Old Xu’s query, Luo Baocun seemed exceptionally calm. He still maintained his chubby, affable smile and replied frankly, "If I were to speak about the reasons I went on this long journey, it would take quite a bit of talking. They’re really just trivial matters that you all have probably experienced more or less in the apocalypse, so I don’t mind sharing. I’m just worried it might bore you and waste everyone’s time."

Tang Xiaoquan sat upright and gestured to invite him to speak, "Lou, go on, I’ve been feeling bored these past few days, so it would be great to hear about your thrilling survival journey!"

"Oh, my journey was far from thrilling survival, it’s a pain to look back on!" Luo Baocun let out a long sigh and then fell silent, seemingly processing his memories. After organizing his thoughts, he finally opened up and began to recount his experiences of the past five months.

"I remember that day I went to the gas station to refuel. Alas, do you remember, the day the apocalypse broke out happened to be the day before a fuel price hike was announced? So, to save that couple hundred in fuel, I drove my truck to the gas station early to queue up, hoping to fill the tank before the price zebt up at midnight. Honestly, those people selling fuel were such bastards, knowing how hard it is for folks to earn money, yet they imposed purchase limits at such a critical juncture. Anyway, I won’t elaborate too much, but the damned apocalypse broke out, and the streets were full of those crazy monsters. Fortunately, the gas station was on the outskirts of the city, so the population density wasn’t too high; otherwise, I imagine even if I had several lives, it would have been hard to survive." Luo Baocun’s expression was grim, clearly recalling some traumas that remained vivid in his memory, and even after such a long time, mentioning them still made him feel terrified.

"At the time, we drivers who were refueling sensed something was off, thankfully there was someone perceptive among us who promptly stopped everyone from closing the gas station gate. Thanks to that person’s decisiveness, the folks at the gas station managed to survive the early phase of the outbreak."

Indeed, everyone present had vivid impressions of the terrifying early outbreak scenes, and frankly speaking, more people perished in the early phase than in the later phase combined.

During that time, people were completely overwhelmed with fear and ignorance, never even knowing what they were dealing with, much less how to talk about survival.

"Relying on the convenience store at the gas station, 20 or so drivers, along with 7 gas station employees, a total of 27 people, survived the first two weeks in trepidation. But even though we survived by a stroke of luck, none of us were cheerful, because during that time we witnessed too many gruesome and terrifying scenes, leaving us feeling dumbfounded day by day, either in a daze or sleeping, like moving corpses. Moreover, after two weeks, we saw no sign of any rescue teams and hadn’t encountered any living humans, causing us to lose hope of surviving. Things only changed when Old Ma, the person whose calm composure initially ordered the closing of the gas station doors, was elected as our leader. Under his leadership, our spirits were rekindled, implementing strategies such as reinforcing the gas station defenses with vehicles, planning food supplies, and so on. Several measures were drafted through our discussions. Honestly, the gas station was bustling, everyone worked together, living a rather fulfilling life. However, this didn’t last long. As time passed, personality differences and conflicts gradually emerged, with the monotonous life easily fostering lazy attitudes. You know how it is, especially in the idle days of the apocalypse, soon there were murmurs against Old Ma’s food supply plan, deeming it pointless. But Old Ma was quite a strong-willed person, in his forties, robust, and practiced in martial arts, so anyone who dared oppose could only swallow their complaints. Later, we began taking in survivors seeking refuge, and the conflict escalated from there. Old Ma wasn’t strategic in accepting newcomers, basically anyone was allowed, which led to a chaotic mix of people, and the originally sufficient supplies became strained with newcomers. I assume you all can imagine what happened next."

"Form cliques? I’m guessing some people attempted to gather a group to oppose Old Ma, to overthrow him, right?" Tang Xiaoquan had been listening carefully to Luo Baocun’s account, so as soon as the latter mentioned the issue, he shared his thoughts.

"Correct, Tang, your idea is spot on." Luo Baocun nodded affirmatively. "Indeed, some tried to overthrow Old Ma, and there were several of them. But Old Ma was a fierce one, still generally decent, maintaining good relations with most people except a few troublemakers."

"What about you, Lou? How was your relationship with Old Ma at that time? What do you think of him?" Old Xu believed that asking questions now was the best chance to understand this chubby guy’s character and mentality.

Luo Baocun answered without hesitation, "Honestly, I never had much opinion about Old Ma. I thought his decisions and actions were perfect for that time. As for our relationship, frankly, there was no interaction until later one day..." (To be continued. If you enjoyed this work, please visit Qidian (qidian.com) to vote with recommendation and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please visit m.qidian.com to read.)