Watching Xiao Jun and the others drive into Juzi Island, they disappeared from view after entering through the Yingpan Road tunnel.
Inside Juzi Island, there were only faint, sporadic lights, and the rest was shrouded in darkness.
The two had been tracking all day, ensuring they kept up without being detected, exhausting both their wits and strength. Now, both were somewhat fatigued.
Third Uncle, seeing Qin somewhat weary, said, "Old Qin, have something to eat first and get some sleep. We can’t see anything at night anyway."
Old Qin looked towards Juzi Island in the night, didn’t refuse, nodded, came down from the rooftop, and checked the downstairs passage.
When they had come up, they used some iron chains to block the passage, to prevent zombies from catching the scent of humans and climbing up.
After opening his rucksack and eating something, he found a room to rest in.
Third Uncle observed from the roof for a while, then went down to rest too.
Third Uncle and Old Qin were back on the rooftop, scrutinizing Juzi Island through the telescope.
Under the sunlight, the entirety of Juzi Island became clearly visible.
It was divided into south and north parts; the southern wall wasn’t as high, inside were haphazardly erected tents, and simple shacks made of wood.
The northern wall was considerably higher, and the buildings inside seemed to be in much better condition.
Old Qin, holding the telescope, looked curiously at this mid-river island and its waterside walls, saying, "Zombies aren’t afraid of water and can swim. Building in such a location with walls so low—aren’t they afraid of zombies climbing in?"
Third Uncle leisurely said,
"If you look closely at the wall, they must have coated it with something very slippery. For Juzi Island, even if they climb out of the river, it’s pretty hard to pile up. Unless they filled the entire river, but that would require an extremely large number of zombies."
Old Qin, telescope in hand, took a closer look at the wall as Third Uncle had mentioned.
He saw that the wall was smeared with some unknown substance that shimmered under the sunlight.
"They are quite clever," Old Qin remarked.
"Otherwise, why would they choose to settle here? Living until now, there’s not a fool among them," Third Uncle spoke with gravity.
Juzi Island, with its separated north and south sides— the south was narrower but seemed to have a larger population.
Third Uncle, looking through the telescope, saw that most of the people on the southern side of the island looked weak and emaciated. Beside them, he even saw several "corpses."
It was only after staring for a while that those "corpses" moved slightly, and Third Uncle realized they weren’t corpses but people too starved to move.
Just in the southern part of Juzi Island, a preliminary estimate put the count at over two thousand.
In the open area in the middle, some crops were grown, but clear signs of fire damage were visible.
Disorder, this single word could describe the entire southern side of Juzi Island.
Just what had happened? A question mark arose in the minds of Third Uncle and Old Qin as they continued to observe from the rooftop.
Big Camphor Tree Base.
These past few days the temperature had risen, and several cases of heatstroke had appeared. Thankfully, due to the base’s good medical facilities and supplied medication, there were no serious issues.
Li Yu, at the duty room by the main gate, had gathered Luo, Second Uncle, and others to discuss a matter.
Although it was scorching hot, and people exposed under the sun were prone to heatstroke.
But for zombies, they hated the blazing sunlight even more, and they all hid in some dark corners.
Zombies outside the base had become a rare sight, visible sometimes at night, but hardly during the day.
In these past few days, daytime temperatures had already reached 45 degrees, and it looked like the trend was continuing upwards.
Luo frowned, saying to Li Yu, "I can lead the way, but there are too many zombies over there. If we’re going through, we have to be fully prepared."
Second Uncle also said, "I’ve looked at the route; if all goes well, it should take about 6 hours to reach. But that means we’ll need to stay overnight, which is quite dangerous."
Li Yu pondered for a moment and said, "Actually, we don’t need to spend the night inside the military area. We could arrive beforehand and then enter the next day."
Hearing the strong desire in Li Yu’s words, Second Uncle understood this sentiment; after all, the base had not yet acquired heavy firepower.
Though a Unimog and two other modified off-road camper vans were available, they couldn’t compare to real military Armored Vehicles and tanks.
So he asked, "When are you planning to go?"
Li Yu looked up at Luo and said, "As soon as possible, I want to set out tomorrow. Right now, we don’t know the situation with the Western Alliance, having that Armored Vehicle and tank sooner would set my mind at ease."
Second Uncle sighed softly, for since the beginning of the apocalypse, there had been few days without worry.
But if you are not strong, and someone else becomes stronger than you.
You can’t hope that they’re a good person who won’t invade you.
Li Yu always made preparations for the worst; he did not like leaving initiative in others’ hands.
After mulling it over for a while, Luo said, "Just relying on me alone won’t work, I need a few people who can operate tanks. There are two people from Old Bi’s team who can, but we still need more hands."