Chapter 166 Withdrawal

Gao Yuan wanted to wash his hands, but when he turned on the tap, unsurprisingly, no water came out.

He lifted the lid of the toilet tank and thankfully, there was still a bit of water left inside. Since the house was frozen over during winter, the water in the toilet tank was preserved; otherwise, it might have evaporated away.

He put his hands into the tank, washed them with the scant water, and then Gao Yuan moved to the living room to take a peek outside through the peephole.

There were surprisingly no zombies in the hallway, which was a good sign.

Back in the kitchen, looking down, he saw that zombies had piled up two stories high, but they could not see the source that was agitating them — Gao Yuan — so they no longer continued to climb upwards.

Yes, another good sign. It seemed that zombies would move frantically after being stimulated, but without that stimulus and lacking coherent thought, let alone any semblance of logic, their urge to attack quickly diminished.

Gao Yuan had planned to go up to the rooftop, but he changed his mind.

Returning to the bedroom, he looked down through the window and then Gao Yuan reached up with both hands to remove his mask.

Tossing the blood-spattered mask aside, Gao Yuan took off his backpack and pulled out an Energy Bar.

The Energy Bar was semi-solid, or you could call it a liquid energy bar, encased in a plastic wrapper with a hard plastic opening at the top. By squeezing the top of the bar and pulling the opening, you could swallow the semi-solid food inside.

The taste was not bad, the texture somewhat like jelly, lacking the satisfaction of eating biscuits or canned food but able to quickly replenish energy, which was key, and it could also supplement hydration.

A normal person would eat one per meal to satisfy all nutritional needs for at least a few hours. An empty stomach might still feel hungry, but the body definitely wouldn't fail due to lack of energy.

A normal person would eat one per meal, but Gao Yuan would eat thirty.

After consuming thirty Energy Bars, his backpack was nearly empty.

Where others' combat packs were filled with bullets, Gao Yuan's pack was stocked with Energy Bars. He didn't need anything else.

Surveying his gear, Gao Yuan began to feel that the hand grenades were becoming a burden.

Yes, Gao Yuan could throw grenades with great accuracy, but he had no need to use them now, and the sixteen grenades hanging on him were somewhat hindering his movements.

Without much hesitation, Gao Yuan took off the grenades one by one, placing them on the marriage bed. However, he didn't remove them all, leaving four grenades on his person.

Having done all this, Gao Yuan took out a map, locating his current position on it.

Without GPS, but knowing his street and residential district, it was easy to confirm his location. Glancing at the national laboratory marked with a red circle, Gao Yuan realized he had covered about a third of the distance.

His direction was slightly off, but the overall heading was correct, and having covered a third of the distance was satisfying progress.

So, what next? Continue forward to the national laboratory?

After a moment's hesitation, Gao Yuan abandoned the idea.

Haste makes waste. With only ten Energy Bars left for emergencies, pushing on to the national laboratory was a bit risky, while Gao Yuan had far more sensible methods to achieve his goals and mission.

There was no need to tidy up the mess left for others, since no one would be able to enter this place for a very long time.

Gao Yuan stood up, opened the bedroom window, and with one kick, he deformed the security grille, and with the second, he kicked it out.

Noise ensued, and the zombies below immediately stirred into agitation.

Glancing down, anyone with a fear of dense crowds would feel uncomfortable, as the space below was packed with a sea of dark heads.

Taking a deep breath and ignoring the zombies that started to pile up below, Gao Yuan stood on the windowsill and leaped, grabbing the edge of the rooftop. The maneuver was risky, but Gao Yuan's strong physique made it seem remarkably easy.

With a powerful push, he easily climbed onto the rooftop, where Gao Yuan saw several solar water heaters.

There should be water in the solar heaters, and Gao Yuan pulled out his hammer, intending to wash his hands for peace of mind. But as he raised the hammer, he hesitated.

What if, just what if someone was still down there?

Although unlikely, what if someone still depended on the water stored in the solar heaters for survival?

It was this thought that made Gao Yuan abandon his action.

He slid the hammer back at his waist and walked to one end of the rooftop. Looking forward, the next building was less than ten meters away, a distance he could easily jump.

Looking down at the zombies, Gao Yuan felt the urge to toss down a grenade.

But that was all it was, a thought, because the loud explosion of the grenade would attract all the nearby zombies, and they would then gather far beyond this small community.

So why bother making trouble for himself?

Gao Yuan retreated quite a distance, then ran towards the edge of the rooftop, jumping onto the adjacent building's top.

Without pausing, Gao Yuan continued forward, again leaping to another rooftop.

After hopping across three buildings, there were no more apartment blocks for Gao Yuan to use, just a large poplar tree.

Jumping directly down from the rooftop seemed dangerous; Gao Yuan did not know if his legs could withstand the impact from a twenty-meter fall.

Gao Yuan dove forward, flailing his arms, landing on the top of a tall poplar tree, then he snapped off a branch.

Not daring to linger, Gao Yuan slid swiftly down the tree, and when he was about four or five meters above the ground, he jumped down.

There were already zombies below, so as Gao Yuan slid down the poplar tree, the zombies also ran towards him. But once he landed, Gao Yuan drew his knife in a swift slash, then took off running.

Gao Yuan retraced his steps because he had attracted all the zombies in the area during his journey. Going back the same way was much easier, as long as he could outpace the zombies, then he was both safe and relaxed.

His speed was so fast that the zombies couldn't catch up, and Gao Yuan intentionally pushed it to lose them without running to the point of desperation. It wasn't a sprint, just running as quickly as he could without exhausting himself too much.

The retreat wasn't worse than Gao Yuan expected; in fact, it was much lighter than when he had gone into the city, and eventually, he couldn't see the zombies behind him.

Even so, once he was out of the city limits, Gao Yuan turned on his radio and said into the walkie-talkie, "This is Gao Yuan, approaching the starting point. Be prepared to receive me, over."