Chapter 18: A Huge Haul
When Shawn slowly awoke, it was already the next morning. The low growls of walkers startled him from his pleasant dream. The now-cold bathwater instantly brought him back to full consciousness. Shaking his head, Shawn got up from the bathtub.
He got dressed and looked out the window. Where he had parked the car yesterday, a few walkers were now leisurely shambling about. From a distance, they looked like doormen hired specifically to watch his car.
Shawn took the Stone Sledgehammer from his backpack and dragged it on the ground as he walked toward the walkers.
'Scraaaape—!'
Hearing the sound of the stone hammer scraping against the ground, the seemingly drowsy walkers were suddenly energized. The moment they raised their heads, their faces were instantly deformed! Several teeth even flew out of their mouths from the force of the blow.
"What are you looking at… never seen a tip given like this?" Shawn joked, looking at the walker whose head had been knocked sideways.
Three walkers were no match for him. In less than two rounds, they were all on the ground, their heads smashed to pieces. Looking at the three walkers, all dead in nearly the exact same way, Shawn rubbed his chin.
"Heh~"
"From now on, will smashing heads be my personal trademark?"
"In the future, will all survivors know I've been there just by seeing walkers with their heads smashed in?"
Shaking his head, Shawn got into the car and continued heading toward the easternmost edge of town. "I should be able to finish exploring the whole town today."
Shawn stretched his neck and looked into the distance. From his position, he could already see the edge of the town and the highway beyond.
He turned the steering wheel, passing by a movie theater, a city hall, and a school, but he didn't stop. In short, the risk was too great. These buildings were often crowded places, but the resources inside were limited. The potential reward was not proportional to the effort, so there was no need to take the risk.
He only stopped when he reached the far eastern side of town, near a stream. Next to his car, a large red sign read 'FIRE STATION'.
"I'm not short on food and water for now. A fire station should have some emergency response equipment, right?"
Shawn walked over, shouldering his sledgehammer. The station's front rolling door was halfway open. A large amount of blood was visible at the entrance, stretching deep into the fire station. Shawn banged hard on the metal door a few times. The door trembled and rattled, the sound clearly audible for at least 30 meters.
Shawn stood to the side of the entrance, not rushing in. He held his Stone Sledgehammer high, waiting for any walkers to be drawn by the sound.
"Hm?"
"Strange."
But after a long while, not only did he not see a single walker, he didn't even hear a low growl. He peered inside under the rolling door. After confirming there were no signs of walkers or other humans, Shawn put both hands on the door and lifted with all his might!
The rolling door was Instantly raised to about his height.
Shawn walked in, carrying his Stone Sledgehammer. He scanned the area; everything was in chaos. Bloodstains were everywhere, corpses that were no longer moving lay on the ground, and equipment was scattered about.
Shawn looked down. A stream of water was spreading from under a door in the distance. He pushed the door open, and what he saw was an all-too-familiar grayish-white figure. Hearing the low, hoarse growl, Shawn finally felt relieved.
"Now, this is more like it."
Shawn walked forward. The walker before him was trapped on the fire station's sliding pole, bound by a strong, transparent net, unable to move.
"Is this the feeling of flying free?" Shawn found the walker's clumsy struggles inexplicably humorous. "But thanks for keeping watch. You can rest now."
'Schlick—'
Shawn swung the Stone Sledgehammer, crushing the walker's head.
[+300 XP Gained]
Next Shawn found the stairs and climbed to the second floor.
"No signs of living people." Shawn wiped a layer of dust from the metal table in the middle of the room. This must have been the fire station's break room. On a metal counter nearby, there were many canned foods and household appliances.
He put all the cans into his system inventory, then opened the cabinet under the counter. A smile spread across his face when he saw what was inside. "Coca-Cola. I approve of these firefighters' taste."
There were 4 cases of 1-liter bottles of Coca-Cola, 12 bottles per case, all of them the sugary kind. And behind the soda were two dusty boxes of biscuits. They looked like they had been here for a long time.
"Well, with fresh food available, who would want to eat this stuff all the time," Shawn said with understanding. Then, with a wave of his hand, he very naturally put the soda and the biscuits into his backpack.
Just having enough food to not starve and having a high quality of life are two completely different things. It was like how Shawn could enjoy the convenience of hot water and the fruits of human industry in this town. But Daryl and the others could only gnaw on meat every day and drink a bit of wheat bran tea.
The thought of Coca-Cola made Shawn laugh out loud. "What a huge haul~"
Shawn pushed open the side door of the break room and began to clear out the supplies there. It was mostly specialized firefighting equipment, and his eyes grew brighter as he looked.
"Fire proximity suit? Pack it up!"
"Heavy bunker gear? Pack it up!"
Shawn worked in silence, just packing everything away. He also took the last three fire axes from the station.
After clearing out the second floor, Shawn went down the stairs on the other side to the first floor. This was clearly another bay of the fire station, one with its rolling door still closed. As he descended the stairs, he saw a behemoth, and his eyes widened, a look of joyful surprise flashing within them.
Rubbing his hands together, Shawn gently touched the nearly brand-new fire truck. The red paint on it felt like it hadn't even fully dried. At first glance, this truck didn't look like something you could find in the apocalypse.
Through the side window, Shawn glanced at the 7-seater he had brought, then at the red tyrant beside him, then back at the battered 7-seater…
'Slam—'
Shawn shut the car door decisively. He placed the Stone Sledgehammer in the passenger seat, put both hands on the fire truck's steering wheel, and slowly exhaled. The solid feel of the wheel, the complete visual monitoring system that covered all four blind spots, the onboard radio, the satellite positioning system…
"This is the feeling."
Shawn closed his eyes. The quiet stillness inside the fire truck was intoxicating. The sense of security from a vehicle often surpasses that of a fixed building.
He took the keys he had grabbed from the wall, inserted one, and opened the rolling door. Shawn drove the 'Red Tyrant' slowly out of the fire station. He passed his old 7-seater, reversed a few meters, and jumped out.
He tossed all the supplies from the back of the car into the fire truck's huge partitioned spaces, then abandoned the lonely 7-seater. He was about to turn the wheel and head back to the Farm.
But in the next second, just as he put the truck in gear, the sharp, clear crack of a gunshot drilled through the gap in the window. Shawn slammed on the brakes.
'Screech—!'
He looked back toward the distant highway. He seemed to have thought of something. He suddenly yanked the steering wheel, and the entire fire truck turned around, speeding off to the east.