Chapter 53: A Mountain of Corpses
Right at this moment, just 10 kilometers away from the convoy, Daryl and Merle leaned shoulder to shoulder, their powered-off radio lying at their feet.
"Hah—" Daryl took a deep drag from the half-smoked cigarette and passed it to Merle. Merle didn't mind, pressing it to his somewhat chapped lips and finishing it in two puffs.
"Damn it. You think if Shawn came out looking for us too, the camp would go back to that bullshit democracy crap?" Merle cursed with a laugh, but he kept his voice low.
Daryl didn't want to deal with him. He just kept his eyes closed, hugging his crossbow to conserve energy.
"Maybe they're already arguing right now, haha." Seeing Daryl ignore him, Merle wasn't annoyed, just let out a few more dry laughs.
"Can't you just shut your mouth!" Daryl shot him a look, his voice also low.
"Little brother, you think... Shawn will really come and save me again this time?" Merle's tone changed. He held the burnt-out cigarette in his mouth, tilted his head back, his voice wistful, his eyes dazed.
Daryl's mouth twitched, but he said nothing. In their current situation, Daryl couldn't say for sure. He followed Merle's gaze to the sky, a vast blue sky with a sliver of sunlight peeking through...
If the camera were to slowly pull away from the two brothers at this moment:
First, you would see the two brothers huddled closely together, their bodies trembling slightly. They seemed to be on a high platform, the roof of some building. The low growls of walkers would fade into the scene. As the camera panned out, a horde of walkers, numerous enough to make one's scalp tingle, would be swaying below them!
Their motorcycles were parked by a gas pump not far away. This was a small gas station, and the two brothers were leaning on the roof of a 7-Eleven. But at this moment, this place was only being patronized by walkers.
***
Cold—
His fingers twitched slightly. He felt as if he were lying in a pool of ice water. A ray of sunlight shone through the second-floor window of the church, landing on his eyes. Under Shawn's closed eyelids, his eyes suddenly darted. A few seconds later, he slowly opened them. The world before him gradually went from blurry to clear.
His breathing quickened. He let out a long, hot breath, which formed a white cloud in the sunlight. Smelling the scent of antibiotics in the air, Shawn used all his strength to push himself up, managing to lean against the stone wall beside him.
"Fuck, good thing no one saw that. That was so fucking embarrassing..."
Shawn cradled his broken right arm. The pain hadn't lessened with time; in fact, it seemed to be getting worse. He looked up, grimacing. After catching his breath, he finally looked around.
The bodies of walkers were scattered everywhere, nearly filling the entire second floor of the church. And his Stone Sledgehammer was standing quietly upside down in the middle of the pile of corpses, its handle pointing straight up. Erected amidst a mountain of walker corpses, covered in dried blood, it had an indescribable, domineering air.
Shawn shook his head, driving the last bit of wildness from his mind.
"How long was I out?"
Shawn looked at the window. The first light of morning was slowly creeping in. Feeling the thin, cold morning mist, he had a vague sense that he had been unconscious for at least a day and a night.
"System," Shawn thought to himself.
A light screen instantly opened before his eyes.
[Shawn]
Level: Lv. 22
Unused Skill Points: 7
Health: 119/122
Stamina: 31/61 (122) (Continuously, slowly decreasing)
Food/Water: 7/122 (Continuously, slowly decreasing)
Feels Like: 60°F
Walkers Killed: 231
Magazines: Bow Hunters, Crafting Skill Lv. 5
Skills: Strength - Attribute Lv. 8, Skull Crusher Lv. 4, Big and Fast Lv. 1; Fortitude - Pain Tolerance...
Status Effect: Fatigued (You need rest)
Status Effect: Hypothermia (Body surface temperature is too low)
Status Effect: Fracture (Unable to use right arm, health continuously decreasing)
Status Effect: Weakened (Your maximum stamina is temporarily lowered, combat power is restricted)
Status Effect: Starving/Dehydrated (When this reaches zero, health will continuously decrease until death)
A long list of negative effects popped up, leaving Shawn speechless. Only when he saw the 'Starving/Dehydrated' line did his fatigue vanish, and he was suddenly wide awake.
He quickly closed the system, opened his backpack, and took out the ready-to-eat meals he had found in the motel treasure room. These meals didn't spoil in his backpack. When Shawn opened the thin packaging, steam actually rose from it.
Ignoring what kind of dish it was, Shawn grabbed the accompanying spoon and began to eat in large mouthfuls.
"Although my vitals consumption was lower while I was unconscious, my food and water still kept dropping. I probably used up most of it during the fight. But it's a good thing it wasn't completely depleted. The healing factor needs satiety to work automatically. Without the healing factor and antibiotics, the continuous bleeding would have probably brought my health to zero."
Shawn thought as he ate, a sense of relief in his heart. He was glad that in the end, he hadn't completely lost his mind like he had at the beginning. The two skill points he had forced himself to add, and that handful of antibiotics, were both indispensable. Otherwise... he might never have woken up.
He ate three boxes of the system's pre-made meals in one go. Seeing his satiety rise from 7 all the way to 112, a hint of color finally returned to his face. His body temperature also rose as he ate and the sun came up, and the hypothermia status gradually faded.
Shawn stood up and scanned the second floor of the church, his gaze finally landing on the wooden bed where the priest used to sleep. He crossed the countless mangled corpses, picking up his hammer from the mountain of bodies with his left hand.
He went to the wooden bed and, facing it, brought the hammer down.
'CRASH—!'
The bed shattered into pieces. Shawn used the bedsheet to wrap some of the more intact wooden fragments and found a small roll of tape in a drawer.
Cloth fragment, wood, duct tape.
"Got it," Shawn thought, pleased, and then silently thought the word 'Craft'. The sound of a hammer and turning gears echoed in his ears. In just a few seconds, a brand-new 'splint' appeared on his right hand.
The 'splint' was simple in appearance, just two wooden boards used to immobilize the arm. But under the system's effect, as a medical item, the 'splint' could do far more than its appearance suggested.
[Splint — Can heal the arm or leg you so foolishly got fractured. But don't get too cocky... this isn't a walker's chew toy, it can't prevent further damage.]
At the same time, the 'Fracture' icon in the bottom-left corner of his vision disappeared, replaced by this:
[Fracture (Healing) — Time 05:00:00]
"A 5-hour healing time is acceptable," Shawn thought to himself. If he could make a 'Plaster cast' now, the healing speed would be much faster, but that required the magazine skill – Medical Journal.
*****
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