Chapter 46
Mason, Sham and Zach were separately searching for materials in the rooms, but were doing their best to avoid those two dead bodies on the ground. Even though bodies had no life in them, they were still afraid of them.
Mason and the other two found some metal objects from the room. They didn’t know the roles of the items that they had picked. But according to their logic any metal object must have some kind of value.
Dudian saw them pick up phone, TV remote control, electric lights and other objects. He was wondering that scavengers who find things similar to the one Mason and the other two found should be a lot. He could not help but wonder, scavengers who have to find these things should be a lot. How do they evaluate the value of these things?
However when he thought deeply about the issue he did understand that in these three hundred plus years the “normal” ecological environment has changed a lot. So in terms of radiation level, the standards which applied in those days aren’t same as the ones in present era. Still, there was the question of the value and purpose of the objects which are acquired. Even there are parts that aren’t harmed in one or another way and they are cumiliated in the hands of the consortia. How do they value things if they don’t know the original use of the part?
For an object to resist the nucler radiation it had to be made up of lead, gold or other high-density metal which was why the gold jewelry under the counter was kept as it.
“Go to the next room.” Dudian glanced around and saw that there was nothing of value. They were the first to come over the area so Dudian wanted for his group to pick the objects of high value. In the future when other raiders will come to scavenge, they would be able to pick clothing, beds, refrigerators or other large objects that would be left for metal to be removed.
Mason and the other two didn’t want to stay in the room for long so they immediately left out..
There were corpses lying on the corridor. It was quiet.
Dudian looked at few corpses, feeling that they will suddenly wake up. He suppressed the cranky feeling and opened the door of the second room. He was thinking about the nuclear disaster while he was searching the room. Apparently three hundred years ago when the global nuclear bombing broke out, it was not the only disaster. A terrible virus had began to infect the survivors.
This unknown virus had turned people who were infected into undeads. So for people to survive in highly dangerous zones, it had to understood how terrible and tenacious the virus is.
Dudian was mainly looking for computers, mobile phones and appliances similar to those. After all, in residential rooms those were the things of value.
There was a desktop computer in the second room. Dudian wasn’t planning to take the whole machine with himself. He opened it up and took the electric box that was inside. The wires were covered in dust. He touched the main board but it was like a thin layer of paper.
After the long term radiation it had completely deteriorated.
Dudian sighed. Resistors that were on the motherboard were either dried down or swollen into strange shapes.
Dudian slightly shook his head and gave up on the machine. After all this was the first day and there were another nine days to go. He could pick lots of things in the next nine days but he couldn’t carry them all as there were limits to much he could handle.
“if there was a truck… I wonder how much I could carry out…”. An idea emerged in his mind. But he soon was discouraged as the computer in front of him had turned into a useless garbage. How would he find proper parts to make a car as everything has deformed into unrepairable state? He would need the help of super-computer.
The premise was … to have electricity!
Later on he found out a generator, to be precise a wind generator which needed an open field to work. Even if he went to slums to buy such a site, he still lacked the funds to do so.
They went through third and fourth rooms.
The building was completely plundered in less than half an hour. Everyone had stacked their goods on the first floor’s hall. They registered their findings with Scott to prevent confusion and theft in the future.
Clearly, in the long history of the scavengers, they had understood that in order to obtain the best interests for participants the civil strife had to be eliminated.
“Now, everyone should go to search the nearby bar.” Scott said to crowd as he finished registering the products.
Twenty consortium scavengers who were eager for more didn’t wait for long and formed groups of four or five and left the shop to nearby ruins in search of supplies.
Scott looked at Dudian: “I and Mia will be searching for supplies together. Do you want to go with us? ”
Dudian shook his head: “No, I’ll go with my friends.”
“Don’t forget that in case of danger call for help. It’s very quite in here so as long as the distance is not too far then we will hear.” Scott didn’t insist for Dudian to joim them but reminded him of dangerous situations.
Dudian nodded and turned to call Mason, Zach and Sham. They went down the street towards a dilapidated building that was in the vicinity.
Dudian didn’t go into every building as he knew what he could find in those ruins. Soon he found ruin of a small supermarket.
The supermarket was covered by vegetation, but because of its style it still could be identified as a supermarket. He didn’t know what kind of disaster had it suffered as it had collapsed from middle down to ground. In front of it there were few corpses which seemed to be killed recently.
“So many corpses … ” Mason spoke out. Their faces had turned ugly after they had come to area no 8. There were dead bodies everywhere. They couldn’t imagine what kind of a picture those hunters faced when they had come here first.
Dudian’s mind was also timid, but still maintined his calm. He passed by the corpses and went towards to the entrance of the supermarket. He stepped inside but he saw a dead corpses in that instant. There were eight red spots which emitted low sounds.
“Monsters!” Dudian’s pupils shrank as hurried back.
A gray shadow flashed by the entrance and jumped towards Dudian while he was retreating.