Chapter 12: Improvements
Xiaotian, wanted to be helpfull to Liushi. She got to show some worth with her knowledge of the road, and the night before with cooking, keeping an eye on the surrounding and cutting boar meat. Now, she was bluntly asked to transport tons of meat from one place to the other on her own while he slept. It was true that he had been working all night while she slept, but it was still depressing.
He effectively made a lady do manual labour while he slept, without watcher she realised later in horror. She wanted to give him a piece of her mind, but she didn't stay angry for long, remembering that he had worked without watcher as well, and he didn't mean to leave her unprotected. She was very gratefull that they were in a remote area.
It was midday when she decided to wake him up. She had finished her work earlier, but she wanted to rest a bit before going back on the road, and she wanted Liushi to be rested as well. She got in front of the bed and looked at him.
He was only wearing his boxers, and she got a good look at his body. He was fit, a bit pale, with an above average face, slightly handsome. Overall he had nice looks. She hadn't known him for long, but she could tell he had several positive personality traits: determined, brave, caring, reliable, hard working. He had been patient, forgiving and understanding with her. She smiled slightly; she realised she had come across a nice guy, even if he could be a bit distracted and secretive.
Once he got awakened and showered, she scolded him lightly about leaving a lady doing hard work without support. He apologised to her, ashamed about that. He also though that he should update his security program. It had facial recognition, and the steering wheel and the door handles had a hidden scanner. He had to add Xiaotian as guest and secondary driver. He also though about adding a camera and a movement detector between the driving cockpit and the living module.
They didn't get on the road immediatly. They had a hearty lunch first. After making sure everything was packed and the trailer was locked, they got to the driver cockpit.
"Hey, brother Liushi, do you mind if I take the wheel?"
"No, it's fine... Actually, that will give me some time to think about something. How long do you think it would take to reach your home?"
"We will be halfway there by nightfall, and reach the town tomorrow around noon."
"Is there some kind of store or facility with materials for construction or repair on the way? There are some things I want to do before entering another dangerous area. We could settle down there for the night and enter your hometown during the afternoon of the next day."
"Hmm, yes. There is a recycling station halfway there. And just like here, the population of the area is low so there won't be many zombies."
"Then let's go!"
After taking a few minutes to get familiar with both the truck and the trailer attached behind, Xiaotian took them on the road. Liushi had to admit that she was a much better driver than him, the ride was smoother and faster.
At the end of the afternoon they reached "The Waste Recycling Station of Fu Wang", and written under the sign board was "Collecting used building material, collecting damaged cars, steel, copper, aluminum, plastic, waste paper...". It was a three-story building, looking a little obsolete, located in the middle of a big county which was thousands of square meters. The yard was surrounded by concrete walls where broken glass stood to prevent climbing. The door was six or seven meters wide, permitting two cars to move in parallel, and slightly broken. At the top of the gate, there were also many spear points, looking a little guarded.
Since there were probably zombies around, he had Xiaotian disconnect the trailer and be ready to run them over. The door was ajar, so they got in and she used the horn to attract the zombies. Soon afterward, dozen of them appeared, and with a grimace, Xiaotian ran them over. Then, Liushi got out of the truck and finished the ones still alive. This time there was no jump scare and they were already damaged, so it was easy. He spent several more minutes checking the place to make sure there were no hidden zombies, before relaxing.
Xiaotian brought the trailer into the premises, and Liushi locked the gate. He inspected the place, and was satisfied with the amount of raw materials available. Beside repairing the truck, and improving both the truck and the trailer, he decided to make some weapons.
He couldn't rely on just the vehicle, the machete and the hatchet, nor rely on finding some firearm in the future. Letting zombies get close was too dangerous, as they were stronger than when they were humans. His biker armor may protect him from bites, but not from being held down. 2 zombies could pin him in place for hours, if not longer, as he would grow weaker with lack of food, water and constant struggling. He couldn't even ignore the power of their attacks possibly damaging his muscles, joints and bones.
He needed a ranged weapon to take them down before they got in range, and with a high enough firing rate to deal with multiple zombies before they got close. That was why he didn't bother with crossbows.
With the help of the Starseed, he designed a needler, a needle handgun. It would launch needles the size of a nail at lethal speed using battery powered gears in the "firing chamber" of the gun. The needle would be pushed between the 2 spinning gears, and accelerated at the appropriate speed to penetrate a skull at a distance of 10 meters. He could make rifles with much better range the same way, but he wasn't a marksman, so 10m was the maximum distance at which he could aim for the head with a decent accuracy.
It came with a 45 needles magazines, much more than any normal handgun due to the size of the projectiles, didn't emit a lot of noise and lacked recoil. However, the launching gears had to be activated before entering a combat situation, as it took 2 seconds for them to be fully operational. He could use it against groups of no more than 30 zombies if they weren't to concentrated.
For concentrated groups, he needed explosives: grenades or mines. He dismissed the popular frag grenades because while they would be effective against normal people, zombies didn't feel pain, and only extensive muscle tear, joint damage and broken bones would slow them, something neither the blast power nor the sharpnels could easily do. It would take luck to hit a critical point or kill. Concussive grenades would be much better, as they were designed to damage with the blast of the explosion, its range being 10-20m instead of the 3m of the frag grenades.
Flashbang grenades could be effective in delaying zombies and mutant beasts, or bait zombies in a certain direction, though it would require proper protection from its effects. A smoke bomb could hide him from sight, and even mask his scent in certain circumstances. Against mutant beasts, the concussive grenade could be used, especially since he doubted all mutant beasts would be as big as the boar he killed. If not, he would need to make some anti-vehicle land mines.
The only problem he had with the grenades and land mines was the chemicals needed. The engineering module didn't have a proper chemical lab, he would have to do half of the work the hard way with a chemist set. As for mutant beasts only weapons, he could make a spike launcher, but it would have to be mounted on the truck, thus remote or IA operated. He could try to make a portable one, which would be similar to a rocket launcher, but it would also be big and heavy. He could make it smaller, with smaller but explosive spike, but that meant dealing with dangerous chemicals himself again. He didn't want to play chemist to make explosive; he really didn't.
'So, I have to repair the plow and mechanical arms, seal the light structural damages in the rest of the truck, make an additional security sensor array between the cockpit and the living module, update the security system and make 3 needlers with amnutions. On the to-do list for later, make grenades, anti-beasts turrets, and add a chemical lab to the engineering module. It's going to be a long night...'
When he had searched the place for zombies, he also looked at the materials available, he was pleasantly surprised to find stack of good quality ones, most likely excess from constructions sites. And the electricity was still running in the place. He would lack neither materials nor energy for his projects.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Tonyorobsky
Tonyorobsky Sorry for the lack of updates, I was busy.
The launching gears are inspired from Tekken 5 intro, when Heihachi and Kazuya are attacked.
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