Kingdom of Corrosion

Su Shi and Snow Egg pried off eight wooden planks from the left corridor. These planks were solid, and even though the bottom part was soaked earlier, they were still good enough for cleaving into firewood. Su Shi, Lin Wu, and Xiao Wu brought the sick to the corner on the right, and with the help of a fire axe, Snow Egg carried over a bundle of dry firewood.

Using a dagger, Lin Wu split one of the wooden planks into thin strips, struck the magnesium bar to light a fire, and the slow-burning flame revived the spirits of the people lying against it. After completing all these tasks, they had already spent more than half an hour, and all four of them were tired, but nobody complained or rested.

Xiao Wen and Lin Meng’s conditions were not great. Lin Wu and Xiao Wu used celebratory cloth strips to create a space for them to change out of their wet clothes. These two girls first helped Shana and Little Knife into dry spare clothes while only wearing their undergarments. They then changed into their own dry clothes, which again took quite some time.

The four men in shorts didn’t change, as they had more work to do. First, they searched for the medical box, which proved to be Xiao Wu’s shining moment. After all, Blue Star people weren’t familiar with medicines, and though Xiao Wu wasn’t particularly knowledgeable, the medical box only contained basic medications: antibiotics, gastrointestinal drugs, anti-inflammatory drugs, etc. If there was a wound, apply anti-inflammatory drugs; if not, use antibiotics. It might not be correct, but it was the only way to deal with the situation.

Little Knife’s acute gastroenteritis was more troublesome. Seeing her groan in pain, Xiao Wu was unsure how to proceed. Xiao Wen’s friend had once sought medical treatment for acute gastroenteritis, and according to her, she was previously given a painkiller injection, supplemented by montmorillonite, antibiotics, and some gastrointestinal drugs. So here was the problem: nobody present had experience with injections. Xiao Wu was able to administer IV injections due to his profession, but he had never performed a subcutaneous injection.

The problem was a minor one, as Lin Wu was there. Seeing that no one else had experience, Lin Wu took control. Xiao Wu hurriedly stopped him to make sure the air was expelled from the syringe first, and then there were two screams. One, naturally, came from Little Knife who felt her sitting bone threatened on her first experience of getting an injection. The other scream came from Lin Meng, who half-hugged Little Knife and felt an unbearable pain in her arm from being pinched.

After dealing with the five patients, Xiao Wu put on dry spare clothes and armed himself with a pistol for the guard duty. Considering the circumstances, the threat from survivors was small, but it couldn’t be ruled out that floating zombies might climb up the metal ladder. Su Shi was in charge of cooking, while Lin Wu and Snow Egg went to the ladder to observe the water surface for a while. Lin Wu then donned a rope and a headlamp to dive underwater.

There weren’t many wooden planks to dismantle, not even enough for the night’s usage. Considering the condition of the patients, they likely wouldn’t fully recover by tomorrow, hence the need for a large amount of combustible material. The floor couldn’t be torn up any further, as dismantling it completely wouldn’t cover the opening. The only option was to dive down seven or eight meters underwater to search for supplies.