There was no light in the flat, repaired tunnel. The team had to pull and push the car while s.h.i.+ning their light sources.
"The we need to make the tunnel wider next time so the car can drive straight through." Luo Xun discussed with Yan Fei as they pushed forward.
Yan Fei nodded, "I can seal the middle with a few layers of metal, but we will need a large amount of it."
Yan Fei"s ability was very convenient but was also troublesome – his ability could not create things out of thin air and did not have as wide an application as earth.
Han Li suddenly asked from the back, "Luo Xun, since we can dig, can we expand the underground planting s.p.a.ce? Like the two under the lab building?"
Those two planting s.p.a.ces were large, but only two acres of the area could be used. Although some crops could be grown, the harvest was not too rich. The food produced was barely enough for their group to eat for a year.
It would be far from enough if they wanted to use the crops to exchange for supplies in base. Not to mention not all the area could be used to grow food. If they did not expand the cultivation area, they could only use the shelves like back at home. But that would mess with the original designs and would be more troublesome to change things than open up more s.p.a.ce.
"Of course you can." Luo Xun and Yan Fei had discussed this before going to bed.
Since the mutant plants were above ground, they naturally considered expanding the sapce to grow things – just had to not alarm the plants above.
"But, we have to collect more metal…" Luo Xun continued, "In fact, we should find a way to take advantage of the open s.p.a.ce above. As long as we find the right paint and materials, the mutant plants would also provide cover and camouflage."
With such a large chunk of ignored land, Luo Xun could expand in all sorts of directions. While taking into account security concerns, they needed to make use of their nearby resources as much as possible.
With a goal in mind, the atmosphere had changed. Although the team had to spend two days on the road, no one felt tired at all.
They put the things in an empty room and went to bed. But even under a quilt they had a strong desire to chat.
"Tomorrow we"ll go and pull out those boxes of solar panels. The first time they had left two boxes buried in the ground, waiting to be picked up. We can also find some metal on the way back to reinforce the tunnel." Luo Xun listed out the plan in his notebook.
This time when they came out, although they had their charged mobile phones, no one dared to turn them on. The current phones automatically broadcasted their positions every once in a while to the satellites. Luo Xun would of course open it if they were somewhere new as to not get themselves lost.
But now they had a secret place outside base, fortunately no one noticed.If people noticed that they would leave base for a long time each month and brought back a lot of crops, their base could be found through satellite!
Some things needed to be carefully guarded, especially matters regarding everyone"s safety and life. If people found out…how would they continue living?
After a good night"s rest, the two couples went out with two cars to where they dropped off the large metal boxes. The rest of the team packed up, sorted things out and prepared some rooms for storage. The nearby snow had been completely trampled with only a few patches of untouched snow.
The four people in two cars loaded with lots of weapons and medicine to avoid danger drove across the muddy snow towards their destination.
To tell the truth, Luo Xun felt stressed as they drove since the last time they were almost killed on this road. To embark on this path again was a trial.
"Be careful, there"s a bunker in front…" Luo Xun spoke through his walkie-talkie, then added. "Should be from the last time…"
There was no way, they focused their efforts escaping and blocking the zombies. Now back here they had to carefully make detours.
Fortunately the road was covered in sand (Yu Xinran used it as her weapon). So they just had to go around the holes. Yan Fei could also use his metal to form a bridge over the bad patches. It slowed them down but not by much.
w.a.n.g Duo"s voice crackled through the walkie-talkie, "Luo Xun, those should be the zombies we accidentally killed last time right?"
"Should be…"
"Luo, Luo Xun, crystal cores! Crystal cores!" Going in and out of the base required cores, these past two times they did not have the chance to fight zombies. The team who had tightened their belts felt fortunate.
"Pick it up on the way back, we"re in a hurry." Luo Xun made a decision.
They had make sure that the metal boxes with solar panels were okay and could be safely brought back. If there was danger…they would have to hurry back,.
This time there were no zombies chasing behind them. Luo Xun did not arrive until midnight to where the troops had been found. The two large metal boxes were left behind a few collapsed bungalows.
Luo Xun circled the container and Yan Fei loaded the containers after confirming that there was nothing wrong. The four managed to sleep for three or four hours before rus.h.i.+ng back when the run rose.
Halfway on the road, Luo Xun and company harvested the crystals from the zombies. To their surprise, when they counted their spoils, they actually picked up hundreds of nuclei!
These cores were mostly wind and speed type. There were some level three and a few level four cores. This way although the wind cores would go to Zhang Yi, the remaining speed ones could be used to pay the gate tolls.
Two huge metal boxes were brought back along with two metal b.a.l.l.s. Yan Fei used one of them to reinforce the underground tunnel. The remaining metal was used to reinforce the building they were located in. Then the team started to inspect and disa.s.semble the solar panels.
"This piece has been cracked…there"s nothing wrong with the rest!"
"These ones are all good, nothing"s wrong."
"This one is broken, the rest are fine."
"There"s a b.u.mp but don"t know if there is any damage…"
Luo Xun found two boxes, one of which had been overturned, with their limited time they could only check later. Yan Fei confirmed that the remaining two underground boxes had not been moved, ready for the next time they left base. If they had time, they would simply stop by the factory and take a look.
After all the solar panels had been checked and packed, the group tidied up things and then set off again back towards base.
In other words, Luo Xun and team found themselves rus.h.i.+ng around. If was only once or twice it would be fine, but running around for a long time, who could stand it? Hurriedly organizing things to save a trip, but too much would still make people uncomfortable.
Once again, they drove their empty cars back to base. Luo Xun and the others felt really tired. This time back Yan Fei was responsible for driving while Luo Xun held the baby and changed his diaper. As for the dog…she was with the three ladies being happily brushed.
When the car reached the base gate, there were several other vehicles lined up and loud sounds could be heard. There were several military vehicles parked near the exit with wary soldiers guarding the way towards the city.
Luo Xun frowned while Yan Fei looked. The last time they came back it was the middle of the night and they did not meet anyone else. They came and went in a hurry so they were a bit out of the loop. Was there some trouble with the people who came back now?