Chapter 82: Heading South

The train surged out of the depot, rumbling steadily toward the French-German border.

About five kilometers beyond the depot, it screeched to a halt beside a dense forest. At the same time, Shao Ming steered the off-road vehicle to a stop beside the train's engine. Asgi, with Feng Yusheng's help, climbed down from the engine.

"Not bad, kid," Asgi remarked to Shao Ming, a smirk playing on his face.

Lambert hopped down from the driver's cabin, muttering, "Food, food."

Shao Ming glanced at the time; it was indeed time for lunch. After a tense morning, they needed to take a break.

The train had stopped near a forest, with an open field stretching to a small town roughly two kilometers away. It seemed like a safe place to pause.

"Finally, food," Asgi said, limping toward his vehicle.

"Hey," Lambert called out, "Why not join us for a meal?"

Asgi shook his head. "Nah, I've got plenty of canned food."

The group watched Asgi's limping figure fade into the distance. Lambert turned to Shao Ming, his expression saying: Not my problem.

Back in the passenger car, the makeshift stove was roaring again. A small pot simmered with a mix of beef and luncheon meat.

"We still have several densely populated areas to get through," Lambert said as he studied a tablet, mapping out their route. "Lille, Charleroi, Liège, Cologne… all major cities."

"Once we're past this stretch, things will get easier," Shao Ming replied. "This region is packed with cities that practically merge into one."

Feng Yusheng stirred the pot and asked, "Is there no way to bypass these areas entirely?"

"There is," Lambert said, showing the screen to everyone. "After Charleroi, we could head southeast into Luxembourg and then move north to Cologne's eastern outskirts. That would avoid the densest urban areas."

"But?"

"But it's a longer route, and the mountainous roads in Luxembourg would slow the train significantly."

"Given our current firepower, it's better to take the detour," Shao Ming said. "Just now, we burned through a lot of ammo dealing with a few hundred zombies. Heading into the cities might leave us without enough time or resources to change tracks."

"Let's take inventory after lunch," Feng Yusheng suggested. "See what we're short on."

"The off-road vehicle," Yamada Ryo said suddenly, petting the dog by her side. "We can't take it with us."

Shao Ming looked out the window. There was no way to load the vehicle onto the train here.

"Too bad," he said, turning to Lambert. "Could we build something like a ramp to load vehicles, like they do with trucks?"

"This is a train," Lambert explained. "Automobiles need special steel ramps or platforms, and those are only available at stations."

"So we're just going to use one vehicle, then abandon it?" Yamada Ryo asked.

"Not necessarily," Lambert replied. "If we had the right tools and enough time, we could build our own ramp."

Feng Yusheng handed a bowl of meat soup to Yamada Ryo.

"Thanks," Yamada said, taking the soup and heading outside.

"Where's she going?" Lambert asked.

"To bring food to Asgi," Shao Ming said with a shrug.

"Don't get jealous," Feng Yusheng teased. "He did save her life, after all. You've got a long way to go."

"Little girl with an old man?" Shao Ming joked.

"I don't think it's likely," Feng Yusheng said, shaking his head. "There's no chemistry there."

"You'd better be right," Lambert groaned.

"Let's just eat," Shao Ming said, handing Lambert a bowl of soup.

After lunch, Shao Ming and Lambert began sorting through their supplies.

Though they had turned back halfway to Paris, their stop in Amiens had yielded a decent haul: a week's worth of food and water, small gardening tools (as regular-sized tools were deemed impractical for the train), and some seeds and fertilizer.

To Shao Ming's surprise, a few packs of biscuits from his earlier scavenging trip with Li Long remained untouched—apparently, they weren't very palatable.

Thanks to their mobile train, they didn't have to worry much about resources being completely scavenged. If one town's supplies ran dry, they could always move to the next. With most canned goods and bottled water having a shelf life of two years or more, Shao Ming doubted the train would still be running after that long.

On the weapons front, they had enough to equip each person with two firearms. Aside from Asgi's 416 and FR-F2 rifles, the rest were civilian models. Thankfully, the L85A1 Shao Ming salvaged was compatible with the 416's STANAG magazines, giving Asgi two spares.

Their anti-aircraft gun, however, had only about 100 rounds left. Its high firing rate made conserving ammunition nearly impossible. A few extra seconds on the trigger could empty the entire ammo box.

"By the time we gather food and water again, we'll probably be in Germany," Shao Ming said.

"At our current pace, yes," Lambert replied. "Four to five days should get us there."

At the front of the train, Feng Yusheng and Yamada Ryo were examining seeds in a makeshift nursery.

"Do we need to till the soil?" Yamada asked, flipping through a gardening book.

"Probably not," Feng Yusheng said. "The train's vibrations should do the job."

Yamada pored over the book. "No chapter on farming aboard a train, huh?"

Gordon, the dog, climbed onto the flatbed car with practiced ease, only to be shooed off by Feng Yusheng.

"Get down! You're not turning this into your bathroom!"

Looking dejected, Gordon sat beside Shao Ming, who asked Feng Yusheng, "How are the potatoes and radishes doing?"

"The potatoes are fine," Feng Yusheng said. "They'd already sprouted. The radishes were just planted two days ago."

Shao Ming considered the timing. It was April—prime potato-growing season. In two or three months, they could harvest more. Hopefully, they'd be home by then and wouldn't need to rely on makeshift farming anymore.

A distant rumble drew their attention skyward.

It was an airplane.