I'll Do It Myself

Listening to Eugene's reasoning, Gavin shook his head and said, "Even if we really intended to camp here, we wouldn't be staying long. It's too early to start considering traps for other survivors."

"Ha, I suppose that's true. Your place is our destination anyway—that motherfucking massive ranch. I absolutely love the sound of that!" Eugene chirped excitedly before leaning back in his seat and asking Gavin, "By the way, Quarterback, how many cattle do you have?"

"Cattle?" Hearing this, Gavin pondered for a moment. "I've bought cattle a few times over the years. The last time was three years ago, when I restocked the ranch with eight thousand Angus Cattle."

"However, in the last two years, the influence and commercial revenue brought by my four and five consecutive championships have been so high that I haven't had time to pay attention to the ranch. But there should still be at least several tens of thousands left."

"Several tens of thousands?!!" Eugene immediately pulled a face as exaggerated as The Mask, shouting with excitement, "Woo-hoo, haha, that's enough to eat for the rest of our lives! What about horses? A ranch that big can't be without racehorses. What kind of rankings have your horses taken?"

Eugene pressed Gavin impatiently, his words making Gavin roll his eyes. "Rankings, my ass."

Gavin cursed and continued, "I've only focused on buying land all these years. My old man handled the management and development of the ranch. He didn't have any experience raising championship-grade horses, so the stable development was mediocre. The racehorses only ever took third place in the Austin Horse Race twice."

Hearing this, Eugene grinned. "Taking a place is already pretty good, haha. I'll have to pick a good horse when we get there. Fuck, I never thought I'd actually get to ride a champion horse!"

Eugene cursed with anticipation, rubbing his thighs hard—the very spots that usually chafed when riding.

Time slipped away in idle chatter, and within a few sentences, the two vehicles turned off the side road and back onto the highway.

Seeing the Tyrannosaurus appear, Madison had already stepped out of the RV to wait. As the Tyrannosaurus pulled up beside him, he asked impatiently, "How was it, Boss? Where does that place lead?"

"An estate. They were probably holding an RV party last night. There were more people than I thought, but it would make for a decent emergency campsite." Gavin explained, gesturing toward the RV as he continued, "Go back and drive, Old Mac. It's time for us to head out."

"You got it." Madison nodded happily and returned to the RV with Eugene, who had also stepped out, continuing their journey toward Coskana.

The stretch between Ennis and Coskana was not merely empty forests and fertile fields.

Less than four kilometers after the two vehicles left the intersection, Gavin saw a few scattered zombies wandering on the road ahead.

These zombies shared a uniform style; they were all wearing pajamas, and one zombie wasn't wearing anything at all.

This was quite consistent with the timing of the outbreak, as the zombie crisis had erupted at three in the morning, with people mutating while in their dreams.

William's half-a-dad, for instance, had only been wearing a pajama top.

As for Eugene's claim that his sister had lost her shoes, Gavin actually suspected she might not have been wearing shoes at all, or perhaps even less.

After all, in a place like America, many people liked to sleep in socks, and even more preferred to sleep naked.

The stark-naked zombie on the road was likely a member of the "sleep naked" club.

Seeing the zombies, Gavin narrowed his eyes in realization. He wasn't surprised by their appearance, as they were about to pass a motel.

Many American highways were lined with motels that often doubled as repair shops, gas stations, convenience stores, and small bars.

Gavin didn't stop for the zombies or the motel, driving the Tyrannosaurus straight past them.

Inside the RV, watching the motel flash past the right window, Madison asked Eugene suspiciously, "Hey, Red, what exactly happened between you and the Boss? Why didn't he stop? He should have stopped to scout the situation!"

"Oh? Is that so? Did I not tell you guys?" Hearing this, Eugene began to recount the story of Albert's phone call with dramatic flair.

Upon learning that Gavin actually had an acquaintance who could call him, the group was surprised, and one after another, they pulled out their phones.

This time, they didn't just contact their families; they began to bombard their entire contact lists.

Mass texts, phone calls—they tried every method imaginable.

But after only five or six minutes, their signal cut out completely.

At the same time, sitting in the Tyrannosaurus, Gavin looked at the two clusters of buildings on either side of the road ahead and breathed a silent sigh of relief.

He no longer had to worry about whether they could find a suitable campsite without Coskana's word!

At this moment, a large feed sales center stood to Gavin's left.

Most ranches within the Texas triangle of Dallas, San Antonio, and Houston purchased their various feeds here.

Because Gavin had focused his efforts on managing his status as a star athlete in recent years, he hadn't participated in the ranch's management.

Therefore, Gavin didn't know that he was actually the feed center's largest client.

After all, the 6666 Ranch, which was larger than Gavin's, was closer to Oklahoma, so they preferred to purchase their feed near Oklahoma.

Besides the 6666 Ranch, there were no other ranches in Texas larger than Gavin Ranch.

One had to realize that every large feed sales and processing center was inevitably surrounded by vast tracts of corn and soybean fields.

The farmland surrounding this feed processing center stretched almost as far as the eye could see!

It was only February, far from the planting season, so aside from a few mobile greenhouses, all the corn and soybean fields remained barren.

Surrounded by such a vast expanse of wasteland, Gavin was confident that even if ten or twenty thousand zombies came, he could drive through the fields and lose them until they didn't know which way was up!

As for the daily supplies in the vicinity?

That was even less of a concern, because across from the feed sales point, on the right side of the road, was a small town home to over a hundred households.

As long as they found a way to lure the zombies out of the town, the town would be theirs for the taking.

Besides, what did it matter even if there wasn't a town?

Don't forget, this was a place that sold feed; if they were truly driven to desperation, they could eat the feed!

What, if cows and horses could eat this feed, could humans not?

Who among us isn't a beast of burden anyway?

For a moment, Gavin's mood lightened considerably, and he even quietly increased his speed.

Just like that, the two vehicles continued forward, soon arriving at a small town even smaller in scale than Palmer.

As they gradually approached the town, Gavin slowed down, parking the car about 170 meters away from a gas station.

As soon as the car stopped, Madison trotted over to Gavin, his face full of worry as he spoke.

"Boss, the cell signal is gone!"

"Is that so?"

Gavin hadn't used his phone just now, so he really hadn't known about the signal issue. He pulled out his phone and opened various apps; sure enough, there was no network.

He immediately tried calling Madison, and after confirming that the call wouldn't go through, Gavin shrugged and said.

"Old Albert is truly lucky."

"Yeah, he really is lucky. After Eugene came back, he told us about his situation."

Madison nodded repeatedly, sighing with a worried expression.

"After hearing his story, we rushed to call every contact in our address books, but we only got a few minutes in before the signal cut out completely!"

"If your old acquaintance had called just ten minutes later, even you might not have been able to reach him."

"Uh, right, he's still sick, isn't he?"

"Fine, this time I'm not sure if he's actually lucky or not. After all, his luck is mixed with a bit of misfortune, sigh..."

As his voice trailed off, Madison spread his hands and looked toward the gas station in the distance.

With his naked eye, he could see a zombie wandering around the gas station, positioned right between two fuel pumps.

At the same time, Gavin put away his phone and said softly.

"If it's gone, it's gone. Without management and maintenance, it won't just be the network that disappears; we must learn to adapt."

After saying this, Gavin pointed toward the gas station and continued.

"Back to the point, Old Mac mentioned the issue of feminine hygiene products earlier..."

Gavin fell silent for a moment before giving Madison a playful pat on the back, laughing.

"I'll be damned, I really didn't know you were such a thoughtful guy. But you're right, we should get some sanitary pads and the like."

"But I must emphasize that this situation is different from before. There isn't just one clerk in this gas station, and the town is only about a hundred meters south of here."

"Once a commotion starts while dealing with the clerks, it will immediately trigger a chain reaction."

"So, Madison, you drive the RV, and Eugene, you drive the Tyrannosaurus. Get ready in the vehicles to cover my escape—this time, I'm doing it myself!"