I'll Do It Myself

Hearing Eugene out, Gavin shook his head. "Even if we do camp here, we won't stay long. It's a little early to be thinking about using traps against other survivors."

"Ha, true enough. Your place is our real target—the motherfucking huge ranch. I'm already in love with it!"

Eugene exclaimed excitedly, then leaned back in his chair and asked Gavin, "By the way, Quarterback, how many cattle do you have?"

"Cattle?"

Gavin thought for a moment before answering. "I bought more cattle a few times over the years. The last time was three years ago, when I added eight thousand Angus cattle to the ranch."

"But the impact and commercial income from winning four and then five championships were so huge over the past two years that I didn't have time to keep an eye on the ranch. Still, there should be at least tens of thousands left."

"Tens of thousands?!"

Eugene's face twisted into an exaggerated expression like something out of The Mask. He exclaimed, "Woo-hoo! Hahaha, we couldn't eat all that in a lifetime! What about the horses? A ranch that big must have Racehorse. Have your Racehorse ever placed in a race?"

Eugene pressed Gavin for an answer, unable to wait. Gavin rolled his eyes.

"Placings, my ass."

Gavin swore, then went on. "I've only been buying land all these years. My dad handled the ranch's management and development. How would he know how to raise champion Racehorse? So the horse-racing side never really took off. They've only placed third in the Austin Horse Race twice."

At that, Eugene grinned. "Placing at all is pretty damn good, hahaha. I'll have to pick out a good horse when we get there. Fuck, I can't believe I'll actually get to ride a champion!"

Eugene swore eagerly, then rubbed his thighs hard—the spots that often chafed when he rode.

Time drifted by as they chatted. Before long, the two vehicles had left the side road and returned to the highway.

Madison had already gotten out to wait when he saw Tyrannosaurus approaching. As soon as it pulled up beside him, he hurried to ask, "How'd it go, boss? Where does that road lead?"

"To an estate. They were probably having an RV party last night. There were more people than we expected, but it'll do as an emergency campsite."

Gavin explained, then pointed toward the RV. "Get back behind the wheel, Old Mac. We should get going."

"Sure thing."

Madison nodded, and he and Eugene climbed back into the RV. The two vehicles continued toward Coskana.

The stretch between Ennis and Coskana wasn't just empty forest and open farmland.

Less than four kilometers after they turned off the highway, Gavin spotted a few scattered zombies wandering along the road ahead.

They all had a similar look: they were wearing pajamas, and one wasn't wearing anything at all.

It made sense, given that the Zombie Crisis had begun at three in the morning. People had been in the middle of dreaming when they turned.

Like William's half-assed old man, who'd only been wearing the top half of his pajamas.

As for Eugene's story about his sister running off without her shoes—

Gavin figured she might not have been wearing any shoes at all. She might've been wearing even less.

After all, plenty of people in America liked sleeping in their socks, and even more preferred to sleep naked.

The zombie walking down the road in the buff was probably one of the latter.

Seeing the zombies, Gavin narrowed his eyes in understanding.

Their appearance didn't surprise him. They were about to pass a roadside motel.

Many highways in America had motels right beside the road. These places often offered all sorts of services, including repair shops, gas stations, convenience stores, and little bars.

Gavin didn't stop for the zombies or the motel. He drove the RV straight past.

Watching the motel slip by outside the window on the right, Madison turned to Eugene with a puzzled look. "Hey, Redhead, what exactly happened between you and the boss? Why didn't he stop? He should've stopped to check things out!"

"Oh? Really? I didn't tell you guys?"

Eugene launched into an exaggerated retelling of Albert's call.

When they learned Gavin still had someone who could call him, the others were surprised. Then, without a word, they all pulled out their phones.

This time, they didn't just contact family. They started blasting their entire contact lists.

Group texts, phone calls—every method they could think of.

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

Meanwhile, Gavin sat in Tyrannosaurus, looking at the two clusters of buildings on either side of the road. He let out a quiet breath of relief.

He no longer had to worry about whether they'd be able to find a suitable campsite if they couldn't get through Coskana!

To Gavin's left was a large animal-feed sales center.

Most of the ranches in the Texas Triangle—Dallas, San Antonio, and Houston—bought their feed here.

Gavin had spent the past few years focused on building his career as a star athlete and hadn't been involved in managing the ranch.

So he didn't know that he was actually the feed center's biggest customer.

After all, the 6666 Ranch, which was even larger than Gavin Ranch, lay closer to Oklahoma. Its owners preferred to buy feed near Oklahoma.

And in Texas, there weren't any ranches bigger than Gavin Ranch besides the 6666 Ranch.

Every large feed sales and processing center had to be surrounded by vast fields of corn and soybeans.

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

It was only February, nowhere near planting season. Aside from a few movable greenhouses, all the corn and soybean fields lay fallow.

Gavin believed that even if ten or twenty thousand zombies showed up around a stretch of farmland this vast, he could drive through the fields and leave them completely disoriented!

As for supplies nearby?

That was no problem either. Across the road from the feed store, on the right, stood a small town with more than a hundred households.

They just had to find a way to lure the zombies out, and they could take whatever they wanted from the town.

And even without the town, so what?

They were at a feed store, after all. If they were desperate enough, they could eat the feed!

What, cows and horses could eat it, but people couldn't?

They were all just beasts of burden, weren't they?

Gavin felt a lot more at ease. He even let the car pick up a little speed.

The two vehicles continued on and soon reached another small town, even smaller than Palmer.

As they drew closer, Gavin gradually slowed down and stopped about 170 meters from the gas station.

As soon as he stopped, Madison jogged over, his face full of worry. "Boss, the phone signal's gone!"

"Really?"

Gavin hadn't used his phone, so he hadn't noticed. He pulled it out and opened a few apps. Sure enough, there was no internet.

Then he called Madison to check whether calls were working either. Once that failed, Gavin shrugged. "Old Albert sure was lucky."

"Yeah, he was lucky. Eugene told us about him when he came back."

Madison nodded repeatedly, sounding worried. "After we heard his story, we rushed to call everyone in our contacts. But after just a few minutes, the signal died completely!"

"If that old friend of yours had called even ten minutes later, you might not have been able to reach him at all."

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

"Well, now I'm not sure he's actually lucky. His good fortune came with a bit of bad luck mixed in. Sigh..."

As he spoke, Madison spread his hands and looked toward the gas station in the distance.

Even from here, he could see a zombie wandering inside, between two gas pumps.

Gavin put his phone away and said quietly, "If it's gone, it's gone. With no one to manage or maintain things, the internet won't be the only thing that disappears. We'll have to learn to adapt."

He pointed toward the gas station. "Anyway, Old Mac brought up the question of women's supplies earlier..."

Gavin fell silent for a moment, then gave Madison an amused pat on the back. "I never would've guessed you were that considerate, but you're right. We should stock up on things like sanitary pads."

"But I need to stress that this situation's different from before. There's more than one clerk in that gas station, and the town's only about a hundred meters to the south."

"If anything goes wrong while we're dealing with the clerks, it'll set off a chain reaction."

"So Madison, you drive the RV, and Eugene, you drive Tyrannosaurus. Get in your vehicles and be ready to help me escape. This time, I'll handle it myself!"