At the thought, Gavin quickly shook his head, banishing the ominous thoughts from his mind.
Then he waved at the woman, who was still trembling and saying she had to call the police.
"Hey."
"We have to call the police. Hurry, call them, we... Huh? Gavin, were you calling me?" The woman looked up in confusion.
"Yeah. I have to tell you, though, you can forget about calling the police. The whole world has already turned into zombies."
Gavin shrugged at her, and the woman fell silent.
She remained quiet for a long while before finally speaking to him.
"If anyone else told me this, I'd think I was being conned, that some company making zombies was trying to shut me up with some... uh, uh, uh... conspiracy!"
"But it's Gavin King saying it... God, I always thought the only disaster movie from Hollywood that would come true was 2012, but you're telling me it's World War Z..."
As she spoke, the woman gazed up in a daze, clutched her jacket, and took a deep breath. Then she muttered under her breath,
"Who would want a future like this... uh, uh, uh..."
As the woman lamented, the little boat slowly drew up to the dock.
Eugene leaped onto the dock. The woman shakily got to her feet, her left hand clutching her clothes at her chest as she instinctively held out her right hand to Gavin.
Gavin glanced at her, then sprang onto the dock and said,
"Come along. We'll go rest at the villa."
With that, Gavin walked farther and farther away. The woman stood with her mouth slightly open for a moment, then hurriedly braced herself against her thighs, which had turned purplish blue from the cold, and struggled onto the dock before running after him.
When Gavin returned to the villa, he saw Old Robert already sitting on the sofa. He was holding a cup of steaming hot water and had a blanket draped over him.
From afar, Old Robert saw the woman clutching the denim jacket and instinctively whistled.
"Wow, there really is a naked woman here. So whose damn denim jacket is that, Redhead? Were you sticking your nose where it didn't belong?"
"Hey!"
Before Eugene could respond, the woman hurried inside and stood behind Gavin, cursing at Old Robert.
"Shitty old white man! Do you look at your own mother that way?"
"Haha, cut the crap, kid. You don't have a figure as good as my third girlfriend after my divorce. Or did you think I'm so old I can't get it up? There's just nothing worth respecting here~"
Old Robert shot back without holding back, leaving the woman standing there in shock, at a loss for what to do.
Seeing her bewildered expression, Eugene reminded her irritably,
"Is 'Do you look at your own mother that way?' the only line you know? If I were you, I'd hurry to the bathroom and take a nice hot shower while the power and water are still on!"
Then Eugene turned to Gavin and asked,
"So, boss, can we rest here for a while? We're not far from the farm anyway."
At that, Eugene and Madison both turned to Gavin. After a brief moment of thought, Gavin nodded.
"Sure. There's still a bit of a problem at the farm, anyway. Madison, Eugene, go bring the car in. And have Doris get the girl a set of women's clothes."
"Got it, got it. I really was born to work~"
Eugene replied crossly, then left the villa with Old Mac.
As for the naked woman with nothing but a jacket draped over her...
Come on, they were only joking around and having a laugh. None of them was some little kid who'd gawk at her endlessly.
In America, unless you were a shut-in, you had countless chances to see strangers naked.
Since 2003, when summer rolled around in major American cities such as Houston and Dallas, there had always been multiple mass nude marches organized and attended by women.
That was also why some men actually supported American feminism: after all, it came with real perks.
American feminism had its extremists, of course. But setting them aside, most feminists were simply emphasizing that women should have the same rights as men, rather than demanding that men be forbidden from having certain rights.
For example, men often went shirtless in summer. American feminists were more likely to argue, "Men can go shirtless, so we women should be allowed to as well!"
So they would rather march topless than demand a blanket rule that all men had to wear shirts in summer.
It was easy to imagine just how open America could be under the influence of feminist thinking.
Every summer, if you walked through a middle-class neighborhood, you'd see girls throwing parties in their yards wearing nothing but bikinis.
Once they got into the drinks, those girls would sometimes actually take off their bikini tops, let alone at the more popular influencer beaches.
Poor neighborhoods, on the other hand, weren't as open as middle-class ones. After all, if you were too open in a poor neighborhood, you really could get raped in a home invasion.
That was what happened when the police presence in poor communities was more than ten times worse than in middle-class ones.
So if you'd lived in America for three years and still hadn't seen more than three hundred pairs of breasts, you had to wonder whether you'd been living in a poor neighborhood the whole time—or whether you were simply too shy to fit in with the American crowd.
Back to the point. While Madison and Eugene went to get the car, Old Robert showed the woman from the lake where the bathroom was.
Once she'd gone to the bathroom, only Old Robert and Gavin remained in the living room.
At last, Old Robert let out a long breath and asked Gavin with a sigh,
"Now that it's just the two of us, little Gavin, I have to ask you... What you said on the phone earlier wasn't some kind of prank, was it?"
As he spoke, Old Robert raised his cloudy old eyes to look at Gavin, hope in his gaze.
At southern farms like this, cowboys from the different towns didn't get out much. They mostly drank, chased women, chatted, and played all kinds of outrageous pranks.
At that moment, Old Robert desperately hoped this was all just a prank.
Phone lines could be blocked. Everyone ignoring him could mean they'd all planned it together. Even the two kids with Gavin and that woman might have been hired actors.
That was Old Robert's greatest hope right then.
Seeing the hope in Old Robert's eyes, Gavin wished he could tell him it was all just a prank.
But in the end, he sat beside Old Robert, took off his mask, and looked at him solemnly.
Before Gavin could speak, Old Robert quickly turned away and said,
"Forget it. You don't have to say anything. You've got the same stupid look as those officers in the movies who bring death certificates to people's homes!"
"After the North fell apart, I thought I'd never have to see that damn look in real life again. To hell with it."
"Today's been a hell of a day. I lost two of my kids, but luckily, the kid I watched grow up is still alive and made it back."
As he spoke, Old Robert leaned his head against the sofa and gave Gavin a painfully forced smile.
Gavin sighed, placed a hand on Old Robert's shoulder, and remained silent for a long time.
In the middle of that silence, Madison pushed open the door with a bowl of vegetable salad in her arms and called cheerfully to Gavin,
"Boss, Doris made this meal way faster than breakfast. She made tomato and egg stir-fry, tomato pasta, and a huge bowl of salad too. It's damn amazing!"
As he spoke, Madison eagerly brought the salad over to Gavin and pointed at the thick layer of dressing.
"Look at this! We never got this much salad dressing, even during six months of training!"
"Really? Looks like the apocalypse has at least given us something to look forward to~"
Gavin replied with a smile, then gave Old Robert's shoulder a reassuring pat, got up, and took the salad to the kitchen.
Eugene and the others came into the room carrying various dishes. Gavin pointed toward the kitchen, and soon the little table there was covered in plates.
But they couldn't eat just yet. The group had two new members now, one of whom was still in the bathroom, and Doris had gone to bring her some clothes.
While they waited for the two women to come out of the bathroom, William sat in the dining room, Eugene and Old Mac stood in front of Gavin, and Winnie sat on the single sofa to the side.
Eugene looked as if he wanted to say something, so Gavin asked,
"What is it? Are you trying to get me to say grace before the meal?"
"No, I'm just waiting for the ladies to come eat. Also... I wanted to talk about our plans for this afternoon," Eugene answered with an awkward grin.
At that, Gavin rubbed his forehead and replied quietly,
"Originally, I planned to rest at my own lakeside villa, three kilometers from here."
"But resting at Old Robert's place will do just as well, and there's even a smithy here."
"After this brief rest, Eugene, Madison, we'll have to face the real challenge."
"We're going to scout my farm estate, then try to take it back. I'm guessing there are at least seventy zombies there!"
Before you continue