Chapter 23: Scooping Up Gasoline
Qin Luo and Bai Shu each held one side of the curtain, shielding the back seat area.
Xu Duoduo changed into her spare combat uniform behind the curtain they had put up. When she was done, she blew her wooden whistle once.
Only then did Qin Luo and Bai Shu take down the curtain. Qin Luo said, "All changed? Come here, I'll carry you to this side. The back seat is damp, don't stay there."
As he spoke, he directly picked up Xu Duoduo and brought her over. The middle row was very spacious, with two separate seats that could easily fit four people.
So Xu Duoduo went from the spacious back seat to sitting next to Qin Luo.
Bai Shu didn't have much reaction. After putting away the curtain, he started editing the mutant snake-man video Xu Duoduo had just sent him, preparing to post it on the forum.
The little zombie had changed into a new set of clothes and felt much fresher, except her hair was still damp. Qin Luo couldn't stand it and took a clean towel to wipe her hair, one hand rubbing her head while the other swiped on the tablet.
"There's a service area twenty kilometers ahead. Let's go there and stop for a while."
After saying this, Qin Luo threw the tablet into his storage space card and started focusing on rubbing the little zombie's head. Both hands covered her head with the towel, kneading it. It looked rough but he was actually controlling his strength very well.
Xu Duoduo felt sleepy from the rubbing, her body swaying slightly.
Qin Luo told her not to move around.
Wang Weihu and Chen Xiaofei immediately agreed when they received the order. Their four-person team had always been in sync. If Qin Luo said to stop, he must have his reasons. His ability was lightning storm, so he was particularly sensitive to weather.
Before they reached the service area, it started hailing. Ice pellets rained down, pounding the vehicle. If this wasn't an improved off-road vehicle with shatterproof glass, it probably couldn't withstand the basketball-sized hailstones crashing down!
Xu Duoduo's eyes were practically glued to the window. The hailstones falling outside looked like they could really kill someone, making a constant clanging noise.
The car wasn't easy to drive either, with the body shaking slightly, but all four in the car had military backgrounds. This level of road condition was a piece of cake for them.
Wang Weihu even accelerated through this hail-covered section, crushing the ice shards under the wheels.
They occasionally encountered a few cars parked by the roadside. They slowed down to check from inside the car, honking the horn. But as they got closer, they found all the cars were full of zombies. Chen Xiaofei casually threw a few small bombs, flipping over the cars behind them as they drove away.
The latter half of the journey was bumpy but they managed to reach the service area smoothly.
Here, the hail had stopped, and it wasn't raining anymore. But the sky was terrifyingly dark. There were zombies in the service area too, swaying towards them when they heard the car.
Wang Weihu directly ran over a few more, driving straight to the gas station. "I'll go down to see if there's any gas left. Qin Luo, open the fuel tank."
Qin Luo directly replied, "Okay." He leaned over to the driver's seat and operated something, and the fuel tank cover on the side opened. "Xu Duoduo, you stay in the car. After we finish refueling, just press this switch, understand?"
Xu Duoduo nodded directly and blew her wooden whistle once. Qin Luo ruffled her hair one more time before turning to get out of the car.
With a "bang", the car door closed, and all four of them got out.
Chen Xiaofei followed Qin Luo towards the main building of the service area to eliminate zombies. The two moved extremely fast, and soon a gunshot rang out.
Wang Weihu and Bai Shu were refueling the car outside, while also checking how much fuel was left at this gas station. Everyone had their own tasks.
Xu Duoduo waited for Wang Weihu to give her a hand signal, then she closed the fuel tank cover. After that, she also pushed open the middle door and jumped down from the car, fortunately without falling.
But she startled both of them.
"Little Squad Leader, why did you come down? Go back to the car and wait. We'll let you out when it's safe."
"It's not safe here. Be good, wait in the car. You're more valuable than us right now."
No joke, with her huge spatial ability, she was indeed incredibly valuable.
Although they had seen Xu Duoduo kill a group of mutant monkeys with a chainsaw before, they still couldn't let anything happen to her. They tried to coax her back into the car.
But Xu Duoduo wouldn't listen.
Bai Shu was getting a headache from her not listening to them, thinking it would be better if Qin Luo were here.
Xu Duoduo had no time for them. Seeing the fuel cans Wang Weihu had found from the gas station and was filling up, she reached out her hand.
Bai Shu immediately panicked, "Ancestor, you can't touch that directly!"
Xu Duoduo had already touched it, directly storing the gasoline in her space. She just used her remaining hand to make a rough gesture.
She took out a can from her space, put it back, then pointed at the fuel barrel.
Wang Weihu understood, "Little Squad Leader, are you directly storing this gasoline?!"
Xu Duoduo nodded modestly. With her expressionless face, she looked cool and aloof, but with her messy short hair, she actually looked quite silly. After explaining, she focused on collecting gasoline.
Bai Shu exclaimed, "That's awesome! Directly storing it is indeed efficient. Well then, Little Squad Leader, keep at it! We'll stand guard!"
Xu Duoduo nodded again like a pecking chick, earnestly collecting gasoline.
She only needed to lightly touch the gasoline with her fingertips, just like when she collected water in her kitchen before.
Because they were at a gas station, they couldn't use fire nearby. So when zombies approached, Wang Weihu and Bai Shu dealt with them physically, kicking them away.
Later, Bai Shu found time to look for more barrels to fill. Xu Duoduo just needed to go around collecting, though running back and forth was a bit troublesome.
After collecting from the bottom fuel tanks of the gas station, the two humans and one zombie all had satisfied smiles.
Xu Duoduo obediently washed her hands clean, while Bai Shu and Wang Weihu guarded her.
"Little Squad Leader, are you tired? There's still a lot of stuff in the convenience store at this gas station. Shall we collect it all together?"
Xu Duoduo nodded almost immediately. She walked towards it herself. She liked hoarding things more than anyone! Hoard, hoard, hoard! Collect everything that could be collected!
Thinking about the supplies that must be in the service area, she felt very happy.
Bai Shu and Wang Weihu also felt great about having a super large mobile warehouse! The two humans and one zombie started to cooperate. Wang Weihu swept everything from the shelves onto the ground, piling it up for Xu Duoduo to collect in one go.
Bai Shu stayed by Xu Duoduo's side to protect her. Xu Duoduo directly stored the shelves she could collect into her space. It took less than a minute to empty the small convenience store at the gas station. Most of the goods were cup noodles and drinks.
Various flavors of instant noodles were tempting! As well as some biscuits and snacks.
Wang Weihu sighed, "It's hard to say if instant noodles will still be produced in the future. Hoarding these, we can still enjoy some noodles when we're hungry later. That's pretty nice."
Bai Shu strongly agreed.
When they first joined the military, having a big bowl of instant noodles after training was the best feeling.
After Xu Duoduo finished collecting these items, seeing several more small grids of her multi-faceted magic cube space filled up, she felt more secure. Especially important resources like gasoline, which were very valuable in the early stages of the apocalypse!