Chapter 35: Blue Sea Nation Arrives
On the small area of Yunbula Nation that had been set aside and isolated, the first mate was holding a meeting with his own captain and the captains of several other fishing boats.
When the apocalypse first arrived, the small fishing village had been spared disaster largely because it was far from any major city. In addition, most of the villagers were divers. Someone discovered that zombies could not swim; if they chased people into the sea, they would simply sink to the bottom. After shouting this discovery to everyone, the others immediately jumped into the water and lured some of the zombies out to sea, allowing the village to narrowly escape catastrophe.
At first, they thought the people who had turned into zombies were suffering from some strange illness. While they were tying up the zombies that remained on shore, more villagers became infected.
The phones wouldn’t work. Mobile phones, computers, even vehicle radios—everything was useless. The village organized a group of people to go outside and seek help.
But those who were sent out never returned, neither they nor their boats.
By then, some people in the village had already begun to realize that the zombies were not merely sick patients, and that the communication blackout was not caused by bad weather.
Because there were no other ships visible on the sea anymore.
Yunbula Nation was also a tourist country. From the fishing village, they would normally see many airplanes flying overhead every day.
But during those days, the skies were eerily silent.
Most terrifying of all, several days later, someone diving for fish discovered the “patients” that had sunk to the seabed days earlier.
Despite having remained underwater for days and nights, they were still alive. Whenever they saw a person, they would reach out and try to grab them. The only reason they failed was because they could not swim.
How could any human survive for days without breathing?
There was only one explanation:
They were no longer human.
“Those few people you rescued—are they still unable to communicate properly?” one captain asked.
The first mate, whose name was Ming Hao, replied:
“They say they’re from the Blue Sea Nation. I asked around, but nobody in the village speaks the Blue Sea language. We probably won’t know what’s happening outside until they’ve learned the language of Yunbula Nation.”
The captains fell silent for a while. No one spoke.
The truth was that the fishing village’s situation was quite bad.
The village had always made its living from fishing. They caught fish, sold them for money, and then used that money to buy food and various daily necessities.
After disaster struck the village, the captains who owned large boats quickly became the community’s leaders.
In fact, things had not been very different before. Back then, the captains led crews out to sea to catch fish and sell them for money. Now, they caught fish simply to feed themselves.
The problem was that humans could not live on fish alone.
Fish provided protein and fat, but if they ate nothing but fish every day, they would only become thinner and weaker.
They needed carbohydrates. They needed vegetables.
But the village had no way to produce those things on its own.
And diesel fuel certainly didn’t grow on trees.
The captains also had to search other vessels along the coast, finding ways to lure the zombies aboard into the water so they could claim the ships’ supplies—and, more importantly, their diesel fuel.
The latter, however, was not especially dangerous.
Because the docks throughout Yunbula Nation contained an enormous number of boats. The diesel stored in countless small vessels alone was enough to keep them going for quite some time.
There were also many massive cruise ships.
Those ships not only carried enough fuel to last them a long time, but almost certainly contained large stockpiles of food as well.
However, the villagers had tried raiding one of them once and quickly gave up.
Even when a cruise ship wasn’t sailing, crew members were still on duty. Under normal circumstances, at least a thousand people would be spread throughout such a vessel, and even when operations were suspended, there would still be several hundred aboard.
And unlike small boats, cruise ships were enormous.
They had countless rooms and compartments.
Even if the captains directed their crews to lure all the zombies visible on the surface into the sea, the moment they boarded, they would still be vulnerable to surprise attacks from zombies emerging from who knew where.
At first, things had been manageable.
The fishing village survived on the supplies they scavenged from the small boats moored at the docks.
But now, every accessible dock—the ones that weren’t too dangerous to approach—had already been stripped clean of small boats and their resources.
There were no supplies left.
Now, only two paths remained before the fishing village:
Either go ashore, or risk boarding the cruise ships to scavenge supplies.
Both options were essentially suicide. The only difference was that one would kill them quickly (the docks were packed with countless zombies), while the other would kill them more slowly and painfully (the zombies on the cruise ships could suddenly appear right in your face at any moment).
“What else can we do? All the wild vegetables and seaweed along the coast have died. Even the wild jujubes on those uninhabited islands aren’t growing anymore. If we don’t get some seeds and start growing vegetables, we’re all going to die.”
One captain rubbed his face and tasted blood in his mouth. Because he hadn’t eaten fruit or vegetables for so long, his gums had already begun to bleed.
Anyone who worked at sea knew this couldn’t continue.
These were already the early symptoms of scurvy.
At this stage, all he needed was some fresh vegetables. But if they remained unavailable and the disease progressed to its later stages, causing internal bleeding, then under their current medical conditions there would be no saving him.
“We have to take risks. Either we bring back some vegetable seeds, or we raid a pharmacy and get calcium supplements or vitamins. Otherwise, it’s just a matter of dying sooner or dying later.”
“This isn’t about whether we’re willing to take risks. The problem is that we can’t even get ashore. Even if we avoid the docks with the highest concentrations of monsters and dive to some other location, the moment we walk a few steps inland, we’ll run into them. And once there’s the slightest disturbance, they’ll swarm us from every direction. There’s no escaping.”
The captains began arguing.
“We should go to the cruise ships. At least we can lure most of the monsters into the sea.”
“The cruise ships are even worse. At least on an island there’s open space and places to hide. Once you get inside a cruise ship, you’re trapped running through hallways. You’ll become the target of every monster on board.”
“You say that as if the monsters on the islands can’t chase you.”
Although the captains were arguing, their voices never became loud.
Everyone had been living on fish for so long that they were weak and exhausted. No one had the strength to raise their voice.
In the end, the meeting produced no conclusion.
The only consensus they reached was:
Everyone could do whatever they thought best.
There was no helping it. That’s how a makeshift organization worked—no one really had authority over anyone else.
Ming Hao had remained silent the entire time. He wasn’t a local, so he had less influence than the other local first mates. Simply sitting there and listening was enough.
Only after the captains broke up on bad terms did he leave with his own captain. As they walked, he suggested:
“How about next time we sail a little farther and look for some docks we haven’t visited before?”
The captain shook his head.
“That’s practically s**cide too. The waves out at sea are getting worse and worse. If we go too far, we could end up in a shipwreck ourselves.”
Mentioning shipwrecks reminded him of the Blue Sea survivors.
“They seem to be in pretty good shape—tall and strong. You were the one who rescued them, so spend more time talking with them. Once they’ve recovered, see if they can become part of our crew.”
Although the language barrier meant they couldn’t get information about the outside world yet, the newcomers looked like capable workers. If they could recruit them into their own group, it would still be worthwhile.
Ming Hao nodded.
“I understand. I’ll talk with them more often.”
The captain continued:
“Don’t try recruiting them right away. Observe them first. If I remember correctly, one of them had such a high fever that she’s become delirious?”
Ming Hao nodded again.
“That’s right. She keeps rambling incoherently because of the fever.”
“You should watch how her companions treat her. If one of their own has lost her senses and the others still take good care of her, then they’re trustworthy people worth recruiting. But if they treat her badly, we’ll need to think twice.”
He patted Ming Hao on the shoulder.
“Out at sea, we can only rely on each other. Reliability is the most important thing.”
Ming Hao felt the same way.
“Don’t worry, Captain. I’ll pay close attention.”
“Good. I’ll leave it to you.”
Standing on higher ground, the captain looked into the distance at the group from Blue Sea Nation.
They were also standing on the cliffside, pointing at and gesturing toward the section of land that had been isolated from the fishing village. They seemed to be discussing something, though no one could tell what.
Among them was the feverish woman who was supposedly “out of her mind.”
The others were all listening to the delirious girl speak.
“It looks like they’re pretty decent people,” the captain remarked.
Then he added, “I heard from the crew that the girl who’s lost her senses keeps saying that her country is coming to Yunbula Nation. Do you think there’s any chance it’s true?”
Ming Hao gave a bitter smile.
“Captain, you know as well as I do—we haven’t seen a single airplane, nor have we encountered a single vessel from outside. How could an entire nation possibly arrive here?”
“She’s just sick. The fever has confused her mind.”
The captain let out a sigh.
“Yeah. I must be so desperate for a way out that I actually believed the words of a mad girl.”
As they spoke, the two turned to leave.
Then they saw the Blue Sea survivors suddenly retreating into the distance.
The place they had been pointing at moments before began to change.
The air itself rippled violently, as though it had been exposed to intense heat.
—Bzzzz!
It was as if there had been a sound.
Or perhaps there hadn’t.
In the next instant—
A vast city appeared above the fishing village.
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