Chapter 67: Southern Piers

After Alex and his friends went back to the dorm building, the day wasn’t over yet.

He briefed Eddy and the others on the observation points they’ve created in the buildings around the college campus.

They also took the time to plan out the patrol routes while Terry made dinner.

Eddy and the others were open to it as they and the other students had been feeling stressed from being confined within the dorm building for so long.

He went on and discussed with them about what to do if a sighting of a mutated beast or strangers was made.

The procedures of whether they should engage or get to safety had to be made clear so that there wouldn’t be any avoidable casualties.

It took them a while to get to an agreeable state but it was worth the effort.

Even if they moved in the future, they would still need to be doing the same no matter where they were.

Better to get it over and done with for now.

"We will get the observation and patrol details done and it will start as soon as possible." Eddy said when they were done and Alex nodded at him.

So far, Eddy and Lin had handled the matters in the dorm building well.

Alex had the confidence in them that they would get it done smoothly.

Eddy and the others left the room next to brief the other students on the observation points and patrol.

After they were gone, Alex went to the power room on the ground floor with some of the students that were studying electrical engineering.

He had some of the generators that he had gotten from the Halmart waiting for them there in the room and asked, "I’m not sure if there’s a way to use these to generate electricity with these instead?

"Maybe some of you can help with it?"

The electrical students opened their eyes wide when they saw the generators.

"We can give it a try." One of them said enthusiastically.

They had been living without electricity for a few days after it went out and many of the appliances that provided convenience wouldn’t work anymore. 𝑓𝑟ℯℴ𝓂

Even having lighting would be a blessing for them now, so they were eager for it to work too.

"Then, I’ll leave it to you guys." Alex said and went back to where his friends were.

When he opened the door, the aroma of warm pasta mixed with the mushroom soup filled the air.

The packaged pasta, canned pasta sauce and canned mushroom soup from the supermarket came in handy after such a long day for them.

"So, what shall we do next?" Riley asked while they were enjoying the meal.

Alex put down his fork and said, "We will have to start with scouting a safe route to the hydroelectric dam as soon as possible, so I was thinking of doing it tomorrow.

"And we can try and scavenge for supplies and transport vehicles required for the move at the same time."

"We can try to clear the route until the edge of the city for a start.

"The highway to the city isn’t that populated and it’s pretty far away from the woods." Brian nodded his head and said.

It sounded like a good start to Alex.

If there were serviceable buses and trucks stranded on the highway, it would be perfect for him.

"That’s settled then." Alex said and he pondered for a moment.

From the edge of the highway it was a short distance to the southern piers where the quarantine area was.

What Teresa had said was still in his mind and he couldn’t decide whether they should make the trip there to see what was happening in the quarantine area.

But it would be a huge risk for them to do so.

Alex sighed and thought that it would be perfect if he had an ability that allowed him to conduct stealth operations.

Right now, his and his friends’ abilities were all offensive, which might not be most appropriate if he wanted to gather information without being discovered.

He decided to stop thinking about it for now.

It was going to be midnight soon, and who knows, maybe the new ability would be appropriate for it.

Just as he was pondering, the room was lit up.

Alex lifted his head and the light in the room was turned on again.

"Yes!"

"Finally, there’s electricity again!"

"Shhh.... Lower your voices."

The other students in the dorm building couldn’t help but give out a cheer when their rooms were also lit.

Although it wasn’t much, getting more of the modern conveniences back, one thing at a time, was indeed something for them to cheer about.

They knew that they were miles above the others out in the wilderness without food, water, and safety.

All of them thought that they’d made the right choice to stick with Alex so far, and they weren’t planning to change it anytime soon.

Alex gave out a sigh of relief and he slurped the last bit of mushroom soup he had.

Finally, he didn’t have to live in darkness when nightfall anymore.

...

Southern Piers, Quarantine Area.

The nurse that Alex met previously sat alone in a room and a group of armed men in army uniform and women in white coats and armored gear came into it.

She glanced at them and asked, "Where are the others?"

The old folks and children who were with her had been separated from her the moment they came into the quarantine area.

"They are undergoing the same quarantine procedures as you are right now." One of the women said, stepping forward with an empty syringe, and she plunged the syringe into the nurse’s forearm.

Within a moment, the syringe was filled with the blood from the nurse.

She didn’t make any eye contact with the nurse and turned around to get out of the room immediately.

"Wait here while we run some tests on your blood samples before we decide what to do with you." Another of the white coats said and the nurse was perturbed by it.

"What do you mean by that? I thought you are supposed to bring all of us into the quarantine area until this whole thing is under control?"