Kingdom of Corrosion
Chapter 902 - 393 Rowing Upstream (Part 1)

Chapter 902: Chapter 393 Rowing Upstream (Part 1)

During the early morning breakfast, the flood had already entered the city district. Days of rain overwhelmed the city’s drainage capacity, and the sudden flood surge caused the already waterlogged urban water levels to skyrocket. The broadcast reported the situation, estimating that within 30 hours, most of Day After Tomorrow City would be submerged with an average depth of reaching five meters. All survivors were advised to stay away from low-lying buildings and avoid going out as much as possible.

The Shadow Refuge began to lower the first set of rubber rafts. They had constructed a support and pulley outside the window, and the electric descent system was slowly letting down the two rafts in pairs. As the rafts touched the water, Snow Egg, wearing it, shouted a stop through the walkie-talkie, untying the ropes and reaching the water line securely.

The previously calm murky river water churned for a moment, and the Dao Su raft collided with the wall, causing the two rubber rafts to spin. Snow Egg turned his head to see both rafts being sucked into the underground parking lot’s drainage system, so he yelled, "Grab onto the walls."

Su Shi held a drill gun and made a hole in the wall, while Little Knife used her fingers and shoulders to rub against the wall to slow down the drifting speed of the boat. Su Shi took out an expansion screw from his mouth, drove it into the wall, and then hung a net rope on it. The two rubber rafts stopped by sticking to the wall.

But things were not over yet. While Su Shi and Snow Egg were installing the engine propellers, Little Knife warned that 20 meters away a cabinet was being sucked toward the direction of the underground parking lot. Although the suction was not strong, the cabinet was large and heavy, and a collision would certainly not be good. Little Knife and Shana each took out a homemade hook gun to brace against the cabinet, pushing it to one side.

Just as this crisis was resolved, two zombies fell from the 6th floor, landing in the water in front of the rubber rafts. The zombies floated on the water like rotten wood. They could not swim and couldn’t be drowned, grimacing towards the two boats and reaching out to the humans with their claws in mid-air. When the hook guns pierced their bodies, they grabbed the guns and wrestled with the humans for them.

In the midst of this struggle, the zombies got closer to the raft, and Snow Egg took a homemade paddle and knelt on the edge of the raft, striking the zombies’ heads. The zombies grabbed the paddle and gnawed on it, instantly tearing off a piece of the inferior paddle. Shana stabbed a hook gun into a zombie’s shin, pushing it outward, and with a push from Snow Egg, the zombie floated past half a meter from their raft. The two of them immediately went to assist Dao Su raft.

After the ordeal, the homemade raft was lowered into the water. Snow Egg used a hook gun to pull the homemade raft, with Xiao Wen aboard coordinating the knot tying. The homemade raft floated to the back of the team’s rubber raft.

Once things below were stable, Stone and Xiao Wu’s Stone Wu raft, as well as Lin Wu and Lin Meng’s Double Forest raft, began to be lowered. Lin Wu was not in the boat; he stayed to control the electric motor. When he heard Stone say "good" through the walkie-talkie, Lin Wu decisively stopped letting out the rope and slid down the rope from the 51st floor to Double Forest raft.

Everyone operated in the rain and tied the second group of rubber rafts to the homemade raft with ropes. The four rafts started their engine propellers and each raised an arm to indicate they were ready. Shana gave the order, Lin Wu cut the rope, Lin Meng operated the propeller towards the right, and Stone Wu raft followed. The first group, Dao Su raft and Snow Shana raft, removed the net ropes hung on the wall and went to the left front of the homemade raft. The two groups of rafts towed the homemade raft, following the direction indicated by Shana’s hook gun towards West City.

The precise name for the propeller engine is an outboard motor, and the four rubber rafts used two-stroke 18-horsepower engines. They could reach up to 5500 revolutions per minute, equipped with a 15-liter diesel tank. Keeping the revolutions at about a thousand, the fuel consumption was 1.2 liters per hour. But if the power was fully open, the fuel consumption would reach 7 liters per hour.

In the city center, the water was calm, with most cars already sunk beneath it. The navigator Shana estimated the water depth based on the road conditions. Zombies posed a major problem for the fleet. Although they had lost the ability to move forward, there were just too many zombies, and occasionally they needed to use hook guns to outsmart them.

The second threat came from the city’s drainage system, which created suction and continuous influx of flood waters, producing some wave crests.

The third threat was underwater. The two groups of ships unknowingly advanced while a signal light pole was submerged between them. Fortunately, Xiao Wen on the homemade raft gave a timely warning, and through a series of maneuvers, they avoided the fate of the raft being cut open.

The main threat was zombies, but the biggest hidden danger was still the homemade raft. To put it plainly, the homemade raft was just a boat wrapped in waterproof cloth, with no anti-puncture capabilities, and it would break at a single scrape. Even with several layers of cloth added to the outer layer, the effect was very limited.

The team’s food and other main supplies were all on the homemade raft. If anything happened to the homemade raft, it was almost no different from them running naked. This was also an important reason to control the speed of the outboard motor.

The route Shana had chosen was mainly along major roads. Even so, troubles were continuous. The large amount of small garbage on the water’s surface was manageable, but the most feared were the bigger objects. In the floodwaters, heavy skyscrapers were relatively stable, while buildings like villas were basically destroyed by the flood at first contact.

The water came from West City, which was an industrial zone and a slum area. Here, many self-built homes by residents had already turned into trash, some sinking into the water, and some floating with the muddy waves.

"Stop the boats," Shana ordered with the walkie-talkie.

The fleet halted, and Lin Wu and Little Knife dove into the water, swimming over ten meters away. The two worked together to push a large wooden pillar connected to a door aside. Then they returned to their respective boats. Just that one task cost both of them a lot of Physical Strength.