Chapter 15: Chapter 15. Mobilization Order

The sun was already hanging in the sky, it might be getting late, and it would definitely be too late to go back now. Lucius would rather stay in Beit Street for one night than drive at night. Having had several unpleasant experiences, he is too aware of how dangerous it is, and it would be an eye opener to survive.

Lucius wrapped the iron-pipe rifle he bought in a plastic bag and tied it to the sharpened water pipe behind him. No one could tell that it was a gun from its appearance. Although Beit Street did not restrict the survivors from carrying weapons, Lucius didn't want the mayor's eyeliner to discover that he had privately traded with the caravan outside. 50g of blue umbrella mushroom is exchanged for only 1 point of chips. Thank goodness these blood-sucking leeches could figure it out!

Go through the gate on Beit Street. Lucius saw that there was a dark circle of people surrounding the door of the recycling station, including men and women, old and young. They are ragged, yellow and thin, with woven bags or frames on their backs, and plastic buckets or other containers in their hands.

Their daily routine is very simple. Exchange the picked up garbage into chips, and then use the chips to exchange for the necessities of life.

"Newly arrived soap! Produced by the Boulder City Chemical Factory, it only needs 3 chips to wash away those disgusting smells on your body. Hurry up and buy one for your wife to use, there are only 30, first come first served."

"Cooking oil, don't care what it is refined, it's all fresh and good stuff, it's shipped from Brown Farm, and it only costs 10 chips per liter... It's a bit expensive, but there are reasons for it, you'd better find someone to fight for it a bit."

"Let me see, by the way, there is also coarse salt! A piece as big as a thumb only costs 5 chips... Don't care how it came about, do you want to eat more good ones? Come and buy them all."

"There are also tobacco leaves, whether you smoke them yourself or use them for bacon. They are also Brown Farm...Forget it, you can choose for yourself, I will rest for a while."

Old Charlie yelled lazily at the door, and his attitude was not at all like a businessman. In fact, this is really not a business, but more like a kind of charity from the master to the servant. Not to mention Beit Street. In this five-mile radius, many things can only be bought here, and people living here have no right to choose. Although Spring City is located in the southern Great Plains, it has already become a reinforced concrete cemetery that is more dangerous than the forest...

Old Charlie wiped his sweat, and handed over the work of collecting money to the shop assistant, while he sat on the side, squinting his eyes to rest. At this time, a thin young man in a gray overcoat walked up to the crowd, waving a wooden sign in his hand.

"Mobilization order! The mayor's mobilization order! Before the end of the month, each household needs to turn in 100 kilograms of firewood and 2 square meters of furs. Tell each other!"

There was a commotion among the crowd. There was a lot of complaints, but no one came out to resist. After all, it was the same way in previous years. Beit Street does not collect taxes, but it does not mean that living here is free. In addition to the soft exploitation of trading rights, the mayor will always collect a batch of supplies in one way or another.

The mobilization order is one of them, and it will be issued every August and September. As for the refusal to collect what will happen? Punishment is also fairly straightforward. All men and women over the age of 16 in the settlement, regardless of whether they live alone or not, as long as they are not married, they are considered as the only household. After marriage, the two are combined into one household.

If the materials are not handed in, the housekeeper who registered the household registration will cross the name of the household from the register, and confiscate his shack on Beit Street, and expel the survivors from the stronghold. In this world where life is thinner than paper, losing the shelter is no different from death. Especially in the cold winter. Although Beit Street is not rich, it is already very good compared to the Brown Farm next door. At least the survivors living here can still have a little bit of freedom.

"It seems that the mayor is planning to make another fortune before the last batch of caravans arrive this year, and spend a good year with the supplies he exchanged," Lucius thought about it, but he didn't take this so-called mobilization order seriously.

He'll be out of here before winter. When the time comes, there is no need for anyone to chase him, he will go by himself. Bypass the Recycle Bin, Lucius went straight to his shack, but before he reached the door, he saw Yuki and a man standing at the door, arguing about something.

The man was about seventeen or sixteen, he was not tall, he was a teenager. Lucius didn't know him well, but he only remembered that he was the third son of the Malcolm family, whose name was Jex Malcolm. His shack is at the farthest corner of the settlement, diagonally opposite Yuki's family, and then Malcolm's family, and he usually doesn't visit there.

I don't know what happened, but the third child of the Malcolm family actually found himself here.

"Step aside."

With an impatient expression on his face, Jex Malcolm stretched out his hand and pushed Yuki who was standing in front of her. The little girl staggered backwards, but she still opened her arms like an eagle guarding a chick, and did not give way.

"No, this is not your house!"

"It's not your house either."

"But he asked me to help watch the house!"

"What's so nice about a dead man's house?"

"He's not dead." Yuki stared at him with eyes like goldfish.

"Stop lying, that stranger hasn't come back for four or five days."

Jex continued impatiently, "Your family just wants a piece of the pie, and I don't intend to take it all by myself. In this way, the beams of the shed and this door belong to me, and you take the rest."

The house of the dead is unoccupied and usually divided among the neighbors. No one believed that a person would be considered dead if he didn’t come back for a few days, but usually no one came back for a few days. Everyone agreed that he was either captured by slave traders or looters, or was picked up by a foreign species to feed his cubs.

No one can survive multiple nights in a row outside. Difficult to do even for experienced hunters.

Yuki bit his lower lip until it turned blue, his eyes were staring like a little goldfish, he wouldn't move away no matter what, but he didn't make any other movements.

Jex didn't want to wait any longer, the men of Yuki's family would come back soon, and if they come then he couldn't get any benefits by himself, so he planned to push her away forcibly.

However, at this moment, a hand was placed on his shoulder.

"Who said I'm dead?"

Jex's hairs trembled, and he jumped aside suddenly, looking at Lucius with fear like a beast. Yuki quickly slipped behind Lucius to hide, and whispered a report.

"He came yesterday and wanted to tear down your house."

"Thanks."

Lucius looked at Jex with a half-smile, and continued, "Are you going by yourself, or shall I take you?"

Jex knew he was wrong and couldn't argue, so he glanced at the blood-stained steel pipe on Lucius's back, and finally left silently. He was not afraid of the Yuki and her family, nor was he afraid of this outsider, but no one wanted to offend a man of strong physique. Especially this guy who is alone and has no weaknesses at all.

Looking at this man's back, Lucius suddenly felt a little sad. Although some people are alive, they are indistinguishable from the hyenas and vultures outside. He once saw a mutant hyena bite off the neck of an injured companion and share its meat. At that time, he didn't think much about it, he just regarded it as a law of nature, but now he feels a little empathy.

I have only been away for a few days, and these people are already ready to move.

Yuki, who was hiding behind Lucius, did not leave. She thought that if she waited a little longer, she might be able to eat the candy she ate that day. She had never eaten anything so sweet, and she almost chewed the plastic stick.

Notice the big eyes looking at him.

Lucius was taken aback for a moment, then came back to what was going on, smiled and took out a lollipop that he forgot to eat from his pocket, and stuffed it into the little girl's hand.

"I've troubled you for the past few days."

"No trouble!"

Yuki happily tore off the plastic paper, stuffed the lollipop into his mouth, and said vaguely, "Anyway, I have nothing else to do. I can help you watch when you go out."

At this time, the mens of the Yuki's family came back from the recycling bin with their loot on their backs. It can be seen from the bulging package that they have gained a lot.

Yuki quickly hid in the house after seeing her eldest brother, second brother and father. Earning and eating sweets is just a side job, and stalking foreign talents is a task assigned by her elders. Yuki has not forgotten the job given to her by her elder.

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However, no matter how fast her movements were, it was impossible for her to be faster than the hunter's eyes.

The head of the Yuki's family her father,—the old man with a healthy body and wrinkled face glanced at Lucius, said nothing, and entered the house together with his eldest son, who was carrying two bags of green wheat.

Yugin, the second brother of Yuki, stopped in front of Lucius.

Lucius recognized him.

People here don't pay much attention to themselves, and this eighteen or nineteen-year-old boy is one of the few people who will take the initiative to talk to him.It's just that this person always speaks straight to the point.

"You haven't been here these days, I thought you were dead."

Lucius said.

"It seems that your intuition is not quite right."

Yugin froze for a moment, grinned and patted his head. This foreigner is very interesting, his way of speaking is different from others, and he always likes to turn a corner.

Didn't care, Yugin continued, "I have to tell you, the mayor just issued a mobilization order, and each household has to hand in 100 kilograms of firewood and 2 squares of furs before the end of the month."

There are three adult males in the Yuki family, who need to pay 300 kilograms of firewood and 6 square meters of furs. They are considered 'Big taxpayers' on Beit Street.

Fortunately for the former, vegetation is everywhere in the city, and even the outer suburbs to the north can see large tracts of woodland. Even if there is no mobilization order from the mayor, they have to cut some back to prepare for the winter. But the latter is not so easy to deal with, at least four, or even five mutant hyenas must be killed for 6 square meters of fur.

"I heard about it when I got back."

"That's good."

Yugin didn't beat around the bush, but went straight to the point.

"We were discussing with the Lumin family just now, and we plan to try our luck in the northern woodland. It is said that there are traces of deer migration there. If we can catch two, not only the skin, but also the meat, do you want to go together?"

"It's okay, I'll figure it out myself."

Lucius euphemistically refused, but he silently remembered it in his heart.

The scavengers on Beit Street are planning to go hunting in the north, and the Wetland Park happens to be a little west of the north, so I hope they won't encounter them by then.

Naturally, Yugin didn't know what Lucius was thinking, so he continued to persuade him as if he was embarrassed.

"I can see that you are a capable person, but no matter how capable a person is, there is a limit. The boy from the Malcolm family dares to bully you because he has a large number of people."

"Well, my sister will be married next year, why don't you marry her, so that we will be a family. If you're in a hurry, it's okay to have a wedding tonight."

Lucius almost choked on this sentence, coughed and said.

"No need."

What the hell? How did the topic jump to this. Besides, Lucius from a civilized society could not accept the marriageable age acceptable to these survivors.

He is still young, and it is too early to get married.

"Hey, that's fine."

Yugin didn't try to persuade him anymore, he just expressed regret in his heart. The people who came out of the refuge were all very smart, just like the old man named Charlie, who has been helping the mayor since he can remember, and is a big shot in the eyes of the neighbors.

Old man Charlie said that Lucius also came out of the shelter, so there should be nothing wrong with that, and his brain must be very good. If he could have a son with his sister, then his family might produce a big man like old Charlie in the future.

He even made plans to convince his father. But now it seems that he is self-indulgent.

Then Yugin went home with his stuff, and grabbed his sister.

"Yuki, I want to asks you something, will you marry brother Lucius next door, would you like to?"

With the lollipop still stuffed in his mouth, the little fish cooed.

"Okay, I don't mind."

Anyway, it's at the door of the house, not far away.

In her eyes, the so-called marriage is nothing more than a different place to sleep, there is no difference, maybe you can get two more candies.

Yugin, who was planning to give up at first, said happily.

"Then your brother will help you persuade him."

"Aww."

Yuki responded casually, only caring about eating sweets.

It was Yugin, who was talking enthusiastically there.

"Okay, I'll talk to Big Brother and Dad, but don't just wait there, if you have time, go to Mother to learn how to make pancakes... Whatever you are eating, give me a taste."

"No!"

Seeing that the second brother wanted to grab his candy, Yuki was instantly unhappy, and the cat dodged and ran away without a trace.

......

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