Chapter 314: Failed Product

Evelyn Ford remembered that when she was hoarding supplies before the apocalypse, she had bought a lot of sanitary pads in bulk. The quality was fine, but they were very cheap—two hundred pads for only twenty yuan.

The last time she went to Westeria, she had also picked up quite a few, but she’d forgotten to take them out. As a result, when Wendy and Wyatt Vaughn needed some later, she had no plausible way to give them any.

This was the perfect opportunity to take some out.

Evelyn Ford looked at Ronan Kendrick. "How many sheep do you think we should take with us?"

"Do you need to trade for a lot of things?"

Evelyn Ford nodded. "Quite a bit. Mainly things like gasoline, but I also want to trade for some rice, flour, oil, and salt."

"Three."

"Won’t that be too few? I was planning on taking five. And this time, we’re not bringing the Mammoth, just the two horses. The Mammoth is too big of a target."

"Three will be enough. I suggest we trade the cigarettes and alcohol. That stuff is more valuable and can be traded to the wealthy."

Now that he mentioned it, Evelyn Ford had to agree he had a point.

Evelyn Ford had another idea. "After we get back from trading at the base, I plan to make a trip to Mount Caldera. If it really is a bandit hideout, then we’ll wipe them out in one fell swoop."

Ronan Kendrick had the same idea. "I suspect there are ’failed products’ on Mount Caldera, and more than one."

"Putting together all the information we’ve gathered recently, the bandits on Mount Caldera are extremely strong. Their combat prowess is very high, they possess advanced weaponry, and they’re ruthless. They rob, they kill—they stop at nothing. I’ve been thinking, if they were just ordinary people, how could they have gotten those weapons? Before society collapsed, the country didn’t just ban firearms; even edged, regulated weapons were under strict control."

Ronan Kendrick sat across from her, toying with the handgun they had confiscated a few days ago as he analyzed the situation on Mount Caldera.

"Then how did they bring all that stuff here? Did they escape and then recruit a bunch of subordinates? Oh, right, how many ’failed products’ are there?"

Ronan Kendrick was silent for a few seconds. "There were one hundred people in my batch of test subjects. My designation was Eighteen. Only six of us were ’successes.’ The rest were all ’failures.’"

Evelyn Ford was stunned.

’That many failures?’

"How are the ’failures’ disposed of?"

"It’s the same principle as decommissioning a robot. You destroy its programming, eliminate all its derivative abilities, wipe its memory, and then euthanize it." After speaking, Ronan Kendrick actually offered a slight smile.

"I saw with my own eyes how they dealt with those ’failures.’ It was the most horrific torture in the world."

A pang of sorrow went through Evelyn Ford’s heart. She walked over and took Ronan Kendrick’s hand.

"Ronan Kendrick, have you ever considered that those ’failures’ were only disposed of on the surface? Perhaps their programming was altered, turning them into ’bad guys.’ If there really are ’failures’ on Mount Caldera, then that suspicion is plausible."

Ronan Kendrick looked at Evelyn Ford. "The ones who altered the programming... what did they want?"

"Who knows."

Ronan Kendrick suddenly chuckled. "A pity. I killed all the researchers and professors."

——

At eight o’clock the next morning, everyone gathered on the level ground. Evelyn Ford gave instructions on what needed to be done in her absence and left the crate of weapons with Officer Graham.

"Ronan Kendrick and I are taking the horse-drawn carriage to trade for supplies. We’re also taking three of the argali sheep. We’ll be counting on all of you while we’re gone. We’ll be back as soon as we can."

"Evelyn, we need to trade for some medicine! And seeds."

"Okay, I’ve got it."

After hitching the horses to the carriage and eating breakfast, Evelyn Ford and Ronan Kendrick departed.

Before she left, she gave Officer Graham a good supply of poison, telling him to spray it around the perimeter of Immeasurable Mountain.

This time, Evelyn Ford didn’t bring Mina and the others. The carriage was the same one as before. Evelyn lay down on the bed to sleep while Ronan Kendrick sat reading by the push-out window. The two horses were so intelligent they needed no commands at all.

Once they were out of Fairgate, the roads became more crowded. Some people were heading into the mountains to hunt, while many others were chopping firewood or gathering leaves.

When a coal truck passed, any bits that fell off were immediately scooped up by people on the roadside. Others waited there specifically to ambush drivers and steal their cargo.

Evelyn Ford and Ronan Kendrick disguised themselves to look like vicious bandits, donning worn-out military greatcoats with long knives hanging from their waists. One look and you knew not to mess with them.

The pair reached a junction and decided to head south with a convoy bound for The Southward. They bartered for lunch at a diner, picking up quite a few rumors and getting to know a truck driver who hauled coal.

"If you want to trade for grain, you’d best go to Frelia. They have huge reserves. Rumor is they still haven’t run out of their pre-apocalypse stock. Food from the other provinces was all moved there. Frelia’s not only full of rich people, but all the top leadership is there too, along with a massive military presence."

The driver accepted a pack of cigarettes and immediately became talkative.

"That’s too far. We don’t have the time for such a trek. We heard The Southward has a base, too. We figured we’d try our luck there."

The driver nodded. "The Southward is sure to have food, but the roads are rough, and there are lots of bandits. You two need to be careful."

Hearing this, Evelyn Ford’s eyes lit up. She couldn’t wait to run into more bandits.

’When that time comes, it’ll be hard to say who’s robbing whom,’ she thought.

"Are you heading to The Southward, sir?"

The driver shook his head. "I’m heading for the Oakhaven base, but I run routes to Frelia, too. Good thing my family has a freight truck, or in this day and age, I’d have nothing to eat."

"Just follow these logging caravans. They’re headed for The Southward. Even if you run into bandits, you’ll be safe. After all, you don’t look like you have anything worth taking, so they won’t bother you. But some bandits have no scruples; they’ll kidnap people, too. They take the women back as wives and the men for hard labor. You two look like a couple, so be extra careful."

The driver was a tough character himself; he had at least three handguns and two daggers hidden on his person.

Evelyn Ford smiled. She’d learned about as much as she was going to. It was time to leave.

After bidding the driver farewell, the pair left with the southbound convoy.

There were many other refugees on the road to The Southward as well: some in cars, some on tricycles, some on foot, some riding donkeys...

The argali sheep followed behind them, drawing stares from everyone they passed. Some people came up to ask their price, but Evelyn Ford wasn’t interested in trading.

Evelyn Ford considered killing the sheep and putting them in her space, but live argali were far more valuable.

Remembering how someone had tried to threaten her into trading an argali for gold bars, Evelyn Ford took a safe out of her space.

The safe was filled with gold bars, so bright and glittering they were almost blinding to Evelyn Ford.

’I wonder if I’ll ever get a chance to use these,’ she thought. ’They’d make for nice burial goods, I suppose, but it still feels like a waste.’

Just as Evelyn Ford was about to put the gold bars away, her finger scraped against the edge of the safe. The sharp metal sliced her skin, and blood immediately began to gush from the cut.

Ronan Kendrick looked exasperated as he hurried over to bandage her hand. But just then, Evelyn Ford’s blood dripped onto the gold bars, staining several of them.

Evelyn Ford didn’t bother wiping them clean, simply putting them back into her space. She didn’t notice that the moment the blood-stained gold bars entered her space, they vanished completely.