Doomsday America

Chapter 85 The Bull Meets the Cow (Ten Chapters Complete!)
"Fuck, this is the first time I've ever done something so wasteful."

Over the intercom, Eugene grinned and joked.

"Is this the luxurious life of a big farmer? It reminds me of those exaggerated tabloid news stories, the kind where you guys pour milk down the drain."

"Hehe, we all collapsed in the river, otherwise, why do you think the Asian carp here are so big?"

Gavin responded with a smile, then watched as Eugene opened the chicken coop door.

He followed Eugene into the chicken coop, opening the cages repeatedly while looking at the eggs being transported and placed in a central location.

"Great! We're not just moving 300,000 eggs. Our hens are really hardworking; they've been starving all day and still managed to lay so many eggs!"

"Of course, we don't raise ordinary chickens, these are chickens that Gavin Farm has been raising for two and a half years!"

Steve made a joke and simultaneously turned the temperature of the cold storage to the lowest level.

Then, he rode up to catch up with the herd of cows that were getting further and further away, and said.

“I’ll continue herding the cattle. You guys catch up as soon as possible. About six kilometers ahead is the house in Anfield, where there might be a few zombies lurking.”

"Or I should get there early to send our cowboy buddy away. With Annie's help, I can handle him in case he turns our cows into his zombie brothers!"

At this point, Steve looked at Gavin from afar.

Gavin responded by taking out his walkie-talkie.

"There's no need to worry too much about the zombie cows. Zombies aren't very interested in animals, and zombie cows are big targets, making them easy to aim at. As long as they don't gather in groups, they're not too dangerous."

"I will compile and print out the information I have gathered about the zombies tonight. It's time to put the computer and printer at home to use."

"By the way, can the printer be used without internet? I really didn't know that."

Gavin concluded by asking everyone a question.

Hearing his question, everyone stared at the walkie-talkie in silence for a long time.

Until Steve responded awkwardly.

"Hey bro, do you know how to play Call of Duty? If not, I can teach you, but don't expect me to do anything else."

"Me too, and I'm really good at using a sniper rifle. As for the printer, let's try it out together tonight."

After responding, Eugene continued to open the doors of the chicken coop, driving the chickens out.

Hearing everyone's answers, Gavin shook his head helplessly and tentatively continued to ask.

"And you, Mike, do you know anything about this kind of thing, coming from the streets of Chicago?"

Upon hearing this, the walkie-talkie remained silent for a while before Madison responded with a helpless sigh.

"Fuck Chicago..."

"Ha, alright, we'll talk about the printer tonight. Eugene and I will try to get it done as quickly as possible and catch up with the cattle."

Gavin ignored the printer issue and gestured for Steve to move forward from a distance.

Seeing this, Steve rode his horse and chased after the herd, running back and forth behind them to drive them in all directions and maintain their overall direction.

Gavin and his companion then began to struggle with the chicken coop, trying to open the cages as quickly as possible.

After a day and a half of hunger, the hens, just like the cows, learned to find food on their own.

Although……

Well, with the weather in February, there's really not much for hens to eat, and I don't know how many hens will survive.

All Gavin could do was release most of the hens, find the feed warehouse, and move out a dozen or so bags of feed to dump on the grass for the hens.

Just as the hens were pecking at the food quickly, and, as if they were fools, scattering the neatly arranged feed all over the ground,...

The sound of an engine came from behind Gavin.

"Boss."

Madison asked into the walkie-talkie as he drove closer.

Should I just chase after Steve?

"Go on, Mike. That's a great idea. Keep it up."

Gavin responded with a shout, then continued moving the feed.

The farm has roughly half broiler chickens and half laying hens, and most of them are in the growing stage, eating at least 100 grams of feed every day.

With 40,000 chickens, the daily consumption of chicken feed would be at least four tons.

A bag of chicken feed weighs only fifty kilograms. If you want to feed these little feathered babies who are flapping around wildly and clucking to express their hunger, that's all you can do.

Gavin would have to open at least eighty bags of feed!

Seeing this, Eugene quickly rushed over and helped Gavin move and disassemble the parts.

After working for more than ten minutes, the two finally managed to pour about the right amount of feed on the ground and plug the hen's beak.

Gavin let out a sigh of relief and, together with Eugene, mounted their horses and rode off towards the cows.

Gavin chased after the cattle until he caught up with them, then rode past them on horseback, speaking into the walkie-talkie.

"Steve continues herding cattle, Eugene and I speed up, let's scout out the detached houses ahead."

“Apart from the farm town, the surrounding roads are all lined with independent houses. Even if there are still zombies left, it is unlikely that more than three will jump out at the same time.”

"If we just keep fighting our way through, in my memory we'll probably only encounter four detached houses."

"Steve, has anyone built a new house around here in the last two years?"

Gavin asked Steve for confirmation one last time, and Steve quickly responded.

"No, the cowboys who have come in the last two years either live near the plantation or have all gathered in the town."

"Moreover, most of the owners of those detached houses along the road have gone to the town to have parties."

"receive."

Gavin said he understood, and then he and Eugene turned right onto the highway and continued along the road.

Madison leaned out of the car window and said as he watched the two people pass by the car.

"Boss, should I go too?"

"It's inconvenient for you to fire while you're driving. If there's any special circumstances, I'll notify you over the radio."

As soon as he finished speaking, Gavin continued his charge on horseback, and the two gradually left the herd behind, eventually approaching the single house that Steve had mentioned.

When he was about 200 meters away from the house, Gavin raised his pistol and fired a shot without hesitation.

boom!
After the gunshot, the two rode their horses around the house, watching helplessly as a zombie charged out of the house on its own.

The zombie first rushed towards the direction of the gunshot, then quickly changed direction and continued to charge towards the two of them.

"Great job, it's shipped!"

Seeing that there was only one zombie, Eugene grinned excitedly, while Gavin immediately drew his HK416.

As Gavin brought Octavian to a stop, he pulled the trigger, and the bullet pierced the zombie's chest.

The zombie staggered twice after being hit by the bullet, then continued its charge using both hands and feet.

Seeing this, Eugene raised his hand and fired a shot, blowing the zombie's head off from eighty meters away.

After dealing with the zombies, Eugene chuckled and approached Gavin, holding his rifle and making a sarcastic remark.

"Boss, you were actually pretty accurate. If that had been a living person, you would have had another kill!"

"Stop making snide remarks about me. I'll set aside an hour tonight to practice shooting. We're not short of bullets anyway."

Gavin responded as he spurred his horse to the front of the house, then jumped off, hammer in hand.

Gavin kicked the front door hard, paused for two seconds, then rushed inside and searched the room. After searching, Gavin left the empty room through the back door, took off his gloves, and whistled.

Octavian galloped in, Gavin leaped onto his horse, caught up with Eugene who was still moving forward, and continued charging toward the next house.

There were indeed only four houses along the way, but there were even fewer zombies than houses—only two!
In less than fifteen minutes, they approached the vicinity of the cattle herd with two kills.

Gavin cautiously stopped his horse and picked up his binoculars to observe the cattle that could be faintly seen in the distance.

Nearby, Eugene held up his binoculars for a moment to confirm, then shook his head and said.

"We're about 1.7 kilometers from the edge of the herd, and we haven't seen any signs of zombie cattle yet. Should we move a little closer?"

"Let's go, horses run faster than oxen."

Gavin nodded and controlled Octavian to move forward at a constant speed.

When they were only about 600 meters away from the herd, the two men approached the edge of the herd along the road and continued to observe the herd at a moderate speed.

The herd of cattle was very long, and there was a possibility that there might be zombie cattle at the end. Gavin wouldn't make a mistake like that.

While remaining vigilant, Eugene noticed something and spoke to Gavin.

"Wait, boss, aren't we supposed to let the cattle out? But I see these cattle are no longer in the pen!"

Yes, there was indeed a large herd of cattle in front of them, but the two of them hadn't even reached the cattle pen yet.

Clearly, beef cattle are not as docile as dairy cows.

After being hungry for at least a day and a half, they had long since broken out of the cattle pen, led by the lead cow.

Even without being fed, the cattle are not starving. They now roam freely around the pasture, leisurely grazing on the nearby semi-dried grass.

Gavin Farm doesn't raise sheep, so there's no need to worry about sheep jumping out and eating the grass roots.

Cows don't dig up the roots when they graze, so as long as the farm's pasture area is large enough, there's no need to worry about the cattle starving.

Upon hearing Eugene's teasing, Gavin grinned and responded.

"There's no way around it, after all, these are cattle raised by Texans, so their temperaments are naturally as tough as the Texans themselves."

"But it's good, at least we don't have to waste our time."

As soon as he finished speaking, Gavin circled the edge of the massive herd and headed towards its end.

The procession of over 67,000 cattle was so massive it was beyond imagination; the sheer scale of it was even greater than a parade of 100,000 people.

Gavin and his companion cautiously followed the herd of cattle for three kilometers before finally stopping at a three-way intersection.

Gavin spurred his horse closer to the signpost, raised his hand to lean against the signpost's pillar, and spoke to Eugene.

"This three-way intersection is the main dividing line of the farm. The road on the left leads to the pasture, the road on the right leads to the farmland, and the road in the middle connects to the farm town."

"If we have the opportunity to bypass the farm town and continue for another 26 kilometers, we will reach the airport located on the eastern edge of the farm."

"And the other independent households on the farm, apart from the town's main residential area, are mostly concentrated along the road leading from the town to the airport on the east side."

Just as Gavin got to this point, Eugene couldn't help but ask a question out of curiosity.

"Why is that? I thought they would live closer to your farm, the ranch owner's estate."

Upon hearing Eugene's question, Gavin explained softly.

"Because the farmland is located between the farm town and the airport on the east side, and the planting area needs to be maintained and looked after by farmers from time to time."

"Whether it's flocks of birds and insect infestations, or wild animals like wild boars and deer, farmers must promptly identify and protect their crops to avoid having their pay docked by the farmers you're talking about."

At this point, Gavin took a breath through his nose, and then his face turned slightly pale.

He raised his hand and fanned himself twice in front of his nose, then continued explaining.

"As for why so few people settle near ranches, you'd better not ask me such a stupid question."

"Use your nose to feel it, smell the smell of these guys who produce thousands of tons of cow dung every day on the pasture."

"Aside from the smell, as long as there is enough grazing time, the beef cattle will rarely cause trouble at night when they have enough energy and feed."

"That's why we only saw four scattered houses on our way here."

As soon as he finished speaking, Gavin turned to look at the road leading to the farm town.

Looking into the distance, although the town was not yet visible, there was also no sign of zombies.

Noticing the direction Gavin was looking, Eugene patted the horse's neck and said something.

"What should we do next? Should we go to the town ahead to scout ahead, or turn back and meet up with the two of them?"

"Let's rendezvous with them first. Steve knows the town better than I do. We need to be extra cautious when facing hordes of zombies."

As soon as he finished speaking, Gavin turned his horse around and quickly returned along the same route.

Before long, the two met up with the dairy cows, then resumed their initial three-person formation and drove the dairy cows toward the beef cattle herd.

Seeing Gavin and the other man return, Steve breathed a sigh of relief and fired a shot from a distance to urge the cattle to speed up.

Thanks to the continuous acceleration, in just over forty minutes, the black and white dairy cows, amidst the beaming faces of a large herd of beef cattle, joyfully rushed into the herd!

Don't ask me why dairy cows and beef cattle are so happy.

Why do bulls get upset when they encounter a herd of cows?
Should the bull worry about being kicked out by the cow?

Or do cows need to be afraid of bulls bragging about coins?

On the side, I watched as two herds of cattle quickly converged and roamed freely in the pasture.

Steve grimaced awkwardly, sighed, and muttered something under his breath.

"Damn it, when I was learning to be a cowboy from my dad, I never imagined I'd be releasing so many high-quality cattle!"

"If my dad had lived four years longer and was still alive today, his heart condition would probably have flared up right now..."

As soon as he finished speaking, Steve reluctantly jumped off his horse and went to the cow at the very end of the herd, reaching out his hand to it with a melancholy air.

Noticing Steve's approach, the cow hesitated for a moment, then slowly moved closer to Steve and rubbed its head against his pants.

Steve pursed his lips, raised his hand to rub the cow's face, and sighed melancholically.

Watching Steve interact with the cow, Gavin shook his head and rode over to them.

"Buddy, let's go, we need to save time."

"Hmm, uh...where do we go next?"

Steve agreed and turned to climb onto the horse.

Gavin pointed to the middle of the three-way intersection and said softly.

"It's almost 3 p.m. now, and there are still about three hours until sunset."

"Let's go to the farm town first to check the situation and try to find an opportunity to confirm whether there are any survivors in the town."

"Then, we need to bypass the town without attracting the zombies and go to the ranch area to search for some seasonal seeds."

"Finally, we need to leave at least an hour and a half to come back and select five dairy cows and thirty beef cattle to take back to the vicinity of the estate to raise."

"There's a lot to do, everyone hurry up."

As soon as he finished speaking, Gavin shouted "Giddy up!" and Octavian immediately stepped forward, prompting the three of them to chase after him.

The sounds of horses' hooves and car engines created by the four people attracted the attention of the cows wandering nearby.

After a moment, the cows lowered their heads and began to graze.

Their only survival pressure is to fill their stomachs.

Therefore, they don't care at all what a town overrun by zombies would be like.

(End of this chapter)