Doomsday America.

Chapter 278 What a coincidence!

As soon as he finished speaking, Gavin immediately put down the communicator and waited anxiously for a reply on the radio.

At the temporary camp on Lake Livingston, the setting sun and the increasingly reddish ripples on the lake served as constant reminders to Gavin that night was approaching. The astronauts had returned safely; at least, apart from the wounded mentioned by Ivan, everyone else was safe for the time being—a good thing, a great thing. But here's the problem: this great thing… hadn't landed at Gavin's camp at all; it had flown off to some unknown place! Thinking of this, Gavin rubbed his cowboy hat in frustration.

Meanwhile, on his walkie-talkie, the pilots were still questioning him about the reconnaissance operation.

Old Feng, piloting the helicopter, said to Gavin:

"Boss, I'm pretty sure the astronauts didn't crash near Livingston Lake. After all, those were rocket reentry capsules; their return wouldn't be quiet, and Livingston Lake isn't that big." "So, if they actually crashed near us, we should at least have noticed!"

"Have the astronauts replied to you? Did they mention exactly where they landed?"

"But anyway, boss, since we can still contact them by radio, it means they haven't landed on the other side of the earth, right?" At this point, Old Feng's voice quieted down, and Edward's voice immediately followed.

Edward said to Gavin:

"Boss, Feng is right. The astronauts shouldn't be too far from us, and they have the return capsule for protection... Well, in the face of zombies, I'm sure the return capsule really is a form of protection." "Anyway, we don't need to worry about their safety for the time being, and they have to determine their location themselves and tell us before we can bring them back!" "So, should we land now and decide whether to go back to our farm to rest tonight, or continue to make do at the Livingston temporary camp for another night?" As he said this, Edward glanced at the sky, and the increasingly orange-red sunset made him take an uneasy breath.

He hadn't flown much near Livingston Lake at night, and once darkness fell, the experience of flying a helicopter made him a little nervous. Gavin, upon hearing Edward and Old Feng's words, immediately wanted to reply.

But before he could even pull out the walkie-talkie, the astronaut's voice suddenly came through the radio!

At that moment, Gavin abandoned his communication with the pilot and immediately turned his attention to the radio.

Meanwhile, Charlie's voice continued to come through the radio.

"Gavin, whenever we hear your voice, it excites us."

"I am Charlie, your old friend Charlie Duke."

"As for our situation, I must admit, Richard is badly injured; his back was almost completely ripped open by the shattered metal plate." "But we're both still quite mobile, so Richard's bleeding has been stopped for now. The rest is up to him to pull through." "As for your question, which is... where exactly are we, and how far are we from Lake Livingston where you are?" "That requires calculation, Gavin. All we know for now is that we've landed on a body of water. The water is fairly clear, and there are a certain number of freshwater fish, which proves that we haven't landed in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. That's good news."

"Please wait a few minutes. We have just focused all our efforts on treating Richard. Now, we will do our best to use all the clues we can to deduce our exact location."

"I hope we're not too far apart, and I hope we'll meet again someday!"

"And if the distance between us makes our meeting a luxury, then... don't blame Ivan. He's already done his best to get us to land alive!" Charlie's voice trailed off at this point.

Gavin finally let out a long sigh of relief.

He picked up the communicator and spoke softly to the astronauts.

"This is Gavin, my friends. I'm glad Richard's situation has been handled effectively, and I hope that each of you will appear before me safe and sound." "I'm at Livingston Lake, and I'll be waiting for you here. Once you've located yourselves, I'll find you with my men no matter where you are, I promise!" With that, Gavin put down the communicator and picked up the walkie-talkie at his waist.

"Guys, this is Gavin. All helicopters are returning to base. We'll be spending another night at Livingston Lake!"

Upon hearing Gavin's words, Eugene, who was standing to the side holding a gun and shaking his leg, couldn't help but frown and whispered a question to Gavin.

"Wait, boss, the astronauts haven't replied yet. Are we going to stay here tonight?"

"What if they soon discover they're actually not far from us?"

"Oh?"

Upon hearing this, Gavin sat in front of the radio, shrugged expressionlessly, and said...

"If they weren't actually that far from us, we would have detected the signs of the return capsule breaking through the atmosphere much earlier."

"So, I bet that even if they landed close to us, it would still be at least seventy to eighty kilometers away!" "At that distance, even if we immediately send a helicopter over to try to rescue them, it would take at least until dark, and dark..." Gavin shook his head in a low voice.

"We should try to avoid operating in the darkness now, Eugene, because the darkness is so profound it gives me the creeps, and the risks are too great." "As for the specifics... we'll see how the astronauts report back, but in any case, unless there are exceptional circumstances, I don't want to take you into the darkness, especially the kind of darkness we've never explored before!" "Besides, as Edward said, the reentry capsule itself is a form of protection for the astronauts. Once they land, it's not difficult for them to survive another night using the capsule." As he said this, Gavin couldn't help but show a hint of regret in his eyes.

But in an instant, that regret completely turned into determination!

As his gaze grew increasingly resolute, Eugene, as expected, asked Gavin the same question.

After a moment of silence, Eugene asked Gavin in a soft voice:

"But, boss, the radio mentioned Richard's injuries. He's badly wounded, and the return capsule is bound to be short of medical supplies." "If we just leave them there all night, then... what if Richard...?"

Eugene made a sound effect with his mouth while wiping his neck with his hand.

Seeing this, Gavin pursed his lips and then nodded silently.

"I don't deny that such a possibility exists," he said.

Upon hearing this, Eugene chuckled, while in the helicopter some distance away, Sean shook his head helplessly and whispered to Eugene and Gavin, "Boss, and Eugene, we're not the Virgin Mary, and we're not Jesus!"

"And boss, although you have ravens like Odin, the lord of ravens, you only have the charm to make us want to flock around you, but you don't have Odin's divine power!" "In the dark of night, without navigation or even a little bit of light to guide us, even I can't guarantee that I can fly our helicopter, because there is no daytime visibility to allow us to distinguish various cloud formations and a few celestial phenomena with the naked eye."

"So, the boss is right, even if that poor astronaut really does die tonight."

"That shouldn't be a reason for us to give up our lives entirely tonight!"

After saying that, Sean shook his head and then simply got off the helicopter.

He walked to the supplies area, found two bottles of juice, and tossed them to Gavin and Eugene.

Seeing the two accept the juice, Sean took a sip of his own drink, then took a deep breath with regret.

As for Gavin...

He tapped his knees lightly with his drink to ease the pain from sitting for so long, then spoke softly to Eugene and Sean. "I'm glad you've both maintained some semblance of rationality, guys. I'm also sorry... Richard has to face... a series of challenges ahead." "In short, night is falling, and we've essentially lost the ability to rescue the astronauts today."

"I'll explain that to them later, but for now, while they're struggling to find their way, let's give them some motivation." With that, Gavin opened his drink and took a big gulp.

Eugene then bumped his drink bottle with Gavin's.

Meanwhile, in the sky in four different directions around Livingston Lake.

All four helicopters followed the direction and approached the temporary camp.

Time passed second by second, one minute, three minutes, five minutes.

Just eleven minutes later, when Gavin could see a helicopter approaching on the horizon.

The radio in front of him finally picked up a new voice!

"Buzz... This is the return capsule, Gavin, are you still there?"

The voice on the radio sounded somewhat uplifting, a kind of uplifting excitement that made Gavin swallow hard before quickly picking up the communicator to reply, "I'm here, Charlie. Have you found your way?"

No sooner had Gavin finished speaking than Charlie's extremely excited voice came through the radio.

"Of course, haha, of course we found it! Although the process was different from what I expected, we're pretty sure we're now in Lake Pontchartrainany, right next to New Orleans!" "My God, Gavin, you'd never guess!"

"Just when we were all straining our eyes, trying to determine our location by looking out at the boundless water," "and when we were even taking into account the turbidity of the water, desperately trying to find our latitude and longitude."

"It turned out that a damn fish gave us the final answer!"

"Thank goodness Richard didn't faint, haha, thank goodness that bastard's eyes are still sharp!"

"Just like how we found freshwater fish before, which confirmed that we were not in the ocean."

"And just now, even with his injuries, Richard still managed to spot a damn broad-striped sea bream!"

"This fish only exists in Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, and the surrounding Tangipahoa and Amit Rivers, even worldwide. You won't find it anywhere else!" "And the area we're in has an extremely wide expanse of water, so wide that we can't see anything except the horizon!" "Therefore, we must be in Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, which is near New Orleans, near the Mississippi Delta, and near Breton and the ocean." "More importantly, it's less than 500 kilometers from Houston, a distance... that should be within your tolerance. We can really meet!" At this point, Charlie's excitement was completely uncontrollable!

Even after leaving the damned space station and landing, Charlie's mind was still reeling from Richard's injuries, preventing him from relaxing! But now, having finally located himself and confirmed that he was very close to Houston, which was Lake Livingston where Gavin and his group were... Charlie could finally breathe a sigh of relief!

but……

Hearing Charlie's words, Gavin couldn't help but raise his wrist and look at his watch, which was already pointing to 5:38.

Both the time of day and the approaching sunset on the horizon reminded Gavin that their operation had to be halted for the day! So, Gavin took one last look at the helicopter approaching the camp, then picked up the communicator and whispered to Charlie.

"That's wonderful, Charlie, Ivan, and all my fellow astronauts. We're only about 470 kilometers apart; that distance shouldn't prevent us from seeing each other." "But..."

When he said "but," he couldn't help but pause for a moment.

On the other end of the radio, Charlie and the others couldn't help but pause briefly after hearing the word "but".

After a moment of silence, Gavin continued.

"But Charlie, we're afraid we can't provide rescue tonight... because night is approaching, and the nights on Earth today are no longer as gentle as they were before the apocalypse." "So, I'm sorry, you'll probably have to stay on the space station... until the sun rises again. I promise, as soon as the sun rises tomorrow morning, I'll immediately dispatch helicopters to Lake Pontchartrainy to search for you. I promise!"

"And you... you'll have to rely on yourselves to hold on for a while longer, I'm sorry."

At this point, Gavin couldn't help but take off his cowboy hat with his free right hand and silently place it on his chest.

Guilt was consuming his chest, but his reason and caution kept it firmly outside his heart, preventing it from advancing even an inch.

Seeing Gavin's somber expression, Eugene and Sean couldn't help but exchange a glance.

Eugene gave a helpless shrug, while Sean nodded silently.

Just as the two were silently exchanging their thoughts on Gavin's reluctant decision, the voice that followed over the radio showed none of the disappointment Gavin had expected, but rather was filled with unexpected excitement and exuberance. Charlie was excitedly shouting to Gavin.

"That's right, Gavin, that's right. Our actions shouldn't be driven by emotions, buddy. Only reason can take us further!" "I like you like that, haha. Of course, if you're the kind of hot-blooded kid who rushes to me and hugs me the moment you hear news about us, then I'll appreciate you too, but it'll be a completely different kind of appreciation. You know what I mean, right?"

"In short, we waited in the sky for more than forty days and then waited in the return capsule for twenty-four hours in order to return to Earth, so why would we be afraid to wait another ten or so hours until the sun shines on us again?"

"What's more, Gavin, while we're talking, my men are exchanging their opinions on Lake Pontchartrain Causeway and the environment of New Orleans!" "You must be careful, because if we remember correctly, there are at least two publicly known nuclear power plants around New Orleans, one of which is even adjacent to downtown New Orleans and no more than fifty kilometers from Lake Pontchartrain Causeway where we are!"

"Okay, both of these nuclear power plants are quite close to us. After all, Lake Pontchartrain has plenty of water for cooling, doesn't it?" "But anyway, there will definitely be nuclear meltdowns around New Orleans. If you want to come to our rescue, you'll probably have to prepare radiation suits and radiation detection equipment!" At this point, Charlie's expression turned serious. He leaned closer to the weakened Richard and whispered, "Richard, are you sure you're not mistaken? Are there really two nuclear power plants around New Orleans?"

"No...that's right!"

Faced with Charlie's question, Richard took a deep breath and tried to remain as composed as possible in his response.

"Because... both of these nuclear power plants are operated by Antgee... and I... am one of Antgee's... shareholders!" "Antgee's headquarters... are in New Orleans, and the two nuclear power plants are... to the west and... north of New Orleans, respectively." "Each of them... is no more than fifty kilometers away from the lake we are in..."

"The nearest one is even... less than twenty-two kilometers away!"

As he said this, Richard weakly turned his head.

The pain in his body had gradually subsided, and the painkillers injected into him earlier had taken full effect.

This feeling gave him a slight sense of relief.

Just as Richard was enjoying this moment of relaxation, on the other end of the radio...

Upon hearing their words, Gavin's eyes widened suddenly, his gaze involuntarily shifting to his left before fixing on the supply tents of the temporary camp! Are there several nuclear power plants around New Orleans?

Do they need anti-radiation suits and radiation detectors?

Hahaha……

Isn't that just a fucking coincidence?!

Edward recently led a team to Shepard Military Base and brought back those precious radiation protection devices!