After waking up, Everly first took out her phone to check it. As expected, there was no signal.
So she retrieved the only satellite phone she had and called Old John’s satellite phone, letting her grandfather know they were safe.
To save battery, Everly didn’t say much—she only told her grandfather that she and Misha were unhard, and that they might not be able to get to school on ti, asking him to help by giving the school a call.
After hanging up, she started preparing breakfast for herself and Misha.
It was still midsumr, only half past seven in the morning, yet the sun outside was already strong. Under its scorching heat, the cabin gradually beca stifling.
Everly first opened all the windows in the cabin and the cockpit, letting the breeze from the river blow inside. Then she sat in one of the tourist chairs and rummaged through the cushions to find the sausages she had stashed there last night. Sure enough, the “quilt insulation thod” worked wonderfully; even after a whole night in the hot cabin, the sausages were still a little cool to the touch.
In sumr, people sweat easily, so these sausages would beco a valuable source of salt for her and Misha in the days to co.
Everly unwrapped the hot dog buns and took out two, then opened the sausage package and stuffed one sausage into each bun. With so bottled water, this made their simple breakfast.
She handed one of the makeshift hot dogs along with a bottle of water to Misha and opened her mouth to take a few bites of her own.
She had always had a good appetite. Although the sausages were a bit chilly and the edges still had translucent chunks of grease, giving them a slightly odd texture, perhaps because she hadn’t eaten dinner last night, Everly actually thought they tasted pretty good.
After breakfast, Everly asked Misha if she wanted to rest. Misha said she could hold out, so Everly decided to take the ti to deal with the remaining bread and sausages, to prevent them from spoiling in the heat.
Handling the bread was relatively simple. She found a window facing the sun and spread the loaves out to dry. Once the moisture in the bread evaporated and it hardened into dry, hard blocks, she could store them in plastic bags, which would significantly extend their shelf life.
As for the sausages, they were rich in fat, so it was best to dry them by hanging.
Arican airplanes don’t allow knives with blades longer than 10 centiters, though they can be checked in. When Everly left ho, she had sent Old John’s Swiss Army knife along with her luggage.
She picked what looked like the cleanest seat cover from the chairs on the boat, removed the outer cover, and used the knife to cut the fabric into long, thin strips.
In total, she made 18 thin strips, 2 thick strips, and 1 extra-long strip. After finishing, Everly wiped down the knife and her fingers with a wet wipe she carried. She then used the knife to slice four shallow grooves along each sausage, making it easier for the moisture inside to evaporate. Next, she took so dental floss, pierced the top end of each sausage with its sharp end, and threaded the sausage onto the plastic handle of the floss.
Once all the sausages were prepared, Everly took one of the thin strips she had cut and tied a knot at one end of the dental floss.
This way, by lifting the strip and looping the other end around the drying pole, fastening it to the dental floss, the sausages could be successfully suspended in midair.
Everly had already chosen the perfect spot to hang them—at the stern of the boat.
She washed the wooden pole with a netted pouch she had found on the boat the previous night, then laid it horizontally across the railings on either side of the stern. Using the two thick strips, she secured it in place. It took no more than two minutes, and the drying pole was perfectly set up.
Then, without letting Misha help, Everly huffed and puffed back and forth about ten tis, finally hanging all the sausages under the pole.
It was at that mont she noticed insects and birds starting to circle nearby. It seed the aroma of the sausages had wafted out, attracting the forest’s bugs and birds.
Everly didn’t want to eat sausages that had been bitten by insects or birds—who knew what germs or parasites they might carry!
She stood there, shooing away the bugs and birds while frowning in thought. Finally, she dashed back to the cockpit, grabbed the disposable raincoat she had found the previous night, and spread its transparent plastic over the drying sausages, tying it at the front, back, and sides to secure it.
This thod was similar to putting the food inside a plastic greenhouse. The moisture inside the sausages would evaporate a bit more slowly and would need to be aired out periodically, but the advantage was that it largely protected the food from birds and insects.
With that, the sausages were finally taken care of.
The sun was unbearably hot. After finishing this task, Everly returned to the cabin, gulped down the remaining water in her bottle, and then used the Swiss Army knife to cut off the top rim of the plastic bottle.
She was going to make a tool to collect distilled water.
After seeing so many humans and zombies fall into the Chata River firsthand, Everly no longer dared to drink river water casually—even filtered water was risky. Who knew if it might contain the zombie virus?
At tis like this, homade distilled water was the safest option.
With a bucket and a plastic raincoat, making a distillation tool wasn’t difficult.
Everly grabbed a bucket, squatted by the side of the boat, and scooped up about half a bucket of river water. Then she placed the plastic bottle she had just cut into the water, pouring in a bit of purified water at the bottom to help the bottle stand upright in the center of the bucket.
Next, she spread out the plastic raincoat and covered the bucket with its transparent plastic sheet, wrapping the ultra-long strip of cord she had cut around the outside. She adjusted the edges of the plastic so that the sheet over the center of the bucket was as tight as possible.
Once everything was set, Everly searched through their backpacks and found Misha’s keychain. She pressed it onto the center of the plastic sheet, causing it to sag downward under the weight and forming a shape similar to an upside-down pot lid.
With that, a makeshift distillation setup was complete.
Everly placed the bucket covered with the plastic sheet under the sun. Before long, the water in the bucket began to evaporate, and when it hit the plastic, it condensed into countless tiny droplets. As the droplets accumulated, gravity caused them to flow along the curve of the plastic toward the center, eventually dripping into the plastic bottle below.
The midsumr sun had its drawbacks and benefits. The downside was excessive sweating and heat, but the upside was that distilled water collected very quickly.
After finishing the distillation setup, Everly had nothing else pressing to do. She sent Misha off to sleep while she stayed to guard the boat and periodically checked the bucket to collect water. By midday, the plastic bottle Misha had drunk from earlier had already accumulated more than half a bottle of distilled water.
For lunch, they ate hot dog buns—without the sausages—because Everly wanted to conserve the precious salty food. They allowed themselves only two sausages per day at most.
After sitting in the sun all morning, the hot dog buns had dried out and hardened. They were crunchy and crumbly; eating them made crumbs fall everywhere. But if eaten with water, they weren’t unpleasant.
Unfortunately, even purified water was precious. The afternoon sun would be even stronger, speeding up the distillation process. To free up more bottles for collecting water, Everly and Misha each had to drink a bottle of soda at noon.
With the sweet, sticky drink, they managed to finish all the dry, tough buns, inevitably compelled to take a few sips of purified water to wash down the lingering sweetness.
Even after drinking, their mouths were still coated with a sticky residue. Everly began to regret not buying so lettuce to go with the hot dogs.
Full and hydrated, Everly and Misha took turns resting. They found a cloth to drape over their faces and began a sweaty afternoon nap in the increasingly stifling cabin.
Everly and Misha continued taking turns steering the boat, getting up at intervals to eat a little dry food, and successfully made it through their second day adrift on the water.
By the third morning, Everly woke up and, as usual, checked her phone—still no signal.
Outside, the endless forest stretched as far as the eye could see. Standing at the bow and looking ahead, there were no human structures in sight, only mountains and trees.
Drifting along the river, it was easy to lose any sense of distance. Fortunately, the satellite phone allowed her to check their position. Everly compared the coordinates with the maps downloaded to her phone and realized that the sightseeing boat was about to reach the lower reaches of the river.
Sure enough, from morning to afternoon, it beca visibly clear that the Chata River was widening, and the current was slowing down. By evening, although the boat still drifted with the flow, its speed had slowed to barely faster than walking.
According to the map, downstream the Chata River would et another river called the “Teforin,” forming a river as wide as the Yangtze River: the “Abanaqi River,” which flowed south and eventually emptied into the Gulf of xico.
As long as the sightseeing boat entered the Abanaqi River and followed it for 13 kiloters, Everly and Misha would reach the first riverside city of their journey: Grasiu City.
As for how to get to the university once they reached land—that could wait. Right now, the most important thing was to return to the human world.
After two days in the sweltering cabin, Everly’s sweat had dried and flowed repeatedly, almost soaking her clothes through. To conserve water, she and Misha could only barely dab the essential parts of their bodies with a towel each day, and drinking water was never enough—they were constantly parched.
Besides cleanliness and drinking water, the monotonous diet was also making Everly extrely depressed. Even though it had only been two days, just thinking about bread and sausages made her mouth dry and bitter, and she longed desperately for so fresh, juicy vegetables and fruits on land.
She swore she would never again call salad “cow’s grass.”
In short… broken boat, hurry up and get us there…
That night, Everly kept watch alone in the cabin. Watching the sightseeing boat crawl along at a speed comparable to a turtle, she regretted not stopping earlier in the nearby forest to chop two sturdy sticks with the fire axe to push the boat along.
At this pace… when would they finally reach shore…
She endured another agonizing night, and the next morning, upon waking, she realized that while she had been asleep, the sightseeing boat had quietly passed the river junction and entered the Abanaqi River!
The river was now so wide that standing on the north bank, she could barely see the south bank. The forests along the shores no longer looked as untouched and wild as before. As she drifted along, Everly even spotted a wooden villa hidden among the trees on the riverbank!
If the villa hadn’t looked so dilapidated and seemingly abandoned for a long ti, Everly would have seriously considered going ashore imdiately to seek help.
“Just the last stretch left… turn on the propeller and push forward,” she said, checking the fuel gauge.
Although they hadn’t used the engine in the past two days, fuel had still been steadily consud to keep the boat’s lights running. Now, only 11% remained.
Eleven percent was probably cutting it close for the remaining 13 kiloters, but the closer they got to the city, the higher the chance she and Misha would be noticed. Everly decided the risk was worth taking.
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