According to Fabre, the human settlement was built on hills, not far from the coast. There was only a simple road that led there, and if you wanted to drive there, you would definitely be stopped on the road.
The other one seemed normal to Fabre, but it sounded strange to Zhang Zian. The people living there still maintained the tradition of men farming and women weaving. If you ignored the heavily armed security guards and the rare technological equipment, it was like the pastoral era thousands of years ago.
Sometimes Fabre would run closer to the settlement. Standing on a high place, he could overlook the men working hard in the fields, while the women were busy raising all kinds of poultry and livestock. The armed security guards patrolled the perimeter with dogs.
"Did anyone try to escape?" Zhang Zian asked.
Fabre shook his head. "At least I didn't see them. The men and women who worked looked numb and lifeless. I almost didn't see them smile. They were like moving scarecrows."
"Is there an electric fence … No, a barbed wire fence to stop them from escaping?" As soon as he said that, he remembered that Fabre might not necessarily know what an electric fence was, so he changed to a simpler way of saying it.
"No. In my opinion, if they wanted to escape, just a few supervisors wouldn't be able to stop them," Fabre replied.
In that case, only those believers who had been deeply brainwashed would be released to work. Those who were not firm in their beliefs or newcomers would not be released so easily.
In addition, Fabre had also seen ships docking, so he could speculate that there was a small dock where daily necessities that could not be produced could be sent over.
As for why they didn't take the road, it could only be speculated that it was more convenient and hidden to go by sea. From the San Francisco dock, they could drive a private yacht out of the harbor and arrive there without anyone noticing.
That was all Fabre knew about the situation. Because he could not get close, he didn't know more.
Zhang Zian and the elfins discussed for a while and decided to ask Fabre to lead the way. In fact, there was no other choice. They had already come this far, and it was not their style to give up halfway.
Fabre raised his head and howled.
Hearing the wolf howl so close, Zhang Zian felt as if there was an electric current running from his tailbone to the back of his head. Perhaps this was the instinctive fear of wolf howls that humans had developed in the long process of evolution.
The pack of frolicking wolves heard the howl and immediately gathered around Facio. This kind of natural mobility and discipline was not something stray dogs could compare to. After dogs were domesticated, their tendency to live in groups had decreased, and they had become more free and undisciplined.
Facile growled a few times, and the pack of wolves split up tacitly. As the vanguard, they fanned out into the forest in the northwest. The search efficiency and alert range of so many wolves were much better than that of Famous, so the elfins were happy to be free.
Zhang Zian went back to get his backpack, and the deer followed him cautiously.
Along the way, although there were many twists and turns, the overall route was still toward the northwest, getting closer and closer to the coast.
After walking for about an hour, the average height of the nearby trees slowly decreased. The species of trees changed from dense red shirts and firs to a mix of trees, such as beech, cedar, oak, cypress, maple, black walnut, and so on. Richard jumped around on the ground looking for fallen acorns and walnuts, but it was not the season for fruits to ripen, so they could not be eaten yet.
At noon, they encountered a small river. The flow and width were larger than the streams they had encountered before, and the depth was at least above an adult's waist. There was a certain degree of danger in wading across the river.
They decided to have lunch there first, and then walk upstream to find a shallower and narrower place to cross the river.
Just as Zhang Zian was wondering what the wolves were going to eat for lunch, the young male wolf came back excitedly with a strange prey in its mouth. It looked like an oversized rat. It ran in front of Fabre and put down the prey like it was presenting a treasure. Although it was hungry, the alpha wolf should enjoy the food first. This was the rule of the wolf pack.
"What is this?"
Fabre had never seen such a strange animal.
The young male wolf obviously could not tell him the answer, but Zhang Zian had already recognized it. He replied, "This is a raccoon."
"Raccoon?"
Fabre sniffed the animal suspiciously. Under the threat of the evil plague, he was not sure if this animal was safe to eat.
"Well, this is an animal native to South America …" He felt that it might not necessarily know where South America was, so he added, "It's very, very far south."
"Very far south?" Fabre thought for a moment. "In other words, this animal's home is not here?"
"Yes, you can eat it without worry, because the raccoon is an invasive species here, and its reproductive ability is amazing. An adult female raccoon can give birth to 200 offspring in a year, and it is rampant here, forming an ecological disaster."
He picked up a thin branch and pried open the mouth of the dead raccoon, revealing its long and sharp front teeth. He said, "Like other rodents, raccoons' front teeth can grow indefinitely, so they always need to gnaw on things to grind their teeth. Soft grass and wild fruits obviously can't grind their teeth, so they gnaw on trees."
In cartoons, raccoons often looked very cute when they gnawed on trees, so many people did not understand the dangers of raccoons. They gnawed trees as efficiently as a chainsaw, and they could easily break a tree as thick as an adult's thigh from its roots. What was even more dangerous was the kind of tree that was only half-gnawed. There was a huge gap in the trunk, and only half of the tree was connected to the roots. It could fall down and hit people at any time.
Not only that, but raccoons would also dig holes to build their nests on the beach, on the coast, and even next to dams. The seemingly flat beach could be dug full of holes.
Raccoons were not a disaster in their native South America, because there were crocodiles, pythons, and other carnivorous beasts in South America to limit their numbers. In North America, however, their only natural enemy was the scarce coyote, which seemed to be uninterested in them, causing their numbers to increase wildly and uncontrollably.
The raccoon that was brought back by the young male wolf had a glossy brown fur. It looked very fat and heavy, almost ten pounds.
While they were talking, other wolves came back with a few equally fat raccoons in their mouths. It seemed like they had just worked together to destroy a raccoon's nest and brought back the whole family of raccoons.
"Well, in that case … let's eat together?" Fabre invited seriously.
"Uh …"
Zhang Zian was about to decline, but when he turned around, he saw that Fina and the others seemed to be very interested in this fat rodent, so he had to bite the bullet and agree.
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