After a brief coughing fit and deep breaths (which almost made me vomit and faint, or faint and vomit while unconscious), I managed to calm down, even gaining a new skill.
[Skill acquired: Stink resistance lv. 0]
[Experience acquired]
With it, breathing this air became a little (very little đ) easier, but still far from something I'd like to do. Its best effect was on my eyes; it helped them "adjust" to the smell and not tear up so much. This allows me to see the situation around me and below better.
Which wasn't so good, since now I could see the state of the zombies and the occasional "free spots" on the ground, with the crushed corpses...
'I could definitely live without seeing any of this.'
At least after this horde dissipates (if that's even possible anymore) this will be a great place to get magic stones, if the animals don't finish them off afterwards. But the main point is that I still have no idea how to get through this sea of rotten flesh (and the occasional slime).
'Hmm, shouldn't there be some vultures here, considering the caracaras?'
I haven't seen any since I came down from the water tower. Looking around, I finally saw some perched on top of some of the tallest buildings (the only ones nearby with more than 7 stories).
Luckily, they seemed to be resting, considering the way they were perched. I noticed that several had cuts on their faces and even wings, clearly made by claws, not nails or bony zombie fingers.
'It's the mutual fight for food when there's a continuous supply between the vultures and caracaras... Could the vulture and caracara carcasses on the ground have ended up there not because of the zombies but because of the fight between them?'
Some of the "puddles" down there had feathers, so I ended up thinking that. It doesn't matter, even if I knew that, it wouldn't help me get to the office window where my parents were.
'Although using a vulture as a mount would help, but I doubt they'd accept it.'
So the other option would be...
'Hmm..., maybe it'll work, but do I have enough rope to make it that far? Let's see.'
[Item Box: 85.4/50 kg (weight exceeded, 45% penalty to agility, considerable increase in physical wear)
1 children's iron table (2.7 kg)
1 iron and aluminum shelf (3.2 kg)
5 meters of iron wire (1.1 kg)
2 iron car springs (16 kg)
2 iron weights (2.5 kg)
5 iron rods (2 kg)
1 small treadmill (3.7 kg)
5 liters of gasoline (6.7 kg)
10 t-shirts (2 kg)
12 pairs of jeans (10 kg)
8 worn t-shirts (1.1 kg)
7 jackets (4.5 kg)
3 leather jackets (7.5 kg)
2 pairs of leather pants (1.8 kg)
3 blood oranges (800 gr)
8 bottles of water (5.1 kg)
5 bottles of blood (3.4 kg)
3 dead rats (1.3 kg)
Rope of polyamide, 100 meters (10 kg)]
'100 meters... If I make a zip line, extremely improvised, will I be able to reach there?'
No, zip lines need much more rope, plus harness, breaks and other things. Besides, I doubt polyamide could hold my weight that way... But what if I do a command crawl?
From what I remember, it could be done with 2 ropes. The distance from here to one of the windows is about 40 meters and I still have a 2-meter advantage over the post, maybe a little more. If I make a decent command crawl by cutting the rope in two, it should be the right size... But the question of whether a polyamide rope could hold my weight remains.
...
'...Well, the alternative would be to cross a sea of walking, rotting corpses head-on. The risk with the rope option is the rope breaking and I falling.... If that happens, at least I can get lucky and fall headfirst onto the ground and die before the zombies can tear my body apart.... Probably not the worst way to die.'
Even I worried about my own thoughts sometimes.
But since I literally have no other option, it's better this way. Now another problem.
'How am I going to manage to put two ropes on the other side?'
The obvious answer might be using a bow and arrow, like they sometimes do in the movies. But unlike in the movies, that wouldn't be possible... at least before.
Before, I wouldn't have the strength to pull an arrow with a rope attached. And even if I could, the arrow wouldn't be able to fly because of the weight of the rope itself.
But now I have a strength of 22 (I don't have parameters to compare it to before yet, but if what I've done so far is worth anything, it's that this is strong). In addition to my agility (which I suspect also counts as dexterity), which is almost at 30.
With this, I should be able not only to hit a spot with enough force to make the tip go in and get stuck, but also to hold on and stop on the rope itself if needed.
'Now the problem (another one, just to vary things) would be the height and the distance.'
I was never the best at math in school, let alone fractions, geometry, etc., but I remember enough to know that if I wanted to do a minimally good crawl (in this case, minimally means possible and with the lowest probability of ending up as zombie food), I would need height and distance.
Trying to do a crawl from the top of a 3-story lofty building? As if.
Even I can ser that here there wouldn't be enough distance between the two points for the rope to be taut, even if I kept pulling it on the edge of the roof, let alone with it across. It would be the same as me voluntarily throwing myself headfirst into the zombies.
No, I need a place that is high and has a minimally good distance for the rope to be taut.
'About 60 meters minimum would be good. Which means I only have one option.'
I thought, looking slightly to the left. There was one of the only taller residential buildings with 9 floors and an external water tank right on top.
'The distance between it and the gas station must be a little over 60 meters, and the height should be the minimum to be able to do a crawl. It's my best chance.'
Actually, the only chance of a possibly bad idea, but I couldn't think of anything better to get past a sea of rotting bodies eager to taste fresh meat.
Reach the roof of the building by jumping across the rooftops to the top of the building wouldn't be exactly impossible. IF I were willing to climb the outside of a smooth building... But like, the court in front of it was (apparently) free, so why bother calling for nothing, right?
'Hummu, tiring yourself out for nothing doesn't help anyone. This is just the best option to reach the only option to help my parents. It's not because I'm going to freeze up at the first step of a climb, especially since I've never even managed to get halfway up the climbing walls in parks. Yeah, it's definitely not it..."
Would anyone buy this pathetic excuse if I told them?