Elijah couldn't be bothered with the two A country men.
He originally planned to find a pretext to kill them, but their fawning, bowing, and boasting about their so-called 'famous gun' made him reconsider.
They even let Abigail play around with it, making her quite happy, which made Elijah both amused and exasperated.
Consequently, he abandoned the idea of killing them.
During their refueling, two more mutated zombies ambushed them but were easily dealt with.
The continuous attacks from mutated zombies puzzled Elijah.
He hadn't seen a single ordinary zombie but had encountered numerous mutated ones.
After questioning the two A country men, Elijah learned that there had initially been ordinary zombies as well.
However, for unknown reasons, ordinary zombies had dwindled while zombies with extraordinary abilities had increased.
This made survival on land increasingly difficult for them, forcing them to move to the sea and set up a base on a nearby island.
They relied on supplies from cargo ships docked at nearby ports and occasionally risked going ashore for more supplies, though they often lost one or two people each time.
Now, their base was down to just the two of them.
During the conversation, they boldly asked if they could follow Elijah and his group, but Elijah coldly rejected them.
Keeping them alive was already generous enough; he had no intention of letting them tag along.
However, through their conversation, Elijah gathered a general understanding of the situation in A country.
The zombies there evolved much faster than those in Neoville City. It was unclear if this was due to the outbreak originating there or proximity to the source.
This rapid evolution meant that fewer people survived in A country.
The group Elijah had encountered was the last gathering of survivors in the area, and there wasn't even a single surviving woman among them, which explained their excitement upon seeing Daisy and the others.
The abundance of mutated zombies also meant more corpse cores. If this trip weren't for exploring "Serenity Peak," Elijah would have ventured into A country's cities to collect some corpse cores.
Once Sophia had finished refueling, Elijah and his group departed without further delay.
They left the port, continuing along A country's coastline towards their destination, while the two A country men watched with mixed feelings of relief and regret.
Sophia checked the map and identified it as an island called Big Island.
When they saw the island, the people on it also spotted them.
Unlike the previous encounters with A country people, the survivors on this island had a patrol boat equipped with machine guns.
Upon noticing Elijah's group, they immediately advanced toward them and used a loudspeaker to issue what seemed to be threats or warnings.
Elijah didn't understand the words, but the tone sounded menacing.
At the same time, the machine guns on the patrol boat began firing at the waters in front of the luxury yacht, sending large splashes into the air.
Seeing this, Whitey, who had just been hit by bullets (though not injured, the impact was painful), became enraged.
A massive white creature, resembling a giant snake and over a meter wide and dozens of meters long, suddenly shot up from the sea, charging toward the patrol boat.
The patrol boat's crew instinctively fired their pistols at Whitey, but the bullets had no effect and only made Whitey more agitated.
With a deafening crash, Whitey brushed against the patrol boat, leaping over it before crashing back into the sea.
The crew was left in chaos. Two people were snatched away by Whitey, while those who were close to the creature were crushed and left in a mangled mess against the boat.
Only the two people manning the machine guns and those further from Whitey managed to survive. Whitey avoided the area with the machine guns but soon after:
Boom!
The boat rocked violently as Whitey nearly capsized it. The crew members standing were thrown into the sea like dumplings.
The survivors who struggled in the water were swiftly engulfed by Whitey's massive form.
The sea quickly became still, as if nothing had happened.
With the threat eliminated, Elijah and his group continued their approach toward the island without stopping. They began to circle the island to find a suitable docking location.
It wasn't long before they spotted a dock where they could moor the yacht.
As they approached, Elijah's sense of foreboding grew stronger.
He felt that the source of his unease was inside a building on the dock.
It seemed that someone had been waiting for them to come ashore.