CH 4.1

Chapter 4.1 – Hijack

Two slender tentacles supported the survivors’ backs and carried them up into the air. If you look closely, the tentacles didn’t go into the skin and were connected to the spine, and every nerve was manipulated – that’s why they could wave.

When held up by the tentacles, one of the man’s shoes fell off, revealing his swollen and blue feet.

The two had long since died and became tentacles’ puppets.

The two corpses were hung in the air, their movements still alive. The man looked around eagerly, the woman raised her hands and waved, as if a real person was calling for help. There were tumor-like protrusions on the tentacles, which were covered with feathers. At this time, the protrusions split to reveal the mouth parts.

Opening and closing its mouthparts, it shouted in a male voice, “Where are you going, why are you ignoring us?”

Then it screamed again in a female voice: “Don’t leave us! Please, save us! I have a baby at home!”

Lu Bafang was horrified.

If there were no tentacles, he wouldn’t be able to tell if this was a real person or not. If he died here, he would also become a puppet, manipulated by the tentacles to attract the next group of people, right?

Fortunately, maybe their movements were too small so the tentacles didn’t notice them, instead, a few of them chased the team. The convoy drove so far away that the gunshots were barely audible, only the tentacles mimicking human shouts, and the sound of the wind breaking as they twisted.

The sudden silence did not relieve the tension. Lu Bafang’s palms were sweating, and when he turned his head, he saw Shi Yuan staring intently at the tentacles.

His demeanor was calm.

It was like the calmness he had when he stretched out his hands to the queen bee, there was no sadness or joy in the curiosity in his eyes.

At this moment, a bizarre feeling surged in Lu Bafang’s heart.

It was as if Shi Yuan and the monster were on the same side.

This feeling is fleeting. He clenched his handgun in one hand, took out his mobile phone and typed, and handed it to Shi Yuan to see: [They will contact the city, the city is not far away, support can arrive soon]

After thinking for a while, he added: [Don’t be afraid, I have sent our coordinates, they will come back]

In fact, Lu Bafang did not know if anyone would come to rescue them.

From a humanitarian point of view, no one should be abandoned; but the reality is often cruel, there are only two of them, spending a lot of manpower and financial resources for the two of them, returning to the territory of high-risk infectious agents is definitely a loss-making deal that the command center will not approve.

If reinforcements did come, there could only be one reason: it was too close to the city, and the command center felt that the infected creatures should be eradicated immediately to avoid threatening the city.

But it was impossible for Lu Bafang to tell Shi Yuan this.

Shi Yuan looked at what he typed, nodded silently, and retracted his head.

The remaining tentacles slowly returned to the ground, even the two bodies in the air were gone.

If you don’t confirm the monster’s habits, staying still will at least keep you alive. The two of them just lay on the slope like this, silent, listening to each other’s breathing, killing the dead silence.

As Shi Yuan lay on his back, he began to feel bored.

If he didn’t know the danger of monsters in the past, he would have stood up and left, and he didn’t need to act. Besides, he speculated from the queen bee that he might be able to deal with the tentacles.

But he didn’t want to expose himself, otherwise, Lu Bafang would hate him as much as Xie Qianming.

He quite liked Lu Bafang, and heard a lot of stories from Lu Bafang.

Shi Yuan flicked his tail lightly, and looked sideways, Lu Bafang looked nervous, his hand holding the gun was too hard, and his fingertips were slightly blue.

He thought, let’s just accompany Lu Bafang here.

Humans, like him, are creatures who are afraid of being alone.

The sun was shining on them, but the temperature was not high. Every minute and every second was difficult. Two or three hours passed, and when the two finished drinking the last drop of water in the kettle, it was finally the time when morning and evening turned.

Lu Bafang repeatedly confirmed the terminal.

The command center received the coordinates he sent and only said that he should stand by in place and wait for further news, only to have no sign of reinforcements until now.

He hesitated for a long time, and continued typing to Shi Yuan: [Wait for another half an hour, if there is still no news, we will try to save ourselves]

Shi Yuan nodded his head.

Half an hour later, there was no message on the terminal. Lu Bafang took off the dagger he had with him, handed it to Shi Yuan, typed: [crawl forward, if you are found you run forward, don’t care about me and don’t turn back]

Shi Yuan took the dagger, and Lu Bafang took the lead to crawl northward—there was a rock not far away that could be used as a temporary shelter, and a few dead trees with crooked necks 700 to 800 meters away. The crawling position was awkward, slow and laborious, and he didn’t know how far the tentacles could move. It was a difficult and dangerous attempt, but they had no choice.

Shi Yuan followed behind him.

Before he could climb out a hundred meters, he heard a humming sound from the ground.

The tentacles found them, approaching at high speed!

The human ear could not hear the sound, and Lu Bafang was ignorant.

Shi Yuan stopped moving and turned back.

He was a little sad, he did not want to kill the empress bee, nor did he want to kill these tentacles, but since there was no avoiding them, he had to let them die.

The scales on his tail used to be obedient, delicate and smooth, while holding his tail, he could have a good night’s sleep, but now he looked like some kind of animal that was frightened or was ready to attack. The scales opened and closed slowly, emitting a metal-like friction sound and were as sharp as iron thorns. The black scales under the corners of his eyes became more and more bizarre at this time, reflecting his skin as white and crystalline.

He was still beautiful.

It’s just that this beauty had thorns, and it was as evil as a bloodied cold knife.

“Buzz buzz buzz—”

When the tentacles reached under them, they suddenly stopped and went straight in the opposite direction – a few explosions sounded in the sky! It was ear-piercing, like countless sharp blades brazenly slicing through the sky!

Lu Bafang turned back suddenly and shouted, “Get down and don’t move!!”

Before Shi Yuan could react, Lu Bafang had already pounced on him. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw several aircraft appearing on the horizon, with the sound of breaking wind, attacking neatly and uniformly. They dropped bombs, and after two seconds, the ground shook, and the sky was filled with mud and rock chunks that splashed several meters.

Air strikes came.

The tentacles were enraged and stretched into the sky with all their might, trying to yank the craft down, but to no avail.

After two rounds of bombardment, the aircraft went straight away. Immediately afterward, a group of people appeared on the north side of the wasteland. They were fully armed and came walking on the smoke and dust of the explosion.

The tentacles were bombed to death, but a few were still waving in rage. It was another fierce fight, bullets, knife lights, and roars. Shi Yuan stuck his head out to look, but Lu Bafang pressed him back: “Don’t look at it, don’t look at it, watch out for stray bullets!”

Shi Yuan had to shrink back again and asked, “Are they here to save us?”

“…sort of.” Lu Bafang showed a complicated smile. “In short, we can’t die for the time being.”

They were still lying on the ground.

Not long after, the sound of footsteps came, and a one-eyed man with a gun appeared in front of them.

Shi Yuan noticed that there were snake-like green scales from his chin to his neck.

The one-eyed dragon looked at the two of them, his eyes stopped on Shi Yuan for three seconds, and then he turned his head to the communication terminal and said, “Two targets found, start transferring.”

He made a gesture, Lu Bafang understood it, and pulled Shi Yuan to get up.

Before they could stand up, a tentacle silently appeared behind the one-eyed dragon. Just as Shi Yuan was about to say something to remind him, he saw the man with eyes behind his back, shooting through the tentacles with his backhand. Green blood drenched him, the tentacles were too close, writhing in pain when the gun knocked it away. The mouthparts reappeared, shouting in a human voice: “Don’t kill me! I’m still alive, I’m not a monster!”

After saying that, it slammed the female corpse puppet in front of the one-eyed dragon.

The female corpse was wrapped tightly, and with the vivid movements, at first glance, it was impossible to tell whether it was dead or alive.

The one-eyed dragon gave a ‘tsk’, and without any hesitation, clamped its head and neck with both hands, and suddenly exerted force. The muscles on his arms bulged, and there was a terrifying explosion, and the skull of the female corpse was crushed by him. The broken bone was inserted into the palm of his hand, and he seemed to have felt no pain. He drew his knife and stabbed into the connection between the tentacles and the spine of the female corpse. With a tremble, the corpse fell to the ground.

Taking advantage of this gap, a few tentacles emerged from the ground and ran towards the three of them, but they were crushed by bullets again.

The support came, and three or four people held guns and completely killed the tentacles.

—If Shi Yuan had a little common sense, then he would have realized that the strength and reaction speed of these soldiers was by no means something that humans could possess.

But he did not have much common sense and only thought these people were so good.

The battle came to an end, and only a few tentacles were left lingering.

“Let’s go.” The one-eyed dragon put away his sword and raised his chin at them.

When Yuan and Lu Bafang followed him, got into the off-road vehicle that just came, and finally left this chaotic place. Lu Bafang let out a long sigh of relief, with the joy of escaping death, he leaned back exhaustedly on the seat and closed his eyes.

They were safe.