Chang was the first witness to this horror, he kept running until the fragrance was no longer noticeable.
“What do we do? Was everyone poisoned?” The troop re-gathered, fear was the only emotion within them.
Only Qing shui was able to maintain a relative calmness.
“Dr. Huang, how can we treat neurotoxins? ” Qing shui frowned and put his last hope onto the only doctor in the troop.
“There were numerous amount of neurotoxins as far as I knew. But this is the first time I ever encounter this type. To be honest, I don't know.” Dr. Huang covered her face with her palms. “We don't even have any medication, there is no way we can escape.”
Chapter 63: Loss
Just as Dr. Huang had said, the neurotoxin kicked in pretty soon. They just ended the conversation, and another 2 soldiers rampaged into the flower as if that distant fragrance was their destined fate.
“What a weird way of predation, they seduce their prey by the fragrance they produce.” Qing Shui glanced at the flower bush without showing care for those 2 soldiers. He pondered for almost half a minute, then gulped almost half the bottle of water that was tightened to his waist.
Chang followed Qing Shui as he believed there was always a reason behind what Qing Shui did. Chang also swigged down half of the bottle of water and wiped off the excess from the corner of his mouth. He took out the spare bottle of water and asked Jing to gulp as well.
The others learned up to Qing Shui, although this could be useless but no one wanted to give away the last chance of surviving. Therefore, in less than 30 seconds, they emptied all of their water supply and they all had their stomachs slightly bloated.
“Mingyi, if anyone else loses control, just knock that person out.” Qing Shui was the first to finish gulping and made a request to the strongest in the troop.
“Understood.” Mingyi nodded.
That was the last conversation in the troop. After that, it was time for everyone wait for the judgment of death.
As everyone inhaled the poisonous fragrance, no one could be spared from this misfortune. However, they had probably prayed the most desperately in their lives, hoping they could be a lucky miss. The troop sat on the ground while waiting, hoping for survival and in terror of death.
The atmosphere was almost unbearably depressed; the sound of heavy breathing was so clear among the troop that it sounded like a piteous cry for mercy.
Another minute later, a poor man went frantic just as the previous two, but he got knocked out by Mingyi before he began to suffer. Even though this man had lost consciousness, he was still twitching tortuously, the symptoms were not relieved at all. At this moment, Mingyi’s fist had offered the utmost help, the rest just waited silently without concerning others.
As time passed, the poison caught onto everybody one by one, but the severity seemed to be negatively correlated with how strong they are as an EM. The ordinary soldiers were the first batch that was seized by the neurotoxin. Then there was Dr. Huang, Jing and others, who happened to be lower level EMs. As for Chang and Mingyi, they were the last two to know what the odd symptoms felt like.
Lying on the grass, Chang didn’t lose his mind as the others did. He was fully conscious, but his body was under great torment.
It was a kind of extreme torture.
Chang never understood the concept of neurotoxins before, but at this moment he was fully aware how the toxin made every single strand of his nerves burn. It was a whole new level of suffering compare to physical injury, and even the acid burn was incomparable to this. The neurotoxin directly acted on his nerves, making Chang, a person with a strong mind, hope for death eagerly so the pain could be taken away.
But it was merely a thought, his remaining consciousness refrained him from scratching into his own skin. His fingers deeply buried in soil, Chang was just slowly waiting for time to pass…
Seconds by seconds, the minutes dragged on like years. As if time had stopped for him, he lost his sight and the tinnitus took away his ability to estimate time. It was unknown how long ago the neurotoxin kicked in, maybe it had been a few hours, maybe it had been a few days already. The sharp burning pain suddenly disappeared as if it had evaporated.
The suffering came and left swiftly, from relief to complete disappearance, it was only lasted less than a minute. Every sense of his body returned, and it almost gave him the illusion that the tragicness never existed.
Sitting up, the first person Chang saw was Mingyi – it was clear that the strongest recovered the soonest.
“There you are!” Mingyi smiled bitterly.
“Hey.” Chang knocked his head a few times to make sure the effect of the neurotoxin went away. He placed his palm on his forehead “What about the others?”
“…” Mingyi shook his head and pointed to the other side, “They are…”
Mingyi’s expression gave Chang a bad feeling. Sure enough, it was blood smeared behind him, almost everyone was still twitching.
There were about 15 people lying on the ground now – apparently, the others were awoken by the pain from the swoon and had become fertilizer for the flower bush. The conditions of the remaining people were no better than the missing ones, with long scratches all over their arms as they still stuck in the neurotoxin.
As if Chang realized something, he quickly tore long pieces of cloth from his shirt to tied up Jing and Pangzi’s hand respectively. However, when he looked over to Qing Shui, his condition had frightened Chang that he was almost traumatized.
Every inch of Qing Shui's skin was intact, he even maintained a clear mind.
Although he was immobile at this time, his eyes told Chang that he was the only witness of this whole misery.
“How early did you regain your consciousness before me?” Busy with tying up his friends’ hands, Chang asked Mingyi, who was also tying up others.
“10 seconds, perhaps. In fact, the neurotoxin only lasted for 7 or 8 minutes.” Mingyi pointed at those scarred soldiers “Otherwise we could have been gnawed by other animals, smell this bloody scent!”
“To be honest, we are lucky enough that we weren’t fought out by other beasts… ” Exclaimed Mingyi.
“You are right.” Chang agreed upon “I just didn’t know it was such a short time, I thought it had been at least 3 or 4 hours.”
“I thought exactly the same when I woke up, but my watch won’t lie to me.” Mingyi waved the watch on his wrist. “We weren’t delayed for long, we can still make it to Zhengzhou before sunset.”
“But… look at them, we went around this giant flower bush and that cost us quite amount of time already, not to mention they are injured now. I doubt we could ever make it to Zhengzhou.” Chang was obviously discouraged, he counted the number of people lying on the ground and said, “There are only 13 left and almost none of them are intact. And the smell of blood, I can’t even think of a way to cover this. We are doomed, seriously.”
“The smell… we have become numbers of lights in this dark jungle to those sensitive hunters.” Mingyi sighed as he spoke softly as if he had foreseen the endless attack from unknown beasts that were lurking in this jungle.
Chapter 64: He left
As they were in deep concern about their trip, another person recovered from the seizure. It was Qing shui.
Although he didn’t lose his consciousness the whole time, every strand of his muscle, including his tongue, went into spasm completely. Therefore, he wasn't able to move or speak. The first thing he did as he sat up was to massage his arms and legs to relieve the soreness in his muscles. He turned to Chang and Ming Yi, “We don't have to be pessimistic about this. After all, this is what we have known and expected to happen.”
“How are you feeling?” Chang lent his hand to Qing shui and stood up with his help “Do you still feel any sequelae?”
“Can’t tell at this moment. It was just the seizure that consumed a large amount of my energy, otherwise, I am fine.” Qing shui forced a bitter smile, “But the neuroto
xin hurt so much.”
“And you are probably experiencing more pain than I am, because you were totally aware of the process, and that kept every bit of your sensation suffering.” Chang was conscious about Qing shui's condition. He was different than the rest. Although it really was a torment, losing their consciousness helped them endure the suffering.
“What about them?” Qing shui noticed Pangzi and Jing. “Are they okay?”
“Not too bad, they weren’t the worst.” Chang moved over to check the scratch mark on Jing’s forearm, “We still have disinfectants in our backpacks, don't we? I’ll just disinfect their cuts and scratches first.”
“Yes we do, it is in my backpack.” Qing shui found his backpack buried under a dead man. He pulled out the blood covered backpack, took out the iodine and handed it to Chang. They rinsed their cuts with the solution. Ming Yi mimicked Chang and Qing shui, as he did the same to the rest of the troop.
Sadly, Qing shui, Chang, and Ming Yi found out that another men had passed away due to excessive loss of blood. They accidently broke the artery in their thighs. Within minutes, they died by losing too much blood.
“Another 2 are dead. There are only 11 of us now.” Ming Yi shook his head helplessly.
In this silent atmosphere of death, the three sat together speechlessly to wait for the others. A few minutes after, Jing and Dr. Huang regained consciousness. Then there were Pangzi and the other soldiers. They woke up to the bloody scene around them and sunk into a long silence.
The morale of the troop dropped to the bottom. The only thought they had was..."Will we ever get out from here?"
“Hey, cheer up, we should be glad that we are still alive!” Qing shui said. He usually wouldn't say words of encouragement, “We should keep going now, or do you want to mourn for half an hour and take another 30 minutes to pick up for yourselves? Do you think we can get to Zhengzhou before sunset if we do so? Stop acting like losers, all of you, stand up!”
The problem of dying was real and serious, the soldiers lifted their eyelids. After all, the bloody reality was what they had to deal with now, otherwise, something bloodier would be chasing after them. If they can’t make it Zhengzhou before sunset, they would die. Even if they were to leave now, the time was still short. At the moment, every minute they lose now could be a chance they lose to survive.
Considering all the factors, the soldiers picked themselves up pretty quickly. Reality forced them to repress their sadness. Although they felt hopeless, the cruel reality forced them to rearm themselves. For the sake of surviving, they quickly stood in order.
“Dr. Huang, can you do some simple hemostatic treatment for them? We are leaving soon.”
“Will do.” For the first time, Huang agreed with Qing shui. While Dr. Huang was treating those soldiers, Qing shui asked Ming Yi, “Ming Yi, are there any compasses left in the troop?”
“There was only one….it was with the captain. We thought we would only need one as we can get to Zhengzhou by walking along Zheng Kai Avenue… so we didn’t prepare a spare, we…” Ming Yi mumbled, but he raised his voice suddenly “The captain! The compass was with the captain! But he is in the flower bush now…”
It was another strike on everyone’s broken hearts.
“For god’s sake!” Pangzi sounded desperate “What do we do now? We can’t see very far and we don’t have any guide for direction either. It can be possible that we can get around this flower bush without getting lost.”
“Calm down everybody, take care of your injuries for now, I am going to get the compass.” Qing shui pulled at Chang’s sleeve, “Come with me.”
“What do you want?” Chang glanced at the flower bush fearfully, “We are sending ourselves to the evil! Do you understand that?”
“It may be the other way around.” Qing shui removed the shirt from a dead soldier, “I figure the fragrance came from the pollen, if we could somehow isolate ourselves from the pollen and cover our nose with a damp cloth, then possibly we could prevent the neurotoxin from getting into our system. We are safe as long as we don't breath in too much of the pollen. However, if we don't have the compass, we all have to die in here.”
Qing shui quickly slid into that soldier’s uniform then he put on an additional layer of the uniform. They tore off two long pieces of cloth from a dead man’s t-shirt, then soaked them with blood. They covered their lower face with the cloth.
Minutes after that, they wrapped themselves with heavy protection. The troop had mixed feeling about their departure, fear and hope filled their heart. Qing shui and Chang went back to the gorgeous and deadly flower bush.
They trotted along the same path they came through and promptly stopped at the edge of the glamorousness.
“You have better eyesight than me, do you see the captain?” Qing shui was fully alarmed by the vividness and asked, “They can’t have run too far.”
“For sure.” Chang nodded. Soon enough, he spotted broken bodies in the middle of the bush.
There were broken body parts everywhere and were coated by blood thickly. Chang almost couldn't tell which one was the captain.
He carefully searched for a while and found that familiar back that he had been watching for days.
“There, that seems like the captain.” Chang pointed somewhere in the air.
“There?” Qing shui squinted his eyes to try to see where Chang pointed at. He obviously couldn’t see anything beyond 3 meters, but he was looking for an estimated direction.
“Yes.”
“Alright, stay here, I’ll get the compass.”
“What are you talking about? You are entering the flower bush?” Chang was confused. “The flower could possible attack in different ways, aren’t you afraid of that?”
“Of course I am.” Qing shui patted Chang’s shoulder, “But I can’t let you risk your life every time.”
That was the last sentence he said to Chang before he left. Qing shui turned away and stepped into the gorgeousness without looking back.
Chapter 65: Food web
The soil was soft and moist. When Qing shui stepped into the flower bush, Chang noticed the sound of Qing shui’s shoe slightly sinking into the soil. The sound was light, but it suffocated Chang as if a pillow was pressed firmly on his face.
His palm was sweating and he clenched his fist, Chang didn’t even dare to blink, he paid all of his attention to the surroundings of Qing shui.
It was only the first step, but those flowers became vigilant to the stranger immediately. Then, creepily, they turned their “face” altogether, as if there were pairs of eyes in the center of the flowers. They were facing Qing shui now.
“It moves, like I thought!” Chang almost lost control, he wanted to drag Qing shui back before things escalated. But Qing shui only waved to him, indicating that he was fine. “Don't worry, just stay there.”
The waving convinced Chang and he sat back knowing the person who he trusted well.
After making sure Chang wouldn’t interrupt, he took another step and cautiously avoided most of the small plants around the flowers.
Even though Qing shui paid full attention to avoid having to have contact with the plants, the vividness sensed his existence. The flowers turned their faces one by one as if they were bystanders of a fight. They looked at Qing shui in a circle, although they were only at Qing shui’s waist height.
Chang almost had a heart attack from the strangeness. He couldn't wait to shout out to ask Qing shui to come back, but he was also afraid that these seemingly mellow flowers would turn into killing machines if he ever spoke. It was a double dilemma to Chang, he struggled to decide if he should follow Qing shui or ask him to come back.
Qing shui, as the person stayed within the circle, was even more nervous of the unforeseeable unknown. The evolution of his intelligence didn’t dull his emotions. As a normal human, he knew the bitter taste of fear.
However, he had also become a smarter human these past days. He realized he needed to suppress his
feelings more in this situation.
Qing shui took a deep breath to stabilize the tremor of fear over his body, and he again took a third step further in the flower bush…
Then there was the fourth…
As if he was the Sun and those were just normal sunflowers, every movement he made was followed by the sensitive readjustment from the flowers. Qing shui escalated his pace as he went further into the flower bush.
To Chang, Qing shui was a fearless champion that walked into the abyss of fear without hesitation. His clenched fist couldn't stop trembling. He couldn't dare imagine that the person he knew could be sliced into pieces by the whirling petals. He also couldn’t take the heartbreaking moment that the face he knew would become mummified.
Therefore, Chang closed and opened his eyes, again and again. He wanted to make sure Qing shui was safe but also wanted to flee since he would never be able to handle Qing shui's death. As he thought internally, Qing shui had found the captain’s body. It really was a mercy that the lush flower bush didn’t give him too much of a hard time on finding the compass. About 10 seconds after, Chang knew Qing shui had found the compass when he stood up.
The familiar man tucked his right hand in his sleeve and picked up the compass that fell in the flower bush, and then started to make his way back.
Step by step, Qing shui was even more cautious than when he went in. Of course, the flowers watched him all the way back too.
The last step Qing shui took to get out of the flower bush was a relief for both of them. Qing shui kneeled as he had used up all his strength. All his emotions finally had a channel to break out.
“I never want to do this again.” Qing shui's fingers fumbled over the compass. The blood cloth dried half way when he got into the flower bush, but it was re-damped by the cold sweat and tears in this moment. Perhaps this was the time he cried hardest in his life. He took several large inhales to try to calm his mind.
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