Volume 8 Chapter 17 The silent camp

Our excitement was instantly extinguished by the strange camp in front of us. The two of us looked at each other. I felt like crying, I was so tired that I couldn’t handle any more emergencies. I suddenly felt like I was going crazy, this forest wanted to drive me crazy.

Fatty was much more resilient than I was. He put down the pan and let him lean against a rock, while I let him go in with me to check it out. There was no longer any fog around us, so he picked up a rock and hit his head with it. We both cautiously and warily approached the tents and walked into the camp.

As soon as we walked in, I realized how well Uncle San had prepared for this time. I saw a generator, a stove, and even a huge awning. Under the awning was a large flat stone, with many documents piled on top of it. I saw a few cups for brushing teeth placed on the remains of the stone on one side, and on the other side, the connecting rod between the two tents was tied up with vines, with clothes hanging on it. It was like a simple residential settlement.

Everything was normal, there were no traces of fighting, no bloodstains, but there was no one either, as if the people in the camp had just gone hiking.

In the middle of the camp, we found a huge bonfire that had completely turned to ash. We found the smokeballs that had been left burning in the bonfire. Obviously, there was no mistake. This was where the signal smoke had come from.

The tent curtains were open, and we could see that there was no one inside. We could even smell the smell of athlete’s foot inside.

We tiptoed around in a circle, but found nothing. The fat guy and I looked at each other.

I remembered the color of the signal smoke I had seen. Pan Zi said that the red signal smoke meant “do not approach,” and it was clear that something had happened here. I couldn’t help but feel nervous again. I felt prickly all over. Where had these people gone? What had happened here?

I couldn’t suppress my uneasy feeling. If we had been well equipped and had enough energy, I might even have decided to leave immediately and look carefully in a safe place nearby, but we were almost half dead now, and I really didn’t want to leave here and go trekking again. In Pan Zi’s case, it was impossible to do so. He had to receive immediate care.

On a boulder under the shade of the tent, the fat man found a pack of cigarettes. He was itching to smoke, so he immediately lit one and smoked it. However, he was so tired that he couldn’t smoke for long. I also smoked a few puffs. Tobacco was playing a medicinal role at this time, and I slowly calmed down.

Then we immediately carried Pan Zi into one of the tents. I saw two backpacks inside. The tents were very large, and at least four people could sleep in one. There were many miscellaneous items on the waterproof cloth in the tent, including flashlights and watches, none of which had been taken away. I even saw an MP3, but I didn’t see any lights. I thought to myself, “Is the small generator outside here to charge it?” This is such a waste.

We finally relaxed inside. We took off all of Pan Zi’s clothes and removed the remaining ticks. Fat Man flipped through one of the backpacks and found a small medical box. He used the alcohol inside to disinfect Pan Zi’s wounds again. Then he went to the tent in the camp and searched one by one, finding a box of needles and thread and sewing up Pan Zi’s deep wounds.

Pan Zi had already woken up, but he was still confused and didn’t know if he was sober. When the fat man stitched him up, his face clearly contorted, but he didn’t struggle too much.

I was surprised at how skillfully the fat man stitched up the wound. “What did you do before? You’re good at this.”

“I told you before, you’re always forgetting. Who doesn’t know how to do needlework when they’re sent to the countryside? They don’t have a father to beat them or a mother to love them, so they have to take care of themselves.” He said, “But this is the first time I’ve ever sewn human skin. Do you think I should sew a pattern on it, or will this guy think it’s too monotonous?”

I knew he was joking, and I laughed a few times to show that I didn’t think it was funny.

Looking at Pan Zi, I sighed with emotion. Fortunately, although the python was extremely powerful, its teeth were short and small, so even though it had caused such serious injuries, it had not injured Pan Zi’s vital organs. Looking at Pan Zi, who was naked and covered in scars, I suddenly realized the origin of his scars. I was afraid that every time he went to the field, he would be in mortal danger. No wonder Uncle San relied on him so much. This guy really doesn’t care about his life when he does things.

However, perhaps it is precisely this style of doing things that allows him to survive every time he is seriously injured, I thought to myself.

The fat guy said to me, “This is called a self-destructive tendency. I know very well. I have a close friend who was in the war. Everyone in his squad died, and they died horribly. After he was discharged from the army, he couldn’t get over it. He kept wondering why he wasn’t the one who died. It’s as if he survived because someone else got him out of the way. When we were fighting, we were desperate to find death, doing anything dangerous, actually wanting to find an opportunity to kill ourselves. This kind of person has to have a worry, otherwise they can really do anything. So I feel that your uncle is like a life preserver for Pan.

I didn’t have that kind of experience, so I couldn’t understand what the fat guy was saying. But I saw that his hands were shaking a little, so I told him to stop talking and concentrate on sewing.

The two of them sewed for nearly an hour before they finished the wound. Their hands were covered in blood, and they disinfected the wound again. The fat guy let out a sigh of relief, and at this point, Pan Zi passed out again.

We walked out of the tent and had to sit down and rest. The fat guy didn’t completely relax, and immediately looked around and said, “Something’s wrong here. I think we should clean up a bit while we still can, and we can’t stay here for long.”

I nodded and tried to stand up, but as soon as I moved, I realized that I couldn’t walk at all. None of my muscles would listen to my orders. Fat Man moved a few times, and obviously couldn’t walk either. We both looked at each other and sighed.

To be honest, we were exhausted. Even if there was a fire burning at our feet, I’m afraid we couldn’t stand up. Both mentally and physically, we had exceeded the limits of fatigue and were completely useless.

Seeing that I was not moving, the fat man said with a wry smile, but now it is not safe to go back to the jungle. He would rather die here than be killed in a damp and cold place. Listening to this MP3 and being bitten to death by a snake is worthy of this celebrity in the world of tomb-digging.

This is a bit of a Q spirit, but I nodded, and I really did. Although I had experienced several exhausting situations before, this one was particularly severe. The main reason was that before entering here, we had already spent too much energy and physical strength crossing the Great Gobi. We were already very tired before entering the canyon, and then we just managed to get through it. The feeling of having just begun the journey after such a long trek was extremely frustrating, but what was even more frightening was that I knew that if I could survive, the journey back would be the real test. Now if Aning’s walkie-talkie really existed, we wouldn’t have been able to get it. Then the rest of the story would have been a complete nightmare.

Thinking about these things makes my head ache, and I really don’t want to think about them.

We rested for a while, boiled some tea, ate some dried food, then took off all our clothes. The clothes we took off were too big for our legs, so we just threw them away and put on some clothes that were drying in the sun. Looking at our legs, we saw that they were covered in blood from the thorns.

The disgusting thing was the ticks. There weren’t any on the front of my legs, but they were all concentrated in the hollows behind my knees, sucking up all the blood. I wanted to squash them, but Fat Man said that might attract more. I swept them all into the stove and burned them with a crackling sound.

The tea I made with my own blood was especially fragrant. I drank some and washed my feet and wounds. The muscles that had been completely numb finally began to feel something. I felt everything, from aching to weakness, from itching to numbness. I couldn’t even stand up, so I had to use my butt as a foot to move around.

Last night, I was the only one who slept for a while, so although I was very sleepy, I let Fatso sleep for a while first, and I leaned against a stone on the side to keep watch.

The sun was shining brightly, and the entire ruins were clearly visible before us. There was no wind, and the entire valley was quiet as if it were still. I thought that Fatso would definitely not be able to sleep either, but I didn’t expect that in less than a second he would snore like thunder while leaning against the stone, and he fell asleep without even putting out his cigarette.

I took his cigarette and smoked it myself, shaking my head with a bitter smile. At this moment, I felt that I was almost going to sleep, so I immediately forced myself to stay awake and tried my best not to fall asleep, but it didn’t work.

As the morning light faded and the sun became more and more intense, I took a few deep breaths, hid under the awning, and forced myself to start packing my backpack. At this moment, I saw Wenjin’s notebook, which was stuffed in the back.

I was afraid that the precious notes would be damaged during the harsh trek, so I wrapped them in a pair of my socks. After entering the canyon, the plan was always out of sync with the changes, and I never had a chance to take a closer look.

Perhaps it has been a few years since Wenjin came here. Although ten or twenty years is too short a time for the history of this ancient city, it is long enough for the environment here.

Wenjin wrote: “There are many snakes here.” She didn’t lie to us, but I think Wenjin wrote it too briefly. There is really a lot to write about these snakes, but she only noticed that there were many of them.

The notes record a lot about their journey through the rainforest. I can take another look to see if there is anything that can help us. After this, my mind was blank, and I was thinking about how to get out of here, so I turned to the last part of the notes.

However, I was so tired that my eyes were blurred, so I had to splash some water on my eyes to refresh myself. After a few pages, I really couldn’t bear it anymore. I felt like reading was like being hypnotized, so I put the notes down and tried to make my mind blank, but my mind was gradually becoming hazy.

Just when I was about to fall asleep, I heard a faint voice in a trance, as if Pan Zi had called me: “Little Master.”

I was startled awake, thinking that Pan Zi needed something, so I immediately rubbed my eyes and painfully sat up, only to find that it was quiet all around and there was no sound.

I thought to myself, “Oh no, I’m hallucinating from being so tired,” and immediately rubbed my temples, but then I heard a very soft voice, as if it was laughing or complaining, coming from the depths of the camp.

I jumped and thought to myself, “Are they back?”

I immediately ran out, but saw no one inside. I called out “Hi” and walked towards the middle of the large tents. I walked around in a circle, but saw nothing.

Strange? I patted my head, and the silence was so eerie.

I stood there for a while, but nothing happened. I walked back inexplicably, sat back down in my original position, took a few deep breaths, and lit a cigarette. I thought maybe my brain was going crazy.

But I knew immediately that I was not. I saw several muddy footprints on the stone in front of me, which had come from afar and led to where I was sitting. This was not there before.

I became alert and looked around. I saw that there was also a lot of mud on the large stone where the documents were placed, and it was obvious that something had been propped up on it. Then I noticed that the position of Wenjin’s notebook, which I had placed on top, had changed, and it was covered in mud.

In an instant, I was no longer sleepy, and I immediately stood up.

Who did this? There were so many muddy footprints. Could it be Wenjin? Did this guy see his own notes and flip through them? Or was it that monster that looked like Ning?

I looked around, but there was no one there. I looked at the footprints and saw that they had branched off and actually entered Pan Zi’s tent. I suddenly became nervous and immediately picked up a stone and went to the fat guy to wake him up.

It wasn’t easy to wake up the fat guy. I shook him a few times, but he didn’t respond. I didn’t dare make too much noise, so I gritted my teeth and walked toward the tent on my own.

The tent was ajar. I walked up and saw a mud handprint on the tent’s nylon curtain. I swallowed hard.

Taking a deep breath, I imagined the process. I opened the curtain and rushed in. I yelled, “If that person comes at me, I’ll hit her with a rock!”

At this moment, I suddenly felt that the rock was not very handy, but I didn’t have time to find another one. I took another deep breath, gritted my teeth, and then entered the tent. Sure enough, I saw a man covered in mud squatting in front of the pot.

I was about to pounce on him when I saw the man turn his head. I froze. I saw a pair of familiar eyes in the face covered in mud.