chase

For a moment, when the night breeze took away the heat from our bodies equally, the surroundings were so quiet that even the sound of breathing could not be heard.

The amplitude of the swaying of the human-shaped reeds was not actually very large, but because they were everywhere and their numbers were so huge, when they swayed together, it gave people the illusion that they were slowly pressing down accompanied by a thick fog-like light all around.

No one knew how long this evil wind would blow. We all stood there in cold sweat, frozen in the darkness on the rooftop, staring at those shadows.

One minute, five minutes, or maybe only a dozen seconds passed. Staring at the bright spot for a long time made my eyes sore and blurry, and my vision gradually became seriously distorted. I didn't dare to blink, and kept looking around, for fear of missing any sudden changes.

But there were flashes everywhere in the sky and on the ground, it was impossible to see them all. As my eyes became more and more sore and unbearable, my heart beat wildly, and layer after layer of white sweat broke out like crazy. In an instant, I was sweating profusely.

It's them, it's it.

My rationality on the verge of collapse screamed, "I am very familiar with this feeling. No, I should say that I will never forget this unique fear."

At the beginning of my most ignorant journey, I was in a daze, subconsciously avoiding the arrival of each day in the convoy, curled up in my small grocery store like a madman, muttering to myself until night fell.

At this moment, just like that moment, the cat suddenly broke free and landed on the ground, arching its back at my feet, its hair completely standing up, and letting out a shrill hiss at the flickering universe and the infinite wall of death.

I don’t know whether this is God’s mercy or mockery, that I have somehow managed to remain ignorant, stupid and composure despite all the dangers along the way. It is only now that I thoroughly understand that this is the “rat in the wall” that I instinctively dare not face, and this is its most essential appearance.

But what exactly is this thing? What exactly is death reversal?

Why did the wanderers choose this place as their base? They were supposed to be immortal and wander forever. What did they do and experience in this waterless land? Where did they go in the end?

—Did they hang here, in this huge mass of dry, decaying reeds?

I suddenly became more awake than ever, yet more confused than ever. I felt weak all over, and for the first time I actually prayed devoutly to God in my heart.

In the midst of our agony, perhaps God finally realized how small and miserable we were, and the sound of the wind gradually subsided and finally stopped out of pity.

It was still blindingly bright everywhere; the shadows blurred for a moment and disappeared in our peripheral vision.

There was a loud clacking sound. I don't know who dropped the hook because of sweat in his hand. The sound rolled across the rooftop, passing over the dried blood and footprints on the ground, and made us all shiver.

Next, none of us said a word, nor did we move. We just stood there in a daze, as if we were stupid.

It wasn't until the comatose old man groaned weakly in his nightmare that everyone was startled and began to shudder, with goose bumps all over their skin.

At this moment, everyone's mind was probably blank. I heard someone lower his voice and ask in a hoarse voice:

"What should we do? Leave?"

But there seemed to be no answer as to where to go. Apart from the rooftop below us and this old building without water or light, and the row of strange flower pots blocking our way, where else could we go?

"The problem is, we can't stay here any longer." I didn't notice who was talking in the dim light, but I think his face must be extremely ugly. "After all, all the people we watched being broken during the day happened in this building."

Yes, there is a den of ghosts ahead and corpses underfoot. It seems difficult to say which of the two sides is more ferocious. It seems that there is nowhere to escape, whether in heaven or on earth.

I smiled bitterly, and tried to cheer myself up, and held the over-stressed cat in my arms, feeling the kitten in my hands was stiff and trembling. Sanyi didn't say anything, but reached out and pressed it. Dongzai reacted quite violently, and immediately exhaled sharply, but was held by Sanyi, and suddenly became limp and motionless.

I thanked him in a low voice, and a moment of weakness flashed through my mind. I almost wanted to ask Sanyi to knock me out for a while.

Our eyes met, and before I could see the other person's expression clearly, I slapped myself hard on the face and said, "You're useless."

At this time, one of the guys tried to calm down and suggested in a low voice:

"Turn off the light?"

Xu You and I said "No" at almost the same time. The guy was puzzled. Xu You cursed in a low voice and said quickly:

"Let's not talk about the limited length of our grappling hooks. We can only extinguish a small part of the lights. I wonder how those ghost things were reflected on the wall. Now it seems that they have disappeared. What about the reality? If we can't see them, does that mean they don't exist? When there is no light to guide the way, I'm afraid we won't be able to detect them coming!"

The guy got scared and shouted, "Captain, you... don't scare me." He looked around unnaturally, as if something invisible was crawling towards him from the surrounding light. "If the wind stops, won't it be even more blind?!"

As the saying goes, scaring people can kill them. I had a headache so I told the two heroes to shut up, but that guy got even more panicked, his teeth chattering, the sound wasn't loud but was extremely creepy.

Now the others also felt uncomfortable, and another voice shouted angrily, "Are you done yet? Hold it in!"

The guy immediately became quiet. I looked in his general direction, wondering how to deal with it. Who knows if the next wind would blow in an instant.

I always feel something is wrong in the silence, as if I have overlooked some fatal problem.

In the chaos, I could hear the guy's teeth chattering, which made me feel itchy all over.

At this moment, a cold hand suddenly grabbed me forcefully. I was startled. The hand did not relax, and another hand full of calluses came over and covered my mouth tightly, making it impossible for me to make a sound.

Without giving me any chance to struggle, I was hit silently on the throat and then dragged far away by a huge force.

This action was so familiar that I was startled. The words on my lips stopped immediately. I didn't resist anymore and realized that the people who kidnapped me seemed to be Sanyi and Xu You.

Before I could wonder how these two enemies suddenly reconciled, I was dragged back and forth, and I didn't know where I was in.

At this time, the third hand reached my shoulder and trembled as he knocked a few Zhang family codes on me, which meant: "Advisor, listen."

listen?

I didn't care who it was. When I moved my ears, I noticed something very strange. My heartbeat suddenly started to beat fast eight again.

Not too far from me, a very faint sound, similar to that of human teeth chattering, was actually moving.

No, it doesn't seem like a person is shivering.

That somewhat creepy sound, upon closer inspection, actually sounded more like something crawling on tiptoe.

...Oh my God, was Xu You’s bad mouth right?

The lights and the sound of wind only allow people to see those ghost things intermittently, but can they actually come here in broad daylight?

The moment the thought flashed through his mind, the rattling sound paused and became even softer.

I held my breath, and the next second, the voice suddenly rushed towards me quickly in the darkness.

"Here they come! Run!"

I don't know which guy pushed me, but he ran in the opposite direction of me while shouting. The voice was trembling, but he didn't show any intention of changing direction. I don't know if he was deaf or stubborn, but he actually chased me straight.

I cursed in my heart, and I didn't know where Xu You and San Yi disappeared in an instant. I could only fend for myself in the cold night. I turned around and ran like a headless fly, and at the same time prayed that I would not use too much force and fall off the edge of the roof, or even hit myself headfirst and die on someone.

Fortunately, the guys were pretty strong. They all ran in the dark, shouting and making noises, trying to attract the thing's attention.

I was so confused that I was circling around the guys, but the convulsion was fixed on me. My panic soon turned into anger, and then into helplessness. I was soon panting like a bellows, gasping for breath and shouting:

"Where are they?! Brother! Second uncle! Has the golden hoop drawn a protective circle?"

The answer I got was a sound of breaking air.

Something small and warm came straight at me on the head. I rolled over, cursing and avoiding being hit. At the same time, there was a sudden light in the darkness. Someone turned on the flashlight of a mobile phone.

With a bang, the mineral water bottle fell to the ground and the emergency heated water droplets splashed on my face. The light of the mobile phone went out immediately, but it was enough for me to see the scene chasing behind me in an instant.

I stood still, controlled my weak legs, and shouted at everyone at the top of my lungs:

"Don't move! Don't move!"

The warm liquid flowed to my feet. I didn't move at all. Then I heard the sound suddenly stop. After a moment, it slowly flowed in front of me and fell into a brief silence.

I guess my cold sweat won’t stop today.

In just a moment, I roughly understood what Xu You and San Yi were trying. The heated mineral water was to test whether this ghost thing was sensitive to water vapor and temperature, and the light that was just turned on was probably to test whether this thing was attracted to light.

Unfortunately, neither.

But the funny escape was not a complete failure. When the phone lit up, I saw something unexpected.

I took a deep breath with difficulty, suppressed my fear, and did not run away. Instead, I walked towards the thing that was standing still in front of me.

"Yeah."

The heels tapped lightly on the cold cement of the rooftop.

"Just now...did you see it?"

I whispered, "There was nothing. There was nothing on the roof except us. But it and I both stepped on the blood clots on the ground. It was following my bloody footprints."

"It's not those shadows. It's Ding Jiu and the guys who chased out from the corridor. It's their footsteps."