Chen Hao stuffed the last compressed biscuit into the inner pocket of his backpack and dusted it off. He looked up at the sky; the fog hadn't lifted, and it hung over him like a gray lid.
"Finished counting?" Susan squatted on the ground, holding an empty syringe in her hand.
“It’s over.” Chen Hao reported the numbers: “Five days’ worth of food, the water purifier is broken, there are three spare batteries left, and a wrench is missing from the tool kit—Karl probably lost it.”
“I didn’t lose it.” Karl leaned against the shed, his left hand wrapped in a strip of cloth, his right hand using pliers to tighten a rusty screw. “I put it in the third compartment of the cabin. Don’t blame me if you can’t find it yourself.”
"Alright, it grew legs and ran away." Chen Hao waved his hand. "The important thing now isn't the wrench, it's the water. Without a water purifier, what are we going to drink?"
“Rainwater,” Susan said, “if we could collect it.”
"It's better to wait for the sun to come out and dry the clothes than for the rain." Chen Hao pulled out a sheet of aluminum foil. "Nana, you said you could make a distillation apparatus?"
Nana stood on the rock, her eyes gleaming with a faint blue light. She nodded: "Use metal sheets to build a ramp; after the sun shines on it, the water vapor will condense and flow down. It's inefficient, but we can collect half a cup every day."
“Who’s going to drink half a glass?” Carl sneered. “I could finish it in one gulp.”
"Drink it sparingly." Chen Hao folded the aluminum foil into a V-shape. "Pack it up first; something is better than nothing."
Susan got up and walked towards the sea, her footsteps crunching on the rocks. She bent down, picked up a wet stone, and put it down again. "The ground is all salt and alkali; plants can't survive here."
"We can't let them starve to death." Chen Hao tore open a bag of biscuits, breaking it into four pieces. "Two biscuits each, once in the morning and once in the evening. No lunch."
"It's hottest at noon," Carl muttered. "If we don't eat, we won't be able to hold on any longer."
"Then go catch some fish." Chen Hao handed over the biscuits. "The underwater volcano just exploded. If the fish aren't cooked, they'll definitely swim here."
Carl took the cookie, took a bite, and said nothing more.
Nana suddenly turned her head to look in the direction of the treeline.
"What's wrong?" Chen Hao asked.
“Sound,” she said. “Low-frequency vibration, lasting three seconds, repeated every seventeen seconds.”
"The wind is blowing through the trees?" Susan turned around.
“No.” Nana shook her head. “The frequency is irregular, it doesn’t seem like a natural phenomenon.”
“A beast?” Karl straightened up a bit, pressing his hand against his wound.
"Uncertain." Nana closed her eyes for a few seconds. "No heat source detected. The sound wave came from the northwest, about sixty meters away."
Chen Hao slowly stuffed the remaining half of the biscuit back into his pocket. He picked up a broken piece of wood from the side, about a meter long, with one end sharpened to a point.
“You guys continue working on the equipment,” he said. “I’ll go take a look.”
"Are you crazy?" Susan grabbed his arm. "You're going to go over just because you heard a sound?"
"It would be crazy not to go and see." Chen Hao shook off his hand. "If it really is an animal, we should find out before it gets close. We can't just wait for it to sneak in at night and bite us."
“I’ll go with you.” Carl stood up and picked up the metal plate.
"Your hand is like this and you're still trying to be brave?"
“You can’t stop me from going even if I don’t want to,” Carl grinned. “Besides, if I fall, I can be used as a stepping stone.”
Susan glared at them both: "One of you is fat and the other is injured. Putting you together is just asking for trouble."
"Thanks for praising our team's good combination." Chen Hao smiled. "Don't worry, if we just ran away when we saw something, that wouldn't be heroic."
Nana walked up to him and handed him a small knife: "Here, take this."
"Didn't you keep it to cut electrical wires?"
"Staying alive is more important now." After she finished speaking, she turned around and stood back on the high ground, her eyes flashing blue light.
Chen Hao took the knife and tucked it into his belt. He and Karl walked one after the other towards the treeline. The fog was thicker than before, and the scenery began to blur after just a few steps.
"You're saying trees can grow on this island?" Karl asked in a low voice.
“Just because something can grow doesn’t mean there are animals.” Chen Hao stared at the ground. “There’s not even grass in the cracks of the rocks, so where would we get food to feed wild animals?”
"But the sound definitely exists."
"Maybe it's some kind of mechanical residue." Chen Hao kicked away a piece of gravel. "The research equipment exploded, and parts flew out and hit the mountain. That makes sense."
"Then why did you look like you were about to go to war just now?"
“I always have a fierce expression when I speak,” Chen Hao shrugged. “My mom said that the first time I saw her after I was born, I scared her to tears.”
Karl chuckled, then groaned as he touched his wound.
"Bear with it." Chen Hao slowed his pace. "We're almost there."
The trees ahead were sparse, with a few withered branches lying on the ground. There was a faint, fishy smell in the air, not strong, but it lingered.
"Stop." Nana's voice came through the earpiece, "Sound waves are appearing again at three o'clock ahead. This time the duration has increased to five seconds, accompanied by slight ground vibrations."
The two stopped.
Chen Hao squatted down and placed his palms on the ground. After a few seconds, he felt a slight tremor, as if someone was dragging something in the distance.
“It’s not walking,” he said. “It’s too slow, the rhythm is wrong.”
“Like a chain,” Carl said in a low voice, “or like chains scraping the ground.”
"Where did these chains come from?" Chen Hao squinted and looked ahead. "Unless... someone has been here."
“The data log didn’t mention anyone,” Carl frowned. “Besides, this island is so small, it should have been discovered much earlier.”
"That's even stranger." Chen Hao gripped the wooden stick tighter. "Should we get closer?"
"Five meters closer," Nana said in the communicator. "I will monitor it in real time and alert you immediately if anything is amiss."
They moved forward another ten steps. A dark shadow vaguely appeared in the fog, leaning against a tree. It was irregularly shaped, slightly rounded at the top, with a thin trail trailing behind it.
"What's that?" Karl held his breath.
Chen Hao didn't answer. He stared at the thing and noticed it moved slightly.
A very slight sway.
Immediately afterwards, a low, grinding sound rang out, like coarse cloth scraping against a rock.
When the sound faded, silence fell over the fog.
A few seconds later, the same sound came again, this time closer.
"Back off," Nana suddenly said. "The vibration frequency is increasing, and the distance is shortening."
Chen Hao took a step back, his foot stepping on a dry branch with a cracking sound.
The activity in the fog stopped.
The three of them froze.
One second, two seconds.
The sound did not reappear.
"Did it hear that?" Carl whispered.
"I don't know." Chen Hao slowly backed away. "Let's go back first."
They retreated step by step back to the camp. Susan came to meet them, holding a modified utility knife.
"How is it?" she asked.
"I don't know." Chen Hao took a breath. "There's something over there that moves and makes sounds, but we couldn't see it clearly."
"What about thermal imaging?" she asked Nana.
“Still no signal.” Nana said, her eyes wide open. “But it is moving and responding to sound.”
“This is troublesome.” Susan gripped the knife tighter. “It means it’s neither blind nor stupid.”
“Maybe it’s just an instinctive reaction.” Karl sat down and leaned against the shed. “It’s normal to stop when you hear a noise.”
“Normally, you wouldn’t mop the floor every ten seconds or so,” Chen Hao shook his head. “It’s like you’re on patrol.”
"How big is this island?" Susan asked.
"It takes less than twenty minutes to walk around," Chen Hao said. "Such a small place, does it really need patrols?"
No one responded.
Nana suddenly raised her hand: "Attention. The sound wave is appearing for the third time. The direction is the same, but the interval has shortened to once every ten seconds."
"Is it getting closer?" Susan stood up straight.
"Possibly." Nana nodded. "I suggest everyone move into defensive positions."
Chen Hao picked up another wooden stick from the ground and handed it to Susan: "You guard the left side. Carl, you hold that iron plate and use it to block in front. Nana and I will watch the front."
"Is this all the weapons I have?" Karl looked at the scrap of iron in his hand. "You might as well give me a brick."
“The bricks are too heavy, they’ll slow down our escape,” Chen Hao said with a straight face. “This one is light, it won’t kill anyone but it can scare them.”
"You're really planning to fight?"
"If we don't fight, we have to run." Chen Hao stared at the fog. "The problem is, where do we run? The sea?"
Susan crouched down, plunging the knife halfway into the ground for easy removal. Carl held the iron plate horizontally in front of his chest, leaning slightly forward. Nana stood at the highest point, her eyes flashing steadily with blue light.
From the other side of the fog, the sound of friction rang out once again.
This time there was no pause.
The sound kept coming, getting closer and closer.
Chen Hao gripped the wooden stick tightly, his throat dry.
The sound traveled through the edge of the woods and reached the perimeter of the clearing.
Then, it came to an abrupt end.
Everyone held their breath.
A minute passed, and nothing happened.
Two minutes passed, and it remained silent.
"It's gone?" Karl asked in a low voice.
Nana didn't answer. Her gaze was fixed ahead, and blue light flashed rapidly.
Chen Hao slowly took a step forward.
"Don't move," Nana suddenly said.
He stopped.
In the fog, a black claw slowly rose from the ground and landed on the rock.
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