Smoldering (2 in 1)
The moment the wind suddenly blew, everyone present rushed to both sides without hesitation.
There was a series of crackling sounds like firecrackers under my feet, and I shouted in a sharp voice, "Retreat, retreat, retreat, quickly!" Before I could finish my words, the concrete slab not far away shook, and suddenly cracked and arched up a large irregular piece. Then there were one, two, ten, a hundred, and countless spider-like tiny cracks that were dizzying to see, spreading rapidly on the rooftop like a frenzy.
"There's nowhere to run! Stay away from the walls and your feet. Jump!"
I shouted, and there was no time to give any instructions or explanations. Fortunately, Xu You and San Yi did not hesitate. They stepped back together, stepped on the edge of the roof, turned around and jumped in no particular order.
“Bang!”
The two newly swung hooks were firmly stuck into the steel bars buried deep in the opposite wall, and the long ropes connected to the end were suddenly stretched straight.
Xu You and San Yi were seen swinging in the air, confirming that the zipline could maintain its weight between the two tall buildings in a short period of time, and they said affirmatively, "Okay! Come on!"
The guys didn't waste any time and jumped out at the same time, moving away from the rooftop one by one. Xu You swung again, turned back and grabbed me from the back, as if he had no trust in my ability to save myself. He exerted force, exhaled, and said, "Let's go."
I shrank back, and before I could shout that I could do it myself, I was already in the air, with two long ropes tightly wrapped around my waist. The other end was connected to a lock from somewhere and stuck on the rope bridge. I immediately flew up into the air like a swing.
This moment seemed familiar, with a heart-pounding feeling of extreme disco dancing. I was helplessly flapping in the air, and was pulled away by the buckle and inertia. I lost balance during the tumble and almost fell headfirst. In the end, I was hanging miserably in the air and made three and a half turns.
The old man, who was even weaker than me, was tied to the back by fire and also jumped over along the flying rope.
I don't know whether to say it was tragic or funny, but the old man was awakened by the tossing and turning. He opened his eyes in a daze and was surprised to find that he and I were flying one after the other for no apparent reason. He immediately widened his eyes, made two gurgling sounds in his throat, and almost couldn't breathe. I kindly raised my hand and wanted to take a break from the busy schedule to give him a high five to comfort him, but the old man groaned and his eyes rolled back and he fainted again.
At the same moment, before I could make any awkward excuses, a figure on the other side passed by me extremely nimbly. I didn't know what he was doing, but he turned over and landed back on the rooftop by himself.
I was stunned and dumbfounded, "Sanyi! It's over here! I flew to the wrong place!"
Before he finished speaking, the noises in the walls on both sides intensified, with a noisy gurgling sound, as if countless bubbles were exploding from inside, causing the walls on all sides to float up and down and bulge up and down, like a giant python shedding its skin. All of us present shut our mouths abruptly, our scalps tingling.
Although our series of reactions seem complicated, in fact, it took less than a few tens of seconds in total. A group of people were hanging tremblingly between the high-rise buildings on both sides, relying only on simple grappling hooks and long ropes to save their lives, like drying ham in a typhoon.
The wind was strong and the guys had only five grappling hooks to put up in a hurry, plus the hooks that were originally attached to the outer wall to demolish the wall. Surrounded by the layers of buildings, it looked particularly desolate and pitiful.
Looking at the broken areas, large patches of gray-red are still seeping out. It really gives people the creepy illusion that this community has come alive and is injured and bleeding continuously.
I felt the ropes around my waist were burning, and I could hear the creaking sound of the walls surging like the tide. I had a stronger sense of crisis that I would lose weight and fall at any time. I wished I could take everyone back to the ground and run away to the farthest horizon.
After Sanyi landed on the rooftop, he rolled on the ground and took out everything that could provide lighting from his arms, including a cell phone, a flashlight, and broken cold fireworks, and quickly scattered them to every corner of the rooftop, which made me nervous.
With the sudden light, the cracks became clearer than ever before. There was a gurgling sound inside, and suddenly there was an unnatural silence. From afar, I could vaguely see that under the cracked cement slab was a very disturbing cavity-like hole. I could not see the shape and position of the rat in the wall at all. Only the lights that were thrown out were trembling slightly.
At this time, the vibrations in the wall cavities had almost reached the level of a sharp buzzing sound, but the cracks in the rooftop suddenly fell into an extreme stillness, forming a sharp contrast between the empty cavity and the violent cracks just now.
My hair stood on end and I felt something was very wrong. I shouted for Sanyi to come back, and in my heart I was screaming that something bad was going to happen.
He looked back at me, and when he turned his head, a blurry shadow suddenly flashed in the darkness, only one step away from Sanyi, and suddenly flipped out and hit his unguarded back, as fast as lightning. At the same time, all the lights scattered on the rooftop disappeared in an instant.
I was horrified, and instantly I was so frightened that I screamed, "Get away!" and immediately I couldn't help but cough violently, and all the muscles in my throat began to cramp;
Upon hearing the sound, San Yi quickly fell to the side, unexpectedly choosing to take a risk. He took the opportunity to reach out his hand towards the shadow and the crack and grabbed it hard. After three seconds, he groaned, and his upper arm was instantly stained red in a large area.
At this moment, the last lighting spot on the rooftop disappeared with a "pop", Sanyi's figure flashed, and was immediately swallowed up in the darkness.
This series of changes happened so quickly that no one had a chance to react. I cannot describe in words how thrilling it was. Before I even had time to feel scared, silence had already fallen again.
The smell of blood made my heart sink suddenly, my eyes suddenly felt so sore that I couldn't open them, and I became extremely pessimistic, thinking that I would never see this bastard again.
Before she could shed any hypocritical tears, the flying rope shook, and the bastard, covering his arm that was dripping with blood, jumped and stepped, and unexpectedly emerged from the darkness again. He turned over and stepped on the edge of a flowerpot, and tried to grab the flying rope with one hand to evacuate, but he was still looking inside with a frown in a race against time.
I was still in shock, and I couldn't tell whether I was angry or scared. It was less than a minute, and I couldn't do anything while hanging in the air. The feeling of helplessness was terrible.
But now I was so hungry and tired that I really didn't have the energy to curse, and time was extremely tight, so I could only shout at the top of my lungs and ask him what he was doing and whether he wanted to live.
Fang Ao, who was also hanging in the air with "nothing to do", quickly tried to smooth things over and shouted, "It's okay, it's okay, we can squeeze in a little more! Who's brother, we adults are magnanimous and don't bother with them, come back and hang together, it's not overweight!"
Just after he finished speaking, Sanyi whispered something, as if to say, "No."
Fang Ao breathed a sigh of relief, "That's not right, you almost pissed off your own child. Fortunately, knowing your mistakes can lead to improvement."
Sanyi jumped down towards us, his face changed drastically, "No, it's not over yet, they haven't really woken up yet. We have to leave the community immediately."
At that moment, the strong wind blew the blood beads on his wound and hit my eyelids directly. The details of the injury exposed by the closer distance were an incredible mess of blood and flesh, as if he had just rolled in boiling acid.
My eyelids were twitching, and I really felt the burning sensation from the splashing water. My throat was getting more and more itchy, and I had no idea how Sanyi could still move as usual.
The next second, there were three loud bangs, and one end of the rope bridge pulled up by the hook that was hanging on me broke neatly. Starting from the gap in the room, the gray-red color spread and directly melted the hook that was embedded in it.
I suddenly lost my balance and fell down in a very embarrassing way.
Everything became extremely chaotic afterwards. I was thrown towards the outer wall of the building on one side due to inertia. As the distance between us shortened, the wall seemed to be boiling and churning. Countless bulges of different sizes protruded through the last bit of thin wall. The situation was completely out of control.
The only thing I remember clearly was the overwhelming fear that suddenly appeared on Sanyi's face. Things started to deteriorate infinitely from this moment.
At the beginning, the hook rope flying from Sanyi's side wrapped around one of my arms in time before I was beaten into a ball of meat. It might be dislocated, or it might be just numbness and pain. I was pulled by a huge force and slowed down a little. I tried to use my fingers to pull at the protruding window frames or clotheslines to buy some time for other people who were rescuing me.
But then, the rat in the wall woke up.
Countless indescribable things splashed out from the completely collapsed wall and fell on me and my friends.
It may be strange to say this, but I tried to kick them away, but I felt completely stuck and tightened, as if we were facing a real field of hot, flesh-eating reeds.
The burning sensation was infinitely amplified by the screams of the people around me, and I once wondered if our skin was literally melting. My eyes became congested and swollen like snow blindness due to the increasingly frequent flashing lights, and my vision was completely blurred.
The grappling rope that was holding me was corroded and melted instantly, and I continued to fall. In the great pain, I heard the determined roars of my companions.
From this moment on, memory became something that could not be recalled in detail.
Some people kept jumping and chasing me, rushing over to tear off the damn things wrapped around me, so that I could regain some oxygen from suffocation, but they were also wrapped up by the rats in the wall.
During the tug of war, I repeatedly hit the wall, was bounced back or swept away, and then fell again. This process was like hell and seemed to have no end.
I only did it once in a daze. I wiped the blood off my eyelids in a daze, and tried to see through the violently shaking and flickering light spots in my field of vision. I found that everyone, including Sanyi, was covered in blood.
I don't know how long it took after this brief glance, I think it shouldn't be long, after all, it should only take five or six seconds for a human to fall from a height of seven floors. I don't know why I was so groaning when I was climbing the mine stone forest, it was so ridiculous that I thought I had been falling for dozens of seconds.
After that, I finally hit the bottom. I fell from a height of only four or five meters, which was not fatal. I fell to the ground and rolled out, unable to move for a long time. I could only hear someone blocking my back, yelling at me to get up and run, run to the gate of the community, and make sure to bring the rules that I finally figured out here out intact.
At the same time, the entire earth was humming and jumping like the walls full of cavities. The soil and gravel on the surface were shaken and jumped together, breaking into pieces and causing great pain to people, as if an invisible, world-destroying rainstorm had fallen from the sky.
I stumbled and ran in a very awkward manner, and the more I ran, the more desperate I became. There was a period of time, which might have been only one or two minutes in reality, but was infinitely prolonged by my fear and regret. In my perception, it seemed that I was the only one running away, and behind me were the Wall Rats that continued to spurt out like a mad spring.
I couldn't see at all, I didn't know where I was actually running, whether I was going back, whether I was really moving my two legs that seemed to have been broken a long time ago. The huge loneliness of losing my companions made me begin to doubt why I was struggling to survive.
Finally, just when I was about to give up, in a very dark and humorous way, I heard a voice that had originally frightened me.
That series of inhuman noises caught up with me first.
The moment I fell and stepped on the ground again, they naturally captured my footsteps again.
It was a very funny, tragic and ironic scene. They carried Ding Jiu's bones and blood, and according to the rules that had been demonstrated on the rooftop, they began to run wildly from the rooftop in an extremely rigid manner, continuing to chase me and hunt me, but ended up blocking me and the wall rats, and collided with them silently.
They seemed unaware that they were fighting against something that was essentially the same as themselves.
The faint rustling sound sounded like some ridiculous and deformed horse hoofbeats in the face of the violent thunder of the reeds and was instantly assimilated and swallowed up.
I didn't hesitate and ran as fast as I could, tears starting to fall.
Just a minute or two later, I reunited with the wounded Xu You and the others.
As for what happened later at the end, I’m not sure if it was a collective hallucination of us survivors. After all, we were probably still in a state of temporary blindness at that time, and it would have been impossible for us to see the subsequent changes.
But at the request of the old man and Huo Bie, I decided to record this suspected hallucination in detail as an important annotation of this nightmare.
What I want to explain here is that when we reunited and successfully ran out of the community, somehow we all turned around and looked back at the same time.
At that moment, we saw a scene that was both extremely terrifying and extremely magnificent.
I saw the swarming wall rats earring.
It means literally. Those wall rats that made us melt into ashes are also melting themselves in the rush, and long, dense, drooping black ears are growing out of them.
The ears of tree are entangled with each other, twisting and twisting towards the sky, presenting a state where the crown and roots are upside down, and the roots are deeply rooted. It looks very familiar, but it is impossible to tell at once what the final shape will be.
I could only vaguely sense that those ears sprouted and grew in the cracks of the wall before they matured. They were the bloody fruitfulness of the reeds. To be more practical, they were the long black hair left over from the remains of the wanderers that could not be easily degraded and rotted away by the walls.
Also, "waterless land".
The rats in the wall seem to be decomposing themselves into two coexisting states: the former is a carnivorous reed marsh, and the latter is even stranger, like a large lake without water. Can the cavities in the wall also be regarded as its dried-up branch waterways?
And in this waterless vortex that sweeps across the earth, the footsteps of the wall rats running and chasing their prey are the sound of its tides.
Speculations are just speculations, and I don’t have any empirical evidence, so they may all be far-fetched.
The only thing that was actually happening before our eyes was that the sound of the surging tides was really getting louder and louder, and there was a constant flow of gray-red liquid spitting out from the cracks in the wall, gathering together in strands, evaporating towards the sky, and gathering into a huge rust-red spring or lake in the clouds.
The ancients said "the mist rises from the Yunmeng Lake", I don't know if what I saw was a similar scene.
But at this moment, we who had survived were truly mesmerized by its beauty. We were all speechless and unable to move.
In the dead silence, only the blood-like liquid that had escaped was still winding through the cracks in the wall, and soon it covered the area like a spider web. The gray-red color turned the tall buildings into clusters of smoldering carbon sticks.
No, it's not blood, reason corrected me, my personal experience of being attacked by the wall rats was more like being captured by some carnivorous plant and imprisoned in its corrosive stomach.
That's why they don't tear us apart, but instead chase us and wrap us up. We survive only because their hunting method is gentle to a certain extent.
If I had to make an analogy, those gray-red liquid things looked like some kind of algae I had never seen before, some kind of anaerobic fungal mat, or a bunch of blood-red sponges.
What is even more bizarre is that, originally, they would not have been able to sprout and grow due to the lack of water, but now they have miraculously transformed themselves into an inexhaustible supply of lake water.
"Counselor, I don't understand."
Huo Bing raised his head and said blankly, "Why do they hunt us? Why do they sprout? Why do they rise in tide? Why do they choose to parasitize and hide in a small community?"
It was at this time that the old man who had just woken up moved a little. He sat on Huobing's back, looking at the huge lake that was still gathering above him. After hearing Huobing's question, he sighed like in a dream.
“Architecture is designed to serve a purpose.”
The old man murmured, "So, they gathered together to build themselves up and disguise themselves as a community. What they want is to sprout smoothly? To get a lake that didn't exist originally? How do they do it? Does it have to be a community to do this?"
He shook his head in confusion, "I can't figure it out..."
I shuddered, suddenly turned my head to look at him, and then looked at Sanyi who was covered in blood.
"Purpose," I said. "Perhaps a synonym would be desire?"
Sanyi's pupils shrank for a moment, and after a while, he asked softly, "...make a wish? May your wish come true?"
I nodded to him slowly, as if afraid of waking something.
“The wanderers, at this moment, have successfully transformed themselves into the original banyan tree and lake.”
I trembled and said, "So, the banyan tree we found is always thirsty for water and has an infinite greed for water. This is because the water is originally transformed and plundered from itself, just like a starving ghost devouring itself, and it will never be truly satisfied."
"And precisely because of this endless greed, the banyan tree can only live and take root in the inexhaustible 'lake', and cannot settle for second best and parasitize any ordinary river or lake.
The longer it is trapped in the 'lake', the weaker it will become due to its own transformation, and the more it will be countered by the comb jellyfish and the goddess, and controlled in the eternal past. "
"And it is at its strongest right now, in the future that is blocked by the comb jellies."
God, the wanderers have created, at the cost of themselves, a banyan tree that is always weak and relatively controllable, and a solidified rule of "whatever you wish for will come true."
They have created a two-way ecological niche that is like an Ouroboros, forever devouring itself and forever contradicting itself.
The wanderers overdraw their dead selves, and as the unborn banyan tree larvae, they make wishes to the banyan trees of the future, and ultimately close the loop and create the banyan trees of the past.
Since the banyan tree was born, cause and effect, life and death, front and back, up and down have been reversed forever. That is why the death reversal phenomenon that occurs here is so chaotic and disordered.
I suddenly understood why Huang Yazi said that the originally immortal wanderers had a fatal weakness.
Because according to the underlying rules of the banyan tree, making a wish to the banyan tree requires paying a price.
The wanderer reversed the causal order of life and death, fixed his death in the future, and made himself, who was bound to die, the cornerstone of the banyan tree, thus paying the price of immortality.
This is a plan that can never be regretted. Even if the wanderers regret and try to struggle, they are destined to die at some point and then be dragged into the wall, becoming rats in the wall, desperately waiting to be transformed into banyan trees and lakes.
Even the banyan tree itself is constantly repaying its own wishes.
No wonder the wanderers have such a fanatical faith in the banyan tree, and would use the banyan leaves as a prototype to try to make yellow buds and the "elixir of life." They believe in the alienated self that can promise everything.
…No wonder the subjects like Huang Yazi died in a reversed way, and were even locked in the bodies of children for a long time. Rather than eating part of the banyan tree and being contaminated, it is better to say that they were unconsciously forced to make a wish to the banyan tree, which naturally presented this bizarre and absolute way of death.
For all of us in the community today, including Lao Lin, Xiao Yu, Ding Jiu and others who have already passed away, the real cause of death is that we are all pursuing and questioning the truth of any death, or hoping to achieve a certain goal, even if it is to protect ourselves or others.
We ask, we make a wish, and so the banyan tree promises.
No matter what we are obsessed with, the result is the same.
So after hearing the future footsteps transmitted unconsciously through the banyan tree, the two guys hoped to "catch" that target and "obey" me. The banyan tree really sent them to that distorted moment, transforming them into alternative rats in the wall, allowing them to actually catch up with my footsteps.
That is why Ding Jiu suddenly realized everything before he died. Through the banyan tree itself, he understood that this time-reversed murder was essentially a hoax made up entirely of truth.
That's why, at some point, I subconsciously felt the familiar viciousness behind the reversal of death, but was subconsciously convinced that it was not directed at anyone.
The banyan tree's promise of making your wishes come true has always been so twisted, vicious, yet absolutely fair.
"Then...if we want to leave..." Wu Chou's face suddenly turned pale, "Isn't it the same as making a wish to the banyan tree and being forced by it? But once you make a wish, there is no way you can really leave alive."
"Yes, theoretically, that's right."
I said, laughing miserably, not out of despair, but at the smoothness and irony of the moment, "But not this time."
I pointed at the black spikes that were still taking root above the sky. They were gradually fading and becoming what a banyan tree should look like. I said coldly, "It is us, the survivors who have survived to this moment, who have completed the underlying closed loop of its existence. The first wish of the banyan tree came true. It forced us to wish for its birth and received our promise and flesh and blood."
"We have paid the price, and we have paid enough."
(End of this volume)
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