Underground (II) [Second update]
The banyan tree is converging, so where are the original people in the car?
My heart beat a little faster.
Because I haven't forgotten that a part of me is still in the car.
What is the situation now? Do I have to rush in and grab the mop handle that has plotted against me before the car is destroyed and everyone is killed?
Although the situation was urgent, I still found this scene a little funny.
The connection of those spherical holes was very complicated. I looked at it for a while, but couldn’t find a way to the center. I just felt that the distribution of those spherical holes seemed to hide some kind of indescribable rules, like a big whirlpool made of twisted dough.
It was difficult to see anything specific in the dim light with only a mobile phone as lighting, so Zhang Tianyi and I stood up, groped the surface of the spherical cavity, and started walking in the same direction to the right.
It is said that this is the most common method for walking through a maze, although it only works in a tree-shaped branch maze, and the design of the cross loop is mostly crazy. But at this time, it is better than nothing, and it is more convenient for us to mark the path we have walked in the dim light.
What must be said here is that those things, which were probably rock walls, felt very hard to the touch.
I don't know much about geology, but I know that these spheres seem to be solid pieces of black rock, which are very thick. I don't know if the middle part is hollowed out or is naturally so, and the outermost layer seems to have some strange glaze luster when it is illuminated.
We turned left and right, and each time we felt that we were close to the center, but always just a little short. If we were to jump over, each spherical hole was about eight to nine meters away. Zhang Tianyi could probably try to use the cracks to find a traction point, but I could only sigh in despair.
Looking down at the bottomless water, I honestly advised Zhang Tianyi to give up the idea of taking risks. After all, I could just join the big family of fog, which was more decent than being smashed into a pulp or being beaten to death by the two banyan trees.
At this time, the phone rang again. It was the broker who hadn't received any news for a long time and came to ask if we were safe.
I replied first, and then I finally had time to go back through the messages and scrolled to the first "unread message".
In a hurry, I only read a few warnings, and vaguely felt that they were all sent in a broker's tone. At this time, I couldn't help but wonder why Xu You remained silent. It stands to reason that he is in a wheelchair and has nothing to do, so it would be faster to type two words.
When I saw this, I couldn't help but be stunned.
The first sentence was: "They are all asleep."
The second sentence is: "There is a group of stone doors here, and more and more people are sleeping. This place is very strange. Next, I will try my best to move around them and see if there are any clues around that can help you."
I stopped, took out the headphones from my pocket and started playing the unread video.
Zhang Tianyi turned his head to look at me, then untied his coat and used it as a rope for me to hold. He led the way in front, and I followed the coat while watching the video.
Fortunately, although the ground fissure path between the gaps in the spheres was not flat, it was still relatively easy for people to walk in it with their backs half bent, so I was able to immerse myself in the video with peace of mind.
The camera was shaking at first, shot from a bird's-eye view.
I saw a very dilapidated stone square. There were no tall buildings or signs like obelisks. It was just an ordinary open space that looked extremely desolate.
But in the open space, it was very strange that a tall banyan tree man was lying there flat, with all his limbs spread out, and he seemed to have completely lost consciousness.
My heart tightened. The camera was moving closer quickly, and the faces of people with closed eyes were magnified in great detail in the camera.
There were no faces I recognized. The details of those faces were unfamiliar, with deep, blue eyebrows and noses.
The camera slowly stabilized, as if it breathed a sigh of relief. Then, the shooting angle began to turn back to the flat surface.
Only at this time was there a voice coming from Xu You, and there was also a rustling sound as if something was entangled.
"Apprentice, we plan to tie up the wheelchair and lower it from here to fish for the big guys down there and see how close we are before they wake up."
"Your wife is a serious person. She said that the overall situation is more important and she doesn't mind becoming a widow. I am trying to negotiate with her to let me get out of the wheelchair first."
After just two sentences, I was surprised and felt like laughing. My tense nerves relaxed a little.
The nonsense ended, and there was a blank space full of white noise in the video. The progress bar dragged for about three minutes, and when the picture appeared again, there was only a vague and elongated sound.
I subconsciously adjusted the volume and found that it was nothing else but a series of yawns.
Xu You's voice was at the end, and it seemed to be tainted with a strong sense of fatigue. He spoke slower and slower: "Can't... get close..."
The video continues after a while, showing the person filming standing in front of a stone door, looking up with some confusion and trying to push it.
At this time, the camera was placed horizontally, at a certain height. I guess it was placed on the knees of the sleeping Xu You.
Looking from the angle of the camera, the stone gate is very tall, and the delicate luster of the stone seems to be right in front of me, making me almost have the illusion of standing in front of the door and reaching out to push it.
At this time, the camera was probably not in the right position, so it shook and slowly slid out. When the camera tilted, there were a bunch of long people sleeping in the corner, and one of them had a blue face less than two meters away from the camera.
I was caught off guard when I saw a face. I was startled and felt the camera shake again and then it went black.
Before I could even freak out, my hand tightened and I realized that the video was only this long. It wasn't the camera that was shaking, it was me who was so engrossed in watching that I almost stumbled and fell.
I quickly grabbed my life-saving coat and looked up to ask, "Why, is the bus here?"
When I looked up, everything around me was silent.
Zhang Tianyi disappeared at some point.
I was still holding on to the coat that had guided me all the way, and a chill ran from the soles of my feet to my forehead.
If Zhang Tian had disappeared early in the morning, and I was so engrossed in watching that I ignored the sudden absence of footsteps, what about the coat in my hand? What was pulling me along the way?
Also, outside of the fluorescent light of the mobile phone screen, the coat in my hand was still tight and stretched straight out.
In this darkness so close at hand, what is it that is still pulling me?
As this thought arose, the headphone wire I was wearing seemed to be caught by something and the earphones fell off.
In the blind spot of my vision, something seemed to move, and helped me pick up the fallen headphones.
I probably stood there in a stalemate for a second or two, sweating coldly, and then slowly turned off the phone screen.
Because the touch under your feet has also changed at this time.
It was no longer rock, but something softer and more turbulent, like the waves, which seemed to be breathing, rising and falling slightly.
My sense of smell finally returned, and a familiar, pungent scent surrounded me.
It was very complex, with a faint smell of blood, grease, something burning, and most importantly, the smell of gasoline from lack of ventilation.
I swallowed slowly and put my other hand along the stretched coat, moving it out inch by inch.
Finally, at the end of the coat, there is a very rough texture.
It looks like a hand carved out of stone.
The other end of the coat was tied to the palm that was making the upward buckling motion, as if this impossible to move object was pulling me forward along the way.
I lowered my head slightly again and found that the fallen earphones were also held up by an upward hand.
The vision I regained after adapting to the darkness did not solve my doubts or comfort me, but instead brought me an indescribable fear of the unknown. At this moment, I hoped that what was approaching and surrounding me was a living thing, not cold stone.
And the combination of smells and the fleshy ground beneath my feet forced me to suspect that I had somehow found myself back on the bus.
But the banyan tree, which had been screaming and struggling before, was now extremely quiet. Apart from its slight breathing fluctuations, there was no movement at all.
It was so quiet all around. There wasn't even the sound of insects chirping in this small town.
After the violent storm, since falling into the collapsed underground, everything has become too strange and quiet.
I don't know why, but I did something that I didn't understand.
I reopened the video and turned the volume up to maximum.
Logically speaking, if the earphones fall off, there will be sound coming out. If the strange stone hand changes its behavior after hearing the news, I can also respond in time.
But reason and intuition told me that the sound would not be heard.
Then, there was another strange feeling, and silently, the phone screen went dark.
No, the screen wasn't off, because the broken phone in my hand was still slightly warm. This meant that it was still on and still running at high capacity, but the light was just like the sounds, and was inexplicably swallowed up by something.
I stood there in a daze for a while. After a while, I groped outside and found the empty driver's cab in the darkness.
Ten thousand questions exploded in my mind, and I opened my mouth and shouted: "Zhang Tianyi? Nian Ziqing? Lao Zhao!"
No one responded.
A drop of cold sweat rolled down my forehead. I had a very ominous premonition, and I pulled my coat tighter again, and moved closer little by little, very slowly, to put my face close.
Maybe it was a short moment, maybe it was a long time, I couldn’t tell at this moment, but finally, I was completely close to the other end of the coat.
Then, there I was, seeing the owner of the Stone Hand.
At a distance that was almost equal to my breathing, I could barely see that the stone hand was dark blue, but still had a barely visible bright red. Going up, the torso in the middle was completely omitted, with only a head connected there stiffly and abruptly, and a huge scar on the chin that looked like a burn.
It’s the driver, Lao Zhao.
His head was stuck there in an unnatural way, as if it was hanging on the side of the car window, with his mouth wide open. The muscles on his face were extremely stiff, frozen in confusion and fear, as if he had suddenly discovered some incomprehensible and horrifying fact.
My heart beat a little faster.
When we first fell to the ground, I was sure that the visibility in the entire environment was much higher at that time. Even though it was dark, Zhang Tianyi and I confirmed that there was no one on the bus.
So, what is going on?
And that hand in the corner, I suddenly felt a strong fear, and thought to myself, no way, no way.
This time, it took me longer to overcome the paralyzing fear.
Because the hand appeared at a very low position, I had to crawl down and feel forward on the pulsating fleshy ground. During this process, my vision became increasingly darker, and the phone became so hot that it was almost unbearable.
The texture of the ground gradually stopped moving at a speed that frightened me, becoming rough and cold. I had to lower my head again and squint my eyes, and with difficulty I saw that the ground seemed to have a dark blue luster that was almost stone-like.
Finally, I felt a chill in my hand, and I accidentally swept away the lost headphones, and suddenly grabbed the stone palm.
He has thick calluses and his knuckles are stubby. He is not Zhang Tianyi.
I breathed a sigh of relief and collapsed to the ground, with cold sweat breaking out all over my body.
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