Chapter 98 Chapter 98 I don’t want to leave, but I can’t leave…
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"Ugh, ugh - I feel dizzy. I can't take it anymore. I'm really exhausted."
"Hold on! Grit your teeth and hold on!"
"Brother Jun, hold on to me, don't let go!"
"Ahhhhhh Jun-ge!"
“Oooooh, no no!”
…
Thunder roared, heavy rain poured down, and shrill wails resounded through the sky.
One side of the rapidly sailing Yongyue was pressed against the mountain. It moved forward one second and backward the next. The hull repeatedly rubbed against the mountain and swayed back and forth, as if it had encountered strong winds and huge waves at sea, and the whole ship was shaking constantly.
It was obvious that someone had tampered with it, and a large section of the railing on the fourth floor had fallen down.
The people on the deck were thrown all over the place and fell into the water one after another. In just a few minutes, half of the open deck that had accommodated more than 20 people was gone, leaving only ten people.
The rain was getting heavier and heavier, and the slippery deck was like a natural ice rink. People who had lost their balance tightly grasped the handles and pipes on the inner wall. Their lower bodies were completely powerless and they could only rely on the strength of their upper arms to try to save themselves.
The cruise ship was still shaking violently, and it was only a matter of time before it ran out of strength and fell overboard.
Looking at the purgatory-like scene before him, Gu Mengran felt as if his heart was being cut by a knife. His companions who had fought side by side with him not long ago were struggling in despair, dying in pain, and disappearing before his eyes one after another.
Just watch? He could do something...
For a moment, Gu Mengran thought a lot, and then his slightly drooping eyes suddenly raised up, his eyes were firm, as if he had made some kind of decision.
"No, Gu Mengran!"
As if he had guessed what was in his mind, before he could take action, Liang Zhao tightened his arms, grasped the pipe embedded in the wall with both hands, and held the solemn-looking Gu Mengran tightly in his arms.
The pendulum rose and fell, and more and more people were exhausted.
In a blink of an eye, the young girl behind the two men completely exhausted her strength. One of her hands slipped from the life-saving straw, and her whole body swayed with the swaying of the ship, sliding uncontrollably towards the edge.
At the critical moment, Gu Mengran reached out and grabbed her wrist.
Before he could even breathe a sigh of relief, he heard a creaking sound behind him. Gu Mengran held his breath and looked back. The connection surface between the pipe and the cabin could not bear the weight of three people, and several spider-web-like cracks appeared in an instant.
The cracks were visibly getting bigger and denser. Before Gu Mengran could react, there was a loud "click" and the pipe that Liang Zhao was holding tightly in his hand fell off.
“Ahhh—”
Screams rang out again, and Gu Mengran, Liang Zhao, and the thin young girl were thrown out in an instant. Their bodies slid along the deck, and when they saw that they were less than half a meter away from the broken guardrail, Gu Mengran finally made a decision.
Put the person into the space, immediately!
Just as the thought came to his mind, another loud noise came from under the ship, as if something had hit the Yongyue. The cruise ship, which was originally tilted to the right, trembled violently and suddenly tilted in the opposite direction.
In an instant, everyone was thrown back to the inside of the deck and fell to the ground. Before they could recover from the strong dizziness, the violently shaking pendulum was suddenly unplugged, slowing down the shaking speed and gradually stabilizing.
"Ouch...my hand!"
"Get up, stand up quickly! Find something nearby to hold on to!"
“Don’t take it lightly!”
…
There was chaos on the deck, with shouts coming one after another.
The sudden collision certainly saved them, but the blow was too strong and everyone was badly injured.
To prevent the cruise ship from shaking again, the villagers endured the pain and got up from the ground one after another, grabbing nearby objects fixed to the wall.
Gu Mengran and Liang Zhao had the same idea. They hurriedly got up, settled the girl down, and then found a thicker pipe to hold on to.
Two minutes later, the cruise ship seemed to have gradually stopped, with no signs of shaking. Gu Mengran wanted to go to the guardrail to confirm what was happening below, but Liang Zhao saw through his thoughts before he took a step.
"It's very dangerous, wait a moment." Liang Zhao held his hand.
It seemed that the stalemate was not a solution. Gu Mengran looked up at Liang Zhao and deliberately lowered his voice. He said in a whisper that only the two of them could hear: "I think... why don't we take them back to the space now? Too many people have died, Liang Zhao. If this goes on, let alone robbing the cruise ship, we might even be wiped out."
"No." Liang Zhao decisively rejected the proposal without even thinking about it.
Realizing that his tone was too blunt, Liang Zhao stroked the back of Gu Mengran's hand with his thumb and explained in a gentle voice, "It is very dangerous for you to expose the space. Even if the villagers don't have any bad intentions, what about the people on this cruise ship? So many people disappeared out of thin air, wouldn't they be suspicious? What if they are guarding here, how are we going to get out then?"
Gu Mengran shook his head quickly, "No, they are also injured, they probably don't have time--"
"Meng Ran." Liang Zhao interrupted him and lowered his eyes to meet his gaze. "Look at them. Do you think they are willing to leave now and give up halfway?"
Gu Mengran understood what he meant and his eyes slowly moved across the messy deck.
The lady hugging the pillar with her hands had blood all over her face, the girl standing against the wall had a dull look in her eyes, and the young man holding the pipe gnashed his teeth...
In the calm after the storm, there was fear and panic in their eyes, but surprisingly, they were all filled with deep, unresolvable resentment and unwillingness.
They paid a heavy price for this. If they gave up, all the previous people would have died in vain. Either they died here together, or they took over the cruise ship in one fell swoop. They didn't want to leave, but they couldn't.
“Wuwuwu——”
A deep whistle suddenly sounded, but it was not from the Yongyue. The sound was very close to them, coming from below the deck!
Gu Mengran realized something, his eyes lit up instantly, and he slowly moved to the edge of the deck. This time Liang Zhao did not stop him, but held his hand and moved together.
The deck without guardrails is like a cliff, which can be shattered into pieces if you are not careful.
Standing on the terrifying outer deck again, Gu Mengran was not afraid, because Liang Zhao was standing beside him, and because the agile and majestic Feng Yi was right under his feet.
“Boom boom boom—”
A huge roar shook the earth and the sky. The Fengyi, Hengrongsheng, and the Decheng driven by Duan Yueyan rapidly approached the Yongyue and attacked it from three different directions: front, back, and right.
The first battle was a success. Heng Rongsheng successfully squeezed past from the side, and its ship was turned sideways to intercept the Yongyue right in front of it, forcing it to slow down.
The Fengyi followed closely behind and immediately blocked the right side of the Yongyue to prevent it from turning and escaping; the Decheng, which arrived last, blocked the stern to prevent the other party from reversing the propeller, thus blocking the passage for the ship to reverse.
There were mountains on the left, and ships on the right and in front and behind. In just a few minutes, the situation turned around, and the Yongyue, which had been swaggering in the water, turned into a huge trapped beast.
Can they force their way through? Of course they can force their way through. Three medium-sized cargo ships are still a bit outmatched in front of the cruise ship, but the problem is that the captain doesn't dare to force his way through.
Compared with surface cargo ships, cruise ships are taller and larger, and they carry six floors on their backs, which results in a higher center of gravity. Although cruise ships now have good wind and wave resistance, their huge size and high center of gravity make them more likely to lose balance in extreme situations, leading to capsizing.
The fact that the three ships dared to attack from both sides has already shown their attitude. You can ram them as you like. The worst that can happen is that we will all perish together.
This was a big gamble, and Dong Hongbo held the rudder but was reluctant to place his bet.
"Zizizizi, Captain, Captain! The remaining bastards from the fifth floor are coming down. Please give us your instructions!"
"They started moving, moving towards the cab with weapons!"
The intercom beside him rang. Dong Hongbo could no longer hold his composure. He punched the control console hard and grabbed the intercom, cursing: "Useless, all useless. I can't beat a bunch of old, weak and sick people. I ate in vain!"
After his fury, Dong Hongbo slowed down his tone. "Xiao Wang, you are my earliest crew members, and you are also the masters of the Yongyue. I don't care what you think or what you pay, stop them and don't let them get close to the cabin!"
"Received!" A resounding reply came from the intercom.
Putting the intercom back in place, Dong Hongbo stood up and gave up the captain's chair. He glanced at the man next to him and said, "First mate, you take the helm. Try to break through as much as possible without capsizing the boat."
"clear."
…
Their reinforcements also arrived. After confirming that the Yongyue would not shake suddenly, Zhou Jing, Sister Fang, Xiaodong, and more than a dozen young men and women used ropes to slide down to the fourth floor.
Those uncles and ladies who were too frightened and injured stayed where they were to rest, while more than 20 young men picked up their weapons again and walked resolutely towards the cab.
As a precaution, Gu Mengran told the others that there might be people on the fourth floor, so when they were about to reach the bow, the tightly closed hatch on the inside of the deck suddenly opened, and twenty or thirty people rushed out of the door in an instant. They were not completely unprepared.
Without further ado, they started fighting as soon as they met. The two groups, armed with weapons, started fighting on the narrow open deck.
Unlike the initial reluctance to take action, the villagers had already become furious after sacrificing so many of their companions along the way. They chopped down with knives, axes, sticks and clubs without hesitation.
Anger does increase fighting power, twenty people against thirty people, fighting back and forth. But the longer the delay, the villagers who are always outnumbered will naturally fall behind.
The chainsaw had fallen into the water earlier. Without this powerful weapon, if the fight continued like this... the chances of winning were slim. Gu Mengran also thought about taking another chainsaw from the space, but the oncoming knives and sticks were unavoidable and he could not find a suitable opportunity.
One after another, most people were injured, and Gu Mengran and Liang Zhao were no exception.
His anger was not diminished, but his strength was gradually exhausted. Just as Gu Mengran used a steel pipe to block the oncoming blade, Xiaodong next to him was hit hard by a club.
Xiaodong was obviously exhausted due to the great consumption of energy. He was hit on the head with a stick. He staggered back two steps and fell to the side of the guardrail.
In order to kill him while he was sick, another man next to him saw the opportunity, raised a half-meter-long machete, and stabbed Xiaodong in the chest with all his strength.
"Xiaodong!"
Gu Mengran, who was overwhelmed, cried out in surprise. Just as the sharp tip of the knife was about to pierce Xiaodong's skin, the man holding the knife suddenly stopped.
After being frozen for about two or three seconds, he slowly lowered his head, looked at the tip of the knife covered in blood that had pierced from his back to his chest, and fell down with a look of disbelief on his face.
Zhou Zhiqi, who hadn't been seen for a while, brought some people. There weren't many people, only about a dozen or so, but anyone with a discerning eye could see that they didn't encounter too many obstacles along the way, and their physical strength and energy were well conserved.
It was a timely relief! More than a dozen helpers joined in, and the situation was reversed in an instant.
However, there were dozens of people after all, and it would take a while to deal with them. Zhou Zhiqi killed one of them with a knife, turned his head to look at Gu Mengran and others, and decisively waved his hand, "You go to the cab first, leave this to us!"
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