But even though I was scouting ahead, this male colleague still seemed very nervous.
These grown men kept tugging at my sleeve, and to be honest, I was quite unsure of myself in that situation.
So I grabbed his hand and followed him, walking forward little by little.
But I clearly remember that when I came in, I wasn't far from the exit of that forest, yet I never expected that I would get lost again.
Even the tree I just saw is nowhere to be found.
The male colleague standing behind him was pale-faced: "Brother Sihai, is this place haunted? You guys often say you've seen skeletons in this forest. Is this place really not normal? Otherwise, we might not be able to get out of this forest?"
His words sent chills down my spine, but I couldn't show any fear, or we would both really panic.
So I patted him on the shoulder: "Don't be afraid. Let's gather some branches, make a fire by rubbing sticks together, and make a torch. With light, we can see the road ahead and be alert to whether there are any wild animals around. If all else fails, we can set the woods on fire. Wang Ping and the others outside will definitely see it and come in to help us escape."
Perhaps it was because the forest was so dense that we panicked for a moment and couldn't find our way back.
"Don't worry, I'm here."
My male colleague listened to what I said, gritted his teeth and nodded, but his whole body was still trembling violently. I took a deep breath and quickly followed him, groping in the dark to collect a lot of dry branches.
I can make fire by rubbing sticks together during the day, but it's really a challenge for me now.
But in this situation, I must light this bonfire no matter what, because where there is fire, there is hope.
We stayed close together. I handed the gun to my male colleague and asked him to keep an eye on our surroundings.
I used every trick in the book to try and start a fire by rubbing sticks together.
It took me more than half an hour to finally get the fire going. With the firelight in the woods, the surrounding area became clearer.
But there was nothing around us, just some scattered trees.
I really don't understand where things went wrong, but staying here and waiting won't work; we have to go out and rejoin the main force.
Firstly, I'm staying here because I don't know what kind of mistakes might happen around me.
If it were just me, I probably wouldn't be afraid. Besides, I have a gun and I'm armed. No matter what, I could get through the day. But I have a cowardly male colleague around me.
Although he is not up to the task, every life deserves respect, and I cannot let him get hurt here as well.
Moreover, our main purpose in coming here this time was to meet with those foreigners and search for Yang Rui.
So no matter what, we can't stay here in the middle of the night, especially since it's so dark.
“Two of you take this torch and go out to search. I think we can definitely get out. If we really can’t, we’ll shout. Even if it attracts wild beasts, as long as we can rejoin the main force, we’ll be safe.”
"But Brother Sihai, don't you think something's wrong with this place? This forest should be dry normally, but look, there's so much water here. Your shoes are all wet, didn't you notice?"
I hadn't noticed anything before, but when I heard my male colleague say that, I looked down, reached out and touched my shoes, and sure enough, they were wet. When I touched the ground under my feet, it was soft, covered only with a layer of branches and leaves.
A bad feeling suddenly welled up in my heart. Could there be a swamp in this forest?
If that's really the case, then this is a real problem.
Swamps look no different from flat land; I've experienced them before when I was on a military training exercise.
In this situation, if we really get stuck in the swamp, we have no way to save ourselves.
The scariest thing is that there may be crocodiles in the swamp.
Crocodiles are cold by nature and have an amazing bite force. If you really encounter a crocodile, it would probably be more troublesome than a wolf.
Now I felt even more uncertain. I looked at my male colleague and shook my head: "No, if that's really the case, we can't go any further. We don't know if we're standing on flat ground or in a swamp. We can only help each other. If one of us gets stuck in the swamp, the other won't survive either. Here's what we should do: we should climb up to this high point and look outside to see if we can see the sea. If we really can't see it, then we'll have to set this forest on fire. That way, with flames shooting into the sky, Wang Ping and the others will definitely try to get in. Another way is for us to shout in the direction we came from. As long as Wang Ping and the others can hear us, they will definitely come to rescue us."
My male colleague nodded hesitantly after hearing what I said.
We quickly climbed up a tree, each holding a torch.
He had to keep tapping the tree trunks with a torch, because he was afraid that there might be poisonous tongues wrapped around them.
Fortunately, there were no poisonous snakes in this place. When we climbed up a tree trunk and looked into the distance, I realized that there was no firelight around us at all.
Everything in sight was pitch black.
I shouted Wang Ping's name into the woods, but after calling more than 30 times, I didn't hear a response from him.
For a fleeting moment, I even doubted what my male colleague had just said about this place possibly being haunted. Could it be that this place really is haunted? But when would that haunted place be?
If it's about finding food and building wooden houses, I'm actually quite skilled at that now. But if we really run into ghosts, they'll wipe us all out.
After calming down for a while, I took the gun and fired two shots into the woods.
This startled many sleeping birds, creating a rustling sound in the woods, but Wang Ping and his men still did not fire their guns in response.
I was so impatient that I was about to turn back and call my male colleague to go down to the tree and light all the branches around it to see if I could get the dry leaves at the base of the tree on fire and make the fire bigger.
When I turned around, I saw my male colleague perched on a tree not far from me, gesturing at me. His expression looked somewhat ferocious in the firelight.
I didn't know what he meant, so I frowned and asked him what was wrong: "Just say what you want to say, why are you and I playing riddles in the middle of the night?"
As soon as I made a sound, I suddenly felt a chill on the back of my neck. Just as I was about to turn my head, I heard my male colleague standing on another tree shout, his voice almost cracking, "Brother Sihai, don't move! There's a snake!"
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