I heard the screams of the Wei family members and was the first to react. I grabbed his clothes and dragged him back onto the boat.
From the moment I heard the shouts of the Wei family members to the moment I pulled him up, only three seconds had passed. But the rat-patterned clothing on his right arm had been torn, and his forearm was a bloody mess, with the white bone exposed beneath the turned-out skin.
When Qu Ruilin saw the bloody wound on the arm of the Wei family member, he shouted to Manjing to tighten the rope while opening the medical kit and using the restraints to tighten the upper arm: "Duan Shenxing, morphine!"
I glanced at the wound on Wei's arm and took out medical alcohol from the first-aid kit: "For an injury of this severity, we don't need morphine or anything like that. First, disinfect it, then bandage it. The alcohol disinfection might sting a bit, so bear with it!"
"Ugh! Ah!!!"
After I splashed the alcohol on him, the Wei family member groaned in pain and said with a pale face, "There was something in the water. I felt like my arm was hooked by something, and then I felt a sharp pain."
"Pfft!"
"Pfft!"
Old Man Song gripped a horn stone and stabbed it several times at the spot where the Wei family member had been bitten: "I didn't feel anything underwater, so it shouldn't be a trap. It must have been something moving that bit us. Do you think it could be something like a piranha?"
"This wound doesn't look like it."
I pointed to the Wei family member's arm and said, "Look at the wound on his arm. The skin looks like it was shredded by something or cut by a sharp weapon, not like the wound from a piranha bite!"
After hearing my explanation, Lin Que became inexplicably nervous: "Brother, I said before that there was something in this river. Could the thing that attacked him be the one I saw?"
"Don't talk nonsense. Don't shake the morale of the troops before we see anything."
I bandaged the Wei family member's arm and turned to say, "Manjing, keep lowering the rope. Everyone be careful, there's something in the river, watch out for getting hurt!"
Upon hearing my voice, Manjing on the stern boat began to lower the ropes again. Once the assault boat was stable, Song Laosan and the others spoke up, "Don't you guys think something's strange about this? The thing in the river can easily tear apart a rat's skin and injure a person's flesh, which means it's also aggressive towards hovercrafts! But why didn't it attack our boat?"
"Pah! Pah! Pah! What kind of talk is that?"
Lin Que rolled her eyes: "The fact that they're not moving the boat is a good thing! Did you really want some monster in the river to sink the boat and make us all go down as feed?"
I shone my flashlight on the river, but I still couldn't see anything in the water. "The underwater creatures didn't attack the boats because we didn't trigger their attack. Common sense tells us that these underground rivers are dark all year round, so the eyesight of the aquatic creatures should be severely deteriorated, and they should be very sensitive to temperature changes or water currents. Of course, this is just a guess. In any case, everyone should be cautious."
The muffled groans of the Wei family members as the boat rocked served as a constant reminder of the dangers beneath the surface.
After walking for only a few dozen meters, a shrill scream suddenly came from the cave ahead, accompanied by the howling of the wind. The shrill sound was like the wailing of ghosts and wolves, making people's skin crawl and feel extremely uncomfortable.
Hearing the screams coming from ahead, Lin Que nervously gripped my sleeve: "Brother, I knew something was wrong here! How could screams be coming from this river? There must be a ghost in this river!"
"What a load of rubbish! You said you saw a woman floating across the river, but the sound just now was clearly from a man."
Qu Ruilin drew his military dagger: "We must have caught up with Duan Jinyan and the others. Everyone, prepare for close combat!"
Upon hearing Qu Ruilin's words, I picked up the night vision helmet beside me and simultaneously released the safety on my pistol: "Everyone, turn off the lights and prepare your weapons!"
The scream in front only lasted once, and then there was no more sound. Instead, the howling wind grew louder and louder, like a group of evil spirits surrounding us, crying and laughing, making people feel uneasy.
Because we entered the cave in a hurry, although most of our equipment was still there, some was missing. We only had four sets of night vision equipment, and one set was damaged when we entered the cave.
Because our ship is the lead ship, all three sets of night vision equipment are on our side.
Wearing night vision goggles, Song Laosan scanned the cave ahead and said in a low voice, "We don't know what kind of monsters are in the river below, and Duan Jinyan and his men definitely have guns. If a chaotic battle breaks out and they shoot and damage our boat, things will get really troublesome!"
"This river is only this wide. Once the two sides encounter each other, a bloody battle is bound to break out. Since we want to capture someone, we have to be prepared for this!"
Qu Ruilin nudged me with his elbow: "We only have one gun. When we're about to engage Duan Jinyan in close combat, you don't have the courage to fire, do you?"
"What I do is none of your business."
I didn't answer Qu Ruilin's question, but instead responded seriously: "I know that we all have our own ulterior motives regarding Duan Jinyan, but as you can see from the terrain here, if we want to deal with Duan Jinyan and his group, we must all work together. So let's arrest them first. Even if we really want to fight amongst ourselves, let's put that aside for now, otherwise both of us will capsize!"
Qu Ruilin was clearly nervous about what was about to happen, and took a deep breath: "I'll listen to you."
After we all turned off the lights, the river became pitch black. Through my night vision goggles, I could only vaguely see the cave walls on both sides. A scream from ahead made us worry that there might be other traps or monsters in the river, so we didn't move too fast. I also kept using the steel pipe to probe the waterway ahead.
Just as I was looking down to probe the riverbed, Song Laosan spoke up, "Hey, you two, take a look ahead. Is there something wrong with my night vision goggles, or has the river ended?"
I looked up and saw that the previously dark riverbed had suddenly turned into a blurry green wall. I said, "There really is no road ahead! But the sound of the waves and the wind is very loud, which means the river is about to change course. There's a fork in the road ahead!"
"Awooo!"
The wind was still howling all around, and our boat soon approached the cave wall directly in front of us before being swept into the river channel by the current.
"Splash!"
Just as our boat turned, we heard a splash ahead, and then a dark shadow lunged at me.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com