Chapter 267: Snake Marsh Ghost City (Part 3) Dawn: Transfer

We carried him back to the tent, and I immediately checked his injuries. To my relief, he was bitten on the wrist with two puncture wounds, but the wounds were not deep; clearly, he had thrown off the snake the moment he was bitten. Looking at the wound, I thought to myself that I could not imagine how thrilling and terrifying yesterday must have been.

Fatty said to me, "We tied off the artery right away, sucked out the venomous blood, and cut a cross-shaped incision to let blood drain, but some venom must have already entered. This snake is extremely venomous—just one bite and the hand turned blue. Lucky for us, the kid moved fast and grabbed the snake's head in that instant, so it didn't bite down fully; otherwise, I reckon the kid would have been done for."

I gave Poker-face an injection of antivenom and massaged his temples; his breathing calmed down. I squeezed his hand and found that the overall swelling wasn't severe, so I said to Fatty, "He should be fine. No matter how venomous something on land is, it's not as toxic as things in the sea. But he can't move anymore."

Panzi was still lying there. We also laid Poker-face down, and seeing two people lying down gave me a headache. It was fortunate it was them; if it had been me, I'd be dead long ago. This place is really completely different from anywhere we've been before—even these two, with all their experience, ended up like this.

Then, I asked Fatty what exactly had happened yesterday.

What Fatty said was more or less what I had inferred. Last night while they were on watch, they gradually realized they couldn't see. Fatty remembered what I said and suddenly realized the fog might really be toxic. He immediately went to look for gas masks, but searched everywhere and couldn't find any; it looked like he would soon be completely blind, and he was frantic.

He and Poker-face first soaked towels in mud to cover their noses, which actually worked. Later, they found a few in one of the tents. Just as they were about to put them on, Poker-face, his eyesight blurry, was bitten by a snake hiding in a backpack. Luckily, his reflexes were extremely fast; he immediately snatched the snake's head in mid-air, but he was still bitten, and his hand instantly turned blue.

But because the amount of venom injected was limited, Poker-face didn't die immediately; they treated it simply. At that moment, Fatty heard me shouting, so he immediately put on a gas mask and came over to me first. Outside the tent, he discovered that, at some point, a large number of cockscomb snakes had emerged from the cracks in the surrounding buildings. All these snakes were hiding in the crevices, neither coming out nor going in; you could only see red scales glowing inside the cracks, as if they were waiting for something.

So he immediately came back, put a gas mask on me, then returned to take care of Poker-face and carried him back. On the way, he saw a wondrous sight.

Countless cockscomb snakes surged out from the crevices, slowly coiling together into a huge "snake tide," moving rhythmically like a mass of mollusks, extremely fast, like those huge schools of fish in the sea...

Fatty said, "This must be how they transported A Ning's body. Your Grandpa Fatty still can't figure out how they did it. That snake tide is like a single organism."

I asked curiously, "Then why did they destroy this place like this?"

Fatty said, "They definitely knew we were here, but because the tents were covered in mud, they couldn't find us. After all, they're just animals, so they resorted to this method in the end."

I clicked my tongue in amazement. Fatty immediately said, "We can't stay here any longer. Tonight they'll definitely come again. We have to leave, and the farther away from here the better." He asked if I could see clearly now. I nodded, so he told me to immediately gather the food and supplies here, count them and pack them up, and at noon, we'd see how the two were doing before deciding where to go.

I smiled wryly, but I knew it had to be done. Since I didn't know if the snakes had all left, we rested for a while first. Only after the sun came out did I start sifting through the tent ruins, dragging out everything usable while he stayed to look after the two of them.

The main thing I collected was food. I found a large amount of compressed biscuits, all piled into one bag, and later luckily found a bag of canned goods.

When they had vehicles, A Ning and her team also brought canned goods, but because they had to scout ahead, the cans were too heavy and were left outside the canyon. After entering the forest, they had been eating lightweight compressed rations the whole way, their lips even developing blisters. I never expected Third Uncle and his people to bring such good stuff—they really spared no effort. But carrying such cumbersome items doesn't seem like Third Uncle's style.

Field rations are very close to normal food, usually high-protein beef cans, tuna cans, or glutinous rice and soybean cans. Eating these gives you strength and fills you up, so you don't get hungry easily. I hurriedly called out to Fatty, asking if he wanted some. Fatty took one look and shook his head, saying how could we carry them, but we could eat them all right away. As he looked at the variety of cans, he drooled: "Holy Mother Mary, your Third Uncle is a real man, damn it. Classy."

I continued searching, looking for dry rations and containers—we needed something to hold water.

When I pulled out a backpack, I found a photo of its owner's family inside. I didn't recognize the person; he was a middle-aged man in his early thirties, with his wife holding a child and leaning against him. The photo was very rustic, the clothes simple, but you could tell he was quite happy.

I felt a bit emotional, thinking to myself, who knows what happened to this man? If he died here, what would his wife and child do? People in this line of work, life and death are too common. Why drag others into it?

Then I thought of A Ning dying on the road, and Old Wu, and those who died in Devil's City. These people really died for no clear reason. Then I thought of myself and couldn't help but sneer: Damn it, if I hadn't followed the team here, I'd be in my shop now, surfing the web with the air conditioning on. I have the nerve to talk about others without thinking about myself.

After collecting everything, I counted the items with a thousand thoughts swirling in my mind. By the time everything was packed and ready, it was already noon. Fatty wanted to set off immediately, but both Poker-face and Panzi were not in good shape. Panzi had been unconscious the whole time, hadn't eaten anything; we fed him water, but it just dribbled down his lips. Poker-face was conscious but physically weak and couldn't stand up. Fortunately, the blue color on his hand had faded.

This was very troublesome. There was no way we could carry two people and all this stuff far from here.

Poker-face pointed weakly toward a temple on one side and said, "Go inside, farther from the water!"

We thought about it and agreed—the cracks in these stones were all filled with water, connected to the swamp. No wonder all the snakes came out from the crevices.

There was no other choice now; we first moved the supplies inside.

The temple was completely collapsed, with only a vague outline; we didn't even know where the entrance was. We randomly found a corridor and went in, discovering that the interior was still quite spacious. The building originally should have had two floors. The underground floor was severely damaged, but on the upper floor, you could still see the original structure: built of black stones, low in height but with many very delicate stone pillars in between. We didn't know what had connected the two floors, but now the collapsed debris had formed a steep slope.

We climbed up and entered a mostly intact stone chamber, from which we could see the camp below. After moving all the supplies, we brought Panzi and Poker-face over as well, though by then Poker-face could basically walk.

The sun was like a life-threatening curse; time felt incredibly fast. The fear and nightmare of yesterday had not yet faded, and before I knew it, it was the western sun again, dusk about to arrive.

There had been virtually no rest or pause during the day. As I watched the tree shadows grow sinister, I felt an invisible pressure closing in.

Despair—there was truly a hint of despair. A voice seemed to ask in my mind: "You've made it through two nights; can you survive tonight?"