Dark Ruins Dawn

Chapter 13 Corpse Tide
"Bang bang bang-"

A barrage of gunfire erupted, and ten soldiers behind David were killed.

"Old Mike, your marksmanship is pretty good, even better than mine."

"That's how you should deal with traitors."

The air was thick with the stench of blood, but Zhuang Fan, already used to such scenes, remained unfazed.

He looked at the waterproof compartment; it was shaped like a large sleeping bag, with some steel plates supporting the outermost layer.

Zhuang Fan asked in confusion, "There's only one escape device. What about yours?"

David pointed to the diving mask and oxygen tank: "Boss, we can use these."

Zhuang Fan shook his head decisively: "I'm healthy and don't need it. Leave this waterproof compartment to Lan Shan."

Xu Lanshan glanced at Zhuang Fan: "Mr. Xu, I've decided to stay."

"Well, why?"

David's words were even more direct: "Sister Shan, you're so old, and you've betrayed us too?"

Xu Lanshan gave him a cold look: "Xu Tiansheng won't kill me. If I stay at headquarters, I can always play a role."

Max remained silent and looked at Zhuang Fan.

Zhuang Fan carefully recalled the relationship between Xu Tiansheng and Xu Lanshan, confirming this statement.

"Are you sure?"

"Mr. Xu, I'm sure."

"Then just betray us and protect yourself."

"clear."

Zhuang Fan looked at Xu Lanshan, David, and Max, and after a moment of silence, said from the bottom of his heart, "Thank you for your understanding all these years."

This was Zhuang Fan speaking on behalf of Xu Renyi.

David grinned, while Max's eyes showed a hint of emotion: "It's what we should do."

David then took out five or six meteorites, attached them to a waterproof cloth, and carefully explained:
"Boss, the underground river is shrouded in darkness, and the concentration of eerie fog is extremely high. You must be very careful."

Zhuang Fan successfully activated his memory. This meteorite that can dispel fog is called pyroxene, and it mainly comes from the moon.

"I know, we'll meet up again after we get out."

Then, everyone pushed the waterproof capsule into the underground river.

Max gave Xu Lanshan a deep look: "Take care, we'll meet again someday."

"Protect Master Xu."

Max nodded, then put on his mask and dived into the underground river, securing himself to the waterproof pod.

Zhuang Fan sighed. This was truly a loyal general, but it was a pity that he only recognized Xu Renyi. Old Xu was really lucky.

Then David and the soldiers put on oxygen tanks and masks and jumped into the underground river together, like gourds strung together with rope.

After the main group left, Xu Lanshan put the bottom cover back to cover it up and try to buy some time.

She picked up a pistol, took a deep breath, and fired three shots at her shoulder, left foot, and side abdomen.

"Bang bang bang-"

It was a non-fatal wound with little bleeding, but the pain was excruciating. She endured the dizziness and nausea, threw away the pistol, and lay down on the ground.

With such injuries, as long as she cooperates and gives a clear explanation, the company's investigation team will not make things too difficult for her, and naturally they will not use memory search methods.

She had initially planned to feign death, but the pain became unbearable, and she eventually fainted.

Five minutes later, the alloy door of the energy center was successfully breached, and the turntable gears turned with a low rumble.

Xu Wangdao rushed in first. He looked around and saw no one else except for a pile of corpses.

"Search!"

"Commander, she's still alive."

Xu Wangdao glanced at it and waved his hand: "Too much blood loss, take him back for emergency treatment."

The soldiers conducted a quick search but found nothing.

"Impossible! We've searched the entire outside, and this is the only place left. The entire motor cover is open!"

After observing for a while, Xu Wangdao finally noticed something amiss: the hydroelectric generator seemed to be too quiet.

Soon, the search team discovered the pried-open bottom cover.

Xu Wangdao looked at the dark river water, his face slightly cold: "An underground river, huh? They're really going all out."

"Immediately notify all legions to search nearby rivers and lakes; leave no place with water unsearched!"

Xu Wangdao looked at the soldiers present and continued to give orders: "Put on your masks and all of you jump down to chase after them."

The underground river has a radius of about two meters, and at its narrowest point, only one person can pass through. It is also very steep and full of jagged rocks.

Initially, Max held on tightly to the waterproof compartment.

However, surrounded by a large amount of black fog, many people experienced auditory and visual hallucinations, dizziness, and more and more people fell behind.

Even more fatal was that the underground river had many branches, and it wasn't a single channel leading straight to the end. Max then realized the seriousness of the problem.

Recalling David's words, he said that he threw down a bunch of signal flares, but only found one. That already spoke volumes, but no one paid attention at the time.

"boom--"

The group was quickly scattered, truly parting ways, and David was filled with despair: "We can't be like-minded anymore!"

Max only heard him babbling incoherently, not understanding what he meant, and tried to grab David with one hand to pull him over. Just then, the watershed reappeared, and before Max could react, David howled a few times and disappeared into another fork in the road.

In the latter half of the race, only Max and Zhuang Fan remained.

Under continuous impact, David's handcrafted waterproof tank could not withstand the pressure and disintegrated halfway through.

Zhuang Fan managed to escape with difficulty. His head was throbbing from the impact, and he had to swallow several mouthfuls of water. If it weren't for his good physical condition, he would have given up halfway.

He tossed the crystal inside to Max; he didn't need it himself.

"Hold on."

Max tried to remove his mask for Zhuang Fan, but he ended up falling into a steep waterfall cliff, completely separating from Zhuang Fan.

What kind of underground river is this?
Zhuang Fan was also desperate. He choked on a lot of saliva and couldn't tell which way was which. He could only protect his head first.

About five or six minutes later, he was swept out of the cave waterfall and fell into the lake.

"Cough cough."

Zhuang Fan mustered his last strength and finally climbed to the rocky bank, where he lay motionless.

After a while, as the pain subsided and his internal organs returned to their proper places, he slowly stood up.

First, I took off my wet outer clothes, wrung them out, and then put them back on.

He looked around but saw no one.

After waiting patiently for seven or eight minutes, Max and the others still hadn't come over, leading him to guess that they had truly been separated by the flood.

Hopefully they can escape.
Just then, the search team in the distance gradually approached, their lights sweeping over them.

Oh no, we're about to be discovered.

Without the slightest hesitation, Zhuang Fan immediately left the riverbed and fled frantically along a random path.

As night deepened, the rustling of the trees sounded like a cacophony of raindrops falling, creating an exceptionally noisy atmosphere.

Zhuang Fan ran for a while with his head down, then suddenly felt a jolt of realization. Why did that sound sound so strangely familiar?

He looked up and saw a series of black, spring-shaped insects falling from the branches, all rushing towards him.

One of them jumped up and immediately sucked onto Zhuang Fan's calf, its body swelling up instantly.

Drought leeches? No, these are real locusts.
Before Zhuang Fan could process the old man's memories, he pulled out a dagger and severed the locust's head from its body, causing a large amount of blood to splatter out.

More locusts swarmed over, forming a dense, overwhelming swarm. Zhuang Fan's scalp tingled, and he dared not linger for even half a second, quickly passing through this eerie jungle.

But when he stepped on a large rock, he realized something was wrong, because the "large rock" was actually soft and unstable.

The rock layer suddenly split open, revealing a hideous, gaping maw that nearly swallowed him whole.

Holy crap, what the hell is this?
Zhuang Fan only realized it was a giant frog, shaped like a rock, after running far away.

Rock frogs are slow-moving, with calcified bodies as hard as stone, making them adept at camouflage.

Almost at the same time, a dozen plump, brown-black rats crawled over from the side. Their long tails and teeth and claws looked even more sinister in the moonlight, and they were secretly watching Zhuang Fan.

[Poisonous rats, with a strong reproductive capacity, generally weighing several hundred kilograms, excellent burrowing ability, poisonous skin, and good-quality meat]

Before Zhuang Fan could figure out what was going on, another dark, thin, ghostly figure disguised as a tree suddenly launched an attack, extending more than a dozen branches and tentacles that pierced through all the poisonous rats.

"Chichi-"

Zhuang Fan was startled and quickly swung his knife to cut off a branch that was lunging at him, then hurriedly dodged to the back.

The elderly man's memory was analyzed:

The Slender Man is a variant of the Tree Spirit. It appears at night, is irrational and insane, cannot be tamed, is extremely aggressive, and is dangerous.

After the poisonous rats were hung up, their bodies were slowly torn apart as the branches branched out, their internal organs were stirred up, and blood dripped down their tails, creating a very bloody scene.

A poisonous rat, in a panic, tried to escape, only to be bitten by the head of a large fish that bounced up from the ground. Then, the plump fish body slowly dragged its prey back into the mud, silently.

The lungfish monster likes to bury itself in the ground and hibernate for several months, waiting to ambush its prey when it passes by. It has a large mouth, sharp teeth, tough and poisonous flesh, and is not tasty.

After reading Xu Renyi's memories, Zhuang Fan was determined that he would never eat this thing in his life.

In just seven or eight minutes, he witnessed all sorts of crazy behavior from wild creatures, the level of gore of which was shocking.

Meanwhile, at the rear, the pursuers had already launched a thorough search following Zhuang Fan's movements, and drones were also activating red thermal imaging.

The modified hovercraft could not fly fast in mid-air because the fog was thickest at night, and the defogging speed of the Radiant Crystal was relatively slow, which severely limited the advance speed of the troops.

This gave Zhuang Fan an excellent opportunity to escape.

Just then, a dull thud echoed across the land, accompanied by a slight tremor.

Zhuang Fan was running in the lead, so he was naturally the first to feel it.

earthquake? Not quite.

As he struggled out of the jungle, the shaking of the ground intensified. When he reached a small hill and looked ahead, his pupils dilated as if from an earthquake, and he froze on the spot.

Under the cold moonlight, everything in his field of vision, whether towering mountains or low-lying shallows, whether ruins or forests, was teeming with zombies.

The blackish-gray, rotting skin stretched out in one continuous mass, dense and overwhelming, even obscuring the night sky.

It turned out that those flying in the air were a flock of highly decomposed corpse birds, which swept in like a sandstorm.

The vulture-men and eagle-men in the distance let out a few strange cries and frantically spread their wings to escape, not daring to linger for even a moment.

Zhuang Fan was almost certain that the horde of zombies had been disturbed by the gunfire and flamethrowers from behind, and that a fierce battle was about to break out between the two sides.

Without any hesitation, he turned and ran.

(End of this chapter)