Chapter 47 Monsters

Indeed, the shadow in the wall was approaching us, and there was a strange change in its movement. It was stretching its head forward strangely, as if trying to get out of the stone wall.

“Moving?” Fatty wasn’t fully awake yet and didn’t understand what it meant.

“They were buried about three feet in the rock wall before, but now they are less than a foot away.” Poker-Face said, making a gesture, “In five days, they’ve moved more than two feet towards us. In another day and a half…” He paused and didn’t continue.

I knew what he meant. In another day and a half, these shadows may come out of the rock wall.

“Shit, are they alive?” My hair stood on end.

Poker-Face shook his head and looked straight at the shadow, as if he could see what it was.

My drowsiness disappeared in an instant, and I took a look around with my flashlight. There were shadows all around us, and goosebumps exploded up my arms. I thought to myself, what are these shadows? If they come out of the wall… shit. Just thinking about it made my scalp go numb.

After walking in a circle, I suddenly realized what it was, and immediately said, “Shit, is this that thing’s purpose?”

“Purpose?” Fatty was still in a daze.

“I don’t know, but it may be a ceremony, and we’re offerings; or, it’s a kind of feeding, and we’re food; or it’s a kind of hunt, and we’re bait… in short, we were put here for these shadows.”

Fatty frowned, finally woke up, froze, and then cursed, “Fuck no.”

What did he mean no? Looking at these shadows’ strange shapes, there certainly wasn’t an F-cup beauty standing around, so they had to be attracted to us, which certainly wasn’t a good thing.

I was so confused that I didn’t know what to do. When I looked at Poker-Face, I saw that he was calm, but I didn’t know what he was thinking.

At this moment, Fatty suddenly took out a stone hammer from one side of the tool pile and threw it to me.

“What’s this for?” I asked.

“It’s better to attack first.” Fatty said. “Hit them before they know what’s coming.” As he said this, he raised his arm as if he was going to smash it.

I grabbed him and said, “We don’t know what these things are. What if they’re still alive even after you’ve smashed them a few times? What would we do then, since you’ve already let them out?”

Fatty scolded: “I really can’t stand you, dumbass. We don’t have to let them out. We just need to smash it until a few cracks appear and see what the thing is.”

I still didn’t think it was a good idea, and looked to Poker-Face for help, but he was still ignoring us. Fatty thought he agreed, so he raised the stone hammer and smashed it at one of the shadows.

Fatty hadn’t eaten for several days and was exhausted. He only managed to smash a small hole at first, but the stone here was very brittle, and a thin seam cracked open.

Fatty took a few breaths, and then hit it again. A deep seam unexpectedly split open along the dark green jade vein, and we instantly smelled a very strong odor coming from the stone.

The smell was so strong that we could hardly breathe, and we all stepped back involuntarily. Fatty went to smash it again, but I grabbed his arm.

I had caught sight of some kind of mass deep in the crack.

We covered our noses and mouths and leaned over once the smell dissipated a little. Fatty picked up the flashlight and took a look inside.

At first, we only saw a dark green mass that seemed to be part of the rock, but we couldn’t tell which part of the shadow it was. We initially weren’t that afraid, but the moment we got closer, the mass in the crack turned, and I saw a white eye peeking out from behind the crack, staring at me.

At that moment, I almost choked. The eye didn’t have any emotion or focus, but I could just tell that it was looking at me through the crack. This situation was way too strange.

Fatty and I involuntarily took a deep breath before the both of us exploded. Fatty swallowed, and immediately lifted the hammer in his hand. The two of us had immediately confirmed that this thing definitely wasn’t human!

I didn’t dare look at it again, and suddenly turned my head away. 

Fatty didn’t know what to do, so I looked at him and said, “Didn’t you want to beat him so hard he wouldn’t even know his own mother?” Fatty fiercely shook his head, but just as I was about to say something, an extremely loud baby-like cry suddenly came out from the crack. At the same time, a very thin claw suddenly reached out and grabbed my neck.

It was so fast; I didn’t even have time to respond. I was yanked towards the crack and slammed into the rock wall.

At this moment, Poker-Face reacted faster than Fatty, and rushed over to grab my collar. His other hand jammed the bayonet into the crack and stabbed the claw’s wrist three times before it finally let go. I fell and was quickly pulled away by Fatty.

The claw suddenly stretched out again, and even made a few grabbing motions, but only caught air. Fatty swung the hammer at it several times, but I couldn’t tell if it connected. The claw finally shrank back again.

We were both in shock and sat there gasping for half a day before Fatty said, “Damn, this fucker’s a tough character.”

Poker-Face, on the other hand, had gone to the campfire without looking back, picked up a basket, grabbed a plate of charcoal, and said, “Help!”

<Chapter 46 Changes> <Table of Contents> <Chapter 48 Charcoal>

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Updated 8/31/2020