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墨書 Inktalez
"Thank you all for still being on the Click list. Please continue to support."
"I can feel you cleaning my body and giving me water. I even smelled the barbecue you just ate. But I can't fucking control my own actions. With you hitting me like that, how could I not know!? If I could move, you'd be dead a hundred times over."
Jack struggled to say this, constantly rubbing his jaw to help himself open his mouth and produce the right sounds. He insisted on finishing his rant without interruption. It was clear he was furious about this method of awakening.
Of course, I wouldn't hold it against someone in such a terrible physical and mental state. I patiently waited for him to finish, then quickly grabbed his pants from beside the campfire and helped him put them on, slinging the backpack over his shoulders.
I had to carry him away, and it was impossible to manage two backpacks while also carrying him. I could only place the backpack on him; after all, the weight would ultimately fall on me. This way, if we encountered danger, at least it would be easier for me to draw my weapon.
After Jack vented his frustrations, his mouth seemed to regain some function. Seeing that I was about to set off made him anxious. "What about the barbecue? Don't tell me that was just my imagination; I can still smell it!"
I realized he was right. After he was poisoned, I had first made him vomit and then kept giving him water. By now, there was probably nothing left in his stomach but water.
But where would I find barbecue for him now? I could only carry him to the place where the Roasted Bat had disappeared. Pointing at a greasy patch of stone on the Ground, I said, "I roasted a Bat..."
As soon as I finished those words, I noticed Jack looking at my stomach with a strange expression. "How big?"
I gestured with my hands. "About this big."
"You ate it all? Aren't you afraid of bursting?"
I understood how a starving person felt at that moment. It was my fault for eating too much; my stomach was still round and full.
However, I didn't want him to misunderstand. "I saved half for you..."
I saw Jack's eyes light up suddenly. Oh no, wasn't this asking for trouble?
Before he could say anything, I quickly spoke at top speed: "There's a monster here that stole that half of the Roasted Bat. It's something I've never seen before and should be highly aggressive. I'm worried that the smell of barbecue will attract more creatures; we need to move quickly."
I noticed Jack's eyes brightening even more, as if he were about to breathe fire. "Why didn't you kill it?"
I really didn't want to get entangled in this issue with him. Even if I had to explain, I wouldn't do it here; I needed to change locations quickly.
Jack lay there on the greasy spot, a look of bliss spreading across his swollen face. "It smells so good."
I suddenly had a flash of inspiration. I reached into the crevice of the stones by the campfire and pulled out a bone, handing it to Jack. "This is all that's left."
Jack's eyes, swollen to slits, burned with anger. "Why didn't you take it out earlier?"
In an instant, the bone was in Jack's hands, his saliva dripping onto it.
"You really cleaned it up well. With such a large piece of meat, why bother with this bone?"
I looked at Jack with guilt. Yes, this was a leg bone from the Roasted Bat, a testament to my virtue of saving and not wasting food. The bone was so clean it looked as if it had been expertly trimmed by the finest butcher.
I carried Jack on my back while he bore the backpack, and we made our way downstream along the edge of the Underground River beside the Wood Chip Dam.
The path along the Underground River was even more treacherous, with fallen Stalactites everywhere and hardly any flat ground to walk on.
I didn't have to worry about being crushed by hanging Stalactites from above; I hadn't seen any long ones dangling. However, I had to be constantly alert for dangers underfoot, as uneven fragments of Stalactite littered the ground, which was already far from level. The cracks in the stones, jagged stone steps resembling ribs, and abruptly formed Stalactites made me feel like I was traversing a rocky thicket. Any misstep could send me tumbling to my doom.
Moreover, I had to remain vigilant against threats from above and in the darkness. That Monster had vanished too mysteriously—not just in how it disappeared but also in its timing, as if it knew exactly when I would launch an attack.
Its camouflage and its swift movements were alarming; I had to be ready for its assault at any moment. In this situation, the Glow Stick was clearly insufficient for effective illumination. Our Glow Stick had long since gone dark. Instead of lighting a new one, I used the One-Eyed Beast Flashlight for visibility.
At the same time, I had abandoned the AK-47 in favor of a compact firearm that could be fired one-handed. I slung the AK-47 across my back as a support for Jack to sit on. His body was still weak; without that support, I would have to use both hands to hold him up. Under these circumstances, I couldn't afford to be unprepared for combat; I needed to keep my gun ready at all times.
Carrying someone on my back made it impractical to hold a weapon with both hands; I needed one free for the One-Eyed Beast Flashlight. Of course, I could shove the flashlight in my mouth again, but that would prevent me from communicating with Jack. In a situation where danger could strike at any moment, lack of communication could be fatal. Plus, the oppressive atmosphere made conversation essential to relieve tension.
However, I was overthinking it; since we set off, Jack hadn’t spoken a word to me, yet his mouth was far from idle—the sound of him gnawing on the bone filled my ears like a persistent echo. It felt less like carrying a person and more like carrying a wolf. This guy must be part dog.
I trudged along like a camel burdened in a desert.
The further we moved downstream along the riverbed, the more pronounced the sound of him gnawing on the bone became—as if Jack was gaining momentum with each bite—but his pace remained slow and deliberate, producing that same 'crunching' sound.
Unable to contain myself any longer, I said to him, "Are you done yet? You've been gnawing on that bone all this way."
A bone was thrust into my view as Jack's angry voice reached my ears. "Do you think I want this? I'd rather shove it straight into my stomach if I could!"
In the dim light of the One-Eyed Beast Flashlight, half of the Roasted Bat's leg bone was already gone; clear tooth marks were visible on its hollow cross-section. It seemed that Roasted Bat's leg bones were quite tough, with dense bite marks etched into them.
It seemed he was truly starving, relentlessly gnawing on the hard bone.
I dared not provoke him further and complimented him instead. "You have great teeth."
The bone was pulled back, and a hand reached out in front of me, with a middle finger raised straight up.
I slapped that hand away with a 'smack.' "You can't blame me; your gnawing on the bone is getting louder and more annoying. It's distracting me."
Jack fell silent for a moment. "It's not that my noise has increased; it's that the environment here has changed. It's quieter now."
A chill ran down my spine as I listened closely to the sounds around us.
Indeed, all I could hear were the breaths and heartbeats of the two of us. The sound of flowing water had vanished.
(To Be Continued)
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