Chapter 2, The Monster in the Woods

The sudden scene made everyone present very frightened! Especially the several girls who were sitting on the ground snuggling up to each other, they screamed incessantly, crying and shouting, and one girl fainted in fright on the spot! The other boys hurriedly pulled up the girl who was sitting paralyzed on the ground, and Huo Qibing also picked up the fainting girl and shouted, "Everyone hurry up and run ahead! Don't disperse!"

Everyone fled into the fog in panic, and some people ran in panic and didn't know if they left the team. Lin Luxian ran at the front of the line, the rest of the people followed behind him, and Huo Qibing followed at the back of the line with the fainting girl in his arms.

Everyone ran for about ten minutes, but fortunately the things hidden in the fog did not chase after them! At this moment, the sun gradually rose, and the dense fog quickly dissipated, and the group looked at the rear and there was nothing abnormal, so they all stopped to rest. Everyone was exhausted, soaked with sweat, and couldn't stop panting. Especially Huo Qibing, he hurriedly put down the fainting girl, his heart was beating violently, he felt that he was about to get tired, as soon as he sat down, he felt that his eyes were dim, and the world was spinning...

Lin Luxian counted the number of people, including himself, there were only ten people left! Six girls, four boys... After resting in place for a while, Lin Luxian found that not far ahead was an open meadow, with a small river running through it. After seeing the water, everyone instantly came to their senses, and they all ran to the river to drink water.

Although the river is not wide, it is nearly 20 meters wide, and the depth varies, but with the naked eye, the deepest part is bottomless. After everyone drank enough water, they came to the shallow part of the river, only to see that the shallow water was less than one meter deep, and there were many fish swimming in the water.

After seeing the fish, everyone was very excited! Because everyone hadn't eaten for so long, they were already hungry, and they were running desperately just now, and everyone urgently needed to replenish their energy!

They fetch a few branches from the neighborhood, sharpen one end with a fruit knife, and then hand over the fishing task to the boys, while the girls are responsible for lighting the fire. After all, it doesn't matter what you've experienced, filling your stomach is the first thing!

After a period of busy work, more than 20 fish were already inserted and thrown ashore, and the girl hurriedly cut the fish with a fruit knife and washed it, then pierced it with a small branch, and then set it on the stone stove to roast. Although there was no seasoning, the aroma of the fish wafted in after a while. The girl who was stunned in the woods just now was taken care of by He Yunchen, He Yunchen saw this girl's nose move twice, obviously she had already smelled the fragrance of fish! Then the girl suddenly opened her eyes and sat up! He Yunchen shook his head in surprise and said, "I thought you were stunned in the forest just now, but I didn't expect you to be hungry!" Xiong Ziqiao, who woke up when he smelled the fragrance of fish, nodded shyly.

Everyone sat around and ate grilled fish, although there was no seasoning, but now it was a rare delicacy! In Xiong Ziqiao's words, this was simply a gift from heaven! After everyone had eaten enough, Huo Qibing suggested that everyone immediately go upstream along the small river, because if they didn't leave now, they would have to wait for death! If they kept walking, maybe there would be life. When everyone thought of Tian Qianli, who died tragically, they couldn't help but feel terrified, if something in the forest chased after him, the consequences would be really unimaginable!

Everyone walked upstream along the river, only to see, the more upstream to the river, the deeper the river, and there are many round and flat unknown aquatic plants on the river bank, these aquatic grass balls are like scattered aquatic plants are woven into a ball, the size, like a round cutting board for chopping vegetables. Everyone didn't have time to pay attention to these water and grass masses, but walked upstream for more than two hours, and saw the dense forest and high mountains appear in front of them, and it turned out that the river extended from the dense forest.

It was already noon, but the sky suddenly darkened, and then the sky quickly darkened, followed by showers.

Everyone hurriedly hid in the woods along the river to avoid the rain, and within five minutes, the rain stopped, and the sun appeared, and birds and insects chirped in the woods. Everyone saw that in the dense forest, the water in the small river had become turbid, and the river water had mixed with a lot of mud and turned very yellow.

Lin Luxian suddenly noticed that something in the river was floating from a distance, and he hurriedly told everyone that everyone came close to the river to watch, only to see that this thing that was drifting closer and closer was actually a corpse! The other girls screamed in fright and retreated again and again. I saw that the soaked corpse did not have a head on it, although the corpse was difficult to identify without a head, but the sharp-eyed Lin Luxian knew through the pattern on the corpse's clothes that this was the boy who ran away in the fog just now!

Everyone watched the corpse drift downstream along the current, but no one dared to step forward to salvage it, after all, everyone had been frightened enough in the past two days, and no one dared to step forward anymore.

After everyone sorted out their emotions, they continued to walk along the river into the forest. Along the way, everyone didn't speak, and they didn't know what to say, let alone what was in front of them, what would appear, and the atmosphere in the team was very depressing. A few minutes later the clouds hit again, and it was another shower...

In the evening, the sun was about to set, and everyone walked along the river for a long time, but they still did not get out of the forest. Everyone prepared to go to the river and deal with it for the first night. Everyone put the wet branches away, but found that after two showers, everything that could be ordered was soaked and could no longer be ignited! But in the end, everyone chose to give up on dinner.

At ten o'clock in the evening, the boy Hu Quanao slept under a crooked tree by the river, and there was a clump of aquatic plants on the tree, which was the same clump of aquatic weeds they had seen on the bank of the river during the day.

Not long after Hu Quanao fell asleep, the clump of aquatic weeds on the tree began to move slowly on the tree, until it climbed to the top of his head, and then the clump of aquatic weeds suddenly slipped from the branches of the tree, covering his face! When Hu Quanao woke up, it was too late! The clump of aquatic weeds had tightly wrapped around his head, he couldn't scream, he couldn't breathe, he felt as if there were a lot of tiny blades cutting open, splitting his face! He felt unbearable pain, he couldn't shout, he couldn't see, and his hands couldn't pick up the heavy stuff on his face! Then he slipped under his feet and stumbled into the river, his body slowly sinking and drifting with the current. And as Hu Quanao fell into the water, there were more aquatic grass balls in the river like jellyfish, swimming towards him quickly one by one! In a moment, his whole body was tightly enveloped! His body sank to the bottom of the river several meters deep due to the surge in weight, and never floated up again...

He Yunchen slept not far from Hu Quanao, and she heard the thud of Hu Quanao falling into the water just now! She slowly rubbed her eyes and woke up, but found that Hu Quanao was gone, and she hurriedly woke everyone up. Later, everyone unanimously agreed that Hu Quanao slept too close to the river, and must have turned over and fallen into the water while sleeping! Everyone hurriedly called Hu Quanao's name by the river, and searched downstream for a while, but never found any trace of him, and finally everyone had to give up. Now, in everyone's opinion, it's no surprise that someone is missing from the team!

Everyone returned to the place where they slept just now, and Huo Qibing suggested that everyone stay away from the river. But He Yunchen found that something was wrong, before going to bed, there was a ball of aquatic plants at her feet, and when she woke up when she heard Hu Quanao fall into the water, she found that this mass of aquatic plants had moved its position and had appeared above her head! He Yunchen felt strange, she stepped on this mass of aquatic plants, and then suggested that everyone go to sleep in the forest farther away from the river. Huo Qibing also felt that the number of people in the team was getting smaller and smaller, so it was necessary to be foolproof, and he also suggested sleeping farther away from the river. In this way, the nine men left the river and walked into the woods for twenty minutes before they began to prepare for bed, and everyone took turns on duty, and there was no abnormal situation that night.

The next morning, everyone was hungry again, and thought that the branches on the ground had almost dried up one night, so they prepared to go to the river to catch fish. But when everyone followed the road last night to look for the river, they found that they could no longer find the river they saw yesterday, and after going around the forest for a long time, they found that they were lost again! The forest here seems to have a kind of magic that can make people lose their sense of direction!

Now everyone is completely confused, and they don't know what to do! Lin Luxian suggested, anyway, they can't go out, they just keep walking straight in one direction, maybe there will be a miracle! After some discussion, everyone had to continue walking towards the dense forest ahead, and along the way, everyone was hungry, but there were no wild fruits in the huge forest, so everyone walked quite slowly!

I don't know how long it took to stop and stop all the way, but I saw the dense forest in front of me, the trees were taller, and the branches of the big trees were luxuriant, intertwined with each other. And standing under the tree, the light is dim, and there is even a hint of coolness. Everyone walked under the dim tree for more than an hour, and at this moment all the other people's mobile phones were already out of power and turned off, and there was no place to charge in this place, leaving Lin Luxian's mobile phone with fifteen percent of the battery, he looked at the time of the machine in his hand, it was already half past twelve at noon, and then he turned off the mobile phone.

Everyone was so hungry that they had no choice but to find some wild vegetables similar to green vegetables and wanted to cook them, but the only lighter was out of gas and couldn't be used.

Chen Yizheng, who couldn't bear it, kicked the plants piled up on the ground away, and then scolded, "Damn! Lao Tzu just won't eat these shitty things no matter how hungry he is!"

He Yunchen immediately quarreled with him, "Hey! This is the food we all collected, don't eat it if you don't eat it yourself! What kind of man is it to be angry with food!" The more the two argued, the more fierce they became, and several other girls were arguing on the side. Huo Qibing picked up the kicked plants back, while Lin Luxian leaned against the tree with his eyes closed. Huo Qibing stuffed the wild vegetables like green vegetables into his mouth and tasted them, he felt that the taste was relatively light, presumably it should not be poisonous, Huo Qibing said to everyone, "I'll try this plant first, and after a while, if I'm fine, then you can eat it again!" Chen Yizheng and He Yunchen also stopped arguing, and everyone was moved by Huo Qibing's spirit of taking the lead, especially Lin Luxian, who thought that Huo Qibing was born with the temperament of a leader!

After a short time, seeing that Huo Qibing did not feel any discomfort, everyone hurriedly divided the wild vegetables piled on the ground and chewed them raw! Although there was no taste, at least it was not bitter, and there was a lot of water, so it could still be swallowed!

Chen Yizheng, who was so hungry that he couldn't stand it, quietly hid a handful of wild vegetables that he had just kicked away and hadn't been discovered by Huo Qibing behind him, and then turned around and chewed on this handful of wild vegetables when everyone was not paying attention!

After they had eaten their fill, they marched towards the front of the woods, and they found that there were no animals in the forest, not even the sound of birds and cicadas had disappeared! After walking forward for ten minutes, they found a strange forest in front of them, and all the trees in the woods had withered, and there was not a single leaf in sight in the whole dead forest! There was not a single green grass on the ground, and the sky above the trees was also cloudy.

Everyone slowly approached this dead forest, and Huo Qibing said strangely, "This is not right, why are all the trees in this forest withered? And when we were in the forest just now, it seemed that the sun was still rising, why is it getting dark now? This doesn't look like it's going to rain? Is it getting dark? It's too fast!"

He Yunchen also said, "This forest may be barren, you see, not to mention that the trees are withered, and not even a single grass has grown!"

Lin Luxian retorted to He Yunchen: "You're not right! If the land is really barren, it is impossible to grow these trees, originally this place must have been a dense forest with lush foliage, but then something must have happened, such as a fire, which caused the trees to wither!"

Huo Qibing touched the dry trunk and said, "But this doesn't look like a fire!"

The next step was to discuss whether or not to move on and enter the dead forest. Everyone thought that there would not be a single leaf in this dead forest, and that there would be no food!, so everyone decided to go back to the old tall forest, which at least had wild vegetables, so that they would not starve to death!

Just when everyone agreed and decided to return, Xiong Ziqiao saw a hare popping out of the dead woods! Xiong Ziqiao excitedly pointed to the hare not far away and shouted, "Meat!

After seeing the hare, everyone came to the spirit and was eager to try, in this harsh environment, the hare is like a precious food like caviar! Xiong Ziqiao thought about it, although the only lighter is no longer available, but even if it is to drill wood for fire! She still wants to eat this rabbit meat!

Xiong Ziqiao was the first to run towards the hare, running faster than the boys! The others followed closely! The hare in the dead forest saw everyone running towards him like chasing stars, and hurriedly pulled out his legs and ran! Towards the depths of the dead woods, and Xiong Ziqiao and everyone were chasing it with all their might! After chasing for a few minutes, the hare disappeared into the woods in front of them, and everyone quickly stopped and gasped! Xiong Ziqiao did not give up, she gasped and said to everyone, "This, this hare, there must be more than one! Rest for a while, we will find it again!"

Huo Qibing gasped and said helplessly, "How can a man chase a four-legged hare? Even if we want to catch a rabbit, we have to make a trap!"

But none of the nine men knew how to make traps, and the only thing they could do was to dig holes! About an hour later, two pits about 1.5 meters long and wide and about 1.5 meters deep were dug, and everyone found some slender branches to cover them and sprinkled some soil on them.

Lin Luxian said to Huo Qibing, "We won't wait for the rabbits in this pit, right? The rabbits won't run over by themselves, someone has to drive the rabbits out of the forest!"

Huo Qibing thought about it, so everyone discussed, and Xiong Ziqiao and Chen Yizheng took the other two girls, Yu Xiaoyu and Wu Ling, to look for the hare in the forest, and then drove the hare over. Before leaving, Huo Qibing told the four of them not to go far, and they really couldn't find the hare and came back. The four of them nodded and left, heading deeper into the dead woods.

Xiong Ziqiao and the four of them walked for more than twenty minutes, and they didn't see the shadow of the hare, and everyone looked around, in the gloomy environment, there were withered and twisted trees everywhere, and the branches on the trunks were very dense and of different shapes. There are also spiky branches that look like thin people. Some of these thin humanoid branches were clinging to the trunk of the tree, while others were hanging from other branches, swaying and swaying, quite weird! Xiong Ziqiao and the four of them felt more and more frightened, and they had the intention of retreating. Chen Yizheng, in particular, complained, "This Huo Qibing, they, actually let me do this thankless work! It's really hateful!" As soon as Chen Yizheng finished speaking, Xiong Ziqiao pointed to the root of a dead tree and excitedly shouted, "Rabbit! It's a rabbit!"

The other three saw where Xiong Zijiao was pointing, under a dead tree, there was a rabbit lying there, motionless, as if it was dead! The four of them hurriedly approached to observe, the rabbit was dry and thin, as if all the blood and water had been sucked out, and there were many small wounds on its body, as if it had been pricked by many needles!

Chen Yizheng stepped forward, used a small branch to pluck the dead rabbit under the dead tree, and said, "Could this be the live hare we just saw?"

Just when Chen Yizheng was puzzled, above his head, hugging the trunk of the tree, the spiky humanoid branch suddenly fell off the tree pole and was falling on his back!

Chen Yizheng fell to the ground screaming and struggling! He wanted to grab the monster on his back with his hand, but his hand was pierced with blood!

Seeing this, Xiong Ziqiao and Wu Ling immediately screamed and ran to the depths of the dead woods! while the timid Yu Xiaoyu was so frightened that she sat on the ground, she watched Chen Yizheng stretch out his hand to her, but she couldn't do anything. Slowly, Yu Xiaoyu saw that Chen Yizheng was getting thinner and thinner, and the dendritic monster on Chen Yizheng's back was getting longer and bigger!

Yu Xiaoyu wanted to escape, but his legs didn't obey the call, and he just couldn't stand up! At this time, more of these humanoid branch monsters full of spikes fell from the surrounding trees, and they stood up and approached Yu Xiaoyu step by step, slowly surrounding Yu Xiaoyu! In a moment, Yu Xiaoyu's body was crawling with these monsters, and her terrible screams resounded throughout the dead forest!