Twenty-four Hourglasses
When I woke up again, I was already lying on my camel, still a little dazed, and my mind was struggling to remember what had happened. The camel swayed as it walked, causing pain all over my body. The pain made me wake up quickly, and I wanted to sit up, but when I moved my arm, it hurt! When you move your legs, it hurts! The pain in his heart distorted his expression, and he gritted his teeth and let out a low groan.
"Xiaocao, Xiaocao, are you awake?" Sister Yue's voice sounded in my ears, it turned out that Sister Yue and I were on a camel, which made me feel at ease. I couldn't turn my head to her, so I could only ask in a low voice, "You ,,, you, have you been bullied by them?" β
"No, Xiaocao, don't worry, they don't dare, don't talk yet, take the anti-inflammatory medicine." As she spoke, Sister Yue stuffed several pills into my mouth.
It's so bitter, before I swallow it, the medicine slowly dissolves in my mouth. Sister Yue saw me frowning and quickly gave me a sip of water. After taking the medicine, I continued to ask, "Sister Yue, why do my arms and legs hurt so much?" β
Sister Yue didn't speak, why didn't she speak? I tried to slowly turn my head sideways at her, but when I saw that there were tears in the eyes of such a resolute woman, I began to panic a little in my heart, "Sister Yue, what, crying, Sister Yue, you." β
Sister Yue wiped away her tears and forcibly looked up at me: "You have a knife wound on your leg and a robbery wound on your arm, and the bullets have been taken out, but the wounds are very large." β
Hearing this, I seem to recall what this injury was, but it really didn't hurt at the time, why is it so badly injured now? Suddenly remembered the feeling before I lost consciousness, that anger, that excitement, and suddenly I was shocked, what am I doing? Why do you feel that way? I'm killing someone!
Thinking back on my actions, I was scared. And, was it really me then? Don't... I, really... Will it turn into a monster? This thought caused my mind to start to mess up. I lowered my head and didn't speak again.
After walking for another while, I heard Nilou shouting, "Look, there's the ancient city of Saya!" ahead! β
I looked up, only to see that on the ground full of sand dunes, there were actually some tall yellow stone monuments, these stone monuments are as high as five floors, they look a little familiar, very similar to Egyptian obelisks, but the upper part of these stone tablets is not sharp, all of them are symbols similar to bull's horns, very similar to black hole stones, and there are many totems on the monument. Most of the steles are damaged, and the rammed earth on them is detached and weathered, but it is not easy to stand for so long in such a hostile environment as the desert. Under the steles, you can see many towers and low earthy buildings. It's like a mirage, something that doesn't really look like reality.
"Alright, the ancient city of Saya has arrived, and besides, my mission is complete, and I want to go back." Nilou glared at John and said.
"Miss Nilou, I'm very satisfied with your performance, but we still need you to take us back when we come out, so you can't leave now." John slyly pointed a gun at her.
"Hmph... Nilou flicked her braids and stepped aside.
"Watch her, don't let her run." John addressed the man next to him, and a tall man answered; βyes si
βγ
Then Nilou walked up to us, seemingly tidying up the water bladder, but quietly put something under the water bladder in her hand, and whispered to us, "This ancient city can only be entered at night, and if you see the sand moving, don't go where the sand moves." Try to be at the end. β
After saying that, Nilou walked away, and Sister Yue and I glanced at each other, probably knowing that Nilou was going to make a move, but we didn't quite understand what she was saying. After a while, taking advantage of the fact that no one was paying attention, Sister Yue slowly figured out what Nilou had put down for us, which was actually two knives. So she hid one in my waist and one in her boot.
After a simple trimming, we move on. I still climbed on the camel, all the way to the sun, the scalp on the back of my head was so painful, thanks to Sister Yue gave me water to drink, I didn't have heat stroke, I don't know if the medicine Sister Yue gave me even had pain relief and burning, the burning pain of the wound was much better, and the arms and legs could move slowly, but they still didn't have much strength.
Nilou was at the front of the group, and we were at the end, as we approached the ancient city. Suddenly, Nilou picked up a water bladder and quickly threw it on a piece of sunken sand, and before everyone could react, the sand suddenly shook. The whole sand was like water, and the camels were completely unsteady on their feet, and some of them began to flee in panic as if they were frightened.
I grabbed the swaying camel to keep it from falling, and suddenly I saw Nilou riding a camel speeding past us, and she was probably ready to run away. I hurriedly shouted to Sister Yue, "Sister Yue, keep up!" β
Sister Yue quickly pulled the rope and let the camel bricks run with her, but there were two people on our camels, and the speed was not fast, coupled with the shaking of the sand on the ground, before we could run a few steps, the camel's hind legs slipped and fell down, and Sister Yue and I all fell down. The moment we fell, we saw a foreigner chasing after Nilou.
"Nilou, be careful, you're chasing after you!" I shouted.
Nilou was seen holding the reins in one hand, and then picking up a water bladder with the other hand and quickly throwing it into the depression next to her, and the sand in the depression fluctuated again, and the foreigner and the camel who were chasing her fell off the depression due to the shaking of the ground, and he kept rolling until he reached the place where the water bladder was thrown. Nilou looked back at me and Sister Yue, and I waved her hand vigorously to get her to run.
Seeing that the person who rolled down got up, Sister Yue and I hurriedly lay down, afraid of being discovered, and when the person was about to climb up the slope.
Suddenly! A huge mouth emerges from the sand! What is this, what is this?!, my mouth was open in surprise, speechless!
I saw that this mouth was at least 3 meters high, the mouth was full of teeth, and there was black mucus hanging on the teeth, constantly dripping, the mouth was red with blood, and the constantly wriggling protrusions were swaying in the mouth, and in an instant, as soon as the mouth was closed, the person who had just rolled down and the surrounding sand were all swallowed, and the blood splashed, and some of them were left along the gap between the teeth of this mouth, and this person had no time to scream!
Sister Yue and I were so frightened when we saw such a scene, and we didn't even dare to take a big breath when we crawled on the ground. Then the mouth slowly retracted into the sand, and the ground reverted to the shape of a bunker, only the bright red blood stain proved what had just happened, this predation was like the hourglass I saw in the animal world, it was terrible!
Suddenly there was a gunshot in the distance, and we looked towards John's position, where the sand was still shaking like a wave, and those people were basically shaken and fell off the camels, and their big mouths rose out of the desert one after another, swallowing the camels or people in one gulp, and then sinking into the sand, and the wails over there continued, and the sounds were both camels and people, and the blood instantly stained the desert red. Could it be that Nilou had led them to the monster's lair?
"Here, fire, hit hard!" John shouted, and a large mouth opened in front of him, as if it had swallowed a camel. Then another mouth appeared behind them, and they turned around and struck, but another person was swallowed up.
I counted about 4 or 5 people left in John's place. Ours hasten to escape, but how? I looked at Sister Yue, and she looked at me too, and then stared at John's side, pulling me back slowly. Luckily, the medicine worked, and I was able to move around slowly. After leaving the distance for some distance, Sister Moon nodded to me, turned and ran towards a camel, according to Nilou, as long as we ran on the sand that did not move, we would be fine. Sister Yue helped me climb up the camel, and suddenly, I heard a shout from behind
"Catch them! Can't let them go!"
It's John, the old fox, who will still have the energy to monitor our movements. We were discovered, and I was dragged onto the camel by Sister Yue, who slammed the camel to try to run faster. But John's camel ran faster, and caught up with us in a few steps, he ran next to us, Sister Yue wanted to pull away, but before she was in a hurry, John suddenly took out a pistol, and shot at the camel's stomach, and our camel was unstable, and fell to the depression next to it, my heart was tight, there would not be that strange mouth here, just watch the camel roll down before us, and Sister Yue just grabbed my foot, rolled halfway, and I stopped.
Sure enough, the ground shook in an instant, and the big mouth with sand suddenly opened in front of us, because it was so close, I saw the back of the mouth, and it was all tentacles and eyes. We watched as the camels were swallowed up in an instant.
It wasn't until the big mouth slowly sank into the sand that the two of us dared to gasp for breath and lay on the ground and didn't dare to move.
Seeing that John was also surprised to look at the depression, but he didn't dare to come down, so I pulled Sister Yue and prepared to escape from the side.
"Come back to me, or I'll kill you!" John's gun is already pointed at us.
Sister Yue stared at him angrily, but there was no way, we had to lean towards him slowly. Suddenly I was unsteady under my feet, coupled with a leg injury, I stumbled and fell backwards, when I fell, my feet felt empty, and the whole lower body actually fell into the sand, I looked at Sister Yue in a panic, Sister Yue hurriedly pulled me, just grabbed her hand, I instantly sank, John's gunshot rang out, the bullet immediately passed through my ears, and my whole person also sank, I feel that Sister Yue should also be taken down by me. I rolled as I slid down, wondering if it was over, and if I went any further, it would be in the monster's mouth. The constant sinking made my mind a mess, and it was over, at the last moment, what did I have to say, what should my parents do, when I was constantly thinking about it in my head. Suddenly, I found that my body was so cold, and the sinking feeling continued, but there was less sand around me, and it seemed to be a relatively hard slope, and after continuing to roll for a while, I suddenly fell to the ground. Ignoring the pain, I quickly groped on the ground, it was hard, too good, not the mouth of a monster.
It was pitch black all around, I couldn't see anything, and suddenly, thinking about whether Sister Yue had also fallen, I tried hard to turn over, and as soon as I opened it, I heard a bang, and sure enough, Sister Yue also came down.
"A hammer, fell to my death. Hey? Xiaocao, Xiaocao, where are you? β
"I'm here, Sister Yue, I'm here." Because it was too dark around, I fumbled and finally grabbed Sister Yue's hand, so we got together.
I didn't dare to act rashly, squatted on the ground and relieved myself for a while, relieved the pain of falling, and began to look around. Sister Yue took out the flashlight from her coat pocket, and when she turned it on, we saw an empty space. It's a huge space, and we were amazed to look around, it's like a sci-fi dungeon. I also groped around on my body, and finally found a flashlight in a small pocket, and after turning it on, I dragged my injured leg in pain, and followed Sister Yue to start moving forward in this underground space. The space is so large that the floor is full of old clay pots, ruined houses, and things that seem to be household utensils. Of course, a lot of human bones were also found. I was still a little scared when I saw human bones. It wasn't until Sister Yue's flashlight adjusted the focus and shone farther away, a large area of residential buildings that were so large that we couldn't see the edge showed in front of our eyes, could it be that this was the real ancient city of Saya?