Next.

It had just fallen into the night, and the sky was still a little bright, so Masson couldn't help but dig up the newly buried grave, revealing the luxurious coffin.

He wiped the dust off the coffin, caressing the lines on it like caressing a lover's skin, and let out a hearty laugh.

At that moment, suddenly, there was a small sound of clothes grinding against the coffin, and his smile instantly retracted, and he thought of the worst possibility - the rat had already pulled the body away before him.

In desperation, he hurriedly picked up a crowbar and pried the coffin open.

Sure enough, in the first scene, the coffin was empty, only the white velvet satin remained quietly in place, ironically reflecting the shattering of his dream of making a fortune.

He shouted in chagrin, "Damn! ”

Suddenly, the grinding sound was heard again.

He turned to look at the other side of the coffin, the top of the coffin had been bitten by the rats and a large hole had been opened, and the body of the rich merchant was being dragged into the hole by the rats little by little, and when he found it, only his heels were left in the coffin.

Masson quickly jumped down, lay down in the coffin, and reached out to grab it, only to grab a brand new leather shoe.

Annoyed, he threw his shoes aside and shone his flashlight into the cave, where the body of the wealthy merchant was being dragged into the darkness with no end in sight.

It was a narrow and deep tunnel, and Masson looked into the depths of the cave again, and he had the heart to follow up and snatch the corpse back, but such an underground passage environment, for his natural claustrophobia, was like hell, so he never dared to take this step.

He knelt in the coffin, breathing heavily, his lips trembling slightly, and his mind flashed to the image of himself being nailed in the coffin by gangsters, hammering the coffin slabs shut, and stepping into the dirt.

Call! Gradually, he made a decision in his mind.

Instead of waiting to be nailed into a coffin, it is better to take the initiative to fight in the cave, rats are always much easier to deal with than gangsters.

Thinking of this, he no longer hesitated, took off his coat, drew a cross on his chest, prayed for God's protection, and then bowed down, took a flashlight, burrowed into the cave, and crawled in the direction where the body was being dragged.

The tunnel was so narrow that it could barely pass through one person, surrounded by roots of plants like trees that were probably from a cemetery, and he struggled to climb for a long time, muttering to himself, "Masson, work hard, you have to keep your dignity", and walked forward with the traces of corpses.

He climbed deeper and deeper, he didn't know how long he had been underground, the corpse in front of him had also lost his trace, the closed and dark environment of the underground made him feel extremely uneasy and frightened, he began to have difficulty breathing, his heart beat faster, his body sweated profusely, his cheeks flushed, the feeling of helplessness and loss of control came like a tide, anxiety and panic swallowed his heart little by little.

In the dark cavern, Masson could clearly hear his own heavy breathing.

Call. Call.

And what a creeping sound.

He struggled to turn his head and shine his flashlight behind him.

A large number of rats were coming from behind him, and he was so frightened that he didn't care what was in front of the cave, and struggled to climb forward. But his bloated body could move faster than a rat in a burrow.

Soon, his body was crawling with rats, these filthy little things crawled all over his body, taking up the space for him to move forward, and the rats had not yet attacked him, but he did not dare to crawl any further, because every step might crush the rats, thus causing them to fight back.

Masson looked back at the rushing rat tide, and when the rats had all run over, he dared to turn back and prepare to move on.

As soon as he picked up the flashlight and was about to move forward, the bright light shone on a huge mouse, which emitted a foul smell, but in this filthy underground, the smell was not very obvious, so Ma Sen did not notice it at the first time.

The head of the rat was less than half a meter in front of Masson, a head larger than half of Masson's body, and on its large open mouth, foul-smelling saliva was pulling and sliding from its sharp black and yellow teeth.

The giant rat had been living underground for too long, its eyes had deteriorated, it had completely lost its ability to sense light, and could only sense its surroundings with its sense of smell and hearing, even if Masson shone it with a flashlight, there was no response.

It sniffed vigorously and felt as if it had the breath of a living person, but just now too many rats crawled over Masson, and the juice and saliva all over his body smeared on his body, making Masson smell of rats, and the giant rat was a little indistinguishable for a while.

It leaned in front of Masson, sniffing with its nose against his face.

Masson stiffened nervously, didn't dare to make a sound, and it took a long time to take out the pistol on his body, press his fingers on the safe, and gently break it open.

The giant rat was immediately alarmed by the safety pull sound of "Galala", and roared and was about to bite it, but Masson thought of the next move when he pulled the safety, and he immediately aimed the muzzle of the gun at the mouth of the giant rat, and a bullet hit.

The giant rat was shot, roared in pain, and scratched its claws wildly, cutting a deep wound in Masson's arm, knocking his pistol down, and Masson quickly fled in the chaos, and after the giant rat recovered from the pain, he began to chase wildly.

Masson chose a fork in the road at random and escaped, panicked, accidentally fell from a hidden hole, slid down from the hole for more than ten meters, he fell heavily to the ground, although the hole was very deep, but fortunately it was a slope, so he was not injured.

Before he could recover from the weightlessness and panic, he was frightened by the air-dried human skeletons pressed under him, and he sat in the pile of skeletons, not knowing what was going on, and for a while the whole person froze, looking blankly at the white bones around him.

By chance, a reflective object came into his eyes, and he crawled over, picked it up from the gap in the white bones, and held it in his hand to observe, it turned out to be a precious ring. The surprise of obtaining the treasure expelled all the negative emotions such as fear and confusion in his heart, and he continued to search for the white bones, and sure enough, many of the bones had the ornaments and treasures he carried with him.

He muttered to himself, "Marson! You're in luck! "Removed a few white ribs, took off a necklace, broke open a piece of arm bone, took off a pure gold bracelet, and finally, found the target of the trip, the antique long knife.

Putting away the treasures, he had the heart to look around with a flashlight, the towering four walls of I don't know how many meters, painted with all kinds of strange tentacles, directly opposite the wall enshrined a human octopus head with winged gods, it turned out to be a cult meeting place a long time ago.

He looked around the cult dwellings, and finally found a strange corpse in an archway, the only one in the room that still had some dry flesh remaining.

Then his full attention was drawn to the pendant hanging from the corpse's chest, which looked like it was pure gold, and the overall shape was somewhat similar to the head of the evil god, consisting of an irregular prototype body and countless tentacles below.

He took off the pendant and held it in his hand to admire.

Suddenly, the corpse of the cultist on the opposite side squirmed on its face, as if it had been resurrected, and it actually began to move, grabbing Masson's shoulder.

Masson was frightened to the sky, but fortunately, the cultist's lower body was entangled in vines, and he had just been resurrected, and his whole body was weak, and he couldn't get out for the time being, so he struggled and he escaped.

Masson looked around, and there was no other exit from this cult dwelling, so he had to climb up the inclined passage he had just fallen, while praying helplessly and desperately to God: "Jesus and God the Father in heaven, I swear to obey you forever!" I dedicate my heart to you, only to you! Have mercy on me. ”

Perhaps God forbid, he miraculously climbed up the tunnel for more than ten meters, and pulled the roots and vines in the wall, dragged down the boulder on the top of the cave, and smashed the giant rat that pounced on him, cutting off the path pursued by the cultists, and sparing his life when he was caught between the giant rat and the resurrected cultist.

And, when he was looking for an exit with a flashlight, he was pleasantly surprised to find a light at the end of the tunnel directly above his head.

Even if the cultist couldn't get through, he kept reaching out his hand and desperately grabbing at Masson, cursing and swearing on the side of the stone: "Hey, damn thief, give me back my pendant, it's a token from God." ”

He seems to be a little orderly in his speech, but his whole temperament looks a little crazy, as if he is a little abnormal because of his belief in evil gods.

Masson stood up in embarrassment and climbed up from the tunnel overhead, his heart full of respect for God, "Thank you, Jesus, I am determined to repent!" The all-new Masson is here! ”

He climbed up with difficulty, but fortunately the tunnel was potholed, and although it was hard, he could always borrow strength and not fall.

The tunnel of more than ten meters is as far away as a lifetime, and he keeps chanting a very meaningful sentence that he saw in the book before:

"The road ahead is arduous and long, once you get out of purgatory, you will finally see the light"

Motivate yourself to persevere, hopefully getting closer to the sun overhead.

"The road ahead. It's hard and long, and it's out of purgatory. See the light at last"

He dragged his injured body, tenacious, moving little by little.

Hope, just around the corner.

After climbing for a long time, he got closer and closer to the sun, and finally, with a burst of ease, he climbed into a comfortable and flat space, and there was no way ahead.

That's not right!

Why not on the ground?

He rolled over and shone his flashlight upwards.

A silvery-white metal disc reflected the light of a flashlight, dangling in his eyes, with three words faintly engraved on it: "Resting Place".

It turned out that he had climbed into someone's empty coffin.

The sunlight he saw was only the glow of a flashlight reflected off a metal disc.

That's right.

It's night, how can there be sunshine?

“NO NO NO！”

Locked in this dark and cramped coffin, his claustrophobia exploded completely, and he knew that no matter how much he struggled, no one would hear the sound, but he still banged helplessly on the top of the coffin, as if this would reassure him.

It wasn't long before a swarm of rats poured out along the tunnel he had crawled into, and in Masson's desperate wail, bit open his soft belly and entered to nibble on the delicacy contained therein, and then from the belly all the way up, gnawed a passage and crawled out of his mouth.

When they had finished eating, the rats left in a line, and the lead rat crawled back with the pendant that Masson had taken from the cultist's neck in his mouth, and delivered it to the cultist's withered hand with a membrane between every finger.

Time goes back an hour ago.

Luke questioned for a long time at the Miarko District Police Station, and the police over there, what do they say, they can't say that they don't know anything, they can only say that they don't know anything.

After all, it is a slum police station, with few police forces and poor equipment, and even the pension is more than half less than that of other police stations.

Naturally, Luke understands this situation.

Then he asked.

Since you don't know the situation, then you can find me someone who knows the situation.

Then Sheriff Berned Crespo took Luke to a Black Hawk casino and called the person in charge, Abdul.

"Abdul, this is Inspector Luke, the senior inspector of the Phoenix City Police Department, he can make your casino shut down with a single word, and now he has something he wants to ask you, you must answer truthfully. If your answer helps us, you know, I, Bernard, have always been gracious. ”

After speaking, he turned his head and explained to Luke: "Abdul is the head of the Black Hawk Gang in our district, and he knows all the information here, if he doesn't know it, then there is no way." ”

Luke nodded his head clearly, looked at the gang leader, and asked, "Has there been any recent occurrence of rats eating people, or attacking humans, or any special case of rats in Miarko?" ”

Abdul thought about it, the dead people here recently, basically their own little brother killed them, if you want to talk about mice, I really haven't heard of it, and I was about to speak, when I suddenly remembered that there was a tomb robber who owed debts yesterday, saying that he fought wits and courage with rats every day, and was bitten.

He groaned in his heart, it was cost-effective to cover up the tomb robber, or to betray him to obtain the favor of this police inspector.

On the one hand, there is a poor ghost who has already repaid several times the interest of the principal, and is basically about to squeeze it out, and on the other hand, there is a young senior police official,, he is useless for a second, and instinctively made a choice.

"Rats don't eat people, but I did hear a strange thing about rats."

After saying that, he told Luke the truth about Masson's situation.

After listening to what he said, Luke was a little interested.

Rats stealing corpses

It's a cult when you hear it.

After receiving the clue, Luke said goodbye to Abdul, let Berned lead the way, and drove his little Ford to the entrance of the cemetery.

Bernhad originally wanted to accompany Luke in to investigate, but this new friend, Luke always felt that he would be in a very bad situation if he came in with him, so he patiently told him about the possible risks and persuaded him to leave.

The so-called listening to people's advice to eat well, Bernhad was very persuasive, did not be stubborn, and did not wait for Luke at the door to go in and secretly followed, and after asking Luke if he needed to lead the way himself, he simply drove home neatly.

Luke summoned Halpie, who was following in the sky, to take the staff from it, lay it in his hand, and with a thought, thirty ravens scattered and began to inspect the cemetery in a dragnet pattern.

Soon, a crow was discovered.

It was a tomb that looked like it had just been buried, the grave had been dug up, the coffin had been opened, and it was empty, except for a deep hole that I didn't know where it was pointing.

(End of chapter)