Chapter 64: He left
Translator: Letty / Editor: DarkGem / Jello
As they were in deep concern about their trip, another person recovered from the seizure. It was Qing shui.
Although he didn’t lose his consciousness the whole time, every strand of his muscle, including his tongue, went into spasm completely. Therefore, he wasn't able to move or speak. The first thing he did as he sat up was to massage his arms and legs to relieve the soreness in his muscles. He turned to Chang and Ming Yi, “We don't have to be pessimistic about this. After all, this is what we have known and expected to happen.”
“How are you feeling?” Chang lent his hand to Qing shui and stood up with his help “Do you still feel any sequelae?”
“Can’t tell at this moment. It was just the seizure that consumed a large amount of my energy, otherwise, I am fine.” Qing shui forced a bitter smile, “But the neurotoxin hurt so much.”
“And you are probably experiencing more pain than I am, because you were totally aware of the process, and that kept every bit of your sensation suffering.” Chang was conscious about Qing shui's condition. He was different than the rest. Although it really was a torment, losing their consciousness helped them endure the suffering.
“What about them?” Qing shui noticed Pangzi and Jing. “Are they okay?”
“Not too bad, they weren’t the worst.” Chang moved over to check the scratch mark on Jing’s forearm, “We still have disinfectants in our backpacks, don't we? I’ll just disinfect their cuts and scratches first.”
“Yes we do, it is in my backpack.” Qing shui found his backpack buried under a dead man. He pulled out the blood covered backpack, took out the iodine and handed it to Chang. They rinsed their cuts with the solution. Ming Yi mimicked Chang and Qing shui, as he did the same to the rest of the troop.
Sadly, Qing shui, Chang, and Ming Yi found out that another men had passed away due to excessive loss of blood. They accidently broke the artery in their thighs. Within minutes, they died by losing too much blood.
“Another 2 are dead. There are only 11 of us now.” Ming Yi shook his head helplessly.
In this silent atmosphere of death, the three sat together speechlessly to wait for the others. A few minutes after, Jing and Dr. Huang regained consciousness. Then there were Pangzi and the other soldiers. They woke up to the bloody scene around them and sunk into a long silence.
The morale of the troop dropped to the bottom. The only thought they had was..."Will we ever get out from here?"
“Hey, cheer up, we should be glad that we are still alive!” Qing shui said. He usually wouldn't say words of encouragement, “We should keep going now, or do you want to mourn for half an hour and take another 30 minutes to pick up for yourselves? Do you think we can get to Zhengzhou before sunset if we do so? Stop acting like losers, all of you, stand up!”
The problem of dying was real and serious, the soldiers lifted their eyelids. After all, the bloody reality was what they had to deal with now, otherwise, something bloodier would be chasing after them. If they can’t make it Zhengzhou before sunset, they would die. Even if they were to leave now, the time was still short. At the moment, every minute they lose now could be a chance they lose to survive.
Considering all the factors, the soldiers picked themselves up pretty quickly. Reality forced them to repress their sadness. Although they felt hopeless, the cruel reality forced them to rearm themselves. For the sake of surviving, they quickly stood in order.
“Dr. Huang, can you do some simple hemostatic treatment for them? We are leaving soon.”
“Will do.” For the first time, Huang agreed with Qing shui. While Dr. Huang was treating those soldiers, Qing shui asked Ming Yi, “Ming Yi, are there any compasses left in the troop?”
“There was only one….it was with the captain. We thought we would only need one as we can get to Zhengzhou by walking along Zheng Kai Avenue… so we didn’t prepare a spare, we…” Ming Yi mumbled, but he raised his voice suddenly “The captain! The compass was with the captain! But he is in the flower bush now…”
It was another strike on everyone’s broken hearts.
“For god’s sake!” Pangzi sounded desperate “What do we do now? We can’t see very far and we don’t have any guide for direction either. It can be possible that we can get around this flower bush without getting lost.”
“Calm down everybody, take care of your injuries for now, I am going to get the compass.” Qing shui pulled at Chang’s sleeve, “Come with me.”
“What do you want?” Chang glanced at the flower bush fearfully, “We are sending ourselves to the evil! Do you understand that?”
“It may be the other way around.” Qing shui removed the shirt from a dead soldier, “I figure the fragrance came from the pollen, if we could somehow isolate ourselves from the pollen and cover our nose with a damp cloth, then possibly we could prevent the neurotoxin from getting into our system. We are safe as long as we don't breath in too much of the pollen. However, if we don't have the compass, we all have to die in here.”
Qing shui quickly slid into that soldier’s uniform then he put on an additional layer of the uniform. They tore off two long pieces of cloth from a dead man’s t-shirt, then soaked them with blood. They covered their lower face with the cloth.
Minutes after that, they wrapped themselves with heavy protection. The troop had mixed feeling about their departure, fear and hope filled their heart. Qing shui and Chang went back to the gorgeous and deadly flower bush.
They trotted along the same path they came through and promptly stopped at the edge of the glamorousness.
“You have better eyesight than me, do you see the captain?” Qing shui was fully alarmed by the vividness and asked, “They can’t have run too far.”
“For sure.” Chang nodded. Soon enough, he spotted broken bodies in the middle of the bush.
There were broken body parts everywhere and were coated by blood thickly. Chang almost couldn't tell which one was the captain.
He carefully searched for a while and found that familiar back that he had been watching for days.
“There, that seems like the captain.” Chang pointed somewhere in the air.
“There?” Qing shui squinted his eyes to try to see where Chang pointed at. He obviously couldn’t see anything beyond 3 meters, but he was looking for an estimated direction.
“Yes.”
“Alright, stay here, I’ll get the compass.”
“What are you talking about? You are entering the flower bush?” Chang was confused. “The flower could possible attack in different ways, aren’t you afraid of that?”
“Of course I am.” Qing shui patted Chang’s shoulder, “But I can’t let you risk your life every time.”
That was the last sentence he said to Chang before he left. Qing shui turned away and stepped into the gorgeousness without looking back.