“We became lost not longer after we entered the forest. Perhaps being lost is normal for you, but my little brother will never get lost.” She seemed to remember something, and her face paled, “My little brother’s way of thinking is different from normal. He is used to marking people and objects with numbers. In the forest, he’d keep on marking special things with numbers.” She paused before adding, “It’s not marking things in a clockwise manner…”
“Sorry to interrupt,” Jiang Cheng said, “But I have no interest in your little brother’s talent. I just want to know about the forest.”
Su Xiaoxiao nodded. “I don’t know how to describe this forest to you. In any case, this forest is not something you and I can understand. My little brother seems to understand it, but sadly, he can’t express himself easily. I do know that he has been stressing one specific point,” Su Xiaoxiao suddenly sat up. Then, her presence changed. “He said… that this forest is alive.”
“The forest… is alive?” Fatty blinked his eyes. He was reminded of the black mist he saw between the trees. The thing was like a swamp. One couldn’t move one’s eyes away after seeing it.
“That’s right.” Su Xiaoxiao looked at the forest and then quickly looked away, “At least in my brother’s understanding, when we run into the same tree at different points in time, he’d give the tree a different number.”
Jiang Cheng leaned on the rock, but his eyes were on the forest. “Do you mean… in your brother’s perspective, the tree is no longer the same tree you guys encountered earlier?”
“What about you?” Fatty asked, “Did any change happen to the tree?”
When she heard that question, Su Xiaoxiao’s body trembled. However, she controlled it well and soon returned to normal.
“We were lost in the forest until we reached one spot…” She suddenly halted. Jiang Cheng didn’t urge her. He knew that it was not that she had clammed up, but she was searching for suitable words.
“Was it… an altar?” Su Xiaoxiao raised her head.
Fatty was stunned. He wondered why Su Xiaoxiao was asking them. Why would they know what they had encountered in the forest?
“Give the specifics,” Jiang Cheng prompted.
“It’s a giant stone path that is circular and has a diameter of around 10 metres.” Su Xiaoxiao searched her memory, “It is pure white. It is surrounded by graves.”
Jiang Cheng thought about it, “Based on my knowledge, no civilisation has the culture of building graves for sacrifices. They will only remove the sacrifices’ heads or body parts.”
“Let me finish,” Su Xiaoxiao was not dissatisfied. She was just too nervous that she didn’t want to bring up this part of her experience, “The graves are around the round plate, but the plate is stacked with various bones.” She swallowed, “Some from humans and others from… some creatures.”
Jiang Cheng looked at her. He could sense the fear in her. He understood the woman was not only scared by the graves and the bones but also something else. This was clear from her choice of words.
Some creatures… Why not animals? That would be more logical.
“What did you see among the pile of bones?” Jiang Cheng lowered his voice.
Su Xiaoxiao didn’t expect to ask that directly. She lifted her head. Her trembling eyes stared into his eyes as if trying to capture something from them. Clearly, she failed. Jiang Cheng’s eyes… only reflected her shadow.
“I don’t know what they are. But they are not creatures from our world,” Su Xiaoxiao said tremblingly. “They are so strange. Some look like lizards and frogs, but they are so much larger than normal. 2 meters… No, they should be three meters or even larger… Some of them even have wings on their backs!” Su Xiaoxiao’s face paled. “They seemed to have come from several million years ago…”
Jiang Cheng was silent before saying, “Trust me. Things like that didn’t exist several million years ago.”
Su Xiaoxiao was too agitated, and it worsened her lung injuries. She started to cough violently. As she wished to continue and describe the strangest thing, she realised Jiang Cheng was slowly standing up. It was hard to describe. For a short moment, she seemed to notice the shadow of something on Jiang Cheng. What was it? Or… who was it?
The familiar feeling soon disappeared. However, Su Xiaoxiao never suspected her feelings like she never suspected her little brother’s judgement.
“If I’m not mistaken, the things on the altar,” Jiang Cheng sighed. When he turned back, everything returned to normal, “Came alive, right?”
Even though Su Xiaoxiao was shocked, she didn’t lose her composure. She knew that Jiang Cheng had seen the wounds on Su An, especially the gunshot wound on his back.
“Other than the creatures you mentioned, the people on the altar came alive.” Jiang Cheng said, “Some of them had guns, and it was them who hurt your brother.”
Fatty’s brain finally came back alive, “Do you mean… those bones came back alive and shot your little brother?!”
“Yes.” Su Xiaoxiao answered Fatty, but her attention never left Jiang Cheng. There was something about him that grabbed her. It was a sense of familiarity.
“I believe you would have guessed by now,” Su Xiaoxiao said, “Those people are the aged woman’s teammates. However, they died in the forest due to mysterious reasons. Their bones were placed on the altar. At certain moments, those things will come back alive, and…” Su Xiaoxiao didn’t continue, but for the man before her, it was unnecessary.
The forest was like the island’s self-defence mechanism. Once an outsider entered it, the forest altar would be activated. Then, it was slaughter time for the revived soldiers. The killed ‘visitors’ would be included in this defence mechanism to become new ‘guardians’.
Fatty found this hard to believe. Could this really exist for real?
Didn’t the Doctor say this was a shadow of the real world? Since it was a shadow, then… it meant such a place existed in the real world. Then that place also had an altar. And the altar… was piled high with bones.
That was impossible… Right?