Thinking back on it, Lin Xi suspected that he and the other members of the exploration team might have been hypnotized by some mysterious force.
Yes, that was it—Jerry's voice was so calm, so confident, as if they were walking down some well-signposted tourist boulevard instead of a dark, narrow tunnel with no sunlight.
And the strange thing is that everyone believed Jerry's words.
They believed that the road was so long because of the darkness, and they believed that they would soon reach the cave where they first rolled down.
The entrance of the cave may be blocked by some gravel and soil, but it doesn’t matter. Since the insects can find a way out, they can too.
But things gradually got worse, the atmosphere became more humid and the temperature became colder.
Every few steps, Lin Xi needed to wipe the mist off his mask.
At first, some people questioned Jerry, and occasionally someone said something irrelevant on the public communication channel.
Now, both the private and public channels were quiet—only the increasingly heavy breathing of people could be heard.
Lin Xi began to realize that something was wrong because he saw something soft in the cracks of some rocks, like a large group of anemones huddled there. At first, Lin Xi thought it was a lichen or moss unique to this planet, but soon he discovered that it was the tongue of some giant worm. When Lin Xi and others passed by them, they were startled. Perhaps a nest of worms twisted their bodies to drill into a deeper and narrower crack in the rocks. The movement they caused caused a small earthquake, and a lot of rubble fell from the top of the passage.
Thank God, the tunnel did not collapse, but Lin Xi was hit on the shoulder and forehead by several rocks.
A distinct sweet and fishy smell suddenly rose from his mask.
"Damn..."
Lin Xi grunted as he realized he was bleeding.
It was at this moment that Lin Xi suddenly came back to his senses from his dazed state.
He stopped suddenly.
Walker, who had been following him, bumped into him, followed by Lena, Eugene, Schroedereth...
"Hey, what the hell is going on!"
Walker was a big guy, and the force of his impact almost made Lin Xi fall, but Lin Xi stood firm.
After a pause of several seconds, he heard Walker's familiar rude shouting.
Lin Xi really didn't want to admit that hearing this guy's curse actually made him feel at ease.
"Something's not right..." he said in Walker.
"Jerry! Where the hell are you taking us?"
This is what he told Jerry.
"… "
Jerry was silent.
"Jerry! Stop!"
Lin Xi raised her voice and shouted.
"We're almost there."
It was a long while before Jerry responded.
"Don't worry, we didn't go the wrong way. We were always following the signs."
He said it word by word.
But Lin Xi's face was tense at this moment.
Even with Jerry's assurance, the reason was simple: if he was the responsible and good-tempered man he knew, Jerry would stop at this time no matter what.
But Jerry didn't do that. His body swayed slightly, his movements were stiff, but he kept walking forward.
"How is this going?"
At this point, the exploration team members who came from other situations also realized that something was wrong.
Lin Xike didn't have time to pay attention to them. He rushed forward in two steps and grabbed Jerry.
He forced Jerry to turn around and face the exploration team behind him.
"Jerry?"
"Wait—Jerry, what's wrong with you?"
After seeing Jerry, several people couldn't help but exclaim.
The man who had been speaking to them in a calm and composed voice now looked like a patient having some sort of acute illness.
Even through the mask, people could clearly see soybean-sized beads of sweat oozing out of his pores.
The muscles on his face were crooked and seriously asymmetrical. The right side of his face seemed to be pushed downward by an invisible hand, and his eyes could only be half open. His left face was pulled into a weird smile. His eyeballs were trembling unconsciously and his pupils were dilated.
Such a Jerry made Lin Xi feel very uncomfortable, and his heart suddenly became cold and heavy.
On instinct, he suddenly pulled Jerry's hand.
He looked at Jerry's personal terminal - there was only a scarlet color indicating a malfunction.
From the beginning to the end... they didn't follow the marked route at all, because the marking ball had long been invalid!
"What the hell is going on! Jerry?!"
When they first saw Jerry's condition, the other members of the exploration team were already very panicked, and when Lin Xi showed them the personal terminal on Jerry's wrist, they were completely confused.
"No, no, no, that's not true. Aren't we always heading outside?"
"Something must have gone wrong, no, Jerry, what the hell are you doing—"
At this moment, Jerry's eyes suddenly stopped moving.
Lin Xi met Jerry's eyes directly.
His movements paused.
"Hohohoho..."
A rapid sound of breathing came from Jerry's throat, and then the man, who was already not young, suddenly broke free from Lin Xi's hands.
Lin Xi suddenly felt something was wrong: "Catch him!"
He shouted.
Walker and Eugene reacted the fastest and rushed towards Jerry immediately.
“Oh, fuck—”
But then, Lin Xi heard a cry of pain.
Walker flew out, and then Eugene - at this moment, Jerry's strength was so incredible that he actually threw the two men away.
Then he suddenly rushed to the other end of the dark corridor.
"Jerry—"
Lin Xi yelled at him.
Jerry, who had already put some distance between them, seemed to turn around and look at him.
At such a distance, his exploration suit had long been submerged in the thick darkness, and only the inside of his helmet was still lit with a pale yellow light.
His head seemed to be floating alone in mid-air, and his crooked face was like a mask with an evil smile.
Lin Xi felt that Jerry... or rather, the soul that now occupied Jerry's body, was sneering at him.
And the next second, Jerry disappeared.
“Damn it!”
Before Lin Xi had time to say anything, he heard an angry curse.
"Wait, Walker—"
Lin Xi shouted.
But it was too late. The moment he opened his mouth, Walker, who had been thrown aside by Jerry, had already climbed up using his hands and feet and rushed directly in the direction where Jerry disappeared.
Following behind him was Eugene.
"… "
Lin Xi stood there and looked at their backs.
He silently uttered a series of extremely vicious curses, and then had to grit his teeth and rush over with them.
…
At the same time, on the Apollo, dozens of kilometers away from them.
There were also people cursing God at the same time.
"Still no news from them?!"
Bryce slammed his fist down on the console.
The technician next to him flinched and almost screamed in fear.
"Oh, Bryce, calm down."
Alyssa sighed and reached out to hold her lover.
"If you break the console, we won't be able to find a replacement now."
The technician came to his senses and muttered angrily behind them.
"Hey, hey, guys—"
Alyssa had to raise her voice.
She covered Bryce's mouth before he could even open his mouth.
"Please, Bryce, just let Douglas do his job in peace. You're not the only one here who's worried about them."
She stared at Bryce's face, her voice taking on a hint of severity.
"But-"
Bryce spoke subconsciously, but when he met Alyssa's gaze, he drooped his shoulders dejectedly.
Of course, his appearance looked a bit pitiful in Alyssa's eyes.
After all, Bryce hadn't eaten or slept since the news of the expedition's disappearance.
After gritting his teeth and completing his daily work, he would stay in the control room to try to get some additional information. However, even when the huge storm finally subsided after a day and a night of howling, the wireless signal belonging to the exploration team still did not come out.
Bryce almost had a complete breakdown.
But Alyssa couldn't let Bryce continue like this.
"Listen to me, you need to eat something and get some rest."
Alyssa tried to stay calm and then said to Bryce.
She paused delicately, and then continued: "The first wave of search and rescue teams are already searching outside. To be honest, no news is good news now, isn't it?"
But as soon as she said this, Alyssa regretted it.
It must be because she was too distressed by the damage to the Apollo in the storm, otherwise she would never say this in front of Bryce.
"No news is good news—"
The meaning behind this sentence is too sad.
In fact, the moment the news of the exploration team's disappearance in the storm came, everyone already had the answer in their hearts: those people were dead.
And if there is any news coming from the search and rescue team, it is probably that they have found the bodies of the exploration team members.
Alyssa couldn’t bear to think about that scene.
She subconsciously held her breath, alert for Bryce to lose control next...
But Bryce didn't do that.
He just stood there staring at Alyssa, then nodded slowly.
"Yeah, yeah. I... I really should take a break..."
He whispered in a hoarse voice, then turned unsteadily and headed towards the outside of the control room.
Alyssa looked at his departing back sadly.
Until the technician behind her spoke cautiously: "Are you really not going to tell him? Those bodies..."
"No, Douglas, do me a favor and don't say this now."
Alyssa lowered her head and said tiredly.
She forced herself to stay in the control room for a while longer, but in the end she couldn't let go and she rushed out after Bryce.
Not surprisingly, Alyssa found Bryce in the medical room, who had said he was going to rest.
When she walked into the infirmary, she saw Bryce huddled in a corner, sobbing silently.
"Oh... Bryce..."
Alyssa walked over and hugged Bryce tightly.
"Everything will be fine. Things are not that bad yet."
She kept wiping Bryce's tears.
It was a long time before the twitching of the man in her arms slowly stopped.
"I don't want to be like this, I just can't control it..."
Bryce pressed his head on Alyssa's shoulder and whispered in an unusually hoarse voice.
Alyssa patted his back.
After a long silence, Bryce suddenly spoke without any context.
"I've watched one of my brothers die... I really don't want to see my remaining brother die like this..."
"Brother? Sorry, Bryce, I never knew..."
Alyssa frowned in confusion.
younger brother
She and Bryce have been lovers for a long time, but she had never heard that Bryce had a younger brother besides Lin Xi.
"Savier."
Bryce murmured a name.
"Before Savile died, I promised him personally that I would take good care of Lin Xi."
The author has something to say: Today is also the day when someone went offline for plastic surgery...