"Squeak, squeak, squeak~" As Charles turned the steering wheel sharply, the car stopped urgently.
But the sand man did not get smaller, and because it was always moving away from Charles, its size was still growing slowly.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!" As the shaking sound continued, the sand in the entire desert and the car began to tremble.
That was the sound made by the giant sand man smashing the sand with his pillar-like hands. That thing was not an illusion or a mirage, it was real!
Now Charles no longer expects this place to be the Earth. There is absolutely no such thing on Earth.
What to do? This is the urgent question for Charles. Facing this weird sand man that is getting bigger and bigger, any previous response methods are useless.
But before Charles could figure it out, accompanied by an earthquake-like tremor, the sand man slowly turned around and leaned forward slightly.
A huge head poked out from the purple mist like a collapsed mountain.
The sand man has no face. Where the facial features should be, there are various protruding sand dunes. Waterfalls of yellow sand fall downwards along the edges of the dunes.
Unlike the holes on the back, the front of the sand man is densely packed with sand dunes of various sizes, just like a human body with various lumps.
Just as the huge head got closer, Charles' pupils shrank slightly. He discovered something on this guy.
Charles waved his shaking right hand to the side, "Lily, mirror box! Audrick, be careful to avoid it."
The mirror box opened, and a dazzling soft light illuminated the entire desert. After a few brief seconds, everything around returned to normal, and the sand man in the distance was unharmed.
Charles' expression was slightly stunned. He had just seen the same gentle sunshine flashing on the sandman.
He lowered his head and looked at the desert on the ground thoughtfully.
Seeing the sand-blowing waterfalls about to drown everyone, the first mate bit down hard and shouted into the pager beside his mouth: "Captain! I suggest you disperse... evacuate... this way the survival rate will be higher..."
"No! Don't run! Everyone follow me and charge forward!!" Charles' order surprised everyone present. It was almost a suicidal decision.
However, when they saw the car in the distance starting and rushing towards the waterfall, everyone followed it without hesitation.
Their actions had the opposite effect, and the Sandman's body now became much larger.
Just as they were about to be completely buried by the sand, Charles' voice came again from the pager.
"No! That thing is still getting bigger! The angle is wrong, let's go right!!"
Although no one knew what Charles was doing, the other three cars slammed on the brakes and drove quickly to the right side of the Sandman.
When Charles saw the other party's huge size gradually shrinking, he suddenly felt a little relieved. He seemed to have figured out the rules of this desert.
However, before he could be happy for too long, the yellow sand waterfall had already reached their heads, falling slowly like a downpour.
Everything around was covered with sand. The car entered a huge sandstorm and the road ahead became very difficult.
"Keep driving!! Don't stop! We are about to win!" Charles stepped on the accelerator hard and shouted into the pager.
Charles' bet was right, and gradually, the storm in the sky became smaller and smaller.
At this time, the sand man next to him was still there, but his size had shrunk a lot and was still shrinking.
"It's not over yet, everyone keep running, don't stop!" Charles continued into the pager.
Gradually, when the sandman in the distance shrank to the size of a basketball, Charles finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"Captain, how did you find out that walking to the left can make this thing smaller?" Second Mate Krona asked on the pager.
Charles smiled. "Remember the mirror box? After opening it, I saw the same light on the monster's body."
"So... what does this mean?"
"Mirror?"
"Yes, a special mirror. In fact, this desert is the front of the sand man. We are now on the sand man's body. The mirror is a replica of the entire desert. The real desert giant is actually under our feet."
Such a bizarre thing made everyone a little confused.
"I found that it was getting bigger whether I was walking forward or backward, and I felt a little weird about it."
"When I saw the light on the sandman, I figured out what it was. It makes sense if we consider it as a special mirror."
"In an ordinary mirror, when we move away, the reflection in the mirror will shrink. But what if there is a special mirror in this world?"
"A mirror that makes the reflection bigger whether you move away or get closer. Since it doesn't work whether you move closer or farther away, let's try it from the side."
"But... that sandstorm is real, it's not just a projection in the mirror." Krona said again.
Charles looked at the gradually disappearing sandman with a complicated expression. "Yes, it's the scariest thing when the things in the mirror have a physical body, especially when the projection in the mirror also contains us."
Lily, who was standing at the front of the car, seemed to recall something and shuddered all over.
When he released the mirror box, the entity Charles on the other side of the mirror might have also seen it.
Charles shook his head vigorously to get rid of the terrifying thoughts in his mind. He grabbed the pager and said, "We'll talk about these things later. Now there are more important things to do. Let's start the headcount review. One car, Captain Charles, Gunner Lily."
"Second car, boatswain Dipper, ship doctor Linda, sailor Norden..."
"Car three, Second Officer Krona, Cook Plank, First Engineer Audrick, Chief Engineer Paul..."
After three cars, there was dead silence on the pager, and the next four cars that were supposed to arrive did not respond.
"Car Four! Did you hear that? First mate! I heard the reply!!" Charles felt a little anxious because of the sudden change.
Just as he was considering whether to stop and find it, after a brief noise, the slow sound of bandages came from inside.
"Fourth car... First officer bandage... Third wheel tube..."
When he finished speaking, Charles, who was slightly relieved, asked inside: "First mate, why did you take so long to reply?"
"When we entered the sandstorm, our tires got stuck in the sand. We were a little late..."
"Identity confirmed."
"Bandage... First mate... Assist the captain... Organize various... Work plans, responsible for compiling... Cargo stowage plan... Helmsman for 12~24... Today's code is..."
Although it was thrilling, fortunately everyone was there, and they were all real people, and Charles' anxious heart slowly calmed down.
"Everyone head east 16!"
"receive!"
"clear!!"
The car left a long yellow line in the desert and rushed straight towards the Gobi Desert.
Sorry, I was too busy at work today, so the update is a little late. There is nothing I can do about the service industry. Please forgive me. There are so many people on the street.
(End of this chapter)