The branches kept hitting Charles' face, but his eyes were fixed on the back of 096 in front of him.
The tangled branches could not stop their strengthened bodies, and they stretched and jumped between the trees.
"Hahahaha!!!" 096 laughed crazily without stopping.
"Dude, we can't run like this. Our speed is the same. If we keep running, who knows where he'll take us." Richard thought to himself.
"Don't talk nonsense, of course I know this!"
Charles pushed hard against a tree trunk with his feet. The bullets in the revolver in his hand had been replaced. This time he did not aim at the vital parts of Cha 096, but directly at his lower limbs.
"Bang!" A gunshot rang out, wood chips flew everywhere, and a piece of bark next to 096's right leg was cut off by the bullet.
The fast running and the various tree trunks made it very difficult for Charles to aim even with his amazing eyesight.
"I'll run and you shoot." Richard took over part of the control of the body.
Gunshots rang out again. After several shots missed, blood suddenly burst out from 096's left leg. His leg was hit.
The body was still running with its legs limping, but its speed was slowing down.
Charles pounced forward like a cheetah, and with a sharp swing of the black blade in his hand, his head flew directly into the air.
Regardless of the corpse that was still spurting blood, Charles activated the tentacle ring, and the transparent tentacles quickly rolled over the head.
Then when he looked at the face, his black pupils shrank slightly.
This body was not from any of their crew, and the clown mask that was supposed to be hanging on it had disappeared at some point, replaced by a terrifying face.
The places where the eyes, nose and mouth should be on this head are empty, with only four perfect round holes left. It looks like a skull but with a certain weirdness.
Charles turned his head and looked around the woods, but could not find any trace of the mask. It was obvious that the mask had escaped at some point during the chase.
"Brother, has that mask come up with something new? Can it eat the host's facial features?"
"I'm not sure. Let's go back first to avoid being lured away from the mountain."
Charles did not delay any longer, he wrapped his tentacles around the corpse and quickly returned.
When he returned to the ruins and saw James' huge body next to the campfire, all the crew members woke up.
Seeing their captain coming back, the crew members came forward one after another. Charles quickly pointed at the heads and compared them with the cloth strips on the shoulders. He found that his crew members were not missing and the body was not one of them.
"Could this body be a native of this city?"
The natives on the island looked all kinds of strange, and Charles wasn't sure.
After thinking for a few seconds, Charles took the body to the doctor who was treating it.
Hearing the footsteps behind him, the doctor did not turn around and continued to treat the wound of the injured. "Don't worry, in fact, most people with tracheal ruptures choke to death on their own blood. As long as I am here, they will not die."
Charles looked at Second Mate Krona who was lying on the ground. A tube as thick as his little finger was inserted into his Adam's apple, making a slight whistle sound with his breathing.
The doctor turned and looked at his captain. "How's it going over there? Did you catch that thing?"
"I let it run away, but I caught its host. Take a look and see if there are any clues on it."
"Humph, it's not easy to be your ship's doctor."
Looking at the corpse on the ground, the doctor twisted the little finger of his iron hand, and a sharp scalpel popped out instantly.
While the doctor was dissecting the body, Charles touched the black clothing on the corpse. It was very smooth to the touch, a bit like a diving suit, but the clothing seemed to be old and began to tear when Charles pulled it lightly.
"There are no clues on the clothes." Charles cast his eyes at the doctor who looked like a ghoul beside him.
"What's wrong?"
"Come and see for yourself. There is no internal organs in his stomach. Are you sure it was able to move just now?"
After hearing this, Charles also squatted down in front of the corpse and used his hands to open the incision made by the doctor.
I found that it was indeed empty. All the organs that should have been in the chest and abdominal cavities were gone.
He was pretty sure that the thing was still alive when he chopped off its head.
"I'm more concerned about who made this thing. Look here, touch it with your hand and see."
The doctor's hand reached into the black hole of the skull and turned it around.
"There are no scars inside, and the healing is very complete. Even I can't do this. If this body was man-made, it would be a perfect work of art."
Finding nothing to gain, Charles clapped his hands in disappointment and stood up.
The body did nothing but add more confusion to his mind.
At this time, there was no sleepiness on the crew's faces. They all stared at him, waiting for the captain's next order.
"You can't sleep, right? Then let's keep going."
Lily walked up to him with half a loaf of bread in her hand and said nervously, "Mr. Charles, what if that thing comes again?"
Charles' eyes flashed coldly, "Don't worry, there won't be a next time."
After hearing the captain's order, everyone started to prepare their things, and there was constant noise in the makeshift camp.
"Big guy, put your socks away. Why did they end up in my bag?"
"Damn it, who has seen my wine jug!"
Although the ruins were not easy to walk through, they were much better than the woods. Charles and the others stood up and continued to move forward.
Charles was not idle at this time, and he quickly drew a simple map of the island on the notebook in his hand.
He led his crew quickly towards the center of the island. Since there were traces of human life on the island, the center of the island was the most likely place to obtain valuable information.
A white shadow flashed behind the ruins of the crowd. 096, crawling in the darkness, controlled a body again and stared at Charles' back with vicious eyes.
On the second night, Charles had explored more than half of the island. Except for the sudden activation of 096, there was nothing unusual about the island, as if it was just an ordinary island.
In a cleared area, except for the crew members on night watch, everyone else was sleeping.
Dipper, who was on night watch, was looking at the bonfire in front of him and enjoying his future. "If I become an islander, I will marry 10 wives! And one of them must be a vampire."
"Can you bear it?" interrupted the chef next to him.
"Why can't you bear it?"
"Forget it. When you get off the boat this time, I'll take you to a place and you'll know."
"I won't go. It was because of you that I was captured by the vampire last time."
Dipper's shadow was long in the light of the campfire, blending into the darkness outside the fire.
096 held a rusty blade in his hand, his limbs crawling like a spider, and he approached silently along the shadow.
(End of this chapter)