Chapter 61 (1/2)

”I see.” Chang nodded with sorrow - the soldier was dead, without anyone having known his name. A life vanished in this lush jungle, without the accompaniment of friends and family.

”G.o.d…” Chang turned away from the corpse and found Jing, who was pushed to the other side of the bush. He picked her up and held her tightly and silently as if he feared that Jing would pa.s.s from his sight before he could notice. Chang loosened his arms after a second or two, and started to repack his backpack, he said to Mingyi without looking at him, ”Let's go, we still have others to look for.”

”Sure.” Mingyi's voice came from the fog, he again followed Chang to return to the Zheng Kai Avenue.

The subsequent 15-minute walk was filled with the intermittent joy of discovery, but unfortunately, none of these traces of life belonged to humans. To avoid potential trouble and danger, they did not really look into them. Chang was always aware of the timeframe that Qing Shui set to them, and a few minutes later, they decided to return as they didn't find any human.

”We should go back now. It has been almost half an hour. We'll be delaying the expedition if we don't leave now.”

”Okay.”

They returned with a shade of blue, after about 15 minutes, they re-joined the troop.

”You didn't find anyone?” A look of disappointment pa.s.sed over Zhao's face when he noticed the number of people did not increase as they came back.

”We actually found one, but a mantis attacked him…” Mingyi turned in the clips and food he found on the corpse to Zhao.

”These belonged to Cao Wei…what a pity.” Zhao was sentimental over the soldier's death.

Although Zhao was upset about the loss of soldiers in his troop, he didn't let the emotion keep him in place. ”I guess the other one has gone missing already. In consideration of the majority, we should leave now.” Zhao waved the military flashlight in his right hand while announcing his decision of abandoning the other soldier.

Zhao didn't command Chang to do more for the troop even when he knew of Chang's capability. Chang was still placed in the middle of the troop to look out for losing soldiers, however, even without Zhao's orders, he was already wary of the surroundings.

The journey kept on going for nearly three hours straight. The Sun radiated over their scalps, and the red fog was lit up into its most saturated color. They, fortunately, did not encounter any danger but the physical exertion was so intense that the troop had to rest for a few minutes to hydrate and snack.

The military prepared crackers for the troops but they were almost inedible. Chang unzipped his backpack with both his hands, he took out a plastic bag with frog meat and unwrapped it. They made a small circle when sitting on the ground.

The military had their own circle while Chang and his friends had their own. There was only one person isolated from the groups - Dr. Huang.

”You should have some of our meat, we brought enough for all of us.” Qing Shui politely invited Dr. Huang to join as he noticed she was excluded.

”Pretentious.” Dr. Huang glanced at Qing Shui but she was not at all interested - she still resented Qing Shui, the person who forced her to join this journey.

”You are a doctor, so you should be more aware than me of the consequence of lacking water and food after tramping for hours in this hot weather.”

As Qing Shui talked, he ripped a small piece of frog meat and wrapped it with leaves, and placed a cup of water in front of her.

Qing Shui turned his head again as he finished doing so. He didn't look at her expression nor did he speak more to comfort her.

”Just eat your food... Being alive is more important than anything.” Pangzi also turned his head, but he had lost a significant amount of weight since the start of the red fog, he was not that chubby teen anymore. His shriveled face made a smile, ”We are probably not good people in your mind, but we are not as bad as you have imagined us either.”

”But, who cares about how you would see us now.” Pangzi shrugged, ”Isn't able to survive more important than anything else for now?”

The doctor didn't expect what Pangzi just said. She was frozen in place for a moment but she then picked up the meat and water and almost swallowed the piece of meat whole.

The troop was ready to depart again as they were well rested - lost two soldiers this morning but one-third of the trip had been completed; it was an acceptable rate of death for this journey so far. The atmosphere in the troop was relatively light-hearted.