Chapter 35 - Wilderness (3)

Zhang Xun panted behind the quick-moving hunters. With less heavy luggage, it was much easier to walk, but after a long night of sleep deprivation, he was exhausted.

Finding a thumb-sized mark among the lush foliage was like looking for a needle in a haystack, but the hunters clearly had their own way of searching. They looked for signs of broken branches, looked for footprints that the average person would not recognize and always found the next mark when the trail seemed to be broken. Thankfully, no blood had been seen so far, which meant that James was at least not injured. Having the opportunity to leave these marks also meant that there was a high probability that he hadn't been taken prisoner.

But if so, why hadn't he returned to Lost Paradise? Why leave these marks?

When the first mark was discovered it wasn't very far from Reindeer Bay, but now it had deviated a lot and continued to spread to the North.

The population of Canada was originally small and the population had declined sharply in the past two hundred years, so that many towns in the North Rocky Mountains had gradually become deserted ghost towns. Sometimes hunters would spend the night in these deserted towns engulfed by overgrown vegetation, searching for available supplies. However, because people often took their valuable items when they moved out, the collected rubbish was often thrown into the garbage processing yard and was of no interest to anyone.

As they searched for the marks they found such a small town in the wild mountains. The asphalt road that was originally used for vehicles had cracked like a tortoise shell and the gaps were full of vigorous weeds. About a kilometre outside the town, on a rusted and crumbling billboard, there were faintly recognizable mottled words: Welcome to Coal Mountain Town.

Apparently the town was originally developed by mining coal, but with overexploitation and the rapid depletion of energy sources, coal mines were gradually being abandoned. There were many abandoned coal mines hidden in the majestic mountains and the vast sea of ​​trees. There were huge pitch-black mouths, which were buried with the souls of countless coal miners who had been forgotten by the world for many years. This town at the foot of the mountain was still the same as it was two hundred years ago. The roofs of more than half of the single-family wooden houses showed signs of collapse. The wooden boards were mouldy and decayed and there were countless insects and ants. There were grocery stores, breakfast shops, butcher shops, expressionless mannequins in the windows, motorcycle shops that had been ransacked, mailboxes still intact on the street corners... Everything seemed to still be usable, but it had long been overwhelmed by time and there was only an illusion of order left behind.

This desolate scene was chilling, as if seeing the end of the human world.

Why did James lead them here?

The group of eighteen people walked cautiously along the streets full of weeds and potholes. Anyone with a gun in their hands had it loaded with bullets and the safety switched off, on guard against unknown dangers that might rush out from any corner. Zhang Xun walked in the middle of the team, monitoring the images sent back by the insects moving within a range of two hundred to four hundred metres around them.

Adam looked around and said, "The last family in this town moved out one hundred and twenty-three years ago. At that time, their family of five had been living in this empty town for more than thirty years. The last person didn't leave until his parents died. There are fewer and fewer natural history museums like this that existed before the Third World War."

"Do you think it's a pity?" Cannon sneered, "None of us feel it's a pity."

"I'm not sure what you mean by think it's a pity." Adam replied honestly.

"I think this town is empty and no one is there." He Yuxin, the head of the regiment, stopped in front of an old Wendy's restaurant and said to everyone, "Rest up here for an hour, Cannon, Barry, you two will come with me to look around and see if there are any new signs and supplies."

So the group entered the chain restaurant occupied by dust and overgrown moss.

The hunters banged around in the kitchen and behind the counters, picking up colanders for french fries and large iron pots for soup to play with in a duel. Obviously they were adult men, but they were still childish when they played. Probably because they didn't know if they would be alive tomorrow, so they were extraordinarily rejoicing in misery.

Adam was standing in front of a jukebox, inspecting it and pressing the buttons haphazardly.

"There's a power outage here, there's no way it's going to work." Zhang Xun sat on a nearby chair, kneading his sore calves.

Adam rubbed his chin and thought for a while, then suddenly opened a metal plate on his mechanical arm, turned to the back of the jukebox and started fiddling. After a while, the long-defunct jukebox suddenly made a strange sound like an asthmatic patient and then a vinyl record was lifted by a metal stand and placed under the probe.

In the next moment, a blues slow-rock song with a touch of the 1980s slowly dripped out of the speakers and roamed the entire restaurant. The female singer's hoarse and languid voice, accompanied by the same languid but distinct rhythm, instantly resurrected the dead restaurant.

Several team members whistled, jumped up excitedly and swayed randomly to the music.

Zhang Xun was stunned. After standing up and turning to the jukebox, he saw that Adam had pulled off the plug and directly connected the metal wire to the line in his arm.

"Are you crazy? If you short-circuit your hand, you will lose your hand!" Zhang Xun immediately wanted to pull Adam away, but was stopped by Adam's left hand.

"Ah-Xun, I may not be very skilled in being a human being, but when it comes to electricity, you can rest assured." Adam stood up, looking at his hand with satisfaction, "The robotic arm you made can absorb solar energy and can make full use of the energy generated from the body's own metabolism. It can also be used as a power source without needing any charging. Such technology is very valuable."

"..." Why did Adam always praise him at such inappropriate times... Zhang Xun rolled his eyes, but seeing that Adam seemed to be fine, he no longer insisted on disconnecting him. But just as he was about to turn around and go back to the sofa seat to rest his legs and feet, he heard Adam calling him.

"Ah-Xun." Adam's smile at this time was just perfect, it even appeared mature and attractive, obviously an expression that he had practised according to the information in his database. He bowed slightly like a gentleman and stretched out his right hand, which was connected to the wire of the jukebox, "Dance with me."

Zhang Xun inexplicably remembered that he had used the same gesture to invite Adam, who didn't know how to use a human body just after his download, to practice walking...

"Ridiculous..." Zhang Xun didn't want to go crazy with Adam.

Adam changed his expression again and put on his best pitiful look for Zhang Xun, "Come on."

Zhang Xun shook off the goose bumps on his arm, but turned his head and saw the hunters on the other side still in full swing. There were people imitating being singers, holding wine glasses and lip-synching to the music affectionately. The corners of Zhang Xun's mouth were a little loose, after all, this scene was really funny.

While he was distracted, Adam suddenly reached out with his left hand to loop around Zhang Xun's waist and took him into his arms, while the other mechanical right hand grabbed Zhang Xun's left hand.

"Tsk! You're not giving up yet?"

Adam didn't speak, just looked at him with a smile and began to shake his body gently with the music, moving his feet lightly. However, Zhang Xun couldn't dance and his steps were broken and messy. After a while, he had stepped on Adam's feet at least five times.

"I said I can't dance!"

"I think you dance very well."

"Don't cry if I break your foot!"

"Relax, relax." Adam whispered close to his ear, "You don't have to be nervous in front of me."

Zhang Xun was still stiff and after stepping on Adam's foot again, he couldn't help but burst out laughing. The two of them couldn't stop laughing while fighting on their feet, but they didn't let go of their hands.

Zhang Xun suddenly became confused for a moment, as if they were in a normal world, as if Adam was a human from the beginning, as if they had just met in an ordinary bar.

The next moment, the illusion was suddenly broken by the door that was kicked. He Yuxin roared loudly, "Get down! Get down! Turn off the music!"

Along with his roar a loud noise burst out in the air, like thunder, but it was a little different. At the same time a violent wind swept in from nowhere and poured in through every broken window. Adam immediately ripped off the wire from his arm and the music stopped abruptly. Everyone fell to the ground without needing any explanation, only to feel a heavy pressure descending from the sky. The wind was so strong that people couldn't breathe and there was a sound of an electric current beeping in the air.

The only remaining glass windows shattered one after another. All anyone could feel was a buzzing sound in their ears and a dull pain in their skulls.

Zhang Xun reluctantly raised his head and looked at the sky outside the window.

He saw that the originally clear sky was empty one second and in the next second a huge, black shadow suddenly appeared. Like a huge strange bird, with its majestic wings emitting a strange red light and it whistled past the top of the diner.

It was an aircraft, a type Zhang Xun had never seen before.

An aircraft that could become completely invisible to the naked eye or even block sounds.

Moreover, the aircraft was covered with rows of bone-like protrusions and there were many strange materials filled with oily light, which seemed like a strange, alien design.

It was slowing down and descending towards the mine.

"Feathered Serpent City...it's the people of Feathered Serpent City!" Cannon shouted, "It turns out that they've been hiding in the mines!"

"That's why James drew the marks all the way here, he discovered their lair!"

"But what about James?"

"What now? Their weapons are so much more advanced than ours! We have nothing in our hands now!"

As soon as everyone got up from the ground they started quarrelling, obviously affected by the terrifying feeling of oppression just now. Zhang Xun didn't understand how an aircraft could give people such a strong psychological pressure, as if it wasn't an aircraft they had seen, but a monster.

Had any new technology been applied?

"If James was here he would have come out to see us." Zhang Xun looked anxiously in the direction of the mine, "but he also didn't return to Lost Paradise..."

Did he fall into the hands of the people from Feathered Serpent City?

What were these people doing in those abandoned mines, in the depths of the dark mountains where there were only the spirits of the dead?

He Yuxin pondered for a moment and said, "I'll pick four people to go with me to the mine to see what the hell they're doing. The rest of you should hide in this town, wait for our news and don't act rashly. We will be back tomorrow morning at the latest."

Under the current situation, this was the only option.

They moved to a convenience store and made do with resting between the shelves for the night. But no one slept very much, half of it was because of waiting for news from the five people who went to scout, and the other half was from worrying about the sudden appearance of those mysterious and terrifying people from Feathered Serpent City.

However, in the afternoon of the next day, the five explorers, including He Yuxin, still hadn't returned.