"It's... fine." Stammering Yiyi breathed a sigh of relief, took off the hood of the raincoat from her head, and then looked to the other side.
The other person also took off the hood, revealing Doctor Xu's tired face.
"This journey, just the shadows we encountered there and back, were more than ever before. The consumption of luminous stones is too much. And then there's that monster from last night... It wasn't supposed to appear around here, according to the official report..."
This time, Stammering Yiyi asked her to borrow some food, so she simply used the excuse of having her accompany her out as a condition to trade some dried meat and mushrooms with her.
Thinking it was an act of kindness, she didn't expect that on this journey, if it weren't for Stammering Yiyi's timely help, pulling her out of critical moments several times, she might have been...
Thinking of this, Doctor Xu felt a wave of lingering fear.
"This time, I don't know...."
BAM!!
Suddenly, a loud bang.
Something slammed hard against the wooden door of the house.
The loud noise shook the door panels, causing a section of the wall nearby to crumble and fall.
The door frame shook violently, clearly becoming loose.
"What is that?!" Doctor Xu felt a cold shiver up her spine. "It's that monster! It's followed us!! Why?!!"
It was the same creature they had encountered at their temporary lodging the night before.
"Brace! The door!" Stammering Yiyi lunged forward and braced the wooden door with her shoulder.
BAM!
But the immediate follow-up bang knocked her backward and down.
The force of the creature outside was too strong to hold off.
BAM!
BAM!
BAM!!
The wooden door was being battered repeatedly, and the nails around the door frame were being shaken loose one by one and popping out.
Doctor Xu was petrified, staring at this scene, her body stiffened and unable to respond.
*"It's it... that thing... how could... "*
Her son had once died in such a scenario.
Back then, she and her family had reacted immediately, rushing to brace the door, but the massive impacts outside were something they couldn't contend with.
Within less than half a minute, the door broke, and her son, aiming to lure the creature away, dashed out and ran far.
She was dragged by her husband, hastily escaping out of the house. Before leaving, she saw her son in the distance being bitten by the creature's shadow.
Boom!!!
At that moment, the wooden door shattered, and the debris flew towards the stunned Doctor Xu.
She was about to be struck in the head.
Suddenly, Stammering Yiyi lunged and grabbed her, rolling them both to the side.
Whoosh!!
After the door broke, a massive dark creature charged in with inertia.
Taking the chance while it was still unsteady, driven by momentum.
Stammering Yiyi picked up Doctor Xu and started to run.
She rushed out the door, running with all her might along the gravel road.
"Where... are we going..." Doctor Xu, who had by then come to her senses, asked shakily.
Stammering Yiyi's mind flashed rapidly through countless locations.
Her house's wooden door had been reinforced but couldn't block the creature, so other houses wouldn't last long either.
*What to do?*
*What to do?*
*What to do?!!*
Sweat accompanied by rapid breaths ran down her temples.
Racing out of the village, Stammering Yiyi unconsciously reached the wooded area where she worked as a carpenter with Yu Hong during the day.
Realizing it was not right, she quickly turned towards another direction, not wanting to bring trouble upon Yu Hong as well.
But carrying someone while running, especially in the rain, even though her strength and physique were beyond the ordinary, she was becoming increasingly exhausted.
*What to do??*
She kept thinking of ways, but no matter how much she thought, in this environment, without the shelter of a house or the blockade of luminous stones, not to mention the creature behind them, even the continually appearing shadows were something they couldn't resist.
"Yiyi... put me down. If I die, so be it. I can't drag you down too!" Doctor Xu spoke intermittently from her shoulder.
Stammering Yiyi kept silent, concentrating on running toward the distance.
WHAM!!!
Suddenly she made a sharp left turn, sprinting in the other direction.
Beside her, a large tree was violently hit by the dark creature behind them, making a dull thud.
The tree swayed, with a deep dent in the trunk, almost toppling over.
*
*
*
Yu Hong put the radio down, removed the batteries, and covered it with dry leaves.
This would be his key to obtaining information from the outside world in the future.
So it had to be well-preserved.
Having done all that, he glanced at the luminous stone, the enhanced pyroxene, with numbers counting down on its surface, but they were so inconspicuous that one might not notice them if not looking carefully.
Whew.
He exhaled, realizing that his breath had turned into a faint white mist.
"Is the temperature really this low?"
He stood up and walked to the stove, intending to light a fire for warmth. With the chimney connected to the vent on the door, there was now a safe way to start a fire.
But looking at the firewood in the stove, Yu Hong knew that even if it were lit, it wouldn't burn for long.
"Sigh... I wonder when Stammering Yiyi will return... If only she could find some coal or something..."
The cave's protection was much stronger compared to Stammering Yiyi's house.
The doors and windows over there, the wooden boards, were only half as thick as those here, and the material was softer, having been constructed from old house wood used for many years.
The only issues now were warmth and food.
Solve those, and this place would become a decent safe haven.
BAM!!
Suddenly, Yu Hong seemed to hear a faint sound of impact coming from outside, far away.
"What's that noise?" He frowned. Anything making such noise outside on a rainy day must be a creature or a shadow.
He stood up, wanting to check what was happening outside.
As he got up, he hesitated, fearful of being spotted by the shadows outside. Encountering a ghastly pale face suddenly appearing outside the peephole would be terrifying.
Even with the enhanced pyroxene blocking it, being scared to the point of mental fatigue was quite normal.
Thinking of this, Yu Hong sat back down.
BAM!
Suddenly, there was another sound.
Yu Hong's face changed, he jumped up and rushed to the peephole, pulling aside the covering to look outside.
What he saw, startled him—it was Stammering Yiyi and Doctor Xu being chased by that dark mass of a creature.
"Shit!"
Looking at the creature, Yu Hong was horrified.
In the middle of the downpour in the hills, about thirty meters away, a creature resembling a giant tick, over two meters tall and four meters long, pitch black, was chasing after the two.
Silence.
A pause.
Yu Hong stood at the entrance.
BAM!
He abruptly flung the door wide open.
"This way! Come this way!!!" he shouted towards Stammering Yiyi.
He was tense all over, trembling, the blood in his veins surging rapidly, his face flushed.
The intense terror and fear urged him to shut the door quickly, not to attract the creature's attention.
But Stammering Yiyi had previously saved him and helped him countlessly.
Even in fear, Yu Hong held onto his moral ground and his principles!
While gripping the metal-studded pyroxene staff on the doorframe, he fought hard not to let his fear compel him to shut the door.
Not letting fear force him to hide away.
"This way!! Yiyi!!"
Yu Hong stepped outside, standing in the rain, shouting fiercely.
"Run this way!!!" he bellowed.
He knew that if they kept running outside in such an increasingly darker environment, should the shadows appear, the end result would mean death.
Rather than that, it was better to hide together in his place, betting that this reinforced door could withstand the creature's attack.
As long as it held out for a while, once the clouds dispersed, the creature would soon retreat...
In the distance, Stammering Yiyi and Doctor Xu turned their heads upon hearing the shout. Not only them; the bug-like creature heard it as well, turning its head to glance this way.
Taking advantage of this pause, Stammering Yiyi gritted her teeth and was about to run in another direction.
"Trust me, Yiyi!" Yu Hong's voice rang out again.
Stammering Yiyi paused, turning back to look at Yu Hong.
Far away, she saw the grim determination on his face.
"Come!!" Yu Hong shouted, reaching out his hand.
Whoosh!
The dark creature charged again, its speed causing a breeze that lifted Stammering Yiyi's hair.
Even the rain couldn't stop the force of the wind.
At once, Doctor Xu reacted first, pulling Stammering Yiyi as they ran toward Yu Hong.
Her movement provoked the creature.
The black creature followed behind them, storming toward Yu Hong at the cave's entrance.
It was a black colossal tick-like creature, like a monster truck with eight legs, thundering toward the cave.
Its rhino-like size stomped wildly, a different kind of terror from the shadows.
Yu Hong took a step back, standing to the side of the door, watching the monster close in, his legs trembling furiously.
A month ago, he was just an ordinary person, a regular office worker. A month later, he was forced to face such an entirely unknown horrid monster!
Fear.
Tremendous fear.
Made him stiff all over, hardly able to move.
The hand gripping the doorknob trembled violently, eager to shut and lock the door.
But Yiyi and the doctor weren't inside yet!
Forget the doctor, but Stammering Yiyi was different. She had saved him, and so.
Now he had to save her.
BAM!
Yu Hong slapped his thighs hard.
"Calm the hell down! Damn it!"
"Stay put!!"
"Stand your ground!!!"
He yelled inwardly, eyes fixed on the rapidly approaching Stammering Yiyi.
Twenty meters.
Fifteen meters.
Ten meters.
Five meters!
One meter!!
Swish!
In an instant, Doctor Xu and Stammering Yiyi charged into the door one after the other.
The moment they were inside, the door slammed shut, locking securely under Yu Hong's force.
BAM!!!
Immediately, a loud crash struck the door's center, causing the whole cave to tremble slightly.
BAM!
BAM!
BAM!!
The dark creature frantically assaulted the reinforced wooden door.
It seemed furious that Yu Hong had seized its prey.
But no matter how it bashed, the door only shuddered, showing no signs of breaking or shaking.
"Whew, whew, whew... This, is??" Stammering Yiyi fell to the ground, turning around to see a door that seemed entirely different from her previous impression.
Her eyes showed confusion.
She remembered that the door she and Yu Hong had worked on before shouldn't look like this at all.
This door in front of her was way more upscale than before. It also seemed much sturdier.
"After you left, I reworked the door, reinforcing the surrounding area," Yu Hong explained, noticing her confusion and plopping down too, panting heavily.
"...." Stammering Yiyi stared blankly at him, considering the stark contrast between the previous wooden door and the perfected thick door in front of her....
"Forget that for now. Help brace it!" Yu Hong stood up, shouldering the door from behind.
Doctor Xu and Stammering Yiyi quickly rose to their feet to help brace it.
The banging continued, but with their combined effort, the creature outside couldn't budge the wooden door.
The banging went on for about ten more strikes. Realizing the door didn't budge, the monster eventually turned around and left, soon disappearing into the rain.