86: Chapter 86 Lin Fan is dead

"Ah~"

The shrill scream forced its way straight into the Karst Cave at the top of the cliff.

Zhang Tao was holding a branch and drawing circles on the ground, and upon hearing the sound, his hand involuntarily loosened its grip.

Zhou Kai stood up from the rock, the two of them exchanged glances, and their faces turned completely pale at the same time.

Zhang Tao swallowed a mouthful of saliva, instinctively rushed to the edge of the platform, and poked half his head out to look down.

The people on the beach below all stood up, pointing in unison toward the direction of the jungle.

Zhang Tao quickly pulled his neck back, "Th-That... That's the direction of Lin Fan and the others, right?"

Zhou Kai clenched his back teeth and didn't speak.

The screams lasted for about a minute or two.

Then, they abruptly cut off.

This abruptly severed silence was even more spine-chilling than the screams just now.

It was as if the throats of the people making the sounds had been bitten clean through by something in one gulp.

Lin Fan and the others were in trouble; judging by the sound, people must have died, and more than just one or two.

"No way... Impossible..." Zhang Tao muttered neurotically, "That brat Lin Fan is extremely weird; how could anything happen to him..."

Having said that, his legs simply wouldn't obey him, shaking so much that even his trouser legs were trembling.

If Lin Fan were really dead, not to mention these supplies, without Lin Fan's protection, those family members whose relatives they had stoned to death would definitely tear the two of them into halves if they came up.

They had no knives, no weapons, and the firewood here was at most enough to burn for a few days.

They had to go down to gather firewood, and those people could just wait for them like waiting for a hare to crash into a tree.

Zhang Tao seemed to have thought of this point as well.

He leaned close to Zhou Kai, "Zhou Kai, why don't we... hide a portion of the supplies first?"

Zhou Kai raised his head to look at him.

"What if... what if Lin Fan really doesn't come back? We can take half of the supplies and negotiate with that group of people down below; we should be able to trade for our lives!"

Zhou Kai was silent for two seconds and resolutely shook his head.

"Lin Fan told us to guard the camp," Zhou Kai's voice was heavy, "Before he comes back, not a single thing here can be touched."

"If we touch it, if he comes back, we'll either be dead or maimed."

Zhang Tao slapped his thighs in anxiety: "You stubborn blockhead! What if Lin Fan was eaten by a monster? Who are you guarding it for? Take a look at how much longer that firewood can last."

"Then have you ever thought that if Lin Fan didn't die and finds out we betrayed him, we'll probably die even faster."

Just as the two of them were arguing in lowered voices over life and death.

Deepest inside the Karst Cave, in that shady dead corner, a very slight sound suddenly came.

Zhang Tao and Zhou Kai shut their mouths at the same time and turned their heads to look over.

Song Ya stood up.

She hadn't drunk a single drop of water or eaten a single bite of food for nearly twenty-four hours.

Her lips were chapped and covered with a thick layer of white skin, and a few cracks even oozed dark red blood streaks.

Her originally rosy complexion was now as sallow as a piece of old straw paper left out for too long, and her eye sockets were deeply sunken.

When she stood up, her body swayed obviously twice, and her right hand pressed hard against the rock wall beside her to barely steady her center of gravity.

She picked up a bottle of water, finished it in one breath, then bent down, picked up a thick wooden stick from the edge of the campfire that was previously used to poke the charcoal, clutched it tightly in her hand, and then walked step by step toward the exit of the Karst Cave illuminated by sunlight.

Zhang Tao was stunned for a full beat, and only reacted when Song Ya walked up in front of him.

"Song Ya! Where are you going?"

Song Ya didn't answer, and her steps didn't stop either.

Zhou Kai took a step forward, directly blocking her path: "Are you crazy? Didn't you hear those screams outside? That direction is full of monsters! If you go, you're just sending yourself to die!"

"Besides, the people below are watching us with covetous eyes; we have already become traitors. If you go down, they won't let you off."

Song Ya stopped her steps.

She raised her head and looked at Zhou Kai.

Zhou Kai felt a sudden jolt in his heart from her gaze.

Before yesterday, this woman's eyes still revealed a kind of clarity and stupidity bred in a large company's office building. But now, that clarity had completely vanished.

Replaced by something indescribable and unclear.

It wasn't the bravery of a hot head, nor was it impulse, but rather a kind of resolution that had taken life and death lightly.

"Lin Fan is in trouble."

"I have to go take a look."

"You go take a look?" Zhang Tao felt that this woman's brain was completely burned out, and pointing at the jungle outside, he cursed, "There are giant pythons that swallow people whole in that forest, and Giant Lizards that crush bones! You're going to take a broken stick to go look? Even Lin Fan can't handle it, what can you do!"

"I don't know what I can do."

She bypassed Zhou Kai and continued walking outward, her gaze staring straight at the blinding sunlight outside.

"Even if I die, I want to die together with him."

As soon as these words came out, both of them were stunned.

What kind of act was Song Ya putting on? Was she drugged by Lin Fan?

However, since Song Ya was going to throw her life away, they had no reason to stop her.

After all, with one less person, they would be able to split a bit more supplies.

...

Less than five minutes after Song Ya left the Karst Cave.

Below the cliff wall, human voices came up.

It wasn't just one person.

It was the sound of a group of people walking on the pile of gravel.

The afternoon sunlight shone directly on the cliff wall, and the weathered grayish-white rocks reflected a dazzling light.

On the slope, the dark brown bloodstains left by the Komodo Dragon yesterday had completely dried up, and a few green-headed flies buzzed and circled above the bloodstains.

Chen Jian stood at the bottom of the slope.

He tilted his head up and shouted: "Zhang Tao! Zhou Kai!"

"I know you're up there!"

"I am Chen Jian! President Su sent me to talk with you guys!"

Zhang Tao and Zhou Kai lay on the edge of the platform, poking their heads out to look down.

At the bottom of the slope, Chen Jian stood at the very front, and behind him, seven or eight male employees followed sparsely.

Wang Qiang didn't dare to stand in the front; his whole body shrank behind a large rock at the very back, exposing only half his head, peeking upward with shifty eyes, terrified that another stone would fly down from above to smash his head open.

They didn't carry weapons, or rather, on the surface they didn't carry anything threatening.

This was the suggestion given by Chen Jian; after peace talks, to forcibly seize the Karst Cave through a head-on fight was simply too risky.

Zhang Tao and Zhou Kai had no backbone; as long as he spent some breath talking, the two of them would definitely surrender.

Chen Jian raised both hands, palms facing up, making an extremely standard surrender posture of "I mean no harm".

"We are not here to snatch things; I just want to say two words."

"The screams in the forest just now, you guys up top must have heard them more clearly than we did, right?"

Zhang Tao's Adam's apple couldn't help rolling up and down. He stared fixedly at Chen Jian without answering, and Chen Jian continued speaking, "Lin Fan is dead."