Nightmare Shuttle

The night was silent and all the creatures slept fitfully, at this moment, a coughing sound came from the sole house on the hill, and someone woke up, seeming to get out of bed.

Zhao Yuan coughed lowly, held his bladder, and thought of the wooden urinal in the thatched hut, his eyelids jumping. If he wanted to relieve himself, he could not do so in the house, he had to go to the thatched hut.

However, he had seen enough horror movies to know, that the first night was the most dangerous but he didn't feel as if his bladder could stand the tossing.

After a while, the door of the room creaked open, and Zhao Yuan came out with a kerosene lamp, coughing and hurriedly walking towards the thatched hut. The hut was outside the back door, and Zhao Yuan had to pass through the back where the rainwater tanks were to get there, the house was pitch-dark inside, and the kerosene lamp could barely illuminate his path.

Suddenly he paused in his footsteps, the crisp cracking sound was amplified in the silent night, clear and loud. Zhao Yuan stared at the bone illuminated by the lamp in shock, and stumbling carted a few steps back, boots thumping loudly but even so none of the crew woke up even with such loud movement, without even a cough, they all slept very soundly.

He had half a mind to just go back but the painful squeeze in his bladder deterred him, lifting his foot, he tentatively stepped over the cracked skeleton, before running away hurriedly, praying that was just an old chicken bone.

The courtyard was still dark, the large tanks stood like giant sleeping monsters. The cold sea breeze swept the fire light in the kerosene sending it flickering madly casting dark orange shadows on the walls of the courtyard. He seemed to smell a weird fishy smell in the yard, not from the urinal.

He glanced at the tanks, looked around, and hesitated for a moment the last time he checked, the tanks were all empty, how would it look like now...

They always warned that curiosity killed the cat, but to be able to follow a haunted director to an isolated island to film a horror movie, all the crew presumably had a crazy streak. He held the lamp in one hand and slowly stood on the other end of the tank, before using one hand to lift the cover and peered the lamp over the edge.

Two large copper bell-like eyes lifted its head from the sack it was buried in and stared back at him. It opened its mouth filled with millions of teeth and hissed at him, before disappearing in the next second!

Zhao Yuan sucked in a breath of cold air and something rushed into his throat, forcing him to swallow hard to avoid choking, he stared at the tank, his body felt cold, and he ran out without thinking, dropping the lamp.

There was a low screech behind him and something slimy wrapped around his feet, causing him to fall with a heavy thud! He spat out the mouthful of wet dirt and kicked back frantically, feeling foot collide with something fleshy and the screech came again. 

Standing up, Zhao Yuan stumbling avoided the attack from behind. It was clear that the surroundings were gloomy and cold, but he was already sweating profusely. His back was close to the walls of the tank, and desperately tried to focus, he couldn't see anything, but his gut told him that things were there.

Just when Zhao Yuan felt something cold on his neck, he suddenly felt that air around him loosen his restraint, the cold aura disappeared, and the sense of urgency and danger also disappeared. He stood there panting for a second, still filled with disbelief, after a moment's hesitation, he made a mad dash to the only other person who knew something was wrong and banged on the door anxiously, "Chu Yi, Open up!"

Just when he thought the door would not open, it finally did and Chu Yi stood at the door with his arms crossed and heavily lidded eyes. He looked at his disheveled state. Zhao Yuan had a lot of mud on his 3-4 cm leather shoes, and there were suspicious wet stains on his body, evidently, he had gone through a hard ordeal. 

Another man came up from behind Chu Yi and leaned lazily against the door sill, he glanced at him up and down as if measuring something and suddenly stepped back and came back later with a bottle of water, "Drink." He used his other hand to pull Chu Yi a step back.

Zhao Yuan took it gratefully, he felt as if there was a nasty taste lingering in his mouth as if he had swallowed rotten fish. The feeling of wanting to vomit came up. Just as he was about to take two sips from the bottle of water in his hand, his stomach suddenly churned, and he vomited yellow and red bile with a loud "Wah"

Zhao Yuan immediately felt weak and his face turned pale, pointing at Ruan Quixi tremblingly: "You, you, you..."

Chu Yi wrinkled his nose at the sour smell, "Did you eat anything"

Zhao Yuan panted heavily, turned his head away and didn't dare to look at Ruan Quixi, and said hurriedly:

"No! No I swear I didn't touch any of the food at the banquet" His legs felt weak, and almost fell on the threshold. He rubbed his stomach and threw up a few more times, physiological tears flowing from his bulging eyes, "I...no what's happening?!"

Chu Yi ignored him, "What did you come to us for initially."

He wretched, only stomach acid coming up this time, and tried to calm down, pointing trembling in the direction he came from, "The water tanks...something was inside the water tanks."

"What did it look like?" Chen Yang stood under the eaves, red eyes narrowing slightly, Zhao Yuan paused for a second and seemed to think of something and his face turned white, "It looked like the fish we had onboard the ship!..."

He nodded and looked back, "Let's go."

"Go‐go back?"

Ruan Quixi patted his shoulder as he walked by, with a callous and teasing smile, "Want to eat fish?"

Zhao Yuan hurriedly shook his head into a banging drum. He had no desire to eat at all. Now he only felt disgusted. Zhao Yuan was very scared, but fortunately, there was someone to accompany him, but that sentiment was soon brushed away and replaced by a feeling of stepping into a pit...

They all walked in across the broken wooden threshold and into the courtyard. Chen Yang was afraid of something behind him, so he hurriedly followed him.

He picked up the kerosene lamp could he had discarded in his escape, the groove where the kerosene ss should go was smashed, therefore the lamp could not be used anymore.

Sparse moonlight shone down on them and Chu Yi walked to the innermost tank next to the door, the only one that opened and looked in.

Zhao Yuan watched nervously and felt his heart constrict when he saw Chu Yi reach in and bring out a brown sack from inside the tank! His instincts kicked in and without thinking, he turned to run again.

A hand clamped on his arm, and then a dragging sound was heard and the bag was dropped before his feet.

"Pour it out," said Chu Yi.

Zhao Yuan struggled and shook his head. Who knew what was in the bag, what if it was a corpse!

The smile on Chu Yi's face showed a vague outline, and there was a trace of boredom, "Pour it out. I'm tired."

"Come on." Ruan Quixi boy pushed Zhao Yuan with a low and hoarse voice, "Pour it out, If not I'll stuff you in the sack." His tone was light but he didn't seem to be joking.

Hu-hu-hu-

Cold sweat dripped from his forehead. With no other choice, he staggered to the bag, closed his eyes and bent his back, shivered, and grabbed the sides of the bag, shaking violently before lifting it heavily.

"Bang"

The body fell out.

The woman still maintained her arched shape in the bag but her entire abdomen had been gouged out as if it had been scraped out with a spoon. Chu Yi recognized the civilian clothes on her body. Part of her face had been gnawed off recently and her neck was hanging by a thread but her eyes were still wide open as if in shock at her death.

"What to do now?" Zhao Yuan's lips were pale, and his body was cold and stiff with fear. He wanted to vomit but there was nothing else kept in his stomach.

Chu Yi stamped on the soil, it wasn't wet, suitable for burying a body, he looked back at Zhao Yuan, "Have you ever dug a grave?"

His face turned green.

*

The dark clouds in the sky have dissipated, the sun has risen, and everything is new.

The director was holding a loudspeaker and shouting above the pier: "Where's the actor who plays the best friend in the flashback? Why hasn't he come yet?"

"Director, that actor broke the contract at the last minute....he never came."

The director: "Then go find me a substitute..."

"....."

Before he finished speaking, his mind turned and he saw Ruan Quixi not far away, and hurriedly shouted,

"Come over here."

When he saw that there was no movement, the fat director quickly put down his horn and rushed over to him. Looking closer, he could feel the impact of Ruan Quixi's appearance more clearly. The director was even more satisfied, "It's you."

Chu Yi opened his mouth, stopped, and said nothing.

Forget it, too lazy to explain. 

The makeup artist continued to add blush to his cheeks.

There were scattered shadows, Ruan Quixi rested his shoulders on the equipment and watched the commotion, holding a flower between his fingers, his eyebrows and eyes were smeared with shadows layer by layer, only light of interest remained in the bottom of his eyes, he could see clearly above his thin lips and tall nose bridge, and his posture shows a bit of sloppiness. When the director came over, he did not resist.

Seeing the director pulling Ruan Quixi over, the assistant director quickly stepped forward to explain,

"Director, this gentleman is not an actor, he is a passenger from aboard the ship that happens to be friends with the lead actor."

"Friends?" The director touched his receding hairline, laughed, and said: "Being friends is good, the emotional connection will be much greater!"

The assistant director sighed: "Then you also need to see if others are willing."

The director finally remembered this: "The actor who was supposed to perform the flashback canceled. In the event of such mishap, can you help perform a show?"

Seeing that Ruan Quixi didn't answer immediately, the director directly quoted a price: "Well, I'll give you three thousand yuan after the performance."

He raised a brow, "At the end of the day?"

Director: "It will end after the performance."

Ruan Quixi: "Deal."

The director smiled boldly and immediately called the assistant director to come over and give the script to Ruan Quixi.

The scene that Ruan Quixi needs to play is very simple. "The Hunt" is about a man who was washed up on a mysterious island and got involved with an ancient and sacred tribe whereby he held the key to ending their sufferings and was therefore hunted down.

What they were filming now was a flashback of the protagonist's past, a mysterious man who was involved in all his happy memories but one day disappeared unexpectedly. The reason the protagonist ended up at sea, was to find this man. Although he was never mentioned later, it was still crucial to the plot.

The director clapped his slate and shouted, "The first scene, "Flashback" Take one."