Nightmare Shuttle

The heavy footsteps slammed through the forest floor, with heady gasps, white faces, and gritted teeth the players frantically escaped.

As they got deeper, the sparse moonlight gradually faded away and was engulfed by darkness. The aperture of the silver shadow swayed on the uneven forest terrain. The narrow and cramped space, surrounded by darkness, seemed to drown out all light and sound.

Chao Bin felt that his limbs seemed to be getting stiffer and stiffer, but his rapid and violent breathing slowly disappeared from his ears. Red mud splashed against his face and stung his eyes.

He ran for a while, and a strange feeling suddenly filled his heart.

He raised his head and stared at the dark forest in front, and found that he did not know when it started. But the mist was so dark that no light could penetrate it.

There was no sound behind them. 

His expression changed but it was already too late.

A crazed malicious face, bloodstains like broken glass appeared on the side of its neck, like exploding bubbles, propping up the skin, and ghostly eyeballs appeared, wriggling like densely packed maggots.

The monster stood before them completely blocking their way, the inertial force flung the players forward uncontrollably!

Several players skidded and threw themselves to the side, however those at the front were too far ahead, and with terrifying screams crashed into the bloody monster. 

Before they could escape, they were swept by a few terrifying eyeballs and solidified into a strange human sculpture.

The human sculpture burst with a bang! 

Blood rained like Snowflakes mixed with red and white stench splashing on Tang Shun's face, 

As if being stung by a poisonous bee, he opened his mouth wide and gasped, and ran wildly forward.

"Rush out!"

The players scrambled to run, and the eye monsters chased after them. Their pursuit was silent, like hungry ghosts.

Just turning around, you see countless pairs of bloody eyes staring at them from behind.

At this moment, the silver shadow flickered in the corner of his eyes and disappeared, he strained his eyes and looked forward, in his ears, he seemed to hear the sound of rushing water, and where there's water, there is bound to be people.

The monsters seemed to be stimulated by something and their pursuit became even more frenzied! 

Several of them were hit and a piece of flesh torn off, the smell of blood in the air was thick and nauseating, In this life-and-death chase, they passed through the areas with the densest trees and the forest abruptly opened up to a strange clearing.

They ran into the area without hesitation.

"Fuck..."

Chao Bin stumbled and was held up by a cold-faced Tang Shun, At this moment, one person suddenly shouted, his tone extremely excited, "They are not chasing anymore!! "

The other players turned around as they ran, and sure enough, they saw that the eye monsters stopped their silent footsteps, eyeballs rolling around their necks, stared at them maliciously, but did not continue chasing upwards.

The players almost cried with joy.

But soon they realized another possibility: "They're afraid of this area!"

The sound of branches crackling, was extremely loud in the silence, all heard swiftly turned back and from behind the tree, a familiar ghostly shadow slowly revealed its face.

A little boy with red eyes stared at them deeply, "Of course, they're afraid of this area, this is where they were buried."

It was pitch-dark, with tree shadows spreading on the forest floor, showing their teeth and claws, in the extra shadows the forest seemed to be shrouded in another coating of red.

****

The heavy tension from the night stopped early in the morning, and the warm sun rose.

Thousands of orange rays of light reflected the flat rocky terrain of the village and the sound of 9f waves crashing against the beach was somewhat psychedelic.

The water gathered in the cracks and eaves evaporated with the quickly rising temperatures, turning water into gas, quickly adding to the hot and humidity of the air. The sea reflected the brilliance of the sun's shadow transparently and the white fog slowly withdrew like the slow turning of a page.

A soft crashing echoed in the silence,

A whistling sounded from far to near.

The old boat penetrated the morning light, rocking as it hit the shore, the two tall slender figures cut a dashing arc in the sun, and the rapidly rising temperatures only served to set off the cold and indifferent eyebrows.

The director wrung his wrists and made a beeline to the dock, his fat figure resembling a large rolling ball. Chu Yi stepped onto the shore, and glanced at the director,

His face was pale, and there were also some sunken blue and black circles under his eyes, showing that he didn't rest well last night, the red bloodshot vessel's on the edge of his eyeballs were filled with a hint of panic and relief.

"You–"

Granny Li's hunched figure slowly turned her cold and stiff face at the sound of his words, the vast lamp in her hand had long extinguished with the rising sun. The fat cheeks of the middle-aged man shuddered, he mustered up his courage, and struggled to speak again, "That–Thank you for volunteering your...boat for the rescue mission today." 

His voice shook and he spoke with an ugly face, this wasn't the demeanor, a director should have.

Granny Li smiled strangely, raised the kerosene lamp in her, and spoke sweetly, "It's an old thing, that boat hasn't been used in many, many years." 

She cackled under her breath and walked away, the shadow of a swaying figure seemed to be getting longer and longer with each step.

Chu Yi watched Granny Li's back sink into the darkness, taking note of the soft sigh of relief from his side.

His eyes narrowed faintly, softly fingering the edges of the frayed bool in his hands, recalling the contents.

Thursday, July 6,

The weather is a little hot. It's been like this for a while, the village head has been complaining, maybe there will be a drought this year. I'm not worried, even if there is a drought, the sea will give us all we need. The baby in my stomach kicked again today, it must be a healthy fat boy, even if it is a girl, she'll be the loveliest little girl. The elder has prepared a blood bath for me, I'm a bit scared, but luckily there's Li Zhun. As I'm writing this, the sweat drips from my brow... Maybe it would be a good choice for me and Li Zhun to marry."

"Monday, September 17, 

Li Zhun and I have married three days ago, my mother was really upset when she found out I was pregnant and unanimously opposed giving birth, she said it was a sign to the sea God but Li Zhun reassured me, our child must be very strong to show those old follies. The weather is hot, the crops have wilted and the animals make strange cries in their pen, I've been having strange pains these days, I should probably go for another blood bath..."

Saturday, December 25th.

Oh, I overheard Li Zhun and the elder today, they seemed to be talking about the baby, when Jacob saw me he got really scared and a coin fell from his hands. Did the shaman pay him to get some herbs, after all, he is a seafarer, it's not a surprise? I've been craving fish these days, I wonder when the weather will let up, the nets have been empty for too long.

Wednesday, January 13th,

Li Zhun has been going out for longer these days, he said it's for work but all those fancy dreams are for the city folks, the baby is growing bigger, mother seemed to have let up and has been coming around a lot. It's nice but the strange pain has not gone away, the baby is growing up still. I should probably go back to the elder today. The atmosphere in the village has been really strange these days,

Sunday, March 4, 

Li Zhun brought me a flower today and my mother cooked me a large meal, however, I just can't shake the feeling that something is wrong, maybe I'm worrying too much, the baby is almost here I can't wait to meet him.

Friday, April 1,

"It's all a lie!"

The diary came to an abrupt end.

On the last page, the handwriting is written in blood.

That resentful aura almost came out through the paper.

Flipping through the pages, Chu Yi seemed to see the appearance of a simple village woman recording her pregnancy with a soft smile, but through the traces in the book it only made one's blood run cold.

Those rough lines of simple scenes are as if it was infected with an indescribable frenzy.

The director wind them sweat from his brows and shook his head, nothing the still functioning camera, in Zhu Yi's hands, his eyes lit up and his entire demeanor changed, "Good, good as long as these scenes are processed they can included in the film." 

Chu Yi stared at the squinting eyes and compared them to the man in the picture. A bold guess quickly flashed through his mind.

He didn't wait for the director to continue speaking, he raised his hand and took out the half-torn photo in the dead girl's diary from his pocket, asking in a dull voice, "Do you know the persons in this photo?"

Chu Yi narrowed his eyes and handed the photo to the director.

His reaction was instantaneous, his face completely lost all color and his pupils dilated into thin slits, shaking fingers throwing the picture away frantically, "No, No I don't know her, don't ask me anything, I don't know!" 

He looked at the cold red eyes and suddenly felt as if all his sins been seen through, the words abruptly stuck in his throat and his fat figure hunched strangely.

With trembling lips the director looked around guiltily, clutched the camera and walked as if running away, muttering strangely under his breath. 

"When the opportunity comes, go back to the ancestral hall and check to see to there is a Li Zhun on the records."

"Dead or Alive."