Krafft's Notes on Anomalies

William heard screams, hoarse screams, coming from the sailors behind him. They were washed away by the vibrations that shook the rock formations. They were like cold currents extinguishing torches, drowning out these faint sounds. The recent frightened sound was blocked under his tongue, and he realized that it was his own voice, transmitted into his skull from the bristling neck.

The rock passage made a crisp sound like dried vermicelli, and had a certain wave-like tendency, shaking back and forth like fish jelly. He fell to the ground, cracks opened under him, the misaligned section pushed up his shoulder blades, and his fingers touched the ground that was no longer shaped.

The source of the earthquake is still approaching, and the roaring sound waves vibrate and beat continuously, wantonly rubbing the solid tunnel that existed before humans arrived and thought it would always exist.

One side of the cave wall was suddenly torn apart, and the source of the earthquake broke through the rock and came into the air. It passed across and hit the other side, making the rock layer seem like nothing. It's like a fish jumping out of the sea and breaking the water film before falling back into the water.

Something that looked like a continuous ridge passed through this space. The shape was invisible in the darkness. The sound of knocking and stirring reminded the link-like connection structure, and the unnecessary protrusions on the newly born cave were smoothed.

The sound of horns that seemed to come from hell carried the stone flakes grazing my nose, my eyelids flew by, and the cold current dug into my skin like the nails of death. The warm trickle loses heat as soon as it flows down, dries up beside the ears and hairline, and solidifies and cakes the eyeballs. Small sore spots on exposed skin suggest the source of the viscous fluid. The terrifying vibration disrupted the heartbeat and breathing rhythm, stifling the screams.

That rock painting was not enough to describe such a length, and at a speed several times faster than a galloping horse, until the long suffocation torture took away consciousness, it has not yet reached the end.

When William woke up from the dark coma and chaos, and his consciousness returned to the body in the lightless cave, the source of the earthquake had gone away, and the grid-like cracks under his palm reminded him that what he had just experienced was not a nightmare.

It took a long time with trembling hands to shoot out a few sparks, light the kindling, and put together a torch. The light is back here again.

A two-person-high cave appeared out of thin air, passing horizontally from where Old Goli stood, forming an underground intersection with the original mine. William remembered that the rickety old figure had no intention of moving at all, facing the extinguished torch calmly, and then being overwhelmed by the loud noise and vibration.

That guy is probably dead, he thought. If he stood a little closer, the people here would disappear without a trace like the rocks in the new cave, but the only one who was taken away now was probably Old Goli himself.

Probably yes.

Dragging his trembling legs, William stepped back on his hands and knees and crawled towards the direction of the crew. He was probably the first one to wake up and didn't hear the others.

Soon, he felt the leg of the first sailor. His shoes were lost in the panic and were frozen by the cold current, but he could still feel the pulsing blood vessels on the instep, which made people feel a little more at ease. Not to mention the friendship of having been together for several years, no matter how brave a person is, he would not want to stay underground with a few corpses without seeing the light of day.

"Wake up!" William held a torch in one hand and shook the leg vigorously, causing its owner to cry out in pain in a semi-conscious state of dissatisfaction.

"Just say something back if you're not dead."

After struggling to move back, he saw a scary face, with black and red scabs and bright red blood stains all over it, and clumps of hair like a devil's horn crown.

Opening his eyelids, he screamed the moment he saw William and struggled to push him away.

William wiped his face with his sleeve, brushing away the sticky dried blood from his eyebrows to his beard. The fine tingling sensation made him worry about his appearance for the first time in his life, "Damn it, it's me, William!"

The fool even screamed for a while, and then stopped after William wiped away the blood. This slow reaction was definitely his own fault.

"Ah, ah... Captain? Where are the others?"

It's okay, at least it's recognizable, it's not completely disfigured, it's just a small scratch. William could also vaguely tell that this was one of the crew members from the blood stains.

"I don't know. Wipe your face before you talk." His legs regained a little strength and he could stand up with his knees on his knees.

Raising the light source to illuminate another guy who fell to the ground, William stepped forward, and the dull pain on his back prevented him from bending down.

I pulled back my strength and kicked him twice, not out of conscience, but because my knees were so painful that I couldn't exert any strength.

There is only one left, and according to the previous formation, it won't be too far away. William rubbed his shoulder blades and held up a high torch to light the way, preparing to find everyone and leave quickly. Kraft was right, they shouldn't have come here like this. The unknown beings worshiped by the mountain people were at work beneath the peaks, and now they knew it, but they were in danger.

There was no fourth person, and only a small patch of relatively clean ground remained, proving that someone had been lying here. Looks like he wasn't the first to wake up.

"Damn it, you are walking around at this time! Have you seen that boy Walker?"

The two newly awakened sailors had just climbed up from the ground and carefully wiped the wounds on their cheeks. It was obviously impossible to know. There is no need for them to say anything. A series of clear footprints were displayed on the ground of crushed rock, not pointing to the way they came.

William frowned and followed the strangely clear footprints, which were evenly spaced, without even stopping or hitting the wall. Their owner did not move blindly. Instead, he may have lit a torch after waking up, accurately bypassed the sleeping person, and did not stop after passing by the position where William fell to the ground.

The sailors instinctively followed the torch to William's side and paused. They were already standing in the middle of the intersection, and the set of footprints extended toward the new entrance, stepping into it with steady steps.

To be honest, William was really scared. That kind of thing didn't look like a creature that should exist in the world. He didn't think anyone would step onto it while being conscious after just witnessing such a terrifying experience. Just passed the track.

"Are we going to find him?" asked the sailor behind him, his voice distorted like the pretentious warblers of Solace Harbor. In any business that requires cooperation to fight against the harsh elements, leaving your companions behind is a taboo. But here and there, being together in a storm, facing a moving ridge underground was too much.

That thing should have left, but who knows? Just recalling the horrifying momentum, imagining flesh and blood being involved in the rocks, or being sealed underground forever like a miner who suffered a landslide, is terrifying.

"captain?"

William could hear what they meant. As long as his captain said a word, he would immediately turn around and leave. No one would stay here for a while.

"Walker." The beard trembled, and his lips were reciting the name behind its cover, recalling the memories related to it. A passionate and capable young man who is never lazy. Everyone on the ship knew his name, including the three present, which is why William chose to take him with him.

"Maybe he just went the wrong way and he can catch up by himself in a while." He lifted his boots and took a half step back with his heels. William heard a sigh of relief.

That's it. He cast one last glance into the darkness and planned to leave.

However, a certain rhythmic sound stuck to his footsteps.

Two materials are colliding, one of which is rocky ground, which makes people feel happy, thinking that their companions have found their way back, so that they don't have to bear the guilt and the behind-the-scenes discussions of everyone on the ship. William thought of those equidistant footprints, which fit the sound of such footsteps.

But the sound was too hard, and the contact with the rock was not like the braided soles or wooden soles worn by the crew, but another material. If anything, it was like a large crab's feet hitting the rocks. It seemed to be approaching from a distance, but there was no torch light to illuminate the footsteps in the darkness, which suddenly seemed a little strange.

But William vaguely felt that this was not important, and the hope in his heart that Walker would come back overshadowed his doubts.

He imagined that the young man carelessly lost the torch and had to hold on to the cave wall to come back in the dark. Fortunately, this moment of hesitation gave the young life a chance.

There was a slight sense of dissonance, like picking out fish bones in the crab paste and feeling like suction cups on the fish bones, but it was all forgotten when that familiar face appeared.

The footsteps stopped and stopped moving forward.

They all recognized that it was Walker's face, with a faint smile, leaning towards the edge of the torch's aperture. Perhaps due to the lack of light, the young man's face, which was already a bit baby-fat, became enlarged. His facial features lacked three-dimensionality, and he looked like a wide and flat ladle floating in the dark water.

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