Chapter 323: Into the Forest (3)
Everyone agreed with Anthony’s proposal to stay put and wait for rescue.
However, when it came to whether they should venture into the forest to search for supplies, the survivors split into two camps.
One group argued that a commercial plane crash was a major disaster. If for no other reason than to quell public outrage, the government would undoubtedly dispatch a massive search operation, using everything from police dogs and helicopters to drones to locate the wreckage.
Maybe they would only have to wait a few hours before a rescue helicopter arrived and flew everyone to safety.
Going hungry for such a short time wasn’t a big deal. No one was going to starve to death in a matter of hours.
Entering the forest, on the other hand, meant risking wild animal attacks, getting lost, slipping down ravines, and any number of other accidents. It was clearly the more dangerous option.
Judging by everyone’s expressions, the overwhelming majority agreed with that reasoning.
Only a handful of people favored Anthony’s suggestion.
In real life, the U.S. government had a longstanding reputation for inefficiency, excessive bureaucracy, and sluggish administration. Even rescue operations—where every second mattered—weren’t necessarily carried out with any great urgency.
You didn’t even have to look very far back.
Just a few months earlier, a massive wildfire in the central mountain region had captured global attention.
The blaze had grown so large that the local government couldn’t handle it alone and requested assistance from the federal government and neighboring states. However, because responsibilities between federal and local authorities were poorly defined and the approval process was mired in bureaucracy, reinforcements didn’t arrive until nearly twenty hours later.
By then, the fire had spread beyond the mountains and reached the town at their base.
What made the situation even more absurd was that the local government should have issued evacuation warnings long before the flames reached the town.
Instead, not only did they fail to alert residents in time, they also misjudged the fire’s progression and publicly announced to the media that the situation was under control.
As a result, nearly half of the town’s residents failed to escape the fire.
Afterward, when the time came to assign blame, both political parties put on an embarrassing display. They attacked one another relentlessly, accusing the other side of misappropriating funds, dragging its feet, and mishandling the crisis.
As for the people who had died in the wildfire…
Well, no one seemed particularly concerned.
After all, people were forgetful. Given enough time, everything would eventually be swept under the rug.
With such a precedent, Anthony’s supporters simply couldn’t bring themselves to place much faith in the U.S. government’s rescue speed.
They reasoned that, since they had nothing better to do, it would be safer to use their remaining strength to gather food and drinking water while they still could.
They had Anthony, an experienced wilderness guide, leading the way. They weren’t planning to go far. As long as they stayed cautious, what could possibly go wrong?
Besides, the wreckage of the plane was right beside them, filled with corpses.
Remaining at the campsite for too long would take a heavy psychological toll. Everyone desperately needed something to distract themselves, and a walk through the forest sounded like a welcome change.
Although the two sides disagreed, the discussion never escalated into an argument.
Instead, they naturally split into two groups.
The stay-behind group was the larger of the two. Excluding the three severely injured survivors who were in no condition to voice an opinion, six people chose to remain at the crash site. Their job would be to look after the injured while waiting for rescue.
The exploration group, led by Anthony, would head into the nearby forest in search of food and a water source.
Strictly speaking, that decision alone violated Everly’s self-compiled Horror Movie Survival Rule #11: Never split up or wander off alone.
Then again, everyone knew that horror movie protagonists and supporting characters alike had a remarkable talent for ignoring good advice and stubbornly doing exactly what they wanted.
So Everly didn’t bother wasting her breath trying to persuade anyone.
She simply stood in silence, her gaze drifting back and forth between the two groups.
Those staying behind included the young couple, a plump Black middle-aged woman, a bespectacled middle-aged man who claimed to be a corporate executive, two tourists traveling to Dalifer, and the three unconscious survivors who had been seriously injured.
As for those who wanted to explore the forest, the group consisted of Anthony, Sophia, a well-built Black fitness instructor, and an IT company employee who looked utterly worn down by office life.
Horror Movie Survival Rule #2: Stay close to the protagonists.
The suspected male lead and the designated female lead were both on the exploration team.
The choice was obvious.
Everly stepped forward and quietly took her place at the back of Anthony’s group.
“Oh, Er… Erica?” The Black middle-aged woman from the stay-behind group noticed Everly’s movement and came over to persuade her. “Take my advice—don’t go looking for trouble. The forest isn’t nearly as safe as you think. Just stay here with us and wait for rescue. There’s no need to risk your life with them.”
Strictly speaking, the woman’s advice was perfectly reasonable.
If Everly were an ordinary person with no idea what was going on, she would have chosen to stay behind as well.
The crashing plane had flattened a huge swath of forest. With satellite imaging, locating the wreckage shouldn’t be particularly difficult. Under normal circumstances, no matter how inefficient the rescue operation was, help should arrive within a day or two.
And without food or water, a healthy person could generally survive for about three days.
But this situation couldn’t be judged by common sense.
They had wandered into some unknown kind of horror movie.
Who knew what obstacles the rescue teams might encounter—or what might happen to the stranded survivors before help could reach them?
In circumstances like these, staying behind might not necessarily end badly.
But following the two protagonists was almost certainly the safer bet.
So Everly replied, “I’ve had strong intuition ever since I was little. Just now, my instincts told me that going into the forest with Anthony and the others was the better choice. It was that same intuition that saved my life during the crash, so I’ve decided to trust it.”
“Ah… I see.” The woman gave her a surprised look that plainly said, I didn’t expect you to be this superstitious. Then she shrugged helplessly.
“Well… good luck.”
Most of the people staying behind didn’t put much stock in Everly’s explanation.
She was simply too young, and her strikingly pretty face fit the stereotype of a beautiful but empty-headed girl, making it hard for anyone to take her “intuition” seriously.
Everly didn’t bother trying to convince them.
For one thing, separating from the protagonists didn’t necessarily spell disaster.
Take The Mist, for example. It deliberately subverted the trope. The people who stayed with the protagonists endured one life-or-death ordeal after another, only to meet miserable ends, while some of the background characters who parted ways with them early on were the ones who ultimately survived.
For another, there was no practical way to persuade them.
There were still three severely injured survivors who couldn’t move. As long as they remained, someone had to stay behind to care for them.
It wasn’t as if Everly could ask the protagonists to carry the injured through the forest with them. That was completely unrealistic. Besides, if no one stayed at the crash site and the rescue team eventually arrived to find nothing but corpses, they might conclude there were no survivors left.
There was simply no perfect solution.
In the end, Everly gave up trying to fight fate and decided to let events unfold as they would.
Before leaving, however, she offered the stay-behind group one final warning.
She told them that her intuition suggested the crash site itself might be dangerous, and urged them to stay alert and prepare whatever weapons they could for self-defense.
She had said her piece.
Whether anyone chose to listen was beyond her control.
Most of the time, simply keeping herself alive already demanded everything she had.
She had neither the energy nor the ability to save everyone else.
…
Twenty minutes after the crash, the two groups went their separate ways.
Anthony led the exploration team.
Everly’s goal was simple: stay close to the two suspected protagonists and benefit from whatever protagonist’s luck they might possess.
So she deliberately kept a low profile, pretending to be an ordinary young woman who knew nothing, and quietly followed along with the group.
Anthony certainly lived up to his role as the suspected movie protagonist.
When it came to wilderness survival, he was astonishingly skilled.
They hadn’t been walking through the forest for long before he followed the tracks left by several small rodents and led the group to a pecan tree laden with fruit. Beneath it lay a generous supply of ripe pecans that had already fallen to the ground.
“If I’m not mistaken, we should be somewhere in the forest along the border between Dalifer State and Abanaqi State,” Anthony explained as they continued on their way. “The climate here is warm and humid year-round. Only the middle of winter brings a brief spell of cold weather, making this a typical subtropical evergreen broadleaf forest. In an environment like this, finding fresh water shouldn’t be too difficult…”
Leaving the pecan tree behind, the group walked on while listening to Anthony share his wilderness survival knowledge.
Now that they had food, all they needed was a water source before returning to the crash site.
They had gone only a little farther when Everly suddenly caught an almost imperceptible sound.
Whoosh!
It came from behind them on the left.
Thanks to years of training, her body reacted before her mind did.
The instant the sound reached her, Everly dropped into a crouch. As she ducked, she grabbed the fitness instructor walking ahead of her and yanked him down as well.
“Get down! Danger!”
At almost the exact same moment, Anthony bellowed,
“Down!”
Anthony threw himself forward, tackling Sophia and the IT worker to the ground on either side of him.
A split second later—
Thunk!
A crimson javelin tore through the air above their heads before slamming into a tree several yards away.
Its spearhead buried itself deep inside the thick trunk. When Everly looked up, the shaft was still quivering violently, a testament to the tremendous force behind the throw.
“Urulu… Paska!”
The ambush had failed.
Three strangely dressed men suddenly burst out of the forest behind them.
They looked exactly like the “primitive tribesmen” often depicted in adventure films.
Their bodies were completely naked, coated from head to toe in thick layers of red paint. They wore headdresses decorated with feathers and animal fangs, carried primitive weapons such as javelins and stone axes on their backs, and the only clothing they had on was a strip of fur wrapped around their waists.
The paint covering their bodies was so thick—and overlaid with intricate black and yellow totemic patterns—that Everly couldn’t make out the color of their skin beneath it.
Judging by their high cheekbones and straight black hair, however, she guessed the three men were probably Native Americans.
“Dasmika! Ora!”
The man in the middle shouted an incomprehensible battle cry as he pulled another javelin from his back. Its tip was fitted with an irregular white-yellow point.
If Everly wasn’t mistaken…
It was a sharpened bone.
“Ora!”
The other two tribesmen echoed the cry and drew their own javelins.
Gripping the weapons tightly, they leveled the razor-sharp bone spearheads at Everly’s group. Their arms rose high, knees bent, bodies lowering into unmistakable throwing stances.
“Take cover!”
Anthony shouted again.
Everly and the fitness instructor both exercised regularly and reacted quickly.
The instant they saw the three men raise their javelins, they sprinted toward the nearest tree and threw themselves behind its trunk.
Anthony also recognized the danger immediately. He grabbed Sophia around the shoulders and rolled across the ground with her.
The only one who failed to keep up…
…was the IT worker.
Just as the javelins were released, he had only managed to push himself into a sitting position.
He was still muttering in disbelief,
“I thought the U.S. got rid of wild men ages ago…”
The next instant—
The javelin struck.
Thwack!
The sickening sound of flesh being pierced echoed through the forest.
The IT worker’s eyes flew wide open.
Disbelief filled his face as he slowly lowered his gaze toward his chest.
A bright crimson javelin had punched straight through his torso.
Like an insect pinned to a display board, he was nailed to the ground by the spear, his upper body completely transfixed.