Chapter 309: An Unlucky Vacation (8)
When it rains, it pours.
The power had only been out for a couple of hours when the cellphone signal disappeared as well.
By then, the four of them had grown tired from working and were gathered around Misha’s phone, reading the latest announcement released by the city government.
The notice had been forwarded from the Yanifly State Government. It consisted of two parts. The first cited an online article written by a paleontologist, explaining the origins and characteristics of the monstrous fish in the floodwaters. The second was presented as a survival guide, offering disaster victims practical advice on staying alive while trapped between the flood and the deadly fish.
Following the source, Misha tracked down the paleontologist’s personal homepage.
According to the researcher, the monstrous fish in the water had most likely emerged from the depths of Chaohu Lake.¹
[…After comparing the skeletal morphology and anatomical structure of these fish, I found that they are most likely closely related to the Megapiranha paranensis, a species that lived during the Miocene.
The differences between the two are mainly reflected in three aspects: body size, teeth, and eyesight.
Compared to the Megapiranha, which commonly reached a length of one meter, these creatures are significantly smaller. Their teeth are also broader and sturdier. Furthermore, while the Megapiranha relied on its eyesight to hunt prey, the eyes of these flood-dwelling fish have completely degenerated—they possess no vision whatsoever. Such a change generally occurs only in organisms that have lived in complete darkness for extremely long periods.
Coincidentally, I discovered that Chaohu Lake itself also dates back to the Miocene. Roughly eight million years ago, a volcanic eruption sent molten lava flowing downhill, damming a river channel and cutting off its flow, giving birth to the earliest form of what is now Chaohu Lake.
Taking all of this into consideration, I suspect that beneath Chaohu Lake lies a relatively isolated subterranean lake.
During the Miocene volcanic eruption, some Megapiranha were accidentally trapped by cooling lava. The solidified lava eventually formed the underground lake beneath Chaohu. It was a dark, isolated world with only the scarcest of resources, yet the ancestors of these piranhas somehow endured.
Millions of years spent in perpetual darkness gradually rendered their eyesight obsolete, forcing them to rely instead on smell and hearing to hunt. Their smaller bodies allowed them to survive on less food, while their broader, thicker teeth expanded their diet beyond fish to include hard-shelled mollusks such as clams and snails…
Yes, without question, this was a miracle of evolution.
But the timing of that miracle’s return to the world could not have been worse.
The earthquake shattered the barrier separating the surface lake from the subterranean one, and the torrential rains and flooding that followed provided these ruthless predators with the perfect means of spreading.
I believe we must unite and prepare ourselves in advance…]
Chaohu was the largest inland freshwater lake in Yanifly State, covering approximately 110 square kilometers—roughly the equivalent of 15,000 standard soccer fields.
With a lake of that size, the number of monstrous fish lurking beneath it was equally staggering.
After devoting a considerable portion of the article to theorizing about the creatures’ origins, the paleontologist spent the latter half analyzing their biological characteristics from every angle.
Some of the findings merely confirmed what Everly and the others had already learned, while others were entirely new.
According to the paleontologist’s research, the flood-dwelling fish were completely blind, but their hearing and sense of smell were extraordinarily acute. Their olfactory ability, in particular, rivaled that of sharks. A single drop of blood falling into the water from several hundred meters away was enough for them to pinpoint its exact location and pursue it unerringly.
For that reason, anyone with an open wound absolutely must not enter the water.
In addition, the creatures possessed tremendous bite force, exceptionally durable skulls, and remarkable jumping ability. They were also far more resilient than ordinary fish. Even out of water, they could remain lively and active on dry land for over ten minutes. Therefore, anyone approaching flooded areas had to exercise extreme caution. These fish were fully capable of leaping out of the water to attack creatures on shore before bouncing back into the flood unharmed.
The four of them carefully read through the article from beginning to end. Once they finished, Misha swiped the screen, intending to switch over to the forums to see what everyone else was saying.
Instead, the page failed to load.
Looking more closely, they realized Misha’s phone had lost its signal.
A sense of foreboding washed over Everly. She immediately pulled out her own phone and lit up the screen.
Sure enough, it wasn’t just Misha’s.
Her phone also displayed No Service.
“I can’t get online either.”
“Same here.”
After checking all four phones, they reached the same conclusion:
Gilosha’s cellular base stations had also been affected by the flooding and were now completely out of service.
No electricity. No signal.
From that moment on, Everly and the others were officially cut off from the outside world, entering a true island-survival situation.
Being unable to access the internet wasn’t a major concern in itself. Everly’s villa was sturdy enough, and they had stocked plenty of emergency food and water. As long as the flooding didn’t become severe enough to smash through the barriers protecting the ground-floor entrances and inundate the house, the four of them would remain perfectly safe.
What worried Everly more was the possibility of something going wrong on Fake Gary’s end. Without a signal, she wouldn’t be able to receive a call from Remia.
Both Everly and Old John carried satellite phones. However, with the current level of technology, satellite phones still couldn’t communicate directly with ordinary mobile phones or landlines. That was only possible if the owner of the mobile or landline paid a substantial fee to their carrier to activate satellite service.
The moment she realized the cellular network was gone, Everly took out her satellite phone and, following the standard dialing format, tried calling Remia.
Unfortunately, the call didn’t go through. Clearly, Remia hadn’t subscribed to satellite phone service.
With no other choice, Everly settled for the next best option. She called the Dwight State Police headquarters and asked two old acquaintances there, Mike and Sharon, to keep an eye on the situation at Emerald Lake Camp for her. Institutions like police departments, fire stations, and hospitals generally had landlines equipped with satellite service.
Even so, there were drawbacks to this approach.
The operation to eliminate the threat at Emerald Lake wasn’t being handled by the Dwight State Police, but by the municipal police departments of Sunken and Veska. Even veteran detectives at the state police would have to rely on personal connections to obtain information. The more people the information passed through, the slower it would reach her.
Even so, it was still the best way for Everly to receive updates from the camp.
After all, she didn’t know anyone in either city’s police department.
If she rashly called one of the municipal police stations herself, there was no guarantee the dispatcher would even take her seriously. And even if they were willing to relay a message, getting the officers involved in the operation to report back to her would require Everly to identify herself and reveal that she was Everly.
That was something she absolutely refused to do.
She simply didn’t trust the municipal police. If one of the officers involved in the operation accidentally leaked her satellite phone number, it could expose her current location.
Everly would rather receive information more slowly than risk revealing where she was hiding.
As for calling the local SAI branch…
She didn’t even have their phone number.
The internet had gone down at around 2:30 p.m. Everly called Mike and Sharon at 2:40 p.m. It wasn’t until 3:55 p.m. that her satellite phone finally rang with the information Mike had managed to gather.
“Everly… huff… huff… …I finally found out… huff …what you asked me to look into…” Mike sounded as though he’d just run back from somewhere, breathing heavily. “The situation… huff …isn’t good. You’d better prepare yourself.”
Everly’s heart skipped a beat.
“…Okay. Go ahead.”
“Here’s what happened…”
Mike proceeded to recount, in detail, the information he’d pieced together through various contacts.
The story began that morning.
After ending her call with Everly, Remia immediately contacted the local SAI branch and relayed Everly’s analysis to one of its investigators.
Convinced by Remia’s reasoning, the investigators decided to change the deployment of the SAI support team. Instead of surrounding Everly’s home, they would concentrate their forces at Emerald Lake Camp.
Investigators dispatched from neighboring states traveled to the site.
When they arrived, however, they were greeted by laughter, music, and crowds of people. More than a dozen young men and women in swimsuits were splashing around in the lake while blasting rock music.
The lead investigator approached the campground manager, presented his credentials, and asked what was going on.
Only then did he learn that after Gary’s bloody rampage at the campground the previous summer, Emerald Lake Camp had been sold to a new owner. After a modest renovation and the hiring of a couple of inexpensive seasonal workers, the campground had held its grand reopening for the new vacation season.
The investigators intended to lay an elaborate trap there to capture the murderous Fake Gary.
Since the operation was extremely dangerous, civilians couldn’t be allowed anywhere nearby. The lead investigator immediately spoke with the manager, requesting that all the campers be evacuated. Any financial losses would be fully compensated by the SAI.
The problem was that the mission involved highly classified information, so the investigators had to speak in vague terms. On top of that, the SAI was a secret organization that very few Americans even knew existed.
As a result, the campground manager didn’t believe for a second that the man standing in front of him was a government investigator.
Instead, he assumed he’d run into some idiot whose brain had been fried by drugs.
The two sides argued in circles, each completely failing to understand the other. Eventually, realizing words weren’t getting anywhere, the SAI investigators decided to use force.
Their plan was to round up every camper—along with the obstinate campground manager—and relocate them to a safe location. Afterward, the investigators themselves would disguise as ordinary vacationers and lie in wait for Fake Gary to take the bait.
It would have been an excellent plan…
…if everything had gone according to plan.
The investigators vastly outnumbered the campground staff. Before the two managers had a chance to react, they were already overpowered.
Meanwhile, over a hundred meters away on Emerald Lake, the young campers remained blissfully immersed in the sunshine, cool water, and the thrill of youthful excitement, completely unaware of what was happening on shore.
One blond young man was especially energetic.
Perhaps he was showing off in hopes of impressing the girls around him. At the very moment the campground manager was attacked and let out a brief cry for help, the blond boy—just like Gary had done before—gave an exuberant whoop, took a deep breath, and dove headfirst into the emerald-green lake.
No one knew what happened beneath the surface.
In the blink of an eye, the figure in the brightly patterned swim trunks emerged once more.
But the real camper was already dead.
In his place, the blond Gary had silently completed the substitution.
Emerald Lake was enormous, and the swimmers were spread far apart. On top of that, after diving, the boy’s wet blond hair hung over most of his face, obscuring his features. As a result, not a single one of his companions noticed anything amiss as he swam steadily back toward shore.
Soaked from head to toe, he made his way to the bank while secretly listening with hearing far beyond that of an ordinary human to the conversation coming from the campground office.
Investigators… an ambush… another me…
It seemed quite a few interesting things had happened while he had been asleep.
These so-called investigators sounded like a capable bunch.
They would undoubtedly be harder to kill than ordinary people…
But that only made them more interesting.
With that thought, the hand reaching for a shovel changed direction. Instead, he picked up a dry towel lying nearby.
Hidden behind the towel, Gary slowly ran his tongue across his lips, unable to suppress the anticipation, a smile of unmistakable delight spreading across his face.
So many people have come looking for me…
How did they know I’d be here?
Could this have something to do with you… Everly?