Chapter 79
Zhang Xun said calmly, "I'm not good at tracking and hunting, so I can't make the most correct decision."
"But you don't want to go back, do you? You want to find James."
"Yes, I don't want to go back now. But if the price of looking for James is that everyone is trapped here without food and weapons, it is certainly not a rational decision. Maybe most people should go back to report first, Leave one or two and continue looking." His throat was dry, filled with unspeakable anxiety. He didn't know if James was hiding now, or had already been caught. Caught by whom, did they or did they embarrass him...
Jabari, like him, also hopes to continue to find his captain. But unlike his restrained silence, Jabari was arguing hoarsely with the other hunters who wanted to go back, almost fighting. Listening to their argument, Zhang Xun thought that maybe he could suggest that other hunters take Adam back first, so as not to cause more casualties. He stayed with Jabari and continued to search for James. Anyway, he has already come out, he doesn't have to listen to the round table's order, at worst, he just needs to go back and accept the punishment. There are bugs, as long as he and Jabari dodge in time, the probability of survival is not low.
Just when he was about to speak, Adam suddenly turned around, squatted in front of Zhang Xun, and asked him seriously, "If one day I also disappear, will you come to find me?"
Facing Adam who suddenly started asking some inexplicable questions again, Zhang Xun's expression was a little soft, "Of course I will. I'm your mechanic."
"What if you can't find it?"
"There is no such thing as missing." Zhang Xun stretched out a finger and gently placed it on the diamond-shaped device embedded in Adam's forehead, "I will know where you are."
Adam squatted in front of him motionless, like a huge golden retriever, with his face upturned, letting his master touch his forehead.
"Then what if I'm looking for you?" Adam asked, "What if you're missing?"
Zhang Xun frowned, "Okay, why didn't I disappear?"
"Did you just think about asking me to go back with the others and find James by myself?"
... Zhang Xun thought to himself, he doesn't seem to have the ability to read Adam's mind...
Adam smiled suddenly again, his eyes were crooked, as if there had never been any haze. He stood up and looked down at Zhang Xun, "Axun, I am very useful. I will help you find anyone you are looking for."
Then he turned to the disputants, and exclaimed, "I have just seen a mark carved on a tree in the woods, which I think may have been left by James."
The debate stopped immediately, and everyone looked at him.
Adam stretched out his finger, drew a circle in the air, and drew a cross in the middle, "Is this mark the one used by hunters to pass messages to those behind you?"
Jabari yelled, "Yes! Yes! Thank God! Where did you find it?!"
The author has something to say: Thanks to the little angel who threw the mine: Xia Ran Xia Ran 1;
Thanks to the little angel of irrigation nutrient solution: COIORLESS? 20 bottles
Chapter 35 Wilderness (3)
Zhang Xun panted and followed behind the agile hunters. Without the heavy luggage, the walk was much easier, but after lack of sleep and continuous trekking all night, he was exhausted after all.
Finding a thumb-sized mark among the dense foliage is like looking for a needle in a haystack, but hunters clearly have their own way of searching. They look for traces of broken branches and leaves, for footprints that ordinary people can't recognize at all, and they can always find the next sign when the clue seems to have been broken. Thankfully, no blood has been seen so far, suggesting James is at least not hurt. Having the opportunity to leave these marks also means that he has a high probability of not becoming a prisoner.
That being the case, why not return to Paradise Lost? Why leave these marks?
When the mark was first discovered, it was not very far from Reindeer Bay, but it has deviated a lot now, and it continues to spread northward.
Originally, the population of Canada was small, and the population has dropped sharply in the past two hundred years, so that many towns in the Northern Rockies have gradually become deserted and turned into ghost towns. Sometimes hunters will spend the night resting in these lost towns that are gradually being swallowed up by wild smoke and creepers, searching for usable supplies. However, since people often take valuable items with them when they move out, the waste and old things picked up are often thrown into the garbage treatment plant and no one cares about them.
They searched for signs and found such a small town in the wild mountains. The asphalt road that was originally used for vehicles has been cracked like a tortoise, and the gaps are covered with vigorous weeds. About one kilometer outside the town, on a billboard that has long been rusted and crumbling, there are still faintly recognizable mottled words: Welcome to Meishan Town.
Apparently the town was originally developed by mining coal mines. But with over-exploitation and rapid depletion of energy, coal mines were gradually abandoned. There are countless abandoned coal mines hidden in the craggy mountains and the vast sea of trees, with huge black mouths open, in which are buried the souls of countless coal miners who have been forgotten by the world for many years. The town at the foot of the mountain is still the same as it was two hundred years ago. More than half of the roofs of the rows of single-family wooden houses show signs of collapse. The wooden boards are moldy and rotten, breeding countless insects and ants. Grocery stores, breakfast shops, vegetable butcher shops, expressionless models in the window, motorcycle shops that have been looted, mailboxes that are still intact on street corners... everything seems to be usable, but it has long been submerged by time. an illusion of order.