The Dead Zone: Maya Stela - C40

“Is there such a high area around here?” My neck is going to ache.

Suriyawong looked at me strangely and said, “You’re wrong. The bottom is not the ground, and I guess the place we’re staying is far below the ground. ”

I recalled the winding path and nodded in agreement.

Suriyawong smiled as he fiddled with the red ball. My guess has been shattered and I haven’t taken it out.

Ahead of us, Achilles suddenly stopped and strode toward us.

“The road ahead is broken.” He skillfully took out a rope from his bag, “Fly over.”

I’m immune to the word flying. It would be better to call it flying the sky.

There was a three meter deep trench ahead, so he could only rely on the rope. Fortunately, the rocks beside him were rough and uneven.

Achilles was still in the lead. Suriyawong and I were about to jump out of the rope. His movements were quick and steady. He used the standard ‘Frog Slanted’ posture and it was not good, but his movements still gave off a sense of steadiness.

I walked in the middle, with Achilles and Suriyawong tugging at the ropes on either side. He had watched Achilles move slowly, but steadily. Once he started, he couldn’t hold on to any of the rocks. He had to step on even a small protrusion, especially every step he took, he had to be careful not to step on empty ground or mud.

I almost lost my footing and fell. Sweat covered his eyes as he made his way to the end of the road. At least he was here.

Su Lihua swung the rope over and with a step on his feet, he walked over as if he was climbing a mountain.

Following which, they traveled in different sizes, and the longest distance between them was around seven to eight meters. We did the same thing. Although we came over, the process was definitely not easy.

We walked all the way up. When it was 12 o’clock in the afternoon, they suddenly heard a “Dang” sound coming from the top. The loud sound of water roaring towards them was deafening, just like the sound of raging waves hitting the shore.

We didn’t have time to think about what the trap was. When he had recovered some strength, he would continue walking forward. There were only these ‘cliffs’ along the way, and no other traps. However, the distance of ten meters was sufficient for one to be on guard. Only those with absolute skills could climb over the wall. As for the rest, they could only either return home or die on the way.

It took almost an hour for the sound of the water to subside. The sound of water from the river seemed to carry the sounds of battle, one after another it sounded like the waving of flags and even the beating of drums.

I was a little uncomfortable at the beginning of the flood, but then I relaxed.

As I walked round and round on the mountain road, I was almost delighted when I saw a large flat piece of ground in front of me.

It was four o’clock in the afternoon. The three of them split the canned food between them, and Achilles’ next words stunned me.

His words were, “Let’s go down.”

I immediately asked, “Then what are we doing up here?” “Continue?” “No,” he said, shaking his head.

Su Li Hua came over and patted my shoulder as he said smilingly, “Next up, our buttocks … may suffer. ”

Me: “…”

When he reached the top, he saw another “stone tablet”, but it was empty. There were no words on it. I just let it slide quietly in my mind. I didn’t want to waste my time. This tablet is also to confirm that we have reached the apex. These were Suriyawong’s exact words)

When another black hole appeared in front of us, I knew what it meant to go down and hurt my ass. There were no stairs inside, and it was about three meters in diameter. It appeared to be very slanted, and the light from the flashlight illuminated the bottom of the corner. He couldn’t see the edge of the arrow.

I thought, “Fuck you,” and Suriyawong took out three hard boards with grooves on both sides and in front that could be set up.

Achilles took the lead. If this thing didn’t work well, it would mean that the old driver had flipped over the car. He flipped through three of them.

As a precaution, we were a minute apart before we went down. The flashlight was fixed to the front bracket, and there were buttons on the armrests on either side to change the roughness of the bottom.

I gripped the handrail with both hands. The light was like a detector and the road ahead was clear. Behind me, Suriyawong gave me a shove and then slashed down.

Not a bit of a human being, not even a windshield. I let my imagination run wild. The wind whistled past their ears, and after a few seconds they were used to it. It was like sitting in an unshielded mine cart, his ears moving from pain to habit.

By the light of the flashlight, it was like a sliding ladder for kindergarten play. The surface was smooth and looked like a tube made of stone. I was enjoying the sensation of sliding down in a spiral.

It took him six minutes to get out of the spiral staircase. There was only a “pu tong” sound as he choked on the water he was breathing and his eyes were bloodshot. With my eyes closed, I couldn’t care less about the board. I flapped my arms and swam upstream. Fortunately, the verticality is not high. I entered the water not too deep, and after a few strokes, I reached the surface. I breathed in the air again, but there was a burning pain. I struggled to open my sore eyes, and there was a huge black ball in front of me.

The sphere lay on the surface of the water, or a hemisphere, with the other half submerged. I turned and swam onto the floating board, my arms on top of it, my legs in the breaststroke.

There was a rustling in front of me, and I squinted in the light. Achilles had his back to the water, and his back was covered with scars.

When I reached the ground, my throat was burning with the pain of thousands of needles stabbing into it. As soon as I landed, Achilles threw me a shark’s cheek gas mask without looking back. I hurriedly put it on and immediately felt the burning pain subside a little.

A splash sound came from behind him. He turned around to see Su Lihua holding onto his board with both hands. Next to him was another board. He looked even more bedraggled than I was. I know he can swim, and I’m in no hurry. He went down to the side of the board.

The duffel bag was waterproof, the zippers were tightly sealed, and we tied the bag to the board with rope. Even if the bag sank, the rope would guide us to it.

I gave him a hand and returned triumphantly with the two bags. Achilles had already rearranged himself, his hair still sticking to his face. When I see him now, I think of the hideous scars on his back, and I don’t know what he went through.

But it was no use gossiping about me, and after we had tidied ourselves up a little and checked the contents of the bag, Achilles turned and walked to the back of the big ball.

The ground where Achilles had been standing was in the opposite direction from the sphere, and it was not until I reached it that I saw a spiral staircase behind me, slanting upward and upward into a hole in the stone wall.

My scalp tingled. The hole was black. The next circle of paint was faded, but the shape of a skull could still be seen inside the blotch. We were going to the left eye socket.

I immediately thought back to the maggots in the corpse puppet’s eyes, which made me feel disgusted.

Only a portion of the skull was visible above the ground, but judging from its shape, it was definitely a skull. The ancient depiction of the real person was abstract, but the skull drawing was very precise and very realistic. I could just barely make out two streaks of paint on top of my head, mottled beyond recognition.

In fact, the water vapor was so thick that I was shocked to find that some parts of the painting could be preserved so well without fading away.

I shone my flashlight on the top of my head. The balls, big and small, were like lumps that made people feel nauseous for no reason. Some of the balls were still lit up black, making them look like a dense mass of eyeballs. Some of the balls were still lit up black, looking like a dense collection of eyeballs.

The journey continued slowly. He didn’t know why he liked the ups and downs so much. I thought to myself.

The soles of his shoes were completely wet. It was unknown what was in the water, but his clothes were emitting a fishy smell along with a sour smell. I smell sick. The gas mask didn’t protect against the smell.

After walking up and down for a while, there was a small pond. It was especially cold in the deep underground.

I asked Suriyawong, “Where the hell are we going?”

He waved his hand to say that he was almost there, but he refused to answer my question no matter what.

After circling the lake, he didn’t find anything. Achilles was also stunned. He stopped and said, “Go down.”

I was used to his unreliable instructions. But it was the first time he saw the uncertainty on his face.

“When the data reached this pool, it would be closed. The only thing left would be ‘Gold Water in front of the Dragon King’s Temple’. Without a doubt, he would die.”

That was to say, he wasn’t sure of his decision to go down.

The lack of adequate diving equipment and oxygen tanks means we can’t go into the water for too long. In terms of swimming, I grew up in a seaside city. He would probably be able to tolerate it more if he held his breath. He went into the water with the flashlight.

It’s very difficult to open your eyes underwater. I used the water to wash my eyes in advance, and when I get used to the heat, I’ll take a deep breath and dive in!

Under the water, the light from the flashlight could only flash the floating particles. The visibility was not high. The pool was about three meters deep. I looked down at the bottom of the brick floor, which had seven holes in it. The lake walls were unevenly packed. It was also densely packed with holes that were big and small and attached to each other like holes in a lotus flower. I looked at a wave of nausea, saw all of them surface, and went ashore to explain to them.

Achilles bowed his head in thought and said nothing. According to my guess, the seven holes would lead in different directions, or perhaps they would lead to pools of water.

Suriyawong had no idea, he was going anyway, so we turned to Achilles and waited for him to come to a decision.

“No,” he shook his head, “we can’t try one at a time.”

I knew he was right. I just need him to certify that these holes lead somewhere else. We find the right exit, or we die before we find the right exit.

Just as we were struggling to figure out what to do, there was a sudden rustling sound. The small ripples on the surface of the water slowly formed into a whirlpool. From small to large, the whirlpool was like a toilet that continuously descended. When the water level dropped, the holes would reveal traces of movement.

The three of them backed off at the same time. This was abnormal.

The last bit of the water could not be withdrawn. There was a moment of silence, and suddenly there was a roar from below, like the roar of a dragon or the roar of a tiger.

Who are we? In just a short moment, we returned to the bright side.

The sound of the ground reverberated, but it was not as thrilling as the first sound. As the low roar echoed, another sharp cry pierced through the layers of earth from below.

The three of them stood in front of the pool and listened. The sharp whizzing sound was getting softer and louder, almost piercing my eardrums, and then abruptly stopped.

Gurgle gurgle gurgle. The water in the pool came out again. This time, it brought with it a pungent smell of sulphur and billowing smoke.

We squinted at the spring. Achilles and Suriyawong did not move, and I had lost all possibility of doing so.

The rising water slowly filled up the hole again, and the fog dissipated. What I saw was astounding.