Embers Ad Infinitum

"OK."

"Can."

"no problem."

"Get in the car."

Bai Chen, Long Yuehong, Jiang Baimian and Shang Jianyao almost spoke in unison without any hesitation.

The young man wearing a dark shirt, trousers, and a black windbreaker immediately walked around the front of the car, came to the passenger seat, and opened the door.

He smiled lightly and said to Jiang Baimian:

"Can you go to the back?"

"No problem, you sit down, you sit down." Jiang Baimian stood up enthusiastically and gave up his seat.

When the man took off the silver rifle from his back and sat in the passenger seat, she bent slightly and said with a flattering smile:

"How may I address you?"

The man with black hair and golden eyes frowned slightly:

"Qiao Chu."

"It sounds so nice." Jiang Baimian did not hesitate to praise.

"Look at their names, look at yours." Shang Jianyao turned his head and hit Long Yuehong.

Long Yuehong was not surprised at all and echoed:

"Yeah yeah."

Amid their admiration, Jiang Baimian opened the rear door and said to Shang Jianyao:

"Move to the middle."

Before she finished speaking, she changed her words again:

"No, you come down first and I'll sit in the middle."

Jian Shang Jian Yao was not too happy, Jiang Baimian emphasized again:

"I'm the team leader!"

Shang Jianyao reluctantly got out of the car and watched Jiang Baimian sit in the middle of the back seat.

After hearing the term "team leader" from the Gray dialect, Qiao Chu, a man with black hair and golden eyes, subconsciously turned his head and glanced at Jiang Baimian.

Jiang Baimian seemed to have been waiting for him for a long time, making eye contact with him and smiling sweetly.

Qiao Chu didn't say much, and quickly withdrew his gaze.

Jiang Baimian didn't seem disappointed. He leaned forward and held his chin with one hand, admiring Qiao Chu's side face as if it was difficult to take his eyes away.

After Shang Jianyao sat down again, he found that due to his position, he could only see the back of Qiao Chu's head, and from time to time his view would be blocked by the pillow of the chair in front of him. Unable to conceal his disappointment, his face suddenly showed.

Qiao Chu looked at the broken bridge in front of him and suddenly asked:

"Do you have anything to eat?"

"Yes!" Bai Chen quickly turned sideways and opened the armrest box.

"Yes, yes, yes!" Jiang Baimian retracted the hand holding his chin and hurriedly searched for food in his pocket. Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong straightened up and turned to the back, trying to get the canned braised beef for Qiao Chu.

Undoubtedly, Bai Chen was the fastest and handed Qiao Chu a small bag of compressed biscuits and an energy bar.

"That's it. You guys should also eat a little. You won't have any rest at noon, so you'll have to take turns driving." Qiao Chu took the food and gave the order like a leader, but Shang Jianyao and others had no objection.

After eating biscuits and energy bars with the water in the water bag, Qiao Chu put the items away, waited for a while, and turned to Bai Chen and said:

"It's time to go.

"Drive to the hilly area northwest."

"Okay." Bai Chen, who had finished his lunch, agreed without looking away.

Qiao Chu stretched out his left hand, patted Bai Chen's right arm, and said with a gentle smile:

"Drive well."

"Okay!" Bai Chen was flattered. He immediately sat upright and started the jeep.

Qiao Chu turned to look at the back row, smiled slightly and said:

"I want to take a rest. Pay attention to your surroundings and wake me up when you reach the hilly area."

"Okay!" Jiang Baimian and others responded in unison.

Qiao Chu said nothing and turned his head.

The smile on his face quickly disappeared, and his eyes became extremely cold.

Then, he took out a sky blue box from his pocket and opened it with a snap.

This box contains a small mirror.

Qiao Chu stared at himself in the mirror, raised his right hand, and carefully arranged his hair.

After examining it repeatedly, he slowly put away the mirror case, leaned his head back, and closed his eyes.

In the evening, the jeep returned to the hilly area where Black Rat Town is located. By this time, Wang Beicheng's 23rd Brigade had long gone.

No need to be reminded, Jiang Baimian and others turned into alarm clocks and woke up Qiao Chu on time.

Qiao Chu glanced at the dimming sky:

"Rest here tonight and continue driving northwest tomorrow morning."

"Okay." Bai Chen found a familiar camping spot and stopped the jeep.

Then, the four of them scrambled to set up the tent, lit a bonfire, and took out several military cans from the trunk.

"You have quite a lot of supplies..." Qiao Chu sat in the passenger seat with the car door open, leisurely watching Shang Jianyao and others busy.

Not long after, Shang Jianyao trotted over and took the initiative to ask for help:

"I'm going over there to get water."

Qiao Chu followed the direction he pointed, looked at the location of the clean water source, thought for a few seconds and said:

"No need, our water can last for several days."

"Hmm, it will take a while for the can to be heated up. Do you want me to sing a song for you?" Shang Jianyao didn't insist at all and asked with a smile.

"..." Qiao Chu looked at Shang Jianyao suspiciously for two seconds, "No need."

"What about the Gold Coast Hula Swing?" Shang Jianyao asked.

Qiao Chu frowned slightly and said:

"No, I want to be quiet for a while. Call me when the can is warmed up."

"Okay!" Shang Jianyao responded enthusiastically.

After he turned and walked towards the bonfire, Qiao Chu took out the sky blue plastic box again and opened it with a snap.

Looking at himself in the mirror, Qiao Chu's expression became a little more lively and he sighed in a low voice:

"Hey, it's really troublesome..."

In this way, the night passed quietly, and the sun once again rose from the east side of Blackmoor Wilds.

After breakfast, after a secret contest, Jiang Baimian finally took advantage of the authority of the team leader to get the driving responsibility, while Shang Jianyao, Long Yuehong and Bai Chen could only squeeze in the back row with a bit of grievance.

Qiao Chu turned his wrist and looked at his mechanical watch, relying on the compass on the dial to determine his starting position.

"Drive in that direction, keep driving." He pointed to a place in the northwest.

Jiang Baimian didn't question it. He drove his jeep around the hilly area first, and then ran straight in the direction Qiao Chu said.

As time went on, the surrounding terrain became flatter and the dirt became darker and dirtier, until eventually, mud became the dominant feature and harder roads became less and less common.

This is heading into the depths of the Everglades.

Compared with Bai Chen, Jiang Baimian's experience in this area was slightly insufficient, and he almost got his car stuck in bottomless mud twice.

She had to give up the driver's seat and returned to the middle of the back seat. Bai Chen drove the Jeep seriously and hard, like a child looking forward to praise.

The speed of the Jeep undoubtedly slowed down a lot, and it did not move forward more than thirty kilometers until noon, while various plants gradually grew in the surrounding swamps.

Compared with normal, their colors are either dull or bright, and they look quite weird.

Jiang Baimian still remembered the responsibilities of his team leader, and casually reminded Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong:

"Seeing similar abnormal plants gathering together means that we have entered a polluted area. However, the plants here are not weird enough or dangerous enough, and the degree of pollution should not be too high.

"In such an environment, ordinary people can also move, but if there is no protective equipment, it is best not to exceed three days. People who have undergone mature genetic modification can persist for about ten days. However, the premise is that they are prepared in advance. of food and water.”

Qiao Chu turned his head again and glanced at Jiang Baimian, but quickly looked back, pointing to the side and saying:

"Go this way."

"But..." Bai Chen subconsciously wanted to make his own suggestion.

The routes she chose were all less polluted and suitable for vehicles. If she changed the route rashly, she might encounter an expanded swamp, and the car and people would fall into it and sink to the bottom.

"Go this way." Qiao Chu emphasized again.

"Okay." Bai Chen chose to obey.

After the vehicle changed its route, it entered an area that Bai Chen was unfamiliar with, which slowed down the Jeep a lot - Bai Chen needed to judge the road conditions based on his own experience while driving.

About twenty-five minutes later, when everyone in the car had finished lunch and was about to let Jiang Baimian replace Bai Chen, the scene ahead suddenly changed:

In the deep black swamp with no visible edges, thick vines carrying rotten soil emerged from the bottom, forming a low "forest".

They are green and black in color, each one is about the thickness of an ordinary python, with countless reddish spikes growing on their surface.

These weird vines are entangled together and cover every area visible to the naked eye in front of the Jeep. Except for the dark swamp itself, everything else has become their embellishment - even the sky seems to be blocked by the low "forest" or otherwise. The problem has become gloomy, gloomy and depressing.

Seeing this spectacular but terrifying scene, Jiang Baimian, Bai Chen, Shang Jianyao, and Long Yuehong all felt an indescribable shock at the same time.

In shock, they almost had a question at the same time:

"Why are we here?"

At this time, Qiao Chu raised the corners of his mouth and revealed a gentle smile:

"Don't be nervous."

This voice and these words immediately dispelled Shang Jianyao and others' doubts, and made them look at Qiao Chu with fascination.

Qiao Chu sat up straight and began to seriously instruct Bai Chen on how and where to drive.

Looking at the python-like green, black and reddish vines passing by outside the window, Jiang Baimian moved the five fingers of his left hand.

She instinctively took out a pen and paper from her pocket and recorded what she saw.

Shang Jianyao sometimes looked at the back of Qiao Chu's head, and sometimes looked out at the vines, always feeling that they were pregnant with great danger.

At this moment, he felt a slight collision on his left arm.

Shang Jianyao subconsciously turned his head and saw Jiang Baimian leaning the white paper in his hand this way.

He looked intently and saw that the current scene was faithfully described on the white paper. In addition, there was a strange sentence at the end:

"... There is such a severely distorted area deep in the Everglades, but miraculously, the chip on my left arm told me that the radiation pollution here is not too serious. Perhaps the pollution has decayed and weakened over time?

“…Those vines were covered with reddish spikes, as if they had just been filled with blood…

"...The chip in my left arm told me that the current location is completely opposite to the intended target of Qifeng Town..."

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