The Dawn of the New World

"Do you know where we are?" Zeng Yu yelled as he surveyed the surroundings.

The group was standing in what seemed like a graveyard for some type of a massive beast. There were thousands of meters long bones protruding from the ground.

Each one with a radius of thirty meters at least. The bones reached the first cloud layer and passed through, giving the spectators a sense of dread because of several reasons.

'This world was once home to such gigantic creatures? Where did they go? How did they die?'

'Going by the number of skeletons that are going on for miles upon miles without end, there were quite a few of them. But what led to their demise? Perhaps the undead that were buried somewhere in the ground? Or something entirely different?'

A timid young man of about twenty years of age walked out of the group. His name was Lang Wen and he was part of the science team that was with Zeng Yu's group. There was a rectangular device in his hand with several buttons, jobs, and a screen with some numbers on it.

"S-Sir, w...we are about eighty thousand miles from the base camp," he stutteringly replied with his head down.

Zeng Yu frowned, "How is that possible? We were on foot and only walked for a few days. How can this place be that far from where we started?"

He turned around to look at the speaker and his frown deepened, "Where is your team leader?"

The boy was already scared and with Zeng Yu's strict tone, he almost passed out.

"T-The team leader was one of the people that turned into the undead back at the temple..."

"..."

Zeng Yu kept staring at Lang Wen with a frown, making him more and more nervous. Zeng Wu sighed and walked up to him, "Good job. We'll be in your care now," he patted Lang Wen's shoulder.

Taken aback at first, Lang Wen smiled and quickly ran back to the group.

Zeng Wu turned around and looked at his father.

"What should we do? Go back or find the rift and exit?"

"Go back of course. The Ma and Shi clan are still there. Not to mention the rest of the science team. And even if we wanted to we wouldn't be able to leave. That bastard kept the equipment needed to find the rift in his own storage ring. And I doubt many other people even know how to use it," Zeng Yu explained with a deep sigh.

Zeng Wu's face lit up as he understood, "Yin...Da..?"

Zeng Yu silently nodded.

Yin Da was the chief science officer and the person in charge of the science team. He was a very eccentric man and there were many 'strange' rumors about him in the military.

Not to mention he was a very cold-hearted and calculating person.

"Alright, let's go back then," Jin Wang's voice came from behind them. He was still very pale and looked almost sickly.

****

Using the mounts, the group made their way back to the base camp. It took them three full days even with the mounts because of the many dangerous places that blocked their path.

One such spot especially stood out.

It was like a sea of fog. Nothing was visible inside but every now and then the fog would heave and toss, pointing to the existence of a large creature inside. It was so cold that they couldn't even get within five hundred meters of it.

This fog lake caused them to take a detour which added an entire day to their journey.

The sun never rose, leaving the plane in perpetual darkness, and every day the biting chill would get worse and worse.

Finally, their journey came to a stop when the base camp appeared in their sights.

There were hundreds of bodies littered beside the outer walls, making small hills.

But they didn't belong to any of the party members and were instead of the creatures that were in the first tomb. (Pic in authors notes)

They were frozen solid and looked like had they been dead for a while.

"What's going on?" Zeng Wu murmured with a deep frown. The creatures were sealed in the tomb while the other two were empty. How could so many of them be here?

But before he could speak up again, Jin Wang casually walked towards the camp.

"Only one way to find out," he said and then shouted, "OPEN THE GATE!"

There was a loud commotion from the other side. Several silhouettes appeared on the wall and looked outside.

"It's them! They're back! Quickly, open the door!" someone shouted energetically.

The gate opened and Shi Chun and Ma Yu came running out, followed by their protectors. They all seemed to be in good spirits.

Jin Wang frowned as he looked at them. From the corner of his eye, he caught a figure still standing on the wall. It was like he wasn't even there and unless someone knew exactly where to look, they would just look over him.

"Hmmm," a small smile appeared on the corner of his mouth as he didn't directly look at the figure in amusement.

"They were right huh...Yin Da," he muttered to himself and walked past the energetic welcoming party.

Zeng father-son duo saw everything was fine so they led the remaining people in as well.

"What happened to you guys? We sent people over to the first tomb but it was closed from the inside," Shi Chun asked while looking around. Ma Yu who was next to him was also looking around excitedly but froze when she realized the person she was looking for wasn't there.

She quickly ran up to Zeng Yu and pulled his hand, "Wh...wheres brother Hao?"

Shi Chun noticed her strange behavior and also came over.

****

Authors Notes:

https://i.pinimg..com/564x/21/1e/c3/211ec31037761ddc8b2d3111c92463f0.jpg