Chapter 216 - 216 - Symbiosis

Zou Yue and Fan Xui swiftly went to search for the materials to make the makeshift rope out of the corn leaves. Finding longer ones was difficult. If he simply tied two of the leaves together, it might snap under pressure.

So Yue climbed up a cornstalk until he found a longer leaf. "I'll slice it down. Be careful,"'

Fan Xui nodded.

Yue got to work. His sword was sharp, but it was difficult to cut the fresher leaves. Not only that, the leaves saw-like edges cut into his pants and tore into his things.

Biting his lips, he swiftly cut into the leaves.

"Fan, it's coming down. Move out of the way..."

He glanced down. But Fan Xui was nowhere to be seen.

"Fan? Fan Xui."

A hand suddenly cupped his mouth. "shhh...listen.." he whispered right behind him

"When did you?.."

"shh..." he looked at him in panic. He silently pointed to one corner near the intersection of the cornfield.

The leaves there were rustling softly, accompanied by a slight sound of something being dragged.

Yue peered at that place vigilantly.

Suddenly, a car was thrown out. It flopped on the road pitifully. The people in it were nowhere to be seen.

The rustling stopped. The creature that threw the car just now disappeared.

Yue gripped Fan Xui. If anything happened, he will push Fan Xui out of the way and safeguard him to his best.

'What creature is it? shit.. shit.. Tian is down there... we have to get to her fast...'

He hurriedly got down and helped Fan Xui down as well. Suddenly the ground started to trembled slightly.

A pink nose poked out, sniffing their way.

"fuck,...." Fan Xui took his hand and ran

"Wait, Tian..."

"We can come back later!"

The creature gave chase. Fan Xui glanced back, but he could not get a good glance at it.

With his eyes closed, he felt the movement in the ground. 'one... three... three groups of footsteps.'

"There are three of them. We won't be able to deal with them all. Let's run for now." Fan Xui dragged Yue away into the cornfield.

********

"Squeak!....." a loud sound echoed in there.

Prisitsky excitedly glanced around. "Hear that.. it's calling something....."

"shh. Do you know what creature that is?" Hary urgently pulled him closer to the wall, keeping him to his back.

"Don't know, sounds like a rat. Maybe a mutated one. Since everything has changed so drastically, I can't differentiate many species. Like these bamboo rats. They are only supposed to be the size of a small melon, but now they look like watermelons. so exciting!" he exclaimed happily.

Hary cupped his mouth shut.

He could feel a cold and warm draft coming from inside. Along with it came a cloud of fog. "Tian, be ready to burn anything that comes our way," he whispered softly next to her ear.

The ground trembled slightly.

Hary and Tian vigilantly glanced around. The smaller rats had already scurried away from their path.

"The vibration is coming from up there. Not in here." Prisitsky whispered softly.

Haru hurriedly touched the wall of the cavern. The surface was trembling, but it was more concentrated the higher he touched.

"Shit Yue's in danger,"

Tian ran to the opening. "Yue! Something big is coming your way! Run!"

"..."

"Yue?! Hey!...."

Hary suddenly cupped her mouth tightly.

"w-what..." he glanced back at him.

"shh..... silence....' he pointed to the dark hole with his eyes wide open.

The warm draft was getting closer.

A huge pink nose was seen poking out of the hole, sniffing loudly.

"!!!!!." Prisitsky ran to him and hid behind their back.

Tian hurriedly pulled them both down and hide in the small area behind their smashed jeep.

A pink-skinned creature slowly crawled out from the smaller hole. Its size barely fit inside. It shimmied its way in. it was as big as a fucking bus with his hairless body and his giant four teeth sticking out of its mouth.

It looked like the stuff of the nightmare....

"It's a naked mole..." Prisitsky whisper shouted. "They are practically blind. Look, look..."' he pointed to the side.

The bamboo rats hauled a zombie to it and placed it before its feet.

The naked mole-rat sniffed it once and directly chewed into it. After fishing it, it let out a deep breath.

Fog gushed out of its mouth.

Tian frowned deeply. 'No wonder we didn't find any zombies here. This one has been eating it all up... fuck and we walked right into its traps...'

"Symbiosis. The mole rat is technically blind. It looks like it's too lazy to hunt for itself. But it has the ability to breathe out fog. This works as an awesome shielding mechanism for bamboo rats. So they feed it occasionally to keep their hunting spot in top condition." Prisitsky adjusted his cracked glass. "It's genius."

The pink naked rat squealed softly and crawled back into the hole.

"Why didn't they attack us?" Hary urgently glanced at him.

"Well, maybe it doesn't like humans. Maybe we are reserve food. Maybe she's full..." he shrugged.

"She?"

"Yep, a she. Didn't you see her tits? She must have recently given birth."

"Screech.." a loud screech came from above.

Tian panicked even more. "There are more,"

"Yeah naked mole rats, mate like crazy and the queen can have up to ten pups each time."

Tian bit her lips. The tremors up top were getting intense. "we can't just stay here. There must be other shafts that lead us out. Let's go," she hurriedly ran into the dark space with just a torchlight.

"I like her~" Prisitsky happily ran after her. "Hey, can we collect a few samples on the way.."

Sighing, Hary followed after her.

The burrow shafts were long and almost six feet tall. They could easily walk in them without squeezing, but the problem was, the more they walked in, the narrower it got.

The bamboo rats were all very vigilant. They kept raining away every time they saw them.

Tian got suspicious about this. These rats were the ones who bravely tried to hunt them in daylight now they did not even show an ounce of interest in them.

"Rats are more intelligent than you give credit for. They must have seen your power display when you lit up your shirt..... see they only move away from you," Prisitsky pointed to his side where the rats were hissing and trying to attack him.

Hary shot them away.

"Zombies are much easier to deal. They run and want to bite. These things are crazy.." she grumbled, bending down to enter another shaft.

She followed the area where the cold draft was coming from. Burrows like this will definitely have many entrances and exits.

"Wait," Hary suddenly stopped them. "Listen..."

A small growling sound was coming from up ahead in the shaft to their left.

Slowly, they crept closer to it. Inside, a few zombies were pieced up. Their torsos were still moving, and they were crawling towards something. There was even a small stack of what looked like plant roots stacked in the corner.

"Fascinating..." Prisitsky moved closer. "You see the babies." He pointed to the three pink blob-like things in the farthest corner.

They were sniffing around and happily chewing on the pieces of zombies left on the ground.

"The mother was saving food for her pups."

Tian peered at this room. There was a small light coming from behind the small pups. "There's an opening. It's small. Maybe we can crawl up." She excitedly ran in.

"Wait, you can't do that..."

Tian did not care. All she thought about was going up to the surface to find Yue. That was all that mattered now.

She jumped over the naked rat pups over to the opening.

It was as small as a dog hole. The shaft was not that steep. It will ft er shape perfectly but Hary and Prisitsky might have to squeeze through.

"Come on," she gestured for them to come.

Prisitsky ran over, but his eyes were always on the ground. "so many precious samples...." he picked up a few zombie parts.

"hurry," Hary lifted him up and dragged him over.

In a hurry, he did not look ahead and stomped on something squishy.

"screech...screeee screeee" the baby mole rats started to scream.

"fuck, go go go.."' Tian pushed Prisitsky out through the hole. "go out and stay above ground."

The ground trembled violently. "screech!!!!!" the loud sound echoed from the shaft.

An angry-looking rat rushed in, breathing out a thick fog

They could see nothing in there after that.

Hary protectively held Tian's hand.

Without a sound, they silently crept to the side of the walls sticking to it.

'They have a great sense of smell..' Tian scribbled on his palm.

Hary squeezed her palm. 'Burn it.' he wrote back.

Soon that thing found them breathing right in their face.

"Now,"

Tian let out her flames. Like a whirling tornado, it burned throughout the smaller room.

"screeee!!!" the rats screamed, picking up one of its pups and ran out.