Chapter 62: Bloody Flowers
Translator: Letty / Editor: DarkGem / IceTea
“Sounds great.” Chang nodded, then he moved aside with Jing and Qing shui. Zhao quickly made a command to rest of the soldiers and then they went around the flower bush.
Although the captain was well equipped with the compass and a high powered flashlight and had Chang to walk with him, he still stayed closely to the edge of the flower bush. On one hand, he was worried about getting off track but was also concerned about the suspicious flowers. Zhao kept on coordinating their direction once in a while, the troop was slowed down significantly by this cautious adjustnts.
“It is such a trendous flower bush...if we keep our current pace, I don’t think we can make it to Zhengzhou before sunset.” Chang was sweating out as he noticed how scrupulous Zhao beca, “We should go faster, Captain.”
“Indeed, I didn’t expect the size of the flower bush to be this trendous.” Zhao nodded as he re-calibrated the direction, the troop accelerated again.
At the sa mont, a gentle breeze blew from the bush, the soft touch of the wind was fragrant with the unknown blossom.
“How aromatic!” The pleasant scent brought excitent to the troop, soone behind Chang marveled, “I have never slled sothing like this before, it is so sincere and calming like a perfectly mixed perfu. I’d say it outcompetes every flower before the red fog, not to ntion its vivid and vibrant petals. If we ever had flowers like this before, It’d be the queen among all.”
“Unfortunately, the nice aroma could be deadly.” Qing shui showed impatient on his face, “In any way, flower and its scent never had any artistic purposes in nature. The reason why flowers had scents before the red fog was to attract pollination, but now, this could be a trap for attracting prey.”
“Moreover, a flower is just a reproductive structure of a plant. I don’t see the reason why humans appraise it be such a great deal.” Qing shui frowned.
“Ha ha ha.” Soone behind Qing shui was apparently entertained by Qing shui’s lack of taste. The troop sped up again as they beca more light-hearted.
After another half hour going around the flower bush, they finally got back on to the Zheng Kai Avenue.
It was truly a relief that they didn’t encounter any strangers, they thought.
“Ah-----------” a heartrending cry pierced through the red fog.
It was an absurdly shrill scream as if a person’s enjoynt was broken by a hard stab to the stomach, unexpectedly and painfully.
“What’s wrong?” Zhao imdiately turned around. The beam of light in his hand flashed right onto the screaming soldier.
“An attacker?” The face of the soldier beca hideously disfigured, the artery on his neck bloated up and his face blushed. Apparently, he was undergoing great torture. His weapon dropped and his fingers beca rigid and stiff like claws. His condition worsened at a rate that everyone could notice – a gradual developnt of convulsions.
The company around this soldier held up their rifles vigilantly, however, no matter how hard they tried, they saw no suspicious objects in the air or on the ground.
“Will it be sothing similar to the dodder?” Soone shouted.
“Possibly.” So other soldiers kept the struggling soldier down and ripped open his shirt. Although his skin had turned red, his skin was still smooth without any obvious injury or infection.
“He looks like he was poisoned.” Ca a woman’s voice – It was Dr. Huang. She looked at the soldier from afar “Looks like he got Dysautonomia; excessive sweating and sialorrhea...It must be so sort of neurotoxin.”
“He was poisoned? But he didn’t eat anything!” Zhao looked up and down on the soldier, “Is it possible that he was scratched by a toxic plant?”
As he spoke, he checked the soldier’s forearm and ankle, where he would mostly like get scratched, but he didn’t even find a small cut.
“Then what caused his symptoms?”
“The flower bush, was it the fragrance?” A visible constriction of Qing shui’s pupil, he seed to realize sothing.
“No way... None of us had symptoms as him, how did he....” Zhao was rattling on the strangeness, and, all of a sudden, he choked and the rest of his words beca muttered. His face turned red and he seed to be suffering from extre pain. It all happened so fast that even Chang couldn’t react to the change.
Zhao lost his sanity completely as the soldier had before. His skin reddened and he sweat excessively. Veins beca visible on his eyeballs, followed by a painful roar.
“It was the fragrance!” Chang imdiately grabbed Jing and they ran away from the flower bush.
So of the troop followed Chang as they realized the effect of the fragrance, they turned around and followed Chang’s footsteps hastily. A few of the soldiers, who were close to and were direct subordinates of the captain attempted to pull the captain with them before they fled. But Zhao had already lost his mind, no one was capable of grabbing him. They all ran away after a few tries.
Then, sothing horrifying was seen beside the flower bush.
At the mont they all ran far enough from the flower bush, Zhao and the soldier rushed into the flower bush accompanied with heart-piercing roaring. As if their bodies were burned with fire painfully, they ripped off their clothes and scratched their skin as they ran. They both went through slight evolutions before as everyone else in the troop, therefore, they were strong enough to tear their uniforms into pieces of cloth. They didn’t seem satisfied after ripping off their shirt, their hands kept scratching on their arms and chests.
It was hard to believe that humans were able to hurt themselves to such extent – their fingers didn’t stop even when they got into their muscle. There wasn’t much blood but their pain was known from their wails. As if maggots were growing in their body to cause itchiness, they continuously scraped their flesh vigorously.
Their faces were not a spot of fortune either. Their fingers dug off the skin off their faces, exposing their bones. However, as if it was a brutal spell, their fingers moved to their belly and invaded their organs... It was so painful, but they couldn’t stop doing it. They struggled, they twisted and they finally teared up. Blood and flesh were splashed onto those gorgeous flowers – it made the flowers more enchanting than ever.
Chang was the first witness to this horror, he kept running until the fragrance was no longer noticeable.
“What do we do? Was everyone poisoned?” The troop re-gathered, fear was the only emotion within them.
Only Qing shui was able to maintain a relative calmness.
“Dr. Huang, how can we treat neurotoxins? ” Qing shui frowned and put his last hope onto the only doctor in the troop.
“There were nurous amount of neurotoxins as far as I knew. But this is the first ti I ever encounter this type. To be honest, I don’t know.” Dr. Huang covered her face with her palms. “We don’t even have any dication, there is no way we can escape.”
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