"Rats?!..." he glanced down at Trexa, who was shivering inside his pockets. "what is it, baby? Do you not like other rats? Are they dangerous?"

Trexa nodded her head and burrowed in his pockets.

Yue frowned deeply. He had never seen other mutated rats before....

That could only mean that he did not know about the damage they could do. 

"Hary, tell the others to speed up!!"

"They are getting close! I'll burn them all!" Tian was ready to attack.

"Wait until they're close." He hurriedly glanced to the side. The rustling of the leaves was getting close. 

'Looks like they are running parallel to our car...' 

Suddenly, one grey rat jumped out from its hiding spot and banged its huge football-shaped body on the side of the car.

For a second, the car rocked. 

Yue drove faster. The path before them got foggier.

"Wind users clear the fog!" Hary shouted aloud.

The level one wind ability users were both exhausted from the last clear out. They could do nothing about the fog.

"Tian, keep an eye upfront. Let me know if you see anything," Eyes wide open, Yue entered the foggy area. 

"Steady... drive a little slower. I can't see anything..."

"We can't..." the rats were getting closer and closer. They were venturing out of the thick, bushy leaves of the corn plants and banged against the right side of the car.

"Fuck, they are too small and fast to shoot down..." Hary grumbled, shooting a few of them. 

"Don't waste bullets. It's better to run from a hoard than fighting against it..." 

The rats were getting braver. They ventured out of the safety of the cornstalks and ran parallel on the right side.

Yue cautiously looked. These rats did not look like normal ones. Their faces looked slightly smushed like that of a pug... and their teeth were protruding.

'What variety of rat is that...'

"Yue! the road! I see an intersection. Take a left!!!"

Zou Yue worriedly looked down. The group of rats was concentrated only on their right. 

'Something feels wrong... why are they only to our right? This is a big field with corn planted on both sides of the road yet they are only coming from one side…...'

"Yue! Left! now!!"

Gritting his teeth, Yue took a sharp left turn. 

The group of weird rats suddenly paused at the intersection. 

"No.. Tian... they stopped. Check our surroundings. See if we have any other mutants!!"

"I don't see anything," Tian assured him.

The three cars who were right behind them took left as well. 

The fog got thicker... it completely hid what was in front of their eyes. 

Yue slowed down a bit. 

"Why are we slowing down?" Tian peered over him.

"It's not natural... this fog. I feel like something is controlling it.." the road became much harder to navigate through. The road bumps were getting too frequent and, at their speed, it threw them out of their seats.

Yue hissed loudly. The seat belt dug into his chest. He swiftly removed t.

"Wear your seat belt!" Fan Xui hurriedly unbuckled his seat belt and leaned over. "I'll help,"

"Fan move.. You're in my way.." he pushed his big head out of the way. "Hey it's okay. It was digging into my skin. Just sit tight. Fan ah,"

"You should always wear your seat belt," he glanced up with a stern look.

Yue glared down at him. "This is not the time to be fussing over small things. Just get back to your..."

The car hit something huge in its way and struggled to climb up. He shifted the gears and went pressed to accelerator.

"shit… Fan-ah, please sit back. You are distracting me." He pushed his head away.

Fan Xui stubbornly pulled the seat belt from the side and tried to clip it in.

Yue just pulled it off if his body.

"Yue…"

"It's not time to be stubborn. We are running for our lives here..."

Tian also patted Fan's back hard. "go sit in your seat for god's sake. You are distracting everyone!"

As she was saying this, the front of the cars tilted down.

"What.. what is it!!"

"I don't know, the road just dips here!" Yue tried to reverse the car. Something stopped the back wheels. Sighing, he just sped up ahead.

The car tilted lower and lower.... it was at that moment he realized..

They were falling down somewhere.

"Hold tight!!!"

Fan Xui hurriedly hugged him close.

"Retreat!! Retreat! There's a huge dip here!!" Hary's desperate voice reverberated in his ears.

'fuck…. This is bad..the seat belt…' Yue fumbled around in panic.

Their car went down.

Someone grabbed the back of his shirt and pulled him out of his seat mid-air.

He hugged this person tightly with his eyes closed.

A loud bang was heard.. but he did not feel any impact.

He nervously glanced around. On one hand, it looked like Fan Xui was clinging to a tree root and on the other, he was safely hugged him close. 

"w-what.. what just…"

"You okay?" Fan Xui worriedly whispered as

He was clinging to the side of what looked like a huge trench. The trench looked huge and so deep that he did not see the end of it.

All he saw was darkness.

"The jeep…. It.. it…" it fell down this trench.

His heart stopped for a second. He could not think. His whole body went stiff.

"Tian! Hary! Hey, let's climb down. We have to get to them. They might be hurt…" he hurriedly clung to Fan Xui's collar.

"Yue calm down..."

"We are fine! Don't come down! The walls are made of fine sand. You won't be able to climb up," Tian shouted back.

Yue let out a sigh of relief. "Is anyone hurt?"

"No…"

A hand supported his butt. "go on up, we'll find something to pull them out," Fan Xui struggled to push him up.

Yue snapped out of his dazed state. He took out his sword and stabbed into the ground, getting a firm grip there. He crawled up.

Afterwards he pulled Fan Xui up as well.

"The leaves….. Maybe we can use the dried leaves to make a makeshift rope or something…" he hurriedly went to the nearby corn plants but Fan was just standing there. "Fan?"

Fan Xui looked at him and then at the empty road. "Where did the other cars go…"

Yue ran to him.

The other cars were gone.

He squatted down and checked the tracks. Two tire tracks looked like they retreating, but the other car track looked like something dragged it into the cornfield.

"Yue! Is everything okay up there? i heard Fan.. the others? Are they okay?" Hary shouted.

"One car is missing. The others must have backtracked!" he shouted back.

Fan Xui dazedly looked around. "How can a jeep just disappear?"

Yue was worried now. Cars can't disappear out of thin air like that.

Something was here… something dangerous.

Something stronger than the rats that can easily drag the car away.

The rats were not chasing us… they were running away.

We just stepped into some creature's territory...

"We have to move fast," he sliced off a dried off corn leaf and trimmed off the saw-like edges.

With all his strength, he twisted the leaf together until it formed a rope-like structure. He dropped it down. He could not see if the rope reached Tian or not.

"did you get it?"

Tian glanced up. She could see a rope-like thing wiggling around by the wall of the trench.

"I see it. I think I can get a hold of it… Hary, protect Prisitsky.." she moved closer to the wall. Her legs accidentally hit the jeep.

In the dark space, she could vaguely make out the state of their jeep. It was partially sunken in mud.

That fall was deep and swift. If they hadn't worn their seat belts, they would have been in great danger.

A small ray of sunlight shone in.

She looked at the bottom half of the jeep, which was fully in the mud. If Yue and Fan Xui had strapped in, they would have been mortally wounded.

'Thank god…'

"Tian? You got it? I'm shaking the rope..Can you see it?" 

"I see it.. wait…" she climbed over the crushed jeep and stretched out high to get a hold of it.

"Squeak!!!" the creature squealed loudly, wiggling out of her hold.

"Fuck!"

"What? What happened?" Yue worriedly shouted from above.

"I caught a rat's tail. Your rope is too short."

"Wait then, I'll find a longer leaf. Stay safe. Fan, come with me," Yue's voice echoed in the trench.

Tian got down, patting her hand. "What could have made a hole this big?"

"shh…" Hary suddenly shushed her. "These are not rats…. These are mole rats…." He whispered, pulling Prisitsky close.

'Mole rats?' Tian's heart pounded loudly. 'Shit, why didn't I realize it…The rats were not chasing us. They were leading us here…

'They were hunting us…'

'We need light…' she pulled off her shirt and set fire to it.

It gave her a small amount of light to work with.

She dug out the weapons bag from the jeep. There were a few torch lights here. She found one and switched it on.

The light lit the dark passageway, exposing the hundreds of mole rats just scurrying around in there. A few of them were hauling a dead cow into the den.

"Shit!" the rats glanced their way. They moved closer cautiously.

"HISSSSSSS!!" a loud sound echoed in there. The rats all just scurried back into the depth of the burrow.

"Stay sharp." She vigilantly glanced around.

Prisitsky, who was in Hary's embrace, excitedly looked at them. "They are not mole rats. Those are bamboo rats. Look at their rounded figure and face. Such wonderful creatures, really. I badly want a sample…but it's better we run from here as soon as we can."

Hary glanced down at him. "Why?"

"Bamboo rats are burrowing creatures but they cannot create such a huge burrow. Something big lives here and these bamboo rats feed it…..."

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