Chapter 38
779 Words
A corpse couldn't move by itself. Who moved the body? And why? I had taken everything useful. What use would a decades-old corpse be? Did the person who moved the body want to live here like us?
Could it be Leo? I dismissed that thought quickly. The direction of the pit was opposite to the direction in which Leo and his men had gone. They couldn't be living nearby. It was very strange. Could the body move by itself?
I had a bad feeling. I crawled back in confusion, but before I could get out, I heard Zoe calling me from the entrance, "Zack! Are you back? Come out, please! Something's wrong!"
I hurried out. Zoe led me behind a rock wall. "Look, there are several pits like this one. Stella and I wanted to wait for you to come back, but Eva went in on her own. We haven't heard from her since!" Zoe and Stella looked worried.
I became anxious. One pit could be a coincidence, but several of them confirmed my suspicion. This cave was indeed man-made! The mysterious disappearance of the corpse was strange enough. Could there be something hidden in these pits? What if something happened to Eva?
What were those indigenous people doing here back then? I felt like I was caught in a huge mystery.
"You guys stay here. I'll go check." Worried about Eva, I decided to go down and take a look.
I tied an iron wire around my waist, handed the other end to the girls, and told them to be ready to pull me out if needed. I bent down and crawled into the dark tunnel. Within a minute, I heard crawling sounds ahead.
Feeling tense, I quickly shone my flashlight ahead. The flashlight was something I had found on the dead rescue team member. I had been saving its limited battery, but now it was coming in handy. Worried about seeing a terrifying, rotting face in the beam, I held my breath.
Thankfully, I saw Eva's beautiful face illuminated in the light. She gave me a charming smile, but I felt a surge of anger. "You're smiling? Are you a child? How could you wander off without waiting for me? What if something happens?"
"Calm down," Eva smiled, seeing my concern, and kissed me.
My tension eased instantly. I was relieved to see Eva safe.
"Zack, why did you stop? Is everything alright?" Mandy's anxious voice called out.
I quickly responded and pulled Eva back to the cave. Seeing us both safe, the girls breathed a sigh of relief.
"Eva, how far did you go? Did you find anything?" I asked.
"This tunnel is long. There is another pit at the end, just like you described, with a dead body inside. But it's so decayed that I couldn't tell what it was." Eva's expression turned serious.
"Another body?" I was surprised. Could it be the same one I saw before?
After some questioning, I ruled out that possibility. Eva said the corpse didn't look human. It might have been a canine, like a wolf.
We explored the other pits in the cave. To our horror, we found a total of nine tunnels, each leading to a pit with a corpse inside! These bodies included humans and various animals like goats, foxes, and wolves.
This discovery made us all uneasy. The cave was surrounded by these pits, each with a corpse, and we were living in the middle. It was a suffocating feeling.
We also noticed that the cave ground had rough, crooked markings. These eerie symbols were not formed naturally.
"I'm afraid this cave wasn't meant for living. It might have been used by indigenous people or Japanese for some kind of ritual," I guessed.
The girls' faces turned pale at this thought.
From the state and identity of the bodies, I guessed they had been there for decades, likely from World War II, and linked to the Axis powers' activities.
It was said that Hitler was a big fan of the occult in his youth. Later, as the Nazi leader, he spent vast sums of money and military resources researching supernatural events. Rumor had it that Hitler's scientists conducted many horrifying supernatural experiments. Some of the materials from these experiments were still classified as top-secret national files and not allowed to be disclosed at all.
Under the Germans' influence, the Japanese were also keen on the supernatural.
Our current situation on this island, with multiple accidents involving the cruise ship and rescue planes, wasn't normal. The Japanese and Germans were likely interested in the island's mysteries too.
There must be some buried secrets on this island!
- Writer
