Chapter 37 Chapter 36 Rock Shell Salamander

I was startled by his posture, fully awake, and asked loudly: "What's wrong?!" "There's something down there!" When he said this, I reflexively took a few steps back, but a figure in front of me rushed up quickly, inserted a slender arm straight into the gap, and pulled it back in a blink of an eye, but there was something extra in my hand. As soon as I saw that thing, I shouted: "Snake!" At the same time, I was extremely puzzled, how could there be snakes in such a place? ! However, before I could recover, the "snake" was thrown to the ground, and the person who was holding it said blankly, "Run away."

I ignored his words, and shone the light of the flashlight on the thing that was still shaking on the ground, and looked carefully, only to find that it was not a "snake" at all, but more like a tail, a tail of something, not long , the big one was as thick as a bearded wrist, dripping blood, shaking frantically on the ground. The beard went up and stepped on it, then the saber fell, nailed it to the rock, raised his head and asked, "Damn it, what is this?" Several people look at me, I look at you, no one can tell what it is, like a snake, but without scales, like a giant mouse, but without hair, very smooth, even Huang Lin can't tell, only that it should It was the tail of some kind of reptile, and judging from the size of the tail, its owner was definitely not small.

"Do you think that the thing that rushed towards me aggressively on the other side of the bronze platform was this guy?" I asked subconsciously. Hu Zi took out his general knife, wiped the clothes of the corpse beside him, and replied: "Damn it, it's probably done. It seems that this thing is very ghostly. It will attack you when you are alone. When you are together, it will attack you." , it knows how to escape! Also, I see, the femur joints of this corpse were forcibly broken, maybe it was caused by that thing! Damn it, if I catch it..." "Okay! Beard, hurry up, that thing is injured, it will definitely come back, if it comes again, it may not be one!" Ahua suddenly shouted at everyone.

As soon as he yelled, I realized it, Hu Zi was stunned for a moment, picked up his rifle, and several people started to run quickly. Avoiding those rock gaps far away, trotting forward all the way, although I didn't see anything catching up behind me, but the tension is still self-evident. The night when the masked monkey chased me also reminded me of the scene when I encountered a strange writhing corpse... Running is a human's primitive instinct, and only running has allowed me to escape many dangerous situations that should have been terminated. The guy who didn't speak was in the lead, he was very fast, he pulled us away a lot, and after running for half an hour, the guy who didn't talk in front suddenly turned back and said a word to Huang Lin, and I was right next to her behind, but I couldn't hear it because I was out of breath.

After Huang Lin finished listening, she ran up and followed closely, and I also quickened my pace to follow. Not too far away, I felt the surrounding environment suddenly changed. I took a photo of the rock wall beside me, and it turned out that it was back to the wet cave area, and I couldn't help asking: "What's going on? We can't walk back, right?" "What the hell are you talking about?! You've been walking for several days, how could you go back?!" Hu Zi scolded. I thought so too, since I went to that dry place a few days ago, I have never felt the violent upsurge and fall of the water in the pothole, which means that we have gone very far, otherwise, such a drastic change, It is impossible not to feel it, so the wet cave we have reached now is a completely new place.

There is no other word, continue to walk in the cave, but this place is no longer as silent as the previous dry place, there are always some rustling sounds coming from places far or near, which sound like the sound of water, It's like something else, which makes me feel very bad, because I have habitually associated with the kind of reptiles that were hiding in the crevices before, could it be that this place is their real habitat ? Soon, the air around me confirmed my guess. It smelled very bad. If we say that the puppet has a breath of death, it is the smell of corpses, but now it has an extra breath of animals. Distinctive smell of urine.

At first, this smell was very weak, and I didn't notice it, but as I walked forward, the smell became stronger and stronger, and I had to stop and said to Huang Lin: "Sister Lin, I have a very bad smell. Good premonition, there is going to be an accident ahead, why don't we find another way out?" Obviously, I'm not the only one, but other people have already smelled that smell. Huang Lin didn't answer me all of a sudden, saying that she should think about it before making a decision. "Damn it, we've basically gone through all the other roads. We can't go if we want to. This road is the only one left. The only way to live or die is to ask me about the gun in Huzi's hand! Ma Yuanqing, if you are afraid, sit down Here, I will come back to pick you up after I clean up the front!" Huzi looked fiercely, raised his rifle and went forward.

It seems that, as he himself said before, except for the dead or unknown things that frighten him, all living things are nothing to him. Even if he encounters several lions at the same time, as long as his hands With a gun, it's not a problem at all. Huzi's courage somewhat dilutes the fear in my heart, and I continue to walk forward with him. The others follow without saying a word, only Huang Lin and Huzi at the head warned: "Don't be reckless, stay safe." Dim Sum! Watch out for the gaps, and the top of the head!" The air gradually became hot and humid, which was felt by several of us, but at least, this temperature is much more comfortable than the previous damp and cold.

Where we walked, we could already see the traces left by the activities of reptiles, but we have never seen the real body of that reptile. However, we found a strange phenomenon, that is, on the top of the head, there are basically only half of the dripping stalactites left, as if they grew out and were melted by something. I thought for a while, a A thought popped up: In this kind of underground, there is no sunlight, no plants, and few animals, that is to say, there are very few creatures that serve as the bottom of the food chain. Then, to maintain such a large-scale energy consumption, these What do reptiles eat for a living?Could it be that, in addition to eating rats, they lived by eating these stones?

Huang Lin said, maybe it is exactly what I said, because the composition of the stalactites here may be a bit special, which contains some elements that can maintain their life activities, just like the earthworms we are all familiar with, most of them rely on swallowing Soil for a living, and those large reptiles can also rely on licking stalactites for a living. Moving forward, the smell of urine became stronger than ever. Moreover, the surrounding rock walls changed unconsciously. It was rare to see that kind of sharp protrusions anymore, and all of them became smooth and flat. , It still looks a little sticky and wet. This situation made me feel a little disgusted for no reason. I thought, have I reached their real habitat?And these slippery rock surfaces are all formed by their crawling or licking with their tongues for many years?

Just thinking about that kind of picture makes people's stomach sour. Fortunately, I still haven't seen any real reptiles. I don't know where these things have gone now? We were walking more cautiously in this special area, but suddenly we heard Ah Hua say: "This place seems wrong..." "Brother Hua, aren't you talking nonsense? It must be wrong for us to come to their lair." Beard turned back. "No, I mean, there seem to be many... eyes looking at us." A Hua hesitated on the word "eyes", as if he was very uncertain. "Hey, to be honest, I also have this feeling, but it's basically a psychological effect, Mr. Huang, am I right? In this kind of dark place, let's stop thinking about it and move on honestly, especially It's Ma Yuanqing, yes, it's you! Watch out for your feet! The road is slippery, don't fall!" When Huzi said this, I happened to step on a slippery rock, staggered, and almost turned my back to the sky. Fortunately, my hands supported the ground first and maintained my balance. However, just by supporting, the feeling from my hands, It made me get goosebumps in an instant, and I almost couldn't get up because I just stood there, and I obviously felt the ground soften! Huzi looked at me and laughed loudly, cursing: "I just said you, you really fell, and you fell, and you fell, like a three-year-old child, who fell down and didn't know how to get up? Wait for me to come How about helping you?!" Huzi's smile made me calm down, and I carefully took a picture of the rocky ground below me, and boldly stretched out my hand to touch it again. It was hard, and there was nothing wrong with it. I thought: Could it be that what I just saw was a hallucination? "Damn it, are you really going there?!" Huzi ran back a few steps, pulled me up from the ground, and asked loudly, "What are you doing?! It's like sleepwalking all the way. Don't act like a fucking bear, can you walk well?!" I forced a smile and said it was all right, I fell blind just now, let's go on.But I gradually began to feel that there was always something strange about the rocks around me, including the rocks under my feet. is alive?Are we walking through the belly of some monster? I tried my best to erase this weird thought in my head, but that strange feeling became stronger and stronger, and I continued to draw more terrifying associations. And soon, this horrible association exploded as we reached an open place. It was a dark and empty hall, the flashlight could not reach the side, all the rock surfaces looked extremely slippery, the wall was very high, the vertical distance was about three floors, and the stalactites hanging from it were extremely huge, But it was still the same as before, many of them seemed to be broken in half.However, what is different from the previous wall tops is that in addition to the protruding stalactites, there are also recessed holes on the top of the wall here. There are so many of them that they cannot be counted, and each of them is so deep that the flashlight can’t get in at all. I really can't figure out how this landform was formed. "Follow me closely, don't go under those holes, there may be something weird in the holes." Just as Huzi finished speaking, I saw something suddenly fall from above in front of me. Huzi reacted very quickly. Before the thing landed in the air, he lifted it up and shot it. I saw that oval-shaped thing with my own eyes. It exploded in the air, and the fragments scattered on the ground. He rushed forward with Huzi to see what happened. But before we got to the edge of those fragments, there was a "chuck" sound from above our heads, and a black figure jumped out from the hole where the oval-shaped object fell, and stuck to the top of the wall. Beard just raised his gun to prepare For the second shot, Huang Lin let him stop with a yell. Only then did we see clearly that the thing above our heads was attached to the rock wall beside the cave like a gecko, but it was much bigger than the gecko, the size of a house cat, and it was completely black, almost the same color as the rock wall. Nothing but a pair of protruding eyeballs in black and green, staring at us unblinkingly from above. "How can it be so small?" I was surprised when I heard A Hua say such a sentence. "Don't hurt it, it's just hatched!" Not far away, Huang Lin turned her head and growled at us. Only then did I see clearly that she was holding a black fragment in her hand, which was the one that the beard smashed just now. Something, instantly understood, it was an egg shell, and the little guy on top of his head might have just crawled out of that shell. I heard Beard swallow and whisper, "Fuck, he's such a big man just out of his shell, now he's in trouble." "Put away your gun!" Huang Lin put the fragments into her bag and ran back quickly to say. The few of us didn't dare to make any more big movements, and walked forward cautiously close to the side while watching the little guy. But soon, things fell from the top of the wall one after another, all of which were the same oval eggshells as before. Huzi never dared to shoot again, but kept sighing: "Damn it, it's really not Time, now all hatched!" "Stop talking nonsense, get out of here quickly, these little things are not threatening now, we will be finished when the big ones come back!" Ahua had already run to the front when he said this, and I also quickened my pace to keep up, but The slippery water made it difficult for me to run again, it was like skating. After running for a while, Hu Zi suddenly said: "Damn it, these guys are still following us, what should we do? Mr. Huang!" "It's okay, they're just curious, don't worry about it, keep running!" I looked back, and sure enough, those little things began to swim down from the top of the wall one after another, looking at us with pairs of small green eyes like sesame mung beans, it was really indescribable. At this moment, I suddenly felt a chill on my back, and something fell on my body. I quickly jumped up and shook my arms, and shouted to the front while shaking: "Brother Beard! Come and help me, this little thing Lie on my back!" After hearing my words, the few people who ran in front immediately turned back, and when they saw my back, they were all stunned, but no one dared to make a move, so I shouted anxiously: "Brother Beard! Hurry up! Don't drop!" Ahua pouted and said, "It's not that we won't help you, I think you should take off your clothes, it's a piece of shit." Hearing what he said, I realized that it was not heavy, it was just chilly, so I quickly took off my clothes and saw that it was a lump of blue-black mucus, like loose stool. The clothes were thrown away together, but after thinking about it, he still threw away the disgusting thing on the rock wall next to him, put on his clothes again, and continued to follow them forward. However, everyone suddenly stood there like a statue, and I thought to myself, could it be that you were also hit by shit on your back? However, I soon understood what was going on, because in this huge rock hall, it was as if a switch was suddenly touched, and small green lights lit up one after another, densely packed, even near our feet. Green lights were also on the ground far away. This scene is almost beyond my wildest imagination. You know, this place is deep underground, how can there be such dense green lights? But obviously, this is definitely not a good phenomenon, because these green lights collectively started to move... I was dazzled, and I didn't understand what was going on. At this moment, the soles of my feet also moved, which made me stagger. My first feeling was an earthquake? !Conditional reflex looked down, my god, why is there a pair of green lights here? !Taking a closer look, it's not a fucking green light at all, it's a pair of fucking green eyes! Before I could make a move, the "rock" under my feet swelled up, and my whole body was also lifted up. This sudden change made me unable to stand still anymore. With a bang, I fell sideways on the ground. Struggling to get up, a pair of green eyes had already arrived in front of me, and then, I saw the most frightening scene: The "rock" under the green eyes suddenly cracked, and a long black thing protruded from it, licking my face limply, I subconsciously tilted my head to the side, and drew the saber on my trouser leg with my right hand , the movement was very fast at that time, the saber was pulled out, and then it swung at the long black thing that continued to lick me, but it was just a little bit, a huge force came from behind, and I was suddenly dragged out for several meters . There was a thud in my heart, it was over now, and when I looked back, I found that it was not some monster that dragged me, but a silent guy! "Don't hurt it! If we hurt it, we will suffer a lot!" The silent guy immediately pulled me up from the ground and said sharply in my ear. I looked left and right, and Huzi and Huang Lin were standing on a large raised rock platform not far away and waving at me. I followed the silent guy and ran towards them quickly, looking to both sides while running, thinking Fortunately, fortunately, none of these green-eyed creatures followed, they just flipped on the spot. As soon as I climbed onto the platform, I asked, "Sister Lin, what should I do now?!" "Don't panic, they don't hurt people. I just checked a little bit. They don't have teeth, so they shouldn't be carnivorous animals." Huang Lin looked down and said. "No way! What happened to the corpses we saw earlier?" "Those bodies were not made by these guys." "what is that?" "have no idea……" "Okay, so what kind of animals are these? Why are there so many?" Huang Lin thought for a while, and then said, if the guess is correct, it should be a kind of underground salamander. During the Cretaceous period or earlier, that is, the age of dinosaurs, for some reason, the earth changed dramatically. Including the reptiles in the ocean, almost all became extinct, but some, such as turtles, crocodiles, and this kind of large salamanders living deep underground, due to the suitable temperature and the evolution of their own digestive system, survived. Although she said that the salamanders below are not carnivorous judging from their physical appearance, we still dare not make any big moves on them.You can only see the movement below. These subterranean salamanders are generally about 5 meters long, and they look a bit like large crocodiles. The difference is that they don’t have scales on their bodies, and they look like slippery rocks. No wonder I didn’t respond when I stepped on them before, but when I thought about it, No, it's still an animal anyway, it's made of meat, so how can it be so hard? I asked my question, and Huang Lin explained: "Have you noticed their food? It is mainly stalactites, and most of the stalactites are calcium carbonate, so their bodies will naturally have a lot of calcium. The carapace on the body surface is the most obvious place for calcification. Moreover, the calcified body is also very suitable for living in this rocky environment. For example, if you look at the holes on the top of the head, they probably dug them themselves. from." "Hey, don't talk nonsense with this kid, Ma Yuanqing, let me tell you, have you ever seen a turtle? You know the shell, right? If you know it, don't ask!" Huzi interjected. I ignored him and continued to ask Huang Lin: "Then why have they been motionless for so long? There is no response when people step on them?" "This kind of animal is a reptile and cold-blooded. They consume very little energy. If they exercise regularly, the consumption of that kind of energy will definitely be unsustainable. Therefore, most of the time they will remain motionless like hibernation. Moreover, large-scale collective hibernation like this is also for heat preservation reasons." After she said this, several doubts in my mind became clear, but there were still some incomprehensible things, for example, before they all stayed still, but now that we are here, why are they all moving all of a sudden? At this time, the silent guy suddenly pointed down and told us to look. Looking at his fingers, we found that the little guys who just swam down from the top of the wall and followed us began to run up the top of the wall. At first we didn't understand what was going on, but soon, we saw a scene Incredible picture: When one of the little guys passed by a large salamander, the salamander stretched out its long black tongue, and swiped the little guy into its mouth! I was stunned to see this scene, how could this happen?Do they eat their own babies? ! Huang Lin asked me to take a closer look at the little guy's body surface, only then did I realize that the little guy's body is very soft and his movements are very fast, but the big salamander looks cumbersome except for the moment when it sticks out its tongue.In an instant, I understood that these little guys and these large salamanders did not seem to be the same species at all! So, what are they doing in the hole in the top of the wall?Could it be that they were going to eat the eggs of large salamanders? ! As I watched the movement below, I was thinking that it is really a helpless thing for the ecosystem to perform so cruelly everywhere. Until, all the little ones swam back to the hole on the top of the wall, and the commotion of the large salamanders below gradually stopped, returning to the original "hibernation" state. We got off the platform and continued on our way. However, even worse feelings began to hover around, because we all knew in our hearts that although the large salamanders were not very aggressive, that little guy was clearly carnivorous! Moreover, judging from the tail pulled out from the gap by the guy who didn't speak before, this kind of little guy will not be small if he grows up, at least not smaller than a crocodile. It is also the young of the carnivorous salamander. So, going forward, we are more vigilant than before. I don't know if it was luck, or those carnivorous salamanders were too cautious. We left the hall and followed the cave all the way out of the slippery rocky area without encountering them again. In the process of continuing to move forward, I suddenly thought of an old classic movie, and I was personally interpreting such a movie that was completely my own. There will be plants, and it is impossible to have the sea. There are only endless darkness, endless rocks, and the occasional mysterious and strange corpses, as well as underground primitive animals that have never been seen before. What else will we encounter on the road ahead?