Chapter 39 Section 1

Suddenly there was a strange cry, and two robbers wearing monkey masks suddenly appeared in front of us.The mask was rubber, much like the kind kids wear to celebrate Halloween. Xuezi and I, who were trekking hard in the lush virgin forest, suddenly faced this kind of encounter, and couldn't even cry out, just stared round our eyes and stood stiff on the spot. The masked man with a bigger stature on the right took a step towards us first.He stretched out his thick arms from his T-shirt, which was sticky with sweat and moisture, and held something black in his hand.It took me a few seconds to recognize it as a gun.

The man said something to me.But he didn't speak English, and through the mask, the voice was so muffled that I couldn't hear clearly, so I had to raise my hands high and turned my head to signal Xuezi to do the same. Probably going to be killed by him, I thought.In the vast jungle, the possibility of other pedestrians passing by is basically zero.Of course, it was precisely because of this that the two robbers dared to act like this. I felt like my heart skipped a beat, and then it sped up.It became difficult to breathe, and cold sweat trickled down his spine.It happened so suddenly that all the organs in the body didn't react until now.

The man with the gun started talking again.I vaguely recognized the word "DOWN" from his ambiguous voice, guessing that he was telling us to squat down, so I raised my hands and arched my waist.The man said "DOWN, DOWN" several times in a row, and pressed my back hard a few times. "He, he, he seems to tell us to lie down." Xuezi said in a trembling voice. "Okay, it seems so." I put the camera hanging around my neck aside, and bent over the wet grass.Xuezi also put down the binoculars in her hand and fell to the ground. Another robber came over with a big knife in his hand.What is this for?Wouldn't it be to cut off our heads?It would be better to kill us with one shot.No, no, I don't want to hear gunshots either!I was extremely scared and nervous, and unlucky thoughts came to my mind one after another.In the final analysis, we are hopeless.Yukiko and I will be killed here——

People say that before dying, the previous life history will be presented one by one quickly like a revolving lantern.However, this strange experience did not appear on my body at all.There are only three words that occupy my mind: "why".Why is this happening in this place?Why?Why? The man with the machete bent over me and began to rummage through my trouser pockets.There was only a sound of metal crashing, and he must have snatched the keys of the rental car and the hotel.The house keys would be fine, but the car keys would be too bad, I thought.In the trunk of the car was millions of dollars worth of photographic equipment, which I had spent a lot of time collecting.Could they please do me a favor and leave these things for me--I'm really obsessed with money when I'm dying.

The man fumbled our passports, traveler's checks, credit cards and wallets out of his pockets one after another, and took off my watch as if it was a routine.Cameras placed on the ground are no doubt doomed.I borrowed this from my friend Nick.If I can go back alive, I have to pay him compensation. Then, the robbers began to attack Xuezi.But he just fiddled with her jeans pockets, muttered "NOMONEY" in a disappointing tone, and stopped, not even touching the binoculars. After taking everything we wanted, the two robbers bandaged our hands and feet and gagged our mouths with dirty towels.They also looked extremely anxious, panting heavily.Now, I'm actually relieved, because this move shows that they won't kill us.

After tying us up, a robber patted me on the shoulder and said "OK" twice. Does this mean "Don't be afraid, we won't kill you"? The two finally turned and left.After a while, the sound of a car engine starting came from far away, presumably they were planning to escape in our rental car. But just a few moments later, one of the bandits came back, presumably to make sure we were really immobilized.When he saw us frozen, he showed a relieved look, said "BYE", and left again.The sound of the car engine hummed for a while, and then gradually faded away. I turned my head and looked at Xuezi.Like me, she had her hands tied behind her back, with a helpless expression on her face, and she was telling me the confusion and fear of "why did such a bad thing happen to me" with her eyes.My expression must have been the same.But saving your life is better than anything else.

I don't know when, the rain began to patter down.The raindrops poured into the ears were cold. I started to writhe my limbs and struggle, and my feet regained their freedom immediately.Because I happen to be wearing rubber boots and the robber just put duct tape on them.So as long as you break off the shoe, the tape will come off with it.In addition, because I pressed the fanny pack under my abdomen when I was prone, they didn't find it, and there was a small amount of cash in it that could save my life.It can be seen that the robbers were also very panicked, and their work was rough.

I stood up and said to Xuezi, "I'm going to find someone to help, so you stay here first." But there was something stuffed in my mouth, and there were only some "woo woo woo" sounds.After finishing speaking, he ran with his hands behind his back. This is a National Forest Park called Bralio, and the entrance to the park is the highway.The entrance is very narrow, just cut the bushes for tourists to barely pass through.The place where we were attacked was in the jungle about 200 meters away. I walked onto the road and found that the rental car that had been parked there had indeed disappeared.I stood on the side of the road and waited for passing vehicles.

After a while, a van drove over.I jumped up and down to show the driver my hands bound behind my back.He also tried to show a look of asking for help on his face.But the driver didn't stop, instead, he speeded up and passed me like a plague god. The same was true for several cars that passed by afterwards. Instead of stopping, they accelerated and drove away.If I hadn't avoided it in time, maybe I would have been hit and killed. Only then did I learn that one of the criminal methods here is to stop the car pretending to be asking for help, and then immediately turn into robbers after getting in the car. The drivers are terrified of this.

After a while, I still failed to stop a car, so I could only go back to Xuezi dejectedly.She was struggling and wriggling on the ground, and the thing stuffed in her mouth had already spit out, but unfortunately her nostrils were blocked, blocking her breathing, making her look very painful.Looking at her like this, I suddenly felt it was funny, and I couldn't help but let out a vague "hush, wheeze" laugh. "What are you laughing at!" She said angrily, "Hurry up and think of a way! I said a long time ago that I don't want to come to this kind of place!" As she spoke, she began to cry.

I quickly ran to sit next to her, and helped each other tear off each other's tape.After struggling for about twenty minutes, our bodies were finally liberated.It's just that the watch was snatched away, so it's impossible to judge the current moment. "Oh, what a pity!" I slumped on the ground and said.The part that was taped just now was burning with pain. "I thought they would kill them." "me too." "I can't stay in this kind of place anymore. Let's go back!" "Of course I know that. But how are we going to get out of this place and go back to the hotel?" "Let's take a ride." "But the car won't stop." "Why is that?" "I do not know either." I took Xuezi onto the road and tried to ask the passing vehicles for help again.But still no car was willing to stop for us. "These drivers are really cold-blooded!" Xuezi cried. Just then, a bus drove by.The body was extremely dilapidated, rattling and rattling, and there were bursts of gray smoke from the rear.But even so, we have met a savior. "The bus should be willing to stop." We waved our arms again and again, but the speed of the car did not slow down.I ran to the middle of the road, held up my hands, and the bus finally slowed down. The driver stuck his head out of the car window, his dark face was full of anger, and he said something in an angry voice.I hurried forward, repeating the words "robber" and "help" in broken Spanish.Xuezi cried exaggeratedly on the side. I don't know if he understood what I meant, or if Xuezi's acting skills worked, the driver finally let us get into the car.There were more than ten passengers in the car.They all stared at us in disgust at first, but after listening to the driver's explanation, they started talking and invited us to sit on a bench, no doubt expressing sympathy for us. "Is there any passenger who speaks English?" I asked in English, repeating "English" several times in Spanish. Everyone pointed at an uncle with a shabby face.He held a small basket and walked up to us tremblingly. "Uncle, can you speak English?" I asked in English. The uncle nodded repeatedly. "Is this car bound for San Jose?" San Jose is the capital of Costa Rica, and our hotel is there. The uncle nodded again. "It will be fine now, as long as we go back to San Jose, we can figure out a way." I said to Xuezi in Japanese. The uncle reached into the basket, took out something like a candy bar and handed it to me, as if asking me to taste it.I said "NO, THANKYOU." I shook my head and declined.From his conversations with the passengers, I judged that this uncle should be a hawker selling cheap snacks on the bus, and he probably needs a few words of English to do this kind of business. The bus wobbled along the mountain road.The Xuezi sitting next to me was muttering again: "We are really unlucky this time!" But I just hung my head and said nothing.