Xu An reached out to grab Hawoole in the firelight, but a hoarse roar echoed in her ears.
"Run! Xu An, don't let Hawoole die in vain!"
As Qin Chuan finished speaking, Zhou Zhe, carrying him on his back, rushed forward. Xu An froze for a second, cast a final glance at Hawoole, then turned and ran.
They all knew that one person had to stay behind today.
The monsters seemed to have been activated. If no one stayed to stop them, and they simply escaped, these monsters would get out.
The Lighthouse might not be affected, but for the survivors on the ground, it would be a catastrophe.
The first to suffer would be Sand City.
Hawoole must have understood this, which was why he chose to self-immolate, intending to take the monsters with him!
Xu An had always disagreed with sacrificing oneself to save others.
Undeniably, such people had a sense of greater purpose, which she respected but did not worship.
But today, she was the one benefiting from it.
As they fled, tears streamed down Zhou Zhe's face.
Hawoole's sacrifice was like a huge boulder pressing down on him, weighing equally heavily on Zhou Zhe.
If the apocalypse had never come, they would have been comrades fighting side by side. But in this apocalypse, with two different choices, they who should have been partners had ended up on opposite sides.
When the civilians learned they couldn't board the Lighthouse, they were desperate, grieving, shouting with hoarse voices, even resisting and raging.
At that time, Zhou Zhe could have used force to deter them, and he could have deceived himself into thinking, "I'm just following orders."
He had heard every word Xu An had said to Hawoole earlier.
Yes, *they* were the "bad guys," so why was Hawoole willing to give his life for people like them…
Only Qin Chuan, apart from telling Xu An to run, said nothing else. For the first time, he buried his face in Zhou Zhe's broad back. The fierceness in him grew stronger, but the cold, proud aura gradually melted away.
He had never been afraid of responding to violence with violence, but Hawoole today had made him waver for the first time.
Perhaps, compared to him, Hawoole was more like a "guardian deity" who could bring blessings to the people.
And he was merely a sharp blade for the country.
Unable to distinguish right from wrong, the three of them were now engulfed by a great sense of guilt.
This drove them onward, making them flee the place at a near-running pace.
They all left without looking back. The smell of burning flesh filled the entire passageway, accompanied by the miserable howls of the monsters. In the finer details, there was also Hawoole's scream.
Xu An dared not listen. She covered her ears and ran forward desperately. She felt bouts of suffocation, and tears streamed down her face uncontrollably.
Finally, the light was within reach. Xu An didn't hesitate and rushed out.
Almost the moment they burst out, the sunken stone door slammed shut with a "clang."
Instantly, the entire world fell silent. There were no monster screams, no smell of burning flesh, no Hawoole's wails in the flames.
Nothing…
Xu An knelt on the ground, looking blankly at her surroundings, with no joy of surviving the ordeal.
Just then, a pair of felt boots appeared before her eyes.
Ana's voice, cold as ice, sounded from above Xu An's head: "Xu An! Where is Hawoole!"
"Where is Hawoole?"
Xu An softly repeated Ana's words. She seemed unsure how to answer. She struggled to get up from the ground, glanced at Zhou Zhe, and walked forward on her own.
Ana watched their dejected appearances from behind. Although she already knew the answer in her heart, she seemed to want a final confirmation.
"Xu An, I'm asking you, where is Hawoole! Are you even human? Hawoole fell out with everyone just to go back and save you, and you ran out yourselves, leaving Hawoole alone inside! You're worse than beasts!"
By the end, Ana was shouting hysterically, "Hawoole was such a fool to save a bunch of ungrateful wretches like you!"
"You can't leave! I'll open the stone door, and you'll come back with me to save Hawoole!"
Ana reached out and grabbed Xu An's arm. Ana's grip was strong, pinching Xu An painfully, but she didn't resist. She turned to look at Ana.
"It's no use. He's already dead. He died right before my eyes. You can't save him, and I can't save him. Hawoole is dead."
"You're lying! You're lying! You despicable people! Did you kill Hawoole on purpose because he discovered your secret!"
Xu An was already exhausted and didn't want to argue with Ana anymore. But she couldn't let Ana really open the stone door.
No one could guarantee whether the monsters in the stone passage were all dead. She thought Hawoole wouldn't want Ana to die too.
Xu An gave Zhou Zhe a look. While Ana was distracted, Zhou Zhe knocked her unconscious. Xu An walked to the mechanism and used her laser gun to completely destroy the cave's mechanism.
This place should be sealed forever, along with the unborn monsters and Hawoole, to slumber forever underground.
"Qin Chuan, I don't know what mission you're here for, but shouldn't you reflect on the purpose of the person above you."
Xu An left, uttering these words and carrying Ana on her back.
It wasn't that she was being kind in reminding Qin Chuan; she simply had nowhere to vent her anger. She was now certain that among the people behind Qin Chuan, there was definitely one who, like her, had been reborn.
Although the danger this time was not directly caused by the other party, it didn't mean Xu An couldn't annoy them.
Regardless of the other party's ultimate goal, the fact that they had concealed such crucial information as the monsters' fear of fire sources proved that they did not trust Qin Chuan that much.
Even more so, they might want to get rid of Qin Chuan.
She had never wanted to get involved in this mess, but the water had already soaked her shoes. If she didn't do something, she feared she would suffocate!
After exiting the stone formation, no one else was around. Xu An looked behind her; Zhou Zhe and Qin Chuan had not yet emerged. After ensuring Ana was still unconscious, she took out a car from her spatial storage, helped Ana into the back seat, and drove away.
She did not wait for Qin Chuan.
Apart from the Lighthouse, they had no further connection.
After Xu An left, Zhou Zhe also carried Qin Chuan out of the stone formation. He pressed a red button on his watch and put Qin Chuan down, waiting in place.
"Captain, just hold on a little longer. The rescue team will be here soon."
Zhou Zhe was using the same tracking device that Xu An used to pursue others, but compared to the half-finished model obtained from Rat, the one Zhou Zhe wore clearly had more complete functions.
"Captain… what Xu An said just now, I think it's not without reason. Regarding the Doctor…"
He had always known that the Doctor had reservations about their captain.
Qin Chuan had always disagreed with the Doctor's human experiments and was quite repulsed by the "World Consciousness Origin Theory" proposed by the Doctor. Every mission he undertook was merely going through the motions.
The rabbit-headed monster before was the first in the country, a hybrid of a human zombie and a zombie rabbit. But at that time, Qin Chuan had decisively abandoned the recovery of the experimental subject to save him.
Although the Doctor had been furious afterward, he had still assigned tasks to Qin Chuan later.
This time was also similar. The Doctor had said they needed to bring back a mature specimen of a "sand-burrowing monster" and had specifically instructed not to harm the monster's brain.
Qin Chuan glanced at Zhou Zhe, and for the first time, he did not reprimand him harshly. Instead, he turned his head and looked into the distance, lost in thought.
Zhou Zhe knew that Qin Chuan had wavered.
He recalled the Doctor's earnest instructions to protect the monster's brain.
What was in that monster's brain? Was it really just to extract brainwaves, as the Doctor explained?
Or wasn't there something already present in the monster's brain?
With a question in mind, Zhou Zhe hesitantly asked, "Captain, is there something in that monster's head that we don't know about?"