Chapter 1636 - Mountain of the Lost
Chapter 1636: Mountain of the Lost
Brother Wolf continued with his tour. He said that there was a mountain in Crete, Greece, that was also this type of folded mountain. He said something about anticlines and valleys, synclines and mountains — Li Du did not really understand what he was saying.
They did a rough search on the island but because it was already somewhat dark, they could not really see well, so the search was not successful.
At night, Brother Wolf saved to the computer the footage Ah Fei got from flying around in the sky. They sat around, sipping coffee as they watched the boring video. All of a sudden, Brother Wolf pointed at the video and said, “Hurry and pause, look right here!”
“What did you see?” Li Du asked reflexively.
Brother Wolf zoomed in on the video and a blurry shadow came into view.
Young Markelov smacked his lips as he said, “That’s a teenager. We’re not the only ones on this island.”
This was a new discovery. They had no idea that there were other people living on the island before this, despite the information Elson, Li Du and the rest got from going around asking.
On top of that, this was a teenager. It was likely that a village had survived. If not for the fact that they saw the boat at the lake, what else could account for the teenager appearing out of the middle of nowhere?
This discovery gave them a new goal. Brother Wolf replayed the video and found the teenager’s location. After a night’s rest, they would bring their luggage and head to that spot the next morning.
Seagull Island was a mountain island. It was formed by shifts in the earth’s crust. It was also a stone island and there were many mountains and canyons on it.
From the canyon peak, the island’s unique geographical landscape became even more apparent. The rocks on the hills were all folded and the texture was a result of several layers of folds.
To Li Du, this looked like a scroll painting. The others had never seen a scroll painting before so they thought it looked like egg rolls or layers upon layers of twisted bread.
However, they could all agree that the multiple layers of folds on the mountains that surrounded the island in a ring made for a magnificent sight.
As he stared at the folded mountain rocks, Firecracker suddenly said, “Did you notice this sort of texture is just like stone melting into waves? They’re piled one on top of the other, moving about in every direction. Then, when it cools suddenly and freezes, it ends up looking like this.”
Li Du could not help but nod at his words. “That is quite the description. This is just like The Wave.”
The unique geological environment pulled exclamation after exclamation from them. After shuttling back and forth along the valley a few times, Brother Wolf suddenly raised his arm to signal for everybody to stop.
Young Markelov thought the man had found something, so he immediately gripped the gun dangling around his neck and asked, “What’s wrong?”
Brother Wolf looked at him and asked, “Did you find out what this mountain’s called?”
Young Markelov said, “Mountain of the Lost, why?”
Brother Wolf fell silent for a while, then spoke slowly, “It’s a very fitting name. I think I’m lost, boss. I’ve lost my sense of direction.”
Madman sucked in his breath and said, “Damn, I didn’t notice it earlier, but I lost my sense of direction too!”
Li Du did not think this was a big deal. He asked, “What’s the problem? It’s alright, I brought a compass with me.”
As he spoke, he took out a small box from his waist pouch, only to find the compass needle shaking incessantly. Something was interfering with the compass!
Godzilla flipped his dagger around. There was another compass embedded in the handle of the blade.
The interference affected this compass as well, causing the needle to spin out of control.
Li Du waved his hands and said, “No worries, the sun is above our head and we have watches on us, so it’ll be easy for us to determine our direction, no?”
There were many methods to determine direction out in the wild and most of the people in his group were elite field soldiers who had received special training, so Li Du truly believed that direction was not an issue for them.
However, things were not as easy as he thought they were; otherwise, the expression on Brother Wolf’s face would not be this grave.
There was something wrong with their watches too — the time was off. It was obvious that the stones in the valleys were magnetic, affecting not just the compasses but also the mechanical watches.
Brother Wolf fished out his phone to look at the time. His phone was not affected by the magnetic field so time was still flowing normally.
After adjusting the time on their watches and taking into account the position of the sun, they very quickly confirmed the cardinal positions.
They discovered another problem when they were checking their phones — there was no signal. Not just the regular phones that were affected by this; even Li Du’s satellite phone was useless.
This was a situation they had not encountered even in the south and north poles. Evidently, the magnetism of this island was extremely strong, strong enough to interfere with satellite signals.
At the sight of this, Brother Wolf thought of the blurry satellite map and said, “It’s not the fog of the island that’s interfering with the satellite view, it’s because the island is too magnetic and that is interfering with the satellite’s search signal.”
The group fell silent. It was becoming obvious that this island was a lot more difficult to deal with than they had initially expected.
However, they had one eye up in the sky — Ah Fei — so things were not all that bad.
What was setting Li Du on edge was that these folds seem to have some sort of magic power; they would confuse all sense of direction after they walked around for a bit, and so they had to constantly rely on the sunlight and their watches to confirm their direction or they would be lost.
At night after the sun had set, the problem exacerbated. It was difficult for them to determine their direction without the help of sunlight.
To prevent accidents, Brother Wolf found a good camping spot the moment the sun had set and the bunch hurried off to rest.
Wandering around the mountain the whole day had sapped Li Du of all his energy, so much so that it was difficult for him to stand up again after sitting down.
Young Markelov was chewing gum. It was clear he was drained of energy as well. He said, “F*ck, why are we so tired? We weren’t even this tired back when we were in the army undergoing ironman training!”
Brother Wolf responded, “Close your eyes, everyone, and let your mind relax. We’re tired, not physically but mentally. There’s something going on with the folded mountains that is giving us extra mental stress!”
Li Du shut his eyes as Brother Wolf instructed, but his vision did not go blank completely. Instead, rings and rings of spiral patterns that resembled the folds on the mountain appeared in his vision, but they were much more tightly coiled. They were spinning simultaneously and it was making him dizzy.
Li Du could not take it anymore so he opened his eyes, but it turned out that he was better off keeping his eyes shut. The moment he opened his eyes, he saw the bit of the mountain rocks that were illuminated by the flame and stared straight into their folds.
This was more than he could bear. Not only did his eyes hurt, but his head was spinning as well. He quickly turned his head to the side and vomited.
Godzilla, who had been trying to start the fire, hurried over to pat his back. He asked in concern, “What’s wrong, boss?”
Li Du felt a lot better after throwing up and heaved a sigh. “It’s nothing, it’s probably because we’ve been staring at the folds too long.”
Brother Wolf handed a cup of warm wine over to him and said, “Drink some of this. The island is cursed, so we have to be careful. It’s like natural hypnosis — staring at the folds for too long will numb you mentally.”
According to their original plan, they should have been able to get close to the location of the teen in the video, but all they had been doing the entire day was getting confused and dizzy. They did not know for certain where they were, so whether or not they could find the boy was now a question of luck.
Big Quinn brought minced meat with him. After he thawed the meat, he dumped it into the pot along with some rosemary and celery to make meatball soup.
As the fragrant soup warmed their stomachs, the bunch of them felt a lot better. Their mind was finally at ease after taking a beating the entire day.