The Mechanic [BL]

[35]

Chapter 35 - Wilderness (3)

Zhang Xun panted behind the quick-moving hunters. With less heavy luggage, it was much easier to walk, but after a long night of sleep deprivation, he was exhausted.

Finding a thumb-sized mark among the lush foliage was like looking for a needle in a haystack, but the hunters clearly had their own way of searching. They looked for signs of broken branches, looked for footprints that the average person would not recognize and always found the next mark when the trail seemed to be broken. Thankfully, no blood had been seen so far, which meant that James was at least not injured. Having the opportunity to leave these marks also meant that there was a high probability that he hadn't been taken prisoner.

But if so, why hadn't he returned to Lost Paradise? Why leave these marks?

When the first mark was discovered it wasn't very far from Reindeer Bay, but now it had deviated a lot and continued to spread to the North.

The population of Canada was originally small and the population had declined sharply in the past two hundred years, so that many towns in the North Rocky Mountains had gradually become deserted ghost towns. Sometimes hunters would spend the night in these deserted towns engulfed by overgrown vegetation, searching for available supplies. However, because people often took their valuable items when they moved out, the collected rubbish was often thrown into the garbage processing yard and was of no interest to anyone.

As they searched for the marks they found such a small town in the wild mountains. The asphalt road that was originally used for vehicles had cracked like a tortoise shell and the gaps were full of vigorous weeds. About a kilometre outside the town, on a rusted and crumbling billboard, there were faintly recognizable mottled words: Welcome to Coal Mountain Town.

Apparently the town was originally developed by mining coal, but with overexploitation and the rapid depletion of energy sources, coal mines were gradually being abandoned. There were many abandoned coal mines hidden in the majestic mountains and the vast sea of ​​trees. There were huge pitch-black mouths, which were buried with the souls of countless coal miners who had been forgotten by the world for many years. This town at the foot of the mountain was still the same as it was two hundred years ago. The roofs of more than half of the single-family wooden houses showed signs of collapse. The wooden boards were mouldy and decayed and there were countless insects and ants. There were grocery stores, breakfast shops, butcher shops, expressionless mannequins in the windows, motorcycle shops that had been ransacked, mailboxes still intact on the street corners... Everything seemed to still be usable, but it had long been overwhelmed by time and there was only an illusion of order left behind.

This desolate scene was chilling, as if seeing the end of the human world.

Why did James lead them here?

The group of eighteen people walked cautiously along the streets full of weeds and potholes. Anyone with a gun in their hands had it loaded with bullets and the safety switched off, on guard against unknown dangers that might rush out from any corner. Zhang Xun walked in the middle of the team, monitoring the images sent back by the insects moving within a range of two hundred to four hundred metres around them.

Adam looked around and said, "The last family in this town moved out one hundred and twenty-three years ago. At that time, their family of five had been living in this empty town for more than thirty years. The last person didn't leave until his parents died. There are fewer and fewer natural history museums like this that existed before the Third World War."

"Do you think it's a pity?" Cannon sneered, "None of us feel it's a pity."

"I'm not sure what you mean by think it's a pity." Adam replied honestly.