The Lost Tomb : Ten Years Later

Chapters 23: Grandpa Chen

"Can zombies swim?" Suzhen asked me as we put the oxygen tanks back on.

I tried to recall all the ancient books I had read, but there didn't seem to be any records of zombies swimming in any of them. But now that they were dead, it should be impossible for them to drown.

"The dead are heavy, the dead are very heavy." Fatty said. "When that thing goes into the water, it'll sink to the bottom. It doesn't stand a chance."

Even our whispers echoed in the cave, making it sound like a lot of people were whispering. It was really creepy. Or maybe it felt that way because my pores had shrunk after I got out of the water, and my body was feeling colder and colder.

Fatty found the sound interesting, and said another sentence: "Wu Xie's a little bitch." The whole cave reverberated with the subtle sound.

I glared at him and put on my goggles, but Fatty grabbed my hand with a serious expression.

"It might not necessarily be Chen Pi Ah Si. Are you really going to look?"

"You mean it could be Little Brother?"

Becoming an old zombie underground was a really suitable ending for him. But it was impossible.

The pebbles made it difficult to walk with flippers, so we all sank down into the water.

The part along the rock wall wasn't deep, which made it difficult to maneuver. We could move forward by using our hands to pull us along the bottom of the beach. I got used to it and swam to the place where the old man was standing.

When I swam to the place where I thought he was, I turned on the flashlight, held the beach bottom with one hand, and slowly lifted half my face out of the water. I stuck my other hand out of the water and shined the flashlight over there.

The place where the naked old man had been standing just now was empty.

Gone? I wondered. Fatty and Suzhen also raised their heads out of the water. We looked around, but didn't find any signs of the old man.

"Did he go for a walk?" Fatty shut down the oxygen tanks and lifted his upper body out of the water. "Hey, this old man is pretty quick."

I estimated how much time had passed since we put the diving suits on. We didn't spend a lot of time doing it, so we couldn't go far.

Fatty looked to me to see what we should do. I had to find some clues, so I shined my flashlight underwater. I looked around and suddenly saw a head in the distant water that was about two people away.

The head and face were covered in hair, so I couldn't see what it looked like, but I could see the shadow of its torso underwater. The nails were very long and curling like aquatic plants after soaking in the water for so long.

"Grandpa, are you taking a bath?" Fatty whispered. "Why don't you ask him if he wants his back rubbed?"

We were in an awkward position. We had flippers on our feet and the heavy oxygen tanks didn't have any buoyancy. We were just like stranded fish in shallow waters. We couldn't stand up and run away, nor could we swim fast.

I motioned with my head, and the three of us slowly retreated to where the water was deeper so we could sink down.

I pulled my flashlight beneath the water, and then moved closer. In two steps, the light beam passed through the muddy water and showed the portion of the corpse that was underwater.

From where it was standing in the water, I could see that its skin was wrinkled and pale, and it almost looked like a skinny wax figure soaked in formaldehyde.