We got lost in the Shiwanda Mountains.
What could be more terrifying, more dreadful than this?
Trees, so green they were almost black, surrounded us on all sides. Occasionally, a bird would fly by, leaving no trace. The road grew narrower and wilder, with weeds growing thick along the edges.
It was getting darker, but we seemed to be going deeper and deeper into nowhere. We even turned back at one point, but we couldn’t find our way out.
It was like falling into a giant maze.
There wasn’t a single road sign along the way, just trees and more trees. I switched back to the driver’s seat, concentrating completely, trying to remember these seemingly identical roads.
But still, we couldn’t find a way out.
It was like being in a thick fog, with layers of dense forest blocking our way. We couldn’t see through it, and we couldn’t get out either.
I even suspected we were driving in circles.
Another terrifying fact was that it was completely dark now. Driving in the dark made it even harder to see what was ahead. And we hadn’t eaten for half a day; our stomachs were rumbling with hunger.
At that moment, I truly began to appreciate Qiu Lu’s thoughtfulness. She had filled the car’s trunk with local specialties, including biscuits and dried meat. We definitely wouldn’t starve for a while.
Wen Lingyu put down her phone, shaking her head with a helpless expression. “Still no signal. Calls won’t go through, WeChat just keeps spinning and then shows an exclamation mark.”
Qiu Lu muttered dejectedly, “It’s all your fault, Xu Zirong! If you don’t know the way, why are you driving? Now look, we’re stuck here!”
Xu Zirong had been crestfallen, knowing he’d made a mistake, not daring to lift his head. But everyone’s self-blame has a limit, and once it hits rock bottom, it bounces back.
Xu Zirong, who was in the passenger seat, clenched his fists and suddenly said coldly, “If you’re so great, why weren’t you driving instead of snoring away in the back?”
“You!” Qiu Lu’s eyes widened with anger, her voice so sharp it almost ripped through the car roof. “You did something stupid, and now you’re blaming me!”
“If it weren’t for you, why would I come to this godforsaken place? Wouldn’t it be much better to drink and play games in the city?” Xu Zirong retorted.
“Now it’s all because of me? Xu Zirong, you’re heartless!” Qiu Lu couldn’t take it anymore, her fingers with pink nail polish trembling as she pointed at Xu Zirong.
I glanced at the rearview mirror, my voice low. “Stop arguing, save your energy. Keep an eye on your phones; if we hit a spot with a stronger signal, we absolutely can’t miss it!”
Qiu Lu pouted, tears streaming from her eyes. Wen Lingyu leaned in and hugged her. Qiu Lu clung to her like a lifeline, sobbing and saying, “Ah Yu, I’m scared… I, wuwuwu, I want to go home…”
Wen Lingyu sighed softly, gently patting Qiu Lu’s back.
In the rearview mirror, I saw Wen Lingyu’s equally panicked and helpless eyes.
Negative emotions spread throughout the small car.
This road seemed endless; no matter which way we went, it was wrong. My heart began to sink, and fear started to well up uncontrollably.
I looked down and saw that my hands, gripping the steering wheel, were actually trembling!
No, we can’t keep going like this.
I slammed on the brakes, bringing the car to a stop. “It’s too dark now; we can’t see our surroundings. We probably won’t make it out tonight, so let’s just make do in the car for the night.”
The three of them had already run out of ideas and nodded in agreement when they heard me.
“Qiu Lu, can we eat some of the local specialties you bought?” I brightened the car’s interior lights.
Qiu Lu had already stopped crying, her eyes red, nodding against Wen Lingyu’s neck.
I opened the trunk and got out to grab some dry food.
The temperature outside the car was very low. Even though it was early summer, in such a dense and deep forest, the night temperature could drop to only a little over ten degrees Celsius.
I instinctively pulled my shirt tighter, planning to get this done quickly.
The entire trunk was full of Qiu Lu’s things; it seemed we’d be fine even if we were stuck for ten days to half a month.
I casually grabbed a bag of dry biscuits and a bag of dried meat, then shut the trunk with a “bang.”
At that moment, I looked up. The surroundings were pitch black, like ink. A fuzzy moon hung in the sky, casting a faint glow that couldn’t even illuminate the clouds. In stark contrast to the moon was the small, orange light from inside our car. It felt as if, at this moment, these were the only two pitiful light sources in the world.
It was only then that fear belatedly crept up on me.
I’ve always been skeptical of ghosts and deities, but on such a night, under our current circumstances, even the bravest person would break out in a cold sweat.
Just as I was about to quickly get back into the car, a rustling sound unexpectedly entered my ears.
It was a very low, soft sound, one that would normally be hard to notice, but now, in the absolute silence, without even the sound of wind rustling through the trees, any slight movement was magnified countless times in my ears.
“Rustle—rustle—”
“Rustle—rustle—”
Goosebumps involuntarily rose on my skin.
It sounded like a swarm of insects crawling in unison, their legs scraping against a hard surface with a grating noise that made my teeth ache and sent a chill down my spine…
I mustered my courage, pulled out my phone, and shined it on the ground, only to witness a shocking scene—
A swarm of black insects, whose forms I couldn’t distinguish and whose names I couldn’t recall, their carapaces faintly reflecting the light from my phone. They were head to tail, one after another, continuously crawling, surrounding our car!
“Ah!” I couldn’t help but let out a startled cry, almost dropping the things in my hands!
“What’s wrong!” Hearing my voice, Wen Lingyu rolled down the window and asked with concern.
I pulled open the car door and practically dove inside as if fleeing for my life, terrified that those strange insects might follow me in. I even looked down, checking the car seams several times.
“What on earth happened? You’re so scared?” Xu Zirong also asked.
I put the things down and took several deep breaths, trying to shake off that bone-chilling sensation that clung to me like a parasitic infection.
“Outside the car, there are a lot of insects…” I tried my best to control my voice so they wouldn’t hear my trembling.
“What?” Qiu Lu could barely believe her ears. “You’re scared of bugs?”
Now that her emotions had stabilized, she actually started to mock me: “Can’t believe the cool, straight guy is actually afraid of bugs!”
I frowned. “I’m not scared of bugs, but… it’s really weird…”
I quickly started the engine, ready to leave this place. At the very least, I needed to get away from these insects.
Wen Lingyu said, “Li Yuze isn’t a timid person; there must be something else going on.”
Qiu Lu was about to say something else, but Xu Zirong, who was beside her, spoke in a low voice, “I know what you’re talking about…”
At his words, we all looked at him.
He continued, “I thought it was a coincidence, or some kind of biological phenomenon, so I didn’t pay them any mind.”
“Ah Ze, did you see a group of black insects crawling head to tail, blocking the road ahead?”
I was startled. “You saw them too?”
Xu Zirong lowered his eyes, full of self-reproach. “This afternoon, when I was driving, you were all asleep in the car. I suddenly saw a line of insects ahead, crawling head to tail with an almost uncanny intelligence, forming a long black line. I thought it was a biological phenomenon, like ants migrating before rain or something… I was originally going to just drive over them, but then I remembered what the elders in the Miao village said about the creatures here being very spiritual and that offending them would bring bad consequences. So I hesitated. There happened to be a narrow, winding path by the roadside, and the navigation showed that this path should also lead out, just with a small detour, so I turned onto that path.”
I pressed him, “What happened after that?”
He paused, then mustered his courage and said, “After that, the phone navigation lost signal, which led to us getting completely lost in the mountains.”
After saying all this, Xu Zirong could barely breathe, completely overwhelmed by regret. “I’m sorry, if I hadn’t been superstitious for a moment, we wouldn’t, we wouldn’t be in this situation now…”
This big guy, nearly one meter ninety tall, finally couldn’t hold back his tears.
We listened to the whole story and couldn’t help but fall silent.
It was truly too bizarre.
Qiu Lu, who had just been loudly arguing, now softened her voice and said, “Zirong, don’t be sad, don’t blame yourself… you’re just too kind…”
Hearing this, Xu Zirong turned from the passenger seat and leaned towards Qiu Lu, saying in a choked voice, “Lulu, it’s all my fault, and I’ve made you suffer too!”
Qiu Lu leaned in and hugged his neck. “I was just really scared earlier, that’s why I lost my temper. Don’t blame me.”
“En!”
Just like that, the two of them inexplicably made up again?
I was a bit baffled, feeling that the saying “love makes one’s IQ drop” had quite a bit of truth to it.
Silently sighing, I looked up at the rearview mirror and met Wen Lingyu’s gaze. We both gave a wry smile.
Perhaps we should be under the car, not in it.
We were really getting in the way of this little couple pouring out their hearts to each other.
Although we now understood the cause and effect and why we suddenly got lost, it didn’t change anything. We were still trapped in this vast forest, unable to find our way out.
In fact, understanding the truth only added a layer of eerie mystery to our predicament.
Those insects, I really didn’t want to see them a second time.
After eating the dry rations, we managed to fill our stomachs. Before, I had disliked how these items looked and figured they wouldn’t taste good. But now, eating them, they actually seemed quite alright.
“Tonight, we can only rest in the car,” I said, making arrangements for the night. “After all, this is the wilderness, and there are dangers we can’t foresee. The four of us will take turns keeping watch. If there’s any danger, we wake everyone up immediately. Do you all agree?”
They naturally had no objections.
And so, we officially began our first night lost in the forest.
