Before Echo could shake off the horror, she felt a sharp, stinging slap on her back that knocked her face-first into the dirt. Pain seared through her as she gasped, trying to hold back the urge to cry out, turning her head to see what happened.
The one-armed man was glaring at her, his face twisted with malice, pointing at the human leg in front of her. He clearly wanted her to eat it. Echo quickly shook her head, reaching for something that looked like a coconut next to her. She gestured to it and lowered her head to drink, signaling that she would eat this instead.
The one-armed native sneered, grabbing the human leg and tearing into it himself.
Echo, her hands trembling, sipped from the fruit in small gulps, though her stomach was in knots, and sweat ran down her back, soaking her clothes.
No one spoke. The only sound was the grotesque chewing from all around her.
When everyone had finished eating, the one-armed man suddenly grabbed Echo by the back of her neck, yanking her to her feet. A wave of guttural cheers broke out from the natives. Echo looked up to see them giving thumbs-up to someone behind her, their eyes filled with admiration and, from some, even envy.
She had no idea what the natives behind her were saying, but a strong, middle-aged native stepped forward, making strange gestures and muttering something under his breath. Then, without warning, he slapped her hard across the forehead.
At once, the crowd erupted in wild cheers. Echo didn’t understand the meaning of it, but her head throbbed from the blow. Before she could even process what had happened, the one-armed man picked her up again and started carrying her away.
They passed through towering rocks and across a small stream, the land sloping lower and lower as they walked. The number of natives thinned out as they went, and it became clear they were taking her to this so-called “sacred water” for some kind of ritual bath.
Echo focused on observing her surroundings, not struggling. She knew that the moment she acted, it had to be to kill. If she couldn’t make it count, she’d lose her only chance. Against these mutated people, it had to be a fatal strike or nothing.
“Ryan, where are you?” she whispered into her earring.
She knew the natives behind her couldn’t understand her language, let alone comprehend any advanced technology. To them, it probably just seemed like she was talking to herself.
There was no sound. Nothing at all.
Echo frowned slightly but didn’t dare switch channels, worried that the natives watching her might notice something was off.
She quietly muttered, “I’m heading towards lower ground now. There’s grass, a river… along the way…” Without any signal or response from Ryan, Echo had no choice but to keep broadcasting her location. If Bill was safe, he should be able to intercept this channel.
A shallow cave-Echo was dragged right into it. As soon as she looked around, her face turned a bit pale. The cave walls were covered in gray-white thorium ore, the same kind Ryan and the others had dug up from the earth.
In the middle of the gray-white thorium ore was a small pool, about five or six meters wide. The water was so clear you could see the rocks at the bottom, and the surface was tinted grayish-white by the color of the stones below, reflecting the light from outside. It created a shimmering rainbow-like glow, making the pool look oddly beautiful, as if it were bathed in a layer of multicolored light.
But to Echo, there was nothing sacred or stunning about it. It was like the sound of death’s trumpet.
Bathing in such a concentrated area of thorium ore?
No wonder that woman had shown radiation symptoms so quickly. This wasn’t holy water-it was more like poison, lethal enough to kill. This was no blessing; it was like drinking the devil’s spit, designed to end lives.
The native who had been carrying Echo threw her onto the ground and knelt by the pool, muttering something to the water.
Echo, seeing this, slowly began to scoot backward. She knew she wasn’t as fast or as strong as this native, but where were these primitive people behind compared to modern ones? It was all in the brainpower. He had strength, but she had wits.
Who would come out on top? That was yet to be decided.
After saying a few words to the pool, the native turned and saw Echo huddled in a ball, staring at him in terror. He said something to her, but his words were unintelligible, in a language that didn’t even resemble anything like Native American dialects-probably only his people could understand it.
When Echo didn’t respond aside from looking scared, his face darkened. He stood up, took a step forward, and grabbed her. Before Echo could even process what was happening, he had thrown her straight into the pool. He moved so fast she didn’t have time to react.
The water wasn’t deep. Echo stood up quickly before she could even think about drowning, making sure not to swallow any of the water. She took a deep breath and wiped her face, already smeared with thorium-laced water. She hadn’t even opened her eyes when she heard a splash. The native had jumped into the pool after her.
Echo’s heart sank. She backed away, but the native moved like lightning. He grabbed her with his fingers clamping down hard. The radiation suit she had on, already torn from when Ryan had ripped it earlier, was shredded into two pieces and tossed aside.
Echo panicked and began flailing her arms to fend off the native’s attack.
There was no comparing their strength, but luckily, the native only had one arm and couldn’t kill her.
For the moment, Echo’s clothes were torn to shreds, hanging off her body in strips, barely covering her, but at least she wasn’t captured yet.
Seeing this, the native’s expression darkened, and he kicked her hard. Echo was sent flying toward the edge of the pool, with her upper body hanging outside while her lower body was still submerged. The native immediately pounced on her, seeing that she was too hurt to get up.
“No! Get away!” Echo screamed as the native rushed toward her, and she quickly lowered her wrist into the water.
The native was unbelievably fast and strong, and before Echo could get up, he was already on top of her, pinning her down by the pool’s edge. He pressed his body against hers and grabbed her thigh with one hand, lifting it up, ready to force himself on her.