Chapter 40: Small ck Hole


    Dr. Fernando waited on the beach for about an hour before meeting up with the search team, the Captain and the other soldiers, who were following them.


    The situation had been briefly exined over the radio beforehand, so it seemed that the elite soldiers wouldnt take any unnecessary action, but would immediately begin the pursuit.


    [Doctor, you can stay here or return to the base camp if you like.]


    [No, Ill go with you.]


    Dr. Fernando, who was more of an indoor person, wondered why he wanted to apany them to a dangerous ce.


    However, for some reason, he felt an inexplicable urge to head deeper into the jungle.


    The Captain had tried several times to contact the two who went to scout ahead by radio, but perhaps, due to the terrain, they seemed to be having trouble.


    [Doctor, Id like to see those traces left by the corpses.]


    [Let me guide you.]


    Dr. Fernando leads the others to what remains of the corpses and the drag marks in the vige.


    No matter how many times Dr. Fernando looked at it though, it was quite a puzzling sight.


    Upon arrival, the members of the search team quickly scanned the area with their gaze.


    [We know that they were dragged away. However, its strange how there are no footprints around.]


    [The soldiers who went ahead said the same thing. That the footprints have been covered up really well.]


    [Thats possible. However, its hard to imagine gueris having soldiers of that caliber. Moreover, they have as many as eight of them. It feels more as if]


    The Captain cut his words short.


    However, Dr. Fernando felt as if he could hear the voicelessly spoken As if the corpses had crawled away on their own.


    Thinking that he may have lost his mind, Dr. Fernando shook that thought aside again.


    [Lets go after them.]


    What had seemed like a daunting pursuit towards a highly skilled gueri force turned out to be a surprisingly easy task.


    The aforementioned guerris should be dragging corpses through the jungle, so they hadnt been able to cover their tracks at all.


    [The gueris had the skill to cover their tracks, but not to cover that trail of dragging corpses]


    [They sure are rather unbnced folks.]


    "


    "


    Yes, what was happening was quite unnatural.


    What exactly are they chasing?


    Are the people beyond the path theyre going through really gueri soldiers?


    Eventually, their suspicions reached their peak.


    A soldier found a human fingernail peeled off and stuck into the root of a tree in the jungle.


    [Doctor, what do you think this is?]


    Hearing him being called out, Dr. Fernando inspected it.


    The color of the nail The shape All of it looked familiar to Dr. Fernando.


    [Its a human adults nail. The second finger. It seems to be the nail of the index finger. It looks like its been subjected to a tremendous amount of force and peeled off.]


    [Did someone pluck that off of someone.]


    [No. If that were the case, that wouldnt exin how he got stuck in the root of the tree.]


    [Maybe a finger was bent from rigor mortis and got caught in the roots of the tree, and they were forced to remove them.]


    [Its not inconceivable but]


    The corpses really must have crawled around on their own.


    And someones nail must have been ripped off when he grabbed the root of the tree.


    Dr. Fernando may not have spoken that out, but that was hardly out of his own imagination anymore.


    Even though the soldiers werent talking, they too were exuding a sense of fear and trepidation.


    The sun was supposed to be high in the sky, but the dense greenery enwrapping the jungle made the ce look gloomy.


    In the distance, a monkey whose territory had been invaded could be heard shouting warning to the intruders.


    Their initially optimistic n that they would be able to catch up with the crawling intruders soon enough had already copsed.


    Still, they continued to move at an rming speed through the dense jungle.


    The dimness of the jungle and the fatigue were causing them to gradually lose their sense of time.


    The soldiers were silent, just watching their surroundings and following the trail made by the corpses.


    Dr. Fernando was also doing his best to keep up with them so that he wouldnt fall behind.


    Eventually, the pursuing party came to a patch of open terrain in the middle of the dense jungle.


    Sometimes, when a fire urs or storm topples arge tree over the canopy, a small t area like this is temporarily created where the sun shines down on the ground.


    Dr. Fernando looked up at the narrow, circr open sky and saw that the sun was beginning to tilt.


    [Alright. Well take some rest here.]


    They can finally take a break.


    Even the members of the team, who had been trained in strict actualbat, couldnt hide their mental exhaustion from the series of inexplicable phenomena, and they looked relieved.


    For an untrained person like Dr. Fernando, not being able to see what lies ahead in this dense jungle can be extremely stressful.


    He is now feeling slightly regretful, thinking that he should have listened to their suggestion and just stayed in the camp.


    Having such thoughts in mind, Dr. Fernando looked out over the nd in a daze.


    The nd, which seemed to have been recently formed, was sparsely popted with short grasses and short trees.


    Even so, Dr. Fernando found those trees rather unusual.


    The two trees in his vision, perhaps the result of another tree bifurcating, were also growing here and there on the nd that is beginning to turn dark.


    [Unnn?]


    However, as Dr. Fernando focused his attention on it, he started having doubts. Are those things really trees?


    As the blur of fatigue came into focus, it became clear to him that those werent trees at all.


    However, something had happened that Dr. Fernandos mind just couldnt ept it at all.


    [Ahhh, ah]


    [Doctor, is something the matter?]


    One of the soldiers, concerned about Dr. Fernandos strange condition, called out to him.


    However, Dr. Fenando couldnt bring himself to speak, and he only pointed at that thing that wasnt a tree.


    [What about it? Is there something in that tree]


    The soldier was at a loss for words at what he saw, before he shouted.


    [What the heck!!!? Thats a human leg!!!]


    Yes, a human leg.


    Dr. Fernando repeated silently in his mind.


    What was growing out of the ground, just like trees, were human legs.


    Dozens of dozens of them, in rows and columns, all over this nd.


    All of them are human legs.


    Some are adults big legs.


    Some are childrens small legs.


    Some are womens slender legs.


    Some of old peoples wrinkly legs.


    White peoples legs.


    ck peoples legs.


    Sinhalese legs.


    Tamil legs.


    All kinds of human legs.


    [rgh!]


    Dr. Fernando puked, unable to bear the difort rising in the pit of his stomach.


    Something sphemous and decadent was pounding on his nerves, making it difficult for him to stay sane.


    [T- This is]


    The well-trained soldiers didnt vomit as unsightly as Dr. Fernando, but they still tightly clutched on their guns and froze.


    Some of them closed their eyes and started earnestly chanting prayers.


    [T- Those legs are moving! Theyre still alive!]


    One of the soldiers shouted in horror, to which Dr. Fernando raised his gaze, trying to mp down his nausea.


    If the buried people are still alive, they need to save them.


    [Urph Which one?]


    Trying to endure his nausea, Dr. Fernando strained his eyes open.


    [A- All of them. All those legs are moving!]


    [Thats impossible]


    However, what he said was indeed true.


    All the legs pointing to the sky were moving slightly.


    And upon closer inspection, there was a strange regrity to the arrangement of those legs.


    The legs formed arge circle across the nd, and the toes pointed outward from the circle.


    [Unnn? What is that?]


    And asionally, mud would be spewed out from near those legs.


    No, that mud was being thrown out.


    After that, the leg pointing towards the sky would sink a little.


    [No way Are they digging?]


    [No way]


    For a few moments, as they watched in agony as if their nerves were being triggered, it seemed that all the legs were making the same motion.


    It waspletely beyondmon sense, something that wouldnt have crossed their mind, but all they could think was that in this strange ceremonial space, the upside-down corpses kept on digging at the ground.


    Heading straight underground, all the corpses were trying to dig a huge hole in the ground in a circle.


    Dozens of corpses were digging single-mindedly, and eventually, some of the legs facing the sky were about to be buried in the ground.


    [O- Oi! Those feet are wearing military boots!]


    [Arent those from those that scouted before us!?]


    A soldier with good eyes spotted a leg with military boots on the other side of the in.


    Perhaps because it has been rtively little time since they started digging a hole, the legs on that part of the ground were rtively exposed.


    [D*mn it, Ill go help him out!]


    [Wait, you cant help him without wearing protective clothing!]


    [Doctor, stay where you are!]


    Without waiting for Dr. Fernando to stop them, the soldiers crossed the in and headed straight for the rescue of their colleague, who was buried in the ground with his military boots on.


    They crossed the middle of that circle with their feet pointing to the sky.


    However, they abruptly disappeared.


    [Uwaahh!]


    [Eh?]


    The moment all the soldiers passed through the middle of the circle, they were gone forever.


    No sound of impact, no sound of fall


    No trained skills, equipment, nor any teamwork managed to help them.


    They just fell and disappeared.


    [A- Ahhh]


    The legs, which had been drawingrge circles on the tnd, began to move in circles, getting closer to each other, shrinking within the circle, bing closer and closer into the circle until all that remained was a small, ck hole.


    Everything was gone, leaving only Dr. Fernando nkly looked at all that happened.


    And then, the doctor staggered up to his feet, scooped up the mud around him with both hands and began to throw it into the hole.


    The doctor, who had lost his sanity, felt as if he heard a voice from inside the hole saying Gyeeehh in his insanity-infested consciousness.


    After losing excellent SBS members and a doctor, the Sri Lankan military set a blockade and burned down the fishing vige with a napalm bomb, destroying all evidence and abandoning all their activities in the area concerned.


    The nd was soon covered with the dense forests rich greeneries, and no small hole was ever discovered by anyone.


    Volume 3 end