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Chapter 30: The Disappearing Teammates
Back in the car, Wang Ping removed all the thorny branches from the driver's seat to avoid raising suspicion if anyone noticed them. Afterward, with great effort and the help of Rosette, he managed to drag Gu Lang from the backseat and shove him into the front passenger seat.
Of course, the process was inevitably a bit rough. But considering that this guy would soon be rescued, Wang Ping couldn't afford to be too gentle. Let’s just consider it a test of endurance! Isn’t there an old saying, “Only by enduring great hardships can one rise above others”?
Once Gu Lang was slumped over the steering wheel, his head resting on his arm and accidentally honking the car horn, Wang Ping quickly retreated with Rosette, hiding behind a nearby bush.
The sudden blare of the off-road vehicle’s horn echoed through the quiet forest, startling flocks of birds into flight.
Gu Lang looked rather pitiful at the moment—his clothes nearly torn to shreds, his body covered in wounds and bruises. To the untrained eye, it might seem as though he had just fought a lion.
But such an appearance was more likely to evoke sympathy.
A tourist from out of town, attacked by animals, separated from others, sick, and lost in the jungle. What a tragic fate, what a perfect excuse!
Given Gu Lang’s current appearance, as long as he had the sense to stick to this story instead of claiming he’d been kidnapped by a honey badger and a leopard, Wang Ping estimated that even the usually suspicious Captain Luke wouldn’t suspect a thing.
At this moment, Wang Ping was crouched behind the bushes, awkwardly wrapping his short, stubby arms around Rosette’s neck to keep it still. At the same time, he nervously peered toward the edge of the forest, looking comically tense.
However, an awkward situation arose.
Fifteen minutes passed, and despite the continuous honking making Wang Ping’s ears ring, there was no sign of anyone approaching.
Rosette grew restless.
Wang Ping initially thought it sensed something he hadn’t. But after staring for a while, he realized Rosette was glaring at the off-road vehicle, its leopard face filled with irritation.
Unable to bear the noise any longer, Wang Ping calmed Rosette and rushed back to the car. He adjusted Gu Lang’s position, releasing the pressure on the horn.
As silence fell over the forest, Wang Ping couldn’t help but exhale deeply, feeling as though a massive weight had lifted from his chest. It had been unbearably loud!
This location was less than a kilometer away from the outpost in the opposite grove. For there to be no response after such a long time, it was impossible they hadn’t heard it.
A sinking feeling began to creep into Wang Ping’s mind.
“Damn it! Did these guys evacuate already? I just got here! Could it be that reincarnation causes a time difference?”
Suppressing his unease, Wang Ping waited another ten minutes, but still, no one came to investigate.
If there were people at the outpost, even if they weren’t members of Team Three, they wouldn’t ignore someone getting so close. After all, ordinary tourists rarely appeared in this area.
Jumping back into the car, Wang Ping didn’t bother moving Gu Lang again. Instead, he placed Gu Lang’s feet on the brake and clutch pedals, stood on his knees, and started the car. Slowly, in first gear, he maneuvered the vehicle out of the woods and onto the riverbank.
Seeing the car start, Rosette hurriedly leaped out of the bushes and chased after the vehicle, running out of the forest.
Wang Ping had made up his mind: as soon as anyone appeared, he would jump out and flee. As long as Rosette was outside, no one would pay attention to the small lump on Gu Lang’s chest.
Unfortunately, even as the off-road vehicle wobbled across the river, there was no movement from the opposite grove.
Realizing they had crossed the warning perimeter, Wang Ping’s heart sank completely. It seemed certain now that Team Three had left.
The central grove encircled by the riverbank was elliptical, with a diameter exceeding five hundred meters. In the southwest direction, slightly to the lower left of the ellipse, there was a clearing in the woods. This spot was only fifty meters from the riverbank, with two small cabins, each about twenty square meters, built on the clearing. This was one of the security team’s outposts.
The cabins were made of concrete, with interiors divided by metal panels. The southern cabin was a rest area shared with the local forest rangers, while the northern cabin was exclusively for the security team. Only internal members knew that beneath the room was a basement storing weapons.
Wang Ping drove along the riverbank, bypassing the grove for another five hundred meters, and parked directly in the open space between the two cabins, braking with Gu Lang’s legs.
Jumping out of the front windshield, Wang Ping hadn’t even had time to look around when Rosette, who had followed, head-butted him, causing him to tumble to the ground.
It seemed Rosette was upset that Wang Ping had driven off without waiting. Now, looking displeased, it head-butted Wang Ping again as he tried to get up.
“Stop it!” Wang Ping raised his paw and gave Rosette’s furry face a good rub before finally having a chance to survey the deserted camp.
It seemed the team had been gone for some time. At the entrance of the northern cabin, small gullies caused by rain were clearly visible, yet there were no footprints.
The door was slightly ajar, which puzzled Wang Ping.
Even in a hurry, they wouldn’t leave without locking the door, would they? Though in such a remote place, locking or not made little difference.
Gently pushing open the iron door, the scene inside the room came into view.
Scattered on the floor were mission briefs and maps that hadn’t been packed away. The table originally in the center of the outer room had been moved aside. On the floor where the table once stood, there was a pool of dried blood. Next to the table leg, an empty blood bag and several disposable syringes lay discarded.
The room partitioned off with metal plates, used as the female dormitory, was also open. One of the two single beds inside was missing its mattress, leaving only the frame. The other bed was messy, with a military blanket thrown carelessly on it and several bandages scattered on the floor.
Clearly, after Wang Ping had been injured and lost consciousness, the team must have suffered another setback, forcing them to evacuate hastily without time to regroup.
Wang Ping didn’t think the blood on the floor belonged to him. After all, the place where he was injured was at least ten kilometers away. If the team had carried him back here and he was still bleeding uncontrollably, he would have bled out long before reaching the outpost.
“What exactly happened? Did I really die? Is that why everyone left?” Wang Ping’s mind was a jumble.
If “he” had truly died, for Wang Ping, whose consciousness now resided in the body of a honey badger, it was an indescribable experience.
“Clang!” At this moment, a sound startled Wang Ping.
Turning around, he saw that Rosette had somehow entered a small room on the left. In turning, it must have bumped into a metal rack by the wall, causing the noise. This room was originally a small medical station for storing medicines.
“That’s right, Gu Lang is still waiting in the car to be saved!”
Putting aside his melancholy thoughts, Wang Ping hurried into the small room Rosette had entered. With no teammates to rely on, Wang Ping could only take matters into his own hands. At this point, taking Gu Lang to the nearest hospital or waiting for rescue was out of the question.
Wang Ping remembered that there were quite a few injectable medications in a metal cabinet in the room. Due to regulatory issues, many emergency drugs were difficult to transport freely between countries. But in case of injury, when there was no time to reach a hospital, one couldn’t just wait to die, could they? Therefore, the security team always kept medical supplies at various outposts.
Initially, they stored simple things like morphine and diazepam. Later, Jacob went wild, wanting to turn this small room into a mini-clinic. He even planned to install professional surgical lights someday.
Using his claws to pry open the not-so-sturdy metal cabinet door, Wang Ping rummaged through it. He ignored the vials meant for intravenous injection. What he sought were the hormone-based drugs that Jacob had pre-drawn into disposable syringes for emergencies.
Though hormone-based drugs had side effects, this was the only option Wang Ping had at the moment. He wished Gu Lang could lie in bed receiving IV fluids while recuperating, but he lacked the means.
Moreover, to prevent further injury, Wang Ping decided it best to keep Gu Lang in the car until he woke up!
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