Dick struggled as he crawled along the ground; all was dead silent, and his vision was a sheet of grey.
He saw nothing else, only tree after tree; he was like a deaf man, like a blind man, and only when he crawled forward, his body brushing against the thick fallen leaves, that soft rustling sound reminded him that he was still alive.
Yet he was dying.
He was very thirsty, very hungry, and his bleeding left arm had already lost sensation; after he had crawled for who knew how long, his agonizing legs had gone numb as well. The weight of his whole body relied on just a single right arm to support it, moving forward bit by bit in one direction.
Why was he going forward?
Was there something waiting for him ahead?
No, he did not know. But deep inside, a voice had always been encouraging him: Go forward; only by going forward can you survive!
However, he was tired, he could no longer crawl, and the armor encasing his body had become a burden, but the most fatal thing was that he now lacked even the strength to remove that burden.
Forget it, there was no hope.
Dick used his remaining strength to flip his body over; he lay flat on his back on the thick fallen leaves, looking up at the grey jungle above, at the intersecting tree crowns and leaves, and those falling leaves drifted down from the crowns just like the melody of a fading life, spinning and saying farewell to the entire world with a beautiful flutter.
"Hiss, hiss..."
A black snake poked its head out from behind a tree not far from Dick; it was an inverted triangular head, and in its mung-bean-sized eyes gleamed a hunter's light. Its red fork-tongue flickered constantly, and it cautiously watched the creature lying in its hunting ground, hesitating whether or not to go give him a strike and drive him out of its territory.
Both sides looked very patient; a dozen minutes later, the black snake finally broke this standoff, and it slithered its body, moving through the thick fallen leaves at a swift and silent rhythm.
It approached the side of this large creature little by little, maintaining a hunter's caution and patience, and tentatively touched the body of this monster-there was no reaction.
It maneuvered its body to the other side of this monster again, and just as it was about to probe further, Dick's right hand grabbed its tail; the black snake was provoked, and its inverted triangular head aimed at the gaps between Dick's armor, and four sharp fangs bit down.
Yet, it did not matter.
He needed food, even food filled with venom.
Quenching one's thirst with poison sounded crazy, but when you were close to dying of thirst, would you still care about that pot of poisonous wine that could at least moisten your throat?
"Crunch!"
The teeth bit onto the scales, just like biting into a piece of tough wood, but when the first mouthful of foul-smelling flesh and blood filled his empty stomach, the deepest yearning from life itself conquered the pain; that was the desire to live.
Fifteen minutes later, Dick flipped his body over once more; his head felt somewhat dizzy, and his vision was also a bit blurry. According to his experience, this should be the manifestation of being poisoned, but it did not matter-he already had the strength to continue crawling forward.
Then crawl.
Before death arrived, he would crawl to the furthest place he could reach.
"Captain, look! There's a person over there!"
"Morris, go take a look!"
"Captain, it's one of our soldiers! He's about to die! Good heavens, what on earth has he been through!"
"Then bring him back; whether he can survive depends on his luck."
Next came a journey of jolts; Dick managed to open his eyes, a stabbing pain... a stabbing pain from the light.
A blue sky, warm light.
That's wonderful...
I've survived.