The Boss Coal's words were like a depth charge dropped into the sea; after a brief silence, they exploded in the cramped room.
A buzzing sound filled people's minds as long-held but unresolved doubts surfaced, surging like giant waves in their thoughts.
Yes, removing fuel from a helicopter's tank takes a considerable amount of time—definitely longer than the time it takes for Boss Coal to eat a piece of dried fish. Before the Boss Coal has even swallowed his fish, Petru and his wife will have already returned from their honeymoon. If someone comes to retrieve fuel from the helicopter, people outside will definitely come looking for him and discover the secret of this time-space discrepancy. Even if this person entered the hangar on a whim without anyone else knowing, those people will still search after discovering the person is missing. Over three hundred people searching a warship, especially before the warship has lost most of its functionality, finding someone wouldn't be difficult.
"Could it be that they overlooked the hangar and didn't find anyone, or that because death was imminent, they were too lazy to even look, or didn't even realize that someone was missing?" Su Huilan said.
Petru analyzed, " The Apache's fuel tanks, plus the auxiliary fuel tanks that should have been kept in the hangar, contain at least a ton of fuel. It's highly unlikely that one person could have taken it away quietly."
"And this is very likely the last energy source on the Swordfish," Ivan added.
It must be said that Petru and Ivan know more about warships and airplanes.
"So, there must have been someone, and more than one person, who survived?"
"The problem is that both Captain Halsey and Ronald Cohen are dead. From Ronald Cohen's last words, it's clear he was the last to die. If anyone survived, they should have known this."
"Caw..." the Crow suddenly cawed, "Do you remember the first time we came down, the shadow I saw in the corridor? Guagua, back then you didn't believe me!"
Its words sent chills down everyone's spines. Alice said in a trembling voice, "Don't scare me! You mean there's someone hiding in the shadows watching us all along?"
Petru cursed and muttered, "Then let's have our honeymoon up there..."
The atmosphere became extremely eerie.
Situ said, "If there really is someone else, then he will definitely come to this hangar. We just need to wait here."
Everyone agreed that it made sense, and since further discussion wouldn't lead to anything, they simply stayed in the room and waited. Given the time difference between the two spaces, a day here would equal a hundred years outside.
After eating, people rested in a corner of the warehouse. In their panic, they stopped conserving torches and let them burn freely, since they had brought in so many that they wouldn't burn them all at once.
The wait was unsettling; apart from the Hanran, no one was asleep. The hangar was so quiet you could hear your own heartbeat.
After what seemed like an eternity, everyone started needing to use the restroom. Hanran and the Boss Coal could hide behind the helicopter to relieve themselves, but the others couldn't. Alice couldn't help but ask Situ:
"How much time has passed?"
Situ said, "It's been almost two hours."
Su Huilan did the math. "So that means more than ten years have passed outside? Doesn't that mean we were worrying unnecessarily?"
Situ said, "But don't forget, my consciousness's atomic clock is based on Earth time, and Ramla itself will bring us significant relativistic effects. If we remove this effect, the time we experience won't be very long."
Everyone had no choice but to endure their discomfort and continue waiting. It felt like even longer had passed when Petru was the first to stand up and exclaim, "I really can't hold it in any longer! You all have to keep waiting. I'm going upstairs for some fresh air!"
He helped Mrs. Larry out first, and they returned quickly, much faster than during their honeymoon. Then, Alice, Su Huilan, and Duwa went out together to settle their affairs, much faster than Petru and Mrs. Larry, almost in the blink of an eye, as if they had only glanced at the door.
Qingmu was curious about how the two spaces transitioned, but since it was always women who needed to use the restroom, he couldn't watch. So, when only three men remained, he said to Situ and Ivan, "You two go first, I'll go last."
As Situ and Ivan went out, Qingmu stood at the door watching. As soon as they stepped out, they were swallowed by darkness, their torches flickering twice in the darkness, leaving only a dim yellow smoke. Then he saw them return.
Qingmu was the last to leave. According to the agreed-upon rules, he wasn't supposed to leave alone, but he had Crow and Cat with him. He led them out, and as he walked out of the hangar, he deliberately looked back and saw that the people in the hangar were also looking at him. Their eyes were wide open, unblinking, and their expressions were frozen. Even the flames stopped flickering, and the entire hangar seemed to freeze in one image.
He turned and left with the Boss Coal and Hanran. In the darkness, he felt the floor tilt slightly, unlike before. He could smell a strong rust, and the areas illuminated by the firelight were covered in rust. After passing through two lower decks and entering the bridge, the tilting became more pronounced. When he came out of the command room, he saw that the entire ship had drifted to a spot closer to the shore and run aground.
He stood on the deck for a while, enjoying the refreshing breeze from the lake. He decided to go ashore and take a look, figuring that no matter how long he stayed, the people below wouldn't be in a hurry.
The small boat that Petru and Mrs. Larry used for their wedding is still tied to the spiral staircase, while the other boat has drifted away to who knows where.
Qingmu descended the gangway. The gangway was badly rusted and creaked. But it had remained intact for thousands of years before, so how could it have survived so long? It could only be attributed to the extremely humid environment here.
He boarded the small boat and felt that it was still sturdy. He rowed along the lake for a long time before finally finding the lakeshore that was overgrown with weeds and shrubs. The raft that the savages had built was still there, but many pieces of wood had rotted in the grass.
He went ashore, walked through thorns and bushes, and came to the hillside where the bodies had been burned. The traces of cremation had long since disappeared without a trace. Here, the grass and trees were lush and the flowers were in full bloom. Birds were singing in the trees and snakes and insects were crawling under his feet.
Qingmu glanced into the distance, determined the direction, and headed towards the location of the Huracan Tribe. Fortunately, the terrain had not changed much, and he found the valley in just half a day. A river meandered through the valley, and the Huracan People's houses were scattered among trees taller than the houses. The area around the altar behind was still desolate, with only the black stones standing there.
He arrived at the plaza in front of the altar, where the ground was littered with bones and not a single blade of grass had grown. The skeletons remained in the same positions they had been in when they died. Qingmu could recall that battle, the despair and resentment in the eyes of the three wizards as they led their last remaining people into battle.
Now, no one could stop him from ascending the altar, but he suddenly felt his legs were incredibly heavy, as if the white bones scattered across the fields still carried a deep obsession, their souls howling through the valley.