I'll Follow You Too

"There's a monster!!"

"He's dead! Dead!!"

Zhang Hao was scared out of his wits. With no one holding him up, he fell off the ladder! The back of his head struck the ground and started bleeding.

But he paid no attention to the pain. His eyes trembling, he pointed outside. "A m-monster!..."

He screamed and backed away.

The crowd retreated from the main entrance like a receding tide.

"He's dead! He really is dead!"

"Did you see that? What was that thing? What the hell was it?"

"Tentacles! They were tentacles!"

"I don't want to die! I want to go home! Can someone take me home?!"

"We're done for! There's no way out! We're all going to die! Every last one of us!"

Some people began to wail, while others crouched on the ground, clutching their heads.

At that moment, Lin Yang came downstairs and stepped in front of the crowd. "Don't move!"

Everyone froze for a moment.

"You still don't understand?"

"Understand what..?" Everyone looked at him.

"This isn't human society anymore!"

Everyone was stunned.

"Not human society? Th-this can't be!"

Lin Yang pointed outside.

"This isn't human society. It might not even be Earth!"

Everyone followed his pointing hand.

"The exterior walls were built sometime in the nineties, and the windows have steel frames. But look at the glass in those windows. There's no glare. Normal glass reflects sunlight, but that glass doesn't.

"That isn't glass, or at least not glass as we know it. That's why it was so hard!"

Jiang Yu'an was taken aback. She hadn't observed things nearly that closely.

Lin Yang continued.

"There aren't even footprints on the lawn outside. Where do you think we were brought here from?"

Everyone looked at the lawn. There really weren't any marks on it! No tire tracks, much less footprints! Nothing at all! There weren't even flowers, birds, or insects.

Could they have appeared here out of thin air?

This place was too strange-so strange it didn't seem like the human world at all.

Or perhaps it simply wasn't.

"And those bloody handprints bigger than human hands, the Facelings, the broadcast... that fog. Everything, everything proves this isn't Earth!"

Zhang Hao instantly collapsed to the ground. Everything seemed to be just as Lin Yang had said. His heart was hollowed out in an instant.

"No... not human society... H-how is that possible? Then what are we supposed to do? Are we going to die?"

Jiang Yu'an added,

"For now, it doesn't look like it. If someone wanted us dead, we should have died long ago. But this school is the entire area we can move around in right now."

Her words struck like a bolt from the blue! Everyone was stunned. Some crouched down. Others were so frightened they wet themselves.

The revelation that this wasn't human society was too much of a shock for them!

They had considered that this place might be an elaborate prank by some criminal organization, or even that it was the end of the world. But it had never occurred to them that they had already left human society behind!

Despair settled over everyone.

Just then, a young man in a gray tank top suddenly rushed out of the crowd.

He ran straight up to Lin Yang, his face wearing the madness of someone on the verge of erupting after a breakdown!

"This is all your fault!"

He pointed at Lin Yang's face, his voice rising to a shrill pitch.

"You said we could get out if we found the key! Well, we're out now, so what? There's a monster outside! We can't get out at all! Are you fucking with us? Did the Facelings send you?"

"Say something!" The man took a step forward, spittle landing on Lin Yang's collar.

"Weren't you fucking good at talking? Why aren't you saying anything now? Did you deliberately trick us into coming out here to die? Say something!"

When fear couldn't find a target, it would randomly and savagely make a scapegoat of the nearest person.

Bang!

Lin Yang punched him in the jaw.

Then he kicked him twice for good measure!

The man instantly fell to the ground, howling.

Lin Yang said coldly,

"I don't owe you a damn thing! I found the key and opened the door. Did I ever say, at any point, that we'd be safe once we left the classroom? Did I?"

No one answered.

"When I told you to keep order, you ran. When I told you not to climb over, you climbed anyway! If you died, you had it coming!"

His words were like a resounding slap across everyone's face!

The young man in the gray tank top went from furious to stunned, then slowly from stunned to humiliated and angry.

He opened his mouth, but no words came out. Lowering his head, he backed up two steps and slipped back into the crowd.

For a moment, an eerie silence fell over the scene.

Then the crew-cut man stepped forward and said,

"There's no use talking about that now. Tell us, what should we do next?"

Lin Yang said,

"I told you, I can keep you alive, but you have to listen to me! This isn't a game. It's a slaughterhouse!"

His words were like a ray of light in the darkness of despair. At least there was a sliver of hope.

"You! Can you really save us?"

"But who else can we trust besides him now?"

"..."

"What are you going to save them with, you damn liar?!" Hao shouted at the people on Lin Yang's side, his voice loud!

"He's not a prophet! He's just an ordinary person! If you follow him, you'll all die sooner or later!"

Everyone fell silent. The broadcast had said that only the prophet might be able to save them.

But right now... there was no prophet.

Before Lin Yang could speak, Jiang Yu'an spoke up.

"Does it matter whether he's the prophet? He gave you food and opened the classroom door! He even arranged for people to keep watch at night. A real prophet couldn't have done more than that!"

Her words rang out like thunder, jolting everyone awake.

"That's right... It looks like Lin Yang has already done more than the prophet!"

There was silence for about five seconds.

Then the girl with the ponytail was the first to speak. Her voice was still trembling, but she spoke loudly.

"I'll follow him! Lin Yang, I'll listen to you from now on! I won't run off again!"

"Me too! I'll hit whoever Brother Lin tells me to!" The fat man raised his hand.

"Count me in," said the college student with glasses.

"Me too!" Even a man beside Zhang Hao raised his hand!

One after another, more than a dozen hands went up. The people who had just been scattered by fear, the people who had run downstairs and then come back.

Those teetering on the brink of collapse now seemed to have found something solid to hold on to, and they gathered around Lin Yang.

Even one of the guys at Zhang Hao's side hesitated, then shuffled back! He stood beside Lin Yang.

Zhang Hao stood at the other end of the corridor, his face ashen.

Only four people remained at his side: a balding middle-aged man and his buddies, as well as the elegantly dressed woman.

The woman kept her eyes fixed on the crowd around Lin Yang, her lips pressed tightly together. Then she shoved Zhang Hao aside and walked toward Lin Yang.

"I'll follow you too!"