Dan Lee pulled out a Glock pistol—the weapon with the lowest recoil among his options—equipped with an extended magazine, suppressor, and infrared sight.
Juno and the others were completely stunned.
Beth, as their teacher, couldn’t help but ask, “Where on earth did you get all this?” “From Chief Pete.” Dan assembled the weapon and handed it to Beth.
He didn’t expect these people to kill the subterranean Wendigos; he only hoped they wouldn’t die too easily.
Otherwise, once they were all dead, every monster in the place would focus entirely on him, which would be a hassle.
Beth took the pistol.
Knowing it came from Chief Pete made it less surprising; everyone in town had heard rumors about him abusing his authority to deal in black-market arms.
Rebecca looked down at her battered, bloody hands.
Feeling a surge of resentment toward Juno, she gave a bitter laugh.
“I don’t think I’m going to get a chance to use a gun.” Sam said weakly, “I don’t really know how either…” Sarah accepted the pistol Dan had assembled for her.
She was the first to see the creature and was by far the most terrified; holding the cold firearm gave her a much-needed sense of security.
At Dan’s insistence, Sam finally took a gun as well.
Dan also gave one to Holly.
With a broken leg, she was guaranteed not to run far; he only hoped she wouldn’t die too uselessly.
If she could deal even a little damage to a Wendigo before going down, it would be worth it.
Only Juno remained stubborn.
She still insisted that the other two were hallucinating.
She held fast to the belief that no human could survive long-term in an environment as harsh as this cave—and certainly no monster could, either!
Hearing this, Sarah looked at her close friend with an expression that suggested she wanted to put a bullet through Juno’s head herself, to say nothing of Dan’s reaction.
Since Juno didn’t want it, Dan simply took the gun back.
Equipped and prepared, the group set off once again to search for an exit.
However, with Holly as a dead weight, their pace slowed significantly.
For Dan, a slower pace was actually better.
His primary targets were the Wendigos, though it was strange that such a massive disturbance hadn’t lured them out yet.
After walking for a while, the group heard the sound of dripping water.
Juno rushed ahead to check and discovered water trickling down from above a cliff face.
Seeing a ray of hope, she quickly set up rock anchors and began to climb, leading the way.
Fearing for Juno’s safety, Rebecca whispered, “Juno, slow down!
It’s safer if two people climb together—there really might be monsters in this cavern.” Hearing that, Juno actually sped up.
She was determined to prove that there were no monsters in this cave at all.
“The exit might be right ahead.
As long as we’re careful, there won’t be any danger!” Once Juno climbed to the top, she suddenly went silent.
When Rebecca called out and received no reply, the rest of the group had no choice but to follow the anchors Juno had set up and climb up after her.
Dan brought up the rear, lifting Holly with one hand.
His speed was no slower than any of the others.
It was only when they reached the ledge above that they realized the reason for Juno’s silence.
There was no exit here.
There were only jagged, pitted rock basins filled with piles of bleached bones—a literal mountain of human and animal skeletons.
Such a scene could mean only one thing: an apex predator was lurking in the depths of this dark subterranean cave.
This time, Juno had to believe it whether she wanted to or not.
Monsters truly existed in this cavern.
Dan tossed Holly aside, quietly pulled out his gun, and racked the slide.
While the others couldn’t see clearly, Dan’s vision was sharp.
Right above them crouched a Wendigo.
At long last, he got a clear look at what these creatures looked like.
In the darkness, the Wendigo wriggled like a hunched tower of withered bones.
Cracked, ash-blue skin stretched tightly over a protruding skeleton.
Its exposed eyes with pinprick pupils were fixed dead on the group.
White mist reeking of rotting flesh spouted from its shriveled nasal cavity, and its decayed lips curled back to reveal icy, jagged fangs, each dripping with dark brown slime…
Its hideous appearance was right on par with a Mutant.
Rebecca noticed Dan’s movements and asked in a low voice, “Did you see something?” Dan raised his gun, aiming the infrared laser beam at the cavern wall above.
Following the red dot, Juno and the others looked up just in time to catch the Wendigo creeping along the rock face.
Its horrifying face and sickly blue-black skin made their scalps go numb with horror.
Rebecca shrieked in terror.
“Bang!
Bang!” Dan opened fire.
Both rounds hit the Wendigo in the back, knocking it off the wall.
The creature let out a bizarre, screeching howl through its fangs and scrambled into the darkness.
It moved so fast that Dan didn’t even have time to land a follow-up shot.
“Stop screaming!
Do you want to draw the rest of them over?” Dan snapped at his useless teammates, infuriated.
It was bad enough that they didn’t know how to finish off a target, but screaming in a situation like this was practically asking to die.
“I don’t have a gun!” Rebecca cried out, feeling deeply wronged.
“What do we do, Dan?” Sam, being a student, had the weakest mental fortitude.
Seeing the Wendigo had broken her, and she was already crying.
If not for Dan, she would have panicked and bolted blindly into the dark.
Beth looked equally panicked and shaken.
Holly was perhaps the most terrified of all.
With her broken leg, if that monster returned, she would undoubtedly be its first target.
Dan quickly pulled another pistol from his backpack.
This time, Juno took it without hesitation, speaking hurriedly, “We need to get out of here right now!
This place might be their nest!” Dan shook his head, looking toward a pitch-black tunnel ahead where several Wendigos were rushing toward them at extreme speed.
“Too late.
They’re already here.
There’s more than one—right in front of us!” “Above us too!” “Bang!
Bang!
Bang!” Screams, gunshots, and guttural shrieks collided in the cavern.
The Wendigos’ objective was crystal clear: the immobile Holly.
Sarah, already mentally unstable, had her pupils dilate in horror.
She fired a few random shots and fled immediately.
Dan’s gun never stopped firing.
Juno and Holly held the front line, while Beth stood beside Dan, pulling her trigger.
However, young Sam had never witnessed such a terrifying scene.
Looking at the swarm of monsters rushing toward them, she lost all courage to fire and bolted into the dark cavern behind them.
Having no weapon, Rebecca had no choice but to chase after Sam.
Four pistols fired continuously, but the sheer number of Wendigos exceeded all expectations.
The defensive line collapsed almost instantly upon contact.
Holly was tackled directly to the ground, letting out a bloodcurdling scream.
A Wendigo bit straight into her throat, silencing her voice moments later as more and more Wendigos swarmed over her body, tearing and devouring her flesh.
Juno and Beth broke down completely at the sight.
Yet the remaining monsters were already surging toward them.
Juno was tackled to the ground in a momentary lapse of focus, flailing her arms and legs frantically to fight back.
“Beth, help me!” Seeing this, Beth turned to Dan, practically crying as she asked, “What do we do?” “Teacher Beth, run,” Dan said.
He had known all along that these teammates were unreliable.
He pulled out two M76 grenades, casually popped the pins, and tossed them toward Holly’s corpse.
The rolling sound of the grenades failed to attract the Wendigos’ attention; they remained fully absorbed in their feeding frenzy.
Seeing what Dan had done, Beth turned and ran for her life.
Juno was still struggling on the ground, desperate not to die.
“BOOM!” Dan didn’t run.
Instead, he ducked behind a rocky corner.
Following two violent explosions, the entire cavern vibrated with a deafening roar.
Loose rocks showered from above, making it look as though the cavern might collapse at any moment, though it ultimately held together.
Dan summoned the Mutant Cannibal Boss to act as his bodyguard while holding two Two cards in his hand, preparing to contain whatever survived.
If bullets couldn’t kill them, he refused to believe hand grenades wouldn’t do the job.
Once the noise died down, Dan cautiously poked his head out to scan the area.
But after catching sight of something, he froze as if he had seen a ghost and silently pulled his head back into cover.