While others seek survival, I engage in flirtation Chapter 18: Monster

Right after that, two bone arrows came whizzing right at me.

The first one was aimed at my arm, and the second one was going for the hairy monster.

They came so fast that before I could even react, one of them had already lodged itself in my arm.

"It's you?"

Clutching the arrow in my arm and trying to bear the pain, I suddenly heard a familiar voice.

That voice... it was the camp leader from before!

I didn't rush off, and they stepped out of the woods.

He looked at me warily, though I had no idea why they were so against us. After a quick hello, the guy urged us to leave ASAP.

Of course, I refused and asked him why. We had just seen that weird-looking person; maybe they could help us!

"This is too dangerous!" a woman screamed. I recognized her voice; she was the one who gave me medicine!

I was relieved to see they were still alive, but I couldn't figure out why they left the camp and came out here.

Was there something so scary in the camp that they'd rather abandon it than go back?

"Why don't you go back to the camp? Why are you staying here?" I asked, but they just shook their heads.

I had to ask several times before they finally spilled the truth.

Turns out, the camp wasn't attacked by wolves that day.

They were gathering supplies as usual, waiting for rescue, when suddenly a few monsters barged in. They looked human, but their actions were anything but.

"Those things are monsters!" said the guy with the bow and arrow, Assad Williams.

He, like the others, was a survivor of the same shipwrecked cruise.

With his extensive survival experience, he had been looking out for everyone on this deserted island.

He was smart and kept the camp running smoothly, but even he had never seen such upright, hairy monsters.

"You wouldn't happen to be from Roaming Travel Agency, would you?" Ivy asked, eyeing Assad's clothes.

Assad looked surprised for a second, then nodded.

That explained it, no wonder there were men, women, and kids among them.

"They stole our supplies and ate our food," Assad said, looking pained. "If we resisted, they would catch and kill us."

Everyone else went quiet, probably because Assad's words reminded them of something awful.

Hearing their story, I felt really bad, but we didn't have the strength to help them. We just left them some food, hoping they could hold out until rescue came.

After Assad left, it was just me and the girls. This was our first time going out to gather supplies together, and we didn't expect to run into something like this.

"Your arm, did you just get hurt?" Margaret suddenly pointed at my arm, looking surprised.

"Seems like it," I said, remembering the sharp pain from a moment ago. But now, as I looked closer, I saw that the wound had already healed, though dried blood still stained my skin.

Was this another change that happened to me after coming to the island? This was too wild! If Margaret hadn't pointed it out, I would've thought I was imagining things.

But we still had a ton to do, and I just needed to know my body was getting better. We needed a massive amount of wood to build the fence. If I didn't start prepping fast, we'd be in big trouble if we ran into more wolves.

While I was chopping trees, the girls took containers to search for food and supplies, and also looked for any new survivors.

By the end of the day, I had chopped down a dozen big trees and cut out dozens of thick logs. Aimee gathered a lot of vines and prepared many thorny brambles. Looking at those sharp thorns, I could imagine they'd definitely pierce the wolves' paws!

Once we had everything ready, we started building the fence.

The girls made a few traps on our food processing table, sometimes catching birds, which we could roast and eat. They tasted way better than wild fruits and stuff.

We also made a few small devices by the sea to catch shells. These shells could not only be eaten but also used to clean beards.

The days of going to the beach to collect shells lasted for a whole week, but then one day, all the shells in my device were gone.

I checked the device and found no problems, but the shells inside had disappeared.

This situation puzzled me. The survivors we knew wouldn't covet these shells, so how did they disappear?

For several days in a row, I came back empty-handed.

Finally, when I couldn't stand it anymore, I went to the beach early and saw a woman stumbling out of the forest. She took the shells from my trap, ate them, and then left.

"Why are you taking my shells?" I called out to her, confused.

She turned around abruptly but ran away without saying a word as if she didn't understand me.

I immediately chased after her, wanting to get to the bottom of it.

She seemed to be European, with a beautiful hairstyle and pretty eyes, looking quite attractive.

Just as I was about to catch up with her, a few strange guys suddenly appeared out of nowhere. They were covered in long hair and looked terrifying with their fangs bared. The woman seemed to have encountered these guys before, as she immediately took a fighting stance upon seeing them.

To my surprise, the girl was very agile. One hairy monster suddenly spread its arms and lunged at her, but she easily dodged its move. Then, another hairy monster immediately lunged at her.

Although she was very skilled, she couldn't withstand the attack of several monsters. Her arm was scratched by one of the hairy monsters.

"Are you okay?" I quickened my pace as I watched from a distance. By the time I reached them, the girl was already crouching in a corner, holding her wound.

The girl shook her head but still refused to speak.

Was she unable to speak, or was it simply that we did not share a common language?

I tried to greet her in all the languages I knew, but she ignored me. So I used gestures to express my meaning.

Unexpectedly, she suddenly spoke in fluent English, asking me, "Who are you?"

"My name is Carl Smith." I extended my hand to her, but she just looked at me warily.

"Lilian Taylor." She looked me up and down for a long time before slowly speaking, telling me her name, "I understand."

Her English was much more fluent than I had imagined.