While others seek survival, I engage in flirtation Chapter 53: Broken Camp

So, Lilian, Moon, and I started making our way down the rock wall, nice and slow.

Lilian was already a pro at rock climbing before she ended up on this island. Even though the wall was pretty steep, she moved like it was nothing.

She just leaped off the side, grabbed the edge with her hands, and landed right in front of Matt on the stone steps. Then she took off, putting some distance between us in no time.

But every so often, she'd stop and wait for us to catch up, then take off again. This happened a few times until we got to a spot where we could barely see the bottom of the canyon.

Lilian dropped her backpack on a flat area nearby, grabbing just some basic tools and a flashlight.

We only had one flashlight from the camp, and Lilian was the one holding it.

I dug around in my backpack, found some cloth strips, twisted them into a rope, and wrapped them around a stick to make a makeshift torch.

This torch was pretty basic, only good for keeping mosquitoes and wild animals away at dusk. It wouldn't last through the night.

Luckily, the mosquitoes didn't seem to want to come near me. After dark, I just followed the light from Lilian's flashlight.

Matt was walking slowly in front of me, looking all nervous. He didn't seem too thrilled to be near me, but he didn't have much of a choice.

The bugs in this canyon were super aggressive. Even if you didn't mess with them, they'd still come at you if you got too close. But for some reason, they seemed to be scared of me and kept their distance.

Because of that, Matt stayed a little ahead of me, looking back every now and then, worried I'd leave him behind. But I wasn't going to do that. Matt was still pretty useful to us.

I had checked out the island's terrain before. This spot was on the edge, with dangerous terrain and a natural harbor. If we were going to set up a big camp, this would be the place.

Moon was following us lightly, stopping now and then to jot down some notes before catching up quickly.

I got why Lilian was so fast, but Moon moving so easily on these cliffs was a mystery.

She was behind us, not just seeing the path but also hopping around on the stone steps. I always felt like Moon had some special ability to see in the dark.

But I didn't ask her directly. First, she might not answer me in this situation. Second, I wasn't sure if she could really see at night.

Maybe she had some other ability or just a strong sixth sense. That could explain it too.

We kept walking until the flashlight started flickering, and finally, my feet touched the ground.

Once we were on the ground, the flashlight was almost dead.

Lilian had to set it aside and use the tools and materials from her bag to make a torch.

This torch used up almost all our oil, but it burned brighter and lasted longer. With it, we could at least search for some resources nearby to keep our exploration going in the canyon.

The setup of this place wasn't natural. The cave walls were super smooth, and there were stone slabs to keep out the rain and snow.

It had rained a few days ago, and there was still some moisture on the slabs, but the cave itself was pretty dry.

There was also a broken fence outside the cave, showing that someone had camped here before. And this camp was way bigger than Assad's or Abbott's camps.

We found some old stuff in the camp, but it was too worn out to use. It looked like dozens of people had lived here for a long time.

We found some broken cloth and some oil that had been left here for who knows how long.

The oil smelled pretty bad, like rancid cooking oil. Definitely not good for cooking anymore.

But it could still work as fuel for torches, giving us plenty of light for exploring the cave.

The structure here was interesting. Inside the clean and spacious outer cave, there was a narrow passage. We shone the almost-dead flashlight into the passage.

We had no idea what was on the other side, but the cave walls were rough, like people had been passing through here a lot.

How could that be? This camp had been abandoned for so long! No way anyone was still living here!

Plus, the cave looked really deep, and I had no clue where it led.

Just as we were about to go deeper into the cave, we saw two figures flash by outside. They moved fast and disappeared in an instant.

Lilian took off after them but couldn't catch up.

I barely saw the two strange people moving on all fours like animals, acting almost like beasts, just like the weird person we had caught before.

If we could find those two strange people, we might uncover the secrets behind them.

But they vanished behind us, and we couldn't find any trace of them, so we had to give up.

I didn't have time to play hide and seek with these strange folks. Since we couldn't find them, we dropped the search.

For now, exploring the cave was our main focus.

We left some of our stuff in the abandoned camp outside, then set off lightly, carrying torches and two days' worth of food into the cave.

We actually had about five days' worth of food left, but I knew staying in the cave for two days would be tough enough.

Plus, based on our journey here, we'd need two to three days for the return trip and rest.

So, two days' worth of food would be enough. And in such a tight space, the less weight we carried, the better.