Mystery: Who has seen my brother?

Chapter 219 Survival
Meursault was like an agile, defeated black panther, running in a certain direction at almost his maximum speed. He ran very fast, stumbling occasionally, but it did not affect his speed. He ran quickly in the direction he chose without any hesitation, as if all problems could be solved as long as he ran in that direction.

But in reality, Meursault isn't sure what lies in that direction.

This place is very close to his hometown, but he has been away from the Southern Continent for so long that even his hometown is unfamiliar to him.

In his memory, there was a very small tribe not far away, with only thirty or forty people. There was no Intis army stationed outside the woods, and there were no sunken pits inside the woods.

It seemed as if everything had changed. He could only move his legs and keep running forward, like a machine executing instructions with a blank mind, running forward, letting the gunshots move away from him little by little. In the end, he seemed to have lost the feeling of his legs. Only the bumpy feeling of his body told him that his legs were still competing to move forward.

The sound of gunfire had long since died down, but he still didn't dare stop until bursts of black appeared in his vision and his head felt dizzy, letting Meursault know that his body was nearing its limit.

After stopping, Meursault's body immediately went limp. The fatigue that disappeared during the escape surged back at this moment. The tall man instantly collapsed to the ground, his body lying like a noodle, as if he didn't even have the strength to maintain a sitting posture.

Along with fatigue came hunger and thirst. There was still a small piece of bread left in his pocket, but what he needed more now was water.

Sweat mixed with mud and sand stuck to his eyes, and fatigue tightly wrapped around his body like a python, making it difficult for him to move. Meursault struggled to open his eyelids. This simple action used up all his strength, as if he was lifting not his eyelids but a huge block of iron.

What entered my eyes was not the sky or the treetops, but a pair of gray eyes.

Sherlock!
The skin on Meursault's face twitched violently, and the unformed expression made his face look somewhat funny, like a clown in an exaggerated pantomime frozen in time.

He opened his mouth, wanting to curse, and even more wanting him to take him back, but only a few vague sounds came out of his mouth. He could only open his eyes with difficulty, hoping that this so-called "window to the soul" could express his expectations, but his wide-open eyes seemed to be cursing the man in front of him, which also conveyed his expectations.

"From here," Meursault saw the man leisurely raise his right hand and point north, "walk north for 15 minutes and there's a river, but in your current state, you won't get there in an hour."

As he spoke, he leaned over again and looked at himself lying on the ground. A faint smile appeared on the corners of his mouth. He spread out his hands helplessly and said, "Your eyes tell me that you are very angry now. It's really unfair. This is my reward."

When he heard the word "reward", Meursault immediately became excited and even more angry, as if he had been defrauded of ten thousand pounds. His eyes were wide open, but he had already widened his eyes, so there seemed to be no change in his expression.

"A quick way to advance. For Hunters, there's no better tonic than war. The war-ridden Southern Continent will greatly increase your digestion speed."

You're a member of the resistance!
In an instant, Meursault's upper body suddenly bounced up, his eyes widened as if their sockets were about to tear apart, and then his vision went black, and the dizziness in his head became more and more intense, causing him to collapse on the ground like a puddle of mud again, as if the series of actions just now had used up his last strength.

At this point, what else does he not understand? This guy was planning to send him to the resistance from the very beginning!

"Join the resistance, or not, or even join the Intis army..." Meursault heard Sherlock chuckle, as if sounding a warning to himself. He always felt that the man seemed to be able to read minds, which was frightening. "It's your freedom, your choice, but don't make a decision that you will regret."

Meursault lay on the ground, staring at Shylock intently, his lips moving, repeating a name in a vague whisper - "Mom".

Eve was silent for a second, then said, "All the tribal residents nearby have been gathered together by the Intis army, right where you alarmed the Intis army." No wonder, no wonder those bastards thought he was a rebel, Meursault thought self-deprecatingly in his heart.

Meursault raised his eyes and looked ahead, but there was only emptiness. The woods and the sky appeared in his eyes, but Shylock disappeared here, as if everything was just a brief illusion.

Suddenly, the man from the plateau laughed at himself. He remembered the night when he assassinated Sherlock. Maybe it was just an illusion.

He lay on the ground with his eyes closed, as if he had given up everything. After a long time, his body moved and he slowly got up from the ground.

He was covered in grass clippings and dirt, including his shirt, pants, hair... There was no place without them, making his originally clean clothes look unrecognizable.

But at this moment Meursault was no longer in the mood to pay attention to these things. He struggled to get up from the ground and slowly moved towards the water source step by step. His lips were chapped and his throat seemed to be burned by fire. In addition to thirst, there was also a knife-like pain. Every breath he exhaled was the dry heat of summer.

His clothes were soaked with sweat. The weather in the southern continent was always hotter than that in the northern continent, and even in winter it was not that cold, which made things even worse for Meursault.

He didn't know how long he had been walking, maybe 15 minutes, maybe an hour. His blurred consciousness made him less aware of time. It seemed like a century had passed before he finally heard the sound of flowing water.

At that moment, he dragged his stiff body towards the river like a resurrected mummy, his legs scrambling to rush towards the water, but in the end he still retained a bit of sanity and did not jump into the river directly.

As soon as Meursault put his hand into the river, the mud and sand were immediately washed into the river by the current, making it dirty, but he didn't care at all. He scooped up the river water, mixed with the mud and sand, and couldn't wait to put it into his mouth.

After drinking several big gulps, he slowly recovered. He scooped up a handful of water to wash his face and wiped his face with his sleeves, but his sleeves were covered with dirt and grass debris, mixed with water droplets and stuck to the man's face. The more he wiped, the dirtier it became. Meursault reacted immediately, washed his face again, and then ignored it and began to enjoy his last piece of bread.

Maybe I should actually join the resistance?
Meursault ate his bread while thinking about his way out. He absolutely could not go to Intis's place. He would definitely be executed as a traitor, even if he hadn't been found out...

The tall body of the plateau man froze for a second, then he bit the bread in his mouth hard.

If you work for the Intis people in the Southern Continent, you will have to shoot at the people from the Southern Continent!

He didn't dare to join the resistance, and he didn't want to shoot at the people of the South Continent.

But if neither side joins, all the surrounding tribes will be gathered and supervised by the Intis people, and there will be nowhere to go nearby. If he goes to other places without food and water, he will die on the road. If he stays here, he can at least find food and water and barely survive.

Neither of them seems to be a good choice to Meursault, but in the current situation he chooses not to join anyone and to survive in the forest by himself.

Not only does he want to survive himself, he also wants to bring his mother out and survive together.

(End of this chapter)