Chapter 32: The Onset of Terror

“Not sure when help is forthcoming. I feel a little scared…” Lucia pulled at Qin Hao’s sleeve.

“Don’t be afraid. I am here!” Qin Hao patted Lucia on her soft little hand.

Lucia nodded. His magnetic voice was very assuring to her somehow. She trusted this man; as long as he was beside her, no one could hurt her. Not even the army of insectoids.

“Hey guys, could you two leave the lovey-dovey things for another time? We are still in a danger!” Palmer rolled his eyes, feeling like a fifth wheel.

Lucia blushed and quickly pulled her hands back from his, not forgetting to shoot a glare at Palmer, who had just ruined the atmosphere that had just built up.

“Let me check around!” Qin Hao let out an embarrassing smile. He lusted for the fond touch, no doubt about it. But he also knew that his priority now was to stay alive.

After high school, Qin Hao joined the military right away. There was no female in the mechanized infantry because it was the toughest, most dangerous force in the military. Qin Hao had a childhood sweetheart during his high school years. Later, she was enrolled in the Federal Naval Academy. Someone set Qin Hao up, causing him to the opportunity to join the service. Because of that, their relationship ended.

Following a year of living on the edge, Qin Hao had forgotten how it felt to love someone. When he held Lucia’s hand just now, he suddenly got a pleasant twist in his gut.

In a sense, he was already a veteran soldier. At eighteen to nineteen, Qin Hao was in the flower of his youth. A beautiful girl like Lucia easily charmed him. It would be self-deceiving to say that he did not feel a thing.

Shaking that feeling from his mind, Qin Hao started to check around the base. A bad feeling kept haunting him, but he could find nothing unusual.

“What have you found?” Palmer asked. He might be a scientist and professor, but he was no way near Qin Hao when it came to envisaging dangers and analyzing the battlefield. After all, Qin Hao had been battling the insectoids for so long.

“Found nothing, but my gut feeling tells me something is wrong.” Qin Hao furrowed his brow. He had no way to explain his inexplicable danger intuition.

“That’s weird. There were supposed to be two divisions defending this place. Yet not a single one of them is here. Not even a body!” Qin Hao mumbled to himself. Even if all the soldiers had died, and the insectoids ate them, there should have at least some signs of struggle. No way the insectoids could fix the damage and cleaned up the scene after the battle. Could they?

It was nightfall.

When they arrived at Coales Valley, it was about four in the afternoon. After they got into the base and contacted the fleet, it was about five or six. It took Palmer quite a while to establish communication with the fleet.

So by now, the sun had set.

“Look at Blackie, Qin Hao!” Lucia called out suddenly.

Qin Hao looked back and saw Blackie, unsettled and pacing in a circle outside the command center. It glanced at him occasionally, looking very anxious.

“What’s going on, Blackie?” Qin Hao came up to Blackie.

Blackie made some noise as it looked at the base entrance.

“What’s wrong?” Qin Hao had no idea what Blackie was trying to express. It got dark quicker in the valley. Right now, only the light from the base illuminated the small valley.

“Ga!” Some unknown living thing was making a ghastly sound.

Hearing that sound and ignoring Qin Hao, Blackie lunged into a room in the base and closed the door with his enormous jaw.

“What is it?” Qin Hao frowned. Knowing that Blackie would not go into hiding for no reason, he trusted Blackie’s instinct.

“Let’s move!” Qin Hao rushed to Lucia, grabbed her by the hand, and brought her running back toward the command center.

Due to his immobility, Palmer stayed at the doorway of the commander center. Qin Hao grabbed him and brought him back in, too, when he rushed back in.

Qin Hao slammed the door shut and put the latch on, just like what Blackie did.

“What are you doing, Qin Hao?” Lucia was puzzled, but she did not shake off his hand.

“I don’t know. Blackie would not have hidden for no reason. We had better be prepared,” said Qin Hao.

“Oh!” Lucia nodded.

The three of them looked at each other, no one knowing what was happening. The uncertainty caused a terrifying atmosphere. It was dead silent. No one spoke as they started imagining things; the more they visualize, the worse the fear became.

Still holding Lucia’s hand, Qin Hao could feel her hand turning cold and sweating. She must be terrified. At last, Lucia snuggled against Qin Hao, as if she would feel safer this way.

Right then, a strange sound was heard outside the base again, turning the already horror atmosphere even more terrifying.

“I am scared…” Lucia, the female medic, was scared stiff, her face pale. She had almost sunk into Qin Hao’s arms. Even then, she still could not help but feel petrified.

“Don’t be scared. I am here!” As Qin Hao comforted Lucia, he heard another voice.

It was hard to describe what it was. It was as if someone was babbling, but Qin Hao was sure that he had never heard the language before. Yet, he could understand what it meant.

“Come here! Come here! Come to me!

“Come to me, and you will be set free!”

…

The babbling kept ringing in his mind.

Just then, Palmer, who could not walk by himself, suddenly stood up.

Almost at the same time, Lucia pushed Qin Hao’s arm away and got to her feet. Her face still looked pale, and her eyes looked hollow.