At that moment, Claire heard an unfamiliar "beeping" sound coming from her bag. The sudden noise sent shivers down her spine. She crazily opened her bag, emptied its contents, and found the small device emitting the sound. It was a small gadget a bit larger than a lighter, displaying several blinking red digits.
"Janet! It's Laila!" Her tears finally flowed freely as she held up the device for the teary-eyed Janet. She pointed at the numbers displayed on it, joyously saying, "It's Laila! She's okay; she's sent a signal. This is her current location!"
"Oh my God!" Janet clung to the device as if it were a lifeline, weeping. "I knew it! I knew my Laila wouldn't be so cruel to leave me like this!"
Claire wiped her tears away. "You're right; she wouldn't just leave us like that. Let's quickly inform Mr. Oswald about the coordinates!"
"Yes, we must tell Dad quickly. They must be very worried too!"
Trembling hands, Janet made several attempts to dial the number but failed to get it right. In the end, Claire helped her make the call.
"Mr. Oswald, Laila's GPS has sent a signal; her current coordinates are..." Claire provided the coordinates.
Oswald noted them down and immediately dispatched the aircraft to the location. His seemingly composed eyes concealed a volcanic eruption of intense emotion. He just knew it! The Moran family's daughter would not die due to a mysterious plane crash!
In reality, it was chaos that prevented Claire from remembering Laila had a GPS on her initially. The family was in turmoil, distraught by the disappearance of the plane, and the only two people who remained calm, Oswald and Quentin, had boarded the plane to Saudi Arabia.
For Janet's sake and to protect little William from her grief, their grandmother had taken him elsewhere early in the day. Claire was left with Janet, who was crying uncontrollably and didn't know how to help. So, the matter of the GPS device was tragically pushed to the back of everyone's minds.
At this moment, Roy was still unaware that the search and rescue team was already on its way, and due to the lack of water, he felt extremely fatigued. His head was heavy and lightheaded. However, he was more concerned about Laila's condition. He had placed her in the shadow of the rocks to keep her out of the sun's reach, but even then, the surrounding temperature was high enough to feel like it could cook a person.
Up until now, they hadn't had any food or water for over thirty hours. Roy was holding up better, but with Laila's frail condition, he wasn't sure how long she could last. If rescue didn't arrive soon, was he supposed to make her drink...
Roy quickly shook his head, discarding the unpleasant thought. Unless it was absolutely necessary, he would never consider saving her life in that manner. Even if he had to give her his own blood to save her, he wouldn't use fluids from his own body!
The dizziness gradually increased as his blood thickened due to severe dehydration. Just as he was struggling with his cloudy thoughts, he heard the roaring of an airplane approaching.
His eyes flew open, and upon confirming that he wasn't hallucinating, he left the rocky area and headed in the direction of the sound. The noise was coming from behind a dune, and a helicopter was rising into the air, its massive rotor blades churning up a sandstorm.
"Over here!" Roy shouted, running toward the helicopter. He swore he had never appreciated helicopters more. He had to buy one in the future, given the opportunity!
The people on the helicopter had seen him and landed not far away. After stabilizing, two men jumped out of the helicopter.
One of them shouted something to him. Roy didn't understand, so he simply pointed to himself and said, "Roy." These people should be here to rescue them and would surely know his name, right?
As expected, the person pointed at him and shouted, "Roy?"
"Yes, I'm Roy!" he excitedly ran over, hoping to find some water for Laila.
But then the person said another name, "Laila?"
"Yes, Laila, she's okay!" To ensure they understood, he used the simplest English words. However, as he got closer to them, he suddenly felt something was amiss.
The expressions on the two men's faces were strange. If they were from a rescue team, they would have rushed over to help them upon seeing them. But these two just stood by the helicopter, showing no intention of assisting. They seemed more like hunters lying in wait for prey to fall into their trap.
Hunters... Roy's pupils suddenly contracted.
He remembered that among those searching for them, in addition to rescue teams, there could be people who had caused this incident and wanted to eliminate them!
As soon as he sensed something was wrong, he realized the unfriendly intentions of these individuals. For instance, their scanning gazes, were likely looking for Laila's location, right? If it were a rescue team, they would have first attended to him and then obtained information about Laila from him, rather than directly searching as if the missing person were their primary target.
Various thoughts flashed through his mind, and now Roy's exceptional deductive skills were in full force. His reaction was quick, and he closed in on the men, who were now just a few steps away. He wore an excited smile on his face, as if he had seen relatives, full of joy.
The two men continued standing where they were, but one of them had a hand behind his back, and they both smiled, waiting for Roy to get closer. They certainly knew he was happy, as people who had been stranded in the desert for so long, without food or drink, how could they not be happy to encounter someone who could help them?
Unfortunately, what they had brought was not assistance but a free ticket to heaven. They hoped that in his next life, he wouldn't become an enemy of their boss again.
Just as Roy was about to reach the two men, who were also preparing to draw their guns and shoot him, he abruptly stopped. He kicked a handful of sand towards them.
"Ah!" came a painful scream. The man closest to him clutched his eyes and rolled on the ground in agony.
With lightning speed, Roy ran to the man and, using his foot kicked the gun out of the man's hand and picked it up. He then tumbled several times, narrowly avoiding the bullets that were fired at him.
Thanks to the training he had received and the skills he had learned during his last action movie performance, he had picked up a lot of useful knowledge. And the martial arts he practiced weren't just for show; they were genuine fighting skills. Even though he was experiencing dizziness due to dehydration, dealing with two men was no problem, especially when he now held a gun!